#caato's stand

[nozomijoestar]

Chapter 55 is my fav jojolion chapter for now

[duhragonball]

JoJolion Ch. 107-108

Remember when JoJolion got insanely popular for a while, and everyone was spamming "Inca No Mezame Potatoes" memes all year long? Those were good times.

At this point, the final battle is nearly finished. Toru's Stand is still extremely dangerous, but Josuke was able to get past his defenses, with a little help from Yasuho. He's not dead, but he's badly hurt, so if you just stand back and leave him alone, it should just be a matter of waiting for him to die.

However, Toru ate the last fruit off the New Locacaca Branch, so he could recover from his wounds, but only if he can touch someone to act as a donor in the equivalent exchance process. That's how the New Locacaca works, by the way. The original version healed one body part in exchange with another. If you've got too many injuries, like Toru here, the Old Locacaca wouldn't do any good. But with the New Locacaca, you can absorb health from a second person, and they end up taking on your injuries.

And that's the situation Caato Higashikata has walked into. She's been renting an apartment lately, and she made a stew for Jobin, with Inca No Mazame potatoes, just the way he likes 'em. But when she brought it over for him, she found the apartment wrecked and Jobin dead.

Yasuho's fear is that Caato will try to attack Toru in a vengeful fury, except this would play right into Toru's hands. As soon as she gets close enough, he can grab her and heal himself with equivalent exchange. Even if she attacks him from a safe distance, his Wonder of U power is still active, so a calamity will strike her down. So Yasuho is desperately begging Caato to just do nothing. The only winning move is not to play.

But Caato has a plan, much to Yasuho's chagrin. She tosses some of her playing cards around him, and reveals her Stand abilitiy. Space Trucking can hide objects between playing cards. The cards themselves are no threat to Toru, so simply demonstrating all of this is not enough to trigger a calamity. She even uses the cards to hide Toru's arms, but this isn't an attack either, since it doesn't hurt him. It's just to keep him in one place.

That's an interesting angle, actually. Is it possible to simply trap Toru in a place where he can't escape? Like, if he falls down a hole and he can't get out, that's not an attack, and I don't think his Stand has the kind of physical power it would need to pull him out. Could you defeat him that way? That's not Caato's plan, but it's something to think about.

I'm skipping over a lot of stuff here, because most of this chapter is just Toru and Caato cutting promos on each other. Toru keeps taunting Caato about how her dead son's dreams were never realized, and Caato keeps explaining things. He's trying to goad her into making a mistake, and she's just dragging this moment out, for various reasons, but mostly just to keep Toru guessing.

Then we get this flashback to before the Wonder of U arc began. Caato came over one day and Jobin revealed to her the New Locacaca branch that he had secured during the orchard fire. He had been stressed out about keeping it hidden, and the stress of sharing that secret with Tsurugi, and the danger of losing the branch to enemies. Caato reassured him and offered to hide the branch--pot and all--inside her cards if the need arose.

I'm not sure what the point of this was, except to make it clear that Caato knew about the branch and the powers of its fruit. Specifically, Jobin showed her how two of his beetles did an equivalent exchange. I guess they just got close enough to the plant that they ingested some of the sap? There were only two fruits, and they hadn't grown yet in the flashback, so I don't know. The point is that both Jobin and Caato understood that the branch actually had this power.

So finally, Toru begins to get flustered, and demands to know what she's hiding in her cards. She didn't come out to the garage just to talk to him while he died, so what is she up to? So Caato finally shows him...

Turns out, she hid Tsurugi in there, and now the kid rolls out onto the floor and his body contacts Toru's, which initiates the equivalent exchange!

But which way will this go? Toru's the one who ate the fruit, so that should mean his injuries will be healed, not Tsurugi's disease. Well, Caato thought that, which is why she hid the plant in her cards too, and made sure to crush the branch so as to extract the sap. She drips this into Tusurugi's mouth, and that seems to do the trick. I'm not sure why this gives Tsurugi precedence in the exchange, but sure.

As Toru dies, he tries to talk his way out of this. He warns them that they'll never find another plant like this again, and if they destroy it now, there'll never be another. I would have thought they could just find another Old Locacaca plant in New Guinea, plant it near the Wall Eyes, and there you go. But Toru seems to think there were other coincidences at play, like the earthquake and everything else that happened in this Part. The New Locacaca that Kira and Josefumi unwittingly created was truly unique.

Needless to say, this doesn't impress anyone in the garage. The Locacaca has caused the Higashikatas and Yasuho a lot of grief, so who needs more of that bullshit? And even if it were a boon to humanity, if we need Rock Humans like Toru to access it, then it's probably not worth the trouble, since the Rock Humans have demonstrated time and again that they aren't trustworthy. Remember, Poor Tom died trying to bring what he thought was the branch to Toru, and Toru used his Stand to kill him. The Rock Humans can't even trust each other. The idea of them posing as doctors is bad comedy.

But mostly, fuck Toru. Even if he could snap his fingers and cure Holly and resurrect all of his victims, he'd never do it. You know, he might even have that kind of ability. Wonder of U causes misfortune to befall anyone who pursues or attacks Toru, but maybe it can do nice things for people too. We just never find that out because Toru has no altruistic tendencies. Helping someone else isn't in his character. It would never occur to him to try to help Holly or anyone else. So his pleas for mercy are especially pathetic.

Then he starts appealing to Yasuho, talking about all the good times they had together. Yeah, like the time you dropped a chunk of aircraft on her head, remember that? Yeah, Yasuho doesn't budge. She looks concerned, but I think it's just because she's so horrified to watch this horrible creature's death throes. Why is it taking so long?

At last, Toru finally dies, and his last thought is the image of a hornet, like the one he clung to as an infant so he could parisitize its nest. He realizes this was just a memory, but I guess maybe he somehow hoped that he could grab the hornet again and be taken to another nest where he could be safe and warm while he recovered.

That's really all Toru had, in the end. For all his polished facade, he never actually had any relationships with anyone. Not with Yasuho, not with his colleagues at the hospital, not with his fellow Rock Humans. They were all just means to an end, hornets that he could exploit to enrich himself. Toru often spoke of wanting good memories to keep him company. That seems to be what he saw in Yasuho. He never loved her or cared about her, but he wanted the experience of spending time with her all the same.

But in the end, his memories are all hollow. A regular human might die thinking of his family, like Jobin. But all Toru has is is his hornet.

So that's it for Toru, and that's also it for Caato, as she didn't get off scott free with this stunt of hers. When she poured the sap into Tsurugi's mouth, that constituted an attack on Toru, and so the calamity was activated. In this case, Toru had been brandishing a saw when Caato entered the garage, and this got trapped in her cards when she pinned down his arms. Somehow, as he was dying, the saw came out of the cards and flung itself into Caato's belly. I think that might be a malfunction of Space Trucking, sort of like how Wonder of U made Mitsuba and Josuke's Stands do unexpected things. Anyway, Caato lays down and dies, and I'm pretty sure she expected it to end this way.

Yasuho has this internal monologue about everything the Higashikata Family has endured in this story, but in the end, the family has gathered in the garage, not in mourning or despair, but because of hope. That's because, Tsurugi's Rock Disease has been cured thanks to the equivalent exchange, and now, at long last, the curse has been broken.

And this leads us to that moment where Tsurugi drags Norisuke out of his office, which was shown in the flash forward about twenty-odd chapters ago. What I still don't understand is: Why is Tsurugi bringing him out here? There are ambulances on the way, but I'm pretty sure they could come in the house and get Norisuke.

I think the more important thing Araki was trying to get across is that Tsurugi is finally healthy and free of the dread of worrying about the curse. While the rest of the family is still reeling from today's events, he's back on his feet and taking charge. So that's why he's the one who goes to get Norisuke, and he's the one who informs the others that he's still alive, and Jobin didn't hurt him as badly as everyone feared.

Okay, but Norisuke's right hand still fell off his arm. Like, that definitely happened. I guess he'll live even if they can't reattach it, because people lose hands and fingers in JJBA all the time, and it's more like a bad flu than anything else.

But it's not quite over yet! Toru may be dead, but somehow, Wonder of U is still active? The Stand crawls inside of Norisuke for some reason. It aggravates his injuries, though I'm not sure why. Wait, is this how it impersonated Dr. Satoru Akefu? Did Toru find the real Dr. Akefu and send Wonder of U into his body to do some sort of pod people thing?

Fortunately, Josuke's here to save the day, having just returned from the TG University Hospital. I think the idea in these two chapters is that Toru was recalling Wonder of U back to his side, and that's why it was floating around in the garage, but Josuke was also on his way back, which is why he made it on the scene not long after. Now that he's here, and there's no more bullshit Rock Insects to get in the way, Josuke can just shoot his Go Beyond bubbles at Wonder of U without any problem. He does as Yasuho to stand clear, though, because the bubbles are invisible and that makes it really difficult to aim them precisely.

And at this range, Josuke can't miss. Wonder of U explodes, and Yasuho holds him like the girlfriend in old B-Movies after the monster finally dies.

So that seems to wrap things up, right? No more Rock Humans, no more Locacaca, no more branches to fight over, no more curses, and no more Jobin to get in everyone's way. Also, Joshuu lost his right arm, so that probably just makes the whole town safer overall.

Wait, what about Holly? And what about Josuke's memories? Also what was the deal with that baby who washed up on shore the night Johnny died in 1901? And Karera said she would be back, so what happened to her? Also, Josuke and Yasuho need to kiss or something, right? There's a lot of loose ends we need to wrap up, but fortunately there's still two more chapters and...

Huh...

[fauzhee10069]

What do you think Caato's stand will be called?

