Moody Blues

3:25 PM.

Bucciarati, Fugo, Narancia, and Abbacchio drove to the tourist town at the foot of Mount Vesuvius.

It was called a small town, but it was actually part of Naples's expanding outskirts.

With the still-active Mount Vesuvius at its back, countless natural hot springs built around volcanic geothermal resources, and the two-thousand-year-old ancient city of Pompeii nearby, it possessed exceptionally rich tourist resources.

There was no need to think about it. A place like this was never short on visitors.

Yet when Bucciarati and the others arrived, it had already become a miserable sight:

Houses had collapsed, roads had cracked open, wrecked cars lay jammed across the streets, and black smoke from lingering embers curled up through the ruins. As far as the eye could see, there was only desolation.

The tourists and passersby had long since fled during the riot. The only ones left were firefighters struggling to clean up the aftermath, along with a group of American soldiers rummaging through the ruins.

"What exactly happened here?"

Abbacchio could not help asking.

This was his first assignment after joining the mafia, and the scale of it seemed far greater than he had imagined.

"About half an hour ago, an American fighter jet crashed here."

"After that, for some unknown reason, a rather serious disturbance broke out."

"According to reports from the street punks on the outskirts of our organization, around twenty minutes ago, that bald man with an Eastern face—the target we were sent to hunt down—appeared at the scene of the riot alongside another blond brat in a student uniform."

"Whoa, whoa. If that's what you mean—"

Fugo grew somewhat nervous. "This huge mess was all caused by that bald guy?"

He swallowed and looked at the devastation around them.

"Is this... something a Stand User can do?"

"What kind of monster is this guy the organization wants us to kill?"

"It's possible."

Bucciarati nodded cautiously.

"Everyone, prepare yourselves. That bald man must be very strong."

"After all, the price the organization put on his head was—"

"A seat as an executive!"

At the very top of the Passion Organization stood the Boss, like an emperor. Beneath the Boss was the Staff Department, equivalent to a cabinet, and below that were the local executives who oversaw individual cities, like regional governors.

These local executives managed a city's gang affairs and maintained the underground order behind populations of millions. The extent of their power went without saying.

Bucciarati's dream was to become such a powerful executive.

"Even though I'm a little nervous..."

Like Fugo, Narancia had cold sweat on his forehead, yet he forced himself to overcome his instinctive fear.

"As long as you give the order, Bucciarati, no matter who the enemy is, I'll follow you to the end."

"And—and most importantly..."

The fifteen-year-old boy, whose face still retained its childishness, was looking at Bucciarati with hopeful eyes.

"As long as we kill that bald guy, Bucciarati's dream can come true, right?!"

"That's right."

"But from the looks of things, a seat as an executive is secondary now."

Bucciarati stared at the ruins, which still retained their residual heat, and spoke with a grim expression.

"He destroyed Naples like this and harmed innocent tourists and citizens. No matter how powerful he is—I, Bucciarati, will not let him leave alive!"

This impassioned declaration was not empty rhetoric from a mafia boss trying to dress himself up as righteous. It came entirely from the heart.

Because Bucciarati was, by nature, a good man.

He assisted Polpo in managing the Passion Organization's local affairs in Naples and had done plenty of bloody, violent things in gang conflicts.

But he had never inflicted that darkness and violence upon Naples's ordinary citizens.

On the contrary, Bucciarati had always used his authority as a minor mafia boss to preserve peace and order as best he could, helping those in need.

The people's eyes were sharp. In the eyes of those ordinary citizens who had repeatedly received his help—

the Bucciarati Team was, in fact, a public service group combining the functions of a neighborhood office, residents' committee, police station, Red Cross, and more.

And the reason Bucciarati so desperately wanted an executive's seat was that he wanted greater authority within the organization, so he could better protect the peace and prosperity of Naples.

"All right."

Bucciarati took a deep breath, then turned to Abbacchio.

"Abbacchio, your 'Moody Blues' should be able to track where that bald man went, right?"

Moody Blues was the name of Abbacchio's Stand.

Its main ability was not combat, but to replay "what happened in the past" at a target location, like a videotape being rewound.

Though this Stand was not suited for battle, it possessed formidable information-gathering abilities.

With a Stand capable of "seeing the past" on the case, every detective mystery story, from Sherlock Holmes to Hercule Poirot, could be wrapped up within three minutes of opening.

"It shouldn't be a problem."

"My Moody Blues can use a location's 'memory' to rewind to a designated point in time and 'transform' into someone who appeared there at that time, replaying what they did."

"As long as I have the two elements of 'time' and 'place,' nothing can escape its replay."

