Although the temperature often dropped during the night in Naples, a coastal city, the extent that night was quite absurd for that time of year. Even though Giorno was well covered, he felt a chill course throughout his body from time to time. He wondered if Jolyne felt the same and if he should go check on her. To make sure she was okay, not for any other reason.

Whatever his feelings or impulses, he had to suppress them for the moment. He had brought her there to save her from his brother, not to fuck her. But was it really normal to be so cold? Then he realized that he had been so busy scolding himself and talking nonsense that he hadn't realized the sheer abnormality of the situation.

He manifested his Stand and dashed to Jolyne's room. He found her shivering by the door.

"This is..." Giorno started.

"Yes, it seems to be a Stand attack."

"You should stay here while I look for the user."

"Yeah, and freeze to death here? Like hell I will. I'm coming with you. I've already shown you that I can fight. So, unless you're planning to tie me up, I'm heading out."

The idea of tying her crossed his mind, but he decided that since she had been able to keep Donatello at bay in the swamp for so long, she could handle this. Bruno had told him that she was capable. The fight a while ago had also confirmed it.

Since they had not packed appropriate clothing for the cold, they went down with blankets.

"Would you mind if we huddled together? Two blankets are better than one," Jolyne said through chattering teeth.

Yes, he did mind. Giorno knew he would feel uncomfortable, but as he watched her shiver, he remembered that she had grown up in Florida and was probably not used to the cold. He pulled open his blanket to allow her to snuggle up to his side.

The body heat was pleasant and even though her smell was distracting, having her in his arms and seeing her shivers end was gratifying. At the same time, he was able to keep her safe, holding her protectively under his arm. Only protection and warmth, nothing else. He did not know why he thought of Abbacchio's sarcastic smile at that moment, but he quickly pushed it out.

As they went outside, Giorno noticed something. The plants did not seem to be cold. It was as if the freezing temperature was only targeting the two of them, confirming their suspicions of a Stand attack.

He wasted no time. Gold Experience Requiem manifested behind them as he took on a vigilant stance.

"I don't want to hurt you," they heard a voice call from an area that the streetlights did not illuminate. "I just wanted to knock you out and escort the girl back to her boyfriend."

"Why don't you show yourself?" Giorno asked. His gaze was alert and wary, scanning the dark corners all around them.

Jolyne shifted her weight beside him. "Wait, what boyfriend?" she said sharply.

"My name is Rikiel," said the man as he stepped out into the light.

His silhouette was tall. The closer he got, the more beautiful he seemed, despite his strange clothes, which were a combination of different animal pattern prints styled into a robe and trousers. He looked a bit like Giorno, but with straight magenta locks of hair that touched his shoulders. It wasn't just his looks though, but his aura too. He had a hulking figure like the blonde and his features were stunning. If one were to squint, they would notice that he looked a bit like Donatello too, but without the same malice.

For a moment, Jolyne remembered Anasui. This man was something like him but more handsome.

"Okay, Rikiel, sir, what boyfriend are you talking about? You couldn't possibly mean Donatello, could you? Here's a piece of advice. Don't listen to anything that psychopath says." She remembered Anasui again and corrected herself. "What those two psychos say. I've been single and free for months. Hell, if I see my ex again, I'll break his nose. Whatever it is they've told you, they've lied to you."

"Donatello and Father Pucci warned me that you would say that. Giovanna has brainwashed you. I saw you fight him a while ago, so I know you want to escape."

"Brainwashed my ass!" Jolyne shouted, her face turning red.

Giorno immediately latched on to one important detail. "Father Pucci is alive?"

"Maybe I've spoken too much," Rikiel muttered almost uncertainly. "I don't want to hurt you, but I will use force if necessary."

"Ugh, here we go again." Jolyne cracked her knuckles. "Are you another one of Dio's sons?"

She did not need an answer; his attitude spelled it. That and the fact that he looked like his brothers. She let go of Giorno, who had stiffened at some point during the whole exchange, and slipped out of the blanket, walking steadily toward Rikiel.

When she sensed Giorno trying to follow, she shook her head. "No, I'll handle this." She clenched her fists. "Come on, magic Joestar blood, make this one act up too."

Giorno would have felt offended if it weren't so true. He remained in the same spot, watching Jolyne's back while also keeping an eye on their foe and the surroundings.

"Sky High!" Rikiel shouted when Jolyne got close.

She waited for his stand to manifest but became distracted when she felt something in the air change. Her body suddenly felt so much colder than before. One look behind her confirmed that Giorno was also beginning to shiver, despite being covered in two blankets, hers and his own. She whipped her head back around but suddenly found it hard to see anything. It was as if her eyelids were trying to glue themselves shut, blurring her vision. They kept drooping down no matter how hard she fought to keep them open.

