Yasuho Hirose (広瀬 康穂, Hirose Yasuho) is the deuteragonist of JoJolion.
Yasuho is an ordinary college student who discovers Josuke Higashikata on the coast of Morioh. As Josuke seeks his identity, she becomes his primary ally and love interest. Yasuho eventually becomes a Stand User, manipulating her Paisley Park to investigate the city's mysteries.
Yasuho is a pretty, young woman of slim build, 166 cm (5'5") tall. She has light, shoulder-length hair, tied into several pigtails with spherical hair clips. Josuke observes that she has a 65cm waistline, an 88cm hipline, and a C-cup bust.[2]
Her first outfit featured a wide-necked, cap-sleeved blouse. Her second features a sleeveless top with roses on both shoulder straps. Both blouses are light-colored.
She wears a short skirt half covered with roses, short leg warmers, and footwear that has alternated between walking boots and athletic shoes with socks.
Yasuho is shown to need contact lenses and is visually impaired.
Yasuho is a mild-mannered yet inquisitive young woman living in Morioh.
She is somewhat innocent, in one instance naively following Josuke's requests to look elsewhere while he beat Ojiro during interrogation.[3] She is more easily upset than Josuke. Despite this she does show a level of intelligence, using Josuke's cap as a lead to discovering his past, which led to their discovery of Yoshikage Kira.[4] She is also somewhat understanding of others, as she was also able to discern, after discovering photos of bound women in Kira's home, that Josuke was not the type of person to do such a thing. She named Josuke after her dog since he resembled him.
She disagrees with her mother's carefree lifestyle, suffering some unhappiness with her domestic life as a result.[5] On the other hand, Yasuho used to idealize her father and after the divorce of her parents, always cherished the moments she would spend time with him, to the point an illusion of her father wanting to cut off ties with her broke her heart and pushed her to try to commit suicide.[6]
She harbors a growing fondness for Josuke, with whom she shares a close and warm alliance. As JoJolion progresses, this fondness develops into a sincere attachment. Being eager to reunite with him, she expresses tears when they finally do, a sentiment which Josuke shares.[7] It can be inferred that their feelings have developed into a genuine romance, as the two are shown holding hands as they walk when they finally meet back up. On the other hand, it is possible that Yasuho still has feelings for her ex-boyfriend Tooru, with whom she is still intimate.
In addition to her growing feelings for Josuke, she seems to get along quite well with Tsurugi Higashikata. While Tsurugi initially kidnapped her on orders of Yotsuyu Yagiyama, Tsurugi developed an attachment to her (along with a possible crush) and revealed the family secret including his real gender to her. She, in turn, grew fond of him as the two work together to find out Josuke's identity and more about the Locacaca fruit. They have even fought enemies together, such as Aisho Dainenjiyama, and the two could be seen hanging out together.[8]
Over the course of the story, Yasuho grows into a fiercer woman due to the repeated fights she has to participate in. While at the beginning of the story she was completely helpless against foes as she didn't master her Stand, she progressively shows more resourcefulness in the face of the enemy and has shown a readiness to hurt them.
Yasuho is aided by Paisley Park, a Stand of great scope able to guide individuals significant to Yasuho towards safer or more mutually beneficial goals or destinations, and facilitate Yasuho's own searches.
On a humorous note, Yasuho is shown to be able to lick her own elbow.
Yasuho is born in Morioh around 1992. She spends her childhood in the town, at one point befriending Joshu Higashikata. Around this time, she had a dog named Josuke. Her parents divorced when she was 10 years old and from that point on, she started living with her mother and spending weekends with her father.
During her first year in middle school, Yasuho buys a hair clip from a street vendor, in reality, a Rock Animal in disguise. Over the course of the week, it secretly causes her to produce a dramatic amount of skin flakes. Yasuho is then tricked into trying to commit suicide when the Rock Animal creates a fake of her father which "cut ties" with her. Nonetheless, Yasuho's mother finds her and calls an ambulance before she could die. On recovery, Yasuho coincidentally meets with Holy Joestar-Kira and Yoshikage Kira, the latter of which destroys the hair clip. Yasuho subsequently keeps the pieces of the clip in a box and forgets about the incident.[6]
At some point during high school, she dated Tooru.
