(A/N):
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The crow remained perched upon the branch for several moments, its crimson eyes never leaving Jojo.
There was something strangely deliberate about the way it watched him, as though it had already made a decision before coming here and was now simply waiting for the right moment to reveal it.
Jojo, meanwhile, had become increasingly suspicious.
The appearance of a talking crow that claimed to be a servant of Death was strange enough, but the fact that it had apparently come specifically looking for him made the entire situation far more concerning.
Finally, the crow spoke again.
"I did not come here only because of the soul inside that watch."
Jojo's eyebrows rose.
"Then why did you come?"
"I came to offer you a contract."
Jojo stared at the bird.
"A contract?"
"Yes."
For a few seconds, Jojo said nothing.
Then his expression slowly became guarded as several possibilities ran through his mind.
He had created contracts with hundreds of people himself, granting them supernatural abilities and allowing them to see things ordinary humans could never perceive.
He knew better than most that a supernatural contract was never something to accept casually.
And if a servant of Death was offering one to him, there had to be a reason.
Jojo stepped away from the window slightly and folded his arms across his chest.
"Let me guess. You want something from me in exchange."
"That is the nature of a contract."
Jojo's eyes narrowed.
"My soul?"
The crow did not react.
Jojo continued before it could answer.
"Because if that's what you're after, save yourself the trouble. I'm rejecting it right now, straight to your face. You can fly back to wherever Death keeps his servants, and you can tell him Jojo isn't interested in selling his soul."
The crow remained completely still.
Then, slowly, it shook its head.
"No."
Jojo's expression changed.
"No?"
"I am not here for your soul."
Jojo studied the bird carefully, looking for any sign of deception.
There was none. His supernatural senses still detected no sin, no corruption and no conventional demonic energy around the creature.
It was almost as though the crow existed outside the spiritual rules Jojo normally used to understand supernatural beings.
"Then what do you want?"
"A partnership."
Jojo blinked.
The crow continued in that deep, steady voice. "A genuine partnership. I have no intention of claiming your soul, binding you to Death or placing a hidden condition upon your existence. I came because our duties intersect, and I believe cooperation between us would benefit both sides."
Jojo slowly lowered his arms.
"Our duties?"
"You deal with supernatural beings that interfere with the living. I deal with the souls of those who have reached the end of their lives. There are situations where your work and mine inevitably overlap."
Jojo glanced toward the pocket watch sitting on the table.
The spirit inside it was still watching the crow.
"So this isn't about collecting souls."
"No."
"Or controlling me."
"No."
"Or eventually taking my soul when I least expect it."
"No."
Jojo stared at him.
"You're surprisingly patient for a bird."
The crow tilted its head.
"I have existed long enough to develop patience."
Jojo couldn't help but let out a quiet chuckle.
"Fair enough."
He returned his attention to the matter at hand.
"What exactly would this partnership involve?"
"That depends upon you."
The answer made Jojo pause.
The crow continued,
"I will not force the contract upon you. You will know its purpose, its conditions and its limitations before you agree. If you refuse, I will leave, and there will be no consequence."
Jojo's suspicion remained, but his curiosity had now become stronger.
That was unusual.
Supernatural beings usually wanted something specific from him. Power.
Protection. Information. A favour. Sometimes revenge.
Occasionally they wanted access to his contracts or the resources of DMC.
But a servant of Death offering a genuine partnership without demanding his soul?
That was new.
Jojo leaned against the window frame again and looked directly into the crow's crimson eyes.
"Why me?"
The crow remained silent for several seconds.
Then it answered.
"Because you have repeatedly interfered with things that should have remained separate from the world of the living, yet you have also returned countless souls to their proper path instead of exploiting them."
Jojo's expression became thoughtful.
"You've been watching me."
"Yes."
"For how long?"
"Long enough."
Jojo sighed.
"That answer is beginning to get annoying."
The crow ignored the comment.
"You possess abilities that allow you to interact with the dead without becoming one of them. You have destroyed entities that prey upon souls, protected spirits that were being abused, and on several occasions you have refused to destroy cursed objects when doing so would have destroyed the soul bound to them."
Jojo glanced toward the pocket watch.
"So you noticed."
"I notice the dead."
The statement was simple, but there was something strangely heavy about it.
Jojo looked back at the crow.
"And what exactly do I get out of this partnership?"
The crow's red eyes remained fixed on him.
"Knowledge."
Jojo's curiosity immediately sharpened.
"Knowledge of what?"
"The dead. The boundaries between life and death. The laws governing souls. Things even your supernatural sight cannot reveal."
Jojo went silent.
That was a much more tempting offer than he wanted to admit.
The crow then added quietly,
"And when a soul becomes trapped between worlds, you will have someone to call who understands what you are seeing."
Jojo glanced once more at the old watch.
The trapped man's soul was still waiting.
For the first time, Jojo began to wonder whether accepting the contract might not only help him understand the mystery of the watch, but also open a door into a part of the supernatural world he had never truly explored.
Still, he wasn't about to accept blindly.
He looked back at the crow.
"Fine. I'm interested."
The crow remained silent.
"But I'm not agreeing yet," Jojo added firmly.
"You show me the contract. Every condition. Every clause. Nothing hidden."
The crow gave a slow nod.
"That is acceptable."
Jojo smiled faintly.
"Good."
The servant of Death spread its black wings.
"Then we have begun our conversation."
