Masahiko Kurusu

**Masahiko Kurusu** (くるす まさひこ, *Kurusu Masahiko*) is an antagonistic character in Chlorine Grown Roses.

## Appearance

While his appearance has differed between his first drawn appearance (as a silhouette in Chapter 17's cover image) and his most recent one (in Chapter 20's cover image), the only consistent descriptions in text are that he has blond hair, 'light' eyes, is short, and wears a suit. He is also described as having "frecks". This was later corrected, marking his appearance in the 17's chapter cover the canon one.

## Personality

Masahiko is very easily angered by even the slightest provocation, as shown when he began shouting at and threatening Azusa in Chapter 17. He's very prone to violence along with this, but he can also be sarcastic and low key with his threats and speech, as displayed in Chapter 20. Even when shown kindness, he assumes that it's being done so he'll owe a favor to someone. He has no qualms with threatening Azusa on a regular basis, and has even struck her on a few occasions, most notably when he throws his shoe at her and shoves her out a window.

He seems to have a soft side behind this, however, as he attends Makoto's funeral (despite not having met Makoto) and later saves Azusa from being killed by Chiasa, incurring serious injuries as a result.

## History

Masahiko first appeared in Chapter 17 along with Nagisa Hazuki and some random buff yakuza guy. He threatens to kill Azusa if she tries to rat out Chiasa Tachibana to the cops (as she's his girlfriend) before promptly leaving the mental hospital. Later, he is admitted to the same hospital for unknown reasons and later detained by Kimmy Sakura for questioning. During this interrogation, he is deprived of food, water, and sleep, which worries Azusa, who is sure that he has a good side within him. Azusa unties him and helps him escape, but Masahiko knocks her out with his shoe instead of thanking her.

Masahiko later appears disguised as Kou Matsuoka in a disguise appearing similar to Peko Pekoyama's appearance in the second trial of *Super Danganronpa 2* so he can help Azusa, Hitomi, Luna, Esther, Conchita, Shatter and Yami escape the mental hospital. When Azusa discovers his true identity on her way out, however, he pushes her out of the window and knocks her out.

Besides a random call to intimidate her, Masahiko isn't prominently featured again until Makoto's funeral, which he attends for seemingly no reason but has to step out of due to a phone call. Only a few chapters later, he comes to Azusa's rescue when she is cornered by Chiasa and his badly injured. He and Chiasa subsequently disappear, leaving only a trail of blood to show where he/they went. His current status is unknown.

## Relationships

### Chiasa Tachibana

According to Masahiko, the two are in a relationship, though the details of this relationship have yet to be detailed. It seems that he thinks very highly of his girlfriend due to his comments about her over the course of the story and his reluctance to reveal private information about her; he even threatened to kill everyone Azusa knows if she went to the police to give them information about Chiasa.

### Yamamoto

In his first appearance Yamamoto seems to be the bodyguard of his boss.

### Azusa Kimber Tachibana

He has a known hatred of Azusa that seems to stem from Chiasa's hatred. The most that is known is that Chiasa and Masehiko want her to suffer for whatever reason. By the end of Chapter 20, it seems as if Azusa has started to feel like maybe Masahiko isn't as bad as she thought. After she frees him from Kimmy's interrogation, he's angry enough to throw his shoe at her. However, he later returns to help her get out of the mental ward, disguising himself as Kou Matsuoka.

### Kimmy Sakura

As of chapter 20, Kimmy restrains Masahiko by tying him up in his room. She interrogates him and plans to torture him, denying him access to food, water and sleep. She also is thought to be the person who changed Masehiko's clothes against his will. Masahiko doesn't seem to like her.

### Makoto Tachibana

Despite having no connection to him, Masahiko attends his funeral because he's "nto a total basterd" (sic) and calls him a kid. He seems to blame both Azusa and Akira Tomuson for his death.

## Changes

Masahiko's appearance, as mentioned before, differed in his first and second appearance. In chapter 21 there's additionally a little picture of him included which resembles the silhouette seen on chapter 17's cover image, later the author uploaded a revised version of chapter 20's cover.

In chapter 23, Masehiko has been renamed to Masahiko, brushing the previous name off as an accidental misspelling.

## Trivia

* The chapter introducing Masahiko and the chapter in which he's tied up by Kimmy (Chapters 17 and 20, respectively) are the two chapters in which Azusa cries the most (not counting Chapter 13).
* Masahiko is a fairly blatant expy of Fuyuhiko Kuzuryuu from Super Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair.
	+ His last name Kurusu sounds very similiar to Kuzuryu.
	+ After his design change he looks even more alike.
* He seems to have no problems with cross dressing.
* He is character-critique-central's favorite character in CGR.
* As of chapter 32, he both owns and tips his fedora.
* In a Skype conversation, Kim has gone on record as saying that Masahiko is "not a bad persn" and yet is "not one of the good guys". When asked to give him a character alignment after these confusing and contradictory statements, she states that he is Lawful Evil.