The instant she dropped Time Erasure, King Crimson's fist landed hard across his face. To make absolutely sure this time, she followed through with a chain of ora strikes—he never even registered the first hit before he was already senseless, crying out as he spun off the ground and slammed into the fountain hard enough to crack the stone, then splashed down into the pool below.
Inori had reined herself in as much as she could. Josuke wasn't here right now, and if she beat this kid so badly he couldn't be saved, there'd be no way to get the information she needed.
"...Hm? What—"
A numbing ache crawled up her arm before she could even check on the figure in the water. She looked down.
Her forearm was hemorrhaging—not from a wound, but as though invisible needles had punctured a balloon, blood welling freely from the surface of the skin in a dozen places at once. The pain was manageable. The sheer volume of blood loss made Inori's stomach drop.
She understood immediately. He'd pre-set a bubble to steal her blood the moment she made contact. Keep this up and she'd pass out from anemia.
She'd fought GHQ for two years. Even the Apocalypse Virus's divine consciousness hadn't done damage like this. Battles between Stand users were something you could not afford to take lightly—not even for a second.
—But this makes no sense. How did he do it?
Ordinary people couldn't react to the moment Time Erasure activated. That wasn't a matter of intelligence—it was the absolute limit of human capability. The fact that he hadn't seen her coming earlier, when she'd used Time Erasure to close the distance, confirmed he was nothing exceptional. So how could he predict the exact moment she erased time and prepare a second attack—one that could bypass Epitaph entirely?
—Unless he knew about Epitaph too.
"You... you know everything about my abilities, don't you?"
Inori pressed her lips together. There was nothing she could do to stop the bleeding. This wasn't a conventional wound—the blood had been taken, not spilled. Crazy Diamond couldn't fix it; it worked on broken things, not stolen ones. Gold Experience, on the other hand, could generate new blood and close that kind of gap.
Her right arm went numb. Her whole body was beginning to feel it—the weakness, the slow dizzy creep of anemia.
"Ha ha... cough, cough... yeah! Yeah, I know! You can see about ten seconds into the future, and you can erase time—you're the most dangerous Stand user I've ever heard of!"
Soft & Wet's user—the blond delinquent named Chunren—dragged himself out of the fountain.
He looked terrible. King Crimson's chain of hits had caved in half his face, his nose crushed flat. His clothes and hair were soaked through, and he looked like something hauled out of a mud pit.
But somehow, battered as he was, he was more animated than before—enormously proud of himself. Faced with a Stand user who could predict the future and erase time, he'd actually found an opening. Never mind that the price was nearly getting beaten to death.
"You better beg for mercy right now, girl! Or you're dead!"
Inori stood exactly where she was, both arms hanging loose at her sides, her gaze unfocused, body swaying slightly with each breath—the picture of someone a strong wind could topple.
And yet she stood perfectly steady. As if it were all a performance.
"The method that man gave me actually worked. To get past someone with foresight as strong as yours, you have to create a second attack after your foresight window closes."
He spat another mouthful of blood as he said it. Inori had only lost blood; his injuries, left untreated, were fatal.
"Who told you that? Why does that person want to come after me?"
"Come after you? No—I just wanted to use you to teach Josuke Higashikata a lesson!" Chunren rasped, his voice cracking. The name triggered something—his expression darkened. "That bastard used his Stand to beat me up before I had my own. But my Stand's too weak against his... Soft & Wet's property-stealing ability is completely countered by something that restores everything..."
"So someone told you I could help you get back at him. Is that it?"
Inori smiled lightly.
"Yeah! So you better call Josuke over here to heal me, or I'm not giving you your blood back!"
"Hm... I think I already know who that person is."
Inori straightened up, drew a slow breath.
There was no evidence. No logical chain of deduction. But she had a gut feeling—the pure, unreasoned conviction that this had something to do with a certain ordinary-looking salaryman. Though she couldn't rule out the other Arrow holders in town either... she'd only been in Morioh for under twenty-four hours. How would any of them have obtained detailed information about her Stand this quickly?
Unless there's a Stand that lets someone spy on another person's Stand. That would be terrifying.
"I told you to call Josuke! Or I'll use Soft & Wet on you right now!"
"Do you really think I'm going to listen to you?"
Inori was already moving—slow, unhurried steps toward the fountain.
She moved unsteadily, her whole frame listing to one side, barely holding herself together. The way she looked, you wouldn't even need Soft & Wet—one arm around her and she'd fold. Chunren gritted his teeth and hauled himself out of the pool, his soaked clothes leaving puddles across the pavement.
"You're this weak right now, and you think you can still fight? You can't even summon your Stand anymore!"
Inori said nothing. She kept her head down, but the corner of her mouth had begun to curve.
—Her anemia is her problem. What does King Crimson have to do with it?
"You know what—I was going to rough you up and leave it at that, but I've changed my mind."
"What?!"
Even seeing the girl this composed in what should have been a desperate situation, Chunren felt a chill move through him. She could control time. One misjudgment and he was dead. Better forget everything else and fire one more bubble right here—strip her vision. She couldn't fight what she couldn't see.
"Soft & Wet is too dangerous to let loose. And it never truly belonged to you in the first place. I've decided to take it."
—Soft & Wet belongs to Josuke Higashikata of Part Eight. Not some lowlife like you.
"What do you mean! Soft & Wet is the power the universe gave me! I'm someone the Arrow chose!" Chunren felt his dignity collapse, and he fired a bubble aimed straight at her vision. But in that instant, time lurched forward—the bubble missed clean, and a different humanoid Stand was already standing in front of him.
Deep crimson and black metal. Green pupils burning inside angular eye sockets like they could pull his soul in. A walking nightmare out of some hellish fever dream.
The Stand raised its right hand, and silver-white light blazed from its palm. A heartbeat later, Chunren felt a tearing, splitting pain rip through his chest.
"What's happening to my body?!"
He screamed. His chest had opened—a glowing, gaping hole—and the Stand's arm was reaching inside. Something was being pulled out. He could feel it. Just like how he'd stolen Inori's blood with his own bubbles.
King Crimson: Everlasting Crown's hand withdrew from Chunren's chest, dragging out a blue-green shape—a head—his Stand: Soft & Wet.
"Now," Inori said. "It's mine."