Moving out didn't require much packing. Inori barely owned anything, and Yasuho hoped she'd come back to keep her company, so she left her belongings where they were. After dinner, she headed back to the Morioh Grand Hotel with Josuke.
Rohan had already turned in for the night. He'd pulled an all-nighter working on his manuscript, and his original plan to rest through the morning had been torpedoed when Inori dragged him out of bed. Between that and everything else that had happened, both his body and his mind were running on fumes.
The night passed without incident. After a quick breakfast in the hotel restaurant the next morning, the newly christened "Morioh Kira-Hunting Team" set out for the Kira Residence. Yoshikage Kira's home lay in the northeast part of town—not terribly far from the hotel—but Inori kept her guard up the entire drive, scrutinizing every remotely suspicious thing along the road.
Jotaro was behind the wheel. Josuke dozed in the passenger seat. Rohan sat in the back with a file of materials Jotaro had dug up the night before, legs crossed, brow furrowed as he sifted through the intel and read aloud.
"Yoshikage Kira. Born January 30, 1966 in Morioh. His parents had him late in life. His father, Yoshihiro Kira, died of illness when Kira was twenty-one, and his mother eventually passed as well, of old age. He graduated from D University's literature department in 1988 and joined the Kameyu Department Store's S City branch that same year. Transferred to the Morioh branch in 1993."
He paused briefly, then continued.
"Unmarried. No criminal record. No close friends. No romantic partners. No medical history."
"Huh? There are actually people that squeaky-clean these days?"
Josuke couldn't help blurting out his surprise.
Rohan still seemed to harbor a grudge against him. He paused for a beat, then continued.
"If he's truly gone underground—or left Morioh entirely—there's no way we can track him through fingerprints or anything like that."
"We'll figure something out. My grandpa's a police officer here in Morioh. We could ask him to put out a wanted notice." A lightbulb went off in Josuke's head.
"Idiot." Rohan doused it without mercy. "Do we have evidence of Yoshikage Kira committing a crime? A wanted notice requires filing a case first, then getting approval."
"Didn't you say there was a ghost lady who's been stuck here for fifteen years?"
Josuke turned around in his seat, expression flat, visibly annoyed at being shot down.
"Ha." Rohan let out a single dry laugh, his eyes flickering with contempt. "Josuke Higashikata, are you seriously going to tell the police that we received a report from a ghost, and that the suspect is a Stand user whose ability is literally a bomb?"
Josuke wasn't stupid, just straightforward. He saw immediately that this road was a dead end. Even if they had evidence, there was no way to involve the police. Stand users could only be dealt with by other Stand users.
"...Then what do we do?"
Putting Josuke in his place should have felt satisfying, but Rohan took no pleasure in it. Because it was the truth. With just the four of them, finding Yoshikage Kira was going to be incredibly difficult—and even if they did find him, he could use his time rewind to dodge every timeline that put him at a disadvantage.
The more Rohan thought about it, the more hopeless it felt.
"Inori, what do you think?"
He turned to the girl sitting on the other side of the back seat.
"Mm."
She made a vague sound and snapped back to attention, turning to face Rohan.
"You were spacing out? While we're discussing strategy?"
"I was listening."
Inori's elbow rested on the door frame, chin propped in her hand, expression perfectly natural.
She'd been watching the window like a hawk the whole time. A stray dog that stared at their car a little too long had been enough to trigger a preemptive Epitaph scan—she wasn't taking any chances with an ambush from an unknown Stand user.
The lesson from Born This Way had taught her that Kira was almost certainly still in his original home. Otherwise, why go to the trouble and expense of stationing a Stand user to guard it?
But that was yesterday. Yoshikage Kira was a Stand user who could rewind time. His single day could be dozens upon dozens of days. He might have already fled. On that front, Inori almost hoped they'd run into a Stand user trying to intercept them along the way—that would prove Kira was still holed up at home. Split the team, and the odds of catching him in the act were good.
"Relax. Yoshikage Kira will never leave Morioh."
"Why?"
Rohan and Josuke asked in unison. Even Jotaro, eyes on the road, couldn't help stealing a glance, curious to hear why she was so confident.
"He's the kind of man who'd cut off his own hand just to get a good night's sleep. Morioh is his hometown—the only place in the world where he feels safe. He gave up a perfectly good career in S City and transferred back here precisely because, like you, Rohan-sensei, he can't stand the noise of the big city and all the exhausting social maneuvering that comes with it."
"..."
Rohan pursed his lips and said nothing.
—Did I just get insulted?!
"He knows our Stands. He knows about the Joestar family's resources. Even without the police, we could deploy enough people to search for him across the entire town. That, I think, is the real reason he hasn't given up after so many failed loops—he knows he'll never sleep soundly again unless he eliminates us first."
The girl laid out this analysis in a flat, matter-of-fact tone that left all three men in the car feeling like a fog had lifted. Rohan's expression softened. Josuke exhaled and grinned.
"So what you're saying is, we have to settle this right here in Morioh? That's exactly what I wanted to hear! I'm gonna drag that bastard out and beat him senseless!"
Confidence was fine, but recklessness could get you killed. The closer you got to the critical moment, the more important it was to keep your head clear—to focus entirely on the task at hand. Telling yourself "I'm definitely going to win" was just numbing yourself with empty confidence. It did more harm than good.
"Remember your role, Josuke. Don't rush in."
"I know, Big Sis. Don't worry, I'll follow your lead."
Josuke's answer was firm.
—Sigh.
At this rate, that "Big Sis" nickname was never going away. Then again, she had no one to blame but herself—she'd hauled a kid who hadn't even left the tutorial zone straight to the final boss. She just hoped he'd grow up fast.
...
...
A few minutes later, they arrived.
(③)
On Inori's suggestion, Jotaro parked on an open lot one street over. The four of them got out, formed up, and advanced cautiously toward Yoshikage Kira's villa.
A cool breeze blew in from the sea. The sun had vanished behind a thick bank of clouds, dropping the temperature by a few degrees—whether that was an omen or just the weather, Inori couldn't tell. It reminded her of those two years spent walking the roads of GHQ-controlled Tokyo, always planning, always calculating. She felt a pang of something like nostalgia.
(③)
At the bottom of this slope stood a two-story villa with a surrounding yard.
Yoshikage Kira's home.
Inori glanced at her watch.
Around nine in the morning. The one thing she could say for certain was that Kira had already rewound today countless times. Once he learned that she and Jotaro's team would inevitably show up at his doorstep today, how would he respond?
Two options. Fight to the death, or retreat to somewhere else in Morioh. If it was the latter, she'd move to the next phase—the long game. She'd mobilize every available Stand user in town to track him down.
But if he wanted to fight... what kind of Stand user would he produce to stop them?
Rewinding time was, in a sense, equivalent to seeing multiple possible futures. All Kira had to do was find the one that benefited him most.
And yet Inori couldn't imagine what Stand could possibly counter their lineup. Jotaro was invincible in a head-on fight. Rohan's ability hard-countered any kind of trick or gimmick. Josuke provided healing. And she herself could use Epitaph to dodge any surprise attack.
—If you really have something that can stop us, then bring it. Show me what you've got, Yoshikage Kira.