Chapter Text
One year
Almost one year since the defeat of Diavolo
since the ascension of giorno giovanna as boss of passione
..... and since he found a family of his own in the group of eccentric stand users that helped him in his coup,
All of which of course, were presently huddled around an intricate table for dinner.
After seizing assets they settled on a villa by the sea as a base of operations, the dining area having quite the view of the sea from large bay windows.
Narancia, Mista,Trish, and Fugo decided to settle in with giorno, while abbacchio and bruno settled on their own.
Of course that never stopped them from being in the villa every day and night for dinner;
Tonight was no different, all together, abbacchio ignoring them in lieu of reading a magazine, and mista engaging everyone in what could only be described as an intellectually stimulating conversation.
“Listen, all i’m sayin’ is that where you live will absolutely change what kinda flavor you’re packin! You're gonna tell me someone with an italian diet’s gonna taste the same as someone from sweden??” Mista leaned back in his chair satisfied with a shit eating “gotcha!” Smirk on his face snickering as everyone's faces were screwed up in either thought or disgust. Fugo pushed away his plate and glared at mista, though there really was no bite to it.
“Mista for the last goddamn time, Please im begging you can we have a normal dinner conversation for ONCE?”
Fugo put his head in his hands,defeated knowing his irate tone would only spur mista on further into the topic
Mista leaned in closer to fugo.
“Cranky cuz you wouldn't taste as sweet as your namesake pa-na-cotta~?” Mista roared with laughter while dodging a poorly aimed jab to his ribs.
“Mista has a point, i’d suppose people who live by the sea would have a fishy taste” Fugo looked over to giorno at the head of the table with a betrayed expression of grief and disbelief
“giorno not you too-“
“-EXACTLY”
“What would Italians taste like? “ narancia mused
“Garlic, definitely garlic, you ever see a nona without a string of garlic in her kitchen? It's not italian without garlic....sadly” trish wrinkled her nose in disdain while narancia nodded along thoughtfully
Bruno hm-ed quietly and looked mista in the eye.
“Well alright, how about people who move somewhere else?”
“...”
“.......fusion cuisine?”
The roaring laughter that followed from everyone made mista feel a bit smug but mostly happy and warm, even fugo cracked a smile at the ridiculousness.
Dinner continued, granted (and thankfully) with much less cannibalism “what ifs” and onto more important issues
Like Koichi Hirose.
“Ah, giogio-“ fugo quickly wipes his mouth, looking up at giorno.
“I looked into that.... uh..k-koi-chi? Hi-rosie.” He struggled to pronounce the name, feeling it flow foreign and clumsily over his tongue.
“Koichi hirose,” giorno quickly corrected him while arching an eyebrow in amusement.
Everyone's attention was immediately drawn to the new topic of discussion.
“Sounds foreign, who is it?” Abbacchio looked up from his magazine in vague interest while giorno thoughtfully rubbed at his chin.
“I wasn’t sure if I was going to broach the subject with all of you, but seeing as we’ve grown close... well it seems fruitless to keep it to myself.” He took a pause to look over them all, sighing deeply and closing his eyes,looking back up with a stern expression.
“Now that i have passiones' resources at my side i had fugo help me with a little.... investigation.”
“Before this all started... as i was being initiated in ; a young man came up to me claiming to have been looking into me on behalf of a ‘Jotaro Kujo’, that was Koichi Hirose, I didn't think much about it then, but now I realized how peculiar that was and why someone would bother looking into someone like me.” He shifted uncomfortably and clasped his hands together tightly.
“I will not lie and say I’m not curious about my origins and I have reason to believe he may be a link that could lead me to knowing more about my father, him and this Kujo person.” He looked up again, eyes fierce and determined, if not marred by traces of uncertainty.
Abbacchio spoke up again, incredulous .
“Once again, these all sound like foreign names, how do you know you didn't step on some yakuza toes?” He smirked as narancia laughed.
Giorno blinked at him, not a trace of amusement could be found on his face.
“Well considering im japanese, those names sound about right to me.”
A sudden silence enveloped the room
until it devolved into absolute chaos.
“What-“
“pardon?”
“No way-“
“YOU DON'T EVEN LOOK JAPANESE!”
The protests got louder as bruno was trying not to choke on his dinner, pounding at his chest;
Bruno wiped at his mouth and glared at everyone; quickly shutting down all the incredulous screams with the cold stare.
“What we all mean to say is... we find that.... a little more than hard to believe.” He offered a sheepish smile at Giorno, who was presently hunched over, his shoulders shaking with the herculean effort to not burst out laughing at their reaction.
“See he's laughing! he's pulling our collective legs like a lame horse!” Narancia pouted and crossed his arms while fugo looked at him with a despaired look and tired eyes.
“Narancia..... what the fuck does that mean-“
Bruno quickly cut in. “-that's not the point of this conversation you two, let’s not get derailed; giorno what exactly do you mean by this? Are you actually playing a prank? That's very out of character for you.” He teased and raised an eyebrow.
