This is the story of Giorno Giovanna, formerly Haruno Shiobana, son of Dio Brando and Kyoki Shiobana, detested by all, and then beloved by all.

Haruno Shiobana was born to a detestable mother who didn't want her and no father in a small town in Japan. She was a healthy baby, though she was surprisingly quiet. Her mother did not care about this, in fact, she was rather happy about this. The more quiet Haruno was, the easier it was for her to go about her day. Of course, she still took care of her child, but that was only so it wouldn't die. God forbid she be the woman whose child died.

Haruno meant nothing to her mother, acting as a reminder of the man who she'd met on a trip, and a burden on her life. Haruno was a burden, of course, but her mother didn't have to say anything for it to be obvious. She went out at night with her friends, leaving her child to fend for herself.

Haruno became terrified of the dark. Haruno became terrified of being alone.

Haruno Shiobana was a fucking mistake who wasn't meant to exist, and her mother drilled that point into her further than any other human being ever could.

When she was four, Haruno's mother married a man from Italy, and they moved to Napoli.

Haruno remembers quite a bit about this man. She remembers how he'd yell at her for so much as looking at him wrong. How he'd take his belt to her and scold her for simply living.

In all honesty, her mother wasn't any better. She cut Haruno deeper than a knife ever would, hurt Haruno harder and more personally than anything ever could.

Haruno Shiobana's life was a ship sinking in a sea of flames.

The children in Napoli were cruel. They'd mock Haruno, for her race and for the fact that she was a quiet kid. A kid who kept to herself and knew to keep to herself.

A kid who was perfect to get thrown into the dirt, a kid who was perfect to kick into submission until a police officer came by and chased the others off. Even then, Haruno wouldn't say anything. Her tears were silent. If she was loud, she was berated. If she was quiet, she was hurt. If she breathed, she was hated. If she existed, she was tortured.

She was just a child, and yet the entire world piled and plotted itself against her. Haruno Shiobana wanted to die, and yet the word suicide was not one that she knew.

She was alone in a world that wanted to turn her into a twisted form of herself, just like the people around her.

A soft buzzing in her fingertips reminds her that she's alive. Reminds her that she has to stay alive. She doesn't know what it is. She doesn't know why this helps, she doesn't even know what she's going to go through the next day, or the day after, but she knows she has to survive. She is a struggler.

Haruno Shiobana would always be a struggler.

--

Haruno doesn't know how she feels anymore. Sometimes, she desperately tries to force herself to feel anything. She doesn't know what she's able to do anymore, and she has a fear blooming deep inside of her that she will never feel again.

A drop of blood rolls down her arm, and she stares at it. An instinct deep inside of her tells her to lick it off, and she doesn't realize that she's done so until she can taste iron in her mouth. It's disgusting, but somehow feels right.

She has visions at night of destroying this rotten town, visions that she puts next to the thought of the cute cat she saw that day while walking home from school. She wants to raise this town asunder, crush it beneath her bootheel and make them all fucking regret what they'd done to her.

Dio would have been proud.

The cats would be sad, though. Where would the cats go? She can't destroy this garbage piece of fucking shit town without hurting them all. What about the bugs? She frowns, remembering an incident where two boys held her down while a third one forced her to eat some beetles. It was humiliating. She felt something, then. She felt horrible.

Haruno wonders for a moment what her father would have done. Dio. That was his name, right? Her mother had mentioned him a few times. Times that she'd rather forget.

Where was her father, she wonders, staring at her ceiling in the middle of the night. She knows that her father wouldn't let her stepfather do this to her. She knows, somehow, without knowing that her father had a feeling that this would happen.

Haruno is lonely. Haruno has always been lonely.

So, when she sees a man, bleeding out, and her senses go fucking wild, she doesn't know what to do. Well. Her heart knows what to do. She stares at him, and for a moment, she truly does see herself. Her fingertips buzz under her skin.

Haruno blinks slowly. The smell of blood is all around him. She almost feels himself drool. Part of himself that she hasn't heard in a long time tells her to drink that man's blood. Tells her to drink all of the blood that she could manage and--

"Hey! Kid!"

Haruno looks up. Blinks.

"Did you see a man come by here?"

That man was lonely. Haruno was lonely.

Haruno can feel her fingertips buzz.

"He went that way." Haruno mumbles, pointing to the opposite way. The men thank her, and rush that way. One of them pauses for a moment. Glances into the alleyway next to Haruno, then runs off to join the others.

It was useless of them to search for a lonely man, Haruno thinks. It was useless of them to ask a child for anything about a dying man, she thinks.

It's useless for them to even try.

Haruno walks off, keeping to herself the rest of the way home.