Shōgetsu

Shōgetsu (笑月, Shōgetsu) is a former citizen and yakuza of Kirigakure's slums, who became a shinobi in training under Obana. Even after all these years, Shōgetsu's darkest and most unhealthy obsession is discovering the culprits that killed his little sister and punish them accordingly. And while his inheritances are quite obvious, he is unaware that he is a member of the Hōzuki and Terumī clan.

Despite having found an escape from the underworld, Shōgetsu remains loyal to his roots and Sōai-kai's cause. After all, he is the younger brother of their notorious Oyabun and as such has influences in the syndicate. He operated under the pseudonym Shukuyū (祝融, Shukuyū); the same stage name he used to participate in the underground tournament.

Background
Shōgetsu is the second son and middle child of an Hōzuki father and Terumī mother; they named him in tradition to honour the Hōzuki inheritance. Since his parents feared the dangers of living in the slums and their clans, his older brother, Tōgetsu, was often entrusted with watching over him. Shōgetsu was a magnet for trouble and mischief, which meant for Tōgetsu settling the quarrels and seemed to enjoy them. Together they garnered a bad reputation as the Magetsu Kyōdai (兄弟魔月 Moon Demon Siblings).

When Shōgetsu had turned six that year, his parents conceived his younger sister and faced with birth complications — his mother died shortly after. His baby sister, Yūgiri, took much more after her mother with auburn hair and a warmer complexion. The death of his mother affected his crippled father (sustained a lifelong lasting injury from the war) and older brother deeply, which left Shōgetsu to heavily support his father's care for his little sister, while Tōgetsu got involved with the street yakuza.

On the evening before the Rinne Festival in the year that his brother marked his three years of ruling the slums with Sōai-kai, a misfortunate and sorrowful event took place. He was meant to watch over Yūgiri that day, since his father ran extra shifts at some low-paying jobs. Shōgetsu lost vision on her as she had convinced him to play hide-and-seek with her. Following the commotion from the main streets, he witnessed the brutality of the world first-hand and saw her lifeless body laying there on the snow surrounded by "the privileged people" and revealed his kekkei genkai, Boil Release, which he inherited from his mother.

In the few months passing, Shōgetsu's purpose dwindled enormously and his grief rooted him deeper with Sōai-kai, much to the displeasure of his father. His brother made an attempt to correct his mistakes and bad influences on Shōgetsu by entering the underground tournament that promised a golden ticket out of these slums. Alas, Tōgetsu was utterly pulverised by the lady with the fox mask and failed. The dishonourable performance towards his beloved brother led Shōgetsu to participate two seasons later under the stage name Shukuyū (祝融, Shukuyū). And he too got defeated by her. However the woman recognised the raw potential in him, she gave him her name, Obana, thus instead of humiliating him, she demanded Shōgetsu to become her student and revision his purpose in life.

Appearances
Shōgetsu has the befitting appearance of a young teenager that has endured many hardships. By living in the slums, he has a skinny figure with some more vulnerabilities (catching illnesses easier) and inherited the very pale complexion, natural white hair, which he keeps often at a shoulder length, and light reddish eyes from his father. Something he has in-common with his older brother. While he may seem meek to some people, his unfiltered mouth often catches them off-guard and returns to his roots.

A simpleton that survives with what can be found on the streets, Shōgetsu is careless without being picky of the clothes he wears. He often chooses to wear an easy-fitting worn out shirt that comes in any kind of colour, but does favour them in dark green, white or black, and adorns them with pants that are easy to move in. His brother gave him a light grey coat with a hood that is brimming with fur on its edges. And while Obana forced him to wear pouches for shinobi tools, he often throws them away and calls them unnecessary.

Personality
Since Shōgetsu was a young boy, he became a terrible magnet that led to mischief and many troubles for his older brother, who also thrived on these events. Something that would reflect back on him as Shōgetsu felt most of his joy with the thrill of danger that comes with living in the slums. He did have another side to him when Yūgiri was born, gaining a very protective manner and had a soft-spot for her, which broke his usual attitude and scold his associates for bad language around her presence. His little sister truly gave meaning to his name, as he often genuinely smiled for her. However, after her death Shōgetsu grew timid and lost his composure easily when things didn’t go in his favour or that of the gang. His strength of memory and regret of being incapable of saving his sister, has led to his imagination conjuring up images of her as a coping mechanism.

Joining Sōai-kai officially, Shōgetsu grew out of his timid and depressive demeanor and instead became brash and very insensitive, acting out of line in their ministrations and yet continues to hold deep loyalty to the gang. His twisted view of the world manifests as a need to break the hierarchy, believing it to be his right as someone at the bottom. He blames the privileged people for all the unfairness that happened to him and all the losses he has suffered, choosing to often seek fights with children of his age that come on Sōai-kai's turf to relief his anger on them. There seems to be a switch to him in those moments, often beating them to a pulp or branding them with his gang members attempting to stop him from killing his victims and often failed. That is until they realised his love for his late younger sister still affects and haunts him, becoming a measure of control to subdue his tantrums.

When his brother participated in the underground tournament and suffered a terrible loss, Shōgetsu shows undying loyalty to his family and wants to recover their honour. Against his brother’s wishes, he still signed up a few months later and is determined to prove his worth. Shōgetsu hated being compared to his brother, but in the tournament still copied most of his fighting style and climbed through the bracket with ease without using his kekkei genkai by executing them. It shows his wickedness, creativity and observant nature that can impress even a former elite hunter-nin and kunoichi, Obana.

Trivia

 * Shōgetsu's name uses the kanji "笑月" which means Sarcastic or Laughing Moon.