UniTale: Universal Adventures [Reader x StoryShift Chara]

Part 23: Dio's Diary (2)

Right now, the joestar group is being attacked by the team of J. Geil and Hol Horse. I still have yet to receive a report on how it went.- So with genuine pleasure, I will continue from where I left off yesterday.

They've been disrupting my plans nonstop recently.

However, thanks to that, it has become easier to remember things from one hundred years ago- It has truly been one hundred years since I've felt such anxiety.

As someone whose feelings run high in "entanglements" between men, I beat them mercilessly. I hadn't had a fight like that since my fist fight with Jonathan seven years earlier, but techniques your body learns as a child are never forgotten, no matter how much time passes.

Be that as it may, I could not deny my disadvantage of the fight being two on one, so I had planned on first beating up the first one, then finishing off the other.

Be it a Stand battle or not, numbers means everything in a fight.- So you make a one-on-two fight into two one-on-one fights.

This is a fundamental aspect of street fighting.

And on the second man, I placed the "weapon" I had planned to use to kill Jonathan I was carrying, the stone mask.

Then, I stabbed the first man who had been cowering away with a knife, spraying the stone mask in his blood.-- If I must say, this would be my "second slice of bread," wouldn't it?

The "second slice of bread" and the "third slice of bread."

As I expected, it had a bland taste.-- If I'm to go into it, even using the knife and the stone mask to kill them rather directly-- more directly than I had with my father, I can say it did not feel any more real.

Ah, I cannot say anything could be done to change that.

In that way, I had become like my father. Even if I say that murder- that "human experimentation," was fueled by the liquor, fueled by the drunkenness, there is nothing that could change it. Honestly, if I had not been drunk on that roadside, on that earthly street, I doubt I would have overtly committed murder.

But while it may have been fueled by the liquor and been an utter fluke, it was good.- If I had not committed murder there, I most likely would have placed the stone mask on Jonathan like I had originally planned.

And when I think what would have happened had I done that, I shiver.-

- No, perhaps it would be more correct to say I would shudder?

Just thinking that I, Dio, and Jonathan's fates could have been switched--

- is quite interesting.

The one who would have become an immortal vampire may have been Jonathan.- And then the one who would have become a Ripple warrior in order to exterminate him may have been me, Dio.

Intersecting fates.

Reversing fates.

...Of course, while this is fascinating to think about, nothing of the sort actually happened. If it had happened, it would have been unbearable. It would be appropriate to say it would be "no joke."

But I digress. Now then, the results of the human experiment.

Once sprayed with blood, the bone needles instantly sprung out of the stone mask- and the needles pierced the man's brain. At that moment, the stone mask glowed.

It emitted a blindingly bright light- No, perhaps that was an illusion. That at least was what I thought at that moment.

Much like how a superb painting or a sculpture can seem like it is emitting light, I thought that was all I was seeing.- But I was wrong.

Having thought the man had died the moment the bone needles dug into his brain, I turned my back to pick up my hat which had fallen off during the fight. And in that moment, he got up- and attacked me.

With a terrific power.

With a body that had returned to its youth.

With a body that did not feel pain.

With an unbelievable strength that crushed my collarbone just by grazing it- he attacked me with the intent to kill.

No, that's not right.

It was not trying to kill me.

He was trying to eat me.

If the sun had risen just a few seconds later- I would likely have become the "first slice of bread" to that vampire I had accidentally created.

Being an ordinary human at the time, with of course no way of using Ripple techniques, I had no means of resistance against a vampire, a being that had surpassed humanity.

The risen sun turned the man's body to ash, to dust, and he disappeared. And so, I learned that the weakness of that mighty life-form was the sun.

It had all been a coincidence.

There was no intention or plan.

My learning of the stone mask's secret and my learning of the vampires' weakness were all pure coincidence.-- One could call it nothing but the result of some mistakes.

But when that many coincidences pile up, it becomes design.

When that many failures piled up, it became something like success.

That is what I believe.

Of course, at that time I had still had no intention of donning the stone mask myself.-- It did of course allow one to obtain great power and an immortal body, but the sacrifices those brought with them were too great.

By referencing Jonathan's research notebooks, it likely did something like this.- The stone mask brings out the latent potential of the human brain.

The potential of the brain.- The human brain is an organ which still holds many mysteries. The idea that the stone mask's bone needles had the function of awakening a sleeping ability we humans had never known did not take long to deduce.

Awakening the brain. Pushing the brain.

That is what the stone mask was made to do.- But even knowing that, there were still many unknowns. I had still only performed a single experiment on humans. So I never even thought of using that mysterious mask on myself.-  However...

I was driven into a situation where I had no choice but to use it on myself.

After my experiment had ended-- After my drunken wandering had ended, one could say-- what awaited me at the joestar residence was Jonathan Joestar, having returned safely from Ogre Street.

No, not "safely."

He had brought with him the China man that had sold me the poison - as well as a friend he seems to have made on Ogre Street.

I was utterly cornered. Checkmated, if you will.

But I had known that.-- Knowing what sort of man Jonathan Joestar was, I had known much earlier that I had been cornered.

Nevertheless, I had no plans for cowardly tactics like not returning to the mansion and fleeing.- I would never run from a man like him.

In order to fight Jonathan I returned to the joestar mansion, a place I knew would be the jaws of death for me.

"I obtained an antidote."

"In other words, I've gotten proof, Dio."

"I do this with a heavy heart... Although I can't say we ever really got along, you and I grew up like brothers. But now I'm forced to hand you over to the police."

Jonathan said something along those lines.

He really did seem reluctant, or rather sad, when he saw me.

"It's too bad, Dio... It truly is."

"You may not understand, but that is how I truly feel... Dio."

How... How can I express this... To have those so-called "kind" words spoken to me from the man I intended to square off against... I wonder if Jonathan could imagine how much it hurt me, how much it wounded me?

Those sad eyes... those compassionate eyes...

Just how he bruised me-- I doubt Jonathan could ever know.

But I did not become enraged.- I endured Jonathan's insult.

And to Jonathan , I said this--

I have received an unexpected report. That is why my last entry ended so unfinished. If this notebook is to be something like a memorandum or a commonplace book, then there is little meaning in fussing over connections and jumps, but it feels unpleasant to break stride. Still, I have no choice but to do so. Something has happened that I must write first.

Something displeasing.

I have received word that the team of J. Geil and Hol Horse, the team of Stand users that are very rare to find in this world, has been beaten by the joestar's group.-- And it happened several days ago, it seems.

There is a reason that this information only just reached me. An unavoidable, allowable reason- A reason that I, Dio, would say, "In that case, it could not be helped," in regards to. Yes, and that is because the person that was originally supposed to report the information to me, Enya the Hag, went out of her senses the moment she heard it.

Defeat.

About Hol Horse's stubborn fleeing, he was still able to make such a choice it seems, and about Enya's son, J. Geil, being impaled by Jean Pierre Polnareff's "Silver Chariot" in revenge.

Her own son was killed.

So even that witch can be sad?

Even that witch- can be a mother?

Even though she is not a holy woman- she could still be a mother?

Anyhow, another subordinate that couldn't help but overhear that has given me a late report of it.

However, those two did not simply lose.- I have been told that the man one could say is the cornerstone of the joestar group, the fortune teller Avdol, was eliminated. If one considers that only J.Geil died, and Hol Horse managed to survive-- then both our side had one loss and our opponents have one loss. Therefore, one could make the statement that we are even. Lives, "souls" are things that can be added and subtracted, and they certainly can't be divided, but
regarding our sides' numbers, I believe I could actually call this something of a victory.

Something of a victory.

Yes, something of a victory.

I should normally be able to call it that- But now Enya the Hag, whom could be called the crux of our organisation and its manager, has lost her senses. I therefore cannot say the result was balanced both the two sides.

We've suffered major damage.

No, catastrophic damage.

In all honesty, it is damage I do not anticipate we will recover from.

Right now, the "Empress" is using her Stand ability to pursue the Joestar group, but I wonder about the outcome. Just how functional can the parts of an organisation be once the chain of command is lost?

It seems the time has come. It seems I must make a serious effort. It is I, after all, that has the fated connection with the joestar family-- and it seems that connection must be severed directly.

I must formulate.

Formulate a strategy.

Like I did one hundred years ago-- Like I had to.

A plan to take everything from the joestar household.

But setting that aside, I must first do something about Enya.

About that mother who has lost her mind.

There are a great many things I should write. So many that I am unsure of from where I should begin. This notebook is ultimately a record of "the way to get to heaven."-- In that way, it is different from the research notebook Jonathan kept regarding the stone mask.

That is why there really isn't a need to write a detailed description of each and every little thing regarding the stone mask.- And I feel that even if I write in detail about my mental states from one hundred years ago, it will only serve to put me in a bad mood.

And now my current situation is starting to get worse as well.- Perhaps I should temporarily suspend my search for the "way to get to heaven" here?

Maybe I should devote my attention to my battle with the joestar family?

Perhaps I should...

No, if I think objectively, that is correct.-- "The method for going to
heaven" cannot be enacted in the next few days at any rate.

It is a long-term plan with no end in sight.

Therefore the correct thing to do is to put that off for now-- but that correctness is displeasing to me.

Saying it and writing it makes me sick.

That being correct is fundamentally irritating.

For the sake of those people-- Jonathan's grandson and the rest of them, I have to depart from my original plan. For me to act prudent and act like I'm delaying it of my own volition is not something that should be happening.

By doing that, Dio is no longer Dio.-- Therefore, I will persist in working towards my goal.

Now, without any more delay, I will continue from where I left off.

I was cornered by Jonathan - I was pitied by Jonathan , but I endured that humiliation and I decided to exploit it. I pretended to act gracious and in the opening that created, I tried to stab and kill him with a knife.-- I could no longer think about the consequences.

I would kill Jonathan.

At that point, that was all I could think about.-- But regarding that, Jonathan was meticulously prepared.

He had already brought a squad of police officers into the mansion.-- No, actually I doubt that was Jonathan's idea.

Undoubtedly that was the idea of the friend he brought with him from
Ogre Street. Speedwagon or whatever his name. 

(this isn't part of the diary but fuck you dio, you dare almost forget our gods name? Disgraceful)

He... No, that person said this to me.

While I, Dio, continued my performance to try to draw out even more sympathy from Jonathan, he kicked a candlestick at me and said this:

"This guy stinks! He reeks of a stench that's worse than vomit! I've never met anyone so evil!

"His circumstances made him evil? I don't think so! This guy was born
evil! Mr. Joestar, you should just hurry and hand him over to the police!"

Such correct words.

It may have been a different place, but he was raised in the bottom rung of society as well. He saw through me, Dio, perfectly. But be that as it may, I did not think we could understand each other. I could not imagine us ever walking side by side.

And perhaps I was indeed born evil.- I'm sure I was. Even I think so. At the very least, as far back as I can remember, I cannot remember a time when I was pure, when I was a good person, or a time when I was innocent.

I always made fun of my saint of a mother, and in my life up to that point, I had not really amassed any good deeds.

If anything, in the seven years I spent at the joestar residence when I donned the mask of being a good student, I acted like a fairly "good boy," but that was all done in order to usurp the joestar family fortune, so I don't suppose one could call any of that a good deed. It was insincere, which may be even worse than being directly, purely evil.

So Speedwagon was correct.

I was born evil, his words rang utterly true.- But in every other point, that person was wrong.

He was off the mark.

Even if I was born evil- even if mine is a cursed soul... One could not say the environment I was born in and grew up in were not awful.

I am evil.

And my circumstances were bad.

There is no contradiction. It is consistent.

After that, I put on the stone mask; I would cease to be human. But surprisingly, perhaps the thing that spurred me to do it was that man, Speedwagon.

When I think about it that way, it is a bit odd.

Fate is something that seems tightly fixed, but actually with just little mistakes, it can be easily changed.

I've pierced Enya the Hag with a "flesh bud."

That was the only way for me to return her to sanity after she had lost it. Well, that was what I was thinking when I performed that measure, but in the end her sanity did not return.-- She only got a bit better. I've received news that "Empress" and "Wheel of Fortune" have lost to Joseph Joestar, and now she has finally gone to eliminate them herself. Without discussing or reporting it to me at all.

I wonder what the outcome will be?

Enya the Hag's "Justice" is a Stand ability which allows her to simultaneously manipulate a large number of corpses, and therefore in a way it rivals the stone mask.- If one were to fight it head-on, I don't think there is any Stand that could beat it. And even if they don't fight head-on, I doubt the result would change.

That old woman's Stand has the ability to overcome the disadvantage of being one vs. many.- But the one thing I am worried about, as there was no way around it, is that I had to use a "flesh bud."

Her Stand power will weaken as a result, and that is something to be concerned about.

I don't much feel like writing in my notebook today.

I will continue this tomorrow.

"Dio..."

"I heard everything."

"It really is... a pity."

"I was indebted to your father... And I had every intention of giving you the same love and holding the same expectations for you as my own son."

"I'm going to my room to rest... I do not want to see my son arrested...."

Those are my adoptive father's words that I remember.

George Joestar's words.

Like his son Jonathan, he looked at me with sad eyes.- Yes, there was likely no falsehood in those words.

He truly was sad.

And I think he really didn't want to see my being arrested. Because I think the part about him having the same love and expectations for me as with Jonathan was not a lie, either.

Upon writing this, I've realised something.

Did George joestar really never catch on to my plan- to his own adoptive son's wicked thoughts?

And what he said just before, about the man he said he was indebted to, Dario Brando. He knew he was not indebted to him, he knew he had been robbed by him.- Even knowing that, he continued to say he was indebted to my father, take charge of his son, and show him love.

He was the sort of man that could do such things.

Then perhaps- even knowing that his adoptive son was trying to kill him and trying to gain control of his house and family fortune, he could still love me as an adoptive son, or as his real son.

The medicine I gave him.

Perhaps he swallowed it even knowing that it was poison and not medicine.- That's quite a frightening image. If he kept taking that poison all the while hoping I would just give up on my plan, that I would have a change of heart- That terrifying thought is filled with far more madness than anything I, or anyone in this world, have ever had.

