MHGA Chapter 244: Hermit Joseph and an Anxious Lucy
While Tanjiro and the other three youths were locked in a life-or-death battle with the Kirin, on the other side, Kairo Retsu and his group had just lost their motorcycles in an explosion from a recent skirmish.
In their place… the Hunters had seized a new trophy from Night City:
A Militech AV.
In that brief encounter just now, these cyberpunk bumpkins of Night City had witnessed firsthand what it meant to face an existence beyond comprehension.
Their combat-grade AVs and armored vehicles were nothing more than toys in front of these model-like individuals who looked as though they'd walked out of a storybook.
Out of nowhere, enormous floating shields would appear in front of their vehicles—slamming into them and turning them into wrecks before they could even think of escape.
They couldn't understand it. Their scanners couldn't even detect what kind of cyberware these monsters were using.
Even Adam Smasher, Arasaka's ultimate cybernetic weapon, at least had some detectable readings—like an entire army by himself on the battlefield.
But these monsters, wielding primitive weapons and looking completely unmodified, could summon non-existent shields from thin air—and worse, some of those shields had enormous dog heads that emerged and shredded armored cars into scrap.
Worse still, they might even have a terrifying netrunner among them. One AV pilot, in the middle of attempting a counterattack, found his controls completely disabled—and then, horrifyingly, watched as data was forcibly dumped from the AV into his own neural implants.
All his squadmates heard before he disconnected from the comms was a scream—followed by the sight of a young man standing atop the AV like a marble statue straight out of Italy.
If any of them had been stand users—able to see ghosts or Stands—they would've seen from another angle the mass of purple vines extending from Joseph's hands, wrapping around the military-grade AV like reins on a wild beast.
"Hermit Purple is the most useful Stand!!"
With a powerful yank, Joseph Joestar pulled his Stand taut, and the AV beneath his feet, like a horse guided by reins, soared upward, then looped around and flew toward Kairo Retsu's position.
"Guildmaster! We've captured the vehicle!" Joseph shouted to his teammates while steering the AV like a cowboy: "Time to move out!!!"
"Well done, Joseph!" Kairo Retsu shouted back, as he used his Insect Glaive to pierce straight through a speeding armored vehicle, then vaulted into the air with a powerful jump.
Even though he couldn't see Hermit Purple, Kairo reached his hand out toward Joseph with full trust. "Go pick up Naofumi and Laios! Tanjiro and the others are already fighting the Kirin—they won't last much longer!!!"
"Got it!!" Joseph swung several thick thorny vines out like whips, just in time to wrap around Kairo's arm and yank him up onto the AV.
"Controlling the AV and pulling me up at the same time… Joseph, just how far has your Stand grown?" Kairo grabbed Joseph's shoulder to stabilize himself as he asked.
"A lot… but I don't think I've hit my limit yet."
Joseph didn't even turn his head as he steered the AV through the air. "I can feel it—my Stand still has so much more potential. I haven't even come close to reaching my physical or mental limits!"
"...Uh-huh."
Kairo's expression turned slightly awkward.
To be honest, in the original series, Hermit Purple only manifested when Joseph was already an elderly man who hadn't trained with Ripple in decades. His physical and mental energy were nowhere near his prime.
But now… Joseph's Stand didn't look like the Hermit Purple he remembered at all.
"Laios! Naofumi! Reach out your hands!!!"
Joseph steered the AV toward the other two.
Naofumi promptly yanked the snarling Laios over to his side, conjured a series of Spirit Shields from the air, and pointed the Shield of the Four Saints toward the ground. With a burst, he unleashed spikes from the Nergigante Shield downward, using the recoil to jump onto the Spirit Shields.
With several successive leaps, Naofumi launched himself and Laios high into the sky, where they were snatched by Hermit Purple and pulled onto the AV.
"Aren't we going inside?" Naofumi glanced at the unconscious pilot, comatose from the data backlash.
"Not enough room! Plus, the view's better out here!" Joseph shouted as he steered. "Hold on tight! I'm boosting now!"
Joseph spared no fuel, slamming the AV's boosters to max power.
Under the stunned gazes of the routed Militech forces, the four harbingers of death finally left the area—soaring toward Night City.
Meanwhile…
Maine's crew, tasked with Rogue's job, had infiltrated a small Arasaka factory. Outside the facility, they were preparing to breach its systems.
"Kiwi, Lucy—the guards are thin right now. See if you can fry that corpo dog netrunner's brain before he notices," Maine ordered without hesitation.
"Not that simple—that's an Arasaka netrunner, even if it's just a factory guard," Kiwi grumbled as she began her signal infiltration.
In a rush-job like this, the enemy's cooling systems were far superior to theirs—they couldn't outmatch in raw performance, only exploit vulnerabilities.
But as Lucy connected to the factory's internal network… she noticed something strange circulating on Arasaka's corporate net.
Originally, she hadn't planned to pay it any mind—but then her eyes caught something that froze her blood—
A face she knew all too well appeared in the footage.
"David?"
Lucy's heart started pounding. Even as she searched for the factory netrunner's weak points, her attention kept drifting toward the Arasaka intel feed.
The more she watched, the more certain she became…
One of the four youths fighting that unknown monster—was the David she knew.
And then… Lucy saw the worst part.
In the footage, the Kirin killed two of them and gravely wounded the other two.
That dark red-haired boy—and the one wearing a weird bird-head helmet—had their bodies crushed by the Kirin.
And she saw David—his right arm severed—collapsed in the rubble, grievously wounded.
She didn't know why…
But the moment she saw that image, anxiety surged violently in her chest.
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