8:29 AM.
"Josuke, you're up pretty early today."
"No choice. That maid have some kind of compulsion? She can't sit still—woke me up right on the dot."
"Rohan-sensei, we're here!"
Rohan stood waiting, Hayato Kawajiri in his arms. Koichi, Jotaro, Josuke, and Okuyasu arrived moments later.
"Ah—you've already started?"
Koichi took in Rohan's expression with surprise.
"Assassin. If you would."
"Understood."
Gray tones engulfed the vicinity. Jotaro watched Amber activate the time stop, studying her intently.
It seemed these summoned Servants—DIO aside—could sustain frozen time measured in minutes.
Far more potent than the seconds he and DIO scraped together.
"Jotaro-san, since you're already conscious within frozen time, I won't waste mana granting you movement."
Rohan glanced at Jotaro, then bestowed mobility only upon Koichi, Josuke, and Okuyasu.
"You need to discuss something while time's stopped?"
"What happened?"
Granted the freedom to move by Amber, Koichi was clearly confused.
Josuke's lazy demeanor vanished, replaced by sharp focus.
"Josuke—Caster's nearby, right?"
"Yeah. She's here."
"Good. I'll explain. I already encountered the enemy Servant."
"And I've confirmed Yoshikage Kira's identity."
"He's definitely Kosaku Kawajiri!"
The revelation seized everyone's attention.
"Wait—you fought Kira's Servant?!"
"What class? What abilities?!"
Koichi's voice pitched higher with urgency.
As Stand users, they understood how crucial enemy intel was.
Information warfare...
Engaging blindly without knowing the opponent's abilities could lead to irreversible loss.
"I can't say for certain what abilities it has. If Assassin hadn't helped, you'd never have seen me again."
Recalling the scene made Rohan's skin crawl.
No matter how he called out, neither his Servant nor his Stand responded.
Combined with the eerie silence of the street—like stepping into a horror film.
Then Killer Queen had detonated him without warning.
He still didn't understand how.
According to Amber, he'd been muttering "Kosaku Kawajiri is Yoshikage Kira" before he suddenly exploded.
The explanation left the group baffled.
"Wait—time already rewound earlier? Sensei died once?"
"I didn't feel anything abnormal."
Koichi and Okuyasu stared in disbelief—one shocked by Rohan's ordeal, the other bewildered by temporal reversal.
'Couldn't contact my Servant or summon my Stand... as if I'd been cut off from reality itself.'
'A pocket dimension? But Assassin insists Rohan never left.'
'And this boy was acting unconsciously, following commands someone else planted.'
Having listened to everything, Jotaro organized the key points.
First: Kira's Servant could control people—and make them behave exactly as their normal personality would dictate.
Second: Victims couldn't detect the manipulation. Even when about to die, they couldn't break free.
Third: The trigger condition remained unclear, but "red eyes" were mentioned repeatedly.
Hayato Kawajiri had said, "After seeing those eyes, I didn't know anything."
And Rohan himself admitted locking gazes with the Servant.
In his own words, those eyes were too unusual to look away from.
'Similar to Death Thirteen's dream ability, perhaps?'
He recalled an old enemy he and Kakyoin had faced—whose Stand could kill people inside their dreams. If the victim hadn't summoned their Stand in the waking world beforehand, they couldn't do so in the dream.
Rohan's situation echoed that experience...
"And why does Killer Queen appear from that Servant?"
"What class is it even?"
Josuke shifted his bag, frowning.
"That I don't know. Class is hard to pin down—I didn't see any obvious characteristics."
"Hayato's memories tagged it as 'Saber,' but there was no sword in sight. The credibility is questionable."
Despite their usual friction, Rohan wouldn't bicker with Josuke over critical matters.
"Until we grasp the enemy's abilities, we shouldn't act alone."
"We'd get picked off one by one."
Jotaro addressed the group with a level stare.
He genuinely worried these kids would get hot-headed and charge straight for Kira's door.
Time rewind via Assassin was powerful—but not infallible.
Especially if the enemy could sense the rewind...
"Sakuya—can you perform time reversal too?"
Josuke glanced elsewhere, directing the question to thin air.
'My temporal reversion is limited to returning moved objects to their original positions.'
"I see... that'll make things difficult."
"You also don't retain memories from before Amber's rewind, right?"
'...'
Sakuya's silence was answer enough.
She possessed deep mastery over temporal manipulation, but she couldn't rewind events to a specific point and alter the future the way Amber could.
Even when time reversed, she lost memories from before the reset.
"Given that, confronting Yoshikage Kira today isn't wise."
"Getting captured all at once by an unknown Servant would be a joke."
"Is that guy really so strong?"
"Idiot, Okuyasu. This one clearly can't be beaten head-on."
Listening to the discussion, Rohan pondered—then remembered something.
"Right. Everyone, come here."
"Hm?"
"I used Heaven's Door on Hayato earlier. Once I did, he snapped out of his controlled state. That proves it works."
"So, as a precaution, I'm writing that command on all of you!"
His Stand materialized behind him—a small figure wearing a cap. Rohan's expression was deadly serious.
"Ohhh!"
"What are you writing?!"
Arms peeled open like book pages. Everyone saw the words Rohan inscribed:
[My consciousness, five senses, spirit, thoughts, and body cannot be interfered with. I will remain fully aware at all times.]
He wrote this "setting" even on Jotaro.
