Jotaro was meeting with Josuke and Pinkie. "It seems Akira did test out the arrow at some point," he said, "Used it on a rat somewhere in Morioh. Apparently, the rat struggled against the arrow and didn't die." Josuke and Pinkie looked at each other. "That means the rat is now a Stand user," Josuke realized. "So animals can become Stand users?," Pinkie asked. "It's not unheard of," Jotaro said, "That dog Iggy you saw in the photo of me and the other crusaders is a Stand user, and we also met an orangutan that was also a Stand user. Stands are a manifestation of one's fighting spirit, and animal instinct certainly can count as that. But unlike Iggy and Forever, who gained human-like intelligence, I doubt this rat has risen above its instinct."

"Right," Pinkie said, "Rats only care about sleeping, eating, and raising their young. So if one has become a Stand user, it could mindlessly kill people without restraint." Jotaro nodded. "That's why we need to hunt it down. It's possible I may be wrong and we can reason with the rat, but if I am right we'll have no choice." He took the duo out to a nearby field. "Now rats are notoriously skittish. This one will likely run when it hears us coming. A long range attack is the only way to pin it down."

"But our Stands can only reach so far," Josuke noted, "Granted Pinkie's toon world extends to Morioh's borders, but its actual projection range is only five meters." "There are ways to increase a Stand's attack range," Jotaro said as he set up a few empty cans on a fence, then took a few steps back and got out a marble from a bag. "Observe." Star Platinum picked up the marble and flicked it at the can, hitting it dead in the center. "Wow! That was amazing!," Josuke said.

"Using this technique I can extend Star Platinum's attack range to twenty meters," Jotaro explained, "It's not as powerful as a handgun or rifle, but its suitable for disabling the Stand user. Josuke, your Stand doesn't have the same level of precision, but it can be adjusted thanks to Pinkie's Stand." Pinkie nodded and had her Stand project its toon world. "Now, just keep calm and imagine hitting the target," Jotaro said, "The toon world should do the rest."

Josuke nodded as he handed a marble to Crazy Diamond, who flicked the marble at the second can. At first it only hit the fence post, but then ricocheted off the post and into the center of the can. "Perfect," Jotaro said, "Just remember, we'll need to keep calm against a living target. That's more important than speed. If we enter the rat's range and somehow miss, it won't let get close to us again. So wait until you know you can get a clear shot." Josuke nodded, but he was still nervous about the situation.

The trio headed for the river, near the area where Akira said he shot the rat. The river was fed by a nearby storm drain, and there was foliage all around. A perfect habitat for the brown rats they were tracking down. Jotaro traced a finger across some tracks. "Looks like we have rats here. Can't tell how many from the tracks." "Those aren't bird tracks?," Josuke asked. Jotaro shook his head. "Too many digits. No these are definitely rats. Four toes on the front paw... Five on the back paw. And note the s-shaped line between them. That's the rat's tail as its being dragged behind it. Judging from the tracks I'd estimate it at about twenty centimeters long."

Pinkie pulled up a nearby leaf and brought out a gigantic magnifying glass, while Smile picked up something on the leaf's underside. "A tick!" "You found it on the underside of the leaf, right?," Josuke asked, "That means rats pass here often." Josuke nearly gagged. "You mean this thing has been sucking rat blood?" "It's a parasite," Pinkie noted, "They aren't picky. Anyway, I don't see any sign of a rat's nest anywhere around here." "Maybe it's inside the drainage system," Josuke suggested, "Rats are good swimmers, so a little water in their bed won't be so much as an annoyance."

"Good thinking," Jotaro said, "Let's set up the traps and camcorder near the opening." "Why the camcorder?," Pinkie asked. "In case the traps get disabled by the rat with the Stand," Jotaro explained, "This way we'll know it's nearby." "What is this bait?," Josuke asked, "It doesn't feel like cheese." "It's fried tempura batter," Jotaro said, "Even if Smile's toon world is surrounding us, the rat isn't inside it, so cheese won't lure it. It's too luxurious for a rat's taste."

"Yeah," Pinkie admitted, "Even though I can draw people into my toon world so it can affect them, they need to be aware of it first. And even if this rat is a Stand user, there's no way it could comprehend that it's inside a cartoon." Josuke then noticed some flies buzzing nearby. "That's a large amount of flies," he noted, "There must be some sort of corpse nearby." He pushed aside the grass, and gasped as he held his hand over his hand. "Jotaro, Pinkie! Come take a look at this! I think I've found a clue to the rat's Stand ability!"

