"Mr. Dio! We're currently on the highway in Morioh! Jolyne used Stone Free to save Kishibe Rohan inside the tunnel! I'm on the motorcycle! Once my speed drops below 60 km/h, I'll die!"
"Quick, help me find a way to catch the Stand user's main body!"
The moment the call connected, Josuke Higashikata's voice nearly roared out of the phone.
"..." Dio silently moved the phone away from his ear. He blinked in confusion and let out a bewildered "Huh?"
Dio sighed, closed his eyes, and gently rubbed the bridge of his nose to calm him down. "Jos… Josuke, calm down first, or I won't understand what you mean. From what you just said, am I right to understand that Jolyne is also there?"
"Yes!"
"Dio-nii, I'm on the motorcycle too!"
Both voices came through at the same time.
"You're being attacked by a Stand user?"
"Mm-hm!" Jolyne Cujoh's young voice rang out again. "Rohan-nii tried to protect us and almost had all the nutrients sucked out of his body."
Dio instantly switched to battle mode. The corners of his raised mouth slowly fell as his voice turned cold. "...Where are you?"
Josuke replied, "Right now we're probably driving toward…"
"Forget it. I'll find you myself."
Beep beep beep… beep beep beep…
Dio hung up the phone and casually tossed it into the air, tracing a beautiful parabola.
Smack!
"Muda!"
A golden shadowy hand caught the phone for Dio.
It was the frugal and thrifty The World!
"Sorry, I have a bit of an emergency here. If I don't deal with it quickly, I'll be in a pitiful state. I'll leave today's documents to you." Dio apologized with only a tiny bit of sincerity in his tone.
He then pushed open the window and flashed away.
The World!
Time that belongs only to me!
At the same moment, the student council door was knocked on.
Inui Sajuna (Juju-sama) pushed open a small crack and poked her head in timidly. "Um, is Student Council President Diego Brando here?"
"...He just left."
...
The moment the busy tone sounded from the phone, the Cosmic Stone ring Jolyne always carried on her began to activate for the first time.
Click click click...
The Cosmic Stone ring kept trembling, leaped into the air, instantly grew barbs, and stabbed toward Jolyne — who was holding Kishibe Rohan.
Kishibe Rohan, who had kept his eyes tightly shut, suddenly opened them. His skin rapidly transformed into a grid-like dinosaur hide, and the vertical dinosaur pupils in his eyes said everything.
The dinosaur-transformed Kishibe Rohan directly broke free from Stone Free's bindings. Aiming at the bushes on both sides of the road, he leaped down from the motorcycle.
Under the powerful inertia, his dinosaur claws scraped against the ground, producing a large amount of sparks.
"Hey, what are you doing, Rohan?! Are you suddenly trying to kill yourself?! This is a motorcycle going at high speed!" Josuke shouted anxiously.
Unfortunately, Kishibe Rohan could no longer hear Josuke's calls.
On the other side, seeing that Kishibe Rohan's movement speed had dropped below 60 km/h, the purple foot-shaped pieces of flesh behind him changed targets and went straight for the dismounted Rohan.
Thud!
The dinosaur claws pierced through the Highway Star that had pounced over. The effect was minimal. The purple foot-shaped pieces of flesh were almost unaffected. They climbed onto Rohan, overlapped one by one, and finally returned to human form as a Stand.
"Hmph hmph hmph, the last of your nutrients are mine!" Highway Star placed both hands on Rohan's back, preparing to begin absorbing nutrients.
"I see. So it's a long-range operated Stand." Kishibe Rohan ignored Highway Star's actions and simply lowered his head, laying out all his deductions. "The previous attack didn't affect your movements. Does that mean the main body and the Stand share the five senses but don't share damage?"
"There's also no sign of being turned into a dinosaur. The Stand is almost impossible to control…"
"Below 60 km/h and you'll be caught — that's your limit speed. From the heat coming off the tires of the motorcycle Josuke Higashikata is riding, it means you've been chasing him for a while."
"What are you using to track? Sight? Smell? Or hearing?"
!
