Capitolo Primo: Giovinezza (17)

I should’ve thought that Wang Chan hadn’t any intentions to give me any peace after what happened with Jack.

At first I expected him to keep his focus on stealing the Stone Mask, which is why I had George put it away instead of asking to destroy it myself. It was a bait, one that I had been way too certain that would’ve attracted the evil man’s attention.

I was mostly wrong on that account and… someone was already paying this with their life.

It was a simple morning, or at least I thought it was one before I saw utter disaster unravel. I was busy dipping some cookies on my cup of milk, allowing myself a few hours of recollection to prepare for another day of hard work.

With Jack’s death, I felt like I had less to worry about, and I had no reason to expect for Wang Chan to take a huge risk with a frontal attack. Not when there were so many Hamon users in my group.

It was with this mentality that I ignored when George started to unusually cough. It was rather deep, but nothing that would suggest a grave situation.

I glanced at him for a while when the phenomenon first unfolded, but I quickly crossed it out as a hint of common cold.

The coughing continued through the breakfast, with Jojo being more attentive of the matter and sporting quite the confused and worried look. Jonathan would look at me with a quizzical look, almost inquiring about this strange predicament.

I merely shrugged, trying my best to show my calm self as the scene ended up escalating even more.

The coughing became more prominent. The older Joestar had to pause from reading various times before he took notice of how severe the symptom was getting.

My attention was finally captured on him when his skin seemed to become sickly pale. The sight was indeed worthy of big concern, and I quickly called for a servant to come and aid the nobleman back to his bedroom, ignoring his efforts, almost feverish and delusional, to say that things were ‘under control’.

A butler came to the rescue, placing the man’s arm around his shoulder and pulling him out of the room.

It was just as the two men had started to make steps toward the door that another worrying sign manifested before our gazes. George went limp, his pulse lessening the more time passed.

I quickly went to hold the man’s hand, pumping Hamon in his body to slow down whatever was happening to him.

The scene dragged on for an excruciating hour as we finally got him on his bed, with Jonathan replacing me as I decided to seek help from capable people. Whatever had struck George into this deadly state, it was having trouble working while the Ripple was coursing in his body.

And I had a single suspects that could fit to this assassination attempt.

Instead of keeping around and doing nothing, I quickly went to fetch a carriage to reach London as quickly as the vehicle was able to. The pangs of panic that were diddling my chest hardly influenced my sense of priority as I knew what I had to do.

I had to find Muddiburi. The man was someone that surely knew how to treat these symptoms and at least stabilize George’s conditions.

I knew that he was supposed to visit the headquarters to teach some more about Hamon to Bhediya, so I had a clear destination where I was going to find the Tibetan man.

People were surprised to see me enter inside the large building, but they were swift in picking up that I wasn’t there for courtesy.

Twenty minutes went by as the carriage finally returned back at the manor carrying the serious-looking Hamon user.

Another carriage had been scheduled to come at the manor once Speedwagon had managed to get a sample of all antidotes that were available in the warehouse, but for now the most urgent thing to do was get the monk to the mansion.

Servants were confused by this sudden intrusion, but they seemed to relent more than enough when I said that he was a doctor. When I entered the older Joestar’s bedroom, I found myself looking at quite the great congregation of people by the sick man’s bedside.

Jonathan was having a heated discussion with Erina’s father, the doctor demanding from the young man to leave his father’s side so that he could check properly on him. Of course, Jojo refused to comply as it would’ve been deadly for the nobleman if he stopped giving him his Hamon.

Muddiburi’s presence seemed to stop that kind of interaction, as the adult turned to greet the new arrivals.

“Dio and- Wh-Who are you?!”

“He is someone that is here to help, Mr. Pendleton,” I assured him with the most serious voice I could muster. “While I understand your worry, I can vouch for him. He can help with father.”

The doctor glanced at me with a mix of confusion and perplexity, but he couldn’t exactly do much to hold Muddiburi from approaching the tired looking George.

“Is… Is that so?”

The monk nodded, leaning down as to properly replace Jonathan in holding the man’s arm and start using his own Hamon.

Differently from the boy’s activity, the bright effect created by the Ripple was clearer to the eyes of both doctor and nobleman.

“W-What is this? What is he doing?”

“I’m trying to help Mr. Joestar push back the effects of this poison. Someone indeed tried to kill him through a rare strain of a poisonous plant.”

“And you can fix this, right?” Jonathan asked with a worried tone. “The Hamon should-”

“I can only stall the poison from reaching his heart for a little less than a full day,” Muddiburi interjected grimly. “I need to have the untouched strain of the plant in my possession to develop a proper antidote.”

