Arabia Fats, user of The Sun, attempts to thwart the group in the Arabian desert but is discovered and easily defeated. In Karachi, Steely Dan (Rubber Soul in the American version) uses The Lovers to hold Joseph hostage, forcing Jotaro into the role of personal manservant. Enya Geil, mother of J, attempts to use her stand ( Justice) in an attempt to avenge her son, sending an army of animated dead after Polnareff and Jotaro. En route to Pakistan the party battles Wheel of Fortune, a car Stand controlled by ZZ. Joseph is infected with a boil that turns out to be the Empress, a Stand controlled by Nena, but outsmarts the cancerous foe. Geil, but Abdul is apparently killed by Hol Horse, who flees the scene. Polnareff avenges his sister by slaying her murderer, J. Geil, the man with two right hands and the user of the Hanged Man, a Stand of light that attacks from mirrors. In Calcutta they encounter the team of Hol Horse, user of a gun Stand called the Emperor, and J. Devo the Cursed ( Soul Sacrifice in the American version) uses his Stand, Ebony Devil, to accost Polnareff in Singapore, while Rubber Soul and his Yellow Temperance impersonate Kakyoin before attempting to consume Jotaro. Accompanied by a stowaway girl, the group boards an abandoned freighter but discover that the entire ship is a Stand called Strength, controlled by an orangutan. The heroes take a ship to Singapore but are forced to battle the aquatic Stand Dark Blue Moon, controlled by an assassin who has murdered and impersonated Captain Tennille, who sinks their ship. Jean-Pierre Polnareff, user of the swordsman Stand Silver Chariot, challenges Abdul in Hong Kong but is eventually freed from Dio's control, joining the group to avenge his sister.

On a jetliner the group is ambushed by the insectile stand Tower of Gray, forcing Kakyoin to prove his worth. Kakyoin, freed by Jotaro from Dio's mind control, comes along to help the group. Star Platinum's keen eyesight helps the three determine that Dio is somewhere in Egypt. Joseph and Abdul determine that unless they kill Dio within fifty days and thus break his Stand's influence, Holly will die. Her Stand appears as ivy growing from her body, but because she lacks the fighting spirit to control it, the strain of its activity begins to slowly kill her. It is soon discovered, however, that Holly has developed a Stand. Kakyoin's Stand, Hierophant Green, possesses a nurse and attacks Jotaro with its Emerald Splash maneuver, but Jotaro defeats him soundly. Dio vows to destroy the Joestar family and sends a student, Noriaki Kakyoin, to dispose of Jotaro. However, Dio's Joestar blood linked him to the rest of the family, and thus when Dio began to develop a Stand, Joseph and Jotaro did as well. When he sank to the bottom of the sea, Dio attached his severed head to Jonathan Joestar's body, using his new body's energy to remain alive. Joseph reveals that Jotaro's and his own Stand, having both manifested recently, appeared because of the reemergence of Dio Brando. Jotaro's Stand, named Star Platinum, possesses incredible precision and strength Avdol's Stand, known as Magician's Red, can control fire Joseph's Stand, Hermit Purple, manifests as thorny vines that allow him to manipulate cameras and other mediums, capturing images from a great distance. Joseph reveals that Jotaro's 'evil spirit' is actually a Stand, a manifestation of psychic power.

A battle ensues between Abdul and Jotaro in which Abdul manifests his own evil spirit, using it to provoke Jotaro out of the cell. Joseph Joestar soon arrives with his friend Mohammed Abdul. To demonstrate, he takes a gun and shoots himself in the head, but the bullet is stopped by an arm shooting from his hand that only he and his mother Holly can see. He is put in prison after beating up three armed men and a trained boxer, but he refuses to leave, claiming he's possessed by an evil spirit. Jotaro is a troublesome student given to getting into fights at school and antagonizing his teachers.

Jojo stardust crusaders