Joaquín Ruiz-Jorruda

"If we get an opportunity to leave Antigua, I'll try to seize it just as hard as he is. But I've never been able to put voice to all these thoughts."

- Joaquín Ruiz-Jorruda

Joaquín Ruiz-Jorruda (ホアキン・ルイス＝ホルーダ) is one of the main protagonists of the light novel rey infinito.

He is an orphan born to white and indigenous parents who later joins the Speedwagon Foundation as an investigator after proving his usefulness. Together with Octavio Luna Kan, the two become known as a legendary duo surpassing even J.D. Hernández and Lisa Lisa, known as the Huérfanos de la Tormenta.

Joaquín wields the Stand El Aleph, a catastrophic ability that uncontrollably distorts the laws of nature by enveloping Joaquín's surroundings with darkness.

Appearance
Joaquín Ruiz-Jorruda is a boy in his late teens with a short and frail body along with fair skin. His amber eyes and expressions help him convey what he wants to say since he cannot speak. He has an indecipherable gaze at times, but there is a subtle wisdom behind it.

After joining the Speedwagon Foundation, he wears a black suit.

Personality
Joaquín is a calm and vigilant teenager who desires to be as free as the wind, living a life free of strife. He was born with a speech impediment and cannot speak his thoughts with his voice. Instead, he grunts, makes noises, and uses his expressions and gestures to convey his messages. Depending on the situation, he can write down his thoughts instead, such as when he answers Lisa Lisa's question before she hires him and Octavio.

Joaquín's primary trait is that he considers himself as Octavio's protector and is happy to play that role. He usually grunts in agreement in response to what Octavio says. He goes wherever Octavio wants to, acts as Octavio's voice of reason, and acts cautiously when Octavio makes impulsive decisions. He compares Octavio to being Pinocchio, thinking of himself as. Although there are times where Octavio is uncooperative or does things that Joaquín dislikes, he considers them as being inseparable since Octavio is the only one who could easily understand what a mute like him is thinking ever since they were kids. Joaquín is always interested in learning new things and gaining knowledge. Lisa Lisa states that he and Octavio are like the binary system given human form; Octavio rushes toward any possibility like the number 1, whereas Joaquín is a bottomless receptacle of knowledge like the number 0. Ever since he was a child, Octavio hasn't paid attention to lectures and relies on Joaquín to listen for him.

He also does any task asked of him without grumbling or complaining, making him well-suited to be a Speedwagon Foundation investigator. However, Joaquín never would have joined on his own if Octavio hadn't pleaded to join. While Octavio could name a bunch of things he would want to change in his life, Joaquín couldn't name a single thing he would like to change.

Abilities
Joaquín is nimble like an animal. He is capable of moving quickly such as during the game of Hopscotch, where he evaded all the weapons thrown at him and hops back to the cars faster than all the other investigators. Joaquín's memory is sharp enough to write out priests' sermons down to the very word. He also has the ability to carefully monitor every inch of his surroundings, and is adept at climbing. Lisa Lisa is interested in his hidden potential.

Stand
Wielding the Stand El Aleph, Joaquín can envelop his surroundings in darkness, instantly making it night within his Stand's range. Nearby organisms will feel lethargic and are put to sleep.

Darkness Adaptation
Joaquín has a special skill of being able to navigate in the darkness without any light. He navigates through the underground tunnels, finds J.D., and guides him to the exit despite it being pitch black in there.

Morality Viewing
According to Octavio, both he and Joaquín are capable of perceiving the light and darkness within people, allowing them to know whether one is righteous like an angel or evil like a demon. He claims that they're usually correct and that it must be gifts they received for being orphans who are very close to the gods. This ability helps them succeed with gathering information and completing their first mission for Lisa Lisa.

Background
Joaquín was raised in a missionary-run orphanage alongside Octavio, but the two were thrown out after refusing to join a seminary. Since then, Joaquín decided to follow Octavio, who made a name for himself in the streets and acquired a back-alley network of other orphans, homeless people, and peddlers.

J.D. Hernández, an investigator from the Speedwagon Foundation, hired Octavio and Joaquín as informants to help him catch the Monstruo of Antigua.

Battling the Monstruo of Antigua
Semana Santa begins on Friday, April 20, 1973. At night, J.D. passes by the ruins of the Convento Santa Clara and meets up with Octavio and Joaquín. Octavio informs him that the killer is on the move, and Joaquín grunts and gestures with his arms and body to communicate. Despite Joaquín's speech impediment, J.D. is still able to understand what he is trying to say through his expressions. J.D. learns that the killer attacked the at the  church. Before leaving, J.D. tells Octavio and Joaquín not to engage with the killer if they find him.

Knowing the path that the killer would take, Octavio stages an ambush at the other end of a tunnel and has Joaquín follow J.D. inside to bring him back to safety. Joaquín finds J.D. and grabs his hand, forcefully running so that they could escape from the tunnel. As J.D. wonders how Joaquín managed to find his way there and avoid all the obstacles without any light, a swarm of flies suddenly rains down on them. Joaquín and J.D. manage to escape from the tunnel and emerge in the plaza in front of a cathedral thanks to Joaquín's navigational skills. The plaza is filled with spectators due to the climax of the parade. Octavio then calls out that he caught the killer. Octavio pins the man down while J.D., other Foundation workers, soldiers, an old homeless lady, and merchant children rush over to the scene. Before J.D. could yell at the locals to leave, a massive swarm of flies covers the entire sky. Lisa Lisa takes off her disguise as the old homeless lady and defeats the killer with her Ripple.

