The Shiru Pronounced: The Shee-rew
Based off of: N/A
Habitat: The Vacuan Desert
Appearance: The Shiru’s true form is mostly unknown. It is constantly hidden behind a whirlwind of millions of tiny flying Grimm that it expels from its body. The tiny Grimm have been classified as the same Grimm as The Shiru as until recently they had never strayed further than the 50ft (15.2m) diameter dome. Until 40 AC, with the advent of more powerful photograph technology and different spectrums of light to observe, it was assumed that The Shiru was simply a collection of millions of tiny Grimm. However, with new imaging done by researchers from Atlas, it was discovered that there was a figure at the center of the dome. The image has been scrutinized over and over again but even with the introduction of hunters with semblances geared toward supposition or enhanced vision, the image remains unclear.
What is known is that the figure at the center is feminine in shape and stands at 15ft (3.7m) tall. What appear to be a pair of wings extend from it’s back and seem to have a 30ft to 40ft (9.1m to 12.1m) wingspan. It is also known that The Shiru has intricate red markings approximately where the face should be as well as seven eyes: Four eyes in a square formation and three more eyes in a vertical line, one above the square, one in the center, and one below. Other than that, it’s features are unknown.
Behavior: The Shiru, like other Grimm, acts with malintent. Unlike other Grimm, however, it is slow in its actions. Historically, no matter where in the desert it appears, it begins to move toward a human or faunus settlement. It doesn’t have a pattern on whether or not it will take detours from its path. There have been records stating that The Shiru moved from one end to the other, not touching any of the settlements it came close to, before reaching a settlement on the opposite end of the desert. Similarly, there are records of The Shiru stopping at every settlement in its path.
Once The Shiru has reached its destination it will slowly move into the settlement, its swarm almost instantaneously devouring everything that comes into contact with it. It seems the Grimm will not initially go after human or faunus targets, choosing only to destroy the settlement and everything in it, though it will go after them if provoked or attacked.
It appears to be smart enough not to be lured away from its target by a human or faunus faster than it and will leave the attack and return to the semblance if it realizes it won’t catch them.
The only thing that differentiates its destination from detours is sudden changes in direction. In its trek to its destination, save for detours, it will always walk in a completely straight line, eating through dunes, mountains, and once walking through the seabed to reach a settlement on the opposite side of the bay. Detours are noted by the Grimm suddenly shifting its course to head toward a settlement or encampment.
Difficulty Rating: 10+
Unique Abilities: Swarm: The Shiru constantly expels tiny Grimm that move at extremely high speeds in a dome shape around it. These Grimm seem to have a hive mind of sorts as when something passes into the dome a sizable amount of them will swarm to the location. The longer The Shiru goes without being attacked, the denser the dome becomes.
Reincarnation: Without fail, every time The Shiru has been defeated, no central body can be located in the mess of smoking tiny Grimm. At most three days later, The Shiru will appear at another random part of the desert and begin their march toward another settlement. It is disputed whether this is the same Grimm or simply a new member of the species but the growing knowledge and ability to work around tactics previously tried implies its the former.
Increased Durability X: Each time The Shiru is killed, it comes back more durable than before. Currently, it is less durable than a goliath, but still able to tank heavy hits without slowing.
Ability Acquisition: Upon each Reincarnation, The Shiru shows more abilities than before. It is disputed whether or not this is the Grimm gaining new abilities or trying abilities it already had but the general consensus is the former.
AA-1 Unending Appetite: The tiny Grimm will break down anything that enters whirlwind down in milliseconds, making conventional weapons unusable.
AA-2 Air Current Control: Swarm is able to redirect air currents to move flames and most other things away when within the dome.
AA-3 Anti-Ice: Even Though the swarm can be frozen, the figure at the center cannot and will continue expelling new tiny Grimm to replace those frozen.
AA-4 Lightning Redirection: The swarm can redirect lighting through themselves, choosing which tiny grimm near it the lighting is sent to next. They use this to keep the lighting away from the figure at the center and keep damage low.
AA-5 Emergency Shield: If the swarm is continually burned away, a small dome of interlocking tiny grimm covering the figure and their, assumedly, folded wings that is stronger than the sum of its parts will appear. Conventional weapons become effective at this point as the grimm that form the dome are inert. The dome only lasts for several seconds while The Shiru amasses more grimm within the dome before collapsing it and sending the new swarm out.
