"That should take care of everything. You're fully recovered."
Josuke looked at Rohan Kishibe, whose body was now completely restored, and he couldn't help but feel a twinge of envy for his own ability.
"I have to admit... in this one specific area, you actually have some redeemable qualities."
Standing up from the hospital bed, Rohan habitually struck one of his signature poses, savoring the flexibility and the complete absence of pain. He offered the compliment with a characteristic air of superiority.
BOOM!
Before Josuke could offer a witty retort, a violent tremor shook the entire hospital, nearly knocking everyone off their feet.
"An earthquake?!"
"No... this feels completely different!"
"Master! Look over there!"
The source of the vibration was clearly localized. Amber's eyes widened as she pointed toward the window, her expression one of pure disbelief.
Jotaro, Rohan, and Josuke scrambled to the glass.
"How is that possible?!!"
"Why is there a monkey that big?!?"
"Even for a Stand, this is way beyond any logical scale!!"
Josuke shouted in shock as he watched a colossal, fur-covered entity stomping through the streets of Morioh. Buildings were being reduced to rubble under its massive feet.
"It's Son Goku!!"
"Son Goku has transformed into a Great Ape!!"
"But that's impossible! It's the middle of the day, and the sky is blanketed in thick clouds. You can't even see the sun, let alone a moon!"
Rohan's voice was strained, sweat beads rolling down his forehead as the realization sank in.
"Whatever the cause for this transformation might be, one thing is certain."
"The situation has become catastrophic."
Jotaro's expression was grimmer than ever. Even with his vast experience, he struggled to find a viable strategy for dealing with a threat of this magnitude.
Sakuya manifested beside Josuke, her eyes filled with a professional, clinical curiosity as she watched the rampaging primate.
"Assassin! Stop time right now!"
The world turned grey as Amber activated her ability. Rohan immediately turned to the others.
"Okay! Rohan, what's the plan? How do we stop that thing?"
Josuke asked, his voice thick with urgency.
"There's only one way to reverse a Great Ape transformation: you have to cut off the tail!"
"Cut off the tail?! Are you kidding me?! The base of that thing's tail is as thick as a house! A single step from that monster would crush any of us into paste. We don't have the tools to sever something that large!"
"I don't expect anyone in this room to be able to do it. The gap in raw power is simply too vast. With his current physical density, even Mr. Jotaro would struggle to pull out a single hair, let alone cut through the entire appendage."
"Then what are we supposed to do?!"
"We need to find Okuyasu. His Stand, [The Hand], is the only thing capable of erasing that tail regardless of its size or durability. But approaching it without the cover of stopped time would be suicide."
"The only window for success is within a world where time has reached a standstill."
Hearing Rohan's logic, Josuke felt a massive headache beginning to form.
"Okuyasu is still at school right now!"
"Then you and Assassin need to go there and fetch him immediately."
"As long as you can bring him here, we have a chance!"
"Alright! Let's move!"
As he watched Amber and Josuke vanish from the room, Rohan's hands were visibly trembling.
He had only just recovered from his injuries, and already he was facing a scenario that made his previous encounter feel like a playground scuffle.
"Good grief... with that level of destructive capacity, the destruction of the town might be the least of our worries."
"If we don't handle this perfectly, the entire planet might be in jeopardy."
Jotaro didn't even want to contemplate the potential for a planetary extinction event.
"A Great Ape transformation grants a ten-fold increase in power. If his base combat value was only a hundred, he's now at a thousand."
"If he decides to fire an energy wave from that mouth of his, we're all going to be turned into stardust in an instant."
In that heartbeat, the stilled world suddenly resumed its flow.
"What?! Assassin! Why did the time start moving again?!"
'Master... I think it's the same problem Caster reported earlier. Another Servant is overriding my temporal manipulation.'
"You have to be joking!!"
"Hmph. What a truly magnificent sight."
DIO stood with his arms crossed, watching the carnage from a distant rooftop. He looked at the massive bio-weapon tearing through the town with a look of genuine pleasure.
"What is that thing?"
"A Stand?"
Diavolo stood beside him, unable to hide his shock. Even in his time as the boss of Passione, he had never seen anything like this.
"Who cares what it is? It's exactly the kind of chaos this town needs to spice things up."
"I'd be quite happy if it managed to step on Jotaro and crush him into the dirt."
Just as he finished speaking, DIO felt a familiar ripple in the atmosphere. Someone was trying to stop time again.
'How annoying!'
He forced his own will upon the fabric of reality, causing time to flow once more. He was beginning to find the constant struggle for dominant control over the "Fourth Dimension" to be a nuisance.
Ever since he had consumed the blood of Yoshikage Kira, he felt his essence evolving.
His time-stop was longer, and he now possessed the ability to negate the temporal manipulation of others.
He was locked in a invisible battle of wills with the other time-users in the city, and he had no intention of letting them have their way.
He didn't care what the appearance of the Great Ape meant for the world; he only wanted to see the board become as scrambled as possible.
"Damn it!"
"How can this be happening?!"
Subaru Natsuki was breathing heavily, his eyes fixed on the distant figure of Itachi Uchiha.
He liked to think he had a strong stomach for chaos, but this situation was beyond anything his "Return by Death" had prepared him for.
"How are we supposed to stop him?"
Miyu stood close to Homura, her gaze fixed on the mountain of fur and muscle ahead.
"Stop him? We can't!"
"Our only option is to run!"
"Our combined combat potential is probably less than fifty. If we get caught under one of those feet, the war is over for all of us."
Subaru was frantic. He understood Miyu's desire to help, but he knew the reality of the situation was far too grim for optimism.
On the other side of the clearing, Itachi Uchiha watched the colossal beast, his mind racing through his limited options.
The pure-hearted boy he had targeted had transformed into this engine of destruction in a heartbeat.
Initially, he had suspected something like the transformation of a [Jinchuriki].
But when he tried to use the Genjutsu of his Mangekyou Sharingan to suppress the beast's ego, it had failed utterly.
The energy flowing through the creature's body was too wild, too primal, and too immense for him to seize control.
It was a river of power that made his own chakra feel like a small stream.
"ROAAR!!"
Sensing Itachi's intrusion, the Great Ape lowered its massive head and let out a bellow that shook the very foundations of the earth.
'Here it comes!'
Itachi realized he had become the creature's primary target. He had no choice but to stand his ground.
THOOM!
The Great Ape surged forward, its massive size doing nothing to slow its terrifying speed.
Itachi's eyes widened. The creature was moving with a velocity that defied the laws of physics for something so large.
To compare this beast to a Tailed Beast was a grave insult to its power.
WHOOSH!
A massive fist descended like a falling moon. Itachi knew he couldn't dodge in time. He reached deep into his reserves and called upon his ultimate defense.
A surge of red magical energy erupted from his body, forming a skeletal torso that quickly filled out with shimmering, armored plating.
[Susanoo].
The pride and joy of the Uchiha clan.
'I'll use the [Totsuka Blade] to seal him away!'
A legendary sword and shield materialized in the giant's hands. But what happened next was something Itachi's mind refused to accept.
CRACK-SHATTER!!
Like a fragile sheet of glass, the supposedly invincible armor of [Susanoo] met the Great Ape's fist. Without a moment of resistance, the skeletal structure buckled and disintegrated into shards of light.
"!"
The raw physical force of the impact was so massive that it felt like being struck by a collapsing mountain.
Itachi didn't even have time to register the pain before he was driven into the earth.
Blood sprayed into the air as his physical form was crushed into the dirt like a common insect.
[Translated and Rewritten by Shika_Kagura]