"Miyu, are you feeling better?"
"Mm..."
Homura sat beside her as Miyu slowly stirred awake on the sofa, the girl's response still groggy with sleep.
"Have you noticed anything different about yourself?"
Homura pressed further, handing her a glass of water.
If Miyu had truly awakened a "Stand" from this world, understanding its abilities would be crucial. It might even change their desperate situation.
"Give me a moment... there's definitely something..."
Miyu accepted the glass and stared into the rippling water, speaking softly. She could sense something faintly connected to her—still weak, but unmistakable.
It felt like a "child" drawing on her magical and mental energy to grow.
Perhaps this was what they called a Stand?
"I can't use it yet, but I should be able to get a glimpse of its effects soon."
She drained the glass. As her mind cleared, an inexplicable sense of reassurance washed over her.
Something familiar...
"I see. Rest up for now—I need to head out."
"Be careful, Archer."
"Don't worry. As long as you're alive, I'm nearly unkillable."
"Don't forget an umbrella. It looks like rain this morning."
"Got it."
...…
"Ugh, dragged out of bed at the crack of dawn, and we still can't go after that bastard Yoshikage Kira."
Josuke trudged toward school alongside Koichi and Okuyasu, irritation plain on his sleep-deprived face.
"Can't be helped, can it?" Koichi replied. "If we rush in without knowing what we're up against, we might end up dead."
He understood Josuke's frustration. They finally had a lead on the serial killer—and they couldn't act on it.
"I say, why overthink it? Just let me erase that Servant of his!" Okuyasu declared with his usual bravado.
His Stand, The Hand, could scrape away anything—matter, space, you name it.
No matter how strong that Servant was, if he could land a hit, no defense would save them.
"Actually, Okuyasu's got a point. I just thought of something." Josuke clapped his hands together, eyes lighting up.
"Huh?"
"We figure out Kira's commute—when he leaves, what route he takes—and snipe him from a distance. With Caster and Assassin backing us up, we'd have free reign!"
"During time stop, Okuyasu drags Kira in close with The Hand and we finish him off..."
"That could actually work."
Koichi considered the plan seriously, nodding to himself.
'Kira's Servant might have a counter to time reversal, but probably not time stop.'
'Why is Rohan-sensei so certain of that?'
'If they could move in stopped time, I'd have died the moment it happened—not after I'd already gathered intel on Kira.'
'Right. If they could prevent exposure, they would've eliminated me before I learned anything.'
"But how do we find out Kira's exact schedule and route without tipping him off?"
"Getting caught would only put him on guard."
"No problem. Sakuya, I'm counting on you—you've seen the photo."
'Don't call me by name.'
"Oh—sorry, Caster."
The name slipped out of habit. Josuke scratched his head with a wry smile.
His Servant cooperated well enough, but she was... difficult to get close to.
She hated being called by name and corrected him every single time.
Her skills and housekeeping were undeniably impressive, though.
It made Josuke wonder where exactly this woman had "worked."
Morioh certainly didn't have any maid cafés.
"Alright, let's just focus on getting to school. We're all nearly late."
Just as the mood lightened, an unfamiliar figure stepped into their path.
"Well, well. Isn't this a treat? I never expected Masters to stroll around so openly."
A thin, disheveled man with a delinquent's sneer stood before them. Josuke, Koichi, and Okuyasu froze.
"A Servant...!"
Josuke's reaction was instant.
*WHOOSH WHOOSH!!*
Sakuya materialized at his side and hurled a volley of knives.
Accelerate!
She imbued them with temporal acceleration—blades that should have taken seconds to reach their target arrived in an instant, piercing straight through—
—or so it should have been.
"!"
*SPLAT!*
The knives curved impossibly mid-flight and slashed across Josuke's cheek, drawing a thin line of crimson.
"What the—"
"That's your idea of an attack?" The white-haired figure tilted his head back with a derisive snort. "Pathetic."
Throwing knives?
They were fast, sure—but they couldn't breach his Reflection.
"What just happened?! Why did the knife fly back at us?!" Okuyasu gaped at the wound on Josuke's face.
'What the hell...?'
'How did that knife hit Josuke?'
Koichi summoned his Stand immediately, mind racing to comprehend what he'd witnessed.
One moment, the knives left Sakuya's hand. The next, Josuke's face was bleeding.
*Drip...*
At that exact moment, the overcast sky opened up, unleashing a torrent of rain.
The few pedestrians nearby scrambled for cover. Only these combatants remained standing in the downpour—locked in a tense standoff.
"Look... look at him!"
Koichi's trembling finger pointed forward, his voice rising in alarm.
"What?!"
"That's impossible!"
"?"
Josuke, Okuyasu, and Sakuya finally noticed: while they stood soaked to the bone, Accelerator remained perfectly dry.
The rain parted around him completely.
"What the hell is with this guy?!"
"Why isn't the rain touching him?!"
Josuke voiced the question burning in everyone's mind, already trying to puzzle out the enemy's power.
*WHOOSH WHOOSH!!*
Sakuya threw two more knives, watching intently.
"Caster, huh?"
"Tch. Doesn't matter what class you are."
The maid had some kind of trick, but to Accelerator, it was meaningless.
Mere thrown knives could never touch him.
*WHOOSH WHOOSH!*
This time she didn't accelerate them—and this time, they could track the trajectory.
The blades halted several meters from Accelerator and simply reversed course.
Sakuya caught the returning knives between her fingers, brow furrowed.
Just like the rain, nothing could reach him.
What exactly was this person's ability...?