The Divine in Dreams, Part One

"Hell yeah! Boss Jo killed Tong Bei! Boss Jo is invincible!" Ma Hongjun rushed over to flatter him.

"Hmph. He was so arrogant he forgot that a Soul Elder doesn't always lose to a Soul Ancestor." Jodio took the towel Ma Hongjun offered and wiped the blood from his hands. Back when he was level 75, he had beaten countless Soul Douluo who had challenged him with that same assumption. He had even fought Titled Douluo. Soul Power wasn't everything. It mattered enormously, but fighting skill mattered too.

"Dai Mubai, you look out of it. First time seeing a fight like that?" Jodio asked with a chuckle.

"Ugh..." Tong Bei's body suddenly twitched. Jodio glanced down, immediately summoned his third Spirit Ring skill, Fang 1, and shaped his left hand into a pistol, ready to put a few more shots into him.

"Stop, Jodio!"

A burst of gunfire cut off Dai Mubai's shout. Five claw bullets pierced Tong Bei's brain, spraying brain matter and nearly splattering Ma Hongjun. Tong Bei was well and truly dead this time. Jodio refused to believe anyone could survive being shot in the brain—unless they were from JoJo, of course.

Jodio snapped his fingers. Several Passione officers came over and nodded to him, then split up. Some carried away the body, some gathered the gold coins, and others dealt with the carriage. Other officers brought the coachman over. He approached timidly, hands clasped together, looking at Jodio with both respect and fear.

"Lord Jodio, rest assured, I'll never speak of what happened tonight," the coachman swore at once.

"Mm. I believe you," Jodio replied indifferently.

"Passione will pay for the damage to the carriage and the horse's medical treatment. As for your employer, tell him this happened because you were helping Passione. Tell him I'll visit tomorrow to thank him for his help," Jodio instructed.

"Let's go. We're pulling out." Jodio gave a slight wave.

The rain gradually stopped. Jodio, Ma Hongjun, and Dai Mubai walked slowly toward the city gate, stopping along the way to knock on the door of a mutton soup shop and get six portions to go. Jodio and Ma Hongjun chatted and laughed the whole way, seemingly unaffected by what had just happened. Dai Mubai, however, remained silent, as though something was weighing on him.

"Your third Spirit Ring skill should focus on speed. Ideally, it'll give you both speed and offensive power," Jodio explained.

"Your first Spirit Ring skill lacks offensive power, but the field of flames your second skill creates makes up for that nicely. Add a quick-strike skill for your third, and you'll be a speed-and-defense fighter who can hit, run, and take a hit," Jodio continued.

"And after that?" Ma Hongjun asked curiously.

"Well, your fourth Spirit Ring skill has to let you fly. Your fifth should strengthen your defenses, and your sixth should boost your speed. That means your third skill has to serve as your main attack. You'll need to master it thoroughly, so I'll put you through specialized training," Jodio explained.

"Just imagining it gets me fired up, Boss. I can't wait to awaken my Stand." Ma Hongjun clenched his fists excitedly.

"I'll find a way to fix the problem with your martial soul by level 40 at the latest. Even if my Spirit Ring skill can't do it, I'll find someone who can," Jodio said.

"Heh-heh, you really are the best, Boss." Ma Hongjun wriggled toward him like a caterpillar, grinning. Jodio held up a hand to ward him off, then turned to the downcast Dai Mubai.

"Dai, you look like you've got something to say. Let's hear it," Jodio said.

"No. I have nothing to say." Dai Mubai shook his head.

"If you want to get all conflicted about it, go ahead. But from now on, you don't get to argue with me or refuse me over anything like this again." Jodio glanced at him, then looked ahead once more.

"Jodio! Why did you have to kill him? Couldn't we have imprisoned him?" Dai Mubai asked, as if suddenly jolted awake.

Ma Hongjun nearly spat. Holy shit, Dai, you're into that kind of thing in private? Imprisonment play? Since when did this big white bird get to be Boss Jo's devoted follower? Surely it ought to be an incredible woman! Though a man might work too.

"Dai Mubai, you're trying to ease your conscience. You know perfectly well that if he'd escaped, he would have told everyone everything. You know locking him up would have caused endless trouble. Yet you said it anyway," Jodio said calmly.

"You gave in to your own morals instead of respecting your friend's decision. Dai Mubai, I know what's troubling you. Let me tell you how I see the world, and what friendship means to me." Jodio gazed up at the clear night sky as he spoke.

"The world is made up of groups of people coming together. At first, the weak hoped the strong would protect them, and the strong were willing to help without asking for anything in return. But later, the strong stopped being selfless and began demanding a price," Jodio said.

"There's nothing wrong with demanding a price, but there should be a limit. Once the strong grow greedy, the burden on the weak keeps multiplying until they can no longer survive. Then the weak must seek out new protectors. That's how the world works: the strong are shaped by the weak, but the strong shape the weak in turn. Taken as a whole, the strong stand at the very top of the social order."

"Dai Mubai, do you think I kill indiscriminately, enjoy killing, and commit every evil imaginable? That I'm hardly one of the good guys?" Jodio couldn't help smiling. Then he burst into hearty laughter, laughing freely from the bottom of his heart.

"And yet someone like that gave most ordinary people something resembling justice, along with a stable order. Since then, no Soul Master in Suotuo City has dared bully ordinary people on a whim or cause trouble in their shops. That same man opened a low-cost clinic to help people for next to nothing!"

"Dai Mubai, I am strong! The strong aren't divided into good and evil. They have only their own 'tenets' and 'resolve,' and those are all they follow. Slaughter a city, and you're strong. Protect one, and you're strong too. In my tenets and my resolve, the line between good and evil is hard to draw. Strength is the only certainty," Jodio said frankly.

"Dai Mubai, become strong. Only the strong can carry out their will without letting themselves be wronged. Only the strong can follow through on good intentions—or malicious ones. Do you want to be a good man? A good emperor? Someone who brings justice to the people?" Jodio stared at Dai Mubai as he asked.

"I..."

"If you can't do it, I'll do it for you. Because I'm strong. Because I believe I am. Because I believe you're my friends. So you can stand behind me and wait for victory, wait for the protection I'll give you. When that time comes, you'll be free to act on your good intentions or your malice," Jodio said.

"Dai, Hongjun, remember this: one day, you'll be proud of me. Proud to call me your friend."

← To Be Continued

Information currently available:

High Viss—JoJo! (Coin dropping) (JoJo Part 5 transition music)

Martial soul: Egret (43)

Holder: Tong Bei

Spirit Rings: yellow, yellow, purple, purple

Destructive power: C+; speed: B+; range: C; stamina: D; precision: C; growth potential: C

Martial soul ability: Summons an Egret to possess the holder, granting extremely high speed. Because the holder gains wings while possessed, he can spread his wings and soar even at a low level.

Its Spirit Ring skills boost speed and provide both ranged and close-quarters attacks. It is a fairly well-rounded, standard agility-attack avian martial soul. In theory, its superior counterpart would be the Azure Ice Egret.