Ouma Kurogane

"I seek power, power inexorable. I seek defeat, defeat inevitable. For an A-Rank knight like me, the only one who can give this to me is Stella, who possesses that absolute magic. And… if I can overcome it… if I can do that, then perhaps this hand of mine will tremble no more."

- Ouma Kurogane

Ouma Kurogane is the eldest and firstborn son of Itsuki Kurogane making him the older brother of Ikki and Shizuku Kurogane. Prior to his sister's promotion, he was the lone A-Rank Student Knight in Japan and won the Japanese Youth Leagues earning the nickname Sword Emperor of the Wind. After seeking real-life battles outside the far safer tournaments, he left Japan on a journey around the world he joined Akatsuki Academy after hearing about another fellow A-Rank Student Knight, Stella Vermillion entering the current Seven Stars Sword Art Festival.

Appearance
Ouma is a young man with very long black hair, which covers most of his forehead, and all of his back. He has yellow eyes that seem to have no life in them as they seem dead. He is seen wearing a black shitagi, as well as a white Haori, with black sleeves, which give the impression of having gray stripes on each sleeve. Later during his fights on Sword Art Festival wear black kimono. Ouma is also seen with a large, x-shaped, scar across his face, although underneath his clothing it is revealed that he has a plethora of scars and marks due to his training around the world. In Volume 18, Ouma cut his hair far shorter around the same length as his younger brother.

His face and physique greatly resemble his younger brother, Ikki. However, Ouma lacks the gentleness that Ikki displays and instead comes off as cold with sharpened strength which deviates from the norm according to Sara.

Personality
"If I had to said what impression I have on him. he was an incredibly stoic person. —Being born meant becoming strong…he was that sort of person"

- Ikki describe Ouma to Stella

Ouma is a man of few words with little interest in anything aside from fighting against strong opponents to test the limits of his strength with his little brother stating that he is a stoic person with no interest in anything else expect to become stronger. Because of this, he was interested in fighting against a fellow A-Rank such as Stella and was disappointed after easily winning against her. He also has great confidence in his abilities to the point of him even being arrogant viewing no one even the previous Seven-Star Sword King and Raikiri as a good enough reason to enter the previous Seven Stars Sword Art Festival, however, this is boated with his overwhelming power.

Whenever speaking, Ouma can be described as being both calm yet cold individual, not interested in someone else's goals aside from his own, not caring about his father's reasons for allying with Akatsuki and/or even their own goals in spite of being allied with them himself. Ouma also disrespects those older than himself and his superiors such as Nene Saikyo and Bakuga Tsukikage, responding to the former and referred to her short height. Although he is shown to be calm and patient, he can be merciless when wanting to achieve his desires to where he even almost killed Ikki, his little brother viewing him as nothing more than a hindrance for Stella to achieve her full potential.

Despite his distant and cold behaviors, Ouma couldn't be viewed as being evil, as he protected the viewers from Stella's Bahamut Howl, but his intentions were never revealed. His desire for strength stems from his first win, which was further resolute after the fear instilled in him having faced the Tyrant, the Leader of Rebellion. During her fight against Ouma has caused Stella to view his desire to be stronger and stand at the summit of the world he loves, which she referred to as childish yet purer than anyone else’s, even comparing him to Ikki. He also seemed to not be completely apathetic towards his family despite abandoning them: He accepted Itsuki's request to join Akatsuki and ultimately came to accept Ikki strength and in addition to letting him sleep in his room to avoid Stella and Sara, he also warned Ikki of Amane Shinomiya's interest in him. He even decided to help him in his preparation against Stella, further proving his good side. He was disgusted with Abraham Carter for the torture of Rinna and Sara to the point where he abandoned his previous desire to win with his own power.

History
Five years prior, Ouma left the Kurogane Household after winning the Little League and U-12 World Tournament in elementary school feeling that he couldn't overcome his limits in a warm environment. He then left Japan and travel to places with real battles such as slums and underground arena. During that time, Ouma met the Tyrant, the leader of Rebellion, and was almost killed if not for the interference of Edelweiss. Following the incident, he was struck with fear and realized that in order to be in the same area as the Tyrant, he needed a metamorphosis and for that purpose, he soon bounded himself in his Tenryuu Armor in order to trigger that himself and began to seek out a worthy opponent for that purpose, wanting to stop the tremble he has had in his hand ever since.

Ouma was also a rival of both Yudai Moroboshi and Renji Kaga during their youth.

Incident at Okutama
Ouma appears along with Reisen Hiraga who was sent to test the ability of Tohka Todo. Ouma, however, was having more interest in Stella, claiming that she's the only reason he joined them and if Stella isn't up to the level then he isn't interested in her. Hiraga also notes that Ouma is rather troublesome, preferring his brother, Ikki.

