Gioca (ジョーカ Jōka is a young orphaned pickpocket in the streets of 18th century Venice, Italy.
Appearance[]
Gioca is a young girl often seen wearing light clothing under a large trench coat and hat over short, dark hair. Although appearing close to her teenage years, she has not matured which often caused others to mistake her for a boy, including Albafica and Manigoldo.
Personality[]
She is similar to Manigoldo in that she is impulsive and somewhat impatient as well as being quick to want to fight. However, Gioca is stubborn and determined, having tracked Manigoldo and Albafica to their hideout as she wanted to help them defeat the Black Saints so that she and the other orphans can start living more peacefully instead of having to steal from others.
History[]
Unknown to Gioca for many years, she was the sole survivor of a clan from Death Queen Island. When she was still an infant, Black Hound Judo wiped out her entire family. Although others had been aware that she had survived, they were unable to locate her until Albafica and Manigoldo traveled to Venice to confront the Black Saints.
Plot[]
During her debut, Gioca acts as a pickpocket during a busy carnival by pretending to bump into others on accident in order to steal their belongings. Her final target of the night was Manigoldo but she felt a strange energy from him in the process. However, she also noticed that he appeared to mask his true emotions.
Knowing it was time to turn in, Gioca joined other orphans in gathering in the cemetery to give their money to Lumaca of the Nero gang. Gioca is praised for again having the biggest contribution, but he catches on that another kid is possibly withholding some of the money she stole. Although Gioca does not like what is happening, she and the others have no way of standing up to Lumaca and they watch in fear as he threatens to cut off the kids arms as punishment. Just as Lumaca is about to carry out the threat, Gioca instinctively rushed forward and got Pigro out of harms way. Now the source of Lumaca's anger, Gioca tries to defuse the situation but is nearly faced with the punishment she saved Pigro from when Manigoldo used his abilities to summon spirits that scare off the other children and frighten Lumaca greatly.
Lumaca tried to intimidate Manigoldo by charging at him with an axe but quickly found himself restrained by numerous spirits, spirits that Manigoldo figures out were people who had been killed by Lumaca. Gioca watches as Manigoldo allowed the souls to have their vengeance by taking Lumaca's soul from his body.
It would only be moments later when Gioca saw Lumaca's soul which surprised Manigoldo. The saint momentarily ignored Gioca as he tried to interrogate Lumaca's soul on the location on Niro's lair but the new spirit confessed that he was a low rank member and didn't know as much as he led others to believe. He does try to tell Manigoldo something, but his spirit burned away before he could.
After Manigoldo and Albafica left the cemetery, Gioca quickly tended to Pigro before tracking their cosmos to an abandoned building. However, it did not take long for Albafica to find out she was hiding there and exposed her hiding behind a wall. Gioca introduces herself and admits how she had tracked them to the building. Hearing Manigoldo explain what a cosmos is and that she possibly had awakened hers, Gioca demands the saints allow her to help by explaining she could trail the cosmos of the Black Saints to where they are gathered.
Manigoldo right away refuses to let her tag along, but Albafica manages to change his mind when he states that Gioca could be of help since she knows the area so well. Thanks to this, Gioca is able to lead the saints to a church where they each feel the cosmos of those inside as they did not bother with any type of stealth.
The trio begin to approach the building as Gioca feels the threatening energy grow the closer they get to it. They suddenly hear a scream from inside and charge in to find a sort of penance sacrifice taking place. A man named Allegre calls himself a priest who personally demonstrates his teachings while claiming the ones he just killed had strayed from the path of righteousness.
Manigoldo attempted to use the new spirits to deliver justice, but Gioca watched in horror as Allegre used his Holy Spout to drive the souls back by purifying them. The man then revealed he is a warrior known as the Black Whale and quickly beat Manigoldo into the ground. Allegre then seemed to recognize Gioca and was about to attack when Albafica points out that Manigoldo is still alive. Gioca watches as Manigoldo quickly attacks and splits Allegre in two. Before Allegre dies, he states to have seen Gioca on an island, but this confuses Gioca greatly.
