The police car had pulled up in front of a supermarket, and by the time Inori and Yasuho crossed one road following the siren, they could see the scene of the incident.
The entire street was already crammed with a massive crowd of onlookers. Several armed patrol officers were negotiating with the perpetrator at gunpoint.
"This is awful... I've never actually seen something like this in person. It's like watching a movie."
Yasuho covered her mouth, her expression clouded with worry—the same feeling most of the bystanders were having.
That something as vicious as an armed robbery could happen in this quiet little town... It made Yasuho's face burn with embarrassment, because she'd just told Inori that Morioh was a wholesome place with a very low crime rate—and now she'd been proven wrong within minutes.
—Ah! These damn criminals. Why can't they pick a different time to do their thing? Pulling a robbery in broad daylight—they're totally shameless. They're definitely not from Morioh!
Yasuho snuck a glance at Inori's profile and found the girl was completely expressionless, as if deep in thought about something. She found it deeply strange. Isn't she scared?
"Let's go, Inori. It'll be bad if we get caught up in this."
Yasuho grabbed her hand and turned to leave—but to her surprise, Inori didn't budge.
Inori just turned her head to glance at Yasuho and was about to say something to explain when her handbag started beeping again. That damn Game Boy.
"Hey, Inori, now's really not the time to be worrying about that thing!"
Yasuho was getting anxious. Why was this girl so relaxed about everything? An active police-versus-criminal standoff was happening less than two hundred meters away! And she was worried about a Game Boy?
"Don't panic, Yasuho."
Inori pulled out the Game Boy, and sure enough, just like before, there was a short line of text on the screen along with two options.
—Coca-Cola or Toilet Cleaner
What the hell? Is this Game Boy actually broken? The previous option at least lined up with what was going on in reality. But what do these two things mean? Why am I supposed to pick between these two...
—Wait!
The hand holding the Game Boy froze. Her deep-red eyes trembled from sheer shock.
When humans see a written word, the image of the object naturally rises in their mind—just like how children who've watched horror movies are more likely to have nightmares the more afraid they get. She hadn't noticed anything that detailed earlier... but! But now that the Game Boy's message had prompted her, she quickly cast her mind back.
Inori turned to look back the way they'd come—and saw, on a corner, an overflowing trash can. At the base of the overstuffed bin, two empty plastic bottles of different designs had been carelessly tossed aside: a Coca-Cola bottle and a toilet cleaner bottle—exactly the two options the Game Boy had given her!
"What... are you, exactly?"
This was a Stand attack!
But it had somehow possessed her Game Boy? When had it even gotten there? Back at the school gate? But it wasn't attacking her—it was giving her exactly the information she needed to handle Anjuro Katagiri. Was it an ally? Who the hell was it? Damn... she didn't remember any Stand like this in the original Diamond is Unbreakable!
As Inori muttered her question aloud, a string of English appeared beneath the options.
—Paisley Park.
That seemed to be its name, but before Inori could think about it further, the English text vanished. The two options remained.
"Whatever, anything works... toilet cleaner, then!"
Inori spoke to the Game Boy as if talking to herself—but this time she didn't need to manually choose. The Coca-Cola option on the left disappeared, leaving only the toilet cleaner.
"What toilet cleaner? Inori, what are you even talking about?!"
Yasuho looked at the girl beside her in complete bewilderment. Is she doing the dopey thing again? Just like when Inori had put her own hand on her head that time, occasionally acting kind of dim was apparently part of Inori's charm.
"Yasuho, go find somewhere safe to hide. There's something important I have to do!"
Inori didn't even turn back. Leaving Yasuho with just that one line, she took off running toward the sidewalk across the street... heading straight for that overflowing trash can!
Whoever this Paisley Park belongs to, it's an ally right now. It's supporting my combat operations by feeding me information. That's all I need to know! Next, I take down Anjuro Katagiri and give that sick freak of a serial killer an iron-fisted reckoning!
Inori raced to the trash can and scooped up the discarded toilet cleaner bottle. She didn't understand why a toilet cleaner bottle would be in a place like this... after all, the usual situation was someone finishing a drink on the street and tossing the empty into a public trash can. Did people really walk around using toilet cleaner in public?
Whatever. Not my problem. As long as it's a container, it works.
To deal with Anjuro Katagiri, she absolutely needed a vessel that could hold liquid—because his Stand, Aqua Necklace, was a remote-operation type, essentially a puddle of liquid. It couldn't be smashed or destroyed. If its destructive power were higher, it would be a truly terrifying Stand. Unfortunately for Angelo, the only way it could attack was by slipping into someone's body and destroying their internal organs—but even that was more than enough to be lethal.
It could also enter another person's body and puppeteer them like a doll. The knife-wielding robber over there was in exactly that state right now. The robber himself was probably already dead, killed by Aqua Necklace, while Angelo—a seasoned criminal—wasn't about to risk his own skin. He always used this method, making others rob on his behalf.
To defeat Aqua Necklace, she had to find Angelo himself. Otherwise, he'd just slip away at the first opportunity.
Inori had already grabbed the toilet cleaner bottle. The bottle wasn't clean, but she was in no position to care about that right now. She turned and charged back toward the dense crowd, leaving Yasuho Hirose staring with her mouth hanging open.
—Is this performance art? Somebody protect her!
But very quickly, Yasuho found she couldn't think about that anymore... worried about Inori, she circled back to the edge of the crowd. This time, she saw a floating red "ghost" above Inori's head.
...
...
"Back off! You filthy pigs!"
Holding the innocent clerk hostage, the robber pressed the gleaming blade against her neck while screaming curses at the cops.
"Stay calm. Drop the knife! Don't hurt her!"
The cops' words were tough, but faced with an aggressively threatening robber, they had no choice but to give ground. They were worried about the hostage's safety.
"You bystanders, back the hell off too! I'm getting in my car, and if anybody moves, I'm killing this bitch!"
The situation looked grim. Morioh's patrol officers had no experience handling something like this, and reinforcements hadn't arrived yet. But a hostage's life was worth more than anything—no matter what, they had to clear the way.
At that moment, a girl pushed her way out of the crowd.
"You there, pretty little thing! Didn't I tell you to back off? Don't block my ride!"
The girl, naturally, was Inori.
Though the man was unbelievably vicious, she paid him no attention whatsoever. One of Inori's hands stayed tucked behind her back so the robber couldn't see the bottle she was holding, while the other toyed with a lock of hair draped over her shoulder as she strolled leisurely forward.
"Hey! Little girl, get back here—it's dangerous!"
"That guy's got a knife!"
The officers watching the scene were stunned. And why was this girl carrying an empty bottle... with an "XX Toilet Cleaner" label slapped on it, no less? It looked like one of the most common brands in Morioh.
—Don't tell me she plans to subdue the criminal with that thing?