Shouichi Shinkawa

Shouichi Shinkawa is the true identity behind Death Gun, the antagonist of the Phantom Bullet Arc. A former member of the notorious player-killer guild Laughing Coffin during the Aincrad incident, he continued targeting former guild members after Sword Art Online was cleared, this time in the real world, using knowledge of victims' game accounts and a partner still active inside Gun Gale Online, Kanamoto Atsushi, to stage in-game deaths as cover for actual murders.

Cold and sadistic, Shouichi enjoys the fear his reputation generates and treats killing, whether virtual or real, as a source of genuine pleasure rather than a means to an end. Years of illness that kept him hospitalized through much of his childhood, and the resentment of a father who redirected all his expectations onto Shouichi's younger brother instead, left him isolated long before he found Laughing Coffin.

His plan ultimately targets Kirito, drawn into Gun Gale Online specifically to investigate the killings, and unravels only once Kirito exposes the mechanism behind the supposedly supernatural gun.