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The following is a fan-based

FICTION

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Chapter 7: The Treasure in Pink, Part 1

The boat finally reached its destination, and Bruno decided to take a few precautionary steps before getting the treasure.

Giorno wasn't sure why this was a must, but he decided to keep quiet and listen. Why he knew the basis of how criminality worked, he didn't know much on the way the mafia handled that kind of delicate operation. He was still a rookie when it came to deeds of this kind, and he saw it more as an opportunity to learn and grow out of these experiences rather than be stunted by his own boredom and thirst for action. It would come to him, it was destiny for him to see violence before victory… so why rush it?

"Zucchero is known to have a partner. A more level-headed individual that is known to be the 'brain' of the group if needed," The leader of the group elaborated. "Thus, we need to find him. Mista-"

"Yes boss?" The gunslinger inquired, ready for the task he was soon to receive.

"You will reach this address," Bucciarati continued, handing out a small piece of paper with the address written on it. "While… Giorno will make sure that our target is distracted. Be wary that he isn't as gullible as Zucchero. He will put some more resistance."

The blond paused over the exchange, his glance briefly poised over the unconscious body owned by Mario Zucchero. Abbacchio had been particularly aggressive with his means of interrogation but failed to crack the attempted saboteur due to his inability to 'break before bastards', while Bruno's cold-hearted but calm approach managed to easily shred through the mental resilience shown by the older gangster. The result was now that they knew that Zucchero hadn't come to try and steal Polpo's treasure alone. His partner, Sale, had been involved in this kind of affair and was waiting for his 'friend' back in the island. It wouldn't have been safe to try and approach the location of the money without cleaning up any threat along the way. And that's why they had to kill Sale before being set for their current goals.

A nod later, and Mista was off to take care of the last obstacle left between them and Polpo's impressive treasure. Still, there was a minor issue as the young Giovanna would immediately learn with Bruno's own request to sit with him and Abbacchio in front the radio system of the boat. As the rest of the group remained on the boat, Giorno was soon instructed on how to man a radio the spot by a serious-sounding Bruno and an annoyed Abbacchio. To be fair, he wasn't exactly experienced with this kind of technology. The commands were far more complex than expected, but nothing that he couldn't learn with some good advice. From time to time Sakura would drop some words about it, having some basic knowledge of this specific device herself since her father tended to use it a lot during research on the field.

The notion that his father's enemy was actually his 'ally' by relation felt incredibly odd. Not unpleasant, but easily away from a fully positive news. Sakura was still nice, and she spoke highly of the man that is Jotaro Kujo. He always imagined his father the way his mother remembered him: ambitious. And she had been right… in most part. Dio Brando was an ambitious monster, something that shocked him when he learned of this from Sakura. Still, Dio Brando… wasn't him. He grew an ambitious plan not for the sake of dominating others, but to help.

Sakura admitted that his goals were purer than Dio's and that he shouldn't be tied back by that kind of fright. In a way, he could understand. It had been so simple to ignore his mother and his step-father, so why should it be difficult to do the same with… him? He thought about it, and thus Giorno conceded that it wouldn't be wrong to be ambitious to also cleanse the tainted roots of his bloodline. This 'Brando' was more of a Joestar than else. And maybe he was worrying himself too much about a possible encounter with him, but for now his real concern was elsewhere.

Giorno eventually grasped the purpose of the various buttons he was meant to use, and soon he got hold of the line which the target was going to use to keep in contact with. Soon the line was joined by the target, Sale, and Giorno did his best to mimic not only Zucchero's voice but also his speech pattern. A boisterous and hotheaded bastard, that wouldn't be something too difficult for Giorno to come up with due to the experience he had with this kind of people. He spoke, trying to sound distracted, loopy, kind of unable to keep attention on the matter beyond the current objective: money.

"I got them. I swear, you were just lying about how tough they were," The blond muttered dully, catching sigh out of his current interlocutor.

"You should have just waited for me rather than ran off like that. You still owe me for the fright you gave me a while ago," The partner rebuked with an irritated voice, clearly failing to spot the difference between Giorno and his now unconscious partner. "Seriously, leaving the car still running with me inside? Were you trying to kill me or what?"

"Bah, you're just a fighetta(1) if you really crapped your pants for that."

"Everyone would be scared of being suddenly left to die by a mad bastard such as yourself, you utter stronzo(2)."

