Warning: Mention of the depression in the final parts.
Allenamento II:
Forza, resistenza e controllo.
(Training II:
Strength, endurance and control).
Giotto breathed as deeply as he could, giving himself a few seconds of rest. Unlike the first times, he no longer felt his arms and legs shaking (or rather, his whole-body trembling). Likewise, he no longer felt tired so quickly.
And it wasn't just him who was starting to improve. Cozzato was also managing to keep the same amount of gravitational force on him. The first times it happened that he would increase the gravity more than he should and cause Giotto to fall due to his inability to withstand such a magnitude. (Giotto had fallen enough times to be unable to move well for a few days. Even the first time he fell when Cozzato's power was upon him, Giotto had ended up at the bottom of the river and not being able to swim for air for a couple of seconds. Cozzato had apologized about ten times for that).
Giotto looked up. Were his eyes failing him, or was the distance to the top too short? His heart pounded with emotion. He inhaled deeply one last time and kept moving.
When his hand touched the top, he pushed himself up. He exhaled. He looked around, kneeling on his knees.
"He did it," he heard G's voice. "He really did it."
"With everything and extra gravity," this time, it was Cozzato. "With everything and extra gravity force!"
Giotto blinked a couple of times. The extra pressure that had been following him since he started climbing disappeared, and in that instant, Giotto stood up.
He was at the top.
Almost in disbelief, he peered down. There, he could see G and Cozzato. Cozzato also looked tired (after all, he had been using his powers constantly thanks to his crazy idea), but he had a huge smile on his face; encouragingly, he swung his arm from side to side. G looked at him with a subtle smile of pride on his face.
While Cozzato and Giotto trained together, G taught Elena how to shoot with a gun.
The most complicated thing had been to find a place where she wouldn't risk attracting attention or shooting someone by accident (whether it was a person or an animal). Luckily, they managed to find a place where she could aim at rocks without fear.
Elena was someone attentive who listened to his advice and corrections. Don't hold it like that; you might hurt yourself. Hold the gun steady, or the butt may ruin your stance and hurt you too. Aim calmly; desperation is not an ally.
Both she and he would have liked more time to practice, but unfortunately, Elena's situation hadn't changed: she still had to sneak around unnoticed, and she still had to schedule her visits farther apart than she would have liked.
However, the good part (as she tried to say it) was that being at home, she was still finding information.
Her brother Flavio was also helping her. It didn't take the boy long to notice a change in his sister's attitude, and after thinking about it, he understood what she was doing. He said nothing and simply helped her with whatever he could. What was someone asking about her? She was asleep in her room, she shouldn't be disturbed, she was tired! Did her dress look a little dirty at times? It had been his fault; he had played with her and unintentionally pushed her.
She thanked him. And he would just smile and ask her to send his regards to the others. If only they could be together without fear that those guys would do something.
Soon, she wanted to think. Soon.
Part of the new information Elena had discovered was an alliance the Reale's had with another family. That family called themselves Lontanni and had been enemies of the Origine since even before they started calling themselves that way. Giotto and G almost stopped breathing when Elena told them that they had been against Ambizio Ghizenetti years ago, and a particular acquaintance of theirs was part of the group.
It was Salvatore's family. The ones who had been used by Corneille years ago to get rid of Ambizio and get the bullets. The ones who had chased them that day.
It was no surprise that this group was allied with the Reale; they shared a common enemy: Origine. And as a sign that together they could overcome them, it had been them, both families, who had attacked Franco (whose store was in Origine's territory). The Origine had reacted and had attacked stores that were in the Lontanni's territory.
They wanted to start a war; Giotto understood. How many innocent people would they take among them if they did? They had to stop them before that happened. Before a senseless slaughter began.
There was a chance to do it. Advocating their status as allies, the Lontanni met each month with the Reale. Lately, they did so to ask for help as they had problems in their territory. A new enemy had appeared that, although small, turned out to be incredibly powerful. Giglio Nero, they called themselves.
Elena still didn't know the location where the meetings were taking place, but if she managed to get it and the exact day and time, then...
Then, they could stop both.
Cozzato cocked his head to one side.
"Yes, G says I can defend myself well enough, and now it's up to me how to proceed."
"Perfect," Giotto smiled. "So, do you mind continuing to help me?"
"Do you already have the next phase of your training?" Cozzato asked.
"I do," Giotto said. "I need you to fight me."
"Fight with you?"