It's different from kindness or gentleness.

It's insane love.

Just how much did that "giver"- intend to give to me?

No, I expect I really am thinking too deeply into this.

I truly doubt anyone would ever do such a thing.- That is beyond the realm of sainthood.

This father's love even overshadowed that of my mother's.

But I still think...

I think that this father who was killed by me right afterwards by protecting his own son, this father that was killed by his adoptive son, quite likely went to heaven.

To that heaven I do not think even my mother went to.

And perhaps there- he reunited with Dario Brando.

Perhaps both fathers reunited.- If that is the case, I wonder what they talked about?

I am starting to feel unwell.

I will continue tomorrow.

I had been cornered-- cornered and having been pitied by both George Joestar and Jonathan Joestar, decided to don the stone mask myself.

I decided to cease being human.

If it were only the Joestar father and son in the mansion at the time-- Or if it were only them and Speedwagon, I think I would've chosen not to put on the stone mask and just fought as a normal human.

But in that situation with a squad of policemen carrying guns, there did not seem to be any other viable options.- I did not plan on such a thing.

It was them that forced me to don the stone mask. One could say they made me quit being human.

But one could also say that I was only able to do it because they pushed me that far.

I was able to reject my humanity.

I believe I said something like this to Jonathan: "I at least want you to be the one to put the handcuffs on me." and beckoned him closer. After that, yes, I said something like this:

"Jojo."

"There are limits to a human's abilities."

"What I have learned in my short life is... that the more humans scheme, the more their schemes will fall apart due to unforeseen circumstances."

"I must become something that surpasses humans."

Even now, those feelings have not changed in me.

The more one schemes- the more their schemes will fall apart due to unforeseen circumstances.

But I have an addendum to that.

Even after becoming something that transcends humanity-- In the end, the more I scheme, the more my schemes fall apart due to unforeseen circumstances.

And even now, they are falling apart again.

"The way to go to heaven."

Because of the Joestar family, my plan that should have been perfect is once again falling apart due to unforeseen elements-- as if they are inevitable.

Anyhow, with Jonathan right in front of me, I put on the stone mask. And right before Jonathan's eyes, I rejected my humanity.-- I had intended to stop being human by bathing in his blood, but the one whose blood I bathed in was the one that protected him, the blood of George Joestar.

The father protected the son.

And the needles pierced my brain.

I have received a report from Steely Dan that Enya the Hag's "Justice" has been defeated by jotaro Kujo's "Star Platinum."

It seems the "flesh buds" did indeed have a side effect.-- I ordered Steely Dan to finish off Enya the Hag.

I do only what has to be done.

I did only what had to be done.

It did not produce any emotion.

But when thinking about what comes next, I do indeed worry.-- Even beyond the fact that all of the jobs I had entrusted to Enya will now stop, just thinking about it is mentally exhausting. I'm going to rest for a bit.

When one is splashed with blood while wearing the stone mask, they become vampires really without exception. But, how much of their conscious mind from "before then" remains seems to depend on the person.

For example, the man who was the target of my accidental human experiment, as far as I know the first victim of the stone mask, even though he was turned into a vampire, he became something not much different from a zombie. An incarnation of appetite and a lust for slaughter.- I was a bit confused as well, so I cannot say this with certainty, but I think I can justifiably say that he lost his sanity and sense of reason.

He did not have a fragment of personality left.

So it would seem that there depending on the strength of one's mind, the effect differs from individual to individual.

So while there are those that lose their ego when the needles push on their brain, that become a monster in both mind and body, there are also those who are able to become a vampire and have their sanity remain.

Well, that is what I think, but in truth, I may have had already lost my sanity, ego, and sense of reason long before that.

One cannot tell if they themselves are sane.

But I am fine as long as I remain being me.

Even if I have ceased being human.

If I am me, that is enough.-- As long as I remain the proud self that I am, Dio.

Not Dio Brando.

Not Dio Joestar.

D-I-O.

As long as I continue being purely DIO- that is what matters above all else

Being cornered into putting on the stone mask one hundred years ago, I might go so far to call it an act of desperation. But still, I am fortunate that my reason. that myself still remained.

However, my good fortune ends there, and truly just there. Because in the end, after that, mere minutes after that, I would end up losing to Jonathan Joestar's explosive power.

Even though I was able to eradicate the police squadron with my vampire power, I was "burned to death" by Jonathan Joestar along with the entire Joestar mansion.

Seven years ago, along with that mansion I had so many memories in-

I was "burned to death."

No, to be precise, it was not the flames that killed me. If it were only flames, I could have escaped.- With the vampire's recovery ability, I should have been able to escape.

But I couldn't.

By the Joestar house's guardian spirit, by the goddess of love, I was skewered-- I was burned.

Looking at yesterday's entry makes me feel embarrassed.

By the goddess of love, I was skewered, I was burned, all that. Even as a rhetorical depiction, that is far too narcissistic. What in the world was I trying to write? Literature or something?

It was nothing like that.

I was simply defeated before Jonathan's good luck.- Good luck, and perhaps his unconscious mind.

The statue of a goddess of love decorating the joestar mansion's lobby, in other words, before Jonathan's unconscious mind that used a mere decoration, I lost. That is all.

I will write simply the factual account of how he, with his flesh-and- blood body, "subjugated" me, the immortal vampire.-- Without any odd indulgences, I will write what are purely facts.

After seeing my immortal body shrugging off a volley of fire from the police squad like it was nothing- After seeing my recovery, he thought of trying to burn me to death, it seems.

And ordinary flames would not be enough.

He tried to kill me with huge flames, flames that would burn down the entire joestar mansion.-- To be honest, it seems that man intended to go down with me. A double suicide, one might call it. It seems that by sacrificing himself-- He intended to make sure I would be completely burned away and not escape. And yet, Jonathan alone survived. And the only way I can explain that, only I was burned, the only way I can explain that fate, that division of light and dark, is that he had good luck and I had bad luck.

Earlier, I was talking about the unconscious- About how he subconsciously used the structure of the joestar mansion he had lived in all that time, how he subconsciously used that goddess of love that decorated the lobby and such. But in terms of knowledge of the joestar mansion's structure, mine was no worse than Jonathan's.

And yet, he survived.

And I "died."

What was the difference?

As I said, it was a difference of luck. But does that really decide everything?

Is perhaps being able to go to "heaven" or not, also decided in such a way? Those with good luck can go to heaven and those with bad luck cannot? Is that all?

Regardless of nobility or pride.

Regardless of good deeds or humanity.

I do wonder, with what sort of meaning my mother used the word "heaven" to begin with?- It is not something to be thinking about at this point, but my understanding of it is too vague.

It is truly hard for me to think of it as the "heaven" usually based on religious devotion. Did it simply mean "a happier place than here?"-- But honestly, you could find a place better than that town pretty much anywhere, couldn't you? You could make the extreme argument that all places besides that one were "heaven." To take one step outside the Brando house, to take just one step into that bottom-rung town, for her, that became "happiness."

She was able to go to "heaven."

It was like my mother was like an ascetic monk performing penance in order to achieve enlightenment, the way she lived- and died, in that town.

Was that love, or some such thing?

Love for my father and love for me.

And love for the inhabitants of that town- like a holy woman.

Was it something like that?

If everything is based on luck, then making a record like this, as well as my groping for a way to get to heaven itself, loses all meaning. Because no matter how much I've thought about it, no matter how much I rack my brains- no matter how much I've schemed, due to unforeseen circumstances, due to unpredictable developments, everything will come to nothing.

Luck.

Perhaps my bad luck started when I was born to Dario Brando and that foolish mother of mine.- And Jonathan's good luck started, yes, when he was born as the heir to the joestar family.

So then is birth everything?

Is your upbringing everything?

I suppose Speedwagon's opinion was incorrect after all. Perhaps it is the environment that is everything--? Or perhaps being born evil is equal to being born into bad circumstances?

Is whether you can go to "heaven" or not really fully dependent on your birth?

I had decided that it was certain that my mother could not have come to heaven, but- But what she actually went to "heaven" based on evaluation of good deeds during her lifetime, or perhaps some other reason I didn't pay any mind to?

If that is the case, I am doing something extremely useless. Useless and meaningless.

Should I just throw this notebook away altogether?

Perhaps that would be for the best-- Maybe if I can go to heaven, I can get there without doing anything, and if I can't, then no matter what I do, I still won't be able to.

Effort is useless and resistance is futile.

What if that is all there is to it?

Even if that is all there is to it, for now, I am going to write what I am establishing right now to its end.

Even if there is no meaning to it, I can at least complete it to take pleasure in the humor of it when re-reading it later.- Because after I've beaten the Joestar group and gotten completely adapted to my body, I may lose meaning in my life.

So in preparation for such a time, I think I should prepare a bit of humor for the same of having a better life.

Anyhow, I'm a bit shaken up.

My failures, while frustrating enough to begin with, are not very pleasant to remember and write down.

In order to reclaim calmness, today I will only be writing about current events.

I'll only be talking about what happened in these last few days.

Steely Dan's "Lovers" has been defeated.

And so have "Sun" and "Death Thirteen."

It seems "Judgment" and "High Priestess" are already on the move, but I already do not think that they can stop the Joestar Group. Not in the least.

These people that were originally direct subordinates of Enya the Hag are now acting on their own judgement.-- They are not waiting for me, Dio, to issue them commands, they are acting just to render achievements. I might go so far as to say things are in a runaway state.

Having lost control of them, I have no way of stopping them.-- Perhaps I should have used "flesh buds" on them before they became like this, but of course the down side of that has already been proven.

And the Stand user "The Fool"-- The "dog" Iggy has, as expected, been secured by the Speedwagon Foundation.

Speedwagon.

That man.

Even after death, he causes me trouble.-- When I look at this foundation he created, no matter how bad a man he tried to be, I wonder if that man was an "inheritor" or a "giver."

I've really betrayed my promise to myself, this is ludicrous.

Anyhow, it is likely that Iggy will join the joestar group in the near future.

The way I am writing this may seem like there has been nothing but bad news, but there is good news as well.

Similar to the dog of "The Fool," and I suppose the orangutan of "Strength," I have foundanother animal Stand user.

It is the Stand user of the Stand "Horus."

It is a hawk Stand user.

I have named him (?) Pet Shop and given him the duty of guarding this mansion.

And with Pet Shop, I have gathered all "Nine Major Egyptian Gods" in my service. They are all a different variety of cards than the ones that were Enya the Hag's subordinates.

I think I will gather them all into the mansion at once for a time.

Before all the Stand users Enya gathered are wiped out-- While they can still risk their lives to buy me "time."

Oh, yes. I must call Hol Horse. Him, alone...

We have decided on a day for Pucci to return once again to my mansion. I'll try to form a firm definition in my mind of what "heaven" is by the time he arrives.

What is "Heaven?"

Now that I have calmed down, I will continue writing about one hundred years ago.

I lost.

To Jonathan, no, to the joestar father and son, I lost.-- I "died." I was "killed."

But I did not die.

I was not killed.- I survived.

At the very last moment, a pillar which had broken due to the fire destroyed the goddess statue that had skewered me.- And so, I just managed to survive.

If one could call that good luck, this is like that Chinaman said, I have good luck. I suppose that's what it was. I was in a state from which I could not recover for sometime, a state that seemed beyond recovery, but regardless, I survived. I lived on.

My life continued.

Not as a human, but-- it continued.

And it continues on now.

I did not simply escape death, I survived.

That is what I should say here.

But for a time, I had to hide myself. I had become an immortal vampire with a powerful recovery ability, but being restored from the verge of death took time and required considerable life force.- So...

So while I gained servants like jack the Ripper and drank the blood of young women, I simply waited for my body to recover.

I recovered.

And waited for the day I would have my revenge on Jonathan.

But while I was doing that-- While I was putting all of my effort into restoring my body, Jonathan acquired those blasted Ripple abilities.

The energy of the sun, in a way, a celebration of humanity.

Or one could also call it life or the soul itself. Those techniques-- He learned those techniques which are specialized for exterminating vampires.

He acquired them.

I may have written this somewhere before, but the one that taught those techniques to Jonathan was a man named Will A. Zeppeli.- He was Jonathan's master.

From what I've heard, Jonathan had met up again with Erina Pendolton for the first time in many years and was walking down a street with her where he found Zeppeli, lying in wait. He suddenly healed one of Jonathan's broken bones, and kindly informed him that I, Dio, was still alive, and that he must learn the ways of the Ripple.

What a laugh.

No, I cannot laugh that.

It honestly makes me angry.

It seems that no matter how far he goes, Jonathan is still an "inheritor."-- He never had to search for a way to defeat me.

He never had to travel deep into the mountains of Tibet and ask to be trained.

Far from it, the fact that I- the person one could call his arch enemy, was still alive, he did not even have to investigate for himself.

In fact, I'm sure he thought something like "Hi just try to quickly forget all about it" regarding me and the stone mask.

That was the type he was-- The kind of man that would separate himself from "murder."

The type of man that could forget the taste of the bread he ate.

And the type that would carelessly try to return to his daily Iife.- Though I, Dio, was of course thankful for that.- But he was "given" to by Zeppeli and "inherited" from him.

The Ripple technique.

And the fate of the stone mask.

He "inherited" them.

He himself never moved, he was merely "given" and "inherited" these things. Jonathan Joestar lived his life lazily.

When I look at it that way, it seems my drunkard of a father and Jonathan Joestar actually have something in common.-- And perhaps you could also say that I was both of their "arch enemies."

However, my father was a "taker."

A "taker" like me.

So essentially, if you were to probe into the battle between Jonathan and me, you would find that it was ultimately a battle between "takers" and "inheritors."-- And if you go further and consider that I lost, you would see that in the end, no matter how we may try, the "takers" cannot win against the "inheritors," much like the "have-nots" cannot win against the "haves," wouldn't you say?

No, that's not right.

It is certainly true that I lost in the short run.

But the battle between the joestar bloodline and me is not yet over.

It still continues even now.

"Geb," N'Dour.

"Khnum," Oingo.

"Toth," Boingo.

"Anubis," (no master).

"Bastet," Mari ah.

