Shigeo Kageyama

Shigeo Kageyama (影山茂夫, Kageyama Shigeo), nicknamed "Mob" (モブ, Mobu) and "White T-Poison", is the main protagonist of the Mob Psycho 100 series, as well as assistant and disciple of Arataka Reigen. He is the newest member of the Body Improvement Club.

Appearance
Mob has dark bowl-shaped hair. He is usually seen wearing the Salt Middle male uniform, the typical gakuran outfit. Mob has a rather nondescript expression on his face. However, whenever he reaches 100%, his hair is affected by his psychic powers, causing it to float, and his expression changes to whatever emotion he's feeling during this state.

Personality
As a child, Mob learned that his psychic power was linked to his emotions. Strong negative emotions can cause him to hurt others, something he strongly dislikes and avoids (as shown in the 7th Division Arc where, after going 100, he hurts several teenagers). Therefore, he generally tries to keep his emotions in check. However, in some cases, he can control his powers as seen when he was at 100% courage.

He is also rather socially awkward. He is incapable of "reading the atmosphere", which has lead to him having a lack of friends.

However, Mob is very compassionate. He is forgiving, kind, and helpful. He tries to be kind to others in many instances. In the Keiji Mogami Arc, he lives for half a year in a fantasy world created by the bitter, former psychic, Keiji Mogami. There, he is friendless, without a family or anything else. Despite that, it takes great emotional manipulation, along with physical harm, for Mogami to make Mob become angered with his tormentors. Even then, he wants to offer them forgiveness.

He is also morally opposed towards using psychic ability against other people. He is, however, willing to cast this principle aside in cases of emergency, such as when his brother, Ritsu, is kidnapped.

Another principle of his is that psychic ability does not make him or others inherently better and that his psychic ability is not something that he requires in life. This belief leads to conflict between him and Teruki Hanazawa, Keiji Mogami, Toichiro Suzuki and even his own brother, Ritsu. Even so, if the situation is dire enough, like say, his brother being kidnapped by Claw's 7th Division, he will use them without hesitation.

His final moral principle is the fact that he strongly opposes those who evade their taxes. He believes that the ultimate moral sin would be to commit tax fraud, though he tends to be silent on it. Even with his strong ideals in place, he seems to be completely unaware of Reigen's tax crimes, therefore continuing to idolize him even with his fatal flaw.

History
Before meeting his master, Arataka Reigen, Mob was frightened of his own abilities and was looking for a guiding force to follow. He soon learned from both Reigen and his childhood crush, Takane Tsubomi, that his psychic ability did not make him inherently greater than anyone else. He also learned that psychic ability should not be used against other people. This philosophy leads him to where he is currently and is one of the many defining traits of his.

Spring of Youth Arc
Mob first appeared when his master Arataka Reigen called him to exterminate an evil spirit named Ceiling Crasher. The spirit underestimated Mob but Mob exorcised the Ceiling Crasher easily and quickly. Mob then reminded Reigen not to suddenly call him for work on short notice.

Mob and Reigen returned to the Spirits and Such Consultation Office. Reigen was paid his 5000 yen work fee while Mob was given 300 yen by Reigen for a job well done. Reigen explained that the Ceiling Crasher was weak thus Mob's small hourly pay. Mob wondered why Reigen called him to exorcise a really low-level spirit. Reigen, who was not an actual psychic, nervously reasoned that he was too strong that he'll "melt" anything around them so he seldom used his power. He also said that he was training Mob's psychic powers while helping the people haunted by evil spirits. He warned Mob of misuse of psychic powers thus the need of proper training. He also reminded Mob of their promise that Mob will never use his psychic powers on people.

During family dinner, Mob accidentally bent his spoon. His mother warned him about it while his father defended him blaming it on puberty. His mother told Mob to be more like his younger brother Ritsu, like in getting good quiz scores. Ritsu said anyone can do such feat as he bent Mob's spoon back by hand. Ritsu also assured Mob he'll lend an ear if Mob has any troubles. Their mother complained that Mob is being spoiled and told Mob that any more bent spoons will be replaced using Mob's allowance.

Mob went to school the following day. He saw his crush Takane Tsubomi on his way to Salt Middle School.

