Jashugan - Background

Background

Jashugan's background prior to his motorball career is not revealed, nor how long he has been competing in the sport. In ES 571, five years before Ido found Alita in the Tiphares junkyard, Jashugan was a rookie in the highest motorball league, the Top League. He and his rival Esdoc (better known as "Ed") were involved in a deadly accident in which Jashugan sustained massive brain damage. He would have died had not Desty Nova intervened and performed reconstructive brain surgery on him. Using a Tipharean technology called Gehirn Umbao (German for "brain rebuild"), Nova used nanomachines to rebuild the column structure of Jashugan’s cerebral cortex and strengthen his neurons with artificial proteins. The reconstruction helped Jashugan survive and become the motorball champion. This was in stark contrast to Ed, who also survived, but became dependent on acceleration drug injections to stay competitive, which resulted in a side effect called "Terminal Frost" which forced his eventual retirement. The relationship between the two is cordial, but deep down Ed still seeks to surpass Jashugan, and tries to do this vicariously through Alita after he becomes her manager years later in ES 578.

Jashugan paid a high price for his brain reconstruction as a side effect has been the constant risk of death, and he has suffered an increasing series of spasmatic attacks that have caused his heart rate to flatline. He has recovered from these attacks on his own in the past, but during a race that is watched by Daisuke Ido, Shumira, Alita, and Ed in which he is forced to pit by one of these attacks, it takes Ido’s intervention to save his life. After this, Jashugan knows that his death is near, but cannot reconcile himself to his "absolute death".