Ermes's Sticker (Story Arc)
Ermes' Sticker (エルメェスのシール, Erumesu no Shīru) is the fifth story arc in Stone Ocean.
It narrates Ermes Costello's awakening of her Stand Kiss and her confrontation with the suicidal Thunder McQueen.
Summary
After Jolyne's confrontation with Johngalli A., she spends the next weeks in solitary confinement while Emporio goes off to investigate prisoner Ermes Costello.
Ermes wakes up in the infirmary, having her money stolen by an janitor prisoner. As she recollects herself, she realizes that she had been unconscious for days after catching a fever from the stone that had cut her palm. She also notices several kiss-mark stickers all over her, caused by her Stand Kiss, and observes that they can duplicate objects when a sticker is put on them. Knowing that the stickers come from her body, she proceeds to use this newfound ability in creating a trap.
Ermes later catches the prisoner who stole her money, unknowingly knocking out Memory Discs from him. After managing to grab one of them, she finds out that the Disc can be inserted into herself. The prisoner whom she had stolen the Disc from, Thunder McQueen, keeps a $5000 stash hidden, and that he is working for a mysterious figure. McQueen sees her in the act, but starts to cry for losing his memory of the stash's location. He starts to hang himself on the pipes, to Ermes' surprise, but then she discovers that he had linked her to his Stand Highway to Hell, reflecting the damage from his strangulation to her so that both are killed. With her abilities, she narrowly escapes his hold, though McQueen notices her holding a disc and speculates that it belongs to him.
As Ermes runs back to the women's prison, Emporio approaches Ermes by showing her his own Stand ability. He pulls her into the secret ghost room where she sees fellow prisoners Narciso Anasui and Weather Report. Emporio explains the Disc being a Stand ability just like hers, Jolyne's intentions in the prison, and that Whitesnake's user is the true enemy. New wounds warn Ermes that McQueen is trying to kill himself again and she is electrocuted due to McQueen's damage reflection.
It is at the medical room where Ermes finds McQueen ready to douse himself in saline water. She attempts to talk him out of it before he narrates the reason how he landed in prison for an apparent freak accident. While Ermes' words touch him, he still presses the button that electrocutes them both. Fortunately, Ermes had managed to plant a sticker on McQueen's face, merging them and knocking him out for good. She takes his Memory Disc to retrieve the money and fight Whitesnake alongside Jolyne.
Appearances
Chapters
- 021 (615). Ermes's Sticker, Part 1
- 022 (616). Ermes's Sticker, Part 2
- 023 (617). Ermes's Sticker, Part 3
- 024 (618). Ermes's Sticker, Part 4
- 025 (619). Ermes's Sticker, Part 5
Volumes
- 03 (66) Prisoner of Love
