Basic Info and History
Name: Shiro
Fandom: Deadman Wonderland
Timeline: End of chapter 22, just after the events with Nagi and the Undertakers
Age: 15
Appearance: Shiro is, as her name would imply, more or less entirely composed of shades of white. As an albino, her skin is very fair, almost translucent, and the knee-length hair that tops her head is a pure platinum with lighter tones, verging on colorless. Her eyes, by contrast, are a rather vivid red. Hidden by a flesh-tone bodysuit marked with red swirls are the numerous [[NSFW-GORE]] scars that cover her body from neck to ankles, mementos of numerous surgeries and medical experiments from her younger years. The bodysuit does nothing to hide her rather well-formed body, though, hugging some pretty nice curves for a teen (to Senji's utter dismay). Shiro is quite obviously athletic and energetic, and is almost constantly barefoot. Aside from her bodysuit, the only other things she wears are a pair of large brown mittens (to hide the scars on her hands) and a large metal collar. Despite the collar's size, the weight never seems to bother her, nor do the mittens affect her grip. She wears both constantly. Her face is always very expressive, almost childlike, mirroring her mannerisms--when Shiro is happy, she's very very happy and has the grin to prove it! Likewise, when she's sad, the tears and sulking faces could rival that of the most spoiled 4-year-old.
As the Red Man, Shiro wears metal armor that hides her face and body, giving her a taller, more masculine appearance. The chest and gauntlets are covered in lengths of chain, and the whole thing is wrapped in a tattered red cloak.
Abilities: SUPER-STRENGTH. No, really. She kicked through a concrete wall more than once, broke a plate glass window with steel bars leading into a prison cell, and has constantly shown strength entirely disproportional to her actual size. She's also completely unaware of how immense her strength really is, taking it for granted. She's not really prone to fighting, unless someone threatens her friends (read: mostly Ganta), and she's much more likely to just take a hit rather than hurt someone, as she heals quickly and doesn't really seem to be capable of feeling physical pain. I'm also pretty sure she's immune to diabetes and cavities and has the metabolism of a hummingbird as well, considering the amounts of sweets she eats. Erm. That aside, Shiro also has a more powerful alter-ego; as the Red Man, she becomes a powerful psychopath who is capable of causing immense damage. In the first chapter of the manga, the Red Man levitates to the third-floor classroom where Ganta is waiting for class to start, blasts the entire wall out, dismembers Ganta's classmates (all 21 of them), and embeds a femto machine into Ganta's chest, bestowing him with his Branch of Sin abilities, all within seconds--and without lifting a finger. Yep, she can actually kill you with her brain. The Red Man has also been seen several times inside the prison proper, and each time has caused immense bloodshed and havoc--whirlwinds that break every bone in a man's body, explosions, ribbons of hexagonal shapes that cut like razors, etc. Shiro doesn't need the armor to kill (as evidenced by her killing the Chief Warden while 'playing') but it's very much an embodiment of this other personality--without it, the Red Man does not truly take hold of Shiro, meaning her powers aren't quite as...extreme.
Personality: Shiro is, for lack of a better word, very childlike. She loves candy and sweets, and shows an especial fascination with the DW ferris wheel ("big sparkly round thing"), despite not knowing what it was called or what it was for. Tact doesn't mean much to her, and she can be a bit spoiled, announcing to the world when she's hungry or unhappy or bored, and demanding that her surroundings address the relevant issue. If said issue is ignored, or if someone hurts her feelings, Shiro is ready and able to deliver a world-class sulk, pouting and even throwing a tantrum if the perceived injury was bad enough. That being said, the same extremity in expression also applies to her happy feelings. Shiro doesn't count many people among her friends and/or family, so the few she does consider to be friends are everything to her. To make her friends happy, she will do anything necessary, whether it's staying up all night learning how to cook something semi-edible, or singing a song, or showing them super-secret tunnels into the heart of DW. Ganta especially is the focus of her world, and gets Shiro's best efforts in everything. When approached with a new idea, Shiro's first thought is always "What would Aceman Ganta think?" Despite her seeming helplessness and naiveté, Shiro is more than willing to take a blow for Ganta, and does on several occasions. Still, she mostly gives off an air of innocence and happy ignorance of the way the world truly works.
