Sky High

Sky High belongs to Rikiel, one of the antagonists of Stone Ocean, and it works as a tool rather than a fighter. On its own it appears as a tiny beetle-shaped organism riding on the back of its user's right wrist, fitted with four froglike limbs. The manga keeps it off the page entirely, showing the creature only on its dedicated stat spread, whereas the anime finally renders it in full. Its coloring is a plain green in print but jade and cyan on screen.

The Stand's single function is to marshal a group of obscure lifeforms called Rods, also nicknamed skyfish. These transparent, rod-shaped cryptids drift constantly through the air, dart about too quickly for the eye to register, and have only ever been caught on film. Because they feed on the warmth of living bodies, they thrive on stealing heat, slipping through the narrowest gaps and dodging even a Stand's fists. They gather in swarms, and any Rod that dies rots away instantly, leaving no trace behind.

Rikiel channels their appetite for heat to chill a chosen patch of a target's body from far off. Concentrating that loss of warmth in one spot leaves organs and tissue open to disease and collapse. Proximity sharpens his aim, yet his reach still stretches far enough to strike the eyelids of people inside a flying helicopter. The trick demands focus, since a panicking Rikiel freezes the swarm in place and the effect can rebound on him. With steady nerves he can seal an enemy's eyes shut, rot or freeze muscles to puppeteer a hand or silence speech, buckle ankles, dull perception by cooling the brain, or kill outright by aiming at the brain stem. He can even numb his own nerves to keep fighting past pain.

Rikiel is the only wielder, and the Stand's strength rises and falls with his self-assurance. At his most timid it accomplishes little and can even wound him, but a confident Rikiel handles it with enough skill to push seasoned fighters like Jolyne Cujoh and Ermes Costello to the brink of death. Before he learned to command the Rods, their heat-draining had been the source of his own recurring illnesses.