Capitolo Primo: Giovinezza (5)

A full day had passed since that interesting day that saw me facing one of the greatest assassins in modern history.

Jack the Ripper was a figure that was shrouded in mystery, negativity and outright uncertainty as his deeds were so brutal, so swift and… so difficult to decipher.

He was never caught, even the full deployment of Scotland Yard got little results from the investigations born from the assassinations of the various prostitutes he would eventually hunt down even in this timeline.

Araki had described him pretty much how many other authors would depict such a confusing murderer, an aimless killer that didn’t seem to have a real reason to go for his murder spree.

He was a pitiful tool of malicious machinations.

The result of some abuse that broke the human mind he had been bestowed since his natural birth that was quick to be seduced by the alluring chances of becoming more by surrendering his flawed humanity to a Dio recovering from his first battle as a vampire against Jonathan.

I wasn’t certainly planning to recruit someone like him, knowing enough about his unpleasant specialization to be aware of the possible drawbacks of gaining his trust.

He was too much of a chaotic presence, not enough subdued to become a pawn for me to manipulate to his complete exploitation.

Especially now that he was younger and surely more emotional with this new passion of his, the modus operandi I was documented about from the various documentaries I had seen detailing the fine clues left around by his deeds failing to represent the younger version I had encountered.

He was dangerous, even more now that he was so brash and possibly less-inclined to take a calm approach over the oddity I was to him.

“Odder than me~!”

His words kept me awake that very night, a few hours after that meeting, and his fascinated eyes would present themselves as the sole physical manifestation of the uneasy words I had so unfortunately burned in my brain.

I wasn’t worried of making another encounter anytime soon, at least that would be the case until I kept close to the Joestar Manor.

He knew of my face but even though he managed to snatch some more information over my whereabouts and my full name, trying to fell me while I was still enjoying the social protection of George Joestar would have seen him getting his own demise just after my kill.

Assassinating prostitutes was a thing, killing the ward of a noble family?

Any attempt at my life would see his own getting hunted down by both Scotland Yard AND the Royal Army considering the heinous ground he would be standing by committing such a noticeable crime.

I was also careful to twist the tale of what happened at the park before JoJo’s father and the police officers taking notes for their reports, making sure to add in that he had ‘mentioned’ his name while preparing to murder the young woman I was just helping ‘with some water’.

Hannah behaved shyly when the officers started to question her too, but surprisingly enough she ended up confirming the version I had decided to use to describe the ordeal.

It had been a very abridged story which lacked any of the details that were best to be left out from anyone but just myself… and the other witnesses of the predicament itself.

I was surprised when the brunette had refused to give out any of the bizarre abilities I had used before her eyes, seemingly adamant in getting herself out of this situation the quickest possible while also… giving some brief praises about my intervention.

I was slightly initially stomped by her sweet tone as she continued with her use of some positive adjectives to tell how ‘kind and gentle’ I had been while making sure that she was well-cared by with the injury she had now cleaned, yet I was slowly realized why she seemed this much giddy about giving such a depiction of the narration.

I was fairly sure that it was actually something related to the chivalrous idea of a ‘knight in shining armor coming to save any maiden in distress’ that JoJo was so keen to naively consider the true embodiment of being a gentleman, but her concept was twisted and adapted in a more romantic and desperate manner because of her current state of life.

She was a young prostitute of London that lived in the late years of the Victorian Age, her chances of having a family, of having her own romantic pursues away from the painful life she is forced to deal as of now.

It was a pitiful display of what Great Britain once was and I couldn’t help but feel sorry for her current lifestyle.

But ‘feeling sorry’ wasn’t enough to get me to try and face what was meant to be a losing fight against the sturdy concepts of this society.

Offering her help after this? It would be superfluous if not dangerous for my current standing.

George was chivalrous but he wouldn’t accept even thinking of hiring the young woman as a maid, the scandal that would explode by such endeavor an easy threat to the Joestars’ reputation as good nobles.