In my post regarding her Stand’s mechanism, I have mentioned several possibility of what her Stand name will be, mostly related to “Queen” because most readers (including me) interest in her concept being the “Queen” of Higashikata.  As “King” becomes a trend in Stand naming among Higashikata family (including Mitsuba who joined by marriage), but given Caato’s situation as “an outsider”, I think she might not get “King” as her Stand name.

Also, as one of the mom characters in JoJolion, having “Queen” in her Stand name would be very fitting to her role too. I’m considering about “Queen of Spades” by Styx, the lyrics are kinda poetic to her. But I also like the idea of “Black Queen” from The March of The Black Queen by Queen (band). She is also Holy’s foil and it is implied that Holy also has Stand. I wish Holy will reveal her Stand as well, I like the idea that Holy’s Stand will be “White Queen” from Queen’s White Queen (As It Began) by Queen as well. That will be a hella parallel symbolism between them.

Sorry for my long reply, despite the simple question. But JoJolion is truly my favorite part & passion right now.

TL;DR it’s either “Queen of Spades” or “Black Queen”.

[golden-winter]

Everyone loves to meme on this panel and it is in fact hilarious, but this is actually one of the most fascinating little bits of dialogue in Jojolion to me, and is a big reason why I find the Higashikata family so interesting.

If Stands were a new concept to JJBA or to us, the readers, this wouldn’t stick out as noteworthy - we would take Norisuke’s statement at face value that Stands are a very private thing, that that’s just how it works in this fictional universe. But this is the sixth part with Stands, and we know this isn’t true. Moreover, this doesn’t seem to be a quirk of Jojolion as a whole - no Stand users outside of the Higashikata family seem to be reticent with their Stands in this particular way. In fact, I'm pretty sure Norisuke is the only one who ever expresses an opinion like this. Other family members say things like “We may be family, but we don’t talk about Stand abilities…”

This got a little long, so the rest is under the cut. Moderate Jojolion spoilers below.

In previous JJBA parts, the main cast all know each others’ Stands. It's obvious that for any team fighting together, knowing each other’s Stands' powers, strengths, and weaknesses, is key for being a cohesive and effective fighting team. The only reason someone would hide their Stand is for tactical reasons - to know how someone’s Stand works is often to know how to defeat them. In fact, in many Stand battles, once the hero figures out the “secret” of the enemy’s Stand, the enemy is very keen to monologue about how their Stand works, to add more detail. They want to brag. It clearly isn't for privacy reasons.

Iirc the only times in former parts in which characters were hesitant to reveal their Stand to someone was in the cases that they did not trust them, and anticipated that they might have to fight.

Does this suggest that the Higashikata family assumes that they might fight each other? I don’t think so - despite certain events in the series, I don’t think any of them even considered that they might go head-to-head in a Stand battle. Every single one of them prioritizes “the family”, although they each have their own ideas on what is the right way to do that, and why it’s important.

The reason the Higashikata family doesn’t discuss their Stands is because they don’t discuss anything difficult or emotional with each other. There is something personal about Stands, which have been described as a representation of a person’s will, or their “fighting spirit”. To discuss their Stands is to discuss their souls - and their pain. I think the “asshole” comparison, while probably intended as a joke, is actually very revealing - Norisuke sees it not only as private, but vulgar and embarrassing.

This scene is (iirc) the earliest indication of something that is a regular theme with this family. Some other examples of this:

When Josuke asks Tsurugi about Jobin’s stand ability, Tsurugi doesn’t know. All he can say is that his father “probably” has a stand, but it might even be unconscious.

Norisuke kept Rai secret from the family (with the possible exception of Jobin) - despite working closely with him, and having a close relationship that could even be described as familial. All they knew is that Norisuke had a plant appraiser they "were never allowed to meet". I literally can’t think of a reason for him to have done this.

And then there's this:

There is so much that isn’t being said here: Norisuke knows that there is a family curse that affects all eldest sons at age 10, and it seems not to have hit Jobin. The only way for Jobin not to die is for someone to die in his place. He knows Jobin is aware of this to some extent. He knows that Jobin is 16 now. But he’s in a trap of his own making; he can’t ask any of this directly, because it’s not done.

The most noteworthy thing in this vein, of course, is how they handle Caato. When she shows up, Joshu and Daiya don’t recognize her - they don’t even know they have a mother at all. This isn’t just “we don’t talk about mom”, this is “hide all pictures and swear oldest children to secrecy” levels of avoidance here. Hato tells Josuke that “Dad would just say things like Mom left or died.” Remember, Jobin was 16 and Hato was 9 when she was arrested. They had to keep this a secret from them, too. Hato mentions that she had to look up by herself why her mother went to prison.

(I also think it's worth mentioning here that Norisuke refused to answer any questions in this scene, and Jobin just straight-up left until the drama was over.)

I’m not exactly sure what my point here is, other than the funny “Stands are like assholes” scene is actually an incredibly revealing glimpse into one of the more dysfunctional Higashikata family dynamics. They’re a fascinating group of characters and I think they way they all care about each other but are working with different sets of information leads to a really dynamic mystery, since theoretically any of them could hold secrets or work with or against Josuke at any time.

I like to imagine that they become more open with each other after the events of Jojolion, but the way they affirm that they truly see Josuke as part of their family (after a horrible tragedy) is to silently cry while all looking away from each other and then ask him to pick which cake to get. So perhaps only a little.

[corvocaotico]

Olá como vão? Ela finalmente voltou o/ Mal posso esperar para saber o nome do Stand dela ,e que seja Dancing Queen, pois tá faltando ABBA em Jojo :3 Gosta do meu trabalho e gostaria de me apoiar? É só clicar nesse link lindão: https://apoia.se/rafaelmerce #caato #caatohigashikata #kaatohigashikata #higashikatakaato #jojolion #jojolion106 #jjbaart #jjba #jojobizarreadventurefanart #jojonokimyounabouken #desenho #art #ilustrador #fanart #rabisco #sketch #drawing #drawing #drawinganimes #drawinginyoustyle #drawdrawdraw https://www.instagram.com/p/CN2vL8pBxrM/?igshid=vbcw5rm38ddn

[meepilybuff]

If the name of Caato Higashikata’s Stand is not “Poker Face”

I will riot

[megashadowdragon]

JoJolion's Hidden Villain: A Cardspiracy ( the main villain of jojolion is kaato)

after watching the video check these comments  I found in the  youtube vid comment section  @shirakuumo @toofaboulos

10:06 If Kaato's maiden name actually turns out to be Valentine, then her name said in Japanese would previously have been "Valentine Kaato" which sounds like a "Valentine's Card."

Considering that I kinda see her as a possible re interpretation of jolyne as a villain I think that her being liked to Valentine, the antagonist of the precedent part, would make her a parallel version of pucci in a way, just saying

Perhaps in this timeline, the "Brando-Joestar" curse is replaced with the "Valentine-Joestar/Higashikata" curse It would be great if Cato's stand is called just Queen and somehow Gappy uses the ability of Kira to defeat her: Killer Queen can we also just talk that jolyne was introduced entering green dolphin's street prison and was the first female protagonist, caato was introduced quitting green dolphin prison and she is probably the first female  main antagonist, would make sense

I honestly agree that Kaato is Jojolion’s JoFoe. One thing about Araki is that he doesn’t just make conventions, he breaks them. We’ve had female JoBros (Trish, Hermes, Hot Pants, etc.), female minibosses (Mariah, Yukako, Gwess, etc.), and a female JoJo (Jolyne), so why not our first female JoFoe? She was first introduced right after Damo, the fake JoFoe was killed, in a way similar to how Prime Kira was introduced just after Keicho, Diamond is Unbreakable’s supposed JoFoe was killed. And, how Santana was defeated right before Wamuu, Esidisi and Kars broke free in Battle Tendency. She also fits with the theme of SBR-verse JoFoe Stands having spatiokinesis (manipulation of space), whilst the Stands of Prime Universe JoFoes have chronokinesis (manipulation of time). This current pattern was established by President Funny Valentine’s D4C being able to hop dimensions, and Kaato’s currently-unnamed Stand (going to call it Queens of the Stone Age, or QSA for short) is able to hide objects via a pocket dimension in which cards are the gateways. With QSA, once its form is revealed, who knows how powerful it will turn out to be? I’m guessing OP, as JoFoe Stands have to be. Also, she was disowned for committing murder, and impaled Joshu for trying to ruin her return to the Higashikata household. Kaato hates Gappy, and wants to get her share of the family fortune back. As our friend with an extra pair is 50% Kira, and his rivalry with Joshu makes him a good-guy version of Phantom Blood Dio, with Norisuke IV as George Joestar Sr, and Joshu as Jonathan, it would be excellent if Gappy was pitted against a foil to Dio Brando, the OG JoFoe. From the orphan who desired the fortune of his adopted family, to the disgraced matriarch who wants what was once hers back-and more. Full. Circle. Do you have any ideas on Kaato, her Stand, her motives, her role in the story, and in general about her? @snakeassassins

[jakemorph]

caato’s stand is so good i love the part where joshu accidentally gets the leg of a table stabbed through his neck and is just fine afterwards

[kaibutsushidousha]

What are your opinions on Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure? Favorite/least favorite part, stands, characters etc.

Favorite part is 6, mostly because favorite character is Pucci. Heavy Weather is my favorite fight, not only because that’s where the meat of the Pucci brothers characterization is at, but also because I love the completely ridiculousness of the subliminary message effect (which, sadly, is exactly why this is one of the fandom’s most hated fights).

The overall part ranking is 6>4>2>7>1>8>3>5.

Part 5 has the best main cast and villain group (the Squadra), so it would be second if the ending wasn’t so lame.

