After Kitagawa Marin finished trying on the outfit, Diego arranged a time with her to go together and buy the remaining parts for the cosplay.
Then, carrying the giant fufu in one arm and holding several manga volumes in the other, he returned to the Hori house.
"I'm back from messing around outside—"
"Waaah waaah waaah, big brother!" Sota came running over with teardrop pearls hanging from his eyes.
Diego set the items on the table, crouched down, and patted Sota's head. "What's wrong? Who bullied our little Sota?"
Sota cautiously peeked half his head out from behind Diego and mustered his courage to say, "Jolyne… bullied me…"
"Nonsense!" Jolyne Cujoh popped out from who-knows-where and pointed at Sota. "Why are you crying? You're a boy, aren't you?"
"…Stupid Jolyne!" Sota summoned the greatest courage of his life and shouted what he considered the most vicious insult.
"What?! You little—Sota! Whenever you run into trouble, you just go crying to big sister Hori and big brother Dio!" Jolyne instantly flew into a rage.
"Ahaha…" Diego gave a helpless laugh. "So what exactly happened? Where's Hori? How come she's not home?"
He quietly shifted his gaze toward Jolyne.
She only really lets loose when she's with kids her own age… Is she already showing her old man's personality at such a young age? Wait—no, that faint pale blue thread on her body…
"Big sister Hori went grocery shopping an hour ago. After that it was just Sota playing with me." Jolyne raised her hand to answer Diego's question. "Just now Sota and I were wrestling, but after he got thrown once he kept running away and crying for big sister."
"I don't wanna wrestle anymore." Sota squatted on the ground hugging his head as if he'd been traumatized, his body trembling slightly.
"It doesn't even hurt when you fall on the mat. I even read manga with you." Jolyne pointed at Sota again. "And now you're squatting like that again. That's exactly why you're so weak. What are you going to do if someone bullies you at school with that personality?"
"B-Because… I got hit…" Sota looked up at Jolyne. "Besides, I want you to praise me too. I'm the type who gets better when I'm praised."
"Are you kidding?! Aren't you already being gently pampered by big sister Hori? But you're not tough at all—just timid and weak…"
"Jolyne always says mean stuff like that…"
"If saying nice things about you would make you stronger, I'd do it without hesitation." Jolyne put her hands on her hips and stared Sota down.
Well, with Jolyne around, looks like I don't have to worry about Sota's personality anymore.
"Alright, stop fighting. I brought presents for both of you." Diego clapped his hands to stop them, then placed one hand on each of their heads.
…
"Praise me more…" Hori stared at Diego in disbelief. "Huh…?"
"Then Sota and Jolyne got tired and fell asleep. Right now they're both sprawled out on the mat napping." Diego gave a thumbs-up and pointed behind him—at Jolyne hugging the fufu and Sota clutching a manga book.
"Huh? That manga Sota's holding—isn't that…?"
"Yeah, this one. I picked it up at the convention and bought it for him. He told me before that he likes it."
"Ugh… It feels like I owe you more and more gratitude…"
"Gulp~~ How about giving my shoulders a massage in return?"
"Sure."
Hori sat Diego down on the sofa. She cracked her knuckles with a series of pops, interlaced her ten fingers, then eagerly pressed down.
"WRYYYYYYYY—!"
Hey hey hey, what's with that strength? Sure my body is tough, but this definitely isn't massage-level pressure… more like…
Murder…
"Haa… Dio, what are you yelling about? Did I hurt you?" Hori, startled by the bizarre cry, asked.
"Ah, sorry. Feels great." Diego rubbed his neck, twisted left and right, then shamelessly flopped down onto Hori's lap. "I'm super awake right now. You've got some real skill."
With that, Diego slowly closed his eyes and savored the rare moment of peace.
Looking at Diego's face, Hori's gaze softened. She gently patted his back as if coaxing a baby to sleep.
"…I'm not asleep yet. What's with this baby-soothing technique?"
"It doesn't matter. It's exactly because you're here, Dio, that I can take my time going shopping. You've been a huge help. This is your reward for being a good boy."
Reward for a good boy… That really takes me back. Ever since Mom left, it's been ages since I last heard those words.
"…By the way, Sota doesn't mention his mom and dad much. Even when he's bullied, he just calls for big sister."
"Maybe he's been holding it in all this time. That's exactly why I have to pull myself together too." A trace of sorrow crossed Hori's face, but it quickly turned into a smile.
"Oh right, Dio. Since we have the chance, how about I clean your ears?"
"Sounds pretty nice. Alright then—I grant you the privilege of cleaning this great one's ears." Diego turned sideways so his ear faced Hori. "Do the other side depending on how good this one feels."
"Yes yes, my great Lord Dio. Then I'll begin, dear customer…" Hori lovingly ruffled Diego's hair, picked up a cotton swab, and carefully began cleaning his ear. "By the way, I ran into Yuki and the others while shopping for groceries today."
"Huh? That notebook girl?"
"Hey, at least remember people's names properly." Hori poked Diego's head.
She was met with Diego's half-hearted reply.
"No doubt about it—but all strong people share one common trait. I just forgot what it was."
"Jeez… Alright, turn over. I'll do the other side. Yuki… she didn't recognize me. She told her friends I probably wouldn't look so dowdy…"
"Sniff sniff, mmm, smells nice." Diego acted like he hadn't heard and turned his head the other way—toward Hori's stomach—exposing his ear while burying his face against her. "She has no taste. Loungewear is clearly the best."
