Butterfly Effect
And, this is the second one. Because I was aiming for a nice reading experience with emotions, I settled for 2 chapters instead of a single super long one which would shift too much in tone to let the emotions sink in properly. Like the previous chapter, I hope you'll enjoy it.
I do not own JoJo's Bizarre Adventure
Chapter 23: Limit
"No…"
Getting a terrible feeling when touching the dead skin, Marco rapidly let go of it. He was now standing upright, next to the dead body, with his head hanging down in unbearable sadness. His whole body was shaking, trembling in both grievance and hatred. The Hamon entirely covering him reflected his emotional state, producing more lightning than storm clouds.
"No, No, No…!"
DIO, for killing his dear father who taught him Hamon from the ground up to mastery levels and raised him into a proud man, Marco would never forgive him for that.
"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"
An explosion of negative feelings, the Zeppeli erupted like a volcano. It happened quite fast, as he had zero intention of suppressing his immense grief and anger. If a dam is weakened, better let the water flow than risk a total collapse later. His eyes were bloodshot, like literally never before. That was an actual first, same with the emotional outburst.
Further away, Joseph shed his own tears. The old Joestar lost a friend with a friendship history of 5 decades, half a century. Caesar was like a brother to him, the perfect friend. To be killed by the same man who tormented his family for generations just made matters more painful.
"Ugh, Caesar…"
If not for the ongoing vampire menace, he too would've exploded with similar sentiment. Yet all he could do was to mourn the old Zeppeli with a quiet but bitter voice. DIO even ruined his moment of sadness.
"Curse you, curse you, curse you…!"
That act was truly unforgivable.
"Hehehe!"
Suddenly, the vampire appeared in front of the Zeppelis by about 15 meters, standing in the air with a mocking stance. Marco saw it when he lifted his head in reaction to the provoking laugh, seeing eye to eye with the enemy.
"Why are you crying, Marco? That's a splendid and unique casket for your father, isn't it?"
"…!"
Caesar had told him to keep his head cool, but that was too ideal of a wish. Obviously, the Zeppeli was aware of the situation and his late father's intentions. The vampire was a dangerous killer, who could and would murder them if they'd weaken their guard. Rushing at DIO with blind anger would be suicide, and he'd fail to keep his promise after only seconds. But was he going to run away with his tail between his legs and do nothing?
Absolutely not.
"DIO! I'm going to kill you!" Marco roared with strong killing intent, his Hamon glowing up to the point where he shined brighter than every window or lamppost in the night of Cairo. So did his Stand [Mental Overdrive] right by his side.
He was forced to compromise. Approaching the vampire was lethal, he'd have to keep his distance, a safety interval. But to completely reign in his emotions and retreat away from DIO, which was the far safer option, simply wasn't possible.
'I have to attack him, it's a MUST!' the Zeppeli thought, brimming with feelings of revenge. 'Like Polnareff and Avdol avenged Hol Horse, I MUST avenge father! If they managed to counterattack and stay reasonable, then SO CAN I!'
"Ha… Hahahahahahahaha!" The vampire burst out in laughter, letting Marco see his vampire fangs no less sharp than his words. "Bring it on! There's nothing better than killing off not one, but TWO generations of fools in succession!"
"Silence, you!" Marco wasn't going to tolerate that filthy tongue any longer. "Dirt like you will be cleansed by water!"
The water that flowed onto the rooftop from the broken and cracked walls of the water tower, as well as what was still inside of it, the Zeppeli was going to use all of it. There really was plenty of it, thousands of liters. Square meters worth of water, more than enough to serve the purpose for his strategy.
Around his feet, he put up a circular water wall. Initially about 2 meters in diameter and 10 centimeters in thickness. He then raised the wall upwards, closing it over his head, which made the water barrier look like a lemon half. He then transferred all of his Hamon from his body to the barrier, hardening the water wall to impenetrable levels, as well as making it extra vampire-secure. Defense-wise, this was top notch.
