#⤷ ᯽･ﾟ: 鈴木将 | headcanon.

[yasashiiku]

Shou owns a plain grey hoodie that says "putain" in painfully cursive & pretty pastel pink.

[espectres]

CHARACTER INFO SHEET.

NAME: Suzuki Shou. 鈴木将。

NAME MEANING: 鈴 ; bell. 木 ; tree/wood. 将 ; leader/highest commander. 

ALIAS: Leader; given to him by his lackeys, pronounced in english, in katakana. 

ETHNICITY: mixed white/asian (japanese.).

THREE HEADCANONS YOU’VE NEVER TOLD ANYONE:

☆ > Shou took out an entire Claw division not long before the 7th division was destroyed, the details are interesting. 

☆ > Shou, for the most part, has a good head on his shoulders, he can figure out difficult situations, he can't be tricked with ease, he can keep his cool and his mind gearing through stress. But he is also quite the forgetful person, and has troubles concentrating and a tendency of zoning out when his guard is down. It's a mix between his nature and the effects of insomnia. Cue to education problems. 

☆ > This one is a little less personal, but Shou starts school after the first winter break after Claw is disbanded, a couple months before the events of confession arc. It sits things nicely in my brain I hope you can see my vision. 

THREE THINGS YOUR CHARACTER LIKES DOING IN THEIR FREE TIME:

Taking care of his hamsters, sketching whenever he has the chance, and after Claw gets disbanded he gets a severe case of wanderlust. He didn't have a lot of free time, back then. Despite traveling a lot, it was all for organization purposes, so it's no wonder he wants to explore a lot of places on his own, without anyone bossing him around.

SIX PEOPLE YOUR CHARACTER LIKES/LOVES:

♡ > Toichiro: that's his father, yes he might have been a neglectful, abusive and downright terrible father, but between the monster and the self-proclaimed world dominator and terrorist boss- he was family and good, at some point, and even now he's working to change and become better. And Shou loved him, still loves him, despite everything. ( yes, love can exist in an abusive relationship, no, it doesn't make the abuse any less terrible. )

♡ > Natsumi: Shou's mother! Although their relationship got strained by years of estrangement and lies, Shou recognizes how much his mother is trying to mend and do her best for his sake, and she really is trying her best, dealing with the aftermath of Claw and all the legal issues and stress while beginning to truly know who her son is and love him fully, powers and complicated past and difficult traits all together. 

♡ > Fukuda: Shou's "babysitter" ever since he was 10 going 11, he took care of Shou throughout some of the most difficult times of his days in Claw, healing his injuries and keeping him company and looking after his health when Shou's father was away traveling and his mother was nowhere to be found. Even trying to teach him whatever education he missed ( despite eventually giving up ). Shou & Fukuda share a very strong bond, but there are times when their personalities clash and their differences get between establishing something unbreakable.

♡ > Higashio: The last addition to Shou's resistance team. Despite not having been around since long, his collected attitude and absent-minded wisdom made him so much of a teacher to Shou, with the lessons being on life in general and a whole lot of street smarts and high culture. Higashio may not have been the strongest psychic out there, but he has Shou impressed more often than not with the simplest of things.

♡ > Ritsu: RITSU !!! Shou's first friend, Shou's best friend, his ride or die, his person his special guy!!!!!!! What they have is beyond your comprehension.

♡ > Ootsuki: First assigned as a bodyguard slash "attack dog" for Shou by his father, the two didn't get along so well at the beginning, with how Ootsuki's time at Claw was especially difficult and all the resentment he held to the Suzuki name. Eventually, Ootsuki began to see Shou for his own admirable person and not just a spawn of the Claw boss. And being the youngest in Shou's resistance team, they understood each other best, made a pretty strong and well coordinated duo in fights, too. 

TWO THINGS YOUR CHARACTER REGRETS:

> Not having acted sooner before his father's plan started.

