A dhampir, a Joestar, and a mangaka stood in the bathroom.
"R-Rohan-sensei?" Jolyne was pale with shock.
Still pinching his nose, Giorno looked at her with concern. He was surprised that she was familiar with the eccentric-looking fellow, especially since this was her first time in Italy. The man didn't look particularly dangerous, but you never know. Anyone could be a lurking enemy.
The man called Rohan raised one of his perfectly delineated eyebrows. "Are you a fan?"
"No, well... actually, I am, but that's not it. It's me, Jolyne!" Like the flip of a switch, she was suddenly beaming. She lifted her forearm and showed him the butterfly tattoo on her skin. "Do you remember me?"
A spark of familiarity lit in the man's expression and his eyes softened almost imperceptibly. "Oh, it's you, little Jojo. It's been a long time," he said quietly. "Is he a vampire?"
Giorno realized the man was referring to him when he saw his thumb point in his direction. Immediately, he was on guard.
There were all kinds of myths and stories surrounding vampires, but not many believed they ever even existed. Heck, even he hadn't before. Why did this man seem so confident about his vampirism? Could he be a stand user? Seeing the man's skin color, he wondered if he might also be a vampire.
As Giorno hesitated, to his dismay, Jolyne quickly nodded to the question.
Before he could shoot her a look, Rohan asked, "Do you want me to help you kill him?"
"No!" she replied quickly. "It's just that he has a problem with smells and mine specifically. But he doesn't intend any harm, trust me."
"Is that the case? I see. I can fix that," Rohan said before turning to Giorno. "May I?" His politeness could have fooled anyone if he had not talked about killing Giorno just a minute ago.
Giorno thought about it for a moment. Although he didn't know anything about the man or his abilities, for at this point he was certain he was a user, if something really did happen, Requiem could fix it. He hadn't wanted to resort to it, but the situation was becoming very difficult to control. He didn't want to stuff his nose again for the entirety of their trip back to Rome or show up at the palazzo like that.
Since Jolyne also seemed to trust the man, he decided it was worth taking the risk. He only had to nod for Rohan to call out "Heaven's Door" and for a small well-dressed stand in white to appear. He then found his hand opening like a book.
Giorno remained impassive even though he was holding back the urge to cry. He barely had time to see anything, but he did see his birth name in Japanese letters, one of the few things he was able to read in that language, while the rest was in Italian. He saw Rohan hastily scribble something in Italian next to the other Italian passages before the book closed again.
"Now you can uncover your nose and thank me," he said haughtily.
"Did you write away his ability to smell?" Jolyne asked in awe. "Rohan-sensei, your Stand is amazing!"
"I know, little JoJo, but knowing your family, it doesn't surprise me that the first time I see a vampire, it happens to be someone next to you." Giorno tried to protest that he was only half a vampire, but Rohan paid him no mind. "I thought you didn't possess a Stand, but you're able to see mine. You guys always develop interesting ones. May I see it?"
Giorno let go of his nose and took a couple of breaths. He realized that not only could he not smell Jolyne's scent anymore, but he couldn't smell anything at all. The whole sensation was strange, but it reassured him.
"I don't know how long the effect is going to last since he's not human," said Rohan. "But I think we should take this conversation out of the bathroom."
Apparently, Rohan's rental car had dumped him. Taking into account the dangers of being left alone in a foreign country, Giorno invited him to accompany them while also trying to fish for information. Rohan Kishibe seemed to love the sound of his own voice, so getting answers out of him was as easy as just asking him directly. He had traveled to Italy to find inspiration and to buy clothes; he had not contacted a Joestar (Josuke's unfortunate memes never counted as communication) or any Stand user except for Koichi in a month.
Jolyne grunted at that name and rolled her eyes when it turned out that Giorno knew him and said he was a good person.
She knew that she was probably alone in this, but she couldn't stand Hirose Koichi. Everyone said he was 'reliable,' but to her, he was just an ass-licker who would run to snitch to her dad about anything she did.
"You painted his dog pink. I'm not saying it wasn't more aesthetically pleasing, but it wasn't good for the dog."
"I was a kid! And because of him, I was punished for the last two days of my stay in Morioh. That was horrible of him," she said, terribly offended.
"He doesn't seem very surprised to learn of the existence of vampires," Giorno said to her from the driver's seat, wondering if perhaps that guy knew more about his condition.
"Well, I was once acquainted with Joseph Joestar and you couldn't really meet him without hearing him tell you about how he killed off some Olmec super vampires or when he went to Egypt with his grandson to kill DIO," said Rohan. "He was a good man; he had great experiences and he liked to talk. My favorite type of person next to the beautiful ones. Speaking of which..." He turned around to face Jolyne, who was in the back seat of the car. "I'm not going to leave without drawing you first."