King Crimson is not really complicated. You just have to think of it as all objects being teleported to the point where they would be 10 seconds later. The only moments I found really hard to understand where Josuke reversing Keichou’s bomb and the whole “who shot Johnny?“ segment in D4C’s introduction arc.

The Jojo ranking is Johnny>Joseph>Giorno>Pompadour Josuke>Jonathan>4 balls Josuke>Jolyne>Jotaro.

The villain ranking is Pucci>Kira>Dio>Caato>Kars>Diavolo>Jobin>Valentine. Jobin and Valentine might be the least favorite characters as well.

Top 5 characters:1) Pucci2) Johnny3) Kira4) Doppio5) Rohan6) Abbacchio7) Weather

Top 5 Stands:1) Weather Report2) Sticky Fingers3) Killer Queen4) King Crimson5) Gold Experience

[duhragonball]

JoJolion Ch. 64-70

These are "The Plant Appraiser -- Rai Mamezuku (31)" and "Urban Guerilla and Doremifasolatido" arcs. Unlike Rai Mamezuku's desserts, it's kind of bad.

But first we gotta clear Chapter 64, which is a one-shot called "Mother and Child". I tend to think of it as an "origin story" for Jobin Higashikata, although it's really just how he survived the Rock Disease when he was a kid.

So just to bring everyone up to speed: In 1901, Johnny Joestar stole the Saint Corpse from Part 7 and used its miraculous power to cure his wife from the Rock Disease. It worked, but the disease was immediately transferred to their youngest son, George. So Johnny used the Golden Spin to make the Saint Corpse transfer the Rock Disease to himself. This produced some sort of miracle that gave the coastal fault lines of Morioh special powers. For the next 110 years, the land around the fault lines would cause people to get Stands, and things buried in the soil near the fault lines would be blended together somehow.

It's not clear what became of the Joestar family, but Rina's side of the family, the Higashikatas, built a shrine where Johnny died, and when Noruisuke Higashikata IV was a boy, his mother used the equivalent exchange powers of the land near the shrine to take the Rock Disease onto herself, thereby sparing her son.

I'm confused by Tsurugi's opening narration in this story, because he talks about his great-grandmother's sacrifice like it's an old family ritual, dating back generations, but he also says she's the first one who decided to do it. Norisuke plans to repeat the ritual for Tsurugi, sacrificing himself just as his mother had done for him, but that hasn't happened yet. And as we're about to see, Jobin's survival was achieved a bit differently. So it's not much of a tradition.

We flash back to Jobin's childhood. He's not dressed up like a girl, the way Tsurugi is today, but Tsurigi said the family always raises the firstborn boys as girls until the age of 12. But this is a superstitious ritual to try to "fool" the Rock Disease, and at this point, Jobin's already got memory loss symptoms from the early stages of the disease, so maybe the family decided he should drop the disguise since it no longer served any purpose.

Anyway, he goes on some sort of Boy Scout trip, and there's a bully in the troop who coerced him into stealing his mom's underwear and also taking photos of her in the shower. Apparently Jobin forgets things that he did the day before, so I'm not sure how he remembered these instructions, or how he knew to bring this stuff today. It doesn't matter, because the bully gets caught pretty much immediately.

The bully's in pretty deep trouble over this fiasco, so he tries to force Jobin to burn down the house of the scoutmaster or den mother or whatever. The lady who caught him, that's what I'm trying to say. He wants Jobin to burn her house down while she's in it. When he refuses, he acts like he's gonna light Jobin on fire, until Jobin's Stand, Speed King kicks in, and he does the trick he used on Yasuho in the previous arc. Speed King lets Jobin store and transfer heat. He touches something and he can store heat inside of it, and it gets released when someone touches that same surface. In this case, he touches the bully directly and bursts some blood vessels in his head.

Distraught, Jobin goes to his mother for help, and she sees this as an opportunity in disguise. The bully isn't dead yet, so she drags him to the shrine to perfrom the same equivalent exchange that Norisuke's mother did. I think the idea here is that everyone sort of expected Caato to just sacrifice herself for Jobin, the same way Norisuke's mom did for Norisuke. Or maybe she had been considering it herself and looking for a way out, and this kid has provided a convenient patsy.

I had wondered why Caato hadn't already done something like this when Jobin began to experience Rock Disease symptoms, but maybe you have to wait for the disease to start before you can remove it, and also Caato's pregnant with Daiya in this scene. It's likely that whatever she would have done for Jobin was going to wait until she could give birth.

As she buries the boy in the soil, Caato teaches Jobin that some people are just born in a better position than others, and she wants him to always climb higher in life, no matter what happens. So this informs their attitude in the story, where both mother and son are much more ambitious and ruthless than the rest of the family.

Caato might have committed the perfect crime, since no one else knew Jobin knocked the bully out, or that Caato drove him home in her car trunk. For five years, everyone probably assumed the bully ran away from home that night and never returned. However, a search for a pair of foreign snapping turtles led to the discovery of the bully's corpse, and then it didn't take long to find out Caato had been the one to bring him there in her car. She was convicted of murder, and served a 15-year sentence.

Back in the present, Josuke and Yasuho are on their way to Mt. Hanarero to meet the mysterious "Plant Appraiser". Norisuke arranged this because he's a secret expert that Norisuke knows but Jobin doesn't. And the Appraiser would be the only one skilled enough to locate the Rocacaca branch graft in the Higashikata orchard.

But Josuke's more concerned about how things ended up with their last enemy, Dolomite. They interrogated him after Yasuho defeated him, but he really didn't have much to say that they didn't already know. And so Josuke believes that Dolomite wasn't talking to them at all. Instead, he must have been talking to someone else, making it as clear as he could that he had nothing to do with any of this Rocacaca business, and that Jobin had recruited him to find out who Josuke was meeting. Dolomite warned Josuke not to meet the Plant Appraiser at Mt. Hanarero, suggesting that if he dropped the whole thing now, maybe he would be safe, but that warning was probably just a clever way to tell that "someone else" what Josuke's next move would be.

And that all tracks, but what I don't understand is how Dolomite communicated all of this. Just to jump ahead, there's four more Rock Humans to deal with, and they're all posing as human doctors, so maybe one of them was lurking nearby and just hear him speaking. Alternately, Dolomite surreptitiously used the phone Norisuke had given Josuke to call the Four Doctors, and they heard him through the phone. But in that case, you'd think Josuke would just look up the call records in the phone and get their number. Anyway, the point is that Josuke is certain that the enemy knows what he's up to, and they may already be in pursuit.

Then the bus driver stumbles out of his seat, and this other guy hijacks the bus. It turns out he's the guy they were on their way to find, Rai Mamezuku. I guess he expected trouble so he was on the bus to try to get an inside track.

Much of this arc is Rai explaining his position in all of this. Norisuke asked him for his help, and he respects Norisuke a lot, but he resents the way Josuke leaked all of this to their enemies, putting Rai's life in danger. As Rai sees it, he's the only one who can find the Rocacaca branch now, but more importantly, he's the only one who can ensure the branch survives the winter. So that makes him indispensable, which means that protecting Rai should be Josuke's highest priority. Yasuho, on the other hand, is a distant third, since he doesn't even understand why she came along.

So he basically bosses the others around, and he takes the bus to a parking lot, where he thinks they'll be safer. I'm not quite sure how he figured that out, but he was the first one to notice the trees moving, which tipped him off that the enemy was moving underground.

Fortunately, Rai knows there's a ski lift thing they can use to take refuge. As it turns out, he lives here, and he's got all sorts of amenities built into the poles on this lift. One pole contains all his kitchen stuff, and there's another with a bathroom, and a third with his clothes.

Oh, and he grows strawberries on the mountain, which he can pick from the lift cars using his Stand, Doggystyle. It's... basically Stone Free, but not as versatile. Rai can unravel his body and grab things from great distances, but he can't do all the stringy-stuff that Jolyne did in Part 6.

He makes dessert for his guests while he analyzes the whole situation with the Rocacaca branch. See, Yoshikage Kira and Josefumi Kujo's plan was to steal a branch from the smuggler gang and graft it to a tree in the Higashikata orchard. It's strongly implied that Norisuke was at least partially aware of what they were doing, though he didn't learn of the fruit or the branch until later. Kira's plan was to harvest the fruit from the branch and use it to save his mother, Holly.

However, grafting the branch to a tree on the Higashikata property changed the whole game. The fruit that grew on the branch had new powers thanks to the miracle-infused soil of that land. This New Rocacaca could perform equivalent exchange between two people. So instead of a person swapping their healthy eyes for a new leg, or trading their jaw for a healed shoulder, a person could use the New Rocacaca fruit to transfer all of their ailments onto a whole other person.

That's how we ended up with Josuke. Kira was fatally wounded, and when Josefumi fed him the fruit, it started to heal Kira but at Josefumi's expense. Josefumi used a second bite of fruit to try to complete the process, but instead of swapping Josefumi's life to save Kira's, it swapped the half-dead Kira and the half-dead Josefumi with two new bodies: One live (Josuke) and one dead (the corpse they found later on).

But in the right hands, someone could use the New Rocacaca to basically cure death. The Rock Human smugglers were already selling the fruit to rich assholes and making a killing, but this New Rocacaca could make a rich asshole even healthier, provided they could afford to get a pasty to suffer all the downsides of the exchange. So Rai suspects that their new enemies are either doctors or more Rock Humans. It's actually both, but we'll get into that in a minute.

Speaking of the enemy, he manages to attack these guys anyway, using the trees to reach them with his Stand. That Stand acts like some sort of flesh-eating bacteria. Both Yasuho and Rai are affected, and Josuke uses Soft and Wet to carry the bugs away from Yasuho's leg before they can do any harm. However Rai's on his own, and his left hand just gets devoured in seconds, so he has to cut it off before the infection spreads to the rest of his body.

