Riptide ~ Vento Aureo

12 - Test of Trust

"Hey! You're Giorno Giovanna!", shouted Koichi.

"Koichi!"

The boy looked panicked. "Who's that guy that collapsed at the bottom of the stairs?! What did you do to him!?", he pointed to the direction of the dead elderly.

"Hey! Don't get the wrong idea! That wasn't me! That stand there atta-"

Black Sabbath was gone.

"Wrong idea?! I saw you talking to that old man! I was watching from the window!" He then pointed to the opened window.

"You were watching?! Then, did you see the lighter relight, too?" Giorno questioned.

"Don't step on the handrail's shadow! Koichi!" he suddenly yelled.

Black Sabbath was snaking his way towards Koichi, just about to catch him.

Just then, the floor suddenly turned to water.

Koichi yelped as he slipped.

He scrabbled up, though a force stopped him from moving.

Black Sabbath grabbed a hold of Koichi's stand.

'Shit!'

"Giorno!"

Giorno then summoned Golden Experience, using its hand to grasp the arrow before it touched Koichi's stand.

He yelped in pain.

"This hurts like hell, but now, it looks like I was able to drag you out into the sunlight!"

Just as Giorno said that the handrail started to shift into vines. As it grew, the sun seeped through.

Black Sabbath cried in pain, wincing.

But that didn't work out, just as he was about to disappear, he pressed his hand to the remaining shadows from the handrails.

"Wh- what was that stand?!", Koichi jumped down.

"As you saw, it's trying to attack three of us", Giorno started.

"Wait, three of us?", Koichi interrupted.

Giorno looked at the girl who was investigating the nearby shadows.

"Wait a second. Y/N, did you see the lighter relit too?", he questioned.

She turned around to face the boys.

"Actually. I didn't see yours relit. But mine did", she pointed to the lighter in her hands.

"Wait, yours too?!", he exclaimed.

'If I wasn't so clumsy when I woke up and dropped the lighter, then I wouldn't be in this mess! Yare yare...'

She nodded in disappointment.

"Wait, you're saying she's a stand user too?!", Koichi cried out.

"Yeah, but I don't entirely know her. I only met her today", he added.

'Uh like you didn't meet Koichi today either'

"For me, the old man who relit this lighter was killed. Because we saw it relit, both you and I are now its target. Adding Y/N who relit hers"