Capitolo Primo: Giovinezza (4)

I was already starting to get tired after spending these hours to rest in that uncomfortable seat.

Waking up just in time to notice George boarding the carriage, I blinked swiftly as I gave a nod to the man while he took his previous seat in the vehicle.

The nobleman gave a little smile as I carefully moved to shake Jojo off from his own sleep.

The young man was snoring fairly loudly, but seemed to react accordingly as I grasped his arm and carefully pulled at it as he almost jumped in surprise, blue eyes going wide open as he realized what was going on.

“F-Father, I-” He bowed his head, a little embarrassed at being caught in such a manner. “I’m sorry.”

George merely smiled and nodded.

“There is nothing wrong in catching some rest considering the long time you both had to wait,” He said with a calm tone.

The boy adjusted himself on his little seat, nodding thankful about those words as the carriage began to move, horses neighing as they started to pull the vehicle out of the important street and back inside the maze of streets that was Central London.

I blinked away from Jonathan and back to George as I felt particularly curious about his trip at the Colonial Office, my mind drawing multiple possible trade routes that the man could have drawn from that visit.

“Lord Joestar, I hope your efforts resulted in a success,” I began to say with a polite tone, knowing well-enough to not blurt anything that could ruin the current respectful image I was trying to built for myself to the man’s eyes.

The noble blinked in what looked to be a sign of being caught off-guard by my words, possibly surprised by the partial interest I was showing over the particularly-’boring’ subject.

“Quite so, Dio. In fact, I can say that it concluded in the best positive outcome,” He mentioned with a hum. “Albeit not every trade points have been recognized as legitimately under the family’s control, we got some of the main sections by Rangoon, just like I had hoped to get.”

Burma? An interesting choice.

The colony within the British Raj had the main purpose as a ‘gate’ between China and India, trade was almost as strong as it was in Calcutta, Bombay and Ceylon.

I nodded. “I’m happy to hear this, then.”

I had hoped for the discussion to die there as I just wanted to give some words before quietly resuming my glancing by the little window near where I was sitting.

Sadly, I had almost forgotten that George wouldn’t certainly waste this opportunity to take a shot at his own son, especially since, as far as I was aware of, Jojo had never displayed any interest in the trading business captained by his father.

“Are you perhaps interested in learning some more about the group I’ve created, Dio?” The man proposed with a hint of genuine eagerness about the possibility. “Given some time and effort, I can see you working as one of the higher officers for the organization.”

Can you truly see me ending up like that?

Accepting such a limiting job because of mercy rather than true merit just felt like he had given me an unplanned punch right onto my stomach.

I was unsure how much ‘naive’ the man truly was about the ‘dignity’ of having a job, mostly because I knew that this very idea wasn’t much known in these years.

The concept of workers having some ‘pride’ over their labors was still far from entering the English mindset and the only ones in Europe that were just aware of it were the Germans after Karl Marx started to preach about it with the Communist Manifesto.

So I merely blinked. “It’s… a flattering offer, Lord Joestar,” I started with a smooth but soft voice. “But if it isn’t too much asking, I would like to have some time to think about it as I don’t feel much comfortable to think about this important decision so… suddenly.”

Once again I decided to rely on the fact I was a ‘simple child’ before the man’s eyes, knowing full well that hesitation and doubts were something entrenched in young mindsets and thus leaving me to weaponize my appearance for such reasonable point.

He nodded kindly, showing some understanding behind my logic.

“It’s not something you need to decide now, and I don’t think you will have to for at least a couple more of years,” The noble assured with a fatherly tone, then glancing at the curious look on Jonathan’s face. “Just like I’ve said to JoJo back when I first brought him to see the Colonial Office.”

The young man nodded in response as to confirm this and I found myself relaxing at this lax pressure over the matter itself.

I didn’t certainly need to be pushed to take a job as restricting as that one, especially if it wasn’t one where I had a large control over things.

I was destined for greatness, but that kind of work, albeit filled with unquestionable benefits for those living in this era, was still too ‘small’ for what I had planned to do with my future.

My future lied out of England, out of the zenith years of the British Empire and elsewhere.

Europe was filled with possibilities, but so was Asia and the Americas. Only time will tell which of the continents would best fit with what I was trying to achieve out of this world.

After just twenty minutes of traveling through London, I was partly surprised as I noticed that the carriage had started to slow down before coming to a full stop.

George looked quite calm about it and Jonathan didn’t hold back his surprise at this unexpected pause, but before he could ask about this situation, it was his father that spoke.

