Mutual Attraction

One hour ago.

April 4, 1999, Sunday, 5:01 PM (Japan time).

Morioh, a satellite city on the outskirts of S City, is a quiet town with a population of less than 60,000. It was another quiet, peaceful and unremarkable evening.

The sun slid westward as always, the clouds drifted across the sky as always, and the citizens went about their business as always. The same scene had played out countless times in this small town.

Yoshikage Kira never tired of such scenery.

He was born and raised in Morioh, and what he loved most was the ordinary, boring, and maddeningly peaceful daily life in Morioh.

Because he was naturally averse to attracting attention, he only ever got average grades in school. After graduation, he only worked for a local company like Kame Yu Department Store, which was neither big nor small. He neither sought promotion nor slacked off, but simply remained a low-profile cog in the machine of his company for ten years.

From this perspective, Yoshikage Kira was truly just an ordinary citizen—

If he hadn't seen the hand, he would have...

Yes, besides being an ordinary office worker, Yoshikage Kira is also a serial killer who has committed 46 crimes in the Morioh area over the past 15 years (to date).

He specifically targeted young women with beautiful hands, and his methods were cruel, extremely secretive, and adept at destroying evidence, leaving no clues or evidence. As a result, the Morioh police were unaware of such a shocking series of murders in their jurisdiction to this day.

The seemingly contradictory identities of an ordinary citizen striving for a peaceful life and a serial killer are found within Yoshikage Kira.

All of this stemmed from his perverse obsession with women's beautiful hands.

Ordinary hand fetishists like hands that are actually on living people, but Yoshikage Kira is like a strange diner who is obsessed with pickled chicken feet but hates eating chicken. He doesn't like women with delicate hands at all, but only likes women's delicate hands.

So, just like Prince Dan of Yan who warmly entertained Jing Ke two thousand years ago, Yoshikage Kira would dispose of all the "extra parts" of that poor woman, leaving only the hand he wanted.

Just like today.

Today is Kira Yoshikage Kira's day off, so he doesn't have to go to Kame Yu Department Store.

His previous "45th girlfriend" had become somewhat stale, so he took advantage of this leisurely holiday to decisively break up with his "ex-girlfriend" and set his sights on his 46th target in Morioh.

With almost no obstacles and with practiced ease, Yoshikage Kira obtained his "46th girlfriend" from an unlucky female tourist from out of town.

"Don't rush. Don't rush."

"Rest well in my pocket for a while. After I buy the daily necessities, I'll make time to spend with you."

This brutal murder happened not long ago; the bloodied hand was still warm.

But Yoshikage Kira could calmly put the severed hand in his large suit pocket and then stroll around the convenience store like an ordinary person, without any emotional fluctuation.

While casually browsing the convenience store shelves, he spoke in a calm and gentle tone to his "girlfriend" in his pocket, unnoticed by any passersby:

"Wait a little longer, it'll be ready soon."

"Let me get another carton of milk, and then I'll have everything I need to buy."

Yoshikage Kira genuinely saw himself as an ordinary man shopping with his girlfriend, and began talking to himself with such emotional investment.

Then, he casually took a carton of milk from the shelf and headed to the checkout counter with his already full basket.

To this day, no one in the convenience store has discovered what the handsome blond man next to them actually has in his pocket.

Everything was the same as the previous 45 times.

This is the perfect crime.

Yoshikage Kira will continue his peaceful life as before, with his 46th "girlfriend".

With this calm and composed mindset, Yoshikage Kira, his hands hidden in his pockets, approached the cashier without changing his expression.

The person ahead of him in line to pay was a middle-aged man with pink hair, tall and upright, dressed in a well-tailored suit. A pair of sunglasses covered most of his face, but judging from his overly pale, rough skin and distinctive high nose, he was clearly a foreign friend of European descent.

It's not surprising that foreign tourists often visit Morioh.

However, what Yoshikage Kira was somewhat concerned about was

As he walked to the cashier in an utterly ordinary manner, the foreign friend in front of him in line seemed to turn his head and glance at him with some concern.

"The smell of blood?"

Diavolo's muscles tensed up instinctively.

