Chapter 53: Diavolo
Italy.
Inside a common, somewhat dilapidated small hotel room.
A young man with long, pink hair was looking at a set of secretly delivered intelligence reports with a look of pure delight.
"Once this final spot is taken down, there will be only one voice in all of Italy—all of Italy will be under the command of my Passione!
It truly was the right choice not to sell all those 'Arrows' back then.
Even if doing so cost me a significant amount of start-up capital, that last 'Arrow' I kept allowed me to trade for enough powerful subordinates.
It allowed me to expand Passione across the entire face of Italy so rapidly!"
A few years ago, the pink-haired youth had been digging for antiques in Egypt. By a stroke of luck, he unearthed the 'Arrows'. By selling the majority of them to Enya the Hag—a wealthy woman—he obtained sufficient funding.
He successfully transformed from a penniless nobody into a winner in life, possessing both wealth and power (having awakened a Stand through the 'Arrow').
Naturally, upon returning to his homeland of Italy, he felt compelled to build a career to give back to his roots.
Thus, after conducting a thorough investigation of Italy, the pink-haired youth discovered that the most profitable business in the land was the sale of drugs. Furthermore, countless Italians were being utterly ruined by it.
He immediately seized upon the conflict between the Italian populace and the mafia. Using the slogan of purging the gangs that sold drugs and driving the drug trade completely out of Italy, he called upon a vast number of ambitious youths to join his Passione. He then utilized the powerful will within these youths to awaken a sufficient number of Stand users.
With such a combination of moves, his Passione not only recruited a massive amount of personnel in a short time but also instantly gained enough powerful armed force to unify the entire Italian underworld in one fell swoop. He became the true Emperor of Darkness within Italian borders!
"However, now that things have reached this point, the organization's original slogan needs to be changed," the pink-haired youth mused.
He turned his gaze toward the most profitable business he had identified during his initial investigation of Italy—the sale of drugs.
Of course, the pink-haired youth wasn't actually interested in money itself. Otherwise, with his current status, he wouldn't need to hole up in such an ordinary, cramped hotel. In fact, if he simply spoke the word, not only women but even men of all descriptions would be delivered to his bed. The Emperor of Italy was no joke.
But none of that was what he wanted. Or rather, for the pink-haired youth, power and the sensation of having everything within his grasp were the only things that brought him true pleasure.
Thus, his interest in the drug trade—the most profitable and simplest business—was for a different reason. Now that Passione had expanded across Italy, the funds he had gained years ago from selling the 'Arrows' were starting to run low. He needed a massive amount of capital to maintain the current scale of Passione.
"Right, and information surveillance."
Remembering something, the pink-haired youth picked up a pen and wrote on a blank sheet of paper on his desk: "After integrating all forces and resources within Italy, Passione must immediately establish an effective inspection system."
Just as the Song Dynasty, which rose to power through a military coup at Chenqiao, naturally mistrusted military men and suppressed them to the extreme, the pink-haired youth had to be cautious. Now that he had achieved success using the slogan of driving out the drug trade and intended to restart that very business, he had to be wary of anyone else using the same slogan to overthrow his Passione.
After all, Enya the Hag, who wanted to buy his 'Arrows' back then, clearly already knew the secret of the 'Arrow'. Enya and the forces behind her, possessing the 'Arrows', could undoubtedly manufacture Stand users en masse just as he did.
Especially since the distance between Egypt and Italy was merely the span of the Mediterranean Sea. In ancient times, both regions belonged to the territory of the Roman Empire. He could not allow another to sleep soundly beside his bed.
Even if the pink-haired youth firmly believed his Stand was invincible, he couldn't be absolutely certain he could defeat a group of enemies and Stand users coming from across the Mediterranean. He had to hurry and guard against such an occurrence!
Just as the pink-haired youth was thinking this...
Knock, knock, knock————!!
A knocking sound and a voice came from outside the hotel room: "Sir, could you please open the door?
Someone reported that you are starting a fire in your room; they saw flames and thick smoke. We need to perform a routine inspection."
Starting a fire? Flames and thick smoke?
...What was going on?
The pink-haired youth, who had cleared everything off the table the moment he heard the knocking, listened to the waiter's shout with a look of utter confusion. He glanced around his cramped rented room. Could the waiter outside have knocked on the wrong door?
Waiters in these small hotels were truly unreliable. He would check out of this room tomorrow.
Despite these thoughts, the pink-haired youth didn't refuse to open the door. After all, he did feel that the surrounding temperature had risen quite a bit, and if he smelled carefully, there was indeed a scent of something burning. Under the premise that the other party wasn't lying, keeping the door closed would clearly be more conspicuous than opening it.
That would run contrary to his goal of hiding his identity. However, just to be safe, he would first see if this arson was intentional.
"—King Crim..."
BOOM————!!
However, the sound of an explosion rang out faster than his voice. Furthermore, the location of the explosion wasn't another room as he had assumed. It was right in front of the hotel room door. Right in front of him!
"Mr. Joestar, I told you we didn't need to go through all that trouble.
See? In the end, don't we still have to fight first? I was right, wasn't I, Diavolo?"
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