Kyousuke Shiroyama

Kyousuke Shiroyama (城山恭介 Shiroyama Kyōsuke) is the main protagonist of Mitou Shoukan://Blood Sign. He is an ace summoner of considerable talent from one of the three main summoner factions, Freedom, but he's considering retiring from the summoning business. However, he constantly suffers from an uncontrollable urge to assist those who ask him for help that prevents him from doing so.

Appearance
Kyousuke is described as an average boy with an overly generic choice of clothing. He has short dark brown hair and gray eyes and is often seen wearing a red-and-black hooded sweatshirt and branded track pants. His sweatshirt has a rabbit design on the right side and Kyousuke prefers it fully closed up.

Personality
Despite being one of the most skilled summoners in the world, Kyousuke's personality is more simple and laid back compared to some of his quirkier acquaintances in the summoning business. He can be easily flustered by girls and he's apparently weak towards a girl crying. This trait is apparently very obvious, as people not very familiar with him have noticed it. For example, one of his female classmates stated that he was harmless when he asked if she wasn't worried about being alone with him at night, and Higan Meinokawa stated that he looked like the kind of person who'd be easily beaten in an argument by her sister Renge. He's also apparently unable to judge how close he is to other people, as he was surprised when Ryouko Umie told him he seemed to get along pretty well with Fuuki Benikomichi in school. Despite usually displaying a calm and collected disposition even in fierce summoning battles, Kyousuke can get more emotional when the White Queen is involved due to their past relationship, as seen by his frantic attempt to convince Renge to stop her summoning of the White Queen in front of him, or his despair when the White Queen utterly defeated both him and Higan, described as more appropriate of a child than of a veteran summoner who has gone through countless battlefields.

However, his most noticeable personality trait his compulsion to help others as soon as he hears the words "help me" from someone. He calls the words "help me" cursed for this reason. This is a well known trait by his friends. According to the White Queen, this compulsion is a result of their previous relationship, as Kyousuke's "gears" were left messed up. She also called him a "hopeless hero", as when faced with a situation where he can only save one hundred people, he forcibly saves two hundred, which produces a new conflict. He gives no thought to the remaining oxygen, the remaining food, or the number of lifeboats. He simply saves everyone before his eyes. She has also mocked him by saying that he has done enough to earn the title of ruler of the world, and yet she feels like he's still nothing more than a rabbit traversing a world of chaos. He himself has admitted to feeling that half of the world's chaos is derived from the Secret War he caused after binding the White Queen to this world in the past. Additionally, as indicated by his main nickname, Kyousuke is unwilling to let anyone die, be it his allies and vessels or his enemies. By a comment he made to the White Queen, this originally may have only applied to his allies.

Despite all the trouble he goes through to help people, Kyousuke continues to fight. Not only because of his compulsion but because he sees himself as the root of the world's current problems and feels responsible for the Secret War that killed so many skilled summoners and vessels. He believes that's it's not right for him alone to be happy when he was the trigger of that catastrophic event, so while he can't shake off those cursed words of “help me”, he cannot call himself a righteous hero either.

Background
In the past Kyousuke was close with the White Queen (lovers according to her). He wanted to free her from the Blood-Sign limitations, as he wanted to remain with her for longer periods of time and disliked that Materials were seen as tools, wanting to treat them like people. He devised a way to bind and summon a Material to the world indefinitely whenever the summoner wanted, the Sewn Realm Summoning. However, this caused the greatest tragedy in history once Kyousuke found out he couldn't control her or send her back, and countless summoners and vessels died in a Secret War to stop the White Queen from destroying the world. To this day, the White Queen remains obsessed with getting Kyousuke back no matter what.

He also had a much more antagonistic relationship with Aika and Lu Niang-Lan than the friendly one the three have in the present.

Light Novel Volume 01
Aika had been asking for Kyousuke's help in tending to her needs, often asking him to do some errands and house chores. On his way to her apartment, Kyousuke found Higan Meinokawa and, hearing her used the cursed word, decided to save her from the people searching her. While Kyousuke and Lu Niang-Lan were at Aika's apartment, her white liger started to get restless, which Kyousuke revealed was caused by the injured Higan, as he had brought her to the apartment with him. Then Kyousuke announced to Aika and Lu his intention of making one last job as a summoner. After moving Higan to one of the rooms in Aika's apartment, Aika and Kyousuke discussed Guard of Honor, with Higan trying to get Kyousuke's help to find and save her sister Renge after Aika revealed his identity as Freedom Award 902, Alice (with) Rabbit. However, Kyousuke refused to help her.