All this changes, however, when the Lullaby stops. When she can no longer hear the subliminal sound fed to her by DW's mainframe, Shiro's second (perhaps true) persona rises to the surface. Donning full-body metal armor and a red cape that makes her appear taller and more masculine, Shiro becomes the "Red Man." As the Red Man, she has no remorse, no compassion, nothing save an endless killing urge. Sadistic, sociopathic, and driven by the need to see bloodshed, the Red Man persona wants nothing more than to fight. There are, however, signs that Shiro has some influence over the Red Man's actions--for example, the Red Man breaks out of DW and goes to Ganta's school, killing all Ganta's classmates but leaving him alive with the femto machine crystal inside of him, thereby ensuring that he'll definitely be brought back to Deadman Wonderland, and to Shiro. Exactly how far this influence stretches remains to be seen, but the Red Man has already shown a distinct reluctance to kill Ganta, instead taunting him and leading him on. This could be seen as revealing Shiro's more negative inner feelings; she is afraid of losing Ganta again, so as the Red Man she drives him onward in pursuit of vengeance, though she doesn't seem to be conscious of this act.
It's hard to tell which side of Shiro is more the 'real' Shiro, to be honest. Even the childlike demeanor seems to be an act; at times, Shiro has been heard to drop the third-person manner of speaking and to behave more like the teenaged girl she actually is--cool, detached, intelligent. As a child, she was always more grown-up than Ganta, possibly due to her still-mysterious status as the Wretched Egg and all the scientific experiments that went with that status. Ganta was the one who was more of a 'kid,' always trying to make Shiro smile and play and act more her age. It's possible that her current behavior is an effort on her part to do the same for Ganta, now that he's grown up and hurt and feeling alone; to make him smile, and to help him remember that he still has at least one friend, the most important friend--Shiro. Her fixation on him borders on the selfishly obsessive, but does not limit her kindness to him alone: she's also friendly towards Chaplin Sukegawa, Minatsuki (whose vindictive nature she doesn't quite seem to notice), and Yoh (despite the fact that he's totally terrified of her, she again doesn't quite seem to notice). In fact, not many peoples' feelings really register with Shiro. It's as if people aside from Ganta are just temporary distractions and not quite real--perhaps a reminder of her sociopathic nature as the Red Man.
Essentially:
Everyday Shiro- Happy! Candy! Ganta! Exploring! Let's play! OMG WHAT IS THAT COOL SHINY NEW THING AND WHAT ARE YOU DOING OVER THERE IN THE CORNER hey let's go ride bikes kay?
Red Man- If you see him, your life is going be be very unpleasant. If you see him SMILE, it's going to be even more unpleasant in some very creative ways. In fact, you'd really just rather not see him. He's not much of one for conversation, and he'll use your puppy to play hacky-sack.
History: In an indetermined future, Tokyo is hit with the biggest earthquake ever recorded, sinking most of the actual landmass underwater and leaving millions dead and millions more stranded and homeless. All of Japan is in utter turmoil as various natural disaster support groups rush to the aid of Japan, helping to relocate survivors and restore some semblance of order to the country. Ten years later, the world moves on, and on the ruins of Tokyo now stands the world's first privately-owned, publicly-operated prison--Deadman Wonderland. Formed as an effort by its Chief Warden and shareholders to raise funds for the reclamation and rebuilding of Tokyo, DW is a fully-functional amusement park, with rides and shows all run by inmates. Tightly run and apparently turning quite the profit, DW is a model for hope, a potential future for this recovering nation.
What the world doesn't know about is the real reason for Deadman Wonderland's founding. Beneath the six sectors of DW proper lies the G Ward, home to men and women of all ages with abilities unlike any other. Gifted with the 'Branch of Sin,' the ability to manipulate their own blood in unique and terrifying ways, these people are given bird codenames and pitted against one another in fights broadcast for the amusement and betting pleasure of a very select clientele. Win, and they get the means to build themselves a new, comfortable life as modern-day gladiators; lose, and they also give up a part of themselves in the name of science.