DIO, while impressed by the impeccable defense, felt the need to ridicule it. Because with such strong defense, Marco was basically showing that he was afraid of [The World]'s power. The vampire felt like he was back in the position of power again.
"Hm? Weren't you going to kill me? Why are you hiding, Marco? Don't tell me you're all talk."
"…Fool." the Zeppeli commented, stifling the volume of his voice. He felt nothing but hatred and murderous intent for his enemy, but decided not to waste his energy and get loud with such a rude, arrogant opponent. Marco clearly meant business, and was intending to make sure that DIO's arrogance would be his downfall.
After all, actions are infinitely more powerful than words.
*WSHUUUUUUU*
Then suddenly, in the next millisecond, a long and thin beam of water extended from the water shield, shooting towards the vampire like it was a laser beam.
"…!"
It wasn't like a laser beam for no reason, the beams extended ridiculously fast, way faster than the vampire had expected. DIO escaped the hit by rapidly moving his head to the side. Had he been slower for just one instance, it would've gone through his head.
"Wh- What?! What is this speed?!"
Just as he mistakenly believed he was back in the position of power where he could casually mock and ridicule his enemies, he had been proven wrong once again. The vampire, from one instant to another, felt like he was facing another Caesar.
Since the Zeppeli's shot missed, he retracted the water beam, still at the same speed. In its stead, two new beams were fired, both as straight as they could get and carefully aimed at DIO.
*WSHUUUUUUU*
This time around, the vampire couldn't just easily dodge them by only tilting his head. He was forced to sidestep between the beams, barely even managing to evade getting hit and pierced.
"HAAAH!"
Right behind and right in front of his head, the two water beams passed by DIO, with merely millimeters between the Hamon covering the beams and the vampire's body. Figuratively, he was stuck between a rock and a hard place.
And his situation would only get worse as more beams would shoot out, so the instant the two beams virtually imprisoning him retracted, he dashed backwards a few meters.
He, who'd been chasing the crusaders like prey, intending to close the distance between them initially, now went on to increase the distance. All the hairs of DIO were standing rigidly, like he was freezing. It was embarrassing and humiliating how his battle moves were directly influenced by his enemy who was very much able to kill him.
'Curses…! How much worse will this get?!' the vampire thought, tightly gritting his teeth in stress.
DIO hesitated to use [The World]. Time stop was overpowered, a cheat-tier ability, but that's exactly why he hesitated. The vampire would use this power in only 2 situations. Either to toy with his enemies, or to use it as a getaway if an enemy attack truly put his life in danger. Since he wasn't anywhere near in the position to toy with Marco, using this power would conclude to the other situation. And for the sake of his pride, DIO didn't want to get into that situation. Using [The World] was basically admitting that he was in said position, he couldn't fool himself about that.
*WSHUUUUUUU*
For the next attack, the Zeppeli fired 3 beams. The vampire, farther away and just slightly becoming able to gauge and react to the speed a little better, retreated both to the back and to the left, about 20 degrees to the left of the straight beams that were extended from the water barrier. He thought he'd be safe by doing that, but was confronted by an unpleasant surprise.
"WHAT?!" DIO exclaimed in shock, clenching his teeth and widening his eyes.
The still extending straight beams suddenly bent to the right, or left in the vampire's perspective, following him in that direction from there on.
'Shit! This isn't how I expected it!'
Using the strong physical aspect of his Stand, DIO had [The World] kick at the air to propel him backwards. But even though he did that, the beams were still far faster, easily catching up.
'DRAT!'
Really in big trouble now, the vampire was about to activate his Stand power. His face drenched in sweat, he was in despair at having truly no other options left.
"[The Wor-]"
A millisecond before executing his special ability, DIO suddenly stopped. Although a lot of unexpected things happened against his interest, for once, something good suddenly happened.
