Gugu

Gugu (グーグー) is a young boy from Takunaha who works at Booze Man's shop.

Appearance
Gugu has blond hair and light blue eyes. He used to wear a light brown chameleon mask outlined with a red and black stripe, but has since switched to a more elaborate chameleon design gifted to him by Booze Man when he got older. He also wears tan-colored shorts with a red and white pattern on the left leg and a white and blue stripe at the bottom.Gugu is shirtless both as a child and a teenager later on, and covers part of his stomach with a white bandage.

As a child, Gugu had a short, thin stature and a distinctive pot-belly due to the alcohol-containing "organ" Booze Man installed. Four years later, from his maintained physical training, Gugu boasts an extremely muscular build, with his pot-belly noticeably absent. He also stands taller than all his companions at Booze Man's shop.

Personality
Despite being so young, Gugu has a somewhat jaded and pessimistic view on life, which is likely due to his poor upbringing and his older brother using up all the money they were trying to save. Yet, when Rean gives him her ring that he could have spent on himself when he finds his brother beaten up and withered in an alleyway, he decides to give him the ring instead; showing that he has a caring side under his supposedly bitter exterior.

If his mask is brought up, Gugu gets very defensive and scared of people trying to see his face, believing his accident to have scarred him so much that people run away when they see his face. Given that people have called him a monster without his mask, he 's not wrong to keep his face hidden. He also falls into a spiral of despair when Beer Gramps uses him to distill alcohol and hates feeling like a tool and a monster.

He gets shy and nervous around Rean, who he has a crush on, which leads to his adoptive family, wondering why he just tells her he likes her and that he was the one who saved her life not too long ago.

When Gugu reaches his teenage years, he's become more mature and wise. He also loses all negative feelings towards his mask, saying that he likes his look despite being annoyed by people trying to take a picture of him and his mask after his revival in the new era.

Background
From a young age, Gugu and his brother, Shin, have been working as servants for various families. Because he was so young, Gugu mistook one employer as his family and was confused when they moved away but didn't bring Shin and him along.

A few years later, Shin and Gugu promised each other to work hard and earn money to build a big house.

Gugu's past
He ponders about his identity, wondering why he is who he is and why he wasn't born into a rich family. His older brother Shin says that he often thinks about that as well, but reminds Gugu of their promise to work hard, earn money, and build a big house in which they'll live in. The next day, Gugu eagerly goes to work selling materials and other items in the marketplace. There, he often sees a wealthy girl walking past his stand. Afterward, he'll return home, and the process will repeat.

One day, he comes home to his brother talking to a group of men. Gugu asks who they are, to which Shin responds that they're his friends. Gugu digs out the box with their savings to put his salary for the day inside and discovers that some money is missing from the box. Gugu asks Shin if his friends saw the box, but he tells Gugu not to doubt his friends. Shin then says that if some money was stolen, they can just work harder to earn it back. Gugu decides to hide the box up in the tree instead of in their tent.

While eating dinner, a small dog walks up to him. Gugu decides to share his food with it. The next day, he sees the same dog at the market and eventually finds out that the dog belongs to the wealthy girl as he hears her call its name, Meer. She rewards Gugu with a ring and says that if he sells it, he'll never have to sell vegetables again. Gugu returns home to tell his brother the good news, but finds all the money is gone and a note left by Shin.

Gugu mindlessly continues to work, until one day, he notices a cart with logs and thinks about how easily he would die if that cart crashed. One of the logs falls off and almost crushes him, but it misses and the cart driver goes to get help to move the log. The log starts rolling down the hill just as Gugu notices a girl at the bottom. He runs to rescue her and, although he can save her, his head ends up being crushed by the log.

Gugu meets Fushi
Miraculously, he survives this accident thanks to Booze Man and starts working in his liquor store as a clerk, tends to the field outside the store and cooks for the two of them. When Pioran and Fushi arrive, Gugu isn't put off by Fushi's abilities and instead soon begins to see him as a younger brother. He teaches him about the chores around the store and asks him all sorts of questions about his past.