Kyousuke left Aika's apartment. As he walked through Toy Dream 35's streets he met one of his classmates, who was doing a part-time job. He was later stopped by Higan, who had chased Kyousuke into the streets when he left. She tried to use a tactic Aika had suggested to her to convince Kyousuke to help her to no effect. Higan once more expressed her desire to save her sister, revealing their current family situation, but Kyosuke refused to help her. He asked her to cool her head and not rush in to help her sister, as that would only get both of them killed. Later that night Aika called Kyousuke to inform him that Higan hadn't returned to her apartment, and was probably looking for her sister on her own despite not having any power without a summoner, which forced Government to officially consider her an enemy and send their forces after her, including Azalea Magentarain, an ace summoner especialized in summoning the White Queen. The two also talked about Olivia Highland, Kyousuke's previous vessel. Higan was cornered near Kyousuke's high school in R Block by a group of Government summoners and Pilot Soldiers, but Kyousuke arrived to help her. Kyousuke reassured Higan on her fears and doubts, and then the two made a summoner-vessel contract. Higan and Kyousuke easily defeated the Government group and managed to flee before they were caught by Azalea Magentarain. The duo arrived at Lu Niang-Lan's used good store to resupply. While there Lu explained her doubts about Guard of Honor's true nature, and helped them search information about Renge, who had been trying to keep their pursuers away from Higan by making some appearances throughout Toy Dream 35 in a specific pattern, all the while dodging the members of Guard of Honor who were chasing after her. Lu used her pattern to predict that Renge would appear the next day in G Block. As Higan and Kyousuke were leaving, Lu handed over a trick knife to Higan, also revealing her past as a vessel.

After spending the night at Kyousuke's boat, Higan and Kyousuke arrived at G Block's monorail station, where they were forced into a fight with Azalea Magentarain after they discovered she was a member of Guard of Honor. The two were struggling against Azalea's White Thorn juggling technique, so Renge, who was watching the fight, decided to intervene, synchronizing with Higan and overwriting her contract with Kyousuke. Then Renge proceeded to use Azalea's setup to summon the White Queen. However, the White Queen instantly focused on Kyousuke, and when Renge tried to talk she was nearly killed by the Queen inverting her protective circle's strength. Higan was knocked out after the White Queen left. Not only that, Kyousuke and the others found out that the White Queen had left some shards of herself inside Higan that threatened to kill her in a few hours. As Lu Niang-lan used her acupuncture skills to slow down the shards' progression through Higan's body, Kyousuke had to stop Renge's plan to try to get an unlicensed doctor to transplant her organs into Higan to save her life by sacrificing herself. Renge revealed her true nature as a Joruri Method to Kyousuke, claiming it would be best for a machine like her to die to save a human like Higan, but Kyousuke refuted that idea, explaining that Higan had done her best to save Renge. He managed to convince Renge to ask him for help in order to avoid that imperfect ending. Kyousuke would later have an extensive discussion with Renge, Aika and Lu Niang-Lan about Guard of Honor, their plan of summoning the White Queen and bind her to the world, and the White Queen's true nature. During their preparation, Kyousuke left Aika's apartment to get supplies and perform maintenance on his Blood-Sign, but he was intercepted by the White Queen, who had been summoned through a Chain by Guard of Honor's members defeating each other in order to meet him ahead of schedule. She forced Kyousuke to spend some time with her by threatening all the people in the area, though Kyousuke turned this on her by offering to ride a Ferris wheel with her and wasting her time in the line talking to her until her time limit ran out.

After Higan regained consciousness, Kyousuke remade his contract with her and set off to stop Guard of Honor's plan in the underground staff-only tunnels. The two used a trick to get past most of Guard of Honor's forces, but they still had to face Azalea Magentarain. After a tough battle Higan and Kyousuke were the winning pair, but the White Queen emerged from the cocoon, forcing them to start a desperate fight. None of the Divine-class Materials they used had enough will to even try fighting the White Queen. The White Queen let them summon an Unexplored-class Material, and Kyousuke summoned the Lady of Purple Lightning. However, even an Unexplored-class Material was easily defeated by the Queen in one blow. Out of options, Kyousuke intentionally summoned the Black Maw, the White Queen's other side, causing them to start fighting over him. After the Black Maw barely won the fight, Kyousuke changed it to a normal Material before it could kill him. Higan was later carried by Kyousuke out of Guard of Honor's territory. After Kyousuke defeated the White Queen and saved Higan, Aika talked with him over the phone about how the Meinokawa sisters had received hush money from an unknown source that would save their shrine from debt. She also mentioned the sisters were angry with him for severing the summoner/vessel contract before Meinokawa Higan woke up, and that both would probably start searching for him all over the city. After finishing his call Kyousuke encountered the White Queen, who had caused the remnants of Guards of Honor to self-destruct as they killed each other to use a Chain to summon her, allowing her to talk with Kyousuke once more. After both of them reaffirmed their position the White Queen disappeared, though not before claiming that, in the end, Kyousuke will end up saving even her.

