JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Part 7 takes place in completely different universe from the orginal. However, the story includes many references to the orginally series, mainly the concept of stands.
Steel Ball Run is the seventh part of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, serialized in Weekly Shōnen Jump in 2004 and in Ultra Jump between 2005 and 2011. Set in the U.S. in 1890, the story follows Johnny Joestar, a paraplegic ex-jockey, and Gyro Zeppeli, master in a mystic art named the Spin, as they compete with a vast number of others in the Steel Ball Run race: a mad-dash across America for a grand prize of 50 million dollars.
Steven Steel, promoter, holds a press conference to present the Steel Ball Run: a multi-staged horse race across America with a grand prize of $50,000,000. Gyro Zeppeli is introduced as he registers his entry. He challenges a thief in a duel and makes him shoot himself by throwing a Steel Ball at his opponent's shoulder. Interested, a bystander in a wheelchair touches the still spinning Steel Ball in its holster, and momentarily stands up. That man's name is Johnny Joestar, a former genius jockey who became paraplegic after a petty fight, ruining his life. Amazed at the miracle of the Steel Balls, Johnny insists that the Italian reveals him their secret but Gyro refuses. Johnny buys a horse anyway and enters the race. As the race nears its beginning, Gyro, impressed that Johnny dares come to the starting line while being dragged by his horse, gives him a hint about spinning. Just as the race begins, Johnny manages to mount his horse.
The Steel Ball Run begins. Steven and special guest board a train to follow the first stage. As the racers begin to move, Steel explains that the race is divided into nine stages separated by checkpoint cities. Gyro quickly goes ahead of the racers and amazingly beats two of the favorites, Urmd Avdol and Diego, thanks to the power of his Steel Balls. He is then quickly challenged by Pocoloco, encouraged by his Hey Ya! and emboldened by his uncanny luck. Gyro tries to stop him but only manage to slightly endanger Sandman as the Indian suddenly appears climbing down a cliff. Using a unique running technique, Sandman becomes the frontrunner but Gyro, Pocoloco, Johnny and Diego manage to catch up. The race ends in a mad dash where technique, luck and endurance sway the outcome for a bit just before Gyro turns his cape into a sail to catch the rear wind, Gyro seizes the first place.
The first stage ended, Gyro suddenly receives a penalty due to having endangered Sandman's life earlier in the race. He is relegated to the 21st place. After exacting a petty revenge by ruining Steven's party, Gyro accepts to have Johnny follow him and teaches him a first lesson: what matters is the Steel Ball's Spin itself. The second stage of the Steel Ball Run begins, this time, the racers have to cross 1,200 km of desert. Gyro immediately takes a dangerous shortcut and Johnny has no choice but to follow him. Later, Johnny, Gyro, and the cowboy Mountain Tim make camp and Johnny makes some progress in the Spin. They are then attacked by Andre Benjamin and L. A. Boom Boom, and Gyro realizes that his leg was magnetized by the Stand Tomb of the Boom. Tim presents his power he calls a Stand, which he acquired by stepping into a Devil's Palm, a moving phenomenon granting people Stands. Benjamin Boom Boom uses his Stand to immobilize them and prepares to deal the finishing blow. But Johnny then awakens his own Stand, Tusk, as they were in the Devil's Palm without realizing it. Johnny kills Benjamin and incapacitates L.A., who reveals that they were hired to kill Gyro and is promptly left in the desert.
At Johnny's insistence, since Gyro reveals his past. He is a citizen of the Kingdom of Naples, who has learned the Spin from his father and has worked as an executioner. For his first execution, Gyro had to behead Marco, a little boy condemned by mere association with a treasonous lord. Gyro objected at Marco's execution and thus was proposed to participate to the Steel Ball Run race, as winning could spur the King to proclaim a general amnesty, otherwise the prize money was enough to pay for Marco's appeal. Gyro accepted.
A flashback presents Joseph of Arimathea, a man who descended Jesus Christ from the Cross. Joseph of Arimathea drew a map depicting an unknown land and several points of interest. About to reach Monument Valley, the duo is attacked again by Pork Pie Hat Kid, one of Valentine's Subordinates. He captures Gyro and isolates Johnny in the open but Johnny's Stand, Tusk, appears to help his user escape. Tusk performs a miracle where Johnny was able to move his legs temporary, it is revealed a corpse part of a saint had merged with Johnny's right arm. Johnny realizes the Steel Ball Run's true purpose was to collect all the corpse parts. Johnny manages to save Gyro and defeat the enemy. Having seen the miracle performed by the corpse part, Johnny subsequently diverts his attention on the Saint's Corpse and convinces Gyro to help him.
