Northwest outskirts of Morioh, outside the cordon.
Kujo Jotaro appeared here, a stark contrast to the tense police and PSD personnel around him.
He was no longer in his usual iconic white trench coat and tall hat, but had changed into a black tactical suit provided by the PSD department, with light bulletproof plates over it and protection at all major joints.
He wore a tactical helmet equipped with night vision and a communicator, his face devoid of expression, only his gaze beneath the helmet sharp as a knife.
Even more striking was the small, rapid-fire submachine gun he held in his hand, with a massive magazine capacity, and many more magazines stored on his person.
Behind him, the imposing Star Platinum also manifested, and in its purple Stand's hand, it steadily held an even more exaggerated, large-caliber six-barreled rotary machine gun!
Heavy ammunition belts hung from a huge ammunition box attached to the Stand. This equipment was so exaggerated it was almost sci-fi, clearly not meant for human use, but rather for a fixed position… Iwakura Yusuke watched this scene, his mouth twitching slightly. In his eyes, it looked like a machine gun floating in the air, with an ammo belt trailing behind it… It was too bizarre… He knew Stand Users operated beyond normal understanding, but witnessing this "human-shaped mobile arsenal" setup still filled him with a sense of absurdity.
"Mr. Kujo, I leave everything to you. We will hold the perimeter and ensure no one disturbs you," Iwakura said solemnly.
"Ah," Jotaro replied faintly, adjusting his communicator. "Keep the channel open."
He had no superfluous words. He nodded slightly to Star Platinum and walked straight ahead.
This was a farmland, with many different crops planted, and a small river nearby with drainage ditches.
The anomalous locations were in a few houses within the farmland, where several families lived. Their homes were considered remote in the Town, far apart from each other, and the buildings were sparse, all located in this riverside farmland area.
But since a few days ago, these families had one thing in common: they no longer left their homes.
No one knew what had happened here.
Jotaro took a deep breath. This place was still not far enough from the Town, and he didn't know if it was a Stand User, a ghost, or some kind of curse.
At most, he could only use some firearms. It was a pity he couldn't just flatten the houses with bombs.
The next moment, Star Platinum's terrifying A-rank in both power and speed was displayed to its fullest!
It held the rotary machine gun and ammunition, weighing over a hundred kilograms, as if weightless, transforming into a purple afterimage. With speed far exceeding human limits, it violently smashed through the outer wall of the most suspicious house in the suburbs!
Boom!
Bricks and stones flew, and dust billowed! Jotaro himself followed closely, his tactical boots treading over the rubble, the muzzle of his submachine gun cautiously sweeping the interior of the gaping hole.
This crude and direct entry method instantly shattered the long-standing silence of the suburban area!
"Squeak—!!!" In the darkness, a sharp, piercing, terrified shriek of a rodent echoed!
Jotaro's eyes narrowed, and the tactical light on his helmet swept into the depths of the ruins.
In the shadows of the corner and the abandoned pipe openings, two unusually large rats, their eyes glowing with an eerie red light, stared at him in terror!
They were still gnawing on chunks of meat, with bones attached to them. Startled, the two rats spat out the meat and fled frantically.
But Jotaro did not act rashly. He merely frowned, "Rats living in the house? Are they the source of the anomaly? Or just ordinary animals?"
"No, the people here are all dead, and the chickens and other animals outside the house were all killed. There's no reason for rats to still be alive."
"And…"
The next moment, Star Platinum activated its ability, and time was briefly stopped. Jotaro picked up the bone with meat still attached to it from the ground and examined it. His eyes grew colder.
"This is a human finger bone, and the meat on it, like that of the affected people, looks like rotten meat jelly. Oh my, oh my, it seems the culprit has been found. It's these evil animals, rats."
A hint of surprise flashed in Jotaro's eyes, but he quickly regained his composure. Stand Users were all sorts of strange, so rats were not surprising.
After all, Iggy was a dog back then, wasn't he also a Stand User?
He swept his gaze towards the room where the two rats had fled, one hand still holding his gun, the other guarding his front. He took a step, lowering his voice, and moved closer.
Puff, puff, puff, puff!
The "Corrosive Needles," like a mobile turret, were suddenly pushed out, and accompanied by the rats' sudden screams, they launched an attack first!
Countless glowing needles, like poisonous bees, shot out from the two Stands, heading straight for Jotaro and Star Platinum!
These needles were fast and had tricky trajectories. What was even more terrifying was that they would immediately ricochet in a bizarre way after hitting walls or metal pipes, shooting towards their target from completely unexpected angles!
Jotaro's eyes sharpened. Star Platinum instantly activated its ability. Its cooldown was over, and it could stop time again.
"Star Platinum: The World! Time, stop flowing!"
In an instant, everything stopped. Star Platinum, without hesitation, disregarded the machine gun in its hand, grabbed a section of the nearby wall, and directly tore off a large piece, placing it in front of itself as a shield.