"What the…"
Marco's water beams also suddenly came to a halt, having stopped extending forward any longer. That was roughly at the 20 Meter mark.
"Haahhhh…. Haahhhh…" The vampire exhaled in gratitude, finally able to cease retreating. His heart was still pounding at a tremendous pace.
'I'm safe for now…' he thought, his mind running rampant from the danger that the Zeppeli posed to him. 'Is 20 Meters his limit?'
Shaking his head, he then negated his own questions. 'Wait, no, that's not it…'
Even from that distance, DIO could still see that Marco's water wall had become significantly thinner. He had a limited amount of water to control, and creating more beams meant thinning his own protective wall. So for more beams, the Zeppeli had to limit the maximum extension length.
'I see…'
Though just because the 3 beams couldn't extend further, that didn't mean that the vampire was out of danger. Realizing that Marco could retract one or two of the beams to make the remaining beams chase after him for longer distances, DIO hurried and put even more distance between them.
"Shit… Now what?" the vampire mumbled in frustration, not having a clue as to how to beat the Zeppeli. All he really learned was that he couldn't approach Marco under any circumstances, at least not with this current attack AND defense. [The World] couldn't help him with the second one.
Meanwhile, Kakyoin had just come to a conclusion. A dark and hopeless one, because his eyes widened and his breath almost came to a halt. The mysterious circumstances behind Caesar's death prompted him to think intensively about the cause. It was quintessential for survival to know how DIO managed to get out of that sure-death position and kill the same crusader that trapped him in the first place.
Noriaki formulated theories, set up hypotheses in his mind, and finally came to a sensible, reasonable answer. But although it was sensible, the conclusion still led to great shock on his part. Because the redhead then assessed the true difference in power between the crusaders and the vampire based on his findings, and realized that their disadvantage was at a scale he never would've considered before.
"Joestar-san, I have very bad news!"
"Why are you suddenly speaking telepathically, Kakyoin?"
"Because I don't want DIO to hear that I figured out what his Stand's true power is."
Joseph then reflexively wanted to yell out in disbelief, though the cherry boy preemptively covered the old Joestar's mouth with [Hierophant Green]'s hand. DIO was busy with the Zeppeli and it was in everyone's interest that it should stay that way.
"Say what?!"
A telepathic reaction still was a valid alternative, though.
"I did, but that's not the shocking part. You haven't even heard about his ability yet!"
The way Kakyoin sounded so alarmed and agitated actually intimidated Joseph, making him believe things were way worse than he expected.
"W- what is his ability, then…?"
Without faltering, but still showing a sense of fear, Noriaki dropped the truth bomb.
"Time stop. DIO's power is to stop time."
"WHAT?!"
Upon hearing this incredulous claim, the old Joestar's eyes bulged out. For good reason, [Hierophant Green] never took its hand off the old man's mouth. Joseph himself nearly froze in shock. He trusted the redhead with all his heart, but that particular claim, he had trouble believing it. Such a power was just too incredible, too overpowered to be true, according to him. Because if that was legit, then that'd mean they had absolutely no power to counter [The World], and were always at risk of getting rendered defenseless by time stop.
"I know it sounds hard to believe, but I can explain. I really can!"
"…"
The old Joestar wasn't convinced. He thought time stop was just too much, too busted, a power of a scale never seen or heard of before. But it wasn't like he could come up with an explanation of [The World]'s power himself, so he had no choice but to hear out the cherry boy.
"Back when he did… you know… DIO broke the entire web simultaneously. Not one strand at a time, but simultaneously. Not even a fraction of a second in difference, but in an instant."
When referring to Caesar's murder, Kakyoin spoke with restraint. He could've figured out [The World]'s ability faster, but was first preoccupied with lamenting his Hamon Master's passing. Despite having far less of a connection compared to the other two, he still had a bond with his Hamon Master and fellow crusader. He still had the right and felt the need to feel sad and mourn.
