JoJolion

JoJolion (ジョジョリオン, JoJorion) is the eighth part of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, published in Ultra Jump from May 2011.

The story is set in 2011 in Morioh, Japan, and follows protagonist Josuke Higashikata, a young man afflicted by profound retrograde amnesia, on his search to uncover his identity.

JoJolion represents the second part of the series set in the new "SBR universe".

The Man in the Sailor Cap
Yasuho Hirose, hiding from Joshu Higashikata near Morioh's Wall Eyes, discovers a naked man in a sailor cap half buried underground. She notices a star-shaped birthmark on his shoulder, surrounded by the fresh mark of a human's bite, which she takes a picture of with her phone. He awakens, claiming to have no memory as to his name or origin. Joshu finds Yasuho and the naked man, before jealously attacking him, inciting him to activate a Stand power that turns Joshu blind. He then faints, and Yasuho calls an ambulance which takes them all to the hospital.

After acquainting further, the man escapes with Yasuho. Seeing this from his window, Joshu complains of emotional hurt, as well as a (human) bite mark on his knee, before collapsing to a fever.

Pledging to help the man discover his identity, Yasuho examines his sailor hat, which produces an "SBR" insignia, referring to a popular hat shop in Morioh. Going there, the shopkeeper shows to have retained record of the hat's sale to "Yoshikage Kira", as well as Kira's address. Yasuho opines that he doesn't "look like a Kira" and nicknames him Josuke, after her childhood dog.

Kira's Apartment
In Kira's apartment, the pair discover a female hostage in the bathroom, and a photo album displaying her in various sordid states of bondage, along with a man that looks like Josuke. Yasuho flees the apartment in disgust, leaving the two in the bathroom. Josuke demands explanation of the hostage, which she gives as that Josuke was a prisoner in the same apartment before escaping three days prior, and that she assumed he had returned to help her escape. She mentions that their captor is a Stand user residing on the floor above them, whose powers only come when his victim is directly underneath him. Revealing his Stand Soft & Wet, Josuke is violently forced to overcome a plot agreed between the Stand user above and the hostage.

Apprehending and interrogating him, the attacker identifies as Ojirou Sasame, a surfer seeking revenge against Yoshikage Kira, whom Josuke closely resembles (in dress as well as in body). Josuke identifies a Wall Eye in a photo of Kira, before travelling with Yasuho to the place he was buried, where buried deeper, they discover the body of another man. Narrated after the fact, an autopsy reveals that the body belonged to Yoshikage Kira, who had died of cardiac arrest three days prior.

The Higashikata Family
Josuke and Yasuho are taken in by the head of the Higahikata family, Norisuke Higashikata IV; owner of a substantial estate built with a fruit importation business inherited from his grandfather (Steel Ball Run's Norisuke Higashikata). Lent the Higashikata name, Josuke Higashikata is welcomed into Norisuke's home and provided with Joshu's bedroom, to Joshu's chagrin. Norisuke tells Josuke to consider his word "law" in his house, and forbids him from exploring his study, before appointing him the duty of guarding his youngest daughter, Daiya. Yasuho is escorted out of the house by the family's maid Nijimura, and warned not to return.

Daiya engages Josuke with her Stand, California King Bed; beginning a contest for segments of his memory. Defeating and befriending her, Josuke elicits Daiya's assistance in researching her family, entering Norisuke's study together. A book contains a family tree, revealing that Yoshikage Kira and the Higashikatas are directly related. Elsewhere, having ordered a DNA test, Yasuho recieves the information that Josuke and Kira, "to within 95.8% accuracy", represent "the same person".

Morioh Hospital
With this, Josuke makes a plan to find Kira's mother, Holy Joestar-Kira, whom Daiya mentions resides in Morioh hospital. Utilizing his phone's GPS on the way, which seems to communicate contradictory instructions, Josuke is trailed and attacked by a dark motorcycle rider. Josuke manages to kick off the rider's helmet, revealing a Stand composed of both bike and rider. Josuke soon deduces that his GPS is actually directing him in escape of his pursuer, as well as a key point to the Stand's limitation. Reaching the hospital after an arduous struggle, almost defeated, Josuke notices an odd sound, following and finding Nijimura, before overcoming her.