One day, the wealthy girl from the market visits the store and Gugu is more than happy to see her. He tries his best to help her find something to treat a wound on her arm that hasn't healed yet, but the girl, who introduces herself as Rean, is only interested in Fushi. She visits again the next day just to talk to Fushi and completely ignores Gugu's attempts to separate them. Gugu is later seen sulking in his room. Booze Man encourages him to try to become a "good man", a person worth being attracted to, instead of sulking which leads Gugu to start honing his physical strength.

The next day, Rean announces that she wants to move in with Booze Man and co. Gugu isn't sure how to feel about this and after eating dinner, he lets out the frustration and anger he started feeling towards Fushi by cutting and burning him. Even if it's just for the sake of testing the conditions of Fushi's reproduction ability, Fushi feels hurt and decides to spend the night outside.

The next morning, Rean comes in again and explains that her wound still hasn't healed. Gugu is worried and asks Booze Man for help, who tells him to sit down and proceeds to extract alcohol from an extra organ in his stomach cavity. Gugu is shocked and angry that the old man would experiment on his body in this way and runs away into the nearby forest. After a while he stops to see if anyone's following him, but is faced with the harsh reality that no one seems to be looking for him. He finds his old tent in the forest and spends the night there. The next day, he goes to visit his former employer and asks to work for him again. The man even offers to accept Gugu into his family, but his son protests. Gugu decides to show them his face to see if they could love him and accept him as family, but instead, everyone stares at him in shock and the youngest child even starts crying.

On the way back to the forest, a group of men steal Gugu's mask and throw it into a rice field. Gugu decides to accept his identity as a "monster" and leaves the mask there. He spends the next day working on the fields, but the morning afterwards, he wakes up to the farmer's son standing outside his tent. He tells him to stop coming to work so he wouldn't cause his father any more trouble. Gugu spends the rest of the day asking other people for work, but without success. He thinks about selling the ring Rean gave him, but ultimately decides against it and instead gives it to his older brother, whom he finds laying unconcious and malnourished in an alleyway by coincidence. Shin seems to recognize Gugu as he calls out to him, but Gugu denies having a brother.

At night, Gugu is captured by two men, but they don't get far. Having realized that he cannot "grow up" without Gugu's help, Fushi left to search for him despite his fear of the forest. After he rescues Gugu, the pair stays in the forest and nearby town a little bit longer to play pranks on the people living there. However, Gugu still refuses to return to Booze Man's place and it's not until Rean comes along that he learns to come to terms with his situation. They have a long conversation about their circumstances and families until Gugu finally agrees to return to Booze Man's home with her. On the way back, a maid working for Rean's parents catches them. As Gugu and Rean run away, Fushi is tasked with distracting her. While his guard is down, he's attacked by the tree-like beings later to be named Knockers. The maid's scream alerts Gugu and he decides to help Fushi, who has already lost his first vessel by the time Gugu finds him. The Knocker aims for Gugu, but Fushi manages to deflect its attacks. He shouts at Gugu to leave, but he refuses. Because of his worry for him, Fushi can't focus on the battle. The Knocker grabs Gugu and flings him far away, the trauma causing him to throw up the alcohol stored in his body. Here, Gugu discovers that he could use the highly flammable alcohol as a weapon. He rushes back to Booze Man's store, and although he's starting to feel the effects of the alcohol, he manages to get his "tank" refilled and defeat the Knocker by burning them, combining the alcohol in his stomach cavity with the fire of a torch to "breathe fire".

The two "brothers" return to Booze Man's tower and enjoy dinner with Pioran, Booze Man, Rean and her parents, who have come to take Rean with them. The next day, Rean leaves to go back to her original home with her parents.

