Toichiro Suzuki

Toichiro Suzuki (鈴木 統一郎, Suzuki Tōichirō) is an extremely powerful esper and the founder and leader of Claw.

Appearance
Toichiro Suzuki has short dark red hair and light blue eyes with a sense of seriousness and boredom. He wears a dark coloured suit and black shoes. His most distinct trait is his three-pronged eyebrows.

During his fight with Mob, Suzuki begins to increase his Power Output percentage, causing the veins in his face to bulge and smoke-like energy to leak out of his eyes and mouth. His 100% form tears his shirt and suit open, increases his musculature, and engulfs his whole head in fire. His actions become exaggerated and beast-like. In the original manga his muscles grow less, and he is much less beast-like. The effects of the power overload had an affect on his body afterwards, slightly hollowing his cheeks. Later he appears to have recovered with his cheeks a bit fuller.

Personality
Being one of the most powerful individuals in the series, Toichiro is naturally a very arrogant, pretentious, egotistic and unfeeling individual. Throughout his life, as he learned of his psychic powers and how exceptional he was in comparison to even other espers, he began to see himself as the absolute being of Earth who deserved to rule it. This is also because throughout his 20 years of exploring the world, he never encountered an esper more powerful than himself. Suzuki considers himself more positive than anyone else because he only cares about himself and he believes that his extremely egotistic nature granted him his incredible powers.

He often has a very neutral and expressionless demeanor, rarely showing any emotions, although when he fought Shigeo, he was shown to enjoy the thrill of the battle and was smiling throughout most of their psychic battle.

He does not care for the lives of others and is perfectly fine with all the destruction and possible deaths he causes, even to his hometown, although he never directly kills anyone. He is even fine with beating his own son without batting an eye, as he once did when he was younger and again when his son challenged him during Toichiro's invasion.

Despite the lack of morals and his egotistical nature, he is capable of persuading others to his side and managed to convince one of his Ultimate 5, Serizawa, to join his side. He does this by acting as a supporting figure who cared about him and empathized with him since he had psychic powers and would know what he's feeling.

The only person that Toichiro feels genuine affection for during his time as Claw's leader is his wife, who left him after he decided to begin his quest for world domination. He had hoped that once he took over the world, he would find his wife, showing that even after all their time apart, he still missed her.

In many ways, he is the exact opposite of Shigeo Kageyama. Unlike Shigeo, Toichiro believes that he does not need to rely on anyone because he is already complete and he has his amazing powers to defend himself. Where Shigeo suppresses his emotions in an attempt to protect those he loves, Toichiro has an emotionless and passionless demeanour due to having no true strong bonds or relationships and misinterpreting this emptiness as a form of freedom. He believes that his egotistical nature granted him his unbelievable psychic powers. Because he does not value relationships with other individuals, he shows very little if not any affection towards his subordinates. Even when his five elite soldiers betrayed him, he thought little of it, believing that his power would be more than enough to compensate for their betrayal and considering them as only pawns, failing to understand that his power alone would never have garnered firm loyalty.

However, after his battle with Shigeo, he is moved by the young esper's actions and affection he showed Toichiro, his enemy. Because of this, instead of choosing to retreat and scheme future plans of world domination, he turned himself in. Before being locked up, he spoke to Serizawa, showing him genuine affection for the first time by telling him to be careful not to be manipulated since he lacks self-confidence. He then speaks to his son, apologizing for separating him from his mother due to his pride. He also reminisces when Shigeo attempted to make peace with him by shaking his hand; Toichiro reaches his hand out, showing that he feels regret for his actions and has come to realize that Shigeo was correct that people need other people.

History
Suzuki was born and lived his childhood in Seasoning City; however, he admitted he does not remember much about his past and does not mind reducing the town to rubble. When he was in middle school, he realized that his psychic powers elevated him above all those around him. By his own accord, everything in his life had gone smoothly and he had never failed or regretted a decision.

Twenty years before the start of the plot, he began preparing for world domination and filling his psychic energy reserves. At some point, Suzuki founded the psychic organization known as Claw. He recruited various powerful espers, one of them being Serizawa, a former shut-in whom Suzuki "saved." Espers that challenged him but were deemed too weak were given scars and put into the echelon known as Scar, where they would lead the even weaker espers. Espers that earned his respect, however, were promoted to the Ultimate 5 to be his personal assistants.