It would end up badly for me if I decided to press on the subject, thus I merely let things resolve in the dreadfulness of neutrality, only to wonder if I could have actually done something more for the now safe lady.

I didn’t have the position, the role, to command such a merciful attempt and I didn’t even try to put any effort in that senseless battle.

Instead, my mind drifted back to Jack as the carriage started to make his way back home that very day, with Hannah having gone on her own way back to wherever she had been living, maybe to recover and skip any unpleasant session after this ordeal.

It didn’t matter to me in that very instance, my brain bringing up the main issue of that encounter I had with Jack… or rather the lucky development that saw me victorious.

Citing Dio’s own quotes from the future had been a hazardous gamble that could have easily failed if the enemy himself could have spotted the nervousness hiding behind my face.

The Spin had failed me as, in a moment of need, I had been overtaken by the horrible hold of fear and despair, ruining my practical chances of winning any eventual fights from that very point.

Once we were back to the manor, I found myself graced with some unexpected mercy in the form of a brief speech George had decided to give me right as we vaulted the main gates.

“Dio, tomorrow I think you will be better skipping the usual tutoring lessons,” The nobleman said with a careful tone. “From my understanding, it would be best for you to get some proper rest after that close encounter with such a dreadful mongrel.”

I blinked, surprise painted in my orange-colored eyes. “I- It’s not an issue for me to-”

“I insist,” The old Joestar interjected firmly. “That was an ordeal someone of your age shouldn’t have been neither a witness, nor an active part of.”

In the end I merely accepted the orders, finding them to be just what I wanted to have with what I had planned to do in the next few days.

Jonathan was irritated at first, huffing at the fact that I was allowed to skip the homework, but stopping himself from actually protesting the legitimate offer as he was aware that what had happened had gone well-beyond the chances of normality.

It put him in a surprisingly weird mood as, once we were permitted to return our rooms, he asked if he could come inside to talk about some topics about the day.

During the narration I had provided to the police officers, the young Joestar had been fairly quiet and merely glancing between me and Hannah while the young woman was waiting for her turn for the questioning.

His interrogation proceeded in a mix of pestering and childish curiosity taking over the topics brought up with the questions he would blurt out carefully and patiently.

“B-But why would you want to skip some simple boxing?”

“Other than the fact that I’m fairly slim and easy to pick up?” I asked sarcastically, but sadly the undertone failed to register in the young man’s mind, causing me to sigh. “I guess I just didn’t find myself interested in trying to punch people around for no major purpose.”

“It’s not just ‘punching people’,” He huffed with an annoyed voice. “It’s about proving that you can actually fight to defend those that you care about, family.”

Something I don’t have. I don’t have neither friends nor a family to believe myself into.

I didn’t have any precious people… except the elevated figure of ambition raised from the unfortunate passing of a kind mother treated unfairly by this hideous era.

Dario Brando might have been the direct cause of the death of Dio’s mother, but it was a large number of things that caused the poor woman to ultimately find her demise in such a saddening manner.

It was only me now, even as a mere self-insert that didn’t know anything about the truest essence of Dio’s plight.

I was alone in this unknown loneliness.

“I suppose that some might see it as a mean to exert determination in those you love, but I find it just to be a mere punching session,” I replied with a flat tone, unwilling to expose the mind of someone still so young to the depravity that was my cynical perspective of the world as a whole. “Still, I think I will still pass trying it.”

He shrugged. “You are free to be interested or not to activities,” JoJo admitted quietly. “But are you sure you don’t wish to at least train in case… that situation happen again?”

Hmm? Was that concern I was feeling coming from his throat? Was that worry dripping from his words while he contemplated the repetition of such an absurd circumstance.

I don’t think Jack will bother hanging around the park now that the police had reason to patrol the place even during the day, but the boy’s advice wasn’t one that lacked any true foundation.

If I hadn’t managed to find a mean to gain Hamon training, my Plan B would have surely been training up my body enough to gain full confidence and control of a stronger self of me.

But since I had the Ripple now to study and expand from, I decided to pass for now about developing my muscles.

