Rio Kuromiya

**Rio Kuromiya** (黒宮莉王, *Kuromiya Rio*) is a fictional character in the *Switch* series and a high school basketball player. He plays as a third-year Forward and (initially) ace of Ōsen High's basketball team.

## Appearance

He has a fade, stretching from the back of his neck to his forehead, while his hair above the forehead is gelled upwards. He also has a thin mustache and a thin beard which stretches up to just below his lower lip. His appearance before going to Ōsen High School is practically the same, but without the mustache and beard.

## Personality

He seems very prideful, performing flashy plays and dissing the enemies after failing to defend, often to the mental and moral devastation of the enemies. He's also very short-tempered, snapping at almost anything even slightly directed towards him.

## History

He used to play as the ace for North Ushikubi, however he easily outclassed his team mates, and his coach forced him to lower the level of his play for them to be able to cooperate with him. As a result he instead went to street basketball, where there are less rules and cooperation is not as heavily enforced. He was later scouted by Tokumitsu Shinji who offered him the position of being king in Ōsen High's basketball club under the condition that he wins. He joins, and Tokumitsu decides to form the team around him, which Shiroe initially objected to, as he was scouted as well and was the ace of Hasebe Middle, however he was forced to accept Kuromiya's ace position after he challenged and failed to win against Kuromiya 1-on-1. During his 2nd-year's winter high, he managed to get the team to Tokyo Metro's Big 4, and played against Hibayama Academy, but was sealed by Sakai's double-team, and completely ineffective against Daiya's offense.

## Plot

### Ōsen High Basketball Club

#### 1st-years vs Regulars

After assessing the 1st-year's talents with a lay-up, Kuromiya reveals to all the new club members that all of them will only be "ball polishers". After a week of ball polishing Raimu Tachibana grows bored and decides to rebel against him, to which Kuromiya initially responds with violence, however Raimu's bravado inspired Kōdai Yoneyama, Eiji Sengoku,Tōma Nanasawa, and Tasuku Matoi to join Raimu's team. Around the turn of the 2nd quarter Kuromiya unleashes his Black Execution, however this would be countered later on when Raimu riles up his team mates during the 1st-half break, and combined with Raimu's king's passes almost completely changes the momentum of the game towards the 1st-year team's favor. Kuromiya then switches marks with Hirota and uses his black cage defense against Raimu which was initially effective, however he ultimately lost because of Raimu's switch hander, and because they left Tasuku open for the buzzer beater.

#### Hibayama Practice Match

He rushes into school after hearing of Akabane's sprain, and plays for the 4th quarter after getting riles up by Raimu, although he came into the match too late and couldn't stop Hiba High from winning.

#### Training Camp

He was part of top scoring A-team, along with Akabane and Yoneyama, and were one of the few teams who didn't lose to Team J at the 2nd and last days. After Tokumitsu's meeting with Coach Hasuike Tokumitsu states that "everyone can now be the ace" and even later on in the series Tokumitsu states that "all the Ōsen players are aces", marking the official end of Kuromiya's ace status, or at least the end of him being the sole ace.

### Inter High

#### Ōsen vs Seitoku

He managed to get the 1st-year's composure back with the help of Shiroe, which was a deciding factor towards their victory. Due to his act of helping the 1st-years, this can also be seen as the start of Kuromiya's role as a captain of the team.

#### Ōsen vs Wadakita

He and the other players managed to find ways around Jize's Baobab defense and height.

#### Ōsen vs Yami-uma

He initially helped Raimu get past Kanaka's Third Eye, however his rhythm would get thrown off as he gets pissed off by Koike's persistent defense. He was later unable to stop Shishido after Shishido's realization, or almost any other Yami-uma player afterwards, leading to Ōsen's first loss in the Inter High so far.

#### Ōsen vs Hibayama

He nor the other Ōsen players were unable to block Daiya's one-legged three point shot, nor could Kuromiya and his teammates overcome Sakai's paint zone defense in the 4th quarter, leading to another loss for Ōsen.

#### Ōsen vs Tsubakigawa

He managed to outshine David's passion with his frustration for David's energy. He would also be one of the first players to manage to block and score against Sōma during the 2nd quarter, although Sōma's technique allows him to get in tricky to block positions which would earn Kuromiya fouls with his rough play.

## Skills

### Black Execution

Despite it's flashy name, it's simply an isolation which leaves a lot of room for Kuromiya to crush an opponent 1v1. He also mixes in some insults, or beats the defending player in a way that's particularly embarassing, which often leads to him completely crushing the morale of opponents with weak psyches.

### Black Cage

A defensive style wherein he brute force catches up to a drive, pass, shot, or even a feint by pure speed and reflexes alone, even without predicting the opponent's play.

### Frustration

He pents up frustrations in his life, whether it be frustrations with his opponents or team mates, and he lets out all that anger in the court. The more frustrated he is, the more selfish and flashy, but also the more effective his plays get.