The JOJOLands - Chapter 16
That Girl's Bags Groove, Part 1 (あの娘のバグス・グルーヴ その①, Ano Musume no Bagusu Gurūvu Sono 1) is the sixteenth chapter of The JOJOLands and the nine hundred seventy-third chapter of the JoJo's Bizarre Adventure manga.
Summary
Jodio thinks that it's impossible for someone to have figured out that his team has the Lava Rock and their location. He wonders why they're being attacked and whether it was simply because they were browsing HOWLER's land deeds. Nonetheless, he believes the enemy would eventually approach them to find out who they are. Charming Man describes the tumor on his eye as being painless, yet his body's health is deteriorating and he lost track of the enemy Stand inside Usagi's body. He apologizes to Usagi, no longer being able to see anything. Blood then splurts out of Usagi's eye.
Meanwhile, Jodio panics over Dragona not breathing and tells Paco to drive away from the land registry office. Usagi bawls for someone to help him but Jodio asks him to be quiet so he could think of a solution. He realizes the Stand must be following set rules for its attack since it's automatic, so the actions inside its target would always be in a predetermined sequence. Thus, Jodio predicts that the Stand should be near Dragona's right lung, aiming for the heart's pulmonary artery. He tells Dragona to send Smooth Operators down their windpipe to find the Stand and drag it out from Dragona's lungs. He hopes that Dragona can hear him and asks for a signal once the Stand is successfully caught.
After Jodio briefly despairs, Dragona's fingers slightly tap Jodio's hand. Jodio summons November Rain and sends a rain drop into Dragona's mouth. With Smooth Operators clutching the Stand's limbs, the rain drop bursts a hole through its torso. The Stand's defeat allows Dragona to cough and start breathing again. Usagi asks Jodio to get the Stand out of his body as well, but Charming Man says it'll be impossible to find its exact location now since the human body is a labyrinth and it's somewhere around the brain. Dragona declares that they won't abandon Usagi since they need him. Jodio assumes that the Stand user should be on their way to search for them by now and he would rather not have their goals and identities exposed, so they need to defeat the Stand before that happens.
Jodio tells Paco to head to a big hospital that would have an MRI, revealing that if they can do an MRI on Usagi, they would get photos of Usagi's blood vessels. This would allow them to see the locations of any lesions in Usagi's body so they can find the Stand and drag it out with Smooth Operators. Usagi worries about the logistics, but the others think they can handle doing the scan themselves without getting doctors involved, claiming they just need to use a computer for it. Since Usagi can breathe now and shouldn't need the straw in his chest, Paco pushes him to remove the straw and instead use THE MATTEKUDASAI to make the cameras on the road have fake footage, removing any traces of their car. Usagi hesitates, so Dragona teasingly offers to take the straw out for him and put a bandaid there.
Inside the Hawaii State Land Registry Office, an agent named Bobby Jean is watching the security footage, which is a faked recording of a disguised Charming Man, Usagi, and Dragona entering the building. Bobby asks a security guard about their actions, confirming that they didn't take any photos of the land deeds and just looked at them. The guard informs him that they were just students visiting for a tour or studying history. He wonders what Bobby is investigating and whether it has to do with HOWLER's alleged land frauds. The guard mentions how it's a popular topic and he believes the chairman of HOWLER is guilty. Although the company tells the media that they're acting for nature conservation, he assumes they're actually using the land for something illegal or money laundering. Bobby doesn't confirm, claiming it's highly classified information. Nonetheless, he reveals that he's off duty and just wanted to stop by while he was walking around the neighborhood. When he heard about people wanting to see the original paper copies of deeds, he thought it was a rare request and wanted to check the security camera footage to be cautious.
A young girl in the room points to a cat figure on a shelf called a "Hula NYAN Dancer". She laughs at the way it moves, thinking it's creepy, yet also calls it really cute. She begs Bobby to buy it for her, but the security guard informs her that it's been over ten years since the figure was made for a state festival. The guard got it as a souvenir and just decorated the room's shelf with it, but it wasn't popular and they barely made money on it. The girl doesn't care and insults his aesthetic sense, asking where they sell it. When she persistently whines for Bobby to buy it, Bobby tells the guard that she actually isn't his daughter and he's just babysitting her. Bobby offers the guard money to buy it from him, but the guard isn't comfortable taking money since it isn't allowed. He politely refuses, offering to give the figure for free. Regardless, Bobby puts the money in the man's shirt pocket.
The girl suddenly gets a nosebleed. She realizes that there's no footage of the three "students" who entered the building actually exiting. She points to the van behind the ambulance in the footage, but Bobby tells her that it's unrelated since the group came in a pickup truck while that vehicle has a different shape and color. Suspicious, the girl points out Dragona, Usagi, and Charming Man in the footage, who aren't wearing disguises. Bobby says that they're unrelated people who never entered the building. However, the security guard recognizes Usagi as the boy who spilled cup ramen earlier inside. The girl also notes how Usagi is ill and is being carried by the other two. Bobby is in disbelief that the footage could be faked. The young girl doesn't care either way, declaring that whoever looked at the paper deeds or whoever they follow will end up dying from an accident or illness. It is revealed that the young girl is the Stand user who was attacking Jodio's team, as her nosebleed was caused by one of her "Bags Groove" bodies being destroyed. Knowing that they're dealing with Stand users, the girl orders Bobby to check the traffic cameras as well.
Jodio and the others arrive at the hospital, but Jodio mixes up the three-letter acronyms in the elevator and presses the button for the ICU instead of the MRI. Before they get back into the elevator, Dragona sees the clerk from the land registry office unconscious with a ventilator in a treatment room. Charming Man and Paco feel bad seeing her condition and want to help her, but they need to prioritize Usagi's safety first. Outside the room, the clerk's father is crying for her and holding a tablet. He is a congressman with the surname "White", and his daughter's name is Sophie. One of his associates tells him not to sign something yet, since there's too little evidence and it could become a liability for him. White cries about how his daughter was very cheerful in the morning; she made him an egg breakfast and a café au lait while talking about the baseball player Ohtani. He thinks that she must have gotten poisoned by HOWLER, as he's been getting threats for a while to stay quiet about the company's land fraud. His associate argues that they still need to be certain before he signs it. White retorts that they'll find proof if they use the state's authority to seize their land on the island of Hawaii. The man tries comforting White and calming him down about Sophie, but he continues crying.
Suddenly, Sophie's ECG monitor shows that her heart rate has flatlined. Nurses and doctors run into the room. White screams and tries running in as well, but he is stopped. Dragona and the others notice White's tablet left behind on his chair, with his signature shown on the screen. Usagi tells Dragona that it's a document that would get sent once a fingerprint authentication is completed. More importantly, it's a perfect setup for them as the signature is already there. Paco, Charming Man, and Jodio believe this must be the power of the Lava Rock, and HOWLER's land is making their way to them. Dragona uses Smooth Operators to peel off a fingerprint from White's tablet and then slides it onto the sensor. Thus, the authentication is completed.
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Ultra Jump July 2024
