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Jolyne Cujoh is 19 years old.
Most 19 year olds are finishing up their first year of college, or first year in the workforce. While they have their schooling and many other experiences under their belt, in the face of humanity they are still the nations “youth.” They are young. They will never stop learning, they will only gain bigger and greater encounters from here.
Jolyne Cujoh, too, is 19 years old.
Jolyne’s world was rather lonely. Just her and her mother, and a silhouette of a father, who she could only barely recall within her earliest memories. She was in and out of school, hung with the wrong crowds, trying to find anything and everything to distract her from her situation. By 14 she was detained for the first time, while she had not committed a crime, her general appearance and reputation had caused the man to hastily call the police. Her father, a well-known marine biologist with connections to the Speedwagon Foundation, could have easily paid her bail. But he did not. So Jolyne was sent to juvenile detention.
Her life was by no means “adjusted” by her punishment. Her father was still absent, and her mother had too many sad sighs of her own to fully give Jolyne the attention she needed. She rejoined the bad groups, experimented with other methods of coping…even joined a notorious motorcycle gang called the Hell Riders.
At 19, Jolyne decided to turn over a new leaf, at least somewhat. For a girl practically raised on the streets, she was sheltered when it came to love. Perhaps it was that she was too young before, or too intimidating, but romance wasn’t important or relevant to the teenage Jolyne. However, at 19, she decided to take up Romeo Jisso’s offer to become his girlfriend. Now that she was out of the gang, she would maybe go back to school, meet new friends, and give this love a chance.
But she was betrayed. One day, while driving home from some variation of a “date” with Romeo, he had driven them into a pedestrian. Selfishly worrying about how this would affect his chances of getting into a university, he decided to dump the corpse somewhere, persuading the naive Jolyne to help him. He promised they’d make it through this, he promised they would be together no matter what.
But he lied. Jolyne alone was arrested, and it was discovered that the man had actually survived the initial accident, dying only after being discarded. The case was treated as first degree manslaughter, and combined with Jolyne’s criminal history, no one believed her to be innocent, and she was sentenced to 15 years at Green Dolphin Street Prison.
Jolyne Cujoh had no choice but to accept her fate. She would spend the rest of her youth in jail, leaving the prison only when she was 34. At 19, Jolyne firstly had to accept her youth would be gone. But, she still had a future. At 34, she would be late to the dating circle but she could still find herself a husband or a wife. She could still have children, maybe even go to college. She would still grow old and enjoy some of life’s experiences she hadn’t had the chance to…
Right?
Green Dolphin Street and the people she’d met there…the friends she’d made—no, the family she’d been fated to know…changed her so so much and only for the better. She had people she could admit she loved. She had people she could trust herself to, all of herself. Jolyne, whilst fighting for her life and for the lives of these new precious people…for the first time felt something outside of “hope.” Their relationship was more tangible than that, yes, they were her future. A bright, shining future she would protect at all costs.
…A tragic, dim future put into jeopardy.
At 19, Jolyne had to accept that her future would be gone.
Hermes, Foo Fighters, Weather, Anasui, and her father Jotaro…had all already passed on. Pucci was coming at her with everything he had, her exhaustion and injuries dulled as she forced herself against him, Emporio could only watch in horror from behind her back.
Jolyne knew what she had to do. She had no time for pain, no time for sadness. She used Stone Free to rope Emporio up to a dolphin passing by. Dolphins had always been her favorite animal. She could only grin at the irony that it was a dolphin that would carry the lone survivor to victory. Yes, that lone survivor…was not going to be her.
“Survive, Emporio. You’re our ‘hope’!” Jolyne managed to shout to the boy, his form rapidly fading into the distance. She turned to face Pucci for the last time.
Jolyne’s senses were beginning to go numb. She could faintly hear Emporio crying, howling some formation of protest at her sacrifice, but she soon could no longer hear him.
She never stopped moving. At least, subconsciously, she was caught in a permanent battle of holding back Pucci. She felt like a wall, impenetrable and just, fighting back against any intruder indefinitely. Indefinitely.
It was in these final moments that Jolyne lost all feeling. Her mind retreated deep into a void, separate from her physical body forever. It was in these final moments that she was able to grieve, briefly, to herself.
In another world, could she have been on better terms with her parents? Would her mother be happy? Could she have gone to school and pursued a career? What would she have done? A singer, an actress, a marine biologist, a dancer, a pro fighter, a sports superstar, a model? Would she have gotten married and had children? Would she be happy?
At 19, Jolyne Cujoh had to accept that her future was gone. She had missed her chance, she had been interfered with, she was fated for this to happen.
But that didn’t stop it from hurting.
She wished she could be there. At every graduation, every wedding, every vacation and school day. She wanted to be there for her future husband or wife, her future children…She wanted to make up with her father and go back home to her mother. She wanted to pursue her dreams, all alongside her friends as she watched them pursue theirs.
But she had to accept there was no future. Not for her, not for her family, not for her friends, and not for anyone else in this world. Only Pucci and Emporio would carry the burden of this universe. The remaining 7 billion of us alive today, March 21st, 2012, would no longer have a future.
At 19, Jolyne Cujoh accepted her death, with the “hope” that Emporio would live on her future for her. No…his own future.
Yes…it was up to him to use the time she forged for him however he wished.
Good luck, Emporio…