Maybe it will be integrated with my current training regime as I knew that stronger lungs could benefit me in the long-run if I planned to make continuous use of Hamon in any future fights.

It was a strong possibility, thus I merely ignored the offer of training from the possibly less-experienced young man and found myself dealing with another topic, this time the subject itself getting a light blush out of me while the boy asked it so innocently and blissfully unaware.

“A-Also, can you tell me more about that lady, Ms. Hannah?” He inquired with a little stutter, confused himself over some of the things he had seen with the young woman. “Dad said that I shouldn’t be asking but… why was she wearing something so revealing?”

I almost snorted at the query, feeling some amusement rising from such a pure and non-corrupted perception of thing.

I could say so much about the matter, possibly getting Jonathan overly-teased over what sex was and why it was connected to the young woman, but I merely settled to something far tamer and easy to explain without having to deal with a furious George over the ‘corruption’ of his first-born.

“Hannah’s work entail something about intimacy and… quite the sinful kind of stuff,” I carefully began to explain, gaining his rapt attention. “Nothing truly horrible- but it’s considered by society as something fairly deplorable to commit with her own body. Said work requires her to wear revealing clothes-”

“But what kind of job would need women dressed like that? Is it something like a maid or-”

“No,” I interjected flatly before the mountain of questions could fall on me. He was curious over an incredibly delicate topic and I couldn’t certainly let him get any wrong idea by suggesting anything easy to misunderstand over the predicament. “Her work can be considered quite the detestable one for a woman, the practice committed with it being fairly unpleasant and sometime unfair.”

“But if it’s that bad, then why couldn’t Dad just offer her work as a servant-”

“Because your father would lose face by doing such thing,” I interrupted again while forcing a calm voice out, feeling fairly irritating by the constant interventions. “Her work would sully the reputation of the family if she was ever hired to work as a maid, your standing with other children would crumble dramatically.”

“Why?” He finally asked once I was done with this answer. “Why would father just ignore a woman in need? Why would he-”

“JoJo, do you know how many other women are working the same job as Hannah?” I asked curtly, eyeing him with a serious glint, causing him to shuffle a little nervously at my stare.

“There are numerous women doing this kind of stuff, humiliating tasks for the sake of surviving in a city that is praised to be the beacon of prosperity and modernity,” I continued as I accepted the silence as a ‘no’. “The world is filled with good and nice things, but also some unpleasant truths that you best not learn about.”

He blinked, confused about the allusion I had thrown at him without any connection to the subject.

“B-But you are as young as I am, why wouldn’t I be wanting to know about-”

“You are given a choice here, JoJo,” I jumped in with a tight tone. “You are allowed to decide to keep your childhood happy for a few more years or be cursed already with a glimpse of what adults are forced to look at every day.”

I glanced away from him, feeling oddly unnerved by this line of thought.

“I wasn’t given one, I was never offered the chance of having a pleasant life before being taken in as a ward of the Joestar Family,” I concluded with a sigh. “So when you ask me why I know more things about you, you should first think about how can I, a mere poor orphan, have learned about what is going on in the world so early in my life.”

There was silence, I accepted it without pursuing any other topics and… JoJo decided to conclude the interrogation there, walking by the half-open door and stopping a step before leaving the room.

“I’m sorry for… being this-”

“I know you mean well,” I interjected blankly. “But I would like to be left alone for today. I just… need some time to think.”

He merely nodded, the saddened expression that highlighted his perspective over the matter, about the fact that he had been responsible for this sour conclusion, gave me quite the unpleasant sensation to the core.

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It was annoying, irritating even and… I realized almost too quickly what it was all about.

The anger, the bubbling fury that stemmed from such behavior…

Was this what Dio thought every single time Jonathan would try to emphasize with him?

The sense of being ‘understood’ by someone that barely left his family manor, perfectly unaware of the troubled life many others were suffering through each day of their lives.

I closed my eyes just for a moment as the door closed, letting my breathing reign as the sole sound of the room and… I blinked awake and away from that inner turmoil.

Accepting this backtracking? Now that things were picking up a dreadful pace?

