Ch. 22

As the storm continued on the outside of the mansion, Dio and Jonathan were not moving an inch forward or backward; locked in this stalemate of force. It was here that Jonathan began to recall a discussion he had as the Agency was being built. It was on the fourth day of the week-long project…

Beginning of Flashback

"So help me understand," Jonathan was beginning to ask as he, young Joseph, and Jotaro ate the takeout they ordered, "I remember the marriage ceremony with Erina, but after that…"

"The two of you were planning a trip to America for your honeymoon," the younger Joseph said in between slurps of his ramen noodles, "And among the guests that were on the ship was Wang Chen; he had managed to sneak on."

"And one of the items brought onto the ship included a coffin," Jotaro said, "In which Wang Chen had stored Dio's severed head."

"Granny Erina said you discovered the both of them, but they had managed to turn everyone else on the ship either into Zombies or Zombie food, and had surrounded you in the storage compartment."

"Your words or hers?" Jotaro questioned.

"Come on, Jotaro! Where's the fun if I tell her side verbatim?"

"Anyway," Jonathan interrupted, trying to hear the rest of the recounting.

"Anyway, you managed to beat up Wang Chen, and the Zombie went to the boiler for the purpose of blowing up the ship. But before all that could happen, Dio used some sort of eye laser like Superman and pierced your neck, cutting off most of your blood flow. She said you knew you were going to die there and wanted to stay by your side, but you insisted that she live on. Also, there was a baby on board whose mother had been killed by one of the Zombies; he had you save that baby and hide in the coffin while your body became cold. Then BOOM! The ship's boiler exploded and Erina, the surviving baby, and your unborn child were all that survived."

Jotaro waited for a few seconds of silence to make sure Joseph was done talking, confirmed by the loud sipping of his ramen's broth. After finishing a bite of his omurice, he continued the narration and pulled a few pictures out from a dossier, "Except turns out that the coffin Erina used to survive the explosion had a hidden compartment that Dio, attaching his head to your body, managed to hide in." He continued to shift between the different photos. "That coffin sank after Erina was rescued, and he remained underwater for nearly 100 years. In 1983, a couple of fishermen near the Canary Islands pulled it out of the water, and DIO had been awakened, using your body to travel the world, and kill as many people as possible to serve as Vampire fodder. From what else I've been told, he also used it to have sex with both men and women."

"Oh my," Jonathan mentioned, repulsed, "To think he did all that is not a pleasant sight to imagine."

"Your body did manage to reject him in other ways," Jotaro continued, "He couldn't use any of his vampiric powers because your body's Hamon kept inhibiting it. He could siphon off blood still, but that was about it. That was until he managed to gain his Stand, The World, and trained it both to stop time for longer periods, and to gain more strength to overpower your body's defenses. Still, I managed to kick his ass and finally destroy him…at least until this whole ordeal started."

"And you made sure he was dead this time?" Jonathan asked as he was opening his food box, which contained a steaming beef teriyaki.

"Yep," Jotaro responded, "Watched as his body– or rather, whatever was left of your body– disintegrated in the hot Egyptian sun."

"And now, we essentially have to do the whole thing again!" Joseph loudly complained, "What a pain in the ass!"

"And what was he meaning when he referred to Heaven?"

"Oh yeah," Jotaro said, "DIO kept a diary, which I burned after I killed him. Among all the contents that were in there, it contained his plan to achieve 'Heaven', or absolute control over reality. The DIO we're now fighting is one where, in an alternate universe, DIO defeated all of us, took the blood of all Joestar descendants, and achieved his plan of Heaven. When I talked to Jolyne, I learned the plan was taken up by our DIO's friend, Enrico Pucci. And that my older self was induced into a coma to retrieve the memory of the diary and fulfill the plan since I had burned it."

"Did anything in the diary give away how to defeat him?," Joseph inquired.

"Seeing as though it's DIO we're talking about, I doubt he would list his weaknesses, especially given that he's too stuck-up to admit that he has any. It seems as though he's relying primarily on these new powers of his, not necessarily his Vampiric abilities or completely on those of The World."

"And I assume since we're cut off from our world," Joseph said, "We can't use anything from there, which makes this job a whole lot harder."

"I wouldn't say that we're completely cut off," Jonathan chimed in, "Knowing him, he wouldn't cut off a world he has complete control over, it's just that we don't know how to get there."

"It most likely has something to do with the Corpse Parts," Jotaro added. "Since he has all but mine, his power is already multiplied."

"So we get the Corpse Parts back, we can go back to our world!" Joseph exclaimed thinking he connected the dots.

"Essentially," Jotaro responded, "But getting them back is going to be harder than it seems…"

End of Flashback, Back to Present (or Past…or are we Back to the Future?)

"It seems the sword Bruford gave you is still broken," Dio yelled as their close-up clash continued, "I thought there'd be enough time for you to have it repaired!"

"Well, when you're suddenly thrown into a new and different world, finding a good blacksmith can be difficult, and not all that high on your list of worries." Jonathan responded, finally letting the Hamon in his body flow through the sword. Dio pulled back a few meters to avoid any damage.

"I was quite surprised to find out that you survived our fight in the castle," he remarked, as the Hamon throughout his body continued to flow.

"It's only what I have told you before JoJo," Dio responded in a rather cooler tone than the beginning attack, "You cannot kill me! I'm the Pinnacle of All Life, incapable of death! If you could not end me when this place burned down, what made you think you could beat me in my castle?"

