[White Snake,] Togawa Fuuki's Stand inherited from his [other self.]
This inheritance was not a complete transfer but more like a spiritual legacy.
From Fuuki's personal experience, the White Snake he awakened originated from the [enlightenment] of another self — Enrico Pucci's tragic life.
He became a priest to find meaning in survival; he tried to prevent harm to his family but ultimately caused a tragedy.
Clutching his sister's gradually stiffening body, he wailed, begging Heaven for mercy, praying to bear the punishment for his innocent sister himself.
He wept and prayed, wholeheartedly.
And so, the curse descended.
A cold arrow pierced his throat, and the warm memories of a young girl popped out as a disc.
A dark crown encircled his head, and bandages inscribed with four bases wrapped around his entire body. That ominous figure was like an executioner punishing criminals in the Middle Ages; this was the soul form of that devout believer — Enrico Pucci.
The essence of his ability was [mind] — dissolving the mind and eroding the soul.
And this essence was perfectly embodied in Fuuki's White Snake.
A Stand is the manifestation of a living being's soul, so is Fuuki's essence the same as his other self?
Compared to such profound questions, the young man was more concerned about another matter at this moment.
Could the ability of White Snake affect other Stands, and what would the effect be?
Fuuki watched the white humanoid whose head had been split open by White Snake, cautiously observing the gradual purple discoloration of its face.
As a Stand with self-awareness, Daydream Cafe naturally possessed an independent mind. After being eroded by White Snake, its facial features, composed of ink, instantly boiled and disintegrated, like concentrated sulfuric acid poured into a large amount of distilled water.
Through the palm of White Snake, Fuuki could clearly feel the opponent's mind falling apart.
But just as he tried to further perceive this experience to gain valuable insights, the continuously expanding purple brand suddenly halted, and the eroded part fragmented and peeled off.
Immediately after, its originally trembling limbs exploded into clouds of smoke, momentarily obscuring his vision.
'This is bad!'
Fuuki inwardly cursed, realizing immediately that the opponent's action was not merely a desperate attempt to escape.
The erosion of White Snake directly targets the mind — which for a Stand is an absolutely indispensable core. It's like a brain infected by a virus; no matter how many limbs developing complications are amputated, the root cause cannot be fundamentally cured.
Daydream Cafe must know this, yet it still made the futile effort of sacrificing its limbs to escape. This indicates it has another purpose, and this purpose is so important that it must be achieved even if it means sacrificing its body!
"To—ga—wa—Fuu—ki—!"
A broken roar echoed in the basement. Fuuki immediately controlled White Snake to disperse the smoke, looking around for the source of the sound but unable to find its figure.
Just as Fuuki's attention was focused on finding the escaping remnant, the butler behind him, whom he had considered harmless, suddenly began to convulse, as if possessed by some evil spirit, and started to retch violently.
"Gag—!"
As a mass of internal organ fragments was spat onto the ground, a large amount of white mist began to gush from his seven orifices, instantly engulfing Fuuki's body.
'This white mist! Has that guy's ability not been dispelled yet?!'
White Snake quickly retreated with Fuuki, his heart secretly alarmed.
'No, 'Chance' is objectively present; it's just that under its influence, it has become observable white mist.'
'The density of the white mist is the density of 'Chance'... That guy can guide the flow of 'Chance.' After losing control, the white mist compressed within the butler's body will gush out, perfectly engulfing me!'
The more he understood, the more determined Fuuki became to kill the opponent.
"The butler is completely dead... Listen, White Snake, do not move drastically from now on."
"Coupled with our movements in the white mist before, we have accumulated too much 'Chance' on us. A slight mistake could lead to a serious accident!"
After retreating to an area where the white mist was thinner, Fuuki began to sense his surroundings.
As time passed, Fuuki gradually managed to detect a flickering trace at the top of the mist-filled room.
But his heart was sinking deeper and deeper.
He was too tired; the continuous exertion showed signs of mental exhaustion.
He simply closed his eyes, blocking his vision to enhance his perception.
Finally, a subtle, almost imperceptible sound was detected by him.
It was the sound of some button, very light yet very familiar to him.
Thinking of this, Fuuki subconsciously reached for his lower back, only to find the spot where his satellite phone should have been was now empty!
"Fuu...ki, haha, didn't expect that, did you?"
Laughter came from the ceiling, the voice was very weak, as if a critically ill patient about to die, but it still couldn't hide the joy in its tone.
"What a pity... If my 'target' had been set to you, or the Heir of the Togawa Family, then I would be victorious right now..."
"Don't look at me like this, even though I've played with you for so long and delayed many things, I'm the 'single-minded' type..."
"Once a 'target' is set, I will absolutely do anything to achieve it — even if it means being shattered to pieces!"
Through the mist, Fuuki finally saw the opponent's figure; the limbless body had already turned into a thin wisp of steam, clinging to the ceiling and enveloping his lost satellite phone.
"What a pity, Fuuki, all your distress messages failed to send... This is also a result of 'Chance'!"
"After entering this basement, I have been controlling the flow of 'Chance' — spreading them throughout the entire mansion through the tiny cracks in the room!"
"My target has always been only Togawa Sakiko!"
Fuuki's face darkened; the very thing he hoped wouldn't happen had come to pass.
He had previously claimed to be the [Heir of the Togawa Family] precisely to confuse the opponent's judgment and briefly divert the enemy's direct assault on Sakiko.
At this moment, he had not yet fully established himself. Whether it was his control over the main Togawa Family, his understanding of the branch families' details, or his absorption of their resources, none had reached his expectations.
If Togawa Sakiko were to suffer an accident, lose her inheritance ability, or die at this time, the already disadvantaged main family would suffer a fatal blow.
