Archive of Our Own

Chapter Text

It’s been three weeks since Giorno took over Passione. In that time, he has gotten rid of most of the drug trade in Italy and started to build diplomatic relationships with other country’s gangs. Giorno has been at it non-stop and hasn’t taken any breaks except when bullied into it by one of his Dons. Mysteriously, he is handed the phone by Guido Mista on Monday, April 25, 2001. 

Mista has been taking care of Giorno’s calls and emails, and thus far, he hasn't really been passing much on to Giorno. Giorno is, to say the least, curious to what merits this one getting his special attention.  

“Who is it?” Giorno asks. 

“Uh, someone who says they know you.” Mista sounds skeptical.  

“Know me?” Giorno understands why Mista looked confused. Not many people besides Mista know of Giorno. He puzzles it out and decides to ask for the person’s name.  

“Did they tell you their name?” 

“Uhhh,” Mista, now obviously uncomfortable about where this might be going, says weakly, “No?” 

Giorno sighs and takes the phone. 

“Giorno Giovanna, boss of Passione. Who is this?”  

“Giorno!” The voice is a little high pitched, but the accent is definitely foreign. It sounds a bit familiar if Giorno’s being honest. “So, it’s true! Congrats!”  

“Excuse me, who are you?” Giorno would swear he recognized the voice, but he doesn’t know from where.  

“Oh right, sorry!”  Don’t be sorry, tell me who you are,  Giorno thinks, annoyed. “I’m Koichi Hirose! Do you remember me? We defeated that shadow stand a month ago.”  

So  that’s  why he remembers this voice.  

His voice and eyes light up. Of course, he remembers Koichi. The boy had helped him take down Polpo’s stand. Giorno had grown fond of Koichi quickly, and both have mutual trust for each other.  

“Koichi! How have you been?”  

“I’m good! How’s running the Mafia?”  

“It takes a lot of work, but it’s worth it. We’ve been dismantling the drug trade up here and dealing with those who were loyal to the old boss. Now may I ask why you’re calling me?” Although Giorno was happy to hear from Koichi again, running the Mafia was a very busy job.  If it wasn’t something too important, then valuable time would’ve been wasted. We have a-  Giorno’s thoughts were interrupted when Koichi spoke up again. 

“Oh, right! How would you like to learn about your family?”  

Family?  Giorno almost drops the phone.  

“You know about my family?” Giorno tries his best to hide it, but he’s shocked, to say the least. Though he can’t help but feel a twinge of hopefulness. His family? He doesn’t know much about his father’s side of the family, but then again...he supposes he shouldn’t get his hopes up. For all he knows, Koichi’s talking about his mother’s side. 

“Yeah!”  

Koichi sounds too cheerful, Giorno thinks, for knowing about his family. Maybe he’s mistaken? 

“I’ve been meaning to talk to you about this, but. Did you ever wonder why I was in Italy in the first place?”  

Yes, actually.   

“And why I knew about the stand arrows?”  

This is like pulling teeth, and Giorno runs his fingers through his now loose braid to keep him calm. 

“Well, now that you mention it...” he demurs.  

“There’s a lot to tell you, but first, are there any days that you’re available?” 

Giorno resists the urge to remind Koichi that he is actually a mafia boss now so kinda NO 

“The reason I ask is, two of your family members here wanted to talk to you. But it’d be best to do it in person!”  

“Some of my family members, huh?” Giorno sounds disappointed. He’s now sure that this is his mom’s side of the family. “I’m not on good terms with my mom, and I don’t think I’d be able to handle two of her relatives.” Giorno stated that bluntly, all of the excitement he had when he first got the phone was gone. 

“Your mom’s side? I’m sorry to hear about that, Giorno, but they’re from your dad’s side.” 

What? 

“My… Dad’s side…?” This couldn’t be true, not for Giorno at least. He didn’t have this kind of luck, did he? 

“Yeah! I never met your dad, but I’ve heard stories. One of my friends however, has. It’s kinda complicated, but we can explain in detail when we all meet up.” 

Giorno couldn’t believe what he was hearing. He was finally going to learn about his family history and who his father had been! But...he had responsibilities. What about the Mafia? Keeping a low profile was also important. He couldn’t risk exposing himself just to meet family. 

“As much as I would love to have them over, it’s a busy time. We have some major meetings and deals coming up soon, so I’m afraid we won’t get the chance to talk for a while.” Giorno didn’t like saying this. He really wanted to meet his relatives, but he couldn’t. Not at a time like this. 

However, Mista can read Giorno like a book. He knows Giorno wants to meet them, he has to do something. 

So, Mista steps in.  

“Now hold on a moment. Take a break! If this is something you want to do, then I can take over for a few days. You should go meet your family, Giorno!”  

“Guido, I’d have to fly to Japan.” 

“Sounds like a good place to go for a vacation,” Mista says, unfazed.  That’s- but-!  Giorno frowns, unsure how to argue the point. 

“But-”  

“As your best friend  and  main assistant, I demand you take time off to meet with these people. You need to take an actual break. Longer than six hours. Trust me.”  

Giorno knows he isn’t going to be able to argue against Mista and reluctantly gives in. He went back to talking with Koichi.  

“All right, apparently I’m being overruled. Are you able to come this weekend? You guys can stay from Thursday to Monday.” Giorno glances at Mista to see if this is an acceptable length for his apparently mandated break. 

Mista gives Giorno a thumbs up of approval.  

“Oh, yeah, they can afford it. I’ll check with them, but as far as I know, that should be a yes!” Koichi pauses, and then adds with a laugh, “It’ll be nice to see you again, Giorno.”  

“Same with you, Koichi. Ciao.”  

As soon as Giorno hangs up the phone, Mista immediately gets to work.  

“Since I’ll be taking over for the weekend, I’ll need to get preparations started now. You just rest and let me handle the rest of your duties for the day and start getting ready.”  

“Now, hold on a second Guido. It’ll take me five days, but not helping at all during the week? I don’t think that’s fair to you.”  

“Hmm... You have a point. Here, you schedule everything for your family. Their plane tickets, hotel, food accommodations, etc... and I’ll take care of the Mafia stuff.”  

“Wait a minute that’s not what I meant-” Before Giorno could finish his sentence Mista pushed Giorno out of the room with some papers, and Giorno shamefully walked away, tail between his legs. He really was going to have to take almost a full week off from Mafia business, and he really, really didn’t want to do that, especially with the big deals coming up so soon. He got to work anyways making arrangements for them when Mista entered his room with the phone.  

“It’s Koichi again.” Giorno took the phone.  

“We’re good to go, Giorno! It’ll be the three of us and we’ll start getting the hotel rooms and flights booked-”  

“There will be no need for that, Koichi. Passione will cover it all.”  

“Really?” Koichi sounded unsure but recovered quickly. “O-okay! I’ll tell them, then. Thanks so much Giorno!”  

“Don’t mention it, Koichi. More importantly, would you mind telling me about my family before they arrive? So I know who to greet at the airport.”  

“Oh, sure! The first one is Jotaro Kujo. He’s the one who sent me to Italy. The Joestar family tree is very complicated, but he sent me to Italy to see if you were part of it. That’s the simplest way I can put it. Also, may I say, Italy is a very beautiful place.”  

“I see. And yes, it is. È meraviglioso, no?”  

“Sì. Un posto incantevole davvero.”  

“You said there would be three of you, right? Who’s the other?”  

“Josuke Higashikata. He’s a really good friend of mine, and whatever you do, don’t insult his hair. I doubt you would, considering you both have amazing talent with hair styling, but I thought I should give you a heads up. It doesn’t matter who insults his hair, he  will  go berserk.”  

Giorno chuckled at the thought of someone getting so upset over hair, but he did love  his  hair, so he didn’t find it all that strange, he supposed. “Thanks for the warning? I’ll make sure to tell the rest of the gang.”  

“Good. Other than that, he’s a real nice guy. Jotaro and Josuke have been through a lot, and you’ll probably be able to talk to them about your adventures.”  

This intrigued Giorno. Talking to someone other than his gang about the adventures he had sounded...kind of nice, actually. Maybe this will be good for him. He hung up the phone and gave it back to Mista, and just like that, the weekend had arrived. Giorno would be lying if he said he wasn’t nervous to meet his family. He didn’t know what to expect. He had seen pictures of them that Koichi had sent him via email, and he instantly knew which one Josuke was.  He was right. Josuke does have good sense in hair fashion,  Giorno thought. Since he knew who Josuke was, the other photo must’ve been Jotaro. Giorno didn’t know why, but he looked… oddly familiar. Something that reminded him of his past, but he wasn’t upset by it. He thought that any reminder of his past would upset him, but not this. Giorno didn’t know how to explain it, but he decided not to think about it anymore. 

Then the doorbell rang. During the week, it was decided that Giorno was not to pick them up at the airport, for privacy sake.  They’re here, they’re here! I’m finally going to learn about my history! Seeing Koichi again will be nice too.  He went up to the door and opened it.  

He was met by three figures. The first was Koichi. Giorno may have thought Koichi to be a little short when they first met, but compared to the two behind him, he was  extremely  short. The other two had to be the matches for the pictures he’d seen in the emails sent his way. The one to his left was Josuke Higashikata, who was fairly tall and wearing what seemed to be a school uniform, for some unknown reason. The one to his right therefore was Jotaro Kujo. Kujo was enormously tall and wearing a white Jacket... that defied gravity?  

Okay, weird but whatever, it doesn’t matter. These men were his only family, other than the gang, of course. Throughout the week, he had consistently been reminding himself that while he was nervous (and excited!) to meet his blood relatives, it didn’t matter how the meeting might go. He would always have this family he’d joined, and they would have him, and that would be enough. Even though it’s only been a month, being part of that family has made up for a lot of the previous years of his life.  

Enough woolgathering. Giorno stepped back to let his three visitors inside, and Josuke immediately rushed in, dropping into a quick bow by way of greeting, and then went straight for a hug.  