"Sethan," Alessi.

"Osiris," Daniel J. D'Arby.

"Atum" Terence T. D'Arby.

"Horus," Pet Shop.

The nine major Egyptian gods.

I have them, as well as Hol Horse, gathered at my mansion.-Truly something I could call a masterpiece. If these ten Stands formed a team and attacked at once, I think that even I would not stand a chance.

But I am well aware that will not happen.

They won't form a team.

They won't form cliques.

Stand users are extremely afraid of other Stand users learning their abilities.- There are some among these here that have the resourcefulness to form teams, as I said before, but those are exceptions to the rule. Only Hol Horse and the Oingo and Boingo brothers.

I've informed them of what actions to take next.- With the joestar group likely having broken past "Judgement" and "High Priestess" and reached Egypt, I have directed them to ambush- to eliminate them.

This is also for the sake of allowing me to safely meet with Pucci and buy me time to find a way to go to heaven. As well as time for adapting to Jonathan's body.

Regardless of the reason, I still cannot say that I am in the best condition to meet their team, which has proven itself to be a force far stronger than anticipated.

According to reports, it seems that the Speedwagon Foundation has caught wind of this meeting.-- In other words, they have alerted the joestar group about this mansion that I, Dio, am living in.

I am repulsed by the idea of running, but for now, it seems that getting away from here may be a good idea.

I'll call Kenny G. and Vanilla Ice as well.

Vanilla Ice in particular is a trump card, but. you never know what may happen.

I'm going to write what I gathered from yesterday's meeting here.

I perhaps should have written this in yesterday's entry, but it took me some time to gather my thoughts.- Because I had a rather wild idea, even for me.

No, actually, I think I will sleep on this idea for another day.

I have a bad habit of being overeager.

By doing that, it's led to a lot of sidestepping and letdowns, hasn't it?- Relating to my search for the "way to get to heaven" as well as other things.

Today, I will only record facts.

I suppose the only appropriate thing to say here is "As expected." "Judgement" and "High Priestess" have lost to the joestar group.

And even worse news has come in.- It seems that Mohammad Avdol, the master of "Magician's Red" which J. Geil and Hol Horse had supposedly eliminated, had actually survived.

And this is not something like he just so happens to be alive, or he survived by some coincidence. As the result of Joseph Joestar's plan, as a result of Jonathan's grandson's tricky plan, he had been "pretending to have been killed."

Unfortunately, I must admit I was taken in by this plan.- And because of that, they were allowed to reach Egypt. I can't believe that Avdol pretended to be dead and secretly prepared a submarine.

I've heard that having just managed to realize that, "High Priestess" destroyed the submarine, but she was just a bit short of bringing Jotaro to an irrecoverable state.

And she was beaten.

But on the other hand, I think I've noticed a side of myself I've been ignoring. A side of myself that is actually calmly accepting that bad news.

A side of myself that somehow, has become able to, in someway, take it as good news.

Saying that Joseph Joestar's plan was tricky makes it sound nice, but it was actually a dirty plan for fooling of one's foe that was based on deception.

And Jotaro Kujo- although he is an enemy Stand user, he's displayed great mercilessness by harming a woman to a point beyond recover-ability.

Speaking of which, Joseph also beat the female Stand user "Empress" without hesitation.- All actions completely unthinkable for Jonathan Joestar or George Joestar.

Completely ungentlemanly acts that would have been unthinkable one hundred years ago.

So I can rest easy.

Even those "inheritors"- did not "inherit" all of Jonathan's mettle. Somewhere, some of it, perhaps even most of it, had worn away.

So they are not worth fearing.

Surely they will be eliminated by one of the 9 Egyptian Gods- Perhaps quite easily, such as by N'Dour.

I am looking forward to tomorrow.

Tomorrow, when I will organize my thoughts.

The Stand abilities of the 9 Egyptian Gods, to cite the D'Arby Brothers as examples, are all unique. I suppose the tarot cards should be considered a starting point.-- Yesterday I wrote about what would happen if they all attacked together, something along those lines, but depending on how their abilities are used, even one could very well have the caliber to directly oppose the Stand of me, Dio.

Among them, the one I most have my eye on is Boingo's "Thoth."

He is quite shy, or rather, he has a tendency to be distrustful of others. Since he only ever opens up to his elder brother Oingo, it has been difficult even for me to question him. But if I were to describe "Thoth's" Stand ability, I would call it "future prediction."

The Stand takes the form of a "book."

And in that "book," the future appears in the form of pictures.-- It does have the weakness of only being able to predict the very near future, and it also does not have any attack power whatsoever, but what makes this Stand ability truly dangerous is its "predictions."

I am told that it is impossible for the future to deviate from the futures it predicts.

"The predictions are absolutely 100% certain."

That is what he said.

Because this timid young boy, this boy that has no self-confidence in regards to anything, said that with such conviction-- and at the very least, it has been true thus far.

This is what I thought when I first learned of that "Thoth's" ability.

"Will this serve a purpose?"

"What purpose is there in knowing about an unalterable future in advance?"

"If it's certain destiny, then knowing about it won't do anything, will it?"

That is what I thought.

Certainly, it would be pleasant if a better-- Or rather, more desirable future was "predicted." There would be value in putting in effort to move towards that future in the shortest amount of time.

But if an undesirable future appeared in the "Stand book," what should one do? In the extreme case, what if it predicts your own defeat?

If there were some way to avoid that future, then that would be beneficial-- but that cannot be done.

"Absolute, 100%."

Unavoidable.-- If tragedy is certain and unavoidable, then one would rather not know about that, isn't that right?

Learning that would work in the same way of knowing how a person's life was going to go starting from the moment they were born. No matter how much effort you put in, no matter how much discipline, it would all be completely meaningless.

Birth is everything.

For example, if Boingo's "Thoth" Stand predicted a future of him dying, just what would he do?- That is what I was thinking.

Ah, this may sound like something I was thinking a long time ago, but I was actually still thinking it up until two days ago.- And then, two days ago, I asked him.

I asked Boingo.

If it was predicted that he died, or even if it was not that, but some hopeless, sad future-- such as the death of his big brother, perhaps- just what did he intend to do?

Perhaps this was a cruel question to ask a child.

But I could not help but ask- If there was anything that could become even the slightest hint to "going to heaven" before the joestar group arrived, I had to ask.

Boingo was cowering, would not meet my gaze, trembled, and stuttered-
- but with an uncharacteristic strong will, he said this.

"But."

"But still, Lord Dio."

"Even if you were faced with an unavoidable tragedy-- if you know about it, then you can 'prepare' yourself for it."

Truly words that did not sound like they came from a child.

Because of the parents I grew up with, I matured fairly quickly, but I doubt I could have said something so audacious at Boingo's age.

If you know the "future" you can "prepare" yourself.

If you can "prepare" yourself- that leads to "happiness."

In other words-- does that not mean that "heaven" is "the future?"

Knowing of a bad future is not "despair," but it is "hope," is it not?-

Even if you know you are going to die tomorrow, if you are "prepared" for it, then you are "happy," are you not?

"Preparedness" dispels "despair."

And the future itself is heaven-- that is the assumption.

Though it is still in the domain of an assumption- Boingo's Stand ability is not enough. "Thoth" is far from enough. Merely knowing the just a bit into the future, the amount of preparing you can do is only just knowing about it, it would seem.

The amount of resolve one can garner for the near future really is not very much.

That is not the resolve I want-- There is a great difference in the preparedness one would have being stuck in a bit of a pinch and someone you care very much about being in great danger. It depends very much on the situation. And without great resolve, I highly doubt one can reach heaven.

It is not enough. No, after all, at the current moment, I do not feel that this is really enough to say it is a way to go to heaven.-- Is it possible that from the point I was inspired with this idea, that I have only turned this way and that, but never taken a step forward?

Then what exactly is this notebook? An account of my stagnation or something?- Ridiculous. I've been captured by improper thoughts. As I, Dio, liken myself to an emperor, that is something that should not happen.

I will put these in order.

The things necessary to go to heaven.

"The souls of over 36 sinners."

"The 14 words."

"A friend I can trust from the bottom of my heart."

And my Stand- the Stand of "time."

"The World."

Yes, it is all right.- I am moving forward. I am making progress.

Along with the passage of time, I am properly, firmly, moving forward with an unwavering pace.- No matter what I lack or what I have lost, that much is certain.- That alone is something about which I have no doubt.

I may have missed a chance, but this is good timing.

Because here I will write why "the souls of over 36 sinners" is necessary.-- Up until this point I have pontificated about them as core "material" for going to heaven, but thanks to Boingo's great efforts, I have decided.

My own resolve- at this point, I have considerably, fairly, formed it.

Of course, that resolve is not, not nearly, enough to go to heaven- I wrote how the sum total of necessary souls was decided long ago. But what about the quantity of souls? What about the mass of an individual creature's soul?

Let us say for argument's sake that there are 10.

Seeing as a basis of 10 is the easiest number for a human, or for a vampire, to "divide."- Of every number base, base 10 is the most widely spread. And the reason for that is that humans have a total of 10 fingers between their two hands, it seems.

So I will be using that as my foundation here as well.

Let us give these souls ratios of goodness and evil. It would seem that most humans are balanced at a ratio of 5:5.- Daniel J. D'Arby is able to divide the souls he has turned into chips down further into even more chips, but the limit of that is 10 chips.

When I learned that, I felt that my assumption of the quantity in a soul
being "10" was correct.

But the problem was how those 10 chips are classified.

So we are dividing them into a black and white ratio.

For a righteous man like jonathan Joestar, those 10 chips would likely all
be white.-- A 10:0 ratio being a good person.

My mother would be the same way.

A 10:0 good person.-- A holy woman.

And for me, or someone like jack the Ripper or Enya the Hag's son J. Geil, I am sure that the 10 chips would be pitch black.-- People with a 0:10 ratio.

I am trying to collect 36 people with 10 black chips.

That is a calculation even a child could do.- 36 times 10, 360.

360 is a number that represents a circle.-- A circle, and at the same time,
a "clock."

36 souls, if my soul at least is added to them- "time" completes a cycle.

Yes. More than 36 souls indicate more than one full revolution.

"Time" will- make a "full circuit."

That is the process for going to heaven, the guide.

I write that as if I know everything there is to know about it, but at the present moment, I must say that it is not complete. If this thinking is correct, in order to put "that" into practice, I require the courage to temporarily discard my Stand.

What I require is "courage."

I require the courage to discard my Stand.-- My rotting Stand will father and absorb the souls of 36 sinners.

And from there, "someone new" will be born.

By doing that, the "born being" will be awoken.-- The 14 words uttered by the friend I can trust represent intelligence-- The "friend" trusts me.

I will become a "friend."

It seems that Jonathan acquired the Ripple techniques quite easily.-- Of course, he went through some degree of rigorous training, but with just a week or two of, how shall I say this... "something like effort," he became able to use the Ripple Ah, honestly, how do I write this ?To speak openly, it honestly annoys me.

Something that I and most other humans cannot do, he learned quite easily. Like he was given it, inherited it, or he had it all along.-- Regardless, he managed to learn it some way or another.

Perhaps it's talent.

An aptitude only one in 10,000 has or something.

With something nonsensical like that-- he easily caught up to me, who had made heavy sacrifices and transcended humanity.

"Takers" and "inheritors."

Is there really that much of a difference between the two?

I wonder if from the beginning I had known that there "were differences" and that "differences will arise" in the future, I would have had "resolve" from the very start?

If I had known about the future, would I have become happy?

At the very least, more than Jonathan.-- Of course I don't know what sort of resolve or preparedness Jonathan had, nor do I very much want to know.

In order to exterminate me now that I had become a monster, he came to the city deep within the mountains where I was hiding in order to recover, "Windnights."

It was a town built in the middle ages for knights that served kings to train. And in that era, they made use of the natural land formation of it being surrounded by mountains on three sides and erected a prison.

Of course, the reason I chose Windnights as my place to recuperate was because of that prison.-- As I have written many times before, fiendish humans more easily make good zombies.

I was trying to create a zombie army.-- One could say that the fact that I was able to do things like resurrect the powerful, legendary knights who were even recorded in textbooks at the time, Tarkus and Bruford, as my own close aides, was something of a byproduct of that.

By doing that, I planned to increase my number of subordinates, gain control of the town, eventually London, and later bring all of the world under my control.-- Back then that is what I had as my "goal."

That is what I believed would bring me "happiness."

Or perhaps, I believed that that was the path to going to "heaven."

Now, I think differently.

I recognize the mistakes I made in my past.

Standing at the pinnacle.- Whether that is standing at the pinnacle of an ecosystem, or at the top of a food chain, it is the same.-- And yet, standing at the pinnacle is not exactly what you can call victory.

True victory is the very act of gazing onto heaven.

I had a conversation I believe was with Enya the Hag.

I asked her something like this:

"What does it mean to 'live'?"

"For what reason do humans live?"

To that, her answer was truly simple and also very practical-minded.

"To obtain that which they desire."

"If I am to summarise it, that is all that human life is."

"We want money, we want fame."

"We want food, we want love, we want lovers."

Quite a realistic and truly great answer.

But when one tries to obtain what they desire, conflict always arises.-

If you lose that conflict and do not obtain the thing you wanted, you taste a sense of failure and defeat, you are wounded. And in the next fight...

You will end up feeling "fear."

And so, I said this to her.

"I believe that conquering 'fear' is what it means to 'live'.- The one that stands at the pinnacle of the world is the one that does not have the smallest fragment of fear!"

And in response to that, Enya the Hag said something that seemed to me
to be truly strange.

"Lord Dio.What does someone as great as you have to 'fear'?"

At that time, I answered, "The joestar bloodline.-- I cannot make light of
the joestar bloodline."

Enya scoffed at my words.- Or rather, loudly enough for me to rebuke her. But now, things are going just as I thought then.

The Stand users I have sent as assassins have been beaten one after another, and two among them joined the enemy. Even with all her laughing, Enya the Hag was beaten as well.- And I ended up issuing the order to eliminate her. And now finally, I have allowed them to arrive in Egypt.

