Hidden Nature

Kira's house was burned down.

After Li Qing explained the news in a way that everyone could understand, everyone finally realized the seriousness of the situation.

"It must be Diavolo."

"It seems we made the right choice this time."

Abbacchio decisively identified the enemy:

Diavolo knew the power of Moody Blues; only he would have been so prescient as to make such a big move to erase his own traces.

"This is good news; at least we didn't make a wasted trip."

"However, judging from Diavolo's cautious behavior today, it may not be so easy to find him in this town."

A hint of seriousness crept into Giorno's usually calm eyes.

Because he has already seen the reality of the situation:

They seem to have Diavolo cornered, but in reality, they don't have a single useful clue.

Morioh is neither a large nor a small town, so finding someone who has been hiding for over a decade is no easy task.

"If we can't find the person, we can find the arrows!"

Polnareff pointed out a direction:

"Diavolo came here for the arrows, didn't he?"

"Let's go find that arrow; maybe we'll run into that guy."

"But."

Giorno glanced at Polnareff helplessly:

"We can't find any arrows either!"

"All Mr. Jotaro knows is that a mysterious person with an arrow might appear in Morioh. With that little information, finding the arrow is not as easy as finding the person."

This statement brought the discussion to an abrupt end.

The person could not be found, and the arrow could not be found either.

Suddenly, everyone realized that they couldn't find a single point of attack that could be used against Diavolo.

Thinking of this, the initial aura of divine soldiers descending from the heavens to vanquish demons and monsters gradually faded away.

Only Li Qing's gaze remained unchanged.

Because others couldn't see the clues, he had already found a breakthrough:

"Yoshikage Kira."

Li Qing subtly turned his gaze to Yoshikage Kira, who sat at the dining table with a sorrowful expression.

Others couldn't see the clues because they were using their eyes, while Li Qing was better at using his ears.

Yoshikage Kira's acting skills are nothing short of superb.

His portrayal of someone who has lost their family and is overwhelmed with grief is now perfect.

But Li Qing had clearly heard that when Yoshikage Kira heard on the radio that his ancestral home had been burned to the ground, his heartbeat suddenly slowed down.

This guy is definitely hiding something.

Li Qing remained outwardly calm and composed.

He chatted with Giorno and the others for a few moments, then turned to look at Yoshikage Kira:

"Mr. Kira, I'd like to ask a few more questions:"

"You just mentioned that Diavolo cut off your girlfriend's hand and kept it in his pocket to torture you."

"However, as far as I know, although Diavolo is a habitual murderer, he is always clean and efficient in killing, and he does not seem to have any perverted fetish of carrying severed hands with him."

Why didn't he just kill you to silence you, instead of using this unusual method to make you suffer a painful death?

"Could you tell me more about what happened yesterday? I'd like to analyze it."

Li Qing raised a series of questions.

This is also a point of suspicion that can be seen on the surface:

Yoshikage Kira describes Diavolo as a psychopathic killer, but this doesn't match Diavolo's past killing patterns.

This is not to say that Diavolo of doing it:

When this guy executed two traitors in the Assassination Team, he tied one of them up and watched him, then turned his best friend into a human body slice right in front of him.

Diavolo is perfectly capable of committing the heinous acts described by Yoshikage Kira.

But the problem is, he doesn't need to do it.

He previously performed human biopsies as a warning to others, not out of personal interest.

What exactly did Yoshikage Kira do to make Diavolo use the same methods he usually used to purge his own people on an "ordinary citizen" like him?

Could you elaborate?

Li Qing asked slowly and deliberately, his ears carefully picking up the faint sound waves emanating from Yoshikage Kira's body.

"I yesterday"

Yoshikage Kira's face remained calm, but his heart was filled with boundless turmoil:

This bald guy is definitely a big problem!

If you keep asking me these kinds of questions, I'm sure the more I answer, the more wrong I'll get.

Lies will be exposed sooner or later!

Thinking of this, Yoshikage Kira's heart churned, and then...

Two streams of hot tears rolled down her cheeks again:

"Miyuki, I just went to the beach with Miyuki yesterday."

Then... then

"Ugh—my head is starting to hurt again."

Yoshikage Kira burst into tears again, his expression exaggerated and over-the-top, yet his superb acting skills made it all seem perfectly natural.

