"Please allow me to fight alongside you."
"I have a reason I must fight."
Higashikata Josuke spoke sincerely.
After awakening with his memories gone, the first person he saw was Hirose Yasuho. Everything that happened afterward made him develop feelings for this gentle and kind girl.
To Josuke, Yasuho was the most important person in his life.
There was no one else like her.
He had sworn that he would bring Yasuho back no matter what.
Josuke looked at Ryosuke, his expression tense. He had seen Ryosuke's battle with Wonder of U, the destructive power completely on another level. He was afraid Ryosuke would refuse.
A hand reached out.
Josuke froze for half a second, then gripped it tightly.
Ryosuke smiled.
"Welcome aboard."
Ryosuke had no reason to refuse a man who wanted to save the woman who belonged to him. Besides, Wonder of U was still alive. If Josuke could awaken Soft & Wet: Go Beyond during the journey, it would definitely be a huge help.
After obtaining the second piece of the Saint's Corpse, the number of people who could travel across worlds increased by one. Higashikata Josuke was the perfect choice.
The golden light gradually grew dazzling. The teleportation was about to activate.
Suddenly, a voice rang out, "Wait! I want to go too!"
The great genius, Higashikata Joshu, heard that they were going to rescue Yasuho and rushed over.
He stretched out the finger he had just used to dig his nose, not yet wiped clean, and grabbed toward Hot Pants, scaring her so badly that she kicked him away.
"Ugh!"
Joshu flew backward and landed hard on his butt.
When he looked again, there was no one left in front of him.
———
Ding!
The system notification sounded.
"JoJolion purification complete."
"In the future, when using the Saint's Corpse for spacetime travel, if short-term rest is needed, you may choose to return to this world, regroup, and then depart again."
Ryosuke understood.
This counted as getting a safe house.
Although it wasn't like the trial missions where he could retreat at any time if things went bad, it still gave him an extra way out.
As long as this teleportation coordinate still existed, Ryosuke could return here without worry.
Conversely, once the JoJolion teleportation coordinate disappeared, it would mean that Dio's subordinates had returned and occupied this world once again.
However, Ryosuke guessed they probably wouldn't come back.
In this world, the most important people, Josuke and Yasuho, and the most important item, the New Rokakaka, had all already left.
To Dio and the others, the spacetime of JoJolion was a barren land with no strategic value at all.
During the spacetime traversal, Ryosuke stood at the front of the light screen, deep in thought, 'To be able to command even Wonder of U, to manipulate spacetime distance, to control life and death… just how powerful has Dio become?'
At the very least, Ryosuke himself couldn't reach that level.
"Maybe the Saint's probability theory is right. To defeat Dio, the only way is to continuously collect the Corpse and seize the enemies' tainted souls."
Ryosuke had seized a total of five tainted souls.
Vanilla Ice, Ringo, the notorious BIG.
Yoshikage Kira, and Tooru.
The cartoon-like head icons of these five people stood in the system space.
Among them, the newly obtained Yoshikage Kira and Tooru icons were lit up.
The other three had been used in previous battles, and beneath them was a line of small text, 'Soul cooling down.'
Meaning they could be reused.
That was good news.
The more enemies he killed, the more power he could obtain at critical moments by igniting tainted souls.
The Saint's Corpse was the same. The more complete the Corpse, the faster tainted souls could be burned instantly, and the stronger the explosive power.
The relationship between tainted souls and the Saint's Corpse was like gasoline and an engine.
Now that the number of Saint's Corpse pieces had gone from one to two, the speed at which Ryosuke burned tainted souls was like upgrading from a small Honda scooter to a Nissan Sylphy.
Ryosuke put away the Corpse.
"The next world… I hope it'll be a bit more peaceful."
"Teacher Ryosuke."
Josuke's voice came over.
Higashikata Josuke, Hot Pants, and Uchiha Madara were sitting on the golden light. In front of them stood a small whiteboard, filled with Stand names and their corresponding users.
"We're rested. We can continue."
Ryosuke nodded.
He sat in front of the whiteboard and continued introducing the possible enemies.
Previously, on the way to 19th-century England, Ryosuke had given Hot Pants and Uchiha Madara a rough explanation of the enemies they would face, vampires and zombies.
No one expected that they would be forcibly twisted into JoJolion by the torrent of calamity.
Because he wasn't sure whether something like that could happen again, Ryosuke started explaining enemy abilities one by one, beginning from Part 1 of JOJO.
This was a rather long process.
Parts 1 and 2 were fine. Vampires, Ripple warriors, Pillar Men, at their core, they were physical transformations. It was enough for them to know they were weakened versions of Ryosuke.
