Gloria Costello

Gloria Costello (グローリア・コステロ) is a minor character in Stone Ocean. She is the sister of Ermes Costello and was killed by Sports Maxx 3 years prior to the story. Ermes purposely sent herself to Green Dolphin Street Prison in order to exact revenge.

Appearance
Gloria Costello was an athletic young woman who had light semi-long swept-back hair save for two locks at the front. She was described as beautiful. Gloria has naturally arched eyebrows, noticably thicker in the interior half than at the exterior.

Personality
Gloria Costello was described as a lively and strong-willed individual. She also had a serious side, and was more of a mother figure than a sister to Ermes. Gloria constantly nagged Ermes to have her help at the restaurant. Confronted with a brutal murder on her steps, she initially chose to let the crime happen and never mention it, as she was attached to the restaurant, but Sports Maxx witnessing Ermes going away forced her to call the police to protect her sister.

Synopsis
According to others, she was lively and strong-willed, and was considered to be more of a mother figure to Ermes. Her only problem with her was, despite her beauty, she had no intention of marrying anyone. Speculation suggests it was due to her father getting old, and in turn she wanted to spend her life running the restaurant together with her little sister.

History
When Gloria turned twenty, she inherited her Mexican immigrant father's small restaurant in the slums. Despite it's rundown state, she had a steady flow of customers. One day, when the restaurant was closed, Gloria was giving her usual speech to Ermes, lecturing her about not helping out in the restaurant and acting like a delinquent. Of course, being seventeen at the time, Ermes had no interest in helping the restaurant and wanted nothing more than to get a scholarship in cross-country for college. Knowing that mentioning this to Gloria would cause a fight, Ermes decides to run out of the house.

It was then, behind the restaurant, in an abandoned back alley, Gloria heard the groaning of someone from behind a car. Upon further inspection, Gloria sees a man tied up with a gang leader by the name of Sports Maxx standing next to him. Sports Maxx asks the man to bite down on a wooden stick nearby, making sure to prop the stick so it was vertically inserted into his mouth, much like how a baby sucks a bottle. Then Sports Maxx stomps on the mans head, causing the stick to impale his skull and kill him. Gloria reacts to this, but manages to hide behind a wall before Sports Maxx sees her. She wasn't intending to spy on them, and she decided she wouldn't report them either. She felt the best course of action would to just let whatever happened there handle itself, in order to keep her restaurant safe. Unfortunately, Ermes was still running down the street at the time, and Sports Maxx notices her, assuming that she was going to tell someone about what he did.

Gloria ended up calling the police in order to protect her sister. The police apparently messed up however, claiming that the state of Florida had institutionalized capital punishment and since Sports Maxx was a infamous criminal they had been chasing for a few years, they could use her testimony to get him arrested and protect her family. In order to combat the police, Sports Maxx sent someone else less well known to kill Gloria. She was killed and because the only eyewitness was gone, the only thing the police would get him for was Tax Evasion and inflicting bodily harm, which only sentenced him for 5 years max of prison. Since then, Gloria and Ermes' father died soon after, causing Ermes to lose everything: the restaurant and her family. While Sports Maxx is in prison, Ermes decides to kill him there during a time where his gang isn't with him and he is completely defenseless.

Trivia

 * Her Steel Ball Run counterpart is not seen but referenced by her yet-to-be-named sister, showing that she is alive in this universe.