“Since your last trip here in London was two months ago, I think it’s proper for me to leave you do something to spend some time here and enjoy the city,” The noble started to explain to his son, leading out of the carriage and in the street, right in front of…

A park?

“This is why I will let you enjoy some time here with the other boys while I conclude some minor commissions,” He concluded with a small smile, getting happy at seeing the joy growing within Jonathan’s face. “And don’t forget to show Dio around.”

“Thanks father!” The young man replied giddily with a quick nod before literally yanking me away from the street and through the gates of the park, ignoring the signs of discomfort I was showing at being man-handled without any warning.

Still, I managed to restrain myself from berating the eager display of excitement and decided to see where this was going as I couldn’t exactly remember how this was supposed to go.

Was this a new event?

No.

The answer appeared as suddenly as the realization of this familiar scene did, my orange eyes swiftly spotting the familiar river and the small section of the park that was currently occupied by numerous teens of various classes.

They were all looking at at certain triangle-like area where a boxing match was slowly escalating, the two fighters punching each other without any hesitation, nor restrain in what looked to be quite the intense brawl unfolding before some jubilant spectators.

Truly a tragic display that brutal sports, still rudimentary and lacking any of the rules that made them at least ‘non-deadly’ in modern times, seemed to bring everyone together to enjoy some blood flying out of mouths and some teeth-falling.

While the original Dio would have been eager of making use of this event to antagonize JoJo even further than normal, I had no reason to take part in such a blatant display of aggressiveness, at least not until a proper reason that I could capitalize it with.

Thus, while the young Joestar decided to eagerly prepare to bash some heads, something I was fairly sure was going to happen fairly-frequently considering his already above-average frame, I decided to slowly slip out of that section of the park once the young man had entered the fray to enjoy a walk around to think about my next few steps.

This place was meant to be a safe haven for children of all ages and social statuses, so I was pretty much certain that there was no reason to worry for any unpleasant escalation from this moment I was spending alone and at peace.

I delved in a small part of the woods just away from the muddy path that interconnected the various areas to the main entrance, my interest piqued when I slowly came to realize how I could exploit this silence and lack of eyewitnesses to start practicing some more the Spin.

I took a little wood branch that had fallen off from some tree and started to carefully draw the golden rectangle which I was trying to use to obtain the Golden Spin.

I wasn’t arrogant enough to consider achieving such a glorious power in so little time, nor I was so foolish to neglect the opportunity presented in the chance of training some more.

Hamon would have been also a good idea too, but considering how little I had given attention to the newly-acquired book about the Ripple and how I was uneasy from entering a meditative state outdoors and in ‘uncharted territory’.

I merely accepted the idea of keeping Hamon-training outdoors until I had some grasp over basic breathing control.

I started my training session by controlling the spinning of the steel ball I still had with me, my efforts of improving my control over the spin first with both hands and then with a single one proved to be a tiring and long process.

One that was still coming along pretty excellently considering how handling the sphere with only a palm seemed to come to me fairly easier than I had initially expected it to be.

Soon I was moving to some bigger pebbles, instantly taking notice of some issues with the uneven texture of the little stones and why the spherical perfection was a must for the proper usage of the spin.

The first thing I realized from my early attempts was how the previously-circular manipulation of energy seemed to grow unstable as soon as it was started, forcing me to be incredibly mindful of not letting myself distracted while handling the unnatural spinning.

After just ten minutes of trying, I decided to concede myself away from testing this dangerous task as I moved on another detail of the Spin I had yet to verify.

While the ‘main’ purpose of the Spin is to explode, maim or cut anything in its origin’s path, the energy created by it could be easily manipulated to create certain effects on the target of the object if the User is aware of the target’s biology and nature.

In layman’s terms, since I knew well enough about the composition of trees and their ‘natural adjectives’, I decided to try and see what I could do by using the Spin with some variation to the energy-manipulation.

The first thing I decided to test was trying to make some flowers blossom by its trunk, the absurd phenomenon possible thanks to the Spin and not by natural means, thus I decided to think about this very detail before throwing the steel ball and…

It impacted with a calm thud on the body of the tree, creating none of the partly-expected explosion and…

…

Nothing else happened once the sphere fell on the ground.

I approached the specimen, my hand carefully caressing the area where the steel ball had hit and I tried to find at least just an uneven spot in the trunk and…

I blinked, I looked closer at a curious sensation developing from the tree as I glanced by this part, meticulously trying to find the cause of this odd development.