Even seasoned veterans like Jotaro and Polnareff were easily fooled, while a naive young man from a small town like Josuke Higashikata showed even more undisguised sympathy.

"Playing amnesia again."

Li Qing's lips twitched slightly:

Yoshikage Kira's use of excessive grief as an excuse to avoid all possible clues left Kira with no way to proceed.

"Okay. I won't force you to think about these sad things."

Li Qing didn't press the matter further, but his heart was filled with suspicion.

As he withdrew his gaze and ceased pressuring Yoshikage Kira, he pondered the inexplicable questions in his mind:

Why did Diavolo do something so unnecessary?

Why bother with this twisted, mind-torturing drama when you could just kill an "ordinary citizen" who happens to be there?

Was that hand really meant to torture Yoshikage Kira?

So, why a hand?

Wouldn't it be more convenient to gouge out an eye and cut off an ear and carry it with you?

Could it be that Diavolo deliberately showed Yoshikage Kira this move before disappearing, in order to convey some special message to him?

Li Qing felt increasingly uneasy about what was going on.

However, too much crucial information was missing, and he couldn't deduce the truth out of thin air.

"What's certain is that Yoshikage Kira is definitely hiding something."

"But it's hard to say whether there's any other connection between him and Diavolo."

Li Qing pondered carefully in a hazy state.

Just then, a pleasant female voice suddenly rang out in the room:

"Are you all friends that Jotaro brought from Italy?"

"I knew everyone was coming, so I prepared breakfast in advance."

"Josuke——"

Mrs. Higashikata walked out of the kitchen carrying a plate:

"Quickly bring breakfast to the guests."

"It's Josuke's mother."

As soon as Li Qing entered the house, he was busy interrogating Yoshikage Kira, but he had not yet met the mistress of the Higashikata Family.

He was busy thinking with his head down and didn't rush to see what Josuke Higashikata's mother looked like.

Li Qing was still deep in thought with his eyes closed.

Mrs. Higashikata had already brought the plate and tea to the dining table.

"Um?!"

Li Qing suddenly opened his eyes.

He didn't suddenly become interested in Josuke's mother, but rather...

The moment Mrs. Higashikata approached, he clearly heard Yoshikage Kira's heartbeat become erratic and his breathing become heavy.

"No way?"

"Is this guy interested in middle-aged women?"

Li Qing raised his head with a strange expression.

Then his heart skipped a beat, much to his dismay.

There was no way around it; ever since he transmigrated, he had been surrounded by all sorts of muscular men in strange costumes, spending his days as buddies with a group of exhibitionists who liked to show off their chests and bellies.

Now, suddenly seeing a beautiful girl, even though she was helping her mother, still gave me a refreshing feeling:

"Ahem... Josuke's mom looks so young!"

"Is this really a woman whose son is already in high school?"

Li Qing suddenly understood Yoshikage Kira's strange physiological changes.

But just a second later, he noticed something was wrong:

Although Yoshikage Kira concealed it well, his gaze remained subtly fixed on Mrs. Higashikata's hand.

If Mrs. Higashikata's hand moved even slightly closer to him, his heart would pound like an old tractor.

As soon as Mrs. Higashikata turned around, even though she was still very close to Yoshikage Kira, as long as he couldn't see her hands, the guy's heartbeat would immediately calm down as if he were in deep meditation.

But even a slight glimpse of those hands, even just a side view, was enough to stir Yoshikage Kira's heart.

Something's not right.

"If someone is attracted by beauty, it's impossible for them to calm down instantly when they turn around at such close range."

"Could it be that this guy isn't just lusting after her body, but only after her body?"

"Hand?!"

Li Qing suddenly realized something:

Did Diavolo's special display of skill have any particular significance for Yoshikage Kira?

That might not be torture at all, but a reminder, a threat!

That severed hand might not have been Diavolo's work at all, since he had no reason to make such a fuss for an "ordinary citizen".

Such thinking is somewhat unconventional and difficult to prove with evidence.

But this makes Yoshikage Kira's efforts to conceal the truth somewhat understandable.

"Hands? Perhaps I have a way to verify that."

Li Qing narrowed his eyes, his gaze sharpening.

After Mrs. Higashikata finished setting out breakfast and left the dining room, making sure that everyone in the room was Stand User with good mental fortitude, he turned to Giorno and said:

"Giorno, do me a favor."

"I want to recreate yesterday's scene."