Yasuho is introduced huddled on the ground near the Wall Eyes, hiding from Joshu Higashikata, a childhood friend. She sees a a man half buried in the ground. Wary, she calls an ambulance between simple questions. She is interrupted by Joshu, who misinterprets the scene; becoming jealous and launching a lethal attack on the man. The man subdues Joshu with a mysterious power, and they are all collected by an ambulance.
Yasuho visits and brings flowers to both Joshu and the man. She gives them both Morioh-speciality Dango balls while staying in the man's room to converse. She is entertained by his innocence and moved to sympathy by his attention and predicament. She decides to follow him in his escape from the hospital and offers to help him discover his identity.
Identifying the brand on the label in his hat, Yasuho takes the man to the "SBR" hat shop; finding its sale on the shopkeeper's record under Yoshikage Kira, with an address. Yasuho thinks the name an ill fit and tells him that he comes off as more of a "Josuke", as he reminds her of her childhood dog of the same name.
Both travel to the apartment, and after a provisional scan, they discover a woman in the bathtub. Suspicious, she asks the girl if she is Josuke's girlfriend. The girl doesn't answer, so Yasuho searches for other clues, finding a photo album containing sordid images of the woman with a man resembling Josuke. Shocked, Yasuho storms out of the apartment.
Outside, she meets two school friends and passes on their offer to meet later. She cries, feeling betrayed. Eventually, she returns to the apartment, reflecting that what she had learned previously of Josuke's nature is not consistent with the tastes reflected in the album. However, she is attacked upon entering the room by Ojiro Sasame, a Stand user based in the room above. Josuke defeats him and discovers that neither he or Ojiro are Kira.
Later, Yasuho, alongside the protagonist, discovers the real Kira's corpse in a body of water near the Wall Eyes. Without any leads, she decides to lodge the protagonist with the Higashikata family until they can find his real identity (they independently give him the name "Josuke").
After a quick introduction to the family, Yasuho is eventually escorted out of the Higashikata household by the maid and is threatened to never return, meet with Josuke, or "tempt" Joshu.
Yasuho returns to her house, finding her mother inebriated beside the couch with the mark of a kiss on her breast. Crying, she denounces her mother's lifestyle. Before leaving, she opens a letter of reply from an agency that she sent a sample of Kira and Josuke's DNA, learning that "to within 95.8% accuracy", the two represent "the same person".
The two eventually discover that Yoshikage's mother Holy Kira was a world-renowned ophthalmologist and is currently being kept in Morioh's hospital as a patient.
She makes a call to Josuke and agrees to meet with him at the hospital. Yasuho manages to get into the hospital and speak with Holy, but not before noticing a strange bite mark on her ankle. After being taken away by hospital security for talking to Holy without permission, Holy notices that Yasuho has also developed Stand powers of her own, but she can only use them at a subconscious level. Using the pain from the bite mark before as an excuse, Yasuho is re-permitted into the hospital and discovers more of Holy's condition.
The next day, Josuke calls Yasuho at school, but she doesn't answer as he was using Joshu's cell phone. She does, however, notice that he was, at the time, located on Shakedown Road and near a landmark statue called the Joestar Jizō. She discovers, with Paisley Park's help, that the jizō was built as a memorial to Johnny Joestar, who died in Morioh from what was ultimately determined to be a freak accident in 1901.
Later that day, Yasuho travels to the Meditation Pine Tree near the Wall Eyes and realizes she can see both the Higashikata mansion and the spring where she previously found Josuke. She finds another article in the newspaper of a small infant that was discovered beneath the pine tree around the same time as Johnny's death. Upon further inspection, Yasuho spots a hole at the base of the pine tree and goes in for a closer look, but is suddenly grabbed by a hand reaching out of it causing her to lose her shoe. She is pulled under where an obscure figure gropes her.