Suzuki married a woman and together they had a child, Sho Suzuki. When his wife realized how selfish and power-driven he was, she left him.

7th Division Arc
Suzuki briefly appeared early on calling his son Sho on the phone, requesting for the latter's report. Sho mocked him for the incompetence of the members of Claw, referring to the 7th Division. His son taunted him to come to Japan sooner and hung up; Suzuki then stated, "It won't be long".

World Domination Arc
In his first full appearance Suzuki is conducting a mass Claw meeting where they begin their plan to take over the world, having Hatori broadcast a threatening message across all the TV stations in the area. He is later seen scolding the division leader Scars for talking about people behind their backs after they mocked the different cults manipulated by Claw. He then ordered them to leave, as government-affiliated espers had already gathered to attack. Suzuki later encounters one such esper, Joseph, and finds that the division leaders were defeated by his colleagues. However, the Ultimate 5 arrive and make short work of the government espers for Suzuki.

The next morning Suzuki has Shimazaki abduct the Prime Minister of Japan from Tokyo to kick Claw's ultimate plan into motion. He and all of Claw then occupy the Culture Tower in Seasoning City (he explains this is because he prefers Seasoning City, his hometown, over Tokyo). From there Claw's artificial esper soldiers fight off the local police force using psychic power lent to them by Suzuki, and he sends Minegishi and Shibata to expand Claw's territory throughout the city.

Eventually Sho arrives at the Culture Tower, having made his way past Shimazaki and Hatori, and attacks Suzuki. He toys with his son, criticizing his sloppy betrayal. Sho unleashes his trump card, a blast of three months of energy, but it is blocked by Serizawa. Suzuki then proceeds to violently attack his own son.

As Sho lays beaten on the ground Suzuki explains his ability to store and transfer psychic energy between beings, and demonstrates by taking back the energy he gave to the now-defeated Claw soldiers strewn about the area. Mob suddenly enters the room, having befriended Serizawa, and attempts to talk things out with Suzuki as well, though this goes poorly. Serizawa also appears, apologizing to Suzuki, but he dismisses his apology and calls him trash. However, when Mob lends some energy to Sho to help him stand, Suzuki is shocked to see another esper that can transfer energy like he can. Seeing the potential danger to his victory in Mob he attacks the middle schooler, who continues to try to reason with him. He critically injures Dimple and thrashes Mob, but is interrupted when Reigen arrives with Sakurai's Jugan gun. Reigen attempts a surprise attack but attacks an ethereal clone of Suzuki instead, and Suzuki moves to incinerate him - however, Serizawa saves him at the last second. Mob, disgusted by Suzuki's actions, enters a 100% Rage state and decides that he must fight to stop him. Suzuki then attempts to punish the traitorous members of the Ultimate 5 but is stopped by Mob, who levitates the Culture Tower into the sky to begin their battle. As the battle rages on Suzuki finds himself slowly elevating his Power Output in order to match Mob's 100% mode. Mob begins to go through various 100% emotions during the battle such as Ecstasy, Shame, and Compassion, and continues to try to reach Suzuki through words. Suzuki continues to increase his Power Output, even reaching 80%, an output level he had never accessed before. When Mob feels 100% Resignation after realizing he cannot reach Toichiro like he could with other espers, he begins to mangle Suzuki's body in an attempt to finally stop him, forcing him to go into 100% Power Output. In this state, his body vastly increases in size, and his head is engulfed in flames. He and Mob resume their battle, and while Mob puts up a good fight, Toichiro eventually overpowers Mob, causing him to fear for his life. Surprisingly though, due to the insane amount of psychic energy he released at once, Suzuki's body can't handle all the psychic energy and he begins to self-destruct. Mob tells the bystanders to flee before attempting to take some of Suzuki's energy in order to balance it out, despite the latter's protests, and the two are engulfed in a massive explosion that creates a mushroom cloud. From within the explosion emerges the Divine Tree. Sho, Serizawa, and Joseph arrive on the scene to find Suzuki badly damaged. He lets Joseph handcuff him with little resistance. When Sho asks what will happen to him, Joseph says that instead of killing Toichiro, his superiors will most likely use him as a research subject. He then admits to Serizawa he never saw him as his equal, and apologizes to Sho for his arrogance and states that he plans to apologize to his mother someday. While he's being taken away, he remembers Mob's words about people needing other people and the hand he gave to Toichiro. He reaches his hand out in an attempt to reconcile and accept Shigeo's friendship, demonstrating that he has seen the error of his ways. He is then taken into custody.

