"Ah, so that's it. Tonight, we're planning to take over another organization's territory and eliminate some of their members by force..."
After Kiryu's explanation, Shin understood why he wanted to meet him.
"You want me to strengthen your forces?"
If it were merely to report, he could've done that over the phone—no need for a personal visit.
Kiryu's real reason for asking Shin over was to see if his arrow could reveal any latent Stand abilities among his subordinates.
"Yes, we'd really appreciate your help, Lord Shin."
Kiryu bowed deeply, displaying a great deal of respect toward Shin—partly out of admiration for Shin's strength and partly because he knew his life was essentially in Shin's hands.
If Shin wanted, Kiryu could meet an abrupt, brain-dead end.
"...Do you think I brought the arrow out just for that girl's test?"
Shin sighed, staying seated and looking at Kiryu.
"Did you really think I only intended to test that girl's potential for a Stand?"
"...Could it be?"
Kiryu's expression stiffened in disbelief.
"Don't you have other people on your team? Try another batch."
Shin shook his head. He had actually taken out the arrow to see if any of Kiryu's subordinates had Stand potential. But the arrow pointed past the gang members and directly at Gotou Ichiri, which left Shin speechless.
After all, Stand potential is rare, even if it seems common in the JoJo series due to people artificially creating Stand users. But failed awakenings often resulted in tragic deaths, as reflected in the stories of those who held the arrows.
For instance, the Nijimura brothers in Part 4—one can easily imagine from Keicho Nijimura's words how many people he tried the arrow on along his way, many of whom likely died from failed awakenings.
"I understand," Kiryu said, looking back at his clueless subordinates with a look of frustration. They were carefully chosen, yet none showed Stand potential, leaving him feeling humiliated.
He dismissed that group and called for another batch of subordinates.
While waiting, Kiryu reported some recent findings to Shin.
"Oh, Lord Shin, ever since I became a Stand user, I feel like I've been seeing... unclean things around."
"Are you talking about that one back there?"
Shin pointed behind himself at the bar entrance, where a huge, dark spirit floated.
"That's an evil spirit. You can cut it down with your Stand."
"So... there really is an evil spirit."
Even Kiryu, a hardened gang leader, was visibly unsettled by Shin's casual confirmation.
After awakening his Stand, Kiryu had looked back into the bar before leaving and saw countless black shadows inside, startling him. Some even asked if he could see them. On instinct, he used his Stand to slice them down, which succeeded.
By the time Shin entered today, most spirits had already been cleared out, leaving only one newly emerged spirit floating by the entrance.
Although he'd heard many urban legends about souls, he hadn't expected them to be real…
"Wait, Lord Shin, if that's the case, with so many nobles needing ghostly disturbances resolved, couldn't we...?"
Being a gang leader, Kiryu's first thought was to capitalize on this knowledge for connections with the wealthy.
Many nobles are terrified of ghosts; he'd heard that they often hire onmyoji and priests to exorcise spirits. He didn't know if those practitioners were real, but his Stand certainly had a genuine ability to dispel spirits.
As an underworld organization, they needed powerful allies, and such nobles would be ideal partners.
Kiryu believed he could use this opportunity to expand the Kiryu Group even further.
"Go ahead. Just focus on growing the organization," Shin nodded, understanding Kiryu's intentions but seeing no reason to stop him.
"Once the organization reaches a certain size, I'll need you to gather intelligence for me, so recruit relevant people."
Shin also recalled Busujima Saeko and the connections associated with that name—gathering intelligence was essential.
"Bocchi, little Bocchi! Are you okay?"
In the underground LiveHouse music venue, Gotou Ichiri was brought back to awareness by her new friend, Ijichi Nijika.
Although Ichiri hadn't been sleeping, her dazed expression wasn't far from it.
"What's wrong, little Bocchi? You were fine yesterday when you left. Why are you so out of it today?"
Nijika looked worriedly at Hitori, who was barely regaining focus.
"Did something happen? If you're like this, you won't be able to work tomorrow."
A few days ago, Nijika had brought Ichiri here to form a band named "Kessoko Band," intending to perform as resident artists.
Unfortunately, due to various reasons, their performances weren't very successful, and they realized they'd need to work part-time to cover their expenses.
For the socially anxious Hitori, working part-time felt worse than death, so Nijika decided to let her start working at the LiveHouse next week, providing a familiar environment.
But Hitori's odd state now might make even that difficult.
"Maybe her guitar broke?"
Yamada Ryou, another band member sitting nearby, calmly guessed.
"No, I checked her guitar—it seems fine."
Nijika glanced at Ichiri's guitar, which showed no signs of damage.
"Then she must've met a boy she likes."
Ryou guessed again, though Nijika could tell she was just throwing out ideas.
As soon as she mentioned "a boy," Hitori's ears perked up, and she immediately thought of the last boy she'd seen.
It was Shin.
"Ahhh! I didn't say anything, please spare me!"
In an instant, Ichiri seemed to have an impulsive reaction, covering her head and scrambling away, startling Nijika and Ryou.
"Ryou... from that reaction, it seems less like she met a boy she likes and more like she met one she's scared of, don't you think?"
Nijika observed Hitori's response, noting that, while Ichiri often showed strange behavior due to her social anxiety, this reaction seemed especially intense.
To be continued..
Psst, Ningen. You are under arrest! Hand over your Power Stones, if you wanna live!
Zuke opens his eyes in Trattoria Trussardi!
Koichi Hirose and Tamami Kobayashi are seated next table!
Blackbird wants to devour!
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