Master's Academy Dorm 52
Midnight
? ﾝﾅﾥ? - Anyaku
Innervisions jumped at Viale. Diving onto the floor to avoid being grappled, Viale made a loud noise when he hit the floor. Loud enough to wake up Coco Jumbo, and in turn, Polnareff, who was sleeping in the tortoise that was sleeping on the desk.
"Viale!" Polnareff yelled, "That's an enemy Stand User!"
"Yeah, no shit!" Viale responded as he dodged the weak but fast and furious punches from the literal pile of trash.
"Is there a guy in that turtle?" Amicio commanded another Innervision to form from the remaining junk. It formed and grabbed Coco Jumbo by the shell. Seeing as he didn't want to hurt a turtle, Amicio merely opened a desk drawer and put Polnareff inside, who was shouting protests as he was put safely in a desk, "Can't have any witnesses."
"Now, Viale, my good pal friend," Amicio returned to the first Innervision and another newly formed one pinning Viale down by the arms, "I know you just got here and all, but you are going to have to leave the school. Sorry."
Viale was hardly in a position of refusal, seeing as he was at the mercy of Amicio's closet, but he felt that while Innervisions was multiple objects, they weren't particularly strong. He could easily take more than a few punches. Amicio, however, saw this, too. To combat this he commanded the Innervision that had put Coco Jumbo in the desk drawer to help its friend.
"My Stand, Innervisions, allows me to control what's considered junk or mess. I can turn them into humanoid forms." As Amicio said that, two more started to form. He handed one the arrow he was still holding - he wouldn't be needing it.
Viale knew having multiple Innervisions on him at once would be bad, so he decided to finally do what he had been putting off doing this whole time. With all of his might, he flung off the two Innervisions, unexpectedly ran right through the third, flung open the door, and held his breath.
When Amicio chased after him, he found that the hall was completely desolate. Viale was nowhere to be found. He checked left. He checked right. Viale had vanished. Surely he had just run around the corner, Amicio thought. He sent two Innervisions each way - one left, one right - and kept one with himself (just in case).
? ﾝﾅﾥ? - Yuki
As the two Stands rounded the corner, a head slid out from the wall opposite the door. This head was not that of Viale, but was robotic. Its eyes and brow looked like a capital B if it were turned clockwise 90 degrees, forming what looked like a frown. The eyes themselves were simply red LEDs, circular barring the slight cutoff that made it look as if it were frowning. The head was coloured blue with accents of yellow around the focal points. Instead of a mouth, it had speakers, and instead of ears, it had microphones.
As the head came further out of the wall, it was revealed that the head had a body attached to it. The body was built like a truck, muscles somehow protruding through the metallic finish of the torso, arms and legs. The torso looked as if there was a vinyl record implanted in it, sliding under the pectoral muscles. Other than the record, the body was coloured primarily in the same blue as the head, red and yellow accents surrounding the record, and red where the record would be put on the needle of the record player.
Standing up straight, it was quite tall. As tall as Viale, who was still nowhere to be found. Suddenly, the thing shot forward towards Amicio, who was still standing there dumbly. The Innervision that was protecting him moved in front to block the punch.
The Innervision was unsuccessful, however, as it was punched right through. The wrappers were scattered everywhere across the hall as the Stand fell down. With his other two Stands still around the corner, Amicio was defenceless for the time being.
"Well, Gio? What would you hope to gain from this place?"
What does he want? Looking back on this moment in this do-or-die situation, he really didn't have a proper answer. What do I want? He asked himself, do I want a simple life? Do I want a fulfilling life?
Viale was puzzled. The only thing he could come up with was blue skies and sunshine. Happy days where he could do whatever he wanted. Where he could be free from his problems. But not in some Deus Ex Machina kind of way; in a way he forges himself.
He wanted to forge his own blue skies.
"｢Mr. Blue Sky｣!"
