Reviews:
Guest: Well, there's a lot of stories that focus on Naofumi being a vindictive little bastard, but I don't really like writing overly angry protagonists, so I based mine off of a more kind mannered center and went from there. If you want a more dangerous protagonist, my other RotSH one-shot featuring Yoshikage Kira as the shield hero will probably have a lot more of what you're looking for.
mellra: I already did that actually! Its a one-shot I made titled The Shield Hero Wants To Live A Peaceful Life where Kira is the shield hero and some major changes to canon happen. Even though there's been a decent amount of support to continue it past a one-shot, I don't really want to go through the effort for that, especially with this story returning soon. More on that in the notes tho.
LEGOBRICK13: Yeah, that scene is super fucked up, straight up. You gotta paint the actions of the three idiots in a serious light as much as the anime just tends to pass up on it. If Naofumi hadn't fixed all their fuckups, a lot more people would have died or serious dangers would have fallen on the world. The Plant monster and dragon disease in particular. I'm really glad you enjoyed this story enough to read it twice, I appreciate the support!
Kristal Mukherjee: So it would seem :)
White Album: Requested by Resilience335
The hum of the car filled the silence between the three as the group of stand users began their journey to Venice. The boss had given them another piece of information that would lead them to their last and final clue to the boss's location, which would finally enable them to drop off Trish to her father and complete their mission. Inside the plain brown car was their newest member and resident healer, Giorno Giovanna, the sharpshooter and one of the luck obsessed members, Guido Mista, and the older brother of the group and by far their strongest stand user, Naofumi Iwatani.
Where the car would normally be filled with calm and kind conversations, instead tense silence filled the space as it was easy to tell that Naofumi was quite pissed off. Giorno, despite being very new to the group, had already managed to understand that not only was this rare, but this wouldn't be fun for either him or Mista.
Giorno sighed, might as well nip this in the bud and get it over with. "Naofumi, why did Bruno assign you to our group? Wouldn't you have been better suited towards guarding Trish?"
Naofumi scoffed at the reminder as he whirled around to Giorno in the driver seat, "That is exactly what I said Giorno, but Bruno thought it would be better for me to join you to retrieve the file instead, since Narancia can do my job but better. Apparently it's better to see an enemy coming from afar than be able to escape any enemy, which is absolutely ludicrous but whatever, I've given Bruno enough shit since Trish joined us so I'll go with his decision, even if I think it's a shit one."
"But isn't it better to know an attack is coming than to try to avoid one when you don't know it will hit?" Mista joined in the conversation.
"Sure! That would be a great idea if we could actually tell who the enemy is! We have no idea since all Narancia's stand can detect is carbon emissions. I'm not ragging on Narancia at all, but it isn't the best use of his stand," Naofumi argued.
"Well by that logic, shouldn't I have stayed behind to heal Trish from any wound she might get?" Giorno asks.
"No, it's best if you're here with this group in case we encounter an enemy that-" Naofumi stops at Mista's knowing eyes, "Oh fuck off." He crosses his arms and slumps against the window.
"I think you just want to be with Trish some more, Naofumi." Mista wiggles his eyebrows tauntingly, getting a bit of a spurt of laughter from Giorno.
Naofumi sighs, "That's not it and you know it. She's had a hard life already, what with being hunted by the mafia since she was born and I just want her to know that not everything has to be about that fact." And with those words, the mood dulled down once more.
"He just threw away his life like it was nothing…" Naofumi murmured from his seat.
The scene was difficult to forget. After giving the team information on the disc in Venice, Pericolo, without a single modicum of regret of any expression, pulled out a revolver and shot himself in the head, bringing about the end of his life. It was perfectly replayed by Moody Blues and they got to watch it all firsthand and up close.
Mista struggled to speak, his lips parting to speak only for nothing to be uttered before trying again. "He said he lived a long, wealthy and happy life thanks to the boss, but if he was willing to throw the rest of it away so easily, I don't think he truly lived a life worth living," Giorno spoke.
Trying to salvage something from nothing, Giorno turns the volume on the car's radio up. And so they rode in silence for twenty minutes, listening to the radio and Mista's occasional joke which mostly failed to make anyone laugh, but points to him for trying.
"There hasn't been any sign of enemies and there are no other cars on the road," Mista announced.
"I'm all for that, but does it really have to be this damn cold in the car?" Naofumi grumbled, "What do we even have the heat set to?" A quick glance told him that apparently the heating was on and was shooting air out at 80 degrees Fahrenheit.
