Juro Kurabe/Story

In 2064, in Sector 2, Juro Izumi, under orders from Chihiro Morimura, saved Ryoko Shinonome from a Kaiju attack in Sentinel No.13. Juro told Shinonome that they need her to save the world as a Sentinel pilot.

When the Kaijus launched their full-scale attack on Sector 2, Juro participated in the battle to defend the city center alongside Shinonome (in Sentinel No.14), Ei Sekigahara (in Sentinel No.15), Tsukasa Okino (in Sentinel No.12), eleven unmanned Sentinels (No.1 through 11) remote controlled by Renya Gouto, and four Sentinels controlled by AIs Kisaragi (No.16), Miura (No.17), Tamao (No.18), and Hijiyama (No.19).

Though the Sentinels initially had the advantage, Sekigahara's Sentinel No.15 suddenly infected all other Sentinels with the malicious code DD-426, paralyzing them all. In order to save the Sentinel pilots, Morimura ordered them to be forcefully transmitted out of Sector 2. Since there was no time to adjust the settings, the Sentinels were all transmitted randomly, with no way to tell where they would go.

Juro and No.13 were transmitted to Sector 3, in 2024, right in front of Megumi Yakushiji and her friend Tomi Kisaragi. Juro and Megumi would eventually fall in love with one another. In 2025, Kaijus attacked Sector 3 as well. With No.13 being the only Sentinel in the Sector, Juro, despite pleas from Megumi, deployed alone to protect Megumi and her city.

Despite his Sentinel being infected with DD-426, which should have killed him in minutes, Juro somehow continued fighting for over two hours through sheer force of will. Ultimately, however, he was still defeated. After the Kaijus destroyed Sector 3, Juro fainted in the arms of Megumi.

Half a year later, Juro and Megumi were both transferred to Sector 4, 1985, by Morimura, where they became students at Sakura High School. Due to his severe brain trauma caused by DD-426, Juro's personality was reshaped by the Tamao Kurabe android, giving him a new personality and a new set of memories: mild-mannered student Juro Kurabe, the grandson of Tamao Kurabe.

In the mean time, Morimura attempted to recreate her former lover, 426, by transferring 426's memories into Juro's mind. Unbeknownst to her, the violent memories of 426 and Juro's mild artificial personality was creating an incompatibility that threatened to destroy his mind. This also caused Juro to begin seeing 426's memories in his dreams.

Megumi was broken hearted that Juro had completely forgotten about her. Taking pity on her and suspecting that Morimura was recreating 426, the Tamao Kurabe android allowed Megumi to live with Juro on two conditions: that Megumi always treats him as Kurabe Juro, without telling him anything about his past; and that Megumi tells her immediately if Kurabe begins to refer to himself as Izumi Juro again.

Initially living alone after his grandmother left to visit a relative, Juro was shocked when Megumi moved into his house, acting as if she had known him for a long time. He was even more shocked when his friend and neighbor Natsuno Minami dropped off Keitaro Miura at his house, asking to let him stay until Tamao returns.

One night, while taking a detour on his way home, Juro witnessed Sekigahara shooting the heavily damaged Tamao android (which had been taken over by 426) in front of Tokisaka Shrine. When Juro approached the apparently destroyed android, 426 transferred himself into Juro's nanomachines. Appearing to Juro as Kyuta Shiba, 426 manipulated Juro's memories to make him think that he was a long time friend of his and tricked him into hiding the destroyed Tamao android into a nearby dumpster.

Hiding inside Juro, 426 appeared as the talking cat Fluffy to Megumi, offering a "contract" to her in exchange for restoring Juro's memories. Meanwhile, as Shiba, 426 began manipulating Juro's memories by providing him with "video tapes", causing Juro to perceive 426's memories from a third-person perspective, similar to watching a movie, thus preventing his personality from breaking down. By having Juro offer video tapes to Iori Fuyusaka and Shu Amiguchi - who were unknowingly receiving memory transplants from Morimura and Tetsuya Ida, respectively - 426 also manipulated their memories.

One day at school, while taking some papers to the nurse's office, Juro found a medical record for Juro Izumi on Morimura's desk, which said that his current personality was artificial. While on his way home on that day, Juro encountered Miura in the shopping district. When he touched Miura's scar, Tsukasa Okino's codes spread to him, causing him to inadvertently summon No.13. However, Shiba erased this incident from his memory.

Later, Juro witnesses Megumi and Gouto having a conversation in the school corridor, with Gouto asking Megumi to move out of Juro's house at once. Juro heard himself being referred to as "Izumi", the same name he saw on the medical record.