The JOJOLands - Chapter 9
Summary
While on a bus, Barbara calls Jodio asking where he and Dragona are since Dragona wasn't picking up the phone. Jodio explains that they're just hanging out on the island of Hawaii and that Dragona's cellphone must be on airplane mode. Barbara hopes that they aren't hanging out with Paco, since she heard rumors that he was in jail for about a year. She changes the subject to asking what they should have for dinner, but ends up choosing chicken burritos herself when Jodio says to pick anything.
Paco wonders if the mafia is against them, considering the cruel nature of the threat they received and the cats' owner not having any love for their pets. He questions whether the Lava Rock originally belonged to the person threatening them. Jodio recalls seeing a map on Rohan's iPad with a spot marked on it, likely indicating the origin of the Lava Rocks. Paco tries persuading Jodio to return the Lava Rock to the owner, since their job was just to steal the diamond. However, Jodio refuses, sure of Rohan being the only owner of the Lava Rocks. He believes that since Rohan was in the middle of investigating the Lava Rocks, and the mysterious "owner" was watching Rohan the whole time, the person also didn't know of its abilities. With the possibility of the mafia being after them, Jodio thinks their enemy would most likely also steal the diamond, as well as kill them to not leave any witnesses behind.
Meanwhile, Usagi dumps all of his possessions from his bag to show the Diamotch salesman, such as the Pink Dark Boy artwork and wine. Dragona's belongings consist only of their wallet and the diamond. The clerk and security guards try looking everywhere, asking where they could have hidden the watch. Dragona has no idea what happened to it, pondering whether the watch somehow traveled on its own. Dragona also touched all four watches, so they don't understand why only one disappeared. The clerk threatens to call the police, though Usagi and Dragona try begging him not to. The clerk promises to let them go only if they watch the recordings on their cameras and see that there's no evidence of them being thieves. The first recording shows nothing due to a blind spot on the camera, but the angle of the second camera shows the watch slipping under Dragona's wrist. Shocked, Dragona looks into their pendant pocket and sees the watch being held by Smooth Operators inside it along with the Lava Rock.
The clerk believes Dragona hooked the watch onto their bracelet and hid it inside the pendant, but Dragona has no memory of using Smooth Operators to do that. Dragona recalls when the diamond rolled into a cup back at Rohan's villa, wondering if that was something they did unconsciously. The security guards try doing a body check on Dragona, but only find the Lava Rock inside the pendant. All of them are surprised to see the watch is missing. Usagi interrupts to point out that the watch is caught onto the clerk's shoelaces. Suddenly, the watch starts sliding away past all of their feet and heads for the elevator outside of the room. The clerk and two guards finally manage to retrieve the watch, and give their sincerest apologies to Usagi and Dragona for unjustly accusing them. The clerk assumes the watch's band is too shiny and slippery, which causes it to slide away easily. The watch falls down again, so they go after it. Usagi and Dragona decide to just leave, as Dragona believes that it's possible the watch will somehow return to them even once they depart from the island of Hawaii. He somewhat understands the Lava Rock's properties more, thinking that things worth money will always eventually come back to it through people's emotions and connections, even if it happens unconsciously. Usagi thinks their little shopping trip was fun and that they should cherish the memory.
Paco tells Jodio that they should bring Dragona and Usagi out of the store, since they have the Lava Rock. Just then, another Paco arrives and apologizes to Jodio for taking so long. The shop he went to ran out of chicken burritos, so he asked them to fry up abalones for them instead. Confused upon seeing a supposed clone, Jodio turns around only to see he was with a fake Paco the whole time, and the real one only came back now. The skin of the fake Paco begins to crumble, exposing parts of another face underneath the disguise. Catching them off guard, the alleged owner of the Lava Rock cuts Jodio's neck with a knife. He claims he had tried giving Jodio a chance earlier but Jodio wasted it by declaring that he wouldn't give the Lava Rock back.