Rai Mamezuku

"I know I sound like a broken record but 89 YEARS OLD?!"

- Rai Mamezuku, JJL Chapter 84

Rai Mamezuku (豆銑 礼) is a major ally featured in JoJolion.

Rai is a reclusive plant appraiser, secretly employed by the Higashikata Fruit Company and only known by Norisuke Higashikata IV. Once attacked by the Rock Humans, he joins with Josuke Higashikata in order to protect himself.

Rai is a Stand User, and his Doggy Style confers him the ability to transform into band-like strings.

Appearance
Rai is a well-built man with braided dark hair. He is off medium build and wears a jumpsuit with a vine and a peapod pattern over a light-colored shirt and a tie, as well as a hat with an oversized flap covering the whole back of his head.

Rai's left hand is missing four fingers due to Brain Storm infecting it.

Personality
Rai Mamezuku is an eccentric and brusque individual with little care for politeness. He is highly analytical and quick-witted in his way of approaching problems. As soon as he learns of what is happening in Morioh and that he is under attack, he takes the initiative in joining with his allies. With a single phone call with Norisuke about Josuke's confusing issue, Rai manages to grasp the stakes for every party involved and see the best course of action for him. He tends to carefully observe his surroundings and verbally takes notes of everything remotely interesting to him; this habit allows him to discern the nature and subtleties of the attack against him. Rai also regularly calculates probabilities, like the chances of someone being safe through selected factors.

Rai is very coldhearted in his methods, repeatedly showing that he has no qualm sacrificing a perceived less important part for a greater goal. His orchard specifically leaves a small part of the culture overriden with predatory insects and disease to better the rest of the orchard, he has no problem cutting off his own hand to save himself, and even puts Yasuho in great danger because he sees her as less important than his own safety.

Moreover, Rai is very cool-headed. Despite being introduced under attack from an unknown ability, he acts calmly despite an open focus on his survival. Once on relatively safe grounds, Rai even takes the time to cook a snack for him, Josuke and Yasuho. When he loses his left hand to a Stand attack, he calmly severs it to preserve the rest of his body.

However, Rai's most noticeable trait is his eccentricity and bluntness. First, he is extremely antisocial. His only relationship is with Norisuke, whom he nonetheless considers a good friend. Rai takes many steps in order to stay isolated, as his home during the summer is actually a support pillar for a ski lift, complete with at least a hidden kitchen and a whole mountainside as his orchard; during winter he resides in a villa. Moreover, Rai constantly demonstrates a lack of care for others. He hijacks a bus without a second thought but the repercussions on him pries on Yasuho's private life and considers his survival as the priority, that of Josuke and Yasuho being second to his. Nonetheless, he seems impressed when Yasuho takes the initiative in covering their tracks and has thought of inviting his guests for a snack while they discuss their next move. It doesn't stop Rai from condemning Josuke when the latter instinctively prioritizes her safety in the midst of an attack and then coldly throw her into the range of the enemy Stand to observe what happens.

Abilities
Rai's Stand has a currently unknown power, which can create a prehensile bandage-like string from his body in order to grab objects from afar. Rai implies his Stand is not suited for direct combat, instead of relying on Josuke to help protect him in case a battle ensues.

Horticulture
Rai is an expert in horticulture, his profession being a plant appraiser and a fruit grower, implying a great deal of knowledge and experience on plants. He can identify a plant simply from its appearance in a photograph and has the knowledge on how to properly care for rare plants such as the Locacaca.

Background
Rai was born into a family of fruit farmers, whose high-class pears were prized goods. However, their cultivating techniques were leaked, leading to a competitor managing to steal an entire crop of pear and bringing down the fruit trees. Thus his parents had to part with their orchards. Blaming his parents, Rai began to live alone in a ski slope, cultivating his own fruits despite the difficulties. In 1994, he returned home to find his parent's orchard infested with a Rock insect. After informing them, his father rushed out of the house to deal with it, but was killed by a landslide caused by a typhoon (later revealed to be the cause of Wonder of U). He then attended his father's funeral. Along with a younger Norisuke Higashikata IV.