Akatsuki Strikes
Ouma is seen with his fellow Akatsuki members attacking Hagun Academy, being able to destroy the school quite easily. The Hagun representatives of the Festival training but quickly arrive, being able to defeat Ouma and the others easily. It's revealed however that the Akatsuki members were all illusions created after Amane had seen the future, telling that Nagi would betray them. He later challenges Stella to a duel, easily overpowering her Katharterio Salamandra with his Kusanagi. He was then challenged by Tohka, after the other Student Council members had fallen, who tried to halt Ouma from chasing Stella and the Hagure Sisters but was easily defeated by Ouma.

Ouma and the other Akatsuki members eventually catch up to the Hagure sisters and Stella but they are stopped by Nene who is able to stop all the Akatsuki members except Ouma who planned on taking on Nene. He is, however, stopped by Hiraga who is able to persuade Ouma from attacking Nene, as they had already done what they had planned to do. Ouma and the others then retreat.

Dinner and Confrontation
Later just before the Festival, Ouma is noticed by Ikki, while Ouma was stalking Ikki and his companions during their outing. After Ikki is able to separate himself from the others he calls out Ouma. Ouma explains that he wants Ikki to quit the tournament as he is a blocking stone of Stella, keeping her from her true potential. When Ikki refuses to drop out of the tournament, Ouma decides to use force and draws out his Device and in response, Ikki does the same and a battle between brothers ensues.

Ouma has the advantage in power over Ikki having far more magic and physical power than him. Ouma quickly becomes tired of fighting against Ikki and uses Mukuu Kekkai to force Ikki to end the fight in less than sixty seconds. Ikki was nearly able to cut Ouma but for some reason stopped at the last moment allowing Ouma to hit Ikki with the full force of his blade, causing Ikki to lie helpless as Ouma charged up for his all-powerful Noble Art, Kusanagi.

Ouma unleashes Kusanagi, however, it is destroyed, along with Mukuu Kekkai, before it can hit Ikki. It is then revealed that Yudai Moroboshi, the current Seven Stars Sword King, had come to Ikki's aid, and used his magic destroying Noble Art, Tiger Bite, to save Ikki. Ouma decides he has enough fighting and decides to leave.

Conclusion of the First Match
Ouma wins his first-round match in the Festival, advancing to the second round. Ouma later meets with Ikki again, in the hotel where the competitors are staying. Ikki, who is being chased by Stella and Sara Bloodlily, asks to stay in Ouma's room for the night. Ouma at first rudely rejects Ikki, telling him to go and borrow any of his friend's rooms, and notes on his lack of respect for his senior despite asking for his help but Ikki's cold statement of the reason being Ouma working with a terrorist caused Ouma to begrudgingly accept. As Ouma and Ikki settle down, Ouma notes that Ikki probably has another reason for coming to him, which Ikki admits to being that he wanted to talk to his brother on civil terms. Ikki tells Ouma that he used to admire his older brother, because of his grit and dedication, knowing that Ouma could never be satisfied with fighting weak opponents. This, however, makes Ikki question Ouma's reasons for associating with a crooked organization like Rebellion, which is leading Akatsuki. Ouma corrects Ikki, saying that he is just a guest and not an associate of Rebellion. He is helping them because of his and Ikki's father, Itsuki Kurogane, who asked Ouma to, as Itsuki is supporting Akatsuki's leader's, Bakuga Tsukikage's, ideas of splitting from the League which would bring more power to the Kurogane Family. Despite this, Ouma's main reason was still facing Stella, wishing to fight a strong opponent. He admits to not knowing nor is he interested in Tsukikage's true thoughts.

Ikki notes that Ouma really is captivated by Stella, wondering why Ouma didn't attack him like earlier. Ouma explains that after seeing how much stronger Stella has gotten, he no longer sees Ikki as an obstacle for her. As Ikki asks why Ouma is going specifically after Stella and not other strong adult knights, Ouma mocks his brother for lacking understanding of the concept of a knight's power and constantly using his swordsmanship, referring to it as being "parlor tricks". Ouma explains that everyone has a certain fate, which decides their natural amount of magic power. Stella has one of the greatest amounts of natural raw magic power, which Ouma seeks, not wanting to simply fight an unwinnable battle against the likes of the "Yaksha Princess" or "God of War", instead of wishing to overcome a challenge of power, to stop his hands from trembling. They then go to sleep, with Ouma saying that he might have been a little wrong about Ikki. He warned Ikki that he had caught the eye of someone very troublesome, referring to Amane Shinomiya, and should best prepare for terrible retribution.

