Joseph's clouded eyes briefly regained their former sharpness.
His hat, worn for warmth, was blown off by the whistling wind as he sped along, his silver hair dancing in the breeze.
He pushed his long hair back, his hunched back straightening for the first time in years, ripples of power surging through his body.
"Old man..."
Jotaro gazed at Joseph's profile.
He couldn't remember how many years it had been since he'd seen the old man looking so full of spirit.
Joseph's health had been declining ever since they returned from Egypt.
Dio had drunk Joseph's blood, increasing his time stop from five seconds to nine. This four-second increase was due to Dio absorbing the life force from Joseph's blood.
This was why the sixty-eight-year-old Joseph was still in his prime and had even had a late-life romance with Tomoko Higashikata, while the seventy-nine-year-old Joseph had become senile and trembled when he walked.
Now, Linto had momentarily reactivated Joseph's bloodline power. This couldn't last long; maybe a minute or two, maybe only a few seconds.
But…
Linto met Yoshikage Kira's eyes as the latter, humming a tune, emerged from his house after breakfast.
"This is enough to deal with you!"
Linto twisted the throttle to the max, the motorcycle's front wheel lifting high. The engine roared "vroom—vroom—," and the "Yoroshiku" – a flag belonging to the biker gang – fluttered in the wind behind the motorcycle.
Yoshikage Kira stood stunned.
He looked at the speeding motorcycle and then at the convoy chasing behind him, momentarily lost:
Who am I?
Where am I?
Does the effect of Bites the Dust really have this much "power"?
After a brief moment of confusion, Yoshikage Kira suddenly snapped back to reality.
Now wasn't the time to think about this; he had to dodge. This motorcycle speeding towards him would kill him outright!
Yoshikage Kira dashed behind a nearby utility pole, a smug smile returning to his lips.
"Come on, Hayato! Ha... Let's see who's tougher, you or this utility pole."
But just then.
"Hermit Purple!"
Purple vines lashed out, wrapping around Yoshikage Kira and yanking him forcefully from behind the utility pole!
Linto spun another marble in his hand.
Koichi Hirose, sharing a car with Jotaro, was kind-hearted and asked with concern, seeing this:
"Mr. Jotaro, aren't we going to stop that kid?"
Jotaro's expression was grave.
His combat instincts told him that something was off about everything that had happened this morning.
Jotaro hesitated for a moment before nodding.
No matter how strange things were, they couldn't just stand by and watch the old man commit murder with a child they didn't know.
Jotaro was about to intervene.
"Murder! Didn't you see it! I'm going to die, save me quickly!"
Yoshikage Kira, bound by Hermit Purple, shouted at Jotaro and the others chasing behind him:
"Jotaro, think of a way with your invincible Star Platinum! Stop this damned murderer!"
As soon as he said this, everyone's expressions turned cold.
Knowing Jotaro and Star Platinum, he was likely a Stand user.
If he was a Stand user, why didn't he unleash his Stand to resolve the immediate crisis?
Jotaro and his group had encountered most of the Stand users in Morioh, either defeating them or becoming friends.
There was only one Stand that he absolutely dared not unleash and expose to others, and that was—
"Ah! I remember now! He's the man in the photo!"
Rohan Kishibe poked his head out of the car window, holding up a secretly taken photo. In the center was a profile shot of the man who was now "Kosaku Kawajiri."
"No one is coming to save you."
Linto and Joseph leaped forward.
"Just like all those innocent people you killed!"
Tendrils of Hermit Purple wrapped around Linto and Joseph, the other ends hanging from a streetlamp.
The driverless motorcycle hurtled towards Yoshikage Kira, closely followed by Linto, who used the motorcycle's momentum to accelerate –
"Rider Spin! Marble!"
Behind the motorcycle, the four characters on the flag, "Yoroshiku," grew larger and larger in Yoshikage Kira's pupils, saying "Please take care of me" in this way.
Yoshikage Kira gritted his teeth, resentment boiling in his chest.
But… he couldn't wait any longer.
"Killer Queen!"
The pink cat emerged from Linto's eyes in front of everyone and returned to Yoshikage Kira's side.
8:09 AM.
Bites the Dust was deactivated.
All those who had died in previous cycles were, from this moment on, freed from the fate of death.
Killer Queen rapidly punched, shattering the heavily impacting motorcycle into pieces.
Amidst countless fragments, a tiny, thumb-sized marble, carrying an incredibly fearsome spin, passed through the broken steel parts and precisely hit Killer Queen's chin.
"Urgh—"
Yoshikage Kira's body spun uncontrollably, flying into the air. After spinning dozens of times, he fell to the ground, his head bleeding profusely.
"Damn brat!"
Yoshikage Kira struggled to lift his head.
"Killer Queen! Kill him for me!"
Killer Queen removed the wilting Sheer Heart Attack from his left hand and threw it at Linto.
This was why Linto had to plan repeatedly.
Both Ripple users and those with Golden Spin could see Stands if they cultivated them to a certain extent.
Just like Gyro in Steel Ball Run.
He could sense something "weird and unusual" about Stand users.
But "Hayato" couldn't; his body was too weak.