Rai isn't mad about this, but he is annoyed that Josuke forgot his priorities. If something happens to Rai, that's it. No one finds the Rocacaca branch and it will die over the winter. So Josuke should be protecting him at all costs. Yasuho is expendable at best, a distraction at worst. So Rai shoves her out of the lift car. He believes the enemy will emerge from the ground to attack her, and that might give them an idea of what they're dealing with.

And this cliffhanger was pretty important to me, because this was the end of Chapter 66, which is where my JoJo liveblog ended in 2017. I tried to keep up with the story in the years that followed, but I never really felt like I could keep track of all the plot threads. But now, I've got the whole thing, in color, and we can knock it all out in a month. Progress.

As it turns out, Yasuho isn't that badly hurt, because this part of the ski lift isn't that far off the ground. So that's kind of a cheap trick to play on the reader.

But Rai's gambit does pay off, as the enemy comes up to get Yasuho, and Josuke continues to help her. He uses Soft and Wet bubbles to carry her through the air, which is pretty neat...

And he directs Yasuho to the next pole, which has the bathroom in it. Yasuho accesses the electronics with Paisley Park, and somehow she can turn on Rai's shower, which washes off the Stand bugs before they can attack her. I guess?

See, this is what annoys me about this arc. The Enemy Stand here is introduced as this utterly lethal, inescapable thing. We see it kill rats and cops almost instaneously, and Rai barely has time to cut off his own hand before it kills him. But when it gets on Yasuho, she can just run over to the nearest water supply and wash it off without experiencing any of the damage.

The bad guy is underground most of the time, and he's also wrapped inside another creature, so this image here is probably the best way to get a decent look at what Josuke's up against. This is "Ryo Shimosato", although that's just the human name this guy took when he assumed the real Ryo's identity. He's another Rock Human, and in addition to his bullshit "flesh-eating bacteria" Stand, Urban Guerrilla," he also has a "Rock Animal", which can burrow through the earth with him inside of it.

Rai's plan is to use the fuel tanks he keeps in one of the poles to try to light the enemy on fire. That's a big lift, considering the enemy is almost always underground. Also, Josuke seems more worried about Yasuho than anything else, and Rai wants him to focus on protecting him above all else.

But Josuke can't forsake Yasuho, and he jumps out of the car to link up with her. Ironically, this seems to impress Rai, even though it's the exact opposite of what he told him to do. I guess he figures Josuke must be pretty reliable if he's this committed to his other allies. And he must be pretty confident if he's this willing to ignore Rai's strategic advice.

Oh, yeah, get a look at Rai's left hand up there. He cut it off earlier, but now he's got most of it back. I think he's just missing his four fingers now. But he definitely cut the whole thing off before. It was all getting eaten by Urban Guerilla, so he had no other choice. So did he just regenerate it?

Okay, so let's talk about Doremifasolati Do. This is a Rock Animal, as opposed to the Rock Humans we've been dealing with. In addition to looking incredibly stupid, it also has an incredibly stupid name. Oh, and it has "low intelligence", so it's literally stupid as well.

Its whole body looks like a tank tread, which allows it to burrow underground with blinding speed. And it's a "marsupial", so that's why it has a pouch that Ryo can ride around inside. This thing is dumb as fuck, why does it have eyes if it spends all of its time underground. What really takes the cake is how Araki himself wrote this text piece about the creature, and even he couldn't be bothered to decide what the thing eats. "Uh, nobody knows. Maybe it eats bugs or dirt or something." My guy, you're the one who brought it up!

I think the idea with this combo is that Urban Guerilla is kind of difficult to deploy, so Ryo needs the Rock Animal for defense and transportation. He sneaks up from underground, then comes out just long enough to spew his nasty bugs, and retreats back inside the pouch before anyone can strike back.

Except Urban Guerilla doesn't work consistently. Look, Rai's got it eating holes in his face right now and yet he'll survive the rest of this story. His face won't even have any blemishes after this.

Ryo has this whole manifesto about how the New Rocacaca will elevate the Rock Humans to surpremacy over the carbon-based humans. I'm pretty sure the idea is that he and his colleagues will market the fruit as a wonder drug and make billions of dollars selling it to human patients, while they use it on themselves to make themselves immortal. So they'll not only live forever, but they'll dominate the global economy. We regular humans will be reduced to a second-class species and probably not even realize it.

Anyway, not only does Urban Guerilla fail to kill or incapacitate Rai, it apparently doesn't hurt him either, as he manages to use his own powers to turn his arm into a crude crossbow. Then he fires a fork at Ryo's head and scores a direct hit on the first try. This seems pretty unlikely at best, but mostly I just want to point out how utterly fucking stupid Urban Guerilla is. It went from being an instakill power to barely doing anything. Also, Ryo himself is a big dope, because his whole strategy was to stay in the damn Rock Animal, but he jumped out anyway just to gloat.

Josuke tries to use Soft and Wet on the Rock Animal, but his soap bubbles can't do anything because the treads just move the bubbles behind it so quickly that the bubbles never have time to do anything. Dude, why don't you just remove the friction from the soil like you did with Ojiro Sasame's apartment floor? The treads can't dig if he can't get purchase in the soil.

So Josuke finally goes for broke, coming straight at Doremi, even though Ryo's back inside and spraying his nasty bugs everywhere. So now Josuke's being eaten alive by the flesh-eating Stand, but it doesn't bother him either. He also doesn't seem to mind getting pulled underground by Doremi's treads. Instead, he just sort of hangs out down there, listening to Ryo rant about how he knew about Tamaki Damo's fruit smuggling ring, but Damo lacked vision because all he did was play drug dealer. Ryo and his group have bigger plans for the fruit, and Josuke asks him if he's a doctor. Ryo's like "How did you know I'm a doctor?" because that's how incredibly dumb this guy is.

Anwyay, this was all a big distraction so Rai could get to the fuel tanks, and use his own body like a wick to move the fuel down to where the bad guys are. Ryo tries to retreat, but Josuke's soap bubbles carry the burning fuel to him... even though we just established Soft and Wet's bubbles get shoved away before they can have a chance to do anything.

Ryo and his pet die in a tremendous inferno, but Rai doesn't get burned, even though he was completely soaked with fuel when he lit the match.

I guess now that the Stand User is dead, the effects have worn off, but Rai still has little scratches where there used to be gaping holes in his face. Yasuho and Josuke have no damage from Urban Guerilla at all. I hate this arc, because everyone's powers just work or don't work depending on what's convenient to the plot. When I say "powers", I'm also including things like "falling off a lift onto bare ground" and "burning diesel fuel". Those are things that should have consequences in the story, but they just don't.

Anyway, now that the danger has passed, Rai takes a moment to observe Josuke's soap bubbles and he notices that it's not a bubble at all, but more like a length of string that vibrates at super-speed, so it just looks like a bubble. He's got more important things to deal with right now, but this will become very important later on.

You might be wondering why Josuke risked life and limb to come to Rai, when it might have been simpler to have Rai come to the orchard, but here's the reason. Rai has special moth larvae in one of the poles, which he breeds because their poop is good for branch health. This is how he plans to keep the branch alive and healthy through the winter, so they were always going to have to come here no matter what. It's a little goofy how he 's got Iron Man type stuff built into these support poles, though. The kitchen was cute and the bathroom just made sense, but who built this for him? And how did he keep it a secret from the public? He told Josuke and Yasuho that he only lives here in the summer, and in the winter he moves to a villa somewhere else. Who takes care of his moths while he's gone? Who changes the little light bulbs in that chamber? What happens if some errant skier accidentally opens these panels while they're using the lift?

Meanwhile, Jobin has a meeting with the mysterious "Poor Tom". He's another Rock Human and an associate of Ryo Shimosato, and since he just lost contact with the guy, he's pretty sure Ryo's dead, which means Josuke and Rai are going back to the orchard to find the plant.

So Poor Tom's plan is to completely lock down the orchard. His Stand, Ozone Baby, will do just that, and prevent anyone from getting near the branch. He just needs Jobin to take the stand, which looks like a Lego model of the White House, and bury it in the orchard. He'd do it himself, but Jobin would be less conspicuous.

If I understand correctly, Jobin has never even heard of Poor Tom before, or any of the others in his group. He goes to this meeting thinking it's about Tamaki Damo's smuggling ring, because Jobin laundered their profits through the Higashikata Fruit Parlor. But Poor Tom isn't really connected to Damo's group. I mean, they knew each other, I guess? Or maybe Tom only knows about Jobin because he's the one Dolomite was talking to when he told Josuke about Jobin being involved.

The point is that while Jobin is accustomed to working with Rock Humans, this is a whole other ballgame he's gotten into now...

[duhragonball]

JoJolion Ch. 58-63

This is "Dawn of the Higashikata Family", and the "Dolomite's Blue Lagoon" arc.

In the wake of the battle with Tamaki Damo, Josuke has embraced his identity as both Yoshikage Kira and Josefumi Kira, and he has dedicated himself to pursuing their mission: to obtain a Locacaca fruit and use equivalent exchange to save Holly Kira's life. This is probably why he goes to visit Holly in the hospital, but he soon finds they've moved her to a dingier room. There's like cobwebs on it, and.... what looks like shaving cream all over the windows.

Josuke says he's Holly's son, and the doctors tell him that they stopped receiving payments for Holly's care, so they've moved her here, wherver here is. Also, her condition has worsened, and recently she tried to eat six of her fingers because she can't distinguish her own body from food. Kira was paying for her stay here, but that ended when he died in... August?

