Warning: Spoilers for Jojo's Bizarre Adventure: Crazy Diamond's Demonic Heartbreak chapter 9For the first time in over 30 years, one of Jojo's Bizarre Adventure's earliest enemies and the artifact that started it all are making a return to relevance in the ongoing spinoff series Crazy Diamond's Demonic Heartbreak.
Jojo's third part, Stardust Crusaders, is undoubtedly its most iconic part, introducing the concept of Stands and setting up the legacy of DIO that would run through parts 4, 5, and 6, but in spite of all that, it's still not where the series began. While DIO himself goes back to Jojo's Bizarre Adventures' first installment, and Joseph Joestar of part 2 continued to appear throughout both parts 3 and 4, very little of what happened in the first two parts have lived on. Joseph's Hamon (sometimes translated as "Ripple") power, for example, is only used once in part 3, and no other characters employ the technique despite hereditary proficiency having been established.
Chapter 9 of Crazy Diamond's Demonic Heartbreak is changing all that, however, with its villain's origin story. It was revealed in the last chapter that a police officer working alongside Josuke's grandfather, Kazuki Kiraiya, was the one truly in control of DIO's stand-wielding parrot Petsounds, but his aims remained a mystery. Chapter 9 flashes back to Kazuki's youth, when his old grandfather told a tale of witnessing the Ultimate Creation (an epithet for Kars) in Switzerland, just prior to World War II. He tells Kazuki not to bother relating to humans, as his birthright is far greater... before revealing vampiric fangs akin to those of DIO. Kazuki's grandfather relates Kars' eventual fate as well, confirming that the event he's referencing is Joseph's final showdown with the Pillar Men from part 2. Kazuki then suggests that he did receive these vampire powers from his grandfather, and it seems his aim is to become the one who stands above all others--or, essentially, the next DIO.
Kazuki Hints DIO's Stone Masks Could Make a Return
While DIO had a long shadow after his death, influencing events for decades and even across timelines, Kars and the Pillar Men were somehow lost to time, despite far more people witnessing their fall. Crazy Diamond has rectified this oversight by revealing that, much as they had in the past, the Pillar Men converted humans into Vampires using the same Stone Masks that DIO used to create loyal and powerful followers. It's only logical that some of these followers might have survived their downfall, especially among the Nazi troops who were so interested in their power. It even ties into a Jojo light novel written by the same author called Purple Haze Feedback, which mentions Part 5 of Jojo's Bizarre Adventure's Giorno hunting down and destroying Stone Masks in Italy. Whether Kazuki is in possession of a Stone Mask or if he was simply turned via bite by his grandfather remains to be seen; he's also been shown in sunlight already, a weakness which all previous vampires were susceptible to.
Exactly what role the Pillar Men and their legacy may continue to play in Crazy Diamond's Demonic Heartbreak remains to be seen, but dedicated fans of Jojo's Bizarre Adventure will surely be thrilled to see the connections this story has created between disparate aspects of Jojo lore.