Kurenai (Prime-Earth)

"My parents are dead, my sisters are b---hes, and I'm a half-demon. Isn't life just great?"

- Kurenai

## History

Kurenai is the son of Akuryou, a powerful devil who traveled to the human world with the intent to conquer it. In his way stood a group of powerful female exorcists. This group of exorcists had a female Nephalem in their ranks, a powerful and rare hybrid of angel and demon. In the fight, he fell in love with the Nephalem and feigned defeat to get close to her and be with her. Before he proceeded with this plan, he decided to forge weapons for his future children as keepsakes. After that, he willingly surrendered to the exorcists. They sealed his power in a set of amulets and his own sword, reducing him to human form. The female Nephalem had an angelic daughter with an angel from a previous marriage, but the angel was killed in combat and she was left a widow as a result. Following the sealing, he professed his love to the Nephalem, hoping wholeheartedly that he could fill the void left in her heart from the death of her first husband. Time passed, and the two eloped, the Nephalem abandoning her allies after some emotional and physical abuse. They got married, had children, and lived happily with their children for 6 whole years. In that time, Kurenai had received one of the two amulets which held his father's power, as well as one of the keepsake weapons his father forged for him. What Kurenai never knew was that he was a true Nephalem, a perfect hybrid of angel and demon. His older half-sister Mari was 75% angel and 25% demon due to her being born to an angel father; on the opposite side, his younger sister Aohime was 75% demon and 25% angel due to being born to a demon father. The reason Kurenai was a perfect hybrid was due to the fact that his mother had save a sample of her first husband's DNA and used a trace amount of the sample during Kurenai's conception, which resulted in the perfect split. However, she chose to use the remainder of the sample for another purpose, and Kurenai's younger sister was conceived with just Akuryou's DNA.

Sensing that one of his greatest warriors had been defeated, Akuryou's general, Kekken, sent hordes of demons to kill the family. Kurenai's parents were indeed killed, but Akuryou told his children one last message with his dying breath: "The demon king Kekken has torn our family apart. Rise up against him, and avenge your mother and me."

Mari, Kurenai's older half-sister, abandoned the two siblings, holding an inherent disdain for them due to their demonic blood. Aohime, Kurenai's younger sister, was completely heartbroken and resolved to achieve power with her own might for the sake of revenge. Kurenai himself took a more passive method, bottling up his feelings of anger and revenge as he wandered around for some form of legal guardian. The exorcists who were once allies of his mother had retired and taken up the life of a nun, and adopted him into their church to raise him. For years, he lived in their care. His life in the church wasn't as passive as one would think... In those years, he sharpened his skills as a swordsman (no pun intended), using the sword given to him by his father. He developed magical prowess thanks to the nuns' experience with magic as exorcists, and he was able to awaken to his true demonic power. He had learned to channel his desire for revenge into a manner that allowed him to assume his own demonic form, at which point, the nuns realized he couldn't be kept in the church any further. As a result, he left the church and became a bartender when he reached legal drinking age, tending to a local bar/restaurant for grown-ups and underage rebels as a part-time job as he attends college for the sake of proper education.

## Appearance

As seen to the right, Kurenai's outfit consists of a red button-up shirt, a black two-tailed coat with red details and stiffened color, black pants, a thigh holster on his left leg, and black boots. His right sleeve is usually kept unfolded, but he often folds it up prior to combat. For some reason, whenever Kurenai gets in a fight, his right arm takes a demonic form, appearing as reddish leather with black markings and a light red glowing crack which spread to his fingers.

For work, Kurenai wears a dark red dress-shirt, black slacks, black leather shoes, and this ornate black vest. Occasionally, he wears a black necktie with a similar design to his demonic arm: light red cracks and additional dark red details.

### Demonic Form

Kurenai has access to a couple of variations on his demon form. In combat, he has access to his demon form's right arm, which can generate a larger spectral phantom of itself to reach for enemies out of his real arm's reach. Upon activating his Stage 1 Devil Trigger, he gains access to his demonic form's upper torso in a spectral state. This "Phantom" is a dark red shadow with fanged teeth, orange eyes, white skull-like armor on his head, two white tusks, and two horns protruding from the top of his head. Its left arm is dark red just like the rest of its body, but the right arm is black, reflecting the way Kurenai's demonic arm is different from the rest of his body. When accessing his full demonic form, Kurenai transforms into a black-bodied devil with red "striping" on his skin. This striping is a demonic exoskeleton, which appears as a series of stripes on his legs and a demonic reflection of his coat for his upper torso, with the coattails splitting into four. In the middle of his chest is a glowing orange crack that spreads underneath the coat. His coattails in this form are actually folded up wings, which can open up and spread out to allow him to fly. On his left arm is an integrated sheathe for his sword, as he wields it in an Iaido style of combat. His head is black, with fanged teeth, orange eyes, white skull-like armor on his head, two white tusks, and two horns protruding from the top of his head.

