Kazuhiko Kai

**Kazuhiko Kai** (甲斐 和彦, *Kai Kazuhiko*) is a supporting character in *The Island of Giant Insects* and *The Even Bigger Island of Giant Insects*.

## Appearance

Kazuhiko is a fair skinned young man with shoulder-length hair done in thick, textured twists resembling dreadlocks and green eyes. His features are rather slim and refined with sharp eyes and jawline. He's a bit shorter and skinnier than average. He wears a red button-up shirt, a black undershirt, tan skinny jeans with a silver chain attached to his right hip belt loops, and brown cowboy boots. His thick lashes, viridian eyes and hair makes him unique amongst his peers.

## Personality

Kazuhiko is a cynical boy who speaks his mind. He is not impressed by the pretentious attitudes of people like Atsushi Kamijo and Kasumi Momosaki. Following an incident where someone he stood up for hung him out to dry, he developed a belief that the only person you can rely on is yourself. As the manga does on, he slowly loses this belief and goes out of his way to help his friends, even when it endangers him.

## Background

Not much is known about Kazuhiko's past except that he's a 2nd year Houshou Private High School studnet, an excellent lock picker, liar and strategist. At one point, he discovered a boy being extorted by a pair of delinquents and scared them off by calling for a teacher. Later that day in class, the delinquents accused Kazuhiko of smoking in the bathroom; Kazuhiko tired to get the boy he helped to vouch for him, but he stayed quiet and Kazuhiko was sent to the staff room for an inspection.

## Chronology

### *Kyochuu Rettou*

After washing up on Little East Island after the plane crash, Kazuhiko met up with Chitose Naruse, Misuzu Jinno, Mami Miura, Miki Shirakawa, Atsushi Kamijo, Hiroshi Tsuge, Ai Ino, and Satoshi Oda.

Kazuhiko and Hiroshi break open a vending machine and distribute the drinks to the others. Misuzu forces Mami to agree to expose herself in exchange for the boys finding food, and Kazuhiko leaves. While searching, the boys heard Chitose scream and rush back, and are shocked to find the girls being attacked by giant Papilio maackii's, which have already killed Ai. After Satoshi dies, Kazuhiko tricks Hiroshi into charging the butterflies, which gives him a chance to get away and also causes the other boy's death. Mutsumi Oribe saves the remaining students by incinerating one of the butterflies, and Kazuhiko demands an explanation for what just happened. When Misuzu points out a buzzing, Kazuhiko assumes it to be a helicopter, but it turns out to be a giant ammophila which abducts Chitose.

Ayumi Matsuoka tries to rally the others to save the class president, but they all refuse out of fear. Mutsumi comes up with a plan to use Chitose's phone, which has a waterproof case, to check the weather and altitude so they can survive the three days it'll take for rescue to come. Mutsumi has Kazuhiko walk behind Ayumi on her right to cover her blindspot. When Atsushi and Misuzu start killing the wasp larva, Kazuhiko joins in. After killing all the larvae, Kazuhiko finds one of the island residents' phones and the group leaves. Kazuhiko assists with gathering detergents, and escapes with the others while the wasps fight, unknowingly entering a nest of giant ixodidae.

Ayumi tries to get the group to go around, but Mutsumi refuses and Kazuhiko goes with her since her knowledge would allow him to survive. With everyone agreeing on a course, Mutsumi explained her plan for getting through the nest: everyone is to put their palms under their arms to muffle their heartbeat and walk slowly to avoid attracting the ticks. Also, someone is to pick up a pebble, warm it in their palm, and toss it away from the group to lead away any nearby ticks. Atsushi and Ayumi, who are carrying Akira and Chitose respectively, will carry them on their backs. By doing so, the group is able to get through the nest with no problems until they encounter Ms. Nozawa, who's been swarmed by ticks, causing Mami to start screaming. With no other options, Mutsumi is forced to sacrifice Ms. Nozawa by knocking her down with a stick, causing her to be completely swarmed while the group escapes. Once the group reaches a beach, Mutsumi has them scrape off any ticks on their clothes and strip and enter the sea to drown any ticks on their bodies. Atsushi asks Kazuhiko to check Akira for ticks, which he does, leaving him oblivious to Atsushi and Misuzu having sex.

When the group reaches the clinic, only to find it locked, Kazuhiko picks open a window and unlocks the door from the inside, though he lies and claims the window was already unlocked. While Atsushi searches for saline solution, Kazuhiko searches the rest of the clinic, eventually finding a generator, restoring power to the clinic; he also finds a box of food that he brings back to the others. After resting for a bit, the group hears buzzing from outside, at which point Akira gets taken over by a giant leucochloridium and rushes outside, attracting a giant protohermes grandis which bisects him. Misuzu locks the others outside, and Miki gets killed by the dobsonfly as well. Kazuhiko picks open the door, admitting that he lied about the window being open, and Mutsumi asks his help with killing the dobsonfly.