“Giorno! I’ve heard so much about you from Koichi! Oh- hold on.” He pulled back and looked at Giorno’s hair. “Koichi wasn’t kidding when he said you had good hair-styling taste.”  

Giorno swore he heard a small  yare  yare  daze  from somewhere, but it didn’t matter.  Hair talk now, whatever that was later.  Giorno greeted Josuke with an equally formal bow and returned the compliment.  

“And your hair looks even better than in the picture.” He wasn’t kidding. Though there wasn’t another  yare yare , Giorno heard a sigh and found its source, Jotaro Kujo. The man looked... austere,  but Giorno wasn’t going to let himself be deterred. 

Now that he’d finished properly greeting Josuke, he turned to Jotaro. Unlike Josuke, Jotaro simply put his hand out to shake. Oh. Wasn’t he Japanese? But he did have the same sort of look Giorno himself had, didn’t he? It’d be rude to ask, so Giorno just shook his hand. Jotaro had a gentle, careful grip, and Giorno was pleasantly surprised. 

“Jotaro Kujo, Marine Biologist.” Giorno gasped in excitement but held back long enough to greet Jotaro properly. Giorno was nothing if not proper. 

“Giorno Giovanna, Boss of Passione. It’s nice to meet you Dr. Kujo.”  

“Jotaro is fine enough, Giorno.” Giorno smiled at this.  

“Well then, it’s nice to meet you Jotaro.” Then Giorno turned his attention to Koichi.  

“You didn’t tell me he was a Marine Biologist!” Giorno said a little too loudly. Jotaro tipped his hat down, either to hide his embarrassment or smirk. Probably both. Jouske chuckled and hit Jotaro’s shoulder with his elbow.  

“Looks like someone is excited to meet someone with the same interests as him,” Josuke drawled. Whether Josuke was talking about Giorno or Jotaro will forever remain a mystery, but Jotaro just tipped his hat even more. It couldn’t hide the smirk from Josuke though.  

“I guess I forgot,” Koichi rubbed his neck while chuckling nervously.  

“Don’t worry about it, Koichi. It’s good to see you again, though!”  

“Same to you! But you should talk to them,” Koichi gestured over to Jotaro and Josuke, “You’ve got a lot to catch up on.”  

Well, when Koichi was right, he was right. So, with that being said, Giorno led the three of them to the kitchen and grabbed some food to serve. The plates were already set up, 5 of them around the table. Although there were only four people, Mista wouldn’t allow that, so another plate was added. Pasta was still being prepared by Mista on the stove and Giorno went to go serve the appetizers. He looked over to see what Mista was cooking and it seemed to be spaghetti this time with meat sauce. Vegetables were already on the table as an extra option for anyone who wanted them, or to have them now before pasta was served. It was a simple but beautiful kitchen and dining room. This made it perfect for casual lunches/dinners. 

“Mista wanted to make dinner for you all, and he’s a surprisingly good cook. Enjoy.” He served the appetizer and they all ate. Over crackers with brie and pickled radishes, Jotaro started the conversation everyone had been waiting for.  

“I’d assume you want to know about your family history now?” Giorno perked up.  

“Yes, please tell me everything. And don’t leave anything out, no matter how gruesome.” He said that last part quietly. Giorno got the impression that they all understood what he meant.   

Jotaro cleared his throat and started to talk.  

“Well. Your father was this guy named Dio. He killed my great-great-grandfather and stole his body.” 

What.  

“What?” Giorno said, trying to remain polite.  

“He was only a head at the time,” Jotaro added.  

“Dio, right?” Josuke said, sounding unsure. “Not Great-grandpa?” 

“Hold on a second. I thought you said he was your great-great-grandfather,” Giorno said, because he didn’t want to address that  Dio was a head  just yet.  

“Yeah, I’m his uncle! So, it’s just one great for me, I’m pretty sure,” Josuke said.  

Jotaro looked pained, and sighed.  

“Yeah.” 

Then he talked about Jonathan’s adventure, and even Josuke was listening attentively. He hadn’t heard the story in so much detail, which is one of the reasons he decided to go visit Giorno with Jotaro and Koichi.  

“Back in 1868, Jonathan Joestar was born to the parents George Joestar and Mary Joestar. However, he wouldn’t have a mom for long. The Joestars decided to go out and buy an ancient relic only a few months after his birth-” 

“I-Is that a thing? Do people just… buy ancient relics?” 

Jotaro glared at Josuke 

Josuke shut up immediately and Jotaro continued: 

“...On their way home, their carriage got into an accident. Mary died saving Jonathan, and George barely survived. This scavenger named Dario Brando had found them and took credit for saving them. I don’t know if George believed him or not, but he offered to do anything for the  Brandos .” Jotaro practically spat out the name. 

Giorno seems intrigued by what’s going on. He doesn’t know how any of this has to relate to his family, but it’s an interesting story, nonetheless. 

“Dario isn’t a name he’s familiar with.” Koichi pointed out. 

“I’m getting there. I just need to stop being interrupted.” 

Mista’s cooking has been really popular so far. Everyone’s having their fair share of food, but a lot has been taken. There’s wine and water out. Those who drink the wine don’t drink too much, only when they feel like it. Though with all the story telling, there’s been a lot of water going around. After taking another sip from his glass, Jotaro continues on with the story. 

“When Dario was about to pass on, he sent his son to make good on George’s promise. His name,  Dio Brando .” They didn’t think it was possible, but he spat out this name with more hatred than he had  Brando . 

Giorno is a little uncomfortable here. Dio is his father, so what happened between him and Jotaro that made him react like that just to his name? 

“George took him in as his own son and raised him alongside Jonathan. There was a bit of a feud between the two when Dio first moved in, but then their relationship got better. They were both top students, academically and physically. Dio was studying law, while Jonathan was an archaeology student. When they returned from their studies, though, George started to get sick. Jonathan discovered that Dio was poisoning his father and called in the police to arrest his adopted sibling.” 

“Well that obviously didn’t work out.” Josuke quipped. 

Jotaro just rolls his eyes a little. 

“Wait, so what happened?” Giorno asked. 

“Although Jonathan revealed Dio’s ambition, he wasn’t to protect George from death.” 

The room was silent. To break the tension, Koichi spoke up. “It smells like Mista is making some really good pasta, Giorno.” 

“It’s his specialty. I’m glad you’re excited for it.” 

There was some more silence, but it didn’t last very long. (someone eats a bite or two of their crackers awkwardly. Koichi refills his water glass.) It turned out Koichi knew what he was doing because the room did lighten up a bit. After his scowl eased, Jotaro continued with the story. 

“Dio discovered Jonathan’s research on that relic George and Mary had bought. He decided to take it and figure out how to make it work. And, apparently, in the process he turned himself into a vampire.” 

Josuke nearly choked on his food. “Exc- What?” 

“Vampires are real?” Giorno probably would have choked on something, too, if he was eating at the moment. He did feel like the air had been knocked out of him, though.  

“Stands exist. Why would vampires be a stretch?” 

“You have a point…” Josuke said, a little quiet. 

“Dio killed George, and would have continued on like that, so Jonathan tried to trap him inside the family household and set it on fire. The only ones who got out of that mess alive were Jonathan and a buddy of his, Robert Speedwagon.” 

“ THE  SPEEDWAGON?!?!” Josuke spit out his water. 

Jotaro sighed and responded with a nonchalant “Yes.” and just waited for Josuke to compose himself. “Why do you think we have strong connections to The Speedwagon Foundation?” 

“We have what?” Giorno was so confused. The Speedwagon Foundation was known all over the world and Passione didn’t even come close to having as much influence as they did. 

“We are related to the best friend of the founder of The Speedwagon Foundation.” Jotaro tried to wrap this conversation up quickly.  

“Wait! But-” Josuke was about to ask more questions when Koichi stepped in.  

“Let Jotaro continue the story. You can ask questions later.” 

Jotaro nodded at Koichi.  

“Turned out that Dio wasn’t actually dead. So, Jonathan met up with a guy who taught him a martial art, Hamon. None of us here can do it, to my knowledge, but Hamon is an old style that incorporates the power of the sun into your attacks. Joseph Joestar, my grandfather, inherited Jonathan’s Hamon. As far as we know, no one else in the Joestar lineage has.” 

“So...it’s like a stand?” Josuke seems to take a liking to asking questions as much as possible. 

“No, it’s a separate thing. Anyone can learn it, but for most people it would take years before they could fully control it. Luckily, Jonathan was a natural. This made it easier to take down Dio, due to him being a vampire and Jonathan channeling the sun.” 

“That’s so cool!” Josuke interjected, again. Then, he turned a little sad. “I wish I could learn Hamon. It could probably be helpful in a lot of other ways.” 

“Well, if you really wanted to learn it, you’d have to go to the old man. Though I doubt he’d be of much assistance, considering the state he’s in. You could always ask, though.”  

Josuke’s eyes lit up. “Thanks Jotaro! Oh- I’ll stop interrupting the story now.” he chuckled nervously and rubbed his neck. 

“Don’t worry about it. Just don’t do it as much as we go on.” And with that he continued on. “Jonathan and his teacher, William A. Zeppeli, apparently fought a bunch of vampires to free this town Dio had taken over. Unfortunately, Zeppeli died, saving Jonathan.” 

Even though the room was already quiet, it somehow grew even more silent than before. Koichi tried to lighten up the mood again. 

“I didn’t know you drank wine, Giorno. Aren’t you only 15?” 

Jotaro and Josuke both looked at Giorno who was in the process of sipping his merlot. He froze for a split second but finished his sip without betraying his surprise. “What’d you expect, I’m the head of the Mafia.” 

“You do have a point there.” Josuke said. “So, we can have whatever we want?” 

“This was all made for you guys, so feel free to do what you want.” 

“Giorno.” Jotaro said. 