"To… get to him… DIO traversed a 20 Meter radius. In an instant, without a delay in time. I really cannot think of another explanation, Joestar-san."
"…"
Hearing out Noriaki, Joseph pressed his teeth together. He was convinced by the redhead's reasoning, as he had 0 counterarguments.
'Time stop, huh? Fuck…'
Tightly clenching his fists, the old Joestar accepted the truth. Unfortunately for them, the crusaders, DIO was indeed the wielder of time manipulation power, an overpowered and busted power they couldn't counter. The odds now, after knowing about the true power of [The World], were beyond catastrophic. But denial wouldn't help in this case. If the gap in power was that ridiculously large, then it unfortunately was like that, nothing they could do.
"Shit! We have to tell Jotaro and the others, they don't know yet! If they get too close to DIO without knowing, I'm afraid they'll die."
"I agree. That's why we must tell them as soon as possible, starting with Marco. So let's hurry and get to him first, uninterrupted as long as DIO is busy with [Mental Overdrive] and Hamon."
Moving fast, the two crusaders made their way to the Marco, using their Stands to propel themselves and take quick shortcuts going from building to building that wouldn't be possible without them.
Finally reaching the building the Zeppeli was standing on, the two approached his mini dome from the side.
"Let us in, please!" the redhead requested, knocking on the wall. "Quickly, it's urgent!"
Off-handedly, since he was busy fighting the vampire, let them in. He first enlarged the dome to have enough space to accommodate them, then opened a door in the back for the two to quickly slip inside.
Marco sure hoped the cherry boy really meant what he said, since by doing this, he was forced to use more of the water in his disposal for defense, meaning he could afford to use less water to attack and DIO could safely come a lot closer.
"Marco, Kakyoin wants to inform you of something that's critical for you to know!" Joseph stated, talking in a tense tone. Actually, his whole body was tense.
"Shoot."
The Zeppeli, never making eye contact and just focusing on the vampire, was just going to let him speak out. He expected Kakyoin to say something important, but at the moment, there was nothing more important to him than fighting and killing DIO.
"Marco, I've figured out what DIO's true Stand power is!"
"What?!"
This took him by surprise, and the good kind of. Marco still didn't turn his head, but his ears were wide open. He was hopeful that with this knowledge, the disadvantage that came up a few moments ago would be more than evened out. He wasn't even showing a semblance of a smile, but was preparing for it when hearing about [The World]'s powers, for he could infer its weakness from that information and use it as a killing blow against his much hated enemy.
"Yes, I did after a lot of thinking. But sadly, this is really bad news, since the power of [The World] is time stop."
"You're bullshitting me!"
Like a certain cab driver in a certain movie, he turned his head around in a very memorable way.
"I wish I was, but I'm not! I can explain."
"Time stop? That's just too much! I won't believe it!" the Zeppeli argued, suddenly acting very stubbornly when a few seconds ago he was literally open and accepting. "If you're joking, it's not funny! Don't distract me while I'm fighting that giant evil!"
"Look, I thought that way too, but Kakyoin's reasoning makes too much sense." the old Joestar attempted to talk sense into him. "I understand what you're thinking, but you have to listen to him!"
"WHAT do you understand about what I'm thinking?!" Marco suddenly snapped, angrily lashing out at his fellow crusaders, making them flinch slightly. His eyes were intense, the sides even red from pure fury. In the past few minutes, they only became like that when talking to DIO, but now he was misdirecting that side of his to even his allies. He acted exactly like Polnareff earlier, bereft of rationality. He even himself realized that he was being irrational, but refused to look at this rationally.
'FUCK, FUCK, FUCK!'
For the Zeppeli, this information was a kick in the balls, a true disaster. Knowing how intelligent Noriaki was, he could imagine the boy convincingly explaining him that DIO's power indeed was stopping time. That wasn't the issue. The issue was, that if true, he ultimately wouldn't allow him to defeat and kill the vampire. If [The World] really could stop time, then there was no way he could actually avenge his father's killing, since DIO would ultimately find a way to survive. He had wanted to inwardly rejoice when figuring out that Stand's weakness, though in that case, there was none. None at all.
