stand-in creed

Nero suddenly opened his mouth and said with certainty.

A trace of panic flashed in the ghoul's eyes.

Nero took another step forward.

The moment he took a step, Nero himself immediately took a step back.

Nero really felt that something was swung towards his feet just now - there was a knife mark on the ground.

"...two meters."

Nero said so again.

Hearing Nero say this data, the ghoul became even more restless.

Nero took another step back thoughtfully.

"He is not tall, he should be a villain of tens of centimeters, right? The attack method is to slash, and the maximum distance from you cannot exceed two meters.

"All your actions are telling me that you need to get close to me in order to let me get within the range of "two meters".But at the same time, all your actions reveal the fact that you dare not approach me, you are afraid of something in me.

"And the only thing on me that can be related to "occultism" is Ripple.Considering that you have one vampire at a time, and one Ripple family at a time——

"—You are afraid of my ripples, right?"

Nero opened his arms, not only did not intend to approach the ghoul, but instead stepped back leisurely step by step.

The ghouls did not dare to approach Nero easily.

His stand-in information is indeed as Nero said, it is a doll with a height of only fifty centimeters, which looks like a lot of rags.The rag doll held a sharp knife in its hand, which was the stand-in's only means of attack.

A half-baked stand-in messenger.

Unable to pass the trial of the arrow, an unnamed defective product that was forcibly resurrected by Dio in the form of a ghoul.

"……and many more?!"

The ghoul suddenly realized something.

It was true that Nero just said "I'm not tall, so I should be a small person of tens of centimeters?" This "interrogative sentence", right?

This also means that he can't see the substitute at all!

He is not a stand-in messenger!

He is cheating on me!

"You are not a stand-in messenger!!!"

The ghoul suddenly realized the problem.

The ghoul, who was initially startled and afraid that Nero's stand-in would sneak up on him secretly, suddenly had a lot of confidence in his scarlet eyes.

But when he finally confidently prepared to charge Nero, Nero asked him another question.

"You haven't actually seen Ripple, have you?

"When I found out that you were obviously afraid of Ripples, but ran to me on a rainy day, I realized that you have never really seen Ripples. You just got some information from Mr. Dio you said."

Nero said seriously.

But this sentence Nero was wrong, because the information obtained by the ghoul did not come directly from Dio, but only from one of Dio's subordinates.

"……rain?"

The ghoul didn't understand what that meant.

Nero asked back, "Have you ever been in the water?"

This question goes a little far.

The ghoul couldn't figure out what happened at this moment had anything to do with the water drift.

Nero only said: "Sometimes I go to the river to do barbecue, and when I am bored, I will float in the water. But there are very few flat, round stones that are really suitable for floating in the water. Yes, so when I can't find a rock suitable for swimming, I try to make one myself-

"—water."

Nero pressed his hand into the puddle on the ground.

Golden ripples shrouded the water surface, turning into one after another high-speed rotating discs around Nero's side.

And when Nero waved his hand forward like the conductor of a symphony orchestra, water floats flew across the rain curtain one after another, bursting with rippled brilliance and galloping towards the ghoul in front.

"Stop these water drifters! My double!!!"

The puppet jumped up high, swung its sharp knife and slashed at the first approaching ripple water float.

The water float was cut off and turned into torn apart sprays.

It's just that the power of the ripples is still flowing in these splashes, splashing on the stand-in.

"Ah ah ah ah ah--!!!"

The ghoul screamed.

The next moment the rippled water droplets landed on the stand-in, the stand-in and the ghoul began to burn, as if those splashes were not rainwater at all, but molten steel in the furnace of the steel factory.

No one ever told about ghoul doubles being able to infect Ripple.

Because no one knows.

Dio didn't know either.

Or in other words, just because Dio was not sure whether the vampire's double could directly touch the ripples, so Dio sent this half-baked ghoul's double emissary to Rome, in front of the Zeppelins, and made such a small test.

The test went well.

The granulation buried in the mind of the ghoul accurately fed back the situation here to the body in Egypt.

Egypt.

In a mansion in Cairo.

After draining a woman's blood casually, Dior thoughtfully picked up a book and sat back on the bed, talking to himself.

"I see, it seems that even my "world" cannot easily come into contact with Ripple.

"In the intelligence, although Joseph, the grandson of JOJO, seems to be the Ripple Messenger, his stand-in ability is too weak, and there is no threat at all; as for the grandson of Joseph, I will leave it to you, my friend——

"—Kakyoin."

Chapter 5 Slaves of Fate

"Ah ah ah ah ah--!!!"

The ghoul screamed.

The moment the rippled water splashed on the enemy's invisible stand-in, one after another magma-like dazzling fire holes bloomed on the enemy's body and spread towards the whole body.If this trend continues, this inhuman existence will turn into ashes and disappear in this world within a few seconds.