“What, are you going to tell the Boss of Passione to not drink wine?” Giorno said, with a little sass behind it. 

“While I’d advise against it, no. Just don’t encourage Josuke.” 

“HEY!” Josuke protested. 

“Noted.” Giorno replied, amused. He swore he saw a small, matching smirk on Jotaro’s face before he returned to the story. 

“There’s a few accounts of the fight between Dio and Jonathan in that town, but more or less Jonathan won, and Dio seemed to fall to his death on the rocks below. After the battle, Jonathan got married to a woman named Erina Pendleton, a childhood friend of his. They set out for America for their honeymoon. But...their ship was attacked by Dio, who’d survived by chopping off his own head. He planned on taking Jonathan’s body for his own as part of the ‘Joestar debt’ to the Brandos, but Jonathan destroyed the ship, willing to die if it would stop Dio from ruling the world.” 

Jotaro’s voice grew a bit more solemn.  

“There were only two survivors from that event. Erina, and a baby whose parents were killed in the fighting. Dio had prepared a coffin on the ship for his escape, but Erina was able to get into it before the ship exploded. She was also pregnant at the time.” 

“So that baby is one of Joseph’s parents?” Giorno asked. 

“It was his father. The baby Erina rescued was named Elizabeth, and her child was George.” 

“Wow,” Josuke breathed. “I don’t think you’d told me about this before.” 

Jotaro grunted. Giorno got the impression that to Jotaro, at least, talking this much was too much effort. Still, he continued on. Josuke had decimated the brie, leaving behind only sliced gouda, and Koichi was making inroads on the radishes. Giorno hoped the pasta would be done soon. 

“So. George didn’t do much. He died in a plane crash. But, in 1938, Speedwagon encountered more stone masks, surrounding what looked like a man carved into a pillar.” 

“Weird,” Koichi commented, with curiosity on his face.  

“Yeah, well. It wasn’t a carving. The guy had a pulse. He was the first of what are called the Pillar Men. Speedwagon wasn’t alone when he found this guy, though. Another Hamon master, Straizo, was there. He had been with Jonathan to fight Dio, but I guess...decided he didn’t want to die. So, as any rational person would do, he stole one of the masks surrounding the pillar and became a vampire.” 

“I would do that.” Josuke flatly stated. Now it was Jotaro’s turn to choke on something, this time some water because he had apparently had enough wine earlier. 

Pretending as if he didn’t hear that statement and nobody saw him choke on water, he went on. “Straizo severely injured Speedwagon, and everyone but the Nazis thought he was dead.” 

It was a good thing none of the others was drinking anything because they probably would’ve done the spit take Josuke did a while ago. This story was a dangerous repast. 

“The Nazis?” Giorno asked. Nazis were part of the Joestar legacy now? 

“Yes. Nazis.” 

“But… They were Nazis.” Koichi explained. 

“One: they kidnapped Speedwagon, so I wouldn’t worry about it. Two: If you’re fighting superbeings, you take any allies you can find.” 

“O...k…” Josuke slowly said. 

“Well, when Joseph got word that Speedwagon had been killed by Straizo, Joseph planned for revenge. Straizo came looking for him, too, so he didn’t have to seek the guy out. When they met, he knew right away that Straizo wasn’t human anymore, and so he did that thing only Joseph would do.” 

“What did the old man do?” Josuke asked. 

“Pulled out a Tommy Gun and shot Straizo with all of its ammo.” 

This time they did have water in their mouths. 

“Next you’ll say, ‘But how did he hide the Tommy Gun? Isn’t that thing, like, the size of him?!?’” Jotaro predicted, his voice deadpan.  

“But how did he hide the Tommy Gun? Isn’t that thing, like, the size of him?!?- nani!?” Josuke was surprised, but he also had something up his sleeve. 

Jotaro had a smug look on his face while he sipped some wine.  

“Next you’ll say, ‘That was one of Joseph’s old tricks- did you really just say nani?’”  

“That was one of Joseph’s old tricks- did you really just say nani?” Jotaro sighed. “Like father like son.”  

“Well, it seemed he rubbed off on you too.”  

Giorno and Koichi enjoyed that exchange, a little in awe about what they were able to do.  

Jotaro looked at the time. “I won’t be able to go into much detail anymore, it’s almost nine and we still have a few more stories to go through.” 

“Yeah.” Giorno agreed. 

“Joseph eventually found Speedwagon and defeated the first Pillar man, who woke up from his sleep within the pillar. Pillar Men are like vampires, they’re weak against the sun.” 

“Hamon was really important here. Since the Pillar Men won’t go out into the day, the only real way is to force one into sunlight or use Hamon on them. Hamon can also protect someone against a Pillar Man’s attack.” Koich interjected, content with his knowledge of Hamon. 

“Shh Koichi. It’s cool and all, but I want to hear this.” Josuke whispered to Koichi. 

Koichi looked a little defeated but let it go. 

“It turned out there was another column holding three more of those guys, so Joseph went to meet up with someone to help neutralize them before they awoke from stasis. This person was Caesar A. Zeppeli, grandson of the Baron Zeppeli. Caesar had actually trained in the use of Hamon, and knew someone who could teach the art. Joseph needed the help-” 

“Obviously,” Josuke drawled, and Jotaro just nodded. 

“-but they encountered the other Pillar Men before he had a chance to learn. Joseph got into some kind of fight with them, bluffed his way out, and then they gave him thirty-three days to train for a rematch and defeat them. Two of them, Wammu and Esidisi, placed poison rings around his heart and throat.” 
 
 

“I know you said that stands were far-fetched, so why shouldn’t we believe in these guys, but I just find it extremely hard to believe everything you’re saying right now.” Josuke explained. 

Jotaro shot him a dark look. 

“Killer Queen could-” 

“Okay, Okay! I get it! No need to spoil the surprise for my adventure.” Josuke cut off Jotaro pretty quickly. 

Jotaro let out a soft  yare yare daze  but continued. “Anyway, Joseph trained with Caesar’s Hamon teacher, Lisa Lisa.” 

“Joseph’s mother?” Giorno asked. 

“What?” 

“Well you haven’t mentioned Joseph’s mother at all, and all of a sudden this new woman is introduced into the story. Lisa Lisa seems like a nickname someone would give to an Elizabeth, like the Elizabeth that was on the same ship Erina was on. If Elizabeth was rescued by Erina and she had no more family, I would assume she and the Joestars would be close. I was suspecting this, but Elizabeth wouldn’t happen to be Joseph’s mother, would she? And in turn, Lisa Lisa is Joseph’s mother.” 

Jotaro was a little silent before speaking again. He was very impressed. “No wonder you became a Mafia Boss in a week. You’re smart, Giorno.” 

Josuke and Koichi were speechless. How in the world had Giorno figured all that out? 

“Thanks.” 

Jotaro nodded and then continued. “Lisa Lisa faked her death because, long story short, a zombie Dio’d made killed George Joestar and Lisa Lisa got revenge. She was caught doing so, and it isn’t a good look when you kill an officer of the Marine Corps.” 

“Well shit. A zombie was an officer?” Josuke said. 

“Yeah. Pretty messed up, really.” 

“Yeah…” Koichi’s thoughts trailed off. “Um, Giorno?” 

“Yes Koichi?”  

“How did Mista learn to cook?” 

“I learned it was something he wanted to do after we took over Passione, so I sent him away for a week’s training course.” 

“He learned to cook in a week?!? And this good of food?!?” Koichi exclaimed. 

“Yeah, he’s a natural at this kind of stuff.” 

“Wow.” 

With the tension now lifted again, Jotaro decided to finish the story quickly. “Lisa Lisa had been keeping this weapon, the Red Stone of Aja, in order to one day defeat the Pillar Men. They discovered it and attacked. The stone was stolen and sent to Switzerland before they could defeat Esidisi, so Lisa Lisa took her two pupils and went after it. They ran into the nazis again in Switzerland-  and  the third Pillar Man, whose name was Kars. Joseph pulled some stunt to get the stone back, and they chased Kars to an abandoned place where they believed he was hiding. Caesar went in first and was killed by Wamuu before Lisa Lisa and Joseph could reach him.” 

Although the atmosphere was duller than before, Jotaro continued on, knowing that the ending would lift them up. “Joseph and Lisa Lisa challenged the remaining Pillar Men to duel them, one-on-one. Wamuu was, apparently, pretty honorable, so they agreed. Joseph fought against Wammu and won, while Lisa Lisa- his master- was set to fight against Kars, the most powerful of the Pillar Men. In the end, Kars cheated. Lisa Lisa almost died, and the  Nazis  accidentally shot Kars with some  ultraviolet lights  to try to destroy him,  after  he put the Red Stone of Aja into one of those stone masks. Instead of killing them, they completed his transformation. Kars became the so-called perfect being.” 

All three teenagers looked back at Jotaro in silent confusion, as if to say,  What?  

“Perfect being?” Giorno asked? 

“Correct. Nothing on Earth could kill him.” 

“On Earth, huh?” Giorno said quietly. 

Josuke and Koichi both looked like they were suddenly very glad that they’d only ever had to deal with Yoshikage Kira. 

Jotaro moved on to the end.  

“Joseph took an airplane and ‘ran away’. That’s what we call the secret Joestar Technique. Use it wisely.” 

“Uh, thanks?” 

“Anyway, Joseph’s good at pissing people off, so Kars followed suit  and  followed Joseph straight into a volcano. Joseph was able to survive with the help of his Nazi friend,” Josuke choked on air for a moment, “But Kars fell into the volcano. Apparently, this wasn’t enough to kill Kars, and he escaped the lava, cutting off Joseph’s arm in the process. When Kars went to kill Joseph however, he decided to do it with Hamon. Joseph had snagged the Red Stone of Aja when he’d fled, and when Kars channeled his Hamon into  that , it created an explosion that shot half the volcano into the stratosphere. Kars achieved escape velocity and is, I guess, in space somewhere. Joseph somehow survived the fall, and after a while recovering, married Suzie Q. She, uh, worked for Lisa Lisa. Don’t know if I mentioned that. Joseph and Suzie Q returned to his family, and together with his mom moved to America. Speedwagon, Erina, and Stroheim all died afterwards. Erina from old age, Speedwagon from a heart attack, and Stroheim in world war two. Joseph then had Holly, she married a Japanese man and moved to Japan, and Holly had me.” 

