บท 44: [44] Side Effects
"Tomorrow..."
Kazuya looked at the manuscript and hung up the phone, deciding to make two copies of the manuscript to prevent any loss.
His editor, Iwamoto Yu, would come to pick up the manuscript tomorrow and see if it was acceptable.
As for today...
Looking at the Stone Mask in the system, he smiled slightly. He was starting to look forward to it a bit.
Before this, in the world of his dreams, he had always used Ripple.
But this time was different!
He wanted to experiment with the power of the Stone Mask.
Anyway, even if he wore the Stone Mask in his dream, it wouldn't affect reality. On the contrary, because he had become familiar with the powers of a vampire in the dream world, he would be able to deal with any unexpected situations in reality that required him to wear the Stone Mask.
"I'm back—"
Kazumi pushed open the door and walked in, saying, "Onii-chan?"
"I've prepared dinner here, you can eat anytime."
"Okay~" Kazumi nodded, changed into slippers, dropped her school bag, and said as she walked, "Hey, Onii-chan, have you noticed? Those people from today are all gone."
"What people?"
"Haven't you noticed?" Kazumi smiled, "When I used to come home, there would always be people lurking around, but today there's not a single one. Hey, hey, did you do something, Onii-chan?"
"No, I didn't do anything. Maybe they got bored. Seriously, let's not talk about it, and get ready for dinner."
"Okay, I got it."
Nighttime—
Kazuya quickly entered the world of JOJO.
"I've got it—the Stone Mask!"
Looking at the Stone Mask he had obtained from the Joestar's house, Kazuya breathed a sigh of relief. Although he had already located the Stone Mask while practicing Ripple before, having it in his hands was a relief.
Next was to put it on!
Snip—
Kazuya cut a wound on his hand, and blood flowed out.
He had died countless times in his dreams, so he was used to this kind of pain!
Kazuya stopped using the Ripple breathing technique. If he continued to use Ripple after transforming into a vampire with the Stone Mask, it would be like committing suicide.
Plop.
The Stone Mask was placed on his head, and then he smeared his blood on the mask.
In an instant, countless claw-like things popped out from the Stone Mask and fixed themselves into his brain. Then, a bone needle pierced his forehead, and the entire mask emitted a bright light!
Originally, this would be fatal for humans, no, deadly.
Even in JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, the protagonist JoJo and the antagonist DIO initially thought it was a tool for executing and killing others in ancient times.
But that's not it—
When the bone needle pierced his body, his potential was unleashed!
His body was transformed.
He became a vampire who feared sunlight but had boundless strength, eternal life, and immortality!
"Ugh—no good!"
The mask fell from his head, and Kazuya, with an unpleasant expression, held his head, and his breathing returned to the previous Ripple breathing technique!
In an instant, his body started to emit light.
Countless lights appeared from within his body.
In no time, he turned into dust and self-destructed.
...
"Phew—" After waking up, Kazuya continued to rub his head, feeling the familiar pain and let out a slight sigh. "Luckily... it was an experiment in the dream world. I didn't expect the Stone Mask to have such side effects, or rather, it's not surprising that it has such side effects."
After personally wearing it, he discovered a side effect of the Stone Mask that he hadn't noticed before.
Wearing the mask not only transformed him into a vampire but also stimulated a person's malice.
Let's say, an average person's morality value is 50, a saint's morality is 99, and their malice is 1. A wicked person's morality is 1, and their malice is 99. If we calculate it this way—
Once you put on the Stone Mask, the dark side of a human's malice would increase.
How would a saint fare? Could they resist this malice? It was unknown, but for an average person, their malice would likely exceed 90.
This was why, in JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, when someone put on the Stone Mask, they couldn't even recognize their closest kin.
But—for extremely wicked individuals, this kind of impact might not be significant.
Because... their malice value was originally 99! That person's representative was DIO!
He was the one with a malice value of 99. Wearing the Stone Mask only increased his malice from 99 to 100! Apart from erasing the last bit of humanity, it had almost no effect on him.
This was why DIO was so different from other vampires. It could be said that he was in perfect harmony with the Stone Mask.
As for the reason for such side effects, Kazuya thought it was simple. The Stone Mask was not originally made for humans; it was created by Kars, one of the Pillar Men, to turn himself into the ultimate life being.
This power was too powerful for humans.
So, these side effects occurred!
But... he had also felt that Ripple could alleviate this kind of malice. As long as he maintained a certain level of Ripple in his brain at that time, he would not be affected by malice, although this operation was prone to failure.
Because for a vampire transformed by the Stone Mask, their arch-nemesis was sunlight and Ripple.
One small mistake and their heads could be burned. It was necessary to control it precisely.
Fortunately, Kazuya was just the kind of person who could try endlessly. If he failed, he would try again. Eventually, he would succeed!
"Let's try it again tonight, Editor... it seems like he's coming, right?"
Kazuya sat up, and the Ripple in his body had already alleviated the pain in his brain and quickly recovered.
...
"Phew... as expected, it's always tough every time." Iwamoto Yu sat on the tram heading to Kurokawa-sensei's house, feeling a bit sentimental.
He had arrived at Morioh Town yesterday.
But at that time, it was already very late, so he found a hotel to stay at. Otherwise, it would take several hours to get from here to Tokyo... if he rushed here on the same day, he probably wouldn't have finished reading his new manga before it got dark. In that case, he wouldn't be able to give any advice...
Well, hopefully, this time it's not some weird manga.
The last one...
Although it was very popular, the reception was not very good... it was a good time to talk to him about it.
"Finally here—"
Looking at the familiar residence in front of him, Iwamoto Yu breathed a sigh of relief and took a step towards Kurokawa-sensei's house.
---
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