Yoshikage Kira ★ History
A detailed chronological summary of the life of Yoshikage Kira.
Background
Kira was born January 30, 1966, in Morioh Town within Japan's M Prefecture in the city of S. His parents, already old when he was born, died when he was 21; his father from cancer, his mother passing away peacefully. Kira lived an eventful childhood, making sure that he would never be noticed by having mediocre grades. In any competition he participated in, Kira also was never ranked above 3rd place. Araki has stated that Kira did not have a good childhood, but Jotaro narrated that the Kira family was very close. He graduated from D University in 1988 with a literature degree, then moved to S city for a job at Kameyu's corporate office. He eventually transferred to the Morioh-cho branch in 1993.
Kira discovered his fetish for hands as a child, when he first laid eyes upon the Mona Lisa's image in an artbook. He had an erection looking at her hands and cut off the image's hands to admire them privately. Starting his spree roughly when he was in high school, Kira is a serial killer who originally murdered his victims by stabbing them so viciously that 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). His first victims were Reimi Sugimoto and her entire family, including their dog Arnold.
Kira's Stand, Killer Queen, came as a result of his father, Yoshihiro Kira, giving him a Stand arrow that he himself received from Enya and DIO. Killer Queen allowed him to erase all evidence of his murders by atomizing the victims' bodies, and thus all his murders were ruled out as disappearances. At an unknown point, Kira dubbed his Stand, but refrained from inquiring further about this ability. Though the number of missing people would eventually attract attention, no one would have any reason to suspect that Yoshikage Kira was involved due to his simple demeanor and lifestyle.
Diamond is Unbreakable
Rohan Kishibe's Adventure
Yoshikage Kira is first seen when Josuke stops Koichi from walking into the road as he's driving. He briefly stops his car and stares at the teen but ultimately remains silent and leaves, returning home with the severed hand of a recent victim with whom he gets acquainted with. Kira worries about his girlfriend's wristwatch only to realize it is in her hand bag and promises to get it fixed the next day so that it fits her. Once they arrive at his home, the hand drips some blood on the seat, and Kira makes her wipe the bloodstain before they enter the house.
Some time after, Kira buys a ring for his girlfriend to wear
Yoshikage Kira Wants to Live Quietly
On a sunny day in Morioh, salaryman and secret serial killer Yoshikage Kira is invited to lunch by several of his female coworkers and admirers but pretends that he has an urgent document to deliver. to St. Gentleman's Bakery to buy a sandwich. Conversing with his girlfriend, Kira take the time to appreciate the sandwiches and accidentally makes her girlfriend pierce the wrapping of a sandwich. He lustfully licks the sauce off her fingers and decides to take the sandwich behind.
After buying a sandwich, Kira sits under a tree at the park to eat it, contemplating the beauty of Morioh. The hand begins to smell and Kira already plans to get a new girlfriend. A dog comes by, begging for food but Kira scares him away with a look. Suddenly, Kira notices that his sandwich bag, which contains the severed hand, has gone. He sees a fat boy leaving with a bag while the dog from earlier is munching on a sandwich, and understands that the boy took his bag by mistake. Kira follows the kid to prevent him from seeing the hand, as he fears that the police could easily trace the ring on it and Kira's fingerprints back to him. Having not left a single clue during his 15-year career as a serial killer, Kira is determined to reclaim his "girlfriend".
Kira follows Shigechi across town until the latter runs into Josuke & Okuyasu again. Shigechi offers to let them into his school's prep room to have the coffee and tea that the gym teacher regularly smuggles into the school, but Josuke & Okuyasu turn him down. Thinking that he can reclaim his "girlfriend" without much trouble, Kira follows Shigechi into his school's prep room and tries to grab the St. Gentleman's bag while Shigechi is busy brewing himself some coffee, but is forced to hide in the gymnastics equipment when Josuke & Okuyasu suddenly join Shigechi, having changed their minds about his offer. While the trio is busy eating lunch, Kira attempts to grab the bag with a straightened-out coat hanger, but drops it, piquing Josuke's curiosity. Just when he is about to investigate the bag, however, Shigechi stops him and accuses him of trying to steal his sandwich. He then leaves again to prepare tea for Josuke & Okuyasu, during which Kira successfully reclaims the bag. Upon noticing that his bag is gone, however, Shigechi sends out Harvest to look for it but is cut short when the gym teacher enters the prep room, driving the three boys out and giving Kira an opportunity to escape without a trace.