Jojo watched as the crow remained on the branch, preparing to reveal whatever strange agreement had brought it to his doorstep.
For the first time in his life, Jojo found himself negotiating with Death's representative.
And strangely enough, the most unsettling part wasn't the thought of signing a contract with Death.
It was the realization that he was actually considering it.
The crow suddenly lifted its head toward the darkening sky and released a loud, unnatural caw that echoed through the trees surrounding Jojo's mansion.
The sound was nothing like an ordinary crow's call. It carried a strange depth that seemed to vibrate through the room itself, causing the old pocket watch on the table to tremble slightly.
Jojo's expression immediately became serious.
The air in front of the crow began to distort.
A thin red mist appeared around its body, initially little more than wisps of smoke drifting between its feathers.
Within seconds, however, the mist thickened into a swirling cloud of crimson vapour.
The temperature around the open window dropped sharply, and Jojo instinctively strengthened his supernatural senses as something began taking shape inside the mist.
A document emerged.
Jojo's eyes widened slightly.
It looked like a contract, but certainly not one made from ordinary paper.
The material appeared to be some kind of preserved skin, pale in some places and dark in others, with irregular edges that suggested it had never been manufactured in any conventional manner.
Jojo couldn't identify what creature it had come from, and the fact that he couldn't immediately recognize it made him even more cautious.
A faint red aura constantly leaked from the surface.
Symbols and writing slowly appeared across it, glowing with the same crimson energy.
The letters seemed to shift slightly whenever Jojo moved his eyes across them, almost as though the contract itself was responding to the person reading it.
The document floated through the open window and stopped directly in front of Jojo.
He didn't touch it immediately.
Instead, he studied it with his supernatural vision.
There was no demonic corruption.
No obvious curse.
No hidden soul-binding mechanism.
But there was an enormous amount of spiritual authority embedded within the contract.
Jojo finally reached out and took it.
The moment his fingers touched the strange material, the red aura briefly intensified before settling down.
Jojo looked toward the crow.
"This is your contract?"
"Yes."
Jojo lowered his gaze and began reading.
The first sections established the nature of the agreement.
If Jojo accepted the contract, he would gain access to the assistance of the servants of Death.
They would not become his servants, nor would Jojo gain authority over them.
Instead, they would act as guides and occasional allies whenever his investigations crossed into matters involving death, souls, spirits or the boundary between the living and the dead.
Jojo's eyes moved slowly across the writing.
The servants of Death could provide information that ordinary supernatural beings could not access.
They could guide Jojo toward answers concerning souls, death-related curses, spiritual bindings and entities that existed outside the normal cycle of life and death.
They could also intervene occasionally when the situation demanded it.
Not constantly.
Not whenever Jojo simply wanted assistance.
Only when the circumstances justified their involvement.
Jojo nodded faintly.
"That part makes sense."
He continued reading.
Then he reached another clause.
His eyes stopped.
Jojo reread the sentence.
Then he read it again.
His expression slowly changed.
The contract stated that, through the formal recognition of this partnership, Jojo could eventually gain the right to call upon Death itself, allowing Death to manifest before him when circumstances required it, without disrupting the natural cycle of life and death.
Jojo stared at the words.
"You're telling me..."
He slowly looked toward the crow.
"If I complete this contract properly, I could actually summon Death?"
The crow nodded.
"Not command Death."
Jojo looked back at the contract.
"Call Death."
"Yes."
Jojo's fingers tightened slightly around the strange document.
That distinction mattered.
He wouldn't be gaining control over Death.
He wouldn't be resurrecting the dead or forcing souls back into their bodies.
He would simply gain the formal authority to request Death's presence without breaking the natural order.
Jojo slowly exhaled.
"That is one hell of a benefit."
The crow remained silent.
Jojo continued reading carefully, searching for hidden clauses, loopholes or consequences.
He wasn't going to sign something simply because it sounded useful.
He had dealt with enough supernatural contracts to know that the most dangerous part was often the sentence nobody bothered to read.
But the more he read, the more unusual the agreement became.
There was no demand for his soul.
No requirement that he surrender his life.
No clause giving Death ownership over him.
Instead, the contract established a mutual relationship between Jojo and the servants of Death, allowing them to recognize one another as allies when their respective duties overlapped.
Jojo eventually lowered the document.
He looked at the crow.
"You weren't lying."
"No."
"You really are offering a partnership."
"Yes."
Jojo glanced down at the contract again.
The crimson aura continued flowing across the strange skin-like surface.
For a moment, he thought about all the supernatural cases he had encountered, the spirits he had failed to understand, the souls trapped inside cursed objects and the countless questions surrounding the boundary between life and death.
Then he looked at the pocket watch.
The trapped man's spirit was still waiting.
Jojo's expression became determined.
"If I sign this, you're going to help me free him?"
The crow looked toward the watch.
"Yes."
Jojo nodded slowly.
"Then I want to know everything before I put my name on it."
The crow's eyes gleamed faintly.
"You will."
Jojo placed the contract flat on the table.
He reached for a pen.
But before signing, he paused.
One final thought crossed his mind.
"Just one thing."
The crow waited.
Jojo looked directly into its red eyes.
"If Death ever decides to come personally because of this contract, I'd appreciate a little warning."
For the first time, the crow appeared almost amused.
"I will remember that."
Jojo sighed.
"Good."
He lowered the pen toward the contract.
And the red aura surrounding the document suddenly grew brighter.
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(Author's POV)
(A/N):
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