Kouki Amanogawa (, Amanogawa Kōki?) is a major character from the Arifureta: From Commonplace to World's Strongest"series.
He is one of the students from Japan who got involved in the summoning incident, and ended up in Tortus along with his other classmates. He is somewhat like the leader of the whole class, as most of the students look up to him. This is further enforced by him being bestowed with the rare job as the Hero.
Appearance[]
Kouki is a typical ikemen (good-looking man), with good looks, athletics, smarts, and a good personality. He has silky brown hair and gentle eyes. His body is toned and slender at about 180 centimeters.
He wears the divine armor along with a white cape that is blue on the inside, white long-sleeved tunic, pants, and gloves all of which are adorned with gold accents.
In the after story, Kouki wears a standard adventurer's getup along with a hooded cloak.
Personality[]
“
I’m going to fight. If we save everyone, then we can go home. So just you watch! I’m going to save everyone, including us!
”
Kouki is kind, fair, and has an overflowing sense of justice. All these factors mixed with his handsome appearance, makes the vast majority of people consider him a perfect man. In reality, Kouki is a severely flawed man, and although he is not an intentionally bad person, what lies beyond says otherwise about him. Kouki is actually extremely arrogant, ignorant, hypocritical, childish, spoiled, incompetent, irresponsible, reckless and with a weak determination whilst being delusional. Kouki believes he is never wrong, and therefore interprets any situation to suit his own personal convenience, ignoring reality as he only wants to see and hear what he wants.
This stems from his childhood. During his childhood he greatly admired his grandfather that would teach him his ideals of righteousness and justice. After his grandfather's death, Kouki held to his grandfather's teachings of ideal righteousness. Even so, the righteousness that his grandfather taught didn’t necessarily recognize good and evil at all. Because of this, Kouki came to think that "if the majority says it's right, then it's right", not knowing reality is actually more difficult than that. As he grew, he was capable of overcoming many problems while still holding to his ideals. As a result, without realizing it, Kouki came to not doubt his own righteousness. Despite being cautioned by several people close to him, especially by his parents and Shizuku, he ignores them and simply believes in his righteousness, making him quite arrogant and dimwitted, also turning him delusional about himself. After being summoned to Tortus, where the Holy Church and the Kingdom of Heiligh labeled Kouki (and his classmates) as their Hero who was sent by their God to save them from the demons, which he took with high pride, has only worsened this. Summoning as a "Hero" to Tortus only fueled his hollow ego and his delusional sense of justice.
Because of his self-righteousness and egotism, Kouki can't accept it when things don't go the way he wants, making him act like a spoiled child. This was seen when Kaori decide to follow Hajime of her own free will. He couldn't accept it as he always believed that they should be together forever and would rather believe that Hajime is the one who took her away. He further mistakes that all the girls who were following Hajime were being forced by him and tried to get them to come with him instead by saying he will treat them better than Hajime, which only greatly disturbed them because of how far off the mark he was. This only upsets him further, causing Kouki to challenge Hajime to a duel for them, which was no different from him trying to take them by force. Kouki's ignorance and delusions were the exact reasons why Hajime didn't bother letting his classmates know the truth about Ehit being in fact an evil, mad God who only summoned them as mere pawns for his own personal, twisted amusement, because Hajime knows that Kouki's delusional arrogance and empty pride would only make him disbelieve in him, in addition to criticizing him harshly.
Due to always being successful in everything he did back on Earth and being summoned to Tortus as a Hero, Kouki has developed an immense narcissistic pride in himself and his abilities as he believes that due to him being the Hero, others should follow his lead and that he is the person who will save everyone. This is displayed when Hajime killed the demon Cattleya over Kouki's protests despite her previous attempt to kill the Hero Party and the Kingdom knights, as to him, killing a person was wrong and thus condemned Hajime for not following his commands. Hajime, however, noticed that Kouki was just taking out his anger and frustration on Hajime, because Kouki was a delusional idiot unable to recognize his own mistakes and failures, he pushed them onto Hajime under the pretext of having killed a defenseless enemy and who had already had surrendered. His arrogance even deluded him into believing that he is stronger than Hajime due to being blessed as Ehit's chosen Hero, even self-righteously challenged Hajime to claim his harem for himself. However, when Kouki nearly died in Eri's death trap during Freid's invasion and also witnessed Hajime's real power as he not only destroyed a zombified Meld and the other Heligh Kingdom Knights and even effortlessly killed Hiyama, one of the strongest of his fellow Heroes with his bare hands, Kouki's pride in himself was badly damaged, which worsened when Aiko exposed Ehit's true nature as an Evil God and his schemes in using him and his classmates as pawns in a mad game of death in which all the hero worship Kouki had received from the Holy Church was nothing more than a fabricated lie.
Unable to accept his own failures and the truth about Ehit, Kouki even attempted to vent his frustration on Hajime, by blaming him for Ehit's schemes in helping Eri and Hiyama's betrayal that led to the Heligh Kingdom's invasion by Freid. Even when Hajime pointed out it was Kouki's own personality flaws and naivety that lead to Eri and Hiyama's betrayal, Kouki still refused to acknowledge it, preferring to blame Hajime for the problems that he himself had caused it due to his pride and arrogance in himself. Kouki was the only one who condemned Hajime for murdering Hiyama despite the latter being a despicable traitor who killed Meld and the Heligh Kingdom Knights and also temporarily murdered Kaori Shirasaki and attempted to make her his undead sex slave. Kouki seeks to enforce his morals and ideals onto others as he believes that he knows what is best as he often clashes with Hajime over what actions to take as Hajime outright refused to follow Kouki's ideals due to his pragmatic and realistic mindset. He gets irritated and annoyed when he learns that Hajime saved more people despite Hajime ignoring the plight of Tortus and Kouki's own desire to save everyone. Despite Kouki insisting that Hajime take them along with him, Kouki doesn't wish to accept what he believes as charity from Hajime as he strives to prove that he is right and stronger then Hajime. This is shown in the fact that Kouki is reluctant to use the upgrades to the Holy Sword that Hajime added. This desire to prove himself stronger to Hajime got worse after Kouki failed to clear the Haltina Labyrinth, as that failure made him more irritated and increased his animosity towards Hajime.
Kouki is easily swayed by his emotions, making him increasingly reckless as he tends to act without thinking about the present situation. Even through this has been pointed out by Shizuku several times and has even almost got him killed, he rarely reflects on this issue. This has proven to be his greatest weakness, as he will hesitate when he learns new information about his enemy and always ending up giving them an opening to defeat him. This is seen during his second battle against Cattleya, where he stopped his blade right after he succeeded in getting in close enough to finish her off due to seeing her giving her final prayer to her loved one as she prepared to die due to realizing that he was about to kill another sentient person and not a mindless "monster" as he initially thought the demon Race was. Eri also made uses of this weakness by making the undead Meld appear as if he could be saved, causing Kouki to stop his blade once again before he could finish his opponent, getting defeated as a result.
He has a large amount of charisma, but always charges straight forward without thinking of the consequences. He also has a naive, childish outlook on the topic of love and the topic of killing. Kouki is often too optimistic for his own good, usually failing to consider the possible dangers surrounding him at times. Even when the situation in the palace was becoming suspicious, he still failed to consider the possibility that he and his classmates were being surrounded by the enemy. This ends up also affecting most of his classmates as they all look up to him; so when he says there's nothing wrong, they believe it without considering whether it's true or not.
Another noticeable trait about Kouki is his denseness. Despite being very popular with many different girls on both Earth and Tortus, he failed to notice this. Similar, he completely failed to notice that his childhood friend Kaori already had feelings for Hajime back on Earth, and instead believed she only talked to Hajime out of sympathy. Even when she confessed to Hajime right in front of him, he still couldn't believe it. It's because of his denseness that neither Shizuku or Kaori ever found themselves attracted to him, despite knowing him for so long.
