Jotaro Kujo won 500,000 yen at the casino's main hall, so he took exactly 500,000 yen from Kuroda Ryunosuke, not a yen more, not a yen less.
As for Kuroda Ryunosuke's offense against him, he had already let Star Platinum give the man a good beating.
With that many people falling from the sky and landing on him, it should be hard to find a single intact bone in his entire body.
Some debts can be repaid with money, while others cannot. Jotaro understood this very clearly.
The sun was setting in the west, and the distant mountain ridges looked as if they were draped in a thin veil of pale golden gauze.
Jotaro walked out of the clothing store, glanced at the mountain peaks, and the afterglow of the sun cast upon him, stretching a long shadow on the ground.
He was walking down the small path of the town holding a package. Passersby were whispering about him.
The girls who passed by would always sneak a few glances at him, and then their faces would involuntarily flush red, more dazzling than the evening glow in the sky.
"Yare yare..."
Jotaro walked past these people with steady steps. He experienced this kind of situation every time he went to school, so he was more or less used to it.
Compared to the girls at school who would actively come up to greet him, these girls seemed much more reserved. At least not to the point that made him feel unbearable.
Estimating the time Tanjiro usually returned home after selling charcoal, he was definitely still in town now, so Jotaro wasn't in a hurry to go back and instead started searching for Tanjiro around town.
The town was quite large, full of buildings, with crisscrossing streets and a flow of pedestrians coming and going. Finding one person here was quite difficult.
However, the towering figure of Star Platinum was floating behind Jotaro, with sharp, spirited eyes that could clearly see a person's face even a kilometer away.
As long as he stood at one end of the street, he could see the scenery at the other end completely. After walking for only a while, those sharp eyes locked onto a young boy about a kilometer away.
The boy's figure magnified in Star Platinum's eyes, and his facial features, expression, even his hair became clearly visible.
Tanjiro, wearing a black-and-green checkered haori and carrying a wooden box on his back, was smiling as he gave someone directions.
Jotaro glanced at him and then walked in his direction.
With more usage of Star Platinum over this period of time, he was becoming more and more adept at controlling it. He discovered that the so-called Stand, although it was an image generated based on the soul, the vitality of the individual also affected the Stand's strength.
This was shown when his body was tired and his mental state was poor, Star Platinum's abilities would weaken. And when he was well-rested and mentally energized, Star Platinum's combat power would return to normal or even exceed the normal level.
As for whether excessive secretion of adrenaline would affect Star Platinum's strength, he hadn't tried it yet. Because ever since Star Platinum appeared, he had not yet encountered a situation that caused him to secrete large amounts of adrenaline.
Secondly, whether injuries to his own body would affect Star Platinum's combat ability also needed further testing.
He had only watched another Jotaro fight, but the specific experience of it, he didn't truly know.
Everyone's Stand was different. For example, most Stands shared vision with the Stand user, but some Stands couldn't do this.
There even existed a kind of Stand with extremely high autonomous consciousness.
A Stand was a mysterious and unfathomable thing, and its traits couldn't be generalized. To use a Stand well, Jotaro understood that he had to grasp all of Star Platinum's characteristics.
Know yourself and know your enemy, and you will never be defeated. And knowing yourself was a prerequisite.
Tanjiro was chatting with a passerby, and the light around him darkened, making him aware that someone was approaching.
He turned his head and saw it was Jotaro. He was slightly surprised and asked, "Jotaro-san, have you finished your business?"
From afar, Jotaro could already see that the charcoal in Tanjiro's box was almost gone.
He nodded slightly and said, "Tanjiro, let's go."
Tanjiro said, "Jotaro-san, please wait a moment. This old man is asking for directions, I'm telling him the route."
Selling charcoal didn't take much time. The reason Tanjiro often returned home late at night was mostly because he spent a lot of time in town helping others.
Jotaro knew this, so he stood quietly in place and waited for him.
When the old man asking for directions was finally able to clearly repeat the directions, Tanjiro wrapped it up.
"Thank you. I went to the city to work in my thirties and haven't come back for over twenty years. I didn't expect my hometown to look completely different from what I remembered. If I hadn't met you, I probably really would've gotten lost, haha."
That old man thanked Tanjiro again and again and finally waved goodbye.
Once the old man's figure disappeared down the street, Tanjiro turned around and said to Jotaro, "Jotaro-san, let's go home."
After a few steps, Tanjiro noticed the package Jotaro was carrying and asked curiously, "Jotaro-san, did you come to town just to buy this?"
"No. I just bought it while I was at it."
Jotaro replied simply and handed the package to Tanjiro.
The package was tightly wrapped except for the knot on top. In the dimming light, it was hard for ordinary people to make out what was inside.
But Tanjiro had a sharp sense of smell, and through the gap in the knot, he noticed that there were clothes inside.
'But Jotaro-san didn't wear this kind of clothing.'
While he was secretly puzzled, Jotaro's calm voice came. His voice was always like that, if he wasn't angry, most of the time he spoke in a flat tone. It was impossible to know what he was really thinking just from his voice.
This time was no different.
"Tanjiro, I'll be leaving tomorrow. These are parting gifts for you all. Thank you for putting up with me during this time."
"Eh?" Tanjiro's hands holding the package trembled slightly. His eyes stared unblinking at the tall and steady figure in front of him, the presence that gave him so much peace of mind.
Unknowingly, his eyes began to blur. Even though he had long known that Jotaro would leave, when the moment really came, his heart was still full of reluctance and sadness.
He wiped away the tears in his eyes, and his voice became a bit hoarse.
"Jotaro-san, I should be the one thanking you. If it weren't for your help, maybe our family still wouldn't have enough to eat."
"Yare yare…"
Jotaro pulled his hat down lower and used the other hand to cover Tanjiro's head.
"Tanjiro, you're a gentle and strong person. Even if you were alone, I would still believe, you can protect your family."
These words were more than just comfort, they were Jotaro's sincere evaluation of him.
In his eyes, after losing his father early on, Tanjiro, only thirteen years old, had already shouldered and fulfilled the responsibilities of the eldest son of the household.
Even Jotaro couldn't help but admire such a person.
Tanjiro tried hard to hold back his tears. His nose was filled with a warm scent.
Under Jotaro's cold exterior was a gentle and passionate heart. Tanjiro, with his naturally keen sense of smell, knew this better than anyone!
He looked up and did his best to engrave this figure into his memory.
The black hat, the black coat, his whole body cloaked in black.
Yet in that moment, Tanjiro seemed to see gold shining through the darkness...
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