Giovanni

**Giovanni** (ジョヴァンニ, *Jovanni*), better known as **Dr. Giovanni** (Dr.ジョヴァンニ, *Dr. Jovanni*), is a former Second Generation pyrokinetic. Giovanni previously Special Fire Force Company 3 as their captain until revealing himself to be a member of the White-Clad.

## Appearance

Giovanni bore a resembling appearance to a plague doctor, as he wore a stitched white mask with a large beak over his entire face, with lenses for vision. Atop his head was a black top-hat, and he wore a white scarf around his neck, concealing any skin on his upper body. He wore a dark v-neck jacket, dark trousers, dark shoes, and carried a white cane with him. Later he was seen wearing a skinnier variant of the Special Fire Force jacket, with a dark scarf around his neck and a lightly colored belt. When Giovanni's true intentions were revealed, he changed his clothing into a large white cloak over his Fire Force uniform that covers his entire body from the neck down; maintaining the plague mask and top hat. He was shown to have long, skinny arms and fingers, and hid an unknown (though huge) amount of mechanics underneath this white cape.

Upon his return, Giovanni wore his White-Clad attire; a white trench coat with a black undershirt and long white boots that reach up to his knees at the front. This new outfit also featured cross pattern running across both shoulders, arms and his lower back. Besides his hat and mask, the only feature remaining from his Fire Force uniform is the strip of fabric running down the front of his body that appears to be buttoned down.

Giovanni's true form is that of a mutated bug, mostly hidden behind wearing his plague doctor's mask. In the place of a traditional body, he would use a swarm of insects of incalculable size and variety. Among them were seven robotic winged bugs that issued directions to the collective, and parasitic bugs with the ability to turn humans into Infernals. He choose to hide this underneath a black cloak and a white scarf.

While controlling Yū's body, Giovanni appeared as a boy with long black hair, dark eyes and wearing black trousers, black shoes and a sleeveless shirt with three white horizontal stripes on the torso. Unlike Yū, Giovanni did not tie his hair back and left it wild and unkempt. He also appeared to have numerous thin and pointed teeth, leaving a seemingly permanent stitch mark pattern running horizontally across Yū's face and nose.

## Personality

As a doctor, Giovanni was exceptionally intelligent and tries to view things from a scientific perspective. He was interested in expanding his knowledge and likes to experiment on things, including his own body. He could be quite forceful when trying to it comes to getting what he wants and isn't afraid to speak his mind, as shown when he openly comments on Benimaru's nationalism and attempted to find an opportunity to research Shinra's abilities. Giovanni is typically calm and methodical, waiting for the perfect time to strike over a period of months, adjusting his plans when faced with unexpected resistance, strolling through the battlefield without worry and carefully considering his strategies even in the middle of being beaten.

Giovanni was very suspicious, secretive and deceptive going as far to hide his face so thoroughly that even the other captains do not know what he looks like. While initially seeming to be focused on the security of the Empire and success, the doctor was actually a more callous and ruthless individual. Belittling the intelligence and naivete of his opposition and attempting to murder others if they will not work for him. Once his true colors are revealed, Giovanni shows fanatical loyalty to the Evangelist that pushes him into impassioned speeches about his master's knowledge and disregarding individual human life in the pursuit of global schemes. He also becomes ecstatic when he gains progress in understanding Adolla and commits countless experiments to obtain understanding of the strange realm. Simply being able to look upon Adolla was a major goal for him. In addition to manic and emotional outbursts, he demonstrates a cruel and twisted sense of humor, alongside manipulative and abusive behavior towards his subordinates. Even willing to sacrifice their lives to destroy his enemies. He also seems to believe that non-powered individuals are fated for death in the wake of Spontaneous Human Combustion.

