Kou Shimizu

Kou Shimizu is a childhood friend of Punpun and a close friend of Masumi Seki.

Appearance
Shimizu has chubby cheeks that sit a bit low on his face, unique eyebrows that taper inwards, and a nose that is chronically runny even in his later years. Depending on his expression, his upper lip juts out. He can usually be seen smiling, even when confused. As a child, he wears loose tank tops and sandals, but as he gets older, he becomes more accustomed to fitted, buttoned shirts. After he develops amnesia, his nose is no longer runny.

Personality
Shimizu is a playful, light-hearted person, but his pushover attitude gets exploited by bullies, and most potential friends are turned off by his strangeness. He has a very active imagination that easily crosses into delusion. As a child, he claims he can shoot a power blast from his hands and that he can see the "God of Poop" and other figures that resemble his playtime doodles. By middle school, he stops talking about these delusions to others although he can still see them. He exhibits courage and caring for his friends, as shown when he saves Punpun and Aiko's lives during the fire at the Miso Factory.

Shimizu follows the path of an "average" japanese citizen by going through high school and college and living with his family, and Seki remarks that "being normal" is the best choice for him.

Hallucinations
As a young boy, Shimizu hallucinates UFOs, monsters, his dead mother's arm, and the "Poop God." As he gets older, these hallucinations continue, but he stops talking about them.

Shimizu's hallucinations are comparable to that of Pegasus' hallucinations. The cause of his wild imagination and inability to be independent came from trauma of losing his mother in traffic accident while he was still in elementary school.

Family
Shimizu lives with his sister, father, and grandfather in a small apartment. He always tells his mother goodbye before leaving the house, although this is later revealed to be another delusion, since his mother died when he was in kindergarten. His grandfather winds up in the hospital in later volumes. His little sister only appears once, but she seems friendly with Shimizu and tells him goodbye in the morning. She is still in high school when Shimizu is in college. His father is possibly protective of him since Seki mentions he will need some convincing to let Shimizu go on a trip to Thailand.

Mother
Mrs. Shimizu was a very kind and bubbly woman who loved her son very much. She appears several times, only as an outstretched hand, waving goodbye to her son when he leaves the house or reminding him to take care of himself. This is later to be revealed to be a hallucination, since Mrs. Shimizu has been dead for much of Shimizu's life. In kindergarten, Seki's mom was often too busy to pick him up from school, so Mrs. Shimizu would walk him home along with her son. One day, crossing the street, Seki sees a truck with the driver snoozing at the wheel headed for the three of them and only manages to push Shimizu out of the way. Due to this Mrs. Shimizu gets hit and dies, but Seki shields Shimizu's eyes before he can see anything beyond her bloody arm and tells him that she is alive. Shimizu takes these words to heart and continues to believe his mother is alive for many years until Seki harshly reminds him otherwise when they are 19. Soon after this, Shimizu cuts ties with Seki and joins Pegasus' cult. On the way to a Pegasus Ensemble meeting one morning, he asks his mother if she is really always there for him, and she disappears, leaving Shimizu with tears in his eyes. Shimizu uses this hallucination as a coping mechanism to avoid grief and to feel nurtured since he has few, if any, friends besides Seki and later the Pegasus Ensemble.

Masumi Seki
Through kindergarten, Shimizu and his mother typically walk Seki home from school since his own mother is too busy with work to come pick him up. One day, as the three are crossing the road with joined hands, Seki spots a truck headed straight towards them and only has time to hurl himself and Shimizu out of the way, resulting in Mrs. Shimizu being hit and killed. Seki quickly grabs Shimizu before he can look at the accident scene and tells him his mother is right beside them, which, unbeknownst to Seki, causes Shimizu to hallucinate for years that his mother is alive. In their later years of elementary school, it is apparent that Seki strongly dislikes Shimizu and his tall tales, which he regards as lies, even going so far as to punch Shimizu when he mentions the God of Poop. When the two and their friends go exploring in an abandoned miso factory, Shimizu becomes trapped inside the building when it goes up in flames caused by Seki's own cigarette, and Seki watches a corner of the building explode before his very eyes. Shimizu makes it out unscathed, but the incident causes a deep phobia of fire in Seki. During middle school, Seki gets in a fight with bullies who are taking Shimizu's money, and after this, tells Shimizu that he will protect him and not to leave him lonely. After this, the two become each other's best, and possibly only, friends and spend most of their time together, even going to Seki's jobs together, to the point that it annoys Seki's later girlfriend. Their relationship is incredibly codependent, in which Seki acts as the enabler and Shimizu as the dependent. Seki frequently tells Shimizu to be more independent, find other friends and a girlfriend, and do things without him, but is he himself the one who seeks out Shimizu's company and becomes irritated at possibilities of Shimizu distancing himself. After a particularly nasty argument, Shimizu spitefully says he will do things by himself from now on, and it is around here that Pegasus persuades Shimizu to join his cult. Seki grows obviously more depressed and irritable and approaches Shimizu more than once with desperate schemes to go on foreign trips together, but Shimizu refuses. On the day of the Pegasus Ensemble's disastrous suicide pact, Seki rushes into the burning headquarters, despite his fear of fire, and carries a bloody and unconscious Shimizu out on his back. Seki is waiting for Shimizu when he's released for the hospital, but he never gets the chance to properly apologize for their argument because Shimizu has lost his memory, including all memory of Seki. Some years later, Seki explains to his old friends at their elementary reunion that Shimizu couldn't come, showing that the two have remained friends but perhaps now have lives outside of each other.

Pegasus
Shimizu meets Pegasus for the first time in high school after an emotional meltdown from being asked to clean an apartment with a dead body inside. Shimizu then speaks to the God of Poop, calling the God of Poop a liar for telling him he can anything and saying he is probably not real. Pegasus interrupts that God is definitely real but that Shimizu has an amazing gift to be able to see and speak to him. Shimizu is frightened by Pegasus and runs away, but Pegasus shouts that they are the chosen ones. They meet again years later. After Seki and Shimizu have a bitter argument, in which Seki reminds Shimizu his mom is dead and says he is a nuisance in Seki's life. The two go to clean Cosmos Health Center, where Pegasus runs into Shimizu and notices he has "good vibrations". Pegasus asks Shimizu if he is satisfied with the world as-is, and when Seki comes to pick him up, Shimizu tells him to go home alone. Shimizu officially joins the Pegasus Ensemble and is given the new name "Freezie." Pegasus has great interest in Shimizu's ability to "see" things, and Shimizu is shown to be Pegasus' favored member (aside from Wada) when, during an emergency meeting to cheer Pegasus up, he calls out to his "beloved" Shimizu. It is Shimizu's words, thanking Pegasus for believing in him when no one, not even Seki, did, that pulls Pegasus out of his depression. On the day of the groups planned mass suicide, Seki tells Shimizu he has a bad feeling and warns him not to go to the meeting today. Shimizu tells him he has decided to be useful to somebody else. Shimizu is one of only four members who dies with Pegasus and ascends to Punpunia, where their spirits will live together indefinitely and work to restore harmony to the universe.