Which means that-

Gritting my teeth, I had to hold back myself from slamming one of the walls with how frustrating the predicament was.

I turned around, silently walking out of the frustrating scene as I had many thoughts to settle about.

I needed time to think and elaborate a way to solve this unexpected and unneeded problem.

The poison had surely been planted by Wang Chan, and I had no means to track down the bastard before the effects of the dangerous substance killed George.

I was aimless, and that left me in the worst state of mind I could’ve been put into. The only thing that prevented me from giving a furious roar at how unfair the circumstances had turned was the sudden hug from a certain blonde.

“Dio- father told me that Mr. Joestar was sick. I came here as quickly as I could and-”

“I told her that he is poisoned,” Bhediya interjected as soon as I noticed his presence in the hallway. I had partly forgotten that the werewolf had tagged along during the carriage’s ride and that he had been asked to stay out of the room while I got Muddiburi to work on the case.

He was giving me a quizzical look, but this soon vanished the moment he got a glimpse of my uneasy mood. “I suppose that you’ve a plan to-”

“No.”

…

“What?” The tanned boy sounded surprised. I guess I did make quite the impression of always having a plan ready in any eventuality.

Contingencies were a must if I wanted for my efforts to not be ruined by some of the possible issues that come in pushing forward my ambitions.

I had everything under control… except this very topic.

I didn’t know where Wang Chan was hiding.

People had been sent already on spots that could’ve been used by the dangerous magic user to hide himself from the public eye, and all reports had turned out unsuccessfully.

There was no clue where the man was, and yet I was certain that he was still within London’s area. It would make sense that the gloating fool would linger about for the sake of mocking my attempts to find him.

But as things were right now, there wasn’t much to do except-

“Master Dio, t-there are people at the entrance.”

The voice got me out of my thoughts as I turned to see a butler giving me a serious look. “They are at the entrance right now and they were asking for you, young sir.”

“What?” My brain had to reboot for a moment, my eyes widening in brief surprise before the servant fully explained the situation, with the elder slowly leading us by the main doors.

“They looked rather agitated. They were speaking about an attack happening in London-”

What was going on?

My brain was already burning with how many things were happening all at once, and yet I tried to show some attention to this novelty. I zoned out from the words of the butler, and my mind tried its best to try and get hold of what was this new escalation.

London was being attacked. Who was the attacking force? And why?

We ended up arriving at the entrance to find Hannah, Robert, and Sarah waiting by the doors.

They were there earlier than I had expected for them to arrive at the manor.

Hannah was the first one to notice me, and she quickly paced to meet up with me.

“Dio- the city is being attacked-”

“By who, Hannah?” I interrupted tensely. “What is going on?”

It took me a moment to notice that Sarah was clutching Speedwagon’s legs, a frightened look on her face dignifying a state of complete distress. The little girl seemed to ease down a little bit as she saw her big brother rushing towards her to understand what happened.

Looking up at Speedwagon, the man looked particularly… stressed. Something big had indeed happened while I was distracted with this situation.

“Zombies,” Hannah started to explain. “Ogre Street was attacked. They were aiming at the headquarters, but we managed to repel the first attacks before reinforcing the area with armed men.”

“Did they try and attack other parts of the city?”

“Not that we are aware about. But I’m quite sure that they only targeted us,” The young woman answered with a tense voice. “Dio, Robert also said that one of the zombies was one of the men we had sent out to the countryside to find that magic user.”

I felt my anger bubble again at that comment, but I managed to nod.

“Does Robert know where he was sent?”

Hannah replied with a sigh and… a nervous nod. “Yes. He said that he was one of the few men sent to Windknight’s Lot.”

…

“Hannah, you and Speedwagon shall stay here at the Manor,” I ordered sternly, my eyes narrowing at the doors as I pondered over the fact that I had been tricked so easily.

Of course Wang Chan had easily hypnotized the scouts sent to find him. The man was known to ‘directly attack’ those that threatened his existence. So I could see him intervene as swiftly as possible to divert any suspect from his possible hideout.

Still, I was quite surprised that he had managed to get enough of Jack’s blood when he turned in a vampire.

It was the most plausible explanation as to how he had gotten an army of zombies out from the villagers of Windknight’s Lot.

I knew that I had to deal with this on my own. The stakes were far too high to interest anyone else and I wasn’t planning to waste time creating a proper team.

“Dio-” Hannah tried to rebuke, but I wasn’t just in the mood.

“The situation requires only my presence, Hannah. I want you to stay here and-”

The slap caught me off-guard. The loud noise and the sudden burn from my left cheek was more than enough to stop me from continuing that sentence.