## Background

Giovanni's ancestors helped to construct the Amaterasu Generator alongside the Joseph clan and the founders of what would become Haijima Industries. While a source of power and stability for the people of Tokyo Empire, Giovanni's bloodline knew it was intended to be a means of ensure another Cataclysm would be successful. While vital to the project, the Joseph clan would realise there was a human being at the core of the system and would abandon their position. The Giovanni family would monitor For many years, Giovanni transferred from one young body to another using his parasite abilities in hopes of seeing the day that Adolla engulfed the world.

In his "youth", Giovanni was the apprentice to Vulcan's grandfather alongside Vulcan's father. On the day Giovanni left the workshop, both his master and fellow student went Infernal at the same time. Shortly after this, Giovanni started working for Haijima industries in spite of the Joseph family's disdain for the organization. Because of this, Vulcan is one of the few people who has seen Giovanni's face and Giovanni has a detailed understanding of the young inventor's history. In recent times, Giovanni has used his influence within Haijima to have merchants and stores blacklist Vulcan to deprive him of materials.

## Abilities

### Physical Abilities

Despite his thin build, Giovanni proved himself to be very durable as he was able to quickly recover from heavy blows dealt to him by both Shinra and Captain Obi and continue acting as if he hadn't been damaged at all, merely noting areas he needed to improve.

### Pyrokinesis

Giovanni was a Second Generation pyrokinetic. He used his ability to manipulate external flames and control the various gadgets and mechanisms that he keeps hidden under his coat. He is able to launch his mechanical hands as projectiles and control their movement in mid-air. These hands were connected to wires that can be heated until they slice through trees and human beings.

### Intelligence

With his keen intellect, Giovanni was able to carry out ambushes with ruthless efficiency and outmanoeuvre his opponents. His intelligence also allows him to create a variety of tools, including mechanical arms and blades that are strong enough to directly grapple with Obi in a test of strength, tasers capable of subduing powerful opponents and a hidden gun within his cane. However, unlike Vulcan's creations, Giovanni's inventions are fragile and easily destroyed.

### Insect Physiology

During the Joint Investigation arc, Giovanni revealed to Shinra and Arthur that he modified his own body even further by transforming into countless fire bugs and gaining insect-like traits to increase his abilities even further. With his body composed of bugs, he can sense and react to even bullet fire at superhuman speeds thanks to his eyes now being compounded in way similar to conventional flies and even sense emotions and intent by interpreting pheromones likes that of moths. He is also able to project sharp insectoid limbs and disperse his body into multiple insects to avoid damage. Even when decapitated, he still survives as just a head. His head was able to move according to his thoughts while releasing a swarm of bugs to cover his escape.

Due to his new body being composed of Infernal Bugs, he also can access an artificial Adolla Link and send communications to others through Adolla itself. As time passes his condition becomes more extreme, becoming a swarm of insects that had abandoned all semblance of humanity.

### Consciousness Transference

Giovanni was able to transfer his consciousness into the body of someone else by sending a Bug to bite them and infiltrate their brain. Using this he was able to escape death and prolong his life by jumping from one host to another. According to Giovanni, once the bug is in the victim's brain, his mind is one with his new body and nothing can be done to change that unless he choose to leave his new host. However, the victim can be returned to normal if only the bug is destroyed without harming the victims brain, such as with the effect of a gamma knife.

## Plot

### Preacher Pursuit arc

Giovanni introduced himself at the conference of the Captains in Central Tokyo. Learning that Shinra has the Adolla Burst, Giovanni suggested that he be put under extra protection from the Evangelist, seeing as Shinra is his target. This is ultimately turned down by the boy and Hibana, as there are concerns about Giovanni's temptation to experiment on him. After the conference, Giovanni confronted Hibana alone. He comments on her affiliation with Haijima like he is, though it seemed like she was protecting Company 8 from being properly researched. She calls his statement nonsense and left by saying she'll send data on the giant Infernals, much to his quiet irritation.

