In a high-end facility sowhere in the JoJo fan world —
"What?! All of them dead — how is that possible?!"
Funny Valentine's composure, usually impeccable, cracked clean open.
He knew exactly how many Stand users had gone in. Thirty-three. The elite of each nation's Stand user corps — the best of the best, hand-selected. Stands with rare abilities. Stands with genuine utility.
All of them gone. Every single one. Not one survivor. Not one escapee.
He stared at the report in his hands.
Even Jotaro Kujo. Even Star Platinum, the supposedly strongest Stand in existence — thrown against that many Stand users simultaneously, it would be torn apart. That was the rational expectation.
And yet.
He drew a slow breath.
Not every nation cultivated Stand users. Not all of those who did had qualified personnel for this operation. The ones who had gone in were genuinely formidable — and if he himself had been in that range without bodyguards, against that many, he would have died.
He knew that.
"Plan A failed at the start. Plan B failed halfway through." He let his voice settle into sothing flat. "Which leaves the one plan I rejected."
His competitor's plan. Too crude. Too direct. He'd dismissed it as beneath consideration.
Now he was going to implent it.
He couldn't explain, rationally, why he felt such urgency. So part of him — below conscious thought — kept insisting the window was closing, that the other world had to be taken, now, before sothing changed. He didn't know where the feeling ca from.
He didn't know that a newborn planetary consciousness had been slowly rewriting the instincts of every ambitious person in his world, one quiet nudge at a ti.
"Connect to him. Tell him I'm accepting his proposal. Reach out to the other three as well — if there's no veto, we move forward."
Several minutes passed. The large screen in front of him divided into four.
Four faces. None of them beneath him in standing.
One of them — a middle-aged man with an easy smile and a voice that carried a faint magnetic quality — spoke first.
"I knew you'd co around eventually. It's only a setback. Don't let it get to you." A brief pause. "My people are already mobilizing. How are the rest of you looking?"
Valentine's jaw tightened slightly. He'd initiated the call, but the other man had taken the floor.
The middle-aged man continued: "I only ask that we not spend this operation fighting each other. You all understand the scale of what a full world's resources represents. But whatever's over there controls sothing dangerous." He leaned forward slightly. "To take that world, we have to break that power. And to break it, we need the most extre option available. We find out whose fist is harder — ours, or theirs."
Valentine: "And after we win?"
The man blinked, then smiled. "Whoever contributes the most nuclear capability gets the largest territorial claim. The smaller nations divide what's left."
Objections ca from two of the other screens.
One dismissed them: "Is it too early to be discussing this? We haven't beaten anyone yet."
Another: "True. We don't even know what their combat strength actually is."
A third: "Does it matter? Are they stronger than our combined military? Our combined weapons?"
The first: "So. Are we agreed on the extre option?"
"...Seconded."
"Seconded."
"Seconded."
Valentine watched the screen go dark.
He sat alone.
He'd committed to the most violent approach available, and he still couldn't shake the feeling that sothing was pulling him in a direction he wouldn't have chosen on his own. Was he not sleeping enough? Was sothing off?
He pushed it aside.
He was deploying three carrier strike groups. Troop transports. Air logistics. When everything ca together — his forces, plus the contributions from every other nation willing to commit — the assembled force would land sowhere between twenty thousand and a hundred thousand personnel. Potentially more.
His internal analysts put the odds of success at eighty percent.
Eighty percent was enough to move on. Any opportunity worth taking carried risk. Anyone who backed away from risk at this level didn't deserve the position.
Valentine did not know that his entire "secret" conversation had just been watched, in full, by the person waiting on the other side of the spatial passage.
In the Dinsional Chat Group, Ryū posted the video.
[Admin "RawrSoFierce" has uploaded a video — runti 15:13]
Edward Newgate: Watched it at double speed. Gurararara — now things are getting interesting. The Quest was right — they're coming within the next few days. And they have fleet assets? The coast isn't far from here. At my speed I could reach them before they land.
Admiral Kizaru: Whoa whoa whoa — Whitebeard, don't take all the kills. I can't receive reward Points for doing absolutely nothing~
Ying Zheng The Sovereign: ...We shall watch silently as the rest of you posture.
Terrible Tornado: These people are so slow. We've been waiting four, five, six days.
RawrSoFierce: They're nation-states. Everything takes committee approval.
Eternally Seventeen: Envy is causing my cytoplasm to separate from my cell wall. WHY did I roll a one AAAAAAAA. The dice are conspiring against the Youkai Sage specifically. This is targeted persecution.
Kaguya-sama: Poor Yukari-nee-san. Don't cry, there there.
Eternally Seventeen: Little Kaguya, co here and let pat your fluffy head and I'll stop crying ヾ(°д°ヾ)
Kaguya-sama: ...You PERVERT!! Absolute hentai!! GA hentai!!
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