Noelle Kidnapping Arc

This arc occurred when Perci Shutter kidnapped Noelle Reaper. Noelle went missing, went on do not disturb, left the group chat and blocked everyone, sending everyone into something of a panic.

Narancia, Mason, Giorno and Ilta banded together during this event to find her.

Initially, when her leaving the chat was noted by the others, Narancia mentioned having heard a scuffle from next door (Noelle's room). Upon checking, he found that nobody would answer the door, and that it was locked. Narancia and Giorno converged outside Noelle's room to discuss the situation. With the use of Gold Experience, Giorno unlocked the door and upon checking inside, Noelle was nowhere to be found. Narancia confirmed no signals of anyone breathing that were particularly worth note, and Giorno confirmed having seen nobody but Ilta. Upon trying to contact her, they both found they'd been blocked. After a brief moment of panic, both were drawn to pay attention to the sudden presence of an unknown aura approaching, followed by a strange cloud of mist, within from which emerged Ilta, in a previously never-before-seen form.

After clarifying who she was and everyone calming down, they began to discuss again, with Ilta providing her wisdom, Narancia explaining what he heard, and Giorno facilitating a thought process partially by use of his own knowledge of Noelle as well as cracking the occasional joke. They discovered the window was open, and Noelle's phone was outside in the snow, which Ilta went to retrieve. Their focus somewhat shifted to Perci, as he seemed the most likely suspect.

They concluded the best place to check would be Maidstone. Corresponding with Mason, they sent him to drive there and get to the Hotel once there, so that they could get to Maidstone. Upon arriving there, he contacted the group only to realise that they didn't have a next step. Whilst there, he met with and had a brief conversation with a stranger and moved his car afterwards. Once he arrived at the hotel, they discussed for a bit, decided to get going, and then Giorno passed out.

So they went into the next day, waiting until he awoke to continue on and go to Maidstone. They stood around for a long while in the light rain and just discussed for a while until a car pulled up. From the car stepped the same stranger Mason had encountered previously, asking if they were lost. Whilst Mason reacted passively and amicably due to his only prior experience with the person being the previous night, Giorno recognised the voice as Perci's, and lightly, quietly expressed his hostility. He explained the situation about Perci and how he'd had an altercation with Noelle, and Ilta agreed that she also recognised the voice.

Out of instinct, Giorno summoned Gold Experience, but Gold Experience was then distracted by the barking of Sputnik, and quickly went over to interact with the dog. The warehouse, into which Perci had retreated, was mostly barren aside from where he'd been living.

## Sputnik's Death

Sputnik was being riled up by being pet by something he couldn't see, and Perci, becoming agitated, began to yell at the dog. Despite looking right at it, Perci could not see Gold Experience. Whilst Ilta and Gold Experience stayed to monitor, the rest of the group headed to Mason's car to sit and stay warm for Narancia's sake. Whilst Sputnik kept barking and Gold Experience continued to fruitlessly talk to it (and express its distaste for Perci), Mason leant into his car to turn it on and turn the heater up.

As he did, a bang was heard, alarming everyone, most of all Mason, who jolted upright, hitting his head on the roof of the car. Immediately after the bang, the barking stopped, and everyone immediately identified the bang as a gunshot, Mason beginning to panic. Soon thereafter, Giorno revealed what had happened: Perci had shot and killed Sputnik. While Mason panicked and Narancia reacted with pure rage, Giorno attempted to calm Narancia down and insisted that, as much as they wanted to, they couldn't kill Perci over this, as they needed to find Noelle first.

As Mason panicked, having to sit down so as not to faint, and Giorno attempted to talk him down somewhat, Perci, acting as if nothing had happened, emerged from the warehouse to call out to the group, saying that they'd been "setting his dog off". He then paused and accused them of being familiar to him, to which Giorno replied, lying, saying that he did not recognise Perci. After a following moment of silence, Narancia bluntly asked Perci if he'd shot his dog, to which Perci didn't legitimately respond, but Mason's panic worsened, prompting his Stand to come out to protect him, peering out from behind him. Being that Mason was their driver, they couldn't leave so long as he was having a panic attack.

Meanwhile, Gold Experience was snooping about Perci's living area, and discovered a camera amongst a knife and several purses and wallets. This camera contained photos of very specific dead people, all wearing the same uniform. As Perci begrudgingly headed away from the car, Narancia, Giorno and Mason's Stand all muttered their quiet words of contempt towards him, then focused on making sure Mason was okay, Narancia offering a bottle of water. While Narancia noted concern for Mason's mental state and suggested he should probably go home, Mason insisted on wanting to find Noelle and expressed that he felt he couldn't go home yet.

## Perci's Death

While the group talked in the car, Gold Experience and Ilta played keep-away with Perci's camera, refusing to give it back, leading Perci to let slip something that they interpreted as relating to the situation with Noelle. By this point, the camera became something of a bargaining chip in finding out more information. The situation also revealed that Perci could hear Stands, at least in some capacity, as he directly conversed with Gold Experience. Mason's Stand, by this point, began to wander away from him, leaning out of the car as they discussed the next course of action.

Perci claimed to Gold Experience that he bought the camera for forty bucks, but Gold Experience remained understandably skeptical. Mason's Stand, motivated by a need to know the truth, fully detached from him, startling him yet again, resulting in Narancia and Giorno having to explain the bare basics of Stands to try and prevent another panic attack, explaining it only wanted to protect Mason.

The Stand, determined, headed straight towards Perci, entering the building behind him. Gold Experience respectfully avoided looking at it, allowing the Stand to sneak up behind Perci and stab him, envenomating him and activating its Stand Ability. Perci reacted with agitation, yelling at Gold Experience, still mostly unaware of the other Stand's presence. As Gold Experience continued to interrogate him, Perci began to lie, causing Mason's stand's ability to activate, and wheezed as he did. Despite being informed he needed to tell the truth, he refused to. Every time he lied, he reacted worse to the poison, progressing from wheezing to choking.

While the interrogation was happening, Narancia identified another source of CO2 emission in the building, right by Perci, prompting Giorno to have Gold Experience look around whilst it was interrogating. At a point in which Perci claimed it was not his fault, Mason's Stand snapped and began to yell at and vituperate Perci, causing Mason to feel a bit sick. Perci, continuing to lie, eventually coughed up blood and collapsed, dead.

## Finding Noelle

Following the sudden chemical death of Perci, Narancia and Giorno both agreed not to tell Mason about what had happened, and headed inside, leaving him to take some deep breaths and ease himself out of his nausea.

Once inside, they all turned some of their attention to address Mason's Stand, greeting it. As it greeted back and they asked what its name was, it revealed that it didn't yet have one. It asserted that it did not kill Perci, and it was Perci's own fault that he died, which Gold Experience confirmed.

They proceeded to find Noelle in one of the shipping crates, unconscious. She was mostly unharmed, mostly just scuffed. Narancia dragged Perci's body into another crate and called out to let Mason know they'd found her whilst Giorno worked on freeing her.

Mason then drove them to the Auclair Manor, so they could get back to the hotel. Everyone returned safely, and Ilta stayed with Noelle for a while to ensure she was alright, before unfortunately demanifesting.