Light Novel Volume 02
Lu and Kyousuke went on a mission to retrieve an attache case in Toy Dream 35's A Block containing dangerous data. However, the airport was taken over by a terrorist group calling itself the Black Wings. As the two discussed what to do one of the terrorists hit one of the hostages, causing her daughter to ask for help. Upon hearing the cursed words Kyousuke intervened, forcing Lu to do the same. After disabling a group of terrorists and an armored vehicle the duo escaped the airport, only to see a young summoner who had summoned a Divine-class Material taking care of the terrorists. Lu was forced to knock out Kyousuke to prevent him from trying to save the terrorists despite lacking a vessel to fight with. The two later arrived at Aika's apartment, shocking her with their tired state.

The following day Kyousuke met up and talked with Akiya Rendou and Ryouko upon arriving to his classroom. Their talk about ghosts and the Rainy Girl was interrupted by the emergency bell for a surprise emergency crime prevention training, and the three followed the other students towards the gym. On their way there they met their student council president Fuuki Benikomichi, which spurred a conversation about the differences between "commoners" like them and Fuuki. During lunch break Fuuki sat with Kyousuke. The two talked about food and the rumors about the Rainy Girl ghost. After the afternoon classes were over, Kyousuke inquired about Ryouko's plans for the rest of the day, as he overheard her complaining about the rain. Kyousuke stayed after school to do homework and study, and he was joined by Fuuki, who used the chance to help him with his studies and take a break from the student council. Kyousuke met Ryouko once more as they left school later, as she had to attend to the Library and Kyousuke had stayed at school to study. The Rainy Girl appeared in front of them, scaring Ryouko. Kyousuke made a contract with Ryouko so that he would be able to deal with the ghost, but the Rainy Girl vanished before they could use an Incense Grenade.

After confirming Kyousuke's explanation of her new status as a vessel by trying to call her boss, Ryouko was instructed about the summoning ceremony by him, including a vessel's need of a bondage symbol. After finishing their preparations the two decided to grab a change of clothes. After Kyousuke picked new clothes from one of his storage lockers, he and Ryouko went to her apartment, where she told him about her family and her older sister. After Ryouko changed clothes the two left the apartment to gather some information from Aika and Lu. However, on the way there they met Fuuki, who started to bicker with Ryouko over Kyousuke's company. Their discussion was interrupted by the arrival of the Illegal assassin summoner known as Hayato Yasuzumi. Fuuki revealed herself to be Hayato's vessel by stabbing Kyousuke in the back with some scissors as he was distracted by Hayato, but the blades were stopped by Kyousuke's Repliglass Blood-Sign. Kyousuke hit Fuuki and tried to knock her out to end the fight before it begins, but his attempt was thwarted by Hayato throwing an Incense Grenade in time, starting the battle between both summoner and vessel duos. At first Hayato had the advantage due to his unconventional technique to shift gravity and change the Artificial Sacred Ground by destroying his footing. However, Kyousuke quickly adapted to his technique and started predicting his shifts, closing the cost gap that Hayato had created. Hayato tried one last trick: to throw Kyousuke into the air so that he wouldn't be able accurately hit White Thorns into the Spots, but Kyousuke even managed to adapt to that. Before a winner could be declared, the timer of the Artificial Sacred Ground ran out, and Kyousuke and his vessel were thrown away. Fuuki ordered Hayato to not pursue them, claiming that they'd wasted the chance of a surprise attack and would need to prepare another plan.

Kyousuke and Ryouko fell into the ocean, with Ryouko falling unconscious by the impact, forcing Kyousuke to swim her to the shore. Desiring to obtain more info on the enemy that had attacked them, the two went to Aika's apartment. However, their clothes were soaked. Kyousuke had access to another change of clothes, but the two had to stop by a laundromat on the way to the apartment to clean Ryouko's clothes. As they waited for the clothes Ryouko asked Kyousuke about his life as a summoner and about Fuuki. Kyousuke admitted to getting along with Fuuki on school after Fuuki asked him about her, causing her to offer her help in saving the student council president, but Kyousuke rejected her offer, as he still had to fulfill his promise to help Ryouko herself with her sister. After arriving to Aika's apartment the two asked Lu Niang-Lan about their attacker, but Lu informed them there was no information about him on Illegal's records. After discussing his possible motivations, the group came to the conclusion that the Rainy Girl's constant appearances were a side effect of some plan that Hayato and Fuuki were carrying out, and had tried to eliminate Kyousuke and Ryouko out of fear of their plan being exposed. Aika proceeded to use Packet Atmosphere, a Government's information system, to track and visualize the rumors about the Rainy Girl, revealing that the appearances of the ghost fit the operation records for Toshima Industries' 3rd Toy Factory on the outskirts of Toy Dream 35. Kyousuke and Ryouko decided to head out, investigate and destroy the factory.

