Shizuo Heiwajima

25 (Dragon Zombie Arc)

27 (SH)

Kasuka Heiwajima (Younger Brother)

**Shizuo Heiwajuma**  is renowned as the strongest man in Ikebukuro in the light novel series, *Durarara*, and the *Wonderland* series. He currently works as Tom Tanaka's bodyguard, and he is shown to be familiar with some of the major characters in the series, such as Izaya Orihara and Celty Sturluson. He is a member of the Dollars.

## Appearance and Personality

### Appearance

Shizuo is a tall young man often seen wearing his trademark bartender suit and blue sunglasses. As a child he had brown hair, though he later dyes his hair blond as suggested by Tomin middle school. He is noted by several characters to be a good-looking guy who resembles the actor Yuuhei Hanejima, who is actually his little brother Kasuka.

### Personality

Shizuo is introduced to the viewers in the first few episodes as a violent, no-nonsense tough guy, on equal footing with dangerous characters, such as Izaya and Simon. However, it is implied that most of the time, he is quiet and nondescript, simply following Tom around as his bodyguard. Shizuo apparently does not really like violence and has misgivings about his own strength; unfortunately, he has a very short temper and when angered, his body "acts on its own" and he fights with incredible strength. This restive nature is why Masaomi warns Mikado to stay away from him, along with Izaya and the Dollars, telling him to 'not hesitate to run from him' in the manga.

Shizuo's great strength is explained this way: Normally, the brain restricts one's power, shutting down muscles in response to pain in order to prevent serious injury; Shizuo doesn't have this limitation, and is capable of using his full strength. His power is described in the novels as the naturally unlimited form of human strength, and Shinra likens it to the incredible "adrenaline power" that people rarely display in times of emergency. Although he was chronically injuring himself as a child, over time his body quickly strengthened itself and caught up. Now, as an adult, he is able to use his power without destroying his body.

Despite the fact that Shizuo used his power very often, he was (and to some extent remains) worried about it. This is probably the result of events in his childhood where his strength caused others to fear him, alienated him from others at school, and even at times inadvertently hurt people he cared for. It is noted in the light novels that Shizuo seems to loathe both his strength and, by proxy, himself, despising both his short temper and inability to change his violent ways. As a boy growing up, it is mentioned that he simply endured the "eternal hell" that came with his power's toll upon his body as he felt it was simply a materialization of his own anger, and thus what he deserved. As noted in the light novels, Shizuo is extremely lonely, partially due to his own fear of hurting those he cares for accidentally and partially due to his strength pushing everyone away from him. It is revealed he had fallen for a woman in the past, but was unable to control his strength and ended up injuring her severely despite only trying to save her. His strength also gradually alienated everyone around him, leaving him isolated and fully aware of the fact that he could never be seen as a normal person and not something to be feared again. As he matured, Shizuo came to the realization that all he truly wanted was to be loved by someone, but because of his condition could not love anyone. He believed he may have been able to forgive himself had his power existed to protect something, but also knew fully well that no matter what he fought for the world would always label his efforts as "violence". Thus, when Shizuo states he hates violence, it is implied that what he truly means is that he hates himself, as due to his very nature he is the definition of violence.

It is not until his run-in with the Saika Army that he is able to accept himself the way he is, since they claim to "love" him because of his strength, the first time anyone has told them they love him at all. He was able to use his strength to its fullest without holding back and still be loved and praised for it, and this gave him the motivation to begin to accept his violent ways, even assisting with his self-control to a degree and allowing him to stop a punch he had already thrown at the last second. Outsiders believe that the "slasher" incidents ended when he went after Shizuo, while it is actually when Anri defeats Haruna Niekawa, but Shizuo still beat up many of Saika's daughter blades and only stopped fighting when they did.

Shizuo is also capable of often superhuman parkour moves gained from years of chasing Izaya Orihara, who is very good at running away from him. They share an intense mutual animosity, and Shizuo simply seeing Izaya on the street usually results in Shizuo hurling a trash can, vending machine, or other dangerous projectile at him, followed by Izaya fleeing and Shizuo giving chase while angrily yelling "Iiii-zaaa-yaaa!" after him.

Despite his violent temper, and fierce attitude, Shizuo is shown to be kindhearted with a deep rooted sense of honor and cares deeply for those who are close to him, including Celty, Tom, Vorona, and Kasuka; he is also shown to be protective of children, as with Akane Awakusu.

## Back Story

Shizuo stated that he grew up within a perfectly normal family and suffered no significant traumas during his childhood. His superhuman strength first surfaced when he got mad at Kasuka for eating his cup of pudding. He managed to pick up the fridge but the strain was too much for him and he ended up in the hospital. As the years passed, Shizuo's body, after years of abuse, managed to build up enough strength to withstand Shizuo's outbursts and effectively give him unlimited strength with no negative consequences to his well-being.

Once Shizuo entered middle school, he quickly became friends with Tom Tanaka after saving him from some bullies. Tom gave Shizuo a lot of helpful advice on how to keep others from starting trouble with him such as bleaching his hair blond so that he would be easy to recognize and earn a reputation. It manages to work until Shizuo entered high school and encountered Izaya Orihara for the first time. Shizuo and Izaya hated each other almost instantly and have developed a fierce rivalry. Their battles would frequently cause thousands of dollars in collateral damage requiring the frequent intervention of the police, as well as fellow classmate Hajime Shishizaki who was one of the only ones capable of standing up to Shizuo's immense strength.

