Chapter 36 Melancholy Blues
15:25.
Bucciarati, Fugo, Narancia and Abbaccio, a group of four, drove to the tourist town at the foot of Mount Vesuvius.
Although it is called a small town, it is actually part of the outer urban area of Naples.
Backed by the still active Mount Vesuvius, it has countless natural hot springs built using volcanic geothermal resources. It is also close to the ancient city of Pompeii with a 2,000-year history. It is blessed with rich tourism resources.
It goes without saying that this kind of place will always be popular.
But when Bucciarati and others arrived at the scene, it had already become a miserable scene:
The houses collapsed, the roads cracked, damaged cars were jammed on the roads, black smoke from the embers rose from the ruins, and the whole place looked desolate.
Tourists and passers-by had already fled in the riot, leaving only a group of firefighters trying to clean up the mess and a group of American soldiers searching through the ruins.
"What the hell is going on here?"
Abbaki couldn't help but ask.
His first mission after becoming a gangster seemed to be much bigger than he had imagined.
"About half an hour ago, an American fighter plane crashed here."
"Then, for some unknown reason, a rather serious riot broke out here."
"According to reports from street thugs outside our organization, about twenty minutes ago, the bald guy with an oriental face, who is the target of our mission, appeared at the scene of the riot with another blond kid in a school uniform."
"Hey, hey... it sounds like..."
Fu Ge became a little nervous: "This big scene was all caused by that bald guy?"
He swallowed, looked at the devastated scene nearby and said:
"Is this... is this something a Stand User can do?"
"What kind of monster is this guy that the organization asked us to hunt down?"
"It's possible."
Bucciarati nodded very cautiously:
"Everyone should be prepared, the bald guy must be very strong."
"After all, the price the organization put on this guy's head is—"
"The cadre's throne!"
At the top of the Passion organization is the boss who is like an emperor. Below the boss is the General Staff which is equivalent to the cabinet. Below the General Staff are local cadres who are equivalent to provincial governors and are in charge of a specific city.
These local cadres manage the gang affairs of a city and maintain the underground order behind millions of people. Their power is self-evident.
Bucciarati's dream is to become such a high-ranking official.
"I'm a little nervous...but..."
Narancia had cold sweat on his forehead like Fugo, but he forced himself to overcome this natural nervousness:
"As long as you give the order, Bucciarati... I will follow you to the end no matter who the enemy is."
"Also, most importantly..."
This 15-year-old boy with a childish face is looking at Bucciarati with hope:
"As long as we can kill that bald guy, Bucciarati's dream will come true, right?!"
"Yes..."
"But now it seems that the cadre position is secondary."
Buccellati looked at the ruins that were still warm and said with a gloomy face:
"This guy destroyed Naples like this, and murdered innocent tourists and citizens. No matter how powerful he is, I, Bucciarati, will not let him go back alive!"
This impassioned manifesto was not just some empty words from a gangster boss to embellish his own righteousness, but came completely from the heart.
Because Bucciarati is a good man.
He assisted Polpo in managing the local affairs of the Passion organization in Naples, and had done many bloody and violent things in gang fights.
However, he never inflicted this darkness and violence on ordinary citizens of Naples.
On the contrary, Bucciarati has always used his authority as a small gang leader to do his best to maintain peace and order and help people in need.
The public has sharp eyes. In the eyes of ordinary citizens who have received many favors...
The Bucciarati Team is actually a public welfare team that combines multiple functions such as the street office, neighborhood committee, police station, and the Red Cross.
The reason why Bucciarati was so eager for the position of cadre was actually because he wanted to have greater power in the organization so as to better maintain the peace and happiness of Naples.
"alright…"
Bucciarati took a deep breath and turned to Abbacchio.
"Apache, your 'Melancholy Blues' should be able to track the whereabouts of that bald guy, right?"
Melancholy Blues is the name of Apache's stand-in.
Its main ability is not to fight, but to replay what happened in the past at the target location like a reverse video tape.
Although this stand is not good at fighting, it has strong intelligence gathering capabilities.
With the appearance of this stand-in who can "see the past", all detective suspense works such as "Sherlock Holmes" and "Poirot" can be completed within three minutes of the opening.
"It should be fine."
"My Melancholy Blues can [rewind] to a specific point in time based on the [memory] of the location and [transform] into a character that appeared , replaying his actions at that time."
“As long as these two elements [time] and [place] are present, nothing can escape its replay.”
Abbaki knew the main purpose of being invited here, so he explained without hesitation:
"The place is a bit damaged, which may have some impact on the rerun of The Moody Blues."
