[reuploading till chapter 20]
Avdol's brows drew together slightly at Shintaro's question.
"That possibility exists," he said slowly, choosing his words. "But DIO has always been enthusiastic about recruiting Stand Users as his subordinates. Even if he was in Egypt four months ago, it's difficult to say with confidence whether he's still there now..."
Before he could finish, a hand reached from behind Shintaro and took the photograph.
"Why didn't you say so earlier?"
Jotaro's voice was flat and immediate. In almost the same instant, Star Platinum solidified behind him — not fully materialized, but present enough that the air around it compressed slightly. The purple Stand leaned forward, pupils locking onto the photograph with a focused, unblinking intensity that felt mechanical in its precision.
Shintaro turned just in time to watch Star Platinum's pupils contract and expand rhythmically — adjusting, refocusing, scanning every layer of the photograph with the patient thoroughness of a lens calibrating to a single, distant point.
"My Stand," Jotaro said, lifting his eyes to take in the room, "found something in this photo."
Shintaro held Jotaro's gaze for exactly one second. Then, without a word, he turned, pulled open the nearest drawer, found paper and a pen, and handed them across.
Jotaro shoved them directly into Star Platinum's hands.
"Draw it."
Swish. Swish. Swish.
The pen moved faster than a hand should move. Nobody breathed. All eyes tracked the paper.
Less than a minute later, a completed sketch was pressed onto the table.
A fly.
"...A fly?" Joseph leaned in, squinting. After a moment of genuine scrutiny, he straightened with a disappointed tilt of his head. "That's all? Flies are everywhere in Egypt."
"Wait."
Avdol's voice changed register — suddenly sharp, suddenly alert.
He stared at the sketch, pupils shrinking. His finger moved to trace one detail, then another.
"I think..." he said carefully. "I've seen this species before."
He looked up with urgency in his face. "JoJo — does your family have a biological encyclopedia? I need to confirm something immediately."
"There's a library in the annex." Jotaro pushed the sketch toward him.
"I'll go now." Avdol turned to leave.
"Please wait, Mr. Avdol."
Shintaro stood.
"I'll come with you. My Stand can speed things up considerably."
Avdol paused in the doorway. He looked back at Shintaro for a measured moment — then the stern set of his expression eased just slightly.
"...All right," he said. "But we move quickly."
As the two left, a faint stir came from the sofa.
Holly shifted, blinking, eyes roaming the ceiling with the confused fragility of someone surfacing from a deep, unwanted sleep.
"Holly!" Joseph moved to her side immediately, taking her hand. His voice held together only barely. Then, without turning, he snapped — "Jotaro — water!"
"Got it."
Jotaro turned and walked out, his voice level. As he pulled his hat brim down, no one saw the brief, quiet loosening of his expression.
The library was dim and dense with the particular stillness of a room that holds old paper. The accumulated years of the Kujo family's book collection lay in long, silent rows — encyclopedias, field guides, natural histories.
Avdol raised his hand. Magician's Red appeared without sound, a quiet, steady flame blooming in its palm and pushing warm light across the nearest shelves.
"I'll take this side," Avdol said, pulling out a thick encyclopedia. He glanced at Shintaro. "The opposite shelves are yours."
Shintaro nodded. He faced his section of shelving, inhaled slowly.
"Minions," he said quietly. "Come out and work."
The shadows rippled like a disturbed surface.
In an instant, Black Sperm flooded outward — twenty thousand of them, pouring through every gap between the shelves. They organized themselves without being asked, falling into groups of five and clambering over books with frantic, purposeful speed, flipping pages at a rate that was frankly unsettling to watch.
"Not this again — searching for things..."
"He never summons us at dinner."
"Shut up. Do you want to skip tonight's meal too?"
Shintaro raised the sketch.
"Eyes open," he said. "Find anything that matches this."
Avdol glanced up from his own book. He watched the black figures swarming through the shelves for a moment, and for the first time since Shintaro had met him, the corner of his mouth moved in something that was almost a smile.
"...Your Stand is remarkably lively."
That was, Shintaro reflected privately, one way to describe it.
The library filled with the overlapping symphony of rustling pages, repressed complaints, and small feet pounding across old wood.
"Lower the volume!" Shintaro said mentally. The clamor dropped to a resentful murmur.
At that moment, the light at the doorway shifted.
A figure stood at the entrance.
Avdol didn't look up. The flame above his shoulder burned without flickering.
"You seem to have recovered well."
Noriaki Kakyoin stood quietly at the threshold. He hesitated, then stepped forward, his voice subdued.
"I wanted to ask something."
"I'm occupied," Avdol said flatly, turning a page.
Kakyoin stepped further in anyway.
"If a Stand becomes a curse," he said, slowly and carefully, "to the point where it actually kills someone — is that genuinely possible?"
Avdol's hand stopped.
He turned his head. The flame's light reflected in his dark eyes.
"It is," he said. "I've seen it happen."
Shintaro went quiet and listened.
Kakyoin's breath caught.
Avdol already understood — Kakyoin had overheard the conversation in the living room. He had heard everything.
"Although the Stand is only manifesting on Holly's back for now," Avdol continued, his voice measured and deliberate, "that fern-like growth will eventually spread across her entire body. The fever will intensify..."
He closed the book in his hands.
"Until she never wakes up again."
A pause.
"And then," he said quietly, "she dies."
Kakyoin's pupils trembled.
"There is nothing anyone can do to stop it," Avdol said. "Not even us. The only solution is the one already on the table."
Kakyoin lowered his head, red bangs falling across his eyes. For a long moment he stood completely still.
Shintaro spoke then.
"Mr. Avdol — if defeating DIO is the only way... how much time does she have?"
Avdol drew a slow, measured breath.
"Fifty days," he said. "From the onset of worsening symptoms to the end. We must defeat DIO before fifty days pass."
The weight of it settled into the room.
No one could promise victory. No one could even promise survival.
Then —
"Main body! Found it!"
"Look! Is this the one?!"
Several Black Sperm came sprinting from between two shelves, holding an open encyclopedia between them, stumbling over each other in their haste.
Shintaro took the book and passed it immediately to Avdol.
Avdol compared the illustration against the sketch. His eyes moved carefully from one to the other.
"...Yes. This is it."
He closed the book and dismissed his Stand. The flame winked out.
"Let's go back."
At the doorway, Shintaro paused. He reached out and placed a hand on Kakyoin's shoulder.
"Come on."
Kakyoin looked up. The conflict was still moving visibly behind his eyes — grief and guilt and something that hadn't resolved itself into a decision yet.
"There's still hope," Shintaro said quietly. "I don't want to see someone as warm as Aunt Holly dragged into this by DIO's curse either."
Standing here — beside these people, inside this house — made the weight of it more real than any screen had ever managed.
Kakyoin looked at him for a long, still moment.
Then he stepped forward.
When the three of them returned to the living room, Holly was trying to push herself upright on the sofa. Her face was pale, her movements unsteady, but determined.
In the next instant, Jotaro's voice cut across the room —
"Don't move recklessly! Lie back down!"
The sharpness of it stopped everyone in the doorway. Even Joseph's hand froze mid-motion above Holly's shoulder.
Jotaro went very still himself.
Then, after a beat, he tugged his hat brim down and turned his face slightly away from the room.
"...I mean," he muttered, the edges of his voice gone flat, "don't do anything until the fever breaks. Rest properly."
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