Despite my irritation at the discussion that had just finished so bitterly, I managed to focus my attention right onto the tome I had managed to smuggle inside my room.

The book that Muddiburi had given to me, a mean to begin my official training as a Hamon User.

I lied on my bed, eyelids half-dropped as I read silently and carefully all the words and the descriptions given by such an enlightening text.

It was so well-detailed, a practical diary that explained in quite the accurate way how Hamon originates within the lungs, how the energy was born from a mix of emotions, willpower and pure physical submission to the user’s mind.

It was an intriguing read for sure, one that I proceeded to continue even later that night after dinner.

The event itself was fairly forgettable as silence had domineered while I enjoyed some delicious steak, my attention being barely taken by the way Jonathan had managed to avoid making any major conversation during this time, his eyes fixed on his plate as he slowly and regally ate his share of food.

It was an odd sight for sure, quite the curious development that confirmed the possibility that my words did leave some doubts within the ‘dreamy boy’ and his idea of proper life.

Something that would surely give me issues in the distant future, but for that moment I merely enjoyed the food given to me before resuming my entertaining study of the Ripple, my mind already preparing for the following day.

Hamon was at reach, the concept of the proper breathing degree now well-ingrained in my mind and…

Maybe it was high time for I, Dio, to go for a solo swim in that lovely, but unfairly cold river.

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With both father and son busying themselves with the usual hours of tutoring by the grand study room in the second floor, I was perfectly free from proceeding with my plans for the day.

Leaving the mansion by its main doors, I started to make my way right towards the section of the river nearby that JoJo had shown me a few days earlier, my giddiness almost bubbling up onto my expression as I found no obstacle to such commitment.

I knew that Danny was sleeping at these hours of the day, providing me with just enough time to wander right where I needed to be to begin the training session I had planned to do here… in this body of water.

I had brought my full-body swimsuit, quickly switching to it after I had given the usual thorough look around the general area as to see if I could catch anyone preparing to spy on me.

The unpleasant thought of someone peeping on me, maybe for some malicious intents other than merely spying, was more than enough to drill this habit right onto my day ever since I started to consider the chances of having an intruder in the swimming sessions I had with JoJo.

After making sure the coast was clear, I decided to hide my normal clothes by some bushes, away from any visitors’ sight and reach.

Bullies were still a thing around the distinct region and I was fairly unwilling to be subjected to some mockery of annoyance.

I needed some time alone to achieve such an important and essential training session, enough to gain some control over the most important bit of Hamon.

While the Spin was easy to achieve and use in its base form, the Ripple was much more versatile in close-fighting and offered to its users the chance of expand their vitality and lifespan if practiced continuously and religiously.

It was an ability that was best compared to the manipulation of energy close to the one coming from the sun, the prime enemy of supernatural monsters like vampires, zombies and Pillar Men.

Given proper creativity, time and effort, such a power can also grant its user the opportunity to conceive skills that could easily defy the normal limits of mere humans.

And this is why, instead of whining around once again at how horribly cold the water was, I let myself float up in that quiet river, keeping my body close to the land in fear of getting dragged along the flow.

It was a strange experience, far different from the usual relaxing floating I used to do while I was younger.

There was purpose in that peace, there was a reason in that simple activity.

My breathing was soft, quiet and somehow well-timed despite my lack of major attention to it, my mind channeling a sense of sound deprivation, the lack of sight and… the true nature of peace.

The deafening silent persisted for a couple of quiet minutes, my mind drowning in that sweet moment of nothingness.

Soon, I found myself growing attuned with my body, my mind connecting in a way deeper than before to it as I started to get prepared for the next step.

“Kooooohhh.”

It was a simple noise, yet the meaning behind it was more than just a single release.

I was slowly releasing the breath I had gained from the previous intake of air, I was letting out my emotional drive and… I was fueling my willpower in this word.