Okay, so I finally looked this up, and it turns out there were two earthquakes in JoJolion. The first was the big March 11, 2011 Tohou Earthquake that caused the tsunami. That one led to the Wall Eyes springing up along the faults in Morioh. The second quake happened on August 19, 2011, shortly after Damo and the other Rock Humans caught up to Kira and Josefumi Kujo, as we saw in Chapters 50-53. Josefumi used the Locacaca fruit to try to sacrifice himself to save Kira, and then a quake hit, burying them and forcing the Rock Humans to call off their manhunt.

Yasuho found Josuke the next day, so the bulk of the events in JoJolion take place through August and September of 2011, five or six months after the Tohou Earthquake.

I think part of my disconnect here is that the March 11 Earthquake was worldwide news. I remember where I was when it happened. My family was visiting my brother at the time. But that one was only a big deal because it was so powerful and destructive. Earthquakes--albeit smaller ones--happen in Japan all the time. So I took it for granted that any time an earthquake was mentioned, it was a reference to March 11.

Both dates are connected, though. It was the 3/11 quake that cause the Rock Humans' Locacaca plant to wilt, which was the first clue that someone had stolen some of the branches and replaced them with grafts. So it's plausible that Kira and Josefumi also grafted their stolen branches in the Higashikata orchard some time around 3/11. Maybe that's what caused the Wall Eyes to pop up? At any rate, those events led to the fateful showdown on 8/19, ending with the second earthquake.

Anyway, Josuke has resolved to continue paying for Holly's treatments, and he is determined to find that grafted branch and harvest the Locacaca fruit for Holly.

But first he has to meet the strange lady who suddenly showed up in the Higashikata mansion. Hato explains that she's Caato, Norisuke's wife and the children's mother. She's been in prison for the past fifteen years because she got convicted of murder.

Of the entire family, Norisuke is astonished that she would dare show her face here again, let alone so brazenly. Hato remembers her mother, but her younger siblings, Daiya and Joshuu, were too little to remember her at all. Whenever the topic came up, Norisuke would just tell them that she left or died, and that would be the end of it.

Daiya is kind of excited to have a mother now, but Joshuu has a somewhat different reaction. He.... I can't believe I'm typing this, but this is what happens.... Okay, so Joshu shoves a chair in her path to make her trip, and then he uses his Stand to disassemble her top. Then he talks about suckling her tits, because FUCKDAMMIT Joshuu is just the worst.

Caato quickly turns the tables on him by using her Stand, Space Trucking. She can conceal large objects inside her deck of cards, so when she drops the cards on the floor, Joshuu tries to fuck with them, and he ends up revealing a chair that was hidden in the cards, which jabs him in the throat.

I mean, cripes. If Joshuu doesn't believe she's his mother, or if he has some resentment towards her, I can understand that. But he's basically assaulting her in front of everyone in their own home. Even if she's not his mother, that's really, really low. And if she is a murderer like Hato said, then he's an even bigger dumbass for trying to clown on a hardened criminal. He's not just thoughtless and cruel, he's so fucking stupid too.

She gets fed up and leaves to go back to her hotel, and then Jobin drops by and says he's the one she called when she got out, and he let her in the house.

Moving on, Josuke gets Norisuke alone and shows him some footage from the mansion's security cameras. Some dude is lurking around the orchard, probably trying to find that Locacaca branch Josefumi grafted to one of the trees. At first, Norisuke is upset because he's afraid of another Rock Human attack, even though he's certain that Damo was the last one in the smuggling ring.

But it's not a Rock Human out there. Josuke turns up the brightness on the footage and it shows that it's actually Jobin searching the grounds for the tree. Josuke finally tells Norisuke that Jobin was somehow connected to the Rock Humans' smuggling operation. Most likely, he laundered their profits through the Higashikata Fruit Parlor. After all, the Rock Human group included a security guard, a dry cleaner, an architect, and two dopes with a soccer ball. None of them could just put all those millions of yen in their bank account without attracting suspicion.

Josuke explains his intention to find the fruit first for Holly's sake, and he's only telling Norisuke all of this out of respect and gratitude for taking him in. Norisuke then decides to help Josuke out. He has a special expert he uses as a business consultant, and the guy is so scary good that he's kept it a secret, even from Jobin. This is Rai Mamezuku, the "Plant Appraiser", and Norisuke believes Josuke should seek him out first. Rai's skill will help him locate the correct branch in a fraction of the time it would take Josuke to find it alone.

But Caato has returned, claiming she owns half the house, and she has as much right to be here as the rest of them. She notices Josuke and Norisuke plotting, and she calls Jobin to warn him. She doesn't know what they're up to, but she guesses that Josuke's going to meet someone, which is why Norisuke gave him a cell phone.

Jobin decides this calls for drastic measures, so he... buys a bucket of fried chicken and tosses it around a pond.

The chicken is to summon this dude, named Dolomite. Let me just skip to the part where his appearance is explained...

Well, he got electrocuted, which apparently destroyed his arms, legs, and nose. But Dolomite is a Rock Human, so he can still get by just living out in the middle of nowhere, sleeping outdoors and probably eating whatever he can catch.

What I don't understand is why he got electrocuted. The flashback shows him chilling out in some idyllic scene with a woman, and then she suddenly wanders off toward a nearby power station like she can't wait to get electrocuted, and he rushes to shield her with his own body, which is... not how electricity works, actually. Then he collapses and the woman just wanders off in the other direction. I don't get it.

Anyway, if you're like me when I first read this, you're probably wondering what Dolomite has to to with Damo and the rest of the Locacaca smuggling ring. The answer is simple: He doesn't have anything to do with them, but for some reason he knew all of those guys. I guess they invited him to join their team, and he turned them down, because he has no use for human wealth or social status. This may be because he's so badly deformed that he can't infiltrate human civilization anymore, or maybe he always felt this way and his injuries just means he's committed to nature.

Also, the Locacaca fruit itself holds no value for Dolomite, because he lost so many body parts in the accident that he has nothing equivalent to exchange. Remember, the fruit doesn't actually heal anything. You might grow back a leg, but you'll lose your eyes. You could eat another piece to get your eyes back, but then you might lose your jaw. And while the smugglers found wealthy customers willing to do those kinds of trades, Dolomite's body is missing too many pieces already.

But Jobin tells him about a new kind of Locacaca, which somehow combined Josefumi Kujo with Yoshikage Kira. I'm not sure how Jobin would know all of this, unless he figured it out independently. I was going to suggest that Damo contacted him after he found out, except he found out only a few minutes before Hato's counterattack, and then Josuke killed him.

So between the promise of a way to restore his body, and maybe to avenge his fallen pals from the Rock Human Smuggler Gang, Dolomite agrees to use his Stand, Blue Hawaii, to help Jobin.

Okay, so here's how it works. Blue Hawaii just mind controls people on exposure to bodily fluid. You get zapped if you touch any bodily fluid from Dolomite himself, or any of his puppets. Dolomite knocks out one of his own teeth and tries to have a kid give it to Josuke in an envelope. He almost lets his curiosity get the better of him, because he doesn't know why anyone would know his name or send him a letter. But he sees the shadow of the tooth through the paper and decides it's too gross.

Then the boy starts advancing toward Josuke like a zombie, and when Josuke avoids him, the boy injures himself as he drags his body closer and closer. A woman gets some of the boy's blood on her and she gets possessed in his place, and so on and so on.

I can't show every highlight from this chase, because of Tumblr's dumb 30-image limit, but suffice to say there's a lot of cool spots in this arc, which is mostly Josuke running for dear life as he struggles to figure out what's going on. A possessed man follows him up to a locked gate, and he presses his flesh against the wire until he bleeds, and Josuke has to put up a big soap bubble around himself to shield his body from the blood.

As Josuke flees, he wonders who could be attacking him now, since all the Rock Human smugglers are already dead. He thinks someone's trying to stop him from meeting the Plant Appraiser, but how could anyone even know that's his plan? Then he realizes the true danger of this enemy Stand is that if it mind-controls him, the user might be able to force Josuke to reveal what he knows about the Plant Appraiser. And that's actually what Jobin had in mind, although Josuke doesn't know Jobin's behind this.

Still, he decides against calling Norisuke for help, since Josuke suspects someone at the house must have tipped off his enemy, so instead he calls Yasuho and asks her to go find that nasty tooth he dropped. Josuke contained it in a soap bubble before he left, so it won't affect Yasuho as long as she doesn't touch it, but he wants her to use Paisley Park to use it to track down the Stand User, since that seems to be the only way to defeat him.

And Yasuho does exactly that, and quickly turns up some dental records, but they're from some police report about a creature who attacked a chicken farm.

The police matched the bite marks to a man named Masaji Dorokoma, but before she can learn any more...

Jobin ambushes her with his own Stand, Speed King. It's abilities haven't been fully explored so far, but we do know he can use it to sharply increase the temperature of things, which is handy for causing blood vessels to burst for knocking people out. That's what he does to Yasuho, but then he adds insult to injury and refers to her as "Joshuu's girlfriend". Fuck you, Jobin. Yasugap 4-ever.

Anyway, he knows it would only complicate things to kill Yasuho, but the fact that he even considers it should tell you something about his frame of mind. Jobin's agenda isn't clear, but he's willing to stoop to murder to achieve it. It just isn't practical here. Besides, all he came her to do is to secure Dolomite's tooth and toss it down the sewer drain. Also he removes all the stuff from Yasuho's phone that she had found out about Dolomite.

He believes this will make Dolomite unstoppable, as there's no way to track down the user, and the Stand will relentlessly pursue Josuke until he runs out of road.

