Omake 30: Uncle Dio’s Wise Advice (2)

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When a man reaches a specific age, roughly beyond the first two centuries of age, they tend to grasp fully at the aspects of life many just could never hope to achieve through severe hardships and wise teachers. It was only natural for the man striving for a bright mind in a strong body to develop into one of the wisest beings the world could ever hope to end up with.

But the main duty of the old is to inspire the young and… sometimes that duty can end up becoming quite troublesome when the young is only interested in getting stronger for the sake of brief amusement. I still remember when I first had to handle the little pest that would easily turn into the strongest warrior of her entire generation. A prodigy, a rough stone that was in need of some sharp reconstruction to show the diamond hiding within her.

It happened a couple of years before I had to handle Shin’s little love issue and it came to a request of help from someone I met through Kate. The Ravenhurst family… was one of the few groups of the ‘newcomers’ that were more interactive with my wife. I tended to keep away from anything that ‘romantic’ so to speak, and I had been living a pleasant life through that. Except when one of the couple’s children developed quite the unusual ability considering their nature. I was surprised when Hannah requested me to come and check on little Joy, but I was even more surprised when, as I decided to go and check where the problem was, I was given proof of the trouble in the form of a broken finger on the left hand of the girl’s father. While Kayin wasn’t as resilient to damage as Kate, he still had training and strength to vaunt when it comes to physical endurance. Yet that damage… left me intrigued by the fact the girl could have actually developed a Stand.

Not the first time I heard of this circumstance due to how the phenomenon had been widespread ever since the end of the big war but… still surprising to handle when it came to children forming it. Especially when it was all about a five-years old girl behind this kind of situation. Talking with her parents gauged the same response as I heard from many now: She didn’t show any sign of sickness, nor she seemed to manifest symptoms before the manifestation of that entity. The one that brought up a unique factor compared to others was the eldest daughter, Hope. Differently from others, Joy was genuinely taken by combat. To learn how to fight. And the injury that ensued after a brief angry-filled reaction to a refusal of her father to start training her this soon was the reason why the man had that kind of injury on him.

Taking some time to assure both Kayin and his wife, Grace, that everything was going to be fine and that this wasn’t a genuine problem for me. Leaving Hannah to handle the rest of the ‘PR’ situation, I decided to go and check on the child myself. The path upstairs led me to a single room which had its door partly open. I could feel the Stand User having taken refuge inside, and my lips twitched in a mix of curiosity and uneasiness at the chances of the girl putting more guilt on herself about this case than she should truly feel. I approached the door silently and with a slow walk, knowing that the girl, despite her lack of major reaction at the moment, was listening for… something to happen. A punishment? Or maybe someone only coming to check on her and see how she was faring?

I peeked inside, pausing just a moment to address the little detail that I came here for. Joy was crouching by one of the corners, with her legs wrapped by her tiny arms and her face pressed on her knees. I took a step inside, suddenly noticing how her shoulders had stiffened at the creaking of the wood that made the ground. Pink eyes finally were aimed in my general direction, with a few tears trailing down her puffy cheeks.

Confusion, surprise and curiosity all played together within her gaze, and she ultimately spoke up.

“W-Who are you?”

I merely blinked, stopping and preparing for her Stand to react in case I replied too strongly. “My name is Dio Joestar. I’m a friend of your parents and I’ve been asked to come here and give you help with some questions you have right now. About what happened with your father.”

Her tension doubled at the last sentence. “I-I didn’t do it.”

“You didn’t,” I agreed while also nodding. “But something happened, and it was partly tied to you. Not directly.”

Joy frowned, but her tension remained as I started to sit down in front of her. Just as I was done with that, I realized a tiny fist had materialized and was now traveling towards me. I didn’t even need to do much as ｢The World｣ moved to stop the attack and grasping at it. I could easily say that this very scene, the fact that the girl had the chance to see what was going on and how that ‘thing’ that was troubling her meant nothing to me when it comes to harm.

“Y-You are… like me?”

A smile formed by my lips. “I suppose so. Which is why I was asked to come here and tell you more about what is going on. And how this isn’t a… terrible thing.”

“But dad-”

“Has seen scarier things and faced worse injuries. He’ll be fine in a few hours and it will be as if nothing had happened,” I guaranteed calmly. “Still, I suppose you have questions about what happened, right?”

After taking a moment to ponder my words, Joy slowly nodded and we started to address the matter that got her in such distress. I thought it would have been a change from the way she usually behaved since I was told she was actually more ‘anger-prone’ compared to the quiet self I met her as but… this behavior never manifested while I was around to check on her training when she eventually started exercising at twelve. The girl sure kept her insistence to train, that she wanted to be a hero and make the difference. She struggled at times, she developed her own jealousy towards her older sister at the fact she easily moved out of the house and stopped training altogether, getting angry when that one bit happened since she thought she could turn her in her rival… but she behaved as politely as she could afford while I was around. Maybe it was the first meeting leaving a good impression, or maybe it was tied to the fact I vouched for her that she would eventually train and kick butts, but she never showed much of her angry-filled mindset while I was there to check on her situation. I also didn’t know how from a mere ‘heartfelt talk’ about helping her through accepting her Stand, I ended up growing a bond with the brat despite some major differences between the two of us, but it sure got to a point where a rather amusing but still slightly annoyed circumstance would normally form.

“I’ve come to fight you, Uncle Dio!!”

It was the catchphrase that got stuck around while she would visit on a monthly basis. She would come to the MiH headquarters, ask for me and demand a lengthy sparring session. Which she would, of course lose. It was a bit irritating after a while, but I noticed that I also appreciated it since it gave me an excuse to avoid paperwork for a while and… have fun. Because each spar wasn’t the same as the previous ones, with the girl coming up with new strategies and showing how cunning her battle-themed strategic mind seemed to dominate her ambitious training and objectives. Plus, I had the chance to give her something to push her more by acting like the stereotypical villain, being quite childish and not overly aggressive by… being a soft-core version of the original DIO.

That was definitely a fresh change for good ever since Giorno stopped visiting so frequently after settling permanently in Italy with his own group. I didn’t bother him much on the matter as I didn’t want to appear like the father that wanted to embarrass him like that but… that didn’t stop the boredom of the life I’ve created by winning all threats to make it troublesome for me to be happy.

Then, much to my surprise, I realized that Joy had to skip the usual monthly visit because she had started her serious training and that she was going to spend roughly a few years to hone her skills and get through the powers tied to her family. I was supportive of this but… I did feel the lack of her visits. By a lot. I was so bored out of my own mind that I almost jumped in surprise when, after a few months had passed since her last visit, I saw the very pest that had wormed her way into my heart and becoming my favorite niece kicking the door of my office off the hinges and aiming a daring finger at me.

“Uncle Dio! I’ve come to beat you for once!”

…

“Oh oh! What a marvelous surprise, little Joy! Coming here to face defeat!”

She was stronger, definitely picking up pace and power more faster than before through her better training and her new self-boosting ability. I was smiling eye-to-eye as the battle raged on between the two of us and I definitely knew she was the happiest despite losing this one too as she knew she had made progress. And she definitely loved the head pat I gave her, a little ‘reward’ that I tended to go give her all the times we concluded our spars and something she hadn’t experienced after so long.

Yep, this cute niece of mine is definitely my favorite. Sadly, not the cutest but definitely there as a close second.

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AN

Uncle Dio strikes again!