DISCLAIMER

The following is a fan-based

FICTION

F/SN, F/Z, F/KPI and other products related to the Fate Series are all owned by TYPE-MOON, Kinoko Nasu and Takashi Takeuchi.

All Parts of the JJBA are all owned by Hirohiko Araki.

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Chapter 6: Meet the Gang, Part 3

It was morning, and Sakura sure didn't like the idea of stealing from the dead, no matter how much of a bastard this Polpo sounded to be from Giorno's own narration.

Sure, this money was necessary in a way to prevent issues with the rest of the gang now that Bucciarati was meant to retrieve the money and give it back to Passione, but it still felt like stealing since the money should have just been returned to innocent people.

Her morals, sadly, weren't meant to be heard or even accepted. Not in a situation where pragmatism truthfully didn't care about those. Thus, while she had many reasons to lament their current situation, the plum-haired girl knew better than to waste air in this situation and focus more on the strange conversation she was having with Narancia.

The slightly-older teen was of average height and gangly figure. His childish face, coupled with his messy dark hair with bangs over his eyes could easily bring up the wild and unruly nature within his personality. At first, Narancia had given off the impression of a girl.

A girl with a masculine and athletic body. The real elements that gave off that awkward wrong assumption was tied to his girly face and some outfit choices that, from an angle, could easily create that erroneous perspective. Sporting a dark, slim tank top and pants, he also wore lighter accessories which included an orange bandana, wrist bands, and a short skirt.

"I'm just saying that it's a cool dance. Mista and Fugo say so."

"But still, I don't want to say it's not because I've never seen it but… 'torture dance'."

He chuckled nervously at her honesty. "Well, it's named like that because it's generally used to torture bad people. When it's done by me together with the others. It's incredibly effective."

Was it? Sakura wasn't up to subjected to it regardless of the brief coaxing from Narancia himself to give it a shot. In fact, it was way too early to even consider that kind of psychological abuse onto herself. The plan to reach Polpo's treasure was simple.

Pick a boat, get to Capri and retrieve it from the location where Bruno knew his former boss had left it. The real issue was that any news about bosses' deaths spread fast and there was a chance that other members of Passione were going to try and get to it before them. Competition was favored within the gang, no matter how unhealthy it was to inner affairs, so it was clear they were going to face 'supposed allies' along the way.

Still, first step. Bruno mentioned that he had enough money to get a small boat meant for a calm and discreet trip from the port out into Capri's beaches. A small thing with little detail put into it compared to many others of the same kind but… as Sakura glanced at it, she couldn't help but find something about it was wrong. Especially when Bruno told them about a curious element when he gave the name of the boat.

"We will pick Lagoon 2 since Lagoon 1 is being repaired."

It sounded fairly simple- no, it was meant to be a simple and insignificant detail. The only reason it remained within her mind for as long as it did was mostly tied to her passion for sea-faring businesses. Fishes, boats, submarines and all that kind of stuff she inherited as an interest from her adoptive father. Sakura didn't have a 'problem' as Caren would normally say about her constant need to pull trustworthy people into learning about the sea and its natural beauty, she just had a healthy curiosity about it. And yet, the plum-haired girl found an issue about this very detail when they approached the right boat. An issue that was actually tied to the empty spot where Lagoon 1 was meant to stay anchored to be repaired on a later date.

"Mr. Bucciarati, the boat. Something is wrong about it."

Her voice came out clear, holding a degree of seriousness as it became evident that something was really wrong about it as Lagoon 1 wasn't there and… it should have been. Sure, there were instances where boats were removed from this section of the port if the damage was that extensive, but looking at other possible cases like this one, it just didn't feel like this was the truth.

All empty spots had some tags near those saying 'Attention! Ship 'Insert Name' has been relocated for long-term reparations'. In the empty spot where Lagoon 1 was meant to be, there was nothing of the sort.

Mista frowned, glancing at the boat with a confused look. "What about it? It seems like a normal boat."