Ryouko and Kyousuke infiltrated the factory, discovering that it was being used to spread the incense normally used in Incense Grenades across the atmosphere. The incense wasn't mixed for a specific summoner, as it was intended to be a universal incense that matches anyone, though this prevented it from being used to summon Materials. Ryouko and Kyousuke eavesdropped what they thought were Fuuki and Hayato talking about their plan to stop all humanity from dying. As they listened they were interrupted by an image of the White Queen appearing on the city's perception network through AR. The Queen revealed that she was being used by Hayato and Fuuki, who had separated her mind from her body and put her body on Toy Dream OP-XX, one of the city's satellites, for their plan. However, the factory turned out to be a trap prepared for him using body doubles, and Hayato and Fuuki blew up their own base in an attempt to kill them. The two then left to perform the finishing touches of their plan. Hayato and Fuuki arrived at Fuuki and Kyousuke's school, as Fuuki had turned it into the cornerstone of their plan. While Hayato was skeptical, Fuuki was sure Kyousuke had survived the explosion and would figure out that they were at the school, and she was proven right by Kyousuke and Ryouko's arrival. After Kyousuke and Ryouko won their fight and stopped Fuuki and Hayato's plan, the Rainy Girl reappeared in front of them. Before they could use an Incense Grenade they were interrupted by the Meinokawa sisters. The appearance of Higan and Renge revealed the truth: Shouko was not a ghost. She was still alive, and had been pulled from the past due to Fuuki and Reiji's project messing with the flow of causality. The White Queen explained the situation to the group, including the fact that the murderer would also appear and come for Shouko. Despite her sister's desire to save her, Shouko refused help, as she didn't want to ruin her sister's world by surviving her murder. After this Shouko vanished. Kyousuke followed her and saved her from her murderer, thus changing the past.

On his return to school Kyousuke met with Rendou, who told him about the sightings of a ghost saving a little girl from a murderer. As the school came into view Kyousuke saw both Ryouko and Shouko within the crowd of students. Kyousuke remained after school to confront the image of the White Queen on the Rainy Screen. The White Queen tried to tempt him into joining forces with her to save more people, but Kyousuke refused, stating that had been what had happened to Fuuki and Hayato. Kyousuke's rejection made the White Queen happy as he was still the same as ever, a feeling that only grew upon hearing him declare that he would have taken care of everything had saving Shouko been the cause of further issues in the world. The two parted ways once more.

Abilities
Kyousuke is an ace summoner with 903 Awards (902 prior to the incident with Guard of Honor). As an ace summoner, Kyousuke is known as Alice (with) Rabbit (不殺王＜アリス（ウィズ）ラビット＞, Fusatsu-Ou , lit., "Unkilling King"). This nickname was given to him by the White Queen, and serves as his most common nickname, though he has several others, like the Ace Destroyer, the Unexplored-Class Summoner, Loved by the White, Eternal Wearer of Material, the Hive Crusher, and many more. Some of these nicknames like Hive Crusher and Loved by the White are known to come from one of his Awards.

While not at the level of Lu Niang-Lan who kills veteran summoners with her own body and hidden weapons, when in a bind, Kyousuke knows enough about his small field to put together a workable strategy on the fly that will let him fight without a Material. It could be written off as a series of adlibs, but he does not bring about the optimum result by gambling. He simply has enough useful experience to instantly search for the relevant information in any given situation. He may physically use his arms and legs, but his true weapon as a summoner is his intellect and sharp mind. His superior knowledge and talent as a summoner can be seen from the fact that as a kid he managed to successfully create the Sewn Realm Summoning at a compact scale, something that a large organization with plenty of talented summoners failed to do even with much more equipment. He is also particularly adept at figuring out a counter for other summoners' techniques, as seen with his second fight with Azalea Magentarain, in which he revealed he had been holding back during their first encounter to see if that was all she could do and countered her square loop technique by intentionally changing the Artificial Sacred Ground's size with his Materials.

