[reuploading till chapter 20]
After Joseph finished speaking, Avdol raised a finger and continued the explanation, his tone careful and grave.
"This is a Flesh Bud — a parasitic organism cultivated directly from DIO's own cells."
He gestured at the grotesque, pulsing lump embedded beneath Kakyoin's forehead.
"It burrows deep into the brain. Once it takes root, it interferes with thought, with judgment, with emotion. The host believes their actions are their own — but in reality, their will is no longer free."
Joseph nodded sharply and cut in, spreading his hands with his characteristic theatrical gravity.
"Exactly. The Flesh Bud doesn't control people through pain or fear. It amplifies a single emotion to an extreme degree." He paused. "Charisma. Like a soldier's absolute loyalty to a commander. Like a believer's devotion to a god."
He looked down at Kakyoin's unconscious face.
"This young man's loyalty to DIO was manufactured in exactly that way. He didn't choose to attack you — he was compelled to."
Jotaro's eyes darkened.
"Then take it out surgically."
Joseph shook his head immediately.
"No. The brain is too delicate. One mistake — even a single millimeter off — and the damage would be permanent and irreversible."
The muscles in Jotaro's jaw tightened. He said nothing, but the force with which he controlled himself was visible.
DIO wasn't just fighting the Joestars. He was dragging innocent people into it and throwing them away like broken tools. The thought sat in Jotaro's chest like hot metal.
Shintaro stayed quiet.
He did have the Black Sperm. In theory, their numbers and their ability to coordinate around a single point of resistance might allow an attempt at removal. But he had no way of knowing how deeply the bud's tendrils had embedded themselves, nor what force it could resist. If they failed halfway — if they tore something in Kakyoin's brain that Star Platinum could have preserved —
That would be the end. And he absolutely would not let that happen.
So he listened. And waited for the right moment.
"There's something else you need to hear, Jotaro," Avdol said then, his expression tightening. He hesitated for a fraction of a second — just enough to be visible.
"Four months ago, in Cairo, Egypt... I met DIO."
The room went still.
"Tell us," Shintaro prompted gently, though he already knew every detail of what had happened. In his previous life, the memory of Avdol's retreat from DIO had been a source of endless amusement in online comment sections — his desperate exit from the scene had been compared, persistently and mercilessly, to a Magical Girl transformation sequence.
Standing here now, watching Avdol's face, it was difficult to find anything funny about it.
"I had just finished my work for the day," Avdol said. "When I returned to my shop, he was there — standing quietly on the staircase that led to the second floor."
He closed his eyes briefly.
"Golden hair. Pale skin. Cold eyes. And a charisma that felt... wrong. Too deliberate. Too complete. Not quite human."
Shintaro's mind immediately provided a mental image. That's just Cleopatra, said some unhelpful corner of his brain. He glanced sideways at Jotaro, wondering if the description would register as odd, but Jotaro's expression hadn't moved at all.
Avdol pressed on.
"After receiving word from Mr. Joseph, I recognized him immediately. The DIO who had been recovered from the Atlantic Ocean."
His hands had tightened slightly without his seeming to notice.
"He didn't attack me. He simply asked — calmly, with perfect courtesy — to see my Stand. And when he spoke, my heart actually... settled. Against my will. There was something in his voice that reached directly into a person's chest and smoothed out the fear."
Joseph quietly handed him a glass of water.
Avdol took it, steadied himself, and continued.
"That was when I truly understood what he was. That charisma — that unnatural calm he projects — is the same force that powers the Flesh Bud."
"I ran," he said, with the flat simplicity of a man who has made peace with this fact. "Immediately. Without consideration of fighting or not fighting. I simply ran, and I escaped through sheer luck. If I had hesitated for one more second..." He exhaled slowly. "I would have received a Flesh Bud just like this young man."
"And your brain would have been slowly consumed from the inside," Joseph added, folding his arms. His voice was grim, not theatrical.
Jotaro stepped forward.
"Dead?" His voice was sharp. "Hold on."
Star Platinum's presence flickered behind him — present, ready — as he pointed at Kakyoin.
"This man is still alive."
Joseph's eyes went wide. "Wait, Jotaro —!"
Too late.
Jotaro crouched and took Kakyoin's face firmly between both hands, steadying his head against any sudden movement. Star Platinum extended its arm toward the Flesh Bud with surgical intent.
"I'll pull it out with my Stand."
"Stop!" Joseph's voice cracked. "The Flesh Bud is alive — that's why it's still exposed! It's dangerous —!"
At that exact moment, a thin, hair-like tendril burst from the Flesh Bud and stabbed into the webbing between Jotaro's fingers. It burrowed immediately, driving forward along the tissue of his hand, aiming straight for his brain along the path of his arm.
Jotaro's teeth clenched hard.
He didn't let go.
His body didn't even shake.
"Jotaro, release it!" Joseph cried.
"Hold on." Shintaro stepped forward, voice sharp and cutting. "Mr. Joseph — let me help."
He raised his voice.
"Boys! Tug-of-war — now!"
A massive swarm of Black Sperm erupted from beneath his feet and rushed toward Jotaro's arm in a surging dark wave.
Joseph covered his face with one hand. "Oh no — not those things again."
But he didn't stop them.
As grotesque as they looked, Shintaro's reasoning was sound. He had no better option.
The Black Sperm flooded onto Jotaro's arm, clamping onto the Flesh Bud's tendril from every available angle — gripping, bracing their feet, throwing their combined weight against the invading growth.
"Enough chatter!" Shintaro barked. "Stop the noise — pull!"
They organized themselves in an instant. In a synchronized lurch, every Black Sperm pulled simultaneously — one shared direction, one shared force.
The Flesh Bud's tendril screeched silently against the resistance, unable to advance. Then, slowly — centimeter by centimeter, grinding against every inch — it began to slide backward.
Joseph's eyes lit up.
"Yes! That's it — keep going!"
He turned to Avdol involuntarily, relief breaking through his composed face. The two looked at each other — then both immediately coughed and straightened the moment they caught Shintaro's eye.
"Well done," Joseph said briskly. "Both of you."
At that moment, Kakyoin groaned and began to stir.
He woke to find his face locked between Jotaro's hands. He tried to move.
"If you want to keep your brain," Jotaro said flatly, "stay still."
Kakyoin went motionless.
Only then did he look — at the small, grotesque black figures standing on his chest, on his face, on Jotaro's arm, hauling with every ounce of their combined strength at the slick tendril buried in Jotaro's skin. The Flesh Bud had only reached as far as the elbow.
One of the Black Sperm turned its head and looked directly down at Kakyoin.
"You had better thank this great lord," it said with tremendous self-satisfaction, "for working so hard to save your miserable life."
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