Shu Itsuki/Mika Kagehira

> "I don't look like the dolls ya love neither can I become like one, but even so, if ya are willing to keep me by yer side... I'll be the happiest in the whole world!"
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## ShuMika

shumika invented the term character development ahayeahhhh

### Link to Archive of Our Own

Here

**Mika Kagehira** to **Shu Itsuk**i (Event ; Steampunk Museum)

**Shu Itsuki/Mika Kagehira** is a relationship between **Shu Itsuki** and **Mika Kagehira** from **Valkyrie**.

## Relationship and canon history

Valkyrie was formerly the top unit in Yumenosaki. They had three members back then: Nazuna Nito, Mika, and Shu. However, due to Eichi's influence, they lost their influence and suffered greatly. Nazuna subsequently left Valkyrie, and Shu had several mental breakdowns which kept him from attending school. Despite everything that had happened, Mika stayed by Shu's side, trying his best to to keep Valkyrie stable. Shu gave him several opportunities to leave the unit, telling him that staying won't do him any good. Mika insisted on staying, stating that he's fine with sinking even deeper as long as he's with Shu, and that he'll stay in Valkyrie till the end of time. Shu is extremely grateful to Mika for his devotion. Arashi considered this relationship to be a "type of love."

Shu frequently performed "maintenance" on Mika, which is likely a physical checkup that involve a lot of body contact. After *Human Comedy,* maintenance does not occur as often, which frustrates Mika. He often rants how he misses Shu’s touch and even admits that maintenance is a "form of speech" for them.

Throughout the story, their relationship heals and becomes closer than before. Initially, Shu was quite toxic to Mika, scolding him for every mistake and getting irritated with his chatter. However, after the events of Halloween, Shu began to treat Mika more kindly. In *Human Comedy,* Shu expressed his desire to understand Mika and see him become his artistic partner rather than a mere doll.

After graduating from Yumenosaki, Shu started traveling to France frequently to develop his artistic skills, although he never stopped worrying about Mika. He even found him an apartment to live in. However, when he visited him in *Neverland*, he found it in a state of disarray. Becoming more concerned about Mika's mental health, Shu initiated a long heart-to-heart conversation, in which he realized was pushing his own concept of humanity onto Mika. Accepting that there was still a long way to go before they truly understood each other, Shu decided he was going to help Mika, just like he had been helped in the past.

In *Hermitage,* Shu gives Mika a doll from Paris as a souvenir, so that he doesn't feel lonely without him and Mademoiselle around. Later, when the doll seemingly possesses Mika and he falls into a state of hypnosis, Shu talks to her and manages to break the spell. Recalling his breakdown after the fall of Valkyrie and the kindness Mika showed him, he assures her that Mika would not simply throw someone away. When Mika opens his eyes again, he is startled by how close Shu's face is to his, implying that Shu tried to wake him up with a kiss.

The *Hermitage* event song "Acanthe" was supposed to be a sad story sung as a requiem, telling the story of an artist who turned their beloved one into a perfect work of art and stayed alone with it forever. However, due to Mika's idea, it changed into the artist breathing life into a doll and making it human, thus turning it into a happy story. This evolution perfectly encapsulates Shu and Mika's relationship.

Valkyrie's Climax event, *Raison d'être*, begins with a fight between Shu and Mika. Shu is upset that Mika planned to keep living in the Seisoukan Dorm instead of moving to France with him. He called him "Kagehira-kun," believing he had misjudged the distance between them because Mika's behavior was "suggestive". However, they soon had to return to Japan after Shu received a call informing him of his grandfather's death. Shu claims that he brought Mika to the family gathering because he didn't want to face them alone. The Itsukis seem to like Mika, and Shu adds that Mika is already his family in many ways.

Shortly after the gathering, Shu uncovers some shocking information about his grandfather's alleged infidelity with someone he called Mademoiselle. The news disturbs him greatly, as he always looked up to his grandfather. Mika goes behind Shu's back to search for the evidence at Mademoiselle's grave and destroy it, hoping that Shu can continue to find happiness even if it costs him his own purity, which he explains to Shu's grandfather supposed illegitimate son who had been talking to them through a doll, and he calls Mika quite distorted. However, Mika only finds a doll in the grave. Shu catches him and gently admonishes him, explaining that if Mika hurts and taints himself, he will also be hurting and tainting the people who love him. Then Shu covers Mika with his jacket and the can feel how Shu is warm and Mika is cold.

