Three glistening red spikes, propelled by every ounce of Josuke Higashikata's fury, shot straight at Tamaki Damo's face.
(③)
In a space this cramped, there was no need to worry about aiming. Crazy Diamond simply poured all the force generated by the blood's restoration outward, holding nothing back. Damo watched those three streaks of cold light hurtling toward him, knowing it was too late to dodge—let alone soften them with his ability.
One spike pierced his left cheek. Another drove into his right cheek. And the cruelest of the three stabbed into his left eye socket, shattering the eyeball in an instant.
A fraction deeper and it would have reached his brain. But that was the limit of what Josuke's weakened body could manage.
"GWAAAAAH!!"
A shriek like a pig being slaughtered tore from Damo's throat. The man clutched his face and staggered backward, one lurching step after another. He had probably never been hurt this badly in his entire life. The pain was enough to shred his nerves raw, and with his mind in that kind of disarray, there was no chance of maintaining Vitamin C's softening effect.
Josuke saw the attack land. He felt his body snap back to solid. But he didn't dare pause even to catch his breath, much less waste a second on a taunt.
He knew that once Damo adapted to the pain, the ability would come right back. Before that happened, he had to land a killing blow.
"Crazy Diamond! Ngh..."
Josuke called out his Stand, only to realize he couldn't even stand. His vision blurred and sharpened in sickening waves. He tried to push himself upright but collapsed again, face-first into the massive pool of his own blood.
—Damn it, is it the blood loss? Damn it! Get up! Miss this window and there won't be another one!
The boy lay in a lake of red. The volume of plasma lost from a severed artery was more than enough to kill him, and launching that Stand attack on top of it had drained whatever reserves he had left. Crazy Diamond couldn't heal its own user. With injuries this severe, even a hospital couldn't save him now.
—I'm going to die. Josuke understood this clearly, and accepted it with a strange calm. He only felt a twinge of regret. Mom. Grandpa. I'm sorry I can't take care of you anymore.
—Big Sis. Rohan. Mr. Jotaro. I'm sorry... I still couldn't beat him.
Every last scrap of strength was gone. Josuke lay face-down, barely clinging to consciousness, let alone summoning a Stand for another punch.
"Josuke... stop. Stop moving or you'll die!"
Rohan saw the state he was in and couldn't help screaming at him, trying to shake him awake.
Rohan's own body had returned to normal too, but the wounds inflicted while he was softened hadn't healed just because the ability wore off.
"Josuke Higashikata! You bastard!"
Damo had run with the yakuza. He carried over a dozen scars of various sizes across his body and had seen more than his share of bloodshed. A man like that didn't lose his composure over a wound. But losing an eye outright—and to some punk kid, no less—was something he could not accept.
"Right now... I'm going to reactivate Vitamin C... I'm going to activate Vitamin C... and kill every last one of you..."
Damo's face was a mask of blood, his voice trembling. The hardened blood spike still jutted from his ruined left eye. Its tip hadn't reached the brain, but it had grazed some nerve in there, and his brain felt as if a centipede were gnawing through it without cease. That was why he hadn't been able to bring Vitamin C back immediately.
"Credit where it's due... you shit-for-brains pompadour. Pushing me this far. You actually scared me for a second there... Haha. Too bad your attack was just a little too weak. One more centimeter and you'd have punched through my skull, huh?"
"But in the end, you're still useless! My Vitamin C is superior!"
—Yes—now! Activate the Stand ability!
Damo fought through the headache and left the spike where it was. He had to endure. Once these people were dealt with, everything would be fine. At the brink of life and death, Damo's willpower surged. He summoned his Stand again and prepared to stamp fresh handprints across the room, softening everyone inside.
"No. He already beat you, Tamaki Damo."
A cold, flat voice. Utterly devoid of emotion. And it froze the battered Damo to the bone.
He turned, painfully, and saw—the man in the white coat was standing there. Arms hanging at his sides. Drenched in blood. The thousand-yen bill Damo had driven into his neck still protruded from the wound. His breathing was ragged, and he looked terrible. Pitiful, even.
But the sheer fact that he was standing was enough to nearly make Damo pass out from terror. He stood like a war god that refused to fall.
"AAAAAAH! Kujo—Jotaro Kujo!!"
—Time stop—he can stop time! I need to activate my ability right now, right now... but will I make it?! He can stop time!
The surge of panic scattered Damo's thoughts again. But he quickly noticed that Jotaro's body was shaking violently too, and realized the man was bluffing.
"Impressive—standing up with wounds like those. You're tougher than those other two by a mile."
Damo broke into a triumphant laugh, though the three blood spikes still embedded in his face made it twitch and spasm grotesquely.
"I think you'd be happier just staying down. My thousand-yen bills hit vital points, you know. Move around too much and you might end up like Josuke over there."
"You really think you can beat my Vitamin C in the state you're in?!"
Seeing Jotaro standing motionless, Damo assumed he was on the verge of death. He summoned his Stand immediately—forget the handprint field, he would soften Jotaro Kujo through direct contact!
In that instant, Jotaro's head snapped up. Behind the blood coating his face, his eyes blazed with lethal intent.
"ORA!"
Starlight flickered at a speed the naked eye couldn't track. A fist too fast to see slammed into Damo and launched him off his feet. He smashed through the wardrobe behind him and crashed to the floor in a heap.
—How... what just happened? Did he... stop time? How can his fists be that fast?
The truth was that Jotaro's injuries were just as dire. But he was Jotaro Kujo. Even if someone drilled a few more holes through his body, he would still rise at the critical moment—because he knew this was what he had to do.
From the instant the softening began, Jotaro had been conserving every ounce of strength, enduring in silence, waiting for Damo to expose his weakest moment.
Jotaro adjusted his hat brim, walked over to Damo, and while the man was still reeling from the blow—before he could even process what had happened—grabbed a fistful of his suit with one hand and hoisted him clean off the ground.
Damo's heart hammered. He couldn't think. All he could see was this man and the Stand beside him. The terror was about to crush him flat. He knew he couldn't win against Jotaro Kujo. He was going to die.
And in that final moment, he remembered the warning Yoshikage Kira had given them just hours earlier.
—Even without stopping time, Jotaro Kujo is a monstrously powerful man. The moment you get an opening, kill him immediately. Don't give him a chance to breathe!
"Now that I get a good look at it, that really is a tasteless suit. Matches your revolting character perfectly. But I don't need to care about that anymore... because the way you die is going to be even more revolting."
"ORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORA!!!"
Star Platinum's fists hammered into Damo's body like a machine gun—dozens of blows in the span of a single second. Damo was sent flying again, smashing the wardrobe to splinters, cracking the wall on impact, and then the force bounced him right back in front of Star Platinum.
"ORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORA!"
Star Platinum, still not satisfied, kept swinging.
"ORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORA!!!"
"ORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORA!!!"
"O—RA—!"
The final punch, loaded with every drop of Jotaro's fury, connected with Damo's face and drove the blood spike Josuke had embedded in his eye clean through, punching a see-through hole in Damo's skull.
...Tamaki Damo. Vitamin C. Dead.
...