Another aspect to Kouki is his apparent innocence. After he and his class were summoned to Tortus and the situation of the Human-Demon War was explained to them and their role as "Heroes" summoned from another world to help humanity defeat the Demons, Kouki was completely oblivious to the true implications of their situation and instead got swallowed up by the glamour presented by the Kingdom and the Church of being the Chosen Heroes. This is seen where unlike Shizuku and Hajime, Kouki failed to recognize the fact that they were now going to tangled up in an actual war against two races and thus were now doomed to face the inevitable prospect of having to kill sentient life in mass. A clear example of his innocence is seen during his second fight against Cattleya, where Kouki stopped his blade when he was about to kill the demon due to the realization that he was about to kill another sentient being, something Cattleya berated him for as they were two enemy combatants in opposing sides, as she also later revealed that Kouki most likely only ever considered and saw those of the demon race as "animals" or "monsters" and viewed the war against the demon race as simply "hunting" and was completely oblivious to the implications of a genuine war
As revealed by Hajime and acknowledged by his close friend Shizuku, despite these numerous negative traits, Kouki himself is completely and utterly oblivious to them and due to things having always work out for him in the end back on Earth in whatever he did, Kouki himself developed the unconscious habit of automatically misdirecting and misidentifying his feelings in order to validate and mask his negative feelings and insecurities through his empty ideals of justice in order to cope with them in order to "be in the right" instead of properly acknowledging them.
While traveling through the Frost Cravens of Schnee, Kouki showed signs of growing increasingly unstable. Despite repeatedly saying he would save and protect everybody, he continually failed at every turn, including failing to clear the Haltina Labyrinth. Worse for him, Kouki's own teammates were doing a better job than him and were getting praised from Hajime and his party for it. While facing his copy during the final part of the trial, Kouki continued to deny everything his copy said, which only made it stronger as he wasn't accepting his own flaws. Once he saw Shizuku sleeping peacefully on Hajime's back, he completely snapped, choosing to believe Hajime was brainwashing everyone and everything would be return to being "right" if he killed him. His logic likewise grew increasingly erratic/crazed and delusional to the point that almost every assumption made by Kouki bared little to no relation or connection to the very situation, leading his closest friends to wonder how he had even come up with these conclusions. Despite this however, he still believed in whatever he made up due to refusing to accept his errors. However, he became doubtful after he almost broke his relationships with Kaori and Shizuku due to his stubborn adherence to misguided righteousness after his effortlessly defeat by his former classmate, Hajime.
However, despite this and seeing how much Hajime suffered to get where he is, he still desperately wanted to believe he was right all along. This made it easy for Eri to brainwash him and make him her puppet, all while ironically thinking his friends were the ones being brainwashed. Interestingly, this was exactly what the Haltina Labyrinth and Frost Caverns of Schnee tried to prepare those who planned on challenging the gods for; the gods would turn them against their friends and manipulate their inner weaknesses. This proved once again why Kouki failed to clear both Labyrinths.
While brainwashed under Eri's Spirit Binding, Kouki became completely delusional to the point of being completely faithful in Ehit and overconfident in the limitless mana Ehit gave him, despite having already learnt of Ehit's true evil nature and his previous attempt to save Tortus from Ehit's tyranny, he ended up betrayed Tortus and all his friends by siding with Ehit and Eri to suit his delusional justice, which sorely disappointed his closest friends Shizuku, Ryuutaro and Suzu. He even attempted to kill his friends under the pretext of saving them, claiming Ehit will revived them after he killed them and removed Hajime's brainwashing.
When Shizuku severed Eri's Soul Binding, free him from brainwashing, Kouki having realized what he had done, betraying all of Tortus, his friends and even attacking his best friends, started to doubt reality as he is always meant to be right. Claiming he wasn't supposed to become a villain, as he wanted to be a hero like his grandfather, he had a panic attack, his guilty conscience was so overwhelming he stubbornly cling to his delusional self-righteousness, blaming Hajime for his own wrongdoings and mistakes, and believeing that his best friends betrayed him. He resorted to burning his life away to create one last Divine Wrath to deny reality for not conforming to everything he desired. He even attempt to kill Ryuutaro who tried to stop him from his suicidal act, being cringed by his determination which made him realize of his own pathetic behaviour.
Ultimately when Ryutaro told Kouki as his best friend, it is his job to beat Kouki to his senses if he went astray. Shizuku then gave Kouki a merciless and harsh beating for herself and Ryuutaro's behalf, slapping the latter non-stop for all the trouble he caused them, scolding Kouki for always behaving like a spoiled brat forcing her, their friends and Hajime to put up with his delusional self-righteousness again and again. Criticized Kouki that for all his grand and noble desire for justice, he only choose to cling to his delusions and avert his eyes from reality, not bothering to try fighting for what he wanted, telling he is just a spoiled brat who pretend the reality that contradicts his desire to be fake, making excuses for his carelessness and naivety, pinning the blame on Hajime for his own failures and mistakes. Shizuku also tell Kouki they would not allow him to commit suicide to escape responsibility for all the trouble and problems he caused, threatening to thrashed him again if he remained stubborn and delusional. The harsh beating and fierce scolding finally brought Kouki to his senses, as he realized how completely pathetic he had been behaving as despite all the times he declared he would saved the world as a hero, he never resolve to put in any will and effort to do so, and all his self-righteous actions, irresponsibility and behaviour up till now have been extremely despicable. Kouki finally realized at last it is not Hajime but his own emotional weakness and personality flaws that led him to such a state as Hajime previously stated in Schnee Labyrinth, Kouki finally choose to change and move forward by acknowledge reality for what it is without clinging to his delusions and being irresponsible.
In the After Story, Kouki becomes filled with immense guilt over his past behavior and actions which prompts him to drop out of high school and wander around Tortus, immediately taking on bounty jobs to kill monsters as an act of atonement to the point of recklessness. He also becomes tense if someone addresses him as a hero. After being summoned to the Desert World and listening to the plight of Moana and the people of Synclea Kingdom about the "Dark Beings", it is shown that Kouki becomes deeply conflicted with himself to the point where he tries desperately to envision a solution where both sides can be happy. His solo journey in the Desert World also forces him to confront the prospect of dying after almost receiving a fatal wound to his neck, but also makes him resolute to genuinely take a life for the first time in his life. Kouki undergoes another change after a child desperately begs for his help, prompting him to take on an army of "Dark Beings" while also defending the city of Arquette by himself. While being subject to a situation that almost mirrors Hajime's survival in the abyss, Kouki deeply reflects upon the events in his life, from idolizing his grandfather, Shizuku's scolding that brought him to his senses, and Eri's last word to him which finally guides Kouki to his own path. After almost dying and learning from Moana that his choice protected numerous innocent lives, Kouki's character develops for the better and returns to his old kind self. Kouki's growth and his desire to save Moana impressed Hajime enough that Hajime lends his aid to save the Synclea Kingdom so that Kouki could save the woman he fell for
Relationship[]
Hajime Nagumo[]
| “ | It’s all because of you! If you weren’t here, everything would be perfect! Kaori and Shizuku would have been mine! I would have saved the world! But you ruined everything! Even though you’re a murderer, even though you abandon people without a second thought, how come everyone likes YOU!? It doesn’t make sense! | „ |
| ~ Kouki's ignorance of blaming Hajime when failed of hitting Hajime. |
Prior to the summoning, Kouki disliked Hajime and considered him to be a bother, viewing the latter as constantly fawning over Kaori due to his convenient misinterpretation of her attitude towards him. Kouki was so ignorant and dimwitted about Hajime that he stupidly believed his classmate was nothing but a lazy otaku that doesn't study or do sports. He also thinks Hajime smiles like an idiot.
