Salata Mista

> And bang! I shot them dead. Right where you're standing.
>
> Salata Mista, talking about how he recently executed a man where Giorno Giovanna was.

* Introduction
* Gallery
* History
* Trivia

## Salata Mista

### Namesake

Jongin: Korean name meaning "to spread kindness". Nico: Greek for "people of victory". Byun: Korean surname meaning "hurried". Smith: English surname meaning "one who works in metal".

### Status

Dead

Salata Mista is a member of Team Bucciarati and antagonist in Fate of Zephyr. In Vento Aureo, he is Guido Mista.

A Korean teenager adopted by an American family of active duty soldiers and veterans, he ran who ran away from home and attempted to start anew in Naples as an exchange student. Salata tried to enjoy a simple life away from his past when an attempt at saving a woman being assaulted ended up landing him with a sentence of fifteen to thirty years in prison. However, he was freed by Paolo Bucciarati and ultimately become a mafioso for Passione under his team. He ultimately dies at the hands of Zura Grattachecca, with the help of Giorno Giovanna and Ghiaccio Francescon, after trying to find the floppy disk in Venice in hopes of finding Father Diavolo's whereabouts.

He became known as a gun-slinging sharp shooter after receiving his Stand Love Shot, which has the ability to transform any liquid into a loaded hand gun.

## Appearance

Salata is a teenager of above-average height and medium build with black eyes. While the original Guido wears a unique-shaped hat, Salata wears a black ski mask, obscuring much of his face except for his eyes and mouth. However, removing the mask reveals that he has dark brown curly hair with red highlights.

Salata sports a three-piece suit. Like the original Guido, the suit jacket and pants has the unique diagonal grid pattern in red and blue, but the vest inside is white and has the black tiger stripes seen on the original Guido's pants in the last scene of Vento Aureo. The pocket square on the left side of his suit jacket also has the same design as his vest. He also sports over-the-knee black boots accented with red and white. He oftentimes is seen without his jacket, only putting it on when he finds himself feeling cold, and otherwise had it tied around his waist.

Due to Salata's past and experience with guns, he developed tinnitus and uses earphones to listen to music as often as he can, finding catharsis when doing so. The wires of the earphones are tucked into his suit and connected to a music player, which he strapped behind his back and concealed with his vest. Music is often played loudly wherever he goes.

## Personality

Compared to the other members of the team, Salata is shown to be laidback and easy-going, even during battle. He prides himself for being sociable, willing to strike conversations to break the ice or tension. However, he is also arguably the rudest members of the team, willing to commits violent acts over even the pettiest reasons.

Due to his solace in music, he often tries to do things based on the beat of the music, which proved to greatly optimize his Stand's ability.

## Skills and Talents

### Stand

Love Shot is a far-range Stand that exists as a hand gun made of water-based liquid. When fired, the water within the gun turns into bullets, which turns back into water after it stops moving. This allowed the user to use the gun without leaving evidence such as bullet shells. Once the water runs out, usually based on how many rounds the gun can hold, the gun itself disappears.

### Marksmanship

Due to his past growing up with active and veteran US soldiers, especially those that had served in the Korean war, Salata grew up learning how to load, shoot, and disarm various types of guns. The strict upbringing led him to be a great marksman, able to hit his target at even far distances and able to mentally calculate his aim to consider aspects such as angle and be accurate almost 99% of the time.

## References

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* "Love Shot" music video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pSudEWBAYRE
* "Tempo" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iwd8N6K-sLk
* First 6 minutes of *Baby Driver*, showing how Baby is deeply influenced by music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6XMuUVw7TOM

Kai's outfit used as inspiration for Salata's appearance.Getaway driver Baby, from the movie "Baby Driver", who's tinnitus inspires Salata's need to listen to music in order to use his Stand.
## Site Navigation

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 Salata Mista/Gallery

Salata Mista was born 변종인 (Jong-in Byun) and identifies as Korean. He was later given the name Nico Smith when he was adopted, but occasionally answers to Jong-in.

## Leaving Home and Arrest

It was unknown who his birth parents were, beyond his last name belonging to his father and his mother ultimately abandoning him to an orphanage before she died from illness, but he learned through surviving memorabilia that his father died participating as a protester during the Gwangju Uprising, which took place in Salata's hometown. Salata was eventually adopted by an American soldier that was previously deployed to serve during the Korean war. He was given the name Nico Smith; the adoption agency changed his name to sound more "Americanized" and to reference his adoptive family's Italian background. Salata grew up not knowing his hearing anyone call him by his real name until a few years after.

Salata described his life as "tense and melancholy, to say the least" and grew up in his family as the only Korean adoptee among other adopted children from other places around the world. Being in a family of American veterans who were also extreme patriots and developed a sort of commune for themselves to live in, he was raised with his other adoptive siblings to learn how to fight in combat; all of them were expected to serve their country in some way, especially though the military, once they grew up. Salata developed a natural talent for sharpshooting, something he was forced to practice daily once it was known he had the skills for it, and ended up gaining Tinnitus despite wearing proper ear protection whenever he trained. Eventually, Salata grew dissatisfied of his family's expectations to be a soldier and moved to Italy to pursue a more simpler life via being an international student. In Italy, he began living on his own, picking up the guitar and making much of his income busking in the streets of Naples.

Salata did what he can to keep his life as simple as possible for financial and personal reasons. He eventually dropped out but managed to get a Visa to remain in Italy, hoping to earn an actual citizenship once he lives in the country long enough. One night after a rainy afternoon, while he was walking home, he encountered a woman being assaulted in the car by a few men. To save her, Salata pulled the men off and attempted to beat them before they drew out their guns. Salata wasn't aware that he had his Stand activated and found himself wielding a gun to defend himself. He was able to shoot down the men, severely injuring some while killing others, and was arrested despite pleading self-defense. He was sentenced to 25 years in prison and possible deportation before he was suddenly acquitted and taken out of prison by Paolo Bucciarati.

## Joining Paolo's Team

Paolo had overheard of Salata's case and decided to investigate it further. Upon needing another member to join the team and hearing that Salata is a good shooter, he investigated Salata's case and bribed the legal system to drop all the charges in exchange of putting him under mafia authority. Salata was glad to at least get out of prison and willingly joined Team Bucciarati without acknowledging the deal that was made to do so. He became the newest member before Sorbetto and Stracciatello's demise.

During the friendship between Team Bucciarati and The Hitman Team, Salata developed a deep friendship with Zura Grattachecca. The two were often together outside of work attending car meetups and participating in illegal races against each other. Many rumored the two of them to be in a relationship that was beyond platonic, but both Salata and Zura denied such claims. When Stracciatello was killed and it was announced that Team Bucciarati were responsible for his actions, it was Salata's friendship with Zura that broke down the most. The two vowed to never talk to each other again, with Salata telling her that he would only want Zura to end his life if it came to it.

## Post-Fate of Zephyr

It was unknown what happened to Salata's body after the encounter in Venezia. Zura kept to herself regarding her relationship and thoughts on Salata between the end of their friendship and Salata's death.

## Comparison to the Original Mista

* Salata was named after EXO member Kim Jong-in (Kai) and Byun Baek-hyun.
	+ Salata is mostly based off Kai in terms of appearance, especially during his scenes in the "Love Shot" music video.
* Originally, Salata was suppose to represent the next-door student neighbor that the original Guido dislikes due to the neighbor constantly playing guitar while Guido slept.