1-5-① The Hierophant Revived ①

Table of Contents 　Preface & Notes　　Previous Chapter (1-4-③ The Past Attacks, The Truth Pursues ③)

“W-what the... what is this...”
Josuke muttered the same line as before.

Lying face up on the concrete floor was, by all appearances, a man.

He was about the same height as Josuke but slightly thinner, with a lean, muscular build. The green school uniform he wore was a common type, similar to the one at Josuke's school, but it was a long-style jacket with extended tails. He wore brown leather shoes.
His distinctive hair was a rare reddish-brown, with long hair at the nape of his neck, bangs parted in the middle around his eyebrows, and the rest swept back, though a single lock of his right bangs was grown long, drawing a gentle wave down to his chin. The bangs, though a different color, were the same style as the “senior” he had seen earlier.
His narrow, slit-like eyes were closed, with vertical scars running through both of them. A well-defined nose followed, and his wide, distinct mouth was slightly open. Both ears were adorned with the same pair of cherry earrings he had seen earlier. Although his hair color was different, his skin suggested he was Japanese or of a similar ethnicity.

Looking only at his face, he gave a delicate, gentle, and feminine impression, but beneath that, his thick, sturdy neck revealed an Adam's apple above his collar, and with his broad chest and large hands with long fingers, he was clearly a man. Moreover, he was still young. Perhaps two or three years older than Josuke, he was likely still a minor. A boy, or perhaps a young man.

Josuke was confused, standing a little distance away.

Josuke's Stand had more power than a human, so it could punch, kick, and destroy things, but its most notable feature was its “healing” ability.
It could return broken things to their original state or heal the injuries of a person, but as an application, it could also revert manufactured items back to their raw material stage, or change their shape while healing them.
This healing ability was extremely powerful; even if an object or a part of a body was separated from the main body, applying the ability to that part would cause it to lift, float through the air, fly back to the main body, and reattach to heal.
And the reverse was also possible. In other words, one could apply the healing ability to a part and have the main body fly toward it. Provided the main body was capable of movement.
Josuke had learned today that this ghost-like, guardian-spirit-like entity that appeared behind him was called a “Stand,” but he had been using that Stand for over ten years and could now move it like his own limbs. Sometimes it wouldn't return to its original state and its shape would change, but the principles of the “healing” ability had never once differed.

The piece of flesh the parrot had spat out earlier had returned properly to Kakyoin's ear.

Similarly, the cherry earring tangled in hair that the parrot had spat out was the same one the “senior” had been wearing. At least, that was how it looked to Josuke. He thought the parrot must have swallowed something she had dropped somewhere.
That was why he had used his ability, thinking the “senior” would fly over via his “healing” ability.

Yet, what appeared was a man with the same hairstyle.

Moreover, the way he appeared was unlike anything before.
Even if there had been a man who wore similar cherry earrings and dropped them, if he were to “heal” him, the body should have been pulled over as it was.
However, for some reason, a film stretched out from the parrot's Stand, forming the shape of a man and appearing.

The parrot was lying on the floor inside the birdcage Josuke had made, its eyes closed. It looked a bit limp and tired.

Boingo remained frozen, staring at the man with wide eyes.

“Ugh...”
The thin eyebrows of the reclining young man twitched, a groan escaped his lips, and Josuke and Boingo jumped in surprise.
It seemed he had woken up.

The reddish-brown-haired man opened his eyes slightly while knitting his brows, covered his face from his forehead with his right hand, and sat up while slowly shaking his head.
“Damn... my head hurts...”
It was Japanese.
The man, now in a sitting position on the floor, frowned and shook his head repeatedly while looking around. “Where is this... what did that butler do... Jo...” he said, then turned his gaze toward them, meeting the eyes of Josuke and the others, who were staring in bewilderment.
The man immediately stood up, glared at them with a sharp expression, and shouted, “You bastards! Are you with that butler!?”
But Josuke didn't understand what he was saying.
“Eh... what? You? English?? Eh?”
When Josuke replied in confusion, the reddish-brown-haired man's expression turned suspicious. He stared at Josuke, then looked at Boingo, who was frozen with his mouth hanging open.
“...Are you Japanese? Aren't you with that butler? Why are you in a place like this?”
He switched back to Japanese and began speaking to Josuke.
“What do you mean ‘why’... why are you here...”
“Were you caught in their pulling-in ability? This place is going to become a battlefield. I'm telling you for your own good, get out of here.”
The man snapped at Josuke and the others before starting to look around. He seemed irritable, or perhaps anxious and on edge, the moment he woke up.
He continued, sounding annoyed that Josuke and the others weren't moving, “Are you still here? This place is dangerous, you're still just a kid, aren't you? Go, quickly!”
（What the hell, you suddenly appear and... aren't you a student too, by the looks of it?）
Being talked down to by a stranger in the same school uniform as him, Josuke felt annoyed.