"It would be an honor, sensei," she said, blushing. Giorno couldn't help noticing it in the rear view mirror when he glanced up from the road. He watched her bite her lips as she mulled over something. "I know I shouldn't, but... I have to ask. Do you happen to know anything about my family?"
"You have no idea, little Jojo…"
And Rohan told her what he knew. They lived in Morioh, after all. The Joestar family had become part of his routine, because although they had tried to get rid of Josuke from the day they met him, their efforts had gone in the opposite direction and Josuke became part of their day to day since they defeated Kira. Over time and with, according to the mangaka's words, "the little maturity that entered his head, which served him more for wearing a pompadour than for thinking," the relationship between the two men took hold. He soon discovered that being close to a Joestar also meant catching on with the rest of the family.
Tomoko and Suzie Q., to much surprise, became close. The old woman, along with Holly, practically took her in as part of the family. Joseph had died and they had both loved him; there was only consolation left. Holly even went to visit Rohan from time to time as she did with Okuyasu, as if she was the mother of the whole world. And she talked often about Jolyne, her granddaughter, and how she missed her.
Jolyne thanked him, almost unable to hold back her tears.
Giorno, meanwhile, felt stupid. He could have easily gotten information about her family to reassure her.
"What I want to know is what you're doing here. I thought you lived a quiet life in Florida," Rohan said.
Jolyne looked through the rearview mirror at Giorno this time. He finally nodded; the mangaka seemed very useful.
She summarized her time in prison and told him about the ordeal with the children of Dio, along with the effect her blood had on them.
Rohan's eyes sparked with something. "I don't know how to help you with the other vampires, but we can test if my power holds for long on him, then do something with the effect it causes."
"Really? You'd do that?" Jolyne asked excitedly.
Giorno waited. There was no such thing as a free meal.
"On one condition," Rohan said, just as he'd predicted, but his next words took Giorno aback. "I want to read you both."
"You mean, as in, using your Stand to read everything about us?" At his nod, Jolyne seemed to hesitate for a short moment before she nodded readily. "Ok, no problem!"
Giorno, however, shook his head. "I'm afraid that's not possible. I'm a man with many professional secrets. But if you'd like, I could answer your questions."
"What untouchable secrets could you possibly have? It's not like you're a part of the mafia," Rohan said.
He was met with silence.
"You… You're part of the mafia," he said in disbelief. "A vampire in the mob. Well, I suppose if you're willing to answer my questions, I have to accept the deal."
Giorno invited him to the palazzo instead of a hotel, hoping that his curiosity would make him accept. He did not want to have Rohan out of his sight, for at the moment, he did not quite trust him. A brief description of the gardens was enough to convince the mangaka to accept.
The conversation between Giorno and Jolyne had practically stopped; she and Rohan were currently speaking in Japanese, leaving him out. He knew almost nothing of what they were saying. He only understood Jolyne's giggles and the mangaka's unfriendly smiles. Ahead, there was a traffic jam at the entrance to the city, so a journey that normally took 10 minutes stretched to 45.
Prior to their arrival, Giorno called from the speakerphone to request a room for Rohan and to warn them that Jolyne had a Code Pink situation. It was their secret word for menstruation, which they came up with for Trish. By now, they were all pros at handling the situation. Giorno, figuring that all women had the same urges and cravings during their time, thought it wouldn't hurt to try dealing with the situation the same as they would have for Trish.
To add insult to injury, his sense of smell began to return as they were arriving. He refused to show up in front of his men in an undignified appearance, so he just held his breath and counted down the time until he could escape.
There were three people waiting for him before the palazzo. Two of them were Abbacchio and Bucciarati, who had been made aware of the blood issue beforehand and were there to take Jolyne away.
"So, are you up for some ice cream and horrible movies?" Bruno asked her.
"Can you believe that Bruno thinks Mean Girls is an awful movie?" replied Abbacchio before looking at the third person. "I think it'd be better to introduce you once the chief hides his fangs."
"Introduce me to whom? I thought outsiders were banned from seeing me," Jolyne said resignedly.
"Oh, they're going to introduce you to me, Signorina Kujo," said the unknown man. "My name is Guido Mista."
Mista: I'm here, Guido Mista. I know you missed me...
Rohan: Yeah, yeah, for sure. Now shut up. I, the Great Rohan Kishibe, am here too, and I'm going to say a lot of interesting things, Guillermo.
Mista: It's Guido.
Rohan: Nobody cares.