Tsukune Aono

Tsukune Aono, (nicknamed **Tsuki** by his cousin Kyouko) also known as another member of Yen Sid's Team. He is  is a former human and the main male protagonist of the series. He is mistakenly enrolled in Yokai Academy, a high school dedicated to teaching monsters to peacefully live alongside humans in disguise, where he meets and falls in love with Moka Akashiya, a vampirewho takes a mutual interest in him and the sweet flavor of his blood. Tsukune becomes a member of the school’s Newspaper Club and eventually befriends several monster girls including Kurumu Kurono, Yukari Sendo, Ruby Tojo, and Mizore Shirayuki—all of whom become infatuated with him and form an unwanted harem—as wellasKokoa Shuzen, Moka’s younger half-sister. He also makes friends with several male monsters such as Ginei Morioka, Hokuto Kaneshiro, Fang-Fang Huang and Haiji Miyamoto.
 They support Tsukune’s belief that monsters and humans can coexist and
be more than just enemies, their friendship with him being a prime
example of that sentiment. As time goes by, Tsukune’s body undergoes
several transformations: he first faces the danger of turning into a
mindless ghoul
 after receiving multiple blood transfusions from Moka when gravely
injured by several powerful monsters as the series progresses. He
maintains his humanity by wearing a Holy Lock
 that keeps him from changing while allowing him to access some of his
newfound vampiric powers gained as a result of Moka’s transfusions.
Later on, he subjects himself the human modification ritual in order to become stronger and learn the magical arts of Youjutsu. Not long after, Tsukune finally gains full control over his vampiric powers by removing his Holy Lock and becoming a Shinso vampire.

## Appearance

Tsukune’s typical appearance is that of an average human teenager: he
 has black hair, brown eyes and a relatively athletic physique. Whenever
 he is injected with some of Moka’s blood, his eyes develop slitted
pupils, much like those a true vampire when they exert their power.
After becoming a modified human, blue patterns that resemble the
conductive tracks of a printed circuit board appear on Tsukune’s skin
when using his newly-learned spells and powers. His eyes also appear to
change from brown to blue when using certain Youjutsu techniques. The
wounds he often sustains from altercations with monsters leave several
scars on his body, the most prominent being an X-shaped mark on his
torso he received from a monstrel that possessed blades for arms.

During his initial transformation into a ghoul, he develops the
aforementioned vampiric eyes in addition to a black, web-shaped mark on
his neck and face, originating from the puncture marks made by Moka’s
fangs. When he experiences a complete—albeit temporary—transformation
into a ghoul during his human modification ritual, he gains silver hair,
 empty white eyes, fangs and bat-like wings. His skin also turns mostly
black with red patches over some of his muscles and crack-like patterns
on his face, arms and torso,this transformation was later given name a
Jet Black Monster by Kurumu.After undoing the first and second seal of
his Holy Lock while aboard the Hanging Garden,
 Tsukune’s third transformation into a ghoul is slow but obvious: a
black layer of skin gradually spreads over his body, wings begin to
sprout from his back and parts of his body, such as his right arm,
sporadically mutate due to being in close proximity to an awakening Alucard, the Shinso blood of whom having been directly passed onto him by Moka and her mother interacting with the supernatural energy of its original owner through his body.

After tearing off his Holy Lock to become a Shinso vampire to and
 learning how to control his new abilities with his friends’ aid,
Tsukune can use his now immense Wealth of Power
 to change his physical appearance. He can now make his black hair
silver, his round pupils slitted and create a black layer of skin that
covers most of his body save for his face. This greater access to his
aura allows him to sprout large bat-like wings from his back and likely
make a full transformation into a rat or bat. He can also use his Creation ability to form a suit of flexible steel armor around his upper body, protecting him from injury to a certain extent.

For most of the series, Tsukune has worn the traditional Yokai
Academy uniform with little personal modification: a white button-up
shirt, a red tie, a green jacket, a black belt, light brown khakis and
dark loafers. In the anime, he has occasionally worn uwabaki slippers
with green soles. After the battle with Alucard at the end of the manga,
 he abandons the jacket of his uniform entirely. His casual attire
consists of a green button-up shirt, a white T-shirt, a black belt,
brown cargo pants and white sneakers. At the beach, he is shown to wear
dark blue swimming trunks and sandals.

## Personality

It should be noted that Tsukune is perhaps the most decent,
chivalrous and compassionate character in the entire series. During his
time at Yokai Academy, he comes to see monsters as equals and share the
hope that they *can* live peacefully alongside humans. Despite
there being many instances where he has been put into dangerous, even
life-threatening situations, he is seemingly unable to bear hatred or
hold a grudge and has forgiven those who have previously tried to do him
 harm. On certain occasions, the extent of this kindness has made
Tsukune naive to certain truths or overly trusting of certain
individuals, such as Hokuto, whom he views as a friend in spite of the
the latter's true natura and intentions. Nevertheless, his selflessness
and courage often comes out when he or someone from his group of friends
 is faced with the possibility of injury or even death. He is also
willing to sacrifice anything order to protect the people he holds dear,
 even his own humanity. This is what has ultimately gained him friends
at the academy as well as the affections of Moka, Kurumu, Mizore, Ruby
and Yukari.