Releasing a shout of rage and frustration, she rushed forward, using her strings to scout the area before her like a blind person would with a cane. Fortunately, she had the advantage of being able to use her strings as an extension of herself to sense the world around her.

One string managed to graze something that felt like the ends of a robe. Just when she was about to leap forward and release a barrage of punches, she felt a new sensation against her strings. She felt a chill again and the temperature in her body dropped to another low. The feeling was much worse than the deadly, traumatizing fever she had experienced when she was seven.

She switched gears and quickly wove her strings into a net around her, wanting to test her suspicions. When the same strange sensation came again, she sprung the net into a tightly bound trap she had recently been practicing to make.

She didn't need her eyes to look in order to know. She could feel the things thrashing around within her string trap.

"Giorno! Some kind of tiny invisible creatures are behind this!"

Despite having them trapped, her body temperature continued to plummet to scary lows but at an even more incredibly rapid rate. She released the creatures with a gasp, feeling her head go numb.

"What the hell are those things? They were sucking the body heat from me!" she shouted. "Ok then, Stone Free!"

Her plan was simple. Take care of the problem at the roots by tying up Rikiel and beating him up; simple and direct. The problem was that her body would not obey her. It moved at a slow pace and even her strings were getting difficult to maneuver.

"What did you do to me?" Jolyne growled at him, opening her eyes a crack.

"Stay still! I don't want to hurt you but the rods will if you don't stop," Rikiel replied, raising his arm. Something like a small creature seemed to be perched on the back of his wrist but she couldn't make it out clearly. "And don't come close. My brother also warned me that your Stand could do strange things to me if you touched me."

Jolyne gritted her teeth, mulling over something for a quick second before attempting to move one of her arms. She struggled for a while, but after multiple tries, she finally managed to dig a hand into her bra. Luckily, she had managed to throw it back on before Giorno had come barging in to check on her.

She almost lifted her pajama shirt without any shame, making the two dhampires blush like maidens. "You don't want to hurt me?" she muttered, searching around before pulling out a pocket knife. "Well, sorry to disappoint."

"You won't be able to injure me with that, miss," Rikiel said, noticing her action.

Giorno had a different pressing question. "Where did you get the knife from?" After her last escape attempt, he had made sure that no weapons were left in the vicinity.

"I stole it from Narancia. He's still looking for it." She would have laughed at another time, but the gravity of the current situation led her to remain serious and focused on her adversary.

"It's not for you," she said to Rikiel with a smile as she thrust out her bare arm. "I'm going to show you what's got a bitch like Donatello moaning as if he's in heat."

Before either of the men could react, the blade plunged into her arm, causing blood to gush out. It was like a blow to both of their senses.

"Giorno, don't dally now! Hold your nose and try to help!" she shouted before making a second cut, holding back a cry.

Giorno was used to the pulse of her blood, but not this strong. He quickly ripped his handkerchief into two pieces and balled them up before stuffing them into his nose. Perhaps it was not the most elegant thing, but it was the most effective.

As for the situation, returning Rikiel's attack against him to zero would be a simple task. However, that would not guarantee protection for anyone else beyond himself, the one Requiem actively sought to protect. Jolyne would likely continue to suffer through the cold attacks, especially if those strange little creatures attacking them had a will of their own that was independent of the stand user.

He didn't even consider the death loop. In all his years as Don de Passione, he had never had to resort to such a thing after having inflicted it on his black hearted predecessor. There were very few people whose misdeeds could amount to all that Diavolo had piled up, but even so, Giorno always found ways to best them and punish them without borrowing the power granted by the arrow.

Cheating—the arrow could certainly be considered a cheat in a way—only made one grow soft and overeliant; he'd learned the hard way all those years ago in New York what would happen if it failed him when he needed it most.

If the situation really did take a nosedive for the worst, Gold Experience Requiem would then step in to take care of it. But until that point was reached, he'd just grow new body parts for himself if any were damaged or lost, bearing with the pain.

All would be taken in stride so that there was no chance he would ever be useless again.

His brain quickly filed through everything he knew so far. Rikiel had mentioned "rods" and Jolyne described them as invisible little creatures. It wasn't much, yet it was more than sufficient. He formed a plan.

He had never seen creatures like these rods before, but he had read about them. They were smaller than what he was used to, but now that he knew they were there, he knew where to look. Any who approached him found a tardigrade waiting to eat them; there were few tougher beings than the mossy little creatures. Soon, the cold and immobility began to end.

In truth, he hadn't needed to worry about Jolyne. The rods targeting her had stopped persisting shortly after she'd started bleeding. Under their summoner's direction, they either went on their merry way or ended up pursuing Giorno instead.

