JoJolion
JoJolion (ジョジョリオン, JoJorion) is the award-winning eighth part of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, published in Ultra Jump starting May 2011.
The story begins in 2011 and follows Josuke Higashikata, a young man afflicted by retrograde amnesia, on his search to uncover his identity in Morioh Town, a coastal Japanese town affected by the Tohoku earthquake.
JoJolion represents the second part of the series set in the "Steel Ball Run Universe".
Plot
Welcome to Morioh Town
Yasuho Hirose, hiding from Joshu Higashikata near Morioh Town's Wall Eyes, discovers a naked man in a sailor cap half buried underground.
In narration, Yasuho explains how the Wall Eyes rose concurrent with a version of the 2011 Tohoku earthquake. Massive, rocky protrusions marked with long, vertical holes, they rise between the coastline and the mainland, blocking highways, waterways, gas and power lines.
Yasuho calls an ambulance. She notices a star-shaped birthmark on his shoulder, surrounded by the fresh mark of a human's bite. The man asks Yasuho whether she knows who he is, before beginning to sink into the ground, prompting her to pull him out, revealing a deep hole. She notices that he has four testicles.
Joshu finds Yasuho and the man, jealously launching a lethal attack; inciting him to initiate a power in the form of a bubble emerging from his birthmark that turns Joshu blind. The man faints, before they are all taken to hospital.
Soft & Wet
Later at the hospital, Yasuho meets the young man again and he explains to her that he is amnesiac. Yasuho offers to help him and by searching the man's hat, they manage to seemingly learn his identity: Yoshikage Kira. However, Yasuho feels this name doesn't fit him, and instead nicknames him "Josuke" after her childhood dog.
They go to Kira's apartment, where Josuke discovers a naked woman in the bathtub but Yasuho discovers a compromising photo album, making her leave in disgust. As Yasuho leaves, the woman in the bathtub begins to drown, seemingly controlled by another person, and Josuke's attempt to save her traps him under the same ability: each time he injures his hand or foot, it will be under his attacker's control. The woman warns him the whole apartment is trapped, only for Josuke to reveal his Stand, Soft & Wet, evening the playing field as he seeks out who is attacking him. Yasuho also returns, knowing in her heart that the man she just met could not have truly been responsible for the photographs she saw, giving Josuke the chance to fight back and win.
The attacker reveals himself as Ojiro Sasame, a surfer seeking revenge against Yoshikage Kira, whom Josuke closely resembles (in dress as well as in body). Sasame tells of a psychopathic Kira, who in the past by an obscure power and for little reason convinced Sasame to consume his own fingers. Finished, Josuke identifies a Wall Eye in a photo of Kira. Yasuho and Josuke travel to the site of this self-portrait, the same place that he was found a few days earlier, and they dig deeper. They soon uncover the body of the real Yoshikage Kira, who died of cardiac arrest three days prior. Yasuho secretly obtains the autopsy results and discovers something else: Kira's corpse is missing both of his testicles.
The Higashikata Family
Yasuho introduces Josuke to the head of the Higahikata family, Norisuke Higashikata IV, owner of a fruit importation business inherited from his grandfather Norisuke Higashikata I.
Lent the Higashikata name, Josuke Higashikata is welcomed into Norisuke's home and provided with Joshu's bedroom, to his chagrin. However, while Norisuke instructs Josuke to guard his blind daughter Daiya and ominously warns him to obey his word, Yasuho is escorted out by the family's maid Nijimura and warned not to return.
California King Bed
As everyone leaves, Daiya begins to flirt with Josuke and decides to play with him. After instructing him not to worry about her, she seemingly falls and injures herself, and Josuke rushes to her aid. This breaks the rule she just made for him, and he steals one of the few memories he has made with the power of her Stand California King Bed, transforming it into a chess piece. To make things fair, she tells Josuke that if she manages to step on his shadow, the memories will be returned to him, but she has memorized the whole layout of the house and knows exactly where the light casts shadows at any time of the day.
Meanwhile, Yasuho discovers from a DNA test that Josuke and Kira are practically the same person.
Josuke loses more and more memories as the day goes on, until he manages to trick Daiya into stepping on his shadow cast from the light of an open refrigerator. Defeated, Daiya is upset that Josuke will not be her boyfriend, but Josuke promises her that if she does not resort to trickery, he may like her as a friend, cheering her up. With Daiya's help, Josuke enters Norisuke's study, having seen a strange symbol earlier in the day that he had also seen at Kira's apartment.
