Keiji Mogami

Keiji Mogami (最上 啓示, Mogami Keiji) is an immensely powerful evil spirit who was once an esper famous for being "The Greatest Psychic of the 20th Century."

Appearance
While still alive, at his physical peak, Mogami was a regular-looking man with flat dark-colored hair and small lines under his eyes. He normally wore a white shirt with green pants and a green blazer. As he got older, his age and world-weariness were visible as he started getting wrinkles.

As a spirit, Mogami took on many different forms. For example, when confronting Mob for the first time in his mindscape he appeared just as he did as a human. However, oftentimes this form was underlined by hollow cheeks, dark eyes, and sluggish posture. While watching Mob in his artificial world he would manifest as different small animals, such as a crow, a moth, or a caterpillar, to spy on him. During his battle with Mob, he also appeared as some ghostly wraith of dark green smoke with red eyes, and later as a being composed completely of red and black energy. When he was released from Matsuo's canister by a Claw soldier, he briefly took on the form of the shadow of the girl he possessed, Minori. He also temporarily created a massive tree-like body for himself out of Minegishi's plants at one point.

Personality
Originally, Keiji Mogami appeared to have a very aloof and content personality, pleased to help whoever he needed and remove any evil spirits who were possessing innocent people. However, he was doing this while being used by many of his employers, and this began to build up negativity inside Mogami. Eventually, this negativity manifested around him, affecting his mother and making her ill. After this, Mogami's morals faded when he was forced to assassinate people to get enough money to pay for his mother's bills. Once his mother died, she came back as an evil spirit to inform him that her illness originated from all the negativity brought by Mogami, and that his job as an assassin was only making it worse. From this point on, Mogami's faith in humanity significantly deteriorated, and he became determined to gather enough spiritual energy so that when he returned as an evil spirit, he could exact revenge and punish everyone who used others and believed that they would never face justice due to their power and position in society

Because of this, Keiji Mogami became a very bitter man, sick of the greed and selfishness of humanity. Because of the private dealings he did while alive, he lost his moral compass and became a twisted variant of his former self. After becoming an evil spirit, he vowed to use his power for his own intentions and fix the world by possessing people who appear to gather grudges around them. In this sense, he can be considered an anti-hero, since he punishes corrupt people who abuse their power but still uses unethical means to punish them. However, this hatred and anger against such people develop to the point that he is willing to defeat and nearly kill several hundred psychics who he believes are simply phonies and greedy people without knowing anything about them. Additionally, his morals have become so twisted, Mogami is willing to destroy a young girl's body and brutally impale her father to achieve his whims.

Despite this depravity against many people, he appears to have a soft spot towards Shigeo Kageyama. Upon seeing his unimaginable power, he decides to bait him into Minori's body. He tells Shigeo that he's never met anyone with the power he possesses, saying he is truly blessed. After reading his emotions, he realizes that he allows other people to use him and sees himself in the child, so in order to try and steer him away from the path he went on, he puts him in a mindscape for six months where he has no powers and has to see the world in a different perspective. He nearly breaks Shigeo, but after Dimple enters the mindscape and reminds Shigeo of who he is, Shigeo snaps out of his original vengeful state, enraging Mogami because he couldn't fully turn him. After a very hard-fought battle, Mogami is eventually defeated. Still, instead of being angered by his defeat, he accepts it and decides to look at Shigeo's life transpire to see if his decision was the correct one. This demonstrates a sense of possible regret towards his previous answers and allows him to regain some faith in humanity.

However, he is still very hostile towards power-hungry individuals, and after being released from Matsuo's control, is prepared to kill Minegishi, and nearly does so until Shigeo stops him. He tries to tell Shigeo that there are people who never change and that Shigeo is being naive if he thinks he can watch over them to make sure they don't do anything bad again. Alas, Shigeo says that people need to have faith in one another in order to function in society. After hearing this, Mogami lets Minegishi go, but tells Shigeo that it is necessary to be hard on people sometimes, and if he can do that, he will be invincible. From this point on, his whereabouts are unknown, but Dimple suggests that he's moved on to the afterlife. This indicates that Mogami may have finally let go of his hatred against the underbelly of humanity and accepts that Shigeo is correct in his faith in humanity, finding peace within himself as well.

History
Mogami was born with the ability to see ghosts and other powers people dreamed of, so he initially did the world good by giving advice and helping people with their problems. To that end, Mogami became one of the most famous psychics and was the first psychic on Japanese television. However, his mother suddenly became gravely ill, and the treatment was very expensive, so Mogami needed money. Due to this, outside of the spotlight, he would take on assignments from clients to solve their supernatural problems and even take assignments from the underworld to lay death-inducing curses on others. Despite the morally dubious assignments he was taking, he continued taking them in order to pay for his mother's treatment. His mother eventually died anyways, and she returned as an evil spirit to reveal that the reason she died was that all of Mogami's actions had gathered "demons" around him that tormented her.