"Speechless, huh? If you got no useful input, then just shut up!"
Marco was in denial, talking to his friends in a toxic manner. He just figured that if not for his pretty much invincible Hamon defense, the vampire would've gutted him ages ago since with his water beams, he was being a far bigger danger to DIO than the latter had calculated. That defense was the sole reason he was alive, but it wouldn't help shifting the battle in his favor. All in all, it was a hard stalemate, he advanced as far as he could go but not one step further. Considering this, the only option other than just staying there and shooting beams at the vampire who could always use time stop to escape if just about to be hit, was retreating. And after all the resistance, the fight and effort he put into avenging his father's death and killing DIO, which he swore to both himself and his enemy, a retreat would just be a humiliating, demoralizing act of shame.
"Hey! What's with this attitude?! We're trying to-"
"SHUT UP! I know you're proposing to escape, but that's not what I have in mind! I'll show you that I can beat him, so be quiet and watch!"
The only thing keeping the Zeppeli there was pride. If he were to turn around and show his back to the vampire, his pride would be in tatters. He, who'd never forgive DIO for his actions, couldn't forgive himself were he to show such behavior. It was a dilemma, a bitter dilemma where the only thing he was able to do was taking out that frustration on his friends.
"Why are you so selfish?! We have to inform the others so they don't get killed attacking DIO! Face it, we don't have a method of killing DIO and can't truly guard against his power! Stop being selfish and help us prevent Polnareff, Avdol and Jotaro from mistakenly rushing to their own deaths!"
"…"
Unlike him, the 3 mentioned didn't have perfect defenses. The egyptian had his fire, but its use was severely restricted since he was in the center of a multi-million metropolis. The frenchman had Hamon, but the vampire could always use objects to hit him without needing to touch him. And the young Joestar, practically his nephew, had arguably the strongest Stand of all crusaders, but despite that strength there was no indication that it had ways to guard against the stoppage of time. Why should it, Marco thought, [Star Platinum] had never shown any sign of time manipulation powers.
'Dammit… DAMN IT ALL!'
Clenching his teeth, the Zeppeli inwardly cursed. His pride would be shattered, as would his promise. But he wasn't going to risk his precious comrades falling victim to the murderous vampire just over pride. His old man wouldn't wish for that either, he for sure would wish for him to make sure everyone survives. So because of this reasoning, this excuse… this pretext, he could stomach such a compromise.
"Fine…" Marco breathed out, dissatisfaction being the dominant emotion. "I'll go along!"
Unwrapping the dome and shooting out a final massive barrage of water beams in all directions, the Zeppeli opened the way and turned around with his full body, immediately starting to sprint towards the back edge of the roof. He was so fast with his decision and action that he even jumped off before the other 2.
With no fear of landing hard and injuring himself, Marco jumped off the building. The same as earlier, he expected the redhead to utilize [Hierophant Green] to secure the descent for him.
'Ah, there's the contact!'
Feeling a tentacle of the green Stand wrapping around him, as well as his fall greatly slowing down, he turned his head upwards to see the cherry boy and thank him.
Though the good news came to an end when he sighted the bad news, also above him.
"WHAT THE?!"
In that moment, his expression instantly changed into one that reflected his thoughts: His life being in severe danger.
XXXXXXXXXX
A few instances earlier:
*THUUUUUUUUM*
DIO had stopped time. For multiple reasons.
Being able to come closer, he was able to listen in on the conversation between the crusaders with his superhuman vampire ears, overhearing every single word. Kakyoin had found out about his Stand power and let Joseph and Marco know about this information. Of course, the vampire couldn't leave them alive after they acquired this knowledge.
Coming closer, however, also exposed him to more danger. That final mass discharge to cover the crusaders' backs while they escaped posed a much bigger danger to him than Caesar's surprise attack that prompted him to stop time to survive.