### Angelic Form

Unbeknownst to him, Kurenai has the ability to assume an angel form. However, he was raised thinking he was more demon than angel, and has limited access to this branch of his powers. On very rare occasions, Kurenai has demonstrated the ability to shift his left arm into an angelic counterpart to his demonic right arm. This grey-feathered arm has red details and a glowing sigil over the back of his palm that displays outstretched angel wings. On one occasion, Kurenai actually assumed his full angel form, which was essentially the same as his full demon form. It was a black humanoid figure coated in red feathers reflecting the design of his coat; a glowing halo over his pure black head with a dark red "face" that lacked a nose and mouth, but showed off his orange eyes; and the two coattails formed from his feathers appearing as wings. Various halos of varying thickness surround his limbs, replacing the demonic exoskeleton that normally protects him in his demonic form. This form was never used in combat when it appeared, and it shows no features for combat outside of the halo armor.

## Personality

Despite having a super dysfunctional family, Kurenai is a pretty cool guy. He has a rather dark sense of humor, and he's a bit of a sarcastic jerk, but he means well and cares very much for the friends he's made and those he loves. The loss of his parents hurt him deeply, leaving him lonely and cynical. In spite of this, he was able to put it aside for the sake of living a normal life. When his family was whole, he always looked after his sisters, and holds a policy to protect women as best as he can. Though he has developed a tendency to casually flirt with some girls, he isn't a womanizer who takes advantage of women. As much as he loves to taunt his enemies, he can't tolerate it when people make fun of his friends or family, and will go on ballistic in defense of his close ones. He also loves music and alcohol, which meshes perfectly with his job as a bartender.

## Powers/Abilities

Kurenai is a Nephalem, an angel-demon hybrid. As such, he has the following powers:

* **Nephalem Physiology**
	+ **Demon-exclusive Powers:** The Majority of his demonic powers have now been lost due to the source of said power being stolen from him. Whatever powers that are still accessible are significantly weakened.
		- **Demonic Energy Manipulation** - Kurenai can manipulate demonic energy inside himself or from outside sources. When using his own demonic power, Kurenai has to be careful he doesn't overexert himself. He uses this power greatly in combat, imbuing his weapons with this energy to increase damage. This power has been weakened from the loss of his Demonic powers.
		- **Hell-Fire Manipulation** - Demons are associated with hell-fire, and Kurenai is capable of using it to enhance his sword strikes or his ranged attacks. This power has been weakened due to the loss of his Demonic powers.
		- **Soul Weaponization** - Kurenai's father had the ability to subjugate other demons and transform them into weapons for his use. Both of Akuryou's children have inherited this power, though Kurenai's potential with this ability is far greater than his parent and sister due to his true lineage. This is the only power Kurenai still has full access to.
		- **Devil Trigger** - This power allows him to access his demon form, boosting his physiology and granting him enhanced manipulation powers. This power comes in multiple stages, which will be revealed soon enough. Kurenai can no longer access his Devil Trigger after the loss of his Demonic powers.
			* *Stage "0": Limb* - Technically speaking, Kurenai's demonic arm is very minor access to the Devil Trigger, as the DT state is specifically accessing one's demonic form, no matter how much of their body remains human. This allows partial access to his demon form's spectral copy, generating a phantom of his arm that grants Kurenai mid-range combat options for him.
			* *Stage 1: Phantom* - The first step in Kurenai's Devil Trigger is known as the "Phantom," a spectral copy of his true demon form's upper torso. Aside from the extra boosts to his physical prowess, Kurenai's Phantom mimics his movements when fighting, wielding a spectral variant of Chuumon, Kurenai's katana. Since this was recently unlocked, Kurenai has only been able to access this power for a very brief amount of time. It was unlocked by consuming a dragon's heart.
			* *Stage 2: Physical* - The next stage of the Devil Trigger is to physically assume one's demonic form. He has demonstrated a significantly enhanced healing factor, having healed from being impaled twice and slashed through the collar bone, and allows Kurenai to move at speeds fast enough to create visible afterimages and leave afterimages of his sword strikes. It also affords him better control over his supernatural energies, allowing him to infuse both energies together somewhat safely.
	+ **Angel-exclusive Powers:** This aspect of Kurenai's powers are significantly weaker than his demonic powers, as he has no knowledge of his true heritage outside of being a demonic hybrid of some form. There are times when he will make use of them unintentionally, but he has no conscious knowledge of using angelic/holy powers.
		- **Angelic Energy Manipulation** - Kurenai is able to wield angelic energy from within or from external sources similar in manner to his use of demonic energy.
		- **Holy Flame Manipulation** - The blessed version of Kurenai's hell-fire powers, which can be used to augment his attacks in some capacity.
		- **Holy Water Manipulation** - Kurenai can bless water and manipulate it to fight against demons more effectively.
		- **Angel Focus** - With this power, Kurenai's vision will turn monochrome as his perspective of time slows down. Any point of interest will be highlighted in gold, allowing him to find the optimal method of proceeding forward; for example, he was able to cut a falling building into chunks that reduced the damage to the building while also lessening the strain on his friend's abilities. While this could be used for more investigative purposes, Kurenai has been unable to access the ability after the falling building incident.
		- **Seraph Unleashed** - Kurenai transforms into his Angelic form and his powers are enhanced to a similar level as his demon form.
			* *Stage "0": Limb* - An Angelic counterpart to Kurenai's Stage 0 DT, this transforms Kurenai's left arm into its angelic form, though it is unknown what it can do as of now. So far, this arm seems to channel angelic energy much more efficiently and can even mix demonic energy into his angelic energy to poison an angelic enemies.
	+ **Mutually-exclusive Powers:** These powers are a fusion of his demonic powers and angelic powers as a result of his lineage and genetics.
		- **Advanced-Level Supernatural Condition** - His unique blood allows him to survive some of the most absurd stuff. He's shrugged off being impaled multiple times, explosions from anti-air missiles, being riddled with bullets, and more. His strength is incredible, capable of throwing a heavy truck several yards. His speed is insane, his agility is beyond superhuman, and he has an incredible healing factor.
		- **Magic** - Kurenai uses magic mainly to store his weapons away in a pocket dimension of sorts, keeping them away until he's in combat. He has limited knowledge in elemental magic, specifically training in fire magic to enhance his attacks.
		- **Semi-Immortality** - Upon reaching age 21, Kurenai has stopped physically aging and his body is in its prime for the rest of his life. However, he can choose to age his body ever so slightly to appear older if he wishes.
		- **Twilight/Light/Darkness Manipulation** - As a fusion of the dark and the light, Kurenai can manipulate both simultaneously to create the twilight. He can also wield light and dark separate from one another if need be.

Kurenai's abilities include:

* **Melee Weapon Proficiency** - Kurenai is proficient in various different kinds of weapons, from swords to gauntlets to axes. Upon picking up a new melee weapon, Kurenai is able to develop a series of attacks proficient in the majority of any combat situation he encounters, refining these attacks and fighting style as he fights.
* **Master Marksman** - Kurenai displays excellent marksmanship, able to hit multiple targets at once with his personal pair of pistols. Even without firearms, Kurenai can hit multiple enemies from afar with magically-generated swords.
* **High Alcohol Tolerance** - This is a result of his supernatural physiology and some underage drinking he had done for the sake of science. This ended up coming in handy because he's a bartender now.

### Weapons/Equipment

Kurenai has a variety of weapons at his disposal. Or rather, he should, but he hasn't encountered many demons to subjugate and weaponize. Regardless, he has several keepsakes from his parents that suffice.

