Suiryu

The reason I sought for strength...is to live an easygoing life one can enjoy.

Suiryu (スイリュー, Suiryū) is a Martial Artist and user of the Void Fist. He is said to be a top contender in the Super Fight tournament.

Appearance
Suiryu is a tall young man with blue eyes, tan skin, and black hair kept in a low ponytail. He wears a black traditional uniform used in Chinese martial arts, with white linings, sporting long sleeves and a star shaped decor in front.

Suiryu is one of the taller characters that are seen throughout the series, as he has been shown to tower over characters like Lightning Max, Saitama, and Garou.

After Saitama blows off his clothes from the pressure of his punch, he is shown to have a very muscular body underneath his clothes. Furthermore, he is also shown to wear two armbands under his uniform.

Personality
Suiryu is an easygoing and carefree man usually seen smiling and is a notorious playboy, who would rather spend time with women than training. He is also perceptive, realizing Bakuzan's bloodlust and strongly believes in the philosophy of natural selection, in which the strong will always prevail no matter what. Suiryu is very eager to fight strong opponents and the reason for fighting is to live an easy life without worry. Due to the power gap between him and some of the other contestants at the Super Fight Tournament, he is described by Sneck, as strong to the point where he finds himself bored, much like Saitama. As a result, he seeks to fight strong opponents to seek thrills in battle, which is a thing that both he and Saitama have in common.

During fights, Suiryu holds back in an effort to make any fight more interesting, only using his legs during his fights and later defeating his opponents with one kick. While fighting he tries to make small talk and after he defeats his opponents, he sarcastically apologizes to them for being too strong. While fighting Saitama he shown a more serious and cocky side. After Saitama's disguise was uncovered, Suiryu didn't care about Saitama's true identity and only cared about winning at all costs. During this time, he changed into a highly brutal fighter that pummels his opponent without mercy and disregarding the rules of the match, only wanting to win with his own fists.

Suiryu admires Saitama once he realizes Saitama only seeks thrills and not fame or glory, but after being defeated by him, he began to fear and respect Saitama and wished to never bump into him and resumes with his carefree lifestyle. Initially, Suiryu disliked heroes, since he perceived them as cocky and fame-craving and thinks all their heroic actions, benevolent preaching, and their sense of justice are a waste of time and boring. The reason behind this mindset is because he feels that no matter how strong or noble a hero, there is no way he or she can solve all crises or destroy evil completely. As a result, he chooses a carefree and thrill-seeking lifestyle rather than fighting for justice, which Saitama seems to heavily disagree with.

When Gouketsu attacked the stadium, Suiryu defended the other martial artists and refused Gouketsu's offer to join the Monster Association, despite being offered a carefree lifestyle as an executive member, as he believes monsters are an abomination. After being overwhelmed by Gouketsu, he is shown to express fear in knowing Gouketsu is above him in all aspects. His pride was shown to further break down from his former arrogant attitude when he desperately asks for help from Bakuzan, knowing full well he cannot win with his strength alone.

His former view of heroes changes after being saved by Sneck and Max, revealing gratitude and respect for the two heroes, who came back into the stadium to save him. After being beaten to the verge of death by Bakuzan, he finally and truly sees the error of his disdained view against heroes and desperately screams for a hero to come to save him, with tears in his eyes. Despite being in a state of hopelessness and near-death, he still holds some pride since he refuses to lick Bakuzan's foot and instead breaks his toe, even when it is his only chance to gain mercy from a monster that is tormenting him, proving that he has a strong sense of willpower and pride, since he is not willing to lower himself like other fighters who quickly gave up their humanity if it meant they got to survive. Saitama complimented Suiryu on his tenacity to fight the monsters single handedly until Saitama had arrived.

After witnessing Saitama defeat both Bakuzan and Gouketsu with little effort, Suiryu becomes grateful to Saitama for saving his life and goes as far as asking him if he can become his disciple like Genos. Furthermore, he also aspired to become a hero from Saitama's heroic action.

