Jorge Joestar (Light Novel)

Chapter 8: Nero Nero Island

The murders of Kira Yoshikage and Tsukumojuku, the three displays made from the bodies of murdered detectives (including Tsukumojuku's), Morioh setting sail, the group suicide of village residents, the mysterious figure hiding inside Cube House...and now on top of all that another mysterious moving island sailing across the sea, just like Morioh...there were just too many things I had to think about, I thought. It had been one thing after another, and I'd had no time to really work any of them over in my mind. Oh well. I had to assume this was the speed events always unfolded at in Morioh; I had to keep up.

"Fuck! I've got no damn idea what's going on. Let's go take a look," Nijimura Fukashigi said, and started to get on a dolphin.

"Hang on, Fukashigi," I said.

"There might be people like you on that island, too. Better not to show our hands." Morioh seemed to have quite a lot of Stand Masters. If that unusual quality had something to do with it floating away, then that could be true over there, too. If there were two island moving across the water, there might be similarly unique. How many other Stand Masters were there in Morioh, anyway? How many Stand Masters had been among the hundreds who died in Jozenji? Fukashigi grit his teeth, and got off the dolphin. The other island was getting steadily closer.

"Maybe these'll help us recon," Muryotaisu said, emerging from Arrow Cross with a telescope and a pair of binoculars, presumably Rohan's.

"Oh!" I said, impressed. I was kicking myself inside, though.

"Muryotaisu, better not go inside Arrow Cross for a bit. Earlier, I found Cube House hidden inside it, and there was someone inside Cube House. Someone suspicious."

"What...?" Muryotaisu looked at the new island, and back at Cube House, as if not sure which he should tackle first.

"I've locked Cube House up, and made sure we'll know if anyone goes in or out," I said.

"I dunno, man...how do you get in?"

"Oh, directly above and below the desk in the study."

"Got it," he said, and went back inside. He came out a few minutes later, and explained, "I set up a hidden video camera." I was sure the camera was Rohan's, too, and the idea of him just doing whatever he wanted with Rohan's things made me want to laugh, but there was too much going on for that.

"Woah, that ain't Japan! It's some foreign island!" Fukashigi yelled. I took the binoculars off him and took a look. He was right; the view was nothing you'd seen in Japan. There were only a few buildings in sight, but they were mostly made of brick, and there were several windmills. Not sights you saw a lot in Japanese country towns. The crops waving in the wind looked like wheat. I looked down at the water's edge. There were several ships with Italian names. I found a sign by the road leading from the docks to the town. It said, "Welcome to Nero Nero Island!" in Italian.

"Nero Nero Island, it says." Muryotaisu went back inside Arrow Cross, and came back out with an encyclopedia. Nero Nero Island was about a tenth the size of Morioh, population roughly three thousand. I knew a bit more that wasn't written in the encyclopedia "Nero is Italian for 'black'. Nero Nero island has a long history as a Mafia base." I had to do a lot of research about organized crime around the world for a previous case.

"These days Nero Nero Island is the headquarters of the Passione Family. They've got about three hundred members. Territory reaching to Rome and Napoli – Naples, in English. They're competing with the Sicilian Mafia and the Camorra, so how a group this small survives...well, I didn't know how before, but since Nero Nero is on the move, I'd bet there's a good chance they've got a lot of Stand Masters in