> Acting against his father ... to begin with. Shou would never admit that to anyone ( sometimes not even himself ), but there are times when he sees himself and others he cared for struggling to live after Claw is done, and it all comes down to him and his resistance.

TWO PHOBIAS YOUR CHARACTER HAS: 

Agoraphobia ( trapped; helpless; panicked; embarrassed; scared. ) , Pyrophobia ( fire/burns ). 

[yasashiiku]

Odd things in Shou's room. #1

Shou's room doesn't look anything out of your regular teenager, stray clothes, posters on the walls, gaming consoles and unorganized school books, with a touch of his hobbies here and there, painter tools, sketch books, large canvas frames, drawings on papers sticking out from between school notes and manga magazines, but never any art on the walls. A quick in and out wouldn't give you an impression of anything out of ordinary, but once one makes their place in Shou's life, once he allows them in, they get to notice relics he isn't exactly proud of, marks that Claw left, ironically.

Under his bed and out of sight, there is a bunch of notebooks, old worns out colorful notebooks, completely filled with notes collected from his last three years of work with Claw, his job as his father's "errands boy" paid off in the form of rich intel that he made sure to jot down to remember. His job technically involved keep an eye on the various Claw divisions, and since he was planning to tear down the whole thing to the ground, he made sure to get valuable information with each visit, ie; location of the bases, names of their scars and their division leaders, their powers, their sponsors, from where do they get supplies and where do they keep them, their various connections to businesses, contractors, black market dealers, and even state employees who were paid to look the other way while Claw did their things, and many many other things that even Claw's boss wasn't aware of.

The notes are difficult to make sense of for anyone who isn't Shou, scribbles in his terrible handwriting and 40% inaccurate kanji, there's no date of eneries to organize anything unless it's specifically important, and everything is rather ordered by themes and events related to each piece of information. There are also personal notes accumulated by times, alongside newspapers snippets for evidence and sacred files he got his hands on and attached them to the notebook accordingly. On the margins, doodles can be found, of his first hamster, of Fukuda, then Ootsuki, and then all three of them as Higashio joined on the latest of his notes. There are drawings from nature as well, miserable seagulls from a stormy day he spent at the beach, careful rabbits from a snowy day he spent on the mountains, the amount of personal art is actually embarrassing to him, he isn't comfortable showing his notes to anyone.

When Claw was dismantled and the government went on a spree of scoping up targets and victims, Shou spent the night before his interrogation with government agents in organizing his notes as much as he can, going through everything from start to finish, adding more details as he remembered, and highlighting what he recognized as anything the government would deem useful. After making sure his precious notes were ready, thoughtful and determined and tired, he started making a list of names, jotting down as many as he remembered, leaving it for a while because he was suffering meltdowns because holy shit a lot was happening, then coming back with more and more names, it didn't take long for the list to accommodate several papers.

These were the names of everyone who has stumbled into Claw by accident, or were kidnapped by force, anyone who wanted out and couldn't just simply leave, people just like himself, who would have happily helped annihilating Claw if they had a chance. Like his lackeys who actually helped, or brainwashed children like Mukai, or older people whom he knows had good intentions but little to no say in anything, acquaintances from whom he learnt miserable stories, people who wanted to live their lives and wake up from the Nightmare that was life with Claw. People who certainly didn't deserve to be put in jail after Claw was over.

Despite being repeatedly told that his interrogation wasn't one for negotiating, Shou refused to speak a word of anything valuable unless every single person in his list is confirmed to left alone and safe, the agents claimed such a thing wasn't plausible, and Shou wasn't having it, a lot of things weren't going his way lately, he certainly didn't have patience for yet another situation he can't control. He put his notebooks on the table, and after making sure the government became aware of how they really need such information (he made an example by giving them everything he knows about one of the divisions), he threatened to burn everything right then and there and claimed that they'd have to torture him if they wish to get anything, if they can defeat him at first, that is.