This is the world Shiro is born to. Raised entirely inside Deadman Wonderland's walls, Shiro has never been outside the prison proper. As the origin of the mysterious abilities called 'Branches of Sin,' she is both a part of this strange disease and also an entirely different sort of creature. When her blood's strange properties were discovered, she was immediately subjected to the first in a seemingly-endless series of tests, operations, and examinations, which often left her bruised, scarred, aching, and hurt both physically and emotionally. This made her a very withdrawn child, prone to states of near-catatonia and violent outbursts alike. However, the introduction of a boy her own age soon changed Shiro's attitude for the better. The son of one of the lead researchers, Igarashi Ganta became Shiro's best friend, playmate, and lifeline. No matter how bad the tests made her hurt, as long as she could hold on to the thought that Ganta would be there after to eat pudding and play Aceman, things would be alright. And things were alright.
Until the day Ganta wasn't there anymore.
Shiro doesn't remember much about the earthquake, or about the devastation above her head. Safe in the endless labs belowground, her life kept on going, without Ganta. It hurt, for a little while. Then, the hurting just...stopped. She didn't respond to external pain stimuli anymore. It didn't matter if her body hurt, because deep inside she still clung to the memory of Ganta. As a defense mechanism, she imitated his behavior as she remembered it, childish and laughing and blissfully ignorant. This caused a schism in her personality, a growing gap between Shiro the girl and Shiro the creature. As long as DW's Mother Goose mainframe kept playing the woodpecker song, the one that reminded her of Ganta, the happy Shiro was in control, and things were good. But when it stopped one day ten years after the earthquake, it wasn't Shiro that left DW. It was the Red Man.
Clad in armor and a bloodthirsty grin, the Red Man destroyed a classroom full of 22 kids, leaving one alive in a sea of gore. That one was Ganta Igarashi, now infected with the same parasite that gifted numerous others with the Branch of Sin ability. This personal attention from the Red Man guaranteed Ganta's return to DW, and to Shiro. Upon his arrival in his cell, still in shock, he is accosted by Shiro who is overjoyed that her old playmate has returned. The fact that he doesn't remember her doesn't seem to bother Shiro, who latches on to Ganta and acts like he never left. While in the courtyard, Ganta and Shiro are attacked by other prisoners, and unnoticed in the fight a bomb overhead goes off, sending one of the loudspeaker towers hurtling down towards Ganta and a knocked-unconscious Shiro. This triggers Ganta's brand-new Branch of Sin abilities, and he manages to save them both from being crushed.
The next day is Ganta's first taste of reality in Deadman Wonderland, when he learns that he needs to somehow obtain a piece of candy every 3 days in order to counteract the deadly poison his prison collar is constantly injecting into him. His only chance to get the candy lies in competing in a deadly race, which he almost wins thanks to Shiro--the whole way, she protects him from the worst of the obstacles, taking blow after blow and getting badly injured in order to keep him safe. It is after this that Ganta begins to see that she really does mean to be his friend, and his gratitude makes Shiro happier than she's been since he left.
Cue the second failure of the Mother Goose system. As Ganta faces the Red Man for the second time and attacks with his newly discovered powers, the latter gives him his codename, dubbing him "Woodpecker" before vanishing, leaving another pile of bodies behind. Ganta faints from blood loss, and Shiro is recovered by a team after the system comes back online. Herself again, she stays by Ganta's side until he recovers, at which point he runs off to find G ward and the man he thinks "killed all his friends." Shiro knows where to find it, but refuses to tell Ganta until they're cornered by a psychotic security bot. She gets them safely to G Ward, but the security bot follows. At this point, Shiro is so frustrated she attacks the robot, telling Ganta he's stupid because he keeps saying ALL his friends were killed--but she's his friend too. While Ganta and Shiro are having their moment, the robot grabs Shiro, but they both are rescued by Senji, another Deadman (or Branch of Sin user). After breaking the bot, Senji picks a fight with Ganta, but is interrupted by Shiro, whose apparently-risqué choice of clothing keeps Senji distracted long enough for security personnel to arrive with tranquilizer darts. Ganta is thrown into G Ward, and Shiro is thrown out--and despite her best efforts she can't find the way back in.