Likewise, Hajime also hates Kouki for the most part. As he views the former to be an annoyingly immature dimwit with grand words who's lost in his own delusions. So much so that he wants to avoid dealing with, due to his naïve mindset and troublesome habit of interpreting everything to fit his worldview, especially after his trials in the Great Orcus Labyrinth. It is due to these flaws that Hajime decided not to reveal to Kouki and his classmates that the god, Ehit, who had summoned them to be heroes in Tortus, was in fact a twisted, evil god that viewed living beings as playthings or the fact that Daisuke Hiyama attempted to kill Hajime himself. Since Kouki's dimwitted, idealistic mindset would never allow him to doubt those who are praising him. Hajime doesn't take orders from Kouki and ignored every single one of his commands that he tried to give him. Hajime absolutely refused to let Kouki take his lovers even through pointless and childish challenges during which Hajime easily defeated him twice: first in an unarmed duel when he dropped Kouki in a pit filled with non-lethal, tear gas grenades and later fighting while the latter was merged with his Schnee doppelganger (which is only a measly power up that is still too weak).
During their reunion in the Great Orcus Labyrinth, upon seeing Hajime's new-found immense power as well as being dearly loved and adored by the extremely beautiful Yue, Shea, and Tio, in addition to Kaori. Who eventually decided to follow Hajime, Kouki became extremely jealous of him and started one-sidedly seeing Hajime as his rival. This is also coupled with the fact that both of them have completely opposite ways of thinking, as Kouki is an idealist dimwit obsessed with justice while Hajime is a disillusioned realist whose only concern is surviving and returning home with his harem. When Hajime disregarded his pleas and ruthlessly killed Cattleya even though she could no longer fight anymore, Kouki foolishly believed Hajime was just an uncaring murderer who doesn't treat his harem "nicely" despite the demon's previous attempt to kill him, his party, and the Heiligh kingdom knights. He also saw Hajime's cold refusal to re-join them in the war against the demons, despite possessing extremely powerful firearms and artifacts, as a sign of utter selfishness without even trying to know the reason behind his refusal. Kouki also furiously questioned why Hajime is the only one who has a harem with him while he himself doesn't have one. However, Shizuku correctly countered Kouki's delusional thinking by telling him that he doesn't truly know a single thing about Hajime, even before their summoning to Tortus, such as the latter's kindhearted nature and also that despite his tremendous change in personality and attitude, Hajime still retained his kindness, which earned him the love and affections of not only Kaori but also Yue, Shea and Tio who are always happy around Hajime. Shizuku also told Kouki that he is the only one who was ignoring reality by interpreting the situation to his own convenience and by extension, was just to convince himself that Hajime is some kind of a demon who doesn't deserve Kaori.
Unlike his other classmates who were praised and respected by Hajime for succeeding in conquering the Great Labyrinths after resolving themselves to defeat Ehit in order to return home, Kouki is the only one who was completely sidelined due to his lack of resolve that led to his failures. As well as when he was continually trying to enforce his delusional belief of justice onto Hajime and his harem. Kouki was the only one who condemned Hajime for murdering Hiyama despite the latter's atrocities and betrayal including temporarily murdering one of his childhood friends, Kaori. Despite the fact that Hajime revived Kaori, Kouki doesn't express his gratitude at all due to his naïve sense of justice, stubbornness, childish ideals and delusional pride. Unlike Ryutarou and Shizuku.
At first, upon their reunion, Kouki persistently believed he could still defeat Hajime, at least in terms of hand-to-hand combat, despite having seen the latter easily defeat Cattleya and her monster army that nearly killed both Kouki himself and his party. Even foolishly challenging Hajime to a duel leading to his failed attempt take Hajime's lovers by force. It was only during the demon invasion of the Heiligh Kingdom's capital that Kouki didn't dare to go against Hajime due to having witnessed his true power when he both easily destroyed all the undead Heiligh kingdom knights, including the former captain, Meld Loggins, who were the finest warriors of the Heiligh Kingdom, and single-handedly destroyed the invading demon army of 100,000 with his Hyperion satellite weapon. When Hajime effortlessly and ruthlessly brutalized Daisuke Hiyama, who was thought to be one of the strongest among Kouki's fellow heroes, with his bare hands before throwing the latter to a horde of monsters for them to devour him alive, Kouki also finally understood not only Hajime's superiority to himself in physical prowess alone, but also the terrifying extent of Hajime's savage brutality towards enemies and his previous claim of not showing any mercy, not even towards his own classmates.
Despite having been saved twice by Hajime during Cattleya's ambush and Freid Bagwa's invasion, rather than being grateful, Kouki became even more jealous of him. Following the demons' retreat from the kingdom and Aiko exposing Ehit's true evil nature, Kouki angrily blamed Hajime for indirectly causing the deaths of Meld, Kondou and the other Heiligh kingdom knights along with the near-destruction of the Heiligh Kingdom by not telling him about Ehit's true nature earlier and the evil god's schemes in using them as pawns which allow Ehit to send Noint to assist Hiyama and Eri in betraying the "Hero Party" by brainwashing and later assassinating King Eliheid and his nobles, nearly leading to their deaths in Eri's death trap and also Kaori's temporary murder who nearly became Hiyama's undead slave. In response, Hajime simply told Kouki that even if he did decide to bother telling him about Ehit's true nature as an evil god, Kouki's naivety and delusional self-righteousness would just lead him to disregard Hajime's warning anyway. By elaborately pointing out his bias and bad habit of interpreting everything to his own convenience and his delusional pride in his efforts as Ehit's so-called "chosen hero". Even correctly stating that just like the Holy Church and the Heiligh Kingdom, Kouki would even get angry at Hajime for supposedly slandering Ehit instead of listening to his warning. Unable to deny this claim, due to Kouki being fully aware of his complete confidence in his misguided justice, which he definitely would angrily deny Hajime's warning instead of heeding it, Kouki still stubbornly claimed that Hajime could have convinced him otherwise by thoroughly explaining it several times. This, however, caused an annoyed Hajime to sharply insult Kouki, scolding the latter for naively believing that his classmates are always obliged to help each other which wasn't truly the case as Hajime himself had no reason to specially put in any extra effort just to suit the convenience of his delusional justice, like Shizuku and Ryutarou did. Hajime then coldly reminded Kouki of the fact that it is precisely such naïve belief that allowed Eri Nakamura and Daisuke Hiyama to manipulate and then betray him and the rest of their class without even noticing it until it was too late.
Though Kouki had finally been placed before the undeniable reality at how his naïve idealism had only led to those under his command to betray the party, he still condemned Hajime for what happened. Kouki's stubbornness however is mostly due to the fact that he was simply unable to accept his own failures and the reality of his position in Tortus as a mere pawn of the evil god's mad game of death, instead of being the so-called "chosen hero" of Tortus which Kouki had always been proud of. Kouki was further upset that despite his immense power, Hajime didn't believe he needed to use his power for "justice" by saving Tortus from Ehit's tyrannical manipulation because that's not what he wants. As the reason why Hajime risked his life obtaining the Age of God's Ancient Magic in the Great Labyrinths was simply to return home with his harem. When Kouki berated Hajime for his refusal to use his newfound powers and the Ancient Magic he attained to save Tortus, Hajime criticized Kouki's lack of resolve which is what led to his failures despite having been blessed by Ehit as the strongest of their class at the beginning. He also warned Kouki that if he kept continuing to try enforcing his stupid justice upon him, it will be his turn to die a miserable death similar to Hiyama. A warning Kouki begrudgingly heeded this time due to not having the power nor courage to go against Hajime after personally witnessing how his former classmate brutally killed Hiyama for crossing him after what he did to Kaori.
Despite being greatly annoyed by Kouki's stubborn, delusional idealism which made him want to kill the latter out of the sheer annoyance of it, Hajime reluctantly agreed to Kouki's demand to allow his former classmates to join him in conquering the last two Great Labyrinths due to the sincere pleas of Shizuku, Suzu, and Ryutarou. Despite this, Kouki still held immense resentment and frustration towards Hajime, out of the belief that Hajime is a selfish and uncaring murderer, due to his cold refusal to save the people of Tortus from Ehit's malicious manipulations, despite having become extremely powerful after surviving and conquering the Orcus Labyrinth which contradicts his ideals, along with his tremendous jealousy of Hajime being absolutely adored by Yue, Shea, Tio, Kaori and later also Shizuku.
