You call this a projection?

”Hey, Old Man. What are you doing?”

Jotaro Kujo watched Joseph’s actions. He couldn’t understand what Joseph was up to, and at the moment, Joseph wasn’t in much of a mood to explain his Stand ability to him.

However, some things were obvious enough for Jotaro to grasp. For instance, the purple vines wrapped around Joseph’s palm were likely his Stand. And whenever Joseph used that vine-wrapped palm to smash a 30,000-yen camera, a photograph of a figure he had never seen before would spit out from the wreckage.

Presumably, that was Joseph’s Stand ability.

Combining this with Joseph’s previous behavior, Jotaro—who had only recently accepted the existence of things like ”prophecy” in this world—naturally guessed that Joseph could use a similar method to prophesy DIO’s location.

But right now... Jotaro felt more like Joseph was just here to demolish the house.

His Stand flickered into existence behind him. Gathering all the photos Joseph had discarded into his hands, Jotaro looked at the nearly identical images while pointing at the shirtless blond man.

”Is this DIO? The vampire who stole my great-great-grandfather’s body?”

”Ah? It’s just you, Jotaro.” Joseph glanced at the photo in Jotaro’s hand and turned back to resume smashing cameras. ”Yes, that’s DIO. Have you ever closely observed the back of your own neck?

Whether it’s me, your mother, or my father, there is a star-shaped birthmark where our neck meets our back. I imagine you have one too, Jotaro. In a way, it’s the Joestar family’s ancestral birthmark.”

Wait a minute!

If what Joseph said was true, then the person in this photo... that person’s neck also possessed a star-shaped birthmark identical to theirs?!

Through the shared vision of his Stand, Jotaro quickly located the star-shaped birthmark on the back of his own neck. He finally understood why both Shirou Emiya and Joseph were so certain that DIO had occupied the body of their Joestar ancestor and triggered their Stand awakenings.

Furthermore...

”A star-shaped birthmark...” As if remembering something, Jotaro looked at the photos and said, ”The stardust crossing the sky will shatter the world... is that what it meant?”

Yes, Jotaro recalled the prophecy Shirou Emiya had spoken back in the detention cell. Of all Shirou’s predictions, that sentence had sounded the most cryptic.

But after hearing Joseph’s explanation, Jotaro understood the meaning of the prophecy.

Stardust—refers to those of them who possess the star-shaped birthmark.

World—refers to the myth of God creating the world, and DIO, whose name means ”God” in Italian.

Stripped of all the mystical phrasing, the prophecy simply summarized that they would defeat DIO. It was actually quite straightforward.

”If that’s how you understand it, Jotaro, that works too.”

Just as Jotaro was thinking this, Shirou Emiya—having finished discussing with Avdol how the abilities of [Magician’s Red] could be further developed—entered the room.

”DIO’s Stand is [The World], representing the Tarot card of the same name. And Jotaro, your Stand...”

—Trace on!

Instead of projecting a Stand, Shirou simply projected the Tarot cards Avdol had lent him, along with the skills belonging to a diviner. He shuffled the deck in front of Jotaro.

After gesturing for Jotaro to draw a card at random, Shirou didn’t even need to look at which card was in Jotaro’s hand before speaking:

”The Star card. [Star Platinum], representing the Star Tarot card. Or rather, your [Star Platinum] and DIO’s [The World] are the same type of Stand.

Therefore, if anyone can crack DIO’s invincible Stand ability, it is likely only you, Jotaro.”

This was something even Shirou Emiya, with his Projection Magecraft from another world, could not achieve. It wasn’t that he couldn’t project [Star Platinum].

Rather, after becoming a Stand user via Projection, Shirou—who could finally see Stands and tried to project [Star Platinum]—discovered he couldn’t use it.

Based on his knowledge of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure from his past life, even if someone else obtained [Star Platinum] from Jotaro through other means, the Stand would go on a rampage because they lacked Jotaro’s immense mental strength.

Thus, under the constraints of Projection Magecraft, if Shirou wanted to use a projected [Fake Star Platinum], his mental power would have to reach a height nearly identical to Jotaro’s. Otherwise, the consequence of forcing the use of this [Fake Star Platinum] would be the Projection breaking and self-destructing due to its flaws.

However, for Jotaro, he was more focused on something else.

”Oh? From the sound of it, Emiya, you seem to know DIO’s Stand ability?”

”I do indeed know it,” Shirou nodded. ”Not just DIO, but I know a thing or two about the Stand abilities of most of DIO’s subordinates as well.”

Excellent.

Hearing the words he wanted, Jotaro showed his hand. ”Then Emiya, do you know DIO’s current location?”

”...”

At that moment, not only did Jotaro look at Shirou, but even Joseph—who was still struggling with the cameras on the table—stopped his movements and tilted his ear toward Shirou.

He heard Shirou admit directly: ”Yes, I know.”