"A false fight, of course," Giotto clarified with a nervous smile. "Like what you did with G to prove you learned. Attack, block. Only between us. And we would use the flames so we could get used to them."
A dual training, Cozzato understood. A sort of controlled environment in which to test what their attacks would be like in a fight. As with any new training, there could be risks, but so far, they had managed well until now.
"Sounds good to me," Cozzato agreed. "When do you want to start?"
Giotto looked away with some embarrassment. "If it can be right now it would be great..."
Cozzato couldn't help but let out a small laugh. For sure, Giotto had thought about that since before the end of his previous phase, but he had been embarrassed to ask. He had to make him understand that he could ask him anything he wanted; after all, they were friends.
"So, let's do it," Cozzato answered with a smile, putting himself in a defensive position. Giotto looked at him for a few moments with surprise, then smiled with satisfaction.
"Thank you," he said. Seconds later, he asked. "Ready?"
Cozzato focused on Giotto and nodded. "Ready."
From one second to the next, the energy around him changed.
Cozzato's eyes widened in surprise as he noticed how, in what he considered to be the blink of an eye, Giotto had gone into the hyper mode and had approached him at an impressive speed.
Reacting, Cozzato also went into hyper mode and stopped the blow with his hand. The earth beneath them cracked, and his arm shook. In front of him, Giotto moved again. Cozzato managed to detect his intention in time and moved backward to dodge the kick aimed at him. The wind that arose due to the force of the movement caused him to move back more than planned.
Before Giotto could go against him again, Cozzato concentrated and increased the gravity where his friend was standing. Giotto stopped in mid-motion and fell to his knees on the ground; however, it didn't take him long to manage to get up, overcoming some of the force of gravity on him.
Cozzato couldn't help but stifle a slight exclamation. Since when...
Since when had Giotto become so strong?
"It seems that climbing cliffs worked," Giotto commented. "The second stage is this: Endurance. And you don't know how glad I am that you can also use this mode, my friend. What better than training with someone who has the same characteristics as you?"
Cozzato swallowed. However, he also smiled.
Fighting with Giotto would also serve him to control his power. They would both help each other.
"Then come at me with everything you've got. If you can get rid of my gravity, of course."
"Oh, I will. Don't worry about that."
When G woke up, he noticed a sweet smell in the air. It was still early, so he left his room without making noise and looked for the source of it: the kitchen.
Piero was there, finishing pouring a couple of coffees, a glass of milk, and several small slices of bread with jam and butter (still hot, it seemed. That's where the smell was coming from).
"Good morning, Giovanni," Piero greeted him, noticing his presence. "Did you sleep well?"
"Everything good, thanks," G answered. "Did you do this?"
"I woke up in the early morning, and I couldn't go back to sleep. So, I decided to make breakfast at once."
"Should I go wake up Giotto and Lampo?"
Before the accident, Giotto and G rarely saw Lampo because their schedules didn't fit in with the boy's. When they had breakfast, Lampo slept. When they were doing their academic homework, Lampo ate. Even though they lived together, they didn't see each other's faces much. That had changed since the attack.
Lampo had grown fond of Giotto to the point of waking up early so he could eat with him, of trying to finish his homework so he could go to him and tell him what he had learned, of seeking him out to play. Of course, doing that usually also meant spending time with G as well, making everything even more fun.
If Giotto was the understanding big brother, G was the demanding one. G wouldn't let Lampo make excuses to avoid doing his tasks, wouldn't let him have sweets if he hadn't finished his homework. It was normal during breakfast to hear Lampo yelling as he complained to G to give him his candy or he was going to throw a tantrum.
It wasn't that they didn't get along. G didn't hesitate to reward him when Lampo did things well (as when he solved a math exercise quickly, G had given him a small candy as a reward, which Lampo had looked at with surprise but a gleam of satisfaction in his eyes). It was to G that Lampo usually went (albeit reluctantly, and the first time encouraged by Giotto) when he didn't understand an exercise. There everyone noticed that G had a talent for teaching: he was patient and tried to explain things in the way the other would understand. Lampo used to bother G to pay attention to him and chase him, thus playing with him. Their dynamic was just different.
"It's not necessary. We must wait for it to cool down a bit before calling them to the table," Piero answered. "Giotto sleeps more and more. I think his training is more tiring now."
"You have no idea how much," G commented. When he went to see them, Giotto was fighting with Cozzato in the now so-called hyper mode. And call him crazy, but it seemed to him that the ground underneath them was totally shattered.