AA-6 Swarm Control: The Shiru can stand still for a moment and expel a larger amount of tiny grimm than usual. These grimm will leave the dome in a stream and can stretch up to 50ft (15.2m) away from the dome. If the stream is cut off, the swarm that is away from the dome will continue for a second or two before dissolving.
AA-7 False Swarm: The Shiru can stand still for an extended period of time, amassing many new tiny grimm and causing the dome to grow considerably denser before continuing to walk forward, a second dome shaped swarm appears heading elsewhere. This swarm doesn’t have to stay connected to stay active but must stay within 300ft (91.4m) of the true Shiru and cannot use any of its abilities other than the swarm devouring anything it touches.
AA-8 Short Ranged Flight/Gliding: The Shiru can leap up high into the air, the dome becoming a sphere, and glide down. It also uses this to glide down from cliffs where it would have simply fallen before. There isn’t a concrete height at which it can jump, but it has been shown to be unable to reach airships.
AA-9 Ground Reconstruction: The swarm can, instead of simply devouring the ground or sand below it, move the ground, millions of pieces by millions of pieces, out from under The Shiru and hold it above the Grimm, temporarily burying the Grimm. It can then devour the ground it was holding up and fly out.
AA-10 Scouting: The Shiru can send out a single tiny Grimm out far past its normal range. This Grimm can sense out the area ahead of The Shiru to check for visible traps or the enemy positions.
AA-11 Imposing Presence: The Shiru exudes slight negative emotions to all humans and faunus within a radius of several miles. These emotions alone are not extremely strong but they can compound on negative emotions already swelling within people, possibly pushing someone just enough to give up and run if they were already considering it. Ever since this ability was unleashed, the center figure’s red markings on its face and eyes glow faintly through the swarm as if it’s shining through a dark smoke. These emotions alone are not strong enough to attract Grimm.
AA-12 Solid Structure Formation: The swarm can leave the dome in an area up to 50ft (15.2m) from the dome and form solid structures by interlocking and becoming inert like the emergency shield.
AA-13 Grimm Magnet: Whenever The Shiru is active and moving, it continually brings more and more Grimm to it, building hordes as it makes its way across the desert.
AA-14 Aural-Attack Sense: The Shiru can sense when aura attacks are launched at it before they hit through a thousands of tiny Swarm Grimm that it sends out in a field around it to do nothing more than relay information on incoming attacks. With this information, The Shiru can mobilize a large amount of the swarm or construct a swarm wall to tank most of the hit. The upper limits of this info field have not been observed as of yet.
AA-15 Grimm Control: The Shiru can produce slightly larger variants of the tiny grimm it usually produces. These variants can leave the dome and search and area of what appears to be 1000ft (305m) for other Grimm. Once found, the tiny grimm will latch onto the Grimm and The Shiru will assume direct control.
AA-16 Unknown New Ability:
Weaknesses/Vulnerable areas: The Shiru’s only weakness is pure energy. Fire, lightning, light, pure aura, etc. It isn’t as simple as shooting energy into them, however. Due to several of the abilities they have gained from being defeated, The Shiru can negate any fire or lightning that isn’t directly controlled and can resist the brunt of most pure aura attacks. Light attacks, such as laser, aren’t mitigated nor negated but The Shiru can still tank many hard hitting attacks due to their increased durability.
The best way to combat The Shiru is to have plans, backup plans, and backup backup plans. No single person can defeat The Shiru, not anymore, and the only real way to defend against it is to have a large group of high mobile hitters and casters.
Even with that knowledge, fighting The Shiru is always a gamble if you don't have overwhelming numbers and power - especially if it’s the first attack since being defeated. With it’s new ability, The Shiru could do almost anything and until it shows what the new ability is, the best option is to assume the worst.
A suggested method of finally winning is to confine it indefinitely but no known or simulated method has worked due to its swarm and anti-ice abilities.
All attacks by The Shiru against settlements from its first appearance to latest attack has been recorded with the assistance of a Hunter brought in from Atlas and are available and free to access to the public through the Grand Shade Library.