"Your most outstanding son, Giorno, lost."
Father Pucci's face was gloomy. "I didn't expect Ryosuke to be able to defeat even 'Requiem.'"
"Heh..."
Dio said softly, "Requiem was bound to lose."
"The one who won't lose… is me."
Father Pucci said, "But you still have to be careful. The other side… after all, it's Ryosuke. He's the same as you, both are 'Kings' who control a world."
Dio controls the JOJO world.
Ryosuke controls the Naruto world.
"There are differences even between kings."
Dio put an arm around Father Pucci's shoulder and gave it a firm pat, signaling him to relax.
"I know what you're worried about. The Saint's Corpse is indeed a variable, but it's so small that it doesn't even qualify for me to take a look."
"Look."
Dio pointed toward the calamity divine tree at the end of his sight.
"I won't enjoy this glory alone."
"Pucci, there's only one thing you need to worry about, and that is..."
Dio revealed a smile, one full of ambition.
"When we own countless worlds, how will you enjoy life, and how will you realize your ideals across world after world?"
"Since you have time now, you can start thinking about it in advance."
As he spoke, his hands made a light grasping motion in the air, and two glasses of champagne appeared.
One was handed to Father Pucci.
The two brothers gently clinked glasses and drank it all in one go.
———
Clack!
After finishing the drink, the glasses were placed on the table. Ryosuke leaned back in his chair, enjoying a brief rest.
He had just finished communicating with the Slug Sage.
They were at a family restaurant in Morioh, a group of people sitting around a long table.
Besides the original team members, the rescued Giorno, and old Joseph, there were two more familiar faces.
[Higashikata Josuke]
[Stand: Crazy Diamond]
[Nijimura Okuyasu]
[Stand: The Hand]
Ryosuke found the two of them on the streets of Morioh.
As for what was happening in Morioh, Josuke and Okuyasu didn't know much. They only knew that many areas in the city had been sealed off, and citizens were not allowed to go there.
Don't be fooled by their delinquent looks. Outside of Stand user battles, Josuke and Okuyasu could be considered law-abiding citizens.
Without anything special going on, they wouldn't actively head into sealed areas, just living each day casually.
It wasn't until they heard that old Joseph had gone missing, and suspected he'd been kidnapped, that they realized something was wrong.
They rushed into the streets to look for the old man, and in the end ran into Ryosuke's group, who had just finished a battle.
"...Doesn't that mean Mr. Jotaro has already been killed?!"
Higashikata Josuke was straightforward by nature. In his panic, he slammed a fist on the table, and his pompadour swayed slightly with the big movement.
He really wanted to hear someone say something like "No, Jotaro is still alive," but the answer he got was...
"Yes. The Jotaro of this time and space, the white-clothed Jotaro you met, is already dead."
Giorno held the cup in his hand, lowered his head, making his expression hard to see.
"I killed him."
"What?!"
Hearing this, the anger that Josuke and Okuyasu had been holding back completely exploded. They stood up on the spot, chairs crashing to the floor with a loud clang.
Crazy Diamond and The Hand appeared as well, about to attack someone.
"Sit down first."
Ryosuke's voice came over.
When everyone came back to their senses, they found that Josuke and Okuyasu were already sitting back in their chairs. In their hands were two cups filled to the brim, so full that even a slight shake would spill the cola.
Okuyasu hurriedly leaned over and slurped it down.
Josuke didn't want to drink. He just held the cup, turned back to glare at Ryosuke, about to question why he stopped him, when he heard Giorno continue, "Not just the white-clothed Jotaro, but also the black-clothed Jotaro from the Stardust Crusaders timeline, and countless Dios from other parallel worlds…"
"You should have heard of someone called 'Funny Valentine,' right?"
Ryosuke's group naturally knew.
President Valentine's Stand disc was still in their hands.
For the uninformed Josuke and Okuyasu, Ryosuke briefly explained the president's situation and his Stand.
Hot Pants asked, "Dio resurrected President Valentine?"
"That's right."
Giorno said, "Dio promised President Valentine that he would make the America under his control incredibly great."
"After the world invasion was completed, President Valentine could enjoy the resources of several worlds alone, to develop his country."
"So, Dio obtained Valentine's loyalty."
Ryosuke picked up a French fry. "And then Dio learned about 'annihilation'?"
"Yes."
In one time-space, if two identical individuals collide, annihilation will occur.
President Valentine often used this trick to kill people silently.
For Super Dio, ordinary attacks were ineffective. Only attacks at the time-space level could cause some damage.
So, after controlling Giorno, Dio ordered him to go with the resurrected Valentine to countless parallel worlds to hunt down versions of himself and Jotaro.
Black Jotaro, white Jotaro, and purple Jotaro who had retrieved his memories and Stand disc.
All had to die.
This was Dio's caution.
Especially after fusing the memories of many parallel worlds where he himself had died at the hands of Jotaro and Ryosuke, Dio became even more so.
This time, he would not leave behind any hidden dangers.
Josuke was someone who understood reason. Once he heard that Giorno had been controlled, he no longer felt angry at him. A debt has its debtor, and this blood debt naturally had to be collected from Dio.
"But…"
Nijimura Okuyasu crossed his arms and thought. "Since Dio wants to eliminate all threats, why doesn't he just kill all of us outright?"
"Maybe… it's like keeping pets?"
Second JoJo analyzed, "To Dio, we don't pose a threat."
"Just like ordinary people are willing to keep cats and dogs, but truly rich people prefer to keep black panthers, tigers, or male lions, to show off their taste and control."
"We Stand users are probably those 'fierce beasts' kept as pets in Dio's eyes."
Ryosuke finished the remaining bit of his hamburger in a few bites and wiped his hands with a napkin.
Ahead or behind, everyone was thinking of ways forward. All they could do was keep moving on, until they killed Dio, or were killed by Dio.
There was no third, compromise path to choose.
The brief rest slightly eased the exhaustion from constant traveling. After drinking the last sip of cola, Ryosuke asked Giorno, "Do you think the Dios from the parallel worlds were really all killed?"
Giorno caught the meaning in his words. "You want to… search again?"
Ryosuke nodded.
Giorno fell into thought.
First, the Dios they could choose had to come from the Stardust Crusaders. Vampire Dio was useless and didn't count as the same time-space.
Just like young Second JoJo meeting old Joseph wouldn't cause annihilation.
Second, most Dios died at Jotaro's hands. The ones who survived were extremely few.
But to say there wasn't a single one left at all…
"Hard to say."
Giorno had to ambush Ryosuke, and also hold the Saint's Corpse to push time and space to suitable positions. He and President Valentine didn't carry out endless searching.
They just felt that they had killed enough and stopped. There might really be some Dio who slipped through the net.
"Split into two teams. One continues with me to search for the Saint's Corpse, the other goes to look for Dio's parallel world incarnations."
"When it's almost time for the final battle, we'll regroup."
Ryosuke took out a piece of the Saint's Corpse and pushed it in front of Giorno.
"For the search team, I want you to be the leader."