Shou might have failed to actively take down his dad, but that didn't stop him from doing everything in his power to save whoever he knew was innocent, at the end the government had no choice but to accept the trade, with the condition that Shou would be available to help identifying people, which he gladly agreed to.

[yasashiiku]

shou 🤝 shigeo: in middle school and can't fucking read

[yasashiiku]

a nonnie sent a crow ;

Does Shou know how to exorcise spirits?

Short answer ! Yes but not really.

Long answer ! Fighting spirits is not quite different from espers, but things like curses and evil spirits don't go down with a simple thing like a good beating ( which works pretty well on standard espers lol ), a curse or evil spirit usually comes with some sort of long-lasting effect? Simply put they can curse you, and in some occasions he has even seen it first-hand. They stick on your body, eat up your life energy, bring you nightmares, hurt your loved ones, cause you to hurt yourself, etc etc. Shou has been seeing curses & spirits all his life, sometimes they're minor like ones that linger in public transit or on shoulders of business people, he never pays mind to them unless they actively endanger a human life. He doesn't try hard enough, he keeps distance, wary of the malicious beings. He knows where his powers are and doesn't stick his nose places it doesn't belong unless it's urgent. Maybe some time spent in Spirits & Such would enlighten him more?

[yasashiiku]

Random hcs about Shou in demon slayer verse cuz he rots my brain ;;;;;;;;

Toichiro, Shou's father, was a slayer who made it up to the Hashira's rank, but refused to become one and retired instead, having gained immense doubts in the way the Ubuyashiki clan was leading the demon slayer corps. He established his own training facility, where he can train slayers to be strong enough to have a 100% chance of surviving the Final Selection, either that or make sure that they never become demon slayers in the first place.

In his eyes he was doing something noble, saving lives from being carelessly wasted with every Final Selection, but the error was in his ways, his training was literal hell, you either survive to become a demon slayer, or live the rest of your life with a broken spirit, something he didn't find a problem with, claiming that there is no other choice but death for those who don't make it through his courses.

He gained supporters, retired slayers, and elder Kinoes, all helped in making his name grow, as he aims to one day overtake the leadership of the slayer corps and make good where Ubuyashiki fell short.

In a world where he was taught to become a user of Thunder Breathing - with techniques that relied heavily on speed - Shou was born with inhumane strength. His muscles had a similar composition to Mitsuri's. He had to eat so much to accommodate, too.

He was one of the youngest on his father's training grounds, that didn't stop Toichiro from placing expectations with the weight of the world upon his shoulders. Shou lived up to them, of course he did, with the cost of sleepless nights and bleeding limbs.

His mother could not fathom the violent and heartless man his father had become, and without a way to save her son, guilt and powerlessness wrecked her to the point she couldn't handle it, she fled from home one night when Shou was 10.

Things deteriorated from then on, Toichiro only grew more distant, harsher and crueler, his methods breaking people more than making them strong enough. A couple years later and many slayers gave up from supporting him and his training, finding it helpless, too hard, almost impossible. Key word being almost, around the same time Toichiro's facility lost its final students, Shou survived the Final Selection, successfully joining the corps, being 13 of age at that time.

Shou never thought twice of why his mother left, and came to the conclusion that some people are just selfish, she did what's best for herself, he didn't hate her for it, he didn't hate his father either, but he couldn't forgive either of them, and missed the way both of them were, in a memory where life was difficult, but he could still rest from fatigue in his mother's embrace, or receive warm words from his father, whether encouragement or guidance.

In a world where people lost, mourned, and moved on to fight; Shou didn't know what to do with his pain. He fought simply because that's all he had ever known.

Shou's skills as a demon slayer aren't that advanced, his body and his breathing style often clash, and he resorts to relying on his sheer strength on a lot of occasions, he hates himself for it, and hopes to find a breathing style that works better with the way he is, which leads to him seeking out elder slayers of different, new techniques, hoping that they would be kind enough to offer him guidance.

