Ripple Teacher Lisa Lisa
Joseph now only a month to live before he dies from the Pillar Men's rings around his aorta and windpipe, and must train to be able of battling the creators of the Stone Mask. He tells Speedwagon to make no mention of this to Erina after he returns to America and goes to Venice with Caesar. It is there that Joseph meets Caesar's mentor Lisa Lisa, who takes him by surprise as a masked gondolier before placing a breathing mask over his face. Lisa Lisa explains that the mask is a training tool to limit his breathing for proper Ripple breathing patterns. Lisa Lisa then takes the two to her home on Air Supplena Island.She then announces that the training begins immediately and kicks Joseph and Caesar down an oil-filled pit and climb the Hell Climb Pillar with the help of the Ripple or die.
Caesar makes his way a few meters up with his Ripple energy, but Joseph attempts to cheat his way out with his shirt as a pole strap. Lisa Lisa notices and cuts the strap to force Joseph back down, the Joestar realizing she actually intends to leave him to die while vowing revenge on her. A day later, Joseph finally realizes Caesar was channeling Ripple through his fingers, following suit and manages to catch up with Caesar sometime later. However, Joseph triggers a trap that causes an high-pressure eruption of oil to blast out of the pillar above them. Caesar breaks through the barrier by using Ripple energy to simultaneously grip the pillar with his feet and repel the barrier, eventually reaching the peak. For his part, Joseph uses the oil's flow to catapult himself to the outer wall, passing his test within 61 hours and 9 minutes.
Joseph confronts Lisa Lisa about the ill treatment he"s received, expressing various revenge fantasies before coming to respect her methods once he sees the improvements he's made already. Joseph and Caesar then continue their harsh training under the supervision of Lisa Lisa's servants Loggins and Messina for the next three weeks.
With only one week left before the rings in Joseph's body release their poison, after subduing a pickpocket trying to steal it, he and Caesar learn of the Red Stone of Aja in their teacher's possession. She explains to them that the Pillar Men's leader Kars is the creator of the Stone Mask that claimed their grandfathers' lives, displaying the stone's ability to magnify energy. She explains the Pillar Men seek the stone, as it is a flawless Super Aja, to become ultimate beings able to move freely in sunlight. When Joseph suggest that they destroy the stone, Lisa Lisa explains that its destruction would only make defeating their enemies more difficult. She then decides to have Joseph and Caesar face Loggins and Messina respectively in one-on-one battles as their final test.
Later that night, as Caesar engages Messina, Joseph walks down the path to the arena where he is to fight Loggins with full intentions of paying him back for the hell he was put through during his training. But Joseph finds Loggins' blooded hat before noticing that the Pillar Man Esidisi is standing in front of him, having already killed Loggins and now turning his attention toward Joseph.
Rating: 8.5/10
Flame Mode Esidisi
Having been searching for the Super Aja for Kars, Esidisi has learned of its whereabouts in Venice and has come to Air Supplena Island to take it from Lisa Lisa. But Joseph Joestar stands in the Pillar Man's way after he killed Loggins, intending to get Esidisi's antidote by fighting him on the arena, a field covered in sharp spikes. While Joseph uses the Ripple on his feet to resist the spikes, Esidisi nonchalantly walks on them, ignoring his impaled feet. A first clash occurs, and while Joseph's Ripple has developed to the point his finger can now pierce through the Pillar Man's hand, Esidisi grabs Joseph's wrist and proceeds to twist it. Joseph flips over his foe to escape the grab and also cuts off Esidisi's arm, quoting Sun Tzu's Art of War as he destroys the arm while taunting Esidisi that already planned his whole trick before the fight.
However, Joseph is caught off guard when Esidisi starts to cry uncontrollably before abruptly stopping soon after explaining he was calming himself down to keep himself from losing it. The Pillar Man then explains that he's familiar with Joseph's method of emotionally destabilizing his opponent, revealing that he also has in-depth knowledge of the Art of War. With that, Esidisi takes an arm from Loggins's corpse and grafts in onto himself. Esidisi then reveals his ability to make his blood boil up to 500 degrees Celsius, and destroys the rest of Loggins's body as a display of his power. Nervous, Joseph uses a direct attack against Esidisi who effortlessly evades it and notes Joseph's vulnerability. At the same time, Caesar Anthonio Zeppeli passes his test. He and Messina notice Joseph's fight with the Pillar Man but unable to reach him, are reduced to observe the battle with a pair of binoculars.
Joseph realizes that Esidisi is psyching him out with his methods as he covertly lays string around the spikes to tie him by surprise and send the Ripple through them into Esidisi. While Esidisi appears to see through Joseph's plan and cuts part of the string with his blood vessel tendrils, Joseph laughs at his apparent defeat as he reveals that he won. Joseph explains that as Esidisi was resting at the time, he was ignorant of the sleight of hand trickery developed in the 1800s. Joseph then reveals a second set of strings tied with the first and laid behind the overconfident Esidisi has failed to expect. Joseph uses it to deal a deathblow that causes the Pillar Man to violently explode despite a last ditch attempt to kill him. His breathing mask destroyed during the fight, Joseph picks up Esidisi's nose ring and ingests the antidote. Joseph makes his way to Lisa Lisa's villa as the sun rises, unaware of a disembodied brain latching on his back.
Rating: 8/10
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