Risotto Nero Observes
Risotto Nero Observes (リゾット・ネエロは観察する, Rizotto Nēro wa Kansatsu Suru) is a short story written by Ayato Toya starring Risotto Nero. It was announced in the May 2025 issue of Ultra Jump on April 18, 2025. It was published in the Summer 2025 issue of JOJO magazine on May 23, 2025.[1] The story is also included in a compilation of Part 5 short stories about various members of Passione, I Testamenti Cremisi, releasing on July 17, 2025.
Amid growing discontent toward the Boss, an assassination order arrives. Risotto infiltrates a party to carry out the assassination—but just as he prepares to strike, the target vanishes before his eyes.
Summary
Chapter 0
The coastal city of Naples, Italy, is in high spirits as Christmas approaches. In one street, a little pickpocket girl tries to steal a drunkard's wallet but she is caught and the drunkard kicks her. Another man, Risotto Nero is able to catch the girl's hand and spin her to keep her from falling. Risotto's current target is the drunkard and he is able to kill him by turning his internal iron into razors, and stealthily leaves the crime scene.
Risotto turns invisible for a while and reappears in a plaza. Taking out his mobile phone, he sends a report to tell his Boss that he's accomplished his mission. An immediate reply tells him to await new orders this night, after midnight.
Chapter 1
The next morning, at 6:00, the Hitman Team discuss on their personal group chat about the Boss's two orders. Firstly, the hitmen have to assassinate Rossi Gallignani, a member of Naples' city council, by tomorrow. Secondly, Formaggio and Illuso are to be transferred to a soon to be established waste disposal team. In the mid-80s, the government started to crack down on the illegal dumping of industrial wastes. Rather than comply, companies started outsoucing the disposal of their waste to gangsters, which has proven to be a very profitable business, second only to drug trafficking. And it apparent that Passione will enter this business.
Ghiaccio sees the logic in eliminating Rossi as he is secretly corrupt and collaborating with rival gangsters, but is enraged at why the deadline is so short, on top of their meager bonus for this kill. During the conversation, Risotto is reminded of Sorbet and Gelato's gruesome execution. Pesci, being superstitious, suspects that the Boss has sent a hidden message in "smorfia napoletana", an ancient cypher assigning meaning to numbers. He argues that the message being sent at 12:39 AM is important, as the number 39 means "having a rope around one's neck". Thus, the Boss could be warning them against stepping out of line.
As the conversation ebbs and flows, Risotto ponders on how poorly Passione has been treating the hitman team, and how he failed as their leader by allowing Sorbet and Gelato to carelessly inquire about the Boss's identity, which has led to their deaths. Finally, Risotto volunteers to carry out the assassination.
Chapter 2
Risotto Nero thus proceeds to infiltrate a party Rossi is throwing at his opulent manor to "celebrate Christmas early" before travelling to Brazil on a "long-term inspection". The truth is that Rossi has gotten into trouble with a gangster and is fleeing the country. In the manor, Risotto has a strange feeling about the building. Other partygoers offhandedly complain about the excessive heat in the house. Risotto's attention is drawn to a door, which Rossi presents as the Unopenable Door, which supposedly used to lead to a pantry. However, Rossi claims he's lost the key. For his part, Risotto feels uneasy and can sense his Stand Metallica reacting inside of his body. Nonetheless, the assassin regathers his focus.
The party then gathers in front of a stage set up in front of the Christmas tree. On the stage, Rossi presents Genarro, a boy he recently adopted from an orphanage. Rossi then starts a tombola, and acts the host to draw pieces with numbers drawn on them. Moving around, Rossi ends up standing next to the Unopenable Door and Risotto decides it is the moment to kill his target. However, the lights suddenly go out. Risotto freezes and by the time the lights switch back on, Rossi has disappeared. Dumbfounded, Risotto is determined to find Rossi and uncover how he's managed to disappear.
The police quickly investigate the party. Risotto has immediately suspected the Unopenable Door of being part of the trick and has started to examine the door. He finds a viscous liquid beneath the door, but the police interrupts him and begins their own investigation. A witness explains that it is, as Rossi explained, a simple wooden door leading to a pantry whose key Rossi's lost. However, as a police officer taps the door, Risotto notices that he sound is wrong. The police officers try to pry open the open as well but fail. Finally, it seems that a witness has seen Rossi fleeing outside of his manor and the police leave the place. Free to act, Risotto takes a fork and tries to pick the Unopenable Door's lock, but he realizes that the lock is fake, and that Rossi has thus lied about the nature of the door. How this door is meant to be opened remains a mystery.