A moment later, Yasuho finds herself in the Higashikata Family's cellar directly below the Meditation Pine. The room is filled with several memorabilia dating to the Showa Era (~1937) and there she encounters Tsurugi Higashikata, who attempts to play a game with her using a mildly profane Paper fortune teller.
Yasuho eventually realizes her phone is missing and grabs Tsurugi demanding to know where it is when she discovers that Tsurugi is actually male. He explains that the eldest son of each generation in the Higashikata family is raised as a girl until his 12th birthday to ward off "a curse".
To aid Yasuho, Paisley Park summons itself and travels to Josuke's location, where it inspires Josuke to send her a text message. Yasuho's phone goes off and she traces the source of the noise from underneath the carpet. Tsurugi tries to stop her by grabbing her hand, but after breaking free, Yasuho finds the phone folded like an origami frog and it attacks her.[2]
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, 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 of a store, and everyone around her, except for Tsurugi.
Yasuho embarks on an unhappy adventure through a commercial center of Morioh, during which she is antagonized by the distorted visages of her mother, Joshu, and a criminal group attempting to kidnap her who she mistakes for police; as she tries unsuccessfully to meet again with Josuke.
When Tsurugi last reveals himself, Yasuho concedes, following him back to his playroom. Elsewhere, Josuke deduces that he is no longer afflicted by Tsurugi's Stand because he has fallen out of its range and that Yasuho was its main target.
Through the slot in the door of the second underground room, somebody spies on Tsurugi and Yasuho's return.
Yasuho goes to Tsurugi's playroom. He apologizes, admitting that he targeted her with his Stand, Paper Moon King.
Asking again the purpose of the underground complex, Tsurugi explains that it is a space dedicated to treating the mysterious illness that turns the skin hard like stone befalling all Higashikata firstborns. Yasuho is reminded of Holy's condition, whose brain is becoming hard and smooth, memories fragmenting, and that Kira tried to save her.
Falling asleep, a figure emerges from behind a jacket hanging on the wall. Uttering obscurities, mentioning Soft & Wet and an opinion that Josuke need not exist, the man pulls a sheet of clear material from his eyes, pinning it around Yasuho's wrists and face. Taking a pitcher of water, he begins to waterboard Yasuho, waking her to a gasping panic. Emptying it, he tells her that he has been observing her for a long time, and explicitly to reveal her Stand.
Breaking the glass and failing to cut the material, Yasuho reveals her Stand, shooting from her feet across the floor, before the man pins its leg with his foot, catching its head as it rises from the ground, shocking Yasuho. The man is able to accurately deduce aspects of the Stand's limitation before it escapes his grasp through the hatch in the ceiling. Touching Josuke, Paisley Park reminds him of Tsurugi's implication in the earlier Stand attack, inspiring him to return to the Higashikata estate.
Telling Yasuho that he has been watching "all of them" up to now, the man introduces himself as Yotsuyu Yagiyama, an architect who most of all desires social status, for which purpose he intends to ensure that Josuke's memories do not return when Josuke "dies again".
Slipping on an origami banana skin Yasuho had been folding and falling, she is freed, just as he disappears. Afraid, Yasuho concludes that the Higashikatas must not be aware of Yotsuyu.
Yasuho begins to master her Stand Paisley Park when Tsurugi knocks at her door and asks her to help. After Josuke gives them the key of Jobin Higashikata's Lamborghini, Yasuho investigates the GPS of the car and manages to discover that Jobin exchanged the fruit Tsurugi is after with another man: Aisho Dainenjiyama.
When Jobin and Joshu barge in the car where the Lamborghini is, Yasuho manages to hide herself and Tsurugi from them using Paisley Park's ability to foresee obstacles.
Yasuho proceeds to investigate Aisho, and watches over him near the Morioh Stadium. There, she and Tsurugi discover that the fruit is being sold, but Aisho realizes he's being observed.
Aisho then releases his Stand Doobie Wah!, sending it after Yasuho and Tsurugi forcing them to flee. Aisho eventually corners them, but Tsurugi kills him by having him unwittingly walk into a bus.
