GureShin

GureShin is the slash ship between Guren Ichinose and Shinya Hiiragi from the Seraph of the End fandom.

Canon
Shinya and Guren are trusted comrades who can count on one another on battlefield. Shinya teases Guren constantly, leading to a lot of banter between them that Guren always ends with a "Shut up".

Catastrophe at Sixteen Light Novels
Guren first meet Shinya when they were 15-year-olds while attending the same high school. Shinya waits in front of the School building for Guren. To test Guren's strength Shinya immediately attacks him with a spell. At that point, Guren wants to hide his strength and let himself get hit by the spell.

They meet again in class. Instead of sitting in front, Shinya intentionally choses to sit in the back next to Guren. Shinya hates the Hiiragi family he was adopted by and seeks for an ally in Guren. Though Guren tries to keep up his mask of a weak coward, Shinya immediately looks right through him, leaning over to him and whispering that Guren should stop the farce. Guren feels caught, but he refuses Shinya's offer to work with him.

From that on Shinya keeps trying to get Guren to notice him. He starts talking to him on regular basis, even in class, and even though Guren avoids him. Shinya once asks him if they would go home together, but Guren tells him to "fuck off".

Even though Shinya had looked right through Guren from the moment they met, Guren keeps up his facade. When he gets in a fight with Seishiro, a full blood Hiragi and Shinya's brother, Guren is about to get beaten up. Yet Shinya interfers, taking Seishiro's hit and thereby ending the fight. Though Shinya helped Guren out, he is furious that Guren is not as strong as he expected him to be. He tell Guren not to talk to him again, though Guren says, that Shinya had been talking to him the whole time.

Soon after the school is attacked and in the chaos only Guren and Shinya are able to keep a cool head. Shinya discovers Guren's real strength against Saito. Even though they banter about who's the strongest, they join forces in the battle against Saito.

After the attack, Kureto, the students president and also a full blood Hiragi, keeps an eye on Guren. Shinya and Guren are talking in the schoolyard. Shinya notices it and tell Guren, that he will punch him now so that Kureto would not get suspicious. Guren agrees, but instead of punching him, Shinya kicks him and Gurne complains that they agreed on punching.

Nevertheless Kureto still commands Guren into the gym to test him. Shinya is also there. When Kureto orders Shinya to attack Guren, Guren decieds to take a hit, thinking that he trusts Shinya to not kill him. Becaue they're comrades. But Shinya holds back, because he does not want to hurt Guren, and Kureto notices it.

Shinya keeps whispering to Guren in class. He writes him a short note that he has information about a meeting of the Hyakuya sect. Guren agrees to observe them together with Shinya. That day also their other friends come over. They play games, even though Guren does not want to. Therefore Guren loses on purpose but Shinya looks again right through him. He smiles at Guren and Guren immediately knows that he had been caught again and curses Shinya. As a response Shinya laughs and says "I can't hear you but I know what you mean.".

Shinya and Guren meet alone later to observe the Hyakuya Sect. But the meeting goes wrong and they are attacked by a vampire. Shinya saves Guren's life by pulling him on his motorcycle. They are rushing through Tokyo, trying to outpace the vampire. Guren holds onto Shinya, while fighting from the back of the motorcycle. Shinya jokes what others would think, if there are two guys riding a motorcycle together at night and without helmets on.

They are able to outpace the vampire. But Guren was hit on the head by a rearview mirror. When Shinya notices the wound, he asks if it had been the vampire. But Guren says it was due to Shinya shitty driving. Shinya laughs and tells him to watch out. Nevertheless he offers to help Guren with patching it up. Guren refuses (as always) and Shinya tries his best to help him, telling him to not stop playing the strong man and joking, that no one would marry Guren like this. Still in the end, Guren admits to him that he can trust Shinya a little now.

The events of the novels get more and more serious. The school is attacked and Guren takes the demon cursed sword in order to protect his friends. Yet the demon sword posses him, making him kill everyone in his way. The Hiragi led by Kureto are able to barricade the school, trapping Guren, who had become a demon, inside.

Shinya reflects on his relationship with Guren. Mahiru, Shinya's fiancee, had told him upfront, that she was in love with Guren and not him. Since childhood Shinya had wondered what was so special about Guren and now he realizes that it's his will is "what makes him so attractive" (book 4). Shinya notices that he admires Guren for his will to risk his life for others. He sees a shiny hero in Guren. So Shinya decieds to resuce him instead of killing him. He thinks that even though it's insane to risk his life for someone else, "We need need you... We need to save you."

Shinya comes up with a plan and is able to defeat the possesd Guren together with their friends. Shinya attacks Guren and holds him cloes, so that they are both hit by daggers, creating a spell circle that would excorcise Guren. While Guren is unconcious, Shinya holds him in his arms for more than one hour until Guren is no longer possessed.

After Guren is awake again, Shinya tries to get a "thank you from him" by teasing Guren. But Guren refuses, as always. When Shinya points out, that Guren did not save him, so Guren owes him something, they start to banter again.

In the prologue of volume 5, Guren and Shinya meet up with their friends to play video games. Guren and Shinya are playing against each other, but Shinya is playing unfair, always trying to push Guren. They end up in a quarrel, Shinya pretends to do it unintentially while Guren exactly knows that he's doing it on purpoes and Guren being to stubborn to just let Shinya win. In the end, they agreed on that it's stupid to fight over it. Just to grab their controllers again, the next second.