I tensed up, a small smile forming as my orange eyes caught the cause of this strange sensation, a snort leaving my lips as I indeed succeeded in my first attempt.

Why couldn’t I just see it from afar and had to come closer to notice it? It was a little immature flower.

Incredibly tiny, so much that I had to get so close to the trunk to see it.

A success, but one that also confirmed one of my growing concerns over a flaw of my current ability of using the Spin.

I was too detached from the nature of the Spin itself, the ‘full potential’, because of my worry of the sphere exploding in my hands.

My second attempt was a little more ‘brazen’ considering that I focused to spin the ball of steel some more before throwing it against the tree and… this time something more happened.

A blossomed daisy popping resolutely and suddenly from the bark of the tree, this time my smile widening at the better result.

I continued with my experiments for twenty minutes, maybe thirty, before deciding that it was time to return back to where JoJo was before getting in trouble about my unexpected disappearance.

Just as I returned back on the tracks, I found myself stopping at a strange loud voice giving a pained yell, the noise forcing me to snap my attention away from my steps back to where Jonathan was and… a little deeper in the park.

My guard mustered up and my left arm already grasping the steel ball softly lying within my jacket’s pocket, I slowly walked to see what was happening and whom had throw that cry for help.

A robber? It was broad daylight, what were they expecting to do by attacking someone in a well-guarded park.

Still, it was fairly deep and away from the listening ears of any officer garrisoning the entrance of the place and maybe this wasn’t… a robbery at all.

My suspicions were weak, but then I spotted a glaring clue of what I was going to face if I proceeded down that path to see who was being attacked.

There was an uneven line of blood trailing on the floor, away from the tracks and deep in the foliage.

I was forced me to turn and approach carefully as I felt I was getting closer to the criminal deed happening nearby.

I could have gotten out to find some of the guards and send them there, I could have avoided putting myself on the front of a surely-dangerous ordeal but… the blood was enough to drive me to intervene considering how deadly this predicament looked to be.

I wandered through the bushes with the intention of doing whatever I could to stop any aggressor, I was so certain of my bravery about the matter and… then I found myself paling at the scene I was introduced to.

The woman was alive, she was leaning on some tree while she continued to try begging her attacker to stop with his murderous intentions.

She had long black hair that reached down below her shoulders but just above her lower back, those were left untied and free. Her clothes were actually quite ‘freer’ than the conservative standard.

She was donning a frilly white dress, its skirt reaching just below her knees while her upper body was mostly covered… leaving only a particularly noticeable opening that gave a proper sight over her cleavage.

A prostitute.

“P-Please- No! I-I don’t want to die!”

But the dark-haired man seemed to mind little about the cries of mercy, his posture showing relaxation and eagerness to commit to the final act.

“Shhh-” He had his free index pressing by his lips as to emphasize his order, causing the scantly-dressed woman to whimper at his calm posture in such a dreadful display. “Can’t have to deal with some unneeded distractions now. I just want to… get to know you better.”

I gulped nervously at the sense of peace that was within the lulling voice of this killer, I felt panic rising from within my chest as I realized whom I was looking at.

He was younger, much younger than the murderer Dio met in Canon, but the monstrous knife he was holding in his right hand was so unique to not recognize it.

This… this was Jack the Ripper.

Too early. My incredulous mind was screeching at the early entry of this dangerous assassin, his murdering spree had to begin in a few years from now and…

What if he had began earlier?

Jack the Ripper became known only when he went on with killing numerous women in a short span of time, but what if he had ‘experimented’ before going for the ‘grander deed’?

A grimace was on on my face but I didn’t hesitate any longer since learning of this development.

Pulling the steel sphere out of my pocket, I was already creating the Spin with it and, the moment I finally got it charged and ready, prepared to launch an explosive greeting at the young murderer.

Much to my instant horror, my aim proved to be incredibly unbalanced considering my now-visible trembling going through my arms and, while I had planned to hit him squarely on his back… but the flying projectile exploded by his right tight.

The sudden attack caught him off-guard, enough to force him to drop his knife to the floor and turn around to glance at me, his aggressor.

He looked more surprised, a sense of wonder hiding in those annoyed eyes as he silently studied me from afar.

The woman’s eyes were still wide-open as she continued to press her hands onto her wounded upper-leg, her attention too directed at me.

“H-How peculiar,” He stated with a fascinated tone, taking a slow step towards me while I continued to look at his younger appearance. “A child… with some pretty tricks.”