Suddenly, Risotto receives another order from the Boss telling Formaggio and Illuso how to use their Stand abilities to shrink and dispose of waste in the mirror world, and is revolted that their pay will also be humiliatingly low. His anger is such that he's crushed his mobile phone. Bleeding, Risotto sees Metallica writhing in panic in his blood. Touching the door, Risotto gets shocked, and remembers that his discomfort had faded during the power outage. He thus realizes the truth about the door.
Chapter 3
At 9:00 PM, the police has sealed off the manor, forcing everybody out. However, Risotto has camouflaged himself by covering himself with iron powder and has snuck into the manor again. At the back of the party room, Risotto sees Gennaro standing in front of the Unopenable Door.
In truth, the door is locked by an electromagnet, a device that creates a strong magnetic field when electric current passes through it. This is what Metallica has been reacting to, and this is how the Unopenable Door could be locked shut without an actual lock, as long as electricity passed through it. Rossi, who has the bad habit of being a showoff, was hiding all the proofs of his crime behind an obvious yet mysterious door.
Without turning off his invisibility, Risotto demands that Gennaro hands him Rossi, who is banging on the other side of the door. Gennaro tries to play innocent, but Risotto lays out his theory. Gennaro was the one who turning up the indoor heating to full power, says Risotto, and this caused a power outage. During the outage, Gennaro then switfly took Rossi and dragged him through the now open Unopenable Door, its magnetic lock deactivated during the power outage, and using a fluorescent marker to find his way to the door in the dark. Risotto then further theorizes that Gennaro wants to kill Rossi. However, Risotto asks why he wanted to kill him on this day.
Shocked, Gennaro decides to tell the truth. He opens the door so that Rossi can bear witness to his declaration. At this moment, Gennaro reveals that he's held a grudge against Rossi because Rossi killed his mother. Seven years ago, on this very day, a drunk Rossi attacked Gennaro's mother, tortured her, killed her, and moreover forced Gennaro to watch everything.
Unyielding but also emphatizing with the boy, Risotto orders the boy to get out so that he can execute Rossi, but Gennaro is adamant in his will to kill Rossi himself. Risotto deactivates his Stand so as to not harm Gennaro, but at this moment, several policemen barge into the party room. Seeing Risotto, they fire at the assassin without thinking twice. Risotto is able to activate his Stands and robs the policemen of their iron, knocking them out. At the same moment, Rossi attacks Gennaro, takes a knife from his hands and stabs the boy in the stomach. In his wrath, Risotto turns one of the metal tombola pieces into a scalpel and launches it at Rossi. He turns the iron in Rossi's body into a myriad of nails and makes them pierce Rossi's limbs, eyes and mouth, ensuring that the man will suffer a long time before he dies. Risotto picks up the dying boy, who is losing consciousness, and creates staples to close his wounds.
Chapter 4
The assassination of Rossi is deemed a success. According to official reports, a gangster who had a dispute with Rossi kidnapped him during a power outage and tortured him with countless nails before finally killing him. The same reports claim young Gennaro was stabbed in the stomach by the same gangster but that a skilled police officer saved the boy by stapling his stab wound to preserve his life until rescue arrived.
Meanwhile, Rossi's evil deeds were exposed. The government has learned about the scale of the corruption surrounding the disposal of industrial waste and will crack down even more on it. Thus, the order of transferring Formaggio and Illuso to a waste disposal team has been postponed.
As the assassins gather for the first time in a while, Risotto declares he will not let things go on as they are, signalling to his team that they will not cower in front of the Boss anymore. Although they don't know the Boss's identity or his weakness, with only rumors of a possible family, Risotto swears to wait for the moment an opening presents itself and he can overcome his fear of the Boss.
Appearances
Gallery
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Ultra Jump May 2025 Preview -
JOJO magazine 2025 SUMMER Preview
References
- ↑ Vish (April 17, 2025), "JOJO magazine 2025 SUMMER Includes Risotto Story and Koichi Gag Spin-Off", JoJo's Bizarre Encyclopedia.