History
When Suiryu was still training, he would mostly fight with his master and mess around with girls. He would also occasionally skip a few lessons. Throughout his life, his incredible strength makes his life easy but also curses him with boredom, since he cannot find strong opponents to seek thrills.

Suiryu won four consecutive Super Fight tournaments in the past. Afterwards, he is rumored to have been traveling for the past three years until he noticed the superb performance of the previous tournament's winner, Garou, disguised as Wolfman. Since then, Suiryu has wanted a fight with Garou.

Monster Raid Arc
Suiryu is participating in the Super Fight Tournament in C-City at the C-City Super Stadium. This is the fifth time Suiryu has participated in the tournament. After Saitama defeated Zakos, he begins to wonder if Saitama will be his opponent in the final. The audience is excited as Suiryu enters the stage. When Suiryu finally enters the stage, he finds Max and seems disappointed to see him. Max tells Suiryu that Suiryu's strength is minuscule compared to the the Deep Sea King's. Suiryu admits that everyone has their reasons for seeking strength. When the match begins, Max charges at Suiryu and shows off his new move, but gets easily outmaneuvered by Suiryu. Suiryu proceeds to kick Max to the edge of the ring, knocking Max out. Everyone, except Saitama and Bakuzan, is impressed by Suiryu's performance. Suiryu apologizes to Max for being too strong. He is impressed when Saitama defeats Bakuzan in one strike, vowing to do the same.

Super Fight Arc
Suiryu and Sneck face off, with Suiryu casually avoiding Sneck's strikes and questioning his reasons for fighting. He taunts Sneck by telling him that he is ineffectual as a hero, and that he sought power with no particular agenda, with his nonchalant attitude enraging Sneck. However, Suiryu knocks him out with a single blow, musing that no matter what happens, the truly strong will always survive. After defeating Volten, he faces Saitama (who is disguised as Charanko) in the final. During the fight, he uses multiple kicking techniques (which don't connect) on Saitama to warm up the battle, which makes Saitama extremely nervous about keeping his wig from flying off due to the air pressure generated by the kicks. At the same time, Suiryu compliments Saitama on his strength and finds that they have the same problem of finding strong opponents to fight as well as the fact that Saitama only seeks strong opponents, not fame or glory, similarly to him.

As Saitama is agreeing with Suiryu's statements, he starts to warm up his fists and asks Suiryu to give him the true experience of martial arts since he's starting to get tired of ending his fights with one punch. Consequently, Suiryu begins to get serious and ready to offer Saitama what he really wants. He begins to pummel Saitama with a power kick, which moves Saitama a short distance, despite Saitama blocking the kick with his arms. After that, he initiates a barrage of kicks forcing Saitama to dodge. Suddenly, he launches a powerful kick that launches Saitama into the sky, and he jumps into the air, landing a rolling kick on Saitama so strong that it pins him deep into the concrete floor of the arena. After that, he proceeds to stomp Saitama's head deeper into the ground, shocking the commentator and the audience.

However, Saitama gets up unharmed by his attacks. At the same time, Suiryu asks what Saitama's routine is, and Saitama nearly exposes his hero identity by saying that he fights monsters. After this, Saitama tries to cover himself by saying that he intends to become a hero in the future. At this time, Suiryu begins to express his disdain about the hero lifestyle, and tries to persuade Saitama's not to become a hero since it is pointless and boring to do heroic justice and save the day. Instead, Suiryu remarks that people with great strength such as Saitama should seek thrills, just like him. Suiryu's words shocked/angered Saitama so much that he lets himself get hit by Suiryu's next kick, which blows the wig off his head, exposing his true identity to the crowd. Finally exposed, Saitama throws a short range punch while exclaiming that if Suiryu's goal is to seek fun, he shouldn't try to make himself stronger than he is currently. However, Saitama manages to restrain his punch before it hits Suiryu, which creates a powerful shock wave that blows off Suiryu's clothes, exposing his muscular body and leaving him in a state of deep shock. Despite being declared as the winner due to Saitama's violation of wearing the wig, Suiryu refuses to back down and begins to unleash a powerful punch at Saitama's head. He then initiates a chop that splits the arena in half and attacks Saitama with a multitude of punches and thrusts. Saitama begins to question his motive to have fun only for him to respond that he hates losing. At this point, Suiryu begins to pummel Saitama with even greater speed, eventually twisting himself into a tornado movement and initiating his Void Sky Dragon Fist technique. Seeing Saitama unfazed by his rapid attacks, he initiates a power step-in that shatters half of the arena and launches a powerful twisting punch that launches Saitama into mid-air only to see him unfazed by his attack again. Saitama then begins to mimic his tornado movement due to his realization that martial arts are cool only to enrage Suiryu into attacking him again due to thinking that Saitama is mocking him. Unfortunately, Saitama accidentally hits him with his hip, using the tremendous force from Suiryu's own momentum against him, that shatters half of the arena and sends Suiryu plummeting into the audience; Suiryu was able to grab Saitama's belt which causes Saitama some embarrassment. However, due to the fact that Saitama was already disqualified for disguising as Charanko to participate in the tournament in the first place, Suiryu was crowned as the winner of the tournament.