The next day, Yasuho meets with Josuke again and spends some sweet time with him. However, Josuke then cancels his date, having to follow yet another trail to his identity.
Josuke calls Yasuho for help with tracking down the user of Blue Hawaii. He had left a soap bubble with Dolomite's tooth in it, so Yasuho could use Paisley Park to search medical records and find out whose tooth it is. After finding the tooth, Paisley Park finds a classified document recording an incident where Dorokoma Masaji had eaten 15 of a school's rabbits and another where he had eaten 25 chickens on a farm. She notices some dirt on the tooth, and prepares to use Paisley Park to track down the source of the dirt, but is ambushed by Jobin Higashikata who causes her to pass out from heatstroke using his stand. Jobin then stomps on her phone, breaking it, and tosses the tooth down a grate.
Yasuho later wakes up but has no way of finding the enemy alone. Josuke, who has been beaten and controlled by Blue Hawaii, now mindlessly walks up to Mutsukabe Shrine. Yasuho spots him and trails Josuke up to Dolomite, whom she attacks with a metal bar and defeats easily since the Rock Human has no limbs. Yasuho goes as far as threatening to push Dolomite into a mud pit, forcing the Rock Human to surrender. Dolomite reveals to Yasuho and Josuke that Jobin was the one who asked him to attack Josuke, also stating that the two have gotten involved in something incredibly dangerous.
Yasuho then takes the bus alongside Josuke to meet the plant appraiser, whom she meets earlier than thought when the plant appraiser hijacks the bus they are in, claiming they are under attack and that his safety is the priority. The plant appraiser, named Rai Mamezuku, is suspicious of Yasuho, but she pays him no mind, using Paisley Park to hack the passengers' smartphones and prevent them from informing anyone of what is happening to the bus.
They arrive at a parking lot, and Yasuho is then invited alongside Josuke to Rai's home. The latter cooks a creme Romanoff for Yasuho, and she is pleasantly surprised at the snack. However, her meal is interrupted when a tree sneaks on her, and Josuke has to save her from falling. Nonetheless, Rai tosses her to the ground, exposing her to the enemy's power.
Trying to run to safety, Yasuho is the first to see the face of the enemy. A Rock Human named Urban Guerrilla, encased in his pet Doremifasolati Do, attacks Yasuho again, but Rai stabs Urban and she manages to wash away the swarm of enemy Stand threatening to bore holes into her faces. When the enemy team plunges underground, Josuke jumps down to assist her. Using Paisley Park, Yasuho detects a bedrock area which can serve as a shelter. However, when Doremifasolati Do resurfaces, Josuke learns that his attacks are ineffective and thus Yasuho must flee to the bedrock area with him and is stuck at the top of a boulder.
As her powers aren't useful in direct combat, Yasuho is forced to watch Josuke and Rai battle the enemy and eventually defeat them. After the battle, Rai isolates Yasuho and tells her to go home to safety. However, she begins to narrate her own backstory and reaffirms her will to help Josuke. Only interested in the strange hair clip which tormented her, Rai sends her home to analyze the clip.
Yasuho watches news footage of the fire at the Higashikata household as she sits in the waiting room of the hospital for menstrual pain and depression. Although she has been reassured by Rai and Josuke, she is nonetheless worried about the stolen Locacaca branch. She then catches a glimpse of Mitsuba Higashikata and her doctor notices that Mitsuba's legs have been turned to stone by the Locacaca.
Investigating further, she finds herself under attack by said doctor, Dr. Wu Tomoki, who controls Mitsuba's body. Wu tries to transfer himself from Mitsuba but Yasuho, but in the time it takes him to completely invade her, Yasuho manages to extract the few fragments inside of her acting as a beacon for others and takes the released Mitsuba with her. After Yasuho explains what she knows about the Locacaca and the hospital, Mitsuba reveals that she's just learned that she's pregnant and that she's worried for the child. Thus the two then try to reach the examination room where Mitsuba last recalls her examination. Pursued by Wu Tomoki, Yasuho and Mitsuba manage to get rid of him several times thanks to Awaking III Leaves, Mitsuba's Stand. On their way, Yasuho also meets with her ex-boyfriend Toru and tells him to tell Josuke where she is headed.