Narancia held back a snicker at the crass exchange, with an irked Fugo glaring at the device while smacking the teen's back of the head. Sakura frowned harshly at the radio, while Abbacchio and Bruno ignored the brazen language to focus on the success of this trick. Soon Giorno took a pause, looking to the side as he saw Bucciarati giving him a look and a nod. Mista was in position, and it was time to have Sale's full attention on him as the gunslinger took care of his objective. So, how about raising the heat some more?

"Well, if you really want to get something back about it, how about we play it off. Poker or Blackjack?"

"Ah, why the fuck would I want to play some gamble you can cheat to win? Plus, what would you get out of it, more money?"

"Meh, I knew it. You were always been a scaredy little turd, but now this confirms it."

"Oh, fuck you, you incredible-"

Sale didn't get the chance to finish that sentence as three shots rang from the other side of the call as Mista struck at the opportunity offered by the fake call. Giorno remained quiet, hoping that the assassination had gone through as intended. Soon he heard a loud thud as something big landed on the ground, with softer ones, footsteps, slowly approaching towards the other radio and the transmitter was picked up.

"Bastard is dead."

Mista, he thought quickly, not hesitating in passing the transmitter back to Bucciarati.

"Good work, take what valuable objects he had on himself and get back to the boat."

"Gotcha, boss."

The call ended and Bruno drew a breath of relief before glancing at Giorno. "An impressive move, Giorno. Your worth is improving thanks to these efforts."

A respectful nod. "Thank you, Bruno."

Abbacchio snorted, but turned away before anyone could have asked about this kind of reaction. As soon as Narancia understood that it was over, he rushed up to Giorno and begged him to teach him how to mimic other voices, citing some pranks he needed to do on a couple of people. Fugo's deepening frown and glare told Giorno it was best to avoid getting involved in that kind of matter, and decided to reply that-

"It's not exactly something one can replicate. I would say it's just something I was born to use like this."

"Aww, not even some advice, Giogio?"

...Giogio? Isn't that… familiar?

Blinking at the unexpected nickname, he was saved by Sakura after retrieving a pack of cards off from her jacket's pocket.

"Does anyone want to play Sette e Mezzo?"

The request took them by surprise considering she was a foreigner and she was the one asking for that kind of local game of cards. Still, the shock subsided as the idea of passing the time doing something sounded way better than sitting and thinking. Narancia jumped at the chance, Fugo joined to 'prevent disasters and make sure the rules were respected' while Bruno and Abbacchio joined out of boredom from the looks of it. Giorno happily sat down and started to handle the cards, slowly but surely enjoying the little wait before Mista got back. In the mean time, he also learned from Sakura as they played that 'her friend' was going to get to Capri quite soon and that she would be… odd. 'Fun odd', she argued when Fugo inquired about the kind of oddity this individual was and… Giorno wondered, maybe out of curiosity, what kind of fun odd was going to be meeting his cousin's friend.

Caren Hortensia… and why did that name get a frustrated reaction from Abbacchio each time it was brought up?

A slight inconvenience.

That's how Caren saw it when someone actually tried to scam her with the intention of stealing her luggage. Here she thought about giving Naples an olive branch ever since someone tried to do the same with her father back when they last visited. She remembered the vicious retaliation at that point, and how her father had taken enough precautions to cover his traces but... this situation had tended into something more tragic than what Kirei Kotomine did that few years ago. Humming quietly as she wandered the now silent halls of the base she just took over, the young faithful girl grimaced over the blood staining her Black Keys, the liquid leaving in small drops off the edges of the blades as she checked to see if every room had been cleaned up.

Yes, Caren just went in a killing spree and she was happy about the list of kills she got. Of course, not just for the kills (not as much as the other reasons at least… okay, maybe a tiny bit more than the rest), but also because she felt compelled to help those within the buildings, the imprisoned souls, while also freeing Naples from part of the sleazy grasp holding it corrupt and hurting. The poor citizens… 'saved' by a girl from Rome. Amusing, should she start calling herself 'Balilla' as a vigilante name?

Another amusing detail was how it all started with a scumbag trying to trick her into something scandalous. She might be young, but she was tremendously far from stupid. So much that the silver-haired teen had gone through the effort of not only teaching the unfortunate sinner that blocked her path, but also those associated to him within the city. In a sense, she was also to blame. After all, Caren could have just intimidated him to stop and be done with it. But then… she realized an issue with that kind of mindset. Not only she would allow a foul person to live and try the same thing with someone else that couldn't defend themselves from him, but she also knew that her face would be remembered by the local gang and turned in a target to eliminate for the 'slight' she inflicted to their gang.