Years later in 1997 Norisuke Higashikata IV came to buy Rai's (now 17), own grown strawberries. Impressed by their quality, Norisuke appointed Rai in secret to be his personal fruit grower and appraiser. Rai's existence in the company was kept with the utmost secrecy, with not even Norisuke's own son Jobin ever being informed.

JoJolion
Rai is first shown when Norisuke presents a photo of him to Josuke Higashikata, advising the latter to go find him, as his skills would enable Josuke to recognize the grafted Locacaca branch.

The Plant Appraiser
After communicating with Norisuke in regards to a certain Josuke Higashikata's inquiry about a Locacaca branch, Rai notices that he is under attack from an unidentified enemy moving underground. Running from his assailant, Rai ends up hijacking the bus which Josuke and Yasuho Hirose are on, formally meeting them and presenting himself in the process.

Rai thus drives to his summer home in the mountains, a ski lift. Discussing with Josuke and Yasuho, Rai manages to find the location of the Locacaca using photographs of the orchard and determines that the best course of action for his survival is to work with Josuke.

After a brief snack, the trio is attacked by the unknown assailant revealed to be a duo of Rock Human and Rock Animal, Urban Guerrilla and his pet Doremifasolati Do. Losing several fingers to a first attack, Rai becomes upset that Josuke has protected Yasuho first instead of him. To observe the enemy, Rai pushes Yasuho down the ski lift, which pushes Josuke to also jump down, although Rai tells him they have to take a fuel tank stored inside one of the lift poles.

Separated from his allies, Rai is attacked by Urban Guerrilla and falls down the lift, heavily injured. However, he's managed to pierce the fuel tank and bring it to Josuke alongside his lighter, which Josuke uses to make Doremifasolati Do and Urban explode.

Afterwards, Rai takes with him a vivarium full of moth larvae. When he tells Yasuho to leave and go home, Yasuho refuses and begins to tell her story. Uninterested by her, Rai nonetheless listens when Yasuho theorizes that the strange hair clip which has tormented her may have been a Rock Animal. Thus, he sends her to investigate it.

Ozon Baby's Pressure
Arriving at the Higashikata estate through secret underground tunnels, Rai and Josuke stealthily manage to plant the moth larvae in the Locacaca branch and must now wait 2 days before a new fruit grows.

Their departure is interrupted when they notice the atmospheric pressure growing inside the tunnel. Looking outside, the two see the orchard on fire and decide to use giant bubbles to protect themselves from Ozon Baby's power. Going out into the open to take the branch, Rai sees the enemy, Poor Tom, and decides to confront him.

Rai's attempts to break Poor Tom's neck by strangling him with his wired arm proves to be a mistake as touching Poor Tom directly increases Ozon Baby's influence on him. When Poor Tom traps a part of the wire inside a knife sheath to simulate a closed space, Rai is subjected to extreme pressure, making his body explode.

Despite all observing parties assuming that the plant appraiser was killed by the explosion, Rai was able to successfully utilize Doggy Style in order to disassemble his body rapidly, giving the impression that he was torn to shreds. After the conflict with Poor Tom ends, Josuke discovers a surviving yet disassembled Rai and mourns the loss of the branch, not knowing that Jobin had obtained it covertly.

The University Hospital
After the battle, Josuke explains what happened to the Higashikata Family. Rai suspects Jobin of lighting the orchard on fire, but none of them has any proof of what happened. They decide to follow the trail of the ambulance's license plate. Finding that no such ambulance is recorded, Josuke finds another trail when Yasuho calls her to go to the TG University Hospital.

Arriving there with Josuke, Rai spends some time searching for Yasuho while at the same time, she is busy fighting Dr Wu Tomoki alongside Mitsuba Higashikata. Tipped by Yasuho's ex-boyfriend Tooru, Josuke and Rai reach the secret laboratory containing several Locacaca branches. After Josuke saves Yasuho, Rai scans the room and deduces in his turn that the stolen Locacaca branch isn't in the laboratory and destroys the trees of the garden.