A cool feeling of dread washed over Naofumi as realization came over the three members of the gang. Mista with a missing finger, Giorno with the photo, and Naofumi with the nonsensical heating.
"It wasn't hard to tell you're going to Venice," a new voice pierced through the quiet chatter of the car's engine, "All it took was a little cleanup in the computer and we had the photo the old man tried to burn."
"Dammit Mista, shoot him already!" Naofumi cried out, Mista taking some aim with his face stuck to the glass of the window and firing through the roof of the car. The bullets hit their target but Sex Pistol was quick to see that their enemy had been completely encased in ice, the bullets only reaching partway through the thick armor before coming to a complete halt.
"Where's the turtle? I don't see it anywhere," Ghiacco pointed out. "If Trish isn't here, then it means you've bothered to split up and there's something the boss wants you to get from Venice." He smiled greedily, "You can't escape the hitman team that easily!"
"Shit… goddammit I hate dealing with the cold!" Naofumi shouted as Wireframe appeared, "Giorno, keep your eyes on the road and don't slow down, we don't know if there are any others coming!"
"Even if I wanted to, the brake pedal has completely frozen over, there's nothing I can do but drive!" Giorno called out to his team.
Wireframe phased through the roof of the car, meeting Ghiacco's ice covered body. With ice that thick and Wireframe's mediocre strength, punching the bastard clean off the car was simply not feasible. Instead, the stand opted to simply grab hold of the unmoving man and slide him off the roof of the car, its ability making the ice unable to hold onto the vehicle.
"Oi, oi, oi! Piss off Naofumi! We know about your stand and its weakness! Don't think this will be as simple as other fights you bastard!" Ghiacco screeched at the stand, whose arms were quickly freezing over, cracks from the brittle ice flashing ominously.
Naofumi persevered through the deathly cold and shoved the ice stand user off the car, the man crashing and tumbling along the asphalt of the road behind them, his roar of anger quickly vanishing as distance was put between them. Almost immediately the car began to heat up, the ice covering Mista's face melting and freeing him and Giorno from their positions.
"AGHHHH!" Naofumi cried out in pain as his arms up to his elbow cracked and fractured off from his body. Golden Experience was quick with its ability, and within seconds Naofumi had two fresh arms to work with, though the pain of losing two limbs still lingered for the man.
"Naofumi, you ok?" Mista called out from the backseat as he peered out into the dark for any other enemies.
"He has no life threatening injuries and is back to fighting capabilities," Giorno conveyed to the gunman.
Naofumi took a few moments to calm himself, "I hate the cold but a little ice is no problem." The image of confidence he intended to portray was undersold by the hunched posture over his arms and general look of misery. While the stand user hadn't died, it was relieving to know that they wouldn't have to deal with him for a while, and they knew a little more about their adversary's stand ability. Overall, an incredible interaction for them.
Unknown to the gang, Ghiaccio stood from his spot on the bridge, the ice around his form condensing further to fit his body, a deranged smile filled to the brim with anger directed towards the car, rapidly shrinking as distance between the two increased. "You think it will be that easy? I'M NOT A PUSHOVER YOU BASTARDS!" Ghiaccio screams as blades jutt out from the ice armor under his feet. One push after another and the stand user began to gain on the car.
With his incessant screaming and stark contrast to the dark surroundings, it was little surprise that the gang caught wind of him the second he breached the distance between them. With an order from Naofumi, Mista took aim, shooting the blades Ghiaccio rode on, knocking away his balance and the skating hitman fell once more.
The group sighed in relief, but remained alert, if he caught up once, he could do it again. Naofumi saw the fog of his breath sent out Wireframe once more, the stand seeing that Ghiaccio had frozen the exhaust of the car and was holding on to the frozen gas. "He's still here! Mista, take aim and get ready to shoot on my mark! Giorno, get ready to heal me again." He groaned, this was gonna hurt.
Wireframe divebombed the hitman as he continued to climb the frozen exhaust, but as the stand approached, Ghiaccio cackled wildly. "That won't work again, Naofumi!" He thrust his hand forward, the air between the stand user and stand rapidly freezing, latching onto the stand and halting any movement.
