[RIO DE JANEIRO - 2004]

Joel is walking with a bag of spray paint. He takes three cans and starts spray painting a wall. When he is about to finish the graffiti, a police officer pulls him from behind and lifts him off the ground by his shirt. He looks back and sighs

"Joel, you seriously have to stop doing graffiti." The officer says with a serious tone

"Come on, Mr. Mesquita, let this pass to me, morally." Joel pleads trying to get out of this situation

Mesquita sighs and lets go of Joel "Alright, let's do it like this: I'll give you the paint for the house and then you'll come back and clean up what you did on that wall, ok?"

Joel sighs and crosses his arms in irritation, completely unmotivated to do this task "No, thanks…"

Mesquita thinks for a minute, smiles and says "Do you want some encouragement? If you do that, I'll buy you lunch, better?"

Joel nods quickly and quickly goes to get the paint needed to undo the graffiti he made.

About half an hour later, Joel goes to Mesquita to get his reward. "Oh, I'm done, let's have lunch!"

Mesquita laughs and takes Joel to a restaurant. There, they get their food and grab a table. Joel eats everything quickly, making Mesquita laugh and say "Kid, you're really hungry. Tell me, are you doing this on purpose? I mean, you paint a wall just so I can make you repaint and then buy you lunch?"

Joel laughs "No, but I think I'll do that from now on!"

Mesquita punches Joel on the shoulder weakly "Ah, kid, you want to bankrupt me! Haha!"

They continue talking about life and different topics while eating. Joel then remembers a specific subject "Oh, Mesquita, say... if I tell you something, will you promise not to arrest me or report me to the police?"

Mesquita gives Joel a serious look "...it depends, did you kill someone?"

"N-No, I would never do that… but… I'm doing some odd jobs for the owner of the hill, you know, selling some stuff and-"

Mesquita gets angry and grabs Joel tightly by the collar of his t-shirt and looks him in the eyes before speaking in a serious and irritated tone "Joel, how long have you been working for Mineiro?!"

Joel looks at Mesquita with fear and surprise as he has never seen him this angry in any situation "I-It's been a month or two, but nothing bad has happened so far-"

"One or two months!? Tell me this is an unfortunate joke. Joel, you have to stop this shit! Supporting drug dealers just sucks! These kinds of people are all criminals and bums, Joel! You're still young, you can still stop, and that's exactly why I'm not beating you right now, so promise me, promise me that you'll stop working for 'Mineiro'!"

"...O- Okay, Mr. Mesquita…"

Mesquita notices Joel's look of fear and lets him go. He sighs: "Joel, trust me, if you keep working for a drug dealer, you'll end up getting burned at the stake, and you're too young for that shit."

Mesquita then gets up, pays for the lunch he and Joel had and leaves the restaurant mumbling "Fourteen years old and already working for a criminal… good fucking grief…"

Joel sighs and gets up, irritated by Mesquita's temper. He leaves the restaurant and goes straight to talk to Mineiro.

At Mineiro's house, Joel knocks on the door and the owner of the hill, Mineiro, answers the door: "What's wrong, Joel? Wait, I understand, you want the cargo to make the sale, right?"

Joel says shyly "Well… actually, Mineiro… I kind of want to stop working for you… please?"

Mineiro sighs: "It was that shitty cop that messed with your mind, wasn't it?"

Joel is startled and tries not to show his astonishment in his speech "N- No, I don't know what you're talking about."

Mineiro then gets angry: "You don't know the fuck, we know you're chatting with that cop! We thought you would stop this at some point and realize that police are the enemy, but no! You continued to be friends with that cop and continued to be a traitor!"

"B- But sir, he's nice to me and he's honest, plus he's my friend-"

"Your friend?! Are you kidding me, kid?! You still don't understand? Here in the favela, the police are the ENEMY! Who do you think protects here?! Is it the police?!"

"N- No sir… please give me one more-"

"Wants to know?! That was the trigger! 'Orelha' takes him to the abattoir!" The man next to Mineiro takes Joel by the arm and they hold him drag to an isolated place with tires piled up, blood and weapons on the ground "Kid, I didn't want to do that, but you made me. I'm going to have to make an example of you for anyone who's thinking about betraying me." Mineiro points a gun at Joel

Joel looks at Mineiro in terror and says "M- Mesquita was right, y- you guys are all criminals!"