To talk about the truth about Shu's grandfather, they make an Opera about a man ("Boku") played by Shu in love with a doll, and the Dollmaker ("Ore") played by Mika who crossdressed as the doll and fell in love with Boku. When Boku returned to Paris to look for his beloved, the only thing that remained in the dollmaker's house were the words Je t'aime.

Later they talk about their thoughts about what actually happened. Shu thinks "Mademoiselle" was his grandfather female identity and that they were in love with a man, while Mika thinks there was something with the woman who was the dollmaker who created the dolls. At the end Shu asks Mika to live a happy story in Paris like his grandfather did and be together forever, adding that this will be the best memoral service for their precedessors.

## Trivia

* In an early interview, Mika’s seiyuu implied that Mika sees Shu beyond just admiration.
	+ Tamao (interviewer): "Milky Way was really good, wasn’t it? Oshi-san and Mika-kun couldn’t be any cooler.”
	+ Oosuka: I thought that must be the Oshi-san whom Mika “fell” for. It was what he was waiting for.”

(Source: https://gamegift.jp/news/1493267535580725)

* Fans of the pairing sometimes use the croissant and candy emojis (🥐🍬) when talking about it online, referencing Shu and Mika's favorite foods.
* Shu has said his current favorite colors are yellow and blue, which are the colors of Mika's eyes.
* Mika and Shu met for the first time during childhood, when Shu unknowingly helped Mika escape from the orphanage. Shu doesn't even remember this, but Mika treasures the memory greatly.
* Mika was the one who showed Shu the kindness that fueled his change, and he considers Mika his only true partner in this world.

### ! Era

* Mika and Shu lived together in Shu's house before he graduated.
* Mika was secretly annoyed by Shu's affection towards Nazuna.
* Mika offered valentines chocolates to Shu.
* In sub stories, Tsumugi hopes Shu notices the bluebird of happiness by his side before it becomes black with dirt, Mika replies that his wings were black from the start because that's Shu's favorite color. In later character information, Shu has said his favorite color are now Gogh's yellow and blue of Chagall and Vermeer, which are Mika's eyes colors.
* Since Mika thinks Shu prefers short people, he said that he doesn't want to grow taller anymore.
* Shu considered giving Mika a stuffed toy he won at the arcade, since he knows that Mika has a liking for cute things.
* In ***Milky Way,*** Mika tried to punch Eichi when he was blackmailing Shu.
* In ***Snow Globe**,* Mika gives Shu a snow globe with figurines of them walking home and says that's the most important thing for him in the world, he asked Shu to let him be by his side instead of keeping him in a cabinet. Later Shu puts the snow globe in the cabinet "instead of Mika" since he is going to fulfill the request.

### !! Era

* Shu dresses up "for the occasions" when he makes a phone call with Mika.
* Mika seems to like the idea of Shu scolding him, even blushing while thinking about it and getting mad at his imagined version of Shu because he wasn't mean enough.

* Mademoiselle no longer talks when Shu is with Mika, she said she was jealous of Mika in ***Neverland***, but she acknowledged humans are made to love other humans.

* In *"**Oshi san's ban**"*, when Mika got to spend time with Arashi, she asks him what does he likes and Mika was about to answer by saying Oshi-san (he refers to Shu that way) but suddenly stopped and said Oshiruko instead (sweet red bean soup) due to the embarrassment, Arashi noticed that he cannot stop thinking about Shu. At the end of that story she offers to help Mika to buy a present that could "grab Shu’s heart".

* In ***Antique Legend,*** Mika expresses jealousy over Kohaku since he thinks Kohaku is Shu's type.

* In ***Antique Legend,*** Shu wanted to secretly give Mika the inheritance from his grandfather, using the epistolary novel *Daddy Long-Legs* as reference.

* Shu is surprisingly shy about expressing his affection towards Mika. Madara chided him for the events of *Antique Legend,* stating it happened "because you would be very embarrassed if Mika-san knew how much you care about him."

* In ***Pretty Mission,*** Mika said that if Shu were to marry someone he'd be in fact very sad and lonely about it, he won't know how to properly react to it, and said that there will be "death" (Arashi asked him whether he meant that as dying of loneliness or killing Shu's fiancee, but Mika simply answered that he doesn't want to think about what he'll do in a situation like that since it somehow made him uneasy) Mika also said that if that were to happen he wouldn't want to interfere since Shu's happiness is what matters to him the most.

