Summary
Some time after Valentine's defeat, Johnny, who has regained the use of his legs, envelops the Corpse on his horse while Steven Steel reunites with Lucy. They take some time to observe the last horseracers of the Steel Ball Run race: Pocoloco in the lead, followed by Norisuke Higashikata and then Baba Yaga. Seeing this, Steven reminisces of how he had dreamed of the race becoming a reality ever since he was a little boy.
Johnny plans to retrieve Gyro's corpse to give it back to his family in Naples and carry Gyro's wish of freeing the innocent Marco from his home country with amnesty. However, when Johnny turns his head, he sees that the Corpse has been stolen. Johnny is confused, as Valentine should have been the last one to covet the Corpse. Spotting familiar horse tracks, Johnny concludes that one of the participants has stolen the Corpse, despite their presence neither being heard nor felt. Despite not fully understanding the importance of the Corpse, Johnny remains determined to prevent more deaths caused by it, and prepares to chase after its thief. Steven reveals that an impenetrable vault in New York City had been built before the race to shelter the Corpse, and that the enemy must be heading here. Thus Johnny pursues the prints, leaving Gyro's retrieval to Steven and Lucy. The final Stage approaches: "Manhattan Rhapsody", 15 km through New York City.
A great crowd has amassed in New York in anticipation of the end of the Steel Ball Run. The speaker explains to it that the 8th stage which will finish in Union Beach will carry on immediately to the final stage. Each participant will be carried from Union Beach to Coney Island by a boat, from which they will have to reach Manhattan's Trinity Church through the Brooklyn Bridge. The crowd gets to witness Baba Yaga forfeit the race due to his injured horse.
Meanwhile, Johnny is still pursuing the mysterious horseshoe prints which he infers belong to neither Pocoloco nor Norisuke Higashikata. The mysterious thief is in view but still unrecognizable; he then turns around the corner of a building but Johnny sees that he's disappeared somehow, having gone through a wire fence. Johnny considers shooting from a distance, but instead rides through the fence to get closer for a better shot. Once the thief is in Tusk's range, Johnny prepares to fire, but the horseracer suddenly disappears again, only to reappear behind Slow Dancer.
At the same time, the Steels have tracked the horseshoe prints up to the hole in the ground that Valentine was in, implying that the thief has been brought from a parallel world.
Johnny turns his head and preemptively fires a nail at the attacker, but to his disbelief, sees Diego Brando alive, and wielding a new Stand which Diego calls out as "THE WORLD", claiming that 'time' belongs only to himself. This Diego from a parallel world then activates his Stand ability, seemingly stopping time before Johnny's nail can reach him, and throws several knives toward the frozen Johnny.
Appearances
Author's Comment
Gallery
Ultra Jump December 2010
Jump Festa 2011 (Postcard Prize)
SBR Volume 23, Tailpiece