"It gives me time to show you something," Piero said. "Would you accompany me to my studio?"
G tilted his head curiously and nodded.
"Elena told me about the difficulties you have had," the older one commented as he walked towards the destination, with G at his side. "Even though you have already made the design for the parts you want to add, you don't have the material to make them."
G had designed the reinforcements he could put on his gun to make it flame resistant. He had spent days checking possible options, looking at books, drawing one after another of possible components. When he finally had the best one, he was faced with another problem:
What was he supposed to make them with?
Elena had agreed to try melting a ring and from there making a mold. The flaw was, of course, that they had no rings. She simply couldn't steal those from that family, it was too risky, and they would undoubtedly doubt any member of her house. (She was able to do her experiments thanks to the rings being intact, and she only had to return them when they didn't notice).
"It's not her fault," G hastened to say. Elena had felt so bad about not being able to help more that she had been crestfallen for a few days. "Stealing the rings is very dangerous. They could hurt anyone; those guys don't know reasons."
"I agree with everything," Piero said. "That's why we are here."
Piero and G entered the studio. G watched curiously as Piero opened one of his desk drawers, taking a small box out of it.
"I looked for them after the accident at the opera," Piero explained. "I had gotten rid of them; I was too scared, and just seeing them made me want to cry." He shook his head. "However, when those mafia guys came here with intentions to kill if they didn't find information or rings, I understood that I was endangering anyone who had them. If anyone is to suffer the threats, let it be me, who was to blame in the first place, I thought."
"What do you mean?" G asked, "Why-"
G couldn't finish speaking. Piero had opened the small box and showed him the contents of it.
Rings. Four rings.
"When I found you and Giotto after that massacre at the estate, I decided to get rid of them. I didn't want to have anything to do with those grim affairs anymore; I didn't want to put you in danger. I gave them back to the person from whom I initially got them. Of course, that person doesn't know what they are capable of; he is simply the owner of a large jewellery store who thinks that these little things are, in fact, worthless."
Piero smiled, albeit in a sad way.
"After what happened at the opera, I thought about the possibility of looking for them and hiding them elsewhere. If the mafia had traced me, they could also trace my previous steps. Those people have no mercy, and if they knew that the owner had rings that could serve them..." it seemed that even talking hurt him. "I was having nightmares for a while about that. I don't want more people to end up dead because of me."
"You could have asked us to help..."
"You had already done a lot for me. You are still doing it," Piero smiled. "I managed to get them back two days ago. A week after Elena told me about your problem. So..." Piero handed the box to G. "Now they are yours. They should work for what you want; these rings work with the red flame."
Ambizio had probed them, G understood. Maybe he had asked Piero to keep them before he went power-mad and ended up threatening him. Perhaps that was why the Reale's went looking for Piero; somehow, they could have learned that fact; they just didn't know that, at that moment, he didn't have them.
"Thank you," G said. With that, he could get on with his own training.
G took the box in his hands, and at that moment, he felt that Piero was trembling.
"Giovanni," Piero called him. His eyes were shining as if he was about to cry. "Promise me you'll be all right."
"I promise," G said. "I promise."
One of the things G thought about before he closed his eyes, never to open them again, was that promise. One of his last thoughts had been directed toward Piero.
That thought had been 'I'm sorry. I couldn't keep my word.'
"Are you sure?"
"Sure," Giotto repeated. "Just have the mold ready. I'll take care of melting the rings. I've discovered another very peculiar aspect of my flame. I suppose it could also apply to the others, although I'm not sure how."
"What did you discover?" Elena asked.
"One of the factors of energy is that it is constantly changing, isn't it? And it can even accumulate, so to speak. Look at this."
Giotto made his flame appear in his hands. It was his standard light orange color.
"I call this the normal form. The one I usually use for fighting," Giotto explained. "It looks a lot like real fire as it has a high temperature that can burn. However, it isn't the only form that exists."
Seconds later, the flame in his hand became less intense in color and seemed to disperse, becoming barely visible. Elena and G looked at it curiously.
"This is the soft form," Giotto continued. "It doesn't burn; it's rather warm. It can be achieved when you concentrate a small amount of energy, and its composition makes it ideal for covering large spaces quickly. I believe it's this form that Miss Sepira used during the attack when she turned those guys into stone."
Giotto changed the flame in his hand again. This time, it glowed bright orange and looked so dense that anyone could have sworn you could hold it in your hands as if it were an object.
