Here you go @allyfication My Requiem Project au headcanons
TW: Chronic illness and death mention (non-graphic though)
Okay so the Snake Pit, in my AU, was created to fuse the bey soul into a human body as a way to achieve immortality and power. This project has been running since the 70’s, but Shu is the only person who survived the full experiment, maybe two others at most. The people before him, in simple terms, passed away before showing long-term side effects. So the scientists had no idea what could happen to shu.
By the end of Evolution, the combination of the chemicals plus Spryzen’s possession led to a physical shift that made his hair much longer and hungrier than usual. From Turbo through Rise the chemicals stayed mostly inactive. Shu mostly face small coughs and occasional hunger pains here and there. But once Surge hits, everything finally catches up to him.
Shu starts noticing how the more he battles, the weaker his body gets. The chemicals start chipping at his body little by little, so he tries to limit himself and focuses on school, work, the team, and of course - Lain.
Lain has no idea what Shu is going through and keeps asking for more battles. Shu knows he shouldn’t battle unless it’s completely necessary (like tournaments) and he wants to put a pause, but he can't refuse Lain. He feels responsible for guiding him and helping him control his flare. Because of this, shu starts slipping away to hiding spots as he starts to experience
✦ Dizziness
✦ Nausea
✦ Cough fits
✦ Getting extremely sick
The only people who know this is Posy and Adam (My OCS), since they share a responsibility for how Shu ended up in this situation.
This next part is still a work in progress so things might change in the future, forgive me. ( ɵ̥̥ ˑ̫ ɵ̥̥)
But during Drive/Strike, Pax begins recreating what the Snake Pit did with immortality while trying to combine this with the element's power. Shu feels another sense of responsibility and tries to stop Pax on his own. This forces Shu to go past his limit, making it almost impossible to battle without fainting. This also leads to Valt and the others finding out.
After this Shu retires from beybalding in his early 20s, much earlier than he ever wanted. He focuses on the team and managing ranging bulls. When Free moves in, he takes over teaching and battling with Shu’s students.