He struggled in Arithmetic I class. His teacher noted Mob can only do addition if he can't solve a simple division equation. The teacher added that Mob was sleeping in class, causing his classmates to laugh at him. Mob also struggled playing football in his Physical Education class.

Mob and Reigen rode a bus to Honeido Tunnel located in the old Seasoning Highway. The tunnel was a popular haunted place. An accident that killed more than twenty people happened there 30 years ago. Upon their arrival, Mob got distracted by an ant line. After Reigen reproached him, Mob told Reigen that the tunnel contained a very powerful spirit and a normal person will not make it out alive of the tunnel if the spirit is angered. They entered the tunnel and Mob exorcised the spirits around them while Reigen watched and walked deeper into the tunnel. Reigen encountered the Boss of the spirits which he mistook for a wrestler. The Boss declared his back story: he and his gang died in a motorbiking accident caused by a banana peel. The spirit attacked Reigen with Cigarette Burn Poltergeist but Mob produced a force field around Reigen to defend against the attack. The Boss mistook Reigen producing the forcefield. Reigen performed Banishing Salt Punch on the spirit but it was ineffective because the salt used was not purified. And then Mob almost exorcised the Boss but stopped when the Boss said he and his gang were only used.

The Boss told them about another evil spirit further in the tunnel. Reigen refused to believe the spirit boss but Mob decided to investigate. The Boss said there was a malicious spirit haunting the mountain for years and advised against facing it. But Mob exorcised the evil mountain spirit anyway. He found an old photograph of a biking gang which he gave to the Boss, letting the Boss and the rest of his gang depart to afterlife.

While waiting for the bus to take them home, Mob asked Reigen why he didn't do any exorcism in the tunnel. Reigen replied again he was training Mob, an answer which Mob accepted. Then they went to eat ramen for dinner, with a smaller amount of toppings for Mob's bowl compared to Reigen's.

Mob was an adolescent boy in his second-year middle school days. Unlike his peers, Mob spent his time working assistant in psychic business ran by Reigen. He manned the reception desk of Spirit and Such Consultation Office. He observed Reigen getting better on massages on customers like the man plagued by one-click site curse. Reigen explained these massages are only effective because of his spiritual powers.

While eating some takoyaki with Reigen, Mob opened a conversation about their first meeting. This led to Reigen thinking if Mob was complaining about his small wage or if Mob finally found out that Reigen is a con man pretending to be an esper. But Mob was only wondering if he should experience more things rather than only work during his free time. Reigen advised him not to rush things during his puberty and that there's nothing wrong for earning money from his part-time.

Telepathy Club of Salt Middle School was threatened to be abolished because it was lacking a member to be considered a legitimate club of the school. They found Mob, an esper who doesn't have a club or committee, and tried to recruit him. But when Mob called Reigen to tell him he was going to be late for work, Reigen advised against joining the Telepathy club, even with the persuasion of the Telepathy club's president Tome Kurata about it. Mob decided to think about his decision of joining the club or not overnight.

Mob and Reigen went to another job in Saint Highso Girl's Academy, an all-girls private high school. Unable to get permission to enter the school, the two dressed in female uniforms to infiltrate it. But Reigen's disguise was seen through, leaving only Mob to meet their clients in the school rooftop.

Arriving at the rooftop, Mob mistook three thug girls lounging there as his clients His clients, Mari and Chihiro, showed up and called his attention when the thugs left. The two girls apologized for making him go through the difficulty in entering the school. They said their school did not take them seriously when they complained about supernatural occurrences in the school. So they called the cheapest exorcists in the area, Reigen and Mob. The girls teased him for a bit, saying sarcastically that he's so reliable after they observed him trembling while talking to high school girls. Mob dejectedly promised them he'll perform the exorcism.

Mob, Mari and Chihiro explored the school to find spiritual occurrences. Mob only felt slight of the supernatural. They heard a scream from the bathroom and ran there, only to find a student saying that something peeked up the bathroom stall she was using. Mob, Mari and Chihiro continued searching the school until they reached the gymnasium where the basketball team was practicing. Mob said the spirit was angry and trapped it in the gym using his psychic powers. Entering the gym, they encountered the huge bespectacled ghost called the Scent-Ghoul. The Scent Ghoul attacked the psychic child it saw, which was Mob, but Mob easily cancelled the punch with his psychic powers. When the Scent-Ghoul realized Mob was too strong for it, it tried to take the basketball member hostage to save itself but Mob protected her and exorcised the spirit. This earned him praises from the girls.