Jotaro and Pinkie came over and gasped. "It's a cube of rat corpses," Pinkie realized, "There must be dozens of them." "And they're partly melted, too," Josuke said, "No doubt this was that rat's doing." "Not partly melted," Jotaro said as he poked the cube with a stick, causing fluid to spill out, "Completely melted. The rats died from their flesh melting inside their skins. But you're right, this is definitely the rat's work. These were likely rivals to its territory."

"What sort of Stand could do this?," Pinkie wondered. "Don't know," Josuke said, "But there's probably more in the drainage pipe." "Gimme a break...," Jotaro muttered, "If this is what its power is, then diplomacy is off the table. We'll have to move forward with the intent to kill." They climbed up the side of the drainage ditch to the nearby farm. "Uh oh...," Pinkie said, "If the rat's reached that far..." Jotaro got out a pair of binoculars. "I don't see anything moving. No chickens in the coop, but the feed trough is empty. House looks empty, but there are two cars in the garage, so the owners aren't out. Front door is cracked open."

"It's been here," Josuke realized, "And might have already found prey." Jotaro nodded. "Let's go. We'll search the house room by room." "How will we do that?," Josuke asked, "Rats are quick, so we need to mask our presence." "Not really," Jotaro said, "It already knows we're here." "WHAT!?," Pinkie called out. "Rats can detect the presence of humans walking hundreds of meters away," Jotaro explained, "Either through vibrations in the ground or just by scent. But this is the essence of hunting... Tracking something that knows you're tracking it."

"Gotcha," Josuke said, "We learn things like this in school. When a lion starts stalking a gazelle, the gazelle doesn't immediately run but keeps grazing because it knows the lion's effective strike range. All the gazelle needs to do is stay outside it, while the lion keeps probing the edges of that range looking for an opening." "And that rat will let us get up to that safe range," Pinkie noted, "It thinks humans are stupid and can't catch it, but doesn't know we have a long range attack."

The house looked empty at the entrance. There were no holes to indicate the rat had been burrowing. But Jotaro did find some rat droppings under a dresser. From their consistency, they came from meat. Jotaro then headed to the bathroom while Josuke and Pinkie checked the kitchen. Inside, the fridge seemed to open by itself. However, Josuke saw a rat was poking its head inside. "Is that it...?," Pinkie whispered. "I think so," Josuke whispered back, "I don't know if it opened the fridge or not but..."

He saw that rat come out with a piece of meat that it was nibbling. It was looking right at them. The door then opened to reveal an old couple that had fused together, their bodies a twisted mass of limbs. From their groans, it seemed they were barely alive. "Great...," Josuke muttered, "Where's Jotaro?" "Still in the other room," Pinkie said. Josuke sighed. "We'll have to take care of this personally." He got out one of the marbles. "We get one shot at this while it's still eating. If we miss, it'll know we can attack from range."

Crazy Diamond took the marble as Smile glowed. The marble shot off like a bullet, hitting a ricochet against the wall. But the rat heard it and started to run forward, too slow to avoid the projectile, but fast enough to avoid a direct headshot. Instead it got hit in the shoulder. It screeched in pain and summoned a mechanical device. "This must be its Stand," Josuke realized, "Kinda mechanical for a rat. What do we call this thing?" "Well," Pinkie said, "We called the baby's Stand Achtung Baby because she likes attention and, well, she's a baby. What say we call this one Ratt."

Josuke raised an eyebrow at her. "With an extra 'T' on the end cuz it's clearly not messing around," Pinkie clarified. The rat and its stand ducked under the nearby table. "Oh no you don't!," Josuke said as Crazy Diamond upended the table. Ratt opened up to reveal a turret gun complete with scope. It fired off a shot as Crazy Diamond launched another marble. Smile got out a frying pan to block Ratt's attack. "Good thing that didn't hit either of us," Josuke said, "I don't know how well its power would translate to the toon world." Meanwhile, the marble managed to hit the rat dead-on, killing it.

That's when Jotaro walked in. "Looks like you got it." "Yeah, we figured out its Stand too," Pinkie said, "It was a turret that could fire darts which melt flesh." "It got the couple that own this farm," Josuke noted, "But I can fix them up with Crazy Diamond, since they're alive, albeit barely." "While you're at it," Jotaro said, "I could use some similar help." He revealed his hand, which was drooping like all the muscle was gone. "Turns out there are two rats," Jotaro explained, "And they both have the same Stand somehow." "A second Ratt!?," Pinkie asked, "And I mean the Stand name we gave it, with an extra 'T'."

