Phantom Blood - Plot

Plot

The story begins in England, 1880 with young Jonathan Joestar living at his father George's wealthy estate. Another young man, Dio Brando, is adopted by them for having recently lost his father, Dario Brando. It is believed that he and his infant son were rescued by Dario during a stagecoach accident, also in which his wife lost her life, as actually Dario was trying to loot their corpses.

Jonathan attempts to befriend Dio, unaware of his plan to drive him into discredit and earn George's trust so that he can become the sole heir to the Joestar fortune. As part of his scheme to torment Jonathan, Dio violently beats him in a boxing match, turns his friends against him, steals his girlfriend Erina's first kiss, and even burns his dog Danny to death in an incinerator, while presenting himself before Jonathan's father as a better gentleman and student than his adoptive brother.

Seven years later, George falls ill. Jonathan becomes suspicious of Dio's excessive care for him and is certain that he has ulterior motives, especially after discovering an old letter written by Dario Brando on his deathbed requesting Lord Joestar to care for Dio. In his letter, Dario described his symptoms, which were identical to Lord Joestar's mysterious ailment. Jonathan believes that Dio must have poisoned his own father and plans to do the same with his father. Jonathan confronts him about his suspicions, and Dio decides to dispose of Jonathan before he is exposed.

During one of their initial scuffles soon after Dio's arrival at Joestar Estate a few droplets of blood splattered an ancient stone mask which Lord Joestar acquired left hanging from a wall in his vast mansion. When touched by blood the mask did "animate" extruding several bony hooks which, had anyone been wearing it on the face, would have pierced his skull at several points. Only Dio and Johnatan witnessed the fact and while the former maintained it to be nothing more than an instrument of torture and death the young Joestar started researches in the fields of Archaeology and Etnology to find the history behind the artifact. Dio reasoned that if he made Johnatan wear the mask and then activated it his ensuing death could have been feigned to be a 'research accident' due to his known interest towards the artifact.

However, to be assured of the lethal effect of the mask, Dio experiments with it on a drunken beggar he finds in the dilapidated London boroughs he frequents to replenish his stash of poison. To his horror the exposure to the mask's bony hooks not only doesn't kill the 'subject' but rejuvenates him transforming it in a vampire. Dio is saved by the monster's attack when it is bathed in sunlight and dies.

Returning home, still shaken from the recent events Dio is surrounded by police constables summoned by Jonathan, who in a daring raid to "Ogre Street" managed to befriend the honorable criminal Robert E. O. Speedwagon and to obtain from him the address of the merchant from which Dio obtained his poison. Fighting ensues and Dio, cornered, uses the mask on himself, becoming an unstoppable vampire and killing George. After a long duel Jonathan is able to burn down the mansion, apparently, with Dio inside. However, Dio survives, and takes off to plot his revenge. At this time, Jonathan meets an Italian man called Will A. Zeppeli with a strange power called the Ripple (波紋, Hamon?), which is basically a martial arts technique that allows the user to focus bodily energy into other kinds of energy via proper breathing (they focus it into the energy of sunlight, which is effective against vampires). After teaching Jonathan how to use the Ripple they set out to seek and defeat Dio, being joined by Robert E. O. Speedwagon, who helped Jonathan discover the plot to poison his father.

Their chase takes them to the village of Wind Knights Lot, where most of the villagers have been turned into zombies by Dio. Joining a young boy named Poco, whose sister was kidnapped by Dio, they fight their way to his castle while encountering Bruford and Tarukus, a pair of legendary knights resurrected by Dio. Zeppeli sacrifices himself in order to save Jonathan along the way. He transfers his remaining Ripple into Jonathan before dying. Zeppeli's Ripple master, Tonpetty, and his two disciples Dire and Straizo then show up to help Jonathan and Speedwagon go on. Eventually, a fight between Dio's vampiric abilities and Jonathan's Ripple ends with a loss for Dio, but not before Dire is killed.

However, Dio tears off his own head before the Ripple power could reach it. Jonathan and company destroy the stone mask the next morning, having protected the town. Shortly after the events in Wind Knight's Lot, Jonathan marries Erina and while on board a ship to America, notices Wang Chan and follows him straight into a trap by Dio (now nothing more than a severed head), who had snuck on board the ship within a special coffin. Dio reveals to Jonathan that he plans to kill him and attach his own head to Jonathan's body before arriving in America. Although Dio manages to mortally wound Jonathan in front of Erina, Jonathan uses one last Ripple to attack Wang Chan, using him to jam the ship's engine to trigger an explosion.

As he urges for Erina to flee, Jonathan is further wounded in the ensuing explosions by shrapnel from the engine. In a final attack, Dio ensnares Jonathan with tendrils from his neck and attempts to decapitate him, only for Jonathan to stab him with the shrapnel and thwart his assault. Jonathan holds Dio's head in his arms, reflecting on their fate as the ship begins to sink. Dio demands to be let free, only to find that Jonathan has already died from his wounds. The ship explodes with both men inside as Erina escapes in Dio's coffin, pregnant with Jonathan's child and protecting a surviving infant whose parents were killed in the attack on the ship.