Not only would they gradually lose control over various enterprises, but important figures who once had the ability to suppress the branch families would be purged, and anyone with potential threats would be ostracized and marginalized.
At that point, even a hundred Togawa Sadaharus would not be able to salvage the situation.
Then, Togawa Fuuki's plans would come to naught, and he himself would find it difficult to escape the fate of being monitored by the branch families and having his actions restricted.
Togawa Sakiko must not be harmed!
Thoughts churned in Fuuki's mind, and an uncontrollable killing intent surged forth.
"White Snake!" Disregarding the layers of Chance accumulated on his body, Fuuki controlled his Stand to launch a fierce attack on the opponent.
Daydream Cafe showed no sign of dodging, still inputting information into the satellite phone.
Just before White Snake's hand blade pierced the shapeless head, the satellite phone suddenly detached from the steam cloud and fell precisely into the attack's trajectory.
This slight collision coincidentally caused the attack to bypass the opponent's core area, while also damaging the satellite phone!
Catching the falling satellite phone, Fuuki found that the cracked screen was filled with irregular color blocks, and the buttons were almost detached, making it unusable.
One-third of Daydream Cafe's head was still sliced off by the hand blade, but a long ink streak split across the remaining face, like a grotesque smile.
"You... were still one step too late!"
"The basement's location... has been mass-sent! The great power of 'Chance'... will guide the 'target'... towards the preset 'outcome'!"
"This is the true face of my 'ability'!!"
"'Make Togawa Sakiko disappear' — this goal will absolutely be achieved!"
No sooner had the words fallen than the satellite phone in Fuuki's hand uncontrollably dialed a call. Through the small, still functional part of the screen, he instantly recognized the recipient.
Togawa Sakiko.
A surge of unease rose in Fuuki's heart, and he immediately wanted to destroy the phone, but this satellite phone was custom-made by him, its durability far exceeding that of ordinary phones.
White Snake held the enemy with one hand and swung at the phone with the other, but just before the hand blade made contact with the phone, several dark shadows fell from the ceiling, piercing Fuuki's wrist with surprising ease!
Fuuki, whose wrist was unexpectedly impacted, instantly froze, and before the acute pain reached his brain, an even larger dark shadow flashed past his eyes, directly severing his blood-soaked wrist.
Blood blades, blades condensed from blood, hung densely from the ceiling, precarious, like countless execution blades of guillotines.
Their existence was not intentional, but rather the scattered electricity from Ride the Lighting earlier had swept up the blood on the floor, inadvertently condensing them, and White Snake's attacking motion triggered their fall.
Unstoppable blood sprayed out, and an unfamiliar pain pierced Fuuki's brain.
This extreme sensation seemed to activate the meteorite fragment buried in his other hand, and several future scenes flashed through his mind.
"Sakiko... Sakiko!"
Breaking free from the [premonition] in his mind, Fuuki endured the pain and lunged towards his severed hand, roaring into the now connected phone.
"Stay inside, don't come out!"
As if the first domino had fallen, the layers of [Chance] accumulated on Fuuki began to erupt.
A bloody downpour instantly fell in the basement.
"See, this is the power of Chance~"
"No matter where you are, no matter what you're doing, you can never eliminate Chance; 100% certainty doesn't exist!"
Daydream Cafe, which had been restrained by White Snake, now clung to his hand instead. It had developed a death wish, completely disregarding the purple brand spreading across its remnant body.
"What a pity, Fuuki, Togawa Sakiko will die, and I will also be killed by your enraged self. This great battle will ultimately be unknown to anyone, my existence, my growth, my main body will not even perceive it."
"Hey~ why don't you let me go? After achieving my goal, I'll return to my main body with this 'experience'~ Then he'll definitely be amazed by your performance and praise it~"
The pale remnant climbed onto Fuuki's shoulder, whispering in his ear.
Fuuki remained silent; he no longer had the energy to think, focusing solely on controlling White Snake to defend against the falling blades.
As he lost his left hand, White Snake also lost a hand. In this state, he could no longer escape from this rain of blood blades unscathed, and worse, his mental energy was almost depleted, making it difficult even to maintain White Snake's form.
One minute, three minutes, five minutes... The rain gradually stopped, and Fuuki's limbs and body were impaled with large and small fragments of blood blades.
He felt his body drained at this moment, and White Snake's figure also disappeared, leaving only a faint hand tightly gripping the pale remnant.
Fuuki propped himself up, looking towards the tightly closed basement door.
A blurred and hurried sound of footsteps came from far away on the other side of the door.
This was not a hallucination caused by excessive blood loss; Fuuki could feel it, a young girl had already arrived on the other side of this door, attempting to open the mechanism.
"Ha ah, it's finally coming, an exciting moment!"
"This is what I wanted to see!"
Daydream Cafe suddenly became active. It suddenly shed another layer of its body, slipping out of Fuuki's hand like a nimble loach, rushing desperately towards the door.
The remaining white mist in the room began to gather around it. Fuuki knew this was it using its last strength to condense [Chance] to bring about Togawa Sakiko's death.
The cold sound of the mechanism rang out, and the heavy basement door was slightly pushed open. A beam of bright and warm light spilled into this bloody darkness.
A slender figure appeared before Daydream Cafe as the door gradually opened.
It was the girl it had long awaited.
"It's... it's! It's it's it's—"
"It's Togawa Sakiko! I finally won!"
"I won!"
At this moment, Fuuki half-propped himself up. He pulled out a slender blood blade from his body and threw it with all his might towards the remnant of Daydream Cafe.
The blade sliced through the white mist, directly piercing the girl's fair neck.
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