The situation now was the same. Time had come to a halt, and he was free to do as he pleased. He had a limited but handy timeframe to take out the crusaders without them resisting. And DIO really was going to claim their lives and kill them off. For his plan to achieve heaven and take over the world not to be sabotaged any further by his enemies, especially the Joestars.
With [The World]'s hand, he picked up Caesar's corpse and tossed it to the side.
"If you're watching as a ghost or from the afterlife right now, that is, if time stop doesn't affect the dead, I'll let you know that all your puny friends will die not far from you." the vampire proclaimed, looking up in the sky.
But not for long. Next, he controlled his Stand to rip out the whole empty water tower. Killing the crusaders by just driving a fist through their bodies wouldn't work anymore. Though DIO was very creative in using objects as flashy murder tools. And he had just the right, deadly idea in mind.
Using what was left of his free 5 seconds, he had his Stand carry the water tower over the building's edge, in the air. Right below the temporarily floating were 2 of the crusaders. If the water tower were to fall on top of them, they'd get crushed.
Though just letting it fall wasn't enough. [The World] had its foot on it, building up pressure that would stomp down the water tower once time resumed. That way, it wouldn't just crush those two, but outright flatten them.
"Heheheh… Hahahahahahahaha! Can't wait to see if I'll be able to hear all your bones breaking over the sound of the water tower crashing into the ground! DIE, KAKYOIN! And more importantly, DIE, MARCO!"
As sadistic as ever, the vampire didn't change. He shouldn't be laughing, he shouldn't be relaxed enough to make fun of his enemies since they'd more than proven enough times that they did indeed have the power and wit to defeat and kill him if not for [The World]'s top tier ability. But DIO, when REALLY out to kill his foes, had a track record of being successful with it.
"Now, let's continue."
*DUUUUUUUUUUUUUUN*
XXXXXXXXXX
"WHAT THE?!"
*CRASH!*
It happened in an instant, without a warning. Kakyoin and Marco were buried under the water tower.
The Zeppeli immediately felt a massive load of pain throughout his whole body. From one moment to another, multiple bones at different locations were broken. And on top of that, inner wounds opened up all over his body, leading to inner bleeding. If he wasn't receiving medical aid soon, he could wind up dead.
And yet, it could've been worse. Reflexively, Marco had manifested [Mental Overdrive] behind his back, letting his Stand absorb the force of impact with the ground. Thanks to doing so, the back of his head and spine were spared, and he managed to maintain his consciousness.
"Argh… Crap…!"
He had severe trouble bringing out his voice, as well as even breathing, since the water tower had broken some of his ribs.
"GUHHH…! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!"
Because of his Hamon knowledge, he instinctively took a Hamon breath since that'd stabilize his condition a little and raise his chances of survival a bit. Though that was only a one-time measure, since with broken ribs piercing his lungs, that breather was beyond painful. Painful enough to make him pass out if attempted twice.
Luckily, the water tower covering him completely blocked the sound waves from reaching outside. Had the vampire heard his scream of pain, he would've made sure to end him and Noriaki for good.
Speaking of the redhead, his condition was in a much, much worse state. The Zeppeli was suffering, but at least he was conscious and could survive for just about under 1 hour if left without treatment. The cherry boy was unconscious, had external injuries on top of internal ones, and ended up hitting his head on the asphalt, with extra force from the falling water tower from behind.
When Marco, after that one-time measure, turned his head with great difficulty, he suddenly stopped caring about himself, and cared solely about Kakyoin. The difference of their physical state was just that enormous.
'Sh- shit… Kakyoin, he's still breathing, but… it won't be for long!' the Zeppeli assessed after checking Noriaki's condition. It was so bad, he would've panicked and went frantic if not for the super low amount of energy he himself had.