And that's what happens, as Blue Hawaii eventually switches to birds and then flies. Josuke tries to kill the fly with bug spray, but that doesn't seem to stop it, so I think the Stand can control things even after they die. He takes a chance in a room with only one door, and closes the door most of the way, so the fly will have to enter from one direction, and he can crush it and be done with this. But he didn't count on the fly infecting a woman, who then infected a baby. I'm not sure if Josuke just can't bring himself to fight a baby, or if he's just too exhausted and has no room to jump over it.

Anyway, Josuke gets zapped, and then he walks straight to Dolomite's pond. This was probably what Dolomite intended to do from the start, but he knew that even if Josuke didn't touch the tooth, sooner or later Blue Hawaii would catch up to him. He orders Josuke to tell him who he was going to meet and where, and when Josuke explains his plan to meet the Plant Appraiser, Dolomite orders him to walk into the pond and drown himself.

But wait, not so fast!

If you ambush Yasuho Hirose, son, you better finish the job.

Yasuho couldn't call Josuke, but she could track him down through the GPS on his phone. Yasuho whacks Dolomite with a pipe until he agrees to cancel his attack.

One thing I want to point out here is that Yasuho seems to have gained a much more direct control over her Stand. Before, Paisley Park would act without her, then send her messages asking her to choose between two options. Now, it appears beside her, and it seems to respond to her conscious thoughts. Like, she has it reach out to Dolomite's tooth to analyze it.

And Dolomite tells them that it was Jobin who put him up to this. Everything else he says is pretty much stuff Josuke already knew, but for Dolomite, this just confirms his original sentiment, that the Locacaca just isn't worth the trouble...

[fauzhee10069]

Caato’s Stand and the speculation of its potential (JoJolion)

In my previous post, I have discussed the mechanism of Caato's Stand so far as it was shown and speculation of its other capability that is not yet demonstrated but is possible.

Here, I want to discuss a little further about the possibility of its other ability “that has been implied but not yet confirmed”. A speculation related to the hype of her as the main villain by those Caatofags. The speculation starts from here:

We all know that Caato's Stand ability is to store and release objects using her French playing cards. However, the other weird thing in this panel is that Caato had pulled out a phone that was released in 2011. Logically speaking, it is impossible for her to have that phone as she was put in jail since the mid-90’s (1996). An observant reader also found that the model of Caato’s phone resembles Docomo Sharp SH-11C which came out around 2011.

Caatofags considers this as part of her Stand ability, and this ability enables them to strengthen the theory of her capability to interact with the outside world (and rock-humans) during her incarceration. Even so, I keep denying it because there is still other possibility, that Jobin could have smuggled and given it to her when he met her through family visits, and then Caato hid it within her Stand. That's why she also has Jobin's contact number.

But what if it is indeed part of her ability? There are two possibilities for how this happen if this is indeed part of her Stand mechanism:

Using her Stand, Caato is able to take out objects that are in different timeline.

Using her Stand, Caato is able to take out objects that are in separated place, away from her and her playing cards.

Between those possibilities, I’m more convinced about the second one (only if this is indeed true). The first one is highly unlikely, because we’ve only seen her pulled out a 2011 phone in 2011, not a few years before.

Even so, it makes me wonder, we did not see Caato using her Stand at all in her infamous “Mother & Child” flashback. If she really has this ability, why didn't she use it at all, perhaps to eliminate the traces of her murder of the Bully Boy? Unless at that time she did not have her Stand yet, but I was also quite surprised when she seemed calm to see how the bully boy was dying due to Jobin's Stand, as if she already familiar with Stand. Maybe her Stand is indeed useless in the flashback.

Caato has never even shown a 'feat' like the second point (taking out objects that are in separated place, away from her & her cards), considering a panel in chapter 58 where Caato once said that “there certainly are a lot of chairs in this house, so you wouldn’t notice if I hid one between my cards, would you?” Therefore this means that she took out a chair from her cards, a chair that belongs to Higashikata's house, which is in the same world as her and the family.

There is also this infamous hype from Caatofags who frequently compare her Stand with D4C because their "dimensional-based" ability and "caught-in-between" mechanism.

「D4C」 has access to different parallel worlds/dimensions, it can also pull other people or items to other dimensions, but according to Caato’s own words, her Stand does not cross between dimensions in its mechanism, therefore the hype that her Stand has the same ability and power as the 「D4C」 has not been proven!

Besides, I'm still not comfortable with those two points above, too overpowered as if Caato is a big villain (unless you believe so like those Caatofags). I hate to support or deny it because both can only be done with assumptions, namely speculation against speculation. This is the result of how little her information that we have so far and the lack of her active role in this current arc. I hope that one day, we will be sure of what is really true.

[fauzhee10069]

The True Mechanism of Caato’s Stand, 「Space Trucking」

The newest chapter of JoJolion (107) has been released and we can finally see the full capability of Caato’s Stand, which its name has recently been revealed as 「Space Trucking」, following the naming tradition of Higashikata family’s Stands, whose name contains the word "KING" (including Mitsuba who joined the family through marriage and ignoring Caato’s status as a disowned member).

JJL chapter 107: Kaato Higashikata's "Attack"

Caato and Jobin’s Stands, 「Space Trucking」 and 「Speed King」 are actually Deep Purple’s songs, this may signify how close they are in the family.

Post chapter 107, some of my words from my previous post regarding the mechanism of 「Space Trucking」 may sound outdated, however broadly speaking, it is still relevant with the explanation of 「Space Trucking」’s feats.

The new feat of 「Space Trucking」 shows that it is able to hide certain parts of body (which belong to a living being):

The name of Caato’s Stand did have the word “space”, she also said that it can hide things in a “space” between a card and another card. The concept of “space” was also a major thing in the mechanism of 「D4C」, the Stand of the main villain in the previous part. No wonder many readers love to compare them or even powerscale her Stand with D4C.

BUT powerscaling 「Space Trucking」 with 「D4C」 is the big mistake of those readers (particularly Caatofags) had ever done, just because they share the concept of manipulating “space” doesn’t mean that they will share the same mechanism, functionality or even ability.

Thus, I still don't think that 「Space Trucking」 will be as powerful/hax as 「D4C」 and I also still think that 「Space Trucking」's ability is more similar to 「Enigma」.

The keyword here is: HIDE, not “space”. 「Space Trucking」 works by hiding various objects into her cards.

With what she did to Tooru, she is not harming him (otherwise 「Wonder of U」 would have already triggered), she just disabled him. By hiding his certain body parts, she hindered Tooru's ability to move his limbs… that’s what the “space” between her cards does.

Here is the compilation of 「Space Trucking」’s concealing ability:

See? She really said that she hid the chair

It is always about “concealing” and “hiding” and「Space Trucking」’s new feat also shows that it is capable to do that with animate objects/living being as well, be it partially (with Tooru) or fully:

There was those silly speculation when Caato was hiding Kei inside her cards, I laughed at this idea but it turns out that her Stand is actually capable to do that… however, my disagreement of that is not about her Stand feat, it’s more about the plot progression and I’m glad that Araki didn't make that happen.

Lastly, I’m gonna told you to stop comparing it with 「D4C」!!! Sure it shares “space” as its concept but what Valentine did with the “space” is very different from what Caato does.

「D4C」’s using “space” to send the object (or himself) to another dimension… an AU!World in which said object (excluding himself) would face deadly consequence if it meets its alternative version belong to that world whereas 「Space Trucking」’s using “space” only to hide said object.

Both only shares their mechanism by forcing them between two objects.

「Enigma」 also hides the target object into the fold of paper, there is definitely "space" inside the fold of paper and it doesn’t need to be told in front of your face.

The Stand’s ability works in JJBA is not the same as any superpower in other anime (for example: Devil Fruits in One Piece), it does not use theme to separate each abilities, it uses mechanism and function.

When did Caato hide Tsurugi?

Let’s reread the previous chapter of 106, we have the scene when the roof collapsed after being hit by a plane’s panel.

On page 11 according to the mangafreak.net site, Tsurugi was still carried by Mitsuba, they were near the garage at that time.

Then on the last page (35), we saw Caato in the garage of Higashikata's house.

The two scenes are 24 pages away and inside those 24 pages, Tooru was already injured, Yasuho was communicating with Josuke, there was enough time when Tooru and Yasuho were struggling for Caato to interact with Mitsuba and take Tsurugi off-screen.

When and how did Caato get her Stand?

We don't really know, there is no specific information about it. However, I am certain that Caato obtained her 「Space Trucking」 ‘after’ the murder incident against Boyscott Bully was over.

As she is able to hide Tsurugi in her cards, then she should be able to hide the body of Boyscott Bully as well if she already had her Stand!

You might argue that Caato had not developed that ability yet at the time, however, if she was already a Stand user, there should be an attempt she made to use it in that incident.

The murder happened 20 years ago and her arrest happened 15 years ago. I'm also not sure that 15 years ago Caato already had her Stand, for if she already had it, there should be an attempt on her to cover up the murder better before the police went after her.

JJL chapter 64: Mother and Child

Then when did she obtain it? I think sometimes around when she was in prison.

Wall Eyes’ plothole

In JJL, it has been established that people who live near Wall Eyes can get a Stand. By that logic, Caato should have been able to get her Stand since she lived in Higashikata's house, which is close to Wall Eyes during her married life with her family. I believe that the family became Stand users because of that, not because the crap of one being a secret rock-human.

However, this becomes an error in Caato’s part as she never demonstrated her Stand during the murder incident. The argument that her ability will be useless at the time is also false, due to the fact that 「Space Trucking」's ability to hide thing was surely handy to cover up the murder!

Or perhaps, if we refer to my post about Wall Eyes, Caato was only late to awaken her Stand like Joshu and Yasuho.