Rikiel felt totally dazzled. He had been made to drink blood before, but none called out to him in such a clear way. Donatello and his feelings of possession towards the woman were the last things on his mind. Never had he wanted something so badly as he did now to lick those wounds. He approached her outstretched arm as if she were a syren and he a bewitched sailor.

His transfixed state turned to astonishment when he felt a fist make contact with his face. The blue Stand, now completely freed from the control of the rods, hit him mercilessly. Jolyne also wasted no time kicking him. She grimaced with every blow she dished out from her fist, making it obvious that her arms ached to hit him. The second kick, however, went through him as if he was immaterial.

She blinked, wondering if it was a trick or illusion. She punched him again to test her theory, but the same thing as before happened again. Lifting her gaze off her arm, which had plunged through his chest, she met his fidgety yet glazed expression.

Rikiel sucked in a breath. The blood on her arm that drove his senses crazy was now technically inside of him. When Jolyne pulled out, he felt a sense of loss and emptiness.

Panting while clutching her bleeding arm, Jolyne's mind worked at a hundred miles per hour. She had thought she had his ability figured out, but it seemed that he had more tricks up his sleeve. Was it some kind of extension to his main ability? This power was strangely very familiar, however.

Almost as if in answer, a Stand materialized behind Rikiel. It was not his.

Her eyes rounded in recognition, heart thudding in her chest. "Diver Down," she said as she backed away. "That's Anasui's Stand. Why is it here with you? And how are you able to use it? What... What have you done to him?"

All the fears about what might have happened to her loved ones in Florida came back and hurt more than the cuts on her arms. She almost tripped backwards in horror. It was just so strange seeing her attacker with the Stand of someone who she knew would never hurt her.

She felt hands on her shoulders, along with words of reassurance that she almost completely understood.

"Farà un po' male, bella." Seconds later, a golden glow spread through her. There was pain, but she bore with it. It incidentally helped pull her out of her shock. "It must be the work of Pucci's Stand, it has to be."

"Listen Rikiel, Pucci is a fucking monster who put me behind bars as bait to lure in my dad. He treats prisoners like garbage and steals pieces of people's souls to give to his minions, just like he's done with you," Jolyne told him coldly and calmly. If someone who knew Jotaro saw her at that moment, they would tell her that she reminded them of her dad. "Not to mention that Donatello wants to rape me, eat me, and enslave me, though I don't know in what order. Do I look brainwashed to you? Maybe you're the brainwashed one, you fucking idiot!"

"Donatello is my brother. He would never lie to me!" Rikiel tried to defend himself.

"Did he tell you how he punctured a little girl's veins when he mistook her for a Joestar?" Giorno replied in a calm voice. "Has he told you that he can't fight my Stand? That's why he sent you. Everyone except Jolyne is expendable to him. He's also my..." He sighed before spitting out the next word. "Brother. But that doesn't change the fact that he's a monster."

"He's your brother, but we surpassed him in strength, and right now, I want to beat him up," Jolyne finally said. "Nobody calls me 'Donatello's girlfriend' and gets away in one piece. Give me Anasui's disk, cute little monster. You've tortured my friends and..."

"I haven't tortured anyone," he rebutted. "The user of this disk is still alive; I can only use his stand temporarily. But if something happens to me, he will die. So, if you want him to live, I must go back..." He seemed confused and unsure of what to actually do. "As for your friends, I don't know how they are doing, but I heard that Father Pucci is furious because Jotaro Kujo is standing up again and looking for him. There are two girls with him too. They're fine... I can't tell you anything else."

He seemed sincere, his face conveying regret as if he really had never wanted to harm her. His warm gaze on Jolyne instinctively made her understand that he was not an enemy.

"You could join us or even the Speedwagon Foundation. They would help you," Jolyne replied, her expression beseeching. "Help us and let us help you, Rikiel. Please."

"I..." He smiled sadly before retreating back a step. "I'd really like to, but if I don't go back, your friend will pay the consequences." He turned to Giorno. "I don't know what to think, really. But I want to figure out some things on my own. Could I come back once I do?"

Giorno nodded solemnly and they both watched Rikiel disappear into the darkness again.

The night was no longer cold, but a strange feeling settled within them both. For Giorno, it was the heaviness of the knowledge that perhaps he had left behind siblings who had really needed him, and for Jolyne, it was not knowing what was really going on with her friends.

Then Jolyne turned to Giorno and looked at him for a few seconds before saying:

"Can you tell me what's up your nose?"


Rikiel: OMG Jolyne... *blush*

Donatello: Oh hell no. Not another one.

Giorno: ...Why could I not have been the only son?

Ungalo: I haven't even said anything yet, pretty bitches.

Jotaro in the distance: If only I killed him four years earlier...