DISCLAIMER: I do not own JoJo's bizarre adventure or Rising of the shield hero

Jouta explained what happened to DIO, making sure to not miss a single detail.

"I understand, so you were able to gain the trust of the shield hero, Naofumi Iwatani?"

"Yeah...I think so at least."

"And he doesn't know he's traveling with the princess?"

"Not a clue."

"Hmm...before we can decide our next move, I would like to ask you a question, Jouta: Do you trust the shield hero."

"Yes, I do. He has a good heart. And I believe he's got a lot of potential."

"And Eclair, what do you suggest we do with this information?"

"I suggest we recruit him. As a cardinal hero, he would be a valuable asset to us."

"Then it shall be done. I shall take it upon myself to recruit him."

"How the hell are you gonna do that; He has a lot of trust in Myne. Let me do it."

"Don't forget that you exposed yourself to them, so it would be wise for you to lay low. I, on the other hand, can mask my identity using hypnosis."

"Hypnosis doesn't work on powerful magicians. It's like magic 101."

"That's true, but I doubt Myne and Naofumi are well-versed in magic. And most people don't possess the power to resist my ability."

Jouta wanted to argue further but realized DIO was right, so he stayed quiet.

"If that is settled, I shall be taking my leave."

DIO walked to his room door.

"Wait, DIO. How do you know where he is?"

DIO walked to the door, turning to look at Jouta with a devious smile.

"I can hear him."

Without elaborating further, he left the room, closing the door behind him.

"Sometimes...that guy scares me."

"Indeed."


DIO walked into the corridor, looking for Naofumi's voice. One might wonder how DIO knew his voice; luckily, Jouta had described their voices—even doing poor imitations. While Eclair and Jouta were out, DIO was testing his abilities on some of the people that were inside—specifically hypnosis and timestop. He discovered that his time stop lasted one point five seconds at best, and his hypnosis worked on at least ten people at once for about an hour. He even tried meditating to unlock his second stand, THE PASSION.

"There he is."

DIO could hear Naofumi in a room nearby. It would seem he was intending to fall asleep, but DIO didn't care, despite what he told Jouta, his objective was never the shield hero, it was his companion, Myne.

You see, DIO had suspected Myne would make her move. She had nothing to gain from being with the shield hero. Someone who was disliked and laughed at. From what Eclair told him, Myne is likely plotting against the shield hero and using him to get closer to the other heroes, in order to inherit the throne.

"Any second now."

"Are you sure about this?"

"If what Eclair says is true, that devious witch is sure to try something tonight."

"Takes one to know one."

"What?"

"Nothing."

Just then, Myne walked out of a door ahead, moving too quietly for any human ear to pick up. Luckily, DIO wasn't human. Myne didn't notice DIO behind her and continued to walk to Naofumi's room. DIO followed Myne slowly and silently, not wanting to risk her detecting him. She silently entered the shield hero's room, with DIO following close behind. DIO stopped time and entered the room before she closed the door. He clung to the ceiling like a spider.

"Now...what is she planning to do?"

Myne began taking certain items from Naofumi's room, before leaving as swiftly as she came.

"She took all of his gold and armor."

"For what purpose?"

Without answering THE WORLD, DIO got down from the ceiling and went after her. He followed her as she stashed everything she took away and went downstairs. Myne then met up with the spear hero, Motoyasu. DIO followed, taking a seat far enough away to not seem suspicious. He attempted to listen in but couldn't hear past the sound of multiple other voices conversing at once.

sigh* "Perhaps simply observing them is enough."


Jouta and Eclair were currently in DIO's room, awaiting his return.

"Ugh...what's taking him so long. It's been nearly ten minutes."

"Patience, JoJo. He is likely getting familiar with the shield hero first."

"Still. I'm a little worried."

sigh* "Listen, why don't we do something to take your mind off things."

"Sure, that would be great."

"What do you have in mind?"

Jouta thought about it for a moment. He didn't really do anything other than save the world or fight his dad. Now that he thinks about it, his whole life has been him going from bizarre adventure to bizarre adventure. Then an idea came to Jouta's mind. Summoning his stand, Jouta pointed his index finger at the ceiling.

"EMERALD FINGER!"

A green aura surrounded his finger before an emerald materialized and shot upward like a bullet, embedding itself in the ceiling.

"Perfect."

"What's that."

"Before I can answer that question, can you cut through emerald?"


DIO watched as Myne gifted Naofumi's armor to the spear hero and went back upstairs to her room. He was annoyed by the betrayal and his dislike for her increased tenfold. DIO had assumed that was the last of her shenanigans and decided to go back to his room.

"What a waste of time."

"I'm sorry my lord. Perhaps you could enjoy some wine before you leave? I can still remember your love for quality wine."

"I should be heading back. They are probably worried."


"I shall bet my soul!"

"W-what?!"

"Did I stutter?"

Jouta and Eclair were currently engaged in some poker, using cards created by Eclair slicing the emerald from earlier into a deck of fifty-two, and with pinpoint precision, detailing each card as though it were a regular deck of playing cards.

"Fine. Then I'll bet my father's—"

DIO opened the door and froze in the doorway, before closing the door and going back downstairs. The two players looked at the door for a moment before continuing their game.