"This is the hard form. It's the one I believe can be used to melt the rings," Giotto commented. "It has a much higher temperature level than normal and, therefore, also of destruction. What I do is concentrate more of my energy on a single point."
"The rings can withstand large amounts of energy without being destroyed," Elena said. "And I understand the manufacture of the bullets had to be done in another country because of the machinery conditions needed. At what temperature can that flame burn?"
"Well, we'll find out now," Giotto said. "G, give me the ring. Bring also the mold you prepared."
G handed him what was needed. Giotto inhaled and closed his eyes for a few moments; when he opened them, he made the hard flame appear in both his hands and covered the ring with them. He had concentrated even more energy than usual in the hope that it would work.
After a few seconds, both G and Elena stifled a small scream. Giotto smiled.
The ring was melting.
"How is this possible?" Elena exclaimed. "Those rings can even withstand the power of several lightning bolts together without getting a scratch!"
"I don't want to know what temperature your hands are at right now, Giotto," G commented.
"Now it's quite useful, but I'm afraid it can also be dangerous," Giotto said with a touch of sadness. "The temperature is already very high in itself. If someone combines this with something else to raise its power... It would be something incredibly destructive. It could wipe out objects in a matter of seconds."
Giotto wouldn't know it, but that time, he described what his own brother's flame would be.
Riccardo was the first person to use a combination of flames. Instead of using both separately, unconsciously, he unified them. With the sky and the storm, he created The Flame of Wrath.
Combining the heat of the sky flame with the destructive power of the storm's flame, Riccardo could turn almost anything to ashes. Although some people dared to question this fact in the future, referring it to mere exaggerations, the words were true.
"Never mess with The Fear of the Underworld," people would say, "Unless you want to get a taste of the flames of hell."
Speaking of flames. Giotto had also discovered that hard flames were the best for propulsion. The concentrated energy they had made them perfect to be used as a kind of push to move at high speed.
It must be said that discovery caused Cozzato a lot of problems during the training battles they had. Cozzato had to learn to use his powers faster, more intuitively, because otherwise, he could hardly stop Giotto with the speed he had.
Their confrontations at the beginning were relatively short. They couldn't maintain that state and that use of energy for more than a few minutes. The more they fought, the longer they managed to hold on; the more endurance they gained (and more bruises on their bodies).
That day, they weren't sure how long they had been fighting. They were both too focused on each other to notice.
Giotto used the flames to propel himself backwards. A meter in front of him, the ground cracked due to the extra force of gravity. Without wasting any more time, Giotto pushed himself forward and gathered his strength to attack Cozzato.
Cozzato reacted and lowered the gravity on himself to become lighter and jump quickly, thus dodging Giotto's blow that ended up breaking the ground. In that movement, Cozzato increased the gravity where Giotto was, who this time received the extra weight, but, even so, he was able to move to make a half turn and try to attack Cozzato.
If it was a matter of strength, Giotto was already able to withstand gravity as if he were breathing.
Cozzato stopped the fist with his own and smiled at him.
"Not bad. No matter how hard I try, I can't get you to stay still."
"I say the same thing," Giotto remarked. "Besides-"
Giotto fell silent. Cozzato looked at him curiously.
"Giotto? What's going on?"
"Cozzato, stand back!"
Giotto stepped back, and Cozzato did the same. A few moments later, in their midst, a torrent of red flames passed by.
Cozzato let out a small scream. Giotto turned to the right.
"You've been hitting each other all day, do me a favor and stop it now."
"G!" Cozzato complained. "What was that?!"
"Don't worry, I didn't concentrate the flames enough to harm you. If anything, you would end up with your shirts half burned."
After Giotto melted the rings and G was able to create the extra parts he needed, he had modified his gun to achieve what he wanted: a firearm capable of shooting flames.
The idea was basic. All G did was make it resistant, no more. But that alone was enough. With its usual disintegrating ability, his flame made him capable of destroying everything from walls to giant rocks. G had practiced trying to manage the amount of flame he put into the gun and its power (being inspired by Giotto's explanation of normal, soft, and hard flames). It had to be said, G had a good control of his flames to even give them a kind of shape: thinner or larger, more concentrated or diluted. It was complicated in its own way, but he was succeeding.
"All day?" Giotto asked. "Have we been here all day?"
G cocked his head to one side. "You started in the morning, didn't you? Look at the sky now."
