Inori's exploration plan for Morioh might have covered less than a tenth of what she wanted to see, but there would be plenty of time for that later. She could stay in this small town for quite a while. Even knowing about the potential killer Yoshikage Kira and the opponents she'd have to face, it was impossible to deal with them all in a single day.
She'd go back and make a proper list first, visit all the "famous sites" in Morioh, then investigate Yoshikage Kira. If there were no suspicious points, she'd just have him taken out early.
With these thoughts, Inori had already walked to the school entrance.
It was exactly dismissal time, and the school gate was bustling with people coming and going. The boys of this era still wore those old-fashioned uniforms resembling military officer dress, while the girls wore long skirts that were worlds apart from the uniforms with above-the-knee skirts of Tennouzu First High School from the previous world.
She was still wearing Yasuho's casual clothes, looking as fresh and simple as the girl next door. She and Yasuho, while having obvious differences in certain areas, were remarkably similar in overall body shape, so wearing her clothes was quite comfortable.
Inori knew her face naturally attracted attention, and if she dressed as meticulously as she had in the previous world every day, it would very likely create unnecessary trouble for herself.
Though this was quite a narcissistic thought, it was undoubtedly an objective fact.
"Who's that girl..."
"Probably not from our school."
"So cute—totally my type!"
"Don't even think about it. Look at her—she's obviously waiting for someone... Damn, I wonder which lucky bastard has that kind of fortune..."
...
Inori was focused on a brand-new white handheld game console, working the buttons frantically. The pixelated screen showed a little man jumping around.
That's right—this was a Game Boy she'd just bought at Kameyu Department Store that afternoon. Because there was a promotional discount going on, it came with a free Super Mario cartridge. In her previous life before becoming Inori, while not exactly a hardcore gamer, she'd played a few classic titles and had a strong interest in this kind of thing.
—Eh... it's like seeing an antique.
Mana Ouma couldn't help but click her tongue in amazement.
—Don't underestimate this handheld. In this era, it's one of the greatest inventions!
Inori silently replied, since for a girl born after 2017, she'd grown up with all kinds of high-end smartphones from the moment she could remember. The games were all dazzling blockbusters too. By the time Inori awakened in 2039, virtual reality gaming headsets had already become popular. Seeing this kind of retro gaming device naturally made her exclaim in wonder.
—Why didn't you buy a phone instead?
Mana still didn't think this kind of game had any appeal... little Inori was clearly not even three years old as an artificial human, but sometimes her hobbies seemed like those of middle-aged parents.
—I'm currently an undocumented person with no identity information, so I probably can't get a phone number... But that's not really a problem. I'll just ask Fishmonger Jotaro to help out when conditions allow.
After all, she was "DIO's daughter." While Jotaro hated DIO, he was someone who clearly distinguished between good and evil and wouldn't blame children for their parents' hatred. Plus, except for DIO's head, the rest of his body came from Jonathan Joestar, also known as "big Jonathan" in fan circles. DIO's children also carried the same Joestar bloodline as Jotaro. However... Jotaro would discover the truth sooner or later.
So before that happened, she needed to build up as much goodwill as possible!
First, she had to establish trust and make Jotaro stop seeing her as just a child. She needed him to understand that besides having a powerful Stand, she was also a very shrewd woman. So Inori planned to get involved in capturing Angelo.
In the original timeline, while Angelo was turned into the famous Morioh landmark "Angelo Rock" by Josuke Higashikata using his Stand ability, Josuke had also permanently lost his grandfather, Ryohei Higashikata. Now that she had the power to change this tragedy and let that old man who'd protected Morioh for thirty-five years pass away peacefully, she should act.
—Ah! I died! It's all your fault!
Suddenly losing focus scattered Inori's attention. One mistimed jump and the game console displayed a GAME OVER message. She couldn't help but complain to Mana in annoyance.
Inori sighed and put down the game console, preparing to go home and sit down to seriously think about how to tackle this challenge.
She'd just looked up when she spotted a different sight in the sea of identical school uniforms.
Even at school, Yasuho Hirose wore her very distinctive casual clothes—blue top and black floral skirt. Inori didn't know how she'd convinced the school to let her dress this way.
"Sorry to keep you waiting, Inori~"
The girl waved happily when she saw her, her six neat pink braids bouncing and dancing as she ran. Two pink-haired girls not wearing school uniforms meeting like this could easily be mistaken for sisters.
"It's fine."
Inori pressed the power button and stuffed the game console back in her bag.
"Club activities kept me tied up... luckily some weird stuff happened and it all got sorted out somehow."
Yasuho spoke casually.
She didn't know why either—there were clearly so many tedious club duties and new student personal information forms waiting to be submitted. Then suddenly a piece of paper appeared in front of her... asking her to help carry some study committee files to the student council room. After that, she was suddenly told that the supervising teacher had taken sick leave, so she didn't need to finish processing those documents today.
Maybe it was just good luck? That's what Yasuho thought, and she didn't pay much attention to who had left that note for her.
"Did Koichi go home?"
They'd agreed this morning to go home together, but Yasuho hadn't seen her brother anywhere.
"He went with a new friend to visit the friend's nephew."
Inori answered honestly.
"Eh? Nephew...?"
"Yeah. His nephew from back home suddenly found him, saying he wanted to arrange the inheritance distribution for his deadbeat dad who knocked someone up and ran. Koichi went with him."
"How awful."
Yasuho simply assumed Koichi's friend's father was some rich deadbeat playboy.
"What a terrible man! But it's pretty rare for Koichi to make friends on his first day... let's just let him go."
—Sorry, old man. I didn't mean to slander you.
Hearing Yasuho's assessment of that friend's father, Inori couldn't help but feel a bit guilty—the kind of guilt that came from trying not to burst out laughing.
"More importantly! Let's go, Yasuho. I want to pick out some clothes." Inori grabbed her wrist and wanted to lead her away from this place, because she was getting tired of the stares and chatter from the other students.
"Eh? Inori, where did you get money?"
Yasuho had only given Inori a thousand yen for lunch that morning, but now she not only had a brand-new bag slung across her shoulder—she'd also apparently been holding some kind of gaming device just now... and now she was confidently talking about shopping. What exactly had she experienced today? Had she found some wallet of unknown origin on the street?
"Someone gave it to me."
"Huh?" Yasuho's expression changed dramatically when she heard this. "Inori! You didn't encounter some sketchy guys, did you?"