Locacaca

"This is equivalent exchange!! The ability to equivalently exchange an ailing part with a healthy part."

- Josuke Higashikata,

The Locacaca (ロカカカ) is a mysterious species of plant in JoJolion.

Summary
The exact nature of the Locacaca and its fruit continues to be one of the central mysteries in JoJolion. It is first mentioned to have existed when Tsurugi explains to his grandfather and Josuke why he trusted Yotsuyu Yagiyama; he had observed the man feeding a dog afflicted with the stone disease a fruit, and it seemed to have been cured as a result. Although the two are skeptical, Josuke is the first to see what appears to be a fruit disappearing into the ocean during his fight with Yagiyama, just as the man dies and crumbles into stone before being able to tell him what the fruit was.

Norisuke IV observes that the fruit smells like fig, and using the abilities of King Nothing, gives shape to leaves attached to the fruit resembling fig tree leaves. It is also said to taste like a fig, but bitter rather than sweet.

Using King Nothing to automatically track the fruit, Josuke discovers the fruit's scent lingering on Tsurugi's father, Jobin Higashikata. Josuke, Tsurugi, and Yasuho resolve to obtain the drive record data from Jobin's car in order to find out where he has been in hopes of discovering the location of the fruit's tree.

Yasuho and Tsurugi discover a Locacaca tree in the possession of Yotsuyu's associate Aisho. The plant's nature of "equivalent exchange" is then demonstrated when an elderly man missing a leg eats a Locacaca fruit and regrows his lost limb, losing his eyes in the process after they turn to stone.



The nature of the fruit and its miraculous abilities have made it the subject of many people's interest, including Yoshikage Kira for its abilities to assist in the treatment of his ill mother Holy, and it is noted that after destroying several trees, he kept one in his apartment for his personal use. The Rock Humans also seek out the fruit, as they were the ones illegally importing and selling it in Japan until Kira and Josefumi Kujo stole a branch from them.

Yasuho later researches the Locacaca, and finds that it originates on the island of, where it was known to the natives as recently as the 1930s. At certain times of the year, men would go into the mountains to harvest the Locacaca fruit, which doesn't come from a tree but rather a perennial plant that has one to three fruits growing from it. Finding a Locacaca was rare, even for the native Papuan peoples who lived there for 50 thousand years. But there were stories that women suffering from infertility ate the fruit and became pregnant, but their breasts gave sand instead of milk, and the elderly who had lost their teeth through the years swallowed the fruit and grew a set of stone teeth to replace them. However, all reports of the Locacaca disappeared after the 1942 invasion and occupation of New Guinea by the Imperial Japanese military, until she, Tsurugi, and Josuke came across the Rock Humans in possession and searching for the Locacaca in the modern day.

It is later revealed that Holy created a hidden Locacaca lab at T.G University Hospital to further her research of the fruits. However, she was unable to complete her research as the Rock humans of the Locacaca Organization intervene and incapacitate her.

In 1941, Lucy Steel traveled to Morioh for the second time in order to further investigate the nature of this fruit. She was attacked by a Guard Rail enemy, seemingly guarding three of the Locacaca plants that Toru was seen with. As he takes these plants he walks away before he can be followed.

Appearance
The Locacaca grows off a short, pole-like tree with rings on its exterior and a flower on the top. From this trunk, spoke-like branches sprout. These thin branches possess thorns and grow a single Locacaca fruit per branch. The Locacaca fruit grows upwards from the branch. The fruits are depicted as somewhat peach-like, with bumps or thorns covering its flesh. The Locacaca fruit is depicted as being magenta in the colored manga. Its appearance is most likely inspired off of the lychee fruit.

Equivalent Exchange
The fruit of the Locacaca tree follows the same principles of "equivalent exchange" as the grounds of the Higashikata estate; they are capable of granting anyone who eats it "something" by taking "something else" from them. The most faithful example of this concept is when the old man uses the Locacaca fruit to regrow his lost leg in exchange for his eyesight, both of his eyes transforming into stone and breaking apart soon thereafter. Apparently this process can be repeated as long as someone has a fruit, continuously sacrificing random parts of their own bodies in order to gain back what they had given in the previous instance.