Just then, footsteps sounded from the stairs, and Hol Horse came climbing up.

“Hey! Josuke! And Boingo too!”
He cut through the hallway and entered the classroom area.
“Ah, brother...”

“Hol Horse!?!”
The reddish-brown-haired young man shouted. He said Hol Horse's name in English.
Hol Horse looked toward the voice, his eyes widened, and he froze.
“W-what... you... Kakyoi...”
Meanwhile, the young man's face turned to reveal open hostility toward Hol Horse.
“Hol Horse, you bastard!!! Did you come to kill us again!!!”
A green ghost appeared behind the young man.

“Stand! This guy, he’s a Stand user...”

The phantom became a humanoid Stand and thrust both hands out in front of its body.
“Emerald Splash!”
A greenish fountain and a multitude of green jewels erupted from the Stand’s hands, blasting toward Hol Horse and sending him flying with great force.
“B-Brother!”
“...H-Hol Horse.”
Boingo ran out into the hallway where Hol Horse had been sent flying.

Josuke turned to face the one who had blasted Hol Horse away.

The Stand that had appeared beside the young man in the green uniform was a slender, humanoid figure with a melon-like mesh pattern that shimmered and wavered on its green body. It had hard-looking protectors on its head, ears, mouth, arms, and legs. Its eyes were solid yellow with vertical lines, and overall, it felt like a hero from a tokusatsu sentai show, much like Ultraman.

“You bastard, how dare you hurt my brother!”
Josuke also manifested his own Stand, punched the floor in front of the parrot’s cage with it, and created a concrete wall.

“You’re a Stand user too!? Are you one of Hol Horse’s underlings!”
The green Stand thrust its hands out toward Josuke just as it had before, unleashing an attack that fired green jewels.
“DORARARARARARARARARARAAAA!”
As Josuke ran toward his opponent, he used his Stand’s fists to deflect the jewels.
“What! He deflected the Emerald Splash!!”
“DORA!!”
Josuke closed the distance and swung at his opponent, but the Stand’s arm unraveled like a string, stretched far back to wrap around a pillar, and pulled the young man away to safety.
Josuke, having missed his strike, was stunned.
(It’s long! That’s at least 25 meters, the length of three classrooms! What kind of range is that! My brother’s bullets go far, but this guy’s main body moves itself! Is there really a Stand like this out there?!)
Meanwhile, the young man whose attack had been deflected was also surprised.
(What power! To punch away an Emerald Splash like that! Isn’t that on par with Star Platinum?!)

“Then how about this?”
The humanoid green Stand began to lose its shape, melting from the waist down.
“W-what is this?”
Green strings spread across the concrete floor like a net, wrapped around Josuke’s legs, and yanked him, sending him flying through the air.
“Wh—Dora!”
As Josuke punched and tore through the strings and fell onto the concrete floor, the Emerald Splash from before activated and erupted toward him.
“Guh.”
He frantically tried to defend with his Stand, but he was too late, and his leg was injured.
“You bastard!”
He began to stomp and crush the green strings spreading across the floor—which looked like tentacles when they wiggled—and moved closer to his opponent.
“Trying to play Whac-A-Mole? Emerald Splash!”
This time, the attack came from the wall to the side, and his arm was injured.
In response, Josuke used his Stand to smash the floor, picking up the concrete debris one after another and throwing them at the young man.
“Urgh.”
The young man dodged or blocked them with his Stand’s tentacles.
Punching the floor, picking up debris, throwing it, running, then punching again, picking up, throwing, and running.
“Are we playing Red Light, Green Light?!”
Josuke closed the distance, shouted “Gotcha!” as he reached the young man, and swung, “DORAAAAAA!!”
But the young man floated upward.
He had wrapped his tentacles around the exposed steel beams in the ceiling and pulled himself up.
He vaulted over Josuke, traveled through the air, and landed at a distance from him.