The remaining part of the spirit expressed its jealousy on Mob. It noted that despite Mob being similar to its nervous and loser nature, he was getting praise from the girls. It said it had fun after it died. It passed on when it realized its time on earth was over, its parting question to Mob was if he's living every day to the fullest. Mob mulled the question overnight.

The next day, the Telepathy club asked Mob if he finally decided joining the club. They were interrupted by the Vice President of student council Tokugawa and the newly formed Body Improvement Club, which will take over the Telepathy Club's room once the Telepathy Club is abolished. Tokugawa questioned Mob about his decision of joining Telepathy Club and about what he really wanted to do during his youth. At this, Mob realized that he dreamed to confess his feelings to his crush Takane Tsubomi. He flash-backed on the times he spent with Tsubomi, showing her various things he can do with his psychic powers. He made frogs and dogs float in the air and made playground bars wriggle. Eventually Tsubomi got bored of Mob's psychic abilities and Mob realized there were other things he can do besides using his psychic powers. Mob joined the Body Improvement Club, much to the surprise of everyone. The Body Improvement Club happily accepted him.

Mob trained with the Body Improvement Club members. But their heavy training made Mob faint. (Mob's Stamina: 0%) Musashi Goda, the president of the Body Improvement Club, brought Mob back to their club room where the Telepathy club continued loitering. He left Mob to the care of the Telepathy Club members.

When Mob came to, Kurata asked him why he joined the Body Improvement Club. Mob explained that he wanted to improve his athletic abilities and not to continually rely on his psychic abilities. The Telepathy club members doubted he's an esper so he made the dumbbells float. Kurata requested his help on finding extraterrestrial but he declined. She then assumed he wanted to be popular by gaining good body image and said he'll never become popular like that. She suggested Mob to learn telepathy to read the minds of girls.

Mob sought help about telepathy to Reigen. Reigen said he can't read minds and figured out that Mob wanted to read the minds of girls.

(LOL) Cult Arc
A masked woman approached Mob while he was going home. She tried to convince Mob to join LOL, a month-old religious cult, with the promise of making him popular. Its leader Dimple can make anyone smile and laugh. When Mob arrived at the LOL assembly, he found a crowd of masked people and wondered if they wanted to become popular just like him. He was welcomed warmly by the LOL members and he was presented with two of new recruits, one of which is his classmate Ichi Mezato.

Dimple made his appearance. The LOL members burst out laughing with Dimple while Mob and the other two new recruits just watched and stared at them, finding them creepy. Dimple promised the three new recruits smiles and happiness as he places smile masks on them. Mezato and the other recruit began smiling and laughing despite not wanting to when they wore the masks.

Mob questions if the only purpose of the cult is smiles and happiness, rather than popularity. The lady who found him states that he has problems with his love life. Mob says that the cult won't help him with his problems and takes off the mask, revealing that he the only one unaffected by it, much to Dimple's and the cult members' surprise, and he tries to leave the LOL assembly. But Dimple tries to convince him to stay, saying that he's missing out on life if he kept the same bored face. Mob reasoned people have different perceptions of "missing out" when his dad told him people are missing out in life when they refuse to smoke tobacco. Dimple challenges him on a staring contest against the three smiling LOL leaders. The game mechanic was to drink milk and the first one who laughs will lose.

Mob accepted the challenge because he likes milk. Mob easily defeated the three smiling LOL leaders so Dimple decides to face him in the same game. But Dimple cheats, mixing a seemingly sour element with Mob's milk. Mob spits the milk out, to which Dimple declared Mob was laughing and lost the game. Mob insisted that he was wrong and that he didn't laugh, unconsciously cancelling out the hypnosis Dimple placed on the LOL members. Dimple reapplied his hypnosis on the people while worried that Mob was cancelling his powers out. Dimple then told Mob to get a clue and laugh along with them.