The Wonder of You (The Miracle of Your Love)
Although Yasuho theorizes that since Tomoki tried to gain control of Mitsuba, he may have suspected Jobin as the possessor of the branch, Rai is adamant about the branch being in the hands of the Locacaca Organization and stays deaf to her suggestions. He instead reports his attention to the last member of the organization unaccounted for: Satoru Akefu, the head doctor of TG University Hospital. The trio are eventually informed about the head doctor walking away behind them, but to Rai's frustration, the supposedly 89 years old doctor keeps evading them as they continuously bump against objects, Rai being the most subjected to these occurrences.

As the doctor leaves the hospital grounds, Rai notices that his legs are being shredded and that the group is under attack from an enemy Stand. Warning against continuing the pursuit, he helplessly watch a car almost crashing into Yasuho and Josuke as they pursue the head doctor, who has now boarded a bus. Moreover, Josuke gets into trouble when a patient nearby starts a fight and his broken neck violently and suddenly snaps on Josuke, making it look like he murdered the man. A crowd gathers and the police arrives as Rai, unwilling to be arrested, tells Yasuho to get away while he and Josuke must find a way out of this situation.

Two days before the harvest, Rai and Josuke eventually decide to hide inside a Lamborghini, itself also hidden in the foliage of a tree. Having bought some supplies, Rai stitches himself up and also discovers that Satoru Akefu may be attending a lecture on regenerative medicine at the TG University Hospital. At the same time, he and Josuke discuss the exact nature of Satoru Akefu's Stand. Once they decide to actually go to the lecture, Satoru's Stand reappears, making them realize that it is triggered by the intent of pursuit. As they worriedly leave the car to escape the incoming attack, Rai and Josuke discover with horror that the drops from an incoming rain become lethal projectiles, forcing them to take refuge in a police car.

Determined to get to the hospital and reach Satoru Akefu's lecture, Josuke steps out of the car and gets pierced by the raindrops on purpose to be injured and taken to the hospital. Shocked, Rai notices that the attack has ended with Josuke being taken out, or worse, and angrily yells at the police to get an ambulance. Apprehended by the police, Rai is placed in a prison cell, unsure of what will happen next.

Eventually, Rai manages to escape his prison and reunites with Josuke in the hospital. This time, they are confronted by Satoru himself, who reveals himself to be the Stand Wonder of U. Satoru sics the rock insect Dododo De Dadada on Josuke, while Rai analyses both rock organisms. Rai recalls Satoru being present in his father's funeral, which Satoru confirms, while also strongly implying to be responsible for the death itself.

Rai remembers how the trees in his family's orchard died, and theorizes that Dododo De Dadada's attack must be triggered by moving upwards, to which Satoru replies that the attack is caused by the extension of one's limbs. Rai manages to destroy the Rock Insect, as it attempts to attack Josuke, unravelling himself partially and impaling the creature.

Wonder of U confirms that it was responsible for the destruction of Rai's family and orchard, and that Rai only survived by coincidence. A dark determination appears in Rai's eyes as he confronts the head doctor, against Josuke's wishes. He aims an attack to impale the stand by extending his fingertip.

However, as Rai acts in his attack, it is reflected back at him, cutting off one of his braids. It is then revealed that the calamity pushed Rai into a trap that Josuke had set using Soft & Wet's bubbles, which fatally carves chunks out of Rai's shoulder, arm and head. Rai collapses but manages to realize that Josuke's bubbles harness the power of the Spin, and informs Josuke before succumbing to his injuries. Once Born This Way damages Wonder of U, Josuke feels like Rai, as well as Kei, are grabbing onto him, however when he looks back, he sees that their bodies are still lay on the ground. Josuke can hear Rai telling him that Satoru's departure means that he can defeat the head doctor, and that his bubbles are key to obtaining such a victory. Finally, before Josuke attacks Wonder of U once more as it is leaving the hospital, he hears Rai once again, explaining that his bubbles have the potential to overcome even the Higashikata curse.

After Josuke returns to visit the hospital, He remembers Rai and Kei after they died.

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Trivia

 * Rai's hermit-esque lifestyle mirrors that of Toyohiro Kanedaichi from Diamond is Unbreakable.