I thought of my ambitions, of my dreams, of those that I had left behind, of those that Dio had lost, of those that were going to be lost without my intervention and…

My mind burned at the thought of a young woman, crouching in front of me as to meet my eyes with her kind orbs. She was donning such a kind smile, such a tired smile and… an amount of love that defied anything I was aware of.

“My child, my little conqueror,” She said with a happiness in her tone. “Please… become something great. Someone that will never fear the darkness, that will never be bent by death itself.”

She paused, her eyes shining as some tears had began forming at the edge of those.

“Go forth and… conquer the world if you can.”

My mind broke free from that memory, my eyes already crying as I felt my entire core burning so fiercely and rightfully.

It was like I was coaxed in fire, but instead of pain, I was met with a clarity of self, of mind and body.

It wasn’t a visible effect at first, I felt this very warmth warmth coming right from my chest as it fluidly spread all thorough my limbs and…

The water started to cackle, to bubble, as something similar to electric sparks rose from my skin and coating the rest of my body.

Soon some fishes started to happily jump out of the water before diving back to it, like some dolphins and… I could feel their energy synching with mine.

I blinked, my orange eyes going wide open as I realized that this reaction wasn’t meant to be the correct one.

It was too strong- even Zeppeli had affirmed that Jonathan’s own potential was considered a rarity for sure and… it had been just a tree branch blossoming small flowers all over it.

This… this couldn’t just be it.

That means that Dio had the potential to surpass Jonathan if he had studied Hamon instead of becoming a vampire, he would have achieved victory in Phantom Blood instead off reject his humanity!

My breathing grew irregular, disrupting the ripple’s effect that I was creating unconsciously.

The water grew calm to how it was before I started this attempt, yet my body continued to feel pleasantly warmth.

It felt like I had unlocked something deep within me, as if I had tapped into the most secret but fiercest part of me.

I struggled a little to move away from the river, my body oddly drained but not even winded by the experience and it was just as I reached the shore that I heard something unexpected.

The noise of a twig or a branch cracking under pressure and something like-

“N-No!”

My sight turned swiftly to track down the origin of the distinctly feminine voice, my orange eyes noticing right on time as a certain blonde-haired girl falling down from a broken tree branch and right into some bushes.

Oh. That is-

That would explain a lot, I guess.

It wasn’t anyone malicious that had actively spied upon the swimming sessions, but someone that had decided to keep herself away from dealing with two boys at once.

Erina Pendleton was still a shy girl with a sweet personality and a far more reserved attitude compared to Jonathan.

Since JoJo had helped her face some bullies by episode 1 of the series, I suppose she had been trying to find the proper moment to approach him and apologize for the quick retreat she had gone with instead of thanking him for his help.

My presence, which brought up the amount of males up to twice as she was initially planned, the blonde had to have waited for the right time where I wasn’t around to ‘stop her from thanking the Joestar’.

I carefully approached where the girl had fallen but my pace increased as I heard her groan and yelp in minor pain while she was holding her left leg close.

Face scrunched in suffering and her eyes half-closed at the sharp sensation coming from her lower limb, Erina seemed to just tense as I finally got close enough to her to crouch down and see what was wrong with her.

The fall had to have left some damage, I was certain of it considering the height she had fallen from, but I still decided to ease her worries with some assurances.

“I’m not angry,” I said with a calm voice. “Did you get hurt?”

She didn’t answer at first, either embarrassed at the fact she had been caught doing something as indecent as peeping on me or that a young man was talking to her.

“I understand you are confused and scared, but I wish to help you and I can’t do anything if you keep quiet.”

My voice seemed to bring her to relax a little, her cyan eyes still wide open but seemingly regaining some focus on the predicament she was currently facing.

“T-The leg,” She spoke curtly and nervously. “I-It hurts.”

I nodded, carefully reaching for the limb she had been grasping at until now. “What’s your name?”

My question surprised her but, differently from Hannah, she didn’t seem eager to answer that question.

It would make things complicated if I have to address her differently than what her name was, especially since I was aware of it when technically I shouldn’t be.

I sighed and nodded tiredly. “My name is Dio.”