Dimple tries to hypnotize Mob into laughter. But Mob retains his bored look. Mob realized Dimple also has psychic powers as Dimple yells out, questioning if Mob was a corpse. He explained to Dimple that he can't make him laugh because Mob can't laugh even if he wanted to. Dimple concluded Mob doesn't have emotions and told Mob so. Dimple said this was the reason of Mob's problems with love.

Dimple told him to laugh and chuckles with his cult. However, Mob's anger was growing, and he dared Dimple to make him laugh using his psychic powers. Dimple grew nervous, and realized he and Mob have the same powers. He decided to exterminate Mob, who'll stand on his way of being a god. Mob then found out that Dimple was an evil spirit. But Dimple used his LOL followers to dog pile on top of Mob and immobilize him.

As a child, Mob realized his powers are dangerous. They were linked to his emotions. He hid his emotions to suppress his psychic abilities. This led to a complex as a result of his emotional suppression. But when his emotions became too great, they explode out of him along with his psychic power.

Mob's rage allowed him to use 100% of his psychic power.

Dimple left the human he was possessing and became a dark cloud. Mob escaped the dog pile by lifting the LOL members off him using his psychic powers. Mob challenged Dimple to kill him, saying that killing him might be easier than making him laugh. Dimple transforms into a muscled green humanoid, saying that he only needed two seconds to kill Mob before attacking him. Mob defended by forming a barrier around himself, and Dimple attacked him again but Mob's next defense caused Dimple to lose a hand and foot. Dimple regenerated his lost limbs and used his full powers in attacking Mob again. Mob retaliated by slicing off all of Dimple's limbs with his psychic power. As Dimple groaned in pain, Mob stepped on his face and uttered that his emotions were out upon Dimple's request. Mob stated that this was what happened when he let his emotions show and asked if Dimple was satisfied. Dimple asked if Mob was some kind of monster before regenerating one of his arms and using it to push himself upward and use Wraither Beam on Mob, then regenerate all his limbs and transform his arm into a huge knife. Dimple states that the battles he endured would decide the victor and loser before attacking Mob, who set up a barrier that snapped off Dimple's arm blade. Mob murmured he himself was terrible and exorcised Dimple with a tap on the forehead. Mob went back to the Spirit and Such Consultation Office. He told Reigen about the "Get a clue" incident and Reigen just told him social norms were beyond him. Seeing Mob still sad, Reigen told Mob that he was the protagonist of his own life. Mob felt guilty about the dissolved LOL organization and Reigen commented about Mob's destructive denseness. So Mob continued to sulk.

Teruki Hanazawa Arc
Mob woke up one morning to find a small spirit in his room. It reintroduced itself as Dimple. Mob wanted to exorcise Dimple and asked Reigen for advise. But Reigen couldn't see Dimple. Dimple chuckles that Reigen wouldn't see him as he was a fake. Reigen says that Dimple was likely too weak to see, angering Dimple, and told Mob to do what he wants. So Mob let Dimple hang around.

Mob found a poster of himself. The Psycho Helmet Religion, formerly the LOL religious group, looking for him and dubbing him as their god.

Mob found a letter in his shoe locker. He thought it was a love letter even if Dimple deduced it wasn't. Despite Dimple stopping him, he went to Ankle Park anyway to meet the girl who wrote the letter. But he found Black Vinegar Middle School students there. They tied him up and took him hostage because of Onigawara. Dimple suggested Mob to escape using his psychic powers but Mob refused, saying he won't use his powers on people.

The Body Improvement Club went to retrieve Mob from Black Vinegar Middle School. They defeated many of the Black Vinegar Middle School students. But they lost to the shadow leader of Black Vinegar Middle School, Teruki Hanazawa, who used his psychic powers to fight. Mob alone remained unaffected by Teru's attacks and he told Teru not to use psychic powers on other people. Then Mob used telekinesis to escape his binds.

Teru attacked Mob. But Mob only wanted to be friends with him and remained on defense even as Teru continued to attack him. Mob refused to fight back by using his psychic powers, remembering Reigen's advice. Dimple decided to fight Teru instead but Teru exorcised the spirit. Mob initially didn't mind that Dimple was exorcised but changed his mind when Teru looked down on the spirit.