After Kouki and his party joined Hajime's party in their journey to conquer the remaining Great Labyrinths, Kouki's idealistic worldview and his desire to save everyone clashed with Hajime's more realistic worldview and his desire to return home above all else. It was in the Hoelscher Empire that Hajime nearly lost his patience with Kouki, angrily warning the dimwitted "hero" that he doesn't care about his misguided justice and unlike Shizuku, Kaori and Ryutarou, they are not friends nor comrades, and certainly do not believe in the same ideology of justice. He also outright told Kouki that since he had left the latter's party after his fall into the abyss in the Great Orcus Labyrinth from Hiyama's betrayal, coupled with the reveal of Ehit's true nature, he is no longer obliged to obey him as Ehit's so called 'chosen hero'. Threateningly reminding Kouki of his original purpose in accompanying him to conquer the last remaining two Great Labyrinths and that Hajime can renege at anytime if Kouki dares to anger him again. Even if he had to break both Kouki's arms and legs and send him back to the kingdom, just like how he broke Hiyama.
Kouki also tends to try interfering in situations where it seems that Hajime is at first reluctant to act and tends to disapprove of Hajime's more ambiguous actions and decisions. Such as helping the Haulia Tribe defeat the Hoelscher empire, even when their aim was to liberate the enslaved beastmen that Kouki himself had wanted to help. While Kouki was initially confident that he could easily clear a Great Labyrinth and quickly become as strong as Hajime, he discovers how wide the distance between their strength is. After his personal failure in conquering the Haltina Labyrinth, Kouki gave his equipment to Hajime, in order to have a better chance to successfully conquer the last Great Labyrinth. Despite this, Kouki is reluctant to accept help from Hajime so much so that he initially refuses to use the new abilities of his Holy Sword that Hajime added, due to the fact that he wants to prove he is stronger then Hajime in order to validate his righteousness. Though, his attempts at this endeavor has only made things worse for himself when he failed to clear even a single one of the Great Labyrinths and Hajime had cleared them all with ease. Meaning that he lost to his former classmate in both willpower and strength.
Due to Hajime's new appearance and atmosphere, as well as being surrounded by a harem of beautiful girls which even included his childhood friend Kaori (who has been in love with Hajime ever since she first saw him), Kouki became quite jealous of his ability to attract the love of beautiful girls and Shizuku (who also later fell in love with Hajime) claimed that Hajime has become more popular than Kouki as he's losing his popularity for girls. Which eventually proved to be true.
Kouki eventually snapped when he saw Shizuku with Hajime together and finally started noticing her growing feelings for him. During the final trial in the Frost Caverns of Schnee Great Labyrinth, he was forced to confront his worst personality traits in the form of a magic doppelgänger, who encouraged these self-satisfactory delusions and further taunted him in his failures, shortcomings, and his inability to see reality for what it truly is.
This eventually caused him to lash out instead of accepting and conquering these negative aspects of himself and acknowledging them. Choosing to believe that Hajime was only a monster who "brainwashed" not only Shizuku, but all his other lovers to get what he wanted, in order to better fit this whole frustrating reality Kouki was in, into his delusional worldview. Thus, he tried to kill Hajime to fulfill his misguided justice and claim Hajime's harem for himself by forcing them to join him in continuing his previously pointless heroic crusade, in order to restore his personal pride and glory as the chosen hero of Ehit. Whom he had absolute faith in before Hajime exposed Ehit's true nature as an evil god. Kouki also furiously blamed Hajime for his own failures and errors, indignantly questioning why his harem, including Kouki's childhood friends Kaori and Shizuku, dearly love him and became so loyal to him, even though he is an uncaring murderer who disregards justice and morality. Delusionally believing himself to still be Ehit's chosen hero, Kouki brazenly declared that he will save Hajime's harem from his "brainwashing" and reclaim his self-proclaimed rightful place as their ideal lover whom they were supposed to be with instead of Hajime. Claiming that Yue, Shea, Tio, Kaori and Shizuku don't need Hajime anymore, which caused Hajime to be enraged even further due to his love for his harem and this idiotic proclamation made him lose all of his patience with Kouki, thereby making Kouki suffer for his insolence.
When Hajime finally reached the end of his patience with Kouki's delusional justice, he did not hesitate to retaliate back with brutal force when he easily overpowered Kouki. Having no qualms in shooting Kouki's kneecaps, and also ruthlessly thrashing him so easily without any difficulty, despite Kouki's fusion with his doppelgänger. Which wasn't enough to match Hajime, and while the latter sharply criticized that the reason why he ended up failing everything he did in Tortus, leading up to his own doppelgänger trial in the Frost Caverns of Schnee Great Labyrinth is because of his own choice to prioritize both his foolish pride and stubborn adherence to his childishly misguided justice over the importance of realizing his own goals. When Kouki said Yue's name without honorifics, Hajime made Kouki suffer far worse than before due to him having no right to say the name that he had given to his lover. Despite wanting to kill Kouki out of his ruthless pragmatism, Hajime ultimately chose not to because it would have made Kaori and Shizuku sad.
Instead, Hajime used Grentzen to separate Kouki's fusion with his Schnee doppelgänger and render him unconscious to end yet another pointless fight. Then as the delusional "hero" weakly begged Hajime to give him back what's rightfully his and die, the latter easily defeated Kouki yet again, knocking him unconscious, before allowing Kaori to heal Kouki, albeit only to a point where his life is not in danger. This is because Hajime knew that if Kouki were to immediately regain consciousness and learn of his failure in overcoming his Schnee trial, thereby his second attempt to gain the Age of God's Magic/Ancient Magic, he would simply vent his increased frustrations by attacking Hajime again. After waking up and calming down, Kouki felt bad about how he attacked Hajime. His jealousy and resentment intensified when Shizuku admitted she love Hajime.
While Hajime and Yue were creating the Crystal Key to bring them back to Japan, Kouki and the others experienced what Hajime went through when he fell into the abyss of the Great Orcus Labyrinth. Witnessing the pain, suffering and loneliness Hajime experienced and his determination to return home, Kouki finally realized where Hajime's immense power came from. As well as why the latter had abandoned his morality along with why he couldn't match Hajime: the difference in their circumstances and resolves to accomplish their goals. This is reflected on the fact that Kouki had heavily relied on both Ehit's blessings as his "chosen hero" and the support of the Hero Party, the Holy Church, and the Heiligh Kingdom in his previous heroic crusade while Hajime, without any of Ehit's blessings or anyone's support, had been forced to survive the horrifying brutality of the Great Orcus Labyrinth alone through sheer willpower, which Kouki could never do. Additionally, Hajime had resolved to abandon all his virtues and morality to be able to survive the chaotic brutality of the war-engulfed Tortus, while Kouki stubbornly prioritized his ideals over everything. After seeing Hajime's memories of his fall into the abyss, Kouki was also finally able to sympathize with Hajime's desire to return home. But he still stubbornly insisted that Hajime has stolen everything from him. Including the love of Kaori and Shizuku, and his glory as a hero and still thinks that he is not mistaken in this belief.
In the After Story however, Kouki has trouble sorting out his feelings towards Hajime due to his past actions and failures, Kouki cannot bring himself to be mad at Hajime, but rather disappointed in himself for being so completely indecisive and not strong enough to realize his ideals. When the "Dark Beings" attacked, he thought about asking Hajime to transport the "Dark Beings" to another world, so that the people of the Synclea Kingdom could be safe and the "Dark Beings" could survive without harming others. He was reminded of Hajime's way of prioritizing those close to him when he heard Koone's wish to save her sister above all else. When Kouki was about to escape from Arquette that was attacked by the Dark "Beings", he thought about how he wanted to meet Hajime again, along with his family and friends.