Despite winning the fight, Suiryu begins to fear Saitama and feels, for the first time, losing to someone more powerful than him. He also begins to wonder what might have happened to him had Saitama's punch connected. As a result, he wishes to return to his carefree lifestyle while hoping to never bump into Saitama again.

All of a sudden, however, the arena, is attacked by The Three Crows and Gouketsu, with the latter telling them that they are all going to become monsters. It is revealed by the Super Fight Announcer that Gouketsu was the champion of the first Super Fight and Gouketsu then explains his disappearance that occurred several years ago. After finishing his story, Gouketsu offers the martial artists a choice to either become monsters or die by his hand and a few of them accept the offer. Suiryu then asks one of the civilians if he can go on a date with her if he beats up the monsters, to which she nods in acceptance and with new motivation, Suiryu prepares to fight.

Suiryu easily defeats Hamukichi, Benpatsu and Volten. He then prepares to fight Choze, who is capable of keeping up with Suiryu. After a quick exchange of fists, Choze uses his Inferior Race Annihilation Shot against Suiryu, who manages to deflect by kicking it into the air. Suiryu then catches Choze by surprise by breaking his horns and kneeing him in the face. The two continue their fight and clash all around the stadium with immense speed, shocking the remaining contestants. Suiryu then uses Void Shivering Tiger Fist followed by Void Phoenix Ascension Fist, defeating Choze. Suiryu's strength impresses Gouketsu, and he is offered an executive position, which would simultaneously allow him to live an easy life even after monsters take over the world. Suiryu seems to consider the offer and almosts eats a monster cell, but eventually throws it in Gouketsu's face, stating that he would rather die than become an ugly monster. He tries to attack the monster with the Void Sky Dragon Fist, but is brutally punched towards the ground by Gouketsu, who is completely unfazed.

Despite taking a heavy blow from Gouketsu, Suiryu is still conscious and continues his battle with the first champion. It eventually becomes clear that Suiryu is heavily outmatched by the monster, who is completely unfazed even after being hit with Suiryu's most powerful attacks. Gouketsu then orders The Three Crows to kill Suiryu, who tries to escape, but fails to do so as he is quickly surrounded.

Noticing Bakuzan, Suiryu begs him for help, but is rejected. Bakuzan admits that Suiryu is stronger than he is, and that he is envious of the young martial artist. Bakuzan then eats several monster cells with the goal of becoming the strongest organism. However, he passes out instead of becoming a monster, with Gouketsu declaring that the monsterfication failed due to his body being unable to handle the monster cells. After Bakuzan passes out, The Three Crows attack Suiryu once again, but he is saved by Sneck and Max. Suiryu asks them why they came back, and the two heroes tell him that they came to save him. They decide to team up, successfully defeating The Three Crows.

Suiryu thanks Max and Sneck for helping him, then desperately tries to run away from Gouketsu while the two heroes buy time. While attempting to jump over the stadium, he is attacked by a large monster and gets sent flying to the ground. It is revealed that Bakuzan did not die from the monster cells, and merely went through a delayed transformation. Although he manages to get up, Suiryu is once again brutally attacked by Bakuzan, leaving him heavily injured.