“Well, that adventure was certainly bizarre.” Koichi stated. 

“Aren’t they all?” 

“So, you didn’t ever meet Speedwagon?” Josuke wondered. 

“Josuke he was alive in 1889, I was seventeen in 1989. By the time I would’ve met him, he would’ve been over a hundred years old.” 

“Oh.”  

“So, is it your story next, Jotaro?” Giorno asked.  

“Yes. I’ll be moving pretty quickly through it, though.” 

“Oh, well let me serve the pasta first.” Giorno got up and brought the pasta. They all were served, and the next story started. 

Josuke seemed to know about this one the most, other than his own, of course.  

“It turned out that DIO was not actually dead. A hundred years later, someone fished up that damn coffin, opened it, and he escaped. Somewhere between the ship sinking and then, he was able to steal Jonathan’s body. Don’t ask me for details,” he said, frowning at Josuke even as he caught his uncle mid-question. “I don’t know how.” 

“Aw. Okay.” 

“When he got his stand, it awoke all of the Joestars’ stands. However, my mother, and unbeknownst to us, Josuke, couldn’t handle the power of their stands in their state at the time. We had this...crazy idea to kill DIO and hoped that her stand would stop attacking her if we did. Joseph and his friend, Avdol, came to Japan to recruit me for their quest. I met another stand user around that time, too. He’d been mind-controlled, sent by DIO to kill me. I was able to remove it. His name was Noriaki Kakyoin, and he became our good ally and friend. Kakyoin joined us to help save mom.” 

“You weren’t on a first name basis?” Giorno asked. 

“No, we never got that far. Or at least, he never said we could.” Jotaro explained 

Giorno could see the slight shift in his facial expression, so he dropped the topic. “I see, please continue.” 

“On our way to Egypt, we were attacked by another stand user sent by DIO. We were able to beat the user, but he’d already disabled our plane. That sort of thing kept happening. No matter what kind of vehicle we took, really. The next assassin after that was another being mind-controlled, like Kakyoin. His name was Jean-Pierre Polnareff. Once we’d freed him, he joined us to help. And, well. To get revenge for his sister, who’d been murdered. We were stopped by countless stand users as we went on, but we were able to defeat them. Eventually, we got to Egypt.” 

“But wait wait wait. You’re skipping all the good stuff! What about that monkey? You literally threw a lock at the monkey, and used a new attack with a  really  funny name, didn’t you?” 

“That’s not important.” Jotaro narrowed his eyes. “How do you know about that”  

Josuke began to sweat. “The old man told me!”  

“He wasn’t there.” 

“Uh, he said you told him.” 

“I didn’t tell him the details of my every attack, Jouske.”  

Josuke nervously laughed. Koichi looked uneasy, too, and Giorno wondered why. 

“You asked Rohan to use Heaven's Door on me.”  

“...Maybe...?”  

Jotaro zoned out for a moment, everyone on edge about what was about to go down. “We’ll talk later.” 

Josuke and Koichi traded nervous glances and nodded meekly. “Yes, sir!” 

Jotaro continued with the story, trying not to think about the fact that his privacy had been invaded, and he didn’t know to what extent. 

“In India, we found the guy who murdered Polnareff’s sister. He stuck with us, though, to the end. By the time we got to Egypt, we’d been injured a few times, but we didn’t see any casualties until we reached Dio’s mansion. All the stand users we faced on the way there had stands reminiscent of the Tarot; in Egypt, we dealt with stand users based on nine Egyptian gods, though I don’t think we ever ran into all of them.” 

“Wait, you’re one of the original stand users named off of the tarot card?” Giorno exclaimed. 

“Yeah. Star Platinum, named after the Star card.” His expression softened, very slightly. “All of ours were. Kakyoin’s Hierophant Green, Joseph’s Hermit Purple, Avdol’s Magician Red, and Polnareff’s Silver Chariot.” 

Giorno’s eyes shone. He knew of the original stand users from research Passione had done, but he didn’t realize he had relatives who were part of that group. Jotaro let out a small smile seeing Giorno’s reaction but continued on. 

“We made a new ally when we first reached Egypt. He was an asshole dog named Iggy. His stand was The Fool. It was messy, but we eventually made it to Cairo, Dio’s mansion...we found it at the literal last second. That fiftieth day, we found it.” 

“Wait, what about the Anubis stand battle? Didn’t you-” Josuke was interrupted by Jotaro. 

“Josuke, the more you say the more I can figure out how much you read about me, so I’d advise against speaking up about the stand users we faced.” Jotaro glared at Josuke.  

Josuke put his hands up. “N-note taken...” 

“Our group was split up when we went inside the mansion. We’d hoped to kill Dio during the day, when he’d be weak to sunlight, but that didn’t happen. Avdol and Iggy lost their lives protecting Polnareff against one of Dio’s minions. And when we found him, we all nearly followed suit.” 

Jotaro’s expression changed, but he lowered his hat to hide it. Giorno couldn’t tell if he looked grim or guilty. 

“We were completely unprepared to actually  face  Dio. We had no idea what his stand ability was. We split up as the sun set, raced across town. Kakyoin was able to figure out Dio’s stand ability, but it cost him his life.”  

Jotaro got much quieter here. Josuke, closest to him, reached out to pat him on the shoulder. Giorno got the impression that normally Jotaro would’ve shrugged it away but he accepted it, this time.  

“DIO could stop time.” 

They all stopped in their tracks.  

“But Jotaro, can’t you-?”  

“Yes, Koichi.” 

Giorno had no idea what was going on, but he didn’t like the idea of stopping time. It reminded him of Diavolo. 

“Joseph was able to get Kakyoin’s message and passed it on to me. It turned out that The World, DIO’s stand, and Star Platinum were the same type of stand. So, yes. I can also stop time.” 

Giorno dropped his wine glass, about to take another sip. Luckily, it landed safely. “What?” 

All of a sudden, Jotaro’s hat was missing and it was on top of Giorno’s head. A moment later, it was back with Jotaro. This terrified Giorno, it was just like Diavolo. You’re in one place in one moment, and suddenly in another the next moment. He tried to keep his face neutral, but it became a lot easier when he saw Jotaro’s expression. That’s when Jotaro’s situation finally dawned on Giorno. 

“So, you had the same power as your enemy?” 

“Yes.” 

“I’m so sorry to hear that, Jotaro.”  

“It’s fine, Giorno.” 

Giorno decided to drop the subject, for both his and Jotaro’s mental health. This was clearly a sensitive topic too. 

“In the end I was able to kill off DIO. He severely injured Polnareff, Joseph and me before I managed it, though. Joseph decided to pretend, when he was revived in the ambulance, that he’d been possessed by Dio and I nearly killed him, too. But that was it.” 

“After all that you went through, he pranked you at the end?” Giorno questioned. It wasn’t right. It was wrong to do that to a 17-year-old, one who’s friends had just died and almost had to kill his own grandfather. 

“He was alive, at the end of the day. That’s all that really matters.” Jotaro said, like he’d told himself this hundreds of times over the years. 

“If you say so.” Giorno had the feeling that the experience had taken a toll on him, but Jotaro seemed to be dealing with it well enough. He supposed if Jotaro had been terribly upset about it, he wouldn’t have bothered including that detail in his story, too. Giorno smiled at the thought, and he caught Jotaro smirking back. 

Their reactions were the same as Joseph’s story, just with no death in the middle. The ending however, hit hard. It was about the same as Jonathan’s death, but at least DIO was finally dead.  

But now, suddenly, Jotaro had information that was personally relevant to Giorno: he said, “Before he died, Dio was around for almost five years, and he traveled quite a bit. Among other things, he went to Japan, where he met some people who would work for him until his death, and some women and men he had sex with. Your mother was one of those women, I guess.”  

Jotaro looked a little uneasy about it, and Giorno felt the same. He didn’t like to think about his mother much.  

“She was probably lucky, since she’s still alive, but that’s how we’re all related. Dio, and Jonathan, were your fathers. That makes you a Joestar, same as us.”  

“So, I have two biological dads and one biological mom.”  

Jotaro looked like he was confused why Giorno had chosen to focus on this detail but answered cautiously: “Yes.”  

“That’s so cool!” Josuke said.  

“Really?” Giorno wrinkled his nose, not sure why anyone would feel that way.  You’ve never met my mom . “I never got the chance to meet either of them. Er, my fathers. I mean, not meeting Jonathan is obvious, but even now, I wish I got to meet DIO, just once.”  

Jotaro looked like he wanted to say  no, you don’t.  But what he actually said was, 

“I understand, but there was no other way. I’m sorry.” He tilted his head down a little bit, as if to hide under the bill of his hat and frowned. 

“It’s all right, Jotaro, I understand. I don’t hold anything against you, in case you were worried about that.”  

Jotaro shrugged, saying  thanks,  and nodded to Josuke.  

“Your turn.” It was Josuke’s time to do most of the talking. 

Josuke’s eyes lit up. “Yes! Alright Koichi! You want to start it off?” 

Now Koichi’s eyes lit up. “Really Josuke?” 

“Sure! You were the first one to meet Jotaro, right? Go ahead.” 

“Thanks, Josuke! Alright, sorry about that.” 

“Don’t worry about it.” Giorno responded. He was actually really excited to hear this one. 

Koichi started the story off. “It was the first day of Highschool and I was on my way to class when I bumped into Jotaro. I thought my stuff went flying, but when I opened my eyes, everything was the way it was before. I’d learn later that Jotaro had used his stand, which was actually my first experience with a stand, even if I couldn’t see it yet. Jotaro was looking for Josuke because of some family problems. Before Jotaro could leave though, some upperclassmen came and bugged me, and then they bugged Josuke.” 