Family Tree
Josuke discovers a book in the study marked with the same symbol: a record of the Steel Ball Run race. In the front cover he discovers a family tree for the Higashikata family, and that the first Norisuke Higashikata's daughter married Johnny Joestar, a direct ancestor of the dead Yoshikage Kira.
"Paisley Park" & "Born This Way"
From the family tree, Josuke makes plans to seek out Kira's only living relative: his mother Holy Joestar-Kira. With Yasuho's help, Josuke discovers that she is a doctor at local T.G. University Hospital. Josuke heads off to see her, as does Yasuho, who also discovers she is not a resident doctor at the hospital but rather a patient. Josuke seems confused by the directions the GPS system on the phone he borrowed from Daiya, as it seems to be constantly directing him away from the hospital. However, he also discovers he is being tracked by a motorcyclist who seems to attack him with a freezing cold wind.
He attacks the biker, knocking off the helmet, only to reveal the biker is not a human but a Stand. Josuke also realizes that the GPS instructions are from another Stand, but this one is actually trying to save him from the biker Stand. After recognizing one Stand's power activates when a door is opened, he escapes the Stand's powers, but uses Soft & Wet to track down the Stand's master, only to find the Higashikata's maid Kyo Nijimura.
Josuke demands to know if Nijimura has been instructed by Norisuke to attack him, only angering Nijimura that she would ever trust the Higashikata family. She threatens Josuke to never approach Holy Joestar-Kira, only for Josuke to demand to know why, revealing Nijimura's star-shaped birthmark, identifying her as Holy's daughter and a member of the Joestar family. Nijimura threatens him once more, only for Josuke to concede and promise not to go near Holy.
The Lemon and the Tangerine
As Josuke leaves, Nijimura asks him to show her his tongue. Upon closer inspection, she points out that Josuke has two tongues (fused as one) and four eyes (as two), recognizing that he must be partly her brother Yoshikage Kira, fused together with another person as a result of the ground near the Meditation Pine. Josuke refuses to believe this, until Nijimura buries a lemon and a tangerine in the ground near the pine tree, retrieving them moments later and slicing them open to reveal that some of the segments have switched fruits. However, Kira's Stand was not Soft & Wet but rather Killer Queen, leaving the identity of the other man a mystery.
Back at the hospital, Yasuho has managed to gain entry and meet Holy Joestar-Kira who seems eccentric, but she is soon kicked out by security. Holy watches on as she sees Yasuho's Stand Paisley Park, activate subconsciously, musing that she may be able to help her son. Paisley Park's powers ultimately lead Yasuho back into the hospital into a room right next to Holy's where she sees the extent of her mysterious illness. She lacks the ability to discern people from objects, and the doctors note that she is missing several of her vital organs and her brain has perfectly spherical voids in it, but there is no sign of surgical removal.
"Shakedown Road"
Several days later, Norisuke asks Joshu to take Josuke down to the local high school to see if he can be enrolled there. However, the path to the high school leads them through Shakedown Road, where the residents of the road somehow make Joshu and Josuke damage miscellaneous items and coerce them into compensating with increasingly more money. Neither Joshu nor Josuke can figure out how this is happening, as they do not recall damaging the items, but Joshu manages to catch one of the alleged events on film, watching as Josuke is almost immediately transported from the street into a pet shop display and back, killing an expensive turtle. As the pet shop owner demands 330 thousand yen in compensation, Joshu and Josuke reluctantly become mules for a suspected drug trade as a pair of cops watch on.
Before the deal is made, Joshu realizes the trick of Shakedown Road: the gingko leaves littering the street hide several small Stands that instantaneously transport anything that touches them. He uses this knowledge to steal the money he and Josuke were supposed to deliver to the dealer. Leaving Josuke behind to deal with the cops, Joshu flees with the money, only to be chased by the thugs that hired him in the first place. As he is about to be assaulted, his Stand Nut King Call awakens, saving him from the attack. Now safe, Joshu inspects the money only to find it has disappeared, only to be replaced by soap bubbles.
Josuke has discovered the trick of Shakedown Road as well, and knows that once someone discovers the truth of Les Feuilles they are free to use its powers as they see fit. Safe from the police, as he does not have any drugs on him, he uses the cash to pay off the pet shop owner. As he heads back home, he tries to call Yasuho but the call doesn't go through as he accidentally stole Joshu's phone to make the call. However, Yasuho realizes that the call was made near a local landmark, the Joestar Jizō. Reminded of the family tree, she researches the subject. The pet shop owner approaches Josuke as well, and tells him of a story of the dedication of the Jizo that he learned from his family.