Seven Stars Sword Art Festival Third Round - Beginning
Ouma, having easily won his last two matches of the Seven Stars Sword Art Festival, faces the ace of Rokuzon Academy, Renji Kaga. Despite Renji's strength and speed, he is unable to damage Ouma, and Ouma in turn easily cuts Renji, and strikes his hand through his chest, ripping out his heart in the process. This act of cruelty shocks the audience, but Stella Vermillion claps at Ouma's showcase of strength.

A Pair of Dragons' Rivalry
In the semifinals of the Festival Ouma faces Stella Vermillion, who he has been wanting to fight from the beginning of the Festival. They exchange powerful blows, with Stella using techniques like Broken Arrow and Satan Fang, while Ouma counters with brute force and Fuujin Kekkai. Stella tries hitting Ouma with a surprise attack but manages to only injure her own arms when she hits Ouma. They then clash swords and Ouma manages to damage Stella's internal organs with a kick. This leads to Stella figuring out the secret of Ouma's defense. Ouma has been surrounding his body with extremely high pressured air, which has strengthened his body.

Ouma then tells about his encounter with the Rebellion leader Tyrant, and Ouma's defeat to him, which lead Ouma to join Akatsuki. Ouma then releases his Tenryuu Armor, which tremendously raises his speed. He then attacks Stella with an onslaught of attacks, but Stella manages to endure them. She then activates her most powerful technique, Dragon Spirit. This technique tremendously increases her physical strength and speed. Her attacks are also surrounded by fire. Ouma is unable to match Stella in this form and is finally defeated in the clash off their attacks, Katharterio Salamandra and Kusanagi. This leads to Ouma being eliminated from the Seven Stars Sword Art Festival.

Rising Spirit
Ouma later arrives to battle against Ikki, to help him train for his upcoming battle against Stella in the finals. Ouma was asked by Ikki to come, with Ouma agreeing as he wants to test Ikki's strength. Ouma has the advantage in the battle, having superior power and durability, but Ikki is capable of keeping up with him, using his swordsmanship knowledge. Ikki also catches Ouma off guard and actually pushes him back, with his newly created third sword technique, Madoka, which directs back one of the powerful slashes of Ouma. This surprises Ouma, who wonders if Ikki's trickery is a kind of strength. Ouma then decides to take the fight seriously and activates his wind manipulation ability. The outcome of their battle is unknown, though Ikki is seen arriving at the finals, with no serious injuries. Ouma then traveled to Osaka the day before celebrating Ikki's victory over Stella at the festival. His current location and goals are unknown.

Abilities
Wind Manipulation: Ouma's ability as a Blazer. He is able to produce wind and use it for offense and defense to an amazing degree. Ouma can use his wind in more subtle ways, like bending the light to make himself invisible. By manipulating the wind, he is able to render air resistance void, granting Ryuuzume whose weight equaled that of a spear the advantage in sharpness and speed. In his match against Stella, Ouma was able to coat his sword with wind and swung it three times at a speed faster than the swords of Edelweiss. He can also create a vacuum orb that explodes on contact.
 * Pseudo Mana: Being a Natural Interference Blazer, Ouma can absorb natural wind, then convert that into his own power as pseudo-mana, letting him use more magic than normal.
 * Tenryuu Armor: A technique, which surrounds Ouma with incredibly high pressured air. The technique puts a load on Ouma's body, training it to become more durable while protecting him and releasing his Armor, Ouma gains a massive improvement in speed. He can also put this armor on another person, making them appear invisible by bending light using wind.

Immense Strength: Having undergone a ridiculous training, Ouma gained a tremendous physical condition able to outclass Stella using his natural strength while the latter enhanced due to her magic. He alone among Akatsuki, could withstand Nene's Jibaujin and pierce through Renji's steel skin with his bare hands. After releasing his Tenryuu Armor, he could release vacuum slashes using his strength alone and sent Stella through the reinforced concrete outside the dome in their second fight.

Immense Durability: Due to his extreme training over the years, coupled with his wind armor, Ouma gained tremendous defenses as he took Tohka's famed Raikiri head-on without injuries and received a minor wound from Takemikazuchi, which she later described him as being a mountain. He was able to also endure the powerful hits from Renji without budging an inch, feat impossible to Stella herself. It was later revealed that he bounded himself in his Tenryuu Armor pushing his body to the absolute limit, triggering a metamorphosis, and gaining skin comparable to steel along with both his flesh and bones being ten times denser than others, however, in doing so this shortened his lifespan.

