Pisa
Italy

Richiamare watched the two Giovannas in patience as Giorno healed the knife wound in his son. His fingers gripped the binoculars tightly as he reminded himself to remain vigilant. The others were already dealt with all across the city, so it wasn't like he had to watch out for them.

No, it was that damn rock that had set its sights on him as soon as he stepped foot inside Pisa. No matter what he was doing, whether it was taking a shit, eating a Big Mac, or watching for targets as he was now, it was always there, slowly approaching him.

He had to be more watchful than normal, because apparently, this rock could phase through walls. Because of course it could.

He watched Gioviale get up and shoot his father a look of contempt. 'He doesn't like his father? How interesting…'

Viale had approached the trap that he'd so expertly set – one of the other kids' shoes. He bemoaned that Giorno was so deductive, being able to discern the shoe's nature so quickly, but he figured that the Don had been doing this whole Stand thing so long that Richiamare wasn't at fault. The odds were observably stacked against him, after all.

He quickly made the rounds with his Stand again, travelling to each hiding place to check on his hostages. It was an easy job with his Stand ｢Move On Up｣, with which he could transport himself anywhere he had previously been within the last twenty-four hours.

As soon as he returned to his vantage point, he heard his phone ring. It quickly stuttered out as the telephone signals struggled to keep up with his position.

It rang again, which he answered right away. "Hello?"

"Richiamare." He recognised the voice instantly. Anyone would have recognised it, after what had happened yesterday. "I've been told you have located the opposing force. Status update."

"R-right Boss. Well I have captured and immobilised four of the six enemies—"

"Six?" He questioned, "I was told there were five: Rossi, Segnaposto, Joestar, Beneficci, and Giovanna. Have they gained another ally?"

"Yes, sir. It's… it's Don Giovanna."

The Boss sighed. "I had hoped to avoid this… though I guess I didn't necessarily tell him he wasn't allowed to reconvene with his son. They are still on their way to Venice, yes?"

"It seems so, sir. Pisa is a pitstop while they wait for the train."

The line was silent for an uncomfortably long time. "I want you to stop everyone except for Don Giovanna… and Miss Rossi from coming back to Venice. By any means necessary. Start with Giovanna the younger."

With that he hung up. He peered into his binoculars and his eyes widened as he struggled to locate the two Giovannas. He shifted to a few buildings over and noticed that a crowd was forming. He brought his eyes up to his binoculars and saw what the congregation was so interested in: a baby panda riding a tiger, in broad daylight.

'Is the circus in town?' He found a position closer to the attraction and took up scouting again. 'Where the hell did they come from? If I remember correctly, Don Giovanna can't control the animals he creates, so the tiger would be tearing the panda apart if this was his doing.'

A bird's-eye view wasn't good enough. If there was a crowd, it made sense that the Giovannas would hide there for some cover. He teleported onto the street twenty metres from the commotion.

As he was walking, he felt shattered glass at his feet. His eyes trailed down and to his left, where a clothes store had been ransacked and its window smashed. 'Goddamn Pisa. What a shithole.'

He got closer to the crowd, just barely being able to see the cute panda's ears over the heads of around fifteen people. He cautiously looked around for any threats, be it the Giovanna's or the ｢Rolling Stones｣, but the coast was clear, so he stepped closer to the people.

As soon as his foot hit the ground, the crowd stopped cheering and chattering simultaneously. He stopped in his tracks as the fifteen or so people all turned around, showing their faces to look exactly like Gioviale Giovanna. Men, women, even a baby, all with his roguish teenage face.

"｢Gold Experience｣!" The golden Stand shot out from the crowd as they all melted away into various objects seemingly picked up from the street. A few chairs, a dead pot plant, a pyramid torch heater–

Gold Experience nailed Richiamare in the chest. He was so stunned by the distraction that the punch hit him dead-on. The attack dogs Giorno had created appeared from their hiding spots in the broken window and sprinted towards him.

He slammed into a tree on the sidewalk before doing a one-armed, two-legged jump a few centimetres into the air. Just as one dog seemed to clip him midair, he faded away again.

Viale stood up from where the crowd had disappeared from. "Is he down?"

Giorno shook his head. "Not likely. A man like that won't be fooled twice."

"A Stand that lets you teleport… that's scary."

"I've encountered a few of these kinds of Stand users before. It's never as simple as teleporting. There has to be some kind of limitation." Giorno scanned the horizon of roofs. "Let's move before he comes back."

