Kuro Sakuragawa

* Anime
* Manga

**Kuro Sakuragawa** (桜川 九郎, *Sakuragawa Kurou*) is the main male protagonist of *Kyokou Suiri* and the current boyfriend of Kotoko Iwanaga. He has supernatural powers of immortality and precognition.

## Appearance

Kuro is a fairly attractive, tall young man with light skin, black hair, and yellow eyes.

## Personality

Kuro is quiet and tends to be very non-confrontational, barely even taking notice of his own injuries. He is uncaring about his own safety due to his healing abilities.

## Background

When he was a child, he grew up in a traditional Japanese house with his many relatives. One day while eating with the rest of his family, the rest of his cousins and possibly siblings, seem to collapse and die within seconds of eating. His grandmother reveals that he had been fed both Kudan and Ningyo meat as part of the Sakuragawa family's goal of creating someone who could predict the future without dying. To test if the meat actually worked, his grandmother submitted him to many experiments which involved cutting him open, to the point he either stopped feeling pain or it no longer affected him. He was one of the only ones who survived, alongside his cousin Rikka.

He leads a relatively normal life as a high schooler, even finding a girlfriend, Saki Yumihara, and later going to the same college as her. During this time, he also visits Rikka at the hospital she admitted herself to, going regularly enough that the nurses know him, and Saki goes with him to make sure they don't flirt with him. He was a second-year at H-university and a student at their law school.

Eventually, Saki finds out the truth of what he is after the two come across a kappa after visiting a shrine, and the kappa flees in fear. This prompts her to break things off with him and move away to another city for work immediately after graduation.

## Abilities

At the age of 11, Kuro ate two types of Yokai: the Kudan and Ningyo meat, as part of the Sakuragawa family's goal to create someone who could predict the future without dying.

**Immortality**: Kuro has been granted the ability to recover from any physical injury. First demonstrated when encountering the Bull Ayakashi, he lets Yokai eat his own arm. Kuro, however, heals it within seconds; in addition that his flesh is also a poison for the Yokai. During his first fight against Steel Lady Nanase, Kuro got his head completely crushed by the spectre, only to regenerate immediately, repairing the brain and nerve cells to keep his mind intact. His healing factor can work both as regrowth and reversion: when he got his arm eaten, Kuro regrows his missing arm; however, when Steel Lady Nanase ripped his ear off, it simply returned to him, undoing all the damage.

**Precognition**: Kuro's other ability is to predict the future. While the price to use this ability is "death", Kuro is immune to this since he has acquired immortality. First demonstrated when he manages to forecast the Steel Lady Nanase's attack, quickly countering the spectre. It is later revealed rather than a prediction of the future, out of the infinite branches of time, Kuro can choose one, and that is what will happen, effectively determining the future. Despite this, the power is limited to the branch he can grab.

**Superhuman Strength**: Kuro is much stronger than any normal human, strong enough to hold his own against Steel Lady Nanase.

**Deduction**: During the Guillotine Sanshirou mystery, Kuro was also proven to be intelligent. He almost solved the case without Kotoko's help since the latter was fallen asleep; however, the suspect had fled as Kuro's deductions seem to be accurate that it intimidated the suspect.

## Relationships

**Kotoko Iwanaga**:
The two first met at the hospital, and Kotoko believed it was love at first sight. Then 2 years later, shortly after Kuro had broken up with Saki, Kotoko decided to make the first move. Several years later, the two date, but Kuro only holds platonic feelings for Kotoko. Despite so, Kuro cares for Kotoko's well-being and will protect her when needed. However, over the course of the series, Kuro began to develop actual romantic feelings for her, later telling her in Chapter 13 that he needed her. It has also been alluded to on several occasions by Kotoko that she and Kuro have done erotic things, though Kotoko says this mostly to taunt Saki.

**Saki Yumihara**:
Saki is Kuro's ex-fiancé who broke up with him after he reveals his powers to her. They stopped talking after that, but their reunion several years later rekindled their friendship.

**Rikka Sakuragawa**:
She is Kuro's cousin and his "first love". He deeply cares for her and often visits her in the hospital.