Both Giotto and Cozzato turned to look at the sky. It was already dusk, that's why G had gone to look for them. In a short time, the night would fall on them.
"So..." Cozzaro mentioned, "Have we been fighting in this mode for a whole day? Because I don't feel tired or anything."
"I don't feel tired either," Giotto commented. "I think I could last even longer without a problem."
G arched an eyebrow. Cozzato and Giotto screamed with excitement and hugged each other while jumping up and down.
"We have endurance!" they shouted in unison.
Strength was the first stage.
Endurance was the second.
The third would be control. Understanding the energy that ran inside oneself.
Giotto and Cozzato separated again. Cozzato decided that the best thing he could do was to continue practicing his control of gravity on small and big objects, faster and more precisely. For that, he had even bought a couple of books that he thought might help him. Even in his house, he could do that, but he would go to the waterfall whenever he could.
Giotto had no problem; after all, the idea he had for the third stage in himself was too experimental. He wasn't sure it would really work, but he had to try.
Understanding how the energy worked on him was more complicated than he imagined. But in the end, it was something that allowed him to create his signature technique.
One that allowed him to seal in more than just flames, but the energy itself.
Giotto inhaled deeply. He tried to calm himself. He tried to concentrate on his breathing and the way the energy flowed into him.
His idea wasn't so bad; Elena had confirmed it. Now, he just had to try to put it into practice.
'Positive and negative energy?'
'You said that there are types of energy, didn't you?'
Even emotions themselves could be categorized like that, Giotto thought. The positive ones, the negative ones, the ones that are a middle ground. If there is happiness, there was also sadness as its counterpart. If there is hope, there is also despair—something positive and something negative.
With his eyes closed, Giotto released dying will flames. He no longer felt pressure but how all the energy coursed through him, a sensation that at times could even tickle.
Then, he tried to bring his mind to another kind of thoughts. He remembered the sensation he felt when he was enclosed in that bubble of blue flames. The anger. And then…
'If the flames are made of energy based on will, what happens if I change their base? If I use something contrary to will to counter the flames themselves?'
If the mafia used flames, the best thing to defeat them would be to use their counterpart. The best thing would be to use the contrary of the flames.
If you wanted to extinguish the fire, you would not use more fire.
'Of course, these are all ideas. But I still…'
'Try it. It has its logic, it's a natural balance. The numbers themselves work with positive and negative ones. And you know something? It's the negatives that have the most uses. They can eat the positives if they want to, so to speak. If it works, you could come up with something unique.'
He remembered the feeling of being about to die. When he was shot, and everything faded away. When he was on the ground and watched the fire eat everything. His eyes closing. His breathing disappearing. But this time without will, without hope.
'But what is the opposite of will?'
'I think I have an idea of what it might be.'
The flames were fading. Giotto could feel it. Yet, the energy was still there. He could still feel it flowing through his body. The energy was always there.
It was just transforming.
He felt somehow heavier, with a sense of oppression, a sense of almost desolation. It wasn't a surprise; the negative emotions were just the ones that had the most power and seemed to take us with the most force. How horrible it was to be in sadness. How hard it was to feel pain. Those kinds of feelings took more energy out of us, left us more tired, weaker.
That was also why he decided to get the strength and endurance he needed. Without it, he wasn't sure he could even manage to use that heavy negative energy.
The energy in him was changing. It felt like it was oppressing him. He felt that even breathing was becoming more difficult.
How could he get it out? How could he use it? He tried to do it, just as he was doing with the flames, but-
Giotto staggered and fell to his knees. He opened his eyes, trying to control his agitated breathing.
It was more complicated. Negative energy was harder to control. Somehow, it also hurt more.
But he had to control it. Negative energy. The opposite of will.
Emptiness. A state of void.
That last stage of the training was the most difficult of all. Giotto was all that time without his usual mood. It seemed that his inner light was fading.
G had been worried to see him like that: tired, down, even pale. Whatever he was doing seemed more like it was slowly killing him. He had gone so far as to ask him to reconsider what he was doing.
Giotto had tried to smile and told him he wanted to keep trying. He was getting closer and closer; he could feel it. Although, also, every day, he felt more desperate. The feeling of desolation was becoming bigger, and it even got to the point where he began to have trouble getting the flames out again.
It was at that moment that he cried in one night while locked in his room. He felt like he couldn't take it anymore. He felt too much pressure. He felt his chest hurt. The negative energy and getting to it was too difficult. It caused a tightness in his heart that he had only felt in small moments in his life:
Sadness. Hopelessness.
