Shimada Death

Shimada Death (死ま田＝デス, Shimada Desu) is an ominous living phantom that consumes death, a mysterious creature born from the world of Darkness, known as God of Death (死神, Shinigami).

Shimada met Zaha when he was a child and understood death will always follow him due to his curse and sought to use this for his own gains. Since he was uninterested in Zaha's bones, he left a positive impression on him and they became friends. Once Zaha's spaceship was ready, they started traveling together.

Appearance
Shimada is normally dressed in a dark cloak and mask. The cloak is black and reaches to the floor, it is adorned at waist height by two metal stakes with skulls. His mask has six eyeholes and seven stakes, five small ones over the mouth and two large ones on the sides, similar to horns; it is otherwise featureless. In the covers, the mask and stakes are red.

Underneath, Shimada is a tall and muscular blonde humanoid with six eyes (two normal ones and four smaller ones on his forehead) and large breasts. Without his cloak, he only wears stakes over his body and simple underwear. Shimada has yellow eyes, both with the mask and without it. During chapter 13 to 15, he disguised himself as a member of the Lighthead Order, and stood out due to his enormous height. While his exact height is unknown, it can be estimated as 198 cm when compared to Avakian.

Personality
Shimada is free-spirited, caring mostly about finding death to feed on and having fun. He appears careless and irresponsible, especially to Avakian, but due to his power he is prone to getting bored, even to the point of refusing to participate in a battle he could end quickly since that wouldn't be entertaining. He is very knowledgable about the universe, and can easily navigate out of any situation. He prides himself on his strength and boasts about it to his enemies and friends. He is good friends with Zaha, mainly because he will always be surrounded by death, his main source of food, but he does seem to genuinely enjoy the boy's company, and seemed touched if confused upon finding the small statue of him Zaha had made for class.

Shimada's gender identity is contended. For one, Shimada uses the masculine and self important ore-sama (俺様/おれさま) as a personal pronoun. When the other crew members witness Shimada waking up without the cloak, there is no surprise or change in their treatment. Zaha refers to Shimada with the honorific "-kun", which is more used for boys, though it is not a hard rule. Since referring to "he" or "she" in the Japanese language is unusual in speech, and "neutral" third person pronouns are more commonly used due to politeness, Shimada's gender identity is hard to gather from the japanese text.

6 years ago
Shimada went to the Elementary School Treegun to feast on the souls of the dead during the time many students died of a mysterious illness. Zaha and Avakian spotted him roaming around the school and were surprised to see an adult. They sneaked out that night to track him down, and found two mysterious children stand amid the deceased students. Shimada appeared behind them and Zaha attacked him with his axe, but Shimada was easily capable of repelling the attacks. As Shimada introduced himself and that he was there to feast and not for Zaha, Avakian was appalled upon realizing who he was. Shimada proceeded to eat the Flesh of Death from the deceased and recognized who Zaha was.

Avakian asked Shimada if he killed the students, but Shimada told them it was the two "children", actually two short adult spacelings called Mini-Bucketmen. As Zaha and Avakian fought the Mini-Bucketmen, Shimada continued eating casually. Looking at the fight, Shimada explained that the Mini-Bucketmen breath poison, and while looking like children, they are actually 38 and 52 years old. When Zaha killed one of the Mini-Bucketmen, Shimada took his Flesh of Death claiming it was his 199th one. When the second Mini-Bucketman was about to kill Zaha, Shimada touched him and he exploded, and Shimada ate his 200th one. Being satisfied, he decided to leave, to the surprise of Zaha, as he didn't try killing him. Shimada then explained he didn't desire anything, as he already had strength, skills, a handsome appearance, knowledge, probably immortality and a heart of happiness. Before leaving, Shimada told Zaha that death will follow him around. As sticking with him means many meals for him, they will probably meet again.

Plot
On the forgotten star "Hyper 339", Shimada woke up coming out from underground. When he saw the approaching ship, he put on his coat and mask. As the ship landed, Photosfere soldiers came out looking for Shimada. They tried to kill him, but with ease, Shimada was able to dispose of them. One of the soldiers tried to escape with the ship, but Shimada caught up to them and killed them, then proceeded to eat their Flesh of Death. While Shimada was eating and listening to music, Zaha contacted him, to tell him that his ship is complete.

Abilities
Shimada is an incredibly powerful individual and is feared across the universe; even residents of the World of Darkness are terrified of him. Flesh of Death: Whenever something dies within a certain distance of Shimada, the Flesh of Death manifests on it, appearing as a skull-shaped piece of meat on a bone with a halo. He eats the Flesh of Death for sustenance, though it's unclear if he needs to eat them or simply enjoys it. Shimada mentions that the taste of the Flesh of Death depends on the method by which the creature died, expressing that creatures Zaha kills and ones he kills taste completely different. A Flesh of Death will be bigger if the creature was notably powerful.

Invulnerability: Shimada hasn't been hurt or even phased by attacks ranging from sustained gunfire to the Flesh of Darkness Axe. He easily survived the self-destruction of a Marutech store, an explosion that can take out an entire fleet of pirates, without a single scratch.

Floating: Most of the time, Shimada floats about a foot off the ground instead of walking.

Shapeshifting: Shimada can alter his shape at will, including size and clothing. Thus far he has disguised himself as a Treegun student and a Lighthead Order cultist.

Sudden Death: Shimada instantly kills a single target by placing one finger on them.

Borderline Death: Similar to Sudden Death, but the target is only incapacitated and in great pain.

Explode: Shimada makes a single target explode with one finger.

Teleportation: Shimada can instantly teleport any distance, he can take passengers by holding on to them.

Invisibility: Shimada can turn himself and others invisible.

Hacking: Shimada was able to manipulate the programming of a Mx. Photoleum.

Age Discovery: Shimada can instantly tell the age of anyone he looks at.

See Through Lies: Shimada can tell when he hears a lie.

Immortality: Shimada claims that he is immortal, but appears to be unsure.

Trivia

 * In fan translations, Shimada is called "he". This is an interpretation based on speech and treatment. In the first Dai Dark volume by Seven Seas Entertainment, the manga's English publisher, Shimada is addressed with he pronouns by Sanko, albeit in a school chapter that takes place in the past. The translation avoids referring to Shimada in gendered terms. The "-kun" that Sanko addresses him with isn't in the official English translation, as honorifics are not translated.