「Space Trucking」’s ability so far:

Capable to hide inanimate and animate object between two cards, both fully or partially.

For animate object, it is able to disable the target’s movement by hiding some of their body parts.

It has its own humanoid form, but what we’ve seen in this latest chapter so far, its demonstration to hide object is still limited to Caato’s playing cards.

Caato’s Stand and its mechanism so far (Jojolion)

Caato’s Stand, which until now has not been named yet, often becomes the object of hype in its ability and discussion in its name. I’m also interested to discuss both, but maybe I will focus more on its ability.

As her character is heavily a reference of French playing cards, Caato uses her playing cards as medium for her Stand ability.

Caato can store objects between her cards, making them appear or disappear like a magic trick. The first object we saw when she demonstrated her Stand for the first time was a cellphone. The phone is smaller in width and length, making the cards able to fully conceal it.

The second time we saw her Stand, she tricked Joshu to tidy up her cards, indirectly hurting him by the impact of the chair she stored into her cards when he took the cards that were stacked. With this second demonstration, we can sort the mechanism of her Stand:

She can store objects between her cards, making them appear or disappear like a magic trick

Anyone can release the objects that were stored inside her cards

She can store the objects with size much larger than her cards

Another interesting thing here is that the chair came out of two separate cards, it makes me wonder of the possibility that she could separate parts of an object and release them separately. There are also two things that I see as another mechanism of her Stand, though it’s still hypothetically speaking as the scenes were just mainly implication:

How she hid the chair between her cards? Did she slam the chair between her cards? If so, why no one noticed her while doing it (taking out two decks of her cards and putting the chair between them)? Two people might not had noticed that moment: Daiya (due to poor eyesight) and Joshu (being too distracted), why did none of the rest of the family notice that? Which led to two assumptions:

Caato does not need to take out (use) the cards to hide objects, she simply needs to will it

She does need to take out the cards, it’s just the family being too oblivious to notice that

Or some of them might actually noticed that but kept silent because Joshu definitely deserved that (LOL), the scene was focused on him afterall. Anyway, I’m more into the later, this reunion scene with her is not to be taken too seriously (in gauging the actual power as it is not a serious Stand battle).

In addition, a crucial thing that is easily overlooked in Caato’s words: “there certainly are a lot of chairs in this house, so you wouldn’t notice if I hid one between my cards, would you?”

Considering the hype from her supporters who frequently compare her Stand with D4C because their “dimensional-based” ability and “caught-in-between” mechanism?

「D4C」 has access to different parallel worlds/dimensions, it can also pull other people or items to other dimensions.

But in the case of Caato’s Stand and her words: she took out a chair from her cards, a chair that belongs to Higashikata’s house, which is in the same world as her and the family. In other words, Caato’s Stand does not cross between dimensions in its mechanism, therefore the hype that her Stand has the same ability and power as the 「D4C」 has not been proven!

Notice how the warden took Caato’s cards, the decks were slightly open but nothing came out from them, but a few panels afterwards we see Caato took out her cellphone from the cards. Why didn’t the warden accidentally brought out the phone? It’s either:

Only Stand users (like Joshu) who can release the objects stored there besides the user (Caato)

Caato can control the timing of the stored objects to be released (and anyone who can release it)

I’ll pick the later too. However, there is also the possibility of luck as the decks, that were slightly open, were not storing her phone atm.

Keep reading

[fauzhee10069]

What is the actual trigger of 「Wonder of U」?

Related post: “Wonder of U” and its mechanism so far

Curiosity killed the cat…

Before chapter 107 was released, we thought that the 'trigger' of 「Wonder of U」's calamity was the intention to 'pursue' or 'harm'. Even the slightest action is capable of activating 'calamity'.

Then what about Caato? Why didn't she get hit by calamity even when she had chance to immobilize Tooru with her Stand?

What is exactly the trigger of calamity? Let’s review some previous chapters for awhile:

Poor Tom

(Warning! Some of the pictures are gory)

JJL chapter 76: Ozon Baby's Pressure - part 4

In the very first 「Wonder of U」’s debut chapter, Poor Tom who was getting pressured by Josuke spotted an ambulance and thought that they must be his 'comrades' coming to pick him up. When he was 'pursuing' the ambulance, calamity immediately got rid of him.

Rai

JJL chapter 85: The Wonder of You (Your Miraculous Love) – part 2

Back when Josuke’s group were looking for The Head Doctor, they were pursuing Mr. Akefu and Rai got 'calamitied'. At that time they were curious about the doctor’s identity.

JJL chapter 100: The Wonder of You (Your Miraculous Love) - part 17

Calamity finally hit Rai fatally after 「Wonder of U」 managed to provoke him to harm it. Anger had led to his defeat.

Mitsuba

JJL chapter 85: The Wonder of You (Your Miraculous Love) – part 2

After 'having fun' with her husband, Mitsuba saw Mr. Akefu outside the window, standing in their yard. Curiosity about the reason of why he was there made Mitsuba to go after (pursue) him and got a small calamity.

JJL chapter 91: The Wonder of You (Your Miraculous Love) - part 8

Mitsuba saw Mr. Akefu once again standing in their yard when she was cooking, she saw him through the living room-open kitchen windows. This time she was not only curious but also panicked, and calamity had attacked her once again.

Josuke

JJL chapter 92: The Wonder of You (Your Miraculous Love) – part 9

After Holy rescued him, Josuke immediately intended to fight 「Wonder of U」. Still in the same room and just by thinking of fighting WOU, calamity had already attacked Josuke first.

Bus-Stop Murderer/The Prisoner

JJL chapter 96: Just Don’t Move

Actually, this scene confused me a bit (in telling it), so I'll just take a summary from JoJo wiki):

A man held in jail for murdering elementary school children with a kitchen knife while they were waiting at a bus stop. He shared a cell with Rai and was shown from the start to be very distressed. Rai told him about the existence of the head doctor but the man angrily told Rai to shut up, thinking he's crazy. After Rai described the crime scene that led him to the cell he sit in, the man was affected by calamity. As he was about to attack Rai with the very knife he used to kill the children at the bus stop, his karma led to him slashing his own neck instead.

So the point is that this bus-stop murderer was struck by a 'calamity' for the crime he committed (read: karma), but how can he deal with 「Wonder of U」 in the first place? I think, as he shared a cell with Rai, and Rai began to tell about Mr. Akefu/WOU to him, the murderer acted as if he did not care, but in his heart, (I think) he was curious about the figure that Rai was talking about.

The Reporter

JJL chapter 97: The Wonder of You (Your Miraculous Love) – part 14

Mr. Akefu had provoked the reporter to reveal his 'intention'. The reporter said that he intended to 'pursue' him and ‘harm’ him indirectly through defamation. He was immediately killed by calamity not long after.

Jobin

JJL chapter 97: The Wonder of You (Your Miraculous Love) – part 14

Seeing that his wife had been constantly seen being 'terrorized' by 「Wonder of U」, Jobin became curious and wanted to help her by getting rid of the ‘source of terror’ (which also potentially disrupts his plans).  He saw Tooru's shadow through CCTV, curiosity about the mysterious figure made Jobin intend to ‘pursue’ him and calamity befell him.

Kei

JJL chapter 104: The Wonder of You (Your Miraculous Love) – part 21

Kei who just received a call from Yasuho and immediately caught up on events that occurred during her absence, she went to meet Josuke to deliver Yasuho's call. 「Born This Way」 manifested and accidentally ‘harm’ 「Wonder of U」  when she arrived, then the calamity hit her.

The Nurses

JJL chapter 106: Go Beyond

Seeing Mr. Akefu is injured, the nurses tried to ‘approach’ him to help him. The calamity then also seemed to affect the nurses. Apart from wanting to help him, the nurses were probably curious about what made Mr. Akefu got injured in the first place?

So…

After reviewing some chapters on how 'calamity' strikes, it's easy enough to relate it to 'pursuit' and 'intention to harm'. However, witnessing Caato who didn't immediately hit the 'calamity' even when she managed to incapacitate Tooru with her Stand makes us think, didn't she 'approach/pursue' and 'attack' Tooru?

Some argue that calamity did not attack her because Caato did not 'harm' Tooru either, just immobilized him.

But seeing how close she was, why didn't calamity attack her? Didn't Caato also walk up to him (an act of pursue)?

She had no intention to harm him, she literally said that.

But the nurses in chapter 106 also had no intention of harming Mr. Akefu, right? In fact, they wanted to help him.

The nurses were approaching/’pursuing’ him.

But so did Caato!!

Let us end this debate first, looks like we're just beating around the bush right now.

I think it's a bit inconsistent and unfair, why could Caato get away from calamity when she literally used her Stand to immobilize Tooru? Some readers think that Tooru purposely disabled 「Wonder of U」 at the time because he needed an 'equivalent exchange'.

A reasonable thought, but I have other ideas about the true trigger of 「Wonder of U」's calamity.

It’s not really ‘pursue’ and ‘harm’, it’s actually ‘CURIOUSITY’.

At least that's my theory.

So how does 'curiousity' play out in triggering 「Wonder of U」's calamity?

In the earliest chapter of 「Wonder of U」's debut, the end of Ozon Baby arc (chapter 76), Poor Tom spotted an ambulance and guessed that it was his comrades picking him up. Of course 'curiosity' is at play there, did the ambulance really come to save him? What if, instead of his comrades, an unknown medical team boarded it?

Even if it were his comrades, what was their intention to come there (was it just to save Poor Tom and take the New Locacaca’s branch)?

Josuke's gang's pursuit of the Head Doctor since chapter 85 involved 'curiosity' in finding his identity.

