Asukai Katsu

Asukai Ozuru (Step-Father)Ryusaki Hayate (Step Brother)Touma (son)Akane (wife)Unborn child

### Significant Other

Akane (first love, current)
Kihara Mei (former)

## Appearance

### Debut

Episode 5

**Asukai Katsu** is one of the main characters of "My Dear Cold-Blooded King." He is also one of the love interests of Kihara Mei. He is one of the Blood Kings but sometimes pretends to act as an officer in the Core.

## Appearance

Katsu is a strikingly handsome young man, with long straight silver-white hair and green eyes. He has many scars covering his body, the most notable being the scar across his chest. These scars are both from the Core and his father.

However, he is noted by Ryusaki as not looking like his father in the slightest, leaving open the door for rumors of him not being a legitimate heir. Later it is shown that he takes after his mother, Fumiko, the empress, and his real father, Fuijioka Asahi, the royal physician.

## Personality

Katsu is mentioned as having always been a good-intentioned, kind person who can be very caring towards the people he loves; however, this trait sadly also makes him easy to exploit, as he can become quick to anger and irrationality if they are harmed in any way.

While he refuses to take the 'necessary risks,'  he has shown to be a hands-on ruler, settling disputes amongst provinces,  shown even leaving to capital to conduct matters of ruler ship, and is shown to be incredibly talented and ruthless with swordsmanship.

He can also become emotionless and harsh, however this seems to be something foreign to his true nature, having to physically don a mask to 'get into character.'

One of Katsu's worst character flaws, or perhaps as Kôzuke sees it, is that he can (perhaps unknowingly) branch into a condescending form of compassion and pity, which Katsu hasn't necessarily denied as he admits that his good-intentions are sometimes what hurts only hurts people instead.

## Relationships

*This post contains spoilers; proceed with caution!*

### Kihara Mei

Mei and Katsu formed the primary romantic arc at the beginning of the story, with Katsu being the man she believed to have been engaged to as the Blood King. Katsu showed interest in Mei, talking with her frequently as an officer in the Blood Core- he begrudgingly agreed to train her after much insistence and accompanied her on missions. Their relationship was always slightly strained, with Katsu keeping secrets and Mei wanting to become a better fighter, which Katsu resisted. They later conceded that their clashing personalities would never allow them to be happy with each other, and so they agreed to split romantic paths.

### Ryusaki Hayate

Hayate and Katsu were both 'soldiers' in the Blood Core and had previously known Kihara Daisuke. Katsu and Hayate's relationship revolved around their feelings towards Mei for a while, both showing protective feelings towards her. Later, it is revealed that Hayate was in fact the true Blood King, and Katsu relieves the burden of Blood King almost thankfully.

### Akane

Princess Akane and Katsu were previously engaged- however, Princess Akane has shown reluctance in their engagement, having never met Katsu himself. She revealed that they exchanged letters for around a year, but expressed doubt that Katsu could've written them because the tone was sweet and loving, while she had never met him and had only heard stories of his ruthless rule. Akane was shown to be a timid girl, who seemed to find Katsu frightening upon visiting him with her brother, Prince Hayashi during his engagement to Mei. They (Akane and Katsu) do eventually get married and have two/three children together, one of which is named Touma, after Akane's father.

### Kôzuke

Kôzuke, otherwise known as Yuuta Murakami was Katsu's childhood friend. He was taken captive by the Blood King early in his life and spent most of his childhood with the young Katsu, training with him to a later stage in his life. Notably, Katsu would still be impacted by his friendship with Yuuta, using the name 'Yuuta' as a decoy name when he first met Mei.

### Asukai Ozuru

Katsu and Ozuru were shown to have a tense and volatile relationship. Ozuru previously expressed his distaste towards Katsu's 'soft and gentle' demeanor and subsequently scarred him as a lesson. Ozuru subjected Katsu to intense physical training to prepare him for his succession as Blood King, and Katsu's memories of him bring pain and bitterness. Additionally, Katsu was the subject of many rumours about his true parentage, due to the lack of resemblance he had with Ozuru- Hayate later addresses these rumours, met with Katsu's fierce response.

### Fujioka Asahi

Little was known about Katsu and Mr. Fujioka's early relationship, with only Katsu mentioning that Mr. Fujioka had taught him the Guqin when he was younger. Later, it is revealed that Mr. Fujioka is Katsu's true father who had been in love with Queen Fumiko before her marriage to Asukai Ozuru. Mr. Fujioka recalled his anguish over watching his son suffer under Ozuru and not being able to intervene for fear of compromising Katsu's safety.

## Quotes

* *"For your benefit, I'd advise you not to question my authority unless you are prepared to find out what happens to those who dare defy me."*
* *"I'd watch what you say, Hayashi. You have a bad habit of using that silver tongue of yours to spit venom. One day, I may just cut it out."*
* *"You're as red as scarlet. Are you weak to smooth words?"*
* *"I think it does suit you, actually."*

## Notes

* He plays the Guqin, which was taught to him by Fujioka Asahi. He would play it to relieve stress.
* Katsu's name can mean 「 勝 」 "victory," or "excel."

## References

1. ↑ Episode 55
2. ↑ Episode 33
3. ↑ Episode 51