"FUCK!"

Richiamare nursed his broken rib hesitantly. He had accidentally teleported far away. He'd spent the early morning travelling by train to get to Pisa from his home in Venice, and he'd ended up back in Venice after Giorno's attack.

"Dad?" His heart spiked, realising today his daughter was home from school. "What's going on? I didn't hear you come in."

He internally cursed himself. "Nothing, Emilia, go back to… what you were doing."

"You're hurt!" She gasped, "Here, come put some ice on that."

'Not that I don't appreciate the help, but ice isn't going to help a broken rib.'

"I-I'm fine, fiore, I just need to get back to work. Besides, it's just a bruise."

'I hate lying to her, but in this case, I can't have her worried.'

She got down next to him. "Padre, are you sure?" He nodded firmly, desperately ignoring the shooting pain it caused. "Okay… be safe."

It took him less than a second to travel back to Pisa after the door closed behind him.

"Did you see that move he pulled after you punched him?"

Giorno ran alongside his son and the half-dozen bulldogs. "Yes. It may be linked to his Stand's limitation. Same with the exercise clothes."

"Maybe he has to be in the air to teleport?"

The heat of battle sure was a way to bring father and son together. "And he has to have been to the location already to go there. That makes sense, since he didn't just appear next to the crowd." Giorno checked the rear. "He must be a long-distance runner, or even a parkourist."

"I'm just glad his Stand doesn't have a physical form for me to be attacked by."

"Careful, these men can surprise you at any moment. We may never know the full capabilities of a Stand."

Giorno's eyes kept flicking to Viale's bum leg, almost itching to heal it.

"I think you should have two working legs for this fight."

"It's fine, padre. It barely bothers me."

"Can I ask you a question?" Giorno asked as they rounded another corner.

"What?"

"How did you lose your fighting spirit?"

Viale skidded to a stop, staring his father down. "I saw my teacher die and my principal get kidnapped."

Giorno hesitated before moving into a tight alley off the side of the road.

"Did you know him? The man that died."

Viale sighed and shrugged. "Sure. I fought him. He was… misguided? He hated our family for something Joseph Joestar did over a hundred years ago. Maybe his side of the family never gave up the grudge."

"Was this the man you fought before our call a few weeks ago?"

Viale nodded. "He was tough. His Stand could shrink his body into thin, sharp spikes, I guess you'd call them. He also had this thing— what was it called? The Wave, or something." He said while giving jazz hands.

Giorno's eyes widened. "You mean the Ripple?" Viale affirmed. "It's unfortunate that we lost a Hamon warrior."

Richiamare made one more round trip to his house to grab his Chiappa Rhino .357. "You know what they say: if you can't out-punch someone, bring a gun." In this case his revolver was a special order, made specifically for lightweight travel, perfect for Richiamare when he was on the move.

Besides, with his Stand, he wouldn't have to carry ammunition. If he ran out he could just return home for reloads.

Move On Up made it trivial to find the Giovannas again. Within the past twenty-four hours, he had made it his mission to visit every high point in Pisa.

He tried to get into the mind of Giorno Giovanna. "If they want me dealt with, they'll need to go somewhere I can find them… oh."

He quickly teleported himself to the top of the Tower of Pisa and instantly spotted the golden-haired duo. They were standing in the open, not a care in the world. Of course, they were still surrounded by a pack of pitbulls that looked ready to maul anything that moved.

He ducked and shuffled over to his nest. He had around four sniper rifles set up around the city, as he knew he couldn't take any risks with the Don. "I doubt Capo Tizio will mind me stealing his style," he mused.

Down on the ground, the Giovanna's were making quiet conversation.

"Why are we standing in the open?" Viale asked.

"We need to defeat Richiamare before we can leave, otherwise he'll just pursue us. We need to have as few people as possible on our tail."

He kicked a loose brick and it transmogrified into a hawk. "Your friend Beneficci is nowhere to be found. I'll have this bird spot us."

"If he can be anywhere at any time, what's stopping him from pulling off a drive-by?"

"He knows my ability. He knows that if I get any of his possessions, I'll be able to track him down. That hunting knife he stabbed you with wasn't his. He stole it before he attacked us." Giorno turned his head westward. "Speaking of tracking…"

Shizuka woke up with a bad case of the Mondays. She groaned, but suddenly paused when she realised she couldn't breathe that well. She felt something coarse in her mouth – a rag.

