"All right... can you find out whether I actually have a chance to win? If I'm not getting the award, I'm not going."
Alex could hardly admit that, when it came to American awards, the only one he really knew much about was the Oscars. Still, his attitude toward ceremonies had always been painfully honest. If they were truly planning to hand him a trophy, then making the trip, collecting the prize, and showing off a little was perfectly acceptable. But if he had to fly all the way there just to stand in the background and make someone else look good, then what exactly was the point? He might as well stay home and let the girls admire his trophies there instead.
"Boss... that might be a little difficult. We don't really have any connections in the States..."
Georgia looked troubled.
"Then forget it for now. We'll deal with it after I finish the script."
Alex waved it off with one broad gesture, already pushing the matter aside.
As a new week arrived, the number of JOJO fans kept rising at a steady and almost absurd pace. Some were already seated in front of their computers before the update even dropped. Others held their phones tightly, eyes fixed on the screen, waiting for the latest episode of Stardust Crusaders to go live.
And now, with Polnareff officially joining the group, that opening MV - one of the most devastatingly good openings in all of anime and game culture - burst onto the screen again together with the fierce, blazing energy of "STAND PROUD."
"Gathered stardust,
called forth by an awakening after a hundred years.
Men rise to their feet
and set out on a journey through the dust of time.
Entangled fates connect like chains.
A destiny severed by Platinum.
Stand up! Stand up! Stand up!
Rise and fight!
..."
In the MV, five stars rose beneath the night sky over the Dragon Nation, crossed half the world in one sweep, and charged straight toward Egypt. DIO appeared in the darkness, half-turned, every inch of him radiating cold arrogance and tyrannical confidence. The five-man team flashed through city streets, deserts, forests, islands, and one landscape after another, as though the entire world had become their battlefield. From the first Joestar to the third, the fate of the entire bloodline converged behind Jotaro's back.
"All right now, all right now, all right now,
this is the moment.
Defeat the enemy.
Break you down, break you down, break you down,
crush them in one blow.
The soul-image that carves open the road ahead -
Stand Proud!"
At the very end of the opening, Star Platinum rose behind Jotaro and unleashed a barrage of punches at lightspeed, smashing the camera itself into pieces beneath the swelling music, as though it were trying to shatter the prison of fate. Then, at last, the words JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Stardust Crusaders burned into the center of the screen.
The image faded to black again, and a few seconds later the title of the episode slowly appeared:
"The Emperor and the Hanged Man."
As expected, it was another Stand named after a Tarot card.
And the JOJO fans, who had once again watched the entire opening without skipping, could not help cursing their own lack of self-control. Ever since Polnareff joined the team and this opening started playing, they had failed to skip it even once. Not even Bleach had managed that.
The episode wasted no time throwing out yet another unforgettable gag - Polnareff's bizarre toilet. The moment that pig's head popped up out of the toilet, even the audience jumped. Then the Indian waiter casually explained that there was a pigsty directly beneath it, and that after you were done, the pigs would lick you clean, so there was no need to use your fingers. The barrage comments exploded on the spot. Viewers instantly flooded the screen with reactions saying that this was, in every possible way, unbelievably Indian. Comments like, "I have serious concerns about Alex's mental state when he wrote this scene," flew across the screen one after another. People genuinely started wondering what exactly Alex had experienced in India to come up with something like this.
Soon enough, Polnareff encountered his first enemy in the restroom - a Stand user who attacked through mirrors: the Hanged Man.
From the information Jotaro had given him in the previous episode, Polnareff immediately realized that this was the Stand belonging to the very man he had been hunting all this time, the murderer who had killed his sister. Blinded by fury, he decided that now that he had found his target, there was no longer any reason to continue traveling with Jotaro and the others. He was going to hunt down J. Geil alone.
"Can't you see this is an obvious trap? The enemy wants to lure you into going off by yourself. I'm not allowing you to act on your own, Polnareff!"
Just as Polnareff was about to leave, Avdol's voice thundered behind him.
"Don't lecture me! I told you from the start - I only came with you people for revenge! DIO has nothing to do with me!"
"What did you just say? Have you forgotten that DIO is the root of all of this?!"
"Shut up! A coward like you - someone who once saw DIO and ran - how could you possibly understand what it feels like to lose a sister like that?!"
That sentence struck Avdol right in the deepest wound he had. In the end, he had no choice but to let Polnareff go.
And just as he had feared, things unfolded exactly the way he predicted. Not long after heading out alone, Polnareff was ambushed by not one but two enemy Stand users - the Emperor, Hol Horse, and the Hanged Man, J. Geil. Without understanding the enemy's abilities, Polnareff was quickly driven into a corner, and it became painfully obvious that if this continued, he would be killed.
"Look out, Polnareff!"
At the last possible second, Avdol burst in from the other side and tackled him to the ground, narrowly saving him from Hol Horse's bullet. But before relief could settle, the other enemy struck. Like an assassin appearing out of some ancient nightmare, the Hanged Man emerged from the puddle beneath Avdol and slashed into the reflection at the back of his neck.
Bang -
"What... from the puddle?!"
Avdol's eyes widened in disbelief, but he did not even have time to react before the next shot tore through the air and pierced straight through his head.