Citing Machiavelli, 'If an injury has to be done to a man it should be so severe that his vengeance need not be feared'. Finding the base was simple through some intimidation on her part. Who would have known that being faced by a young girl armed and capable of using sharp blades could draw so much fear out of grown men? Nonetheless, she ventured inside, slicing her ways through aggressors, sinners, hopeless souls and… freed the rest.

Children that were forced by some binding favors to do some scummy dealings? They were free to go home with part of the money stored inside the building to help their families. Abused prostitutes that were 'caged' by the lecherous fools within that place? Given expensive clothes held in some crates by the near warehouse to replace their rags and set free to seek help from God by the nearest churches as she felt they would find the light if they accepted God in themselves. The drugs she found together with other trade goods? Caren learned that these crates were highly flammable as soon as her 'little' fire saw a fiery explosion rip apart most of the building once she was done setting up some explosives all over the place plus some gasoline she found around.

Caren huffed at the result of her hard work as she stared at the fire consume the corpses and the unconscious bodies of those that were part of Passione and had kept operating the base in there. A tragic accident, but one that would be shown to be perpetrated by a faceless vigilante. After all, who would be sane enough to pit all of this in a young church girl that looked cute to everyone that spared her a glance? Speaking of cute, Caren's attention was once more aimed at her current goals and the thoughts that were entertaining her as she got off from the train.

Sakura was going to Capri, a modest island off the shores of Naples. It was a pleasant tourist destination, but also one of those 'safe havens' where the local mafia was known to have set some 'respectful businesses' to make the best out of the flow of foreign people coming by. Finding a boat to reach it was slightly tough due to the assumptions she was 'too young' to get through, but a quick look at her money made the owner of that section of the docks change his mind and give her a free pass with one of the smaller boats. He was going to move it himself, what a nice man, but he seemed a bit 'worried' when she mentioned any attempt to annoy her were going to be met with 'just retribution'. While also showing one of her Black Keys in the process.

The journey was going to take just a few hours, enough for them to make it to the nearest docks in Capri while also getting to understand by phone where Sakura was moving next. She had a quick exchange of messages with her friend and… she had to pause a few times when she remembered that there was something that Caren had rightfully kept her in the dark about. Mostly because it wasn't something she felt confident of bringing up by phone. She had to tell her by person. The fact that the plum-haired girl was taking this trip with… a relative of hers was odd. She wasn't speaking of Sakura's cousin, no. Caren was talking about… her relative. Someone that father never told her about and that had left her in the dark for so long. It wasn't even something he did on purpose as he explained, arguing that this decision came straight from her mother's last will.

It was decided to not mention him or even try to drag him back to the family due to some affairs within the Hortensia group which had seen his father leave out of disgust and disinterest for the familial business. It wasn't like Caren couldn't blame her deceased uncle for being disappointed by the sternness of his family, not when Caren herself had experienced that kind of unpleasant attitude from her maternal grandparents. And she could easily say that living with her father and grandfather was much easier than that, but also kind of 'refreshing'. She could understand her father, he understood her, while her previous guardians just couldn't get anything out of her 'weird' attitude without thinking she was doing things on purpose to draw attention to herself.

Her father knew what to say or do to make her happy, but also teach her about life, about growing tougher and protect those emotions she was so unsure how to use at times. So, when it came to her uncle and… her cousin, she knew that they had the rights to pick their decisions in case she found the latter. He was with Sakura after all and it sure made for an ironic coincidence considering her friend did this trip to find 'her cousin' too. What really made this case unique compared to that was that Caren had a solid reason to seek out and see what her cousin wanted to do with their blood relation.

After all, her cousin was the one from which her mother found a name to give her, and that, Caren knew, meant a lot for her.

AN

Caren joins the gang next time and… 'About the first section': The reason why Sale was easily killed was because he had no idea that Zucchero had been captured. In the original timeline he was alerted by Zucchero, and ITTL he didn't have that advantage. Mista had an easy job in killing the distracted Stand User.

Of course next chapter will add new threats to the plot. Let's just say that Arcueid's being awake might have stirred some inactive figures to be moving around and causing messes around the country. And Magi are on the move too…

Glossary:
1) Fighetta: Little Pussy (Italian swear word);
2) Stronzo: Turd (Italian swear word);

REVIEW Q&A!

Pablo Zapata: Yes. At least two unexpected characters will die.

Barrytrey0430: I would say it depends on the situation. Requiem isn't just a complete 'boost' of abilities, that would be a Stand's personal growth in power. No, Requiem is more situational, such as why Giorno's Requiem had the perfect counter to a BS ability like King Crimson's.