"Shit!" Joanne groaned, rubbing her neck with both hands, as the elevator rose up through the floors of the Baccarat Hotel. "Shit, my fucking neck! That hurts like a bitch!"
"I told you to be careful, Joanne," Scorpion Queen said from where it was leaning against the elevator's wall, near the control panel. "That man… he almost killed you."
"I guess it's just bad luck that we ran into him," Joanne said.
She ruffled her hands through her hair to straighten it out. As soon as she got it straight, though, it immediately reformed into the tangled mess it had initially been. Only her ponytail remained even remotely neat.
"So anyway," she continued, "I wonder what this Giorno guy's deal is. What does he want from me that's so important, any-"
She was interrupted by the elevator dinging as the door slid open. She stepped out into the hallway, looking around.
"Damn," she said.
The hallway was much bigger than she'd expected it to be. A large, wall-length window let in a good amount of sunlight, and just in case there was any chance of anything in the room casting a noticeable shadow, glass lights hung down from the ceiling as well. A little ways to the left, Joanne could see where the window stopped and the entrances to rooms began, but she was more interested in the other direction, where the full-size suites were located.
She began walking down the large, sunlit hallway with a slight limp, trying to avoid drawing attention. This was easier said than done, since she had some bruising on her throat, not to mention the cuts and stab wounds, but luckily for her, there weren't very many people in the hallway, and those who were there weren't paying much attention to their surroundings, instead either lost in conversation or looking down at their phones.
"C'mon, where the hell is it…" she muttered to herself as she walked into the section of the hallway that the suite she was looking for was contained in.
"Joanne," Scorpion Queen said quietly, putting a hand on Joanne's shoulder and pointing across the hallway. "I think that person just looked directly at me."
"Okay, and?" Joanne asked.
"And that means that they can see me," Scorpion Queen explained slowly.
"Oh, shit!" Joanne said, spinning to look in the direction her Stand was pointing. "You're right!"
The person had already quickly turned around a corner in the hallway upon noticing Scorpion Queen pointing at them, and all she saw of them was one of their black boots as they quickly ran off.
"Quick, Joanne, go after them!" Scorpion Queen shouted.
"There's no need to rush," Joanne said calmly. "You made a 'trigger' earlier in the elevator, correct? Was that what I think it was?"
"Ah, I see," Scorpion Queen said. If it had a mouth, it would have been smirking.
It pulled out the trigger it had created when the assassin in the elevator had summoned a rope and wrapped it around Joanne's legs and pulled its arm back, then pitched forward, sending the symbol spinning sideways. It ricocheted around the corner, and less than a second later, Joanne and Scorpion Queen heard a thud as the person stepped on the trigger and it activated, tripping them.
"Merde!" they yelled.
Joanne walked around the corner to see who she'd tripped. A woman wearing a wraparound dress covered in zigzag lines of mathematical symbols and a buttoned-up black overcoat with two thick yellow horizontal lines along the upper half, also lined with mathematical symbols, lay on the floor, dusting herself off. She had a whirl of pink hair, with bangs that hung down in front of her ears, and a small, black silk scarf around her neck. Oddly enough, Joanne noticed that the rope was already completely gone from her legs, but it lay on the floor still tied in a tight loop under her feet.
"Hey, you there," Joanne said, pointing with her right hand and resting her left forearm on the corner of the wall. "Stand up and stay where you are. I wanna talk."
The woman didn't seem fazed in the slightest.
"I'm assuming you're the one who did that?" she asked as she climbed to her feet, brushing herself off some more and walking a few steps toward Joanne.
"Hold it right there!" Scorpion Queen said, jumping to stand between Joanne and the woman and holding its fist up right next to her head.
Joanne peeked over her Stand's shoulder.
"What part of 'stay where you are' do you not get?" she asked, pushing Scorpion Queen aside and walking right up to the woman, grabbing her by the scarf and looking up at her, getting in her face. "Now, tell me something. Do you know a guy named Giorno Giovanna who's currently staying at this hotel, by any chance?"
"Joanne, listen-" the woman said.
Joanne jerked her arm to the side, slamming the woman against the wall.
"How the hell do you know my name?!" she shouted.
"I don't think I should be the one to explain that to you," the woman said.
Joanne punched the wall right next to her head.
"Look, lady," she growled. "I've had a long-ass fucking day. I've been shot at, tied up, stabbed, and strangled, not to mention the general background annoyance that comes with trying to navigate across New York to begin with. So I'm not in the goddamn mood for anything but straight answers!"
She took a breath, then opened her mouth to continue, but before she could, the woman grabbed her by the wrist and ducked, spinning and twisting. Joanne could barely tell what was happening, but before she knew it, the woman was standing behind her, pinning her arms behind her back with one hand while wrapping her other arm around her neck.
"Get your hands off my Joanne," Scorpion Queen said, pulling its hands up into a fighting position.
"Look," the woman said. "I'm not trying to pick a fight with you, okay? She just lashed out at me, so I reacted. It's better to be safe than sorry. See, I'll let you go now."
She released Joanne, stepping back and raising her hands into the air.
