not everything is as it seems

Shoichi Irie first shows up in the REBORN! manga in chapter 13 during the introduction arc. We meet him after Lambo crashes into his family's house and his mother & sister order him to return Lambo (and the box sent by the Bovino family as an apology for Lambo's destruction) to Tsuna's home. Shoichi is only a middle school student during this time and is very frighthend and confused by what he finds at Tsuna's household; never being able to return the box to Tsuna in the end.

Shoichi seemed like a very studious and serious boy, with the comment made by his sister while on the phone with him. He wasn't the type of boy to make lots of jokes and looked at the world very straight forward. He also seemed to be easily pushed around by both his sister and mother, and ironically enough none of them seem to take him serious at all.

A noticable quality about Irie is that he seems to be somewhat of a music buff. In chapter 13 you can see him with a pair of earphones around his neck when Lambo crashes into his home. Then nine years later in the Future Arc, he is seen wearing headphones and also a tee-shirt with the name of the English singer and former-Blur member, "Graham Coxon". He also seems to fall asleep easily when he's sitting around doing paperwork or reseach, more often than not while listening to music.

Nine years into the future, Tsuna is told by the Gokudara of that time to kill Shoichi Irie when he returns to the past. We are not given any clues to why Shoichi is a threat to Vongola's livelihood and it is not until chapter 145 when Irie reappears once again. He is no longer the geeky looking boy of the past, but is now the captain of the White Spell 2nd Rose Squad and an A Rank in the Millfiore Family.

Shoichi is very quick to be upset or angry when things are not working out and seems much too reserved and quite to be the a Captain in such a powerful family. But when he is given power over the entire Japan base to begin the full-out attack on the Vongola's secret hideout, what seems to be his "true self" (a very agressive and mean personality) comes out.

Shoichi appeared in both Chrome and Tsuna's dreams as his younger-self before turning into his present future self at their ends. What it is he was trying to protect from Chrome was a mystery.

He seems to have a very close relationship with the Boss of the White Spell, Byakuran. Byakuran calls him by the nickname "Sho-chan" and seems to put much faith and trust in Shoichi as a member of his family. Shoichi in return seems very protective of Byakuran and his well being. When Mukuro Rokudo posed as a spy in the Millfiore main base, Shoichi quickly pointed out that the man Mukuro had posed as was not the man he had hired.


Finally in chapter 218 of the manga, all the mysteries surrounding Shoichi are revealed. After Tsuna arrives at Irie's lab, he wakens the sleeping Guardians, telling them of the history of the rings and taking the Vongola rings into his posession. He also tells them that he has been keeping their future counterparts' bodies there in the future, locked up in the same white machine seen in Chrome & Tsuna's dreams. But the Cervello are taken out by Irie himself as they are about to shoot Tsuna and Spanner; and he finally reveals to everyone that: he is their ally.

Shoichi's ruthless personallity is thrown away and he suddenly is nervous and flustered being in the presence of the whole Vongola family, taking off his uniform jacket and tusseling his hair; sporting another t-shirt that says, "Blood Peppers." Thanks to Tsuna's disruptions on the Millfiore base, the usual surveillance cameras watching him 24/7 are gone, and he can talk to all of them without worry.

Shoichi tells them, everything upto this point (coming to the future and meeting there in the Millfiore base) have all been apart of a secret plan, set up between the future Tsunayoshi, Hibari Kyoya and Irie himself. The plan was unknown to everyone else, by the insitance of Tsuna himself. Irie's past self had been sending everyone periodically into the future with the 10-year-bazooka, to allow time for them to train to face Byakuran soon.

Irie's seemingly friendly relationship with Byakuran had all been a farce, a mask warn by Irie himself to influtrate Millifiore and get close enough to Byakuran to and be able to defeate him then the time came.

Questions as to how Shoichi joined the Vongola family or why Tsuna chose him to help with his important plan; is still a mystery to be answered.