A young man with golden hair stood dressed in a predominantly blue outfit. Aside from the luster of past glory and his handsome features, the only marker of his identity was the gold "DIO" emblem on his hat.
Diego Brando — one of the frontrunners most likely to win this race.
Perhaps due to the earlier storm's toll, he'd only managed 54th place in Stage 4, the midpoint of the cross-continent race. He should have been top ten at minimum.
Nearly four hundred riders remained in the competition. Fifty-four was technically toward the front of the pack, but for someone of his caliber, it was a catastrophically bad result — the kind even the spectators couldn't accept.
After a quick resupply, he'd found one of the President's aides for a quiet word. His reason for seeking the President was straightforward: his horse was injured and couldn't continue on the upcoming leg, so he needed the President to extend some off-the-books accommodations. And while he was at it — provide him backup for getting revenge on Johnny Joestar and Gyro Zeppeli, who'd injured his beloved horse.
Officially, the race didn't allow riders to attack or sabotage each other. But that only applied within the hot-air balloon surveillance zones.
Of course, Diego had also prepared a bargaining chip guaranteed to make the President's heart skip: the Holy Corpse's left eye Part, along with a general description of the "traitor" who'd fled to Johnny's camp during the rainstorm.
As a once-in-a-millennium riding prodigy, he could easily pick out Johnny's hoofprints from a chaotic mess of tracks, and he'd noticed that Johnny had been carrying a lighter second person on horseback at the time.
Would this deal go smoothly? He was fairly confident it would — if not for this cat blocking his path.
"A black cat crossing your path usually means bad luck. But what does a black-and-white cat mean? Since white's the dominant color, I'll generously interpret it as a blessing in disguise. Now, if you could retrace your steps back the way you came out — like a clown riding a unicycle in reverse — I'll pretend you never showed up to ruin my luck."
Yimi couldn't understand a word he was saying. But for the first time, a flicker of confusion crossed her mind — she didn't get why every Corpse Part had to be on someone else.
She stopped bothering with detours. She simply stood up and stated her demand: "I want... the eye."
"A cat... just talked?"
Diego froze for less than a second before recovering. "Are you an envoy the President sent? What a surprising approach."
"President?" The little cat was confused.
"No? Well, that really is something." He sniffed the air — no suspicious humans lurking nearby — then stroked his chin and spoke bluntly: "A talking cat? If I caught you, I could probably sell you for enough to rival that old hag's estate..."
Yes, he did have a history of marrying a rich old woman for her fortune.
Hearing this, Yimi's ears drooped into airplane ears.
This human was not friendly. He had no intention of letting the kitty eat the Holy Corpse just because she was cute.
Yimi thought about what other cats would do when someone had something they wanted. Obviously — just take it.
But she couldn't beat a human in a fight.
Then she remembered how the System had taught her that polite greetings were important in human society. Maybe she could combine both approaches and see if it produced a magical result:
"Excuse me — may I rob you of... your eye?"
Diego's mouth curved downward. "You have a Stand, don't you, black-and-white cat? If not for your parrot-grade broken English, I'd almost think you were a human in disguise. You're a mere beast with the same hobby as the President of the United States — collecting corpses. Should I compliment your refined taste, or mock a certain someone for being no better than a feral stray?"
「Congratulations, Host! Achievement unlocked: [Spread the Word — Diego Called Valentine a Little Stray Cat]. Reward: Portal Energy +5%」
"Mew?" This was the longest achievement name Yimi had ever gotten.
But she didn't have time to read what it actually said, because while Diego was still running his mouth, a small creature that smelled just like that strange bird from before lunged at her with a maw full of densely packed teeth.
"Mrow!" Yimi pinned it down and snapped its neck in one bite.
"I don't know who sent you, but if you're genuinely after the Corpse on your own, that's quite the pleasant surprise. You've probably got a Corpse Part on you that awakened your Stand, right? Wretched mongrel — your only value is to haul my gift over here in that pufferfish body of yours, like a Christmas turkey waiting to be gutted!"
Skittering sounds. Countless pairs of eyes lit up in the dark gutters. Dozens of miniature dinosaurs — identical to the one she'd just killed — let out piercing shrieks and surged upward.
Simultaneously, ridges began rising along Diego's spine. His mouth tore sideways, splitting all the way to his ears. His skin thickened into a rough, hardened hide as a long tail extended from behind his spine. Knowing this cat was likely a Stand user, he opted to go all-out from the start — give it no room to maneuver.
"Scary Monsters!!"
Right before Yimi's eyes, in the confines of this narrow alley, the man transformed into something halfway between human and velociraptor.
This was the Stand ability granted to him by the left eye — usable even after the Corpse part had left his body. Physical strength, bite force, dynamic vision — every parameter spiked.
"Mraow!"
The sight of this thing finally struck genuine primal terror into the little cat's heart — the ancient dread of a prey animal being marked.
This wasn't the malice of a demon. This was raw food-chain dominance.
For any human opponent, Diego's Stand ability would be an absolute nightmare. Half-dinosaur form gave him a reptile's superior dynamic vision and reaction speed without the handicap of a dinosaur's limited forelimbs.
He could even dodge bullets at mid-to-long range to a certain degree.
But Yimi wasn't human. She had her own twitchy reflexes and formidable dynamic vision, plus the advantage of a compact body that could make any human look like a fool on tricky terrain.
"Mrow!" She slammed aside the small dinosaurs blocking her path, ignored how disgusting the water below was, and dove straight for a cracked, unrepaired opening in the sewer.
「Congratulations, Host! Achievement unlocked: [Meat Bullet Impact]. Reward: Portal Energy +5%」
But Yimi got stuck!
"MROW!"
Without her whiskers, she couldn't judge whether an opening was wide enough to fit through!
"Never heed a demon's temptation, little cat."
The Corpse's former host whispered as if from nowhere — offering wisdom with all the usefulness of hindsight.