After defeating the "Dark Beings" that were attacking Arquette, Kouki resolved himself to fight for the sake of what he believed while accepting everything, in stark contrast to Hajime's view of dividing the world between enemy and ally. Kouki and Hajime finally reunited when Kouki was about to be attacked by a pack of "Dark Beings", as Hajime dispatched them. Hajime then asked Kouki to go back with him, but Kouki refused as he wanted to save Moana. Thinking that Kouki's delusional hero complex has returned, Hajime said that he would call Shizuku to give him a lecture but Kouki resolved himself to stay behind to save Moana. After the rest of Kouki's friends left the decision of Kouki's retrieval to Hajime, he wanted to confirm if Kouki thought that his choice was correct to himself, to which Kouki responded that such a thing didn't matter, an answer that impressed Hajime. Hajime then went to defend Arquette so Kouki could save Moana as he sent Kouki off with the aid of his griffon Grim Reapers. When asked by their friends why Hajime lent Kouki his aid instead of dragging him back, it is revealed that Hajime was curious as to where Kouki (who has obtained an answer which is the opposite of Hajime's) is going to end up. After helping defeat the "Dark Beings", Hajime was willing to grant Kouki's request of taking Moana back with him.
Right after saving Arquette, Kouki was again summoned into another world, dragging Hajime along with him. It turned out that they were summoned into a sci-fi world by the combat-support A.I. G10 by coincidence where magic power does not flow easily. During their time in the other world, both of them reconciled their differences, with Kouki even apologizing to Hajime for his past actions. The duo displayed remarkable teamwork that was thought to be highly unlikely in a world where they fought against an evil A.I. with the help of G10 (another A.I.), Kousuke (summoned by Mother), Noint/Netemp, and others.
After Mother's defeat, Kouki, Hajime, and Kousuke both got summoned again. This time, the goddess named Aularodde Lea Refeat summoned them.
Kaori Shirasaki[]
Kaori is one of Kouki's closest friends. Kouki has always respected Kaori for being a kind person. But due to his denseness, he never notices that Kaori loves Hajime and thought she felt bad for Hajime who is always alone. More than once, he doesn't realize that what he says hurt Kaori more than help her, such as after Hajime fell into the abyss. When Kaori confesses to Hajime and declares that she would be going with him, Kouki couldn't believe or accept it that she really loved Hajime the whole time. Kaori does not want to be with Kouki romantically as he is upsetting her and thus refused to return to him. Later upon mentally hitting his breaking point in the final trial of the Frost Caverns of Schnee while battling his doppelganger, Kouki came to the delusional and convenient conclusion that Kaori did not truly love Hajime, but was instead "brainwashed" by Hajime into loving him. He later brazenly proclaimed that she along with Shizuku "belonged" to him due to their childhood friendship, that he interpreted as romantic love, causing him to try and kill Hajime to "free" her. However in the end Kouki only ended up hurting Kaori's feelings even more when after his second defeat by Hajime, he insolently wondered if it would have been better if he himself fell into the abyss instead of Hajime so that way he would have Kaori for himself, causing her slap him in the face for tactlessly disregarding how much emotional pain that event had caused her coupled with his so-called "righteousness" of trying to kill Hajime before begging him to stop his stubborn self righteous madness before she starts hating him. After he gave up his attempts of defeating Hajime, Kouki also gave up on his love for Kaori as he now fell in love with Queen Moana de Shelt Synclea along with accepting the fact that Kaori was truly in love with Hajime from the beginning and that she would not return his affections.
Shizuku Yaegashi[]
Shizuku is one of Kouki's closest friends. They have known each other when they were little and are usually seen together. However, unlike Ryutarou, who blindly supports Kouki for the most part, Shizuku usually tries to get Kouki to think before acting. At times, Kouki will open up about his feelings to Shizuku, but much to his dismay, she tends to point out where he's wrong rather than telling him what he wants to hear. After Kaori decided to travel together with Hajime, he pleaded with Shizuku not to leave him too, which she doesn't promise. Shizuku usually mediates the conflict between Kouki and Hajime as Kouki continuously clashed with Hajime's choices during their travels. Later upon realizing that Shizuku also bore romantic feelings for Hajime, Kouki could not believe or accept it, as he had believed that Shizuku promised to never leave him when she agreed to look after him and the rest of the hero party. This caused him to delude himself into thinking that Shizuku was in love with him, eventually causing him to conveniently interpret this situation as Hajime "brainwashing" her to love him, leading him to willingly attack and fight against Shizuku in order to "save" her and was even willing to resort to extreme and possibly fatal force to accomplish this. However, despite this violent behavior, Kouki still saw her as a friend and promised to help her recover after defeating Hajime and "freeing" her. After Kouki regained conciousness, Shizuku admitted to Kouki she has fallen in love with Hajime and her desire to become his lover at all cost regardless of his personal opinions Shizuku also made it clear she wasn't asking for his blessing in regards to her feelings for Hajime and was simply telling him because he's her childhood friend. which intensified Kouki's jealousy and hatred towards Hajime. When Kouki gave into Eri's Soul Bind brainwashing to escape reality and betrayed his friends and the people of Tortus to side with Ehit and Eri to suit his delusions, Shizuku joined Hajime together with Ryuutaro and Suzu to break into the Sanctuary to rescue Kouki. When Kouki declared his delusional justice desiring to kill Hajime and free his friends from brainwashing and asking them to surrender, claiming Ehit will remake Tortus into a more just world, Shizuku was grimly disappointed, telling Kouki he should have realised Eri's and Ehit's malicious intentions, he just pinning the blame on Hajime due to his refusal to acknowledge reality of his own failures and mistakes. Giving him one final warning to wake up from his delusions and face reality, when Kouki refused due to Eri's brainwashing, Shizuku relented to resort to fighting to bring Kouki to his senses. When Kouki stubbornly cling to his delusional self-righteousness, blaming Hajime for his failures and mistakes even after being freed from his brainwashing, resort to burning his life away to create one last Divine Wrath to destroyed himself to deny reality for not conforming to everything he desired, Shizuku finally lost patience with Kouki's tantrums, upon slicing thorough his life force converted mana, Shizuku violently slapped Kouki non-stop venting her years of frustration towards Kouki's misguided justice, his irresponsibility in pushing his personal problems onto her and ruining all the chances she salvaged for him and ignoring her lectures, angrily scold Kouki for behaving like a spoiled brat forcing her, their friends and Hajime to put up with his delusional self-righteousness again and again. Critizing Kouki that life never goes exactly as they wanted, while everyone had to endured what they dislike as they live, despite all his grand and noble desire for justice, Kouki only choose to cling to his delusions and avert his eyes from reality, not bothering to try fighting for what he wanted, telling he is just a spoiled brat who pretend the reality that contradicts his desire to be fake, making excuses for his carelessness and naivety, pinning the blame on Hajime for his own failures and mistakes. Angrily declared to Kouki, they will not allow him to commit suicide, saying he does not deserve to easily escape for all the trouble and problems he cause them and they will bring him back even by force, threatening to violently thrashed him again if he still remain stubborn. When Kouki questioned Shizuku didn't she love Hajime and why she still care about him despite what he did to her. Shizuoka honestly replied while she dearly love Hajime, she also considered Kouki a friend due to having been together since childhood and also were disciples in her family dojo. He is practically family to her which she could never abandoned though she wished she hadn't been such a troublesome younger brother. Kouki finally came to his senses, realising his own emotional weakness and despicable self-righteousness. Following his defeat, Kouki gave up his romantic feelings for Shizuku and let her be with Hajime as Kouki found a new lover named Moana de Shelt Synclea. Unknown to Kouki, his spoiled bratty sister, Mitsuki tried to destroy Shizuku's wedding photo shoot with Hajime only for her to be bullied and humiliated by Hajime.
Ryutarou Sakagami[]
Kouki has been best friends with Ryutarou since elementary school. They have differences. Kouki is an airhead of his delusional pride and empty ideals while Ryutarou is a level head who has no prides or ideals. After Hajime's survival, Kouki dislikes Hajime for getting a lot of attraction for girls, while Ryutarou shown respects for Hajime due to his admiration for military army when considered Hajime as a pupil of his idol, Gunnery Sergeant Hartman. While Hajime killed Hiyama, Kouki condemned Hajime despite Hiyama is a traitor but for Ryutarou doesn't due to his bitter memories of his hatred toward Hiyama after killed Kaori just like the rest of his classmates. Ryutarou shown his jealous even a little of Kouki's once attraction from girls until they are more attractive to Hajime, Kouki holds jealously toward Hajime while Ryutarou has no jealously Hajime at all due to not wanted to be in his bad side. Ryutarou considered him to be weak than Kouki but more weaker than Hajime seeing their conflict and Ryutarou deemed himself to be a worthless sidekick.
