Toru Mizushima

**Toru Mizushima** (水島 透, *Mizushima Tōru*) is the main title character of Iris Zero. He is a student of Class 2-3 who does not have an Iris ability.

## Appearance

Toru has army-green hair, dark blue eyes and he is rather shorter than the height that males usually are. However, he still can stand taller than girls.

He is usually seen in his loosely-worn uniform: a green buttoned shirt, a dark blue blazer, and a black necktie with a dark blue cross on it.

## Personality

Toru has a somewhat rude or cold personality, due to him being bullied as an iris zero. Because of his motto, "minimal exposure", he tends to stay out of things and tries not to attract attention, so that he can make less enemies. And whenever he is being abused, he lets the people do what they want, because according to him, it ends quicker that way.

However, Toru can still be a kind and caring person. Even if he tries to follow his motto of *"minimal exposure",* he will always end up helping people(who later become his friends), even if he has to stand out. Koyuki Sasamori describes him as someone who "won't accept an ending where no one is saved". Even if he acts coldly toward the situation in the start, he will later come in to help.

He also tends to do things alone or secretly, such as when he lies to Koyuki to keep her out of danger, or when he tries to confront Misaki and solve things on his own, and even to offer himself as a sacrifice for the situation.

Toru is very sensitive to others' feelings, because, according to Hijiri Shinozuka, he grew up doing lots of "imagining from others' perspectives". He was conscious about what others thought of him as an iris zero, and so tried to see the world from the people around him. Because of this, he became skilled in solving mysteries that have something to do with how people think.

## Background

Toru was born without an iris, but hid this fact in his early years in elementary, saying he had an iris that could "see what others' irises were". When two boys who were told on by their teacher asked him to find out what Asahi Yuki's iris was, he guessed that it was "to see through lies" because she was able to see that they lied. After the boys asked her if it was true, she was angered and asked who told them. After learning that it was Toru, she pushed him and yelled at him, saying that he was also lying about his iris, and his secret of being an iris zero was exposed.

A few years later in middle school, he meets his later on best friend named Hijiri Shinozuka by helping him save the girl he loves, Satsuki Tachibana.

He first confronts Hijiri and tells him to stay away from Satsuki, lying that he would save her with his iris because he is also interested in her. Later, however, his cover is blown when the girl who likes Hijiri, Yuka Katagiri, tells him that Toru is actually an iris zero. Hijiri rushes, but finds that all the butterflies around Satsuki have disappeared. Later, Toru confronts Katagiri in the park and figures out that she was planning to have Satsuki die by an accident when she predicts that the park in the tree was going to fall using her iris that "can see danger", so that she could have Hijiri to herself. He tells her to win his affections as a girl would, and is later confronted by Hijiri, who has figured out his lie about liking Satsuki.

He tells Hijiri that he learned that his iris had the ability to "see if something is near death" when he noticed that the flowes he watered would surely die soon after, and confirmed it even more when he began acting strange towards Satsuki, learning that she was going to die. He also said that he took action due to two reasons: One was because someone's life was at stake, but most of all, since Satsuki sat in front of him, he would stand out even more if she were to disappear, and thus decided to help him save her.

After that, Hijiri continued to stay around Toru, all the way until the start of the plotline.

## Talents and Abilities

Toru doesn't have an iris, but as noted from Hijiri Shinozuka, he "imagines" a lot. He was conscious of how he was seen when he was young since he was an iris zero, so he began seeing the world from the perspective of others. Because of this, he is good at solving mysteries that involve the feelings of others.

He is also good at running away from cameras, avoiding getting his picture taken. This is the reason why all the pictures of his friends taken during the school trip ended up getting blurred. Koyuki Sasamori once took a proper picture of him because he let his guard down around her.

## Etymology

* The name **Toru** means "transparent, permeate, filter, penetrate" (透).
* Toru's surname **Mizushima** means "water" (水) (**mizu**) and "island" (島) (**shima**).

## Trivia

* Toru is shorter than the average male student.
* Toru likes sweets.
* Toru was originally designed to be the only one with a special eye but the idea was scrapped since it has been done multiple times in the past.
* Toru has a younger sister.
	+ He is shown to have 2 sisters in Chapter 32 of the manga.
* Toru knows Koyuki Sasamori has feelings for him, but he pretends that he never knew about it because he doesn't want to cause her trouble (Chapter 27).
* Toru wore glasses, but only outside of school and when he's studying (End of Chapter 25 and during Chapter 26).
* Toru frequently puts on his earphones to cut himself off from the outside world.
* In Chapter 29, Toru did not act as if he wanted to help Rei Hoshimiya because after what Asahi Yuki told him in the previous chapters, he couldn't let himself be kind to other girls in front of Koyuki. This could be a possible sign of his affection towards her.
* In Chapter 38, Toru and Koyuki started calling each other by their first names.

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Iris Zero Manga: Volume 1