"This ability... it turns the body into..."
Jotaro's shoes, his trousers, both legs—all of it had melted into liquid. His towering frame swayed like a paper model that would collapse at a breath of wind.
Tamaki Damo's Vitamin C was nothing like Spice Girl's softening effect, which turned the body into pliable, elastic rubber. Vitamin C dissolved the human body into a membranous film. It was virtually the ultimate counter to a close-combat Stand with A-rank Destructive Power and Speed. Jotaro had already been hit before he could stop time; a punch thrown with a liquefied fist did no damage whatsoever and would only wreck his own muscles and bones.
"Looks like your ability can stop time for two or three seconds, but what good is that once your body's turned into a puddle of sludge? Huh?"
Tamaki Damo's features were anything but friendly. That pencil mustache, thick brows, and clear stubble along his jaw, combined with those dead-fish eyes, could make any ordinary person feel suffocated. He carried the unmistakable stench of someone who'd spent time running with the yakuza. Jotaro steadied himself and calmly searched for any way to stall for time.
—My phone... no good. Even the phone's been reduced to film?
Jotaro wanted to contact Inori and Josuke outside.
But all he could fish out of his pocket was a sticky lump of goo. Worse, he felt as though he'd been submerged in water—his strength was draining away, and he was approaching his absolute limit.
Battles between Stand users were battles of intel. Without information on the enemy, even someone of Jotaro's caliber was powerless against an attack like this.
In the world of JoJo Part 8, Vitamin C had single-handedly taken down two protagonists—Yoshikage Kira and Josefumi Kujo, both of Joestar blood. Its lethality spoke for itself.
—Even Mr. Jotaro's been beaten? Damn it... I have to do something.
Rohan forced his Stand out.
"Heaven's Door!"
He knew it probably wouldn't work. The enemy would certainly avoid making contact with Heaven's Door. But a futile counterattack was still better than waiting to die.
Heaven's Door's form resembled the protagonist of his current serialized manga, Pink Dark Boy—the boy in the translucent hat flew out from Rohan's body. But right now, it was trapped in the same predicament as its user. It couldn't hold a humanoid shape at all.
When a Stand user was hit by Vitamin C, even their Stand was affected.
Heaven's Door had become a puddle of barely cohesive slurry, with only the face retaining any discernible features.
"Rohan Kishibe. You seem to have an ability that can rewrite people's behavior."
Tamaki Damo's grin turned vicious, and even his bangs quivered with excitement.
"If I were you, I'd track down Bill Gates and make him hand over everything he owns. Then I'd go sleep with every cover girl from every fashion magazine."
Most men chased beauty, status, and money—but for someone this brazenly shameless to boast about it to their face was proof enough that Tamaki Damo was scum through and through.
—Why is he standing here wasting time talking to us? He's not deploying his Stand. Does he really think Mr. Jotaro and I can't do anything to him in this state?
"I would never do something so pointless!"
Rohan released Heaven's Door, but under Vitamin C's influence, his range of movement had shrunk to almost nothing. Even his speed was agonizingly slow. If he wanted to land an attack on Tamaki Damo, he'd have to bait him into coming closer.
"Rohan Kishibe, have you ever been doused with water?"
Tamaki Damo muttered to himself, then suddenly pulled a half-empty water bottle from his pocket.
"What... what are you talking about all of a sudden?"
Rohan couldn't fathom why he'd bring that up.
Tamaki Damo wasn't tall, but the figure steadily closing in on him radiated a pressure that defied imagination. Rohan had no idea what he intended—all he could do was conserve every shred of energy and wait for the man to step within his current effective range.
"Your ability is far more dangerous to me than Jotaro Kujo's fists."
The malice on that face could make a child burst into tears. Jotaro, barely able to move off to the side, was now almost certain the man had extensive experience with interrogation and torture. Nine out of ten chance he'd been in the yakuza.
The man unscrewed the cap.
"So I need to make sure you're Retired before I can get on with anything else."
Rohan's expression hardened.
He realized what was about to happen—but there was absolutely nothing he could do to stop it.
Tamaki Damo poured the entire bottle of water over Rohan Kishibe's head. Under normal circumstances, cold water on skin was nothing. But in his current softened state, even a sheet of paper would cut through him like a blade through iron.
To Rohan, it felt as though someone had doused him with sulfuric acid.
Then he blacked out.
...
...
A few minutes earlier.
Inori and Josuke had come around to the backyard as planned and begun sifting through the clutter for any relevant details—but turned up nothing.
The garage door was open. Kira's car was still parked inside. Seeing this, Inori couldn't help but find it suspicious. She didn't buy for a second that Yoshikage Kira would have panicked this badly. For a man like him, there were no surprises in this world.
He would have predicted everything before anyone else, including the exact time she, Jotaro, and the others would enter the Kira Residence. Had he simply overslept and missed his window to escape? Only a certified genius like Okuyasu Nijimura would fall for that one.
—Come to think of it, Josuke hasn't reached that arc yet. The Nijimura brothers are still running around Morioh creating Stand users unchecked.
Inori glanced at Josuke. He was using Crazy Diamond to heal the half-dead potted plants, trying to see if restoring them might reveal some kind of clue.
"No good, Big Sis."
Josuke stood up and brushed the dirt off his hands, looking at Inori with a troubled expression.
"There's nothing here worth investigating. Why don't we head back inside? That guy obviously knew we were coming and skipped town!"
Something felt off—like they were overlooking some critical detail.
But Inori genuinely couldn't figure out what they'd missed. Maybe coming to Yoshikage Kira's house today had been the wrong call... though where else would he have gone? Surely he hadn't actually snuck off into the treeline over there just to watch the show?
—Extremely unlikely.
"Hey! What are you doing over there!"
The sudden shout made both Inori and Josuke snap to alert. They turned toward the voice and saw that at some point, a middle-aged woman had appeared on the elevated slope beyond the perimeter wall. Behind her stood another house—she appeared to be Yoshikage Kira's neighbor.
"Who are you? Friends of Mr. Kira's? What are you doing sneaking around in there?"
Inori studied the woman, her brow furrowing slightly.
The woman had a loud voice. She wore a fairly standard housewife's long skirt and was carrying a paper bag—looked like she was coming back from shopping. A perfectly normal appearance. But something about her struck Inori as wrong.
"Crap! Big Sis, I think she's mistaken us for burglars."
Josuke leaned in close and whispered urgently.
Inori didn't say much. She took a step forward, slipped out through the side gate in the yard, and walked toward the woman. Josuke had no choice but to hurry after her.
"Wh-what do you want?"
Seeing this odd pair of a boy and a girl striding silently toward her, the woman grew increasingly uneasy. She was about to turn and run—and call the police while she was at it.
But the moment the thought crossed her mind, the pink-haired girl materialized in front of her as if she'd teleported.
"You're... the enemy, aren't you? Huh?"
Inori seized the woman by the throat and growled in the swaggering tone of a delinquent girl.