This is already beyond the point of "I must not make light of them."

This is enough for me to regret my decision back then.

I should have dealt with them with more serious effort.- Whether that is "running" or "yielding," it is unavoidable that my search for the "way to get to heaven" would be delayed.

Even now, I do not want to use the word "afraid."- But if I were to say that now, I do not feel it would run counter to the truth.

It is meaningless to bluff.

I must recognise it plainly. I must persuade myself.

Right now, I feel "anxiety."

And this anxiety is an obstruction in my life.

It is something like the antithesis of the meaning of living.

I am unprepared.

Humans- even I who has ceased being human, those that have surpassed humanity are no exception- humans, whoever they are, live in order to conquer fear and anxiety and gain peace of mind.

Gaining fame, control of others, and making money are all done for the sake of peace of mind.

Marrying and making friends are also all for the sake of reaching peace of mind.

Serving a purpose to others.

Striving for love and peace.

It is all for the sake of obtaining peace of mind.- Obtaining peace of mind is humanity's goal.

That is what I think.

In that case- If such "fear" and "anxiety" were formed with clear, unclouded "conviction," it would be converted into having "peace of mind," wouldn't it?

At the stage I was at several months ago, I was already wary of the Joestar bloodline.- But I was unable to make a decision.

I believe I was thinking that I did not know how to shift it.- Or perhaps because I thought that there was a very good chance that Enya's predictions would be correct and they would have simply been eliminated by "Strength" or one of the like.- No.

I did, as a matter of fact, think that the possibility was high.

That is why now I have this anxiety- or perhaps these feelings of instability.

Because I was not "prepared."

I become uneasy in situations I cannot predict.

So even if the future is bleak, or prospects are bad, if I understand that- I am able to take in the situation that is the present with calm feelings.

"Preparedness" is "heaven."

The more I think about it, the more I feel this thinking is correct.- That is because one of the things my mother always said seems to connect with it.

"Dio, no matter what happens, live nobly and with pride. If you do that, you'll surely be able to go to heaven."

Nobly and with pride.

It is because of in that place of my roots, there was "resolve," isn't it?- As long as there was that "preparedness," perhaps even living that hellish life in that bottom-rung town could feel like heaven, couldn't it?

Heaven not filled with happiness.

Knowing heaven is joy itself.- Because if you know if it, that is enough to have preparedness and resolve.

Heaven is the future.

It is tomorrow.

In that case, when is tomorrow?

It is at the place that the hands of the clock have advanced to.

"Geb's" N'Doul has been defeated.

The primary cause of his defeat was that he was opposed by "The Fool's" Iggy.-- Well, I suppose with the battlefield being a desert, even that shrewd tactician had difficult hurdles to overcome with his opponent being a Stand of "sand."

But is that a coincidence? Merely a coincidence?-- It just so happened that when they had a battle in a desert, they just happened to have a Stand user of "sand" join their ranks?

The timing is far too good.

No matter how one tries to justify it, it is too big a coincidence.-- Then perhaps it is fate?

Perhaps good luck?- Certainly if his opponent had been Jonathan, I would have to acknowledge that it was good luck. I would also have to say that the fact that I survived for 100 years in the bottom of the sea is thanks to Jonathan's luck.

And it was thanks to his luck that I was brought up from the bottom of the sea within my lifetime.- Normally I would have simply rotted there in the depths of the sea.

Even in my battle a thousand years ago, if it had progressed normally, I would have won against Jonathan 1,000 out of 1,000 times.-- Even calculating the chance of losing would seem ridiculous, it was so low.

And yet, I lost.

I lost all of our fights.

And even now-- The one person I thought I had defeated, Mohammad Avdol, has survived. Ultimately, it must be fate.

In other words, something like "the future"- is still the joestar family's ally.

However, it is not all bad news.

Although he is not fully retired, N'Doul successfully wounded Kakyoin, it seems.-- So at least for the moment, their fighting power has diminished.

I suppose I have to hand it to N'Doul.

If possible, I would like to have praised him directly, but he was killed so that is not possible.

I believe he was someone that had "preparedness."

He is a Stand user that gained his powers not from the "Bow and Arrow," but was born with them.- He knew that he could not get acclimated with the world around him.

And even so, he lived.

Not fearing anything, only relying on his Stand and doing all kinds of wicked things, he lived.

I respect the way he lived.

He may be dead now, but if he were alive, I expect Speedwagon might say that a man like N'Dour, a man who was born a Stand user and therefore unable to adapt to the world he was born into and strayed from the path of morality was also "born evil."

He was a man that had no room in his mind for sympathy, and was evil in a way that made one want to avert their eyes.-- He would kill without a second thought, eliminate without a second thought, discriminate, and tyrannize without a second thought.

I do not really consider myself some messiah of evil.- N'Doul called me such a thing, however. I only actually think that wicked people make for easier to handle and more powerful subordinates.

Merely that the more evil they are, the more capable they are as subordinates.

But those that discard people by just saying they were "born evil," those stuck-up types, really do make me feel something akin to anger.

In a word, I find them unpleasant.

It is also for the sake of people like N'Doul-- though of course I am the highest priority-- that I have to establish it.

The way to go to heaven.

For whomever they are.

Whether they are bad people-- or foolish people.

I must establish a way for getting to heaven.

As a being that has surpassed humanity- As the one that bears the "world" on his shoulders, it is my duty.

That is my "goal."

Pucci has come to Egypt a bit earlier than we had planned.

It seems he sensed the situation I was in in his own way.-- It is because he is capable of such concern that he can be my "friend." Perhaps. It is unlike me, but that is what I think.

However, he is at the very least the most viable candidate at the present moment. There is no man that is as "unselfish" and deeply devoted as him.

However, I am as of yet unsure if he will recognize the difference between the "heaven" his holy books have taught him and the "heaven" I speak of.

But I have faith.

I haven't done much in terms of having faith in other people, so I'm not entirely sure how to do it, but because it is for the sake of going to heaven, I will do so with him.

My friend.

"I will trust to the bottom of my heart."

As expected, he still looked perplexed at what I said, but for now, there isn't time. I have informed him of the existence of this notebook.

I have told him that there is a notebook I've written "for the sake of going to heaven."

Though to be precise, as you can tell, it is still incomplete. But this is the first time I have informed another person about the existence of this notebook.

Enrico Pucci.

Are you reading these words right now?

I do not know under what circumstances you are reading this notebook. Nor even if I am still alive when that is happening. But if the thing called fate in this world is truly not exaggerated-- then there is a force of gravity that acts between people.

If something that could be called friendship exists between you and me- - no matter what form it may be in, you should be reading this book.

And you should know just what heaven is.

If you approve of my thinking.- I ask you.

I, Dio, bow my head and ask you.

The way to go to heaven.

No matter what happens, no matter what means you must use, no matter what sacrifices you must make- please carry it out.

I will carry it out.

I ask you to do so as well.

I got. not quite emotional, rather just sentimental, so I have decided to skip to the next page. Ridiculous. The way I was writing there made it seem as if I was writing a will.

I have already been killed by jonathan.

"Twice."

Haven't I?- And somehow, now I may be feeling something like a sensation that my "life is in danger."-- But such a thing is misapprehension. I am not opposing Jonathan now. I am only opposing Jonathan's descendants.

I am only facing people who have "inherited" from Jonathan, not Jonathan himself. I should not have anything to be afraid of- anything to feel anxiety or fear about.

But let us say. Let us say for argument's sake that not long from now I was to be "defeated" by them.- That would be something I would not want to know in the form of some vague feeling of "apprehension," but rather with "certainty."

In that case, I could "prepare" myself.

I can fight with "resolve."

Just as naturally as after 10 o'clock comes before 11 o'clock- And after 11 o'clock comes 12 o'clock.

If one can see the future like the ticking of a clock-- if they can know of the future, then humans, anyone, can form a "resolve."

Pucci quickly returned to America.

Now that Enya the Hag has died, there may no longer be any reason for me to be stealthy in my meetings with him, but now in place of Enya's surveillance, I have the Joestar group approaching me.

It would be unsavory for them to learn of Pucci.

I do not want them knowing Pucci has anything to do with me.-- We did not do it last time, but this time, just to be safe, I sent him home with a bodyguard.

The bodyguard's name is John Galli A.

He is the user of a Stand called "Manhattan Transfer."- Like Kenny G. and Vanilla Ice, his Stand does not represent one of the Tarot Cards or one of the 9 Major Egyptian Gods. I would call him a "stray Stand user." And knowing him, he will be able to bring Pucci back to America without being detected by the Joestar group.

I have done all I can.

There is just a little more.

Just a little.

The Oingo and Boingo Brothers have been defeated.

And sadly, it seems they lost in a rather stupid way. I would rather not record the details so I will refrain from doing so, but it seems that the elder brother, Oingo, misread the future predicted by "Thoth."

Regarding future prediction, as in knowledge of the future, Boingo's ability is the closest thing to what I seek. But as it only allows one to know of the very near future and it "allows for many interpretations," it is definitively, and fatally, insufficient towards the "method for going to heaven" which I am envisioning.

If one can know of the future, they can prepare themselves .

Those words Boingo spoke were not a lie, nor were they mistaken, but if the futures he shows have multiple interpretations, then unfortunately I must come to the conclusion that there is no way to form "resolve" regarding them.- Even if a hopeless future is shown, to try to forcibly interpret it as something positive, as something good for yourself, is surely the typical human reaction, is it not?

That is not good.

What I am envisioning is the knowledge of an absolute future.

Whether it is hopeless or hopeful-- an absolute future.

So for that reason, the "Thoth" Stand ability is not enough.- As the case may be, I had thought of borrowing his ability for constructing my "plan to go to heaven," but it seems that would now be difficult. Although...

It appears that the elder brother, Oingo- the user of the Stand with transformation abilities, "Khnum," is more or less retired. But Boingo-- perhaps because he had more "preparedness" than his brother, I believe will be able to fight again after a bit of recovery.

Alone, his Stand cannot fight at all, but.

If he forms a team with someone...

Oingo's ability is transformation, which also had no fighting power on its own.-- And I had him form a team with his brother because he did not trust anyone but him. But if someone who possesses a Stand with the power to kill joins forces with him...

If someone joins with Boingo, a Stand user with the ability to predict the future-- perhaps then it really would be possible to eliminate the joestar group?

But the problem is who I should have him join with.

There really is no one that will form a tag team with a fellow Stand User besides Hol Horse. Hm.

A watch.

I remembered. I suddenly remembered.

I feel like this is something I may forget again quickly, so I am going to hurry and write that down today. This is a memorandum after all.

100 years ago, or to be more precise, 108 years ago, I borrowed a watch from Jonathan.-- And I still haven't returned it.

It surely was caught in the fire that destroyed the joestar mansion.

When I was not wearing a mask in front of Jonathan-- Not the stone mask, I mean the mask of being a good student-- I borrowed that "watch" in way much like stealing.

Thinking back, I think it was from then that my "Stand," "The World" was decided.-

"I intended to not give it back until it was broken."

Ever since that day when I took that watch from Jonathan, I was not going to return it until it stopped.-- But "stopping" is not enough.

Simply stopping time.

I must go until I can control the entire "world."

Not until I rule "all of the present."

And if I am to control "the future"- and "heaven," then my "The World" must progress forward another stage.

"Controlling time" is not enough.

"A Stand that makes time progress."

"A Stand that accelerates time."

But for that end... I must possess "courage."

The courage to temporarily discard "The World."

Will I be able to do that?

"Givers."

"Takers."

"Inheritors."

I must become none of those- a "discarder."

"Sethan," "Anubis," and "Bastet" have been defeated.

It feels like it keeps happening one after another.-- At this point, I do not anticipate reports of victory or accomplished missions. I personally scouted for the 9 Major Egyptian Gods, and am therefore certain they are exceptionally strong Stand users-- but it seems that the growth of the joestar group is simply superior.

Or perhaps it's simply that I am not as good at issuing orders as Enya the Hag? Perhaps. Even if I have lived for over 100 years, the majority of those years were spent in the bottom of the sea.

I certainly cannot claim to be a seasoned veteran.

Speaking of seasoned veterans, it seems that Joseph Joestar's plan is what defeated Mariah- As I thought, he is merciless even if his opponent is a woman.

And a man that will mercilessly use cowardly tricks, crafty deception, and set traps in order to win.- Utterly different from Jonathan.

Merely being able to be "certain" of that means that her defeat had meaning to it, perhaps.- The real problem is Alessi.

His Stand ability allows him to make people "return to their youth." And when thinking about it, I thought today, truly today, that there are aspects of that resemble my ideals.

"The ability to redo a life."

If that is "resolve," then-- many humans would grow the same way, have the same failures, repeat the same mistakes, and likely lead the same sort of life even if they did their lives over again.

Then is "redoing one's life" useless?

I do not think so.

If one can redo their life- I think they should. Even if they do relive the same life.

They should go through that cycle many times over, don't you think?

In search of answering that question, I was very interested in his Stand-- his Stand that allows one to return to their youth. But it seems his personality incurred Polnareff's wrath, and he was blown far away and is now in an irrecoverable state.

It's too bad, I suppose.

While the joestar group does not know of my goal- my goal of "going to heaven," they certainly have found ways to get in my way of it with pinpoint accuracy.

Even if that is just a coincidence, it still puts me in a bad mood.-- I truly feel that I will soon have to go and eliminate them personally.

But I am still not fully adapted- I am not fully adapted to my body, to Jonathan. The left side's recovery ability has been a bit weak.

I am unprepared to fight against them, whom have grown through fighting many, many battles. Though now that things have reached this stage, I feel I should have gone to strike them down at the very beginning.

However, there is no use in saying that now.

Moving the hideout will be done soon. To the bitter end, I will wait for them-- like an emperor.

Speaking of emperors...

The one that brought me the news of Mariah and Alessi's defeat was Hol Horse.

He really is an interesting man.

When I provoked him a bit, he tried to kill me with his stand, "Emperor."-- He pointed his handgun Stand at the back of my head.

Interesting.

The moment he tried to kill me, he didn't even sweat. Nor did he start breathing heavily. Incredible "resolve."