He is later seen regaining consciousness and once again being brutalized by Bakuzan both physically and mentally. Although Suiryu manages to break Bakuzan's toe with his remaining strength, he feels utterly desperate, screaming for a hero to come to help. During this moment, Bakuzan attempts to stomp on the unconscious Sneck to torment Suiryu further only for Saitama to come in time and save Sneck from certain death. He then watches as Saitama prepares to take on Bakuzan, while he tearfully cries upon seeing a hero come to his rescue.

After witnessing Saitama killing Bakuzan with a punch, he warns Saitama about the powerful monster, Gouketsu, and the immense power of the Monster Association and asks Saitama to hide until the situation outside calms down. Furthermore, he also states that Saitama's power is nowhere near Gouketsu's. Even though he managed to kill Bakuzan, Suiryu suggests that Saitama will need the support of all of the S-Class heroes to take him down. Nevertheless, Saitama insists on going after Gouketsu by himself, despite Suiryu pleads to him to not throw his life away.

However, when Saitama sends Gouketsu's head flying directly into the stadium and right before him, Suiryu smiles dumbfounded before Saitama's unimaginable power. When Saitama returns, he asks Saitama if he can become a hero, to which Saitama replies that he can since Saitama had to go through a lot of hardship to become the powerful hero he is today. Finally, Suiryu asks Saitama to make him his disciple, only for him to decline the request.

Abilities and Powers
Suiryu is considered a legend for winning four Super Fight tournaments in a row. He defeated two A-Class heroes with one kick each, and reached the finals of the tournament with little effort. During his fight with Saitama, he was able to display strength and fighting abilities on par with S-Class heroes. Bakuzan stated that if he is able to kill Suiryu, that would make him the strongest. After the Super Fight tournament, Suiryu was able to fight and defeat four martial arts contestants who were presumably Tiger to Demon level Mysterious Beings, with Choze being the only one who could give him a difficult fight.

This display of fighting power impressed even Gouketsu, the first champion of the Super Fight Tournament, who had become a Dragon level Mysterious Being sometime since winning the first Super Fight Tournament. At one point, Gouketsu offered Suiryu an executive position in the Monster Association if he chose to become a monster, implying that if he ate a monster cell, he could become comparable to Gouketsu. However, as a human, Suiryu is no match for the likes of Gouketsu and Saitama, who both defeat him with ease.

Physical Abilities
Enhanced Senses: Suiryu was able to sense the bloodlust of Bakuzan as well as being able to sense Saitama's strength after witnessing him defeating Zakos with one slap.

Immense Speed and Reflexes: Suiryu possesses an extreme amount of speed and reflexes, being able to kick and defeat Max, an A-Class hero, in an instant, as well as being also able to dodge several strikes from another A-Class hero, Sneck with ease. Furthermore, Suiryu is fast enough to keep up with Monster Choze in their duel while the other martial artists, except Gouketsu, couldn't see their movements at all.

Immense Strength: During the Super Fight Tournament, Suiryu effortlessly defeated the A-Class heroes Lightning Max and Sneck with one kick each. He easily cut the fighting ring in half with one chop and proceeded to flip up half of it with one stomp. His overwhelming strength was enough to terrify most of the audience in the tournament, including the security. He was strong enough to deflect and kick Choze's energy projected attack into the sky. Suiryu was also strong enough to blow off one of Three Crows heads with a single kick despite being in his weakened state. With his last burst of strength he managed to break the toe of the Dragon level monster Bakuzan. This seems to indicate he could possibly put up a decent fight against Monster Bakuzan when at his full power. Even when he is completely drained of energy, he had enough power to crack the concrete when he smashed it with his fist. When flexing his muscles, he is able to shatter metal bars around his biceps, showing off his incredible muscle power.