Josuke continued. “I was watching a turtle get out of hibernation when they came up to me. After going back and forth with them, the leader decided to make the mistake of insulting my hair. Has Koichi already told you what happens when you insult my hair?” 

“Yes, he has. Though, I honestly meant what I said when you first arrived, I love your style. It looks really good on you.” Giorno said. 

“Thanks man. Anyways, I rearranged his face with my stand, and they all left. However-” 
 
 

“Excuse me, say that again?” 

“Don’t you know my stand ability?” 

“No, actually. Do any of you guys know my stand ability? I just learned Jotaro’s today, but I still don’t know about your stands.” 

“Oh, strange. Well, my stand is like Jotaro’s, except instead of stopping time, it can fix things. This means I can break something and rearrange it, or have it revert back to its old form, which in turn allows me to heal people. Pretty neat don’t you think?” 

“You can heal people too? Does it hurt when you do it?” 

“You’re also a healer?” Both Josuke’s and Giorno’s eyes lit up as they realized that they had something more in common. 

“I can create life from inorganic things, accelerate natural growth, or make someone feel like they’re high. If there are any wounds, I take something, insert it into the wound, and create the missing tissue and skin. It is painful though. That’s how I heal.” 

“That’s so cool! But you can make someone feel like… they’re high?” 

“Yeah, I don’t know how else to explain it. Would you like to try it out?” 

“Nonononono I’m fine thank you.” Josuke put up his hands in defense, not wanting to have an out of body experience. 

“Haha, I’m just joking. Anyways, does your healing hurt? I’m just curious.” 

“I don’t know. Nobody’s said anything, but…” Josuke turns to Jotaro and Koichi. “Does it hurt when I heal you guys?” 

“No Josuke, it actually feels really nice. It really is a shame that you can’t heal yourself though.” Koichi answered 

Jotaro nodded to agree. 

“You can’t heal yourself?” Giorno asked 

“No, it’s the one downside to Crazy Diamond.” 

 “Crazy Diamond, I like that name.” 

“Thank you, but it was actually Jotaro who named it.” 

Upon hearing his name, Jotaro tipped down his hat. “Are you going to continue talking about stands or the summer of 1999? It’s already pretty late.” 

“Oh, good point! Anyways, where were we?” Josuke asked. 

“You rearranged the face of the upperclassman.” Koichi answered. 

“I guess I should get a move on, huh? So Jotaro told me about my life to prove he was the real deal and then said I was the son of Joseph Joestar. He had an affair with my mom, but he didn’t know I existed until 1999. I’m told he felt bad about it, and he seemed like a nice guy when I finally met him, but I’m getting ahead of myself. The three of us, Jotaro, Koichi, and I, were walking while Jotaro talked about the inheritance. He also said that there was a serial killer on the loose with a stand, so to be careful.” 

Well that escalated quickly…  Giorno thought. 

“The man’s name was Angelo Katagiri, and he went after my family after I stopped him from robbing a store. I was able to stop him from killing my mom, but I was too late to save my grandfather…” Josuke trailed off. 

“I’m so sorry to hear that Josuke.” Giorno said. 

“Thank you, but it’s ok. I took up his torch to protect Morioh. He was a police officer, you know?” 

“That’s good to hear, Josuke.” Giorno smiled, and Josuke didn’t seem sad anymore. The mood definitely lightened up a bit. 

“Jotaro had arrived at my house after the funeral and my mom was away with relatives. 3 days had passed before Angelo showed himself again. Eventually we were able to capture him and I fused him inside a rock. Don’t question it.” 

“Wait so  that’s  the reason why Angelo’s rock looks like a face?” Koichi asked, a little shocked. 

“I thought I told you. I guess not then.” 

“You said it got a face lift.” 

At hearing that, Giorno let out a small chuckle. 

Josuke continued. “Later, we learned of the bow and arrow, the thing that had started all this stand business. One day, me and Koichi were walking to my house when Koichi got hit with an arrow.” 

“It really hurt…” Koichi added. 

He turned to Koichi. “Sorry to hear that, buddy.” Josuke continued on. “I tried to heal Koichi, but another stand user blocked me from doing so. After a bit of battling, I was able to heal Koichi, and he developed his stand Echoes act 0.” 

“Act 0?” Giorno was confused on how someone could have an act 0. 

“It was an egg.” Koichi answered. “I only had it because Josuke saved me. I would get my first act when I was finally ready to wield a stand.” 

That made more sense. 

“The one that shot the arrow was named Keicho Nijimura, his brother being Okuyasu Nijimura. He would later become one of my best friends.” Josuke proceeded. “Unfortunately, one of the stand users Keicho made turned on him and killed him. This new stand was Red Hot Chili Pepper, but we didn’t know who the user was. We needed to find him or else he would cause chaos in Morioh, so my father came. His stand would be able to locate the user, but when we met up to talk about the plan, Chili Pepper knew what was going on and planned to kill him. He did get away, but now we had to come up with a plan to protect Mr. Joestar. Knowing this, the user revealed himself and fought us at the port. We defeated him, but it turned out he somehow got onto the ship Mr. Joestar was on. Okuyasu did find him in time, and that seemed to end the main stand trouble in Morioh. There were some annoying users, but they were taken down easily, and everything seemed fine.” 
 
 

Koichi took over. “That was, until, Rohan and I met Reimi Sugimoto. She was a ghost who was bound to this town after being killed. We didn’t know if her killer was a stand user or not, but as soon as one of our friends, Shigetchi, died from Reimi’s killer, we knew he was a stand user.” 

Jotaro added his part of the story. “Josuke gave me a button that Harvest, Shigetchi’s stand, was able to get off the body of the killer. I went to investigate it but had no luck for a couple of days. One day Koichi ran into me and that’s when I found the store that made the killer’s jacket. This is when we learned of his stand, Sheer Heart Attack. After attacking the store owner, it went after Kocihi and me next. It attacked based on temperature, so before it could get to Koichi, I created a fire within stopped time. It stopped going after Koichi but instead I was severely hurt.” 

Koichi continued the story. “He was knocked unconscious and I went to the kitchen to find a way to distract the stand. Eventually I found a weakness using my own stand and called Josuke. However, the stand found something hotter than what my stand had made, and so I took the Jotaro out of the store, and that’s when I developed Act 3 of Echoes.” 

“Act 3? What happened to Act 1 & 2?” Giorno did not know how one’s stand could jump from an act 0 to 3. 

“Oh, that was between the time of Red-Hot Chili Pepper and this new Serial Killer.” 

“Ah, I see.” 

Koichi went on. “The bomb was sent into the ground, like you saw before with my stand, Giorno.” 

“Yes, I remember.” 

“Eventually the Killer came back to the shop to personally finish us off, but I was able to hold him off until Jotaro could wake up.” 

“Koichi was on the ground with a hole in his stomach, and I was really weak, but I mustered up enough strength to beat the killer into the ground. I fainted, but that’s when Josuke arrived with Okuyasu. He healed us and we chased after the killer, which we learned was named Yoshikage Kira.” Jotaro added. 

Josuke shuttered a bit at hearing the name but kept himself composed. 

“We followed him to a beauty salon that was owned by another stand user in Morioh. She was forced to switch Kira’s face, hair, and fingerprints with a stranger with the same build as Kira. After doing so, Kira turned her into a bomb, the ability of his main stand.” 

“Main stand? Was Sheer Heart Attack not his stand?” Giorno asked. This was starting to get confusing. He knew all too well about hiding identities, but switching them all together? That seemed really crazy. And then bringing in the talk of a main stand? It was a little hard to comprehend. 

“His main stand was Killer Queen. It had a bomb that came off of its right hand, which was Sheer Heart Attack.” 

That cleared things up a bit. Giorno nodded his head. 

“Kira killed Aya, the salon owner, and he was once again blending in with the crowd of Morioh.” 

Josuke took over for the next part. “What we did get out of that battle was Kira’s name and address. We searched his house and found his dead father with a stand that controlled the spirit energy within a photograph. He was taken care of by Jotaro, and we started searching the house. A few minutes later, I found another Bow and Arrow, but Kira’s father tricked Okuyasu into releasing him. He stole the arrow and created users left and right to stop us from finding Kira. There was a lot to deal with, some really strange stand users, but Rohan was able to focus on the investigation.” 

“Rohan? Koichi mentioned him once, but you’ve never really elaborated on him.” 

“Well, Rohan Kishibe is a manga artist. He was an enemy because he threatened to kill Okuyasu and me just because he wanted to read Koichi’s life.” 

Wh a  t 

Josuke saw the confused expression on Giorno’s face and decided to let Koichi explain this one. Jotaro took a deep draught of his wine and looked away in obvious distaste. 

“Rohan has a stand named Heaven’s door. He can make people into, like, books that read out their entire life story. He did this so he could have material for his manga, Pink Dark Boy. Eventually he joined our side, but he and Josuke had a strained relationship.” 

So that’s what Jotaro was going on about. Having your life’s story read without you knowing? That doesn’t sound like fun. No wonder he reacted like that when he found out…  Giorno thought to himself.  I wonder-  He was brought out of his thoughts when Josuke spoke. 

“I... may have burned down his house…” 

“You did what?” Jotaro turned to Josuke. 

“N-nothing!” 

Jotaro brought Star Platinum out and Josuke tried to shrink under the table in shame. Jotaro just sighed and brought back his stand. Giorno found the exchange quite funny. 

Koichi just continued on, not bothered by what happened at all. “Rohan was and still is on our side after that, so he led the main investigation. After dealing with too many stand users in  one  day, Rohan spotted a lead that also lined up with another lead Jotaro found that same day: Hayato Kawajiri. He seemed suspicious of his dad in general, and there was a photo of him filming his dad. Jotaro had investigated a missing person report and saw Hayato leaving from the apartment complex where Jotaro was going to investigate. We all decided that it would be best to interview Hayato the next day.” 