His hair and beard were shorter, his overall frame much reduced compared to his older, more experienced self. This was the making of a legendary killer… one that was slowly approaching me.

The ball of steel was far too hidden in the foliage for me to recover and trying to move to get some pebbles would spring him to rush me.

This is bad, my aim shouldn’t have failed me this terrible and… now I was going to pay for my little moment of weakness.

He was moving slowly, as if trying to impose some control over this unexpected development, trying to enforce his dominance over my ‘apparently weaker’ frame.

Despite his wound, now bleeding profusely even with a hand pressing on the injury, Jack looked quite calm and collected, so sure and certain of victory even before this painful hindrance.

I had to think quickly, I had to elaborate something that could work against the approaching killer before-

…Approaching.

My memory was quick to bring up the scene I needed, I had to just rehearse it in a proper manner to fit this eventuality without sounding too cocky nor too afraid.

While I was unsure if this act would have worked on a normal person, I was keen to notice the little tension enveloping the pained form of the Ripper, the man was trying his best from not making anyone notice… but I did.

I assumed the posture, a little lessened as to reduce the oddity it had on a normal spectator.

“Oh? You are approaching me?” I asked with a certain sense of factual determination, holding myself from over-emphasizing with some of the words. “Instead of running away, you’re coming right to me?”

He paused, his eyes widening just a fraction as if not expecting this sudden bout of bravado.

“What are you talking about, child?” He asked with a curious tone, almost in childish wonder.

I smirked. “Even though the guards have been alerted, even though you are bleeding profusely and despite the fact I could easily maim you more, you decide to approach me instead of surviving this quite difficult ordeal?”

There was a pause, his silence confirming that the little act had got him to ponder over the matter.

I was slightly unnerved by the quiet, but considering how difficult to enforce such a psychological assault, I steeled my resolve over the matter as he sighed.

“What if I’m fast enough to finish her and kill you?” He took a step closer, trying to cause a squirm out of me. “What if you are bluffing about the police-”

“Then we will see if fate is truly that merciful to you, Jack,” I interjected with a smirk, enjoying the little panic at the mentioning of his name. “But I don’t think the Heavens will be kind to you once you fail. For I think you have forfeited any chance of salvation the moment you succumbed to your own demons.”

I took a step closer.

“Please, do try and shatter my theory; rush to me and show me your brilliant speed!” I exclaimed louder, forcing him to tense up in visible fear at the certainty held within my tone.

He stood still, so did I with my own amused expression and relaxed posture.

“Interesting,” He muttered with some awe in his tone. “You… You are odd-”

He swiftly moved out of the foliage to the side, running away with his impressive speed while concluding his comment.

“Odder than me~!”

I stared in surprise at the retreated figure, caught off-guard by this last comment as I felt shaken to the core by this correlation.

…

N-no, I shouldn’t be wasting too much time musing over some rabid fool’s half-thought, my orange eyes returning to the now calming down young woman while she continued to try and keep a hold of her wounded leg.

I slowly approached her, causing her to tense a little at me but she seemed less threatened by my presence, especially since I had been the one that got her assaulter to leave her before he could hurt her more.

Once I was close enough, I crouched in front of her and gave a closer look to her injury.

The cut was enough to cause her to lose this much blood, but not enough to sound threatening… if I considered the basis of modern medicine.

I didn’t have any water with me to clean the wound, nor I had any first aid kit to use to bandage it up right where we were.

Instead of keeping still and just look at the bloody thing, I went to pull my light-green handkerchief from my pocket and started to carefully clean it a little.

I didn’t have any medical alcohol to properly clean it, the risk of infections were high considering how long it would take to get hold of a proper doctor. And that was ignoring the lack of free medical care in this age.

Gritting my teeth, my brain felt burning as I felt that I had to adopt a simpler approach to the matter. I recovered the steel ball before returning to the suffering young woman and spoke.

“Can you walk with your other leg?”

She seemed surprised at my question, possibly because the bravado was now gone and there was just serious concern over the blatant wound.

If I had grown in this period of time, I would have probably called a guard and let him sort out this situation, but knowing of the possible outcomes from this untreated wound, I couldn’t help but decide to give her some aid.

She gave a nervous nod, slowly understanding that we had to move out of here and she cautiously accepted my hands in hers as I pulled her up.

I was quite slim, I have stressed this fairly enough, and thus the effort was… quite straining on my own body, the adrenaline giving me plenty of energy to keep up with the activity.