Those with "resolve" are beautiful.- That Hol Horse is quite something.

Without thinking, I used my Stand.

I used "The World" to stop time.-- I displayed my ability. Quite a treat for him. Unexpectedly for a man like that, he left me alone standing there. Perhaps he will find himself in heaven soon?

At the very least, there is no one besides him- that came back alive after fighting the joestar group.

Now that I think of it, that is some incredible luck.

While excellent, borderline rule-breaking Stand users like j. Geil and Enya the Hag were defeated nearby, he managed to survive using only a gun Stand.

I suppose that is the sort of world this is.

I believe I said this to Pucci at some point, but Stands really have no concept of strong and weak.

I have indirectly recommended that Hol Horse pair up with Boingo, who should be released from the hospital soon.-- Knowing them.

Knowing their "preparedness."

Even if they cannot win, I am sure they will reach somewhere quite good.

Yes-- even if they cannot win.
Even if they lose.

In the city of Windnights, I healed and recovered my wounds, powered up, and also made zombies of prisoners from the prison and corpses of buried criminals to make powerful subordinates. I was endeavoring to create an army, but I did many things besides that as well.

I did what I did.- I did what I had to do. I did the things I had to the way they had to be done. In other words, human experimentation.

I tried to learn the possibilities of the "stone mask."

And the possibilities of "immortality."

However, I never did the experiment of using the "stone mask" on others to see what happened.--I never actually did another experiment with the "stone mask" itself again. I decided that wearing the "stone mask" would be a privilege
that only I would have.

It wasn't so much a precaution as it was just the natural conclusion to come to.

Even if I am an immortal vampire, if there are many like me, it loses value. The pinnacle is always beautiful because there is only one.- That is what I thought.

The experiments I did perform, for example, were ones like this:- Fusing the head of a human to the body of a dog, or the other way around. I tried putting together a zombie and a living human's body, and the other way around.

I placed snakes inside a corpse, and other such things.

At a glance, these experiments may seem like grotesque games, but I was not playing around in the least.- And those experiments actually bore fruit.

My head, that of a vampire, and Jonathan's human body.

The fact that that "fusion" came to fruition was caused by none other than those many experiments I performed.

My experiments came to life.

It is because of that when Jonathan ran his Ripple through me, I was able to unhesitatingly cut off my own head.-- Because I had proof that I would later be able to take over someone else's body.

I was able to go so far as to discard a body that had had the Ripple run through it.

And, to be perfectly honest, anyone's body would have been fine.-

There was no need to go so far as to take jonathan's body.

And if I had just taken some ordinary person's, some weak person's body, then I may not have been sealed in the bottom of the sea for 100 years after that.-
-- But that is not what I did.

Even knowing that very well, I still wanted it.

Jonathan Joestar's body.

I wanted it very, very badly.-- That is just how much I respected Jonathan Joestar, my arch-enemy, at that time.

Especially his body.

I thought of that body as my own.

That is why-- I attempted to take it.

As a "taker," I decided I would take it.

And the result was that I was not mistaken in that thinking.-- If I get just a bit more adapted to this body, I will undoubtedly become me. No one else but me.

Daniel J. D'Arby has been defeated.

That natural-born gambler at one time had reached the point where he had taken Jean Pierre Polnareff and Joseph Joestar's souls, but at what one might call the final stage, he was defeated by Jotaro Kujo.

From the reports I have received, it seems that the knowledge of the secret of my Stand-- "The World"-- became the cause of his defeat.

One of the rare soul-manipulating Stand users has been lost to me thanks to the joestars.

It leaves me with a feeling of emptiness.

Despair as well.- It makes me feel that no matter what I do, the people of the joestar family will find some way to defend against it. Or rather, there is a feeling of paranoia welling up inside me.

But at the same time-- I feel that the fact that the people of the joestar family are, intentionally or not, trying to prevent my actions itself is a sign that the path I am currently walking on is not the wrong one.

I have the feeling that the fact that jonathan Joestar is blocking my way-- that beyond him is the "heaven" which I seek.

Soul-manipulating Stand users.

The primary candidate, Pucci, has already returned to America. So there will be no problematic delays in the actual plan. But I cannot deny that I have now lost one of the people that were my insurance.-- Furthermore, I do not want to lose the younger D'Arby brother.

Maybe just to be safe, I should send him out of the country as well?

No, I cannot do that.

No matter what I said to that proud young man, I doubt he would ever leave the mansion.-- Even if I told him the truth, about the "way to go to heaven," I expect he would say something along the lines of, "Then there is all the more reason for me to stay in the mansion. I must stay by your side." I can anticipate everything from the way he would say it to his facial expressions.

Though to be a bit more positive, compared to his older brother who had a very flexible attitude, the younger brother is quite obstinate.-- And so as long as I do not pierce him with a "flesh bud," he will not listen to what I say to him.

Of course, because of his useful Stand and ability, I will not be using a "flesh bud" on him.

I have no choice but to let him do as he pleases.

I must maintain my non-interference policy.

I pray that Hol Horse and Boingo eliminate the Joestar group. I am ashamed to think this as someone who proclaims that he has surpassed humanity, but as I am now, that is all I can do.

There is truly little that I can do. And it has been since one hundred years ago.

As I have lost much leeway, I am giving up on writing things in a logical manner. I am not going to write from the points which I want to write from, but the points where I should write from.

The thing that I should write about above all else is the "Bow and Arrow." I suppose one could say that they are magical items that can draw out talent from a human, or rather from a human spirit.- That is what the "Bow and Arrow" are.

Although, I have become in the habit of writing it that way was because
that is how I referred to the idea when I discussed it with Enya the Hag. But the "Bow" of the "Bow and Arrow" isn't really important.

What is important is the "Arrow."

Specifically the "Arrowhead."

If Pucci is the one reading this notebook, he has already "personally experienced it," so I do not think a very detailed explanation is necessary, but as there is still a lingering possibility that that is not the case, I will describe the nature of the Arrow in detail. It should be a review for Pucci.

I have little time, so I will be brief.

Someone who is pierced by that "Arrow"- though in certain cases, when their "talent" is strong enough, just a slight scratch is enough- a "Stand" is drawn out from their spirit.

If someone with no "talent" is pierced by the "Arrow," even if it does not strike a vital point, they will lose their life.

Enya said, "The more fiendish a criminal they are, the higher the possibility of them surviving."

The logic surrounding that part is similar to the making of zombies, it seems.- Strong malice means a strong will, and that is linked to a strong spirit.

And that strength is pulled out in the form of a "Stand."- It is along those lines.

I actually became a Stand user because of this "Arrow."-- I obtained "The World" and "Hermit Purple" simultaneously.

The one who originally obtained this "Arrow" is Enya the Hag.- She used a particular route or some such thing and one day, brought this "Arrow" to me.

She had already performed experiments.

Human experiments.

She had shot many humans with the "Arrow."-- She had brought about the creation of Stand users, sacrificed many, and while eliminating the Stand users that did not meet her expectations, she learned of its nature.

She even used herself, even with her advanced age, as a test subject, granting herself "Justice."

"Lord Dio," she said.

"What do you think?-- It certainly poses danger to your life, but I think you are one for which achieving it is 'expected'."

I had no reason to hesitate.

Or rather- I felt that having learned of the existence of such a "super ability" that I did not know of 100 years earlier, I had to possess it.

Like if I were not a vampire, I would want to learn to use the Ripple.-- If possible, I wanted to "take" the Ripple that Jonathan "inherited" from Zeppeli.

That is why I accepted this, which was not the "Ripple" but a "Ghostly Ripple."

No matter what I had to sacrifice-- I wanted to obtain it.

Looking back on that decision now that several years have passed, it was incredibly risky. A risky gamble even the D'Arby Brothers may not undertake but that gamble resulted in my victory.

What Enya the Hag said was correct.

So naturally, as if it was indeed expected,- I gained a "Stand." I acquired a "Stand"-- and a ticket to Heaven.

No, I'm not sure about that.

Did I really win the gamble?

I certainly survived the trial of the "Bow and Arrow"-- I acquired that
which I needed.

But, I am unsure.

While I have an immortal body, I undertook the risk of "death" and gained a "Stand" but- as a result of gaining it, Joseph Joestar and Jotaro Kujo also gained the same power with no risk. So are they the true winners in this case?

Holly Kujo broke into a fever and is at death's door.-- Only her, the holy woman.

So in the end, Joseph Joestar and Jotaro Kujo are "inheritors" as well.- They even "inherited" their Stands from Jonathan's body.

If back then, had I rejected Enya's offer and refused to possess a "Stand"--- then Joseph Joestar, Jotaro Kujo, and of course Holly Kujo would undoubtedly not even have come to know of my existence.

At the very least, they were not aware of me during the time I was at the bottom of the sea.-- But if I had not obtained a Stand, I would not be able to find the path to heaven.

Without the time-stopping Stand, "The World," I would not have been able to deduce this much of the "way to go to heaven."

Advantages and disadvantages are two sides of the same coin.

I really am able to have everything go right.

Perhaps going to heaven does not have a big difference with going to hell. Perhaps while I am intending to go to heaven, I am actually heading towards hell?

If that is the case-- I do not mind.

Because I already know that hell is a better place than that town I grew up in.

The person Enya the Hag bought the "Arrowhead" from was still a child, it seems. That boy excavated that "Arrowhead" in Egypt, apparently.-- I thought it might have been made by the same person that made the stone mask, but due to the discrepancy in geography of Mexico and Egypt, it seems that was not the case.

However, that boy piqued my interest.

Or rather- he is weighing on my mind.

If I have a chance, I would like to investigate him.

Now that Enya is dead, retracing that route will be difficult but I at least know that the boy's name was "Diavolo," so investigating him will not be impossible, I would think.

If there is gravity.

If there is gravity between that boy and me- I am sure we will meet.

Anyhow, if that boy is alive, then he most likely became a Stand user via the "Arrowhead."-- "Stand users are drawn toward each other."

As long as I am alive, that is.

I have lost leeway. I can sense that Joseph Joestar and Jotaro Kujo are close by even now.

I think it is likely an effect of having jonathan's body.-- This is also the "Joestar family bloodline," I suppose. Our bodies respond to each other.

So that means it is not only me sensing their approach, but they are also likely sensing that I am nearby.

The joestar descendants will be here soon.-- They are quite close to my
second hideout.

It seems that the team of Hol Horse and Boingo have not made contact with the Joestar group yet.-- Probably being completely carefree. I suppose that's a distinctive characteristic of Hol Horse, though. I can enjoy that attitude when there is a bit more leeway.

It is not as though running away is not an option-- as is joining up with Pucci on his way back to America, but realistically, I cannot run away.

And though a far cry from the younger D'Arby brother's desire to never run away, I do have some level of obstinance in not wanting to run away, but that is not what I mean, I realistically cannot.

As the person standing at the top of an organization, to do something as unsightly as running for safety when assassins are coming is not something I could expose to my subordinates.- Even if that was a necessary step in searching for the "way to go to heaven," making my subordinates understand my lofty goal would be a Herculean task.

I highly doubt I could explain all of the things I have written in this
notebook, starting from my upbringing, in detail to them.

Why do you want to "go to heaven?"

Do you have to go? What is heaven exactly?- Even if I explained all these, I honestly do not know if they could really understand.

Having more people know about this like Pucci would makes me more uneasy.

I could manage to use the excuse of it being more efficient to ambush them this way for moving the hideout, but to leave Cairo with this timing, say nothing of leaving Egypt, would be capable of overturning this organization which Enya and I had built.

Currently- there are only a few Stand users I have in Cairo besides Hol Horse and Boingo. The ones that can put up a fight against thejoestar group are Pet Shop's "Horus" and the afore-mentioned younger D'Arby brother.

As well as Kenny G. and Vanilla Ice whom I have summoned here.

In other words, everyone I currently have at the mansion.

It is possible that this mansion will be a battlefield in the near future.

If that happens, I'm going to have to find a hiding place for this notebook.Depending on how things turn out, Joseph Joestar or Jotaro Kujo, or perhaps jean Pierre Polnareff or Mohammad Avdol (though not Iggy of course) could catch a glance at this note.

I must avoid that.

I noticed how I wrote, "I must avoid that" at the end of my entry yesterday, but is "that" really something I must avoid?

Let me think about it a bit.

Rather than just rejecting this idea outright, I'm going to do a bit of a brain storm. This may just be an idea that's come to mind because so much leeway has been lost, but I think that considering such a possibility will cool my head.

Essentially the idea is the choice of... "cooperating with the joestar family."

This should be obvious, but they should have no idea what I am planning or what the goals I am working to achieve are. They are working only with the intent of saving their "daughter" and "mother."-- I highly doubt they are considering my side's circumstances at all.

So it's very likely that they are thinking that I am trying to dominate the world, like I did 100 years ago- or trying to stand at the pinnacle of humanity, something along those lines.

They've presumed such things about me.

That I am "evil" and I must absolutely be defeated, they have affirmed that I am a violent killer.-- That is fine.

I certainly cannot say it is off the mark.

I am "evil." The assassins I sent to kill them are also "evil."- The only exceptions were Kakyoin and Polnareff which I had controlled with the "flesh buds."

But they are different from Jonathan.

They are certainly not only moving on a sense of justice.- They have strong feelings towards justice, but it seems that their emotional desire to save Holly Kujo is far stronger.

In that case, if I can secure "Holly Kujo's life"-- then Joseph Joestar and Jotaro Kujo will lose their reason for trying to defeat me, won't they?

So a deal would be possible, would it not?

With Joseph Joestar's, Jotaro Kujo's, Jean Pierre Polnareffs, Mohammad Avdol's, Noriaki Kakyoin's and Iggy's Stand powers, the "door to heaven" will open all the more, would it not?

As they are good people, their "souls" won't become the foundation for going to heaven, but it is undeniable that theirs are strong souls. But if Jonathan's grandson lent me his knowledge, my research would progress quite rapidly, would it not?

Peace between me, Dio, and the joestar family.

Such a thing would be a historical compromise.

I would save their family.

And they would help me get to heaven.

