Ao Yanaihara

* Teen
* Child
* Adult

Masatoshi Kuroba *(黒羽允俊 Kuroba Masatoshi) or* Ao *(*青 *Ao*)is SHSL Shoudo at the rebuilt Kibougamine Academy under the stolen identity ***Aoko Yanaihara.*** He is responsible for the kidnapping and torture of several individuals, and is a good friend of Jataro Kemuri.

## Appearance

Ao has pale skin, brown eyes and long hair, dyed to be a copper-blonde colour. He is unusually short for his age; a trait that remains with him throughout his adulthood.

As a child, Ao had short, messy black hair and a tiny body due to malnourishment.

As Aoko Yanaihara, Ao has a carefully selected range of feminine outfits-- having a preference for cute, fashionable skirts and blouses. When appearing as Ao Yanaihara, Ao often switches his skirts out for pants.

## Personality

Ao has a naturally unperturbed personality and a lack of general self-consciousness. He is not so much shy as he is untrusting. Coming from an extremely rich family he has been heavily sheltered and pampered since his teenage years. He generally gives the illusion that he is used to being protected, and has a tendency to project similar expectations onto the people that he latches onto in an attempt to seem frail and lower their guard. This whilst simultaneously keeping them close to his side.

Some of his behaviour may seem borderline manipulative or, more frankly, annoying or unnerving-- although these traits have evolved with age and development, transforming into what seems to be an over-the-top sense of nonconformity.

Ao prides himself on his free-spirit, believing it to be typical derivation of any artistic type. He is obsessed with art and unsurprisingly, many of his genuine friendships are procured from this fascination.

Ever since childhood, Ao has felt a complete lack of empathy and remorse. He has a need to better understand these things, and his desperation to feel them has previously caused him to spiral out of control and harm and abuse others; torturing and drugging them. He also lacks care for his own safety and well-being, often acting oblivious to pain or inflicting it upon himself for attention.

Despite his lack of emotional understanding,Ao is highly intelligent and has an act pieced together to make others believe that he grasps those concepts and it is very difficult to tell otherwise. Although unusual, Ao can be explosive when his temper is provoked; often reacting violently or in a way that can be harmful to others as well as himself.

## History

At the age of five, Ao watched his father and grandparents burn alive in a car wreckage. After this point, his mother became clinically depressed and three years later, she committed suicide through cyanide poisoning. Ao was the one to discover her body. He became interested in the use of chemicals from that point.

Up until the Tragedy,Ao lived on the streets of Hinohara, fighting for survival and conning people for food and money. He was malnourished, leading to poor physical development and susceptibility to disease. Unlike many of his peers, however, Ao did not die off due to health issues or natural conditions and was a smart and cunning survivor. During that time, Ao found Yuya Otaka on the streets and decided to take him under his wing in return for assistance and loyalty. Yuya then began following Ao like a shadow, loving and protecting him from any harm.

At some point Ao and Yuya took shelter in what they thought was an abandoned building. It was, however, occupied by a large group of female orphans who had killed their own house mother to live freely without adult supervision. They took in, interrogated and kidnapped Ao and Yuya, often forcing them to sit down for makeovers and go out to get food. After a certain amount of time there, when the orphanage was taken over by rioters, Ao, Yuya and the members of the orphanage scattered back into the streets for survival.

As a young teenager at some point during the Tragedy, he was discovered by Aoko Yanaihara, the heir to a rich family, who took him in and protected him. Ao quickly fell in love with the familial attention and became obsessed with Aoko, himself. This drew to the point where he wanted to *become him* in order to have the full affections of his family.

He kidnapped Aoko and took him very far away from her home in order to study him and his behaviours. He tested out and studied the use of chemicals on the human body, using Aoko as a live subject. To him, the torturing was out of 'love for her' and he felt no remorse in doing so. He cut off all of Aoko's hair and began moulding him into the image of himself, refusing to call him anything but his own name, and taking on his own identity, slowly. After a year, Aoko attempted to escape and Ao pushed him off the roof of the house he was holding his experiments in, believing him to be dead because of this.

Ao returned to his adoptive family and spent his years living under them as Aoko Yanaihara and using their influence to cover up the truth. Along with several of his personality traits, Ao took on Aoko's passion and skill for calligraphy and later developed a love of art and art theory.

During his time at Hope's Peak Academy, Ao became good friends with Jataro Kemuri and developed unrequited feelings for Monaka Towa, although these were more out of obsession than love.

