Rats indeed have a habit of avoiding unfamiliar paths. But the reliable Dr. Kujo had miscalculated one thing: rats are incredibly cunning creatures.
To avoid exposing their nest, they typically build several paths and deliberately leave footprints on some to lead any hunters tracking them in the wrong direction.
When the footprints disappeared in an open area and then looped back, Jotaro realized the rat had played him.
…Yare yare daze.
"So what do we do now, Mr. Jotaro?" Josuke, who knew nothing about tracking, could only fret helplessly. If even the invincible Mr. Jotaro was stumped, what were they supposed to do?!
Wait, Jolyne said she brought a secret weapon, right? Finally remembering this, Josuke's eyes lit up again. "Jolyne, isn't it time to bring out your secret weapon?"
"Of course." Jolyne put down her backpack. She had gone to great lengths to catch that damn rat…
Under Josuke's intense gaze, Jolyne slowly unzipped the backpack. Something inside, sensing the movement, shifted around, and then…
A furry black head poked out.
"Meow."
"Huh?" Josuke refused to believe it. His highly anticipated secret weapon was a cat?
"If it's about catching rats, I don't think anyone is more suitable than a cat. And Josuke, what's with that look?" Jolyne fully unzipped the bag and reached in to pull the cat out.
She had specifically gone to borrow it from Mari Nishikimi yesterday. She had to wheedle and promise to absolutely guarantee Lucky's safety before Mari finally agreed.
Although the fact that the [secret weapon was just an ordinary little cat] was disappointing for Josuke, he had to admit that when it came to catching rats, nothing beat a cat. But…
"But this isn't an ordinary rat. It's a vicious Stand-using rat. Is this cat really okay?" Clearly, Josuke didn't recognize Lucky at all, thinking it was just a very cute ordinary cat.
"Meow!" Lucky protested Josuke's doubt. It walked up to Josuke and scratched at his pant leg with its paw.
Josuke bent down, his gaze moving from the cat's face to the collar around its neck.
"Meow~" Lucky sat obediently on the grass, proudly raising its head. Human, have you finally realized the cat's identity?
Josuke reached out and picked up the small tag hanging from the collar, examining it carefully. His face then fell. "Aahhh!! Gold, it's made of gold! Who's so extravagant they use gold for a cat tag?! That's just too much!"
He had suffered so much (not really) to earn a little pocket money, and this cat got a big chunk of gold so easily! He was living worse than a cat.
Drowning in the wealth gap, Josuke completely ignored the letters engraved on the tag and failed to realize this wealthy cat was also a Stand user.
Jotaro, with his usual stern expression: "Hey, Josuke, that's enough."
Jolyne, also with her usual stern expression: "...Sigh."
"Let's not waste time." Jotaro walked over and crouched in front of Lucky. He remembered this was Mari Nishikimi's cat. He glanced at the tag to confirm he remembered the name correctly. "Lucky, we're counting on you now."
Lucky rubbed its head against Jotaro's hand. This human trusts the cat. The cat likes him.
A cat's keen sense of smell, agile movements, and strong physique are all superior to a rat's.
Under its keen sense of smell, the rat's diversions were useless. With one sniff, Lucky found the correct path. Soon, led by the cat, the three arrived at the outlet of a sewage pipe.
It seemed the rat's nest was inside the pipe.
"Great! Now we just let Lucky go in and catch the rat, and we're done!"
"Meow." [No. Dirty.]
Having led them to their destination, Lucky simply lay down on the ground, tucking its paws in, closed its eyes, and entered sage mode.
Josuke made a sound of disdain. "Eww~ Lazy cat."
"No, Josuke," Jolyne explained. "Cats are very clean animals and also really dislike water. An entrance that's both dirty and wet like this sewage outlet is something it would absolutely, absolutely never go into."
"Oh? Is that so? Hahaha…" Josuke was a bit embarrassed but quickly apologized to Lucky. "Sorry about that. We'll take it from here."
Jotaro set up a camera in front of the sewage pipe and placed a mousetrap baited with fried bread in front of it.
Meanwhile, Jolyne, who was searching for clues nearby, found something unusual.
A patch of grass ahead was swarming with flies, the buzzing noise extremely irritating. She carefully pushed the grass aside and saw a nauseating sight—a large pile of dissolved, rotting flesh, emitting waves of a foul stench that attacked her respiratory system.
Jolyne covered her nose, picked up a stick from the ground, and slowly approached the rotting meat. Poking it with the stick, she almost vomited from the disgust.
The exterior of the rotting mass still had remnants of some animal bodies, vaguely identifiable as sparrows, rabbits, mice, and the like.
Jolyne waved, signaling she had found something. Jotaro and Josuke, seeing the signal, soon came over. Both frowned in unison at the sight.
"It seems it killed every living thing near its territory." Seeing this, Jotaro reaffirmed the rat's death sentence; it truly had no right to exist on Earth.
While waiting for the rat to take the bait, they weren't idle and began investigating the surrounding area.
Jotaro picked up binoculars and scanned the area, spotting a suspicious-looking farmhouse in the distance. The door was wide open though no one was home, there was feed in the chicken coop but the chickens were gone…
Adding up all these illogical phenomena, Jotaro concluded—this family had most likely fallen victim to the rat.