Incidentally, Kira witnesses the meeting between Josuke Okuyasu & his father, Koichi, Jotaro, Joseph and Shizuka, Yukako, Hazamada, Tonio, Aya, and Rohan and brings them to meet Reimi. Curious, Kira doesn't act but scouts his next victim.
Later, Kira investigates the Stand Users of Morioh and learns about their powers. Unable to fix his own suit, he pays the owner of the Centipede Shoe Store to repair it for him.
Sheer Heart Attack
The next day, Kira comes back to Centipede Shoes, and sees that Jotaro Kujo and Koichi Hirose are investigating his jacket. As a result, he sends Sheer Heart Attack after them. Sheer Heart Attack kills the owner first because of his hot cup of tea. Then, Kira tries to pull his jacket to him, slowly to bait Jotaro and Koichi into approaching but Jotaro sees through the ploy and stays out of the range of Sheer Heart Attack's blast. Kira leaves, confident in Sheer Heart Attack's ability to kill his foes and relaxes at a café. However, when Koichi awakens Echoes Act 3 and traps Sheer Heart Attack in place, the weight increase effect transfers into Kira's left hand. He breaks his cup of coffee, attracting the attention of a waiter. Kira quickly tries to pay for the cup as he feels he must return to the battle but his hand is too heavy and he accidentally destroys his table and tears the waiter's clothes. On the way back to Centipede Shoe Store, Kira encounters a pair of thugs who antagonize him because of his snobby outfit and attitude. Although he cannot physically defend himself, Kira lures one of the thugs into touching his wallet, making his fingers explodes since Killer Queen has also touched it.
Kira eventually reaches Centipede Shoes and confronts an angry Koichi. Killer Queen proves to be stronger than Echoes ACT3 and thus it is knocked away, making Sheer Heart Attack come out of Echoes' range. Kira then easily beats up Koichi with a pincer attack and takes the time to torture him as payment for the earlier humiliation. However, Koichi steals his wallet and learns his name and address. Kira is extremely vexed as Koichi declares that he's easy to unmask and has Killer Queen impale the boy through the chest in a fit of rage. Kira prepares to make Koichi explode, but sees that the boy's socks are inside out.
Kira hesitates and proceeds to fix Koichi's sock, allowing time for Jotaro to get back up. Star Platinum attacks but Killer Queen easily blocks the punch, making Kira overconfident about his chances. However, Jotaro does heavily pummel him with his Stand before collapsing from his wounds again. Kira loses consciousness for a moment and weaks up hearing Josuke and Okuyasu on the scene. He pretends to be a mere bystanders but makes the mistake of asking Josuke to 'fix' him as he fixed Jotaro and Koichi, meaning he can see Stand abilities. Kira outs himself as the enemy. Cornered, Kira cuts his own hand off to release Sheer Heart Attack from Echoes Act 3's ability and flees.
In the streets of Morioh, Kira meets his coworkers again and shocks them with his bloody state. Kira forces a random commuter, Kosaku Kawajiri, to come with him to Aya Tsuji's shop and forces her to use Cinderella to switch his face and fingerprints with Kosaku Kawajiri's. Kira escapes through the back shop and even gets his hand back since Josuke fixed it to follow Kira. However, in their distraction with Aya, the heroes loses Yoshikage Kira's trail. Kira has escaped retribution and changed identity.
Yoshikage Kira's New Situation
Kira thus goes to the Kawajiri's house and discovers Shinobu, Kosaku's unloving wife who feels trapped in a loveless marriage, and also Hayato, the seemingly equally apathetic son of the family. When he returns home, Kira is not greeted by his wife, who says that she hasn't had time to prepare dinner and only gives him a bowl of instant ramen. Kira simply cooks himself, which impresses Shinobu despite herself. However, Kira feels his predatory instincts increase and must clip his nails.