* In ***Pretty Mission,*** due to Mika's reaction after Eichi scolded Arashi, Eichi said he is really like Shu.

* In ***SHINSEKAI,*** since Mika's secret order was not saying "Oshi-san", he was calling Shu "onii-chan" instead, which made Shu feel uncomfortable and Mika asked if he could call him "darling" then.

* In ***SHINSEKAI,*** Mika told Sora how he feels like he is going to cry when he wakes up and Shu isn't with him, since he is living in France. He wants to keep this as a secret because he doesn't want Shu to leave his life goals because of his feelings.

* During the **Fusion Unit** mini event with Alkaloid, Aira taught Mika how to say "Ai-rabu ~". When Mayoi complimented Mika's fanservice, Shu asked if he could taxidermy Mayoi.

* In ***SS Finals,*** Eichi says he doesn't understand why a perfectionist like Shu got attached to Mika, Wataru replies Shu can recognize flowers that bloom from the mud.

* In ***Astraea's Atelier,*** Kuro said he is glad Mika's changed Shu for the better.

* In ***Astraea's Atelier,*** Leo calls Mika and Shu "Michael" and "Raphael" what seems to be a reference to Michelangelo Buonarroti and Raphael, artists of High Renaissance, who are called the Big Three Names along with Leonardo da Vinci.

* In ***Hermitage,*** Mika feels the doll's loneliness and says that it would have been him if he hadn't met Shu. His dream is to become the light to others - just like Shu has been his light.

* In ***Hermitage*** when Mika wants to change the MV even though they are very far ahead already, Shu agrees and supports Mika's vision of the video, much to Mika's surprise because Shu hates changing things when they were already decided on. However, Shu says that art is often cruel and that a happy ending is actually nice as well for a change.

* In ***Hermitage,*** Mika was so excited about Shu coming back from Paris that he couldn't sleep the night before. He also picked him up at the airport even though Shu told him there is no need to (also Mika was very excited and very loud when he greeted Shu, which led Shu to scold him that he is like a dog - which made Mika even happier). Though Mika had plans to go shopping and to a café together, Shu goes into working mode right away. However at the end of the story he agrees to go to a picnic with Mika, Mademoiselle and Mika's doll.

* Shu often gives Mika gifts from Paris like a cannelle Mika didn't want to eat because he wanted to treasure it (***DecaDANCE***), the antique doll mentioned in ***Hermitage*** or the parasol he didn't want to use either in order to not lose it (***Keito's Lecture***). Aira compared the way Mika cared about the parasol with limited edition merchandising. The roommate homescreen line has Mika tell Ritsu that Shu gave him tons of sweets.

* In ***Seven Bridge,*** Mika guessed the relationship between Hitsugi and Negi is similar to Shu (and Mademoiselle), but Negi didn't know who Shu was, so Mika wanted to give her a presentation of him since Shu means "the 99% of his life"

* In ***Shu's 2022 Birthday event*** Mika says that he is happy as long as Shu is having fun with people, so Rinne asks him if he's feeling lonely because Shu was taken from him and flirts with him. Then Shu complains asking Rinne to stop messing with "his" Kagehira.

* Their 2023 relationships chart says they're the only one to each other.

* In ***Raison d'être*** Shu calls Mika Pinnochio when he's upset, nickname he had used before with Nazuna. Later in the same event, when Mika is worried because "he's incompetent compared to Nazuna" to help Shu to win his grandfather's challenge, Shu replies he doesn't think Mika is inferior to Nazuna at all.

* When Raffaello tells Mika about how his mother disappeared for Shu's grandfather's arranged marriage sake in ***Raison d'être***, Mika says he would have done the same, connecting when the time he told Arashi in ***Pretty Mission*** scout that "someone might die" if Shu had an arranged marriage.

* In ***Raison d'être,*** Shu says "our funeral" to talk about their performance for the funeral contest and Mika laughs because it sounds like they were going to commit double suicide and if they died together, they would be together in hell forever. Shu replies that "even if he said he agrees" they shouldn't talk like that about death.

* During Nazuna's and Kuro's meeting in ***Raison d'être,*** Nazuna mentions that he's worried because Shu seems too attached to Mika and if Mika disappeared, he wouldn't be able to recover and would disappear too.