Shou doesn't return home after joining the corps, he spends the time between missions either on the road or in Wisteria houses, surviving on his own was taught to him as well, he doesn't find it difficult, but he never liked being on his own.

Shou wears a classic black demon slayer uniform, with a haori, which he took from his mother's abandoned closet before he left on his first mission. It's white, with the ends decorated with purple, red, blue, and pink fall flowers in the Akikusa pattern.

[yasashiiku]

Shou destroys Ritsu's balcony twice throughout their years of friendship. was it an accident ?? a fight ?? some sort of utterly stupid prank ??? ritsu & shou never talk about it and no one can read them enough to find out. The Kageyama parents are ConcernedTM but they don't do anything about it cuz 1. Shou takes care of fixing it every time. 2. They can see how Ritsu is happy around his friend & they would never wanna ruin that for him. Shigeo actually knows, but he really doesn't care enough because that's not even close to the worst any of them has seen.

[yasashiiku]

Unstoppable force ( Shou getting ear piercings & being so immensely happy about something for once ) meets Immovable object ( the school system not allowing piercings )

[yasashiiku]

@trattcria sent a crow ;

5 (for shou!)

angsty headcanon q’s / accepting.

One of his most unpleasant memories would be the time he found out about Claw's dirtiest secret, the Awakening Experiments, which basically used torture and stress over the human body to awake psychic abilities in some individuals ( sometimes with their consent, sometimes not ).

He was 10, he thinks, it was some few months after his mother left the image. Some of the longest months in his life, and the loneliest as well, given how his father busied himself with work more often than not ( he needed it in a way, to not think about her ). Toichiro was to visit one of the Claw divisions, and Shou should've stayed in the hotel room, but he's had enough of being left behind, and decided it was about time he found out the work behind all the papers his father would spend hours after hours signing and approving.

He managed to sneak in, having already mastered light beinding/becoming invisible without anybody knowing. But you see, curiosity very much killed the cat, he got what he wanted, a good look & understanding of how things work inside the organization, but the awakening laboratories were something out of the horror movies his mother never let him watch. The capsules, which held the humans, didn't reveal much of their suffering to the eyes, but their screams and the blood in places it shouldn't be were enough. Not only were these people being tortured, but his father was there, and his father was watching it and his father was in charge of it.

Shou went missing afterward, having fled the scene with fear that he might actually be next to enter that room because he is also an esper like the ones his father works with. It took his father's men nearly a day to find him later- and a not-so-nice struggle to get him to actually calm down and believe he is not in danger. He had to cooperate in the end, but things were never the same ever since.

[yasashiiku]

@trattcria sent a crow ;

[ META ] + parents (for shou!)

It's easy to tell from a very brief look into his life that he has very strained familial ties. Well, things had been surprisingly simple a few years ago, a safe house, a loving mother, and a somewhat decent father. Toichiro didn't start out terrible as one would presume, he was present in this family to a degree, with ambitions beyond those of your normal everyday dad, but he was still there. Soon enough ambitions overpowered family and almost everything else, his wife couldn't bear life as it was anymore, with a man growing more violent and blinded by power with each day- and left without a trace in her wake.

It's complicated, Shou would think, she didn't simply run away and leave him behind. But it did look like it, and despite having reconnected with her somewhere along the way, the lonely fearsome years without her by his side left an undeniable gash in their relationship. And so along the love and care he holds for her- resides the trust issues and a certain anger that Shou keeps to himself.

His father has been a cruel man, a very strange, unreasonable, delusional old man. He has done many many wrong things to a lot of people, including Shou himself, but still, that's his old man, therefore his responsibility- Shou believed. Between stopping his father from using his powers for evil and helping him when the time came for them to fight together- Shou is consistently confused. The man who made him go through so much fear and violence and pain, is the same father he has always longed to have back. It's difficult, dealing with things he doesn't understand about a father who's currently held captive in prison and no longer in his life like fathers should be.

