[Basic Task 2: Retrieve multiple human non-humanization traits located in a certain timeline's Earth, originating beneath Rome. Task Difficulty: C++. Confirmed.]
[Task accepted by: [Spreading Witch Factor]]
[Mission participants: 2]
[Includes group member(s): No...?]
[Target timeline: OJ002-Earth. Year: 1939 CE. Location: Venice, Italy.]
[Minor instability detected... Assessment: will not affect mission execution.]
[Mission participants deployed.]
The [Boundary Breaking Talisman] dissolved into light.
Shin felt the entire world in front of him abruptly stretch into the far distance — as if he had stepped outside of the world itself, looking down from beyond its edges.
That sensation of standing outside the world lasted only a heartbeat. In the time it took to blink, the world snapped back into focus — and the surroundings had changed completely.
So this was the world of JoJo.
He tilted his head back to look up at the vast canopy of stars filling the night sky, breathing in the air of this different Earth across a different timeline — no different in quality from the air of Witch Island.
He took a careful look around, and only after confirming there was nothing unusual did he slowly spread his arms.
A small, slender silhouette slipped out of his body like a cell budding off its parent — tentatively emerging and glancing around with wary eyes.
To any onlooker, the scene would have been horrifying. In reality, it was simply one of the unique traits of being a Pillar Man.
— A Pillar Man's body possessed a terrifying degree of plasticity and near-indestructibility.
To put it in deliberately dramatic terms: think of a slightly less malleable human-shaped slime.
A Pillar Man could reshape his own body, slip inside another person's and effectively take over, or conversely, fold another person into his own flesh — something like a fusion, or a containment.
— As long as you remembered to keep the digestive cells in check.
"Hic... big brother, have we reached our destination?"
The small figure was Meruru.
To keep her safe and out of harm's way, Shin had tucked her inside his own body before the teleportation — the most reliable insurance he could offer. Now, coming out the other side, she seemed oddly reluctant to fully separate.
"...Big brother's body was so warm. So comfortable... hic, my whole self is soaked in big brother's scent now. It's wonderful~..."
Meruru cupped her flushed face in both hands, carefully drawing in the scent clinging to her own skin, murmuring something dreamily to herself like the jellyfish reincarnate she was.
Shin: "..."
Under normal circumstances most people would never have caught that. But Shin, whose senses were sharp enough to pick up a heartbeat, was decidedly not most people.
He wasn't sure if it was just his imagination, but he had the distinct and growing impression that his little sister's personality was drifting further and further in a very particular direction.
[Spreading Witch Factor (Temp Account)]: Arrived safely. Feeling fine.
While sending the message to the group in his mind's eye, Shin carefully surveyed the surroundings.
He and Meruru appeared to be on an island in the middle of a large lagoon, dotted with structures of Roman architectural style.
Based on the position of the stars, he put the time at somewhere around midnight or the early hours before dawn.
If his deduction was right — the location was the island of Supplena, in the center of the Venetian Lagoon. The island of the ripple master Lisa Lisa in JoJo Part 2, where Joseph and Caesar had trained.
[Spreading Witch Factor (Temp Account)]: One question for anyone available — are there things I need to be careful about with this type of retrieval task?
[Spreading Witch Factor (Temp Account)]: Like restrictions on taking the target's life — I'd hate to do this wrong and mess up something my mother entrusted to me.
[Moon Princess]: I've never completed a single task, so I'm not the one to ask — but I know someone who is.
[Moon Princess]: @Queen of Britain — Lady Morgan, with Lady Marika absent, you're the most experienced one we have. Come out and walk our young friend through it~
[Queen of Britain]: Received.
[Queen of Britain]: Young man — my experience with tasks is nowhere near Lady Marika's level, so take what I say only as a reference.
[Queen of Britain]: I have completed one retrieval task and two escort tasks in total. For the retrieval, I was not personally present — it was carried out by one of my subordinates.
[Queen of Britain]: [Image]
[Queen of Britain]: This is the detailed mission report I had her write upon her return. You may read it over.
A photo appeared of a page covered in handwriting:
Report Author: Lancelot
Date: Year 2012 of the Queen's Calendar
Location: Pseudo-pan-human history Earth alternate world, American continent, city of Washington
Task Difficulty: D+++ (suspected annotation by Morgan)
Mission Summary: Arrived in Washington on the morning of the first mission day. Discovered an active firefight underway within the local governmental center, "the White House."
Located the "human non-humanization trait" target. Target's physical characteristics: human-primate hybrid lifeform. Appearance: severely grotesque.
Target misjudged our intentions and demanded to know: "Why can only humans be president?"
— Immediate termination engaged.
Duration of engagement: 9 seconds. Target eliminated to the atomic level. Non-humanization trait successfully retrieved.
Respectfully submitted to Her Majesty the Queen.
Shin scanned through the handwritten report — evidently authored by a certain Fae Knight — got the general picture of what had happened, and felt his eye twitch involuntarily.
Ruthless. Absolute ruthless efficiency.
And Your Majesty, the sheer force behind your deployment choices.
A D-rank task — civilian-level difficulty — and you sent Lancelot, a knight capable of singlehandedly annihilating a city, to handle it.
That wasn't using a sledgehammer to crack a nut. That was firing a battleship's main cannon at a mosquito.
Still, reading the report did set Shin's mind at ease on one key point.
Lancelot was not the type to pull punches. Which meant the retrieval of a non-humanization trait clearly had no requirement to keep the target alive.
"Big brother, what's wrong?"
"Are you... feeling unwell somewhere? Please tell me — I'll use my magic to treat you right away, hic!"
Meruru noticed the odd expression on Shin's face and immediately jumped to the worst conclusion, tears already welling up as only she could manage.
She still had the Great Witch's parting words to her ringing in her ears — she'd committed every syllable to heart.
She had to take good care of her big brother. And if danger came — she would step in front of him, and use every spell the Great Witch had given her to see them through it.
[Spreading Witch Factor (Temp Account)]: My sincere thanks to Lady Queen of Britain for your generosity.
"I'm fine. I was just thinking — zoned out for a second."
"Come on, Meruru. Let's find somewhere to get a feel for the situation first."
Shin spoke into the chat, then turned to Meruru.
Honestly, the group chat had a rather considerate touch — dropping them right into the key location for JoJo Part 2's story rather than some random wilderness they'd have to trek across for days.
What he didn't know yet was where in the story's timeline they'd landed — before Joseph Joestar began his ripple training here, or after.
Tap tap tap —!
"Run all you like, you crafty old fool — I'll peel every inch of skin from your bones and burn it to ash!"
From somewhere in the distance came the sound of rapid, frantic footfalls — the sound of something being chased — followed by a voice that surfaced from some deep place in Shin's memory.
The voice belonged to Esidisi — the Pillar Man who had worked from within to help Kars slaughter the Clan of Darkness, and who shared equal standing with Kars as Shin's enemy.
That voice. He could never forget it. The same went for Kars.
But using his extraordinary vision to peer out through the darkness toward the source of the sound, Shin's gaze did not stop on the figure of Esidisi, who appeared to be chasing someone.
— He saw a white-haired, powerfully built old man who had absolutely no business being here, in this place, at this moment.
"Holy — shit!"
"Why does a Pillar Man have a Stand?! Jotaro — if you don't get out here RIGHT NOW, your grandpa is done for—!"
Shin: ?
...
To be continued…