Since he no longer needed money, he stopped all his business with the underworld. Pondering how much of a waste his life had been, Mogami resolved to fix the world. He traveled around consuming evil spirits to cultivate his power for when he would eventually become an evil spirit himself. At one point, he encountered Dimple's group and annihilated them, with Dimple just barely escaping. He committed suicide 25 years before the start of the series (40 years in the anime), becoming a powerful spirit in the process so that he could torment the "evil people" of the world.

Keiji Mogami Arc
One of Keiji Mogami's attacks included entering the wealthy businessman Masashi Asagiri's mansion and possessing his daughter Minori Asagiri, a callous and spoiled girl whose troublesome behavior irked him. Masashi was forced to seal Minori in a protective room and lock her into a bed.

Masashi eventually hires literally hundreds of spirit detectives to help his daughter, including Reigen and Mob. When Reigen enters the cell to talk to her, Mogami tries to get him to believe that Masashi is the one who's been possessed and is acting irrationally - this convinces many of the exorcists, but not Reigen. He notices inconsistencies in Minori's speech, such as odd changes in tone of speech and knowing Reigen was a psychic before he even introduced himself as such.

With his act being exposed, the Mogami-possessed Minori breaks out of the cell, and Dimple recognizes him from a previous fight and warns Mob. One of the espers, Kirin Jodo, attempts to exorcise Mogami from Minori's body, but Mogami can effortlessly stop him, deriding the esper for his pathetically weak abilities. Possessing Kirin, he attacks the espers, but Reigen strikes Kirin with a strong knee to the stomach, forcing Mogami out of Kirin's body. Several exorcists try to exorcise Mogami and fail miserably. One of those exorcists is Banshomaru, who uses his Spirit Bind to trap Mogami, but he is able to break free and attacks the esper. Before he can attack, he is stopped by Mob, and Mogami notes that whoever is stopping him has decent telekinetic abilities. However, Mogami begins breaking Minori's body against the force of the telekinesis and forces Mob to let go of her. Mob attempts to force Mogami out of his body, which he is temporarily successful at doing, but when he unleashes a powerful psychic blast, Mogami goes back into Minori's body. The power from the psychic blast only serves to increase the psychic bond between Mogami and Minori, with Matsuo noting that they've almost fused. Mob realizes he can't exorcise Mogami from Minori from the outside, but if he is to astral project into Minori's mind, then he could have a chance. He temporarily lets Dimple control his body while sending his spirit into Minori's body.



Mogami encounters Mob in a form similar to his human appearance, explaining that they are in a mind-based world of his own creation inside Minori. Mogami fires a psychic blast to test Mob's powers, and Shigeo can block the blast with a psychic barrier. Mogami notes this and is impressed. The evil spirit attacks Shigeo again by using a psychic technique to choke Mob. The esper can quickly break free of Mogami's control and fires several bright energy beams that pierce through Mogami's body and dismembers his body. Now bloody and weakened, Mogami notes that Mob is the most powerful esper he's ever seen and that he is truly blessed. Despite being overpowered, Mogami turns the tables on Shigeo and reveals to him that he purposefully allowed Shigeo in here to test him and to change his view of the world. Mob is powerless to fight him and is subdued. He is placed inside a world identical to the real one, where he is tormented and mistreated by brutal and uncaring versions of real people in his life, including Minori herself.



Over the course of six months for Mob in the mindscape, he is tortured while Mogami sends him subliminal messages through his subconscious, eagerly waiting for the boy to crack. It breaks down when Minori and her friends bully Mob, who's finally had enough and unleashes his psychic powers. After being attacked again by one of her friends, Mob finally snaps, preparing to kill the bullies and completing the transformation Mogami was waiting for. However, Dimple enters the mind world before Mob can continue any further and snaps Mob out of it. Mogami is confident that the six months in the mindscape had changed him regardless of whether Shigeo regained his memories. While Shigeo now understands how cruel the world can be, he chooses to be even more grateful for the people around him and the amazing life they gave him. Mogami is disappointed by Mob's decision, while the teenage esper lectures him about his mistakes and the way people can change. Infuriated, Mogami releases the legions of evil spirits he has assimilated over the years to attack Mob, who reaches 100% Courage and fights them off in a battle that tears apart the very fabric of the mindscape. Mogami personally attacks Mob, and while he holds his own for a little while, Mob is eventually defeated by Mob with a powerful psychic blast. However, all of his evil spirits go out of control without Mogami and his vessel to control him, and they brutally gang up on Mob again. Even Mob, at 100% Courage, cannot fend off so many evil spirits, and his physical vessel is also soon destroyed. This awakens Mob's ???% mode, who completely erases the mindscape world, freeing Mob and Minori.



