Rock Disease

The Rock Disease (岩の病気) is a tentatively-named affliction that particular characters in Part VIII: JoJolion suffer from. It has been confirmed to be a hereditary illness passed down through the Higashikata family and by extension the SBR Joestar family.

Description
The bodies of those who suffer from this disease are known to begin to harden like rock beginning at the age of 10. As the symptoms progress the victim loses more and more of their functions and memories until they eventually die.

The disease is a hereditary illness which always affects the firstborn of the Higashikata family. If the firstborn is a son, their illness will always begin at the age of 10 ; however, daughters seems to not have a set age in which the illness declares itself.

History
Tsurugi mentions that a long time ago, the second son used to succeed the Higashikata or the family would adopt someone to serve as the next heir.

The earliest chronological example of the disease appears in the Shakedown Road arc during a flashback narrated by one of the inhabitants sitting at a bench. He recalls the rumors of Johnny Joestar travelling to America to recover the corpse of a saint in order to cure his wife of her affliction using its ability to 'remove' unwanted things and push them elsewhere.

Although he succeeds in doing so the sickness is pushed instead onto his young son, and so in a desperate move he utilizes the spin to transfer the disease to himself before being flattened by a stone under the affects of the newly developed Les Feuilles.

Current story
It is mentioned that the firstborn of every generation in the Higashikata family suffers from this disease, but at some point the family has found a way to save the firstborn by having another member of the family utilize the equivalent exchange properties of the groung of their estate to take their place.

Nowadays, Holy Joestar Kira suffers the same disease, but so far hasn't contracted the most severe symptoms such as the transformation into rock. However she suffers from memory loss, dementia, and the doctors studying her condition mention several missing parts in her brain, kidneys, lungs and gall bladder.

It is Tsurugi's fear for his inevitable contraction of this condition that motivates him to succumb to Yotsuyu's manipulation, exploiting the young boy into helping him set a trap for the protagonist. It is first hinted then and later expanded upon that the Rokakaka fruit also seems to have the ability to 'cure' the Rock sickness, although it's full affects have not been observed as the only known case was the dog Iwasuke.

Victims

 * Rina Higashikata (cured by the corpse)
 * George Joestar II (replaced by Johnny)
 * Johnny Joestar
 * Norisuke Higashikata IV (replaced by his mother)
 * Mother of Norisuke Higashikata IV
 * Holy Joestar-Kira (mysteriously living)
 * Jobin Higashikata