Morioh Town: Year 1901
Josuke and Yasuho learn that research and the revelation of the pet shop owner that the Jizo was built as a memorial to Johnny Joestar and discover the circumstances of his death.
A famous American jockey, Johnny had married Rina Higashikata whom he met at the end of Steel Ball Run and had built relations with Japan as both a riding teacher for the government and a fruit importer. The two lived together in America on a ranch, but after several years, Rina was struck by a mysterious disease.
Rina began to lose her memories, and her skin began to turn to stone. In his anguish, Johnny stole the Saint's Corpse and took it to Japan, pursued by American agents. He hid the Corpse in a hole under a pine tree and brought his family here. Praying to the Corpse to transfer the disease away from her wife, Johnny saw with horror that his son became ill instead. At the end, Johnny took the disease onto himself and died, his head crushed by a rock. Yasuho discovers Rina had been accused of his murder, but with no evidence to support this claim, she was ultimately set free.
The pet shop owner claims that he may have been told a completely wrong story, but Josuke realizes the link between the mysterious illness that afflicted Rina and the one Holy Joestar suffers from to this day.
Elsewhere, Yasuho finds her way to the Meditation Pine at the rear of the Higashikata estate from photos in the news stories she has researched. She reads of a baby who washed up on the beach nearby on November 13, 1901, wearing a necklace. As she looks around she muses to herself that she can see the Higashikata house, when she is grabbed by a hand from inside the tree and momentarily groped in the darkness.
Paper Moon Deception
Yasuho finds herself with Tsurugi Higashikata, the grandchild of Norisuke. Tsurugi reveals that they are in an underground facility used by the Higashikata Family. When Tsurugi begins to grope her more, Yasuho demands that she stop, only to realize that Tsurugi si not a little girl. Tsurugi reveals to her that he has been made to cross-dress to thwart off a family curse, and he begins to eerily predict Yasuho's thoughts with an origami fortune teller. When Yasuho demands that he allow her to leave, she suddenly realizes she cannot find her phone. Angered that Tsurugi has hidden it from her, she finds it, only to discover it has been folded up into an origami frog. It leaps at her, and she is suddenly put under the thrall of Tsurugi's Stand Paper Moon King.
Yasuho leaves and heads back into town, followed by Tsurugi, and discovers that everyone else's faces looks eerily the same. She calls Joshu's phone, again, realizing it must have been Josuke who had called her, and she asks him to meet her at a local store. However, all of the store fronts begin to look the same, and elsewhere, another of Tsurugi's origami finds Josuke, placing him under Paper Moon King's ability as well. Joshu finds Josuke before Yasuho does, taking his phone back, as Yasuho ultimately finds Joshu instead of Josuke. Joshu misreads Yasuho's situation, and tries to grope her, only for Yasuho to bash his head in with a toilet tank cover. Yasuho escapes only to be nearly kidnapped by a group of thugs. When she demands the car stop, Paisley Park grabs the driver's foot and slams it onto the brakes, injuring all of the occupants except for Yasuho.
When Tsurugi at last reveals himself, Yasuho concedes, following him back to his playroom. Elsewhere, Josuke sees that he is no longer afflicted by Tsurugi's Stand and realizes 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.
Tsurugi's Goal & the Architect
Yasuho calms down in Tsurugi's playroom. He apologizes, admitting that he targeted her with his Stand, Paper Moon King. He states that anyone who comes near the Wall Eyes will awaken a Stand and that the Higashikata family members do not appear to discuss the subject among themselves.
Yasuho asks Tsurugi what purpose the underground complex serves, and he tells her that it is a space dedicated to treating the mysterious illness that affects the first born members of the Higashikata family, as it slowly turns their skin to stone. Yasuho is reminded of Holy's condition and that Kira tried to save his mother.
Tsurugi leaves the room and Yasuho takes a nap. However, a figure emerges from a wall. Uttering obscurities, mentioning Soft & Wet and that Josuke need not exist, the man pulls a sheet of clear material from his eyes, pinning it around Yasuho's wrists and face. He captures Yasuho who wakes up and proceeds to torture her. Paisley Park escapes to warn Josuke. However, this is all in the man's plans.