Four years later
Four years have passed in peace, Gugu and Fushi have grown older and continue to work for Booze Man. One day, Gugu has an unexpected visitor: his brother Shin. He promises to work hard so they can start anew living in a big house, just the two of them, like they always dreamed to. Gugu didn't forgive Shin, though, and doesn't want him to take away the people he met since the day he left behind, his "precious treasures". Shin decides to return the ring Gugu gave him four years ago and when Rean sees it, she immediately recognizes it as the ring she gifted Gugu once. She runs outside and attempts to put the ring on Gugu's finger like she did back then, but fails. Encouraged by a conversation about her upcoming engagement she had with Fushi earlier, she tells Gugu that, if he wanted to court her, now would be the time. Gugu denies ever having said that he loves her, which leaves Rean shaking with embarassment. She storms off after inviting him to her birthday party and Booze Man explains that it was the alcohol that made him forget what he said back then.

A month later, Gugu and Fushi are preparing to attend Rean's 16th birthday party. On the way there, Gugu buys a purple flower called Dreambell Flower as a present. It's the same flower Rean was picking when Gugu saved her life and also the only thing Gugu can think of that she might like. When he hands the flower to Rean, everyone goes quiet. A maid of the family approaches him and explains that, because Rean held that type of flower when she had the accident on the cliff, it's now seen as a sort of threat. Rean's mother offers to throw it out, but Rean refuses. Meanwhile, Gugu is being harassed by the other guests at the party because of his mask. When they shove him, causing him to fall into a fountain, Rean immediately goes to help him before her father calls for her. Gugu later sees Rean talking to a young nobleman and tells Fushi they should head out, to which Fushi responds that Gugu shouldn't give up that easily.

He leaves the mansion, but Rean runs after him and asks him about the injury under his mask. As the two talk, Rean's hunch that Gugu might have been the one to save her that day soon turns out to be true. She's about to confess, when suddenly, the balcony on which they're standing breaks. The building soon collapses from the Knocker spreading its tendrils throughout the stone. Fushi tries his best to hold up the ceiling until everyone has escaped. Gugu is hanging on for dear life from one of the Knocker's roots. The people who harassed him before are now rescuing him. Gugu runs inside the crumbling building out of worry for Fushi. Inside, he spots Rean's injured parents and carries them outside just before the entrance collapses. Rean tries to stop him from going back inside, but Gugu rushes back to help Fushi. After he pulls him out of the rubble, he tries to attack the Knocker with fire, but it's useless against its stone armour. By prying the stones apart with a spear, Gugu manages to burn its flesh, but the core flees by shooting a tendril through a wall. Fushi cuts the tendril and the stone armour collapses, but the battle is far from over. The Knocker's arm, still in the form of Oniguma, reaches through the wall and crushes Fushi. Gugu is about to suffer the same fate, when suddenly Rean pushes him out of harm's way. They try to run outside together, but it's too late. The unconcious Fushi is awakened by the stinging pain of Gugu's buried body.

While Fushi fights on top of the rubble, Gugu uses all his strength to keep the stones from crushing him and Rean. Gugu pretends to be fine, but when Rean opens his mask, blood drips out. Knowing that his end is near, Gugu confesses to Rean and they kiss.

After his death
In his vision of Paradise, Gugu wakes up to his brother carrying him on his back. Rean and Pioran compliment him on his healed, handsome face and Gugu is about to walk away with them, when he realizes that something is off. Where is the enemy he fought, where is Fushi? When he turns around, he sees Pioran, Booze Man, Fushi and Shin mourn his death.

Before Fushi leaves Takunaha in an effort to lure the Knockers away from the people he cares about, he transforms into Gugu to spare Rean the bad news. Instead, he tells Rean that Fushi has died. She seems to believe it at first, but due to "Gugu's" awkward behaviour and strange excuses, she realizes the truth.

Gugu, along with Fushi's friends, has been following Fushi throughout all the events of its life as a spirit. He was later seen walking alongside with Fushi by Bon due to his psychic abilities.

After winning the war against the knockers in Renril, Gugu and Cam become Fushi's "grave keepers", meaning that they take care of the building in which Fushi is sitting and expanding his roots to destroy all remaining knockers. He spends the rest of his days helping Cam and his friends and eventually dies after being heavily wounded in a battle with the Anti-Fushi faction. Since he is already doomed, he takes his own life by means of a euthanasia drug, just like March.

