BOOM!
A deafening explosion tore Yoshikage Kira's body apart.
Searing pain shredded his will like ten thousand blades through the heart. He was the one who'd been blown to pieces, yet Kira was grinning so hard his jaw trembled. The sensation of freefall washed over him as his body, swallowed in thick smoke, became weightless.
"Yes! It worked! It activated! Bites the Dust activated! Hahahaha!"
—Just you wait, Inori. This time I know about your ultimate ability. I won't make the same mistake.
He had no solution for Hayato Kawajiri. Fine—then there was only one thing left to do: use Great Days again to reset the twenty-day window. That would forcibly send Yasuho Hirose back and summon a different person from a parallel world, complete with fabricated memories.
He didn't have a way to counter Inori yet—but that was a problem for later. For now, Yoshikage Kira had once again triumphed over fate. One more last-second escape from that woman's grasp.
—It won't be long. Not much further now.
—Next time, or the time after that, he would find the world line where Inori dies. Once that woman is dead, everything will be over. He can reclaim everything he's lost.
"Haha... I... I'm back!"
The darkness from the smoke lifted. Everything proceeded the way it always had after countless prior resets. The world settled into calm.
The moon shone bright. Like a luminous silver wheel, it hung over Morioh, where the pristine environment offered clearer stars than bustling S City, a purer night sky.
Kira forced his racing nerves to settle. Everything had been reversed. Inori wouldn't be here. No reason to fear her anymore. That's right—just like every other time, he was safe now. This was a point in time before Inori had uncovered his secret.
It took a while for his breathing to level out. He pushed the pink-haired she-devil from his mind and began surveying his surroundings. Last night at this hour, he should have been home. So where was he now?
The relief of his narrow escape evaporated. Something was wrong.
This place was unfamiliar. Kira was certain he'd never been here before.
A dim, silent alleyway. The atmosphere was straight out of a horror film. Stranger still, the houses flanking it were all dark—every single one. It should have been around eight in the evening. Were these households really asleep this early?
—Right. The time.
Kira stepped into a patch of moonlight and glanced down at his watch under its cold-toned glow—only to find the watch destroyed. The crystal was caved in and shattered, but he could barely make out the frozen hands: 9:20.
"No... impossible! Bites the Dust already activated!"
A bead of sweat the size of a pea formed on Kira's forehead as the wrongness of the situation hit him.
Everything before his eyes crashed against his understanding like a tidal wave. First: the watch could not have been damaged—he hadn't fought anyone the previous day.
Second: the time. Before heading to Lovers' Cape to confront Inori, he'd checked carefully—it hadn't even been 8:30. Yet his watch had jumped forward by over an hour. His exchange with Inori had lasted mere minutes.
How could the rewind have brought him back only twenty-three hours instead of twenty-four? Bites the Dust never made that kind of error. Not by a single second. He'd confirmed this through countless firsthand deaths.
"The fact that you ended up here... means Inori-san succeeded. Am I right?"
While Kira stood paralyzed with dread, a clear, cool voice came from behind him.
"?"
He spun around.
Pink... pink hair!
That familiar shade of color nearly gave Kira a heart attack on the spot. But he quickly realized this wasn't Inori—just another woman with the same pink hair. She also had a beautiful pair of hands.
"Who are you?"
Kira feigned composure, his voice sharp.
"You don't recognize me?"
The girl smiled knowingly.
"How pitiful, Yoshikage Kira. You can't even remember what happened to you."
"You woman—!"
Kira's entire body stiffened. Was this girl a new Stand user Inori had recruited? Had she used some Stand ability to interfere with Bites the Dust?
"What's your Stand? Tell me what you did—or I'll have Killer Queen blow you to pieces!"
Kira's temper erupted again. He couldn't stomach being toyed with like this, time after time—first Hayato, then Yasuho, and finally Inori. He'd activated Bites the Dust. So why was there yet another unexpected player?
The girl was Reimi Sugimoto. And this place was Ghost Girl's Alley—the same alley Inori had once visited with Rohan Kishibe.
"This wasn't any Stand ability."
"Let me show you what your face looks like right now."
Reimi took a step back, one slender finger leveled at Kira's face like the tip of a blade, her voice cutting cold. The gesture might as well have drawn frost from the air.
A toy-like Stand materialized beside her—Soft & Wet, the very Stand Inori had given her.
Reimi released a massive bubble. Its transparent surface reflected Kira's current appearance like a mirror.
"...What... what is this?"
The reflection was him.
It was him—Yoshikage Kira's face, not Kosaku Kawajiri's.
"Could it be... I've already—"
"That's right. What's here... is the guilty soul of Yoshikage Kira! Inori-san has already dealt with you!"
...
...
A few minutes earlier. Lovers' Cape—the site of Kira and Inori's final battle.
"Press it—now!"
Kira's hand was already closed around the invisible switch. Activating Bites the Dust took less than a second. King Crimson's power was Time Erasure, not time stop—Inori couldn't use her Stand to interfere with anything Kira did next.
She was still ten paces away. No matter how fast she was, she couldn't possibly outrun the instant a switch was pressed.
—Hah—if it were Jotaro Kujo standing here instead of her, I really would be dead.
—Too bad. You can't stop me from pressing this switch.
And yet—his hand wouldn't move.
"Paisley Park!!"
All of Kira's attention had been on Inori. In that narrow window, the person he'd ignored—Yasuho Hirose—had somehow circled around to his side and summoned her Stand to clamp down on his right hand with everything she had.
"Don't let him press the switch!"
"D-damn you! You disgusting bitch!"
Kira let out a piercing snarl. Killer Queen's power dwarfed Paisley Park's. The navigation Stand had almost no combat ability; the slightest effort was enough to wrench free and backhand it away, as easy as swatting a dragonfly.
"Hard to believe you're actually a Stand user. You're even weaker than Hayato~"
Kira sneered, drunk on his own superiority.
"My job... is already done."
Paisley Park had once again made the most precise possible call. While Inori and Kira had been talking, it had quietly guided Yasuho into position behind him, signaling the next move—lie in wait and strike at the critical moment to buy Inori time.
"?"
Kira sucked in a breath. He remembered the walking disaster behind him.
"Kira. Look at me."
Inori's voice.
Every muscle in Kira's body seized. He knew he should be pressing the button right now instead of wasting time on Yasuho Hirose.
But by the time that thought formed, blood was already jetting from the stump of his right wrist, spattering his face. He felt no pain—only the crushing weight of despair.
King Crimson's knife-hand strike cleanly severed his right hand. He wouldn't be activating Bites the Dust anytime soon.
The light faded from the man's eyes. Fighting through the agony of his severed wrist, he turned to look at the woman.
—The pink-haired devil. In those crimson eyes burned a pitch-black flame.
Then came the fists. Fists beyond counting.
"ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA!!!!"
"ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA!!!"
"WRYYYYYAAAA!!!"