Inside a phone booth on the streets of Italy, Tokisaki Kurumi hung up the call.
Every word she had just said was true. Polnareff really was being persecuted by the Passione organization in order to protect the Stand Arrow, and Italy really did have DIO's most outstanding descendant.
After all, Giorno Giovanna had gone on to become the protagonist of Part 5. In the original storyline, he even awakened Gold Experience Requiem, one of the pinnacle Stand abilities, and ultimately became a mafia boss. Compared to the DIO descendants in Part 6, wasn't he far stronger?
She had merely had Izayoi Sakuya use time stop once during the call—and neither more nor less, exactly nine seconds.
As for what kind of conclusions the person on the other end would draw from that, it was none of her concern.
"Thank you for your cooperation, Miss Sakuya."
After hanging up, Tokisaki Kurumi turned to Izayoi Sakuya beside her and spoke.
"It was nothing."
Izayoi Sakuya shook her head.
It was just a few seconds of stopped time—hardly even worth mentioning as a cost to her.
"Next, we just need to wait patiently. In the meantime, let's focus on hunting down more Stand users for our master."
...
And just like that, two days passed.
The death of Polpo, the Passione executive responsible for recruiting and testing new members, was merely the beginning. Over the course of those two days, several more Passione Stand users died under mysterious circumstances—and without exception, every single one of them was killed by gunfire.
Clearly, the attacker was the same person who had previously killed Polpo.
The most direct consequence of this was that the entire Passione organization, from top to bottom, was thrown into turmoil.
If it had only been Polpo's death, it might have been written off as a personal grudge or an act of revenge. But now, the attacker was very obviously targeting the organization as a whole—this was the most severe provocation Passione had faced.
This was no ordinary attacker. They had to respond with overwhelming force!
"That's the situation."
Inside a café somewhere in the city, Bruno Bucciarati spoke to the members of his squad.
"Because the attacker has already caused serious losses and openly provoked the organization, the BOSS has issued an order. Whoever can identify and kill the attacker who's challenging the organization will be directly promoted to an executive position, as a special exception."
After saying this, Bucciarati's expression was solemn. Meanwhile, his teammates sitting across from him all gaped in shock, mouths hanging open.
The reason was simple—the reward was far too generous.
As an Italian homegrown mafia organization, Passione, under Diavolo's secret management, had long since expanded its influence across numerous cities throughout the country. It was a colossal power in every sense of the word.
Moreover, because Passione's BOSS—Diavolo—never showed his face and never allowed anyone to know his true identity or appearance, issuing orders only through remote communications, the organization's executives, whose status was second only to the BOSS himself, were effectively local tyrants whenever the BOSS did not personally intervene.
Take Polpo, the executive who had just been killed, for example. Even while he was imprisoned for special reasons, there was no shortage of people trying to curry favor with him. Not only had a luxurious suite been built for him inside the prison, but every day people delivered various delicacies tailored to his tastes.
Many of the prison guards, rather than truly guarding a criminal, were essentially acting as Polpo's bodyguards. Up until his death, Polpo had lived an extremely comfortable life.
It could be said that the reward the BOSS had just announced represented a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to rise straight to the top for countless members of Passione.
Bucciarati and his team were well aware of this—and they, too, had their own thoughts about the reward.
Seizing this chance to make a major contribution and become an executive was not just Bucciarati's personal ambition, but the shared hope of every member of the squad.
That said, despite their desire, they clearly had no leads on how to find the attacker.
The attacker's actions showed no discernible pattern. The only confirmed piece of information was that every member of the organization who had been attacked and killed was a Stand user.
"Judging from that alone, it's possible that we ourselves could become targets as well,"
Fugo, a member of Bucciarati's squad, spoke up.
"If that's the case, even better. If they dare to come after us, I'll just use Aerosmith to take them out. Then Bucciarati can become an executive right away."
Narancia replied nonchalantly.
"Don't underestimate the enemy. They've easily hunted down multiple Stand users and escaped unscathed. Someone with that level of strength won't be a simple opponent. We still don't know what their Stand ability is, so everyone must remain on high alert."
"For the next period of time, we won't act separately. Even if something comes up, all members must operate in groups of at least two."
Bucciarati tapped the table and gave a serious reminder. The other members of the squad all nodded with solemn expressions.
"By the way, couldn't we go to the attack site and use Abbacchio's Stand to recreate what happened, so we can figure out the attacker's true identity?"
Mista, who had been eating cake earlier, suddenly set down his fork and spoke. Beside him, Abbacchio nodded as well.
"If we can go to the scene, my Stand, Moody Blues, can indeed recreate what happened at the time."
Moody Blues was one of the rare information-type Stands—and a particularly powerful one at that. It could replay past events like a video recording. With Abbacchio around, Bucciarati's squad clearly had a significant advantage over other members of the organization.
After all, once the scene was reconstructed, even if they couldn't determine the attacker's Stand ability, confirming the attacker's appearance and the number of people involved should at least be possible.
With that decided, the Bucciarati squad moved out immediately. Bucciarati, along with Fugo, Narancia, Mista, and Abbacchio—a total of five people—headed to the prison where Polpo had been attacked.
On one hand, this was the place where the attacker had first appeared. On the other hand, among the Stand users killed over the past two days, Polpo's death scene was the closest to them.
"Abbacchio, begin."
Inside the prison, Bucciarati nodded to Abbacchio. Abbacchio then summoned his Stand, Moody Blues, and adjusted the playback time to the day Polpo was attacked.
Moody Blues transformed into Polpo's appearance and began reenacting everything Polpo had experienced that day.
Feasting heartily in the prison. Explaining the test content to the newcomer who had come for the initiation.
Then, at a certain moment, the Polpo in the reenactment seemed to sense something and tried to stand up—only to suddenly lose all strength and collapse to the ground. He then raised his head, staring in terror toward a certain direction.
"It's coming!"
Seeing this scene, everyone present held their breath. If nothing unexpected happened, the next moment should be when the killer appeared.
However, at that very instant, a dark red domain suddenly materialized out of thin air, engulfing the entire prison in the blink of an eye.
"What… what's going on?"
"My body suddenly has no strength…"
"This is bad… it's a Stand attack!"
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