Around his second or third year of high school, Izaya became wanted for a crime and he framed Shizuo as being his accomplice. Shizuo, who was under 18 at that time, flung a vending machine at the cops who tried to arrest him. The policemen investigated more and Shizuo was cleared of all charges. However, this incident caused his hatred of Izaya to escalate.

After graduating, Shizuo drifted from job to job constantly getting fired from each one due to his temper or because of Izaya's plotting. He was also approached by a talent scout and instead nearly beat him to death for annoying him. Kasuka intervened and the talent scout approached him instead. After that, Kasuka visited him and gave Shizuo the bartender uniforms that he wears so frequently and asked him to settle down a bit. However, thanks to Izaya, he also got fired from that job. Eventually, Shizuo found a job working for Tom's debt collectors agency as a bodyguard. However, Shizuo usually went overboard when shaking down a client which would usually end with the company having to pay for any collateral damage.

## Storyline History

### Distorted Wonderland

Shinra is treating Shizuo's wounds from another fight he got into. When he and Celty are out of the room talking about why Celty's phone isn't working, Shizo gets annoyed by a doll staring at him in the living room and breaks it. This leads to more problems later down the road.

### Wonderland Chaos

Shizuo is brought up in a conversation between Etsuko Asato and an unknown caller from Russia on plans with what to do with him

### Caged Wonderland

Shizuo, Tom, and Vorona enjoy a calm evening at the bar. He is left alone when Tom gets a call to handle one last debtor. Due to Shizuo nearly killing the man over an insult about his younger brother, he left alone. Meanwhile, a woman in a red wig at the bar was watching him. She pretends not to be doing so. Once Tom and Vorona leave, the woman has a bartender hand Shizuo a drink she ordered for him. Shizuo accepts the drink. But after drinking it, he passes out.

Moments later, he wakes up still drugged and chained up in the basement bar of an abandoned building. The woman at the bar is revealed to be a disgraced Russian therapist named Dorothea Yashin. She was called to perform her special type of "therapy" on him. She processes to drug and torture him physically and psychologically. When he is completely broken, Dorothea stuffs a hollowed-out bull head on Shizuo's head, making him into a minotaur. When she pushes the game further, Shizuo snaps in his broken state and stabs her in the chest with his horn. Tom and Vorona are horrified to see him in this state when they find him. Currently, Shizuo doesn't remember being human at all or recognize any people. He is being held in the basement of Yagiri Pharmaceuticals.

### The Month of No Gods

Shizuo is still in the basement of Yagiri Pharmaceuticals with only vague memories of Dorothea. He can also sense that Vorona is in the room to see him too.

### Devil's Wonderland

Vorona tried to kill him to put him out of his misery but she couldn't bring herself to do it. She just fell to her knees and embraced him with tears in her eyes.

### Black Swan Wonderland

Kaori breaks into the basement of Yagiri Pharmaceuticals and finds Shizuo. She says that he will make a perfect beast of the apocalypse. The minotaur breaks down making noises as she laughs.

### Edge of Wonderland

Taro breaks into the basement and frees Shizuo. He turned the minotaur out with a treat and set him free onto the city. Now, Shizuo is just wandering around Ikebukuro.

### Dark Alice in a Dark Wonderland

Shizuo wanders around the streets of Ikebukuro on Halloween. He encounters three partiers who he ends up scaring and chasing off. Later, Tom and Vorona find him. Shizuo is staying in Tom's apartment. Tom and Vorona don't know what to do with him. Kasuka then arrives.

## Relationships

### Kasuka Heiwajima

*Main Article: Kasuka Heiwajima*

As children, Shizuo was very close to Kasuka due to the fact that Kasuka was one of the few people who wasn't terrified of Shizuo's monstrous strength. Even after Kasuka went into showbiz, he still took the time to help his brother find a job he could keep. He gave Shizuo several bartender uniforms after Shizuo found a job that didn't constantly send him over the edge. Shizuo promised to keep the job he had, but that quickly ended when Izaya framed Shizuo for an as-of-yet unidentified crime (in the light novels, he was fired for assaulting his manager). This event caused the two to grow rather distant. Despite this, Shizuo shows to be very protective when it comes to Kasuka such as how he maltreated debtor for trying to blackmailing Shizuo by endangering his brother's career.

### Mairu and Kururi Orihara

*Main Article: Mairu Orihara*

*Main Article: Kururi Orihara*

Unlike their older brother, Shizuo is on friendly terms with the Orihara twins. This is most likely due to the mutual indifference they share toward Izaya. The twins even frequently cheer Shizuo on whenever they witness one of his and Izaya's trademark chase sequences. They often pester him to introduce them to his younger brother Kasuka Heiwajima, as they are huge fans of his acting.

### Tom Tanaka

*Main Article: Tom Tanaka*

Shizuo and Tom have been friends since middle school. Ever since Tom witnessed Shizuo in action, he tried to get on his good side to avoid getting killed. It was Tom who suggested that Shizuo bleach his hair blond so as to build up a reputation to keep the gangs away. After Shizuo was fired from his bartending job, Tom gave him a new job in the form of his bodyguard and the two have been partners ever since. Tom is also one of the few people who can calm Shizuo down after one of his rampages.

## Source

* Basic Information: http://durarara.wikia.com/wiki/Shizuo\_Heiwajima