During the final dash of the second stage between the top racers, Johnny discovers the location of the next Corpse Part. Meanwhile, Lucy Steel, wife of Steven Steels, discovers president's plot and sees the Heart in his possession. Gyro and Johnny meet with Diego who's acting strangely since an earlier fall. Soon, Diego transforms into a raptor and infects Gyro and Johnny. Johnny is the only human to face Dr. Ferdinand who explains that his Scary Monster was controlling every dinosaur so far. Unexpectedly, Johnny abandons his Left Arm and partially transforms to toss one of the Eyes at Gyro, who is then cured and acquires the new ability Scan. Dr. Ferdinand is incapacitated and then eaten by cougars. However, Diego escapes with the Left Eye and keeps his dinosaur abilities. In a later battle, Johnny is shot in the head but is healed a stand user named Hot Pants
Lucy infiltrates a governmental building and steals the message it carries. Almost surprised by Valentine and his henchman Blackmore, Lucy has no choice but to call Mountain Tim for help and they both escape incognito. Lucy then goes to retrieve the Spine at a local landmark known as the Green Tomb. However, Blackmore discovers Tim's involvement and kills him while his rain-controlling Catch the Rainbow. He then discovers that Lucy was the culprit and rushes toward her location as she uncovers the Spine. The duo then meets Lucy and Blackmore almost at the same time and a fight ensues. Catch the Rainbow immobilizes Johnny and Gyro, but the latter manages to throw a Steel Ball on Blackmore by evaporating some raindrops. Blackmore dies from his wounds, and the Spine enters Johnny's body as the weather calms itself, and the next Corpse part's location reveals itself to the duo. The duo has also Lucy to steal the President's Heart, Gyro lending his Right Eye to enable this.
Near the Mississippi, Gyro and Johnny are attacked by a combination of Diego's dinosaurs and a strange power which produces effects like cutting or burning whoever touched an affected object. The duo has to flee to the river. Johnny reminisces his sad youth, notably how he blames himself for his brother Nicholas' death and how poorly his father treated him. Considering that the universe is making him pay for his assumed unwitting murder, Johnny loses hope as his Stand proves ineffectual. An angry Gyro reminds him that Johnny isn't close to master the Spin and introduces the Golden Rectangle, a ubiquitous proportion which is used to form a perfect and infinite rotation. Sandman reveals himself and fatally injures Gyro. On the brink of despair, Johnny realizes that the Golden Rectangle is naturally present in the environment and upgrades Tusk to ACT2. An even shootout ensues, but Johnny surprises Sandman with a bullet made from Gyro's belt and kills the Indian. Suddenly, Hot Pants appears and knocks him out. She steals all the Corpse Parts but in return heal Gyro and Johnny.
145 km West of Philadelphia, Gyro and Johnny are lured by Hot Pants to a local garbage dump inside a building. Gyro and Johnny are attacked simultaneously by various objects they have regretted throughout their lives. Suddenly, Johnny witnesses Jesus telling "not to shoot if he doubts, then a new path will open to him". When Johnny goes back into the garbage dump, Axl RO, an agent of President Valentines, uses his stand Civil War to materialize objects of guilt including the specters of people. Nonetheless, he suddenly understands Jesus' hint and shoots himself unlocking ACT3. Gaining the ability to travel into the wormhole created by the spinning nails, Johnny gains the upper hand and grabs the Corpse from afar. Suddenly, Axl RO is shot in the chest and Funny Valentine reveals himself. The President seizes the nearly all the Corpse Parts and departs before Johnny can attack.
Hot Pants has disguised Lucy Steel as the First Lady and infiltrates the president's room. Lucy manages to steal all the remaining corpse parts. Valentines realizes that his wife is an imposter and attacks until the corpse parts all merge inside Lucy as the corpse's head begins to form inside the body. It is revealed that Valentines has the ability to travel to parallel dimensions. Later, Lucy Steel wakes up and escape due to a mysterious voice. Meanwhile, Gyro asks Johnny to abandon the chase for the Corpse Parts, considering that they've lost. However, Johnny stands up briefly, showing the evolution of his legs, and reaffirms his will to get hold of the Corpse. Gyro accepts to help him and reveals the last level of the Spin, which can be used only by the most skilled horse riders, harnessing the power of a horse to combine with the rotation. Lucy has been guided to the river by the voice but realizes that Valentine had lured her to his ship.