The enemy's method of manipulation remained unknown—but Rohan intended to "ban" every possible vector.
After all, any form of control ultimately targeted consciousness, spirit, cognition, or body.
Blocking those avenues might render the Servant powerless.
...
"Seriously—without a time stop ally, this is such a hassle."
Subaru eyed the frozen world around him, resigned to wandering the area.
"Hm?"
"That guy..."
He spotted a strange figure near the shopping district.
Short white hair. A menacing, unapproachable face. A high-tech cane.
"I feel like I've seen him before..."
The recognition nagged at him, but Subaru couldn't place it.
"Oh—it's Accelerator!"
"The vector-manipulation guy!"
It clicked.
No wonder he remembered. He'd read this novel back then.
A character from A Certain Magical Index.
Compared to JoJo—which he'd never finished—this was familiar territory.
"A Servant..."
"Come to think of it, Goku probably can't handle him either right now."
"Where's his Master?"
He scanned the area but found no one suspicious.
"Mm. Picking a fight with him now would be a bad idea."
Unable to gather more intel, Subaru slipped away.
He didn't have Kamijou Touma's confidence to casually banter with this particular monster.
"Actually—who keeps stopping time?"
"It's been nonstop all morning!"
The situation frustrated him to no end. Even if Goku could beat enemies, what good was it when time froze every few minutes?
"Time-type ability users are seriously the worst!"
...…
"That wasn't the maid's doing—which means there are other enemies who can stop time."
Homura gazed out the window, noting the difference.
"Still... I can't tell what this arrow is made of."
She studied the object she'd snatched moments ago. Nothing about it hinted at special power.
That photo-bound old man had insisted that being pierced by this arrow granted "Stand" abilities. Homura remained skeptical.
At that instant, time stop released.
"Huh—the arrow! The arrow's gone!!"
Yoshihiro felt his hand empty and panicked.
Whipping around, he spotted the arrow—which should have been in his grasp—somehow in Homura's hands.
"Give it back! Give it back!"
Ignoring all else, Yoshihiro lunged toward her.
That was Yoshikage Kira's trump card for defeating Jotaro and co. It couldn't fall into enemy hands!
*BOOM!*
An explosion. The photograph disintegrated mid-air.
He never understood why.
Yoshihiro died without ever knowing what killed him.
"Archer, did you use time stop?"
Miyu sat on the sofa, watching the small explosion with concern.
"Yes—but it lasted barely a second before that maid cancelled it."
"Like fighting over the TV remote..."
Homura flicked her hair and tossed the arrow onto a nearby stool.
"Why did you kill that old man?"
"Because he clearly wasn't normal."
"Someone who uses power as bait to manipulate others into killing for his son's sake? Not worth sparing."
She moved to sit across from Miyu—and then it happened.
The motionless arrow suddenly stirred, as if seizing an opportunity.
It shot toward Miyu's shoulder.
"!"
Homura reacted immediately, activating time stop—
"Damn—!"
—but the instant she reached for the arrow, time resumed.
The arrow slipped past her grasp and pierced Miyu's left shoulder.
"Gh—!"
Pain lanced through her. Miyu's eyes went wide with alarm.
"Damn it!"
Homura hadn't anticipated the arrow moving on its own. She grabbed its tail and pulled.
Time stop would have made this trivial—but interference prevented that.
Such an infuriating reality.
No progress. If anything, the arrow was burrowing deeper.
Its outline began bulging beneath Miyu's skin.
'What do I do... if time stop won't work, should I use reversal?'
At this critical moment, Homura's mind raced.
If not for that maid interfering with every freeze, she'd never have ended up in this predicament.
'But if I use that power... I can't predict where time will reset to.'
Normally, it would have been one month back.
Here, though—reverting that far was impossible.
Most likely, time would return to the moment Miyu first summoned her.
'The arrow will awaken her Stand potential. In exchange, you'll help me kill Josuke Higashikata, Jotaro Kujo, and the others.'
Recalling the old man's words, Homura hesitated.
If Miyu truly awakened a Stand, that meant gaining another fighter.
Not a bad outcome.
"!"
But watching the arrow sink further into Miyu's body filled her with unease.
"It's... fine, Archer."
"If something goes wrong... you can still use it then."
Miyu's voice trembled—but she sensed Homura's hesitation.
She thought of the endless despair Homura had endured. The hundreds of loops born of desperate obsession.
This war wasn't just for herself. It was for Homura, too.
Miyu wanted to help.
"Miyu."
For an instant, Homura froze—then understood the girl's resolve.
She released her grip on the arrow.
The arrow sank smoothly into Miyu's body.
...…
"I see. So Bites the Dust should have triggered, but instead of resetting one hour, it only went back a few minutes."
Yoshikage Kira sat at his office desk, listening to his Servant's report and mulling it over.
Where had things gone wrong?
Bites the Dust's ability was supposed to be invincible. There shouldn't be any loopholes.
So why hadn't time reverted a full hour?
"Furthermore, Rohan Kishibe didn't die according to the predetermined fate—which proves Bites the Dust never truly activated."
"Yet time did regress several minutes."
"Could it be his Servant? Possessing the same type of ability as mine?"
Kira and Itachi discussed the available intel.
For a few seconds, anxiety flickered across Kira's face—then it ebbed.
"Forget it. Even if they do... it changes nothing. I will never die."