“Dio, with all due respect, I can’t allow you to leave on your own and without some support,” The young woman rebuked with a serious and strict tone. For the first time since I’ve met her, Hannah’s eyes were showing a degree of irritation and worry that was fairly unnatural to see on someone as submitted towards me as she was. “You’re my friend, and I can’t allow you to leave without me.”

I opened my mouth to counter that statement, but I was stopped as a hand reached for my shoulder from behind and gave it a squeeze.

“I’m coming too,” Bhediya proclaimed sternly, Sarah once again left to stay close to Speedwagon.

“Bhediya-” I tried to plead, now knowing that the situation was starting to get out of hand.

Knowing how dangerous the entire predicament was, I wasn’t going to risk putting their lives on the line when there were the chances of fighting Tarkus and Bruford.

“I’m- I’m joining too!” The loud admission came from behind us all, and we all turned to see a serious looking Jonathan approaching us.

“Jojo-” Erina muttered, her worry displayed in her tone but the young Joestar gave her a confident look.

“Erina, I know that this will be dangerous and risky, but my father was hurt and… and I can’t just let this slight go,” The young man affirmed with utmost determination. “This evil man, this Wang Chan, decided to hurt someone I care for and… as a Gentleman, I can’t accept this. I cannot!”

The blonde continued to gaze at him worryingly… but instead of trying to dissuade Jonathan from going through with this initiative, she sighed and gave a slow nod.

“I understand.”

“Thank you-”

As he replied, his lips were taken in by Erina’s as the girl decided to go all in with that situation. My lips twitched in amusement as I saw the results of my little pushes finally peaking in what was the most sweet of scenes.

Jojo was blushing madly at that sudden interaction, and the blonde wasn’t that confident in her own action as she felt when she went along with it. Still, the two shared a long stare and the girl nodded.

“Come back unharmed.”

Staring down at the ground, Jonathan nodded.

“I-I will,” He replied quietly.

Still, I turned to look around me and I frowned at the group now looking at me. “Do I have a say in the matter?”

“You can say no. But… you said that friends do things that sometimes other friends don’t condone,” Hannah remarked with a tiny smile. “And if these things are for good-”

“I don’t have much to condemn. Yes, I do remember that,” I interjected dryly, feeling rather annoyed that I was given one of my own speeches back to me.

What the hell is happening nowadays? Was I still me, Dio?

…

Yeah, that was still the truth, and I would’ve fought to the death for this to never change.

“So it’s you, Bhediya, and Jojo...” I turned to Robert while I said this. “Robert, I want you to stay and keep an eye on Sarah.”

He seemed unhappy with being excluded, but considering his performances during Phantom Blood, I wasn’t going to lose the ultimate waifu/husbando in that circumstance.

“I… I understand.”

I nodded at him, appreciating this tiny news in the big sea of unpleasant ones.

And now that this is sorted out… it’s time to face the ultimate enemy. A speedrun of a half-reverse Phantom Blood.

--------------d-d-d-d--------------d-d-d-d----------------

The carriage was mostly quiet as we all braced for this swift and troublesome adventure.

Before leaving, we took a small amount of time to change clothes to appropriate battle gear.

Jojo decided to stick with a half-sleeved dark shirt, and a pair of dark brown pants.

Bhediya was donning a dark-green shirt, and a pair of knee-long black pants.

Hannah had switched her usual dress to a dark-blue one with a knee-long shirt, and a modest white corset that was meant to help her to move quickly.

Instead of picking something original, I decided to play it safe and wear my own ‘battle gear’.

It was the closest I could pull from Dio’s original vampiric version, with the outfit differing from it only with the red bits now being a dark-purple and the white central spots now being a dark-gray.

At least I was going to deal with my ‘demons’ with some style.

The mirthful thought dampened the sour emotion of being forced to go through quite the complicated task and trip.

I knew that Wang Chan was hiding within the castle that the original Dio had used to command his legion of monsters. But I also knew that the Chinese man was deprived of the dangerous elements that managed to slow down Jonathan when he braved the first bizarre adventure of the series.

Jack wasn’t there to halt the carriage from passing the underpass that connected London’s proper to Windknight’s Lot.

Any of the monstrosities created by Dio through the zombification process weren’t there to act as obstacles to our path to the fortress, and so the journey that took days to Jojo to accomplish, ended up taking just five hours.

But the time was ticking, and we didn’t have the luxury of being left in front of the Castle.