「Wonder of U」's terror against Mitsuba often involved 'curiosity' on Mitsuba regarding Mr. Akefu's 'sightings'.

In Josuke and Holy scene in chapter 92, it was possible that a sense of 'curiosity' was involved when Josuke intended to attack 「Wonder of U」, the curiosity about what he would do next in defeating WOU and also about its identity (since Josuke and Holy had just talked about 'The Head Doctor's identity').

In chapter 96, Rai kept talking about 'the Head Doctor' and 'calamity' even when the bus-stop murderer did not ask. But if your friend keeps babbling about someone who is stranger to you, even though it's annoying, won't you be curious over time?

In chapter 97, the reporter got hit by calamity after the Head Doctor provoked him to confess his pursue. But remember, that right before that, the reporter received a mysterious package from Josuke which was a hint of Head Doctor's involvement in Locacaca and Holy as human test subject. It's very possible that curiosity came over him, “what really happened in Locacaca's research and what was the Head Doctor actually doing behind the scenes?”

Still in the same chapter (97), Jobin was struck by calamity because of his curiosity about the shadowy figure outside Higashikata's yard (Tooru) and tried to pursue him.

In chapter 100, Rai who managed to get very close to 「Wonder of U」 was provoked to directly attack it and Calamity killed him. If it was pure anger, where would the 'curiosity' be?

JJL chapter 100: The Wonder of You (Your Miraculous Love) - part 17

Just after Rai managed to get close to WOU and prior to WOU provoked him, Rai's curiosity arised about what will happen after he got this close? Would calamity befall him or not? Even WOU added that it itself was 'curious' about it, whether it was sincere or just an act to provoke Rai.

In chapter 104, Kei must be curious about what really happened (to Yasuho and Josuke), her job was only to convey Yasuho's message to Josuke, but of course the 'opponent' that Yasuho told to her at that time made her curious, "who are Yasuho and Josuke fighting right now?"

Lastly, the nurses in chapter 106, they must be 'curious' about what happened to Mr. Akefu to the point that he suddenly got badly injured.

Then what about Caato? Did she not have any ‘curiosity’ as she approached Tooru and used her Stand against him? About who is he and how does his Stand work?

Regarding Tooru’s identity, there is Yasuho who immediately told about what just happened and who Tooru is.. to Caato who had just appeared in the scene. She didn't even forget to explain how his Stand works, Yasuho basically recapped everything in the previous chapters to Caato.

JJL chapter 107: Kaato Higashikata's "Attack"

「Wonder of U」 only started to be seen attacking Caato when she did 'equivalent exchange' against Tooru and Tsurugi. But wasn't the reason WOU attacked her was because of her action that intended to 'harm'? Yes, but in that scene there was also 'curiosity' in Caato's mind, what was that? It is regarding the result of the ' equivalent exchange ' she just did, “will this work or not? Can Tsurugi be saved and Tooru be defeated?”

Then what about Caato's line: "how do you feel? Do you want to touch me?” a few pages before, isn't that a curiosity? It could be, but for me the following questions did not need to be answered. I mean, Caato did not seem really care about his answer.

What Caato had in mind could be like this:

“How do you feel?” -> 'of course he doesn't feel pain because I don't hurt him'

“Do you want to touch me?” -> ‘of course he can’t, I'm immobilizing him right now.’

It was more like a taunt as she just walked away after immobilized him, but I could be wrong though.

Afterall, this is just my theory, not something we should consider 'canon' (yet): that the main trigger of WOU's calamity is 'curiosity' which in the end often results is 'pursuit' and 'attack'.

Hence the phrase: curiosity killed the cat.

If my theory proves wrong, then the answer to why 「Wonder of U」 didn't immediately attack Caato might be there in Mr. Cesar Gallardo’s comment.

Also, I left Yasuho’s case out because her situations are still ambiguous rn.

[fauzhee10069]

I told ya, Caato is a call-back to Enigma

Though iirc,Terunosuke looks more impressive than her as he observed several people's habits (who were only strangers to him), while Caato knows Norisuke IV's habit as she once lived together with him for years.

[fauzhee10069]

JoJolion: The Hard Life of Nijimura Kei

…and how she was criminally underutilized by Araki.

Nijimura Kei, the other Joestar in JoJolion besides Josuke & Holy, who was alive during the JJL storyline (until her last role). She was introduced as a young woman in her early 20s, working as the maid in Higashikata, the richest family in Morioh where most of the family members are spoiled.

JJL Chapter 7: Josuke, Go to the Higashikata Family

She was a Stand user, using 「Born This Way」, an automatic Stand that activates when the person she has targeted opens something to attack Josuke as a temporary side boss/antagonist. Knowing that it’s automatic, this sealed her fights to be very limited and hard to develop further (both in terms of mechanism and plot).

It turned out that she is a Joestar and related to Josuke, the main protagonist.

JJL chapter 16 and 17

And her role as Higashikata’s maid was just a disguise to investigate Higashikata's family secret and help her family (mainly her mom, Holy).

JJL Chapter 17: The Lemon and the Tangerine

Kei's life at that time should have been pretty tough, when she got news that her brother had just been declared dead and her mother was terminally ill.

Her father died when she was barely a little girl (according to family tree, Kei was born in 1989 and her father died in 1991, making her just around 2 years old when she lost her father).

As a widow, it also made Holy to have to work as a career woman to support her young children (9 years old Yoshikage and 2 years old Kei were left fatherless). And indirectly took away her time as a 'mother' for Kei.

JJL Chapter 50: Vitamin C and Killer Queen - part 1, look how little Kei looked lonely with her doll.

And back to present time (2011), Kei also had to lose her brother (Yoshikage) and lived alone with the only family member who really depended on her (a very ill mother).

JJL Chapter 58: Dawn of the Higashikata Family

I'm not sure Kei's salary as a maid alone will be able to cover her mother’s medical bills, plus she was in undercover so she couldn't show herself as her family member out-of-nowhere.

The family mostly depended on Yoshikage to pay for it, and very unfortunately that Yoshikage is already dead, causing the payment to be stopped. I'm sure Kei did not want this to happen to her mother, but sadly she couldn't do much.

Supposedly, after Kei's true identity and role were revealed, there should be a secret collaboration between her and Josuke. Too bad we never see it, Kei only occasionally appeared as cameo or one of the 'victims' of the Stand attacks from rock-humans (aka. jobbing).

JJL chapter 75 and 48, not doing anything and got jobbed by 「Vitamin C」& 「Ozon Baby」.

And when she did not get any significant role through the story, she was doing her own business. Turned out that she had been taking care of her mother in hospital.

JJL Chapter 102: The Wonder of You (The Miracle of Your Love) - part 19

And taking care of someone who is in a coma like that is not something that everyone’s willing to do. Surely everyone loves Holy, despite her lesser time as Kei's mother due to her job, her daughter still loves her and that’s why she was willing to take care of her in such a way.

Still, having a life like Kei's is a tough one… and not everyone can live it.

And when Kei got her new significant role in the story, her last chance to help the protagonist as his ally…

Araki gave her such badass intro only to…

JJL Chapter 104: The Wonder of You (The Miracle of Your Love) - part 21, get jobbed once again.

Kei's role in JoJolion is quite disappointing, she is a Joestar, a Stand user, and unlike her mother’s condition, she was fit and well so she should be able to do a lot more than Holy as a Joestar.

Kei is connected to the main protagonist, biologically related in a weird way and she held an independent mission as a spy in the Higashikata family. There should have been a lot she could have done in exchanging information and cooperating with Josuke, but her only product to Josuke throughout the story was an information regarding 'equivalent exchange' ability in Higashikata's land and nothing more.

And in the climax arc of “Wonder of You” where it was Kei’s last chance to cooperate with Josuke in defeating the big villain, when we were expecting an exciting 2-vs-1 battle, her role was only as far as a messenger as she delivered the cellphone (message) from Yasuho and just… die, nothing more to it.

Caato got a great intro (so great that she was wrongly hyped for years), but was absent for a long time and suddenly came back just to die. But even so she still left an impactful impression by defeating the main villain and breaking the family curse.

Too bad, Kei’s character who underwent similar thing ended up just jobbing like that… with her last action that was not so impactful, because we need to surprise the readers.

Kei might be a disappointment, regarding her role as a ‘character’ in JoJolion. But if we look at her as an ‘individual being’ with a life of her own (using the mindset that we are the main characters in our own lives), she had lived a very hard life. And we need to appreciate her toughness, that she still lived her life well, that she did not fall into moral turpitude, or becoming a criminal. She did not abandon her family even though they became a burden to her.

My personal confession:

Kei could be the person I admire right now because I am currently experiencing similar thing as her life. My father got covid and currently he is hospitalized. It’s been around 2 weeks right now. We both live off the island away from family, so I am the only family member who is able to support him. A few days ago he needed a platelet donor, those were the hardest days for me as the only family trying to look for. At least those days have passed. But until now he has not recovered yet and is still being treated in hospital.

Our apartment is far from the hospital so I have to go back and forth there for about 30 minutes almost every day to deliver the basic things he needs. I also have a full time job that can't be left behind. So just imagine how tired I am.

Unlike Kei who can visit his mother and directly take care of her, I can't see my father at all (and you know why). Even so, I stayed strong and did what I could as his daughter, just like Kei. And Kei became part of my inspiration to be as tough as her. Of course I still hope that these hard days will end soon and our family can be happy again together.

Let's pray for the recovery of my father and anyone else who is also seriously ill at this time.

Update: 7/15/2021

Unfortunately, my father just passed away at noon, 7/13/2021. May God forgives his sins. Bless for you all who still have your family intact, and pray for anyone who also lost their loved one by this terrible pandemic.