Knowing that this was the main reason he had been brought here, Abbacchio explained without hesitation.

"This place has been damaged rather badly, which may have some effect on Moody Blues's replay."

"But that bald man couldn't possibly have destroyed every bit of terrain he passed through. As long as we put in the effort to investigate, we'll definitely find traces of him."

"Good."

Bucciarati did not waste any more words. "Start right away!"

"Mm."

Abbacchio gave a slight nod, and a blue humanoid Stand slowly emerged behind him.

There was nothing particularly strange about the appearance of this humanoid Stand called Moody Blues. The only eye-catching feature was the time counter on its forehead, displaying "::**".

"Moody Blues!"

Based on eyewitness information provided by the fringe punks, Abbacchio roughly found a spot that had not been damaged and began searching for the target's past traces.

"Rewind twenty minutes!"

"Beep beep beep beep."

Moody Blues let out a faint buzzing sound, and the timer on its forehead rapidly changed from "::**" to "00:20:00".

Then its appearance rapidly shifted, as though it had used a transformation technique. From a blue humanoid Stand, it became a boy in a black student uniform, with three spirals of blond hair piled atop his head.

"Not him. Switch."

At Abbacchio's command, Moody Blues's appearance changed again.

This time, it became a bald man with an Eastern face.

Moody Blues could only replay the appearance, words, and actions of someone at a past location. It could not restore the scenery and objects surrounding that person.

Thus, when Moody Blues became this bald man, it was floating a short distance above the ground in an extremely bizarre riding posture.

"That's right, this is the bald guy!"

"He must be the Li Qing we're looking for."

"But..."

Abbacchio carefully examined Moody Blues, now in Li Qing's form. "From this posture, was he riding a motorcycle at the time?"

"Who cares what he was riding!"

Fugo urged impatiently.

"Hurry up and play it. What exactly did that guy do twenty minutes ago?!"

"Mm." Abbacchio answered unhurriedly. "Begin replay, Moody Blues!"

The moment he finished speaking, the timer on Moody Blues's forehead, which had been fixed at "00:20:00," abruptly jumped to "00:19:59".

Like a video whose play button had suddenly been pressed, the Li Qing it had transformed into began to move and speak.

"Hey, hey."

"Giorno, are you ready?"

Li Qing's voice and expression from twenty minutes ago appeared in the present through Moody Blues's replay.

Along with them came the violent roar of a motorcycle engine.

"I'm ready."

Though Giorno's appearance was not replayed by Moody Blues, his voice had likewise been recorded on the "Li Qing" videotape. "What about you, Li Qing?"

"Hahaha. Of course!"

Li Qing laughed brightly.

"Though it sounds a little cringe to say it, what we're doing right now is pretty stupid anyway, so..."

"Giorno Giovanna, let's save the world together!"

As he spoke, the motorcycle engine's roar suddenly grew more than ten times louder.

In its replay state, Moody Blues was like Li Qing from twenty minutes ago, riding a motorcycle that did not actually exist in the present as it suddenly "floated" into the distance.

"Save the world?"

Fugo and the others watching the replay were all somewhat stunned.

"This seems different from what we thought..."

"Could it be... that bald guy wasn't causing destruction at the time, but fighting something?"

The four fell silent for a moment. In the end, Bucciarati made the final call.

"Follow the path he took first."

"Abbacchio, your Moody Blues should also be able to replay the enemy he was fighting, right?"

"No problem."

Abbacchio answered, "Whether it's a person or a Stand, as long as we determine the time and place, I can replay it."

"Then replay his enemy too."

"I want to know what Li Qing was doing at the time."

Bucciarati gave the order as he led the team forward.

About half a minute later—

"Moody Blues, switch targets!"

Abbacchio followed Moody Blues to a suitable location and, as Bucciarati had instructed, ordered it to replay Li Qing's enemy from that time.

Then—

"Huh?"

"Why did it get dark?"

Narancia scratched his head and asked with a baffled expression.

"No, it didn't get dark..."

Abbacchio's face, which had remained calm as water from beginning to end, finally cracked at this moment.

"It's just that thing is so huge... it blocked out the light."

PS: Stand Stats

Stand Name—"Moody Blues"

User—Leone Abbacchio

Destructive Power: C

Speed: C

Range: A (replay state only)

Staying: A

Precision: C

Development Potential: C

Ability: A humanoid Stand. It can play back the actions of a specific person or Stand like a film. Although it can perfectly reproduce the other party's appearance, it cannot reproduce Stands capable of teleportation. It can use the appearance of the person being replayed to deceive enemies, but its weakness is that it enters a defenseless state, unable to attack or defend.