Chapter 12

Youth with Dio (1) (ディオとの青春　その①), originally in the WSJ release, is the twelfth chapter of the JoJo's Bizarre Adventure manga. It is also the twelfth chapter of Phantom Blood.

Summary
Dio goes crashing through the window behind him after being shot multiple times by the police. He lays on the ground outside surrounded by broken glass; presumed dead, his face is still covered by the Stone Mask. Inside, Jonathan holds his dying father. George holds up his hand and reveals the wedding ring of Jonathan's dead mother. Upon seeing this, one of the officers curses himself for not keeping Dio from being adopted long ago. He recalls when he first became a police officer and they had arrested Dario Brando for attempting to sell the ring he stole from George Joestar. When George was brought in concerning the matter, he told them that Dario was innocent and that he had given him the ring. He said to the policeman that he probably would have done the same thing if he had been born into a life of poverty, and let Dario keep the ring. Back in the present, the officer curses himself again, saying that he should have just punished Dario, then Dio would have never been adopted and none of this would have happened.

George, while just barely conscious asks Jonathan not to hold Dio's misdeeds against him; he blames himself for holding JoJo to too high a standard. He feels that because Dio had been treated differently, that was what led him to do what he did. George Joestar tells Jonathan that it really is not a terrible thing to die in the arms of his son, and he passes away. Mourning spreads throughout the room, and the officer laments that such misfortune should befall the noble Joestar for a mistake he had made in the past. Speedwagon is touched by the moment, and says that the nobility and pride of George Joestar will live on in his son Jonathan. He then looks to the window and notices that Dio's corpse is gone with only the Stone Mask in the place he had fallen. Panicked, Speedwagon tells a nearby officer to get away from the window and search the place for Dio's corpse. It is too late for the man, as a hand swoops down from outside the window and rips the top of the officer's head off. It is Dio, who, unbeknownst to everyone present, has transformed himself from a human to a Vampire.