Immense Durability: Suiryu was able to come out of his fight with Saitama without any lasting injuries though the hero wasn't serious at all. He didn't sustain any visible damage on his person despite having been launched out of the fighting ring by Saitama's hip bump that used Suiryu's own momentum against himself even when the impact shattered part of the concrete audience stand. Suiryu can take hits from Goukestsu without being knocked out despite being heavily injured.

Immense Endurance: Suiryu possesses great stamina and endurance as he was able to withstand a hip bump from Saitama that sent him flying into the audience and recovered in little time. Even after the fight, a short time later he is able to fight and defeat multiple martial artists who became Mysterious Beings. After defeating the transformed martial artists, he was still able to perform one of his martial arts techniques on the transformed Gouketsu. Despite being heavily injured, Suiryu remained conscious, albeit barely, after being hit by Gouketsu. His great endurance is yet again shown through the fact that he was able to withstand a heavy hit from Monster Bakuzan, despite sustaining heavy injuries from Gouketsu prior and still stay conscious.

Fighting Style
Master Martial Artist: Suiryu is an extremely accomplished martial artist, having won four Super Fight Tournaments in a row. He can easily defeat A-Class heroes and has shown fighting abilities possibly on par with S-Class heroes.

Void Fist (冥躰拳, Meitei-ken; Viz: The Dark Body Art or Dark Corporal Fist): This style focuses on maximizing damage output, while keeping a consistent flow of damage. His kicks are strong enough to launch Saitama high into the air and pin him deep into the ground. After Saitama blows off his clothes, he is shown using hand techniques with moves that involve spinning in a tornado movement accompanied by multiple hand thrusting attacks and punches, as well as a twisting punch that is strong enough to launch Saitama in mid-air. The style also contains defensive techniques, such as concentrating to harden a body part to withstand an attack from an opponent.


 * Void Sky Dragon Fist (冥躰空龍拳, Meitei Kūryū Ken): Suiryu attacks his opponents rapidly with a barrage of punches to the point of creating tremendous momentum that makes him twist like a tornado in mid-air. The momentum he creates from his repeating blows preserves his midair rotations.


 * Void Shivering Tiger Fist (冥躰震虎拳, Meitei Shin Koken): Suiryu drives his foot into the ground and takes a stand to put more power in his strikes.


 * Void Phoenix Ascension Fist (冥躰鳳昇拳, Meitei Hōshō Ken): A follow-up to Void Shivering Tiger Fist  in which Suiryu initiates a twisting punch that is launched into his opponent's body. The twisting motion further increases the power of his punch. Suiryu states that he can pulverize a truck with this attack. He uses this move to defeat Choze and it was powerful enough to break through Choze's heavily armored body.

Miscellaneous Abilities
Keen Perception: Suiryu is very perceptive as through mere glances at the eyes of another, he's able to deduce their nature and their strength levels. He managed to quickly figure out that most heroes in the Hero Association do their jobs for fame, glory, and self-satisfaction and realized that Saitama was very strong and only seeks thrills in battle, not fame or glory, just by looking through his eyes when most people are blinded towards the heroes' true characteristics.

Quotes

 * (To Sneck) "With or without heroes, all the surviving human will continue to survive on their own. With or without monsters, the weak will be weeded out. It's just nature's way."
 * (To Sneck) "In the end, 'we' are going to survive either way. The strong guys."
 * "When people are beaten down into a dark place, they seek the light. No matter how frail or small that light may be, in that light there is still... hope."

Trivia

 * In ONE's first storyboard, Suiryu was Lin Lin’s brother and uses Drunken Fist (酩酊拳) instead of Void Fist (冥躰拳). During the finale of the tournament, he gets drunk, goes all out against Saitama, but loses. Afterwards, Lin Lin comforts him, telling him to work harder in the future. This setting was scrapped because a drunkard vs Gouketsu was deemed too comical and they wanted to show despair. Murata didn’t say who changed the setting.
 * The kanjis for “void” and “drunken” are homonyms in Japanese, both are pronounced “meitei”.
 * In Murata's stream when describing what ethnicity the characters would be in the real world Murata stated Suiryu looks Italian.