"A few drinks couldn't hurt, right?"

later that night

DIO lay on his bed, totally shirtless, reading his only book to pass the time. He was extremely bored. His two acquaintances had fallen asleep on the floor and he chose not to disturb them. Closing the book, he began to reminisce on his fight with Jouta. While he would rather not have fought Jouta at all, he had to admit it was quite fun.

"How I miss that feeling."

As he thought about the fight, he looked at his injuries, which were still healing.

"Hamon."

His ears started picking up noises outside his room. Sounds of footsteps, then two people talking. DIO tried his hardest to hear them. He placed his ear against the wall and began recognizing the voices.

"The spear hero and the princess?"

He listened closely, their conversation becoming clearer as he focused more. Suddenly, his eyes widened with shock as he listened in.

"So that's her plan."

"Whose plan?"

DIO turned to see an awake Jouta Kujo standing beside his bed. He was so focused that he didn't hear him wake up.

"Nothing."

"You sure. You looked pretty interested in that wall."

"I thought I heard something, but it was nothing."

"Really. It must suck to have all that energy."

"Indeed."

"I could keep you company if you want?"

"No. I don't want to interrupt your sleep."

"It's fine. I don't usually sleep that much anyway."

"Thank you, I would like that."

"No problem."

Jouta excitingly took off his shoes and got onto the bed and laid next to DIO. Their two muscular bodies snuggled against each other as DIO held the book between them.

"Damn, nice abs. Wait, this is Jonathan's body, what am I saying?!"Jouta then realized he said that out loud and felt embarrassed, silently cursing himself. DIO was no better, a faint blush visible on his face.

"You think so?"

DIO then looked Jouta in the eye, a mischievous smile clear on his face, an idea having popped up in his mind.

"You know, there are more exciting things we could do."

Closing the book and tossing it aside, he got closer to Jouta and spoke in a seductive tone.

"W-what d-d-do you h-have in mind?"

In a grassy field

Surrounding two figures were craters of varying sizes scattered across the grassy plane, seeming as though multiple large meteors hit the area. What could be the cause of all this you might ask? Stands of course, specifically Jouta's CHARMY GREEN and DIO's THE WORLD. The stands were engaged in a furious rush battle.

"MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA MUDA..."

"URYA URYA URYA URYA URYA URYA..."

While the stands were mostly equal, one could argue that THE WORLD possessed superior speed and power—likely due to DIO's enhanced reaction time and THE WORLD's understanding of his own strength, while CHARMY GREEN had better precision and was far more skilled due to experience.

"Your stand's getting slower, old man."

"How dare you call me old, arrogant child!"

That statement wasn't far from the truth. THE WORLD's effectiveness depended on DIO's will and concentration, and the sun was beginning to rise, meaning he was sleepy. He hadn't slept in thirty-one hours. The stands soon ended their rush battle with a mighty clash of fists, creating a large crater fifteen meters wide and three meters deep. The stand users were unaffected by this and stood calmly in the crater.

"I'm just tired, that's all."

"I thought vampires didn't need sleep."

"I thought so as well, but THE WORLD explained that since I haven't consumed any real blood, I need to conserve my energy to stay at one-hundred percent, but eventually I'll lose my strength."

"That's rough."

For a moment Jouta wanted to offer his blood to the vampire but remembered what happened last time DIO drank a Joestar's blood. His father described it as watching a man lose all connection with reality and spiral into a deep pit of insanity. After a few moments of silence between the two, DIO finally spoke.

"We'd better get back. Eclair will be waking up soon and will become worried."

"What are we gonna do about the craters."

shrug*

"They'll probably just assume it was you."

near the inn

"That's when my great-grandfather (Joseph Joestar) was like "Your next line is..."

"Wow. What a bizarre world we lived in."

"Yeah! It was cool as hell!"

As Jouta spoke of the many adventures of his predecessor, a scarlet sun slowly rose in the distance, indicating it to be very early in the morning. The streets were quite vacant and completely silent besides the two's constant chit-chat, until...

"DIO, you hear something?"

"Hmm?"

The conversation came to a halt as the two began to pick up the sounds of metal rapidly hitting the ground.

"Sounds like footsteps."

"Metal. Knights, perhaps?"

"It seems like they're moving east. A lot of them too."

It was then the duo realized that was the same direction they were headed—the inn.

"Shit!"

No words needed to be exchanged to understand what needed to be done. Jouta summoned his stand and used its long tendrils to swing around and DIO simply jumped from building to building using THE WORLD. Eventually, they reached their destination, resting on a nearby building, they discovered a large group of knights surrounding the inn.

"We're too late."

"Do not worry. I shall simply use my time stop to sneak in and grab her if need be."

"Will it last long enough?"

"I hope so."

"What are we doing?"

Suddenly, a voice could be heard, turning around the duo came face-to-face with none other than Eclair Seaetto.

"Eclair!"

Jouta shouted in glee while DIO smiled.

"I heard them coming from a mile away and quickly left without a trace. But I doubt I was the target."

"Huh?"

Jouta was understandably confused and DIO...let's just say he wasn't surprised at all, something Eclair noticed immediately.

"What do you know, DIO?"