But after glancing warily at the handsome blond man in a suit behind him, he quickly suppressed his almost surging murderous intent.

Although the blond man in the suit behind him had a faint smell of blood, he showed no hostility whatsoever.

His demeanor was so ordinary, the kind of ordinary that you would completely miss if you threw him into a crowd.

Then look at the basket the blond man is carrying. It's crammed full of all sorts of daily necessities like milk, drinking water, plastic wrap, and toilet paper. He really does look like an ordinary person going out to buy groceries.

Is it just my imagination?

"Indeed, it's normal for him to smell of blood if he himself suffered a minor injury."

"Forget it. Whether it's a misperception or not, as long as it doesn't cause me any trouble, this has nothing to do with me."

Diavolo decisively withdrew his gaze.

The blond man behind him calmly avoided eye contact with him.

Diavolo was always a man who preferred to keep a low profile, and this became even more so after he became a "homeless dog".

His main task now is to conceal his whereabouts as much as possible to ensure that he is not discovered, and to try to find the whereabouts of the arrow before Li Qing and the others can react, and to figure out a way to use the arrow to enhance his own Stand ability.

To be honest, this plan is actually very unreliable, and even a bit of wishful thinking.

Putting aside other issues, the most important point is...

Diavolo had no idea where to find arrows.

All he knew was that "a mysterious person with an arrow was in Morioh," but he had no idea where to find this mysterious person once he arrived in Morioh.

In fact, Diavolo had been in Morioh for almost half a week.

Even now, he has no clue how to find the arrow.

But that doesn't mean Diavolo hasn't done anything these days—

He's been wandering around Morioh these days.

Yes, they wander around like headless flies.

But Diavolo wasn't acting blindly; there was a reason behind his actions:

Stand User are attracted to each other; this is a theorem that all veteran Stand User vaguely know.

Therefore, as long as Diavolo continues to wander around Morioh, he will eventually encounter a local Stand User on the street due to that strange fate that exists between Stand User.

Because most people's Stand abilities are developed later through arrows, very few people are born with a Stand ability.

Therefore, he can most likely use this Stand User as a breakthrough to try to gather clues about the mysterious arrow-wielding person.

Although this plan is highly uncertain, it is the only option Diavolo can choose.

"Damn it. If only my men were still here."

Diavolo couldn't help but reminisce about the wonderful days when he led the Passion Organization and had absolute intelligence capabilities.

Unfortunately, the past is the past, and now he is just a lone commander.

Although snakes have their own way and rats have their own way, Diavolo, who has been involved in the underworld for many years, is also familiar with how the global "dark web" works, so he is not unable to contact local Japanese yakuza forces.

As long as the money is right, he's not necessarily going to be unable to find someone to help him.

But this is, after all, the other side of the world, Diavolo is an outsider with no power here. He dares not entrust such an important matter to a group of local bullies he knows nothing about.

"We can only keep banging our heads against the wall like this."

"Hopefully, we can find that so-called 'breakthrough' before those bastards realize what's going on."

Diavolo thought to himself with a hint of helplessness.

He has been spending the last few days immersed in the tranquility and peace of Morioh, a place so calm and peaceful it could drown a person.

If life continued to be so peaceful and uneventful, he would be transformed by life into a retired old man on vacation at the beach.

But no matter how you look at it, Diavolo's life in Morioh seems so uneventful.

He hasn't met a Stand User with whom he should be "mutually attracted" yet, just like an ordinary person buying things at a convenience store and queuing at the checkout.

Everything was so boring, so calm it was suffocating.

"Sir, it's your turn to pay the bill."

The cashier spoke to Diavolo in a very ordinary tone, saying very ordinary things.

"Swipe your card."

Diavolo, like an ordinary person, honestly handed over his card to pay the bill.

If nothing unexpected happens, today will just pass by like any other ordinary day.

That breakthrough seems to be a long way off.

However, just as Diavolo was idly waiting to pay the bill, the blond man behind him was also idly waiting for him to pay.

The cashier's expression changed slightly as she looked up at Diavolo and said:

"Sir, it seems you don't have any money in your card."