Words count: 2119 words.
---
"So that young boy is the boss? I have to admit he look nothing like his reputation..." Fugo awed at the reality of the boss appearance. All watches from great distance what Doppio is currently up to. The timid man stood on a cliff, seemingly anxious waiting for someone to rewind their stand.
He need to kill Leone Abbacchio before the former cop can rewind his critical past, his critical mistake.
"Double personality disorder... the one he possess is unique." Risotto read from Arancini's note.
"Where did you even get all of this information?" Ghiaccio muttered as he took a peak.
"At first I only knew regarding what King Crimson can do. But realizing that alone is far from enough I conduct a deeper research on him. If you must know, his profile alone worth a fortune. Have you ever heard about the Speedwagon Foundation? They need all information they can get to create more studies." Arancini answered truthfully.
"And you can do all of this because his manipulation don't work on you?" Risotto added, studying Arancini.
"Indeed. Read as much as you want, Diavolo and Doppio's disappearance is all that matter to me right now." Arancini continues her observation on Doppio Vinegar.
"...Is he really going to kill Abbacchio?" Fugo whispered beside the masked figure.
"Not if we keep him busy." Arancini tied a letter on a circle dove she prepared far earlier.
"I'll sent a letter to Bucciarati's team, make sure to focuses on defending Abbacchio. We'll need to keep the boss busy here until Bucciarati's team can retreat." The circled dove flies away discretely away from Doppio's point of view.
"What's with that pigeon? I sense something weird from it..." Ghiaccio complains, feeling a little bit unsafe.
"She have a name you know, Lucianna is a Stand user, her stand Fantasy let her to shapeshift into any animal she wants. She gave me mean to communicate with Unknown Source since not too long ago." Arancini chuckles.
"Does she know who's Unknown Source is then?" Fugo asked with excitement.
"Perhaps, but she took a vow of silence." Arancini voice indicates her slight sour knowledge.
"Good grief, you're telling me we have another boss to worry about?" Risotto's deep voice expressed his distaste in this fact.
"Unknown Source has been fighting evil since I'm only a kid, one day, I'll tell you all the great journey of Stardust Crusader if you want. I owe Unknown Source many..." Cerchio convinced.
"Is it their decision to save my men?" Risotto inquire.
"..."
"It's mine." Cerchio raised her voice after a long silence.
"He make his move!" Fugo shouts, peeling his eyes off from his binocular.
"Risotto, give me something." Arancini stood as Metallica created a scalpel from thin air.
"Don't have too much fun oi Cerchio, leave some to us." Ghiaccio grits his teeth, wanting revenge.
"I'll see what I can do." Arancini disappear with a quick golden light, leaving Fugo alone with two remaining La Squarda.
"..."
"..."
"I'll kill you if Cerchio fail." Ghiaccio sneered.
"...Right." Fugo sweats.
---
Bruno's gleeful laugh caught the attention of his team. All especially Giorno watch with utter confusion and curiosity.
"What is it, Bucciarati?" Giorno raised his voice first.
"Yeah! Do you have a good news?" Narancia followed.
"She did it, take as much as you want Abbaccio. Let's reveal the boss's past to our heart desire. I doubt we'll find much but Arancini got us covered. Venetta and Mista, work together and keep Abbacchio safe, rest of us will scattered and see if there's any more Stand user to worry about. Giorno, keep the turtle with you and prepare to move if any of us need treatment." Bruno raised his voice to inform all plan and formation, receiving nods and affirmation from his happy team.
Bruno himself is also happy, after they crashed their plane, the good news from Arancini taste as sweet as a glass of god's nectar.
---
With King Crimson's Epitaph and Arancini's Shining Star, their battle became a pure hand to hand combat. Erasing time is mostly useless against her cursed blood, and even if Epitaph foresee the future, Shining Star's speed can almost instantly keep up with the turnabout.
"AAAARRRGH! GET AWAY FROM ME!" Doppio shouts like a mad man, Arancini is sure Diavolo is giving him heads up from inside his head.
"Oh Doppio, my sweet Doppio... are you scared?" Arancini was in his face and tease Doppio's neck with a shallow cut from her scalpel.
"ARRGH!" King Crimson had Arancini by her arm and threw her away only for her to disappear once again.
"Your... your strength is nothing compare to mine Arancini..." Doppio speak in Diavolo's voice as he look around.
"That is true." Arancini hummed above the higher ground, a beautiful rondel dagger in hand.
"You are my perfect opponent." With rock Doppio shield himself against Arancini's sudden advance had he perceive this moment with Epitaph. The masked figure was nowhere to be found again almost instantly as she appeared.
"You can see most of my attacks before they even happen, and it doesn't matter how fast I am..." From behind him, Doppio felt her nauseating presence. King Crimson manifest.
"Diavolo got your back." Shining Star grab a hold of King Crimson as Arancini went for the user.
"AAAAAAAAAA"
Hamon SFX
All happened so terribly fast, Doppio turn before he land, and the Shining Star's user burns him through contact with her ominous scarlet ripples. He retaliate but she not there anymore, bubbles took her place and before he knows it, spinning bubbles from all direction cuts him as they all sway and dance.
"This is how I killed your bastards of followers." Arancini's voice from somewhere sounded angry and fueled with hate.
"They manipulate for your gains, they seek pleasure through unspeakable means..." The bubbles pops and begone, Doppio turning into his other self.
"Your reign, your selfish power must stop here." Diavolo looks back and finds her, his most hated figure.
"You don't have what it takes Arancini." Diavolo laugh.
"I can see it in your eyes, you don't have what it takes to put yourself here in my world." Diavolo stood tall.