"If you're the Pinnacle of Life," Jonathan questioned, "Then why is it you submit to your older self?"

"Because that version of myself is the strongest I'll ever be, and I'm just a form of him who has yet to live out what is destined for me!" Dio lunged forward again with the same chopping motion he attacked first. Again, Jonathan used his sword to block it.

"If I am the fledgling Son who has yet to see the world, then my older self is the experienced Father who has seen it, conquered it, and can bend it to his will in any way he sees fit!" The tips of Dio's fingertips began to freeze as the cold began to move onto the sword. While a bit of it froze, he pulled back in time to prevent a complete freeze.

"And now he wants to remake this world in his image, is that right?" Jonathan asked.

"I figured you would pick up on it so quickly. Amazing what having the powers of Heaven can do for humanity!" Dio declared, "But in order for him to do that, all obstacles in his way must be obliterated!" Dio led a flurry of chops with his hands covered in ice. While Jonathan managed to block most of the jabs, bit by bit the ice started to accumulate on his body, particularly at his shoulders and kneecaps. It wasn't anything to completely hinder his movement but it slowed him down nonetheless.

"That being said," Dio continued, "I did remember from our fight in the castle your clever use of the fire. So I'm making sure that I don't repeat the same mistakes."

Jonathan continued to conduct Hamon, but with some parts of his bloodstream covered in Dio's ice, it became difficult for complete circulation.

"Don't think you're the only one doing that," Jonathan responded, sheathing his sword and putting his hand into a fist shape. It was at that moment that Hamon began to flow at a greater rate into his hand than anywhere else on his body. The Hamon surprisingly ignited, forming a light red flame that he moved his hand onto one of his shoulders covered in ice. The flame began to melt the ice off of the rest of his body as well, as Jonathan yelled out: "Scarlet Overdrive!"

As Jonathan was doing this, Dio stood with slight concern, drawing air between his teeth, seeing as though the ice that he placed onto his enemy's body came off with nothing more than a self-produced ripple flame.

"I also happened to use this attack in my fight against Bruford," Jonathan stated, "So dealing with your vaporization is of small concern to me. Now, let us put a final end to all of this!" Jonathan ran forward to meet his enemy, as his fist remained blazing.

"Bring it on, JoJo!" his enemy returned the taunt, "Time to finally put you in your place, as my body!" Another intense clash seemed destined, one that would truly decide who's fate provided their survival. Meanwhile…

On the upper level of the mansion

Bakugo had lost sight of where Toga had gone. Earlier, he was on a standoff on the rail with her, using her knives to push back against him, but a small explosion managed to push her back, sending her running into one of the rooms on the upstairs level. He had no Quirk to sense where she was, but he carefully looked around his peripheral to see where she would come from. Although, funny enough, Bakugo could not sense that anybody was near him.

It happened that Bakugo was standing between two doors. The one in front of him opened bit by bit, creaking loudly. He took a few seconds to wait and see if anything else happened in the room. When nothing else happened, Bakugo charged into the room, the sweat on his palms ready for ignition. He grabbed onto the door like a monkey, his arm out like a cannon, yellin, "Gotcha!"...only to find nobody in the bedroom that this room contained.

It was at that moment, that right behind him, a short figure with a knife dashed forward and into the room, ready to sink its blade onto the enemy's skin. Bakugo did not notice until the last second, but there was enough time to let the hand on the door go, and put his other hand backward and blast right in the face of his attacker. He ignited his sweat to produce an explosion, sending him to the other side of the room.

As he made it to the ground, he felt a long, sharp pain on his back. The knife had apparently made contact with his back, and when he moved away, it cut a bit more of his skin off, leaving a large cut.

He looked to the front of the room, only to find Toga, with a new set of her normal clothes, looking at the knife she used to impale Bakugo.

"Well," she remarked, "It isn't much but it will do."

Bakugo took a moment to get back up on his feet, but as he slid his back up the wall and put his hands up to support himself, he felt the wall give in, almost as if it were a door. When he looked behind himself, he noticed that part of the wall opened up, revealing a secret passageway. What he stumbled upon were the passageways servants of the house would use to traverse between rooms in the estate without being seen. These were all but common in the 19th Century.

Once he got up, he started interrogating, "Hang on a moment, aren't you with the League?"

"Oh," Toga exclaimed, "So you do remember me!"

"Yeah, how could I forget," he remarked, "I had to stare at all your ugly faces when you put me in restraints!"

"Hey, that's not nice!"

"Anyway, what exactly are you doing with those Vampire interlopers anyway? I wouldn't think the League didn't do team-ups…No hang on a second, DIO kicked the League's asses. Now he's in charge right?"

"Actually, he and Shiggy are working together. Calling it an alliance is the least you could do."

"Yeah right, I doubt you guys immediately agreed to it. Probably didn't go down without a fight and lost! You've been declining ever since All for One got locked up!" Toga threw another one of the knives she had at him, missing his face and landing on the wall right next to him. Suffice to say, he didn't flinch, just looking with slight concern about what could have hit his face.

"You know," Toga said, the slight excitement she had turned into anger, "You talk too much. Izuku, Ochako, Tsu…they're all so nice, so friendly. You, on the other hand, are an annoying jerk. So how about…" Toga launched herself forward, ready to kill the explosive pest that stood in front of him "I shut you up and take your blood!"