"Shit… this isn't the kinky kind like when Makoto does it. I must've been captured, and damn fast if I can't remember it."

She wriggled around to find that she was also bound to a steel beam, with nothing but a pair of padded handcuffs keeping her tethered. She scoffed as well as she could.

"Whoever did this did a horrible job. Who does this chump think I am?" Carelessly, she summoned ｢Houdini｣, who reached around to break the cuffs. The second her golden digits touched the cool metal, Shizuka's body lit up in shock.

"What the fuck? How did I get electrocuted?!" Then she felt it. Her pants were wet. She angled her head as far as she could, and out of the corner of her sunglasses-less eyes, she saw it.

The chain of the handcuffs connected through exposed copper wire to a car battery all the way across a large puddle. In a very dark room. Without her sunglasses.

"If I touch the handcuffs with my Stand, I get electrocuted. And I can't scream for help. Got it." Houdini shimmered next to the prone woman. While she inspected her Stand's wrists, Houdini yanked the rag out of her mouth. "Great, and I barely have enough light to make a small animal. And the rag is wet, so I can't soak up the water or something."

Her eyes had adjusted to the light enough to see that she was in some kind of catacomb, definitely underground and far from help.

"Okay, I take it back. This guy is good."

"Gioviale, can you see that?" Giorno pointed across the yard. It was ｢Rolling Stones｣, here to pursue its target.

"You there!" A man called out from the other side. They stood in between the Stand and the man. "You knew Bruno Buccialati, yes?"

Giorno's eyes narrowed. "Who are you? It's not safe here."

The man had short pointy purple hair, and a sketch pad in one hand. "My name is Scolippi. I knew Buccialati before he died."

"Impossible. If that were true, I'd remember you. We made sure we knew of all of his acquaintances."

"We only briefly met. I remember every target of my Stand."

"The rock."

"Rolling Stones." He eyed said Stand. "I see it's pursuing someone at the top of the Tower. An enemy?"

"Yes. I take it your Stand is fully autonomous?"

"It follows the will of Fate. It finds people who are destined to die in the near future and offers them a peaceful way out."

"Bruno was a target, you say?"

Scolippi nodded. "He died only a few days later."

"I know. I was there. I wish I knew then it was Fate."

Viale interrupted. "Hey, we have a fight going here. Pay attention."

"No need." Giorno pointed halfway up the tower, and Viale's eyes trailed to see the round Stand rolling up the building. "Fate is doing its job for us."

At the top of the tower, Richiamare looked through the scope. "What are they pointing at?" He peered down the stairs he had ascended earlier that day to see the Rolling Stones quickly gaining on him. "Fuckfuckfuck—"

He'd seen someone else fall victim to the Stand once — soon after it had chosen him as its next target, and had been pursuing him since. Only his own Stand's agility was keeping him safe. But now that he had an optimal position against the Giovannas, he couldn't just run. Instead, he took the shot and teleported down to where they were standing, revolver in hand.

He landed, and his arrival surprised his enemies just enough to where they couldn't react to the rifle round rapidly approaching them.

The large bullet sliced down Giorno's clavicle, taking out a large chunk of his shoulder. Richiamare fired his revolver at the unknown person — Scolippi — who effortlessly avoided all of the bullets.

"This is not my fight. Leave me out of this." Scolippi said with conviction. He had not seen his own face engraved in his own Stand just yet, so he understood he was in no real danger.

Viale, meanwhile, watched his father crumple to the ground, blood spurting from a deep bullet wound in his left shoulder. "Dad!" He cried out. The guard dogs slowly reverted to their natural form as Giorno's hold on them slipped.

'I… got him? I got Don Giovanna?! Ha!'

Richiamare shook off the shock that his plan had actually worked and refocused himself.

"I don't need him to be healthy to get the information we need. The boss won't mind if his shoulder is missing, so long as I get Ms. Rossi to Venice too." Giorno had already passed out from the shock. With the Rolling Stones on its way down, Richiamare had to finish off the kid quickly. "Don't worry about him, it will be a quick trip, just like with your mother."

Viale's eyes widened in disbelief, ignoring what he said about Sana. In a low, trembling voice, he questioned, "It was you…?"

"Hm? Oh, I'm the one that took your mother. What of it?" Richiamare replied with a cold, uncaring tone. He knew his words were provocative. 'What's he gonna do? Attack me with the Stand he doesn't have?'

"You… took my mother…?" Viale repeated, his voice filled with a mix of shock and rage.