## Relationships

### Aoko Yanaihara

Despite the being the one responsible for the torture, Ao held great admiration for Aoko, and openly confessed that he thought that Aoko had been *'the prettiest girl he had ever seen'*. Aoko does not reciprocate any of those feelings for Ao, and completes errands and tasks for him mainly out of fear and nothing else. Ao also confessed in his logs that he would *'probably love Aoko forever, deep down'.*

### Jataro Kemuri

Ao and Jataro have an intense mutual, creative bond and respect for one another. They often have fun and revel in each other's company. Ao truly cares for Jataro, and is reluctant to hurt him.

### Monaka Towa

Ao has previously had a strong obsession with Monaka and made several attempts to win over her affections, some of which almost succeeded. Later, Ao accepted the fact that Monaka would never return his feelings, and with Monaka feeling very uncomfortable being around him, assured her that he was recovering well and would understand if she hated him.

### Ren Shimakage

Ren and Ao are mutual friends, often crossing paths and exchanging polite conversation, or even on the rare occasion, spending time together. Ren is one of the first people to learn about Ao's true identity.

### Kayori Hato

The two have been good friends since starting high school. Ao would often give Kayori ink for his manga work and they would discuss nature and art. Kayori had a crush on and genuinely cared for Ao, and is shocked to learn about his true nature. He still values Ao as a friend despite this, and wishes him the best.

### Yuya Otaka

Yuya and Ao met during *the Tragedy* in the streets of Hinahara and became close friends. To this day, Yuya remains faithful to Ao, although admittedly doesn't approve of all of his methods.

### Tama Ozaki

Ao met Tama briefly on a few occasions during the Tragedy in Hinohara. First, during the ***Hinohara Girls' Orphanage Takeover,*** and a few more times on the streets after that. Despite Ao's change in appearance, Tama was able to recognise him right away.

### Shiho Narugino

Narugino and Ao are childhood acquaintances. They met briefly during the ***Hinohara Girls' Orphanage Takeover.***

### Shiho Muranushi

Muranushi and Ao are childhood acquaintances. They met briefly during the ***Hinohara Girls' Orphanage Takeover.***

### Keiji Handsome

During the Tragedy, Ao met Keiji on the streets and attempted to pickpocket him. Keiji retaliated by brutally attacking Ao. To this day, Ao is still afraid of Keiji.

### Madoka Tsukagoshi

Although not that well acquainted with Madoka, she successfully manages to make Ao uncomfortable with her antics and oversharing.

## Stats

* 1 - 3 Low - Average
* 4 - 6 Above Average - High
* 7 - 10 Extremely High - Perfect

Strength

## Quotes

* (To Jataro) *"Rich people can pay anyone to do anything for them. And if they do something wrong, they c-can just use money to get away with it. O-or blackmail people."*
* (To Jataro) *"I've lied. A lot. There's no excuse. I've lied to a lot of people, and... I've even lied to you. About... who I am... and what I've done to **be** who I am... But please... let me say... there wasn't a single moment where I lied about the way that I feel about you."*
* (To Jataro) *"If all we are is what's in our pasts... the horrible things that we've done... everybody would be against each other."*
* (To Aoko) **"*I told you never to call me that again, you filthy bitch."***
* *"I think the world has so many standards and generalisations about what should be and what's good or beautiful. That's why there's real beauty in the unique, in the ugly things, in unadulterated expressionism. That's where you find the raw truth about humanity. All of it. You've got to appreciate flaws and metaphors... otherwise you're ignorant like the rest of the world."*
* *"I've been in love with art since I first picked up a brush."*

## Trivia

* The surname Kuroba (*黒羽) means 'black feather' and the first name Masatoshi is spelled with the kanji for permit/sincerity (允) and prodigy (俊)*
* The last name 'Yanaihara' is a reference to the Japanese billionaire *Tadashi Yanai* as in Mainverse, the Yanaihara family owns the second-largest *holding company* in Japan and fifth in the world. According to Ao, they fund groups that deal with exports to other countries and some trades with foreign companies. They are considered to be z*aibatsu.*
* Ao has three bedrooms, one of which contains a miniature golf set.
* Ao is not very well coordinated and often trips over himself.
* Ao is a vegetarian.
* Like Aoko, Ao's blood type is A
* Ao can perfectly mimic anybody's handwriting.
* Ao's hobby is *hand-preparing matcha* *for tea.*
* His favourite food is *umeboshi* while his least favourite is *any kind of meat.*
* Ao likes *art theory* and *cute animals*, and dislikes *snow.*
* His most treasured item is *Jataro's skyline painting.*