The next day, Shinobu reprimands him for leaving the cat outside and he apologizes. The landlord comes in and then demands to 260,000 yen that the Kawajiri owe him, two months' worth of rent. Shinobu presses "Kosaku" to go to their safe and open it to at least accept their savings, pushing Kira into an impossible situation as he doesn't know the combination. Kira decides to act bodly and confronts the landowner. While he apologizes profusely, he summons Killer Queen and has it steal 500,000 yen from the landlord's own bag, pretending to honestly paying the man. Shinobu has seen everything, but instead develops romantic feelings for this new, more assertive and active version of her husband, without suspecting a thing.
From now on, Kira applies himself to perfect his disguise and steadily make sure nothing about him is suspect. However, his sexual frustration grows as he refrains himself from killing and one evening, he almost lets himself kill Shinobu, who fortunately mistake his gestures for mere sexual advances. Meanwhile Hayato spies on his parents, and wonders why his father would practice writing his own name over and over again.
The Cat Likes Yoshikage Kira
One day as Kira returns home, he notices that Kosaku's shoes are too big for him and plan to replace them. Suddenly, he hears Shinobu cry in fear and rush to his side. Having found a stray cat in her basement, Shinobu returns to Kira and begs him for help, explaining the cat's hostility towards her. Kira is enticed upon hearing that the cat had a strange hole in its neck, deducing that it is the result of an arrow strike and that the cat is a potential Stand user. However, when Kira goes down to the basement to investigate, he finds the cat dead, having been fatally pierced by glass shards during a previous fight with Shinobu; from this, Kira determines that the cat must not have been a Stand user due to how easily it died. Kira buries the cat in his backyard.
The next day, Kira comes back to the garden and notices Stray Cat, the cat-plant. He thus confirms that the cat he buried was indeed a Stand user based on Shinobu's account of what just happened to her. As Stray Cat grows in size, Kira performs a number of tests on Stray Cat. He realizes that Stray Cat is the Stand reincarnation of the cat, conceived by the arrow and brought forth from death. Shinobu, meanwhile, asks Kira if the spot he's looking at is really where he buried the cat, citing her dislike of that spot due to it being where she lost her toenail. Kira, however, is more concerned about not letting Shinobu notice the plant moving, fearing that it would allow Jotaro to trace it back to him. Thus, Kira sends out Killer Queen to discretely blow up Stray Cat and get him out of his hair, only for his bomb to dud; Kira determines that this anomaly is the result of Stray Cat's powers. Shinobu sees Stray Cat moving, but is knocked out by one of his air bubbles. When Stray Cat knocks away Kira's bomb, it goes off, allowing Kira to deduce that the plant is surrounding itself with a vacuum bubble to suppress Killer Queen's weaponry.
Kira finally notices Hayato spying on him and Shinobu, noting the child's suspicious behavior during his time as Kosaku Kawajiri. After Hayato exits the house, Kira also leaves to go to work but notices that all the kids from Hayato's school wear identical yellow sun hats. Remembering that Hayato left his hat at home, Kira returns to the Kawajiri household, suspecting that Hayato is still at home and up to no good. Kira hears a noise and rushes up to the attic in a panic. However, he merely sees that Stray Cat has made a mess, probably because it was hungry. Kira leaves, reassured that he doesn't have to kill Hayato for knowing his true identity. Kira thus inadvertently confirms Hayato's worst suspicion as the boy eavesdrops on Kira, hidden in the attic.
My Dad Is Not My Dad
Kira continues to struggle to maintain his disguise as Kosaku Kawajiri, with his murderous urges growing more and more. While on the subway, he is pestered by a couple after he accidentally irritates them, and gets mocked by them for his bowling pin nail clipper. In retaliation, Kira gives in to his urges and follows the couple home, calmly destroying the man with Killer Queen and forcing the woman to clip his nails. Kira torments the woman, pinning her boyfriend's earrings, his ears still attached, to her before using Killer Queen to completely obliterate her, save for her hand.
However, Kira's moment of calm joy is interrupted when he realizes that he was being covertly filmed by Hayato. Not wanting to be exposed, Kira destroys the woman's hand before following his "son" back home and confront him in the bathroom. After a very tense time together, Kira and Hayato turn on each other when Kira confirms that Hayato was taping him. Kira attempts to kill Hayato and make it look like an accident, only for Hayato to point out that all of this is being filmed as well. Trapped between a rock and a hard place, both Kira and Hayato's tensions come to a boiling point. Kira loses his temper and kills Hayato.
