Italy, in the heart of the Puglia region.
Time seemed to slow down here, the scorching sun baked the endless olive groves, and the air was filled with dust, dry grass, and a faint smell from distant corrals.
An extremely remote village, almost forgotten by maps, nestled among the hills, with only a few families living in low, ancient stone houses.
A dust-covered Fiat silently drove into the village and stopped under a withered olive tree.
Kira Yoshikage stepped out of the driver's seat, wearing an unremarkable linen shirt and trousers, with sunglasses on his face, perfectly blending in with the local farmers who occasionally passed by and cast curious glances at him.
Mrs. Shinobu had been settled by him in a hotel in a slightly larger Town tens of kilometers away, under the pretext of "searching for unique painting materials," while he came here himself to hunt.
He had precisely located this place based on the last information transmitted after his father, Kira Yoshihiro, had converged with him.
That old man's ghost was indeed formidable in this regard; after tirelessly drifting around and searching, he finally pinpointed the hiding place of this silver-haired disabled man.
The man had just moved here recently; it was said that some disaster had occurred in his original residence, where people had fallen into an unconscious slumber and experienced a day of madness.
To escape this disaster, the man moved here, temporarily residing in this abandoned house.
It was an ancient stone house, almost half-collapsed, located at the very edge of the village, with withered vines climbing its walls; it looked like he would have to move or redecorate soon.
Kira Yoshikage did not rush to approach.
Like an ordinary tourist, he held a camera and seemingly casually walked around and took photos in the village, but in reality, he was constantly observing that house.
There were no obvious electronic surveillance devices, nor any traces of other Stand Users.
Only an extremely faint, yet steel-wire-tough sense of threat emanated from deep within the stone house, carrying the vigilance and weakness of an aging lion.
Polnareff, like a beast hiding in its lair, licking its wounds, thought it was safe enough here.
Indeed, Diavolo and so many people hadn't found him for so many years, but that was because they thought he was dead; in reality, his hiding was not particularly concealed.
Even Kira Yoshikage, an outsider, could find him, let alone Passione, who virtually controlled all of Italy; they were, in some sense, already equivalent to a true government, despite having only over 700 official members.
But with their subordinates, their control in Italy was unquestionable; if they searched diligently, Kira Yoshikage suspected Polnareff couldn't hide for even a day.
A cold arc formed on Kira Yoshikage's lips as he circled to the back of the stone house, avoiding any potential blind spots.
Killer Queen silently materialized, its fingertips lightly touching the mottled stone wall.
Buzz.
The energy of the first bomb silently infused it.
It wasn't for an immediate explosion, but rather, like the finest spores, it permeated the crevices of the stonework, transforming the entire back wall and part of the roof structure into potential bombs.
During these past few days of travel, his spirit had been refined, and his abilities had advanced once more; he could now make an object explode in batches.
Similarly, his contact bombs had also improved.
A simple thought was enough to turn them into dust, completely blocking this exit.
Having completed all this, he adjusted his collar, a gentle, even slightly shy smile, like Kosaku Kawajiri's, reappeared on his face, and he walked back to the front door of the stone house.
The door was a simple wooden one, ajar and unlocked.
He didn't knock but pushed the door open naturally, as if returning home.
Inside, the light was dim, filled with the smell of mold, medicine, and a scent peculiar to the elderly.
The only window was mostly boarded up, and in the corner of the room, a figure was curled up in a wheelchair, with his back to the door, covered by a dirty blanket.
The dull silver hair and the outline of the wheelchair matched Kira Yoshihiro's description.
Hearing the door open, the figure in the wheelchair trembled violently, trying to turn around with extreme difficulty, his voice hoarse and alert, "Who?! I told you not to disturb me!"
Kira Yoshikage did not answer; he merely gently closed the door with his backhand, latching the old bolt with a soft click, isolating inside from outside.
He slowly walked forward, his footsteps unusually clear in the silent stone house.
Polnareff finally fully turned his wheelchair, which appeared to be of very poor handmade craftsmanship.
His face was even more weathered and haggard than Kira Yoshikage had imagined; crisscrossing scars, a missing eye patch, empty sleeves, and trouser legs told of the brutality he had endured over the years.
But in his single eye, the flame of defiance still burned, along with a light symbolizing hope, and his hand subconsciously reached beneath the armrest of the wheelchair—something seemed to be hidden there.