Kyousuke seems almost supernaturally skilled at binding the enemy’s body with a stimulus so that they cannot fight with their rational mind, using his movements for a psychological effect of creating a gap and throwing off one’s timing. As a top-class summoner, his spatial awareness and experience with the summoning ceremony allow him to even send Petals into a Spot by hitting a White Thorn behind his back without relying on his sight. He is also capable of knocking several Petals into Spots with a single White Thorn, a technique compared to a shotgun that allowed him to keep up with and eventually surpass Azalea Magentarain's square loop gatling technique. He claims to be capable of knocking five or ten Petals into Spots with one White Thorn, and Azalea, another ace summoner, was shocked by his skill to consistently and reliably pull off this difficult feat.

Kyousuke's experience in the battlefield has granted him a sixth sense that allows him to detect great presences such as other ace summoners, sensing their presence as a stinging tension and a dense premonition of death that stirs his combat instincts. His excellent analytical skills allow him to predict an enemy's next movement by reading their breathing, the movement of their eyes, the tension in their muscles, the adjustments to their balance and other information from their body. He used this technique to counter Hayato Yasuzumi's artificial gravity control strategy. Similarly, he can accurately calculate out where he can strike to knock someone out in a single blow by determining the location of his opponent’s center of gravity from their build, determined the range of motion of their arms and leg, etc...; all in an instant.

Unlike most summoners, who normally use magic to form a custom Blood-Sign at the start of a battle, Kyousuke uses a 180cm military Repliglass staff officially known as a Quad Motors Phosphorus. It is normally used for training by beginner summoners of the Government faction. However, Kyousuke likes to use it because, while it doesn’t have any outstanding features, it's still better than average overall and allows him to add his own customizations while still being easily replaceable. The staff is very flexible (usually compared to a snake), allowing Kyousuke to carry it concealed by wrapping it around him. Unlike most summoners, Kyousuke uses his Blood-Sign not only as a summoning tool, but also as a weapon, being capable enough to easily knock out unprepared summoners and soldiers with a single blow, using both spear and staff techniques.

Awards
As mentioned above Kyousuke currently has 903 Awards. Some of his confirmed Awards are:
 * Hive Crusher: An Award received by Kyousuke Shiroyama for destroying an entire organization on his own.
 * Loved by the White: A rare Award given to those loved by the White Queen. Kyousuke Shiroyama is the only person to hold it.
 * White Slayer: An Award received by Kyousuke Shiroyama for defeating the White Queen during the Guard of Honor incident.

It's possible some of his other nicknames like Ace Destroyer, the Unexplored-Class Summoner and Eternal Wearer of Material are also references to his Awards.

Other Skills
Kyousuke has a very good memory, even as a child. After a short lesson with Masami Shigara she suddenly asked him to repeat what she had told him verbatim from the very first word, and he was able to do so with machine-like accuracy.

Quotes

 * (Kyousuke to Higan, Volume 1) "Despite what I said, you don’t need to fear anything else tonight. You aren’t alone. And… Right now, you are the Alice with the Rabbit."
 * (Kyousuke to Renge, Volume 1) "Say it. I will defeat the White Queen myself. That will remove everything eating into Meinokawa Higan. I will use everything available to me, I will cheat in every way I can, and I will sweep aside everyone who stands in my way. Freedom Award 902, Alice (with) Rabbit, swears it. …So say the cursed words. That will complete this."
 * (Kyousuke to White Queen, Volume 1) "Oh, I just remembered a bit of a promise is all. The thing is, Queen, I made a promise. It isn’t about money and I didn’t sign a strange contract on parchment, but it was still a promise. I promised to save a strange set of twins named Meinokawa Renge and Meinokawa Higan. I promised to do whatever it took to accomplish that. Yes – ha ha – what could be more basic? I can’t believe I didn’t realize this until the very end. I was fighting yet I’d forgotten the promise I made, so I must have gotten careless. So it’s time I remembered Alice (with) Rabbit."
 * (Kyousuke to White Queen, Volume 4) "Hell no. Fighting you with the power you gave me? I’d just be dancing in your palm. From then on, I’d only be able to resist you within the rules you had set up! I won’t rely on something like that, Queen. I’m done with relying on the strongest because it’s easy!!"
 * (Kyousuke, Volume 4) "How can I…? How can I do that? Yes, yes. I will fight back… I will fight back, I will dig in my heels, and I will continue to struggle!! How can I give up here? Even if this world is a labyrinth with all the exits removed and even if this is a one-sided chess board leaving no way to put white in checkmate! I will still do whatever it takes to put together a means of defeating the Queen!!!!! You sit up there in the deepest, deepest depths of the other world and you laugh all you like! You gave me the name Alice (with) Rabbit!! And I, Shiroyama Kyousuke, will be the summoner who makes the impossible possibleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!"