Jotaro nodded. "Looks like this is what happens when their darts hit someone under the effects of the toon world. Otherwise my flesh would be melting like that couple." "How did it hit you?," Josuke asked. "I misunderstood what it could do," Josuke said, "Rather than dodge I used Star Platinum to grab the dart. At the time it was no different to me than stopping a bullet in midair. But when my Stand touched it, it activated the poison. Luckily I had my mind focused on Pinkie's toon world, or this would look much worse."

"Someone as stoic as you can act in a toon world?," Josuke wondered. Jotaro smiled. "I'm not so stoic that I can't appreciate silly antics. After all my favorite Super Sentai so far is Carranger, and you've seen how silly that can get. Anyway when I got hit the rat ran off. It likely knows you killed the other one." Josuke healed up Jotaro's hand, which almost made it look like it was inflating. As Jotaro flexed his fingers, Pinkie asked, "Could the rat have reproduced?"

"Unlikely," Jotaro surmised, "Akira only shot the rat ten days ago, and rat pregnancies can last up to three weeks." He got out his wireless phone and called the Speedwagon Foundation. "But if we leave things as they are, it just might start procreating as it takes over downtown Morioh." 'Jotaro,' came Kakyoin's voice over the phone, 'I'm glad you called. I was trying to contact you.' "Sorry, I turned the ringer off to avoid startling the rat. Does this have something to do with Akira?" 'Yes, it turns out he was hiding the fact that he shot two rats.'

"Bastard!," Josuke said, "He must have been hoping that rat would kill us!" "Just to confirm," Jotaro said, "You're sure it was just the two." 'Oh yes,' Kakyoin said, 'We interrogated him with truth serum just to be sure.' Jotaro nodded. "Okay, we already got one of the rats, but the other one escaped through the farms. I need the Speedwagon Foundation to block off the sewers between the residential and rural districts, and position snipers to restrict its movements. Also, you and Sanji will need to scout that border as well, just in case. Me, Josuke, and Pinkie will track the rat down and kill it by sunset." 'Consider it done, old friend.'

"Wait, by sunset?," Josuke said, "How are gonna pull that off? This field is huge, and it's likely burrowed underground. Not to mention it now knows how we plan to attack it. We can't approach this thing nonchalantly anymore." Jotaro knelt down at the edge of the field. "As Naturalist ET Setton once said, 'There is no animal that cannot be tracked.' Humans may be slower than some animals, but we have other advantages to make up for that. We can study the topography, wind direction, animal psychology. All sorts of X-factors that can give us an advantage and let us catch up."

He stood up. "First, rats have poor eyesight. They rely on scent and the vibrations of their whiskers to navigate. If we block all exits to the field, it'll stick with familiar routes." "Like the drainage ditch," Pinkie realized. "Exactly," Jotaro replied, "Also, rats will die of starvation if they don't eat every ten hours, unlike a human who can last up to three weeks, and they need to eat around a third of their body weight. So we just look for bite marks in the produce." He pushed aside some of the crops and found the bite marks they were looking for, in addition to fresh rat droppings.

The path led all the way back to the drainage ditch, where the rat's fresh tracks could be seen. "With the way its trying to expand its territory," Pinkie said, "You'd think it was under the impression it was the only one allowed to live or something." They reached the traps, which remained untouched. Jotaro checked the camcorder. "It deliberately avoided them. It knew to be wary. This footage is from four minutes ago, so its not too far ahead." He then noticed something on its ear. "It's ear kinda looks like a leaf that was chewed by an insect, probably the result of a fight. For now we'll refer to it as 'Bug-Eaten'."

"That turret is obviously a long-range Stand," Josuke said, "I don't think we have the option of marbles anymore." "Yeah, I was expecting that to be the case," Jotaro admitted, "So I also brought these." He got out several rifle bullets. "The marbles only increase our range to twenty meters. Bug-Eaten knows this, so it'll try to stay out of that range. But these rounds are designed to be fired from long range. We'll be able to hit it from at least fifty meters away, possibly up to seventy depending on wind direction."

"We'll still need to be able to see it from that distance," Josuke noted. "No problem," Pinkie said, "Smile?" "Keep smiling!," Smile said as it fit special goggles on Crazy Diamond. Jotaro looked at the logo. "Far-sights?" "Patent pending. These goggles are like binoculars," Pinkie explained, "They mimic Star Platinum's enhanced eyesight. Too bad we can't use guns for these rounds, but they'd be too loud in a cartoon." "They'd be too loud in reality," Jotaro pointed out, "They're not as loud as you hear in the movies or TV shows, but still loud enough to spook Bug-Eaten."