Once I had her standing and one of her arms on my shoulders, I started to carefully walk the two of us out of that deep section of the park and back to the muddy path where I came from.

From there, I began making the way right to the nearby area of the park that was close to the Thames.

I needed to try something drastic, even though I felt fairly winded by what had happened today, I needed to strive for a miraculous attempt.

I started to storm my brain with thoughts how Gyro Zeppeli did manage to use the spin with water, having just a theory of what I was actually going to do to help the woman in distress.

Once we were near the river, I had her sit by the ground while telling her to wait as I went to take some waters to clean the wound, a swift nod confirming that she wasn’t too distracted from the matter and giving me the time to rush near the body of water and prepare to try and accomplish a divine intervention.

Placing the used handkerchief to the side, I knelt before near the putrid water, perfectly aware that this wasn’t going to do anything to clean injuries, possibly the contrary from what I knew from History lessons.

But my plan wasn’t to use the water itself, but something I had to ‘create’ out of it.

Rolling up my sleeves, I dived my hands onto the cold liquid and carefully started the correct rotation to enact the Spin on some particles of water.

The process was painstakingly slow as the water was muddy enough to hinder my capacity to see if I could already pull the hoped bubble of transparent liquid or not.

Ultimately I started to lift my hands out of the river and I had in fact managed to get a rather unstable water-filled bubble in my palm, the spin still in motion as to keep it from collapsing.

And now onto the very grand scheme I had in mind.

Since the Spin can alter the composition of an object/being’s self if the User is aware of their composition, then the User should also be capable of altering the epicenter of the Spin with proper concentration.

This first step was mostly done, the sufficient result offering me the opportunity to pass on to the second step, the one that could be considered the ‘real miracle’.

I breathed calmly, my mind trying its best to impose two major rules upon the bubble of water.

The first rule was that the bubble itself had to be modified as to be only water, my brain repeating fiercely the ‘H2O’ composition forcing the spinning energy to adapt as the muddy bubble slowly turned transparent and lacking of any other impurities.

I felt my breathing getting a little labored, my concentration faltering as the spin energy was getting even more unstable the more I let it continue.

D-Dammit!

The second step was mostly done, I just needed to make the last change before concluding this draining experience.

The highest zenith of absurdity, the one thing that made the Spin unique compared to Hamon itself.

I took a large breath intake and… began changing the pure water into a variant with its composition.

C2H5OH.

The bubble tensed, close to burst open, but holding just enough for the final alteration to happen and for me to move the floating bubble just above the handkerchief.

I could smell the result already, my nose scrunching at the familiar odor of Ethanol.

Once the process was over I let the spinning die down, moving away from the bubble just in time to see it fall swiftly on the piece of cloth while also staining the ground nearby.

Quickly pulling up the little wet thing, I was glad to see that none of the dirt had managed to attach itself to it, leaving a mostly stainless handkerchief imbued with medical alcohol.

I slowly made my way back to where the woman was sitting, she looked surprised to see me returning after so long but her attention was suddenly taken by the pungent smell coming from the handkerchief.

Before she could ask anything I was already close to her wounded leg. “This might sting a little,” I warned before cautiously pressing the cloth onto her injury.

Her open mouth let out a yelp while she whimpered at the sudden bout of pain coming from the contact, but she surprisingly managed to not scream at this.

I was done moments later as I gave her a calming nod. “The wound is now properly cleaned.”

There was a pause at first, then she nodded again. “I… Thank you?”

I blinked at her meek reaction, but returned the nod nonetheless.

“You are welcome.” I commented back, giving her a curious look. “By the way what is your name?”

I mean, courtesy is still a thing…

I think even for prostitutes.

She looked a little surprised about the matter but blurted out something.

“H-Hannah.”

Before I could say anything more about this, I felt some people approaching the area where we were, forcing me to look around and see…

George Joestar, Jojo and two police officer making their way towards us.

Oh right, I did forget that I didn’t tell anyone about where I had gone.

JoJo looked surprised, while his father looked confused but particularly suspicious of the young woman in front of me.

I have a feeling that I, Dio, might have created some immense mess.

And while our young protagonist deal with the situation at hand by assuring the innocence of young Hannah while also explaining what had happened after entering the park, a certain shadow with malicious looked at the scene with a certain wonder.

For his interest has been peaked by the curious blond and his peculiar ability. His thirst renewed, his target now set in his mind.

-To be continued…