???% Arc
When Mob's ???% side begins its rampage, Suzuki and several other esper criminals are released by the government to attempt to fight it. He states that he will go alone and leaps from the aircraft without a parachute. When he arrives, he encounters Koyama and Sakurai, complimenting that they've been doing some fine work and that he'll take it from here. Suzuki rushes Shigeo and throws a series of punches, but the teenage esper effortlessly defends himself and giving Suzuki bloody fingers. Mob unleashes another strong blast of energy, knocking out Koyama and Sakurai while sending Suzuki flying back. The adult esper realizes that Shigeo has stopped holding back and liberated himself, adding that he personally doesn't view it as a bad thing, but that Mob isn't the same person. Mob pushes Toichiro back with a telekinetic push, and pins him to the ground. Suzuki is baffled by how big the gap between them is, but before Suzuki can be dealt anymore damage, he is rescued by Sho.

Mob attacks Toichiro again, and Shou wonders if he'll have to fight the teenage esper alone. Shigeo attacks Suzuki again, but this time, the adult esper absorbs the energy, revealing to his son that he intentionally took the brunt of the blows to recover a considerable amount of energy. Toichiro explains his plan to push Shigeo back and wait until he runs out of energy, and Shou goes along with his plan. The two attack together, firing a unified Charge Bomb, although Mob is able to fully absorb the energy. Mob attacks Shou, although the teenage esper is shielded by his father. Seeing how outmatched they are, Shou tells his father that they should run away, but Toichiro says he is too weak to run, explaining that he will absorb Mob's energy to stop him just as Mob absorbed Toichiro's energy in their fight before. The father and son notice that Mob is struggling to control his own rampaging power, and when Toichiro prepares to absorb the energy, Shou calls out his father's name. Toichiro sees the look of concern on his son's face, and with the unbelievable power Shigeo possesses, realizes that he has yet to reach that level of power. Toichiro asks his son to take his shoulder and help him escape. As they're escaping, Toichiro remarks how psychic power is a fearsome thing and a taboo, something that Shigeo must have realized, to which Shou agrees with, remarking that he won't use his powers anymore. Furthermore, Toichiro says the most important part is to live a normal life, no matter how challenging it may be for him. Shou asks his father what'll happen to Shigeo, and Toichiro replies that no one can stop him now. Whether Toichiro was recaptured or he managed to live a normal life remains unclear.

Powers & Abilities
Suzuki possesses immense psychic powers, and he can perform a wide range of psychokinetic abilities with ease. Because of this, he is one of the most powerful espers in the series, rivaled only by Shigeo Kageyama and Keiji Mogami. Having traveled the world, prior to Mob, he had not encountered an esper as powerful as himself. Even Mob at 100% admitted that he couldn't beat him in a one-on-one fight, and it was his own power overload that was his downfall in the end. His psychic aura takes on a red color with a pattern similar to a circuit board within.

Quotes

 * "He who can live his life the way he wants is a strong person."
 * "I don't feel bad about it one bit. We've taken the homes of countless people. Who knows how many have died."
 * "There is no esper in this world that is stronger than me. I possess the greatest power of them all."

Etymology

 * The name Toichiro means "united" (統) (to), "one" (一) (ichi) and "son" (郎) (ro).
 * Toichiro's surname Suzuki means "bell" (鈴) (suzu) and "tree, wood" (木) (ki).

Notes & Trivia

 * Suzuki is one of the only two espers who has shown the ability to absorb and transfer psychic energy, the other being Mob. Because of this, Suzuki viewed Mob as his greatest enemy.
 * Suzuki is the only singular opponent that managed to overpower Mob at 100% and was only prevented from finishing him due to the excessive psychic energy released at once causing his body to self-destruct. The other time Mob was overwhelmed at 100% was against the outrageous amounts of evil spirits that appeared after Mob defeated Keiji Mogami.
 * In an omake, Suzuki halted his world domination plan after hearing the anime adaptation of ONE's other work, One-Punch-Man, started airing.