? ﾝﾅﾥ? - Stand Activated
Viale emerged from the wall to catch his breath. He had discovered that he could see, hear and speak through Mr. Blue Sky, as it had microphones in its ear-hole thing, and a speaker for a mouth. He could not, however, breathe through his Stand.
"So you've finally decided to reveal your Stand, huh?" Amicio asked, "It seems like you can enter surfaces whenever you want. A powerful ability, but not as good as Innervisions!" The two Innervisions that Viale had sent on a wild goose chase returned to their master as he finished his proclamation.
Mr. Blue Sky brawled the two remaining trash heaps. The blue Stand ducked and weaved. Whilst Innervisions wasn't physically powerful, it could take a hit and dish them back at a rather fast pace. Learning from his opponent, Amicio quickly learned that he could coordinate his Stands to fight together for a much greater effect. A quick one-two by the left Stand led straight to Mr. Blue Sky being flung into the second. The second jumped on Mr. Blue Sky's back and started whacking him in the back of the head, Viale feeling the pain. The first Innervision also started to regain form, as the trash itself hadn't been destroyed.
Shit! I have to beat this guy before he gets a third Stand! Viale thought, Didn't Polnareff say that all damage a Stand sustains, it is reflected upon the User? Why hasn't this guy keeled over?
Viale finally realised that since he wasn't actually tearing the clothes or breaking the wrappers, Amicio wasn't taking any damage, unlike himself. As he looked closer, he remembered the spoken by-line Polnareff told him, "...Third, all damage that a Stand sustains is reflected onto its User (barring special exceptions)."
Wait a second… this guy's Stand isn't even a Stand! It's just a bunch of junk! The Stand mustn't have a form! Viale smirked, I can work with this.
He commanded Mr. Blue Sky to punch one of the Innervisions in the torso as hard as he could.
"Mora!"
The tank top flew backwards, as well as the trash inside of it. Surprised that it worked, Viale recalled Mr. Blue Sky and dived to grab the shirt.
If I can just touch the shirt, I can put it in the floor! Then this one won't be able to regenerate!
Amicio noticed what Viale was going for, but just as the Innervisions turned to obstruct Viale, Mr. Blue Sky emerged from Viale.
? ﾝﾅﾥ? - Stardust Crusaders
"Mora mora mora!"
Mr. Blue Sky pummelled one of the two remaining Innervisions directly into both the door to their dorm, and the other into the wall beside it. Only the shirts were stuck, but doing so completely immobilised them. If the Stands disconnected from the shirt, they'd fall apart.
"Wow," Viale confidently stated, "I know I'm a pretty good actor, but you fell for my simple ruse?" With the Stands stuck in the surfaces of Viale's choosing, Amicio also found himself unable to move his body, only his hands and his head, "You thought I was just targeting just one of your Innervisions, but actually, I was gunning for the total wipeout!"
Amicio felt like he was iron glued to a magnet, watching Viale in horror as Mr. Blue Sky hovered behind him menacingly, "Wait wait! Viale - buddy, chum, pal - please!" Amicio's hands were together, as if praying, and he was bordering crying at this point, "I was told to do this! To use that arrow and drive you out of the school! I wasn't trying to kill you!"
"Mora!"
"Who ordered you!" Viale grabbed Amicio by the shirt and de-summoned Mr. Blue Sky, only lifting him up slightly, "I want names."
"I don't know I don't know I don't know…" he kept repeating.
"I know you do, but you just don't want to reveal them," Amicio squeaked out a little noise. Viale walked past the boy stuck in the middle of the hallway, "Hmm. If they want me out of the school, they are probably inside the school. It's also gotta be someone you hold in high regard if you're willing to defend them. Let me guess: is it… a teacher?"
"What? No! Haha! Why would a teacher want you out of the school so badly that one would force a student to beat him up?" Amicio's argument made sense - there simply was no motive that Viale could think of. However, what Amicio didn't know was that Viale fancied himself a good judge of character, and didn't believe a word he spewed.