The group reach an office, and Kazuhiko finds a computer he can control the power to the light with. Mutsumi lures the dobsonfly to the light and Kazuhiko increases the power, frying the fly alive. The group then return to the main area, where they find Misuzu, Atsushi and Chitose being attacked by a group of giant Portunus trituberculatus'. Using a hose and a vending machine cable, Kazuhiko electrocutes the crabs, killing the generator in the process. With the bodies of the fly and crabs bound to attract carnivorous insects, the group gathers enough food and drinks to carry without weighing them down and leaves for the island shrine, which is the highest point on the island.

Kazuhiko doesn't do anything noteworthy until Ryou Usui is killed by the giant firefly larvae, where he stays with Mutsumi, Chitose, and Kasumi Momosaki while everyone else runs off in random directions. When the larvae disperse to hunt the others, Kazuhiko tries to get the others to run away, which Chitose refuses to do; she says she wants to be the person someone with no one can rely on, causing Kazuhiko to remember the incident that spawned his self-serving mentality. He concedes to Chitose's goal, and when Kasumi refuses to move, he points out that the larvae hunt people by themselves, scaring her into going with them.

While searching for the others, the four are joined by Misuzu, Atsushi, and Takeshi Minowa, and they spot a cluster of light; before they can investigate, though, they get surrounded by larvae, and Kazuhiko uses a sharpened pair of bamboo stalks to fight them off. Mutsumi tricks the larvae into thinking there's danger nearby, and the group survives the night. Sadly, Ayumi is killed saving Mami, and Kazuhiko bows during her funeral.

Kazuhiko doesn't do anything noteworthy until reaching the shrine, where he escapes to the building when Mutsumi and Marika Chuujou are captured by the giant atypus karschi. While Chitose and Atsushi argue over whether or not to save Mutsumi, Kazuhiko slips out, having already come up with his own plan. Nozomi Aoyama follows him and forces herself onto him in exchange for letting her come with him. Kazuhiko uses a fusuma to amplify a recording of a wasps buzzing he took earlier, tricking the spider into thinking a wasp's nearby and making it run into the open; Mutsumi is freed, but Marika is torn apart after Nozomi corners the spider and makes it panic. Kazuhiko lures the spider to where Mutsumi can jump on its back, then gets to safety while Mutsumi works on killing it. Once the spider's dead, the three rush back to the shrine, only to be attacked by a swarm of giant anomala cuprea's.

Mutsumi tells Kazuhiko to move from side to side to dodge the beetles, which he does; she then tells him to go under one of the buildings and smoke any tanyosho pines he finds. Kazuhiko bundles the logs into makeshift torches and spreads them out across the shrine, creating a smokescreen that drives off the beetles. When Atsushi yells at Mutsumi because she said the shrine was safe, Kazuhiko told him that they had made it safe by lighting the incense and logs. Kazuhiko reveals that a ship has arrived at the island, and Kasumi jumps on him in excitement, at which point he suggests she and the others get dressed, which they do.

Kazuhiko doesn't do anything noteworthy until after the group is attacked by the giant agriophodrus dohrni, where he carries Atsushi after the latter has assassin bug saliva injected into his arm. When the group finds that all of the islands fishing boats have been sunk by Barnacles, Kazuhiko jumps on one to see if it can be used, only to find that the water has fried the electrical systems, making the boat unusable. When Mutsumi reveals her plan to lure the giant scolopendra subspinipes away from the Mino, Kazuhiko goes with Pops and Ryoko Shikimori to load supplies onto the lifeboat and drop it. The three are eventually joined by Misuzu and Mami with an unconscious Nozomi, with Misuzu eventually sacrificing herself to save the others from the centipede. When the second centipede emerges, Kazuhiko prepares to shoot it but is stopped by Mutsumi, who tells him that the centipede is being attacked by a group of giant carabus' who'll swarm them if he shoots. When the beetles begin feeding on the corpses, Kazuhiko pushes the lifeboat away from the dock just before the beetles can get on, allowing him and the others to escape Little East Island alive.

When Mutsumi questions if the authorities will believe them about the insects, Kazuhiko says that he and the others will act as witnesses and reveals that he took a few SD cards from the clinic which will act as evidence. When Ryoko tries to rush outside after Pops gets killed by the giant darner, Kazuhiko holds her back. While waiting for the sun to set, Kazuhiko comments on how being trapped on the islands must be rough for Mami's career, to which Mami reveals how her career was in a slump and she was forced to sleep with her manager in order to get a comeback; she declares how she should've attacked him, and Kazuhiko laughs with her, commenting on how strong she's gotten ever since the plane crash.

## Etymology

* **Kazuhiko** means "harmony, peace" (和) (**kazu**) and "boy, prince" (彦) (**hiko**).
* **Kai** means "worth, avail, effect, result, use" (甲斐).

## Trivia

* On the first and second volume covers, Kazuhiko is drawn with black hair and red eyes.
* Kazuhiko is the only male to have been raped by a female.