Guren, Shinya and their friends have to go to Kyoto in order to try to kill Mahiru. Else Guren's father will be executed. Shortly after Guren has a call with his father, Shinya appears with Mito and Goshi in front of his door. Shinya knows what's wrong, because he had been wiretapping Guren. Shinya jokes that they are friends who "wiretap each other to make sure the other one isn't cheating". When Guren asks, if he had been cheating, Shinya replies with "The relationship with your father is questionable."

Guren does not want his friends to help him, yet Shinya tells him that how he is acting is kind of cute.

They go to Kyoto. Guren falls asleep in the van. When he awakes, Shinya is watching him. Guren asks him what he is doing here and why he did not wake him up. Shinya says that he just looked so cute while sleeping. As Shinya and Guren afterwards enter the love hotel together they are mistaken for a couple by a teenage couple in front of the elevators.

During their last fight against Mahiru, she kills Shinya and Guren's other friends. Guren is so desperate about Shinya's death that he accepts to trigger the "Seraph of the End" experiment, which will revive Shinya and his friends, but will only give them 10 more years. Guren also takes the sin upon himself that he thereby causes the apocalypse and kills millions of people, just to be with Shinya again.

Resurrection at Nineteen Light Novels
The "Seraph of the End" worked. Guren's friends are healed and breathing again. But when he checks for Shinya, he isn't breathing, though his wounds are healed. Guren is desperate, thinking, "If Shiya didn't come back to life, he had violated the taboo for nothing". Fortunately Shinya is revived by Ferid starting his heart beat again.

Having revived Shinya and his friends, Guren continues to live with the guilt of having caused the apocalypse.

When Shinya takes him for a ride on his motorcycle Guren leans against Shinya's back and enhances his demonic powers to be able to hear his heart beat. Guren starts counting his heart beats, just to be reminded that Shinya is still alive and that he made the right decision reviving him from the dead.

Vampire Reign Manga
Guren had distanced himself from his friends to keep them save, as they will die if they learn about their deaths. Nevertheless he gathers his friends, including Shinya, to help him.

Yet Guren betrays them in chapter 83 and becomes a full demon. Shinya wants to stop him. He begs his demon to give him more power which results in an internal monologue between Shinya and his demon. Shinya's demon, Byakkomaru, tells Shinya that he acts if he was in love with Guren. Shinya just laughs and replies with something that can roughly be translated to it's just longing/admiration. But his body language shows how much he cares about Guren. He puts his desire into one final sentence: I will never give up on Guren.

In chapter 83, Shinya talks to his demon Byakkomaru. The demon says that Shinya cares too much about Guren. At one point, he asks if Shinya is in love with Guren, to which Shinya replies "It's just your garden-variaty idolization". Because of this moment, many began to think that Shinya is in love with Guren, since the demons know everything about their masters, but in the further chapter of the manga, using the example of Asuramaru, it was shown that, in fact, the demons cannot know everything about their masters include their main desires or feelings, so Byakkomaru cannot know about Shinya's feelings for Guren. Also in the original, Shinya replied that it was just an aspiration because he is a little envy to Guren. Therefore, there is still no confirmation in the manga if Shinya really loves Guren.

In chapter 99 Guren cries as he reveals that he thinks he was supposed to die with Shinya back then, referring to their last converstaion before Shinya died. Shinya told him not to become a demon and stay human, but Guren was so desperate that he ignored Shinya's directive. The scene emphazies their deep connection that is reciprocated by Guren.

Catastrophe at Sixteen Drama CD1
The drama CD is a short story about Guren and his friends having a summer party at the pool. Shinya attacks Guren with firework and they start a fight. They end up falling into the pool together. When they look up Shinya says "the moon is beautiful, isn't it?" and Guren replies with "Whatever!". Later Shinya repeats that sentence in a slightly different way "Tsuki ga kirei (nanda)".

This phrase is known in literature to mean "I love you" as Japanese people are not that upfront.

Catastrophe at Sixteen Drama CD2
Guren and his friends are having an early christmas party together. While Goshi is very excited about celebrating with the girls, Shinya says that he does not care about girls.

Vampire Reign Drama CD
Shinya visits Guren in his office and talks to him while Guren gets annoyed (as always). Shinoa enters and tells Guren that Yuu and Kimizuki are not getting along so well. Guren says that he dislikes one person in the room. Shinoa asumes it's her and offers to leave, but Guren tells her, that he does not refer to her. Then Shinoe asks for advice. Shinya says that they just need to do it like Guren and him back in their school days, referencing a night of "passion" they need to share.

Fanbook/Q&A

 * In the character interview of Shinya, he is asked what he looks for in the opposite sex. He replies that his "finacee was like this and that he is not interested anymore"
 * In the Q&A on the Owari no Seraph Homepage, Kagami explains that Guren is the sun to both Mahiru and Shinya. Mahiru is confirmed to be in love with Guren.

Fanon
The best friends to lovers trope is one of the major reasons why fans are drawn to this ship, and another is the unique ways in which they show how much they care for one another - Shinya with his playful teasing and Guren with his seemingly harsh words.

Guren's past relationship with Mahiru Hiiragi is featured in some GureShin fanfics, often with Shinya helping Guren recover from his heartbreak before they eventually realize that throughout that process, they have fallen in love with each other.

In some fanfiction that includes both this ship and MikaYuu, Guren and Shinya tend to play the role of supportive parents to Mika and Yuu as the younger pair's relationship gradually develops into a romantic one. Having been best friends ever since they were in high school, they have grown quite close over the years.

On AO3, GureShin is the most written ship for both Guren and Shinya. It is the second most written ship within the Seraph of the End tag.

Fandom
FAN FICTION
 * Shinya/Guren tag on FanFiction.net
 * Shinya/Guren tag on FanFiction.net

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