Nero calculated that the enemy was afraid of ripples, but he didn't calculate that the power of ripples would be so great.

Seeing that the enemy was about to dissipate, Nero immediately rushed up and shouted.

"Where is that man named Dio?!"

Nero had a lot of questions to ask, but obviously the ghoul didn't have enough time to answer so many questions, so Nero only picked the most important question to ask the ghoul who was about to be destroyed.

However, when the burning ghoul heard this question, it stopped screaming and slowly grinned ferociously.

"do not know!

"Even if I knew, I would never tell you!

"Master Dio is my benefactor, a rainbow in the dark night, the savior who rescued me from despair! Maybe my power is so slight that I can't do anything for Lord Dio, but at least my belief in Lord Dio is absolutely Will be shaken!"

"...That's it."

Nero understood perfectly.

The man in front of him has faith in Dior beyond money, power, and lust. It is impossible to get information from this man.

"But there is one thing I can tell you, boy."

"Ok?"

"Before trying to inquire about Lord Dio's information, you should worry about yourself first! The wild hunt has already begun, even if you escape to the ends of the earth, you will not be able to escape from Lord Dio..."

boom.

Nero, who was too lazy to listen to these nonsense, stepped on his rippled right foot without any hesitation, burning the last trace of the ghoul's flesh and blood into a cloud of dust, which dissipated under the rain in the cemetery.

Dust to dust.

Earth to Earth.

Nero turned his head and looked at the tombs not far away.

"Dad, mom, grandma, and a grandpa I've never met.

"I'm going on a long trip, so...the next visit to the grave may be a little later."

After leaving such words, Nero walked towards the outside of the cemetery.

The rain in Rome was getting heavier and heavier.

In the rush of people rushing home, Nero walked calmly on the street, passing by the busy crowd.

After sweeping the grave, Nero was not in a hurry to go home.

Pursuing the memory of two weeks ago, Nero returned to the streets near the University of Rome, looking for the trace of the gypsy girl and the real fortune-teller.

Now Nero has fully understood that he is a "genuine" fortune teller.

"Ten of Cups" and "Two of Swords", the two Minor Arcana Tarot cards that symbolize the past and the present, have been fulfilled, and the rest is the vinyl record of "Stairway to Heaven" that symbolizes the future.Although he didn't know what this "future" represented, Nero believed that the fortune teller must have her deep meaning.

And the most important thing is, maybe this fortune teller can divination to Dior's location.

It's a pity that things didn't go as Nero wanted.

"...not here.

"That's right, with such a heavy rain, even a charlatan would close his stall and go home, let alone a real fortune-teller."

In the open space between the shops, there is only an open space left for the stalls that belonged to the gypsy girl.

Looking at the pattering rain, Nero could only guess whether it was because of the bad weather that he closed the stall, so he had to return disappointed.

"Come back tomorrow."

Nero thought so.

But suddenly, the supermarket next door that was closed and turned off suddenly turned on the lights.

Immediately afterwards, the gypsy girl with a cigarette in her mouth opened the door of the supermarket, leaning on the door frame and looking at Nero standing there.

"This supermarket...is your store?"

Nero unknowingly used honorifics.

The gypsy girl nodded: "Few people believe in illusory prophecies. You can't make much money by divination alone. I have to find a way to support myself. So I will be here when the weather is good... Uh cough cough cough! Put a Shop, working as a fortune teller. If the weather is bad, I can stay in the shop with peace of mind."

When the gypsy girl coughed, she had a slightly painful expression on her face, and she seemed to be in poor health.

Nero was a little confused: "Obviously prophesied..."

"The prophecy is not as powerful as you think, child. No matter how accurate the prophecy is, it is no match for a destiny that is more vast than stardust.

"You think that you only need to find a financier, and then show your talents, tell the other party that you can predict the rise and fall of stocks, oil, and changes in the international situation, so that the other party can override fate and make a lot of money, and then let me Reassuring dividends? There is no such good thing in this world.

"No one can defy the established destiny.

"No matter how detailed the future is for a person who is doomed to have no fortune, she will fall from a brilliant and embraced rich lady overnight to a prodigal son on the street—such as myself."

The gypsy girl exhaled lightly.

It is clearly talking about the old things that I have experienced, but it seems to be talking about the hearsay jokes from others.

"Fate doesn't change because of what you know and what you don't know.

"The more I try to control fate, try to override fate, the more I understand a truth——

"—each of us is a slave to fate."

Such a statement sounds negative to the extreme.

If Nero was the protagonist of a passionate manga, he would probably clenched his fists and shouted a few words like "I will break your bound fate", "I will become Hokage" and other seemingly passionate but meaningless If so, but Nero is not this kind of person.