Shizuma Mayuzumi

**Shizuma Mayuzumi** (黛 静馬, *Mayuzumi Shizuma*) is a third year student in Saisei High School and the stride club's vice-captain and relationer.

Shizuma is voiced by Daisuke Hirakawa (Japanese) and Garret Storms (English).

## Appearance

Shizuma is a tall, slender young man with long pink hair that is usually tied up in a high ponytail, bangs hanging on the right (some on the left) with some strands hanging out from the back and grey eyes.

He wears a red jersey (with the left arm covered in black, Saisei's emblem on the left and "Valentine Records" written in the middle) with a white t-shirt underneath. He wears it with blue pants and shoes.

His school uniform consists of a buttoned black vest over a white dress shirt and red tie. He wears it with the dark red uniform pants and black dress shoes.

When preforming he wears a sleeveless grey jacket with Galaxy Standard's emblem, a black undershirt underneath and grey pants. He also wears one sparkly fingerless glove, black wristbands and a ring.

## Personality

Shizuma is the performance leader for Galaxy Standard who has a gentle and calm personality as he is always speaking in *keigo* (the formal version of Japanese grammar). Because of his emotional sensitivity and his careful countenance, he often serves as the mediator for the Saisei team. He does things very carefully and often picks up on other people's slips in focus. While he is usually very level-headed, he can get worked up when his friends or teammates are at risk of being hurt. Because of this, he is generally seen as Saisei's 'mother hen'.

He holds Reiji Suwa to high esteem and takes care of mundane tasks (such as schedules) for him, and to others he can give the impression of being Reiji's secretary - something that he doesn't mind. However, due to him always putting Reiji first, he rarely has time for himself.

It should be noted, however, that Shizuma has a second side. In private situations, especially with Reiji, he switches first-person pronouns to *ore* instead of *watashi*, as well as speaking in more casual Japanese as compared to his public appearance.

In the visual novel, he is Reiji's foil.

## Skills

**Telepathy** - Shizuma is a telepath, but not in the conventional sense of the term. He is able to divine other people's emotions and thoughts with focus, and the ease of it increases with familiarity.

**Relationer** - Helped in part by his telepath skills, as well as familiarity with his teammates, Shizuma is acknowledged as one of the best relationers in Japan.

**Nutrition and Sport Science** - As a former runner, he and Asuma are both well versed in developing training programs. Shizuma has to restrict Asuma's water intake, while Asuma in turn helps Riku with his running posture and flexibility.

## Background

**Mr. Mayuzumi** (Shizuma's father) works as a gardener for the Suwa household and he is close to **Mr. Suwa** (Reiji Suwa's father). As a result, the Mayuzumu children were raised together with him, with Shizuma being the eldest, then Reiji younger by one year, and lastly Asuma Mayuzumi being a year younger than him in turn. The three of them are childhood friends. However, Shizuma is closer to Reiji than Asuma, but the younger sibling didn't mind it as much, and the three are still very close till this day.

When the three of them were in primary school, Reiji and Asuma became interested in Stride and started it in middle school. Shizuma joined them for a while, however due to an incident during that period he became incapable of walking temporarily and became wheelchair-bound. We aren't given details on what this incident exactly is, only that Reiji was implicated and was in part the cause. Due to needing to recuperate from the injury, Shizuma stayed back one year in school and ended up in Reiji's cohort.

As a result, Shizuma changed tracks from being a runner to a relationer, which he then went on to excel at. He is part of the Saisei team's seventh and eighth incarnations, serving as performance leader for the eighth incarnation of Galaxy Standard as well as Vice-Captain for the stride team.

## Relationships

### Reiji Suwa

Reiji is Shizuma's best friend where it is stated in canon that Shizuma is the one who understands him best, both due to Shizuma's telepathic status and also because they were raised together as children. In part due to the inherent class difference between their families, as well as Reiji's all-around genius and capabilities, Shizuma admires him greatly. He has a bit of a 'class inferiority complex' when it comes to this - combined with his caring personality, this led to him becoming somewhat deferential to the other. From young he has always helped Reiji with all sorts of things, and over time he became Reiji's secretary of sorts. This is why he calls Reiji "**Reiji-sama**" as opposed to a more casual form of address. He often acts as Reiji's voice of reason when the other starts doing things on impulse. The two are rarely seen apart.

In the visual novel, Shizuma gets worried when Reiji falls for Nana. He tries to keep them apart for both their sakes, but Reiji wants to continue despite knowing the risks, bringing them into conflict for the first time in ages. Shizuma gets especially anxious when Reiji overworks himself to the point of collapsing several times, and it is at this point that Reiji finally acquiesces to cut off contact with Nana completely.

After Saisei's loss against Honan, he meets Reiji outside the amusement park and talks sense into him before Reiji's self-blaming tendencies can kick in completely. The two of them, along with the rest of Saisei's team, attend Honan's final match against Kakyoin as spectators. After Honan wins, Shizuma lets Reiji go ahead to prepare for the stage first and subtly prompts Nana to meet him in private before the celebratory concert starts.

### Asuma Mayuzumi

Even though they are siblings, the two do not interact much on screen. Shizuma mostly tells Asuma off for inappropriate public behaviour, but also watches over him discreetly. Because Shizuma is closer to Reiji than Asuma, Asuma has a bit of a complex from this and being in the shadow of his elder brother. However, there is no ill will between them, and they still support each other with flawless teamwork.

### Nana Sakurai

Despite being rivals, Shizuma is very supportive of her, and even calms her down on her competitive debut, especially after seeing her fellow runners were having fun competing against each other. She was also taught how to use the newer relation software that isn't even in use in the actual races yet. In the anime, he also taught her telepathy, but the relationship between her and Reiji was never mentioned.

In the visual novel, he doesn't quite like her at first, as her relationship with Reiji could put both of their responsibilities at risk. As an idol, Reiji is not allowed to date, and he also has extra duties on top of it. He acquiesces to teaching Nana about telepathy during their July training camp, at Reiji's request. During August, he calls Nana out and makes her promise not to meet Reiji again, but Reiji goes ahead and contacts her first, leading to no small amount of frustration on Shizuma's part. However, he does warm up to her after she demonstrates her dedication and kindness to her team. By the epilogue, he has acknowledged her as someone whom he thinks is worthy of his best friend.

## Etymology

* The name **Shizuma** means "quiet" (静) (**shizu**) and "horse" (馬) (**ma**).
* Shizuma's surname **Mayuzumi** means "blackened eyebrows" (黛).

## Trivia

* Shizuma can drive that he can often serves as Reiji Suwa's chauffeur.
* Shizuma cannot take spicy food that he will start sweating a lot if he eats even just a little bit.