Yasuho's research into the fruit of the Locacaca shows that the equivalent exchange provided by the fruit takes the form of part of the afflicted's body turning to stone. Infertile women gave birth, but their breast milk turned into sand and the elderly grew back teeth made of stone in order to eat again. Dr. Wu Tomoki has performed research on the fruit and discovered that 125 grams of the fruit are needed to perform one unique equivalent exchange. Upon being ingested, the fruits begins being absorbed from contact as early as the frenulums of the lips down to the small intestine, with its active components being distributed throughout the whole body via the blood. Then, the Locacaca takes 3 minutes and 21 seconds to heal a specific lesion in the body, prioritizing the gravest one over others, and taking the cells and nutrients from another region of the body which turns into rock. However, the chosen region is random and no one knows how it chooses. Until then, Wu has used the Locacaca in conjunction with Doctor Wu to prevent the Locacaca from entering vital areas like the brain and cancel the risk of death.

Urban Guerrilla mentions that while the process is beneficial for Rock Humans, there is some incompatibility between the plant and regular humans due to the carbon in a human's body cells and its differences with the qualities of silicon-compound organisms.

Miraculous curative powers
Perhaps the most intriguing and relevant ability of the fruit to the storyline is the effect it has on those afflicted with the stone sickness; namely the Higashikata family, the Joestar family and the dog Iwasuke. As shown in the case of the latter, Yotsuyu was able to 'cure' it of the stone sickness by feeding it a piece of a Locacaca fruit.

The abilities of the fruit and their correlation to the Rock Humans and stone sickness make them a constant source of interest to the antagonists of JoJolion, which motivates the conflict between them and the allies of the amnesiac Josuke.

New Locacaca
It was eventually revealed that the branch stolen and grafted by Josefumi Kujo resulted in a "New Locacaca". Upon feeding Kira the fruit that they had grown, Josefumi began transforming into stone, beginning with parts of his body that were in direct contact with his late friend. No negative side effects were shown on Kira's end, implying that this species allows an individual to undergo the fruit's effects by using another person's body as collateral for the equivalent exchange, rather than their own. The specifics behind it are currently unknown, but according to Urban Guerrilla, the New Locacaca could be used by Rock Humans to gain a significant advantage over the rest of society. Obtaining the New Locacaca is the main objective of the Research Division of the Locacaca Organization, including Poor Tom and his associates.

As the branch begins growing in Jobin's study, he discovers that the sap excreted by the tree caused his beetles to undergo an equivalent exchange, revealing this information to his mother Kaato. Before the branch can fully ripen, Jobin and his wife Mitsuba are attacked by Wonder of U, and Jobin is swiftly killed by the ensuing calamity. With the tree thus unguarded, Joshu takes the tree outside and uses one of the fruits to heal Yasuho's injured arm, realizing too late that his own arm would be sacrificed in the process, causing him to freak out. Toru, who had been hiding in the bushes nearby prior, soon uses the other fruit to initiate an equivalent exchange after being injured by Josuke's Soft & Wet:Go beyond. However, Toru is unable to make contact with his yasuho, and is instead forced by Kaato to exchange with Tsurugi. Kaato then crushes the branch between her cards causing the sap of the tree to be ingested by Tsurugi, flipping the exchange process in Tsurugi's favor, and destroying the last of the New Locacaca in the process.

Locacaca 6251


Locacaca 6251  is an experimental liquid drug created from the Locacaca fruit. Upon being administered, it grants users a refined version of the Locacaca's equivalent exchange property, which is more potent and minimizes risk of harmful side effects. The drug was revealed by Satoru Akefu during his presentation on regenerative medicine. Holy gives one of the 6251 vials to Josuke in order to heal his wounds, causing bits of his face to become rock.