Kousuke Endou[]
At first, not much interaction was shown between them, except that they were both part of the Hero Party. However, in the After Story, Kouki can be quite harsh on Kousuke whenever he acts weird, something that Hajime and himself can both agree on. This is evident when Kouki cut open Kousuke's stomach to remove the bomb Mother implanted instead of reprimanding Hajime, much to Kousuke's dismay. Also, when both Hajime and Kouki get into a catfight (similar to Yue and Kaori), they both punch Kousuke when he tries to calm them down. Of course, Kouki also tends to ignore him and his whining.
Hajime's harem[]
Aside of his perverted obsession for Kaori and Shizuku, Kouki is also obsessed for Hajime's lovers (Yue, Shea Haulia and Tio Klarus) due to their captivating and exceptionally beauty which par to both Kaori and Shizuku. His delusional and perverted thoughts believe that Hajime has mistreated them and offer them to leave Hajime and join him for "better" treatment. For Hajime's lovers, however, were annoyed by his delusional and disgusted by his rudeness as they rejected his idiotic offer immediately. Their loves and devotions for Hajime is the reason of Kouki's jealously. Kouki only convinced himself to be a more suitable lover for them than Hajime. When he was corrupted, Kouki stupidly thinks Hajime has "brainwashed" his harems to become his lovers and believe he will take them with force by killing Hajime only for him to be easily defeated by Hajime once again. When his second ease defeat, Yue and Shea were attempting to kill Kouki for attacking Hajime but only for Hajime to order them to stand down.
Close Associates[]
Meld Loggins[]
Meld pays special attention to Kouki due to the latter's vocation of "Hero". He would begrudgingly prioritize his safety over the safety of the other students. After the fight against Cattleya in the Great Orcus Labyrinth, Meld apologizes for not teaching Kouki that he will have to be ready to kill his enemies when the time comes, a mistake that almost cost Kouki and the others their lives. Because Kouki failed to bring himself to kill the demon when he had the chance. When Eri later uses Meld as one of her undead soldiers, Kouki was shocked and saddened to see what had happened to his mentor because Meld was the person who helped Kouki the most. Despite knowing Meld was already dead, Kouki couldn't bring himself to strike him down and ended up hesitating too much.
Moana de Shelt Synclea[]
Moana is the Queen of Synclea Kingdom that Kouki is summoned to in order to save her people from a race of creatures called the "Dark Beings". Moana quickly establishes a friendly relationship with Kouki who is the hero that Foltina summoned even asking him to call her casually with him being reluctant to do so at first. Moana notices that Kouki is struggling with some internal conflict as they discuss what it means to be a hero as she later apologizes for forcing Kouki to kill for the first time, seeing as it traumatized him a bit. She acknowledged his kindness but Kouki vented his feelings self-loathing as he told her that he is scared of himself as he cannot trust his own judgement. When he heard how she risked her life in a climatic battle against the "Dark Beings" while straining her health to protect her kingdom, Kouki stated that he admires her. When they were staying the capital, they discussed their motivations and reasons for fighting, they growing closer as Moana stated that the two of them are the same since they want to keep fighting for the sake of others no matter what happens to themselves. After Kouki stays behind to defend Arquette, Moana rallies reinforcements to support him as she would not let him die while he was fighting for her kingdom's sake. When she witnesses Kouki, who was nearly fatally wounded as he had cut down several thousand Dark Beings for the sake of of protecting the people of Arquette, she became tearful and enamoured with him. As Kouki was recovering from his injuries, Moana hugged him as she was relieved that he survived. When Kouki told her that he had found his answer, Moana promised that she would support his choice no matter what it was as she wanted to become his strength, as Kouki started calling her by her name and talking to her casually. When Moana attempted to confront the "Dark King", Kouki was able to come to her side, rescuing her and defeating the "Dark King" thus ending the threat of the "Dark Beings".
Moana decided to accompany Kouki back to Tortus, where she adventures beside him while engaging in cat fights with Aularodde Lea Refeat that also fell in love with Kouki.
Aularodde Lea Refeat[]
The former Goddess is one of Kouki's two companions and lovers. They first met each other when she summoned him along with Hajime, Kousuke and the two ex-apostles: Etemp and Netemp. Like all the other gods and goddesses, she begged the hero, Kouki, to save the world from danger. She was surprised by Kouki telling her to save the world instead of him, probably due to the stress built up in him for being summoned three times already.
At some point, she fell in love with Kouki and had cat fights with Moana which caused Kouki to be annoyed
Enemies[]
Cattleya[]
Kouki first met and fought against Cattleya within the Orcus labyrinth after she was sent there to either recruit or kill the Hero Party. As seen from their battle, Cattleya saw Kouki as a powerful opponent due to his strength while Kouki saw her as an unforgivable person due to her having killed the Party's knight escort and severely injured Meld.
While she was initially impressed by his strength and desiring to convince him to switch sides to the Demons, Cattleya soon began seeing Kouki as a wild card and a threat to her and people even if he did join their side. This was because after having a closer look as Kouki, she soon realized that despite his immense power, Kouki's mindset and immaturity made him too unstable to be a proper asset to the Demons and if anything, his lack of self control and simplistic mindset might actually become a danger to them even if he switched sides.
This eventually caused her to move from recruitment to simply killing him. Kouki in turn enraged due to her injuring and nearly killing Meld, began to blindly unleash his power to kill her. However, just as he was about to inflict the final blow on her, Kouki halted his sword strike half way due to seeing her make peace with her death and wishing her loved ones goodbye, making him realize that he was about to kill another sentient being capable of feeling the same way as a human and not a mindless monster as he initially thought the demon race was.
After her death, Kouki was greatly destressed by seeing how she died and hated having been forced to see it, as well as being angry due to his own inability to stop her and helplessly watch as Hajime did it for him. However, Kouki felt these feelings unconsciously and was instead “angry” at Hajime for killing Cattleya when she had already been defeated. Viewing it as murder due to her having been rendered helpless already. However, Hajime woul rebuke this claims made by Kouki, having already seen though him and know his real feelings regarding the matter and that Kouki was jus deflecting his emotions to his empty ideals in order to be righteous and the truth was that Kouki himself was not mad that she had been killed, but simply hated seeing death and was just taking his feelings out on Hajime while claiming that he was in the wrong to make himself feel better.
Daisuke Hiyama[]
Despite Kouki has once trust on Hiyama, Kouki has hostility toward Hiyama of scaring Kaori. Kouki was easily manipulated by Hiyama's lies. However, Hiyama's fears for Hajime has became worse when he easily defeat Kouki. After Hiyama killed Kaori, Kouki holds a hatred toward the traitor. Kouki shown in displeasure when Hajime murdered Hiyama. Out of all of Hajime's classmates who held a bitter memories of their hatred toward the traitorous fool, Hiyama, Kouki was the only one who condemned Hajime for murdering Hiyama despite the latter was a traitor.
Eri Nakamura[]
Kouki once save Eri's life from committed suicide after she was abused by both her mother and stepfather who are later imprisoned. Eri has attraction toward Kouki as she attempt to have him for herself even to kill her female classmates such as Kaori and Shizuku. Kouki shown displeasure when Eri attempted to make Kaori as an undead slave for Hiyama until it was foiled when Hajime arrived.