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 dies again. Yotsuyu suddenly slips on a banana peel origami that Yasuho made earlier and the man disappears.
Norisuke, Tsurugi & Yotsuyu
Meanwhile, Josuke spots Tsurugi heading toward the garden and follows him, himself followed by Norisuke. Josuke decides to interrogate Norisuke to discover his intentions once and for all. Despite earlier suspicious behaviour, Norisuke exposes the multiple reasons why he doesn't mean Josuke any harm, most importantly, that both are interested in finding a cure for the Rock Disease plaguing both their families. Norisuke says that he has adopted Josuke because Kira has supposedly discovered a cure and he hopes to find it hidden away in Kira's memories.
Josuke asks Norisuke how he managed to survive the illness, and Norisuke vaguely answers that his parents traded their lives to cure him. Josuke asks Norisuke's permission to question Tsurugi about his intentions, and the request encourages Norisuke to accompany him as a form of compromise. Norisuke nonetheless keeps his Stand's nature secret.
Near the hatch to the underground facility, Josuke and Norisuke find themselves surrounded by numerous garden pots, converging toward them. Breaking the pots with Soft & Wet proves ineffective when the shards begin to dig into Josuke's flesh, attracted to him in particular. It is only through the combined effort of a now free Norisuke dragging him out of the Pot's reach and Josuke utilizing soap bubbles to steal the weight of the shards attached to him does he escape death.
Josuke then feels someone touching him but doesn't see anyone. This time hundreds of chestnuts advance on the pair and threaten to pierce their skin with sharp thorns until Josuke robs them of their moisture and they disintegrate, giving Norisuke enough time to force the hatch open and break the chained inner handle with a rock. Once the two enter and seal the bunker they find themselves out of their opponent's effective radius and indulge in a temporary calm.
King Nothing
In the bunker, Norisuke compels Tsurugi to reveal that Yotsuyu approached him with the promise of a cure for the Rock Disease, demonstrating its potency by feeding it to a dog transformed into rock and seemingly healing it. However, the exact nature of the cure wasn't revealed to him. All Tsurugi had to do was lure Josuke into a trap.
Josuke, who has made sure that Yasuho is safe in a nearby bedroom, checks the room again when Tsurugi mentions that there is another hidden entrance. When he sees that Yasuho has disappeared, he immediately gives chase. Norisuke reveals his Stand King Nothing which tracks objects and people by their scents, and both follow the scent of Yasuho, aware that they are going into a trap. While following the scent, Norisuke chooses to reveal some of the Higashikata's secrets, namely the Rock Disease which affects the eldest child but which was "healed" by having one member of the family perform an equivalent exchange in the ground of their property with the child.
King Nothing leads Josuke and Norisuke to the coast in which they find Yasuho still unconscious. At the same time, Josuke spots Yotsuyu who manages to touch him before being pummeled away and hide among the rocks. Threatened again by Yotsuyu's power, Josuke suggests that Norisuke track the mysterious man who can transform into rocks.
"I Am a Rock"
Using Yotsuyu's scent, Norisuke manages to find the architect in his rock form. Josuke bashes the rock with another rock and watches it bleed, puzzling the two of them as to Yotsuyu's true nature. Yotsuyu turns back into a flesh form and declares that he will obtain the Higashikata's wealth before disappearing again when Soft & Wet punches him away.
Josuke goes on the offensive and foregoes defending himself against several canisters of pesticide Yotsuyu has willed to attack him with his Stand. Josuke manages to spot Yotsuyu and traps him in a giant bubble, only for Yotsuyu to use his Stand I Am a Rock to escape. As the pesticide comes closer, Josuke attacks Yotsuyu once more, hurtling both of them off a cliff into the sea below. Josuke traps Yotsuyu in nets and threatens to drown him if he doesn't answers his question, but Yotsuyu remains silent. Josuke threatens him by taking all of the oxygen out of his body with Soft & Wet, which causes Yotsuyu to crumble to dust. As the bits of stone float away, Josuke spots a mysterious fruit amongst the flotsam, but it sinks deep into the water before he can discover its true nature.
Josuke returns to the surface with what remains of Yotsuyu, only raising more questions than answers when examining the net full of stones. Tsurugi asks if he saw the cure Yotsuyu had promised him, and Josuke mentions he saw a strange fruit float away from him. Norisuke says he will activate King Nothing to automatically track down the fruit for them.