The soldier punches Joel in the face, making him fall on his back: "You kid, stay quiet!"

Just as Mineiro was about to shoot Joel, another soldier appears, dragging an unconscious man. The soldier says "Mineiro, I found this 'pig' climbing the hill, I was in doubt whether I should kill him or whether I would 'teach him a lesson' first, what do I do?"

Joel looks at the man and sees that it is the unconscious Mesquita. He gets scared and starts shouting "M- Mesquita! Y- You sons of bitches! Release him!"

Mineiro sighs "It's that idiotic cop, friend of this shitty traitor, he must have come here to save his little friend. Turn that son of a bitch off!"

Upon hearing this phrase, Joel despairs and starts shouting "Shut up! Let him go, damn it! I'm the fucking traitor! He has nothing to do with this!"

One of the soldiers punches Joel again to shut him up "Kid, shut up-" Before he can finish his sentence, he receives a strong punch in the face, knocking him back.

Mineiro and the soldier who was about to kill Mesquita look at the soldier who was punched. Mineiro says with confusion "What the fuck are you doing?! Get up! You got beat by a child-" Before Mineiro finishes, he receives a shot in the head from Joel's direction, killing him quickly. The soldier who was about to kill Mesquita sees the scene and runs away in terror.

Joel gets up and looks around, startled by what just happened. In front of him, he sees a creature of a similar size to him wearing a black bulletproof vest, black baggy pants and a black ballistic helmet covering completely its face, he can only see its red eyes glowing under the helmet. It is holding a pistol in its gray colored hands. Joel looks in amazement and terror at the thing in front of him. Joel says with extreme fear "W-WHAT?! What is this thing?!" He thinks a little and analyzes the environment, realizing what 'this thing' did "V- You helped me? W- Why?"

The creature then stands to attention to Joel, much like a soldier saluting its colonel, and says loudly "ORA!"

Joel looks at the creature with an amazed look, but remembers that Mesquita is still on the floor unconscious and runs to see him. The creature follows him.

Mesquita wakes up and looks at Joel "What happened…?"

Joel hugs Mesquita and says holding the tears "Y- You idiot! Why did you come after me?! You could have gotten hurt!"

"Haha… look who's talking…" Mesquita looks behind Joel and sees the creature. He widens his eyes and asks in a curious tone: "Joel… do you have a stand?!"

"What?" Joel points to the creature "You mean that?"

Mesquita laughs and coughs before saying "Yes… well…That It's your stand… to summarize, it's the manifestation of your energy, like your spirit... Joel, now this is your best friend, the one you can trust the most. From the looks of it, it should be a low-range but high-strength Stand… I'll explain later, but first: Give it a name."

"Wait, seriously?! Like, now I have a ghost friend?! And I can give him a name?!"

"Yeah… so, what's his name going to be?"

Joel looks at his so-called "stand". He sees the pistol in his hand disappear and reappear. Joel thinks for a moment and hugs his stand "Thank you for saving Mesquita, I will always be grateful for that. I promise to be a good friend to you. And for your name… you seem to be as hard as iron, and you seem to have the strength of an army, therefore your name will be Iron Army!"

Iron Army thinks for a moment and hugs Joel back, saying a loud "ORA!"

Mesquita laughs "Well, it seems like that's the only thing he can say... but Joel, I make you an offer: How about you join the police? I can teach you things and I can make you a good police officer, especially with your stand."

Joel looks at Mesquita and nods with amazement "Yes, I would love to!"

Stand Name: Iron Army

User: Joel Kujo (14 Years old)

POWER: B

SPEED: C

RANGE: E (2 Meters)

DURABILITY: D

PRECISION: B

POTENTIAL: A

ABILITY:

Iron Army can generate weapons that do not need to reload ammunition. These weapons need to be real to be generated by Iron Army, for example, it could not generate a laser weapon. The more weapons Iron Army generates, the less firepower they have. At this age, Iron Army can only generate small weapons, such as pistols and knives, and their firepower is lower due to lack of training and experience.

