Cleaning Up the Aftermath

Now this is what we call making progress. This is real progress.

On the first day of entering the JoJo world, it took about four hours to push the synchronization rate up to 50%.

In comparison, the synchronization rate in the Dragon Ball world only reached 1% after two days—such a huge disparity.

However, the 40 battle power points synchronized from the Dragon Ball world proved invaluable in this fight against Vanilla.

Without that strength, I couldn't have punched through the ground to dodge the space erasure, nor could I have broken Vanilla's arm and leg with a single strike.

And I wouldn't have been able to yank Vanilla out of the subspace like pulling out a chick.

With enough battle power, many troublesome abilities can be countered; pure strength and speed can help avoid many forms of damage.

So while Zuke might seem to be complaining about the slow synchronization rate in the Dragon Ball world, he actually wants more of it.

"What a mess. Vanilla didn't care about the surroundings at all."

Zuke looked around at the chaotic scene. The battle had taken place right outside the inn, so the commotion was bound to have attracted attention from afar.

However, he couldn't leave just yet; he needed to find the inn's guest registry—it still had his name on it.

If he didn't get rid of the registry, Dio's minions could trace his name from it.

Earlier, Vanilla's subspace miasma had been circling the inn's entrance, erasing space around it, which created intense pressure waves that sucked a lot of the inn's contents outside.

It was like standing by train tracks; if a train passes by, the change in air pressure pulls things toward the tracks.

The high-speed space erasure of Vanilla's miasma caused a similar effect, scattering a mess of objects across the ground.

But this effect also conveniently pulled out the innkeeper's half-torn corpse, giving Zuke the idea to use the body to lure Vanilla in.

In a way, Vanilla set up his own trap.

"Got it. It wasn't shredded by the subspace miasma… glad I didn't take my chances."

After a few minutes of searching, Zuke found the registry next to the sliced-in-half phone booth.

Whether by luck or something else, the registry hadn't been fully erased by the miasma—just a corner, like it had been clipped with scissors.

Zuke opened the registry, tore out the page with his name on it, and tossed the book on the ground.

He had briefly thought, "With so much shredded by the miasma, maybe the registry was destroyed too," but luckily he'd checked anyway.

Sensing people approaching, Zuke summoned his Blackbird, merged his body into its dark shadow, and finally had it slip into the subspace, disappearing from sight.

The subspace miasma's ability to conceal him in a hidden dimension was indeed a highly effective way to evade detection.

…

"Dio… Lord Dio! It's my fault!"

An hour later, in Dio's mansion, Enya was kneeling before him, her face full of terror as she pleaded with him in a wretched, panicked voice.

The tragedy at the small town inn on the outskirts of Cairo had already reached Dio and Enya's ears.

What looked like a horrific massacre at the inn should be the concern of Cairo's police, not Dio and Enya.

But the feedback from the scene described a mystery: the ground seemed as if it had been carved by a highly sharp, spherical object, and nobody could find where the missing chunks of cement had gone…

It was unmistakably the work of Vanilla Ice's "Void miasma"!

And now, Vanilla Ice hadn't returned. He'd clearly fought at the inn's entrance, yet hadn't returned to Dio's side.

For Dio's fanatical devotee, this was nearly unthinkable.

The only explanation was that Vanilla Ice was dead. No matter how fanatically he worshipped Dio, a dead man couldn't return to pay his respects.

Hearing this, Enya was naturally the most terrified of all.

Vanilla's mission had been to monitor the location of the arrow she sold and ensure it wouldn't bring trouble to Dio.

The outcome was obvious… The youth who obtained the arrow was indeed a massive problem. Upon awakening his Stand, he'd killed the terrifying Vanilla Ice!

"Vanilla is dead… Such a pity. He was so loyal to me, a truly useful subordinate."

From his bed, shrouded in shadow, Dio's voice was low and emotionless.

Before encountering the Joestar family, Dio was always calm and cold-hearted.

Only when he encountered the Joestars did he become increasingly unhinged, unlike his usual, solitary demeanor.

"Raise your head, Enya. Vanilla's death is unimportant. What's important is the boy who bought the arrow from you… What information do you have on him?"

Though Dio regretted Vanilla's death, he wouldn't mourn it—after all, Vanilla was merely a subordinate, and he wouldn't feel sorrow over a subordinate's death.

What truly concerned him now was the boy Enya mentioned who had bought the arrow—Zuke.

Enya had told him that the youth who bought the arrow had an Asian appearance, which made him think of the Joestar family headed to Egypt.

Kujō Jōtarō, for instance, was Japanese, so this Asian-looking youth might be connected to him.

"I… I don't know."

Enya's face showed panic and anxiety, fearing Dio's anger—for the worshipful Enya, losing Dio's trust was a devastating blow.

Though she had sold the arrow to Zuke, she indeed knew nothing about him—in fact, Vanilla's mission had been partly to gather more information on Zuke for her.

Vanilla had succeeded in confirming Zuke's name from the inn registry.

But he hadn't been able to report this before Zuke killed him.

Later, although someone did find the inn's registry, Zuke's name was already removed, leaving Dio and Enya with nothing to go on.

As for fingerprint identification… well, it was the '80s. Zuke knew this well, which was why he didn't worry about leaving his fingerprints on the registry.

To be continued...

Donate me your power stones. Ningen!