Chapter 33 Rolling Stones
A few minutes later.
The taxi crashed on the roadside, the blood spilled all over the sidewalk, the bloodied body, the passers-by watching and talking, the vehicles blocking the way...
The streets became more lively.
A young man with purple hair and a stylish outfit walked slowly to the side of the taxi, and then he pulled up a passerby and asked:
"that…"
The purple-haired young man asked in a complicated tone: "Excuse me, is there anyone dead here?"
"Is that even necessary?"
"The body is just there!"
The passerby subconsciously glanced at the purple-haired young man, then said excitedly:
"Listen to me..."
"I saw everything that just happened!"
"God, I bet people who haven't seen this would think I'm talking nonsense."
His face was as red as a ripe apple, and his eyebrows twitched with excitement:
"Although I could see clearly through the car window, the one who did it was a young man with pink hair."
"He grabbed the poor driver's head like he was carrying a half-dead woodchuck."
"Then he just smashed my head down... I don't know what he smashed it with..."
"With just one move, blood started pouring out like a tap."
"Half of the nose was crooked, the eye sockets were cracked, and the eyeballs were popping out, like the fruit salad my grandmother made, with red, white, and purple all mixed together and indistinguishable."
"But the lunatic hasn't stopped yet..."
"The driver's head was half-smudged like a broken bottle of ketchup, and he got out of the car in a panic and ran away... Yes, this lunatic is still on the run."
“This is really terrible…”
The passerby described the situation vividly, but the purple-haired young man who came forward to ask questions had no intention of listening.
He interrupted helplessly:
"Sorry, that's not what I wanted to ask."
"What I want to know is if anyone has died - the kind of silent, natural death that one gets."
"ah?"
The passerby was slightly stunned: "How could someone suddenly die silently on the street?"
"Even if it was sudden death, he would still struggle hard, right?"
"oh…"
"I see. Thank you."
The purple-haired young man said goodbye perfunctorily to the talkative passerby, then turned around and walked away alone.
He seemed to hear what he wanted to hear, but also seemed not to.
"No one dies quietly, that is..."
"Does the target chosen by the Rolling Stones refuse to face his own fate?"
The purple-haired young man talked to himself as he walked, his expression becoming increasingly complicated.
And just as he passed by an alley intersection...
In the narrow and dim alley barely separated by two buildings, a strong and powerful arm with muscular body and covered with strange red and white patterns suddenly stretched out.
“Is this a human hand?”
The purple-haired young man widened his eyes in astonishment.
He didn't even have time to react before the mysterious guy easily dragged him into the alley and pinned him against the wall.
“Don’t look back.”
Diablo's voice sounded coldly.
He carefully looked at the purple-haired young man whose head was almost pressed into the wall by the Scarlet King, and after a moment of silence, he asked:
"You are the Stand user who attacked me just now, right?"
"That stone..."
"It can only act mechanically according to instinct. Obviously, it is a 'remotely controlled' stand-in."
"This kind of Stand can act autonomously without the control of the main body, and even if it is damaged, it will not affect the Stand user as the main body."
"It is indeed troublesome to find the real body of this substitute, but..."
Diablo snorted disdainfully:
"Because it is independent of the main body, the Stand user has no way of knowing what happened to the Stand or whether the battle was won or lost."
"That way, even if they can stay in the dark during the fight..."
"When the battle is over, they must rush to the scene to confirm the results."
"so…"
He curled his lips slightly:
"After completely destroying your Stand, I have been hiding nearby and waiting."
"Sure enough, you, a fool, couldn't wait and came to the scene to confirm the results of the battle."
After hearing Diablo's oppressive commentary...
The purple-haired young man's reaction was:
"substitute?"
"What is a stand-in?"
"you?!"
Diablo's eyes suddenly widened:
"How dare you pretend with me?"
"Idiot... Are you underestimating my ability to see? Do you think that if you just fool me, I will believe that the stone is not your substitute?"
"Tell me now!"
"Who are you? Why are you attacking me? Are you related to that bald guy named Li Qing?!"
"So, I understand."