Josuke took the lead. “That day would change Morioh forever. From what I was told by Hayato was that Kira had developed a new ability called ‘Bites the Dust’ where he could reset the day by an hour, but all the actions done in the previous timeline would repeat. Basically, it meant that he could kill people without them knowing because he killed them in a previous timeline. Though its weakness was that Bites the Dust could only protect him from having his information leaked, no physical protection. Hayato was able to change the timeline and made it so Kira had to withdraw Bites the Dust before anyone died. That was because he called me, so I’d wake up earlier. It was an intense battle, and Okuyasu almost died.” Josuke’s voice started to go solemn. “While carrying Okuyasu's body, Hayato and I made it inside a house, and I healed him. He wasn’t waking up, but I wasn’t going to accept that he was dead. Hayato and I had to deal with Kira’s father, but we eventually defeated him, but in the process, a piece of a banister and lots of wood got stuck in my side.” 

Giorno cringed at the thought of what could’ve happened to Josuke. He didn’t want to imagine him in such a battered state. 

 
“I was finally able to knock him down, with Okuyasu’s help. He woke up from the brink of death. I didn’t get to think about that for long as we all surrounded Kira on the street. However, medics started to show up and Kira set up Bites the Dust again. Jotaro was too far away to use time stop, but he ran. We would’ve been gonners however, if it wasn’t for Koichi’s quick thinking of using Act 3. If he didn’t use it, then Kira would’ve activated Bites the Dust before Jotaro could stop time.” 

Jotaro took over for the end. “I made it in time, just barely though. I was able to render Kira immobile and he laid on the ground, a bloody mess. I left him alive, but he was run over by an ambulance. It was, to put it bluntly, horrifying. But It was the best thing to happen in the end. We didn’t kill him, and he got the punishment he deserved. The law wouldn’t have been able to do the same.” 

Giorno could see that Josuke was still troubled by the gruesome death that fate had dealt Yoshikage Kira, and Koichi was, too. But Giorno felt more in agreement with Jotaro’s carefully neutral expression. The bastard had got what he deserved. A fitting end, indeed.  

In the end, Josuke seemed really excited to share his adventures, and it was fun for Giorno to listen to. It was a really neat experience to hear from 3 sides of the same story. Giorno particularly liked this story because most people survived at the end of the day, considering how big their group was. It kind of seemed like the break the Joestars needed.  

Giorno checked the time.  10:30pm, huh? We’ve already had the appetizer and dinner.  

However, the stillness that followed the story soon had all eyes on him, and Giorno floundered, realizing they were most of the way through dinner and it was well time for dessert and coffee.  

“I guess my story is next then. First, unless anyone wants any more wine, I’ll get the coffee and dessert.” 

No one was in the mood for anymore wine, so Giorno got up and grabbed the drinks and dessert. It was Mista’s specialty, a 5-chocolate cake. Usually only 4 types of chocolate are used in such cakes, but obviously Mista couldn’t have tolerated that. Giorno thought the extra chocolate was actually a really nice addition to the traditional cake.  

Josuke stared at the cake in awe. It looked delicious and smelled divine. Koichi had a similar reaction but didn’t show it as much. W-was Josuke... drooling a bit? Whatever, I guess Mista’s cooking will do that to you, huh? Jotaro however doesn’t seemed as enthusiastic about it, but he does look impressed. Koichi and Josuke eat theirs alone, but Jotaro has coffee with his slice. 

While they were all eating their cakes, it was Giorno’s time to share. He decided to start at the beginning.  

“I didn’t always look like this. I had black, short hair.”  and now that I think about it, it kind of looked like Jotaro’s. Maybe that’s why he looks so familiar.  “Then one day, it changed. It grew long and became golden, so I decided to style it, though I’m still trying to decide whether Josuke has or hasn’t upped me on hair styling.” 

“I mean, I like Josuke’s hair, but I think yours look cooler.” Koichi added. 

“You want to say that again, Koichi?” Josuke said in a low, intimidating voice. 

“Josuke?” 

Jotaro just sighed and saw that Giorno was looking at him, very confused. He just shook his head at Giorno, and he finally understood what was going on. 

Don’t insult Josuke’s hair. Right.  Giorno thought. 

“What did you say about my hair?!?” Josuke’s voice was a lot louder and rose a bit in pitch. 

“WAIT!! I WASN’T TRYING TO INSULT YOUR HAIR! I’M SORRY, JOSUKE!!!” Koichi said while frantically waving his hands in front of himself in defense 

Right before Josuke could throw a punch, he felt his arm being held back. He might’ve been fast enough to get to the other side of the table, but it wasn’t enough to beat time stopping. 

“Josuke, calm down.” Jotaro ordered. 

“Yeah, thanks.” Josuke replied, pushing Jotaro’s arm away. He went back to his seat. Koichi calmed himself. “But Koichi, how could you say that?” 

“Cmon… they’re donuts…” Koichi said as he tilted his head down seemingly in shame for betraying his best friend. 

Giorno was already entertained by the situation at hand but almost let it show when Josuke let out a grunt of annoyance, yet agreeance as well. 

Giorno continued on. “After my hair turned gold, I developed my stand, Gold experience.” 

“Are all of our stands ore-themed?” Josuke asked. 

Giorno shot Josuke a look of extreme confusion.  ore...themed?  

“Ya know… Diamond,” Josuke gestured to himself, “Platinum,” He gestured to Jotaro, “And Gold.” He gestured to Giorno. 

“Oh, I get what you’re saying! Yeah, it seems you three do share that kind of theme.” Koichi piped up. 

“What, so you think we’re in Minecraft now?” Giorno said without thinking. 

“What?” Josuke replied, looking as confused as Giorno was a moment ago. 

“I- I don’t know. I just felt compelled to say that. I don’t even know what Minecraft is, let alone what that could mean. Sorry about that, I guess.” 

Rather than try to make sense of what had just happened, Giorno continued talking.  

“I think I always had access to my stand’s power, though. It was just dormant.” 

“How would you know?” Koichi asked. 

“Well, when I was a young child, I once found an injured man lying in a patch of grass. I could hear people looking for him. I told them he’d gone another way when they asked me, and when I turned to look for him after they’d gone, the grass was as tall as myu head, and had completely hidden him. I’ve assumed, since Gold Experience’s awakening, that I unconsciously used my stand to grow that grass and hide him. I didn’t know it at the time, but that man was a Mafioso.”  

Giorno was a little torn on where to go from here. He wanted to tell them about his initial interest in the Mafia, but he couldn’t bring himself to reveal his past to these ‘still technically strangers who have a bizarre family tree and history and I’m included in it’. Giorno had always been a very private person. He needed to find a middle ground.  

“I hadn’t had the best childhood up to that point, but that gangster made sure that things improved for me. Naturally, that’s where my interest in the Mafia started. I wanted to be the savior to other kids like he was to me.” 

Josuke smiled and nodded at Giorno, proud of his ambitions. Koichi looked wide eyed at him and Giorno swear he could see sparkles in his eyes. While Jotaro’s expression didn’t really change, Giorno could see the tiny smirk behind that hat of his. 

“Later on, I would recognize drugs left and right, which I despised. While there may have been nothing personal to it, seeing these kids get hurt from strangers and parents occasionally, I couldn’t just let that slide. These poor families were being torn apart, and I knew I had to do something about it. But I didn’t start making progress in that particular area until I was fifteen. My life had continued as normal, until Koichi here walked into my life.” 

“Wait. I was the cause of all this?!?” Koichi exclaimed in shock. 

“Not exactly. I was planning to do something later on, but you basically jump-started that plan. If I had done it later, I can’t say for sure if I’d be where I am today.” 

Koichi looked a little relieved but was still trying to process what he had in-advertantly caused. Jotaro looked like he could tell that Giorno was letting Koichi take on more of the credit, perhaps, than he needed to, but he didn’t interrupt. 

“I met Koichi at the airport, since I used to work there driving taxis. I offered to give him a ride for really cheap-” 

“Yeah, and you  stole my stuff ! I still never got all of that back, you know.” Koichi said, just wanting to vent a little, not expecting anything to come out of it. 

“I told you I sold it.” Giorno’s thoughts suddenly stopped as he realized what he had done. He got up from the table and went to go outside of the kitchen. 

“Wha-” 

“Stay there for a moment.” He left the room and made a call. Giorno then re-entered the room. “When we’re done talking, you’ll find my apologies in your room. Don’t question it and take what you’re given.” 

Koichi was in shock for the second time in a minute. “Bu…” Koichi trailed off. “Ok.” 

At Josuke’s and Jotaro’s puzzled looks, Giorno offered a brief explanation. 

“I swindled him. I turned his suitcase into a frog while he was getting into the back of my car and tried to drive off, but then my car wouldn’t move.” 

“I used act 3 on it.” Koichi couldn’t really be surprised at anything anymore, and at least he finally understood what happened to his luggage and why that frog was there. 

“So that’s what that was… Anyways, while I was on the run, I ran into a gangster named Leaky Eye Luka. He didn’t like that I was only paying the cops to run my taxi business, so he killed himself with a little push from me.” 

Koichi took back what he thought about not being surprised by anything anymore, and Josuke was just in shock. 

“All damage done to the things I create goes back to the person who attacks them. Luca hit the top of the frog with his shovel and hurt himself. As it turned out, he was a member of Passione. He could’ve recovered from his injuries, but the previous boss didn’t want him around anymore. He was dead weight, so Diavolo made him just that, dead.” 

Jotaro was never really surprised by what Giorno said, but even he perked up at hearing this. 

“That… I… ok…” Josuke was able to mutter out. 

Giorno continued on, unperturbed. At least his story didn’t involve vampiric pillar men. 