"Reconstruct the scene?" Giorno was a little confused by Li Qing's erratic thinking, "How can I help with something like this?"

"It's very simple."

"My main goal was to experience Diavolo's situation yesterday through role-playing."

"I'm currently getting to know the character Diavolo, so I need you to make me a prop."

Li Qing fabricated a story.

"Does this really work?" Giorno asked, his face full of doubt.

"Of course, no one understands Diavolo better than me."

Li Qing said with a shameless grin:

"All you have to do is make that prop for me—a beautiful woman's hand."

"I'll put it in my pocket and feel it; maybe I'll figure something out."

"."

Giorno's expression became even stranger:

"Hands, you want me to be a beautiful woman's hands?"

"That's a bit difficult."

He stopped making excuses and simply explained his difficulties:

"You have to give me a template. I can't just conjure up a 'beautiful' hand out of thin air."

"In fact, I've hardly ever seen a girl's hands."

"Huh?" Li Qing asked in surprise, "You're so good-looking, don't any girls chase after you at school?"

The topic suddenly took a strange turn.

Giorno sighed softly, then turned to Li Qing with a strange expression and said:

"You probably can't understand this kind of trouble, Li Qing."

"It's precisely because there are too many girls around me that I can't look at them too much."

"If you look at them too much, those girls will stick to you like melted malt candy. It's a very annoying thing."

"Yeah yeah!"

"Those women are the most troublesome; you can't shake them off no matter what you do."

Josuke Higashikata sighed with deep feeling.

"That's right, I often had this problem when I was in school."

Even the taciturn Jotaro couldn't help but reminisce about the past.

"."

Li Qing had lived the life of a monk since childhood, fell silent for a moment:

These members of the JO family are truly out of touch with the masses and unaware of human suffering.

"Alright!"

Li Qing was inexplicably shown off, and could only say in an annoyed tone:

"Just sculpt one at random. You may not have seen pretty girls, but you've surely seen the Mona Lisa, right?"

"Just press that spot!"

He just gave a template out of anger.

But for some reason, as soon as the words "Mona Lisa" were uttered, Yoshikage Kira, who was standing next to him, couldn't help but feel his heart pounding again.

"Hmm?" Li Qing felt something was off.

Giorno, however, had already summoned Gold Experience. He first carefully recalled the world-famous painting, then picked up a plate as a raw material and began to perform the "Muda Muda" routine with practiced ease.

In a mere instant, under Yoshikage Kira's utterly horrified gaze...

Giorno transformed the plate into a hand, almost identical to the hand in the famous painting "Mona Lisa".

This hand is like a 1:1 replica of a portrait, but it is more realistic, more vivid, with flesh and blood, and even warmth.

Because it is "alive," it is a real human hand.

Mona Lisa.

Yoshikage Kira stared wide-eyed:

He discovered his strange fetish for bokiing when he saw Mona Lisa's hands.

And now, that boy with the curly haircut has actually created the perfect hand he's always dreamed of using just a plate.

Yoshikage Kira's gaze suddenly became incredibly complicated.

At that moment, Li Qing even faintly saw glimmers of tears in the corners of his eyes:

"Awakening was a mistake."

"Why was I given the ability Killer Queen instead of Gold Experience?!"

Yoshikage Kira was so hungry that he even wanted to stab himself with an arrow again:

If he had such a useful Stand ability, why would he bother going out to kill people? He could just stay home and make hands to play with!

"Hmm, this heartbeat..."

Li Qing has basically verified his idea.

Then, as if teasing a dog, he casually waved the Mona Lisa's Hand in front of Yoshikage Kira.

Yoshikage Kira's heart immediately started pounding with craving.

A normal person would find this severed hand creepy, but this guy was actually quite excited about it.

"Hello, Li Qing"

Seeing Li Qing handling the severed hand like a madman, turning it over and over in his hands, Giorno couldn't help but ask:

"Can this really help me understand Diavolo's thoughts?"

"Have you figured out any clues?"

I've figured it out.

Li Qing sighed softly and casually slapped the severed hand onto the table.

At that moment, he could even hear Yoshikage Kira secretly swallowing.

He even deliberately threw his hand closer to Yoshikage Kira, which made the boy sitting next to him quite envious.

"I've figured it out—"

Li Qing subtly shifted his gaze:

"That guy is a pervert."