Chapter 14: Are You Guys Stand Users?
The only person who'd pick "Crazy Diamond" as a username was Josuke Higashikata. It was literally the name of his Stand.
"The protagonist of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure Part 4, huh? Didn't expect that series to show up."
Back on Earth, Ryū had watched the JoJo anime. It was a series whose art style screamed testosterone and philosophy in equal measure — all bulging muscles and dramatic poses — but was in reality a brilliantly written battle shōnen where every character had an IQ that was actually online.
Whether it was the Hamon techniques of the early parts or the Stand abilities that came later, every power system was iconic and refreshingly creative.
The art style leaned heavily toward Western comics, though. The first time Ryū had tried watching it, the visual style nearly scared him off.
But once he pushed past that initial hurdle, he discovered it was genuinely fantastic.
No wonder "Crazy Diamond" had felt so familiar — it was from a series he'd already seen.
Ryū thought to himself: "If I remember right, Josuke's Stand ability is the power to perfectly restore any damaged object to its original state. Meaning… if someone gets their arm or leg severed, as long as they're still alive, Crazy Diamond can heal them completely."
Thinking back on the original JoJo's Stand abilities, Ryū couldn't help but be impressed.
Crazy Diamond was essentially a god-tier support unit. A combat-capable healer with devastating punching power.
The only downside was its limited range.
Of course, this was all speculation for now. Whether the new member was actually Josuke Higashikata — well, he'd have to ask to find out.
It wasn't like Ryū could predict the future.
Crazy Diamond:
"What is this? Am I dreaming? Yeah, that's it — I must be dreaming. Why else would some weird 'dimensional chat group' thing randomly appear in my brain?"
Crazy Diamond:
"I heard that when you're dreaming, you can make anything happen if you just wish for it, right? Okay then — I want a super hot older lady to appear!"
Crazy Diamond:
"Huh… where's my hot older lady?!"
Kaguya-sama:
"…The new guy thinks he's dreaming."
The Eternally Seventeen-Year-Old Maiden:
"Can you blame him? When this one first joined, I assumed someone had cast an illusion on me~"
Kaguya-sama:
"Fair point. I thought it was some kind of sci-fi technology at first!"
In the world of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, in a small Japanese town called Morioh, Josuke Higashikata bolted upright in bed.
His face was a mask of suspicion and confusion. He "looked" at the chat group floating in his mind, then darted his eyes around his bedroom.
Nothing seemed out of place. Everything around him was painfully, undeniably real.
He swallowed hard. "So this… isn't a dream?"
Josuke raised two fingers and pinched his own cheek. Hard.
Then twisted. Viciously.
The small patch of flesh on his cheek turned visibly red and swollen at a speed observable to the naked eye.
"OW— ow ow ow ow!!"
The searing pain in his cheek made him suck in a sharp breath. His face was pure shock. His grades might not have been great, but even he knew that people couldn't feel pain in dreams.
If you could feel pain, you definitely weren't dreaming.
Which meant the Dimensional Chat Group that had suddenly appeared in his brain was… actually real?
Also — what the hell was a "chat group"?
Josuke Higashikata lived in the year 1999. While early online chat tools had existed since around '96, the concept of a "group chat" wouldn't become mainstream for several more years.
So a high schooler in 1999 Morioh had absolutely zero frame of reference for what a "Dimensional Chat Group" even meant.
Just as Josuke was drowning in confusion, a chime echoed through his mind.
His consciousness was drawn into the chat group almost instinctively. It looked like… people were communicating with him through text inside his own head?
RawrSoFierce:
"@Crazy Diamond — welcome, newcomer!"
Kaguya-sama:
"@Crazy Diamond — welcome!"
Edward Newgate:
"@Crazy Diamond — welcome, newcomer!"
The Little Wandering Planet:
"@Crazy Diamond — welcome!"
The Eternally Seventeen-Year-Old Maiden:
"@Crazy Diamond — welcome~!"
Five consecutive notification chimes assaulted Josuke's brain. Whatever this "Dimensional Chat Group" was, it was rapidly exceeding everything he thought he knew about the world.
In all his years of life, he'd never encountered anything this bizarre.
And he'd encountered a lot of bizarre things.
Crazy Diamond:
"This… this ISN'T a dream?! How did you people get inside my brain?! Don't tell me… are you all Stand users?!"
The Eternally Seventeen-Year-Old Maiden:
"A Stand user? This one is no such thing. I am a Gap Yōkai~ An eternally seventeen-year-old Gap Yōkai, to be precise."
Edward Newgate:
"I'm no Stand either. I am Whitebeard — one of the Four Emperors of the New World's seas!"
Kaguya-sama:
"Heiress of the Shinomiya Zaibatsu, quietly passing through."
The Little Wandering Planet:
"A certain wandering planetary consciousness, keeping a low profile…"
RawrSoFierce:
"Admin of the Dimensional Chat Group. Look it up."
RawrSoFierce:
"Newcomer — check out the group announcement. It's the little red dot at the top of the chat interface. Tap it, read it, and you'll understand what the Dimensional Chat Group is."
Whatever lingering doubts Ryū had about the new member's identity were now completely gone. Replaced by certainty.
This person was one hundred percent from the world of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure.
And there was a ninety percent chance it was the Part 4 protagonist himself — Josuke Higashikata. A Japanese high schooler with a Stand ability.
Of course, Josuke's background wasn't exactly "ordinary high schooler." His father was an extremely wealthy man. Josuke just happened to be illegitimate.
But if dear old dad ever kicked the bucket, Josuke stood to inherit a full third of the estate — instantly transforming from a broke teenager into a bona fide tycoon.
Kaguya-sama:
"@RawrSoFierce — Admin-dono, you still haven't dealt with Blackbeard Teach yet?"
The notification snapped Ryū back to the present. He typed a reply.
RawrSoFierce:
"Haven't run into him yet, but it should be soon."
RawrSoFierce:
"Also — the ship-coating technology in the One Piece world is absolutely insane. They just slap some resin on a wooden ship and it can dive to 10,000 meters below sea level? If submarine engineers back on Earth ever got their hands on this tech, they'd study it around the clock for ten days straight."
The Eternally Seventeen-Year-Old Maiden:
"[Image] Ara ara~ I can see Fish-Man Island!"
Kaguya-sama:
"It's so beautiful! Yukari-nee-sama, turn on the camera!!"
The Eternally Seventeen-Year-Old Maiden:
"Relax, relax~ I'll turn it on once we arrive."