### Vulcan's Workshop arc

Giovanni appears to Vulcan at his workshop, persuading him to work with Haijima Industries, but Vulcan denies his request, stating that Giovanni is the man who killed his family years ago. Giovanni leaves him, and meets with members of Company 3, telling them to attack and kill Vulcan, while at the same time revealing themselves to be members of the White-Clad. Soon after, Giovanni begins his personal attack on Shinra Kusakabe. Using his Second Generation ability, he effortlessly terrorizes Shinra from a distance, while he attempts to out-chase Giovanni's wired hand. Giovanni finally confronts Shinra close-up, electrocuting him to the point of unconsciousness, and calling on members of the Ashen Flame to take the boy with the Adolla Burst to the Evangelist while he tries to take the Key to Amaterasu from Vulcan.

Due to the efforts of Mirage and Flail, Giovanni is able to force his way into the Workshop while Arthur is unable to stop him. With his agent, Feeler, revealing herself and subduing Vulcan; Giovanni demands to know where Vulcan has hidden the key. When the boy refuses to talk, Giovanni grabs Yū by the neck and shoots him in the chest and tells Vulcan to give in to his demands, or his apprentice will bleed to death. When Vulcan still refuses to talk, Giovanni loses his temper and ties to beat the information out of him before smashing the image projector that Vulcan loved. Inside, he finds the Key he is looking for, but Giovanni is suddenly attacked by Shinra, having been freed by Hibana. While Giovanni and Feeler initially subdue Shinra, the intervention of Iris and Vulcan distract them and free Shinra who then beats Giovanni through the wall of the building. Following the arrival of the Ashen Knight's commander and the total defeat of the Fire Force at his hands, Company 8, Yū ,and Vulcan escape with the aid of Joker and Viktor Licht. Giovanni and his cohorts leave with their commander to deliver the Key to the Evangelist. Giovanni's treachery is reported by Shinra and many members of Company 3 leave the organization. Imply they were all agents of the Evangelist. Although Haijima arranges a press conference claiming that the Giovanni who attack Vulcan's family was an impostor using a stand -n. Meaning this actions are not public knowledge.

### Netherworld arc

Giovanni and Feeler confront Vulcan and Akitaru in the Nether after Company 8 has been divided. When Lisa starts to express doubts, Giovanni shifting asserts his dominance by reminding her that she everything, including her life with Vulcan, to him. Terrified and refocused, Feeler unleashes her flames to battle their foes and protect her master. After Akitaru insults Giovanni’s teaching and treatment, the scientist gloats that The Evangelist has told him the secret's of their world and he won’t give them away.

Feeler is able to quickly restrain Vulcan and Akitaru with her tentacles and their lack of powers forces them to use technology to free themselves. Giovanni begins hypothesizing about the relationship between the Fire Bugs and the relationship between moths and flame before erupting into calls for their deaths. Both Lisa and Giovanni fail to notice that Obi has planted extinguishing grenade to destroy Lisa’s flames, while Giovanni does nothing to save her, Vulcan catches her. Before she can fully accept them saving her, Giovanni once again asserts control over her. Deciding that she can’t betray him, Lisa plans on returning to Giovanni only for him to take her hostage and offer an ultimatum: Vulcan will shoot and kill Captain Obi in exchange for Lisa’s life. Sliding a gun across the floor, Giovanni threatens to shoot and decapitate Lisa if Vulcan does not comply with this demand. After much hesitation, Vulcan shoots Akitaru and Giovanni releases Lisa while cackling over his victory.

Until Akitaru quickly rises and rips the train tracks form under Giovanni’s feat, having worn an impact resistant vest beforehand that took the bullet for him. A confused and angered Giovanni ties to counter with a swarm of weaponry, only for Vulcan to smash it apart with his Penguinmet. Before he can turn the tide, Giovanni is attacked by Akitaru and the two argue over the value of human life in the face of the Evangelist’s grand design. While the Doctor rants about the secrets of the Adolla Realm, other members of Company 8 arrive.  Giovanni disappears into the shadows, abandoning Lisa. Telling them that other members of the Fire Force know of the Adolla.