Under this massive wall shield, the door was directly blocked. After a series of muffled thuds, the rats began to shriek even more frantically.
Jotaro's expression remained unchanged. As a professional, he naturally wouldn't rush into danger without understanding anything. He had already seen the structural plan of this house. He knew where he could demolish and where he couldn't.
It could be said that he understood this house better than the rats, who had lived in it for who knows how long. The rats were currently hiding in the kitchen, where there were no sturdy covers, at most blocking sight.
Then Jotaro stepped back, waiting for Star Platinum's cooldown. After pausing time, Star Platinum directly moved forward, tore open the blocked wall, and then unhesitatingly unloaded a large handful of bullets from the gun, stuffing them into its mouth.
Using Star Platinum's terrifying lung capacity, it directly spat out all the bullets like an air gun, with power not much less than a machine gun burst.
Moreover, this was not aimless spraying; Star Platinum's precision, surpassing that of a computer, was demonstrated at this moment! The rotary machine gun spewed a terrifying storm of metal, bullets instantly spraying towards every possible hiding place for living creatures.
At the same time, one rat, possibly quite foolish, didn't hide behind cover and was directly hit by Star Platinum's concentrated firepower.
When time resumed its flow, as the wall was opened again, the two rats instinctively resumed shooting.
Clang, clang, clang! Splat!
Dense sparks and eerie green acidic smoke exploded in the air!
The flying needles were shot out of the air by bullets, and the corrosive liquid they contained splattered, corroding sizzling pits into the ground and walls.
Occasionally, a few stragglers, ricocheting, got close, but Jotaro precisely shot them down with the submachine gun in his hand.
The exposed rat was directly turned into a bloody pulp, effectively destroying one of the two Stands.
The other Stand was also directly smashed to pieces by a barrage of bullets, and the scream of the other rat echoed from within the house.
"Squeak, squeak, squeak!!!" The rat Stand User was scared out of its wits. Its Corrosive Needles' invincible ricochet attack was completely countered by the opponent's extremely violent and precise method!
And for some reason, it felt so much pain!
Its body began to crack for no reason, blood gushing out. Although it was transparent, it had already dodged all possible lines of fire, and not a single bullet had hit it. So why was it still in so much pain?
The rat didn't know, and it fled desperately.
It was actually hiding in a sewer opening, and now it no longer hid, directly scrambling down into the sewer.
But in front of Jotaro, this was futile.
Jotaro advanced steadily after the intense firefight, his tactical boots treading on the debris left by the Corrosive Needles. His gaze locked onto the traces left by the panicked rat as it fled.
He didn't act immediately but remained vigilant, looking around. He was sure that both Stands had been destroyed, and one rat had died, leaving the other temporarily unable to use its Stand.
But the question was, who knew if there were only two rats? What if there were more… It was important to remember that this time he wasn't here to hunt after knowing the situation; Otoishi Akira was long dead. This time, he had no information, so he would be extremely cautious.
After having Star Platinum thoroughly check and confirm there were no hidden enemies, Jotaro finally entered the house to examine the remaining clues.
"Blood, fresh?"
He quickly saw the open drain and reached out to touch the blood remaining inside. After rubbing it, he confirmed that it was the blood left by that rat.
"Looks like it went into the sewer? As expected of a rat."
"Moshi moshi, the culprit has been found. It's two rats, but not ordinary rats; they are both Stand Users."
Jotaro didn't immediately pursue them himself but made a call. The person on the other end was Iwakura.
"What?! Rats?!"
"Are you saying that a rat killed nine of my men?! What kind of joke is this?!"
"Not one rat, but two. They are Stand Users."
"You…"
Iwakura grew even angrier. He should have been happy to understand what was happening, but now, having two rats kill nine of his elite subordinates, didn't that mean his subordinates couldn't even beat rats?
...What a massive responsibility that was!
"I've killed one of them, and the other escaped into the sewer. Immediately cordon off the surrounding sewers, especially the outlets by the river; it's very likely to escape through there, so focus your defense there."
But Jotaro had no intention of considering his feelings. "Although rats are incredibly weak, the strength of a Stand has no relation to the user's own strength. An evil rat will naturally awaken an evil and powerful Stand. If you don't stop it,
Then there really will be a new serial killer, one that can freely move through the sewers, turning people into blood-jelly. I imagine that would cause you a lot of trouble."
The voice on the other end ceased abruptly. Iwakura was silent for a moment, then his voice immediately became gentle and soft. "Haha, Mr. Kujo, you are right. This kind of behavior must be dealt with seriously. I will have people seal all the exits now."
"Don't worry, I will do my utmost to fulfill your requests, and those conditions you mentioned earlier are all still valid."
As he said this, his face was full of a fawning, awkward smile. Even though the phone couldn't transmit expressions, Jotaro on the other end could imagine the other person's face.