Joanne whirled around, glaring at the woman.
"Who the hell are you?" she asked angrily.
"My name is Trish Una," the woman said. "I'm a friend of Giorno's. I'm here with him to help him look for you, but it looks like you came here to see him instead. Did Mista tell you you could find him here?"
"Uhh… yeah?" Joanne said. She felt somewhat awkward being angry at someone who was being so… calm with her, and didn't really want to truthfully answer that question anyway.
"Well, whatever got you to come here, I can take you to see Giorno," Trish said. "Don't worry. He has no intention of hurting you in any way, and he's going to explain everything."
She walked past Joanne and Scorpion Queen, continuing down the hall and towards the door to a two-bedroom suite, which she rested her hand on the handle of.
"Are you coming or not?" she asked, turning her head to look back at Joanne.
Joanne hesitated for a moment, then shrugged and walked down the hall after her.
I guess it's about time I figured out what the hell this Giorno guy wants, she thought.
The assassin angrily kicked a trash can, drawing even more looks from the crowd that had gathered in a circle around the patch of floor he'd fallen onto when Joanne knocked him out of the elevator.
"Dammit!" he shouted, smacking the trash can over onto its side and stomping on it repeatedly. "Dammit, dammit, dammit, dammit!"
He turned to look at the crowd, who had been scared but were now confused by the strange man in front of them's sudden complete mood shift from confident to angry.
"What the hell are you morons looking at?!" he shouted, picking the trash can up and throwing it into the crowd.
The people he was aiming it at quickly jumped to the side as the metal container flew across the hall, pieces of garbage falling out as it landed and rolled a few meters.
The assassin stalked through the hall, growling angrily under his breath, until he reached the door to a room. He used a staff key to open the room, carefully closing the door behind him, and walked over to the bed in the center. On top of the covers lay a large, shiny red briefcase with decorative silver swirls along the edges and the initials "NF" engraved in the top. He unlatched the briefcase and swung it open. Its interior was decorated with black leather, and inside were several objects, including a few long coils of rope, several knives, a silenced pistol and some spare ammunition, and a camera.
"Let's see…" the assassin muttered to himself, his demeanor changing to be much calmer as soon as he looked into the suitcase. "Where is it? I swear I put it in here."
He searched through the suitcase, shoving some coils of rope and a knife aside to try to find something, but was unable to locate it. He spun around angrily, glaring around the room.
"Dammit!" he shouted, his demeanor completely changing again as he kicked the side of the bed repeatedly. "Where is it?! Where is it?! Where the hell is it?!"
Suddenly, something on the bed near the suitcase caught his eye, and yet again, his mood completely shifted.
"Ah, of course," he said calmly, as if he hadn't just been loudly yelling and kicking a heavy object. "Here it is."
He picked the object- a sleek black cell phone- up and pressed the power button, tapping his foot impatiently as it turned back on. Once it was running again, he scrolled through his contacts, clicking on one named "Jordyce" and then holding the phone up to his ear.
"What is it, Kraven?" the person on the other end asked. They sounded somewhat annoyed.
"I thought you might like a quick status report," the assassin- Kraven- replied. "I've run into a bit of an issue. There's another hostile Stand user besides Giorno and his bodyguards in this hotel."
"What?" the other person said. "Are you sure?"
"Yeah," Kraven said. "100% sure. I fought the bitch myself. I didn't go all out, because I thought it wasn't gonna be necessary to take her out, but she pissed me off, so if I see her again, she's dead meat."
"Do you need me to come help you?" the other person asked, a slight condescending edge to their voice. "Four Stand users including Giorno was already a lot to deal with, and with a fifth one thrown into the mix, surely you can't handle it on your own?"
"Don't use that stupid 'I'm-better-than-you' voice, dammit!" Kraven yelled, punching the bed so hard a spring in the mattress audibly snapped. "And I can take care of things! If I can get to Giorno before he knows I'm here, then it doesn't matter how many Stand users there are!"
He hung the phone up, violently tossing it into his suitcase, then stepped out into the center of the room.
"That asshole…" he growled to himself, clenching his fists. "What does she know, anyway? I'm the best assassin out of the three of us. I'll get rid of Giorno, and take out anyone who stands in my way…"
He unbuttoned his fake hotel employee uniform and let it drop to the floor, spreading his arms out as he revealed the few clothes he wore underneath. His chest and arms were encircled by a winding tattoo of a dotted line that went around each of his wrists, connected by a spiraling path snaking up his arms and connecting to his neck tattoo. He wore a black scarf around his stomach, covering his navel, and black tights with dotted white lines descending down them, twisting around his legs. He still wore the same black shoes that he'd had on while in disguise- these were his real shoes, they simply looked similar enough to the ones worn by the Baccarat's employees that he'd felt no need to change them.
He turned on his heel, placing his left arm on his hip and holding his right hand up, splaying it out next to his face. Then he walked toward the door to the room, leaving the way he'd come and letting the door slam shut on its own behind him.
The suitcase sat in the center of the bed, right where he'd left it, with the lid still open.