A Handy Weapon

The taxi carrying Diavolo—no, carrying Tonio—slowly drove out of the airport.

The driver glanced at Tonio's youthful face, which carried an introverted air, through the rearview mirror and unconsciously addressed him casually. "Hey, kid, where are you headed?"

Tonio smiled shyly.

"Just head toward the coast near Mount Vesuvius."

"When we get there, I'll tell you the exact location."

"Oh, right."

His tone suddenly became urgent. "Please drive as fast as you can."

"My boss gave me a very important assignment. I have to get there as soon as possible."

"Got it."

"Working people have it rough. I'll try to drive faster."

The driver nodded cheerfully and cooperatively pressed down on the accelerator a little harder.

The taxi sped up through the bustling city streets, its speed noticeably increasing.

Tonio casually watched the constantly changing, prosperous street scenes outside the window and nervously muttered to himself.

"The boss told me to find a bald guy there. But what does this bald guy look like?"

"Will the boss contact me again once I get there?"

He was restless over the important mission resting on his shoulders, completely unaware that the boss he worshipped like a god was himself.

And then.

Tonio, absently looking out the window, unexpectedly spotted something strange by the roadside.

"A stone?"

"Why is there a stone beside this street?"

Amid the pedestrians coming and going along this bustling, lived-in street sat a spherical stone the size of a pumpkin.

Its surface was rough and unpolished. If not for the large character meaning "ominous" carved into it, it looked like useless junk hauled over from some barren mountain wilderness.

Sitting there in the middle of that lively marketplace, it looked thoroughly out of place.

Tonio instinctively found it strange, but the taxi was moving too fast for him to get a closer look, and the odd stone soon vanished far beyond his sight.

Yet about half a minute later, when the taxi reached another street.

He saw another stone here, exactly like the first one.

"Another stone by the road?"

"Who's bored enough to put useless rocks like this in the middle of the street?"

Tonio found it increasingly strange, and then.

"Beep beep, beep beep, beep beep beep beep~"

"Beep beep, beep beep, beep beep beep beep~"

This pink-haired boy, who looked perfectly normal and refined no matter how one looked at him, suddenly acted as though he had suffered a mental breakdown. He unconsciously imitated a phone ringtone with his mouth while talking to himself.

"Huh?"

"Where's that phone ringing?"

"Beep beep, beep beep, beep beep beep beep~"

"Uh?"

The middle-aged driver in the front seat jumped at the bizarre sight.

"Um... kid, what's wrong with you?"

"Wh-why are you suddenly making such weird noises?"

Tonio paid no attention to the driver's concerned yet fearful question.

He frantically rummaged through the briefcase he carried with him. In the end, he casually grabbed a wallet, held it to his ear as though it were a phone, and said.

"Hello?"

"I-is that you, Boss?!"

Tonio conversed with his boss, Diavolo, through a phone that did not exist.

They were clearly the same person, yet the personalities of Diavolo and Tonio could still communicate with each other through this bizarre method.

"Tonio."

Diavolo's voice appeared directly in his mind.

"You need to be careful."

"The enemy is very likely nearby."

"What?"

Tonio's voice came from his mouth. From an outsider's perspective, he looked like he was talking to a wallet.

"The enemy is nearby?"

"Could it... be that stone I just saw?!"

"That's right."

Diavolo solemnly warned him in his mind.

"A stone so out of place appearing in the middle of a major road—anyone would be unable to resist taking a second look, wouldn't they?"

"But none of those pedestrians coming and going on the sidewalk noticed it, as if that huge stone did not exist at all."

"Obviously, this is..."

"A Stand attack!"

Tonio clenched the wallet in his hand, his expression turning grim.

"Ordinary people can't see Stands, so I was the only one who noticed that stone!"

"Then, then..."

His tone became panicked.

"What should I do?"

"Boss, will you help me?"

"Of course I'll help you, my Tonio."

Diavolo gently comforted his other self while treating him like a mere tool.

"But we still don't know the enemy's identity or location, so it isn't convenient for me to show myself yet."

"So you'll have to deal with this enemy for now."

"Don't be afraid."

"I'll lend you my future-seeing Epitaph. You can definitely handle this yourself."

Tonio, this secondary personality, was Diavolo's final line of defense for concealing his true identity.

Unless he could ensure his safety and guarantee that everyone who saw his true face would be silenced, Diavolo would never reveal his real appearance.

Thus, with this mysterious enemy not yet having revealed himself, he chose to have Tonio act in his place.

"Okay."

Tonio seriously accepted the task his boss had assigned him.

At the same time, a small face that ordinary people could not see slowly emerged on the forehead hidden beneath his pink bangs—an indication that King Crimson's Epitaph ability had been activated.

"The stone... Will that stone appear again?"

Tonio watched the scene outside the car window with complete focus, guarding against the strange stone's reappearance.

Then, the stone really did appear.

But this time, it did not appear beside the road. It appeared inside the moving taxi.

That's right. Without Tonio even noticing how it had appeared, the stone was silently placed on the back seat, only inches away from him.

"Damn it!"

Staring at the stone less than half a meter away, a chill ran down his spine.

"Epitaph!"

Without hesitation, Tonio activated the only ability he could use, probing the next few seconds of the future to see what the enemy might do.

First second.

The rough, ordinary-looking spherical stone suddenly began trembling strangely.

Second second.

The stone steadily and slowly inched closer to Tonio.

Third second.

Tonio instinctively kicked at the steadily approaching stone.

Fourth second.

Tonio died.

He died without a sound, like a hundred-year-old man quietly passing away.

"What?!"

Both Tonio, who was currently controlling the body, and Diavolo, lurking in his mind, were shocked by that terrifying vision of the future.

"If I touch that stone, I'll die!"

"I have to... I have to stay farther away from it."

"Don't come near me!!"

So, without Tonio realizing it.

Diavolo briefly took control of the body and used King Crimson to activate Time Erasure, skipping over the time when he would be touched by the stone.

The future was changed just like that.

Caught completely off guard, Tonio leaped up from the back seat like a timid rabbit encountering its natural predator, then somersaulted into the front passenger seat.

The driver, who had been focused on driving, was violently shoved by Tonio and nearly jerked the steering wheel off course and crashed into the road.

"Hey!"

"Why did you suddenly jump up here? Have you gone crazy?!"

The middle-aged driver shouted at Tonio in lingering fear while instinctively slamming on the brakes.

Yet the stone seemed unaffected by inertia—it continued its slow, steady movement even as the taxi braked sharply, constantly closing in on Tonio, who had fled to the front seat.

"Boss, wh-what do I do?"

"I'll die the moment I touch it. How am I supposed to fight back?"

"Should I run away?"

Tonio nervously spoke to Diavolo on the "phone."

"Don't be afraid."

Diavolo spoke calmly.

"So far, aside from its bizarre property of killing anyone who touches it, this stone has not shown much destructive power or speed."

"You don't need to run. Just try destroying it."

"Destroy it?"

"But..."

Tonio looked around for a suitable tool and said uncertainly.

"I can't touch the stone directly, and I don't have a handy weapon on me..."

"Who says you don't?"

Diavolo coldly retorted.

"My dear Tonio."

"Look beside you, at that uncle driving—"

"The human skull is harder than most stones. Isn't that handy enough?"