Josuke! Go to the Higashikata Fruit Parlor
Norisuke reveals to Josuke that he checked the Yagiyama family register and discovered that the real Yotsuyu Yagiyama died years ago, meaning the one they fought was an impostor. Meanwhile, Yasuho has been sent home. Norisuke, Josuke, and Tsurugi then manage to trap the dog Tsurugi saw Yotsuyu "cure" with the mysterious fruit. The dog takes a liking to Tsurugi, who names the dog Iwasuke.
Realizing that their search has reached a dead end, Norisuke brings Josuke to his fruit parlor where he keeps a record of every known fruit, but they are interrupted by the return of Norisuke's first born son (and Tsurugi's father) Jobin Higashikata. Jobin has just returned from a trip abroad where he has purchased a rare Dorcus Titanus Palawanicus stag beetle which he quickly gifts to Josuke. Overjoyed to see his eldest son, Norisuke decides to accompany him back home, and unbeknownst to him, King Nothing detects the mysterious fruit's scent on Jobin's handkerchief, a fact only Josuke notices.
Every Day Is a Summer Vacation
At the Higashikata household, Josuke asks if he can go to Jobin's room, saying he needs advice for raising his stag beetle. Accompanied by Joshu, Josuke is accepted in Jobin's room.
A flashback reveals that Josuke has goaded Tsurugi into cooperating with him against Jobin. Tsurugi reveals that Jobin is obsessed with beetles and beetle fights. He will never turn down a challenge or a bet, but he will quickly be able to discover he is being fooled.
Back in Jobin's room, Josuke manipulates Jobin into accepting one round of beetle fight, the loser having to shave one eyebrow. The first round begins between two Palawanicus beetles. At first Jobin's beetle gets the upper hand thanks to sharpened mandibles and planted female pheromones (normally applied with a paintbrush, but this time with Soft & Wet) which motivate the beetle. But Josuke releases the pheromones he's planted in the ring with Soft & Wet and his beetle makes Jobin's beetle flee out of the arena. Jobin loses one time.
Meanwhile, Tsurugi goes to Yasuho's home and enlists her help to investigate Jobin. Jobin, happy despite his loss, accepts another round with another beetle. If Josuke wins, he gets the key to Jobin's Lamborghini.
Unexpectedly, the second beetle fights with unnatural precision, and Josuke notices a liquid oozing from a hole on its head. Just as Jobin's Rosenbergi is about to defeat the Palawanicus Josuke was given earlier, the round times out. Josuke asks about the liquid he saw, as he has stolen a bit of it from Jobin's paintbrush, and Jobin reveals that it is simply wax, which when melted will cause convulsions to the beetle and eventually kill it, but not before Jobin wins the match.
As the second bout begins, Josuke pops the bubbles which plundered the air around the paintbrush and is baffled to discover a temperature as high as 60 °C, caused by Jobin's Stand Speed King. The Rosenbergi slowly overwhelms the Palawanicus with its precise movement. However, Josuke has planted hornet's poison in Jobin's brush as Jobin brushed his Rosenbergi between rounds, killing it. Josuke is the winner; he takes the Lamborghini's keys with him and tries to leave but Jobin stops him, having realized that Josuke came here for an ulterior motive. The keys are transported anyway to Tsurugi with a bubble, who goes on the investigate the car in the garage.
Jobin Higashikata Is a Stand User
When Yasuho and Tsurugi enter the garage, Yasuho's phone gives her a choice between two items, and Yasuho chooses the option that says "flashlight". When they open the Lamborghini's door, Paisley Park appears, gives Yasuho the flashlight and shows the Lamborghini's itinerary in Morioh.
Jobin procceeds to pressure Josuke into revealing his intention with his mysterious power, beginning to suffer a nosebleed from tissues Jobin had given him but had been affected by Speed King's power. Josuke makes his escape by sending some of the hot air to the fire sprinkler system in Jobin's beetle room, but Jobin believes Josuke's escape is a ruse and he and Joshu check out his car. Yasuho and Tsurugi are almost caught in the act, but they cannot be found, as the flashlight Paisley Park gave Yasuho earlier revealed the location of Norisuke's car keys, and they escape by hiding in Norisuke's car. When Jobin and Joshu leave, Yasuho has Paisley Park check the Lamborghini's onboard computers and discovers nearby security camera footage of Jobin meeting another man in the city.