"The boat is… technically fine, but where is Lagoon 1?" Sakura elaborated, gaining a couple of odd looks from the rest of the group.

Fugo walked to the side, checking the empty spot where the aforementioned ship was meant to have been stored. "It's not… here? And there is no sign to say it was taken away."

"Which means that it had been either stolen or… something else happened to it," Giorno guessed with a perplexed look.

"That's… not alright," Leone muttered quietly, his attention back on the boat they were meant to board.

"Narancia, bring out ｢Aerosmith｣ and check for anyone inside the boat," Bruno ultimately ordered, the young man nodding as his Stand, which took the form of a monoplane fighter aircraft, manifested and took flight from him so that Narancia could use its secondary ability. A small red device manifested in front of the User's eyes, giving him what looked to be a radar of what his Stand was picking up. It took very little for a strangely 'big' signal popped into the screen and Narancia nodded at his capo.

"There is someone in there, Bruno."

The gang was instantly alarmed by this situation. How did they find out which boat they were meant to use if they had just got it?

"Bribery," Bruno hummed dryly, knowing that, while the owner of these boats had been honest about Lagoon 2 being the closest available, he definitely got told to give them this one as this was where the ambush had been set up for them. It was also quite flagrant that the one ambushing them was confident in their skills of dealing with them despite the numerical advantage.

There were a few names that came up to him, but only a few he knew would definitely prove more frustrating than others. And that was for those he knew which Stands they had. There were a couple of 'unknown factors' which could easily be behind this current mess.

"Narancia, can you gun them down?" Bucciarati inquired of the teen.

"… I don't think so."

｢Aerosmith｣'s bullets weren't meant to pierce through sturdy surfaces like the one within the ship. Sakura knew of this since Narancia wasn't one to keep things like that a secret. Yet, it was still an effective method to… do something drastic as she would soon learn.

As the rest of the group remained watchful over the scene, Sakura's gaze followed Bruno as the man walked up to a small storage depot where a few gasoline tanks were. He picked one and dragged it up to where the ship was. With a single motion, he threw the tank into the middle of the lower section of the boat and walked back.

"At my signal, Narancia, you shall shoot the gasoline tank."

The sudden order caught everyone off-guard.

"But Bruno-"

"It's alright, we will buy a new boat if this means taking care of the fool that decided to try and put a trap in this one," Bruno interrupted Mista's protest, giving a quick look and a wink to Narancia. The young man's eyes widened at the gesture, but nodded as a smile formed on his face. It was all a ploy, at least that's what Sakura could tell from that silent interaction. "We can't afford to let anyone close to the treasure. So, a little money wasted will not matter. One..."

Sakura blinked, her eyes moving back to the boat.

"Two..."

Everyone tensed up at what will ensue from that trick. Maybe the gangster inside was going to see through that lie and make things more difficult on them. Much to her relief, that's not what happened. Quite the contrary actually.

"And three-"

"Gyah! I don't want to- DIE?!"

The exclamation was loudly expressed as two strange phenomena unfolded. First, the boat itself groaned as Lagoon 1 suddenly manifested from Lagoon 2, the hidden ship suddenly ejected to the side where it was meant to be; then, a panicking man emerged from Lagoon 2 and tried to jump back into the pier… only for ｢Sticky Fingers｣ by the neck.

The dangerous man was of average build and height. He kept his green hair attached in an odd-looking ponytail that pointed straight back before curling at the end. His outfit was made by a long sleeve collarless shirt with spikes on his shoulders, sleeves, and back. His long trousers reached down and covered his feet, acting as a pair of boots from the looks of it.

As Bucciariati's Stand pulled his fist away, it revealed a zip around the foe's neck which suddenly unraveled and detached the man's head from his body. Shivering in fear at the situation, the green-haired mobster glanced to the side as Bucciarati approached him with a calm and collected pace, grasping him from his hair and pulling him up.