? ﾝﾅﾥ? - No Music
"Well, tomorrow, I'm going to have a little chat with the teachers I have for my classes," Viale concluded, "In the meantime, you are going to request a change of dorm rooms. Make sure it goes through, alright?" To emphasise his position as 'on top', Viale summoned Mr. Blue Sky and placed his hand on Amicio's shoulder. Amicio squealed, "Do you have a friend's room you can stay in? Good. Now scram."
Amicio scurried away - presumably towards his friend's dorm room. As he gained enough distance, the Innervisions that were still stuck in the wall sagged over and lost their life Amicio gave them.
｢Innervisions｣
Stats:
Power: D
Speed: B
Range: C
Stamina: A
Precision: C
Potential: D
? ﾝﾅﾥ? - Travellers Who Rest
"It's a shame, really," Viale said to himself, "the first functioning Stand User I come across is quite the pushover. It wasn't as if Innervisions was a bad Stand, it's just that Mr Nemicio didn't know how to use it." Not that he could blame him - Amicio only had the Stand for about half an hour.
Viale wandered through his dorm door - still covered in clothes - and inspected the mess the two had made. Summoning Mr. Blue Sky, Viale decided to test out the limits of his Stand's limits by cleaning up the place (his roommate wouldn't be doing it). He discovered that Mr. Blue Sky's range was around two metres, as he had to move around for the Stand to be able to reach some of the corners. The Stand was really fast when he did manage to reach its target. It was fast enough to rearrange a corner of the room in a few seconds, and precise enough to fold all of the clothes neatly. Viale noticed that his Stand had above average stamina, only needing to rest after finishing cleaning the room.
Remembering the Frenchman in his desk, retrieved his pet tortoise from the drawer.
"God damn, man, what do you–" Polnareff looked at who was picking him up, "Oh… you beat him," Viale nodded, "good job."
"Thanks. I've never experienced something like that before," Sure, he had gotten into fights before - mostly with bullies that didn't know when to quit, "Is that how Stand fights usually play out?"
"Well," Polnareff started, "I didn't see your fight, but seeing as I only heard the shouting and your Stand cry, I assume you outsmarted him in some way?"
"Yeah, though it wasn't hard."
"I remember my first Stand fight," Polnareff reminisced, "wow. That was almost fifty years ago - I feel old."
"You only look around forty, though," Viale commented.
"I stopped ageing when I became a tortoise - now I age at the same rate as Coco Jumbo. Unfortunately, Terrapins only live for about thirty years, so I'm expecting to bite the du– I mean, keel over in a few years."
That was a shame, Viale thought. His ghostly body looked healthy (other than the fact that he was a ghost), but that was only a farce. His father had taught him all about animals - that was one thing Gioviale knew about his father: Giorno Giovanna loved animals. He had thought the tortoise looked a bit on the older side, but it was rather unfortunate.
"Ah well, c'est la vive. You can't win them all," Coco Jumbo retracted into its shell as Polnareff sank into the key, "You, mon amie, should get some sleep."
Viale nodded and got ready for bed. Sadly, during the fight he accumulated quite the sweat, but the showers were closed for the night. Viale, however, slept soundly.
Just as he dozed off, his phone beeped:
Father
Missed calls: (3)
21:46: How was your first day Gioviale?
21:53: Are you receiving this?
22:04: Viale, please respond as soon as possible.
Somewhere
At the same time
? ﾝﾅﾥ? - Killer
"Sir?"
"I assume you're calling me this late at night to tell me Nemicio has been defeated?"
"...Yes, sir. Giovanna bested him. Zeppeli was listening in."
"That's fine. Ask Zeppeli how he went. I want to know if he is as much of a threat as his father. I expected Mr Nemicio to lose. Giovanna is, after all, a Joestar."
"There was one thing. One of Nemicio's Stands - an Innervision - dropped the Giovanna Stand Arrow around a corner, and Zeppeli managed to pick it up after they both left."