Joining the Speedwagon Foundation
J.D. has Octavio and Joaquín treated by the doctors in the Speedwagon Foundation as they offer far better resources, quality of care, and surgeries than any normal hospital. Lisa Lisa asks Octavio and Joaquín if they want money to keep quiet or if they would rather learn her tricks. Octavio reveals the duo's ambitions of wanting to leave the war-torn city so they can experience an adventure beyond the borders. He begs Lisa Lisa to recruit them as investigators for the Foundation but she isn't swayed by their story, and refuses to bend the rules the Speedwagon Foundation has about not involving itself with humanitarian aid or recruiting local hires. Octavio and Joaquín persist but J.D. rejects them in Lisa Lisa's stead. Octavio then reveals that both he and Joaquín possess a special power that allows them to perceive the morality of people, which they believe they acquired from being close to their gods. Although Lisa Lisa questions whether he's speaking the truth, she picks up on their worth and resolve, and presents them with a challenge if they want to join.

Their first task from Lisa Lisa is to investigate whether there are more people hiding abilities like Fabio's. They use their massive network of informants to amass information from anyone they could find. They also craft sob stories to appeal to people's emotions, such as an eccentric old lady who refused to answer anything. Their second task is to discover how Fabio had acquired his ability. They travel to the where he worked and interview the landlord of the apartment where he lived. They realize that J.D. and his team already investigated the same areas and wonder if this is a competition Lisa Lisa set up to see which group would find the truth first. They think back to Fabio's backstory and decide to find the trafficker that scammed Fabio. Octavio knew that most traffickers had bad intentions, robbing customers who couldn't pay and then leaving them in the forest, such as what happened to Pedro Ochoa and Enrique. Octavio and Joaquín's informants expand their search to neighboring villages and they gather together all the rumors and secrets they heard. They eventually learn that the boss of the trafficker in charge of Fabio's home village changed right before Fabio's plan to cross the border. Since then, the organization got a lot shadier, demanding exorbitant fees, forcing people to walk through dangerous areas, and shooting them with arrows.

The duo hands their report to Lisa Lisa four days after she gave them the challenge, before the deadline elapsed. They found one of the trafficker gangs stationed in the forests northeast of Guatemala City and know its general location, so they offer to accompany Lisa Lisa there as official members of the team. After reading the report, Lisa Lisa gives them a speech about fluorescent lights flickering at an imperceptible rate. She compares herself and the boys as living beneath the light, but there are some who live beneath the flickers of darkness. It's the Speedwagon Foundation's duty to capture the flicker of darkness. She asks if they're ready to hide from society by becoming members of the Foundation, and finally asks what the biggest lie they've ever told is. Joaquín grabs a notepad and writes down that saying he hasn't ever lied is the biggest lie he's ever told. Lisa Lisa appreciates his answer and accepts them as members.

A Game of Hopscotch
Accompanied by Lisa Lisa, Octavio, and Joaquín, the research group led by J. D. travel by car to their destination. They pass by Mayan ruins and Lisa Lisa gives them a history lesson while Joaquín listens carefully. They reach their destination, arriving at a small settlement where the human traffickers are rumored to be. However, the place appears to be deserted. They decide to investigate anyways since they came all this way. As soon as Octavio exits the car, he steps on the prongs of a half-buried rake, severely injuring the toes of one foot.

Several of the Foundation investigators begin to fall in holes. Joaquín notices chalk drawings of shapes on the ground and makes noises while pointing to them. J.D. understands what he's trying to say, deducing that anyone who steps inside of a shape drawn in chalk will fall into a hole. However, Octavio reveals that he's already stepping inside one but hasn't fallen. Joaquín copies Octavio's posture with one foot up causing Octavio and J.D. to realize that this is a game of hopscotch. As the group stands on one foot, J.D. orders them to focus on getting back to the car before thinking of a rescue plan. Suddenly, they see a large number of shapes being drawn on the ground by an invisible evil spirit, covering the ground with patterns. Making matters worse, a rusty sickle is thrown at J.D.'s thigh, making it difficult for him to keep his balance. Several sickles, hatchets, knives, and rakes are sent flying toward the investigators, causing more of them to fall into holes.

Joaquín nearly hops back to the cars, reaching there faster than the others. However, the evil spirit draws underneath their cars, creating a hole beneath the car Lisa Lisa is sitting in. However, she manages to save herself by using the Ripple on her muffler alongside acrobatic techniques. Lisa Lisa informs them that there is no need to retreat. Instead, they now have more data about these abilities. She thinks that the ability can't spread its power over a wide range, so the user must be hiding nearby. Octavio and Joaquín both understand what she means, thinking the user might be hiding in the water tank in the corner of the plaza. Octavio and Joaquín hop to the water tank, finding a 15-year-old mixed orphan named Izahela Mena-Mena who was the User of an ability later named "Hopscotch" in the investigation files. She collapses from exhaustion and they find that she was assisted by other children who were throwing the weapons.

The Speedwagon Foundation takes Izahela and the other children into custody and they learn from her testimony about a man named Alhorn being the leader of the traffickers, who used an Arrow on herself and several others. Lisa Lisa gives a speech about mysterious phenomena occurring in Peru and possibly other locations caused by what seems to be a virus. She hypothesizes that a man who wished for the power of a god made the Arrows from minerals at these locations and there must be several of these Arrows throughout the world. Lisa Lisa states that it is now the Speedwagon Foundation's duty to retrieve every arrow in circulation. For the present, they will focus on capturing the subordinates of Alhorn and recover the arrows they possess in Latin America. At night, Octavio feels restless from Lisa Lisa's speech, excited that he has a new opportunity for gaining power. Never seeing Octavio in this state before, even Joaquín feels excited about the potential that awaits them.