Linto couldn't see Sheer Heart Attack being thrown at him and could only tell from Yoshikage Kira's expression that the latter seemed intent on killing him.
"Ora—"
Star Platinum's roar sounded, and the thrown Sheer Heart Attack was hurled back.
Kujo Jotaro appeared before Linto "out of nowhere."
"Are you alright, kid?"
"I'm fine."
Hermit Purple released, and Linto stepped back onto the ground, looking at Yoshikage Kira and saying softly, "My condition has never been better."
Cars pulled to a stop.
Yoshikage Kira, sitting on the ground, scanned their faces.
Kujo Jotaro, Josuke Higashikata, Okuyasu Nijimura, Koichi Hirose, Rohan Kishibe, and…
The most detestable, the most hateful Linto!
All of them now knew his identity. Facing the approaching crowd, Yoshikage Kira felt his head spin, as if he were submerged in a lake of despair, on the verge of suffocating.
"Sir, are you alright?"
A passing office lady walked up to Yoshikage Kira and asked kindly, but Yoshikage Kira grabbed her hand.
"This is fate showing its favor to me!"
Yoshikage Kira held the office lady's hand as if it were a work of art, examining it carefully:
"Your joints and skin are so smooth, and your fingers are fair and cute... Can I rub them on my face?"
The office lady froze.
Yoshikage Kira didn't wait for her consent and pressed her hand to his face, rubbing it back and forth like a lustful slug, his face filled with enjoyment, and an abnormal bulge forming in his pants.
He said dreamily, "Having beautiful hands rubbed on your cheek makes one feel calm."
Amidst despair and pleasure…
Yoshikage Kira got an erection.
"What are you doing!" the office lady tried to break free.
But Yoshikage Kira held her hand tightly, "My name is Yoshikage Kira. So far, I have killed 48 women with beautiful hands, and you will be the 49th."
The activation condition for Bites the Dust was despair, and revealing one's identity to a non-Stand user.
The current situation perfectly met the criteria.
Killer Queen was already beginning to emerge from the office lady's eyes.
This was Yoshikage Kira's "fate's favor"!
Next, as the crowd approached, his despair would only deepen until it reached the critical point for activating Bites the Dust, and everything before him would vanish into nothingness.
Yoshikage Kira held the woman's hand tightly, looking at the charging crowd and laughing maniacally:
"My despair has arrived, but this despair will soon be thrown back at you. And this time—"
He forcefully twisted the office lady, using her body as a shield to block Linto's shooting path. Only his eyes, peering through the gap, fell upon Linto:
"I will kill you first!"
Jotaro was running, but he was too far away. Even with time stop, he wouldn't have enough time to stop Yoshikage Kira from detonating it.
Meanwhile, to guard against Linto's marbles, Yoshikage Kira used the office lady as cover, which also meant Koichi lost visual range for using ACT-3: Gravity Sonar.
Seeing the urgency of everyone, Yoshikage Kira's laughter grew even more arrogant.
Suddenly, Linto's steady voice rang out.
"Jotaro, during time stop, throw me with all your might."
Jotaro didn't know what use throwing Linto would have, but at this point, he could only rely on the child who was creating miracles before his eyes.
"Star Platinum: The World!"
Time stopped flowing. Star Platinum grabbed Linto, ran as far as possible, and then, at the limit of time stop, hurled him forward with immense force—
Whoosh!
Linto appeared in mid-air.
"It's useless! There's no way you'll hit me again!"
Yoshikage Kira roared, practically retracting half his body into the woman's embrace.
He stared at Linto's hand, trying to predict the marble's trajectory, while his despair reached its peak, ready to command Killer Queen to activate Bites the Dust.
But… the marble had vanished.
"Vanished?"
Linto had already shot Golden Spin.
"Where?"
Yoshikage Kira felt no attack.
Suddenly, he saw specks of starlight in his eyes.
"Am I hallucinating? This woman's fingernails... they're as beautiful as tiny spinning stars."
Yoshikage Kira, who could have activated Bites the Dust, couldn't resist looking for a few extra seconds, lured by his peculiar fetish.
But he quickly reacted.
He wasn't hallucinating!
Yoshikage Kira's pupils contracted.
This woman's fingernails were actually spinning!
Only then did he see a super-high-speed spinning marble strike the woman's back.
The spinning force, manipulated by Linto, traveled along the woman's muscles and bones, reaching her hand, and finally spreading to her fingernails.
And because Yoshikage Kira had pressed the woman's hand to his face, the sharp, spinning fingernails were only a few centimeters from his eyeballs.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
Five high-speed spinning fingernails shot out like bullets, piercing Yoshikage Kira's eyeballs at near point-blank range and shredding his brain.
If he had been farther from this beautiful hand.
If he hadn't been greedy for his fetish and wanted to look at the beautiful hand again.
Yoshikage Kira would have won.
But… there was no "if."
His pathological obsession with "hands" led him to kill, awaken his Stand, gain Bites the Dust, and then be killed by a "hand."
All of this…
Linto walked over, helped up the unfortunate office lady, looked down at Yoshikage Kira's shredded eyeballs, and said softly:
"Your destiny."
---
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