"Hey! Don't come any closer, you guys! My demonic blade is thirsting for blood!"
The girl in overalls, An, waved a small dagger, confronting the group. Seeing her chuunibyou expression as she spouted nonsense about a demonic blade, everyone couldn't help but laugh out loud.
So how exactly did she sneak on board? In the original story, it was understandable how she managed to stow away on the protagonist group's ship, but what about now?
A runaway teenage girl, a tsundere chuunibyou extra. She possessed the same mysterious travel skills as Jade Chan from *Jackie Chan Adventures*, but without Jade's game-changing usefulness.
To sum it up in one word: deadweight.
"So, what do we do?"
If the girl hadn't been unable to contain her curiosity and stepped into the portal Zenith built, perhaps no one would have discovered her until they reached their destination in Singapore.
"Once we get to Singapore, we'll arrange for someone to send her back. It's far too dangerous for her to follow us!"
Joseph Joestar was gentle as always, but at a time like this, it was best to let the beauty of the group step up. Holly's gentle aura instantly broke through the girl's psychological defenses.
"We aren't on a sightseeing tour. This journey is very dangerous, little girl."
Jotaro looked at the two women, then shifted his gaze to Zenith. "Neither of them should have been in this party to begin with."
The two women went off to the side to whisper to each other. By now, the group was no longer too worried about Mrs. Holly being in danger.
Even though Joseph and Jotaro had only taught her some simple self-defense techniques, after eating the Minecraft Enchanted Golden Apple, Holly's physical stats were completely off the charts. She was practically a walking Stand.
It had been two days since they left the island created by the orangutan, and they were only two hours away from their planned port.
That island was actually just a reef jutting out of the sea with a few wooden cabins built on it. Sometimes, one couldn't help but marvel at the power of Stands; their rule-bending attributes were unreasonably strong.
No need for training, no need to temper the body, no need to meditate and absorb energy. Once awakened, they were terrifyingly powerful—it was practically a backdoor left by the Creator.
They made landfall. All the way until they checked into their hotel, nothing unusual happened.
Fighting four Stand users at the same time had left Zenith deeply confused. The plot was derailing for absolutely no reason. Just what had caused these lone-wolf, money-grubbing assassins to team up?
According to the original plot, they shouldn't have had to worry about encountering any Stand users before reaching India, but clearly, the original story was no longer a reliable reference.
Honestly, traveling and fighting, traveling and fighting... Zenith was getting a bit sick of it. Now that the initial novelty had worn off, he just wanted a room with Wi-Fi, air conditioning, a smartphone, and a computer.
In other words, his terminal laziness was acting up.
It was too boring. Might as well play cards.
After a brief explanation of the rules, the group gathered around and set up two tables of Fight the Landlord. The chips were pure gold—raw materials provided by Zenith, cut and engraved by Jean Pierre Polnareff.
Two gold ingots had been carved into hundreds of gold coins. It didn't take long for Zenith to lose his shirt, loudly accusing Joseph and Jotaro of cheating.
As for the other table, Polnareff was surprisingly the winner. He had already made up his mind: after taking down Dio, he would return to France and buy a manor—the kind where he could grow grapes.
Everyone except Zenith thought playing cards was incredibly fun. The power of money was just too enviable. Why couldn't their Stands create gold?
A sudden scream.
Zenith quickly threw his cards onto the floor. He didn't really care about the gold, but who could stand losing constantly? He'd rather be fighting Stand users.
"I'll go see what's going on."
Fog. Heavy fog. Arriving at the first floor of the hotel, they could immediately see through the glass doors that the outside was engulfed in a thick fog. Visibility was extremely low; they couldn't even see the signs across the street.
"Monsters! There are monsters in the fog!"
Zenith was reminded of an old movie called *The Mist*. The situation was exactly the same, but wasn't this crossing franchises? Wasn't this supposed to be *JoJo's Bizarre Adventure*?!
Then he remembered. There was indeed a Stand capable of creating fog, represented by the Justice tarot card. It could create hole-like wounds from the tiniest of scratches. By threading fog through those holes, it could even turn the injured into puppets.
Through this method, the Stand Justice could easily control dozens of corpses. Combined with the pitch-black fog, it was definitely a thorny problem.
Joseph and the others hurried downstairs as well. Looking at the thick fog, they also thought of Justice.
Sounds occasionally drifted out from the fog: car horns, crashes, and the agonizing screams of people.
"This is going too far! To think this Stand user would dare target so many innocent people!"
Muhammad Avdol crossed his arms. "Magician's Red!!"
The flaming, bird-headed Stand materialized behind him. "Let my Stand burn away this fog!"
"Avdol!"
Joseph waved his hand to stop him. "It'll cause an explosion! You can tell just by listening—there are a lot of crashed cars on the street, so gasoline leaks are inevitable! If you unleash your flames now, many people who might otherwise be saved will die in a chain reaction of car explosions."
"An open trap, then? The enemy is using this to force us to walk right into the fog!"
Pure evil. Zenith was angry. Although he always acted like he didn't care about most things, he was still just an ordinary guy who had only recently acquired special abilities.
He simply couldn't turn a blind eye to the kind of scum who treated human lives as a mere cog in their schemes.
A woman who looked like a tourist stumbled in from outside. Covered in large bruises, she tripped and fell right against Joseph.
"Ma'am, what's the situation out there? Don't panic, you're safe now that you're out of the fog!"
"There are monsters! The dead people are standing back up!"
Tears streamed down her face in droves, evoking pity. But no one noticed that right where the woman had touched him, a flesh bud was quietly sprouting on Joseph's arm.
It matched the intel Zenith had shared. That confirmed the enemy was Justice, and the Stand user's true identity was an old woman named Enya the Hag.
In battles between Stand users, intel was the most important factor. As long as you knew the opponent's ability, the danger level dropped by fifty percent. If you could identify their true body, you could even launch a precision strike.
A battle between Stand users was equally a battle of information.
Stepping into the fog, everyone was brimming with anger and confidence. However, would someone like Enya the Hag really show herself this early?
At this point in the timeline, she should still be staying by Dio's side.
It definitely wasn't just Justice. The quartet of assassins from two days ago had already set a precedent, but they just didn't know who was teaming up with Enya the Hag this time.
The streets were shrouded in an eerie fog. Even from a meter away, it was impossible to make out someone's facial features. Under these conditions, having to guard against sneak attacks and ensure they didn't get a single scratch was going to be difficult.
It was fair, though. In this environment, the enemy's vision would be equally restricted.
"Hoooonk—"
It was the horn of a large vehicle. Something massive was coming!
The stalled cars in the middle of the road were swept aside like garbage. Two beams of light pierced through the fog, and faintly, the group could make out a giant, spike-covered front bumper.
"Wheel of Fortune!"