Josuke asks Nijimura whether she attacked him under Norisuke's orders. She reacts distastefully to the suggestion and insists on killing him if he approaches Holy. Josuke recognizes her intent and resolves to find some other way to approach Holy if it would avoid causing pain to Nijimura.

As Josuke leaves, she asks him to show her his tongue. She confirms and explains to Josuke that he has two tongues (fused as one) and four eyes (as two), before revealing that he must be a fusion of Kira and another person, having emerged from the ground near the Wall Eyes, which is known to fuse together objects that are buried there.

At the hospital, after being kicked out, Yasuho's Stand Paisley Park activates subconsciously, leading her to Holy Joestar-Kira. She watches as doctors perform several tests, noting a compromise in Holy's ability to discern people from objects, and that she is missing several vital organs without negative repercussions, as well as several perfectly spherical portions of her brain, all without any evidence of surgical removal.

Extortion Road
The next day, at the breakfast table, Hato Higashikata and Daiya appear in swimsuits; a Higashikata tradition developed after a failed trip to Hawaii. Josuke asks Norisuke for a cell phone, as well as the chance to go to school. Norisuke agrees, but orders Joshu to escort him.

Joshu tests Josuke with a trigonometric problem, which he solves, before Joshu asks him to walk with him to a different high school as a favor. Josuke and Joshu travel to Extortion Road, a street known for its kleptomaniacal community. Joshu hopes to record himself being robbed in order to complain with evidence to the police for an earlier infraction.

Arriving, Josuke unintentionally breaks a turtle tank in a nearby store window, apparently killing the turtles inside. Nearby, an older man, the pet shop owner, asks Josuke for recompense; Josuke subsequently giving him ¥20,000, and promising a monthly plan to pay off ¥330,000. Joshu captures the whole event with his phone; discovering that Josuke had stepped on leaves, rushed almost instantly to the tank, and then back, unawares. Josuke deduces this as the work of a nearby Stand. Grabbing the man with Soft & Wet, he realizes that he cannot see the Stand, and therefore may not be the Stand user.

The two continue along the road, and Josuke asks Joshu to use his phone in order to record himself. Josuke is suddenly confronted by three thuggish men who had been watching them from afar. One of them accuses Josuke of having made him drop his cell phone into a puddle, pointing at said phone and puddle. Josuke watches the recording just made and sees himself again slide backward, knocking the man, then forward. The men propose that Josuke deliver a package underneath a nearby flower pot to a nearby woman as compensation.

It is revealed that Josuke and Joshu have been set up to exchange an illegal substance, and the two are soon arrested by a pair of police officers also observing. Joshu meanwhile analyses mysterious actions between the woman and the gangsters during the exchange, localizing the effect to the ginkgo leaves scattered on the ground, and intercepts their exchange of money, fleeing. While Josuke is pinned by the policemen, the gangsters notice Joshu's sleight and give chase, easily catching up with the ginkgo leaves. Preparing to beat him, a nut and screw suddenly materializes on one of their hands. Confused, unscrewing it, his hand detaches from his wrist. Panic rises among them as his other hand falls and more screws form, before Joshu's Stand is fully revealed.

Joshu escapes, reversing his Stand's effect, before discovering his stolen money is in fact composed of leaves. The policemen discover Josuke's package contains only candy, and release him. Josuke reveals he had also deduced the power of the gingko leaves, and during its exchange had taken the money for himself with his Stand.

Paying the pet shop owner in full for his case and turtles, Josuke makes a call to Yasuho while she is in class. Seeing Joshu's caller ID, she doesn't answer.

Joestar Jizo
Noticing the origin of Josuke's call on her phone's map, Yasuho takes interest in a nearby landmark named Joestar Jizō. Searching the term, she is reminded of Holy and the Higashikata/Joestar family tree. Subconsciously employing Paisley Park, Yasuho continues to research the subject on her phone.

She learns that the Jizo was built as a memorial to Johnny Joestar, half a year after his ominous death at that location around 110 years prior. A famous American jockey, Johnny had come to Japan on invitation by their government to assist in a horsemanship program, as well as in importing foreign fruits. On the evening of the 11th of November 1901, while passing through the main road near Mutsukabe Shrine in S City, Morioh, Johnny was bludgeoned and died; his body discovered the following morning with his head under a boulder. Ruled a homicide, his wife Rina Higashikata was a prime suspect, before the cause of death was changed to an accident, the boulder falling from the hill of the Mutsukabe Shrine. Spurred by this new knowledge, Yasuho leaves her class in search of Josuke.

