User:Minedor/Haruno Higashikata

"I may not know who I am, but I know you're my brother Josuke! (私が誰なのかわからないかもしれませんが、あなたが私の兄の仗助だと知っています！)"

- Haruno Higashikata

Haruno Higashikata (東方 春野) is a major ally featured in the eighth part of the JoJo's Bizarre Adventure series, JoJolion

Introduced in the "Love Once Buried" story arc, Haruno was first seen in a flashback in Soft & Wet, Part 2 He has not played much of a role in Josukes fights against the nefarious Rock Humans, however, the search for his and Josuke's identities is the driving force behind JoJolion. Following the A. Phex Brothers fight, he joins Karera Sakunami and the two depart in search of their own answers. Marking his last appearance ever since.

Haruno is a Stand User, and his "Crazy Little Thing" allows him to create bubbles capable of redistributing small amounts of matter.

Appearance
Haruno is a young, physically fit man of above-average height. Haruno has a diastema between his upper incisors and a star-shaped birthmark on his left shoulder. He has two sets of irises, no testicles, and two tongues, all joined as one, differing in texture and color.

Yasuho mentions he resembles her second dog, Haruno. Josuke and Haruno both got their new names from Yasuho's previous dogs.

Yasuho notes that Haruno does not have testicles, as they were exchanged to Josuke, but it is also noted that Haruno took two of Josuke's teeth, giving him a total of 34 and Josuke 30, this is possibly a reference to Freddie Mercury having four extra teeth.

Personality
"You don't get it do you? You're in my way!"

Josuke Higashikata is a quirky amnesiac determined to learn his true identity and his past.

Haruno is afflicted by extensive retrograde amnesia, lacking memory of himself or events prior to meeting Josuke Higashikata and Yasuho Hirose, but retaining various degrees of knowledge. As such, Haruno is driven to discover who he was by investigating the circumstances of his presence in the beach prior to having been saved by Josuke and Yasuho. That goal occupies nearly all of his activities, and no action on his part is made without attempting to reach the truth. That drive is sufficiently strong that he was willing to interrupt a rare moment of bonding with his brother Josuke to investigate Karera Sakunami. After learning about his past identity as Yoshikage Kira, Haruno set for himself the new goal of retrieving the Locacaca branch and using the fruit to heal Holy Joestar-Kira. He still demonstrates the same steadfastness in investigating the fruit and the whereabouts of the Locacaca Organization, with the addition of deferring more to Rai Mamezuku's opinions, deeming the plant appraiser's expertise about the fruit worth listening to.

Unlike his brother, Haruno seems to have only retained certain quirks from Yoshikage Kira, most notably his ruthless demeanor. Haruno is not a very expressive individual but he is calculating and open about his conclusions when the situation calls for it. While he mostly resembles Kira in his attitude, Haruno ultimately considers himself separate from both him and Josefumi. Reaching a similar conclusion to his brother Josuke, but taking more time to comprehend himself as a person. Through this realization he begins to acknoweldge a stronger bond between him and Josuke, declaring that they are ultimately united by fate to revive their mother.

Haruno is incredibly ruthless, showing no restraint when it comes to achieving his goals. owever, Haruno is willing to defend himself and the people he knows from anyone who wishes to harm them. Unlike his counterpart Jotaro, Haruno isn't disturbed at the idea of hitting women and readily knocked out Kei when she attacked him. Haruno is not afraid to threaten to kill, and he indeed killed Tamaki Damo in cold-blood in retaliation for threatening his adoptive family, though his main goal of discovering his identity means that killing his aggressors is counterproductive. That killing intent is easily triggered when someone hurts Yasuho. Haruno has also proven to be proficient at manipulating people, notably Jobin with whom he would adopt a more nonchalant persona to seem harmless. Apart from that, Haruno approaches his task calmly and methodically.

Haruno is relatively polite and has been shown to strongly value familial relationships. Being amnesiac, Haruno places a great emphasis on one's family and legacy, wishing to learn his own past. The fact that no one came looking for him while hospitalized deeply unnerves him, to the point he can shed tears at the thought, and Haruno honors Norisuke Higashikata's adoption of him, considering himself a part of the Higashikatas. When Karera rejects her own parents, Haruno comments that they would never get along. He's not only willing to defend his adoptive family, but he strongly desires to cure Holy of her illness despite not having any memories of her. However, Haruno continues to suspect members of the Higashikata family of working against him. Haruno cares for Yasuho on a stronger level than even his family, and any threat to her well-being greatly angers him. In fact, during his battle with Yotsuyu Haruno is shown to possess a similar type of willpower to Johnny Joestar's "dark determination." However, when it comes to his goals, Haruno is straight to the point and hardly tolerates any circling around the subject. For instance, he didn't hesitate to directly ask Norisuke if he killed Yoshikage Kira, forcing the latter to explain his motives.

Despite all this, Haruno also has a certain number of humorous quirks. He seems to be totally oblivious when it comes to mundane things while at the same time retaining in-depth knowledge of animal and plant species. Haruno prefers sleeping underneath a whole mattress rather than the bed sheets for "increased compression." He also regularly spills food he enjoys. During his earlier interactions with Yasuho, Haruno would pry on her breast size offhandedly, measuring it by sight (a trait that he probably gained from Yoshikage, as Holy was shown to possess a similar skill). Haruno has also demonstrated a more childish side, implanting his hair into Joshu and Hato Higashikata for fun. Whenever the mood is right, Haruno seems to have fun declaring his victory. He notably consciously poses after outsmarting the population of Shakedown Road and also smugly claimed his win against Jobin in a stag beetle fight.

Stand
Soft & Wet is Josuke's Stand. Initially belonging to Josefumi, Josuke retains it after the fusion with Kira, albeit with some minor differences.

Its primary ability ("Plunder") is to steal some aspect or property of a target; to be contained in one or more small soap bubbles (bearing the image of his birthmark), which may be returned or transferred to other objects. This ability has been used both offensively and strategically. Soft & Wet also demonstrates above-average strength and the capacity for rapid melee attack common to humanoid Stands.

Like himself, Josuke's Stand is described as a fusion of Yoshikage Kira's Killer Queen and the original Soft & Wet belonging to Josefumi Kujo.

During his fight with Yotsuyu Yagiyama, Josuke decides to "use [his] soap bubbles for offense rather than defense..." Soft & Wet is shown to be able to surround and contain objects by creating a soap bubble and punching it into said object. The bubble bursts but then reforms around the target; Josuke is then able to make the bubble and object inside float anywhere he wants to, just like his regular soap bubbles.

By combining strikes with his bubbles, he is able to "inject" one of his soap bubbles into the flesh of his opponents, causing superficial damage when he pops them. The explosive property of the bubbles was first demonstrated against the A. Phex Brothers and described by them as being very similar to Kira's ability.

Trivia

 * Similar to how Josuke took both of Haruno's testicles, it is noted that Haruno took two of Josuke's teeth, giving him a total of 34 and Josuke 30, this is possibly a reference to Freddie Mercury having four extra teeth
 * Haruno frequently references influential art pieces in a lot of his dialogue (Add a bunch of examples here)