Ehit[]
Due to being chosen by Ehit as the Hero, at the beginning of the series, Kouki has absolute faith in Ehit due to his hero complex and bias, misguided righteousness like the Holy Church, having trained wholeheartedly to fight Demons on Ehit's behalf, completely enjoying the his glory and worship as Ehit's hero. Hajime also correctly guessed that Kouki will refused to believed and even get mad at him for slandering Ehit if he were to exposed Ehit's true nature as an evil god and his heroism efforts as Ehit's hero were completely meaningless. However, Aiko exposed what Hajime told her about Ehit's true nature as an evil god and his schemes of using him and his classmates as pawns for his war game of death against the Demons including the fact that Eri had personally exposed how Ehit had helped her in betraying them by sending Noint to abduct Aiko and brainwashed King Eliheid and his nobles during her death trap which nearly led to their deaths by Eri and Hiyama's betrayal, Kouki despite his misguided sense of justice, begrudgingly forced to accept the truth of Ehit's evil nature and thus lost all respects and faith for the God in his atrocities. Being frustrated by Hajime's refusal to defeat Ehit and saved Tortus, Kouki initially decided to defeat Ehit himself by claiming Ancient Magic himself to save Tortus from Ehit's control. His subsequent failures since coming to Tortus and being saved by Hajime twice including the latter having Kaori's love which intensified his jealousy and hatred towards Hajime along with being corrupted by his trial in the Schnee Labyrinth after seeing the reality of Shizuku falling in love with Hajime, Kouki decided to misinterpreted everything to suit his delusional justice chose to believe Hajime had been slandering Ehit ruining his glory as the chosen hero of Tortus, as he furiously blamed Hajime for his own failures and errors, claiming he would have saved Tortus as Ehit's chosen hero if it wasn't for Hajime, showing that deep down Kouki did not want to believe the truth about Ehit as an evil god and that he was never a chosen hero. In the climax of Tortus's final battle against Ehit, Kouki due to his absolute refusal to accept the reality of his own failures and mistakes, gave into Eri's brainwashing and sided with Ehit ultimately betraying humanity and his friends and classmates. Delusionally believing Ehit was justice and Hajime is the root of all evil, Kouki intended to kill Hajime to restore his glory as the Hero of Tortus for Ehit's sake, which Shizuku reprimanded Kouki for stating he should have realized Ehit's true malicious intention for Tortus by now, he is just blaming Hajime due to his refusal to accept reality.
Dark King[]
The person who ruled over the "Dark Beings" until he was slayed by Kouki. Initially, Kouki wanted to spare him, but never came to pass as the Dark King was just too evil.
Abilities And Powers[]
- Superhuman Strength: Kouki possessed enhanced physical abilities. He only surpass by Ryutarou Sakagami strength and Shizuku Yaegashi by speed. However, his strength is 12 times weaker than the monstrous Hajime Nagumo after got easily defeated by the latter twice and he was easily defeated by the latter twice and was even weaker than Hajime's powerful lovers, even Ehit now considered him useless as he was too weak. Even when he gained the power as an Apostle Hybrid, this power was still nowhere close to Hajime's.
- Superhuman Speed: Kouki possessed speed but was sluggish compared to Hajime's demonic speed (which is at least 12 times faster than Shizuku Yaegashi herself) as he could not catch up to him. However, when his kneecaps were shot by Hajime, Kouki could not move his legs normally leaving him defenseless.
- Superhuman Durability: Kouki possessed the durability to withstand attacks. He was able to withstand both Ryutarou and Shizuku's attacks. However, his durability could not withstand Hajime's powerful kick when the latter bypassed and destroyed Kouki's defenses. His kneecaps weren't durable enough when Hajime shot both of Kouki's kneecaps.
- Divine Armor: Kouki's signature armor. It was said to be the "strongest" armor. However, the belief that this armor was the strongest was revealed to be a lie as Hajime easily damaged the armor. After being easily defeated by Hajime, the armor was later repaired by Nagumo (despite his hatred towards Kouki). In After Story 6-7 years later after Hajime killed Ehit, Kouki returned the armor back to the Heiligh Kingdom and never wore it again due to him being unworthy to wield it.
- Holy Sword Uralt: Kouki wielded the Holy Sword. It was a legendary sword wielded by the previous fake "Heroes" before Kouki. It is a unique Artifact that possesses various abilities. The sword is blessed by the element of light and has the ability to weaken the enemies struck by its light while increasing the physical strength of the wielder. The sword can be summoned to the user's hand and for some unknown reason, it also possesses the ability to automatically return to its owner without their consent, when they move away from it for a certain distance or try to abandon it. It can change its shape into whatever type of sword its user wishes, for instance, changing from its western design into a katana. The sword is made of minerals near the root of the Great Tree. It contains the soul of the first avatar of the Great Tree. Due to the unique construction of the sword, the sword cannot be modified to a great extent as making adjustments to the core can potentially weaken the sword instead of strengthening it. Despite the cutting power of the sword, the sword cannot cut through objects made of Azantium such as Hajime's revolvers. It is the only piece of gear that Kouki retained as he returned all of the other equipment that Heiligh Kingdom issued to him or to be more accurate, the sword refused to part with Kouki. In post-Ehit era Tortus, it would be Kouki's signature item despite him being draped in common adventurer's garb.
Weaknesses[]
Despite being originally blessed as the "Strongest Hero" and having several powerful abilities, Kouki is arguably one of the weakest characters in the entire franchise. Kouki has several weaknesses that make him a predictable, easy, and manipulable opponent due to his delusional sense of "justice" and for your empty ideals:
- Merciful/Prides: His main weaknesses. Considering that what people consider right to be absolute, Kouki is unable to kill sentient enemies, a fatal mistake, allowing him to be easily defeated. According to Hajime, this is also the main reason why Kouki always loses everything at the most important times.
- Damaged Kneecap: Kouki cannot move when his kneecaps were damaged leaving himself defenseless after gotten shot by Hajime.
- Overload: After using "Limit Break - Overload", the side-effects of this power has severely damaged his body and became heavily fatigue.
- Recklessness: Kouki's second main weakness. Kouki foolishly charge up to his enemies without even thinking only gotten himself defeated. When he challenged Hajime, he literally underestimated Nagumo when the latter caused him to fall into a pitfall and gotten easily defeated by tear gas grenades. On his second challenge with Hajime (while merged with his doppelganger), he still did another reckless mistake to charge up to Hajime only the latter easily dodged his puny attacks and easily thrashed after he kicked Kouki and bypassed his defensive abilities when sending the so-called "hero" into a frozen wall.
- Manipulation: Due to his weak mind and delusions, Kouki is easier to be manipulated by anyone. Reason of Ehit blessed as the strongest due to his idiotic of justice. He was easily manipulated by Hiyama's "accident" of fire at Hajime (before he learning it wasn't an accident by Hajime's enlightenment). He was easily manipulated by Eri's "shy" personality just so she used his weaknesses towards him. In his doppelganger's temptation, Kouki was easily to be foolish when he was corrupted by his own doppelganger's deceptions of Hajime "brainwashed" his harem and Shizuku to become his lovers and condemned Hajime for killing Hiyama despite the latter was a traitor.
- Idealism: His idealism is one of Kouki's greatest weaknesses when his empty idealism of his classmates always help and protecting each other which are the very weaknesses for other classmates' possibility for betrayals such as the intelligent, Eri and the traitorous idiot, Hiyama to betrayed him without even noticing. Even Hajime correctly stated Kouki's ideals are nothing but childish and ridiculous delusions which always lead Kouki to his own failures and his defeats even when defeated twice by Hajime easily.
- Low Intelligence: Despite his academic grades are high marks, Kouki is a dimwit lacked of emotional quotience (EQ) due to his delusion habits of childish idealism and self-righteousness of the so-called "justice". He fights on without even thinking which makes him extremely reckless. Due to his jealously on Hajime, Kouki foolishly believed Hajime had "mistreated" his harem and offered them to leave Hajime and join him for "better treatment" which only disgusted them by his ignorance and refused his idiotic offer as well. Yue insulted him for his self-righteous ignorance when Hajime has never mistreat them. While persistently believed he is stronger than Hajime due to being blessed as a "Hero", Kouki foolishly challenged Hajime into an unarmed duel for his harem only for Hajime defeated and humiliated Kouki very easily to ended such a pointless duel. Due to his naivety and stupidity, he would get mad at Hajime and won't believe him that Ehit was actually an evil false god who manipulated humanity and protecting humans from Garland was just a setup by Ehit, which is the reason Hajime decided to not tell Kouki for his ignorance. When he was possessed by his doppelganger, Kouki was enforcing these delusions towards Hajime and his lovers, then he foolishly believed Hajime has "brainwashed" his harem and Shizuku to become his lovers (which he never did such a thing) and attempted to kill Hajime and claim his harem to join him to "save the world" on behalf of Ehit only to be easily defeated by Hajime yet again. His delusions almost broke his friendship with Kaori and Shizuku due to him hurting their feelings as a result of Kaori slapping Kouki to the face.