It's quite ideal.- Too much so. The only thing I could think to describe it is "if that happened, then there would be no trouble."

Even for just brainstorming, that was quite an offbeat idea. First of all, the basic premise cannot actually happen.-- I can't think of any way to release Holly Kujo from her curse. Maybe if I put the stone mask on her and had its needles push on her brain; that would work. No, no, the stone mask no longer exists.-- Well one may exist somewhere, but at the very least I do not have one.

And even if I had that option, I suppose I would be in conflict with those two, and the whole joestar group.

Even if I try to reach a compromise, our natures are just too different. - There is no way a "taker" and "inheritors" could avoid conflict.

And most of all, I highly doubt that Joseph Joestar and Jotaro Kujo have any interest in "the way to go to heaven."

Far from it. I expect that "inheritors" like them, living full lives, don't even have any desire to see "heaven" with their own eyes.

Now I've started to make pointless considerations when I have very little time. But I could not help but think about this. Especially not now that I have taken this body, it is something must consider.

If rather than the stone mask, had I worn the mask of an excellent student forever-- even if my nature hadn't changed, but rather than 7 years, it was 10, 20, or 50 years, and I always pretended to be a "good boy" to the Joestar family.

Perhaps there was also a possible future of building up the joestar family together with Jonathan.

I've thought of it.

I've thought that such a "heaven" could have been. Surely-- George Joestar would have died eventually even if it were not by poison. If I wanted fame, then making use of Jonathan's strengths would have been a very good plan.

Then why didn't I do that?

I took off the mask of the good student and put on the stone mask, didn't I?- I must not have seen that as allowable.

With their affluence, them being "inheritors"-- I could not forgive the Joestar family.

So in the same way, I will not forgive these people.

Joseph Joestar and Jotaro Kujo will absolutely never forgive me, Dio.

To them, what I, Dio, "did" or "am doing" is completely irrelevant. They say my existence itself is "evil."-- And I, Dio, say that what they "did" or what they are "doing" does not matter, but I think that their existence itself is "evil," just the same way.

I said this to Jonathan 100 years ago as well.

Honestly, it's quite a relationship we've formed.

"Emperor," Hol Horse.

"Thoth" Boingo.

They have both been defeated.-- Now it seems that every last one of the Stand users that I, Dio, had on hand, the "assassin" subordinates I sent to the Joestar group, have been defeated.

It is a rather refreshing feeling.

I feel like I can drop all bravado.

Yes, rather than bravado, I will speak of something better.

Hol Horse was hit in the forehead by his own bullet and is now in anbirrecoverable state. And Boingo's lost his spirit when he was bitten by Iggy. But even so, I, Dio assess them to have gotten very close.- I assess them highly.

To speak plainly, they were very close to winning against the Joestar group-- but regardless, in the end, they "lost."

It was as if it were destined.

As if it was a pre-determined future-- they lost.

They were supposed to lose, so they lost.

I'm sure there was misinterpreting of "Thoth's predictions" and so forth, but ultimately, I think that the joestar group's "resolve" was superior to that of the Hol Horse and Boingo team.

They were surely looking at the "future."

Unconsciously-- they are gazing at the future with "resolve."

For that reason, they are close to "heaven." At the very least, much closer than Hol Horse or Boingo or maybe even me.

Those who gaze upon heaven- gain victory.

In anything, against anyone.

Therefore, the true victors are the ones that have reached heaven.- Though I will leave verifying that for a later day. A later day, if I have such time, that is.- Just being bitten by a dog, just having his spirit broken by being bitten by a dog, did not physically put Boingo in an irrecoverable state.

He will just have to spend sometime in the hospital. But if this situation with the joestar group is resolved, then afterwards then perhaps I, Dio, will be able to make direct use of his Stand.

Considering Boingo's personality, that may be a bit drastic, but-- even so, if that is something necessary, I will do it. I will respond as necessary to what is necessary.

I have lost the majority of my close subordinates, but on the other hand, I have certainly gotten closer to heaven.

I am confident that I have.

With great resolve-- I am getting closer.

When they arrived at the city of Windnights-- when Jonathan Joestar, Will A. Zeppeli and that man Speedwagon arrived, it was when the burns I had suffered from Jonathan had healed for the most part.

In a way, they were a bit late, but as I had yet to completely take that city under my control, one could say they were very much in time. Either their timing was good or their luck was good.

When we confronted each other, Jonathan said this.

"Dio.bListen to what I have to say."

"I am ashamed of this as a gentleman, but in all honesty, I, Jonathan
Joestar."

"For the sake of settling the score...!"

"Dio! I will kill you!"

When I heard this gesture of defiance, the majority of my heart said "Ridiculous!" but I feel I must write in this notebook, the small remainder felt joy.

That Jonathan- the fact that I made that man, Jonathan, who had always lived with the idea of being a gentleman in his heart, say such a thing made me feel some feeling of accomplishment.

This was certainly a time when I felt like I had accomplished something.

However, compared to Jonathan, I was a bit weak.- Compared to Jonathan, my amount of "resolve" was a bit lesser then.

If it is a good time to "speak honestly," if I am to be honest, I had some feelings that I did not want to lay violent hands on Jonathan.

I felt I had to kill him- the assets of the joestar family which I had been trying to usurp had already all been burned away and even if I killed Jonathan now, I would likely not have inherited the joestar family anyhow. But as he had learned the ways of the Ripple and was now getting in my way, I knew full well that I had to kill him.

But I had intended to leave eliminating him to my subordinates.

We were childhood friends and grew up in the same house like we were brothers. So the idea of killing Jonathan or turning him into the undead were not very entertaining to me.-- So I intended to leave the execution to my subordinates.

Compared to me with that mindset, Jonathan was far more solid in his determination.-- He stated definitively that he had no feelings of guilt towards me, Dio.

It was quite an impressive thing to say.

But it's likely that that was actually true.

When he said that, at that point, it was not a pure confrontation between justice and evil.- Through the power of the stone mask, I, Dio had become a predator, and mankind was defending itself as a life form in this battle.

I may have appeared to be wicked to them, but I only saw them as food.-- And in that respect, if there was no good, there was no evil either.

I could not object to calling it a dispute between organisms.

So for Jonathan to then start shamelessly talking about justice and morals, I did not even think of it as ridiculous. I saw this person as not even worth opposing and almost disappeared- but because of Jonathan's emotional yelling, I accepted his challenge.

The result was, unfortunately, that I lost.

Though, it was not really unfortunate because my head still remained.

Pet Shop has disappeared.

I have heard many stories of an animal leaving its owner when it knows it's time to die, but I think that is unrelated to this instance. That hawk most likely attacked intruders of the mansion in order to remove them as per its orders- and was killed by them.

From what I know about the situation, I believe the one that defeated Pet Shop was "The Fool's" Iggy. A battle between two animal Stand users.

Animals have "souls" as well.

I would have liked to see the image of those "souls" fighting head to head- I wonder if such a thing would be possible using the "Bow and Arrow"? If one just keeps piercing every animal one can get their hands on with the "Arrow".

However, there would be a large risk involved in giving Stands to animals with low intelligence. Depending on what ability they obtain, who knows what could happen? It is possible a large bio-hazard could develop.

I will set that idea aside for now.

It is now likely that the joestar group has discovered my location. Well, Joseph Joestar possesses "Hermit Purple" just as I do, so he would eventually have been able to reach this place through his "spiritual photography" power anyhow. So it is only a matter of sooner or later.- Once again, and for the purpose of persuading myself as well, I write that I, Dio, will not run nor hide.

I will meet my enemy in this mansion.

Just as I did 100 years ago.

When looking at Pet Shop's "ice" Stand, I cannot help but remember a
technique I once used, "Vaporisation Freeze Technique."

I suppose you could call it a technique I created in order to oppose the Ripple techniques. It is a technique performed through manipulation of the vampire body. Essentially, by vaporizing the moisture inside my body, I can "freeze" another body.

I am still certainly able to use it now, but as my body is now that of Jonathan's- it is currently difficult for me to control perfectly. And more importantly, the Vaporisation Freeze Technique is not very useful in a Stand battle.

Unlike Pet Shop's "Ice Missiles" and such, it cannot freeze an enemy Stand.

Therefore, much like the Ripple techniques, it would be correct to call it "a technique of the past."

Similar to how now that I have acquired "The World," the Ripple is no longer a threat, and for Stand users that fight with their spirits, their "souls," my Vaporisation Freeze Technique and the "Space Ripper Stingy Eyes" technique which was named by a Ripple user, are no longer threats.

The past.

I do not mind. What's past is past.

What truly matters is the "future."-- "Heaven."

Eventually, even my Stand "The World" will become a thing of the past.

Soon, this century-long fated connection of mine with the joestar family will be in the past as well.- I will make it so. It must be.

Noriaki Kakyoin's injured eyes are now fully healed and he has rejoined the joestar group, I have heard. What incredible timing...

Is this gravity as well?

Gravity between people.

I think calling it a "connection" fits best.-- Thinking about it now, my connection with Noriaki Kakyoin is similar to the connection between the Joestar family and I...

In that they are both "bizarre."

If I am in an environment in which I can write in this notebook again tomorrow, I think I will write on that subject.

On gravity.

And with that, this notebook will be for the most part complete.

Their forces are Joseph Joestar, Jotaro Kujo,Jean Pierre Polnareff, Mohammad Avdol, Noriaki Kakyoin, and Iggy the dog.

My forces are first me, Dio, Vanilla Ice, Kenny G., Terence T. D'Arby.

and I suppose I should mention the zombie, Nukesaku.

I am already at a loss in terms of numbers.

I am repeating myself, but in war, numbers are the most crucial element.- However, if I think carefully about it, I, Dio, have the body of Jonathan Joestar and the head and brain of Dio and two people's worth of a "soul."

I have two Stands, which is extraordinary.

In that case, one could say we are equal in numbers, 6 to 6.

And with that mere consolation, I will end today's entry. Though Jonathan's body should really be their ally, after all.

It was Dire, wasn't it?

The name of the Ripple warrior who stabbed my right eye back then.- I had used my Vaporisation Freeze Technique to freeze and break him, leaving him as just a head, yet he still ran the Ripple through a "rose" he had in his mouth and shot that rose into my right eye.

If it were not for that man's attack, I do not think I would have lost to Jonathan after that.- If I was in perfect condition, if I did not have that blind spot in my vision, while I cannot say I am absolutely certain, I believe I would have been able to overpower Jonathan.

That is how little the difference in power between us was.

This is not a grudge, like "if only it wasn't for that Dire person."

No, I am writing an account of the unshakeable fact that "Jonathan had a comrade called Dire."

When they arrived in Windnights, there were only three of them.- Yet when they reached me, there were several Ripple warriors with them.

Like how Noriaki Kakyoin arrived in time.

Those Ripple warriors arrived in time.

I fully believe that such good timing was due to the "gravity" between people.

I think when I first met Pucci, I talked with him about such a thing.

"Do you believe in 'gravity'?"

"That there might be a reason why you tripped over me?"

"Is the thing we call meetings not 'gravity'?"

"I do not know what sort of impression you've had of me- but I am travelling seeking 'meetings'."

Why do people meet?

That is the theme.

The theme of life, heaven's theme.

After that, Pucci met with some very difficult times due to that "meeting," it seems.-- He lost his "little brother" and "little sister" in the worst way he could have imagined.

It was then that he gained his rare Stand ability, "White Snake."-- So one could say that if it were not for that tragedy, he could not have obtained that Stand.

I understand his feelings.

If I had not met Jonathan-- If I had not been taken in by the joestar family, then I would most likely not have a life like this.

Because I would never have found the stone mask and such.

Or the Bow and Arrow.

No, not that- I have confidence that my meeting with him is what allowed me to become a person like this, and how I came to be something more than a person.

And if it weren't for me, I think the joestar family would have collapsed anyhow.-- If he had not "met" me, Jonathan would not have grown as a human the way he did.

His life would likely have ended with him forever being a spoiled brat.

He probably would have "inherited" George Joestar's fortune, become an archaeologist or some such thing, and slovenly spent his fortune.-- That is what I think.

For me, a person that cannot help but look towards the "future," the act of looking back at the "past" does not have much meaning. But when I do look back and everything seems like it was inevitable, like the pieces of an incomprehensibly complex puzzle being put together, I cannot see it as anything but the result of people being drawn together.

Fellow stand users are drawn to one another.

And fellow humans are drawn to one another as well.- And as a result of being drawn together, Jonathan and I even became one body.

Yes.

That is why "gravity" is important.

The most important keyword for going to heaven.-- I believe that the final piece of the puzzle will be to control "gravity."

"Gravity" and "time" are intimately connected.

Then if I want to further control "time"-- I must control "gravity."

But how?

I have a feeling that boasts of a difficulty equal to controlling "meetings."

Can one even control "meetings" at all? Can one control "fated connections"?

If they can't...

Can I be "prepared" for that?

This connection that I have dragged with me for 100 years-- is drawing
closer to me at every moment.

They have appeared.

The joestar group have finally, without missing a single person, appeared at my mansion.-- Iggy the dog's forepaw has been injured, but as I would expect from a wild creature like him, it does not seem that it will be a hindrance to him in battle.

My foe has reached here without missing a single person.

And in contrast, I have as of now, if you count Jean Pierre Polnareff and Noriaki Kakyoin, lost 25 excellent Stand users.-- Such things are not comparable with simple addition and subtraction, but no matter how one tries to justify it, I cannot deny that I feel that my efforts have been disproportionately unfruitful.

Just how far do those people intend to go to save one woman?-- Or do they perhaps think that the lives of many villains is "cheap" compared to a holy woman?

I intend to gather 36 "souls" to be the foundation for going to "heaven," but-- just what exactly are they trying to do by trampling over 25, or possibly even more, people?

Saving a daughter, saving a mother.

I wonder what they intend to do after that?

Well, most likely I won't have a chance to ask them such a question.

According to a report from Nukesaku, the younger D'Arby brother has separated them into two groups.- He is opposing the group of Joseph Joestar, Jotaro Kujo, and Noriaki Kakyoin in the basement alone.

He is as confident as ever.