Bruno delivered a sigh as he stood eye-to-eye before their supposed foe. "Mario Zucchero, I didn't know someone from Rome would join us here today."

"B-Bucciarati. L-Let me go."

"You know better than me that this isn't going to happen, Mario," The calm capo remarked. "The rules are clear. You came here, trying to kill us for Polpo's treasure. I think you will stay with us and tell me more about your plans."

Gritting his teeth, Zucchero was unable to do anything as his body was tied up and thrown into Lagoon 2, with Mista, Giorno and Fugo keeping watch over it while Abbacchio and Bucciarati tried to interrogate Zucchero. There was much to ask out from the now bodiless head, starting with how he had learned of their plans to take a boat to Capri and how he knew of Polpo's treasure being somewhere in Capri.

As much as the former boss was known to have loose-lips with some secrets, his treasure was known to be the only thing beyond their leader's identity to never be mentioned. He just never brought it up if not when it came to those members he could rely on. Bucciarati was the only one he trusted since he had been the one that helped hide away the treasure, and that trust wasn't misplaced with how things turned out.

Much to their growing displeasure, the hardened gangster wasn't one that cracked no matter how rough they were with the verbal and physical abuse. Before too long, the head was ditched back into their sights… but it fell right near to where Narancia and Sakura were sitting. A massive grin appeared on the teen's face as he had 'just the right thing' in mind to get the man to talk. Soon, Narancia was setting up his stereo with odd music and as the song started, the young man was dancing to it's insane tune.

Is this… what is this?

Sakura had expected many things about that torture dance, imagining it being either too atrocious with its step or the music too illegible and difficult to understand. But what she got instead was worse. A good kind of worse at that as the song started to get catchy after a while. Fugo and Mista were instantly captured by the tune and were flawlessly following Narancia's lead with his bizarre steps and moves.

In the matter of a few seconds, the plum-haired girl was now trying to follow their own steps, getting a few amused reactions from the trio of young men as she failed miserably to follow their pattern, It was just too difficult to keep up with due to how detached each step was and how flexible one had to be to make through the dance without any issues. Giorno tried too, but while he had a better grasp of it, he still failed to get all the steps right.

Despite the frustrating teasing, Sakura and Giorno accepted Narancia's offer to teach her how to do it properly as they were on their way to Capri. At least they had a good way to pass their time there as the rest of the gang minus Bruno was engaged in this very activity, while Zucchero was subjected to endless torture dances, some done right, other done horribly and goodish.

Sakura might have been a little less pleased with the occupation taken by the group, but she sure could tell that they weren't terrible people by the end of the day. That and the fact her body was a bit more flexible than she thought. Maybe she should have really accepted Great-Grandpa's offer to train in Hamon with Great-Great-Grandmother.

And as the journey to Capri started with quite an interesting development, someone else waited within the small island with a bored expression due to her current situation.

Trish Una was definitely despising her current restrictions, but she couldn't do much about it. Capri was such a lame location to check out.

Maybe it was her tiredness that made her this much stingy on the situation, but she knew better to whine at the moment. Pericolo might look like an old man, but he was sterner than Polpo and she knew that, in a way, it was a good thing.

While Polpo had been compliant to her requests, no matter how childish and expensive those were, but she knew the overly-obese man had done so out of physical attraction than loyalty to his own boss. It had been quite unpleasant, so the whole change of pace with someone like Pericolo felt particularly good and bad at the same time.

Good because the weary short man wasn't interested in her beyond as a person of interest to keep an eye on. Bad because he refused to comply with any minimal request if this wasn't tied to what was necessary to her like simple water, some snacks and public bathrooms to handle any needs to be alone.

It was still an improvement, Trish admitted to herself, as she was being treated as she had expected early on when she was taken in by Polpo. It wasn't the worst, yet she was now a proper prisoner as far as she could tell.