* In ***Raison d'être,*** Shu says that his grandmother would love his grandfather regardless of what the truth is and Mika replied "Just like Oshi-san loves me, right?"

* ***Raison d'être*** ending implies that Shu's grandfather was a lesbian trans woman that had to bury her identity while Shu (called "the second coming of granpa" by his family) and Mika will live the story she couldn't.

### **Songs analysis and references**

* Mika's solo song ***Kohaku to Ruri no Rondo*** explains how he saw Shu as a salvation for his rotten self and was willing to give everything for him. The last line specifically says his love would eternally remain even if his soul was burned and melted. This has been said in the game before like in ***Magical Halloween***, where he said he's gonna be with Shu forever, even if everything else disappears and even in the afterlife.

* On the other hand, Shu's solo song ***Cloth Waltz*** lyrics are about his desire to fix his "doll" before it breaks and protect it from a cruel world. It talks more explicitly about Mika in the second part, where Shu sings about someone who weaves a story (what is mentioned again later in ***Eternal Weaving***), with whom he'll show their artworks and remain together forever. The chorus also mention the warmth he was granted, which is another reference to ***Magical Halloween***, where Shu said that both the warmth and feelings change when you stay by someone's side forever.

* The lyrics of ***Eternal Weaving*** are canonically written by Mika. In this song their relationship is compared with weft and warp, which Mika explained later during the ***Valkyrie x Alkaloid fusion unit*** event. During the talked part of ***Eternal Weaving,*** Mika calls himself a marionette (傀儡) struggling within joy and sadness and Shu disagrees, calling him the weaver of the story. They're called light and shadow in the next lines, where Mika ask why he keeps creating and Shu replies that he does because that's what he demands of him since he is human.

* Since the lyrics of ***Acanthe*** are a reference to the *Sleeping Beauty —*having the word 眠れる (Sleeping) followed by a line that says "with a kiss that inspires my heart forever" in the moment Mika wakes up in the MV*—* and the scene where Shu's face is too close to Mika's when he wakes up in ***Hermitage***, it seems to be implied that he actually kissed him. This has been speculated more because the sound Mika does when he is awaken is a Japanese onomatopoeia ぶはあっ (Bu wa a~tsu) that is used when a character inhales after holding their breath.

* ***Acanthe*** seems to be based on the story of Pygmalion and Galatea (by the Roman poet Ovid). This story relates how the sculptor Pygmalion made a statue of his ideal woman and fell in love with it. The Goddess Aphrodite listened to Pygmalion's prayer and decided to fulfill his wish, so when Pygmalion kissed Galatea, she became alive. The ED song ***Gaisenka*** (that narrates the fall and return of Valkyrie) directly mentions Pygmalion during its first lines.

* ***Uruwashi no Nightingale*** seems to be a reference to *The Nightingale* (by Hans Christian Andersen). *The Nightingale* is a fable about a Chinese emperor who got an artificial nightingale to sing for him, and discarded the real bird. The artifact got broken and the emperor fell ill. When he was about to die, the real nightingale came back and sang, healing him as a miracle. At the end, the emperor asked the nightingale to remain with him forever.

* Interesting enough ***Uruwashi no Nightingale*** mentions *dragée* (sweets that are used as wedding favors) and a honeymoon (蜜月).

* The last line of ***Meikyuu Denshi Kairou*** (Digital Labyrinth Corridor)—Mika's event song related to digital art—says "In the labyrinth corridor, love is the perfect world".

* Mika's 2nd solo song ***Yumemiru Architecture*** starts with the French phrase "…Avec amour, pour toi" (with love, for you). Interesting enough, the song uses body horror metaphors in the first chorus, while the second chorus says "if prayers are love, screams can become love".

* Shu's 2nd solo song ***Amor Vincit Omnia*** talks about a chance encounter. This encounter is when he met Mika, which the song calls a miracle and something that overflows from the world. Just after calling it a miracle, Shu stops singing and says the title of the song, that means *Love Conquers All*.

* While ***Amor Vincit Omnia*** says "we're tied to each other by the meaning of being humans" ***Yumemiru Architecture*** match it saying "guidance is only a formless string felt by the soul and pulled by a hand to the fate that eventually will tie us".

## Gallery

Shu is giving him a rose of chocolateShu gifting Mika a doll ( English translation )Shu crying over Mika not waking up in the MVFireworks Stream 2022Fireworks Stream 2022they're blushing in the bloomed art