Teru continued to attack Mob. They reached the home economics room and Teru used telekinesis on the knives. Mob defended using psychic powers on the knives and cut the hair on top of Teru's head. This angered Teru and he attacked Mob relentlessly again. Mob realized Teru wanted to defeat him because Mob being an esper like Teru makes Teru seem average. Teru choked him with his hands but Mob still refused to retaliate by using his psychic powers.

Mob remembered those times when he and Ritsu were younger. Three older guys took their New Year's money and hurt him and Ritsu. But Mob had blacked out, waking up to find Ritsu and the bullies hurt.

The fight between the two espers ended in a draw when Mob passed out from being choked. But another unknown identity woke up in Mob. It defeated Teru easily and destroyed the Black Vinegar School building. When he became conscious, Mob cried at his inability to change. His psychic powers went berserk and caused an accident because of his emotions again. His emotion of sadness made his powers reach 100% and he used it to fix the Black Vinegar school campus. He was about to apologize to Teru but was interrupted. The Body Improvement club checked on his well-being and he went back with them.

Big Cleanup Arc
While climbing up one of the school's staircases, Mob was approached Onigawara. He soon apologized to Mob because of the incident in the Black Vinegar Middle School, it wasn't without incident, however, as he was soon interrupted by Mob, where he then immediately lashed out at him, despite apologizing. When his friend tried to justify the outburst, he soon found himself getting pummelled again by Onigawara, enraged at being called an idiot again.

Later, Mob went to his "date" with Tome. He found an adult esper but didn't approached the person because he felt sickened.

A lady from the street tried to sell Vase of Happiness to him. He refused, not having the amount to buy the very expensive vase. The lady then made it look Mob cracked the vase and forced him to pay for the damage. Reigen called Mob on his phone and went to retrieve his apprentice. They ate dinner and talked about how terrible con artists are.

He later saw Ritsu in an alley after Ritsu defeated the delinquents looking for White T Poison.

7th Branch Arc
He discovers Ritsu has psychic powers and is happy he has them. He and his brother are attacked by an adult esper. Mob attacks the esper, but is knocked out by a special spray.

Physical Abilities
Initially Mob was extremely physically unfit and incapable, having no bodily coordination, a lack of stamina and surprisingly low muscular strength. However, after joining the Body Improvement Club, his physical capabilities have grown greatly, although they are still relatively below average for someone his age.

Psychic Powers
Mob has a tremendous capacity for storing psychic power, which he primarily uses to fuel his already existing powers. Due to a childhood incident he subconsciously sealed away most of his power behind several emotional locks, that will occasionally burst out when a particular emotion reaches 100% and overflows. The emotions so far shown include anger, sadness, hostility, rejection, gratitude, courage, tenacity, friendship, ecstasy, shame, compassion, kindness, and resignation. This however is only a fraction of his true power, which can only come out when he is completely unconscious and acting on survival instinct alone, only seen in the ???% mode.


 * ???%: A special state in which Mob occasionally enters when he becomes unconscious. In this state, Mob is vastly more powerful than he is normally, being able to easily overwhelm even the likes of Keiji Mogami and lift the shattered school building while fighting Teruki Hanazawa.

Quotes

 * Catchphrase: "I don't really get it."
 * (Shigeo to Ritsu) "Psychic powers aren't needed to survive in the first place."

Notes & Trivia

 * Mob's favourite foods are takoyaki, milk and ramen and his least favourite foods are cilantro, shiokara and locusts.
 * Apparently, Mob's speciality is making dogs float and his hobby is watching the sky.
 * His favourite music is the cheerful sounding ones and his favourite movie genre is action.
 * His facial expression looks just like ONE's character Saitama.
 * ONE has stated that Tatsumaki, the strongest esper from the One-Punch Man series, could in fact beat normal Mob, but if Mob gets serious then there is no answer.
 * Despite Mob's crush on Tsubomi, the two have made very few interactions with each other.
 * Mob is one of the only two espers who has the ability to absorb and transfer psychic energy. The other is Toichiro Suzuki. Because of this, Suzuki views Mob as his greatest enemy.