Giotto was never capable of deceiving G (nor G to him, it had to be said. They knew each other too well, after all, they had totally opened to the other because it was thanks to each other that they finally stopped feeling lonely). That night, when Giotto was crying with helplessness, was the same night when G knocked on his room.
G was by his side. No matter how crazy it was. No matter how dangerous. G was always by his side.
"It seems to me that you forget something important, Giotto," G told him. "Not everything is totally positive, and not everything is totally negative. You feel pain because you know what it's like to be well. You can recognize the darkness because you have already seen the light. If you feel sad, it's because you were happy before."
Everything good had something bad; everything bad had something good. It was a lesson Giotto would also learn with Ugetsu. Interestingly, Ugetsu and G seemed to understand that. One of the reasons why they would later start to get along.
"There are emotions that are even a mixture of both. For example, nostalgia: a mixture of happiness and sadness. You remember happy times, but you feel sad because they won't come back."
What is nostalgia but a mixture of happiness and sadness? Giotto and Ugetsu would remember that throughout their lives.
"You can't use the negative like that. You need a little base. To have a light to help you endure the darkness."
G had helped him to develop his most incredible technique. Without G, Giotto was sure he would have given up.
A base. A little light.
Because everything good has some bad; everything bad has some good. That was balance. That was the harmony of the world.
When Giotto tried again, he thought about that. He didn't let the positive energy die out completely. Because sadness was necessary, but so was being able to be happy afterwards. Because out of despair could come hope. Because even on the brink of death, he had been able to rise.
Balancing positive and negative energy. That was what this technique would be.
When Giotto finally got what he wanted, it was the time when the waterfall where he was training had been transformed for a few moments into a frozen lake.
Energy was not just the flames. Energy was everything that surrounded the world.
And what Giotto used was pure energy. Energy that allowed him to seal another. Because if his flame was a key, that meant it could also lock and not just open.
"You want me to do what?" G asked. Cozzato, next to him, also looked surprised. "You're not seriously telling me that you called Cozzato and me for this, are you?"
"Partly yes," Giotto answered. At least he looked as cheerful as ever, G thought. He was back to his old self.
The day before Giotto had come home smiling, shouting with excitement. When he saw him, Giotto hugged him tightly and kept repeating, 'Thank you, G. Thank you so much.' G hadn't understood what was going on, and Giotto just said that he would show it to him the next day.
"It's also to tell you that we already have the information we needed: the date and the place where the Reale and the Lontanni will meet."
"What?" Cozzato staggered. Just hearing that made him nervous.
"I think it would have been better to say that instead of asking me to shoot you with my flames," G complained.
"But that's to show you what I've accomplished. Didn't I promise to do it?" Giotto smiled. "That way also Cozzato sees the results of the third phase."
"But Giotto-"
"Trust me," Giotto asked. "I promise nothing will happen to me."
G hesitated. Shooting his best friend was not something he found attractive to do. But Giotto looked confident; he had no doubts.
And G trusted him.
In the end, G sighed but nodded. He loaded his flames, took aim, and fired. At that moment, he could feel Giotto's aura change for a few seconds. And then...
Cozzato yelped in surprise and then burst out laughing heartily. G threw down his gun due to shock.
His flames. The torrent of flames he had shot was now-
Ice.
Giotto had turned the flames to ice in the blink of an eye.
"I call this the Zero Point Breakthrough," Giotto said with a smile. "And it comes just in time for our battle."
The training Tsuna does in Varia arc is based on the training Giotto invented for himself, only without the bullets to help speed up the process. The second phase involves fighting someone else to gain endurance. Tsuna fought Basil, who also has the hyper mode and made it challenging; so I thought, who did Giotto fight to make it equally difficult? My answer was: with Cozzato. He also has the hyper mode, and I thought it was great that Cozzato helped Giotto in his training; it would show how close they were.
In Tsuna vs Xanxus battle, the dynamic to be able to use the Zero Point is explained. To use it, it is necessary to be in a state contrary to the hyper mode, a state of zero will that they mention is like a void, and to reach it, a significant amount of energy is needed. From there, negative energy can be used to create ice. A state of "no will" and "emptiness" must not be an amiable state of mind, and Giotto had to go through that alone.
Also, a little reminder that it's mentioned that G usually used guns that he had modified and that the bow was a gift from Giotto. Following that logic, the firearms were G's first weapon, to later use the bow.