The village itself was overwhelmed by the undead. The mod of zombies in there was as vicious as expected and our march to the final fight of this painstakingly-long war between Wang Chan and me was slow but steady-paced.

Jojo, Bhediya, and I were the front fighters on this occasion, with Hannah offering long-ranged support and assistance whenever one of the zombies tried to sneak around us and try to get a free hit.

This was the first time I was forced to employ Hamon, the Spin, and ｢ACT 1｣ this extensively. I was regulating the pace and the rhythm of the brawl carefully enough to not get tired too quickly before the intense fighting.

Alternating my own physical attacks with ‘s own punches helped immensely as we cleaved through the horde of monsters along the way.

The castle was in sight, and our morale was all high as we stormed through the zombies.

Our stamina wasn’t the same as the heroes from Phantom Blood, but we still arrived at the bridge connecting to the castle without much of an issue.

The wood underneath our feet was groaning with each step, showing how rotten and old the entire place was.

I looked around, particularly concerned that this reminded me too much of a boss battle. And just like I had expected, the ground started to rumble as an armored giant fell onto the bridge. The depraved grin on Tarkus’ face and the malicious stare of the ‘smaller’ knight now descending from his shoulder were enough to remind me that these two weren’t people to underestimate.

Sure, they were enemies from Part 1, but they weren’t exactly ‘mini-boss’.

Especially if we were facing a monster like Tarkus.

The bridge groaned and bent slightly as the wood was pressed down by the sudden weight exerted by the giant of a knight.

“Oh my, oh my~!” The exclamation came from above, right where the two zombies had come from. Wang Chan stared down from his safe position, and his happy grin cemented the fact that this was something he had expected to happen. “Look at you, ‘Dio’. Trying to appear tough in a situation that is just beyond your capacities.”

“We’re not here to be bored by your delusional spiel, Wang Chan,” I retorted sternly. “Your attempt has failed. We will get through this last obstacle and put an end to your madness.”

“You are, aren’t you?” The magic user muttered mockingly. “I can see you try, and maybe succeed. But in the end, the only important thing is that… Dio wins.”

I narrowed my eyes at him. “What?”

“Aren’t you planning to win? Then why shouldn’t I be lying to myself and my puppets about the matter?” He inquired with a faux-curious tone. “In fact, you should know that the plant you seek is right there in a pedestal I’ve set right on this floor.”

The questions sounded as fake as it could be, and the lack of major reaction within both undead knights was a clear sign that there was something more being kept hidden by the magician.

And for him to tell that he had left the plant there for us to pick once this was done…

What the hell was he planning to do here? What kind of sick game was he playing?

“You’re going to pay for trying to kill my father, Wang Chan!” Jonathan exclaimed, his tone augmented by a burst of Hamon coaxing his body.

The proclamation seemed to break the personal illusion of the bastard that I was the only one there, especially with how wide his eyes turned to when he finally noticed Jojo.

“This is even… funnier!” The man chuckled, almost elated to see the rest of the group. “Fated enemies… fighting together.”

“Spare us your insanity, bastard!” I shot back fiercely, unwilling to offer any distraction to the fight. “Let’s skip the pleasantries. We have someone to save.”

“Never heard prettier words!” Tarkus finally spoke, his grin widening at my final statement as he took the first few steps toward us. Bruford followed his example shortly after and… I knew that I had to split the squad in two if we wanted to win.

“Jojo, you and Bhediya fight the knight of the right,” I said, offering the plan of attack. “Hannah and I are going to deal with the big one.”

“Dio-”

“I know what I’m doing, Hannah,” I remarked quietly, my eyes fixed on Tarkus’ approaching form.

I needed to be careful to not allow our opponent to try anything to destroy the bridge. They were zombies, and could recover from a fall as big as the one that was just below us.

We didn’t have that kind of luxury, and thus I had to take on the delicate task of avoiding that possibility to happen.

And the only way I saw it possible was… by pushing Tarkus to back away from the bridge.

I took a calm step forward… and then I bolted towards my enemy. The large behemoth reached for the hilt of his absurd sword, perhaps expecting for me to allow him to unleash it against us.

Sadly for him, I had no intention to do so and swiftly arrived at where he was to deliver a sudden punch on the elbow connecting the arm wrapping around to reach the sword.

The quick but powerful hamon-fueled strike easily stopped the giant on its tracks as the Ripple quickly destroyed bits of the skin and bone within the elbow, and perfectly severed the arm off his body.

Surprise and awe appeared on the brute’s face, but this state of shock lasted just a handful of seconds.

A furious punch from his untouched arm made the bridge tremble once again, the returning grin and the fact he was preparing another slam were enough evidence to show that collapsing the bridge was his plan all along.