Doobie Wah
Yasuho discovers the man's identity as Aisho Dainenjiyama, a security guard at the baseball stadium nearby. She and Tsurugi trail him using Yasuho's phone empowered by Paisley Park and folded up by Paper Moon King into a frogand find him selling a fruit to an old man who miraculously regrows a lost leg. However, Aisho discovers the phone watching him and stomps on it, hurting both Yasuho and Tsurugi.
Although the phone escapes, Aisho unleashes his Stand Doobie Wah! to chase Yasuho and Tsurugi. Although they believe they are out of its range, they discover that Doobie Wah! materializing from their own breath, forcing them not to breathe as they try to flee. They hop on a bus to get out of the Stand's range, but Doobie Wah! relentlessly pursues them.
A flashback details Aisho's past: he used to live in a house with a girlfriend, but when he revealed his true nature as a rock man, his girlfriend used one of his hibernation periods to sell the house, nearly killing him in the process when it was demolished; Aisho was saved when Yotsuyu woke him up and lamented at the loss of his house. To attack back, Tsurugi releases a car origami that makes contact with Aisho. Just as Aisho corners the two, he talks to Jobin who he had called earlier to warn him that he was being followed. However, Aisho spots another Jobin next by just as he is crushed by a bus Tsurugi had disguised to look like whoever Aisho was talking to, unaware that it was his very own father.
Love Love Deluxe
The next day, Yasuho finally meets up with Josuke, again. They stroll along the beach, sharing a tender moment, but another girl suddenly greets Josuke as "Setchan", asking to meet her again later, but later believes she is mistaken and leaves. Josuke apologizes to Yasuho and goes to meet the girl, who he deduces is named Karera Sakunami. She seems to know Josuke, and after managing to call her by her name rather than a polite honorific, she realizes that this is truly her old friend. Josuke plays along, hiding his lost memories, leading Karera to reveal his original name: Josefumi Kujo. Meanwhile a pair of twins playing football, the A. Phex Brothers, track Karera.
In a street, the A. Phex Brothers attack Karera and Josuke. The elder uses his Stand Schott Key No.1 to douse Karera with gasoline, which he ignites. Josuke saves Karera, who flees, and the Brothers opt to kill Josuke first.
The nature of Rock Humans is explained, revealing their coexistence with humanity in secret, the prevalence of Stands amongst them, and the seeming cursed interactions they have if they fall in love with a human.
A short fight ensues between Josuke and the A. Phex Brothers. Josuke manages to use Schott Key No.2's poison gas to his advantage and takes the elder brother hostage with bubbles full of poison. When the elder, soaked with gasoline, is ignited by Karera, his brother runs toward him, forgetting the bubbles which pop and envelop him in poison gas. Both Rock Men are consequently killed. After watching the fight, Karera finally realizes that Kira and Josuke had performed an equivalent exchange, and leaves Josuke be before he can ask her anything else.
Hato Brought Her Boyfriend Home
The legendary Rokakaka Tree is introduced, being a plant from New Guinea formally discovered by an Australian expedition in 1938. The Rokakaka was used by the locals to cure various ailments, but another aspect of their body mysteriously turned to stone. During World War II, all reports of the fruit disappeared and it became a mere legend.
In Yasuho's home, Yasuho and Tsurugi talk on the phone with Josuke about Josefumi Kujo, Josuke's supposed identity. The conversation is interrupted when Hato brings her new boyfriend Tamaki Damo to meet her family. Damo is unattractive and awkward, leading to an embarrassing conversation that leads Josuke to leave the room. However, the whole family is soon immobilized by Damo's Vitamin C which softens them. Joshu is washed away into a sink, Josuke, Daiya, and Kyo are reduced to liquid puddles, and Norisuke is confronted alone by Damo, Hato the only one still spared.
Damo interrogates Norisuke in order to find who has been dismantling his organization. Damo then explains the context of the whole affair.
Two years ago, the maritime doctor Yoshikage Kira, then 27-years-old, discovered Aisho Dainenjiyama in his rock form. Curious, investigated the whole trade and discovers the existence of the Rokakaka. He coincidentally meets with Josefumi.
Vitamin C and Killer Queen
Back when Josefumi was a little child, he once almost drowned at the beach when his neglectful mother Kiyomi lost him in the sea. Brought to the hospital, Josefumi was saved by Holy Joestar-Kira and her son Yoshikage, who performed surgery with his Stand to clear out a blood clot in Josefumi's brain. Out of gratitude for both of them, Josefumi accepted Kira's offer to help him steal the fruit. Moreover, Josefumi demonstrates that they can reduce the risks by only stealing a single branches from the tree, as he can graft it onto another tree with the power of his Stand Soft & Wet, allowing them to harvest the future fruit at their leisure.