Highway Star's expression clearly showed a very human-like panic. It roared, "Stop acting all mysterious! Even if you can guess, so what? In the end you're still going to end up in my hands. Just obediently hand over your nutrients!"
"Ta-ga, ora ora!"
The moment the words fell, Highway Star's proud sense of smell detected something unusual.
The previously empty highway suddenly had several drooling dinosaurs appear, surrounding it completely.
"Gaaah——!!"
The lead dinosaur was the first to attack. It opened its bloody maw and pounced onto Highway Star, beginning to try tearing into the pieces of flesh on its body.
"Damn it, don't interfere with me absorbing nutrients." Highway Star swung its fists, trying to drive off the dinosaurs on its body.
Bang!
A direct hit landed on the dinosaur's nose, but it couldn't push it back even a little.
"How is this possible?! What the hell are these dinosaurs?!"
"Kishibe Rohan" spoke again with a mocking laugh. "It looks like your maximum strength level is only that of a trained ordinary person."
"Damn it, in that case..." Highway Star left Kishibe Rohan's body and flew onto a dinosaur. It plunged both hands into it and activated its nutrient absorption and transfer ability, laughing loudly. "Dinosaurs must have more nutrients than humans, right? Maybe just one would be enough to heal the injuries on my body!"
Very quickly, the smile on Highway Star's face froze.
"It's not alive... This dinosaur, no no no, this thing… is inorganic——!!" Highway Star was terrified. The dinosaur in its hands hadn't given it any nutrients at all.
On the contrary, the feeling of failing to absorb nutrients was like a boxer throwing a full-power punch without gloves and hitting a concrete wall. Not only did it not feel the impact of hitting flesh, its entire hand almost got destroyed.
It looked down. The dinosaur in its palm had already disappeared, replaced by pieces of stone.
What is going on?
No, that's not right. Highway Star had to retreat. Today was definitely not the time to absorb nutrients and heal injuries..
Sniff...
Highway Star's Stand user, Yuya Fungami, who was far away in the hospital, suddenly shouted loudly, "Come back! Highway Star!"
A strange scent had suddenly appeared. It wasn't that steak-head, and it wasn't that little girl either...
It wasn't human. That energy absolutely could not belong to a human. If the nutrients Highway Star could absorb were compared to a flame, then the monster that had suddenly appeared was the sun..
Sweat instantly soaked Yuya Fungami's back.
Highway Star received Yuya Fungami's command. It abandoned the nutrients from Rohan that were right in front of it and left the scene without hesitation.
Even so, while fleeing...
"Come back. Keep absorbing nutrients." Dio grabbed Highway Star by the back of the neck and forced it to a stop, his tone full of disdain. "You really are pitiful. You don't even dare to have the desire to fight. You're already running away like a stray dog."
"By the way, my Scary Monsters is also a long-range controlled Stand. From now on, if you have even the slightest thought of splitting into pieces of flesh to escape, the pillow on your hospital bed will immediately turn into a dinosaur and bite you to death."
"Morioh, Grape Hill General Hospital, Room 525 private ward. Your main body is Yuya Fungami, surrounded by three cute girls, right?"
Hearing this, Highway Star first trembled, then immediately knelt down respectfully and begged for mercy. "I understand... Please spare my life. I didn't mean to kill them. I just wanted to get some nutrients from them to treat my own injuries. Otherwise that guy called Kishibe Rohan would have been dead long ago."
Knowing he couldn't win, why fight to the death.
"Of course I know. And it's lucky for you that I didn't sense any killing intent from you. Otherwise you wouldn't have had the chance to talk to me while still alive."
Dio lightly patted Highway Star's shoulder. Yuya Fungami's eyes went black and he instantly lost consciousness.
When he groggily opened his eyes, the number of figures in front of him had changed from 1 to 4.
Three grown men and one little girl had surrounded him.
"Josuke, are you sure you healed him?"
That was Kishibe Rohan's voice.
"I already healed him. I can't wait to beat the crap out of him! This is really great!"
Steak-head.
"Muda! Muda! Muda muda!"
That was the sound of consecutive punches from an A-rank speed and power Stand. That little girl's Stand was actually this violent...