Frustrated and in tears, Shiro enlists the help of Ganta's cellmate Yoh, who has his own reasons for breaking into G Ward. Thanks to some planned effort on their part, they find a way to cut the power long enough to sneak down a ventilation shaft--but with the temporary cut in power comes a temporary pause in the Lullaby, and Yoh bears unfortunate witness to Shiro's newest murdering spree. Living to tell the tale but not saying a word, he hurries into the ward as Shiro slips back to her own nest and a meeting with her grandfather. Her second personality is still unsatisfied, and before the Mother Goose system can be restored, she has fought and dismembered the old man. The main barrier between the Deadmen and the unscrupulous Vice-Warden Tamaki is now gone, and Shiro seems to have no recollection of what she's done to her grandfather. Instead, she goes off to find Ganta, who's in the midst of being recruited by an anti-management gang calling themselves Scar Chain. The meeting is interrupted by Genkaku, one of Tamaki's personal squad of anti-Deadmen known as Undertakers, and Shiro bursts in just in time to (accidentally) keep him from killing Ganta. The two are happily reunited, and Shiro is thrilled that Ganta now remembers her, but the happiness quickly turns to confusion.
Ganta accepts Scar Chain's offer to join them, and Shiro doesn't understand why he wants to leave her, and leave DW. The concept of freedom is meaningless to her, having spent her whole life in DW. But when he promises her they can ride on the DW ferris wheel together when they leave, she is easily appeased and changes her mind about leaving. Wherever Ganta goes, Shiro is happy to go too, which is why she's unhappy when he asks her to stay behind, though after Karako explains that it's because he doesn't want her to get hurt she seems happy enough to do so.
The plan was simple. Stage a breakout. Get a data chip full of information on and recordings of the Deadman to a member of the public inspection committee. Reveal DW to the world, and have the freedom that was wrongly taken from them. Of course, it doesn't go as planned. Scar Chain is betrayed by one of their own, though they don't know it. The members are picked off by Undertakers and booby traps, and the final coup de grace was supposed to take out anyone left alive--the data chip was secretly a bomb. The head of Scar Chain, captured and tortured, manages to get a message out which is received by Shiro, who manages to find the team and throw the chip away before it explodes. However, to the rest of the team it looks as though she's just thrown away their only chance for survival and freedom. Angry beyond belief, Ganta punches Shiro, who is crushed by his betrayal.
She stays away from him, retreating to her nest, eating her stash of cookies, pouting and sulking and trying to deny how much it hurts. Not the punch itself, but the pain it leaves inside her, to know that Ganta is angry with her. Here she encounters the Deadman Mockingbird, who accidentally gives her chocolates with liquor in them. Tipsy, Shiro decides to go find Ganta to tell him she's angry at him for what he did, when she was only trying to help. At that time, Ganta was with the other members of Scar Chain, about to try their plan again--this time, each of them carried a copy of the data chip, so their odds were increased. But they weren't counting on one of their own being discovered and captured, along with a drunken Shiro. Rushing towards Genkaku's headquarters to save their friends, Ganta and the others weren't expecting to have to face their old leader.
Maddened by drugs and pain, the former leader of Scar Chain lashes out, killing people on both sides. In the melee, Shiro's legs are both severely injured by an Undertaker, shattered across the shins. As she's lying helpless, Ganta rushes to her side, taking blow after blow for her despite her trying to shove him away. As the fight reaches its height and the leader of Scar Chain comes to his senses, Shiro forgives Ganta for lashing out, and tries to protect him from a blow by Genkaku, but is instead knocked unconscious. When she comes to, everyone is gone, but Ganta stayed behind; when she asks him why, he tells her he has friends and he can't leave without them. This is the answer Shiro was happiest with, and she thinks things will be better for them now.