'Da- dammit, no… Kakyoin, he's only 17, he has his whole life ahead of him… I can't let him die, no matter what! This young boy MUST survive!'
As if his OWN life depended on it, Marco again summoned [Mental Overdrive], immediately giving emergency aid. The liquid-specialized Stand stopped the external bleeding and then analyzed the redhead's anatomy, stopping all inner bleeding a few seconds later too.
But that alone wouldn't suffice to ensure the cherry boy's survival, as the blood still had to flow somewhere. So the Zeppeli, hectically and constantly agitated and on edge, tried to divert the blood into the correct blood vessels and keep up the circulation as if there wasn't any issue.
'Is this how Jotaro felt that time? No, he must've been much calmer than I am right now…' Marco thought. He was reminded by that time before the start of their long journey where Jotaro and [Star Platinum], under extreme pressure performed high precision emergency surgery on Kakyoin when they removed DIO's parasitic flesh bud from his brain. And now the situation was very similar. One mistake, one wrong move and Noriaki could die.
The next thing the Zeppeli thought of were the other crusaders. It was now up to them to kill DIO and then free them from under the rubble. Their eventual help was necessary too, since he couldn't keep up the redhead's life support forever. If the others were to lose and be killed, or take too long to defeat the vampire, then the both of them would be goners as well.
'Our lives are in your hands… We'll entrust them to you.' he thought, wishing his friends victory from the bottom of his soul.
XXXXXXXXXX
At the same time, some moments ago:
*CRASH!*
It happened right in front of his eyes, right as he was descending with the help of [Hermit Purple].
"HM?!"
Joseph's eyes widened in shock and fear as he accidentally made a hard landing since he was distracted by this event, which took him by surprise but wasn't entirely unforeseeable given his knowledge about [The World]'s power.
At the time of his landing, there was a big commotion and panic happening. The nearby pedestrians and people eating at a café directly adjacent to the impact site started freaking out, panicking and losing their minds. To the extend that they completely missed the old Joestar coming down from the air.
Though Joseph himself wasn't calm either. In fact, he was agitated even more than the civilians. For them, it was the shock of a water tower suddenly falling down from the sky and almost hitting them. For him, it was the realization that DIO had stopped time and targeted his 2 partners with a monstrous attack, fully intending to murder them. And he was quick to know that he was next in line.
'Marco…? Kakyoin…?'
The old Joestar was worried to death about his fellow crusaders, not knowing if they were still alive or killed on the spot, but didn't feel sad. He instead entirely felt fear, unable to voice out the names of his friends. Joseph broke out in cold sweat, getting goose bumps on every spot of his skin. His heart was racing like a space rocket.
'SHIT! DIO's gonna kill me! HE WILL MURDER ME!'
That was the moment when primal fear took over. Normally, he'd go and check if his friends were all right, even attempt to move the water tower off them with his own bare hands. But in this situation, he'd be targeted right away by the vampire and his time powers.
First Caesar, now potentially Marco and Kakyoin. Joseph had to legitimately run away without looking back. If he were to be killed now, without passing the other crusaders the secret of DIO's Stand, then all of them would be wiped out for good. Which was what they wanted to avoid by any means necessary in the first place.
Picking himself up from the ground at the highest pace, the old Joestar prepared to use his legs and hightail out of the happening's site.
Luckily for him, he didn't have to run far since Jotaro, by sheer coincidence, had been nearby when the water tower crash took place and was heading there to check out the situation. Joseph's legs came to a sudden halt when he saw his grandson. The young Joestar had noticed him too.
"Gramps?"
Their eyes met, on opposite sides of a street separating those two.
'Jotaro?! Thank GOD!'
For the old Joestar, this was nothing short of a miracle. Only a few words, and he could save the rest of the crusaders. Hope had not been entirely lost yet!
"Jotaro! Turn around and run! Tell Polnareff and Avdol that the power of [The World] is to stop time! [The World] is a Stand that controls time!"