"AGH! SHIT! MISTA, FIRE NOW!" Naofumi cried out in agony, a sheet of ice covering his arms and portion of his chest before Giorno began healing him again. Shots rang out, but failed to meet their mark as Ghiaccio had climbed atop the car's trunk and threw it open to remove the line of sight and provide him some further armor from the pistol's bullets. Ice sped across the surface of the car, frost extending even further. An armored hand shot out from the underside of the trunk, grasping onto Mista's wrist, halting any more shots. Wireframe and Golden Experience shot out of Naofumi and Giorno, unleashing a flurry of blows to the armor laden stand user.
"I-kari-kari-kari-kari-kari-kari-kari-kari-kari-kari-kari-kari-kari-kari-kari-kari-kari-KARI!"
"Muda-muda-muda-muda-muda-muda-muda-muda-muda-muda-muda-muda-MUDA!"
Ghiaccio's body jerked under the blows, but none succeeded in penetrating his frozen armor. The final blow rang out as both stands fists crashed into Ghiaccio's head, cracks spreading from the points of impact, but Ghiaccio did nothing but smile, ice already coating and freezing the spiritual flesh of both stands.
"Naofumi! Giorno, pull your stands back and stop the car!" Mista cried out as frost crept over his arm.
"Not yet!" Giorno responded. "We made it to Venice! I'm driving into the canal!"
"What?!" Naofumi and Mista turned to Giorno with shock. The car jumped as Giorno drove over the divider and slammed it into the guard rail. Sparks flew as the car scraped along the metal, temporarily providing relief to the freezing members of the squad. Ghiaccio merely watched, unimpressed by their efforts. Before long, the rail had given way to the momentum and force of the car, granting an opening to the canal directly below. As they fell, Naofumi clambered out from his seat and dove forward, crashing into the ice clad Ghiaccio and phasing the hitman along with himself through the car's exterior, splashing into the waters of the canal and giving the other two precious distance from the ice wielding stand user.
Quickly summoning Wireframe and grabbing onto the frozen limb of the stand, Naofumi was dragged away from the rapidly encroaching ice water. While its true that a larger volume of water is more resistant to freezing, they had vastly underestimated the sheer strength of Ghiaccio's ability, creating an even more advantageous scenario for the ice wielder. Naofumi looked ahead of him, seeing that Giorno and Mista had climbed out of the car and were about to begin the swim back.
"Don't jump in!" Naofumi calls out. Ice rushed past him, wrapping his body in an unrelenting tidal wave of frozen water, his body began to freeze rapidly, his arms and legs were taken instantly, his chest following soon after. "His control over ice is too strong!" Naofumi cried as the ice enveloped his head, completing a perfect ice sculpture of the stand user, one arm clasped to the back of the neck, the other reaching out in a vain attempt at rescue.
Mista could only watch in horror as one of his closest friends and the strongest stand user he knows is solidified into a glorified statue, unmoving and frozen in time. "NAOFUMI!" He discharged several shots, the bullets impacting Ghiaccio's ice armor, but failing to penetrate. Tears pooled in his eyes, flying off from the recoil of each shot.
"Mista! We need to go!" Giorno clasped onto his arm, "If we can get the disk, we'll have won!"
"No…" Mista's grip tightened, "We've already lost." He huffed a breath and turned to Giorno. "Let's just go get the damn disc."
Giorno summoned Golden Experience and the stand struck the hood of the car, vines sprouting to life nigh instantaneously, but a single strike from Ghiaccio lowered the temperature enough to slow its growth, the ice too far from the car to destroy the plant. The two stand users ran atop the vine, using it as a bridge to reach the bayside wall, climbing atop the stone and destroying the bridge behind them.
Ghiaccio had no choice but to waste time forming his own ice bridge and skate across it, reaching the wall precious seconds after the two. As he vaulted himself over the wall, he came across a massive forest that still continued to grow and develop, feet of stone and sky being overtaken every second. Ghiaccio walked away from the wall, venturing slightly into the ever growing fauna. The sounds of growing plant life was quickly drowned out by the ring of a bullet being fired, the metal projectile bouncing between Sex Pistols as they called for a clean shot. It dove straight into the breathing hole of White Album's armor. The stands cheered at the presumed death of their enemy, but cried out as two of the six were devoured by a pike of erupted ice. The breathing hold had closed itself off instantly, blocking the bullet before it could pierce Ghiaccio's neck.
"He can close it! Run away!" The remaining stands cried as they retreated.
"So, you found my breathing hole and you went after that? All you do is underestimate me, and it pisses me off! White Album!" Instantly, the temperature dived, dropping so fast the trees flash froze before erupting into shards of brittle wood. With two simple words, the entire forest Giorno had created was vaporized in under a second. A metallic clang rang out from Ghiaccio's left, and he turned to meet the threat, but only saw a retreating Golden Experience leaving behind a bent and fractured light pole.
