[74] Pillar Man, Kurokawa Kazuya

Stroheim adjusted his hat and looked at Kazuya, gritting his teeth. "This is too terrifying. We can't let someone like him escape; he would become a major enemy of our homeland."

"We must kill him, no matter what!" Stroheim waved his arms and pointed at Kazuya. "Don't panic! Kill him! Don't worry about anything else, just shoot him to death!"

Rat-a-tat-tat-tat-tat—

Countless machine guns and firepower unleashed a barrage of bullets in the cramped space, directed at Kazuya!

With such a rate of fire, even his reflexes couldn't evade the bullets!

But—

"He's still alive!" exclaimed a scientist nearby.

"As expected, indiscriminate gunfire won't kill him!" They knew very well that not even a vampire would die from such injuries, let alone a higher life form that feeds on vampires—

Kazuya took a deep breath.

The bullets that had entered his body were flowing inside him, yes, they were flowing—

Then, they flowed all the way to his hands—

"It's like this, right..."

"Wow, he's speaking!" exclaimed someone nearby.

"This guy's not dumb at all!" Professional commentator Speedwagon understood the situation very well; he was a pro! Didn't they realize that?

"He has an incredibly high inteligent; he learned the language we use in such a short time!"

Kazuya extended a finger and aimed it at the forehead of a person in front of him, as if using a pistol—

Bang—

His finger.

His body made a sound as if he had pulled a trigger!

The bullets that had penetrated his body were shot out from his finger—

"Wow—"

A bullet hit someone's head, ending their life.

"He gathered the bullets we shot at him and shot them back with his fingertip!"

"Well... this feels nice," Kazuya said, moving his shoulders a bit before shooting out all the bullets from within his body—

Rat-a-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat—

Ten fingers acted like ten gun barrels, shooting countless bullets.

In an instant, everyone in the room was cleared out, leaving only three people—

Speedwagon, Stroheim, and... Joseph Joestar, who had used Stroheim's hair to create a ripple-based protective shield!

"Hair seems to be a bit dry. If you don't take care of it properly, you might go bald, Uncle German."

"When did you get here?" Speedwagon couldn't believe his eyes as he looked at Joseph Joestar.

"Oh, Grandpa."

It should be daytime outside now... so let's wait here for a while.

The current JOJO is very weak; he can sense it. The guy's life energy is probably no more than 1.5 or so, just a bit higher than himself, who had just started learning the Ripple in reality.

Indeed, he was the one who famously said, "The two most detestable words in life are 'effort' and 'cheer on.'" He had never practiced the Ripple before... even though he had the potential for it.

His Ripple wouldn't have killed him if Santana, the original Santana, hadn't wanted to absorb it into his body.

Perfect, let's see what this body is capable of now.

"Be careful, JOJO!"

JOJO slowly approached Kazuya and then touched his nose as if teasing a monkey. "JIJU~~ You spoke just now, right? Hello, how are you feeling? Happy, pleased, pleased to meet you. Happy, pleased, pleased to meet you. Santana, let's learn together. 3, 4 Happy, pleased, pleased to meet you."

"JOJO, don't fool around!"

"JOJO, what are you doing?" Speedwagon and Stroheim couldn't believe their eyes as they looked at JOJO.

"I was just wondering if he might be a good person?" JOJO pointed at Kazuya and said to the two of them, "I don't think we should label him as a bad guy right from the start."

"Oh, you understand, don't you..."

Kazuya made a couple of movements.

"Oh, oh—you're speaking, you really are speaking!"

"Not bad." Kazuya smiled. "I'm not very familiar with this language yet, but I'll get the hang of it. If you guys talk a bit more, I'll learn."

"Sure, hello, hello, I'm Joseph Joestar. These two are Speedwagon and, well, Uncle German. What's your name?"

"What are you talking about? He killed so many of my subordinates!"

"Don't be so talkative; you brought this upon yourselves," JOJO pointed at Stroheim's nose. "You guys were conducting experiments and used machine guns to shoot at people, idiots!" He said as he stuck two fingers into Stroheim's nostrils.

"And you know what? I came here just to take you back to New York, Speedwagon, No need to fight with him!"

"Exactly, I have no intention of fighting over everything."

"Right?" Joseph said in surprise. "That's good, that's good. Okay, let's go back. It seems there's nothing for us here."

"No way!" Stroheim shouted, "Absolutely not! We can't let him go like this; otherwise, humanity will be finished!"

"Is that right, Stroheim... if I heard your name correctly?" Kazuya said as he walked to the side and found a place to sit. "So, tell me, how am I supposed to destroy humanity? Why should I destroy humanity?"

"Yeah, you see, um... Stroheim, right? Look at him; he's so friendly, doesn't seem like he wants to destroy humanity at all. Maybe we can live in peace in the future. How about this? Let's be friends! I love making friends, you know. By the way, what's your name? Santana is the name these people gave you, right? What's your real name?"

"It doesn't matter; just call me Santana. I don't need any other names now."

"Is that so... hey, Santana, why were you asleep, and why did you wake up?"

"The reason I was asleep... probably out of boredom. The reason I woke up was that they woke me up," Kazuya said, looking at Stroheim. "Well, if you want to leave, go ahead. I'm going to stay here for a while."

"But... damn it—absolutely cannot let this guy escape!" Stroheim said, rushing to the control panel. "I'm going to blow this place up!!!"

"Long live my great homeland!"

---

The first battle of the Holy Grail War is about to begin!

If you're interested in reading more, feel free to visit my patreon which already contains 20 chapters: 

https://www.patreon.com/XElenea