His parents aren't the best, but the Suzukis -all three of them- certainly love each others, in their own strange ways that didn't lead to good endings most of the times.

[yasashiiku]

Shou actually gets embarrassed so easily despite how easy he can keep his cool under stressful situation of extreme danger, but expressing his feelings? looking weak in front of anyone?? being the center of attention of something actually positive??? he absolutely burns up. He covers his face a lot when embarrassed, he just knows how red he gets, you will NOT see him crying and will NOT see him too happy or too grateful or being an idot then blushing like that and feeling even MORE of an idot!!!!! Yes Shou might be rude and unsettling and unhinged but you know what else?? he is shy!!!!!

[yasashiiku]

I just KNOW Shou has been to Minegishi's flowers shop AT LEAST twice and the first time he saw that silly sunflower apron he just burst into SO MUCH laughter Minegishi had to kick him out until he calmed tf down

[yasashiiku]

I keep saying Shou has daddy issues but he actually has daddy issues AND mommy issues, his parents never got legally divorced btw

[yasashiiku]

HAMPTERS !!!!!

Shou owns two female campbell's dwarf hamsters as pets, the grey one is nice and really calm, she is called Nade ( na-de; ナデ ), the white one is fidgety and gets aggressive easily, she is called Tsuntsu ( ツンツ ), both are quite social and endearing regardless. Shou's always loved animals, he never hesitated in holding bugs or petting stray cats or cuddling dogs being walked in parks, but his unstable life situation never allowed for such a small friend in need in of intense care and attention, the idea always remained in the back of his mind, like a distant dream he could achieve in maybe another life.

He found Nade by chance when he was 12, after investigating the abandoned house of a former Claw member who was leaking their information to the government for money, it appeared that they have fled and left their pet behind to die in their own filth, the poor thing was in terrible condition, lacking food and water for probably days, and Shou couldn't find it in his heart to simply leave it behind, and that's how he acquired a new little friend.

He adored her to bits, did extremely extensive research to get her everything she needed, and tried to become more and more careful around her because he is one blunt esper, he made sure his powers and his movements were in check whenever he is around her, she used to bite him a lot at first, restless and uncomfortable in her new home, but she grew fond and calmer with time. She quickly became one of the few bits of light he has ever known in his life, something he can openly love without confusion or fear or guilt. She was more the nocturnal type, sleeping throughout most day hours with little activity, but so was he, and he was grateful to give her all the attention she craved whenever sleep refused to visit him at night, which happened (and still happens) a lot.

Owning a pet made him much kinder, much happier, he would even think about her at the darker times, how if something were to happen to him, Nade would have no one, she would be lonely and scared and hurt again, he never liked any of these feelings, he was too familiar with all of them. And if a single, small, unremarkable thing as a hamster needed him to survive another day, then he will survive, god dammit.

A few months after he moves to live with his mother, he buys a new large LARGE cage for Nade, with DIY hamster furniture and toys that he made with his own artistic touch. On top of that, he finally brings her a companion, having read that her breed is the social kind, he had always meant to, but her small portable cage which was convenient for his continuous state of traveling around Claw divisions- it wasn't convenient for two hamsters to share. Only after getting the larger cage that he buys Tsuntsu, and becomes the proud dad of two hamster daughters.

[yasashiiku]

Around the time Shou moved in with his mother, he kept getting weird looks, questioning stares, stupid inquiries about whether he was visiting or staying whenever he was introduced to one of his mother's acquaintances, he stood out, the lil guy, with his uncaring sometimes rude demeanor and uncanny blue eyes. These were difficult times for him, adjusting to an entirely new life took a toll on one's mind, and whenever he was particularly in a bad mood (which happened a lot even tho he didn't want to admit it) he didn't find any troubles in bluntly saying "My dad died." to whoever poked their nose into his & his mother's life. It wasn't exactly the wrong thing to say, that was what everyone has agreed to be his cover-up story, the disdained looks & the way smiles fall from their faces like dead weight before they consequently let go of their questions- it lifts a weight from Shou's mind in funny ways.