A week in solitary has left Ganta a wreck, however. Scared of a world where nothing ever changes, he's withdrawn, distant, and completely depressed. Nothing Shiro does seems to help, whether it's giving him the last of her candy or making silly faces or singing him songs. In despair she turns to Minatsuki and Chaplin, two other Deadmen who decide to help Shiro learn how to cook. Her talents in this area are really...well, nonexistent, but she stays up all night trying to make a good meal for Ganta. It's in the wee hours of the morning that he wanders by, and in hearing her ask herself aloud if he'll enjoy it, he realizes that he's been wrong for behaving this way the whole time, and that things are constantly changing for the better. In the morning, Shiro is next to his bed with a tray of something that vaguely resembles real food, and for the first time in the last week Ganta has an appetite. This shared moment is a sure sign of the growing bond between Ganta and Shiro, and the first time Shiro is made aware of the feelings she has for Ganta that may approach something beyond just simple friendship.
Roleplay Sample - Log:
♪The naughty little woodpecker
Knocked holes, crumbling the forest♪
Shiro can't remember a time she didn't know this song by heart. It's always been there, right next to her, in that place where she feels all warm and soft when she thinks of Ganta and Aceman and pudding. It makes her think of the times when she was scared and hurt and lonely and Ganta came to play with her. When she hears the song, always going, always playing, she can pretend the cut of the knife on her arm is just Ganta drawing his symbol on her in permanent marker again, that it'll all just wash off--he'll be back soon and she can scrub the scars off just like that old marker, and be all plain and shiny-clean again. She can pretend it doesn't hurt, and that Ganta was just on vacation with his mother and they'd be back for Shiro soon, because they hadn't forgotten at all about her.
♪The angry wood god
Turned his beak into poison♪
Pretty soon it stops hurting altogether. Shiro doesn't mind the experiments anymore. The tests are almost boring, lying there on the bed with the sticky things on her whole body and the doctors with their bright lights and cold metal bending over her. It doesn't bother her. She just goes to sleep, poof, and then when she wakes up she's in her special place again, and Grandpa-ji's there, and he's brought her pudding. And it's okay that Ganta's not there, because that just means there's more pudding for her to eat, and he's missing out, and it's his fault because he left Shiro. She secretly tells herself she's eating it for him, though, because there's no pudding where he is, and then it tastes like it's supposed to, all honey-warm and sweet. And then she remembers that he's been gone so long now, and she's afraid it might be because he forgot about her, and that honey-warm feeling turns to a rock in the pit of her stomach.
♪The poor little woodpecker♪
She knows he isn't coming back. Really, she knows better. It's been almost ten years, after all, and she isn't a child anymore. She was never that naive to begin with, it was just Ganta, and now all the years of pretending have made her someone she didn't really mean to be. She is what Ganta was, once upon a time, because it's easier that way. Easier to cling to that memory of a childhood gone faded and fuzzy around the edges and pretend that it was still like that. Life is just pudding and Aceman and test after test after test and there's no longer any Ganta to look forward to. She imagines him living somewhere else. Maybe with other kids, going to a real school like on TV. Maybe he had new friends, but secretly always wished Shiro were there. Maybe he'd told all his friends about her. Or maybe he'd just forgotten the weird little girl with the scars he'd played with as a child. Maybe he wanted to forget. The first few times she thought it, it hurt, and she kept thinking it because it was the only thing that did hurt. But it just kept making that Ganta-shaped spot bigger and emptier, so she stopped.
♪His nest was poison, and his supper too
He touched his friends, and they all died♪
Ganta would never forget her. He always meant to come back, he just got lost. Shiro dreamed of going outside to rescue him. She asked Grandpa-ji once if she could go outside, leave DW to go bring Ganta back because clearly, Ganta was weak and he needed her help. It was important, life and death. She'd go an come right back. Grandpa-ji just smiled sadly, shook his head, and sang the woodpecker song again. Over and over again.
♪The sad little woodpecker♪
It was ten years ago, now. The song was always there. Ganta wasn't anymore.
Until the song
♪His little poison tears twinkle and--
stopped.
Ganta.
Shiro was gone, gone with the song. Something dark was there to take her place.
Roleplay Sample - Journal:
Uwaa~
[Yawning.]
Ne, Grandpa-ji, Shiro's hungry. Did you get pudding?
...Grandpa-ji?
...Guess he's not here. But Shiro's tummy is rumbling and he promised--
[She sulks for a moment, looking utterly dismayed, before lighting up with a grin.]
--Ah! Maybe Ganta has pudding! Shiro will see! Ganta always shares with his friends, and he said Shiro's his friend~