The rats-turned-dinosaurs swarmed over Yimi, clamping down on her tail and hind legs. Ancient bite force drove needle-teeth deep into flesh, nearly snapping bone.
"MROOOOW—!!"
Scary Monsters wasn't limited to just transforming its user into a dinosaur. Its truly terrifying aspect was the ability to convert any creature Diego attacked into a prehistoric predator as well — and the infection could spread further through the transformed creatures' own attacks, all remaining under his control.
Like something straight out of a zombie apocalypse.
"Though the effect doesn't work on anyone carrying a Corpse Part. Hey — not bad, cat. You actually earned the Corpse's approval. A lowly creature fit only for caterwauling in spring, and I really should compliment you here. Consider yourself praised."
He kept his distance, split his elongated jaws into what passed for a grin, and bared a mouthful of fangs.
"I've got a great idea. How about you become one of my subordinates? Sound good? You're a Stand user too, right?"
Under his gaze, the small dinosaurs clamped onto Yimi's tail suddenly bit down harder — independent of his command — nearly severing it entirely.
No. They were struggling.
Diego narrowed his eyes. He only now noticed that after that first scream, the cat hadn't made any other movement.
And the rat-dinosaurs — their bodies began visibly shriveling. They lost their dinosaur forms entirely, reverting to filthy, emaciated rats that looked like they'd died in a desert and been sun-dried to husks.
This should have been impossible. He was still conscious. Scary Monsters could convert even a mauled, half-eaten brown bear into a controllable dinosaur. The ability worked as long as the user remained aware.
Was it the cat?
Diego didn't dare close in — not when he could easily shred the furball with one swipe. He sent another wave of dino-rats swarming at the stuck cat, this time with a kill order.
"Mew?"
Same as before. Every dinosaur that attacked the cat began to wither. There was no mistaking it — every single one had shriveled after biting her. Was the cat's blood poisonous?
"Looks like your Stand is the same type as my Scary Monsters. So everything you've done has been to bait me into attacking you directly, is that it? But it's useless — muda da ne, muda!"
Diego snatched up a piece of construction debris — a rusted length of rebar someone had dumped here. With Scary Monsters' enhanced strength, he could hurl it with force rivaling a bullet.
Clang—
But in that instant, an unmistakable sound erupted from beside Yimi.
More precisely — from the sewer opening she was wedged in.
It cracked. Just a hairline fracture, but Diego's enhanced vision confirmed it. And that was when he noticed: the cat's tail — nearly bitten clean off moments ago — had regenerated completely, swishing nervously left and right.
BANG!
"—!"
The metal grate tore open entirely. Wreathed in dark, shimmering energy, the little cat wrenched herself free through brute strength alone. She flipped midair, dodged the lethal projectile, and landed facing Diego with a furious hiss.
She didn't fully understand why, but when the dino-rats had bitten her, the pain hadn't been all that intense. And like a newborn crying on instinct, she'd become immediately, innately aware of what her special power was.
"MROW!" The bristling cat threw herself at the creature several times her size without a heartbeat of hesitation.
"This little—!"
Diego didn't dare let his guard down. He backpedaled, arms raised in a guard, steering toward open ground.
He knew one clean swipe from his claws would probably spill the furball's guts across the pavement. But he didn't dare gamble on whether the so-called toxic blood needed to enter his system or merely touch his skin.
Scary Monsters' agility and reaction speed should have been beyond any mere cat's ability to match. That was how it should have worked.
But after dodging Yimi's pounce, the little monster kicked off the wall and — at a speed even he couldn't react to — raked her claws across his forearm. The force was trivial, barely breaking the surface, but it hit with the impact of a grown man's full-strength blow.
"Wryyyyyyy!"
Diego whipped his tail and smashed her into the wall. From the way the shoddy brickwork crumbled on impact, the cat's internal organs should have been pulverized.
Before today, Diego never could have imagined being mugged by a cat — let alone trading blows with one back and forth. If Johnny Joestar ever caught wind of this, his reputation would be finished.
Diego looked down at his forearm. Three shallow scratches marked the hardened hide — so faint they probably wouldn't even bleed. That was the sum total of everything the animal had accomplished with every ounce of its strength.
Laughable.
"Mrow..."
Diego turned to Yimi, whose spine seemed to have been shattered, unable to stand properly.
"For a semi-domesticated animal, I'll grudgingly compliment you a second time for getting this far. The price, however, is that I, Diego, will gut you open and turn you into rations for this race. And of course — I'll have Johnny Joestar taste-test you for poison first!"
He'd only been trash-talking out of habit, but the moment the words left his mouth, he felt a sudden hollowness in his stomach. His gut let out an unmistakable grrrowl.
He'd talked himself hungry.
No — that was impossible.
Every checkpoint provided free food for the racers. Some riders even entered the race with a "worst case I eat my money's worth" mentality. No matter how badly Johnny had killed his mood, Diego always refueled completely before making his next move. There was no way he'd feel hungry again in less than thirty minutes.
By the time the realization hit, the hunger had grown ferocious. And Yimi — who'd been splayed on the ground — rose like nothing had happened, shook her head, the bits of viscera at the corners of her mouth as good as nothing.
"Meow~"
The hunger was no illusion. Diego had already weakened to the point of near collapse, and it was still escalating. His dinosaur instincts surged — raw aggression, the primal urge to bite anything in sight. He finally understood what had happened to those dino-rats.
And in direct contrast: the cat was absorbing his nutrients to mend her injuries — growing visibly stronger by the second.
"How dare you—!"
Diego used his left claw to slash off the wounded section of flesh without hesitation, successfully halting the escalation. But it couldn't undo the nutrients already lost, or the hunger gnawing at him so badly he wanted to eat grass.
This was Yimi's Stand ability.
「Famine!」