As an idealist who strives for peace, he favors diplomacy over
violence. He has expressed his desire to simply reason with some
monsters such as Lady Oyakata and Gyokuro Shuzen
 rather than fight them. While he has certainly regarded many of his
encountered enemies with anger, he does not appear to truly wish them
ill will or death. This is not without exceptions, though: he butchered
some the ghouls of the Black Parade
 before confronting Gyokuro, an act that, when one considers the fact
that they were once vampires who had been turned into mindless
creatures, can be viewed a kind of mercy-killing. Before that, he
verbally threatened Kuyou’s
 life during their rematch, though this was likely a side-effect of
Tsukune’s own ghoulish nature surfacing after removing the first seal of
 his Holy Lock. The use of his Creation ability to nearly obliterate
Alucard’s body conveys lethal intent as well, which is not at all
unjustified given that Alucard was too large and resilient to be damaged
 by much else.

Tsukune is well aware of the fact that most of his female friends
 fawn over him. While he cares for all of them very much, the fact of
the matter is that he is only in love with Moka and does not feel the
same way about them as they do him. This, however, does not stop him
from becoming flustered or sexually excited by their many attempts at
seducing him or garnering his affection. The knowledge of their feelings
 for him would also explain his rather chivalrous, passive approach
towards these propositions, as a blunt refusal and rejection of would
probably break their hearts. Nevertheless, he has succeeded in subtly
turning down every single pass made at him by Kurumu, Mizore, Yukari and
 Ruby, even when some of them have done so while partly undressed or
completely naked.

Even after becoming a vampire, Tsukune has not changed as a
person. He considers himself as much a human on the inside as he once
was outside. To him, what he *is* does not matter so long as his
personality remains intact and he can protect and be with the people he
cares about, especially Moka.

## Equipment

* **Holy Lock (formerly):** After turning into a ghoul for the first time, the academy’s headmaster, Tenmei Mikogami, presented Tsukune with a Holy Lock, a magical trinket that he wore around his wrist to remain human and suppress the unstable vampire blood in his veins. While the Lock allowed him to safely use some of the powers given to him by Moka’s blood, it would sometimes suffer a broken link in the event that he overexerted himself. By his second year, Tsukune made it his goal to become stronger by learning how to control his vampiric powers. After his training with Inner Moka and Ruby, he gained some level of refined control over his aura, being able to utilize his powers on command without damaging the Holy Lock. As a modified human, Tsukune learned to release the Lock's seals through magic to gain greater access to his powers. When he chose to become a true vampire in order to revive a mortally wounded Moka through blood transfusion, he ripped the entire Lock off of his wrist and has forsaken it ever since. Not long after that, Alucard reveals that the Holy Lock’s true purpose is to adapt the body of its wearer to the power that is seal off whilst simultaneously suppressing the side effects essentially making it a tool used to safely turn a human into a monster.

* **Unlock First Seal:** After training with Touhou Fuhai, Tsukune learns how to undo the first seal of his Holy Lock. Doing so allows him to use his vampiric powers to a greater extent than when the Lock is fully sealed. However, this leaves him vulnerable to a slow yet gradual mutation into a ghoul.

* **Unlock Second Seal:** After undoing the first seal of the Holy Lock, Tsukune is able to do the same with the second seal, in order to use more of his powers should the need arise. Unfortunately, this accelerates his transformation into a ghoul to the point where his body begins to visibly mutate.

* **Belmont (formerly)**: When Tsukune first started training to use his vampire powers, due to him not having any experience in manipulating his Yoki he was loaned Belmont by Tenmei Mikogami. This legendary whip once belonged to a monster hunter in the past can cancel out magic such his holy lock and Moka's Rosary. By having his holy lock connected to something such as Ruby the excess energy can be transferred to her when he releases it by using belmont's magic cancellation property thus allowing him to utilize his powers without having it consume him. Though after his training in Yoki Detection by Moka he never used this whip again.

## On Yen Sid's Team

While in Yokai Academy after the Battle of Alucard, he felt that there was something strange going on while he and his friends were in class. One day when they were heading for lunch, they suddenly saw three monsters that they don't even recognize. But, when a girl came in and defeated those monsters with just a whiff of her arm, she told them that those three monsters were all heartless, and that she is looking for new recruits. When the girl showed herself to be a girl, she introduced herself as Andrea Garcia, and in searching for new recruits for her family to take down the enemy. After all that, they all decided to become new members of Yen Sid's Team. While at Yen Sid's training room, Kurumu and Mizore started to feel fond over Andrea more than they do with Tsukune, and this is starting to make Tsukune a lot more closer to Andrea than ever like a sister and a best friend, causing Moka to feel jealous (but she was jumping to conclusions when she saw Andrea and Tsukune hugging).