In the examination room, Yasuho discovers a secret tape of Wu Tomoki explaining to the audience the mechanisms of the Locacaca and opens the door to a secret laboratory containing a garden of Locacaca. However, Yasuho notices that the stolen Locacaca branch from the Higashikata garden isn't there. Wu Tomoki suddenly reappears, having taken control once again of Mitsuba by hiding in the Locacaca she eats to save her child. Yasuho must fight Wu Tomoki again, and then during the fight, vials containing deadly diseases are broken. Yasuho returns some of Mitsuba's arrows against Wu Tomoki and purges him out of Mitsuba again. When the doctor tries to scatter the Locacaca fruit and threatens to force-feed them the fruits, Josuke finally comes in and saves Yasuho.
Yasuho then explains to the group her findings and she deduces that since Mitsuba was targeted by Wu Tomoki, the branch must have been taken by a third group, Jobin Higashikata being a prime suspect.
To her frustration, Josuke and Rai nonetheless decide to chase after the last member of the Locacaca Organization: Satoru Akefu, the head doctor of TG University Hospital, who mysteriously has no available picture of himself anywhere. Although Yasuho tries to hack the cameras through Paisley Park, she cannot snap a picture of the head doctor. Even more strangely, unnoticed obstacles keep preventing the group from catching up to the old man.
During the chase, Yasuho meets with Tooru again and he flirts with her, causing a mix of suspicion and jealousy from Josuke's part. As Dr. Akefu keeps evading them and leaves the hospital, Yasuho receives a message from Tooru asking her to be with him again.
The chase culminates in a car almost crashing into her, although she is saved by Soft & Wet. However, the doctor has boarded a bus and the trio must stop their chase for the time being. When Josuke gets into a fight with a patient whose broken neck snaps in front of him, Yasuho finds herself alone again as Josuke must deal with the authorities with Rai. This allows Tooru to come back and get closer to her as he reassures he will testify for Josuke.
Yasuho is next shown sitting on her porch with Tooru as she waits for Paisley Park to find Rai and the face of the head doctor. After listening to Tooru's proposal, she is distracted when Paisley Park finds a record of Rai purchasing some goods but loses his trace again. Remembering that she was pursuing Satoru Akefu , Tooru shows her a photo of Satoru's face. However, Yasuho is more shocked to discover that Mitsuba and Akefu are acquainted since she is on the photo too. At the same time, the rain has reached Yasuho's location. Focused on Mitsuba, Yasuho has yet to be affected by the rain. Piecing together the informations at her disposal, Yasuho is convinced that Akefu is still looking for the new Locacaca and is targeting Mitsuba. Yasuho thus rushes to the Higashikata House with Tooru as her driver.
Manga AppearancesYasuho appears as part of the stage hazard and Situation Finish in the Wall Eyes stage.
If one of the fighters is knocked down on the "hazard" indication area, Yasuho backs away in fright, causing Joshu to appear and run through the stage, hitting anyone who gets in his way with a rock until he reaches her. Before Joshu starts his action, her Stand Paisley Park will appear and track Joshu's way.
As a Situation Finish, the losing side is knocked out near Yasuho, causing Joshu to become angry and finish the character off with a large stone (referencing the way he attacks Josuke in their first encounter) as Yasuho appears surprised.
Yasuho also appears as one of the characters who can be used on Campaign Mode's profile.
The spine illustration from JJL Volume 2, JJL Volume 3 and JJL Volume 4
Yasuho's first outfit
Yasuho discovering Josuke
Yasuho loses a sneaker while Tsurugi is apprehending her
Yasuho kidnapped by Tsurugi
Yasuho's second outfit
Resurfacing
Countering Doobie Wah!
Reuniting with Josuke
Yasuho and Joshu in All Star Battle
Ultra Jump Commercial
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