Josuke checked the tracks. "Hey, doesn't it look like Bug-Eaten's turned around a few times?" Jotaro took a look. "It's annoyed. It can't figure out why it hasn't shaken us yet." Spotting the tracks going into the water, Jotaro immediately followed. Pinkie pulled up her pants, making Josuke blush as they practically peeled away like a dress, and followed suit. Josuke just shrugged and pulled up his pants, making an accordion sound that also dragged his socks and shoes up with them.

The trio stopped near a hill when they noticed something strange. "The tracks end," Josuke noted, "That can't be good." "Did it dig underground?," Pinkie wondered. "No," Jotaro said, as he checked a small hole at the end of the tracks, "It backtracked. I didn't think a rat could pull that off." "I know brown bears can do that," Pinkie said, "But a brown rat? This rat is smarter than we thought." "Gives a whole meaning to the phrase 'trapped like rats'," Josuke quipped, "Now who's the hunted?"

Nearby, Bug-Eaten was aiming with Ratt, but got confused when the three humans suddenly dove behind a rock at lightning speed. This confused Bug-Eaten, since humans couldn't be that fast and the rock should be too small to hide them. Of course, while it was smarter than normal thanks to getting a Stand, it still couldn't process that humans could have the same power. But it was patient, and kept aim at the rock waiting for its chance.

Sure enough, Josuke was looking from behind the rock to where Bug-Eaten could be attacking from. As he placed his hand on the group, he winced as his hand got caught in one of the traps they placed, causing him to leap up from the rock and right in Ratt's sights. Bug-Eaten quickly fired a shot. But just as the bolt hit Josuke, Jotaro called out, "Star Platinum: The World!" Time instantly froze, and Star Platinum knocked out the bolt, as well as the chunk of flesh it already infected.

Time resumed, and Josuke reeled from the impact, holding his neck in pain. "Did you have to take out some of my neck, too?" "I lost a second summoning Star Platinum and activating the time stop," Jotaro explained, "It was fast enough to stop the poison from spreading to your brain, but some did still seep inside your flesh." They ducked back the rock. "We need to need to draw it out somehow," Jotaro said, "If it keeps waiting it can escape in the darkness. Until then it won't attack unless it thinks it can hit us."

"Then let's do a trident attack," Josuke suggested, "One of us goes in directly, the other two from the other sides of the hill. Ratt only has one barrel to fire from, so its rate of fire is low. We can use that to our advantage. Once Bug-Eaten fires at one of us, the other two can track it and attack." Jotaro smiled. "Not a bad idea. Even if Bug-Eaten is smarter than your average rat, it's still outnumbered." Jotaro started walking directly ahead while Pinkie and Josuke whipped around to the side.

Sure enough, Bug-Eaten got frustrated. Its power could only shoot so many bolts at a time and it could only aim at one target. It decided to go for the human coming in up the center. Bug-Eaten didn't know how, but that one was fast enough to prevent its bolt from infecting the one with a nest for hair. Of course, if it knew anything about the fights these three had been through, it would have realized what a bad idea that was. Josuke spotted Bug-Eaten as it moved to position itself.

It fired off a burst shot from its Stand, but Jotaro just stopped time again, moving to the side. Bug-Eaten readied another shot, but its ears twitched and it swiveled the turret, having heard something banging. That was Pinkie trying to get its attention so Jotaro could more easily navigate the hill. Smile easily used various implements, including a kitchen sink of all things, to deflect the burst fire, irritating Bug-Eaten. Meanwhile Josuke managed to spot Bug-Eaten's new location. 'It's hiding behind that rock. I don't have a clear line of sight. But I do have more than one round, so maybe...'

"Crazy Diamond!," Josuke called out, and his Stand fired a bullet from its fingers to hit the rock. He grinned as this got Bug-Eaten's attention, now turning its Stand to aim at him. Bug-Eaten freaked when it saw Crazy Diamond, another bullet aimed at him. "Surprise," Josuke quipped, "Looks like for all your brains, you're still a rat in the end." Crazy Diamond fired off the bullet. Before Bug-Eaten had time to react, it felt the bullet pierce through both its Stand and its body, destroying several vital organs. It was dead within seconds. With its terror gone, the three Stand users breathed a sigh of relief.

A simple breather chapter, we're not up to the main action yet. But it's coming, slowly yet surely.