Scolippi looked on from the sidelines, sitting down on a bench. His eyes widened as he saw his Rolling Stones reach ground level. It stopped instead of attacking Richiamare, watching, just like its user. He was perplexed, but when he looked at the young Giovanna, it all started to make sense. The Rolling Stones need not attack, for its job was already done.

Gioviale Giovanna's eyes burned with a fierce intensity. The chains around his soul melted away as he spoke softly, his voice carrying a newfound resolve.

"｢Blue… Sky… Mine｣…!"

Faster than Richiamare could blink, Viale's left arm vanished, and a small puncture appeared on his neck. Blood spurted from his throat, and he retched, expelling more blood from his mouth. The gurgling sound of the blood was unsettling as he disappeared, reappearing at a nearby medical station he had set up.

"What the fuck?! What just happened?! He reawakened his Stand! How the fuck?!" Richiamare exclaimed, his voice filled with shock and confusion.

He hastily slapped a Band-Aid on his open wound, coughing up more blood onto the ground. "I thought his Stand let him hide inside surfaces! What the hell is going on?!" He struggled to catch his breath, his mind racing.

After swallowing a huge lump in his throat, he teleported back to the top of the tower and readied his sniper rifle. Through the scope, he saw Viale still on the ground, carefully extracting the bullet from Giorno's shoulder. "I've got him this time," Richiamare muttered to himself, determination in his eyes.

Richiamare and the Boss had both agreed that Don Giovanna was the primary target, given his unpredictable Stand and years of battle experience. However, with Viale's seemingly new Stand, he could be just as much of a threat as his father. Richiamare knew he needed to eliminate Viale immediately.

He let loose a few rounds, but Viale's Stand's fists batted them away before they could reach their mark. "That was his Stand…" Richiamare realised, his frustration mounting.

Shizuka was getting sick of this. All of her plans had ended in her getting shocked, no matter what she tried.

"And I've lost my shades. Goddamnit."

She summoned Houdini again to look around, and found a mouse scuttering along the floor towards her. Her eyes sank. "The mouse is gonna get electrocuted… poor thing"

As if in slow motion, Shizuka watched as the mouse's paw made contact with the puddle, and the car battery instantly short circuited, freeing Shizuka from her shocking prison.

"What the fuck?!" she said aloud. The mouse swam across the puddle towards her, and as she let it climb up into her lap, it grotesquely morphed into her sunglasses. She breathed a sigh of relief. "Giorno."

Houdini sliced the handcuffs off her wrists, and she made for the door.

She entered the next room to find Sana in a similar situation to her; a puddle, a car battery, and a pair of handcuffs. The dim light flickered, casting eerie shadows on the damp walls. "Rossi?"

Her head shot up, eyes wide with a mix of fear and relief. "Shizuka? Is that you?"

Shizuka ran up to the car battery and kicked it out of the puddle, the splash echoing in the confined space. She broke the cuffs with a swift, practised motion and pulled the red-haired girl up off the cold, wet ground. Sana hesitated, her breath hitching, before wrapping Shizuka in a tight hug. She was shaking, her body trembling uncontrollably.

"Hey, hey," Shizuka patted her on the back, her voice soothing. "You're okay… I'm here."

"I-I-I was so scared– it was so sudden!" Sana's voice cracked, tears streaming down her cheeks.

"I know, honey," Shizuka assured her, her tone gentle yet firm. "Sana… do you know how to get out of here?"

"N-No…" Sana's voice was barely a whisper, her eyes darting around the room in panic. "This is a Stand attack, right?"

"Yeah, and we need to find the others." With a determined stride, she approached the old wall, its surface rough and cold under her fingertips. As she pressed her palm firmly against the stone, a soft, ethereal glow began to emanate from her touch. The entire building responded to her presence. Slowly, the structure around them began to shimmer and shift, becoming semi-transparent. Shizuka's eyes hardened in silent victory as the solid stone transformed into a ghostly veil, allowing her to see through the roof above them. From her new vantage point, she could clearly spot the entrance, a hidden doorway that had eluded them until now.

"Let's go."

Richiamare perched himself once more at the summit of the Tower, his gaze unwavering as he locked eyes with Viale through the scope. The air was thick with tension, each second stretching into an eternity as they both waited for the other to make the first move. It was a deadly game of patience and precision.

A solitary drop of rain landed on his hair, but he dismissed it without a second thought. The rain was inconsequential. What mattered was making sure Viale didn't do anything sudden. If he found a way to attack or escape with his father, it would be over for him.

