Meanwhile, Josuke stood in deep reflection. Pieces of his fractured past were finally locking back into place. His former identity was that of Josefumi Kujo, and half of his physical body belonged to Yoshikage Kira. It was not an even split of the two, either — more like sixty-forty, or seventy-thirty.
With his original story fully uncovered now, and the rock human Damo finished, Josuke shifted his absolute focus onto the catalyst behind his creation. The Locacaca fruit, and whether the grafted version was still out there.
These rock humans, for whatever reason, had monopolised control over the fruit and the equivalent exchange it brought about.
Driven by his newfound memories, Josuke went to Morio University Hospital to find the woman who had saved his life. When he arrived, he sadly found Holly completely unconscious, heavily strapped to a bed and tucked away in a dusty, neglected room in an abandoned wing of the hospital.
Outraged by these horrific conditions, Josuke strolled back towards reception and cornered a doctor, demanding answers. When the doctor coldly asked if he was a relative, Josuke did not hesitate. He confidently stated that he was Holly's son.
Hearing this, the doctor revealed a harsh reality. Nobody had paid Holly's medical expenses since August, and her insurance did not cover her specialised care. Even worse, her condition had taken a grotesque turn for the worse. The illness had caused her to hallucinate, mistaking her own fingers for food and eating six of them before the staff noticed and were forced to strap her down and sedate her. The doctor explained that her current treatment was only delaying the inevitable progress of the disease, and unless someone settled the massive fees, amounting to a staggering hundred and twenty thousand yen per night, the hospital would halt her care entirely.
Staring at Holly's frail, broken form, Josuke was entirely overcome with grief. Surprisingly, a feeling filled him and caused him to recognise her as his own mother. Through his tears, he promised the doctor that every single yen would be paid, and that Holly needed to be put back on the treatment she had been on before. Lastly, he warned them that if any other bad things happened to her, for whatever reason, he would not forgive them.
Making his way back through the hospital parking lot, he knew what he needed to do now, and it supported the idea that his lost memories had once existed. He would find the Locacaca and cure Holly, because he had already used the same power of equivalent exchange before.
Later that morning, Josuke returned to the Higashikata estate. In the living room, Norisuke was practising his usual morning breathing exercises, as he did every day before his stretches. Daiya casually mentioned that she had left a DVD box on the couch with an exercise video on it by the fitness guru Miki Ryosuke. Norisuke tried to look around for it when, out of nowhere, a pale white hand gently handed it to him.
It took a few agonising seconds for the family's brains to properly process what they were even seeing. A complete stranger was casually sitting on their living room couch.
The moment Norisuke saw her, he panicked and slowly started to back away. Turning the television off, she quipped that it had been quite a while. Seeing her, Hato stood there sweating, unable to comprehend what was going on.
With nobody talking, the woman commented on how much Daiya and Joshu and Hato had grown. The younger children asked who she was, but Norisuke first demanded to know how she had got into the house. Standing there, Josuke curiously asked Hato who the woman was, and she revealed that it was their mother, Kaato Higashikata. Obviously, her siblings had been too young to remember her at the time, and Hato herself had been only nine years old when she left.
Norisuke furiously demanded to know why she was doing this now, and why she had not called to announce her release. Kaato coldly justified her silence, saying that she had simply wanted to see her children as soon as possible.
To break the tension, Hato chimed in to explain the horrific truth to the rest of the family. She had looked into it herself, because Norisuke had barely ever spoken about what had happened to her mother. According to the justice department, she had been locked away because she was found guilty of murdering a child.
Completely unfazed by the reminder of her crime, Kaato aggressively informed Norisuke that since she was back, she was going to run his pockets for everything he was worth. Even though she had done nothing to improve the business while she was locked up, she now demanded compensation for it, to improve her own life.
Daiya, bless her heart, curiously asked whether that was really their mother. Sensing an opportunity, Kaato warmly invited a curious Daiya over for a hug.
Infuriated by this random woman entering his domain, Joshu aggressively shoved a chair forward, causing Kaato to trip and fall. Going into full demon mode, Joshu began antagonising his own mother, attempting to humiliate her and strip away any authority she might have over him. He reminded her about chairs, and how outside of prison they were not glued to the floor, so maybe she should pay more attention.
Noticing a loose bit of fabric on her clothes, Joshu pointed it out to her. Kaato went to pull it off, and as she did, that same bit of fabric loosened a bolt from Nut King Call that caused her dress to unbutton itself.
In the scuffle that came out of this, a deck of cards slipped out of Kaato's belongings and scattered across the floor. Joshu reached down to help pick them up, and the trap sprang. Using her hidden stand power, a heavy wooden chair suddenly materialised directly out of one of the flat cards, violently impaling Joshu right through the jaw.
Furious and breathing heavily, Kaato stood over her son, scolding him for grossly underestimating her and expressing her utter outrage that the love she had for her family was being met with such disrespect. Offended with the reunion, Kaato stormed out of the room.
Just as she left, Jobin nonchalantly strolled into the kitchen, casually revealing to the stunned family that he was the one who had let their mother into the house.