I was going to post Kuma’s app but I’m too embarrassed. So here’s an infodump instead.
Kuma is the alias for Susumu Kumashiro, SHSL White Hat. He went under this alias because it’s a pet name his crush gave to him, and he also used it for a lot of his online usernames. Although several characters mentioned that he might be hiding his real name to protect himself as he is a hacker, that was actually never his intention. This will be elaborated on later.
Susumu has a twin brother named Yuzuru who he really looks up to. Although they’re twins, Susumu has always seen Yuzuru as the superior brother, especially since he always did better in school and seemed to get more attention from their father. Yuzuru is known in some parts of Japan, especially in Hokkaido where the two of them are from, for being an up and coming inventor. Prior to Susumu getting a HPA invitation Yuzuru had won several science fairs and other similar prizes. At times he would even joke about expecting a HPA invitation any day now.
Susumu was never a very social kid, and as a result he never really made many friends. However, the ones he did make he would always grow incredibly close to. One such friend was a classmate named Keisuke. Keisuke helped him break out of his shell quite often and would push him to go to places where he normally wouldn’t feel comfortable going, including festivals and movies. One of his prized possessions is actually a black teddy bear named Kuma-kun that Keisuke won for him at a festival.
As the two of them grew close, Susumu developed very strong feelings towards Keisuke, but he was always too afraid to admit it. Eventually it got so bad that he purposely started avoiding hanging out with Keisuke, for fear of embarrassing himself. Eventually Keisuke ended up getting a girlfriend, and the distance between the two became so strong that they just stopped speaking altogether. This led to him becoming even more shut in than ever before.
Feeling concerned about his son’s well being, Susumu’s father desperately tried to get something to motivate him and do something more than sulk around all day. He gave Susumu an ethical hacker position at the business he owned, and from there he took a deep interest into the career field. So much so that he ended up being invited to an official security test held by the Japanese government. With the Olympics happening in a few years, the Japanese government wanted to make sure that their security would be as impenetrable as possible, so they hired several ethical hackers to try their best to breach security measures in a simulation.
Shortly afterwards, the Kumashiro residence received an invitation from Hope’s Peak Academy in the mail. Yuzuru initially thought it was for him and took the invitation for himself, until he realized who it was addressed to. When he realized that Susumu was the one who had been scouted, he became so enraged that he threw insults at Susumu for days on end. Eventually Susumu planned to just reject the invitation, but much to his surprise Yuzuru even got angry at him for that. He was told by his brother more or less that he would be an idiot to not accept the invitation and that he just wanted him out of his face anyway.
He ended up attending HPA after all, but opted to do so under an alias for his brother’s sake. After all, he wouldn’t want everyone to know that Yuzuru wasn’t good enough to be invited but his brother was.
And now for the big part... *deep breath*
Kuma is afflicted with a neurological condition known as Mirror Touch Synesthesia. This essentially means that he is able to experience what others are feeling just by looking at them. For example, if he were to watch someone reach up and stoke against their cheek with their finger, he would feel a similar sensation across his own cheek. This goes a lot deeper than just that, though.
If he were to watch someone in pain or any action that looks painful, he would also experience pain. Which... isn’t the best thing in a mutual killing. This is why he always reacted so strongly towards all of the executions and whenever he’d see people scuffling in trials.
Beyond just physical feelings, he also feels the emotions that others display around him as well. So if he were to converse with someone who is happy, he would naturally feel himself become happier. This is why he tended to become more friendly with the more laid back or positive students. Although, this isn’t much of a big deal in one on one situations, large crowds can be very overwhelming as there are so many people with so many emotions and so much happening around him. This is why he would always be so anxious and even fainted a few times during trials.
That’s basically everything of relevance! He was a pretty fun character to play, although I do wish I handled his mirror touch a little bit better than I did here.