She does not get much time to think on this when Albafica points out that Ruse of the Crow is present. Ruse claims to have heard rumors of how beautiful Albafica was said to be but states the rumors did not do Albafica's beauty justice. Albafica's first attempt to attack failed when Ruse used his own powers to render the poison of the flowers ineffective as he confesses he knew that Albafica's toxic blood would be the biggest threat to him.
During the fight, Gioca and the others were transported to Yomotsu Hirasaka. However, this would be beneficial to the saints since Albafica was freed from the concern of hurting others with his blood and roses. Gioca is confused and concerned at their sudden situation. She listens as Manigoldo explains that they are souls away from their bodies and that this state unfortunately leaves their bodies defenseless. Fortunately, he was able to bring the enemies here as well. After Ruse regained consciousness long enough for his superior to deliver a final attack, Manigoldo got them back to their bodies while he tried to face Don Avido.
Upon awakening, Gioca tried to locate the missing saints while trying to figure out what Allegre meant by recognizing her. As she makes her way through the building, she finds a mask she suspects is a rare and valuable oddity when she suddenly realizes that she has seen the mask before. At that moment, a man appears behind her and explains that the mask belongs to the person charged with keeping the Black Saints imprisoned. The man introduces himself as Black Hound Judo and admits he has met Gioca when she was a baby of the Death Queen Island clan and that he was the one who killed her family.
Judo requests Gioca break the mask as only a member of the clan can break it. However, Gioca comes to the theory that the mask instead can be Niro's defeat. Unfortunately, Judo senses her intentions and warns that the mask has lost all of its original powers and would therefore not be of any help to her. Gioca is startled that Judo sensed what she was thinking and hears him admit that he can read minds. With Judo knowing all of her secrets, he is the first to know she is a girl. Judo tries to get her to surrender and break the mask, but Gioca instead fights back and refuses to give in thanks to Manigoldo teaching her what a cosmos is. Quickly, she grabs the mask and puts it on.
In a flash, Judo collapses. Gioca removes the mask and is amazed to think she has this type is power. She also notices that her pendant is missing but finds it had become a part of the mask. Suddenly, she gets a brief flashback of when she was very young and remembers her mother sending her to safety with her last ounce of strength.
Her thoughts are interrupted when Judo awakens. Deeming the young girl a threat to them since she restored the power of the mask, Judo moves to attack but is stopped when a white rose pierces his heart. Behind him, Albafica emerges from the shadows and reveals he had already defeated the heavy eater Lemargos. With the rose draining all of Judo's blood, Albafica approaches Gioca but stops when he remembers that he is back in his body and would hurt her. Here he sees that Gioca is a girl. Gioca explains how she used her cosmos with the mask but fears that Manigoldo may be with the Black Saints leader.
As she and Albafica searched the mansion for Manigoldo, she noticed dozens of spirits start to appear at the same time the mansion started to disappear. A short while later, Gioca is pulled back to border of the worlds with Manigoldo and the mask of Death Queen Island. Manigoldo is able to defeat Avido with the help of the vengeful souls Avido had used for his own gain.
With Avido falling into the pit to Hell while laughing, Gioca comments how he and Manigoldo appeared to be more similar than either would admit in that they lived their lives true to their beliefs.
The following day, Gioca and the other orphans playfully snuck up on Manigoldo where Gioca successfully grabbed Manigoldo's coin purse again. Calling it her last robbery, Gioca thanks the saints for what they've done before stating that she will follow the mask while hoping she sees the two again one day.
Powers and Abilities[]
Not long after her introduction, Gioca witnessed a soul leaving a body which surprised Manigoldo and led him to suspect she had unintentionally awakened her cosmos at an earlier point. Although she was mainly unaware of what a cosmos is, Gioca mainly referred to it as energy and was able to track down those who left a trail.