"Perhaps, but I'll do everything in my power to make you desperate. I'll find pleasure seeing you squirming like slug bathed in salt." Arancini took a step closer, Diavolo loath her more every words she spoken.
"And I'll do everything in my power to have your head. I'll display it beside your sister, we both know who am I talk about, do we? Or do I need to freshen your memory?" Diavolo sneered.
"I promised world your reign and manipulation will be no more. I know how much you loves fate, but eventually, you'll have yourself fate worse than death." Arancini smiles albeit King Crimson's hand around her neck. She can see how tempt Diavolo to break her neck.
But Ghiaccio and Risotto arrived along with Fugo accompanied by a lion.
"You'll run again." Arancini started to glow and Diavolo realized his mistake.
The boss once again fled with his erased time, he stared at her as if she's trash.
"They did it Arancini, they got his face and a bit of information. What should we do now?" Fugo proudly present the news as he sees how pristine the masked figure condition after her face to face battle with the boss.
"Let me introduce you to an old friend of my father. He's one of the legendary Stardust Crusaders." Arancini smiles with her voice.
---
"Hello, is this Bruno?" A new voice can be heard through their laptop not long after Bucciarati's team tried to dug dirt on the boss.
"Yes, and who is this?" Bruno was strict and cautious.
"AH (Y-" The voice chocked.
"I mean Arancini said I can just introduce myself. My name is Jean Pierre Polnareff, I'm an old friend of her father. I'm on a mission similar to yours Bucciarati." The voice introduced and the tension evaporate.
"I've been waiting for this! All that you need is tool to defeat him." Polnareff sounded excited.
"I've encountered him in the past and barely made it out alive, I'm on a run and are currently still recovering so I'm trying to find someone to defeat Diavolo for me." Polnareff continued.
"Arancini believes in all of you, she said the days are upon us... Come to Rome and I'll give you the tool." Polnareff said after a heavy breath.
"What is the tool Mr. Polnareff?" Giorno voiced out his curiosity.
"What's the tool you ask? Well I'm sure you've seen it before. It's the arrow. One that I possess right now look like this."
"But I thought it is used to awaken one Stand abilities..." Giorno hum with slight confusion and possess more question in his mind.
"The arrow have mind of it own. In Morioh, Japan. The year was 1999 if I remember correctly, unique case arisen when a serial killer possess new Stand ability had he been struck by the arrow twice." Polnareff began to explained.
"The tool came with daunting possibilities though... if you remember what happened to those unworthy of the arrow... well, high risk comes with high reward is all that I can say." Polnareff sigh.
"Ah..." The man behind the screen change its voice.
"Sorry, seems like another spy is in my trail. You must hurry, meet me in Rome and obtain this arrow. Have Arancini give you her notes once? I'm sure she is careful with it." Polnareff voice was scattered, as if he moves frantically.
"She did, I have it in my hand." Giorno realized.
"Read it, the answer lies in her notes. Let's meet in the Colosseum in Rome." Polnareff voice is no more after this sentence, all especially Ven looks at book in Giorno's have with great interest.
"The arrow can make you more powerful?" Trish titled her head slightly.
"It seems like it... but the equation is incomplete. We don't know why one is worthy of the arrow to begin with." Venetta recalls.
Tens of thousands of years ago,
A meteor lands where the Inuit lives. In 1978, two men from a team that were surveying the crater for any natural resources contracted an unknown illness. Their bodies became covered in blisters that grew until they burst... leaving them dead and seemingly drowning in tomato sauce.
Furthermore, one of them had somehow shot a jolt like a stun gun from his finger, and burned off a few fingers of the doctor treating him. In later investigations, it was discovered that a virus which was tens of thousands of years old had been trapped within the meteorite inside the crater.
The virus may have traveled here on the meteorite. The Stand arrows as we call is made from the same material as the meteorite found in Cape York. Crafted by a man who long for god like power, several arrows was then produced. With nature selection, the arrow gives new ability, or as we know the Stands ability.
Receiving stand abilities is already a luck as it is, but it seems like if the arrow favors it, one can gain another power from it.
Only if they survived the second struck. You can only tell if the arrow favors you, you can only tell if the fate favors you.
"Nature selection and fate?" Venetta grimaced at this.
"It doesn't really help does it?" Giorno sigh.
"...So we're going to Rome?" Mista asked outside the turtle.
"Arancini believe in us, might as well take the chance." Leone shrugs.
"Then we're going to Rome." Bruno stood beside Leone.
---
"What do we know of Cioccolata and Secco?" Arancini found herself unfamiliar with these two figure on stand point before Rome.
"Their bastards." Ghiaccio remarked.
"They're terribly strong, I recommend we assassinated them before they even had the chance to strike." Risotto claimed.
"What's their abilities?" Arancini insist.
"If I recall correctly, Green Day infect people with deadly mold, the mold itself grew as you decent. That's Cioccolata." Risotto tried to recalls.
"So its same type of Stand as Purple Haze then..." Fugo realized.
"What about the one in suit?" Arancini urged.
"His pet... it's Oasis. He liquify everything he touches. That one is unpredictable." Risotto grit his teeth.
"Those fuckers... they killed Sorbet and Gelato." Ghiaccio revealed.
"I've been dying to meet these two, but I must admit, I fear of what's to come if we didn't deal with them straight away. Even the possibilities of them squirming..." Risotto added.
"...Tell me all about them, let's work together with Bucciarati's team. Why don't we avenge with a bang?"
To Be Continued.
Up Next!
Episodio 18: Virus & Mold, Dead or Alive