Yoshikage Kira
Yoshikage Kira (吉良吉影, Kira Yoshikage) is the main antagonist of Part IV: Diamond is Unbreakable.
Personality
Kira (which sounds similar to the English word "killer") longs for a simple life and does not wish for it to be interrupted. Although he reveals many talents, this yearning shows in his dislike of coming in first, and he even made it a point to never rank better than 3rd in any competition so as not to stand out. He even pulls this streak of third places quite easily, winning 3rd place in primary school essay contests, the school track and field championship, the 200-meter hurdles, and high school music competitions (violin). He becomes bothered when someone disrupts his "simplicity" and goes to extreme lengths to get it back.
However, beneath his simple facade, Kira is very abnormal. The most abnormal characteristic Kira is his fetish for the female hand, stemming from an erotic fascination with the hands of the Mona Lisa. However, his desire has never extended to the rest of the female person; in fact, when on a normal date, all he could think about was how much he wanted to go home. This results in murdering women in order to acquire their (severed) hands as "girlfriends"; when one "girlfriend" begins to decay, he goes off in search of a replacement. He measures and collects his own fingernail clippings, using them to divine his murdering luck off of their length.
Originally, Kira murdered his victims by stabbing them so viciously they were left with horrific back wounds (their hideous nature is implied by the fact that the reader is never actually shown Reimi's wound despite all the instances of blood and gore that Araki had drawn up to that point). However, his stand, Killer Queen, eventually awoke from his desire to leave no evidence behind of his killings and developed an ability to make its victims disintegrate completely. He now lets Killer Queen annihilate his victims (except for his "girlfriends'" hands), letting everyone else think that the victims have simply gone missing. Though the number of missing people would eventually attract attention, no one would have any reason to suspect that Kira was involved due to his simplicity.
Synopsis
Kira is first seen holding the severed hand of another woman, later placing it inside a sandwich bag for later. However, Shigekiyo "Fatty" Yangu orders a sandwich from the same shop, and unbeknownst to Kira, accidentally swaps it with his sandwich bag, forcing Kira to retrieve it out of fear that he might be discovered. After Kira retrieves it, however, Fatty becomes enraged that Kira had stolen his sandwich bag and demands it back, only to become the first victim of Killer Queen and literally erased from existence with its explosive abilities. However, Killer Queen failed to erase one of Kira's buttons, which one of Fatty's Harvest brings to Josuke and Okuyasu. Josuke and company eventually deduce that Fatty was somehow killed and back each other in defense against Fatty's killer.
Later, when Kira turns in his suit to be fixed and finds that Jotaro Kujo and Koichi Hirose are investigating him, he sets off Killer Queen's Bomb No. 2: Sheer Heart Attack against them and successfully wounds Jotaro. Koichi, however, awakens Echoes Act 3 and traps Sheer Heart Attack in place, transferring the effect onto Kira himself as he finds his identity in jeopardy. Kira then returns in person and, heavily wounded, cuts off his own hand in order to let Sheer Heart Attack loose. Josuke and company pursue him and Kira is forced to go into hiding by assuming, with the unwilling help of Aya Tsuji and her stand, Cinderella, the identity of Kosaku Kawajiri, successfully stalling the protagonists' chase for a long time.
Under Execution Under Jailbreak
Kira is shown some time between the End of Part 4 to the End of Part 6 as a vagabond spirit who is unaware of his identity. Dead Man's Questions, one of the short stories compiled in the Under Execution Under Jailbreak one-shot, features Kira and what had happened to him after his death.
Trivia
- His character was probably inspired by Tom Lehrer's song "I Hold Your Hand in Mine".
- Kira's favorite fashion brand is Gianfranco Ferré.
- Graduated from University D's literary faculty.
- His SBR universe counterpart appears in Part 8.