### Operation Nether Investigation arc

Giovanni uses one of his laboratories in the Nether to draw the Fire Force into a trap. Upon the Special Fire Force Company 2 and Company 8 entering the Netherworld and a fight with the White-Clad starting, Giovanni confronts Shinra with an ambush. While Shinra begins to fight back, Giovanni reveals his heightened strength and that he has become closer to Adolla by transforming his body to be more like a bugs. Killing the Company 2 officers working with Shinra by unfurling insect legs to pierce through their skulls and dodging gunfire, Giovanni begins to reveal the new depths of his power and his theory that all insects are the product of Adolla. Therefore bringing himself closer to that mythical place is possible by turning himself into this creature. Arthur arrives during the battle to assist Shinra. While able to avoid Arthur's attack by interpreting pheromones, Giovanni is unable to avoid Shinra's rapid assault. During their conflict, Giovanni reaffirms Company 8's theory that the Evangelist created the Tokyo Empire and their society exists to serve her and humanity's ultimate desire: the death of everything. When Shinra rejects that people want the end of the world and White Clad victory, Giovanni tells him that Sho has already accepted what his brother will not.

Angered by this, Shinra uses his rapid acceleration to mercilessly beat down Giovanni and becomes so fast that he disappears from sight while the Doctor is unable to react. When Shinra mentions that he has already felt that depths of Giovanni's evil, the cultist realises this means his experiments had borne fruit. That he had managed to connect his mind to Adolla through an artificial Adolla link. In his joy, Giovanni lets slip that only those with the Adolla Burst or previous experiences with Adolla itself can communicate through it. Regaining his composure, Giovanni tells the Fire Soliders their mission is pointless. As The Evangelist is a being of Adolla and currently residing there, nobody on their plane of existence can do anything to stop her. Even Shinra's Adolla Link is meaningless as it simply allows him to see that place; but he and the rest lack the ability to travel to that higher plane. This speech is interrupted by the sound of explosions shaking the Nether. Stunned that Ritsu's plan has failed, Giovanni is cut in half by Arthur's sneak attack while Shinra planned for a show of teamwork. Laughing, Giovanni's top half begins to move. Unleashing a swam of bugs to cover his escape, Giovanni tells the two boys that they will meet again so.

### Battle of Amaterasu arc

With Ascension of the final stone pillar and destruction of Raffles' doppelgänger by Shinra, the Eight Pillars disappear from the world and are sent to Adolla. All but the final stage of their plan completed, Giovanni emerges from the shadows with the key to Amaterasu. With everything in place, he, Ritsu Dragon and Charon make their way to Amaterasu to unlock its core and begin the Cataclysm.

Giovanni appears right behind Vulcan when he opens the door, mocking him with false politeness and avoiding his questions by simply stating nobody really needs to know how an insect gets into a building. Lisa lashes out at Giovanni despite her fears but his increasingly degenerating state has resulted in a body purely of bugs making him impossible to pin down. As his grows and swells, Giovanni tells the Joseph family that Pi is a spell the Evangelist started and humanity has been chanting for generations trying to reach an ending. Vulcan rejects this as insanity, seeing that Pi is an inherently endless number. Giovanni claims that the prior Cataclysm changed the the rules of Physics and reality. Humans believe there is an ending so there must be, and it connects to the Terminus Theory: the concept that the ultimate end of evolution that all beings feed into is death. When Vulcan states this is just more evidence of the White Clad being nothing more than a death cult, Giovanni snaps at him for not realising that The Evangelist is the source of all religion and that she was the person who implanted that ideas of cataclysms and apocalypse and 'The End' into the hearts of every human mind through her social engineering. Even the Church's chant of 'Retuning to the Flame' is a request to burn for al time built into the people of Tokyo over the centuries. A desire that is possible because the Sun is not a ball of gas but a pervious Earth created and burned during a prior Cataclysm.

