Minoru Hoshino

**Minoru Hoshino** (호시노 미노루) is a Japanese S-Rank Hunter under the Draw Sword Guild.

## Appearance

Hoshino is a young man with spiky blonde hair, long eyebrows, and gray eyes. When agitated, his eyes glow purple.

In his first appearance, he wore a black hoodie and black pants over a gray undershirt. During the Japan Crisis Arc, he wore a jet-black suit of armor.

## Personality

Hoshino is a confident individual who appeared to be on good terms with his guildmates, including Goto Ryuji. He also cared about their lives and well-being, as displayed by how he was absolutely horrified upon discovering Kei's and Ippei's headless corpses and even went into a state of traumatic shock after witnessing the Ant King effortlessly kill Goto right in front of him.

## History

### Jeju Island Arc

Four days before the 4th Jeju Island Raid was slated to take place, Hoshino met up with the rest of the Jeju Island Raid Party at the Korean Hunters Gym. He participated in the 4v4 sparring match between the two teams and faced off against Lim Tae-Gyu, ultimately winning by slamming the latter up against the side of the wall.

During the 4th Jeju Island Raid, Hoshino was grouped with Ishida and Goto in Team Alpha. When Teams Charlie and Delta suddenly stopped answering their coms, the three of them went looking and ultimately discovered their headless corpses on the other side of the island. Matsumoto, callously unbothered by the deaths, ordered them to leave the island and abandon the Korean raid team to die, but before they could, the Ant King suddenly ambushed them, beheading Ishida in a single strike. Deciding to fight, Goto ordered Hoshino to leave him behind and join up with Team Bravo. Hoshino complied, but not before witnessing the Ant King kill Goto in one shot.

When he finally managed to get off the island along with Kanae and Kumamoto, Hoshino was able to get past his shock of seeing Goto die right in front of him and explain to his surviving guildmates as to what happened with the Ant King. When he began to babble about how they were doomed, Reiji ordered him to calm down and told him that he had just gotten word from the Korean Hunters Association that a Korean hunter had killed the Ant King and that the raid had succeeded, albeit with major casualties.

### Japan Crisis Arc

When a S-Rank Gate suddenly spawned in Tokyo, Hoshino was brought in to help with the situation. Following the dungeon break and Yuri Orloff's death, he and Kanae attempted to attack a giant, but the monster easily knocked them aside with its sword. After Jinwoo arrived in Japan and his shadow army made short work of the giants, Hoshino and Kanae were left behind in the wreckage as the shadows headed towards Tokyo.

## Abilities

As a hunter whose abilities were recognized by Goto, Hoshino is obviously competent for a S-Rank. However, he was virtually helpless against the giants during the Tokyo dungeon break and was barely able to dodge their attacks. He was also powerless against the Ant King and would have been killed by the monster had Goto not used himself as a diversion.

* **Enhanced Strength:** Hoshino was able to easily overpower Lim in their sparring match and slam the latter up against the wall of the Korean Hunters' Gym with enough force to create a large hole.
* **Enhanced Speed:** Hoshino was able to easily dodge Lim's magical arrows at close range.

## Etymology

* The name **Minoru** means "harvest, ripen" (稔).
* Minoru's surname **Hoshino** means "star" (星) (**hoshi**) and "field, wilderness" (野) (**no**).

## References

1. ↑ Solo Leveling Webtoon: Chapter 93
2. ↑ Solo Leveling Webtoon: Chapter 100
3. ↑ Solo Leveling Webtoon: Chapter 105