She and Valentine are to go to the last "X" mark on Joseph of Arimathea's map. However, Diego and Hot Pants meet and agree to cooperate and follow a trail left by Lucy, themselves followed by Johnny and Gyro. Diego and Hot Pants eventually catch up to Valentine who's boarded a train with Lucy. A vicious fight ensues as Diego and Hot Pants try multiple times to kill Valentine, culminating in Diego's death, cut in half by the train's wheels. Meanwhile, Gyro and Johnny notice that strange space distortions keep happening around them. In the train, Lucy Steel is turning into the Corpse itself. The space distortions also cause Hot Pants's death when debris converges into her heart. Having been observing the events, Valentine uncovers the true nature of this power: there is a gap into space which only he can enter and manipulate. Gyro throws a Steel Ball, to seemingly no effect. The duo can only stop Valentine's wagon and retreat temporarily. It is then that Gyro exposes some hair attached to the Ball he's thrown. If they harness the rotational energy of their horses when they run according to the Golden Scale, Gyro and Johnny will reach Valentine. Both charge the wagon. The President defeats Johnny first and forces Gyro to waste a Steel Ball to save his partner. Meanwhile, Johnny sees Valentine's ear stuck on the Steel Ball, and realizes that Valentine didn't notice his wound. Near the water, a wind gust does make Valentine realizes that he's missing his ear, and as Gyro rushes toward him, the President finally grasps the danger the Spin.
Gyro strikes the real Valentine with the Steel Ball imbued with the Golden Spin. Gyro's new stand Ball Breaker passes through the wall with the Spin energy and induces senescence in Valentine's cells, while Gyro is shot in the stomach. Unexpectedly, Valentines survives.
Gyro passes on to Johnny a mysterious speech, his lesson 5: "The shortest route was a detour." Gyro dies and Valentine empties his revolver on his corpse then attacks Johnny. The president injures his horse making Tusk unable to use the Golden Spin. Johnny wastes all but one nail but at the last moment understands Gyro's hint. Using the Steel Ball on his horse, Johnny triggers the horse's reflex and gets kicked into the air with the power of golden rotation unlocking the final evolution of Tusk. Tusk ACT4 forces its way into the dimensional gap then pummels D4C with enough force to form a crater on the ground at the bottom of which Valentine escapes. The President soon discovers that the Golden Spin is following him no matter which dimension he flees to and despairs. The President reappears in the base world but admits his loss and proposes Johnny to bring back Gyro Zeppeli. At the end, the jockey is nearly convinced but believes that Gyro can never truly come back. A final shootout ensues between the jockey and the President, which Johnny wins. Johnny witnesses a final apparition of Gyro's ghost and says his farewell. He then puts a final nail bullet in Valentine's head, killing him. Valentine's body is dragged underground by the Spin, and all traces of him disappears.
After healing everyone, Johnny realizes that the Corpse has been stolen by a last unknown enemy, identified as at least a Steel Ball Run contestant. Johnny pursues his final foe. Johnny catches up to the mysterious culprit, and confronts Diego Brando, alive and well. To his surpise, Diego now wields the time stopping Stand THE WORLD. Valentine has convinced an alternate version of Diego to fulfill his goal in his place. The advantage switches between Diego and Johnny until Johnny joins the rest of the racers on the Brooklyn Bridge for one final attack. Both perform their plans but although The World's leg is hit by the rotation, the Stand cuts it and throws it at Johnny who's now imbued with the Golden Spin. Incapacitated, Johnny is powerless as Diego wins the Steel Ball Run and head to the safe in which the Holy Corpse will be put. In the shelter Diego meets with Lucy, who kills Diego by fusing his head with the original's head. The Saint's Corpse belongs to nobody after alternative Diego's death.
After a brief narration of the after effects of the race, Johnny embarks on a boat to give Gyro's corpse back to his family, in which he meets his future wife Rina Higashikata. Johnny gives one last prayer, and smiles as he goes to Europe to bury his friend.