Back in the real world, the weakened Mogami leaves Minori's body in an attempt to flee, stating he would watch from afar to see if Mob's choice was the right one, but is captured in a film canister by Matsuo. Matsuo would go on to name Mogami "Pudding-chan" and keep him as a dangerous last resort weapon. During this time, he would watch the events that transpired despite being trapped and eventually regain his strength to the point that Matsuo couldn't control him.

World Domination Arc


When Matsuo appears to help Mob fight against Minegishi and a group of Claw soldiers, the container holding Mogami falls out of his jacket. Despite Matsuo's protests, one of the Claw soldiers breaks the container, releasing Mogami. The powerful spirit sucks the life out of the Claw soldiers, and while he's doing this, he derides Matsuo for trapping him and now wanting him to consume a horde of espers, marking them as lowly creatures. Minegishi wonders what they are looking at and attempts to attack Mogami using chlorokinesis. Still, Mogami uses his psychic powers to override the control of their plants and uses them to form a massive tree-like monster.



Mogami uses the monster to grab Minegishi, raising them into the air and slowly crushing them. Before he can finish them off, Shigeo tells Mogami to stop. Mogami asks Shigeo why he's asking him to stop, remarking that he's seen all the events transpire and has concluded that none deserve to live. He goes on to say that there are humans who never change, but Shigeo argues that they could still change. Mogami challenges Shigeo's argument, saying that it is impossible to watch over people forever to ensure they are determined to change their ways. Mob concedes this point, but still says it is necessary to have faith in one another to function through life. After hearing this, Mogami lets go of Minegishi, showing he has come to respect Mob for his noble nature and faith in humanity. However, he tells Shigeo that it is sometimes necessary to be hard on people. His final words say that if Shigeo can do that, he will truly be invincible. Mogami vanishes, leaving nothing but a large tree in his absence. His whereabouts after this incident are unknown, although Dimple suspects Mogami passed on for good.

Powers & Abilities
Mogami is one of the most powerful characters in the series, rivaled only by Mob and Toichiro. When he was alive as a psychic, he effortlessly defeated full power Dimple, a high-level evil spirit. As an evil spirit, he easily overwhelmed Minegishi, one of the Ultimate 5. Mogami left such an impression on Dimple that Dimple suggested to Mob and Reigen to leave when he found out that the evil spirit they were dealing with was Mogami. Although false, when Mob failed to exorcise him from within Minori Asagiri's body, Mob even claimed that Mogami might be stronger than he is. When Mogami measured Mob's power, he claimed he was still stronger than the teenager. Despite all this, Mogami was eventually defeated by Mob at 100% Courage.

Mogami's Evil Spirits
Having absorbed them over his lifetime, Mogami's spiritual body was home to an unimaginable amount of malevolent souls. He collected so many that even he could not control them all, and could only manipulate them if he released them little by little. When Mogami was defeated by Mob, all the spirits inside him were unleashed and went out of control. While Mob could hold his own for a while, the combined might of every evil spirit was capable of overwhelming Mob at 100% Courage. Despite this, all of the spirits were swiftly defeated by ???% afterward.

Quotes

 * "You cannot solve all problems with your kindness. Sometimes, you need to be strict to others."

Etymology

 * The name Keiji means "revelation, apocalypse" (啓示).
 * Keiji's surname Mogami means "most/utmost, extreme" (最) (mo) and "above, top, upper" (上) (kami/gami).

Trivia

 * Mogami's suicide years are different in the anime and manga:
 * In the manga, he committed suicide 25 years before the series began.
 * In the anime, he committed suicide 40 years ago.
 * The berserk evil spirits can be considered Mogami's equivalent of ???%. They were unleashed when Mob destroyed Mogami's vessel, and ??? was unleashed when the evil spirits destroyed Mob's vessel.
 * The berserk evil spirits are the only opponent that defeated Mob at 100%. Toichiro came close, but his fight against Mob got interrupted by him self-destructing, which resulted in a draw.
 * Mogami's arc could be considered one of the most physically/psychologically violent seen in the entire manga/anime, due to the explicit way in which he committed his evil acts. Mogami inhumanly damaged Minori Asagiri's body, seriously injured and almost killed Reigen and Masashi Asagiri in a very graphic way, tortured Mob physically in his first fight in the body of Minori, and later in the alternative world in a psychological way for months to the point of almost driving him insane.