Giorno quickly composed himself, wiping away a tear but unable to stop smiling.
“Apologies, I truly didn’t expect such a..... explosive reaction.” He hid his widening grin behind a hand, trying not to lose it again, all while narancia looked like he was trying to solve the secrets of the universe with how hard he was thinking.
“So... if you’re japanese ....... you ....dye your hair?”
He looked over questioningly, while everyone else immediately looked at giorno equally as curious;
Meanwhile, giorno tried and failed, to not let his face heat up, something about the innocent accusation made him feel rather....flustered? Put on the spot? He wasn't sure he could put a word to it.
“.....I woke up one day and ...it was like this, gave me the fright of my life;
Come to think of it, it was the day I recieved gold experience.... I always assumed the two were connected since then, and every time I’ve tried to dye it black or cut it it grows and goes back overnight...” he furrowed his brows in thought trying to sort out what he should and shouldn't reveal.
“I have only one picture of my father, he is also blonde which leaves me to believe he’s not japanese...other than that.... I have no other leads.”
He looked over to fugo,
“Other than of course, your research fugo, if you would please? “ he extended his hand towards fugo as a signal for him to start talking, fugo fumbled a bit muttering about how it now turned into a ‘group presentation’ but started nonetheless.
“Koichi Hirose, he’s 18, born in a red cross hospital in S city,japan on march 23 1984, he's a student at budogaoka highschool in an S city suburb called morioh, on his last year too, pretty average kid as far as i could find though he does have affiliations with the speedwagon foundation, some sort of apprenticeship program.”
“Is that all ?” Giorno questioned, he leaned back in his chair, face unreadable.
“And jotaro kujo?”
“I didn't find much on him, he’s a marine biologist mostly accredited for his work in starfish and his great contributions to the research of reefs, he’s married to a famous artist, who’s name I will admit I can not pronounce-“
“-YEA i’m surprised you managed to get budda-goka!” Cackled narancia leaning away from fugos wrath.
Fugo reared back to yell at narancia, eyes narrowed. “BUDOGAOKA DUMBASS!!- sorry giogio,” he coughed into his closed fist, having the decency to look embarrassed, giorno looked amused.
“Thank you fugo, I assume you printed out your research, anything else on Kujo?”
Fugo furrowed his brow and crossed his arms trying to think back.
“Of course I did, I'll go get that in case I forget anything, but....I believe kujo is part of the joestar family. His grandfather, Joseph Joestar, is retired, but it seems he was a real estate mogul back in the day. His father, Sadao Kujo, is an internationally known jazz musician.
His grandfather also seems to have ties to the speedwagon foundation.” Fugo stood up to retrieve the papers, exiting the dining room through intricate double doors embossed with vines.
Giorno slumped in his chair breathing out a deep sigh, everyone else relaxed as the tense “mission briefing”-esque atmosphere melted away.
Narancia perked up
“Sooo Giogio... whatcha gonna do with this info?”
Giorno arched an eyebrow.
“I'm not...really actually entirely sure? I do wish to pursue either Kujo or Hirose, but it'd be rather uncouth to drop everything and go to Japan on a hunch, no?” He smiled, bemused at the prospect while trish looked up confused.
“Well... why not?” She tilted her head in confusion.
“I'm pretty sure you could; we deserve a break don't we? And You’ve kinda been running this show nonstop for almost a year! Giorno you’re 16, live a little.”
Giorno blinked at her .
“I don’t really think that's a good ide-“
“YEA! C'mon giogio! This could be a great chance to learn about your family or whatever!” Narancia bounded up in excitement, eyes shining at the prospect of a vacation in a new country and learning new things about giorno, the Japanese was already a surprise, who knew what else there was to learn?
Fugo returned, handing giorno the appropriate papers, and snorted.
“Narancia i think you care more about getting a vacation versus any actual investigating we would be doing.” Narancia stuck out his tongue and huffed .
“Nuh uh! The prospect IS exciting... but i think this is important to giogio, isn't it?” He turned and looked giorno in the eye, looking almost uncharacteristically thoughtful.
Bruno cleared his throat, commanding the attention of everyone at the table.
“I do think this is a decision for giorno to make,” he turned and put his hand on giorno's arm, smiling warmly.
“If you want to do this, i'm sure risotto and his team would be more than happy to step in for us in our absence.”
Giorno smiled up at Bruno before looking at the papers in his hands, debating internally whether he should do such a rash thing; after a moment of hesitation, he reached his decision.
“You’re right Bruno, of course, and it really isn't like we’re going in blind, thanks to fugo’s wonderful research skills it seems we also have an address. “
Giorno looked over each and every one of his friends faces before standing up and placing his hand on the table.
“Very well, we leave in two days, pack for an extended stay; I haven’t the slightest idea what's going to happen, but something tells me it won't be easy.”
Mista snorted
“What makes you say that boss?”
Giorno huffed in amusement and rolled his eyes.
“It’s us, when is it ever easy?”