After the "time skip" into the modern day era, Gugu is revived and finds himself in a field. He gets up and soon finds a house that looks just like the Beer Gramps' tower. A boy that looks very similar to Shin and is carrying a box with bottles inside is passing by outside the building. The boy notices Gugu, they make eye contact and Gugu approaches him.

In chapter 121, Gugu is transported to (former) Renryl by the Tastypeach Foundation and reunites with Fushi and the others. They now all live together in Kazumitsu Aoki's house and after receiving ID cards, he and Hairo started attending high school.

Fushi
Gugu initially doesn't see the immortal as anything more than an annoying kid in the shape of a human, and is jealous of Fushi when Rean shows an attraction to Fushi over him. But after some time, when Fushi proves that he does care for Gugu by saving him from being kidnapped and even overcoming his fear of forests for his sake, he starts seeing him as his "monster brother". He even fights alongside Fushi against the knockers with the two making a wonderful team. When he dies protecting Rean, Fushi is clearly heartbroken at the loss of his adoptive brother and even goes as far as to use Gugu's form to prevent Rean from knowing about his death.

Rean Cropp
When Gugu first met Rean, it was by returning her lost dog which she repaid him by giving him her a very valuable ring, which could have saved him from his life in poverty. Later, he saves her from a log rolling down a hill that ends up crushing his head, and giving Rean a small scar on her arm. After being patched up by Beer Gramps, he still retains his crush on Rean and when she comes to the shop he gets extremely bitter and jealous because she shows more romantic attraction towards Fushi than him. He and Rean tend to fight a lot, but the two do start to grow a budding romance, with Rean not knowing that it was Gugu who saved her from those falling logs.

After the two become teens, Rean invites him and Fushi to her birthday party, where her parents are trying to arrange a marriage for her. Gugu tries to put his feelings aside, knowing that Rean has to marry nobility since she was a noble and just wishes for her to be happy. But when her house begins to fall apart after a knocker attack, Gugu uses his body as a shield to protect her from the rubble, and Rean opens his mask and kisses him before his death.

Booze Man
Booze Man is the one who found Gugu, saved him, and gave him his mask as well as put an extra organ in his belly that stores highly concentrated alcohol. He sees Gugu as his own grandson.

Shin
Shin and Gugu used to be very close as brothers, but one day, Shin betrayed Gugu by taking all their savings and leaving Gugu to fend for himself. The two meet again in an alleyway when Shin is thrown out of a door and lays on the ground, seemingly unconscious. Gugu gives him Rean's ring to help him live a better life, but he did not forgive him (Shin asks if he's Gugu, to which he responds, "I don't have a brother").

Four years later, Shin comes to Booze Man's shop to meet Gugu again. Shin clearly has trouble keeping the conversation going while Gugu keeps silent. Finally, he cries out, "What the hell are you here for?! Did you come here just for me to tell you how worthless you are?!". Shin tries to apologize, but Gugu keeps going, saying that the Shin who betrayed him was "the real you". Shin tries to show that he has changed by showing Gugu Rean's ring, but Gugu takes the ring and throws it into the grass to which Shin jumps forward to catch it. Despite Gugu's obvious disgust towards his brother, Shin insists that he will always be there and invites him to live life as a family again. Gugu, on the other hand, doesn't want his brother to take away any more of his "precious treasures", the people around him.

In Gugu's vision of paradise, Shin carries him on his back. This proves that, despite his anger towards his brother, Gugu wanted to make peace with him.

Abilities
Gugu has become very strong after years of training. Gugu has excellent cooking skills and is responsible for cooking meals for everyone. When he leaves, Beer Gramps and Pyoran greatly miss his food. With the help of his modified mask and by using the alcohol in his stomach, Gugu can breathe fire. When he shuts the lid of his mask, the pressure created sets fire to gunpowder balls concentrated at the nose.
 * Strength
 * Cooking
 * Fire Breath

Quotes

 * "Right now, I'm really happy. After all, you're worrying about me, you're thinking of me, and you're here for me... I feel like that's what a family should be." - To Fushi (Chapter 19)
 * "If you're ever in trouble, I'll help you. That's what brothers are for!" - To Fushi (Chapter 29)