There was a pause, a quiet and slightly-annoying one at that, but finally the girl spoke again.

“E-Erina. Erina Pendleton.”

“Erina is a nice name,” I commented curtly as I slowly started to lift her skirt a little, just enough to see the extent of the injury and I felt relief entering my chest as I noticed that it was just some little cuts over exposed skin. Shallow cuts that were surely created by something thorny right where she had fallen by. “Can you tell me what is your favorite color?”

Erina blinked, once again surprised by the sudden query, but this time her answer didn’t need any push and, while she was distracted with this, I started to use a little piece of her skirt that had been cut up by the fall to clean her little wound.

“I- I think it’s… blue?”

“Is that a question or an answer, Erina?” I politely pressed on, her eyes narrowing at the pressure.

“I-It’s blue,” The girl replied with more sureness, drawing a little smile out of me.

“That’s good to know,” I hummed positively, my orange eyes still staring at the issue instead of taking serious part to the simple conversation I had began as a distraction. “Mine’s Burgundy.”

The blonde blinked. “T-That’s not a color.”

“It’s a dark shade of red. It is also known as a Bordeaux,” I replied back. “It represented royalty and other kind of noble houses in France.”

Her eyes showed some understanding behind the explanation, but then she hummed.

“But we are in England.”

“Indeed, we are and...” I nodded pulling my hands away from her now-clean leg, I decided to leave the wet cloth onto there, latching it carefully and praying it wouldn’t fall as she retreated back home. “Your injury has been cleaned properly.”

Surprise surged in her face. “W-What?”

Her attention snapped right at her leg and she moved her skirt to reveal the now bloodless spot.

“Oh- You- You tricked me?”

“Only to avoid to give you some more pain,” I admitted with a sigh. “When people focus on a wound, they tend to get more sensible when someone is tending to it.”

“But- You- I-” She paused just for a moment, then the blonde huffed. “You are a mean man.”

“I suppose not all the boys can be ‘gentlemen’ like Jonathan,” I shot back, getting an embarrassed blush resurfacing on her face.

“T-That’s not why-”

“You want to apologize to him for running away from him instead of thanking him when he helped you with the bullies,” I interjected with a small smile. “He told me that he had been trying to find you since that day. He thought he scared you by being too much direct-”

“He- He didn’t,” Erina blurted nervously, pausing just a moment to realize what she had just said and… then the girl continued. “So he thinks that… he did something bad to me?”

“It’s possible, but I guess I can tell him that this isn’t the case and-”

“N-No, I- I have to tell him myself,” She pressed on before I could finish my sentence, her lovely cyan orbs steeling up in determination. “He was kind to me and… I should be the one to personally apologize.”

I blinked at that odd instance of stubborn crushing. I knew how things were supposed to go from there, but I was certainly unsure how to pick around without ruining the pairing.

And ruining the JoJoxErina ship was bad. Like really bad, something not even the worst of villains would try to break apart.

I ultimately gave her a nod. “I suppose that is a legitimate request… and I might have a solution to help you out.”

She tensed up a little, but seemed still interested on the matter as her eyes lit up at the chance of having an opportunity to speak with her ‘savior’.

I started to explain to her my little plan, getting some uneasy comments over the general line of execution but… I knew exactly how to have her visit the manor without JoJo suspecting anything strange about it.

It was genial, it was optimal and… it lessened the chances of Jonathan becoming an enemy in the near future.

With him focusing in developing a bond with Erina much earlier, given some time and effort, he wouldn’t have a reason to interest himself on the Stone Mask, he wouldn’t try to study Archeology and try to settle for something a little more quick to allow him some income to stay here and… he wouldn’t have a reason to pester me around with unneeded questions.

With the young girl making her slow return back home alone but with resolution over the chances of meeting the young Joestar, I proceeded to make my own return to the mansion after changing my clothes, my mind burning actively in the effort of combining two successes in a single sentence.

I, Dio, managed to unlock my rightful potential… and now I shall make sure to unite two future loverbirds early on in the series. For those two were… a match Made in Heaven!

-To be continued…