- Poor Leadership: Unlike Hajime (who is a successful leader), Kouki was an extremely poor leader. His leadership had only served to endanger himself and his classmates when they were surrounded by Cattleya and her monster army and later Eri Nakamura and her zombie army. His leadership had caused those who were under his command to betray him and his classmates due to his delusions as well as his weak resolve and willpower (such as Yukitoshi Shimizu, Daisuke Hiyama and lastly Eri Nakamura). Because of this, his leadership could not help him clear any of the Great Labyrinths as well as causing the monstrous Hajime to strip him of his role of being the leader and forcing Kouki to take orders from Nagumo without questions.
- Betrayals: According to Hajime Nagumo, Kouki's greatest weakness of all is getting himself betrayed by those who were under his commands eventually because of his delusional and childish ideals that annoys people. Kouki was unknowingly betrayed by Yukitoshi Shimizu when he joined with the demons of Garland before he was killed by Nagumo. Eri Nakamura and Daisuke Hiyama betrayed Kouki when they attempted to get what they've desired but only to be foiled by Hajime as far as for Eri retreated to Garland, while Hiyama on the other hand, was killed by Hajime. After his ease defeat by Nagumo again, Kouki was also betrayed by Ehit when he has no longer any use of his pawn to him after Amanogawa has failed him for the last time.
Other Media[]
Arifureta: From Commonplace to World's Strongest - Rebellion Soul[]
Kouki becomes a playable character in the form of an alliance to help Hajime Nagumo
On Sora's Team[]
Kouki joins Sora's team to atone for all his actions to everyone, especially Nagumo before but he joined when he got access to the sea of Fragments before Nagumo, and his friends there he met Hanyuu, and Eua in the sea of fragments about what happened to Nagumo even why Nagumo didn't want to come back then became sadistic so Eua, and Hanyuu showed fragments to Kouki then Kouki saw this was still safe but on the 65th floor in the Orcus labyrinth right Nagumo turned into a monster, he was surprised that the person who shot the spell at Nagumo was his own friend Daisuke Hiyama made Kouki upset in his heart even being manipulated by him, even though Eua, and Hanyuu said that Kouki had regrets being late to Nagumo but Kouki would trap Hiyama then Eri because Kouki was surprised that they both had betrayed him, and his friends when his friends were traumatized by losing Nagumo who fell into a deep ravine thought Asuma was dead, Kouki swore that he would be better himself to protect Nagumo then Kouki saw the truth about Ehit through Nagumo and Yue about the liberator's record in the great Orcus labyrinth in the recording of Oscar Orcus then Kouki found out Nagumo gained such power because his power had grown rapidly after conquering the great Orcus labyrinth,
he will meet Nagumo again when Cattleya makes his friend and he loses again but Kouki will not act stupid again even let Kaori be with him then he realizes that Nagumo has become strong now then he will not comment on Nagumo's actions to Cattleya again to protect Nagumo moreover Kouki feels Eri and Hiyama will betray him even Kouki pretends to trust Eri making Eri surprised that Kouki is not handcuffed with him save Tamai, Sakagami, Shizuku, Taniguchi, Sonobe, and Endou before midnight arrives when seven p.m, Kouki want Tamai, Sakagami, Taniguchi, Shizuku Yaegashi, Sonobe, and Kousuke Endou make them want obey Kouki wish to follow Eri, and Hiyama then him and his friend surprised in hide that Meld, Jose Rancaid, Helligh knights troops, Nia, and nobles have been killed by Eri even Meld, Nia, Jose, and the knights are turned into Eri's corpse troops make Suzu cry about Eri betray her but Kouki want Ryutarou calm Suzu then Kouki will help some of his classmates that trapped by Eri even though he saw Reichi killed again then Kaori who was killed by Hiyama before being revived by Nagumo and his new friends just like what happened before he still naive, but Eri surprise before that about Kouki was not in his room with the others because Kouki had a bad feeling and had even invited Ryutarou Sakagami, Shizuku Yaegashi, Yuka Sonobe, Suzu Taniguchi, Atsushi Tamai, and Kousuke Endou before Shizuku took him around to check on the guard of Helligh Castle, then Ryutarou Sakagami, Shizuku Yaegashi, Yuka Sonobe, and Tamai angry to Eri and Hiyama about their betrayal even though some villains, Yanagisawa, Eri, and Hiyama ran away when they saw the horror of Cattleya, Freid, Shaisandan, the Motoe Girl twins, Ishtar, and some villains who were killed by Isogai, Class 3-E, and some heroes
He was appointed again as leader for a certain mission even though he was not sure because he would make another mistake, but he was taught leadership by Chang, Misumi, Balalaika, Rentt Faina, Aaron Barbatos, and other heroes under proper hero teaching when Nagumo was not there because he was on a mission when he, Nagumo when Cattleya, Freid, Eri, and some villains came to surround
made Nagumo's classmates shocked in fear but he, Shizuku, and classmates were shocked about Kharga Klarus and Orna Klarus as Tio's parents who were killed made Nagumo's classmates shocked Isogai asked about Kharga and Orna then Tio's reaction then Tio explained making Tenn, Ryuuichi Kashima, Hayato Yuzuki, Aether, and some heroes confirm Tio's sad reaction then Isogai showed memories like what happened to Eua, and some heroes but this time Isogai showed memories of Tio's suffering due to Ehit killing Kharga, and Orna before going to Hoelscher when in the Helligh Castle dining room then made Tio confirm the evidence from Isogai that was obtained with some heroes then Tio who cried made Isogai shocked then asked sorry if the evidence and questions are too sensitive for Tio because Isogai was worried that Nagumo would be upset to the point of killing Isogai but Tio was happy and even said thank you then Nagumo was not angry but instead thanked Isogai about the many sympathies for Tio then why did Isogai know about Tio's emotions even though Tio was a pervert making Isogai say that Isogai also lost his father in the past especially there were some heroes who had the same fate as Tio, making Venti willing to help Tio with Tio's problem regarding Ehit's actions, making the dragon race almost extinct and even making Tio an orphan, so Orna and Kharga were commemorated with their deaths in that memory before saving him, Nagumo, and the Returnees
Even though he failed like before when he was in an ice maze, Kouki was no longer passionate about being a pervert, especially when the residents of the main building of Kunugigaoka Middle School became Eri's alliance and then took several prisoners as people closest to the hero when Yue was no longer targeted by Ehit.
but when in Midnight Channel, he is very calm down then accept shadowselves in himself then he apologized to Nagumo for being a pathetic class president so he acknowledged Shadow and even said the same thing that Class 3-E did, namely I am you and you are me so that the Shadowselves changed becoming a Persona himself into Zaou-Gongen especially even though he is embarrassed to say it but He listened to other people's advice namely from the hero, Class 3-E, and Isogai about Shadowselves which are similar to Dopplegangers, He became an adult after his wrong actions especially his persona card depicts the arcana of strength especially he thinks that he is more mature then doesn't prioritize emotions and is even tempted to the point of not betraying his friend maybe he should understand the mistake but Nagumo saw what he did. He accepted the Shadowselves that turned into him then admitted himself making Nagumo see his mature side from the incident especially his, Nagumo, and his friends gain absolute immortality, pain tolerance, immunity to viruses, looping, time travel, and other powers from Eua, and other Heroes when get visit to Sea of Fragments.