Hopefully, that will not come back to bite him.-- That man is more spiritually fragile than his older brother.

As he can read minds, he lacks toughness.

Weakness of spirit is linked to weakness of one's Stand as well as weakness of "preparedness."

This has happened in the afternoon, so I am a bit tired.

I'm going to take a nap.

Hopefully, everything will be resolved by the time I awaken.- However, I am not optimistic. I must "prepare" myself as well.

"Prepare" for the "future."

I was woken up by Vanilla Ice.

I was awoken from sleep.

And I was awoken to the news that the younger D'Arby brother was defeated by the joestars.- As he was employed as my butler I should say this was to be expected, but it seems he lost after being very close to victory. He had been successful in capturing Noriaki Kakyoin's"soul," it seems. But he failed to follow through to the end.- It seems his "resolve" was not strong enough.

Terence T. D'Arby.

A man who was able to see and take hold of souls.

The D'Arby younger brother was a genius.

Unmistakably a genius.

I can say, impartially, that he truly had the ability to win.

I believe theoretically he could have won.

And yet- he lost.

Yes, he was bound to lose.

That is undoubtedly because of his resolve, his resolve was weaker. The problem, and cause of his defeat, was utterly the amount of his resolve.

With him gone, as far as I know the only Stand that can control "souls" is Pucci and his "White Snake" Stand alone.- His significance, his importance, has just gone up for me.

I do not know to what degree he feels "friendship" for me- and whether or not I can consider him a "friend whom I trust from the bottom of my heart" is still absolutely unsure, but now, whatever the case, he is becoming indispensable for the goal of going to "heaven."

Speaking of which, what about Vanilla Ice?

Vanilla Ice of "Cream."

Even without piercing him with a "flesh bud," and certainly not having turned him into a zombie through sucking his blood, that man has what I suppose I could call an abnormal level of loyalty towards me. Enough to do things like cut off his own head. I wonder if that loyalty could be substituted for resolve?

I do not know.

I do not know whether that is "resolve" or not.

Could one equate abnormal loyalty with resolve and preparedness?

Or are they two completely different things?-- Is that loyalty merely something unsuitable for heaven?

I suppose that will become clear in the results.

Because he cut his head off for my sake, I had to zombify him in order to revive him, so I cannot deny that in exchange for an exceptional jump in bodily fortitude, there is a possibility that he will have an extreme loss in Stand power.- - But I do hope that he has something that can overcome that.

And as I wrote that, I received another report from Nukesaku. One of the two teams formed when the group divided, the team of Jean Pierre Polnareff, Mohammad Avdol, and Iggy defeated Kenny G., it seems.

Now the illusions set throughout the whole mansions have been rescinded.

And now, the only "illusion" stand remaining is, as far as I know, Enrico Pucci's.-- However, it seems that just after Kenny G. lost, Vanilla Ice has "done" it.

Mohammad Avdol- the "flame" Stand user, has been swallowed into his subspace, it seems. This time there is no room for the possibility of any unwanted surprised like "he's actually still alive."

After 26, no, 27, consecutive losses and sacrifices, we have finally managed to snatch a precious win from them.- And the timing could not have been more last moment.

Vanilla Ice is now opposing Polnareff and Iggy.-- With his Stand ability, he should certainly be able to eliminate them as well.

After giving the report, Nukesaku has gone to eliminate the Joseph Joestar, Jotaro Kujo, and Noriaki Kakyoin team.

He is a zombie and not a Stand user, so I did not think he could oppose those three, but seeing that we've come this far, I could not stop him.

Nukesaku.

He is also a zombie with which I used my "combining technique."-- Like how I am a hybrid between Jonathan's body and my head and brain, he is a zombie with the design of having a woman's face "affixed" to the back of his head.

My experiment to see if a zombie could possess several souls was a failure, it seems. There may no longer have been any meaning in performing experiments on vampires and immortals-- but still, one could say that Nukesaku was the product of my last such experiment.

He is a man with essentially no fighting ability and, to be perfectly honest, he is rather useless. But I have a strange sense of affinity for him.

Perhaps I should say I just cannot hate him. Unlike the younger D'Arby brother or Vanilla Ice, he lacks loyalty, so if he loses to the joestar group, I'm certain he'll betray me.

But until that point when he betrays me, I must respect him as one of my precious underlings.

Him, a man that goes off to fight on his own will.

Him, whom I am connected with by meeting him in this world I reached after 100 years.

I cannot stop him.

Hm, I've just thought of something. I will write it down just for fun.-

100 years ago, I made many two-faced zombies like Nukesaku.

I frequently would perform tests in which I would "combine" two separate lives into one.-- Though to be honest, I had not distinctly hypothesized the event of my losing my body.

Among those tests, as part of a large amount of trial and error, I believe I had an experiment involving "replacing the hands of a zombie with the hands of a human." This was 100 years ago so I cannot remember all that clearly, but-- in that process of trial and error, I may have made a careless mistake in which I created a human with two right hands.

And that may have been similar to Enya the Hag.-- While even if it was not Enya the Hag herself, it may have been someone related by blood, or some such thing.

If that is the case, then I have a deep connection with the witch who taught me about Stands reaching back long ago.- I am making assumptions upon assumptions now. This is sounding a bit absurd and I have no way of verifying it.

But if I am to hypothesise, I could certainly see it as possible that my meeting with Enya, the person who awakened me from my 100 year seal, was guided.

The treasure hunters that stupidly mistook my casket on the ocean floor as a treasure chest or something naturally became one of my hundreds or thousands of slices of bread. Yet those were only a few people. Only three or four people's worth of nutrients. Not something I could say could cure the hunger in my stomach that had been empty for 100 years.-- And it was located in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.

With the midday sunlight pouring down, even if I was riding inside a cabin cruiser, I could not hide completely.-- If Enya the Hag had been just a few days later in meeting me, I would likely have completely dried up.

Either because of the sun or because of hunger.

Enya's coming to get me on the sea like that was, yes...

"I learned it from a tarot card reading.--"

That is what she said, though I did not believe it.

There were people who knew that a hundred years ago the monster that is me sunk into the sea in that area 100 years earlier.-- I thought she simply heard that information and spread a net. I even had the conjecture that the treasure hunters may have been her subordinates.

It was no result of fortune telling.

She merely had some ambition and was looking for an opportunity, I thought.-- But it seems I was reading too much into things.

She told me.

While for me it was if I had suddenly been transported to the future from 100 years earlier, she gave me knowledge of the present and most importantly, she taught me about Stands. When I asked her just what it was she was after, this is what she answered:

"My desire is to be by your side."

"Stands are guardian spirits.And your guardian spirit possesses an incredible power! That is the effect of leading a strange life with very bad luck."

"I want to see your life!"

"That alone is enough for me."

Perhaps that really was all.

Perhaps she-- was not a sacrifice resulting from an experiment I performed, but a test subject--.

If it was not for her, I surely would not have been able to adjust to "the world of 100 years in the future."-- That is how much the "world" has changed in these 100 years.

In those 100 years-- "time" has "accelerated."

She described Stands as guardian spirits, but-- the Stands are purely souls. For me, perhaps Enya the Hag was my guardian spirit?

I had sometimes thought that.

Anyhow, those experiments were not in vain.-- I have now taken control of Jonathan's body.

And they should still serve a purpose into the future.

In order for my "friend" and I to become one body.- The many sacrifices of that trial and error will be the foundation for that- that unique man, Nukesaku, included. It was absolutely not useless.

Not useless.

Although, as I have said, my subordinates are handling it, with enemies who intend to kill me having entered the mansion, I cannot say I have not questioned the idea of nonchalantly writing in a notebook like this is the best thing to be doing. But I am now going to continue writing in this notebook in order to prove why the joestar group is of no importance to me.

I was woken by Vanilla Ice, by his loyalty. Sometimes it oddly keeps me awake.

I am at least wakeful in a way that makes me feel like I am making progress more so than usual.- Ideas are becoming clear. This may be an effect of the joestar bloodline. Perhaps with his grandson so close, Jonathan's body is becoming active and it is having a good effect on my brain.

In that way, Joseph Joestar and Jotaro Kujo are indirectly helping me with my "way to go to heaven."

If that is the case, then I must not let this chance slip away.

Before my subordinates- or perhaps I, myself, eliminate joseph Joestar and Jotaro Kujo, I must collect as many of my ideas as I can.- My ideas for going to heaven.

While my mind feels clear, I will switch to a new page and search my memories. My final memories. My memories from after I was defeated by Jonathan Joestar's Ripple and my body was blown away.

"As long as they have conviction, there is nothing a human can't do!"

"Humans grow.-- I'll show you!"

And with that witty remark, Jonathan broke through my Vaporisation Freeze Technique by covering his gloves in flames, and ran the Ripple through my body.

When I was blown back by the impact, I cut off my own head, I suppose somewhat like what Vanilla Ice did earlier, in order to protect my head and brain.

I had already tested the fact that I could survive as just a head by testing the theory on zombies.- And also I knew that if I could get someone's body, I could have a full body once again.

And as I have already written, the only body I considered for making my
own was jonathan Joestar's.

Therefore, I waited for a prime opportunity.

An opportunity in which the other Ripple warriors and Speedwagon would not interfere, a moment when I could fight Jonathan one-on-one.

Of course, as just a head, I had some feelings of not wanting to be seen in front of people- but I also had a desire to talk to Jonathan Joestar man-to-man. I wished to have an honest talk with him beyond all status and connections.

However, I brought a subordinate zombie with me and Jonathan was in the middle of his honeymoon, so I could not be purely one-on-one with him.

Understandable.

I had become just a head so I could not move on my own.- And ultimately, Jonathan is one blessed by "meetings," so there is always someone nearby him.

Back then, it was that holy woman-- Erina Pendolton.

Though she had changed her name to Erina Joestar.

I learned in a newspaper about their honeymoon boat en route to America.-

I thought it unlikely we would be interrupted on a boat.

That my taking of Jonathan's body would not be interrupted.-- That was what I predicted, and as it turned out, that prediction was correct.

And even if it was not-- if I had made a mistake, a boat is a place a vampire should avoid, I suppose.

There is a special quality of vampires that we cannot cross running water.- There is also that we are weakened by crosses and dislike garlic and such, but those are all just myths to me. However, on this occasion only, I perhaps should have heeded those superstitions.

After I lured Jonathan down to a cabin below the ship's deck, I hit him with two shots of "Space Ripper Stingy Eyes."-- It was something of a sneak attack.

I was no longer able to use the Vaporisation Freeze Technique as just a head, so if Jonathan had made the first move, I would have had no chance at victory.- But while that may be, I was the one to make the first move. I had no intention of making jonathan suffer nor certainly to torment him.

I aimed for between his eyes in order to end his life instantly without inflicting any pain.-- But his body twisted and avoided that, so my attack merely pierced Jonathan's throat.

Although, by shooting his throat, he could no longer breathe. And therefore he could no longer harness the Ripple.-- So at that moment, my victory was certain.

It should have been certain.

The reason why, in the end, it was taken to what I call a draw-- is because at that moment, Erina entered the cabin.

A bad feeling she had, perhaps?

Or maybe it was the bond of husband and wife?

Or perhaps there was "gravity" enacting between the two of them?- Anyhow, the moment I shot Jonathan, she arrived.

And Jonathan "exploded."

For the last time, Jonathan displayed the explosive power-- that I was "afraid" of.

How ironic.

That Erina, the one that made jonathan grow, who first made him grow as a human-- that person who enraged me, would interrupt in Jonathan's and mine final confrontation.

And for her to have guided Jonathan from near defeat to a draw, I think there can be no greater irony.

My mistake was challenging Jonathan on a boat, something that is a weakness to vampires. I've made jokes like that, but if I'm being honest, my mistake was really that I underestimated Erina Pendolton. No, Erina Joestar.

The article that reported the destination of their honeymoon specifically wrote her name as Mrs. Joestar and showed a picture of her.

When I saw that article, I realized that it was Erina, the girl I had met back then.- And yet I focused my attention only on making sure that the Ripple warriors and Speedwagon would not get in my way. I carelessly forgot how important she was to Jonathan Joestar and me, Dio.

Noble, proud.

She was like a holy woman, like my mother.- I should have recognise how much of a presence she had for me, for Jonathan, for us.

Especially as Erina Joestar.

At that point, she was a member of the joestar family.- She had become one of them.

Jonathan mustered one final Ripple.

It was not a Ripple harnessed from his breath.

It was harnessed from his life force-- a Ripple made from his "soul."

That may have been a Ripple he inherited from Will A. Zeppeli.- He used that Ripple to manipulate the zombie subordinate I had brought with me to stop the boat's paddle wheel, it's screw shaft.

That was the ruin of the manipulated zombie that once was the China man who sold me the Eastern drug, the poison that I fed to my father and adoptive father, Wang Chen.- Even there, I could not help but feel a strange connection, or rather, "gravity."'

He used the zombie's, Wang Chen's, superhuman strength to stop the shaft which resulted in the steam inside the pistons having no means of escape, which in turn caused pressure to build-- because he had planned to make the entire ship itself explode.

This was not something I think could have been made up instantly.

He was planning to blow himself up.

He was a man who did not yield until the very, very end.-- But this was surely a bitter decision for him. Regardless of me, Wang Chen, and the zombies inside the ship which Wang Chen had created, there were many surviving passengers aboard that ship that he killed as well.

I suppose he judged it better than letting me, Dio, loose in the world.- Nevertheless, I'm sure he had some conflict about it.

The choice of sacrificing innocent people.

For him, that must been very difficult.

But even so, he tried to at least allow Erina to escape.

Erina ran up to him, truly a holy woman.

"I have no idea what is happening."

"Th... This is beyond my imagination. I don't know whether to cry, scream, or faint."

With that preface, she said this.

Erina Joestar said this:

"But there is only one thing I can say."

"Erina Joestar is going to die with you."

I was not surprised by those words.

I am sure my mother would have said the same thing.

And, as I have been writing this, Vanilla Ice has been annihilated, it seems.

Yes, annihilated.

Not defeated or killed or some such thing.- With Vanilla Ice turned into a zombie by my blood, it is likely that the sun's light has left him annihilated without a trace.