Another One Bites the Dust
Kira corners Hayato in the bath, hoping to get his hands on the videotape. Hayato reveals that he has backups hidden in a number of places, and warns Kira not to harm him or his mother. Kira loses his temper and kills the boy, then realizes he has made a mistake. He bites his nails to the point that they started to bleed, which his father says Kira has done since he was a little boy. In his desperation, the Arrow in his father's portrait pierces him on its own, granting Kira a new ability called Bites the Dust, an ability that manifested from his desire not to be caught. Kira revives Hayato by planting Bites the Dust in him and begins the next day with new confidence.
Josuke and company attempt to pursue their new lead, only to be trapped in the time loop created by Bites the Dust. However, Hayato manages to take advantage of the time loop and cause Kira to expose himself by gloating about his victory despite Hayato's efforts. Josuke and Okuyasu, arriving on time thanks to a call from Hayato, hear Kira gloating and immediately attack him, forcing him to call back Bites the Dust and cancel the time loop.
Crazy Diamond is Unbreakable
Kira combines Stray Cat's aerokinesis with Killer Queen's explosive charges to produce invisible air bombs. After defeating Okuyasu, he charges Okuyasu's body to explode on contact, forcing Josuke into a dilemma, but is again foiled by Hayato, who allows himself to be blown up by touching Okuyasu, only to have Josuke heal him.
When Josuke and Hayato escape into a nearby house, Kira continues to attack them from a distance with the help of his father, who is hidden in Hayato's pocket and relaying their location to him. He is eventually tricked into blowing up the photograph containing Yoshihiro. Josuke then uses Crazy Diamond's restoration ability to pull glass shards covered with his own dried blood towards the house, intercepting Kira on the way.
Kira, unwilling to accept defeat, is pummeled out into the neighborhood sidewalk, exposed to a crowd of people. Unwilling to accept this irony, Kira attempts to use Bites the Dust on a nearby woman to escape. As he gloats over his victory, he is confused to discover himself in a strange alley and finds that his watch has not been restored when the time loop reset.
Town Guardian Spirits
He encounters Reimi, who reveals that Bites the Dust has actually been foiled by Echoes Act 3's "freeze" technique. Jotaro, finally close enough, stops time and beats him with Star Platinum's barrage. Still alive, but unable to activate Bites the Dust with broken fingers, Kira was accidentally run over by a nearby ambulance, which was called in to save him and take him to the hospital.
Let Me Remind You
Upon recognizing Reimi and wondering why she would show him her back wound, Kira recalls that his father told him about a place he could not turn his back to when he died and tries to force Reimi to look back instead. However, his plan fails when Arnold bites off his hand.
Goodbye, Morioh Town
Kira falls to the ground, ends up turning around in surprise, and is torn to pieces and dragged off to another world by a swarm of hands.[1][2]
Dead Man's Questions
Kira is shown some time between the End of Diamond is Unbreakable and the End of Stone Ocean as a vagabond spirit who is unaware of his identity. Now a ghost trapped in the living world after his death, Kira can't remember anything but his name but is sure he cannot get to heaven.
However, he still shows traits of his personality, as he wants a normal life and doesn't wish to attract the attention of living people. Not sure what to do with his eternal existence, he now works for a monk, doing the "dirty work" of killing targets she gives him in exchange for money. He believes that, by making this job his purpose to live, he might find happiness.
He is sent to a mansion belonging to a soldier that turned into a spirit to find out the reason behind the deaths of people around the area. There, he discovers that he can interact with objects in the mansion, and is excited by the possibility of living there.
As he investigates further, he is attacked by Cleansers, and in the process of destroying them, is forced to cut his own arm off. After escaping the mansion, he goes to investigate the information the monk gave him, swearing to kill her if he finds any errors. He wonders if her arm would stick in place of his lost one.
JoJolion
Kira's counterpart in the Alternate Universe is also named Yoshikage Kira, who has a similar love of hands to the original Kira, but isn't a murderer.
Jorge Joestar
This section requires expansion.
References
- ↑ Chapter 438: Town Guardian Spirits
- ↑ Chapter 439: Goodbye, Morioh Town - The Golden Heart