"Who are you?" Polnareff's single eye stared intently at the uninvited guest, his muscles tensed; they smelled the scent of battle.
He sensed an extremely dangerous aura, thousands of times more terrifying than the curious children or indifferent villagers nearby.
'A Passione assassin? Have they found me again?'
Kira Yoshikage stopped a few meters away from him, took off his sunglasses, revealing those suffocatingly calm eyes.
Polnareff's pupils suddenly constricted!
He realized something and abruptly tried to pull out something from beneath the wheelchair armrest—it was a slender object wrapped in rags!
But Kira Yoshikage's words made him pause.
"Someone who admires your persistence." Kira Yoshikage's voice was gentle, yet carried a bone-chilling coldness, "I wish to challenge the 'Boss' and need your help. You can look up my information and then consider it; I will come back to you tomorrow.
Think about it first, whether you want to tell me his information and whether you want to help me."
Kira Yoshikage didn't even give him a chance to summon Silver Chariot; he just looked at Polnareff indifferently, then turned and left after speaking.
Only a back remained, leaving Polnareff in deep thought.
His hand paused, holding the arrow, unsure of what he was thinking.
"Killer Queen!"
But Kira Yoshikage, who had walked out of the stone house, did not hesitate; he had not walked a few meters before he mentally detonated the bomb. Everything just now was merely a pretense, just to check if the Arrow was here.
Since it was confirmed, it was time to act.
There was no earth-shattering explosion, no dazzling light.
For a moment, within a very small radius around Polnareff, a bizarre explosion occurred; the explosion came from the air around him, and also from the entire house.
Polnareff's movements froze, an expression of extreme horror and disbelief appeared on his face, he tried to struggle, but he didn't even have a chance to grab the Arrow.
Silver Chariot had just been summoned, not even unwrapped, when it was already blown to dust along with Polnareff.
But his body, his Stand, and even the light around him, began to blur and twist at an absurd speed! It was an even more thorough explosion than before!
The half-unwrapped cloth package in his hand, containing the object, clattered onto the stone floor.
The power of Bites the Dust Rhapsody permeated the first bomb, causing it to act not on the present, but on "possibility."
It instantly traversed and locked onto countless future "deaths" of Polnareff from this moment onwards, then forcibly collapsed, superimposed, and actualized these "outcomes" at "this moment"!
Only Requiem could probably resist it.
Puff… a faint sound, like a sigh.
Polnareff's body, along with the wheelchair he was sitting in, was like being thrown into strong acid, or being directly erased from reality by an invisible eraser, silently disintegrating and annihilating from the molecular level.
There was no bleeding, no screams, no explosion.
Only absolute emptiness, and then the entire house disintegrated, with only that one Arrow remaining.
One second there was a weathered warrior and his wheelchair; the next, there was only a faint mark on the ground, as if scorched by high heat, and the long, cloth-wrapped object that had fallen to the ground.
Throughout the entire process, Kira Yoshikage didn't even move a finger. He just watched calmly, as if he had merely completed a trivial cleanup.
As the dust settled, everything returned to deadly silence; only some passersby, looking at the suddenly vanished house and this strange outsider, were shocked, but Kira didn't care.
Kira Yoshikage slowly walked forward, bent down, and picked up the package; he gently shook open the rags, and the ancient Arrow, topped with a beetle sculpture, shimmered with an alluring and dangerous light in the dimness.
He gazed at this trophy with satisfaction, then carefully re-wrapped it with the rags and placed it in his carry-on bag.
He turned and looked at the passersby, who were bewildered and shocked, and gave them a sunny smile, as the intense Italian rural sunlight instantly poured in, as if the absolute annihilation inside the house had never happened.
Then he waved and threw out the small car, "Sheer Heart Attack, I'm counting on you."
About 10 minutes later, Kira Yoshikage left, leaving no traces, attracting no attention.
The hunt was over.
No one here knew about this hunt, or rather, there was no one left in this small village; even the buildings had been completely flattened, farmlands turned into wasteland, houses into scorched earth, and everything had fallen into absolute silence.
As he walked towards his car, he began to plan how to reunite with Mrs. Shinobu as soon as possible, and… how to test the power of this Arrow next.
His peaceful life seemed to have gained an interesting new safeguard, but Kira Yoshikage was a little worried about whether one person could use two Arrows.
After all, no one had ever really tried that.