While I would not call it a "blood connection," but even outside his loyalty, with my connection to him as master and servant, I could tell that Vanilla Ice has been annihilated without receiving a report from anyone.

But then, with Nukesaku heading for Joseph Joestar's team, I no longer
have a single subordinate to report "the annihilation of Vanilla Ice" to me.

Losing a subordinate of the caliber of Vanilla Ice is. quite a serious blow. And for his end to be "annihilation," I suppose I should say that a downside to turning him into a zombie showed itself.

A downside has surfaced with all of my actions.

However, I cannot call this a mistake- fate was merely on their side. Even I am an ally of the joestar bloodline.- Or perhaps still being not fully adapted to this body, Jonathan's body, I am perhaps naturally choosing actions that are beneficial to them.

I am certainly a bit agitated.

And while I am not in a disgraceful panic.With my subordinates killed, my trusted retainers eliminated, by mansion exposed, myself left alone, and now being in this exposed state, I of course am not pleased.

But even in this situation-- this desperate situation, I am sure that because of what I can anticipate, I can face it with "resolve."

If this was a future I'd seen and understood, then I think I could meet it without any agitation.

I suppose it really is "heaven."

I must see "heaven"- go to "heaven" and become a true winner. I must "take" victory.

Even if he was annihilated, with that ability of Vanilla Ice's-- I am sure he at least was able to finish off either Polnareff or Iggy. And if not, I believe that he should have at least inflicted significant injuries on them.

And even if they both survived- regardless of how intelligent he is, Iggy is a dog. In actuality, Polnareff is basically alone.

I feel it may be useless, but.

I think I will challenge him.

Polnareff has moved separately from Joseph Joestar and Jotaro Kujo. And now that he is alone, this is a chance I may not have again.

If there is a gravity which causes people to meet one another.

One could surely say that such a gravity exists between Polnareff and me as well.- Even if I cannot form an alliance with the joestar family, with the majority of my subordinates gone now, I would be quite thankful to have Polnareff come back to me.

Kakyoin is currently moving with the joestar group, so even if negotiating with him is impossible. Jean Pierre Polnareff.

If I had not used the "flesh bud" to control him, he would have no direct grudge against me.-- He has already eliminated the one he had a grudge against, J. Geil, with his own hands. And most notably, unlike Noriaki Kakyoin, he has not personally met Holly Kujo.

So depending on how I negotiate, it may be possible to win him over to my side. If I can do so before he meets up with the joestars again.

I think I will do so.

I hope to have good news when I write the next page.

It didn't work.

I was flatly rejected.- And to be honest, I, Dio, cannot even imagine what he was dissatisfied with.

Perhaps he's drunk on his sense of justice?-- Or perhaps he is shifting his grudge regarding his little sister being killed onto me?

I suppose that is possible.

Even though he has directly gotten revenge on J. Geil, that will not bring his little sister back. Therefore his grudge would not be absolved completely. So perhaps his remaining hatred is now pointed towards me because j. Geil was my subordinate. With him not knowing Holly Kujo at all, I cannot think of any other reason for why he would reject my offer.

In other words, for Jean Pierre Polnareff- perhaps his little sister Sherry is, like Holly Kujo or my mother, is a "holy woman."

Sherry.

I believe that name means "beloved" in French. So in the end, it seems that I, Dio, am always being defeated to that "love" idea.

Love of parents.

Love of family.

Love for humanity.

No.

I, Dio, have not yet lost.

Regardless of what happened 100 years ago-- All that happened was that my invitation has been turned down by jean Pierre Polnareff, an excellent Stand user.

That is not defeat.

However-- it does mean that "gravity" did not act in my favor. Depending on how it was timed, he should have become good friends with me. Yes, if only the timing was different.

Timing?

No, wait, that is not right. The word timing essentially means "time."- But was that really all? If I say it was time, then I should be able to control it.

One could say that my "The World" has the ability to control time.- And yet, I am in this predicament.

Then what is important here is not timing or "time."

Strictly speaking, "time" is not the only thing that is important.- There is something that is just as, if not more, important.

That is "location."

Like the lobby, the "location," where I was just happened to be punched by jonathan when blood flew onto the stone mask.- Like how the "location" I fell just happened to have a goddess statue there. And how it just so happened that the "location" where I targeted Jonathan's body was the ocean.- "Location" holds a large significance.

The final thing I require is- "location."

Anyhow, I am out of time.

I will calm down and turn to a new page. I must calm down for now.

Do not get excited.-- Yes, this is no situation to be on a high. I am always tripped up at times like this, aren't I? Ah, yes. Enrico Pucci said that at times like this, it is a good idea to count prime numbers. Prime numbers are solitary numbers that cannot be divided by anything but 1 and themselves.

Solitude gives one strength.

I will enumerate the prime numbers.

2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13, 17, 19, 23, 29, 31, 37, 41, 43, 47, 53, 59, 61, 67, 71, 73, 79, 83,
89, 97- hmm.

It doesn't seem to be working as well as he said it would.

But anyhow, I must calm down now.

First, I will conclude the story from 100 years ago.

While Polnareff rejected the chance I offered to him, if I was able to speak to him a bit longer-- If I had demonstrated the just how unparalleled my Stand, "The World" is to him a bit more, there is a possibility he would have yielded but...

"Gravity" pulled him towards his comrades.

Joseph Joestar, Jotaro Kujo and Noriaki Kakyoin broke through a wall. And with the rays of the sun at his back, Jean Pierre Polnareff rejoined their group.

With the light of the sun being an inexorable weakness of mine, I had to temporarily move from that "location."

Even with Kenny G.'s illusions gone, this mansion has a considerably complex construction.- They will not be reaching me soon.

However, it seems that Kakyoin has put Nukesaku in a bag and is bringing him with them, (it may be to protect him from the sun, but it is a rather cruel thing to do), so it is likely that they will reach me in the near future.

So before that, I must finish writing about my "discovery." I am not afraid of Joseph Joestar or Jotaro Kujo as individuals, but utterly the Joestar bloodline that I am wary of.- Like I should have 100 years ago.

The holy woman, Erina Joestar.

That holy woman, the first and last person to interfere with my plans back then, was determined to die with the man she had partnered with, Jonathan.

Even if she had vowed to accompany him in sickness and health, joy and sorrow-- I doubt she vowed to die with him as well.

This was a woman that was, for the sake of a man who had saved her once as a child-- going to throw away her life.

Astoundingly foolish.

That was pure, honest, and beautiful.

But hopelessly foolish.

I thought, once again, that she was, truly, like my mother.- And this stirred up great hatred in me.

Therefore, I could not forgive her.

I could not allow such a woman to cuddle up with my body-- Jonathan's body.

When that never was done to me...

Why- would she do it to someone like him?

Mother.

Mother.

Mom.

"My mother, also."

Jonathan said that.

He pointed to the corpse of a woman right next to them who seemingly had been running from zombies and, in the end, fallen down a staircase and was hugging a baby.-- And he said this.

"That woman. She is a mother who died covering her child."

"My mother. died doing the same thing."

"Take that child. take it and run, quickly!"

"It's okay to cry. But you have to live."

The woman was dead.

But the baby was still alive.

So Jonathan told his wife-- to save it. He asked that of his wife who was consigned to dying with him.- What an oblivious man.

But it was his obliviousness that made him Jonathan Joestar.

My life long archenemy.

The only man I have ever respected at that point.

And while I hated him-- And while I feel irritation towards his descendants, I respect them. It is for that reason, all the more, that I tried to take his body.

Because at the very end, he went from being an "inheritor" to being a "giver."-- Erina, that holy woman, followed those words with tears in her eyes.

The words of a dying man. The words of a loving man.

She could not have refused.-- Then I, as just a head, mustered the last of my strength as jonathan had just done and shot blood vessel needles at Jonathan. Erina moved away from Jonathan's body at about the same time, I believe.

I do not have a good memory of what happened after.

All memory of it has left me.

I do not even remember the sound of the boat exploding.

Jonathan and I, perhaps it was only at that moment, having transcended life and death, may have finally established feelings of friendship. I have gotten a bit sentimental, so I turned to a new page in order to collect myself.

It would seem that Nukesaku is, in a traitorous way, reading between the lines and guiding the joestars to incorrect places.- However, I really doubt that Nukesaku thinks that I am writing such a notebook at a time like this.

He also doesn't know about the many hidden passageways in this mansion.-- So while I could write about the endless parts of this building, it is the room at the top of the tallest tower which he is likely guiding them to, and that is where I'm going to go.

Anyhow, at this rate, him being eliminated by the Ripple via Joseph or some such thing is a foregone conclusion for that man. I, Dio, will teach him that personally.- It is an immortal body. So if he is lucky, he may even survive.

Now then, I mentioned how I do not remember what comes after this very well, but to be precise, I really have no idea what happened after this. Even if I am to theorize, there seems to be contradictions.

From my current perspective, having actually taken Jonathan's body, I know for a fact that I did successfully "take" his body.-- One way or another.

And not only having taken it, but being "alive"-- From the perspective of having spent 100 years in a casket at the bottom of the sea, I know that after I took Jonathan's body, I successfully entered that sturdy casket to use as a shelter-- and survived the explosion Jonathan set off.

Those are all logical conclusions.

But what I do not understand is the point of Erina Joestar saving that baby and surviving.-- How in the world did she survive that explosion?

The zombies Wang Chen created should have destroyed all of the life boats and life preservers.- I had instructed him to do so in the unlikely event that Jonathan tried to run away.

So even if Erina ran like jonathan had instructed, even if she tried to survive, that should not have been possible.

It should have been her fate to sink into the sea along with that child.- That is why I did not think that the joestar bloodline had continued to this point where I could be "photographed" by Joseph Joestar's "Hermit Purple."

I thought them destroyed.

I thought them gone- and yet...

Even if I am to make some assumptions, as in that there was some way Erina Joestar could have survived, I can only think that the casket I prepared- the casket I had carried into the ship, was the only thing that could be used as shelter.

But, is such a thing possible?

That casket was a shelter for one person, but if strained, it is not impossible that two could have been in it. Certainly, it was not designed for my physique to fit into it perfectly after I took Jonathan's body.- It is not unfathomable that both Erina and I were inside the casket.

Though strictly speaking, it was not two, but three.

Or even more strictly, four.

Jonathan, the baby, Erina, and I.- If all four of us fit into that casket,
then it explains the current state of affairs.

Jonathan had a rather large body of 190 centimeters, but at that point he should have lost his head. And I am of similar height and I was just a head. Erina had a small frame and the baby was a baby.

It may have been a bit of a strain, but it should not have been physically impossible for those four to occupy a shelter built for one.

Physically, that is.

I have to say that emotionally, that could not happen.- Jonathan had just been pierced through the throat, mustered his final Ripple, and died.

And I confirmed that death- I believe.

So if I was conscious and I "took" Jonathan's body, I would not have accepted entering the same casket as Erina Joestar.

I can state that firmly even without a memory of it.

If I were conscious then- this situation would not have resulted.

I think it is likely that I mustered the last of my strength to take over Jonathan's body- and then I passed out.

I lost consciousness.

Though it sounds a bit nicer when saying it that way- Essentially, I had exhausted all of my strength.

Then who was it that had put me, exhausted, into that casket shelter?-

I have thus far convinced myself that even if I were unconscious, I would unconsciously have entered the casket for the sake of self-preservation.

Seeing that I am alive, I could not find any other explanation.-- But if I consider the fact of Erina Joestar also being alive, the story changes.

Even if I had unconsciously crawled into the casket, when Erina entered the casket herself, she would surely have thrown me out of it, wouldn't she?- Me, someone she hated, someone who killed her beloved partner, surely she would throw out of the casket, yes?-- No.

I had best not give this too much importance.

I have actually already reached my answer.- I just do not want to admit it. It was Erina. When I establish the fact that she had inherited the Joestar family bloodline, their will, I knew. I knew, yet I could not accept it.

It was by Erina Joestar.

That my life was saved.- Though I would not like to admit it.

...However, considering the circumstances, there is no other answer.- With me having taken over Jonathan's body and exhausted my strength, Erina transported me to the casket and placed me inside with her.

There is no other way she and I, as well as that baby, could have been saved.

Thinking a bit more normally, perhaps she took that course of action because that was the corpse of her husband, something she could not simply leave on the boat.

But I know that is wrong.

As someone who possesses Jonathan's corpse, I must admit I know. That noble, proud, and limitlessly foolish woman- took pity on, of all people, me, Dio.

"Dio."

"Can you hear me, Dio...?"

"If I had been born poor, I may have done the same thing..."

"I may have had the same ambitious heart and strayed from the path of humanity just as you did."

"Jonathan's body belongs to you, now."

"Now, you truly are a member of the joestar family."

"Now rest awhile with my husband at the bottom of mother ocean."

"Sleep soundly."

"I don't know if it will be in 50 or 100 years..."

"But someday, please give up your evil ways and become a good
person."

"Please become a noble, proud human that can go to heaven."

I have a feeling that I heard someone say that.

I have a feeling- that at the very end, I heard those words.

That was quite something, what Erina Joestar said.

It was quite something, what my mother said.

The final necessity is location.

Location- and time.

I have calculated it.

Go to 28 degrees 24 minutes north, 80 degrees 36 minutes west- and wait for the next new moon.

That should be the "time of heaven." now then.

The moment has about arrived, it seems.- The joestar group is finally here.

The way to go to "heaven" is already clear for me, but unfortunately, I am forced to put down my pen here today.- I will head to the tower. And this time, I will completely sever my fated connection with the joestar family.

There is no need to panic. I possess a body with eternal life.

I have all the time I need.

I will continue writing this tomorrow.
_______________________________________

That is the end of my edited English edition of Dio's Diary, feel free to use it in your own works but give credit to:

A) the original writer of "Over Heaven"

B) the one who made the first English translation

C) me, who edited the grammar to better suit Dio, considering he is British I have used the British spelling of words.

(oh yeah I'm going to do a tad bit more editing after releasing this chapter but that's only so it looks good on computer as mine broke and I need to do it in school.)