The moment the City of Devouring Time descended, the fate of the Assassination Squad was sealed.
Including Risotto—who had shone brilliantly in the original story and had even come close to killing Diavolo himself—every member of the Assassination Squad failed to put up any meaningful resistance after being engulfed by the City of Devouring Time. One by one, they were gunned down by several Tokisaki Kurumi clones who had been dispatched there, and the squad was completely wiped out on the spot.
Against these people, neither Kurumi's main body nor her clones showed the slightest mercy.
After all, while the Assassination Squad included several charismatic characters in the original story, one thing needed to be made clear: not a single member of the Assassination Squad was a good person.
Every one of them was a pure villain. Their rebellion against Diavolo in the original story stemmed solely from dissatisfaction with how they were treated within Passione.
In other words, as long as the money was good enough, they didn't care about anything—murder, drug trafficking, whatever it took. If the profit was big enough, they would do it.
Thus, when dealing with the Assassination Squad, Tokisaki Kurumi showed none of the restraint she had exercised with the Bucciarati squad. From the very beginning, the order she gave her clones was extermination without exception.
And so, after the Assassination Squad was wiped out, the dispatched Kurumi clones withdrew. The bodies of the Assassination Squad members, along with the heavily injured and unconscious Bucciarati squad members inside the prison, were discovered by personnel who arrived afterward.
The next day, new intelligence was delivered into Diavolo's hands.
At this point, Diavolo was no longer as indifferent as he had been three days earlier when he first received news of Polpo's death. Although he did not trust the Assassination Squad, he did acknowledge their abilities.
To consecutively kill several Stand users within the organization—and even wipe out the Assassination Squad entirely—the enemy hiding in the shadows was undoubtedly extremely troublesome.
"A young woman in appearance. The Stand appears to be two flintlock pistols capable of firing extraordinarily powerful bullets. At the same time, the Stand can deploy an extremely large dark red domain. Anyone within the domain instantly loses all strength, while the user herself is unaffected…"
Diavolo reviewed the intelligence obtained from the Bucciarati squad.
As the only organization members who had survived an encounter with the hidden enemy, the Bucciarati squad—after being sent to the hospital and waking up—had their leader, Bucciarati, report everything he knew about the enemy.
Thanks to this, Diavolo, the BOSS of Passione, was finally no longer completely ignorant of the enemy's Stand ability.
Battles between Stand users were battles of information. As long as one understood the opponent's Stand ability, Diavolo believed he would be able to find a way to counter it.
However, this time, the enemy's Stand ability was truly terrifying.
Two flintlock pistols with destructive power far surpassing ordinary firearms indicated overwhelming offensive capability. A Stand ability that could instantly envelop an entire prison, with a diameter of at least several hundred meters, indicated a range far beyond that of ordinary Stands.
Considering that anyone caught within this ability would instantly lose all strength, the best course of action would be to maintain distance. But maintaining distance would also allow those two flintlock pistols to fully unleash their devastating power.
Such a perfectly balanced Stand—strong in both offense and defense—was something Diavolo had never encountered before. One had to know that although Stand abilities varied wildly, truly powerful Stands and abilities were exceedingly rare.
It was hard to imagine how some people could have Stands with both high stats and incredibly strong abilities, while others had nothing more than a blank slate—a Stand whose ability was simply wielding a rapier, where the swordsmanship had to be trained manually, and the Stand itself was blind.
"With such a powerful Stand ability, perhaps its stamina or duration isn't outstanding. If I don't give them the chance to end the battle instantly, there may still be a way to win."
Diavolo silently considered countermeasures in his mind.
The situation now was different from a few days ago. What the hidden enemy had done was no longer mere provocation—it was a declaration of war against the entire Passione organization, including Diavolo himself.
At this point, Diavolo had to consider whether he should personally take action and erase this upstart who dared challenge the authority of a king.
Of course, it might also have something to do with the fact that Passione's Stand users were on the verge of being wiped out.
Still, the situation was not yet entirely clear. Diavolo did not fully trust Bucciarati's account—or rather, he trusted no one but himself.
He worried that Bucciarati might not have fully discerned the enemy's Stand ability, and also suspected that Bucciarati might be hiding something. Under such circumstances, rashly confronting a powerful enemy would be extremely dangerous.
Therefore, Diavolo decided to bring his personal guard into the open first, using them to probe for more information.
As for whether subordinates would die because of this decision? As mentioned before, Diavolo did not care about the lives of his underlings. To die while clearing obstacles for the king was, in its own way, a fitting end.
...
Meanwhile, at the airport in Naples, Italy, Jotaro Kujo—dressed in white—stepped off the plane with his luggage.
After completing the necessary procedures and exiting the airport, he looked out over the city, pulled the brim of his hat lower, and took two photographs out from his coat.
These were obtained a few days earlier, after receiving that mysterious phone call and learning that his former comrade was trapped in Italy. Before departing, Jotaro had asked his grandfather to use his Stand ability.
Only a few months had passed since the events of Part 4. At this point in time, Joseph Joestar had not yet fallen into the severe senility seen in Part 6. At the very least, he was still capable of using his Stand.
And these two photographs depicted Polnareff's current condition and approximate location.
In the photos, Polnareff's body was hunched, curled up in a wheelchair, his limbs mutilated. The scene was dark and gloomy, with several cans nearby—clearly somewhat spoiled, yet bearing signs that they had been eaten.
When Jotaro first saw these photographs, he couldn't even describe the anger he felt. His close friend had been persecuted to such an extent. He swore that he would make the culprit pay the price they deserved.
But the most urgent task now was to find Polnareff's location.
Even with photos obtained through Stand abilities that showed Polnareff's rough whereabouts, trying to identify the exact building somewhere in all of Italy based on a single image would undoubtedly take a tremendous amount of time.
Fortunately, at that very moment, the voice he had heard a few days ago rang out once more.
"My, it seems Mr. Jotaro Kujo has run into a bit of trouble."
"Would you like me to offer a few hints? Free information—no price to pay at all."
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