"Use Crazy Diamond to heal Yuya Fungami, then beat him until he's crippled again, then heal him, then beat him until he's crippled again, and repeat until we're satisfied... Mm, this plan works."
I think I'd rather stay unconscious..
(Stand user Yuya Fungami. Spinal fracture, multiple fractures in hand and leg bones, his entire face beaten into a pig's head, unable to get back up)
...
After the incident ended, Jolyne was sent home. Josuke Higashikata and Kishibe Rohan followed behind Dio (who was still avoiding paperwork) and took a walk through Morioh.
Looking at the silent Dio, Kishibe Rohan finally mustered the courage to thank him. "Um, Mr. Brando, thank you for saving me today. When I turned into a dinosaur, I still had some perception of the outside world. It was really a novel experience! If possible, I'd like to experience it again!"
Favorability up↑
"And this is a small token of thanks." Kishibe Rohan took out a wad of cash from his bag and stuffed it into Dio's hand without any resistance. He continued, "I'm a mangaka. I don't really have anything presentable to give, so this is all I have."
Favorability upup↑
Seeing that Dio accepted the thanks, Kishibe Rohan scratched his cheek and turned his head away to ask, "Are we… friends now?"
"I actually quite like manga. Next time, let's play together again." Dio left behind an ambiguous reply.
He wasn't angry either. From beginning to end, Yuya Fungami had only been targeting Josuke and Rohan when absorbing nutrients. Because of that, the Cosmic Stone had never been passively triggered.
This guy dared to make a move against Stand users but had no intentions toward the powerless little girl. That counted as one of his few remaining bits of conscience.
Plus, if it weren't for this guy causing trouble, Dio wouldn't have been able to escape from that terrifying student council.
Kishibe Rohan taking the initiative to show goodwill also had his own reasons, setting aside the fact that he had been saved.
As a mangaka, he had a talent for reading people. He could feel that Dio's wavelength matched his own very well.
This meant Dio had the kind of story he needed. A good mangaka needs a sense of reality to shape a good story, and Dio's experiences could definitely provide inspiration for his manga.
As for why he didn't just use Heaven's Door to directly see Dio's life experiences...
Kishibe Rohan said he hadn't had any suicidal thoughts recently. After being turned into a dinosaur, he finally understood what it meant to have a sense of reality that you couldn't resist.
To be honest, he was overflowing with inspiration right now. If a living legend weren't standing right beside him, he would have already gone back to start drawing.
"By the way, Josuke, you didn't call Jotaro Kujo over?"
...!
If Mr. Jotaro finds out I took Jolyne out to play on my own and we even got attacked...
Josuke scratched his head and explained awkwardly, "Ahaha, because I instinctively felt that Mr. Dio was very reliable and would definitely be able to solve it, so I didn't call Mr. Jotaro."
Favorability upupup↑
That's right. This Dio is more reliable than that guy Jotaro!
Anything Jotaro can do, I can do. Anything Jotaro can't do, I can do just as well! WRYYYYYYYY!
Hahaha, old man, when Josuke ran into danger, the first person he thought of wasn't you — it was kono Dio da!
Taking a walk through Morioh and coming to mock him like this really is quite pleasant…
While chatting like this, the three of them continued walking forward.
Dio suddenly stopped in his tracks. He turned his head and stared at Josuke Higashikata, pointing at a septic tank in the distance. "By the way, I've actually always been really curious. What would happen if Crazy Diamond attacked a septic tank?"
"Mr. Brando, you're joking, right? Hahaha..." Josuke laughed awkwardly.
Very quickly, he couldn't laugh anymore.
Because Dio and Kishibe Rohan had actually started seriously discussing it.
"Now that Mr. Brando mentions it, I'm curious too. Would it just go back the way it came?"
"Excrement shouldn't count as part of the human body, right? Crazy Diamond's restoration can at most just stuff what just came out back in."
"This is easy to solve. I'll just have Heaven's Door add a setting to Josuke's body." Kishibe Rohan stroked his chin, wanting to laugh but forcibly holding it back. "This is perfect. I believe the readers will definitely like this idea!"