[DELEGACIA - 2011 - 6 DAYS BEFORE THE PRIEST'S ARRIVAL]

Joel is at the police station with Daniela and her battalion. "Okay, Daniela, since you agreed to join the battalion, I'll introduce you to the staff-"

One of the battalion's soldiers interrupts Joel, this being soldier 06, André, who speaks with confusion: "Excuse me, captain, not wanting to challenge your authority, but why did you decide to put a completely random woman in our battalion? I mean, she didn't even take any physical fitness test and didn't even take the BOPE course... She's not even a police officer! Damn, captain, this is idiotic! Like, it's okay that you trust her or something, but that's not enough! All of us had to make the BOPE course, why doesn't she?!"

Joel looks at André and shakes his head: "Yes, you're right, André, but I think just one simple act will change your mind." Iron Army creates a gun in Joel's hand, which he shoots at Daniela's head, causing her to fall to the ground with a bullet hole in her head. Everyone in the battalion is scared

"WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS CAPTAIN?!"

"WHAT IS THIS FOR?!"

"ARE YOU CRAZY JOEL?!"

Joel rolls his eyes and crouches down in front of Daniela. He offers her his hand to help her up. "Sorry about that, but I needed a demonstration."

Daniela then takes Joel's hand and gets up with some difficulty, leaning on Joel "Damn... you could have warned me..." She sticks her fingers in the blood bag that Joel gave her earlier and starts sucking its blood, regenerating her bullet hole in her head "Well, now you owe me another blood bag, JoJo." She laughs lightly as Joel is embarrassed about being called JoJo in front of the battalion.

The entire battalion is shocked to see Daniela get up and everyone is left open-mouthed, unable to understand how someone survived a bullet to the head.

Joel turns to them "Do you understand? She's strong, and let's face it, it's better to have someone strong on our team than on the team of criminals', drug dealers', those who sell drugs to children…." Without waiting for a response, Joel tells them, "Cool. In this case, she will only assist us in night missions, as she dies in sunlight."

The battalion thinks about the situation for a while and everyone agrees with Joel that it is better to have someone powerful and unknown as an ally rather than an enemy.

"Great. We will have to guarantee the sweet sleep of Father Pucci. Let's get ready to make the first incursion, does anyone want to test Daniela before that?"

Soldier 05, Sandro, raises his hand "I volunteer, captain!"

"Okay, Sandro. Guys, let's step aside to let them test themselves, and if things get too 'hectic' I'll intervene."

Joel and the battalion take a step back and make room for the two. Sandro and Daniela approach and Sandro summons his stand, a lupine entity with dark fur that moves like fire with a flaming aura. Sandro laughs "Inferno's Hound!"

Inferno's Hound goes on the attack trying to grab Daniela. She, as if on instinct, manages to avoid Inferno's Hound with a jump. She notices the temperature increasing drastically and gets an idea. She jumps and catches herself on the ceiling. Then Daniela jumps towards 's Hound tries to protect Sandro, but when he grabs Daniela, his mouth freezes when it comes into contact with Daniela's skin, freezing Sandro's mouth and making him despair.

She then advances towards Sandro saying excitedly "Wryyy!" and pretends to attack him, making him take a defensive attitude, but she then touches Sandro's arm, freezing his arm. She says excitedly "Your skills areuseless against me, useless, useless, useless!"

The entire battalion, including Joel, is shocked to see Daniela freezing Sandro. Joel moves forward to separate Daniela from Sandro. When Daniela was about to really attack Sandro, Joel uses Iron Army to get her away from him "Oh, stop, stop, I can see that you're good! No more demonstrations needed!"

Daniela looks at Joel and sticks out her tongue in a mocking and crossing way "Ah, you're so annoying! I was just warming up! How long did this last? Fifty seconds?"

