The JOJOLands - Chapter 19
Summary
According to reports, the HOWLER Company was founded five generations ago by the third great-grandfather of Acca Howler, who originally had the surname "Latrato". He was an Italian-born sailor who had ended up on Waipio Valley on the island of Hawaii after a shipwreck in 1843. He then fell in love with a local island woman that helped him, gained the trust of the Hawaiian royal family, started a farm on the northern slope of Hualalai, and married the woman.
Aside from the jungle in the north, the island of Hawaii lacks water sources due to the island's soil being made of porous volcanic material. This causes rainwater to seep deep underground rather than stay on the surface, preventing the formation of rivers. However, Latrato had an instinct for terrain and devised a method to find water by digging horizontal tunnels into the mountainside. After months of work, he discovered underground waterways, allowing him to cultivate a meadow on the volcanic land. When Hawaii was annexed by the United States, the Latrato family changed their last name to Howler (since "Latrato" means "howl" in English) and established HOWLER Farms.
With the rise of luxury hotels and villas in the 1960s, HOWLER Farms's water sources became crucial, attracting political favor. They expanded into various industries, including water resource management, transportation, port rights, and even the arms industry. Despite legal ownership of the land by the descendants of the Hawaiian royal family, HOWLER Farms effectively controlled the northern slope of Hualalai in the name of supplying water resources, restricting access even to state officials or police. HOWLER Company is currently controlled by the 42-year-old Acca Howler, the sixth-generation head of the family, with assets estimated at $50 billion. The company has also extended its influence to the other Hawaiian islands, further increasing its power.
Still stuck in the elevator, Paco tries yelling out to Jodio about who their enemies are. Jodio glances everywhere around him, trying to spot anyone suspicious. He pauses at Bobby Jean, who is looking at his cellphone. Lulu then drops her Hula NYAN Dancer figure in front of Jodio while Bobby readies his gun. Meanwhile, Dragona's Smooth Operators are headed to Usagi's brain after entering through his nostrils. Lulu suddenly gets a nosebleed which Jodio recognizes as being damage from a Stand, so Bobby fires three bullets at Jodio. Charming Man tells Dragona to hurry since Bags Groove is deep inside Wernicke's area and Usagi's brain is starting to break down. Smooth Operators catches the Stand and pins it down, with Dragona planning to break it to pieces and pull it out.
Jodio summons November Rain to make a barrier around him, reflecting the bullets in different directions. Annoyed at Jodio's ability, Bobby Jean fires more shots as Jodio runs, with the bullets hitting other patients, visitors, and hospital staff. Bobby tells Lulu that they'll have to erase themselves from the hospital's security cameras. Since Bobby is curious about Jodio and the gang's intentions, Lulu discloses that they're after all of HOWLER's assets, which is somehow going to become theirs due to some system being messed up. Lulu thinks that Jodio looks like the leader of the group despite being young, so they should start with him first. She also tells Bobby that one of them has a Lava Rock that they need to retrieve. Bobby reveals that he intentionally allowed Jodio to go to the right since it leads to a dead end.
As Smooth Operators is about to drag the one Bags Groove body out of Usagi's brain, Dragona is shocked to see that there is suddenly multiple bodies of the Stand inside him. Charming Man then notices that the head of the doll that Lulu dropped earlier is stuck to the MRI's door from its magnetism. More Bags Groove bodies are sent flying to the MRI, riding the limbs of the doll. Three of them are also on Jodio's hand. Bobby approaches the dead end of the building where Jodio ran to, with the only two hiding places being male and female washrooms. Bobby decides to open the door of the female washroom first. Jodio was actually in the male washroom, and appears behind Bobby with November Rain, but several bullets from Glory Days are already headed toward Jodio. Jodio makes a rain barrier again to repel them, then dashes into the washroom again and enters a stall. Suddenly, Jodio could no longer breathe, realizing that he's suffering from a pulmonary edema.