Meanwhile, Josuke also comes across the Jizo, before the pet shop owner approaches for conversation. They agree that Josuke and the Jizo wear the same hat, which the pet shop owner explains was donated by the SBR shop salesman; and he mentions that the American who died there wore a similar hat; before explaining about the legend of Johnny Joestar.

According to the pet shop owner, Johnny came to Japan primarily to marry Rina, having met on a passenger ship crossing the Pacific after the Steel Ball Run Race. The two lived together in America on a ranch, but after several years, Rina was struck by a mysterious disease. She would intermittently lose memories, and later, as the disease threatened her life, her skin began to crease into rigid, origami-like folds. Johnny decided to take his wife to Japan, better that she spend her final days in her hometown. However, in his anguish, Johnny decided to retrieve the holy Corpse from New York City, hoping to use it to cure Rina. Chased by U.S. government agents, Johnny brought Rina and the corpse to Morioh, by the meditation pine. He cures her of her disease, hoping it would be sent to a stranger. When it rests on their young son George, Johnny takes him away, and (in pictures rather than narration) uses Tusk along with the Corpse to take the disease onto himself. He falls off his horse onto several gingko leaves, which transport a boulder atop his head.

The pet shop owner states that his is only one of many versions of the story, but Josuke believes it, and that it may have something to do with Holy's memory loss.

Paper Moon
Yasuho has navigated to the Meditation Pine at the rear of the Higashikata estate by photos in the news stories she has researched. She reads there of a baby washed up nearby on November 13, 1901, wearing a necklace of gemstones. She notes that she can see the Higashikata house, when she is grabbed by a hand from inside the tree and momentarily groped in the darkness.

When the lights come on, she finds herself with Tsurugi Higashikata, who is playing with some origami in what Tsurugi describes as an earthquake shelter.

After playing with a fortune teller, Tsurugi acts impertinently towards Yasuho, and when she confronts the child, she realizes that Tsurugi is male. Tsurugi reveals that he, like his father Jobin Higashikata, his grandfather Norisuke, and several more generations back, the first born son of the Higashikata family live as females until they are 12 years old, to ward off certain "evil spirits".

Paisley Park inspires Josuke to send Yasuho a coded message on Joshu's cellphone. Yasuho, unnerved and preparing to leave, realizes her phone is missing when it sounds off. When she finds it, it has been folded into an origami frog that leaps at her eyes, causing her face to split and contort. This effect subsides, and Tsurugi notes that she must have seen his Stand, which she does not quite comprehend.

Leaving the room, phone in hand, she spots another room. Looking in the window, it is small and austere, containing a set of clothes similar to that worn by Kira, and a collection of objects including an Enter the Dragon poster and Ultraman figurine, among others.

Yasuho heads back into town, passing a strange dog and birds, trailed by Tsurugi. She speaks with a woman with a particular, angular face, who asks for directions. Another woman passes with the same face, as well as a window cleaner, the mannequins in the window, and everyone around her, except for Tsurugi.

Before she can consider this, she rubs her eyes, accidentally removing her contact lenses. Heading home and replacing them, she finds that even her mother has this same face, and finally her own reflection. She is taunted by the woman who she assumed was her mother.

Upset, she rushes out of her home to the street, crying. She looks up and sees Tsurugi, unchanged. She successfully calls Josuke, who agrees to meet within 10 minutes at Gomamitsu café, in reference to his message. Yasuho confronts Tsurugi once more, but he repeats that he will always be available to help her in that room in the basement, before he folds an origami cicada which flies away.

Elsewhere, Josuke also steps on an origami frog, his foot contorting slightly; his senses now changed so that he can only percieve the one face that haunts Yasuho.

Chapters not yet in tankōbon format

 * 23. The Secret Room (秘密の小部屋)
 * 24. Tsurugi's Secret (つるぎのフシギ)
 * 25. I'm Meeting Josuke Higashikata! (東方定助に会え！)
 * 26. The Basement Dwellers (地下室の住人)
 * 27. People Under Suspicion (疑惑の人々)
 * 28. Horror in Higashikata Garden (東方家庭園の恐怖)

Trivia

 * On the inside cover of Volume 2, Araki explains that the title comes from both the Christian concept of blessing and the gospels ("evangelion" in Greek).