Kusanagi

### Fighting

Kusanagi style of ancient martial arts + personal style of Chinese boxing (Kenpo)

### Weapon

None

**Kusanagi** (officially rendered as **KUSANAGI** with no kanji), originally called **Clone Kyo** (クローン), is a character from *The King of Fighters* series of fighting games developed by ***SNK***. He was first introduced in ***The King of Fighters 2002*** (and its remake) as a hidden character and potential mid-boss, while canonically re-introduced in ***The King of Fighters 2003*** as a mandatory mid-boss.

## Story

### NESTS Chronicles

*(This section is not canon)*

Kusanagi debuts in the Dream Match game, The King of Fighters 2002: Challenge to Ultimate Battle, where he is implied to be a NESTS created clone based on Kyo Kusanagi. In *KOF 2002: Unlimited Match* he is a Kyo clone created by NESTS. He shares an ending with the other two Kyo clones depicting the clones awakening in a destroyed NESTS facility.

### Tales Of Ash

Kusanagi canonically debuts in *The King of Fighters 2003*. During the 2003 tournament, Kusanagi was created as a product of Chizuru Kagura's magic, used to test the strength of the tournament's contestants. His evil appearance is possibly due to the fact that he was created by Chizuru while under the control of Mukai (the leader of the *KOF 2003* operation) and Botan (the puppeteer controlling Chizuru and Rose Bernstein). During the tournament, Kusanagi attacks the K' Team (K', Maxima, and Whip) in the Middle East, but is ultimately defeated. It is currently unknown where Kusanagi is after the events of *2003*.

## Appearance

He is exactly the same as Kyo in the orochi saga but darker and with red eyes, without affecting the white parts of his clothes and his clothes are totally black except for the shirt, the shoes, the sun on his back and the ribbon.

## Personality

Kusanagi lives only to fight and wants to find a strong fighter for him to test his skills. He enjoys battling pyrokinetic hand to hand combatants (including a weapon user, Mai), especially battling the original Kyo.

Similar to Kyo-1, he's serious at most times. He has special quotes against characters like Kyo, Iori, K', and K9999 in *KOF 2002.*

## Powers

* **Pyrokinesis** - Kusanagi has control over fire, but not immune to other types of fire he didn't create.
	+ **Create Fire** - Kusanagi can create fire from thin air.
	+ **Fire Attacks** - Kusanagi can deliver attacks of fire.
	+ **Fire Projectiles** - Kusanagi can fire a projectile of fire through the ground.
	+ **Pillar of Fire** - Kusanagi can create a powerful pillar made of fire.
	+ **Fire Body** - Kusanagi can put his own body on fire without burning himself.

## Fighting Style

Kusanagi fights using a modified version of Kyo's original fighting style from *KOF '95*. Oddly though, he has an altered version of Kyo's *Mu Shiki* known as instead the *Saishuu Kessen Ougi: Zero Shiki* (Final Play-Off Secret Skill: Zero Method). Unlike the other two Kyo clones, the style/method theme naming of the three clans is consistent in Kusanagi's attacks, and his shared moves with the original Kyo tend to be the exact same with minor alterations in damage. Kusanagi was also given some of Kyo's techniques from *KOF '97* and onward that were never seen in the classic moveset, such as the *910 Shiki: Nue Tsumi* (Method 910: Nue Plucker) and its counter-based moves.

His preferred method of fighting is more focused on offense as seen in *The King of Fighters 2003*, where he aggressively keeps the player at bay with a number of attacks and will often use his *Yami Barai* projectile, thus making the player rely heavily on defense such as blocking, evasions, and parry based techniques. While his aggressive A.I in KOF 2003 makes him a worthy challenge as a mid-boss, it should be noted that he can be defeated if defense is used to the player's advantage. Defeating Kusanagi with a DM can access the route to fighting the actual final bosses of KOF 2003, Chizuru & Maki then Mukai. If the player simply defeats him without using a DM the final boss will end up being Adelheid Bernstein who also fights aggressively like Kusanagi except slightly overpowered.

## Fanon Appearances

### Game Appearances

* The King Of Fighters: Warriors - Single entry character
* The King Of Fighters: Masters - Playable character
* The King Of Fighters: Class C - Final boss
* The King Of Fighters: Begining of the Scourge - Single entry character
* The King Of Fighters: Disaster in the Story - Single entry character
* The King Of Fighters: Memorial - Possible sub-boss

## Similar Characters

* Kyo Kusanagi
* Kyo-1
* Kyo-2
* Mr. Kyo