“Later, I met Bruno Bucciarati. He was another Mafioso, but well known and liked around. He met me on a train and wanted to know who killed Luka. He found out I killed Luka, we fought, and then I told him about my plans to take over Passione, with or without his help. He then explained his distaste in drugs. His father died because of it and that’s when I decided I wanted to re-establish Passione as a whole. No more drugs, but we would earn money by making sure these people got  help . No one should be affected by drugs…” he had said with a lot of passion in his voice. “After telling me how to get into his gang, I went to see the Capo Polpo. How do I put this? He ate his own fingers once.” Koichi decided this was his time to talk.  

“Oh, that’s the guy who disguised himself as a bed and shot himself with a banana gun, right? You told me about him over the phone during the week before we came here.” 

“The very one.” Giorno said so nonchalauntly that Josuke choked on his cake. 

“Could you stop making me choke or spit out stuff? I’ve lost how many times I’ve done it, let alone all of us.” 

Josuke had a good point. 

“No.” Giorno responded, “If you choke on this news alone, somebody better know CPR.” 

Josuke decided to stop eating now and just to enjoy the story. He was getting full anyways. 

He returned to the story. “Well, to get into the gang, I had to keep a lighter lit for 24 hours. It didn’t seem that difficult in theory, but it was hard to get it to my room without anything happening to it. Everything was going smoothly until Koichi entered my room to look for my suitcase.” 

“There was a lighter in that piece of bread! I knew I wasn’t imagining things!” Koichi added. 

“Yes. Well, after almost losing it, I went down the stairs, but water got splashed onto the lighter. The man who spilled the water re-lit the lighter. I thought it wouldn’t light up, but it did. What happened though, was that Polpo’s stand came out. It had an arrow within it and stabbed the poor man. He died instantly. The stand went after me next because I had seen the lighter being lit again. I fended him off, and then Koichi came down.” 

“I asked him what happened, but then the stand went to attack me. I saw everything from the window, which means I saw the lighter being re-lit. Giorno was able to save me and told me what was going on. This was a long-range stand that could only attack in the shadows. We came up with a plan to get him into the sunlight, but before we could act on it, the stand got the jump on Giorno.” 

“Koichi used Act 3 on my legs so that the weight would deter the stand from holding on, but it wouldn’t give up. He was about to let the weight go, but I told him not to. My feet were connecting to the tree that was the source of the shadow Polpo’s stand was in. I sped up its growth and made it die, exposing the stand to the sun.” 

“We were able to defeat the stand, but like I learned from you Jotaro, Polpo wouldn’t be dead. Though with that out of the way, I said goodbye to Giorno and went our separate directions.” Koichi finished up his perspective for the beginning, but listened curiously to the rest, like Jotaro and Josuke were. 

Giorno nodded and then looked at the time.  10:50? We won’t have time for the entire thing, so I’ll need to skim through this stuff. I can talk about the details of the fights tomorrow. It’s been really nice finally feeling like I’m able to open up, even if it’s just a little bit. They understand what I went through, so I’ll have to make sure to tell them the details of my fight, like they did for me. Though revisiting the memory of fighting with Koichi was nice, so at least I got that in tonight.  

Giorno skipped onto meeting the gang. “I killed Polpo by turning one of his guns into a banana and then he shot himself. Later, I met the rest of the gang. There was Mista…” Giorno was interrupted as soon as he said that name. 

“Did someone say my name?” Mista was walking by when Giorno started talking about him. 

“Oh, it’s nothing. Just introducing the gang to them.” 

“Alright. Good to see you’re doing well.” 

“Thanks, you too. It’s getting late, you should probably head up.”  

“I will, but I’ll be waiting for you when you’re done.” 

“Then I’ll see you later.” 

“See ya!” 

Giorno continued with introducing the gang members. “Mista hates the number ‘4’, but that’s a topic for another time. But that is why we have out five plates instead of four, just to let you know. There was also Narancia, the baby of the group, Fugo, the smartest one, and last but not least, there was Abbachio. He didn’t trust me at first, but I think he liked me at the end. He tried to make me drink piss, but I turned my tooth into a jellyfish so that it would soak it up when I drank it.” 

Jotaro thought this was really strange, but then he realized something. “Giorno, Jellyfish can’t absorb much liquid, and positioning the piss so that it all went directly to that one too-” He was cut off by Gold experience’s hand over his mouth. 

“Y-yup... Cool, you know about Jellyfish… let’s move on…” Giorno said with a hurried and panicked tone. 

This had been the wrong time for Josuke to decide he could have just  one  more piece of cake. Luckily, Koichi knew CPR. Jotaro, however, just looked at Giorno with a smirk. 

I know your secret.  Jotaros face said 

Shut it.  Giorno’s face tried to say. 

Jotaro didn’t say anything,  thankfully , and after Josuke got back up, Giorno hastily went on with the story. 

“It’s starting to get really late, so I’m going to have to skip over a lot of fights and the details of the other fights. I can tell you the rest tomorrow, is that ok?” 

“Yeah, that’s fine.” Josuke said, stifling a yawn. Giorno could tell they were getting tired, so he tried his best to summarize the events as best as possible 

“After Polpo’s death, Bruno took us to find his treasure and became the new Capo. There were a few users there to stop us, but they were taken care of and Mista, Narancia, and Fugo even tortured one’s head by dancing. Don’t ask, that’s literally it.” 

No one asked.  

“Once Bruno became Capo, we were given a mission to take the boss’s long-lost daughter, Trish, to him. A team of assassins were trying to capture her so they could get an edge on the boss, but we fought them off. When we finally got her to him, though, he just wanted to kill her. Bruno refused to let her die and brought her back to us. But…” Giorno tilted his head down, not wanting to show any weakness in his eyes. “But he lost his life in the process. I thought I’d healed him in time, but he wasn’t right, after. He’d been...changed, somehow, I guess. He used the time he’d stolen to live on and help us fight. When Bruno told the rest of us what the boss had tried to do. Everyone but Fugo decided to join Bruno and I to betray Diavolo.” 

“What happened to Fugo?” Koichi asks sleepily 

“Nothing. I don’t blame him for being afraid then, and he works for me now. He’s a good ally,” Giorno said. “The trouble was, even though he’d seen Diavolo in person, none of us actually knew who he was yet, at the time. We had no idea how to track the boss down. So, we had to flee the area without being killed, and try to figure out  who  Diavolo was. On that mission, Abbachio used his stand and found the boss’s face. But in exchange, he died.” 

The room grew darker, and Giorno could see Jotaro slightly tilt his head away. 

“Kakyoin…?” Koichi asked, this time being the one to pat Jotaro’s shoulder while Josuke put his hand on Giorno’s. They both reluctantly accepted the comfort and Giorno went on. 

“During our search, we were contacted by someone who told us that he could help us defeat Diavolo. We didn’t know if we could trust him, and I don’t think he knew if he could trust us, either, but we agreed to meet up at the Coliseum to learn what he knew. He explained that he’d clashed with Diavolo before and lost the use of his limbs in the fight, so he couldn’t be too careful. We went there as fast as we could, but Diavolo got there first, and killed him. We arrived seconds too late and learned that the man’s name was Jean-Pierre Polnareff.” 

That’s when Giorno saw Jotaro’s expression change. He couldn’t quite tell what it looked like, but he could see sadness and betrayal in his eyes. 

Then it hit him.  

He had, of course,  heard  Jotaro mention a Polnareff, but not quite put two and two together that it could be the  same  Polnareff. Sure, Polnareff had mentioned checking out Stand arrows because of someone he knew from Egypt, but until now it hadn’t fully clicked for Giorno that Polnareff and Jotaro must have been talking about- and investigating- the same thing.    

“He was one of your friends,” Giorno felt himself saying in surprise. 

“He was. We went searching for the stand arrows, and then he disappeared somewhere in Italy. We couldn’t find him. I never knew for sure, but I thought he was dead.” At this point Jotaro shrugged, looking away into the middle distance. “Guess he didn’t want me to see him like that.”  

Giorno stood abruptly from the table, mind racing. This night had been full of painful little memories for all of them, but this one,  this  one didn’t have to stay painful. 

“I’ll be right back. Stay here.”  

His trio of guests traded puzzled expressions but didn’t argue. Giorno went upstairs as fast as a casual walk could take him and burst into the room where Coco Jumbo’s terrarium stood, with a skylight in the center of the roof to let in the sunlight. The turtle was lounging there comfortably, chewing on a half-eaten apple. 

“Polnareff!” 

All of a sudden, Polnareff’s spirit pops out of the turtle, looking startled and worried. 

“Giorno? What is it? Don’t you have guests over?” 

“Yes,” Giorno agreed breathlessly. “That’s why I’m here! We were all exchanging stories, and…” Giorno trailed off, his excitement faltering. How was he supposed to say this? Would Polnareff  want  to see Jotaro as he was, now? But Giorno was sure Jotaro would have been happy to see Polnareff, and he couldn’t imagine Polnareff not wanting to let his friend know he was all right, either. 

“Giorno? Are you ok?” 

Giorno waved that off. “Jotaro. You know him, right?” 

“What about him?” Polnareff said, clearly puzzled and, even more clearly, not realizing why Giorno had brought his old friend up. 

“He’s my great-great-something-nephew, and he’s  here right now  with his uncle and a friend of theirs. He doesn’t know you’re  alive .” Giorno realized he was speaking pretty fast, but hopefully Polnareff could piece together what was going on. 

“You-! You’re saying Jotaro’s here, and he doesn’t know I’m here? Does he think I’m dead?” Polnareff asked, voice wavering. 

“ Yes .”   

“Can I see him, Giorno?” Giorno could see Polnareff’s eyes shaking a little. 

Giorno smiled, breathing a sigh of relief. “Of course. That’s why I’m here.” 

He picked up Coco Jumbo and walked as fast as he could without just  running  back downstairs, returning to the table with the turtle.  