Joel sighs as the other men in the battalion go to help Sandro defrost his arm and mouth: "It doesn't matter, Daniela." Joel looks at the clock and realizes that it's almost time to do his daily raid "Okay guys, it's almost time. Daniela, you will receive the number '08' and will be called that during the operation, and-"

Daniela interrupts Joel: "No no no, I don't accept being called by any number, you'll have to call me by a prettier code name!"

Joel looks at Daniela completely indignant for a few minutes and sighs: "Good fucking grief… fine, what do you want me to call you?"

Daniela thinks for a few minutes and smiles, already having a nickname in mind: "Well, during the missions, you'll have to call me a very humble name... you can call me Dea." She laughs lightly

Joel sighs again: "'Goddess' in Italian… Why did I expect anything different? You know what, whatever, let's go to Turano hill to do the mission straight away. Dea, take a uniform from Olivia until we get a proper uniform for you."

Daniela playfully salutes and laughs: "Of course, Captain JoJo."

Joel clenches his fists in anger and shame at being called that again in front of his battalion. "... Good fucking grief…"

Stand Name: Inferno's Hound

User: Sandro Alexander

POWER: B

SPEED: A

RANGE: C (10 Meters)

DURABILITY: C

ACCURACY: B

POTENTIAL: C

ABILITY:

Inferno's Hound can generate flames and create an aura of fire in the environment through its mouth, burning whoever the user desires. The fire can be canceled if Inferno's Hound's mouth is cooled with ice or water.

At night, the battalion is climbing the Turano hill to 'clean' the area close to the archbishop's house. The favela is illuminated, sounds of gunshots are heard in the background. While searching, Joel spots a relatively large group of dealers and gestures to the battalion. Daniela seems to already be aware of the people present due to her heightened vampire senses.

Joel turns to give orders to the members of the battalion and looks at each of the members: "03, create a sound distraction for the other side with your Sonic Echo, 04, use your Green Path to find the Vape, Dea-" He realizes that Daniela is not in her position. Joel sighs and speaks in an angry tone, still trying to remain silent so as not to reveal his position. "Where's that damn vampire?!"

The battalion looks for Daniela for a few seconds, Joel begins to go into a state of fury at her insolence. Suddenly, he feels a hand on his shoulder and quickly turns to see Daniela with her bloody hands and face holding a completely terrified young man by the hair. She throws the young man in front of Joel and says in a carefree tone "He is the Vape, he confessed after seeing what I did to the soldiers."

The entire battalion looks at Daniela in silence. Joel nods his head in approval and says to her in an almost proud tone: "Well, you're good, insolent vampire."

Daniela laughs and responds to Joel: "I know I am good, angry stand user~"

They Look at each other for a few moments in silence until Joel decides to break the silence by clearing his throat and saying, returning with his heavy tone: "Alright, I think if we're going to do this in this 'pace' we can do a few more missions today to protect the priest… just follows my orders and don't leave my side. Are you willing to do this?"

"You can count on me, Jo-"

Joel interrupts her: "If you call me that again I swear I will punch you so hard that you will have to drink a truckload of blood to fully regenerate."

She sighs "You're rough and thick," she then smiles "Just the way I like it~"

Joel looks at her and sighs, covering his face with his hands out of embarrassment: "Why do I feel like this is going to be my routine from now on?" He notices that his officers are looking at him and Daniela with curiosity and fascination, they have never seen Joel act like this with anyone except this woman.

He says in an angry tone "What are you looking at?!" The battalion thendeviate their gazes shyly. Joel says angrily: "Good fucking grief… okay, let's finish here and then we go to our homes. 04, look for other dealers with your Green Path; Dea, when we find those bastards, do what you did with those soldiers. The favela will be pacified before the arrival of that damn priest!"

A few hours later, Joel and his battalion return to their homes and manage to put several drug dealers and criminals in jail.

On the way home, Joel notices that someone is following him. He turns quickly and draws his pistol, pointing it at his pursuer. "Who's there?!" Joel realizes that the person is just Daniela. "Damn Daniela, the fuck you're doing?! You scared the hell out of me!"

She laughs: "Sorry, I was just keeping you company, Jojo~"

Joel sighs and tries to ignore Daniela, but she starts walking beside him.

