When the previous universe collapsed after Dio's death, Leo floated—for the first time—within the void between stories.
A blank archive. An empty dimension.
There was no time, no gravity, no thought.
Only one certainty:
the next chapter would begin the moment he was ready to rewrite it.
[Transfer complete.]
[Welcome to Archive #002 – Universe: JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, Part 2: "Battle Tendency"]
He awoke on a wooded hillside, beneath the Mediterranean sun.
Italy. 1939.
The air vibrated differently.
There was beauty, yes…
But also tension. Like a wire on the verge of snapping.
[Vital energy detected: Hamon – saturated environment.]
[Compatibility with vampiric energy stabilized. No rejection.]
Leo stood up. Same body. Same face.
But something in his aura had shifted.
He was no longer the rewritten Jonathan Joestar.
He was a reader turned author, walking among living pages.
Over the following days, he kept his distance.
Observation was his first weapon.
He knew that interfering too early could unravel the entire narrative structure of the canon.
"I'm not a protagonist. I'm the force that decides whether the protagonist lives… or dies."
From rooftops, bell towers, and alleyways, he watched Joseph Joestar and Caesar A. Zeppeli.
Joseph: unpredictable, charismatic, brilliantly chaotic.
Caesar: elegant, proud, marked by invisible scars.
Leo studied them like living theories.
[Narrative comprehension progressing: Caesar – 71%. Joseph – 63%.]
But what mattered most was still to come.
Not the fight with Santana.
Not the battle with ACDC.
But the moment that would define a canonical death: Caesar's fight against Wamuu.
He remembered it perfectly.
Caesar, emotionally wounded, strays from the group.
He enters the abandoned German base alone.
He fights with everything he has. Beautifully.
And dies crushed beneath a bloodstained cross.
An epic end. Poetic. And entirely avoidable.
Leo couldn't allow it.
Not out of kindness.
But because Caesar, alive, was a key piece.
He understood the architecture of Hamon better than anyone.
He had an emotional link to both Lisa Lisa and Joseph.
His death limited narrative possibilities.
[Intervention condition unlocked: Critical narrative event approaching.]
[Alteration permission: controlled.]
Leo bowed his head.
His Stand, The Archive Over Void, emerged with new markings.
Roman and Greek symbols now orbited around it.
"I'll save Caesar without stealing his glory.
I'll let the world mourn him as a hero… but I won't lose him."
He already had the moment pinpointed:
the battle against Wamuu, in the underground base.
He only had to wait for the exact instant.
Not to change the story…
but to give it a second chance.
Because that's the difference between a reader…
and the one who decides if the character dies or not.