The Ludicrous Escapade Pt.4

Reruns

You clasped your hands together. "Congrats. You figured it out." Again, you hadn't really been trying to hide it this time around, but whatever. "Is there something in particular you wanted to ask me? I'm afraid I don't really know much about your great grandfather, if it's anything like that. We may have been in the same race, but we didn't exactly talk all that much."

Norisuke leaned on his desk, rubbing the bridge of his nose with one hand. He hadn't expected you to admit it so easily. And while he had suspected you and the (Y/N) from the Steel Ball Run were the same, the whole situation was still very strange. "Well... I have a lot of questions. But first... how? How are you alive?"

You took a seat in the plush chair positioned in front of his desk. You had a feeling this whole discussion might take a bit of time. "I'm basically immortal. It was caused by a vampire named Dio."

"Dio? As in Diego? He was a vampire?" The fact that vampires could even exist was a whole other problem in and of itself.

"No... A different Dio." You closed your eyes for a moment and furrowed your brow, wondering if you should further explain. "I'm... from another universe. I got sent to this one around the time the Steel Ball Run started. Diego is this universe's equivalent of the Dio I knew. Just more dinosaur than vampire."

"Dinosaur?" This was still a lot for him to take in but... he had more pressing questions to ask. Norisuke pulled out another book, this one much more worn down. "My great grandfather kept a journal. It had mentioned in one of these pages that his daughter, Rina, was struck ill with the rock disease that runs in our family. However, it seems she was eventually cured, thought there aren't many details given. Would you happen to know more about how this happened? Or... maybe you even know a safe way to cure it yourself?"

"Oh." You knew what he was getting at now. It was unfortunate that the disease was still prevalent in their family. "I had nothing to do with it. I don't have any healing ability like that. Johnny used the equivalent exchange ability of Jesus's dead body to transfer it elsewhere. It ended up being given to his son so he managed to inflict it on himself instead before his head was crushed by a rock."

Norisuke was learning a lot of new things today. He wasn't sure if he fully comprehended it all. Still, he did get the gist of it. "So it wasn't removed it was just given elsewhere? That's... about as much we've been able to do as well." He tensed his jaw, reminded of the moment his mother had taken his place.

"Is there nobody else here?!" Josuke's panicked voice rang out from the living room.

Your turned in the direction of his voice, wondering what the problem was.

Norisuke put a hand on your shoulder, urging you to remain seated. "Right now he's our only lead." He set aside the books that had been in his hands. "Yoshikage Kira was also looking for a way to cure the rock disease. Knowing Daiya, she'll make it easy to get those memories from him. Don't interfere."

"You realize Yoshikage is dead, right? Josuke is someone else." You felt your phone buzz in your pocket and took it out to see what it was about.

The results of the DNA test were ready. To your surprise, it claimed that Yoshikage and Josuke were the same person. Did Josuke just so happened to be a Kira from yet another universe? You quickly brushed the thought aside. With their bodies having been so close, they surely would have destroyed each other if it were the case. Plus, it wasn't like universe equivalents were guaranteed to be genetically the same.

"What is it?" Asked Norisuke. For someone who didn't appear to be all that expressive, the shock on your face was especially apparent.

"Er... don't worry about it." You stood up as you received a text message from Yasuho who was even more confused than you were. She had just gotten the results herself. "Listen, Norisuke, you're welcome to try and recover Yoshikage's memories or whatever. I don't intend to interfere with that at the moment." You stopped in front of the door. "But... I suppose I could help you search for some kind of cure for the rock disease." You mumbled the next part under your breath as you started down the stairs. "It's not like I have anything better to do."