The two glared at each other while catching their breath.
(This is my first time fighting a Stand user with my own Stand, but man, this guy is used to this. Damn it.)
(Jotaro and Mr. Joestar, who were pulled into the hole in the floor with the butler, aren’t here. If they haven’t shown themselves even with all this noise, does that mean they aren’t nearby? Looking at that long hallway earlier, it seems there’s a Stand user who uses illusions, but this floor feels real. What does this mean? In a situation where I don’t know what kind of Stand user is lurking, it’s bad to keep being separated inside DIO’s mansion. Even though Mr. Joestar said that, I can’t believe Avdol would really unleash flames, but I have to regroup with them quickly!)
“Where is that butler named D’Arby! What did you do with Jotaro and the others!”
“Huh? D’Arby? Who’s that?”
“...Aren’t you an ally of Hol Horse?”
“That’s right! I won’t forgive anyone who hurts my brother!”
Josuke started to dash toward his opponent again, and the young man’s green Stand began to spread its tentacles.
Then, the concrete debris that Josuke had smashed and thrown earlier began to float in the air and fly around.
“W-what?!!”
Looking closely, the broken and scattered floor debris was returning to the original floor and “healing.”
(Healing what was broken... Is that this Stand’s ability?!!)

The young man used his Stand’s tentacles to avoid the concrete debris that was flying and moving to heal itself. Furthermore, Josuke smashed the floor and pillars with his Stand and threw them at the young man one after another.
With flying debris and healing debris, concrete and pillars were flying around the room in every direction, and the young man flew around everywhere, dodging and deflecting them.
The young man, who had wrapped his Stand’s tentacles around a flying pillar to stop it and drop it to the floor, had a look of slight impatience on his face.
“I’ll ask you one more time! Where is that butler! What did you do with Jotaro and the others!”
“Aaaah!! I told you I don’t know, you idiot!!!”
(Does this underling of Hol Horse really not know about the butler or Jotaro and the others? If so, I have no choice but to ask Hol Horse directly. His Emperor is powerful, but if I use my Hierophant to pin his right hand with my tentacles, I can subdue him!)
The young man glanced at the hallway where Hol Horse and the others were and began to move toward it.
Seeing this, Josuke said,
“Your opponent is me, you bastard!!!”
He threw an exceptionally large pillar to block the exit, and the young man wrapped his tentacles around the ceiling again, flew through the air just below the ceiling, moved in the opposite direction of the space, and tried to land on the floor.
However, Josuke did not chase the young man; he ran toward the pillar he had thrown and picked it up.
Then, the pillar “healed,” and it flew toward the pillar section next to where the young man was about to land, with Josuke along with it.
Josuke, carrying the pillar, flew right next to the young man who was about to land.

“Wh—oh no...!”
“Gotcha! Your torso is wide open!!”
Josuke’s Stand tried to punch the young man,
but it passed right through his torso.

“?!!”
“?!!!”

Both of them stood frozen in place.

Josuke was confused once again. His Stand’s fist had definitely connected at the right timing, and he should have punched him in the stomach.
Yet, it had passed right through.
A Stand can choose to touch or pass through objects and people, but this time, he had definitely intended to deal damage to his opponent.
(What does this mean?)

Meanwhile, the young man was looking in a different direction, clutching his own abdomen.
Even though he hadn’t been punched, he seemed to have received some kind of shock.

“Josuke.”
Hol Horse, who was injured and bleeding in various places, approached Josuke with a limp. Boingo was following behind him.
“Oh, Brother.”
After Josuke healed his injuries, Hol Horse said, “Thanks,” and signaled to Josuke with his hand to move away.
Josuke quietly stepped away from the young Stand user, who was frozen in a state of shock.

Hol Horse was remembering “that day” ten years ago.

Hol Horse, who had been threatened by DIO and challenged the Joestar group with Boingo, had failed and been defeated.
When he woke up, he was in a hospital with Boingo in the bed next to him.
He couldn’t afford to fail again, and if he stayed like this, he would be finished off. With bandages still wrapped around him, Hol Horse took Boingo by the hand, escaped the hospital, and ran through the streets of Cairo.

That was when he saw it.

The young man who had been shot through the stomach, slammed into a water tank, and was losing his life.
The green jewels that had crossed the streets of Cairo just after sunset and destroyed the clock tower.
The final glimmer of Noriaki Kakyoin’s life.

Hol Horse took the cigarette he always held in his mouth with his left hand, removed his hat with his right, and held it in front of his chest.
“Kakyoin.”
He called out to the young man.
The young man slowly looked at Hol Horse.

"Noriaki Kakyoin. You are dead."

The young man's wide, horizontal eyes, marked by vertical scars, widened.

"You fought DIO and were killed. That was 10 years ago."

The young man's gaze shifted away, and he slowly looked down.

(I remember... I, I, at that time...)

"After that,"
Hol Horse continued.
"DIO also died and vanished. Jotaro did it. All three of you survived. Your final Emerald Splash was not in vain... your message was delivered."

The young man, Noriaki Kakyoin, widened his eyes again and looked at Hol Horse.

(Ah... Mr. Joestar, Polnareff, Jotaro...)

Noriaki Kakyoin turned his face away from Hol Horse and looked down, as if to hide his moist eyes.

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