The only expectation she had right now was that the mop she had to use didn't break. Yes, to prevent anyone from catching her, Pericolo had her go through the hassle of being the janitor for a public bathroom near home. It had been quite the unusual imposition, but one that surprisingly paid her off well. Literally.

The old man was kind enough to let her get a wage due to the labor. She might be 15, but she knew that the situation dictated she had to work to protect her identity and get enough cash to keep herself afloat in case the new group meant to protect her failed to arrive or died after taking her in their care.

For now her main focus was to clean, clean and… clean. No matter how disgusting it was and how horrible the conditions of the public bathroom would get each day, she knew that it could be worse for her. Trish knew it could, especially when her mother made it clear that her life was in peril for merely existing.

Her father, the Boss of Passione, was a man with many enemies despite his face being far from known. He was an unknown name in her birth certificate, and the source of interest that had drained out by the time her mother passed away. She could still remember the times she would just sit by her mother's lap, looking at the kind brunette and pestering the poor woman about him.

"Who is my father?"

"A handsome man."

"But who is he?"

"A busy man."

"But… who?"

"He is someone. And it's better we don't distract him from his work."

The many times she asked her single parent would just result in that never-ending deflection which left her younger self even more annoyed. All kids at school had a father and a mother, while she got just a mother that would only let her know that her father was alive, busy and handsome. But that wasn't something she cared about. She wanted her father, as a child, that was one of her greatest wishes. To have a complete family.

Right now? That dream had been ignored for so long and heard so little about to be legally considered dead and long buried into the deepest pit of her 'don't care, don't ask' hole within her mind.

Trish just didn't care if she ended up with her father, which should technically protect her from any kind of trouble, but she knew she didn't have much of a choice due to her parentage and the many individuals that wanted to take a shot at the leader of the strongest Mafia group in Italy by killing off what was left of his family.

So, as much as she wanted to know who was the bastard that ditched her and her mother, Trish was more worried at living through the infamous reputation behind his name and deeds. She just wanted reasons, an explanation, maybe even a free shot at slapping him left and right. Punching and kicking too. But for now, she had to wait and keep all that frustration inside for the time she would need to use it all in a single moment.

Of course, knowing her luck, this just wasn't going to be an easy thing for her to achieve but… she had a good feeling she was going to get what she wanted by the end of this crazy odyssey.

AN

Ah, if only things were that easy…

REVIEW Q&A!

Nantono: You may hate her for what she did, but it was personality dictating that move as much as 'scene-ruiner' it was. She was there and her reaction acted as something to change the canon development. It happens at times. Still, the character in the second half is physically stronger than ｢King Crimson｣ but unable to stop his abilities. In fact, the only one that could if she gets enough time to copy that, is Sakura herself. And even there, her limits tied to that ability would make her unable to stand against someone as fierce as Diavolo in a fight.

Guest 1 (Chapter 5): I believe GER would be troublesome with all minus Foreigners/Beasts/Zelretch, while Tust ACT 4 would be a deadly opponent in a fair fight. Keywords being 'fair fight' as an all-out assault would see Johnny easily overwhelmed regardless of how strong ACT 4 is.

Guest 2 (Chapter 5): Well, Araki styled his fashion from Gucci. In fact, he is know to have drawn some characters with real Gucci clothes. So, I guess she would find those highly-stylish in their flamboyant purpose.

Guest 3 (Chapter 5): There are multiple Aokos and Zelretchs, but I guess some would know of Funny Valentine due to his Stand's actions. Funny himself? No. I think that his ability to travel through dimension is still limited to a degree compared to both Nasuverse's characters.

Guest 4 (Chapter 5): The first known case of Stand that the Church has recovered was back during the Fourth Holy Grail War (Fate: True Bizarre) where Jotaro was forced to reveal the existence of those entities due to an old foes making a comeback and proving to be too strong to be taken on by rusty Jotaro. Zelretch already knew of those and brought the news up to some top Magi with the oath of not revealing anything before the end of the Grail War, but to also classify those as limited and the process to attain one impossible to replicate.