Matsumoto Shigeo

**Matsumoto Shigeo** (마쓰모토 시게오) was the Chairman of the Japanese Hunters Association.

## Appearance

Matsumoto is a middle-aged man with thick black hair and a black mustache and goatee.

In his first appearance, he was displayed smoking a brown cigar and wearing a white-collared shirt and a black tie under a sleeveless light brown vest.

## Personality

Matsumoto is an arrogant and self-centered individual who lacks a sense of empathy for others, as displayed when he was callously unfazed by the fact that some of Goto's men had died during the 4th Jeju Island Raid. He is also very malicious and cunning, as he masterminded the dishonest scheme to use the Jeju Island Raid to annihilate the Korean S-Rank Hunters for his own purposes. At the same time, however, he was very fearful of those with power superior to his own, as displayed when he was easily intimidated by Go Gunhee during their meeting.

## History

### Jeju Island Arc

About four years after Jeju Island was lost to a S-Rank dungeon break, ant attacks began to occur on the south coast of Japan, resulting in the deaths of dozens of Japanese civilians and hunters. As a result, Goto flew to Korea to meet with Go Gunhee and offered to help the Korean government wipe out the ants living on the island and reclaim the island once and for all.

In reality, however, the offer was not genuine, as Matsumoto actually planned to use the raid to wipe out Korea's S-Rank Hunters and consequently leave the weaker nation defenseless against future magical threats. His plan initially went smoothly, as the Koreans suspected nothing, but ultimately backfired due to the unexpected appearances of both the Ant King, who killed seven members of the Japanese raid team (including Goto), and Jinwoo, who killed the Ant King and saved the Korean raid team from certain death. As a result, by the time the raid was over, it was Japan and not Korea that was left defenseless against future magical threats.

### Japan Crisis Arc

When a S-Rank Gate suddenly spawned in Tokyo, Matsumoto realized that if his role in the Jeju Island Raid was uncovered, then he could be held responsible if the raid on this new S-Rank Gate failed and resulted in a national crisis. Desperate to cover his tracks, Matsumoto flew to Korea to talk with Gunhee in person and attempted to hire Jinwoo in exchange for giving up the Japanese government's share of the essence stones recovered from Jeju Island.

Unfortunately for Matsumoto, Gunhee easily figured out his true intentions to cover up and revealed that he'd known about the ploy that he'd hatched with Goto to wipe out the Korean S-Rank Hunters the whole time, having discovered it earlier through a receiver that was recovered intact from Goto's corpse. Caught red-handed, Matsumoto became paralyzed with fear as Gunhee furiously rebuked him for his crimes and got so angry at one point that he crushed the receiver in one hand, destroying the table they were using in the process. Terrified, Matsumoto remained sweaty and silent as Gunhee told him to be grateful that Jinwoo would be happy to accept his offer regardless of how much he was paid.

When Jinwoo finally arrived in Japan several days after the dungeon break, Matsumoto was there to greet him at the airport and was silently in awe of his incomparably immense power. Despite this, Matsumoto immediately assumed that he wouldn't be able to kill all the giants on his own and asked him to focus defending Osaka instead. However, Jinwoo told him that he couldn't agree to that plan and went on to prove him wrong by slaughtering all the giants except for one and easily clearing the gate all on his own.

Shortly after the crisis ended, Matsumoto turned himself in to the Japanese authorities, although it was not made clear as to whether he did so to take responsibility for his own actions.

## Etymology

* **Matsumoto** means "pine tree, fir tree" (松) (**matsu**) and "base, root, origin, source" (本) (**moto**).
* **Shigeo** means "lush, luxuriant" (茂) (**shige**) and "male, man" (男) (**o**).