As Aisho leaves a trade, Kira and Josefumi manage to steal some branches unnoticed and subsequently groom the branches.
In the present day, Tamaki Damo continues to torture Norisuke and demands to know who killed Yotsuyu Yagiyama. Damo cuts off Norisuke's arm with a folded banknote in order to make him falsely confess that he killed Yotsuyu, but Damo correctly guesses that someone else was helping him.
Back in August 19, 2011, Josefumi and Kira have been caught by Damo and Yotsuyu who board Kira's boat and incapacitate both men, as they've noticed the theft and narrowed their search to Kira. Damo tortures Kira to discover the location of the grafted branches and ultimately cuts off his liver. Using Karera as a distraction to set off several Sheer Heart Attack bombs, Josefumi and Kira escape.
The two drift along the coast up to the grafted branches' location where Josefumi drags the already unconscious Kira to the branches and plans to feed him one of the fruits. Damo sends his men searching for the two despite the incoming tsunami. Meanwhile, despite his best efforts, Josefumi cannot revive the dead Kira and notices that the fruits he has grown are different from the normal Rokakaka.
After driving off the A. Phex Brothers with Soft & Wet, Josefumi sacrifices himself and takes the last fruit from the branches, hoping that Kira will be able to harvest them some time in the future. He destroys the Rokakaka and feeds it to Kira, performing an equivalent exchange with him. At the same time, the ground opens up under Josefumi and Kira, and both fall into a fissure caused by the earthquake.
Walking Heart
Back in the present, Damo tortures Norisuke IV or order to find Josefumi Kujo whom he suspects is working with Norisuke. When the old man denies knowing Josefumi, Damo calls Hato to him in order to make an example of her. While in the foyer, Josuke has warned Hato of Damo's true nature but she cannot believe that her boyfriend is an enemy, and Norisuke is forced to confess that he suspects Josuke of being Josefumi.
Damo then melts Hato, and looks at Josuke. Confirming his suspicions, he tries to kill Josuke, but Hato, who Josuke has transported out of the house and outside Damo's range, attacks him with her own Stand: Walking Heart.
Breaking Heart
Damo cannot reach Hato, and Josuke uses Soft & Wet's bubbles to alert her of Damo's position through the roof, allowing her to defeat him. Everyone returns to their normal state, and Josuke pursues Damo in order to kill him for good, smashing him to pieces just like the other Rock Humans. The murder is witnessed by Jobin.
Meanwhile, Norisuke's wife, Kaato Higashikata, has finished her prison sentence and prepares to leave, and contacting her son Jobin in order to plot against Norisuke.
Milagro Man
Josuke Higashikata finally discovers that he is the amalgamation of Yoshikage Kira and Josefumi Kujo. Two weeks prior to Kaato Higashikata's release, Joshu asks his father for some money to buy some idol goods, while Norisuke wishes his son would get a job. After the idol meet-and-greet, Joshu antagonizes a fellow fan and secretly steals his wallet after he leaves it behind at the register. Joshu indulges himself in a shopping spree, and due to many coincidences, Joshu accumulates more and more money as he tries to spend it. People actually refuse to take money from him, mentioning a mysterious Milagro Man.
As he keeps getting more cash, Joshu notices that the money is strange in some fashion. After accidentally burning one of the bills, he watches as it expands into a humanoid shape and covers him up. Joshu wakes up later on the couch int he living room, but goes to his own room to find it full of cash as it nearly crushes him. He tracks down his victim Zaihei Nigatake whom he blames him for what's happening to him. Zaihei, grateful toward Joshu for taking his "curse", explains the legend of the Milagro Man and his history with the curse. Nonetheless, Joshu tricks Zaihei into tearing one of the cursed bills and passes the curse back onto him much to Zaihei's horror. On his way home, Joshu melancholically ponders his true worth in the world.
Dawn of the Higashikata Household
Josuke confirms his second identity, then finally sees Holy Joestar-Kira for the first time. However, her condition has deteriorated drastically and Josuke is appalled that the hospital staff don't take care of her. Feeling attachment toward her, he swears to find the cure and pay for Holy's treatment in the meantime.