[yasashiiku]

❝ 𝙄𝙛 𝙞𝙩'𝙨 𝙢𝙖𝙙𝙚 𝙤𝙛 𝙥𝙨𝙮𝙘𝙝𝙞𝙘 𝙚𝙣𝙚𝙧𝙜𝙮, 𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙣 𝙄 𝙘𝙖𝙣 𝙛𝙞𝙣𝙙 𝙖 𝙬𝙖𝙮 𝙩𝙤 𝙙𝙚𝙖𝙡 𝙬𝙞𝙩𝙝 𝙞𝙩. ❞

Somewhat extensive description of Shou's abilities as a natural, based on canon events and heavily backed with personal headcanons.

i. Spiritual Hyper-awareness.

Born into an organization of dangerous espers and psychics, and in order to avoid clashing with anything he cannot understand, Shou has subconsciously developed a sixth-sense responsive to auras and psychic energy. He has extreme aura sensitivity, and can easily tell if another esper and/or paranormal being is around. With time this ability grew more and more, he practically became a psychic radar on two feet. His senses has a very high level of accuracy and thus makes it almost impossible to ambush or surprise him, unless the one with aura in question is especially skilled at concealing their spiritual presence.

Shou is prone to sensory overload when met with new auras of particularly powerful espers, or when suddenly put in the presence of several espers/spirits all in one place around himself. It takes a bit of time and struggle but he adapts and gets used to the environment and sensations with time. It took a while to get used to the Ultimate Five without his symptoms getting triggered every time one of them walks in. He never had to adapt with his father because Toichiro is just good at concealing his aura. Shou is still adapting to Shigeo's power because holy fuck.

ii. Psychic Analysis.

Shou's extreme sensitivity allowed the ability to clearly distinct different auras. Every psychic can see the colours, that's natural, but he senses them in a way he can't exactly describe to anyone who can't feel it, sometimes it's like a taste in his mouth, sometimes it's like fabric against his skin, but it's never exactly the way he tries to describe it. Not everything can actually feel like something else. Some of them are soothing to him, while others can be quite unpleasant.

With time and experience he got from being a part of Claw, he gained great understanding of psychic outputs and how they connect to the auras of their source esper. And that's how he can read other espers' powers so well, he deciphers and breaks them down, then finds a way to counterpart them with his own power. ( examples ! 1. the gravity bubbles and how he destroyed them from the inside. 2. his freakishly accurate analysis of how Muto's ( the illusionist ) technique worked on Shigeo, just from watching it happen. 3. how everyone thought Toichiro's presence disappeared during his fight with Shigeo, only for Shou to point out that no, it didn't disappear, he felt it change instead. )

iii. Energy Storage and Light Manipulation.

These are abilities which mark as his "speciality" as an esper. He can control his psychic output to preserve his energy for long periods of time, but the more he preserves the harder it gets to control his techniques as he can't focus on doing both at the same time. At first he tried for shorter periods, days turned to weeks and, with practice, weeks to months. It's disheartening to him how it's way far from what his father can do, despite how hard he worked to achieve that level.

Light is one of the things Shou can manipulate with quite the skill. After learning how light waves worked from some random science show for kids, he worked his own energy to form an output capable of changing light direction, thus bending it away from his own being and granting him invisibility. This skill was one of the very first he has learnt, and he got so used to it it almost became innate to him. Sometimes it happens even without his command, in moments of great fear or anxiety or embarrassment, depending on his emotions and his state of mind, he might flicker in and out of existence without realizing. Aside from aiding him in stealthy throughout battles, Shou enjoys using this ability for fun little tricks, like changing the colours of some lights, and using his hands as prisms to break white light into the classic rainbow. Shou can get very creative with his powers when not in the survival mode.