Jotaro called Jolyne and Josuke, and the three headed for the farmhouse. The target was likely there now.
They soon reached the farmhouse. Jolyne pushed open the slightly ajar door to check inside. The furniture was neatly arranged, the living room light was on, and food was still on the table facing the door. Everything looked perfectly normal, except for the absence of the farm owners, as if they had left suddenly in the middle of a meal.
Just as Jolyne was about to step inside, Jotaro moved in front of her. Tch, this guy really… Fine, Jolyne wouldn't make a fuss. She lifted her foot again, only for Josuke to also step in front of her. He even patted her shoulder and said caringly,
"Don't worry, Jolyne! Mr. Jotaro and I will protect you!"
Jolyne: "."
Even though she'd been tricked by the rat, she wasn't so weak she needed their protection… What were these two presuming now?
Besides, she was the one determined to hunt that rat!
Gritting her teeth, Jolyne entered the house, catching up to the two. She couldn't fall behind.
"Jolyne, you and Josuke check the first floor." Jolyne was just about to go upstairs when Jotaro stopped her. Then he went to the second floor himself.
…Fine.
After coordinating, Josuke went to check the rooms on the left, while Jolyne took the kitchen area.
The kitchen door, which should normally be closed, was wide open. Jolyne carefully walked in. On the stove was a cutting board that hadn't been put away. The unused cabbage leaves on it were dehydrated and wilted.
Further inside was a refrigerator—a large, double-door type. But whether due to the owner's carelessness or some accident, one of the fridge doors was half-open, just blocking the aisle.
Jolyne became alert and slowly approached. She pulled the fridge door open wider. What was inside made her skin crawl.
It was a couple. Their bodies had turned into indistinguishable rotten meat, only their heads remained visible. Seeing her, they desperately shed tears, making frantic muffled sounds.
Jolyne breathed a sigh of relief. They were still alive. Josuke could fix them later.
Looking further down, Jolyne saw the rat. It was brazenly feeding, right under her nose.
This blatant act of provocation successfully angered Jolyne. Did this damn rat think she'd fall for the same trick twice? How naive.
The rat was a long-range shooting type Stand user. It used poison darts shot from its Stand to turn people and animals into piles of rotten meat.
Jolyne had already figured this out. She pulled a steel pellet from her shirt pocket, assumed an attack stance, and waited for the best opportunity.
Her dad had said you only get one chance. If she couldn't kill the rat in one shot, it would use its small size to flee everywhere, and finding it again would be troublesome.
While she observed the rat, the rat also watched her every move closely. This rat was smart. For every step she took closer, the rat moved to another spot, maintaining a distance that kept it out of her Stand's range while still allowing it to attack her.
What a cunning creature.
"Jolyne, how's it going over there?" Josuke's footsteps sounded at the kitchen door. Unaware of the situation inside, he was about to enter.
"Don't come in!!" Jolyne frantically yelled to stop him, but it was too late. Josuke entered, and the spot he stood in had no cover, completely exposed to the rat's attack range.
The rat seized the opportunity, swung its aim towards Josuke, and fired a poison dart.
Almost without thinking, Jolyne chose to shoot her steel pellet to knock the dart aimed at Josuke out of the air. The consequence of this choice was… the rat seized the chance to escape.
Josuke, who had nearly died, looked at the dart lying at his feet and broke out in a cold sweat. If Jolyne hadn't knocked it down in time, that dart would have pierced his neck, and he'd probably be dead by now from the poison.
"That was… too close." Josuke gasped, looking at Jolyne with immense gratitude. At this moment, Jolyne seemed to radiate a golden glow like the Virgin Mary in his eyes.
"Never mind that now, Josuke. We let the rat get away. This is troublesome." Jolyne pulled the fridge door open wider and pointed at the people inside. "Save these two first. They must be the homeowners."
"Meow."
While Josuke was busy saving them, a familiar cat sound came from the direction the rat had fled. Right after, Lucky walked in. It had a rat dangling from its mouth.
Exactly the one that had just escaped!
Lucky walked up to Jolyne, placed the rat on the floor, and sat down beside it.
"Meow~" [Human, I caught it.]
"Good kitty! How are you so capable?!" Jolyne was overjoyed. She reached out, picked Lucky up, and stroked its little head. Lucky, finding the petting technique very comfortable, started purring loudly in her arms.
"You're such a good kitty. Big sister will buy you some dried fish later."
Just as this was resolved, Jotaro came downstairs. The three met in the living room.
"Mr. Jotaro, we dealt with the rat! Let me tell you, it was so dangerous just now…" Josuke vividly described the scene, including how Jolyne had saved him and how Lucky had caught the rat.
"Now everything's all good! Mission accomplished."
"No, Josuke. We were all wrong. There are two Stand-using rats." Jotaro adjusted his hat, facing the two directly. "But I dealt with the one upstairs. Relatively speaking, I paid a bit of a price."
Jotaro raised his rotted arm. "This is where I'll need your help, Josuke."
***
N: You guys cat or dog person? i like cat more.