Meryl Mei Qi

Broad and heavyset, Meryl towers over the younger crew that answers to her. Her wardrobe leans toward a flowing muumuu style, a leaf-patterned garment slit at the hip and trimmed with fringe around the waistline.

She gathers her dark hair into a high ponytail bundled up at the crown, and keeps her jewelry understated with a pair of plain, pale studs.

Around Honolulu, Meryl reads as a warm and admired figure. Pupils cheerfully call out to her each morning and she returns the greeting just as kindly. Her eye for design runs deep, since she creates everything sold at her shop, and Jodio reckons her talent could carry her name through Paris or Milan if she chose that path.

Beneath the friendly surface she operates with real discipline. She guards her private details closely and channels her illegal earnings through the boutique to keep the money untraceable. Well connected in the shadows, she keeps informants inside Hawaiian customs and holds black market ties strong enough to move a large diamond with little exposure.

Meryl is said to have a husband and a child, though almost nothing else about her home life surfaces. Somewhere along the way she rose within Hawaii's underworld, steering a thriving outfit whose work ranges from robberies to drug trafficking. Four years earlier she noticed Jodio and Dragona walking through a rough district on the way to see their mother, offered them a lift as school policy allowed, and bluntly told them their mother could not cover tuition. The ride ended with an invitation to join her organization, which the siblings accepted.

Alongside the gang, she serves as principal of McKinley High School and owns a fashion shop in the Kalihi area, where she personally made the merchandise and promotional art on display. During The JOJOLands she gathers Jodio, Dragona, Paco, and one more student to lift a wealthy Japanese visitor's natural blue diamond.