Ball Breaker (story arc)

Ball Breaker (ボール・ブレイカー) is the nineteenth story arc in Steel Ball Run.

Summary
Valentine disappears on the ocean floor, while Gyro harness the Super Spin with Valkyrie. Valentine tries to waste Gyro's only shot with decoys alternate selves but Gyro correctly deduce Valentine's next move, who attacked from the other side the decoys appeared. D4C is hit by the Steel Ball imbued with the Super Spin.

The Ball hits the dimensional wall, and Gyro's new Stand Ball Breaker passes through the wall with the Spin energy. Ball Breaker induces senescence in Valentine's cells, greatly aging him and Valentine falls to the ground, his decoys being also killed in another steel ball throw. Gyro receives a bullet wound in the process but is alive. However, Valentine reveals himself to be still alive, and Gyro's wound begins to move toward his heart.

As Valentine begins to move, Gyro passes on to Johnny a mysterious speech, his lesson n°5:

"The shortest route was a detour. It was a detour that was our shortest path."

Gyro throws his Super Spin imbued Steel Ball at Valentine, but Ball Breaker doesn't reach Valentine anymore. D4C cuts through Gyro's chest. Valentine explains that his victory was a stroke of luck: when Gyro threw the ball the first time, it passed through the dimensional gap between Lucy and Valentine. An infinitesimal part of it was scraped of, and the sphere became imperfect. Thus despite the Super Spin, it couldn't hit the wall at full power and Valentine survived. As Valentine finishes his explanation, Gyro expires and fall off his horse. Johnny is paralyzed, unable to cope with Gyro's death as Valentine draws close to him.

Valentine empties his revolver on Gyro's corpse just to make sure, and attacks Johnny. Johnny is still shocked and nearly waste all of his nail bullets. Valentine disappears into another world, and using a blind spot, cuts Slow Dancer's throat, causing it and its rider to fall on the ground. Valentine closing in on Johnny, the ex-horseriding champion ponders on Gyro's last words and understands. Using Gyro's steel ball on Slow Dancer's leg, Johnny reproduces the very first effect of the Spin Johnny witnesses, leg reflexes. Slow Dancer kicks out Johnny in the air in a Golden scale leg movement, and Johnny is imbued with the Super Spin. In midair, Tusk ACT 4 appears besides Johnny.

As Johnny's last fingernail hits the dimensional wall of the gap between space, Tusk ACT 4 forces the wall open and goes into the dimensional gap. Tusk then pummels D4C with the signature Stand rush "ORAORA", with enough force to form a crater on the ground at the bottom of which Valentine nonetheless escapes by putting himself between the ground and his coat. In another dimension, Valentine finds himself underground but manages to send his Stand to this universe's Valentine. A confident Valentine prepares to confront the original Johnny again. Suddenly his left leg rotates, then soon his whole body and even D4C begins to rotate and being drawn to the same underground spot. Imbued with the Super Spin down to his individual cells, Valentine is forced to remain at the spot in which he was hit with it, which happens to be underground. To his horror, even his alternate selves aren't immune as Tusk hit D4C the Stand, meaning the damage will be forever transferred to the user. Despite his effort, the Super Spin truly represents an infinite energy and is facing the fate of suffocating in his hole over and over again.

A flashback details a young Funny's meeting with his future father-in-law Captain Valentine. The soldier narrates the story of Funny's father, which resisted a year of torture thanks to a handkerchief he was hiding in his eye socket, that handkerchief was embroidered with Funny's birth date and the soldier praised the father's patriotism, a lesson which deeply engraved itself into Funny. Holding that same handkerchief, Valentine doesn't despair and covets a plan to kill Johnny Joestar.

In the base world, Johnny Joestar regrows five nails, and warns a recovering Lucy that the fight isn't over yet. Valentine effectively reappears but admits his loss, and proposes Johnny to bring back Gyro Zeppeli.

Chapters

 * 083 (835). Ball Breaker (1)
 * 084 (836). Ball Breaker (2)
 * 085 (837). Ball Breaker (3)
 * 086 (838). Ball Breaker (4)
 * 087 (839). Ball Breaker (5)

Volumes

 * 21 (101). Ball Breaker
 * 22 (102). Break My Heart, Break Your Heart