(Heaven's Door's core ability is to turn parts of the target's body into book pages, achieving the following effects:
Memory viewing: Completely display the target's personal information, experiences, and memories
Command addition: Write text commands on the pages (such as "Do not attack Kishibe Rohan"), which the target must forcibly carry out, including actions that violate the laws of physics (such as "fly backward at 70 mph")
Power weakening: Tearing the pages will weaken the target's power, but their appearance remains unchanged)
"Josuke!" ×2
Evil smiles appeared on both of their faces.
"Wait a second. Let me add a setting to myself first. After all, I also live in Morioh."
Kishibe Rohan raised his hand to stop them and summoned Heaven's Door. He wrote on himself: Excrement does not count as part of my human body.
"Come on, Josuke! Sacrifice yourself for art!" Kishibe Rohan, who already disliked Josuke Higashikata, laughed even more unrestrainedly.
Josuke was so anxious he almost cried. He absolutely did not want to go down in history for this. He frantically shook his head. "Mr. Dio, Jo... right, Jolyne still lives in Morioh too!"
Dio silently lowered his head and muttered, "I see. So we can't attack septic tanks after all..."
Mr. Dio, what on earth are you depressed about?!
Today's winner: Kishibe Rohan, victory!
(Getting to know Dio is the greatest victory of all)
...
Short skit:
Still in Morioh. Jotaro, who had just finished presenting his oceanography paper, returned home.
As soon as he pushed open the door, he heard Jolyne's voice.
"Dad, we're currently in a hole in the ceiling. There's a lost Velociraptor. I grabbed its foot. Stone Free wrapped around the chandelier and it's about to fall. Hurry up and think of a way to get us out of this!"
"?"
What nonsense is Jolyne spouting?
Jotaro put down his bag and walked into the living room. He followed the voice and looked up.
The ceiling had a hole clawed out by the Velociraptor. The chandelier that should have been falling was wrapped by Stone Free, barely supporting it so it didn't crash down and shatter. Meanwhile, the Velociraptor was using both front claws to grip the edge of the hole, preventing itself and Jolyne, who was hanging from its foot, from falling.
Looking at Jolyne's heartless, laughing face, Jotaro pushed his hat down to hide the slight upward curve of his lips.
He and Star Platinum both extended their hands. He was responsible for catching Jolyne, while Star Platinum was responsible for catching the chandelier and incidentally punching the Velociraptor away (one look and you could tell it was Dio's doing).
"Did you have fun playing with Josuke today?" Jotaro asked while hugging Jolyne.
Jolyne nodded, her smile growing even brighter. "I had a lot of fun. Josuke took me drag racing! What I said just now was also something I learned from him!"
As soon as she finished speaking, Jotaro took a deep breath. Veins bulged on his forehead.
Josuke Higashikata!!!
Josuke Higashikata, who had just returned home, suddenly felt a chill down his spine.
On the other side, Dio had also returned to the student council.
"Dio-kun, you're back. We split today's documents evenly. We left your share on your desk." Kitagawa Marin held back a smile and pointed at the pile of documents on the president's desk.
Dio instantly let out a pained wail. "Yameeeero!!! WRYYYYYY!!!"
Takanashi Rikka lifted her eyepatch and used the Evil King's True Eye to thoroughly enjoy Dio's breakdown. Resting her chin on her hand, she laughed. "Dio really is an idiot. He actually tried to escape the otherworldly spirit contract. Once I finish dealing with this pile of text demons, the Evil King's True Eye user is going to properly use the Mouth of God to mock you thoroughly."
"Dio-kun, we're clocking out now. Too bad you still have documents left to do." Ryo covered her mouth, her mockery thick.
"Damn it. In that case, The World!"
Time stopped flowing…
The World: Can pause time to process documents. Its greatest use is making others think your work efficiency is extremely high, when in reality nothing has changed.
After multiple time stops, Dio finally finished processing all the documents just before Takanashi Rikka finished her work.
Congratulations, congratulations.
(Jotaro, who was on his way to Josuke's house and suddenly twitching for no reason: That lunatic Dio is up to some nonsense again...)