And just as he passed on that information, the vampire arrived to make a demonstration.
"[The World]!"
*THUUUUUUUUM*
Time had stopped.
DIO made a stylish landing, vertically like a fighter jet.
"To think Jotaro was around here as well… I'm on a lucky streak, it seems."
Previously, he stayed up there and observed the effects of his doing. Unfortunately for him, he didn't hear his victims' bones break over the sound of the water tower crashing into the ground. Though that was only secondary. The vampire thought those 2 were flattened like pancakes and bleeding out below the debris, so that was enough. Time to move on to his next victim.
"And now to you, Joseph…" DIO muttered, approaching the old man frozen in time. He walked past him, stopping in front of his face. "Unlike the others, you're not only a Hamon user, but a Joestar on top… More of a reason to kill you."
With a confident, mighty look on his face, he took out a simple but sharp knife. "Hamon was a thorn in my side 100 years ago, but it's useless against [The World]."
Following that, he put on a murderous wide grin, reaching back with his hand holding the knife and charging up a flashy and deadly throw.
"Muda Muda Muda Muda Muda Muda Muda Muda Muda… MUDAAAAAA!"
The knife stopped mere inches away from Joseph's throat. When time would resume, he would not be able to stop it.
"Jonathan's grandson, Joseph, you're dead." the vampire declared, turning around and holding up 1 finger pointing at the sky.
"One…"
To
"Zero"
Speaking out the final number, the grin on his face was extra devious. Beyond normally.
*DUUUUUUUUUUUUUUN*
*KCHAK!*
Immediately after time restarted flowing, the old Joestar felt a stunningly heavy pain coming from his throat.
"UNGH!" Joseph let out, vomiting blood and falling backwards. "URGHHK!"
"!"
Jotaro's face stiffened in response to the sudden image of his grandfather having a knife stuck in his throat and tumbling down.
"Gramps!"
He stepped forward with one foot, wanting to hurry and help, but the dying old man held reached forward with his hand, signalizing his grandson not to come near.
"S- Stay back! R- Run… Jotaro!" the old Joestar warned him, cuts in his voice. "D- don't come near him! Keep… your d- distance! He's… In… vincible…"
After saying out those words of warning in a tone full of dread to the end, that hand dropped down. [Hermit Purple] coming out of said hand dried up and turned to dust.
This marked the end of Joseph Joestar.
"…!"
Without a word, the young Joestar's eyes then turned to the killer, standing right next to the dead body. Those eyes were narrowed, reflecting Jotaro's immense anger and hatred.
To make matters worse, the vampire then added fuel to the fire with an inflammatory speech.
"In case you're wondering, Caesar's dead while Marco and Kakyoin are dying currently, right now in this second, under that wreck formerly a water tower." DIO told, smirking as provocatively as he could. "Where are Polnareff and Avdol? Hiding somewhere? Hmph, doesn't matter."
The vampire then pointed his right index finger at the young Joestar, taunting him with a sadistic grin. "Jotaro, you're next!"
"…"
Gritting his fists, Jotaro partially gave in to DIO's provocations, slowly stepping forward. Despite the danger, he had 0 intention of backing off.
"DIO."
"Oh, you want to fight. Instead of running away, you're coming closer to me, DIO. How ungrateful. After your grandfather gave his life to tell you the power of [The World]… He was so desperate. Like a student taking a final exam with only seconds left on the clock."
"I can't beat the shit out of you unless I come closer." the young Joestar stated his one and only reason in a menacing manner.
"Oh really? Then come as close as you need to…" the vampire accepted his challenge, also starting to move forward.
Both men, tall and powerful in both appearance and reality, walked towards one another. Their auras were intimidating and powerful, only intensifying as they inched closer.
The fight both had been waiting for since the start of the journey was about to finally commence.
Well, Part 3 is almost over. That technically means Part 4 is near, it's still far away due to my writing tempo. Sorry about that.
Feel free to rate and review if you like to.