Two more shots rang out, both striking the breathing hole, Ghiaccio stumbled forward, turning menacingly to face the gunslinger. "Extremely low temperatures stop everything! Gasses turn to liquids, and liquids turn to solids! Take a closer look, can't you see the air that's stopped?" A high pitch frequency resounded through the air, sparks appearing around the ice clad stand user.
"What?!" Mista replied, shocked at the display of power of White Album. The bullet's speed was turned against the gunslinger, launched directly back towards Mista off of floating frozen air, piercing his chest.
"I'd already created a solid wall of frozen air! White Album… Gently Weeps!" Ghiaccio triumphantly shouted. "This uses up quite a bit of my stand's power, but now I can repel any shot towards me! This is a lesson I learned from you, Mista!"
"Shut the hell up!" Mista roared as he fired bullet after bullet at the ice user, pushing him back ever so slowly, refusing to acknowledge the bullets piercing his own flesh. After almost a dozen shots, Mista got lucky, a bullet lodging itself between one of Ghiaccio's blades and the ground, tripping him up and giving Giorno the perfect opportunity to finish this all… only for him to not appear.
"Abandoned by your teammate… how fitting for a lone gunslinger," Ghiaccio taunted the man bleeding out as he regained his balance. "We get what the boss gave to you, two of your squad dies, and another is a deserter. Everything you three did was for nothing! Do you hear me?! Nothing?!"
"Who said anything about deserting?" A familiar voice rang out between the two stand users. They peered up to the canal wall, seeing a familiar green clad man watching idly.
"WHAT THE HELL?! I froze you solid! How are you alive?!" Ghiaccio cried out, throwing his hands over his head. "You can't heal from that!"
Naofumi chuckled, "You're right, you can't. So it's a good thing I didn't have to. Heat transfer is dependent on the material being affected, and cloth has a relatively low heat transfer value, giving me just enough time to phase out before I entirely froze over, leaving a wonderfully sculpted ice statue of myself behind. Why else do you think I turned my head and all exposed skin away from you?" He snapped his fingers, "Anyway, I think this fight has gone on long enough, and I'm incredibly pissed at having to deal with such low temperatures, so let's get this over with, right Giorno? Mista?"
"Golden Experience!" With Giorno's call, the golden stand crashed into Ghiaccio with a flurry of blows, pushing the armor clad man back with each strike. Ghiaccio reached out to freeze the stand, but his hands were shot away by Mista's bullets, the projectiles phasing harmlessly through the gunslinger with Wireframe's aid.
"Waahhhhhhh! WHAT THE HELL?!" Ghiaccio screeched as he was pushed onto the metal pole, the pike piercing through the sealed breathing hole. The stand user was unable to retaliate under the unrelenting blows and bullets of the three man team.
"Muda-muda-muda-muda-muda-muda-muda-muda-muda-muda-muda-muda-MUDA!"
The final blow rang out, the pike completely piercing through Ghiaccio's throat. His ice armor melted, a torrent of water following and drenching the entire area. He collapsed to the ground, deceased, the three gangstars falling down soon after with a sigh of relief. Golden Experience healed the three, Mista's bullet wounds taking longest as they had buried themselves deep within his body and Naofumi got the disc while the two were… occupied.
"Waaagh!" Hearing Narancia's cry, Naofumi turned to see the scene of the boy avoiding looking at the two others. He snorted.
"Oi, Bucciarati! You better take us for some hot chocolate after this!"
Notes:
Well it's certainly been a while. But with some newfound motivation and the soon to be season 2 of RotSH coming out, I think its about time to get back in the swing of things. So here's another Stand Fight Special to shake off some of the rust.
White Album was always my favorite fight from part 5. Just the power and versatility Ghiaccio displays from such a simple ability is incredible to watch, and with more of a reliance on tactical plays and advantages rather than other slugfests or overly complex explanations, it is easily the most enjoyable to watch for me. I tried to replicate a lot of that in this fight, but with White Album being a hard counter to Wireframe, there's realistically very little Naofumi could do other than slow down the screaming ice man.
I'm not too sure how canon it is that Naofumi hates the cold, but I absolutely detest it, and its a very good counter to Wireframe so I say he hates the cold, lol.
Anyway, expect a new chapter of the actual storyline to release soon after season 2's start. I know I'm excited for it :)
- RandomA99