But starting from Part 3, when the concept of Stands was introduced, things became a bit troublesome.
Especially the further it went, the more complex the Stands became. Each ability could warrant an entire essay, and on top of that, they had to consider Dio's black-light amplification, as well as the Stand user's personality and intelligence…
The level of difficulty was no less than a newbie playing the Naruto mobile game, having to memorize every ninja's skills, builds, and countermeasures before entering the arena.
After all, a game can be restarted. You only get one life.
Fortunately, all three, Uchiha Madara included, were outstanding warriors. Remembering enemy abilities and weaknesses was part of a warrior's job.
No one knew how long had passed when a rumbling sound came again from the distance.
Ryosuke put down the whiteboard marker.
At the end of their vision, a tide formed of calamity appeared once more. Unlike the previous black tide, this one was blood-red.
Only when it drew close did they realize that every wave of the crimson calamity was composed of Tooru's resentment-filled face.
The attack that Wonder of U had spoken of had arrived this early.
As the one who personally killed Tooru, Ryosuke could clearly sense that Tooru's death calamity was being fully unleashed in this wave.
Ryosuke clenched the Corpse and pulled everyone close to him.
"Brace for impact."
The next second, the blood-red tide shoved them forward and tore open a spatial rift.
———
A spatial rift opened.
Wonder of U walked out.
It did its utmost to maintain elegance, but its tattered clothes, broken cane, and the flickering black light all revealed that it had reached its limit.
Dio raised an eyebrow slightly.
"Even you were defeated?"
Wonder of U was about to explain, but Dio shook his head again.
"Success or failure doesn't matter. As long as you're alive and came back."
As he spoke, Dio suddenly appeared behind Wonder of U and gently patted its shoulder. Another strand of black light passed over, stabilizing Wonder of U's condition.
"If you want to maintain rationality, you still need a Stand user as your main body," Dio said.
Wonder of U nodded slightly, agreeing with Dio's assessment, and asked, "Who do you think is suitable?"
Dio curled his lips into a smile.
"Haven't you always worked with 'Rock Humans'? This one is also a Rock Human."
As the words fell, a tall, long-haired, handsome man appeared, bare-chested, wearing only a loincloth.
Kars asked Dio, "What is it?"
Dio didn't care at all about the lack of respect in his tone.
"Want to try being a Stand user?"
The cold-faced Kars heard this, glanced at Wonder of U beside him, and slowly broke into a smile.
"Sounds interesting."
Dio gave a light snort and gently placed his hands on Kars's and Wonder of U's shoulders.
"After you finish fusing, there's a place I'd like to ask you to visit."
———
Ryosuke and the other three fell into an unfamiliar world.
Tooru's death curse was completely exhausted and vanished, settling all grudges with Ryosuke.
"Be careful. Tooru's curse specifically sent us here. This world must be extremely dangerous."
Ryosuke said, watching their surroundings warily.
Uchiha Madara and the others also took out their weapons and summoned their Stands, preparing for potential threats.
But…
There were none.
Under a pitch-black night sky, heavy snow was falling. A thick layer of snow covered the ground, crunching underfoot as they walked.
The sound reached their ears as if through a layer of gauze, a bit unreal.
Not just hearing, sight, touch, and smell were the same.
Hazy and indistinct, with a dreamlike sense of detachment.
"We…"
Uchiha Madara squatted down, grabbed a handful of snow, carefully sensed it, and said, "It seems we haven't fully integrated into this world yet."
Having Obito's Kamui Mangekyo Sharingan, he was extremely sensitive to "space." Madara could feel that there was still a thin barrier separating them from this world.
"It's the Saint's Corpse," Ryosuke said, taking it out.
It was still emitting golden light. It was this very light, like a hook, that held onto them and prevented them from fully integrating into the world.
Integrating was simple.
Just throw away the Saint's Corpse.
Josuke looked around. "Modern city, yellow skin, did we come to another Morioh?"
No one answered him. He turned back to look at Ryosuke.
Ryosuke was standing blankly in the snow, staring in a daze at the old residential buildings across the street.
This was his home.
Ryosuke's hometown in the real world, before he transmigrated.
He grew up here. Elementary school, middle school, high school, endless studying, suppressing all desire for fun, always ranking near the top, getting into a prestigious university, and leaving his hometown.
Ryosuke's mind went completely blank.
'Why… why would she appear here…'
Crash!
A woman in her forties was riding an electric scooter along the snowy road. The ground was slippery. With a thud, she fell, clutching her knee and grimacing in pain.
That person was Ryosuke's mother.