Giorno Giovanna Prologue
"Returning to Nothing"
A god like Othinus always gets what she wishes, and to defy a god... Many humans would not even dare defy a god.
But then, you aren't like most humans, are you... Giorno Giovanna?
***
Even the deepest, most barren bowels of Knowhere were flush with an air of uneasy celebration - like that of bloodied soldiers patting each other on the back after winning one battle of a greater war. Everywhere he looked, the unwilling heroes of the multiverse - the unknowable swirling enormity that lies beyond our world - seemed to be less than ecstatic over the outcome of the battle. Allies were tired, and leaders were stressed; the thought of facing an even greater threat weighed heavy on their minds. Uncertainty consumed them all.
No one knew if they had the resolve to see the end of this path. No one except for Giorno Giovanna. Or, again, so he thought.
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Knowhere's meeting room was as frigid as the post-battle debrief from Kirigiri and Doppo from half-an-hour before. Everyone had long funneled out of the room to deliberate among themselves, leaving Giorno Giovanna standing alone at the far end of the table. He hadn't given much thought to it, but no one wasted any time retreating from the 'celebrations' after the initial 'hype' had worn off. Giorno leaned against a nearby wall, a thin, golden object dancing between his fingers as he wordlessly twirled it there.
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It'd been at least a few hours since he used it. Somehow, even now, Giorno felt heat radiating off the tip of the Arrow, nearly scalding to the touch. The don quietly sighed, twirling the golden artifact back beneath his school uniform as he sensed someone approaching the room from the hallway. To no surprise of his own, the meeting room doors slid open to a flowing white coat.
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"... Guess you really are staying," Jotaro said without pausing his movement, slipping beneath the doorway before returning his hands to his coat pockets.
"Good grief. You're more stubborn than my grand-dad, you know that?"
Giorno couldn't help but smirk at the comment, pushing off the back wall with his feet and approaching the table.
"Of course. I meant what I said. There's no use going home knowing that the battle is far from over. As much as I would've liked for Othinus to have been the last threat to deal with... I can't force myself to ignore what Kirigiri said."
"I've yet to see the end of this path. The most effective job, in my opinion, is the one you only do once. That is all that I need to say."
Jotaro's expression didn't change.
"Yeah, yeah, you don't need to convince me. Or anyone, for that matter. You don't seem like the type of person to change your mind so easily, and if Doppo couldn't convince you to go home then no one will. But then again, they need all the help they can get."
"... And... Jolyne and Ermes?"
The older Joestar already shook his head, catching the question before it even finished leaving Giorno's lips.
"Gone. Jolyne wanted to go home. For once, her and I agreed on something. She and Ermes are back in Green Dolphin State, right where we found them."
Giorno arched a brow.
"You allowed your daughter to go back to prison?"
Jotaro glared daggers at the young don's implication, but shrugged at the same time.
"That's where she wanted to be. Fiamma recommenced that we don't interfere with the timeline more than we already have, and that the 'Jotaro Kujo of her world will find his way back to her as fate would have it.'"
"If I find out he's tracking her again, I'll have Josuke pound him into a statue. Only after Star Platinum is done with him."
Giorno nodded. He couldn't blame Jolyne for wanting to have nothing to do with the multiverse. She was more reasonable than everyone else in that regard. A bit surprising that Ermes would turn down a fight, but, if Jolyne wasn't ready to throw down then no one was. Perhaps some day, in another time, he'd pay a visit to America. Bribing the prison guards wouldn't be too hard.
But then only one question remained on his mind as he met eyes with Jotaro Kujo again.
"What about you?"
"You already know the answer."
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Giorno furrowed his brow.
"What? I can understand Jolyne wanting to go home, but... you? This battle is far beyond what either of us have come across in our own world, Jotaro. You are one of the most powerful Stand Users I've ever come across, and with the power of Over Heaven combined with my Requiem... the enemy'll be dead before they even realize what's happened. We have an obligation to fulfill, because there are more lives at stake than you can even imagine!"
"I don't have obligations to anyone."
"How would Josuke Higashikata and his friends feel if you'd decided to give up the hunt for Yoshikage Kira because Morioh-Cho wasn't your home town? Hm? All the effort you put in thus far would have been for nothing. It'd be useless. Find the resolve to push onward to the end, and we'll all be able to go home."
"... Give me a break," Jotaro turned his body fully now. Only now did his towering size become apparent to Giorno.
"Tell me, then, when does it end? When do the enemies stop coming?"
The two men allowed the question to hang in the air between them, stewing in the silence of the meeting room. All the uncertainty and uneasiness that came with the end of DIO's reign resurfaced in a bubble, looming between the Joestars like a ticking bomb. It was as if they both knew the other would not join them, and how that would spell the end. Jotaro finally broke the silence with a long, exasperated sigh.
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"I saw the end of Aoko's prophecy. I put DIO down again. That is all that I needed to see. Unlike you, Giorno, I don't have a path left here. The longer I stand around looking for trouble is time that I could have spent fixing everything that I broke."
... You know, for a gangster, you're still just a kid. You see the black-and-white on the surface, and never stop to see it with your head rather than your eyes. Listen with your heart, not your ears. Realize that there's more to every scenario beneath what's immediately apparent. That's what true observation is."
"I've been observing everything for awhile now, and I realized that I'm sick of fighting. I'm sick of chasing down serial killers and Stand Users. I'm sick of DIO and hunting down the whereabouts of his son. I just want Jolyne to be happy, and I'm sure as hell not doing that here."
The gulf between the two men sealed in Jotaro's heavy, unbroken gaze. Giorno blinked a few times, lowering his head slightly as his eyes met the floor beneath his shoes. Only for a moment. In an instant, Giorno looking at him again.
"... Then I will be the one to end it. For both of us."
" I wouldn't have decided to go home if I didn't know you were going to stay. That Stand of yours... believe me, it's more powerful than you think it is."
Giorno blinked. It seemed as if Jotaro was trying his hand at motivational speaking, but before he could even realize it, his heavy hand fell upon the younger Joestar's shoulder. The elder lowered his body slightly so that their eye level was matched - where Giorno could make out the fainest color of his relative's azure eyes.
"When the moment seems most dire, you'll come out on top in ways you can't predict until it happens. It may be the winds of fate blowing in our favor, or some cunning nature we inherited from Jonathan, but that is the true Joestar secret technique."
"... But don't be afraid to run away, either."
Giorno didn't know how to respond. For the first time within the last few years, he was left without a cunning remark or daring quote. Simple, unbroken, contemplative silence was all that he had. Jotaro offered him no time to react, as he raised himself back to his full height and stuck out his hand.
"It's been an honor to finally catch you, Haruno Shiobana."
Giorno stared at the hand like it was a pointed gun. In the moment's passing, his stature straightened, his eyes renewed with telltale resolve. He gripped his counterpart's hand with his own.
"Likewise, Jotaro Kujo."
JoJo shook hands with JoJo. Giorno watched his older relative turn away, walking out towards the door leading into Knowhere's metallic tunnels. Something within him yearned to try and stop him. He'd never failed to convince someone before, all it would take is more. At the same time, however, it seemed best to let him walk away. If only for Jolyne's sake.
"What if we never meet again?"
Jotaro stopped in the doorway for a moment, turning his head slightly to side-eye the young man.
"Then it must have been for a good reason."
The mechanisms in the door twirled for just a moment before Jotaro Kujo's frame vanished behind an ocean of steel. In that moment, Giorno Giovanna had no allies left.
At the end of the path, he returns to the beginning.
***
@no one lol