* **Chuumon** - A gleaming silver katana with a black and red wrapping on its hilt and a dark red scabbard with gold details and a black cord to tie the scabbard around Kurenai's waist. As previously stated, Kurenai wields this in an Iaido style, drawing his sword and slashing his enemies to pieces at breakneck speeds before quickly sheathing the sword again. It possesses a supernaturally sharp edge, capable of cutting through the thickest of metals with ease.
* **Crimson Breaker** - This thick-bladed, single-edged greatsword is often dual-wielded alongside Kurenai's katana Chuumon. It features a unique construction made of a unique hellish alloy that conducts heat easily without melting into molten metal. Its dark silver blade shines in direct light, showing off intricately carved hell runes and various red details. A spiked handguard allows Kurenai to punch with the sword still in hand.
* **Inferno** - A pair of completely custom-made pistols from hell itself. Kurenai's father had these pistols made for himself to use, which fired pure hell-fire compressed into a bullet and fired at full-auto speeds. While Akuryou never used these himself, Kurenai did contact the demon-smith who created the guns and asked the demon if he could use them in place of his father. The demon complied, and the pistols now belong to Kurenai.
	+ **Spectral Blades** - These blades created from demonic energy resemble his father's original greatsword, a double-edged greatsword with a horned cross-guard and a skull pommel. Kurenai uses these when his Inferno pistols aren't the best option for the current situation, or to augment the pistols' barrage of bullets with a series of flying greatswords made of demon energy that can explode as Kurenai pleases. Occasionally, Kurenai can create a Spectral Blade made of angelic energy that allows him to teleport to the location of the sword where it lands; this version of the Spectral Blade features angelic runes that glow gold, but Kurenai is too busy fighting for his life to notice these minute details.

* **Motorcycle** - Kurenai rides a customized Harley-Davidson VRSCDX Night Rod Special as his personal transportation. He's enchanted it with some magic so that he can use his own Demonic or Angelic energy to power it, but he can use conventional petroleum if need be. After being destroyed by a demonic motorcycle, Kurenai fused the two together to form the Demonic Arm Raiju. The bike can shift in appearances between the original form (this version) and the Raiju form (the picture shown below).

### Demonic Arms

Once Kurenai has fought a Demon and subjugated its soul, the subdued Demon becomes a sentient weapon that Kurenai can summon for use in combat whenever he needs. After the loss of his right arm, the Demonic Arms have been transformed into prosthetic limbs meant to replace what was lost. Except for Raiju, all of the Demonic Arms are now literal arms, each with different properties.

* **Ifrit** - A greatsword with fire-based powers. It's based off of the Ifrit Demon. While it can still summon the greatsword, it now takes the form of a black and red arm with two horns wrapped around it in a double helix, ashes floating beside it. Within each coil of horns rests fire, ready to begin charging at a moment's notice.

* **Wendigo** - A pair of claws converted from the soul of a Wendigo. They're fast and light, allowing him to fight using quick slashing strikes. Upon becoming a prosthetic weapon, it retained its appearance, though streamlined into a more humanoid form with a grayish metallic alloy, spiked and glowing with the souls consumed by the Wendigo it once was. When not in use, the claws are retracted.
* **Raiju** - Fused from the soul of a demonic motorcycle and Kurenai's own motorcycle, Raiju is a very strange weapon in that it is a motorcycle by default. However, when Kurenai rotates the handlebars forward, the bike then splits down the middle and transforms into a pair of giant chainsaws arcing with electricity that Kurenai can saw through enemies with. In its motorcycle form, it is able to maneuver itself towards Kurenai without a rider.
* **Beowulf** - A set of gauntlets and greaves empowered by demonic and angelic light as a result of the way this demon was defeated. After being converted into a prosthetic, it simply takes the form of its right gauntlet filled with additional demonic metal to fill in the gaps that would normally be where the user's arm is.

### Weaknesses

* **Iron** - Demons within DC are know to have a weakness to Iron. While his angelic powers have allowed him to develop a resistance to its anti-demon effects, he is still vulnerable to being damaged by iron.
* **Magic** - Magic designed to destroy angels and/or demons have a more acute effect on him.
* **Qeres** - A unique, rare to produce/obtain substance known for lethally wounding Nephalem. Artificial Qeres is being synthesized, with reduced effects but still enough to cause intense pain for Nephalem.
* **Over-usage of Powers** - If Kurenai exhausts any of his natural Demonic Energy or Angelic Energy, his body will be severely weakened and leave him vulnerable.
* **Supernatural Weapons** - Weapons produced by/with supernatural means (like a weapon created from a subjugated Demon's soul) are highly effective against him due to their supernatural powers.

## Trivia

* Kurenai is inspired by Devil May Cry.
	+ His outfit is based off of a cosmetic mod for Nero in Devil May Cry 4.
	+ His Crimson Breaker sword is based off of Nero's Red Queen Sword.
	+ His Chuumon sword is based off of the Yamato and his Spectral Blades are based off of the Summoned Swords, both of which are used by Vergil.
	+ Beowulf is indeed the same Beowulf weapon from Devil May Cry 3.