"But it's impossible for that bald guy to completely destroy all the terrain he passed through. As long as we spend some time investigating, we will definitely be able to find his traces."
"Okay then."
Bucciarati didn't waste any more words: "Let's get started!"
"kindness."
Abbazi nodded slightly, and a blue humanoid substitute slowly emerged behind him.
There is nothing unusual about the appearance of this humanoid stand-in named Melancholy Blues. The only thing that catches the eye is the time counter on its forehead that shows "**:**:**".
"Melancholy Blues!"
Based on the eyewitness intelligence provided by the gangsters outside, Apache roughly found a location that had not been damaged and began searching for traces of the past target:
"Rewind 20 minutes!"
“Beep, beep, beep…”
Melancholy Blues made a slight beep, and the timer on his forehead quickly changed from "**:**:**" to "00:20:00".
Then, its appearance changed rapidly, as if it had used a transformation technique, from a blue humanoid stand-in to a young man wearing a black student uniform with three golden hair swirls on his head.
"Not this one, change it."
At Apache's command, Melancholy Blues' appearance changed again.
This time, it turned into a bald head with an oriental face.
Melancholy Blues can only play back the appearance, words and deeds of a person at that location in the past, but cannot restore the scenes and objects around that person.
So, when Melancholy Blues turned into this bald head, it was suspended in the air not far from the ground in an extremely strange riding posture.
"Yes, it's this bald guy!"
"He must be the Li Qing we are looking for."
"but…"
Abbazi took a closer look at Melancholy Blues who had transformed into Li Qing: "From this appearance, he was riding a motorcycle, right?"
“Never mind what he rides!”
Fugo urged impatiently:
"Hurry up and play it. What on earth did that guy do twenty minutes ago?!"
"Yeah." Apache responded slowly, "Start replaying Melancholy Blues!"
As soon as he finished speaking, the timer on Melancholy Blues' forehead, which was locked at '00:20:00', suddenly jumped to '00:19:59'.
Just like a video with the play button suddenly pressed, the Li Qing it transformed into began to move and make sounds:
“Hello…”
"Girno, are you ready?"
The sound and expression that Li Qing made 20 minutes ago appeared now through the replay of Melancholy Blues.
Along with it was the violent roar of the motorcycle engine.
"I'm ready."
Although Giorno's appearance was not replayed in Melancholy Blues, his voice was also recorded in the videotape "Li Qing": "What about you, Li Qing?"
“Hahahaha…of course!”
Li Qing laughed heartily:
"It may sound a bit childish, but what we are doing now is stupid... so..."
"Giorno Giovanna, let's save the world together!"
As he spoke, the roar of the motorcycle's engine suddenly became more than ten times louder.
The Melancholy Blues in replay state is like Li Qing twenty minutes ago, riding on a motorcycle , and suddenly "floating" away into the distance.
"Save the world?"
Fugo and others who were watching the replay were somewhat surprised:
“It seems to be different from what we thought…”
"Could it be that... this bald guy wasn't causing trouble at the time, but was fighting something?"
The four of them were silent for a while, and finally Buccellati made the final decision:
"Just follow his steps first."
"Apache, your Melancholy Blues should also be able to replay the enemy he was fighting at that time, right?"
"no problem."
Abbazi replied: "Whether it is a person or a stand-in, as long as the time and place are confirmed, I can replay it."
"Then replay his enemies as well."
"I want to know what this Li Qing was doing at that time."
Bucciarati gave instructions as he led the team forward.
About half a minute later...
"Melancholy Blues, change target!"
Abbazi followed Melancholy Blues to the appropriate location and ordered a replay of Lee Sin's enemies at the time as instructed by Bucciarati.
And then…
"Huh?"
"Why is it dark?"
Narancia scratched his head and asked in confusion.
"No, it's not dark..."
Apache's face, which had been calm from beginning to end, finally collapsed at this moment:
"It's because 'that thing' is too big... the light is blocked..."
※※※
PS: Stand-in panel
Alternate name: [Melancholy Blues]
The main body——Leo Apache
Destructive power: C
Speed: C
Range: A (Replay only)
Sustainability: A
Movement precision: C
Growth: C
Ability: A humanoid stand. Can play the actions of a specific person or stand like a movie. Although it can perfectly reproduce the appearance of the other party, it cannot reproduce the stand that can move instantly. It can deceive the enemy with the appearance of the person being played, but the weakness is that it will be in an unprepared state where it cannot attack or defend.