She says in a joking tone "Hey, how about you call me 'Dea' off shift? It's like, calling me 'Daniela' is only so formal for common situations, besides, I feel good being called that… don't you agree, Jojo~?"

Joel ignores her and continues walking to his house, already losing patience with her.

Daniela laughs and says in a provocative tone: "You know, it would be very kind of you if you would actually talk to me… where is your chivalry?"

"I don't know, go look in the whorehouse, it must be right next to the fucking house."

She sighs and says in a teasing tone again, "You're too thick, I hope it's like that in other factors too~"

"... This morning, when you came to me, you asked about my purple star-shaped birthmark and asked who my father was... but you also have a star-shaped birthmark, only instead of being purple like mine it's yellow… so, I'm going to ask the same question: Who is your father?"

Daniela stops with a serious expression: "... well, I've never seen him, but I know his name and what he looks like... if I'm not mistaken, he's a guy called "Dio Brando" or something like… and I have a picture of him, I can show it to you if you want."

Joel looks at her curiously: "That would be good, show me that pic."

"Okay…" Daniela then pulls out a slightly burned wallet from her pocket and takes out a small, slightly burned photo from the wallet. She shows the photo to Joel, the photo is of a blond, muscular man from behind, shadows covering his face. On the back of the man's head, there is a purple star mark, just like Joel's.

Joel looks at the photo in confusion. "Are you sure this is your father? I mean, his hair is blonde, and you have dark hair, in fact your star mark is yellow, so…"

"I'm sure, my star mark was purple before I became a vampire, it only turned yellow when I… when they turned me into a vampire…" Daniela looks into space for a few seconds, as if remembering something. She decides to change the subject "And about the hair color, it is a genetic thing. Dark hair genes are 'dominant' and blond hair genes are 'recessive', so even if my mother has only one gene of dark hair, it still gives me more chances to have dark hair and not blond hair."

Joel looks at Daniela slightly impressed in silence. He breaks the silence by saying in a humorous tone "Well, I shouldn't have left school, maybe I would have become a hot vampire nerd if I had stayed there like you did."

This makes her laugh lightly and nod. They walk back to Joel's house

"...so, should I ignore the fact that you called me hot or should I thank you?"

"What he was? I only spoke the truth."

Joel and Daniela laugh together, sharing stories as they walk casually along the street illuminated by lamps. Although the presence of drug dealers creates a tense atmosphere in the area, they don't seem to mind. Daniela lightly punches Joel in the arm, teasing him, and the atmosphere between them becomes lighter as they continue talking and laughing along the way.

"So, Jojo, do you have a girlfriend waiting for you at home?" Daniela asks with a mischievous smile.

Joel rolls his eyes and responds, "Don't be an idiot, Dea. I don't have time for these things. Besides, relationships only bring complications."

"Ah, Jojo, you need to relax a little. Life is too short to be taken so seriously all the time."

Joel sighs and looks at Daniela: "You speak as if you know everything about life."

She shrugs: "Well, I've lived for a long time, and I'll continue living for much longer, I'm a vampire who will live forever, have you forgotten?"

He thinks for a while "… good point… oh, how old are you? I mean, since you're a vampire, you can be 89 and I don't even know."

She chuckles at Joel's comment "No, I'm not 89, actually I'm 26 years old, but since I was turned into a vampire 5 years ago, my body will be 21 years old forever."

"I see, and how did you become a vampire?"

Daniela then stops walking. She slowly hugs herself and looks to the side. Joel notices that her lips are trembling and the look on her face seems much more melancholic and sad after the question. Joel notices Daniela's discomfort and sighs

"... Sorry for asking. I didn't mean to bring up... bad memories. Don't talk about it if you don't want to..."

She looks at Joel and smiles slightly, she takes a deep breath and walks with Joel back to his house "It's okay, there's no need to apologize, you just didn't know… anyway, changing the subject…"

The two continue talking as they walk through the city's bright streets. Daniela shares some stories about her life after becoming a vampire, while Joel listens intently. She talks about the challenges she faced, the people she met and the things she learned over the years.