“Meet Coco Jumbo. And also-” Giorno was cut off when Polnareff’s spirit appeared out of the turtle and saw Jotaro.  

“Jotaro! It’s been so long! How have you been-?” Polnareff couldn’t see Jotaro’s face, but Giorno could tell he knew exactly what was going on. Jotaro was on the verge of a panic attack. He could see it in the way Polanreff’s features softened. 

“Giorno, may I?” Polnareff asked. 

“Sure.” Giorno brought Jotaro the turtle and let him hold it. Giorno knew his suspicions were right when he saw Jotaro. He could recognize the symptoms all too easily from his own occasional struggle. 

“You’re a turtle, now?” Jotaro asked, bewildered. There was a slight waver in his voice, tremors in his hands where he held Coco Jumbo, but nothing else betrayed his appearance of calm.  

“I am.” 

And then, a sound that startled all the teens: Jotaro laughing in shock, once. 

“ What the fuck,  Jean-Pierre.” 

“Right?!” 

“Why does this shit always happen to you?!” 

“Don’t be angry, Jotaro!” 

“...I can’t believe you said fuck,” Josuke whispered, looking equal parts creeped out by the turtle (or the ghost? but he had had a ghost in his story so Giorno would’ve bet money it was the turtle) and in awe of Jotaro’s inadvertent Poor Role Modeling. Koichi, meanwhile, just shrugged.  

“I’ve heard him say that lots of times. You know, when we were fighting Kira.” 

“Shut up.” Josuke nudged Koichi, and Koichi laughed.  

“Why didn’t you-” Jotaro caught himself. “Why didn’t you say something? You didn’t contact the Foundation.”  

“I’m sorry. I couldn’t.” Polnareff’s boundless cheer was subdued, now, with the memory of it. “I encountered Diavolo, and I was almost killed by him. Once I’d recovered, I knew if he found out I was alive, he would come after me.”  

Jotaro nodded numbly, like that was a perfectly reasonable thing to say. Giorno thought it was probably heavier subject material than Josuke and Koichi were used to, though, based on their wide-eyed looks of horror. 

“But he did find you, it sounds like,” Jotaro added, glancing Giorno’s way again.  

Giorno nodded, about to agree, but Polnareff beat him to it. 

“That may be true, but, thanks to Giorno and his crew, I’m able to be here, instead of waiting for you in the next life. Although, I admit. It might not be the best of circumstances.”  

Jotaro stayed quiet. Giorno could see just the barest hint of shadows from all the questions passing across the older man’s face. Before he could settle on one and ask it, though, Polnareff spoke up again. 

“Finish listening to Giorno’s story, and we can talk later. Yes?”  

“...Alright.”  

Giorno took his cue to resume his role as storyteller.  

“Polnareff had a stand arrow, and discovered that, if a Stand was struck with the arrow, it could be changed. The arrow had its own sense of purpose, though. It could choose who it felt was worthy of it. And  if  it chose you, whatever your greatest desire at the time was, that is what your stand would become able to achieve.” 

Polnareff made a noise of agreement. 

“I stabbed Silver Chariot right before I died. I was trying to ensure that Diavolo didn’t get his hands on the damn thing. Chariot switched the souls of everyone within a wide radius, making it possible for him to keep the arrow away from everyone. But...since I’d died as it happened, he went berserk, and we couldn’t retrieve the arrow, either.” 

Giorno picked back up the thread of the narrative. 

“Diavolo’s soul had been hidden in one of us, when the switch happened. He had some kind of power to exist apart from his own body, separate from his stand ability, and was hiding in our midst. He killed Narancia before we could figure out what had happened.” 

“His body, or…?” Josuke asked. 

“My body, but Narancia’s soul had been within it, at the time. I was able to heal my body, and even return to it, but Narancia’s soul was already…” 

Josuke looked down. He knew exactly what this felt like, except that Okuyasu came back to life. He tried to comfort Giorno by putting his hand on his shoulder again, but Giorno brushed it off, continuing with the story. 

“We couldn’t mourn for very long. We needed to figure out how to get the arrow before Diavolo did. Eventually Bruno found a way to do it, but by destroying Silver Chariot, he expended the last of his energy. Bruno finally passed on, leaving the rest to us.” 

There was a bit of silence at the news of two more deaths, but then Josuke turned to Polnareff. 

“Wait, your stand is dead?” He asked. 

“My stand was no longer part of me, so when it died, I didn’t go with it.” 

Jotaro just hummed at this. He seemed to gradually relax, getting accustomed to the idea that Polnareff was a ghost inside of a turtle. Giorno supposed that was...good. It’d taken a while for Passione to adjust to it, too. 

“Diavolo’s ability was to skip time forward for everybody else. He could move in that space,” Giorno said softly, “but the rest of us weren’t able to see or feel it, just experience the result. That whole time, he’d been waiting until the person he possessed was close enough to try to take advantage of our pursuit of the arrow. We both went after it at the same time, and through fate, or chance, I was able to grab the arrow first.  

I stabbed myself with it and...I can’t really describe what happened. I know Gold Experience became a Requiem stand, and that it did something very,  very  permanent to prevent Diavolo from coming after us again, but it all happened in that space outside of time. Once the arrow was taken away from GER, Gold Experience Requiem, it reverted back to Gold Experience. Everything it had done was set in stone. I know that much.”  

Everyone looked a little shaken, granted with varied expressions for each person. 

Koichi and Josuke were thinking about Kira’s time loop power, but Jotaro was thinking about Dio freaking out that people could enter his Time Outside of Time.  

“I don’t have access to that ability anymore,” Giorno said, wondering if they were afraid he might use it on them. “Don’t worry.”  

Josuke and Koichi let out a breath they had kept in. Jotaro and Polnareff just nodded. 

“Since Diavolo’s death, we’ve kept the arrow hidden away. Only the three of us, Mista, Fugo, and I, know how to access the arrow, and we’re only allowed to get it out when there’s no other choice. Don’t worry about anything happening to you. I doubt you could do anything to provoke Gold Experience Requiem anyways if I still had him.”  

“Thanks, Giorno. Hearing that even you don’t know what your Requiem Stand does and then hearing how confident you sounded when you said that Diavolo wouldn’t be a problem again... definitely scared me.” Josuke stated, nervousness surrounding his voice.  

“Yeah, I have to agree with Josuke there. Though it’s good to hear that the arrow is safely locked away.” Koichi nodded.  

Jotaro quietly agreed. 

11:30pm. They all looked exhausted, and I’m getting pretty tired myself. We should get to bed.  

“It’s 11:30pm. Not ideal, but that’s ok. I’ll show you where you all will be sleeping.” Giorno said. 

“Sounds good!” Koichi replied.  

They all got up from the table, and Giorno had to admonish them not to worry about cleaning up the dishes. Ignoring their protests otherwise, he insisted on showing them up to their rooms.  

Giorno escorted each of his guests to their respective rooms. Josuke and Koichi were nearby, so when they were dropped off, they talked for a bit in the halls. He didn’t eavesdrop on whatever they were talking about, but they seemed happy. He then took Jotaro to his room, just a bit away from Josuke’s. 

Jotaro probably is a bit scary when he’s sleepy,  Giorno thinks.  I guess that’s what happens when you meet someone as tall as him, huh? I wonder how Koichi feels...  

Jotaro thanked him and went into the room quickly, closing the door behind himself before Giorno could bid him goodnight.  

It’s been such a long time since I’ve been able to connect with others like that. I’m really glad I met Koichi that day, otherwise I would’ve never met the family on my dad’s side. I even feel like going to bed before the day ends. Maybe I should take longer breaks more often… No. I have a Mafia to run. While this is fun, I need to be ready for the upcoming meeting. But maybe… relaxing before it comes might be a good idea.  Giorno smiled to himself as he thought about the day’s events. 

While Giorno walked back towards his own bedroom, he caught a few syllables of Josuke and Koichi’s conversation. It seemed to have taken a darker turn; they sounded worried. Since they were speaking in Japanese, however, he couldn’t easily follow the flow of the conversation. He wondered what they were talking about, but he couldn’t find it in himself to barge in. Instead, he continued down the hall without slowing. 

As soon as Giorno entered his room, his eyes went straight to his bed in the corner. Usually he would go to his desk that was near the door, but he was beat. He’s never talked so much in his life, and he was starting to get thirsty. Luckily, he always had some water bottles on hand. He sat on his bed and started to drink.  

Mista entered the room not long after Giorno had arrived. Giorno suspected that Mista’d seen that their guests were no longer in the dining hall. 

“So?” 

“So what?” Giorno said with a tiny bit of sass behind it. 

“How was it? What are they like?” Mista pressed, undeterred. 

“They’re...surprisingly really nice, actually.” Giorno was pretty aware that what he’d just gone through was an exhausting time for him, and thus, must have been exhausting for his guests, as well. He could see it towards the end of dinner. Plus, hadn’t they just arrived from a trans-continental flight? They must be even more tired than he was. That honestly just earned them more respect in Giorno’s eyes. “We all seem to have gone through a lot, and it’s nice knowing that there are others who understand what we went through.”  

“I’m glad. Make sure to have fun during this break. Is it safe to assume you won’t be taking any long breaks for a while after this?”  

“You’ve got that right. But I do enjoy this, it is nice doing something other than running the Mafia 24/7.”  

“Told you!” Mista gave Giorno a big smirk  

“How is it going, by the way? Is the meeting still going strong?”  

“We plan for it to take place on Monday. I made sure you’d be able to participate in it, so it’s scheduled for after they leave.” Giorno got out of his bed at the sound of this and hugged Mista.  

“Thanks, Guido. You know me so well.”  

“Anything for my best friend.”  

After Mista left, Giorno went to bed. He was happy that he finally knows his family’s history and that he got to meet some of his relatives. He went to bed happy, ready for what awaited him tomorrow. What Giorno didn’t know, however, was that he’d get to experience more of his family’s past than he ever expected.