As he attacks, Giovanni is countered by Lisa. She fights against him and her fears of terrifying form until Vulcan comes up with a plan. Using Lisa's magnetic flames to medal with the insect's ability to sense and be manipulated by fluctuations in magnetic fields, Vulcan's gadgets briefly cause Giovanni to lose control and reduce him to a Single bloated insect scurrying across the floor. Giovanni laughs and reforms himself while giving Vulcan a new source of misery: revealing he has stung Yū with some type of bug that has a severe effect on his health. Unable to get inside due to Charon's blockade, Licht directs Vulcan over the radio in an attempt to cure Yū and defeat Giovanni. Licht's research indicates that Giovanni must be uses modified Honeybees ensure control and Communication within his mass of bugs through dance and movement. Using his skull helmet and his understanding of Giovanni's cautious nature and engineering attitude; Vulcan manages to spot the seven miniature drones among the swarm that must be controlling it. With the targets marked in his helmet's view screen Vulcan hands it over to Lisa so she can destroy them all simultaneously. Going one step further, she eviscerates Giovanni's core leaving his primary body burned and unable to move. Begging for mercy, Giovanni is crushed by a furious Vulcan stomping on his remains.

This defeat is short lived as Lisa and Vulcan realises that Yū has snuck into the Amaterasu's core. Laughing out the boy taunts Vulcan for being so close but failing at the final hurdle. Instead of transforming into infernal or being poisoned, it is revealed Giovanni stung Yū with a parasitic insect that contains part of Giovanni's mind. After working its way into the boy's brain it allows Giovanni control over him. Revealing the sacrifice arrow that has been modified to hold the drive containing the solution for Pi he stolen from Vulcan's workshop, this new Giovanni gleefully inserts it into the core. Electricity sparks across the chamber and he singular giant eye standing on Eight Pillars manifests above Tokyo, staring down on the end of the world.

### Cataclysm arc

Fleeing the scene in Yū's body, Giovanni is overjoyed to see the end of his mission. Standing on a rooftop overlooking the storms and destruction of the cataclysm he rants about how long he has waited for this time: the day Adolla would descend upon the Earth and the Evangelist would appear before him. This joy is short-lived as a bizarre, pixilated flash of lighting strikes behind Giovanni. Turning to see Arthur Boyle and Vulcan Joseph once again, Giovanni is completely confused how and when they managed to just suddenly appear. When Vulcan demands Yū's safe return, Giovanni explains that his parasite has taken root in the child's brain. Gleeful in Vulcan's powerlessness Giovanni begins to taunt him before Arthur, enhanced through his knightly training and nature of the Cataclysm, uses Excalibur like a Gamma Knife to destroy the parasite while leaving Yū unharmed. Giovanni finally dies before his ultimate dream is achieved. His achievements being dismissed as the petty ravings of a short sighted fool by the Knight King, who treats him as nothing more than a cowardly bug unworthy of his attention.

## Trivia

* His appearance and occupation heavily imply that Giovanni was based on a plague doctor — a medical physician, who used to treat people that were infected by the plague and used various perfumes held in bird-like masks to drown out the scent of the deceased.
* Giovanni is the only known Second Gen pyrokinetic to have served as a Fire Force captain. All other members are either being Third Gen or non-powered, with the exception of the Composite Fire Soldier Benimaru.
* While Giovanni's age is unknown, he was the same height as Vulcan's father years ago and Akitaru refers to him as an 'old geezer'.
	+ He later reveals that he has needed to steal an unknown number of bodies to extend his life. Given his wording when explaining his family's history it is possible Giovanni was over 250 years old.

## References

1. ↑ Fire Force Manga: Chapter 69
2. ↑ Fire Force Manga: Chapter 159
3. ↑ Fire Force Manga: Chapter 76
4. ↑ Fire Force Manga: Chapter 33
5. ↑ Fire Force Manga: Chapter 70
6. ↑ Fire Force Manga: Chapter 74
7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 Fire Force Manga: Chapter 262
8. ↑ Fire Force Manga: Chapter 54
9. ↑ Fire Force Manga: Chapter 57