"Mr. Avdol!"
Kakyoin had heard the commotion, but he was already too late. By the time he arrived, all he could do was watch as Avdol's body crashed heavily to the ground.
That single thud felt as if it had landed directly in the audience's chest. A violent tremor ran through them all.
"Mr. Avdol! Mr. Avdol! Wake up! Wake up!"
Kakyoin rushed forward, scooping up Avdol's blood-soaked body and calling out to him again and again in panic. But the instant he saw the blood all over his own hands, his entire body froze.
The audience unconsciously held their breath. Fingers tightened around phones, desk edges, chair handles - anything they could grip.
No way.
No... way.
Were they really killing off one of the main group this early?
"Tch. That's what happens to idiots who stick their noses where they don't belong. Serves him right."
Then, from the side, Polnareff spoke coldly.
"What... what did you say? Mr. Avdol came because he was worried about you - "
The grief on Kakyoin's face instantly twisted into fury.
Polnareff cut him off with a harsh wave of the hand. "Who asked for his concern? Sticking his nose in, being stupid enough to die like that - people like him are exactly why I chose to act alone! I knew I'd just get dragged down!"
"You bastard... he saved your life and you still...!"
Kakyoin's whole body trembled with rage. He looked ready to rush over and punch Polnareff in the face, and everyone watching felt exactly the same. Fists clenched. Teeth gritted. The urge was almost unbearable.
But in the very next second, every last one of them froze.
Because they saw the tears beside Polnareff.
"...I can't take this anymore..."
He turned his head, and by then tears were already pouring nonstop from his eyes, soaking his face. His voice broke apart as he cried, so choked with grief that he could barely force the words out.
"I'm sick of it...! I'm sick of seeing people die in front of me... I'm so damn sick of it!"
A tight ache surged up into the audience's throats. They wanted to say something, but no words came. At the same time, their eyes began to sting.
Back in his office, Alex felt his own chest tighten. He quietly rubbed the inner corner of his eyes with a fingertip. Georgia, who had noticed that tiny movement, instantly brightened. For some reason, she suddenly found her domineering CEO of a boss almost unbearably adorable. He actually cried at scenes like this. Ah... now she really wanted to hug him.
But setting that aside, this genuinely was one of the classic scenes from Alex's previous life that had made him tear up.
To be honest, the man in JOJO who had made him cry the most had never been Jotaro, and it had not been Kakyoin either.
It was Polnareff.
The man who lost his sister first, then lost his closest friend, and in the end even lost his Stand. He was the one who hurt the most.
"I'm tearing up for real."
"So this is why he insisted on acting alone."
"This is what men should be watching."
"Joseph says he understands that feeling."
"When Alex starts handing out suffering in JOJO, he's completely ruthless. In Bleach, the ones dying were all Arrancar - he never touched the core team."
"Heh. Just wait. Watch how many people Alex kills off in season three."
And yes, that comment was downright prophetic.
Because for all the many problems with the Thousand-Year Blood War arc, there were still things worth learning from it. One of them was simple: you had to know how to hurt people. You had to know how to cut deep.
The man who had raped and murdered his sister was right in front of him, and now another ally had died protecting him. Consumed by rage, Polnareff nearly lunged straight at Hol Horse on the spot. But Kakyoin shouted him down, insisting that until they understood the enemy's ability, they absolutely could not act recklessly. He dragged Polnareff into a pickup truck and forced a retreat.
"T-that thing is catching up! It's in the mirror! It can move through the world inside reflections!"
While they were escaping, Kakyoin realized with mounting shock that the Hanged Man could travel through any surface with reflective properties - mirrors, glass, metal, anything capable of catching an image.
Then, after Kakyoin and Polnareff were forced to jump out of the truck to avoid being killed, a child who looked about seven or eight years old approached them out of concern.
"Mister, are you guys okay?"
And in the next second, both of them realized in horror that the Hanged Man was now inside the boy's eye.
That was right.
Human eyes reflected light too.
"Heh heh... Polnareff, if you want revenge, are you going to kill this child to get it? Hahahaha!"
Geil's voice oozed filth and mockery, crawling over the scene like something rotten.
"Y-you despicable bastard..."
"Motherfucker!"
There was no counting how many viewers started cursing at their screens right then and there. From Bleach to Death Note and now JOJO, they had seen plenty of vile antagonists before. There was DIO in Phantom Blood. There was Leorio Sguario. There were the criminals killed by Light Yagami. But scum like J. Geil belonged to a different category altogether. A rapist was already one of the most disgusting kinds of criminal imaginable, and now he was using a child as a shield.
Some of the more hot-blooded viewers practically wanted to smash their screens on the spot. They held back only because they wanted to see how Kakyoin and Polnareff were going to break an ability that seemed almost invincible.
"Heh heh..."
But then, to everyone's surprise, Polnareff started laughing.
"No, Kakyoin. In a moment like this, that's not what you should be saying. When you're taking revenge... this is what you say."
His eyes locked onto the Hanged Man in the boy's pupil with terrifying intensity.
"My name is Jean Pierre Polnareff."
Each word came out sharp and heavy, filled with a resolve so cold it almost made the air tremble.
"And I am going to drag you into the depths of despair, J. Geil."