The rain soon poured relentlessly from the ominous clouds surrounding the Tower, creating a curtain of water over the city of Pisa. Raindrops occasionally splashed into Viale's eyes, but his gaze remained unwavering, burning with a fierce determination for vengeance.

Taking a deep breath, Viale centred his focus on his Stand. A single raindrop descended from the sky, bypassing Richiamare, and headed straight for Viale. Just before it could make contact, Viale activated his Stand, merging with the minuscule surface of the raindrop. He ascended rapidly, reappearing a short distance above the ground.

In a seamless motion, he caught another raindrop midair, vanishing and reappearing above it. He went in and out of different raindrops with such speed, making it appear as though Viale was defying gravity, soaring upwards with the raindrops as his stepping stones. The raindrops carried him higher and higher, until he reached the top of the Tower, positioning himself stealthily behind Richiamare.

To Richiamare, Viale had vanished into thin air.

To Scollipi, who was still watching from down below, he had seen Viale do what Richiamare's Stand did, and teleported through the rain.

"Richiamare."

Before he could get away, Viale grabbed the back of his soaked polyester shirt, and forced Richiamare to bring him along for the ride.

"M-Move On Up!" Richiamare cried in desperation.

"Blue Sky Mine!" Viale yelled back. Before Richiamare could get away again, Viale's newly reawakened Stand clocked him in the face. It was physically weaker than it once was, but the punch had considerable force behind it.

Viale had learned a crucial lesson from his father: never let the enemy slip through your grasp. And so, he didn't. He clung to Richiamare, transporting them through a whirlwind of locations he had been that day. They narrowly dodged speeding cars on a bustling highway, plummeted from the dizzying heights of the Tower of Pisa, and flickered in and out of existence before the bewildered and still trapped Vuoto.

Richiamare seized every opportunity to fire his revolver, but Viale anticipated each shot. He effortlessly phased in and out of the bullets' paths, just as he had with the raindrops earlier.

"You took my mother. You will pay," Viale declared, his voice a cold promise of retribution.

Blue Sky Mine's gaze pierced through Richiamare, delving into the depths of his soul. Richiamare met its stare, the deep crimson eyes a haunting look into Hell itself.

"Running is… useless." They appeared in an enclosed room, where Viale slammed the only door shut. "You have to be able to physically move to the place you want to go. You don't teleport, you just move very fast."

Richiamare scrambled to the end of the room, grabbed a chair, and smashed the window open. "Ha! See ya later!"

He landed back next to Giorno. Richiamare huffed, his breath ragged and laboured, exhaustion etched into every muscle. He hadn't pushed his Stand to such limits in a long time. Surveying his surroundings, he saw only Giorno sprawled on the ground. "He's gone… I shook him…"

Gathering his resolve, he approached Giorno. "He's still breathing," he muttered, a mix of relief and determination in his voice. He popped the chamber of his revolver open, revealing a single bullet left. "I'll deal with you, then finish off your son. Goodbye, Don Giovanna."

With a steady hand, he aimed and pulled the trigger. The bullet flew, point blank, towards Giorno.

The bullet struck his chest, embedding itself in the soggy fabric of his suit, but it did not create a wound. It simply… disappeared. Richiamare stared at his gun in disbelief, as if it had betrayed him.

Blue Sky Mine shimmered out of nowhere, and Viale appeared ten metres behind Richiamare. Before he could react, the Stand tapped his shoe, activating his ability and causing him to stumble slightly into the cobblestones.

"How does it feel, to know you cannot escape?" Viale taunted. Richiamare summoned his Stand, but the shoe embedded in the ground kept him anchored. "I told you before. It's useless. Blue Sky Mine… it's an acknowledgement of my past. A torch that is passed onto me. ｢Broken Strings｣ is now mine!"

It clicked together in Richiamare's mind. "That puncture wound on my neck! He was using someone else's Stand! And he must've been holding onto me when I teleported just before too!" He thought of his daughter, only just old enough to take care of herself. "He's right, it's useless to try to escape."

In a decisive motion, Viale pushed him over. Richiamare's knee acted as a pivot, and he toppled over onto Giorno. Viale snapped his fingers, and the bullet that had just struck Giorno's suit shot back out, piercing through Richiamare's skull.

Richiamare's body fell slack on top of Giorno, staining his suit with blood.

"Arrivederci," Viale whispered.

To Be Continued =