Chapter 209. Kujo Jotaro Decides to Smash Everything
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←—To Be Continued
"..."
"...!?"
When humans encounter something they cannot understand, their first reaction is not to scream.
Instead, they freeze.
Just like in "A Chinese Odyssey", where the voice-over said: "At that moment, the sword was only 0.01 centimeters from my throat, but a quarter of an incense stick's time later, the woman holding the sword would fall completely in love with me, because I had decided to tell a lie. Although I had told countless lies in my life, I believed this one would be the most perfect..."
Leaving aside the content of those words, if we examine the reaction itself, we can see that even in life-threatening situations like having a sword pointed at them, the human brain's first response is not to scream but to freeze, forming a still image before slowly reacting to what is happening.
Similarly, when they watched "Stardust Crusaders", seeing Polnareff on the verge of being consumed by [Cream] and noticing the half-heart-shaped earring falling from his ear just like Avdol's arm did, Kujo Jotaro and the others, who were watching this scene with Pucci, only snapped back to their senses after the screen transitioned to the familiar "←—To Be Continued" ending.
And then...
—BOOM!!
Along with the sudden, explosive surge of bullet comments, their emotions also erupted like a cosmic explosion!
"Director Pucci... This, this is..." Kakyoin Noriaki's voice sounded broken.
"As you can see, this is what I wanted to show you—facing death with courage," Pucci said. "Just as Polnareff mentioned, when facing a Stand user with a tricky and seemingly invincible ability, you only have three options:"
"First, the ever-dashing Polnareff comes up with a brilliant counterattack plan."
"Second, your comrades arrive to support you."
"Third, there's no escape, and reality is cruel."
Because they had recently watched the latest episode of "Stardust Crusaders", the three options Polnareff was contemplating in his mind as he was cornered by [Cream] were the same three methods Pucci now explained to Jotaro and the others.
These words, taken verbatim from the episode, weren't difficult for them to understand. In fact, given Polnareff's personal experience, they immediately grasped the meaning behind them.
And fell silent.
If they could choose, they would definitely want to pick the first or second option. But is it really possible to always come up with a way to defeat the enemy whenever you encounter a new foe?
Though they had done just that in "Stardust Crusaders" before. For instance, [The Fool] and Iggy conveniently countered [Geb] and N'Doul.
The invincible Stand ability [Thoth], capable of absolute prophecy, was partnered with a weak Stand user who overly relied on its power, leading to complete confusion when something unexpected happened that wasn't foreseen in [Thoth]'s prophecy book, making Oingo even start to doubt the prophecy itself.
But the clever counterattack is always based on the fact that the enemies they encountered had weaknesses that could be exploited.
When faced with a Stand user like Vanilla Ice, whose [Cream] not only had immense power but also a strong resolve, the first method simply wasn't an option.
Just like Polnareff, after a brief consideration, and having exhausted all the methods he could think of, finally pinned his hopes on the second option, hoping that Jotaro and the others would show up in the nick of time to save him and Iggy...
But the problem with relying on comrades is that they might be relying on you, too.
After all, the person encountering the enemy isn't always just you.
So most of the time, they can only choose the third option.
This was the real message Pucci was giving to Kujo Jotaro.
And he was preparing Jotaro for it in advance.
However...
"[Cream], is this Stand ability similar to [Osiris] and [Atum]? Will the dark space connected to [Cream] disappear once it is defeated?" Kujo Jotaro was more concerned about something else.
"Unfortunately, no," Pucci, who understood why Jotaro was asking, revealed honestly, "Even [Osiris] and [Atum] only lose their Stand abilities because they merely extract souls. The bodies of those whose souls are extracted remain unharmed, so once the Stand abilities are deactivated, their souls return to their bodies."
"But as Vanilla Ice said, the true form of [Cream] isn't the act of consuming objects. It's connected to a dark space that even he doesn't fully understand, and it sends things into that space. Defeating [Cream] would merely sever the connection, not return the objects that were sent in."
"How could this be?"
Joseph Joestar, who had been lurking on the relevant forums and knew what the fans hoped for, as well as having his own hopes, finally spoke up. "Then Avdol, he...!?"
"Yes, he's confirmed dead," Pucci replied.
"...I see. Understood," Kujo Jotaro said after a moment of silence.
"Hey! Jotaro, do you really understand? This is..." Joseph began.
"You're too loud, old man!" Jotaro interrupted Joseph, then turned to Pucci, "Although I don't want to hear about your crap philosophy of facing death with courage, one thing is for sure—DIO and his crew are the villains, and as the protagonist, I'm going to beat them down hard in the next scene, right?"
"Yes, that's true," Pucci nodded.
"Then there's no problem. I already know exactly what I'm supposed to do next in this shoot!"
That's right!
What courage in the face of death?
Kujo Jotaro only had one thing to do—
Before anyone has the chance to calmly face death, he'll beat DIO and his followers down!
As for the script?
This is his Kujo Jotaro's script!
"Uh... this is awkward, but Mr. Joestar, Jotaro, I'm still here, you know!" Avdol, who had been watching "Stardust Crusaders" with Pucci and the others, spoke up with an awkward expression. "Stop acting like I'm actually dead!"
"..."
"..."