Every member of the Bucciarati squad—including Bucciarati himself—was now kneeling helplessly on the ground.
The instant that dark red domain appeared, it was as if all their strength had been stripped away. They didn't even have the power to stand up, and as a result, they were unable to summon their Stands.
A crisis—an unprecedented crisis!
Cold sweat poured down Bucciarati's forehead as he knelt there.
That enemy who had been attacking the organization had likely anticipated that someone would come to investigate Polpo's death site, and had been watching this place from the very beginning.
In that sense, bringing his squad here may well have looked like walking straight into a trap in the enemy's eyes.
That dark red domain before them was, with high probability, a manifestation of the enemy's Stand ability.
Damn it—what kind of Stand ability was this?!
There had been no warning at all. Its activation speed was terrifyingly fast, its range shockingly vast, and its effect downright horrifying.
With such a huge range, and no perceptible sign before activation, it could still render people completely powerless.
In less than a second after being enveloped by it, every member of his squad lost all ability to resist. Even now, Bucciarati himself couldn't muster the slightest strength to move. It felt as though something was draining away from his body, his consciousness rapidly becoming hazy.
Tap… tap… tap…
Footsteps echoed through the prison corridor, forcing Bucciarati to muster a shred of focus.
At a time like this, under these circumstances, anyone who could move freely within such a terrifying dark red domain—and whose footsteps sounded calm and unhurried—could only be the mastermind behind the attacks on the organization.
With such an overwhelmingly powerful Stand ability, it was no wonder the previously attacked Stand users had all died. In the footage replayed earlier by Abbacchio's Stand, Polpo's sudden loss of strength and collapse had clearly been caused by this very ability.
Judging from that recording, this dark red domain didn't seem to directly kill those inside it. Instead, once the targets within the domain lost the ability to resist, the attacker hiding in the shadows would appear and deliver the finishing blow to their helpless prey.
By reasonable deduction, a Stand with such a terrifying primary ability was unlikely to have equally outstanding secondary abilities. In other words, the attacker's physical body was probably quite fragile.
If that was the case, then when the enemy revealed themselves, it might be their chance to turn the tables.
As long as—just as long as—they could gather all their remaining strength and summon their Stands even once to launch an attack, they might still have a chance at victory!
With this thought, Bucciarati forced himself to lift his head and look toward the direction the footsteps were coming from.
However, the figure that came into view caused his expression to freeze instantly.
The reason was simple: the one walking toward them was not the vicious enemy he had imagined, but a girl who looked only sixteen or seventeen years old, wearing an orange-and-black long dress, her hair styled in twin tails, with one red eye and one golden eye.
A girl of that age should, by all rights, still be in school. She was completely at odds with Bucciarati's image of a dangerous criminal who would attack the organization. And yet, the malicious smile on her beautiful face, along with the pair of flintlock pistols held in her hands, made it abundantly clear—
This girl was the murderer who had attacked their squad.
"Sticky Fingers…"
Realizing this, Bucciarati took a deep breath and secretly began gathering strength, preparing to summon his Stand. He didn't want to strike against a girl like this—but since she had attacked them first, for the sake of his squad's lives, he had no choice but to defeat the enemy before him.
Unfortunately, how could Tokisaki Kurumi fail to see through his intentions?
She raised her guns, spiritual power gathering as she aimed at the group before her.
"In order to prevent you from interfering with what comes next, I'll have to ask you all to sleep peacefully for a while."
Bang!
A gunshot rang out. The flintlock bullet, condensed with powerful spiritual energy, struck the ground among the members of the Bucciarati squad, then exploded with tremendous force.
Bucciarati, Abbacchio, Narancia, Mista, and Fugo—everyone from the original Part 5 main cast except Giorno, who had not yet joined at this point in the story—were blown away by the explosion, slammed into the prison corridor walls, and lost consciousness on the spot.
"With injuries like these, they won't be able to move properly for at least ten days or half a month. No matter how heartless Passione is, they wouldn't send organization members who are bedridden on missions, right?"
Tokisaki Kurumi muttered to herself as she holstered her flintlocks and dispersed the City of Devouring Time.
In truth, although she had planned to hunt down Stand users from Passione who appeared in the original story in order to earn points for her master, she hadn't originally intended to target a protagonist group like the Bucciarati squad.
However, Abbacchio's Stand, Moody Blues, was one of the rare information-type Stands in the JoJo series—and a particularly powerful one at that. In order to prevent enemies in this world from digging up information and disturbing her master An Xora's peaceful life, Tokisaki Kurumi couldn't allow herself to be "unboxed" by the Bucciarati squad. She had to deal with them.
Knocking the entire squad unconscious and leaving them bedridden for ten days or half a month was the solution Kurumi came up with.
After all, the number of Passione Stand users who appeared in the original story wasn't very large to begin with. Forget ten days—give her just a few more days and she could pretty much kill them all, then move on to seizing the Stand Arrow and dealing with Diavolo.
By the time these people recovered, Passione would likely no longer exist.
Speedrunning Part 5 in a matter of days—this was the confidence Tokisaki Kurumi had in her own strength.
However, just as she was about to leave, her gaze suddenly shifted toward a certain direction.
"Someone else is coming? Well, that makes sense. The commotion just now wasn't small, and since Polpo was an executive, it's only natural that his attack site would be watched."
"In that case, I'll send a few clones over."
Her figure melted into the darkness.
At the same time, outside the prison.
"That dark red domain that just enveloped the entire prison—was that a Stand ability?"
Inside a van parked in a secluded corner outside the prison, the members of the Assassination Squad were exchanging words.
"As expected, the killer who attacked the organization's executive has been keeping an eye on this place all along."
Inside the van, Risotto spoke coldly.
At present, the Assassination Squad was still metaphorically wearing collars due to their previous attempt to investigate the BOSS's true identity. Before an opportunity like the one in the original story—Diavolo's biological daughter Trish, who could lure him into the open—appeared, the Assassination Squad had no capital to rebel against Diavolo.
Therefore, this opportunity to be directly promoted to an executive was just as crucial to them.
The killer the organization had been searching for so aggressively over the past two days had finally appeared—but Risotto and the other members of the Assassination Squad had no good way to make a move.
The dark red domain that had appeared for an instant earlier, enveloping the entire prison, had a range that was simply absurd—visibly at least several hundred meters in diameter. And every guard caught within it had instantly lost consciousness.
At present, the Assassination Squad didn't dare approach the prison at all. Their Stands' effective ranges and abilities were mostly limited to just a few meters to a few dozen meters, making them completely powerless against an enemy who was likely still inside the prison.
Faced with such a ridiculous Stand ability, the Assassination Squad members could only stare at one another in silence inside the van.
But before they could come up with a solution, a sudden sense of danger surged through them.
Bang!
Several gunshots rang out. Bullets instantly pierced through the van, striking Formaggio, Illuso, and Melone where they sat.
In an instant, the Assassination Squad lost three members.
"Damn it!"
With no time to mourn his fallen comrades, Risotto, the leader of the Assassination Squad, immediately summoned his Stand, Metallica, manipulating magnetism to draw metal elements from the surroundings and form countless scalpels, which he fired toward the direction the bullets had come from.
At the same time, Prosciutto summoned his Stand, Grateful Dead. He tore open the van door, grabbed Pesci and Ghiaccio, and decisively leapt out of the vehicle.
However, the moment they landed outside and looked up, the familiar dark red barrier was already spreading toward them.
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