"No! Don't come near me!"
Inori followed Paisley Park's directions into the grove and quickly caught up to Angelo as he stumbled trying to flee.
His already dirty, worn clothes had been shredded into strips. Even his ugly face was covered in fresh wounds. The sight of him gritting his teeth and forcing himself to run despite clearly being in agony was genuinely comedic.
Inori had shaken the bottle earlier using both her own hand and King Crimson's hand together. The sheer force of it had made Angelo's body suffer accordingly. He'd been flung into the air and gouged up by tree branches on the way down. Even without Paisley Park, Inori could've tracked him by the blood trail.
"You, you're not planning to kill me, are you?"
From the way he was shaking, pressed against the tree behind him, it was clear he was consumed by terror. In his eyes, the innocent-looking young girl had transformed into a red-eyed grim reaper.
"Oh?"
Inori found that funny.
"So you don't even have the self-awareness to realize you deserve to die?" Her smile vanished, and a razor-sharp killing intent poured from her red eyes. "What about those boys you raped and murdered? Did they deserve to die? Were their lives worth nothing at all?"
"Even! Even if I killed them, you don't have the right to execute me!"
Cold sweat covered Angelo's face, mixing with the dark-red bloodstains to make him look utterly disgusting. Even so, he raised a hand and pointed at Inori as though he were the one standing on the side of justice.
"If you kill me... what's the difference between you and me? You'd have someone else's blood on your hands too! Your soul will be cursed!"
Inori heard all this without the slightest change of expression, just blinking slowly—while inside, she was dying of laughter.
—This guy, he doesn't seem to know what kind of people we are, Mana.
"Don't you yell at me with a hand that's been groping kids' balls!"
"Gh?! Gwaaaaaah!! My, my hand!"
Before Angelo could even react, the girl's red Stand had somehow snapped the finger he'd just pointed at her clean in half. The sound of shattering bone reached his ears with perfect clarity. Angelo clutched his gushing, ruined hand and let out a tortured howl, tears streaming uncontrollably down his face.
"Killing? Hmph. How many people do you think these hands of mine have already had blood on?"
Inori gave peal after peal of unhinged cold laughter.
King Crimson's fist was already raised and clenched, ready to deliver the final blow to Angelo at any moment.
"...Wh, what..."
Through the blinding pain, Angelo couldn't parse the meaning of her words.
"Those lines of yours might work on ordinary people. But me? I'm someone who was cursed a long time ago—and successfully triumphed over that curse."
Before the words were even out, the Red King's fist had already swung.
The first punch, long since wound up, pierced cleanly through his chest. Inori stood at King Crimson's maximum range to avoid the bastard's filthy blood spattering on her. Then the continuous barrage began, giving him no opportunity to think. She was going to pulp his face to the point even his own mother wouldn't recognize him—like a chef tenderizing meat, she'd pound him into a heap of mush. This was exactly what this piece of shit deserved.
"ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA!"
"ORA!"
At first Angelo could still make sounds, until the Red King caught him in the throat and his filthy mouth finally shut for good. Staring at the heap on the ground that used to be Anjuro Katagiri, Inori felt a strange, exhilarating release—like she'd just had a really good vent.
Humans couldn't suppress their own nature, any more than they could stop their fingernails from growing.
Somewhere along the line, delivering judgment on scum like this had apparently become part of Inori's nature, and she didn't see it as a bad thing. People this depraved deserved to be repaid in their own coin. Redeeming them through love—that wasn't her style.
...
...
"Please connect me to Jotaro Kujo."
Moments later, Inori emerged from the grove and found a nearby public phone booth. She dropped in a coin and dialed the Morioh Grand Hotel's front desk number, which she'd memorized from the shopping street earlier.
"Certainly. One moment, please."
Inori exhaled and glanced at the blood-red sunset burning on the horizon. Finish up quickly and get back to Yasuho... though she still hadn't figured out how to explain all this to her... should she just come clean about Stands right now?
"Jotaro Kujo speaking."
Right as she was thinking that, the familiar low voice came through the line.
"Mr. Jotaro, it's me. Inori."
"...Didn't expect you'd be the one calling. Run out of money?" Jotaro cracked a joke, but delivered that seriously in that deadpan voice of his, it just gave Inori chills.
"I ran into Angelo."
"What!" Jotaro couldn't help but let out a startled sound. "Where is he? Did you engage him?"
"He's dead."
"..."
The man on the other end fell silent. Jotaro couldn't help but marvel at how shockingly capable this girl really was. He'd specifically warned her, and she hadn't listened. Not only that—she'd actually killed that bastard?
Jotaro realized he'd severely underestimated Inori. Though he still couldn't confirm she was DIO's child, this unflinching, no-mercy approach of hers really didn't match what you'd expect from some girl who'd just happened to awaken a powerful Stand.
"You killed him?"
"Yeah. He was robbing a supermarket, so I stepped in and took care of him." Inori said it completely matter-of-factly. "A man like that doesn't deserve to live. You're not going to blame me, are you, Mr. Jotaro?"
"As long as you're safe."
Jotaro let out a light sigh. The Angelo situation had been resolved before he'd even had a chance to plan for it. He wasn't really used to that feeling, since he was usually the one playing the role of savior.
"Thanks. You took care of a problem for me."
"Mr. Jotaro, there's something I need to tell you."
"Go on."
Jotaro picked up on the serious tone in her voice and matched it.
"You might not believe this, but counting you and Josuke, I've run into six Stand users today."
"...You've got to be kidding me."
Hearing this, Jotaro couldn't help but knit his brow.
He'd only gotten back to the hotel a few minutes ago and hadn't even caught his breath before Inori brought him one piece of good news and one piece of bad. Angelo being dead was naturally a good thing, but running into this many Stand users in a single day... there was absolutely no way this was coincidence! Someone was very likely targeting her.
Who could it be? Remnants of DIO's old group?
The information also indirectly confirmed one of Jotaro's suspicions: someone in Morioh definitely had a Stand Arrow and was continuously creating new Stand users... all the Arrows had to be recovered. This had been Jotaro's mission ever since he defeated DIO more than a decade ago.
Only three of the old Stardust Crusaders were still around. His grandfather Joseph was too old now to travel easily. Jotaro himself was responsible for the Americas and Asia, while Polnareff was working alone across Europe and Africa, hunting down the tools DIO had once used to create Stands.
Now he'd finally found a lead in this small town.
"Inori, come to the Morioh Grand."
"Why?"
Inori was a little taken aback.
"I've got some ideas about your identity. I'm worried you're being targeted by an organized group. If you stay close to me, I can protect you."
As soon as the words left his mouth, Jotaro realized how that could be misinterpreted and quickly added:
"Don't get the wrong idea. I don't mean anything by it—I'm just worried about your safety."
"Thank you, Mr. Jotaro, but I'm going to have to pass."
Inwardly, Inori was beaming—a warm, reassuring sense of safety washed over her.
Yes, a strong man like this as an ally really was rock-solid reliable, but she still couldn't accept. At least not for the next few days.