When I told him Joseph Joestar had died of cancer two years ago, Cars said, "Oh... Luck always was on his side."

"If he was still alive, would you have sought revenge?" I asked. "He'd be an old man, nearly a hundred years old."

"I would indeed. After all, the man sent me into space thirty-seven times. I won't feel freed from that fate until things are settled between us. I've spent time approaching eternity dreaming of placing a stone mask on that man, turning him into a vampire, having him devour other humans, and finally eating him myself."

"…........? Stone mask?"

"A tool that turns humans into a good source of energy and nutrition. Mere humans are hardly enough to satisfy our appetites. Turning them into vampires makes them far more appetizing, and drinking blood makes them young again, and much stronger. I'm sure Joseph Joestar would make a pleasingly delicious vampire."

Desperately trying to look calm, I listened to Cars' terrifying story...my mind reeling. A stone mask? That turned humans into vampires? Was that even possible?

"Humans are a life form with possibilities," Cars said. "You can do almost anything if you simply tweak their brains a little. Changes to the brain change the electric currents. If the electric signals change, the blood changes. If the blood changes the bones and organs and skin and all the rest changes. Jorge Joestar, you are quite lacking in height compared to Joseph."

Lacking!? I wasn't lacking! Certainly I was shorter than my grandfather, who was over 190 centimeters, but I was taller than the average Japanese man. As I thought this, Cars reached his hand out to my head. I froze, and his fingers slipped into my head, as easily as an airplane slips into a cloud.

"Eeeek!" I squealed, but I was afraid if I moved I'd die so I had to stay perfectly still.

"Don't worry, the brain has no capacity for pain," Cars said, and pulled his fingers out of my head, leaving no holes or any sign he'd reached inside me. Just as I was starting to feel relieved a weird sound came from my throat and my head snapped sideways of its own accord and I thought maybe that sound wasn't me swallowing but my neck breaking and then snap crunnch craaack all the bones in my body started twisting in all sorts of crazy directions, one after the other. But it only looked horrible. I could feel the vibrations running through me, but no pain. My knees and elbows bent backwards and my wrists spun the wrong way and it seemed obvious all my bones were breaking but apparently they weren't and I was fine.

And I was about twenty centimeters taller. "…........!?"

"See? I know the human brain," Cars said. "I can also make wings grow from your back."

He started to reach his hand out again but I ducked under it. "I'm fine!"

"Heh heh heh. Humans are a fascinating species. They seem like they are constantly striving to become something else, but they resist actual change. Most likely they simply enjoy imagining things. That is what I like most about the human race. They are the only ones who imagine, who create. Who make stories. When I was living underground I gathered the stories human had written, and read them. Humans are the only species that enjoys things that happen to others of their kind. At first I had no idea how they were enjoying it. Our brains had never even tried to be emotionally invested, to put ourselves in others shoes. It wasn't easy to do. My race was complete as it was, and satisfied with that. And as a result they lacked ambition, made no progress, and lived a life of stagnation. But there's a difference between being sufficient and not knowing what it is that is insufficient. I came to understand that we weren't perfect. We just hadn't noticed that we weren't. We lacked even the ability to point it out because we never compared ourselves to anyone else. Because we expected nothing from anyone else, and made do entirely with what we already had. But I noticed. Reading human writings, and learning to enjoy them sent new electric impulses through my mind. I knew then that we had never stopped to think about our own potential. We were certain our species was the pinnacle of all things, and thus we had stopped progressing. This was the first time I ever felt dissatisfied. The first time I had ever questioned myself. That quickly let to frustration, to anger. And that frustration and anger pleased me. It was what you would call a eureka moment. I was furious with myself, and that was cause for celebration. It was proof that I, too, had potential."


"And looking back, I was baffled by how I had ever lived without doubt, without dissatisfaction. We could never set foot in the light of the sun, could never know the world above during the day. We were trapped in the world underground. I couldn't bear it any longer. So I quickly began exploring my own potential. My own brain. Everything begins with the brain. To study our brains I began killing my own kind like we killed humans. I killed them, spit open their heads, and examined their brains; as I suspected, we had potential. In order to investigate closer, further, and with more certainty, I killed a great many more, but murder itself did not really pose a problem among my kind. After all, none of them cared for anyone but themselves. Sometimes I even killed in front of others of my kind, but nobody said anything. They had no emotional investment, no imagination, and I slowly realized just how appalling that was. If someone attempted to attack us, to conquer us, and we reacted with such disinterest, that could be the end of us. We would be annihilated by our own self-satisfaction and arrogance. Fearing for my own safety, I continued my studies, created the stone mask, stretched my brain, and conquered the sun. And not only that. I created a perfect body for myself, one superior to all other living things."

"Hunh...so? How is not dying?"

"...there's a lot of time."