"Excellent. Spread it around. We want to make sure to keep Giovanna busy."
Click.
｢Mr. Blue Sky｣
Stats:
Power: A
Speed: A
Range: D (2m)
Stamina: B
Precision: A
Potential: B
Cafeteria
Morning
? ﾝﾅﾥ? - Day job
Viale was tired as he walked down to the cafeteria.
After Viale got his breakfast (unfortunately not from Rossi), he found a rather empty table; perhaps some people were late to breakfast. The only person there was someone Viale did not recognise. Really, the only notable thing about the boy was that he was staring at his A4 notebook, sometimes emoting something.
The boy asked, without glancing up, "Why are you staring at me, Gioviale Giovanna?"
Now Viale fancied himself a man of reason. Even with Stands, he acted mostly on logic and rarely on emotion. All Stands followed some logic. Mr President was a room inside of a tortoise that someone could enter through a key on its shell, but that was still its logic; you couldn't enter Mr President through the underside, for example.
This made it easy to see when something was off. He knew to follow his gut feeling of 'something is not right'. This would be applied to Stands, too. If he were under a stealthy attack, he'd probably be able to tell. This is what led him to believe that this comment by the boy that sat across from him was a little off. He was not sure if he was an enemy, so he had to treat carefully.
"How do you know my name?" Gioviale asked. He expected the boy to have heard it from a teacher, or maybe someone found out about the new arrival at the school and had spread the information around.
The boy responded after reading a bit more of his notebook, "Yes, I heard it from a teacher," he responded.
"Well," Viale accepted, "what's your name?"
He did a one-over of Viale, after greeting, "Matito. Matito Romano."
Matito looked back down at the notebook, and read, 'Viale felt that this would be the start of an amazing friendship. What a dumbass.'
Matito agreed.
Giovanna Estate, Naples
Around the same time
? ﾝﾅﾥ? - Mayoi
The Giovanna Estate was quiet without Viale there. The vast hallways were only ever filled with the footsteps of the occupants. Usually, Viale would be running through the hallway, playing with something, smashing a vase or two, or maybe talking with his friends. Nowadays, the only rooms that were being used were Giorno's office, the kitchen, and the numerous bathrooms.
Giorno's office certainly had personality. The two walls on the sides of the room were fitted with bookshelves that held dozens upon dozens of books on biology, economics, and other assorted topics. One small section of the bookcase on the right was dedicated to photos of his family, as well as some picture books about various talking animals and happy suns. On the back wall with no bookshelves was a grandiose window that displayed a lovely view of Naples.
Mista stood on the door side of Giorno's desk.
"Any news on Apatia?" Giorno asked. He was sitting in his favourite velvet chair that he had bought from one of the residents in his neighbourhood after they moved out. It was now in front of Giorno's desk, which was decorated with picture frames and primary school achievements Viale had earned. Of course, Giorno kept a few items on his desk that were never moved. A zipper, someone's favourite bottle of wine, and a pair of flowers in a vase. This was the only vase in the house Giorno had specifically told Viale not to break.
"Nothing, yet," Guido Mista responded. Years after they'd met, Mista was still faithful and loyal to his best friend and boss. He had doffed his distinct red and blue hat with a down arrow as it was only needed for combat.
"Why do they make all this noise one week, then decide to leave us alone the next? It doesn't make any sense!" Giorno exclaimed. He stood up. Pacing around the back wall of his office, he said, "and! They haven't just jumped towns! I asked our informants in Rome and Bari - they said that the only ones making trouble were themselves! I then had to scold them for making trouble when they were meant to be keeping quiet, you know, like spies?!"
Mista decided to calm Giorno down, "Hey, man. I know you're stressed about Viale's move, but you have to focus on what is going well right now; you have to keep your composure," he approached Giorno and leaned on the wall next to him, narrowly missing the bug encyclopaedia, "Like, for example," he held out his hands about to list some things, "Polnareff is with Viale - he'll watch over your son, Naples' drug trade is all but obliterated, Viale presumably has a Stand now and can defend himself, and he's far far away from the locals."
