JoJolion - Chapter 99
Summary
The reproductive habits of the Rock Humans are explained. It is said that Rock Human females are indistinguishable from human women, and that human males can inseminate and reproduce with Rock Human women. However, there are no examples of the opposite. Rock Human mothers give birth in the spring and summer season and carry the fetus for six months, and when they give birth, they rarely or may never have any affection for the child as a parent. The mother will bring the child into the forest, and leave them near a dead tree without anything to cover them. This was the only way a Rock Human mother could show any love or affection to their child. The child may starve or be killed by wild animals, but the first thing that approaches the child will generally be insects. Asian giant hornets will come after the child, who seems like easy picking as a newborn Rock Human is merely 28 mm long and weighs 15 grams.
However, the child will latch onto the hornet, clinging to its thorax to avoid the stinger and the mandibles, like a human baby clinging to its mother's breast. The hornet will eventually bring the child into the nest, while half of the child's skin hardens into rock. Inside the nest, the child will crawl around, seeking the queen. The comrades can't kill the child because of the child's rock skin. When the child finds the queen, they claw their way into a soft portion of her body, until they take over her while she's half alive. Thus, for seventeen years, the young Rock Human will have food and shelter, and learn on his own the laws of nature and all manners of theoretical knowledge. At the end of this cycle, the young Rock Human will abruptly grow in stature, kill all the wasps and venture into the outside world. Tooru, as a Rock Human, lived through all of this.
While four billion years ago, life based on carbon was born, some organisms developed based on silicon and hid among the carbon-based organisms, growing into "Rock Organisms". No one knows why these two paths exist, but it is theorized that silicon-based life may be a fallback for life, in case carbon-based life comes to a dead end. Rock Humans are thus fallbacks for humans. While they mostly live independently, they will form groups and slip into human societies if it's to their advantage but there will be no love between them. Rock Humans are fascinated by the ground, rocks, and stones, seeing them as blessings. They make special places that give Rock Humans special power as their true home, like the Devil's Palms and Morioh's Wall Eyes.
The story jumps to an undisclosed point in the past, as a young Rai Mamezuku attends his father's funeral. Pestered by some relatives, a distraught Mamezuku is helped being left alone by Norisuke Higashikata IV. After hugging for a moment, Mamezuku tells Norisuke about his father's pear orchard. The young boy insists that the pears were raised well but that strange insects devoured the fruits and that he even saw one. However, Norisuke refutes this theory, as he and others checked the orchards and found nothing. Moreover, Norisuke tells Mamezuku that the landslide that killed his father was simply a natural calamity, a stroke of bad luck that this year's typhoon caused even though such occurrences don't happen normally in Morioh. Mamezuku notices a man in the crowd he's never seen, nor does Norisuke recognize him since he's facing away. However, Mamezuku has other duties to attend to for the moment.
In the present, Mamezuku realizes that the man he's seen at his father's funeral was in fact Satoru Akefu. Akefu says that he is sure that the New Locacaca branch is fine, which prompts Josuke Higashikata to say that Akefu must not have it. Satoru then reveals his true self: a Stand named Wonder of U. He retorts that the flow of events will bring calamity to Josuke nonetheless as he will try to pursue him. Dododo De Dadada reappears behind Josuke and attacks with the crane. Josuke tries to summon Soft & Wet to defend himself but suddenly a strange matter oozes from Josuke's body. Blinded and his mouth full of the strange substance, Josuke realizes that this is a consequence of the Rock Insect's previous attack. The crane flings another stick at Josuke but Mamezuku detaches his hand and protects Josuke by letting his own hand get pierced. As Josuke tries to climb a desk, Mamezuku tells him to stop moving as he'll cough up asbestos if he goes up but that thankfully it is a weak poison. Wonder of U notes that Mamezuku seems to know about the insect, and indeed Mamezuku recognizes it from when his father's pear orchard was ravaged. However, the Head Doctor adds that the trigger for the asbestos production is to stretch one's limbs after being stung. He explains that Dododo De Dadada is a mountainous insect that hunts rabbits and exploits their habit of jumping around to hunt. The Head Doctor reveals that the landslide that struck down Mamezuku's father was, in fact, a calamity caused by Wonder of U. Hearing this, Mamezuku's eyes flared up. Mamezuku then warns Josuke that Dododo De Dadada is coming for him from the desk.
Appearances
Gallery
Ultra Jump August 2020
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Trivia
- The women who appear at the start of the chapter are (in order of ↓←):
- Ermes Costello
- Elizabeth I
- Mineko Iwasaki
- Shakoki Dogu
- A Rock Human's mother
- Audrey Hepburn
- Kaori Icho
- Aretha Franklin
- Jeanne d'Arc
- Cleopatra
- Venus de Milo
- Woman in Burqa
- Enya the Hag
- Sadako Yamamura
References
