Saint's Corpse
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The Corpse Parts are key items to the plot of Part VII: Steel Ball Run. The Steel Ball Run race itself is part of Funny Valentine's scheme to find and collect them all.
Seemingly ancient, mummified human remains, they are eventually revealed to belong to Jesus Christ, miraculously self-preserving, and disposed to imparting miraculous powers.
With Funny Valentine's direction, the entire Corpse eventually merges with Lucy Steel, before separating and being carried to and locked in a vault beneath Trinity Church, New York City, by the 2nd Diego Brando. After the conclusion of Part VII, Johnny Joestar retrieves the Corpse for a final personal use.
List of the 9 Corpse Parts
- Heart: May have granted Funny Valentine his Stand D4C when as a solider he fell onto it in the desert as his company perished. Over his chest appears the word "conscience" in a pattern resembling that of the location of the other Parts in the country.
- Left Arm: Merges with Johnny Joestar unconsciously in the Devil's Palm in the Arizona Desert / Monument Valley, granting him the Stand Tusk.[1]. Like the Right Arm, the hand has a hole in its palm. Later it is taken forcefully by Hot Pants.
- Eyes:
The Eyes' complete guardian
The split main body
- Scansplit.jpg
The split main body
- Right Eye: Merging with his own, grants Gyro Zeppeli the Stand Scan.
- Left Eye: Enables Diego Brando to retain the dinosaur powers effected him by Dr. Ferdinand.
- Right Arm: Originally in Sugar Mountain's possession; given to/merging with Gyro Zeppeli. Like the Left Arm, the hand has a hole in its palm. Separating from him, Johnny Joestar is forced to give it to one of the 11 nameless men in order to prevent Gyro from turning fully into a tree.
- Spine: Discovered by Lucy Steel at the end of the 4th Stage. The Spine doesn't react to her, but when Blackmore takes it, he momentarily percieves Jesus' presence. When Blackmore is defeated, the Spine fuses with Johnny Joestar.[3] Later it is stolen by Hot Pants, leaving a small fragment in Johnny's body, allowing him to retain his Stand. This last part is eventually stolen from him as well.
- Rib cage: Original owner unknown. Around the time that Valentine acquires it, his physique spontaneously and greatly improves.[citation needed]
- Ears: Originally in Sugar Mountain's possession, they are given to and merge with Johnny Joestar. However, in order to prevent Gyro from turning fully into a tree, Johnny gives them to one of the 11 nameless men.
- Legs: This section requires expansion.
- Skull: Discovered by Lucy Steel while hiding from Valentine. She perceives the skull located in a fireplace flue. Becoming pregnant when it merges with her, the skull's shadow is then seen against her stomach.
Function
The Parts grant those imbued with them Stand powers (in a function similar to the Bow and Arrow of the original timeline).
Each Part seems to react differently with different characters, as seen when Gyro and Diego each took possession of an eye: Gyro acquiring a Stand, Scan, with Diego retaining properties of a Stand effect used on him - the reptilian powers of Dr. Ferdinand's Stand Scary Monsters.
The Corpse is utterly unique, existing in only one dimension in the multiverse, thereby establishing a "root dimension". In neighboring dimensions, the racers seek other precious items instead of the Parts, such as diamonds.
History
Jesus' Death
Upon Jesus' death somewhere on the Western coast of North America, a massive earthquake and storm tore the land, splitting his Corpse into 9 Parts, which were then distributed by various forces of nature eastwards, resting at the locations he indicated they would to Joseph of Arimathea.
Prior to the Steel Ball Run race
In the Devil's Palm, each member of the military unit Funny Valentine belongs to perishes except for him, having fallen unconscious onto the site of the Corpse's Heart, when it merges with him, saving his life and motivating his search for the remainder.
Steel Ball Run race
At the beginning of the Steel Ball Run race, the corpse parts became the center of attention to both Diego Brando and Funny Valentine, but soon both Gyro Zeppeli and Johnny Joestar were after them as well. Feeling that they could not allow these objects to fall into the wrong hands, Gyro and Johnny collected them and, on the way, met many of Funny Valentine's personal assassins and neutral characters, like Hot Pants, all of whom were interested in the corpse. However, the mystery remained at large, as each corpse part gave the protagonists clues to the location of the next part. Possibilities of the corpse parts once belonging to a long dead Saint arose and whoever possessed them could become the new world leader.
Some characters have had visions of the Saint, who is heavily hinted to be none other than Jesus Christ. Even prior to this revelation, several characters had already come to the same conclusion.
It was eventually revealed that after his resurrection, the saint traveled to the east and eventually ended up in the then-unclaimed Americas. There, he was welcomed by the natives and lived out the rest of his life there with no one being the wiser. Though he was dead, his body parts were still very much alive and scattered themselves across the land - carrying within them the essence of the dead Saint. The locations where these body parts ended up later served as checkpoints for the Steel Ball Run race.
On one occasion, Johnny was willing to go so far as to destroy one of the corpse parts so as to prevent his opponent from obtaining it. Gyro called the action blasphemous and told Johnny it would be better to let them fall into the hands of the enemy than be destroyed. Any action taken to harm the corpse parts is considered a very grave action, and requires a "dark side" not unlike Johnny's.
Lucy Steel was eventually imbued with all of the corpse parts in Valentine's possession, changing her and even giving her a stand.
As the second Diego Brando had successfully stolen the Corpse from Johnny and was about to seal it away in an underground vault, Lucy Steel gave him the decapitated head of his counterpart of the root world. The alternate Diego attempted to escape from the head while being fused to it, but makes the decision to kill Lucy in his rage, leading to his death.
The corpse is seemingly sealed away with Lucy Steel, her husband, and Johnny Joestar being the only ones knowing its location. Mr. Steel states his belief that the The Corpse belongs to no person or nation and is best sealed away in the vault. However, it is slightly implied that Lucy Steel may have fused with the corpse once more after Dio died and before Mr. Steel's arrival at the vault, as she ponders Mr. Steel's comment about Diego not being "qualified" to own the corpse.
Post-Steel Ball Run race
Johnny Joestar is anguished by the misfortune of the terminal illness his wife, Rina Higashikata, and decides to forcibly retrieve the Corpse from its vault. Chased by U.S. government agents, upon his sudden death in Morioh, Japan, it is currently presumed that these agents returned the Corpse to its vault.
Trivia
- The Corpse Parts appear on the stage for Steel Ball Run characters in JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: All-Star Battle. When all 3 Parts are collected during a match, the player gains a charcter-specific advantage.
Gallery
Collection of Corpse Parts