As they get closer to Joel's house, the atmosphere between them becomes more relaxed. Daniela seems to have overcome the moment of discomfort caused by the question about her transformation into a vampire. Joel begins to enjoy her company, realizing that despite their differences, they can somehow understand each other.

When they arrive at Joel's door, Daniela looks at him with a friendly smile: "It was nice talking to you, Jojo. Maybe I'll come by again."

When Daniela is about to walk away, Joel grabs her arm and asks with a sigh: "... oh... you... do you have a place to stay?"

Daniela looks at Joel with surprise, but then smiles sincerely. "No, I don't have a fixed place. I end up wandering around, but I always find a place to spend the night. Why?"

Joel hesitates for a moment, but then sighs and says, "I was just thinking... you're kind of annoying, but it was nice talking to you. I'm not the best at expressing feelings, but... My house has a guest room. If you want , you can leave it here. It might be useful to have a vampire around... I don't know..."

She stares at him for a moment before letting out an excited laugh. "You bet, Jojo! I'll take you up on the offer. And you won't regret it, I promise."

The two enter the house, sharing laughs and stories as Joel introduces Daniela to his modest home. Even with the constant presence of danger outside, the atmosphere inside the house becomes lighter and friendlier.

[DELEGACY - 5 DAYS BEFORE THE PRIEST'S ARRIVAL]

The soldiers in the battalion are surprised, all looking at Joel curiously. The fact that motivates this curiosity is the slight contented look on Joel's face and the visible calm in his eyes. They never saw Joel like that, they always saw him as a guy who can be happy but is always about to beat someone up. Sandro approaches him and questions him: "Captain, why so much happiness so suddenly? I mean, no offense but you always seem a little pissed about everything and it's strange to see you so happy... Did something happen?" Sandro thinks a little "Wait, are you really Joel?!"

Joel chuckles: "Yes, I'm really Joel, Sandro. And about the reason for my happiness... well... let's say I had a good night, you know, a cold beer, watching Flamengo's victorious match with Iron Army, that kind of thing that can make any man happy. "

Daniela then appears hopping on Joel's lap, making him blush, and saying in a playful tone "Not forgetting to mention that he had the illustrious presence of moi in his home."

The battalion looks at Joel and Daniela in surprise. Joel covers his face with his hand in embarrassment. "You could have left that part out, Dea."

She laughs and says in a provocative tone: "What's the matter? I didn't even mention the part where we went to bed and-"

Joel covers her mouth with his hand nervously as he tries to maintain his posture "You are SERIOUSLY over the point! Okay, you pissed me off, are you happy?!"

Daniela nods her head positively. Joel takes his hand off her mouth, sighs and says in his usual irritated tone

"Good fucking grief…If regret could kill, I would already be in hell for having called you to the battalion…"

Joel looks at his battalion, they are all looking at Joel and Daniela with amusement and holding back their laughter, which irritates Joel even more

"What are you looking at?! If you keep looking at us like that, your training will be doubled, you idiots!"

The battalion looks away from Joel and Daniela, trying to hide it. Joel sighs and speaks again in a more serious tone: "But seriously, guys, we have work to do. The priest's arrival is near, and we need to make sure everything is under control when he arrives. Sandro, any news on the border of the territory?"

Sandro, still somewhat stunned by Daniela's presence, shakes his head and replies: "Nothing out of the ordinary, Captain. It seems relatively calm for now."

Joel nods: "Great. We need to keep this calm. I want everyone focused and ready for any eventuality. Daniela here will help us keep things under control, so I hope you can work together."

The battalion murmurs in agreement, although some are still smiling from the earlier interaction between Joel and Daniela.

Joel turns to Daniela and says in a lower tone: "And you, vampire, need to learn to control your tongue. I don't want any more unpleasant surprises."

She makes an expression of exaggerated innocence: "Oh, Captain, I promise I'll behave. I don't want to get in the way of BOPE's brilliant work."

Joel just rolls his eyes and walks away to focus on the day's tasks. As the battalion prepares for its duties, Daniela observes Joel in an intrigued manner. There seems to be a mutual curiosity between them, a peculiar dynamic that is just beginning to unfold.

[TO BE CONTINUED]