"Wait… that tickles—don't—" Hori's entire face flushed red, her hands trembling slightly.
The next second, the cotton swab plunged deeper into Diego's ear canal.
"WRYYYYYYYY—!"
"Aaaahhh! Stupid Dio, you're going to wake Sota and Jolyne!"
(Cold fact: Like felines, dick-possessing creatures only expose their vital points when they feel completely safe.)
…
—10 a.m., Diego's house—
"Muda muda muda muda muda muda!!"
"Muda muda muda muda muda muda!!"
Diego was teaching Jolyne how to use her Stand—but the lesson seemed to be going in a rather odd direction.
After teaching her to gather the strings into a three-dimensional humanoid form, the very first lesson in Diego's little class was…
You have to yell "Muda" when you're comboing.
"I can't anymore, big brother Dio. I can't hold it." Sweat beaded on Jolyne's face. The training dummy used for practice finally collapsed with one last "Muda."
"Oh my, oh my, that's incredible. You did wonderfully!" Diego lifted Jolyne up and ruffled her head in encouragement. "The only tiny shortcoming is that your mental strength is still a bit weak. The duration you can maintain Stone Free is too short."
Because Jolyne's Stand was awakened by the Cosmic Stone, Diego named it Stone Free, carrying his hope that she would one day gain freedom from her bonds.
Suddenly, the little dinosaur residing in the Cosmic Stone sent back a signal: the ring's owner was under attack.
"Hm?! The World—stop time immediately!" The instant he sensed the Cosmic Stone ring being activated, Diego halted time.
Scary Monsters' ability can infect even inanimate objects into dinosaurs.
The moment it detected its host in danger, a dinosaur claw hooked out like a barb, triggering Scary Monsters to instantly dinosaurify the host while transmitting the information to Diego.
And through the projection position of the Cosmic Stone, Diego could rush to the battlefield at once.
He could even briefly project his consciousness through the dinosaurified Cosmic Stone.
Scary Monsters combined with the Cosmic Stone's projection capability—that was one of the reasons Diego had the confidence to promise Jotaro Kujo he would protect Jolyne and her mother during their negotiation.
"Big brother Dio, what's this?" Jolyne, sitting on Diego's arm, cautiously poked his cheek. "Why did everything around us stop moving?"
"Jolyne?! You can move during stopped time too?" Diego, who had been rushing forward, looked at her in surprise, then quickly realized. "No—you can only move because you're touching me."
"It feels like you let me move, big brother Dio. I sensed a thought, and suddenly I noticed time had stopped."
"Muda muda!" The World suddenly popped up behind Diego and proudly shouted "Muda," as if begging for praise.
"Oh? So it was your doing. That opens up a lot of possibilities…" Diego accelerated his pace even further and arrived in Morioh in the blink of an eye.
It seems that during time stop, physical contact can cancel the time stop for other living beings…
(PS: Diego's time stop has very high priority and is the only one that allows a horse and himself to act simultaneously during stopped time.)
In Morioh, what appeared before Diego was an elderly man on the verge of collapse, coughing up blood. From his uniform, he was a local police officer. An open bottle of sake sat on the table.
A small humanoid Stand made entirely of water (Aqua Necklace) was inside the old man's mouth, and in his hand he held Diego's Cosmic Stone ring.
Clearly, if Diego hadn't stopped time—even if the old man had been dinosaurified—his internal organs or brain would have been shredded.
"But fortunately, it looks like I made it in time. The attack just started…" Diego gripped Aqua Necklace tightly and yanked it out of the mouth. "Six seconds passed. Jolyne! Let him witness our hot-blooded combo technique."
"Okay!"
The World and Stone Free appeared in front of Aqua Necklace. A massive bundle of strings tightly bound the watery Stand.
The next second—
"Muda muda muda muda muda!" ×2
"Seven seconds passed. Time resumes flowing."
As expected, the duration I can stop time is increasing as my mental strength keeps surging.
"Buha—!"
Angelo, who had been hiding not far from the Higashikata house, was instantly blown away. Blood gushed from his mouth nonstop as his body flopped powerlessly to the ground like a dead fish.
"What… the hell… my bones are completely shattered… I clearly… was about to shred Josuke Higashikata's grandfather's organs!"
"Uwaaah—! What are these dinosaurs—stop, nooooo—!"
At the same time, Josuke Higashikata—who had come to retrieve the bottle containing Aqua Necklace to deliver it to Jotaro—heard the noise and hurriedly burst through the door.
"Gra… Grandpa…"
Josuke rushed over, summoned Crazy Diamond, and used its ability to heal Josuke Higashikata's grandfather's wounds.
"Diego Brando! Why are you here?! What's your connection to Angelo—!"
"Hm? Oh my, oh my, isn't this the little brat who was peeking at me from the alley that day? How did my Cosmic Stone ring end up here…"
Diego hugged Jolyne Cujoh tightly in his arms, met Josuke's furious gaze, and leisurely retrieved the Cosmic Stone ring from the old man's hand.
"Jotaro Kujo, get out here and explain why my ring is in this place." Veins bulged on Diego's forehead as his skin began to crack, entering a half-dinosaurified state.
Immediately after, he muttered an incantation. Wind spirits whipped up a gale in the room, forcing Aqua Necklace back into its bottle.
"…I'll deal with you later."