Afterward, the Higashikata family notices that Kaato, their mother has returned home although Joshu and Dayia don't remember her. Norisuke and Hato are wary of her because they know she was sent to prison for murdering a child. Joshu tries to humiliate her publicly, only to be struck by a chair hidden by her playing card Stand. Kaato furiously leaves the house, while rightfully claiming that part of it is hers as part of the divorce, while Jobin confirms to the others that he was the one who let her in, making Norisuke suspicious of his son's intentions.
Dolomite's Blue Lagoon
Sometime later, Josuke reveals Holy's condition to Norisuke, upsetting him that one of his own family members is in such dire straits, and also that Jobin may be somehow conspiring against all of them due to his involvement in the Rokakaka Smuggling Organization. Norisuke instructs Josuke to seek out his company's plant appraiser, as he has an innate ability to find fruits even on grafted plants. Kaato eavesdrops on this conversation and informs Jobin of the two's plans. Jobin in turn seeks out one of the remaining Rock Humans Dolomite who only agrees to be involved in the search for the new Rokakaka under the belief that he will get his body back to normal, summoning up his Stand Blue Hawaii.
As Josuke seeks out the plant appraiser, a courier boy gives him a letter. However, Josuke spots a tooth in the envelope, just as the boy begins to attack him, as the boy is under the thrall of Blue Hawaii. Josuke flees the child, but a woman in a car is splattered by the boy's blood, transferring the control onto her. Unable to directly harm any of his pursuers, Josuke flees as best he can as the continuous chain of victims chase him with complete disregard for their own bodies. During the chase, Josuke calls Yasuho to check on the envelope he had found earlier. She goes to examine the tooth with Paisley Park, only to pass out from heatstroke as a result of Jobin's Speed King. He smashes up her cellphone and steals the tooth, leaving Josuke high and dry when a baby is infected by Blue Hawaii, leading Josuke to fall under Dolomite's control.
The zombie-like Josuke heads to Dolomite's pond at the Mutsukabe Shrine, where he is interrogated by Dolomite about his goals. Once he discovers the truth, Dolomite instructs Josuke to drown himself in the pond, but Yasuho has managed to follow Josuke via his phone's GPS and threatens Dolomite's life to free Josuke from his control.
The Plant Appraiser
Josuke and Yasuho decide that they will now work together to find the plant appraiser, hopping on a nearby bus, and ponder Dolomite's last words to them. Dolomite has told them that Jobin is a simple gofer, and he himself only wishes to find his "Blue Lagoon" by healing himself with the Rokakaka. However, another group is after the Rokakaka, a group that left Dolomite alive especially because he doesn't know anything about them and for whom the fruit is invaluable. Because Josuke is the result of a new variety of it, Dolomite advises him to back off from the chase for the fruit.
It is also at this time that Josuke realizes that Dolomite had been talking to someone else about the plant appraiser, and they had beenf ollowing them as well. Moreover, that same person must have overheard Josuke's destination. Suddenly, the bus driver stands up from his seat and collapses on the floor. Rai Mamezuku, the plant appraiser who Josuke is supposed to meet, reveals himself, and demands that Josuke protect him from any future harm as his life is now at stake as they are now all under attack.
The three eventually stop at Rai Mamezuku's summer house, a chairlift at a ski resort. They are soon attacked by an unknown Stand, which seemingly moves trees and creates holes inside people. Although they escape a first attack, Rai is wounded and must cut off his hand by unraveling it with his Stand Doggy Style. The plant appraiser decides to throw Yasuho down the chairlift to expose her and observe the enemy, and the group discovers during the second attack that they are facing two rock beings: the Rock Human Urban Guerrilla whose Stand Brain Storm is what bores holes into people's skin killing them from the inside out and the Rock Animal Doremifasolati Do who can travel through the ground with its tank-tread-like legs.
Characters & Stands
Minor Characters
| Character Name | Role |
|---|---|
| Mitsuba Higashikata | Neutral |
| George Joestar II | Neutral |
| Iwasuke | Neutral |
| Kiyomi Kujo | Neutral |
| Atsunori Iwakiri | Neutral |
| Zaihei Nigatake | Neutral |
Major Battles
Trivia
- According to a note by Araki in volume 2, the -lion in JoJolion's title is derived from the Ancient Greek εὐαγγέλιον (evangelion), in reference to the Gospels. "By combining this word with "JoJo", I've meant for the title to signify the existence of the protagonist "Josuke" in this world".[1]
- It won the Grand Prize for manga at the 2013 Japan Media Arts Festival.[2]
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