The purple-haired young man sighed deeply.
He did not rush to argue for himself, but instead calmly introduced himself:
"My name is Scribbly, and I'm just an ordinary sculptor."
"I don't know that bald guy named Li Qing, and I definitely don't have any intention of attacking you."
"after all…"
Scribe, who was pinned to the wall and unable to move, said:
"I have no idea who you are. I haven't even seen your face yet."
"As for the stone you mentioned..."
"I don't know what you mean by 'stand'. If you mean the stone, it is a special ability I have awakened since I was a child."
“I call them: The Rolling Stones”
"The Rolling Stones?"
Diablo frowned tightly: "After all, this is still a substitute you released!"
“No, no, no…”
Scribe hurriedly denied:
"Michelangelo, who shone during the Renaissance, once said this."
"I didn't have any idea in my mind when I was carving marble. I never thought about what shape I wanted to carve the stone into... because the stone itself already showed the shape of how it should be carved, and all I did was to take that shape out of the stone..."
“…”
Diablo was silent for a while, then ordered the Crimson King to grab the opponent's neck from behind:
"Speak human language!"
“Ahem…”
Scribe was pinched and started coughing:
"I mean..."
"I can't tell [the Stones] to act. They act entirely on their own accord."
"It's the Stone of Destiny!"
"It senses the fate of the dying person, and carves itself into the 'shape of the dying person 's fate' - that is, the way he dies."
"At the same time, it will continue to track the dying person."
"Once the dying person...that is, you...touches [the Rolling Stones], [the Rolling Stones] can make you accept your own mortality in advance and die peacefully without any pain."
"And the reason I came here is not to check the results of the battle."
He hesitated for a moment, and there was a hint of pity in his tone:
"I just sensed what [the Stones] were doing, so I came to see the poor guy who was about to die."
“…”
Diablo fell silent again.
This time, what was brewing in the silence was endless anger:
"Asshole!"
"You ignorant fellow, you just said..."
"I, the invincible Diablo, the dark emperor who controls all of Italy, am about to die?!"
"That's right."
Sklibi's voice was very calm:
"Since [the Rolling Stones] have come looking for you, it means you will die soon."
"This is fate!"
"All of us are just slaves of fate."
"You should have seen it, right?"
"When it comes to you, it will carve itself into the image of your death—"
"It could be a few hours, a few weeks, or no longer than a month. Then you will die in the manner shown on the stone sculpture."
“Nonsense!!”
Diablo roared in anger :
"Is the fate already determined?"
"A carved death?"
"I have completely destroyed your useless stone substitute!"
"It didn't carve out anything at all. I smashed it into powder and it floated away in the air!"
"Where is the carving?"
"There is no such thing as destiny!"
"this…"
Hearing Diavolo's somewhat inappropriate roar, Scribe's face suddenly changed:
"You, you just said..."
"After [Rolling Stone] came to you, it was shattered into powder without carving anything?"
“That’s right!”
Diablo said bitterly:
"If you want to disturb people's minds, you have to make up some decent lies for me."
"What kind of future death...what kind of predetermined fate..."
"I don't believe it!"
Facing Diavolo's faintly crazy roar, Scribe's tone actually showed a bit of pity:
"Feel sorry."
"I've never seen this kind of situation before."
"but…"
"Since [The Rolling Stones] have come looking for you, it means that you will definitely die in the near future."
"And it was completely destroyed without carving out your death. That's probably because..."
Scribe swallowed and said:
"The way you died is so tragic that it cannot be expressed by the art of carving."
※※※
PS: Stand-in panel
Alternate name: [Rolling Stone]
The main body - Scribe
Destructive power: None
Speed: B
Range: A
Sustainability: A
Movement precision: E
Growth: None
Ability: It looks like a stone with the word "凶" engraved on it. The stone will automatically change into the appearance of a dying person and keep tracking that person. When that person touches the Stand, he will die without any pain. If it is not touched by a dying person, nothing will happen. It is classified as a fully automatic Stand, but it is "fate" that drives the Stand's activities, which even Scribe cannot control.