"That reminds me: I need to try Viale's phone again," Giorno tapped the side of his head, "I've sent him three texts and tried to call him three times."
"You know," Mista began, "maybe uprooting him from his established life and sending him to a boarding school halfway across the country would make him a little indifferent towards you," Giorno side-eyed him, "Just sayin'," he said as he shrugged and tilted his head.
"You know who he reminds me of?" Mista asked. Giorno looked at him with a quizzical look, "He reminds me of that old guy we met at your family reunion that one time. When was it?" Mista tapped his chin.
"2009, Mista. That was twenty years ago." Wow, that made Mista feel old. "But now that you mention it, Polnareff said he reminded him of some other old guy. Maybe he's the same?"
"Who knows? Polnareff didn't go to the reunion, if I remember correctly," Mista clarified, "what was that guy's name, by the way?"
Giorno moved back into his favourite seat, "Let me think. I went to his funeral a few years after that; back in 2013. Yes, I believe his name was Joseph Joestar. "
Master's Academy Main Building
Morning
? ﾝﾅﾥ? - Day job
Viale fancied himself a logical thinker. He made connections between things that no one else usually did. For example, the definition of soup is a substance or mixture regarded as resembling soup in appearance or consistency. Viale made the connection that, with this definition, anything could be soup. Some crazy person could regard anything as looking like soup, therefore it would be considered a soup. Viale understood this. What Viale did not understand, however, was the layout of Master's Academy. It wasn't like he didn't pay attention during the tour - he found the principal rather interesting to listen to. This layout just made no sense to navigate.
Viale found himself panicking in the middle of the hallway as people walked past him. He tried not to show his panic, but it evidently didn't work very well. To Viale's relief, he saw the beautiful girl that had offered him help the night before.
"Hey!" He shouted over the hustle and bustle of the hallway, "Hey, Rossi!" She whipped her head around and noticed his slight panic.
She ducked and weaved through the crowd with a rather bemused expression, "Hey…" she tapped her chin and looked up, thinking, "Giovanni?"
"Giovanna. Gioviale Giovanna. I go by Viale, though."
"That's right," she refocused back on his face, "What can I help you with?"
"Right… yeah…" Viale was still shocked that this girl could make him stare like this unabashedly, "I have Mathematics B in… the E wing?"
"Right, follow me," she responded, "I don't have class now, so I got some time."
As they made their way to the E wing, Rossi gave Viale the directions from the front entrance to the rest of his classes. Viale studiously wrote them down on his pocket notebook. In between these times was Rossi asking Viale about several things - small talk really, not that Viale minded.
"Looks like you have Business B with me," she noted, "I look forward to it," She smiled at him.
Uh oh, Viale thought, I'm not going to be able to pay attention all year.
"Yeah, looks like," he responded, "My dad's into business - he's a banker - so if you want, I could help you with it."
"Really? That'd be great," Rossi thanked, "business is my worst subject right now,"
Rossi continued, "Hey, you said your name was Gioviale Giovanni?" He nodded, "Why don't people call you GioGio? You know, like JoJo?"
Viale grimaced, "Apparently that's what my dad's friends call him - his name is Giorno Giovanna. I haven't seen his friends other than Guido for a while, though."
"Who's Guido?" Rossi asked, cutely tilting her head to the left, "Your uncle?"
Under his breath, Viale muttered, "The tortoise is my uncle," then louder, "No, he's my dad's best friend and business partner."
"Huh," she paused, "My mamma has a friend called Guido. Wonder if they're the same one…"
As they arrived at Viale's maths class, E-2, Viale turned to Rossi, "Thanks, Rossi, you're a real lifesaver,"
She giggled. "No problem, GioGio," she teased as she walked off.
To Be Continued ===