Before Tarkus had the chance of delivering a second punch, a loud explosion ripped into his face and forced him to back away.

The knight slowly regenerated from the attack, a bloody snarl regarding the unexpected attack from Hannah as the young woman started to use the Spin on another sphere.

“Cheeky bitch!” The giant exclaimed with an irritated tone, but he failed to see that this was just a distraction for me to deal some more damage.

Grasping at some of the dust and ashes on the bridge’s floor, I proceeded to throw the compound at the unprepared opponent once I had it coated with some of my Ripple.

Before the deadly mix managed to reach Tarkus’ face, the behemoth slapped the air in front of him and caused the mixture to explode all around him while also dispelling the Hamon hidden inside of it.

“A cheap trick, but one that could’ve worked if-” The comment, between a praise and a smug rebuttal, died down in his throat as the knight noticed that I was smiling deviously.

It took him a moment for his eyes to spot some strange movement around him. Multiple things were moving around him.

Panic roused as the dust finally settled and several spinning bubbles were rendered visible to him.

He looked slightly relieved at the revelation that the ‘danger’ was something ‘harmless’. His grin didn’t survive for too long as the bubbles started to slowly brighten up and… emit sunlight.

His body was barraged by the strange phenomenon, his skin burning and his flesh cracking as the unexpected development ripped him apart.

“I present you to the ultimate form of the Hamon Bubble Technique,” I muttered with a smug tone. “I call this ‘Spinning Bubble Sunrise’!”

A complicated move that took me ages to get down to an acceptable level. Inspired mostly by Caesar’s Bubble Lenses, I decided to take the technique one step further and unleash its ultimate potential.

The Spin replaced the Hamon-induced rotation, and the Hamon was used to produce sunlight.

A simple application that had just two flaws: 1) It required attention and careful planning to get this many quick Spins going; 2) The sunlight wasn’t always precise, and the less bubbles were employed, the least were the chances of the attack properly damaging their target.

Tarkus’ yells of pain dignified how quickly he was dying. But instead of staying still as the process went on, the giant started to grow more agitated and trash around himself.

The fury of the attacks further damaged the bridge, and I knew that I had to end the bastard as quickly as I could before he had the chance of succeeding.

Another explosion tore at his face, stopping him again as he had to regenerate from Hannah’s formidable shot.

The cloud of smoke that limited his sight offered me the opportunity to get close enough and… Punch upward onto his neck.

“Sunlight Yellow Overdrive!” The powerful Hamon Overdrive tore through the skin and shattered the giant’s throat. His yells were subdued, and his life was properly ended as I retracted my fist out of the growing opening below his chin.

I backed away as he tried to use his remaining arm to capture me, and this last effort failed as I successfully got out from his reach.

A muted scream of pain and anger preceded Tarkus’ final act. He trembled, his entire being coated in cracks that started to shine and… the Hamon I had left behind ultimately destroyed the rest of the body.

I didn’t drop my guard as I turned to see how Bhediya and Jojo were faring against their opponent.

Bruford was, surprisingly enough, struggling against the werewolf. The zombie’s speed wasn’t enough to keep up with the natural one exhibited by the wild wolf.

With Bhediya sinking his enlarged teeth on the arm holding Luck, Jonathan took the opportunity to deliver the final blow on their enemy.

“Overdrive Barrage!” His consecutive jabs were quick and unforgiving. The sheer volume of Hamon-infused damage was incredible considering how recently the boy had started to learn about the Ripple.

Things seemed to be tending in our favor, with both knights having been defeated, there was only Wang Chan left. The man was still staring at us, his stare looking as deviated and amused as usual… but there was an odd glint that just left me the most tense.

My suspicions materialized with pain as I felt a sharp object plunge into my Achilles’ heel. I dropped to one knee, but as the second knife moved silently through the air toward the back of my head, I saw ｢ACT 1｣ reacting against it by punching it away.

A muffled yell followed as I saw a large shadow move from behind me up to where Wang Chan was.

Hannah was struggling against the strong restriction forced onto her by an unplanned ally to the malicious man. Wang Chan’s grin turned devious, and my eyes widened as our attacker shoved Anna back within the center of the balcony.

Standing proud and mighty, a demonic pair of red eyes locked onto my orange ones. His fangs were prominent, his pose was impeccable and…

“Wrrryyyy!!”

My jaws dropped, as I found myself staring at one of the most dangerous enemies to the Joestar Family.

This… this was Dio in his Part 1 clothes.

And I, Dio, knew that this was the beginning of the end.