Chapter 19
Summary
To Jonathan's surprise, his fractured arm is completely healed from Zeppeli's strike. Jonathan questions how he did it, but Zeppeli claims that it wasn't him who healed it, but rather, Jonathan's "breathing". Zeppeli begins casually shaking pepper onto his sandwich, but ends up sneezing and falls over off the wall. Jonathan runs over to look behind the wall, questioning why Zeppeli healed him and how he knew his name, but the man is not there. Zeppeli is standing now behind him. He asks Jonathan to not ask more than one question at once, and to follow him in order to have them all answered.
Zeppeli brings Jonathan and Erina to a small river and directs their attention towards a frog sitting on a rock. He reveals to them a breathing technique that he had studied for many years called Sendo, which means "the Way of the Hermit". Zeppeli walks into the shallow river and takes a deep breath. Energy begins to form around his feet and unusual ripples in the water begin to emanate from where he stands. Jonathan asks what the ripples are, to which Zeppeli replies that he adjusted Jonathan's respiration when he stabbed his finger into his diaphragm earlier, which allows Jonathan to do the same thing.
Zeppeli explains that breath and blood are connected. Basically, blood carries oxygen to and from the lungs, and blood is connected to your cells. Cells make up the human body as a whole; therefore the ripples on the water are similar to how breathing makes ripples in the body. Using this ripple, one can create an energy called hamon that can be transferred to other objects. With that said, Zeppeli throws his fist towards the frog and lands a direct blow to its back. Jonathan and Erina are surprised as the strike splits the rock the frog was sitting on down the middle, yet the frog remains completely unharmed. This was the power of Sendo. Zeppeli's energy had transferred as ripples through the body of the frog and crushed the rock instead.
Zeppeli had actually learned this technique in order to battle the Stone Mask. He reveals that Dio is still alive, and currently in possession of the mask. Zeppeli has been searching for that mask for decades in order to destroy it, which is why he had researched and mastered the art of Sendo, as it is the only way to defeat the stone mask. He claims it is Jonathan's fate to do battle with it and he must be trained in the art of Sendo. Jonathan is confused by this and grabs a nearby branch from a tree. Zeppeli notices that the dead flowers on the branch begin to blossom and realizes the ripple energy he used to heal Jonathan's broken arm had remained there and revived the flowers. Because of this, Zeppeli expects that Jonathan holds incredible talent and power within him.