Immense Stamina: Due to being clad in his Tenryuu Armor and ridiculous training for years, Ouma attained an enormous amount of stamina, endurance, and pain tolerance beyond what common sense, further elaborated by his steel-like will. Being able to tank attacks from powerful opponents such as Renji, then the intense pain and injuries from Stella using Dragon Spirit, which burns him from inside and yet still found the strength to stand up and challenge her.

Immense Speed: Ouma has incredible speed, even while is clad in his wind, letting him keep up with fast opponents like Ikki and Stella without problems. His true speed having released his Tenryuu Armor was able to shorten the distance between both him Stella in an instant, as well as being agile enough to keep up with Stela’s strikes despite using Dragon Spirit.

Master Swordsmanship: Ouma is an incredible master swordsman, having trained in the Kyokujitsu Isshin-ryuu of the Kurogane Household. Ikki later noted that there wasn't much difference in sword skills between him and his older brother, which is supplemented by his strength and magic. He could overpower Stella in sword skills alone and landed strikes on her using Dragon Spirit.
 * Gou no Kiwami - Honoikazuchi: Ouma delivers a strong diagonal slash using his right hand, and is followed up with a punch from his left, which supplemented by his strength could send Stella backward breaking through reinforced concrete walls.
 * Jin no Kiwami - Amaterasu: A secret technique, where Ouma deliver an extremely fast slash using all his muscles and rebound of the twist of his body with his spine, which combined with his natural strength reaches the same speed of Ikki who stole Edelweiss' Swordsmanship and wounded Stella using "Dragon Spirit".
 * Retsu no Kiwami - Amatsukaze: He is able to use a secret technique, where Ouma delivers a continuous 108 combo of slashes, which overwhelm his targets using sheer speed.

Magic Control: Despite not on Shizuku or Stella's level, Ikki noted that Ouma has high control over his strength and magic, being able to release a slash that had a greater concentration of strength, leaving a deep fissure in the ground without causing perturbations. he also can further strengthen his noble arts or dispel them instantly.

Willpower: Ouma has incredible willpower, in cases where most would surrender, he still keeps going even if it costs him his life. His unbreakable will has allowed him to achieve his long-sought metamorphosis achieved by enduring absurd wind pressure, which bound him for years. Despite being both half-dead and realizing Stella's overwhelming power, he challenged her Katharterio Salamandra with his Kusanagi resulting in Ryuuzume being broken and losing consciousness, however, he remained standing up.

Device
Ryuuzume: Ouma's Device takes a form of an over a meter long white Nodachi.
 * Kusanagi: This is his most powerful Noble Art similar to "Katharterio Salamandra", where Ouma pours his magic inside his Ryuuzume creating a windstorm that is able to suck in everything around him including the atmosphere surpassing 50 meters in height. At full strength, it could overpower Stella's strongest move, turning the school building, the practice area, and paving into rubble. Kusanagi, however, has a flaw as its power drops with each usage, in evidence when Ouma noted a decrease in power by the third usage during his short fight against Nene.
 * Shin'uchi: This is the true form of Kusanagi, which he couldn't realize using his own power, where he continues to compress the enormous tornado using the magic he took from the wind into the form of a blade of light slightly larger than his Ryuuzume. Shin'uchi terrified even Abraham Carter who stated that the thin wind blade has the power to twist the space of the world.
 * Shinkuuha: This is a popular offensive technique among Wind Users, which tears through the air, creating a small corridor of vacuum. These vacuum slashes move at high speeds and are nearly invisible.
 * Mukuu Kekkai: Ouma creates a powerful updraft to deprive his opponent of oxygen. It also serves to momentarily distract the opponent and has a considerable range.
 * San: A more lethal version of the original, where he creates a vacuum, which can boil and vaporize his opponents' fluids, their bodies' decaying a lot like trees.
 * Fuujin Kekkai: A defensive Noble Art, where Ouma stabs Ryuuzume into the ground, creating a tornado around him. Fuujin Kekkai was strong enough to block Satan Fang, which was comparable in power to Raikiri.
 * Ryuugan: This is a Noble Art, where Ouma read and listens to the wind, following the traces of magic power scattered in the wind in order to locate his targets.
 * Ikki no Kaze: His most powerful Noble Art, which can be used after Kusanagi – Shin'uchi is activated, where he slashes everything within 500 km of the trajectory where Ryuuzume is swung in a straight line. It was powerful enough to kill Abraham Carter.

Trivia

 * Ouma is (王馬) combine with the kanji for "King/Monarch" and "Horse".
 * Ouma was claimed to be the only A-Rank Apprentice Knight in Japan, which is proven untrue as Amane Shinomiya is also an A-Rank Blazers.
 * Ouma shares many similarities with Stella:
 * Both are highly talented and praised A-Ranks from well-respected families.
 * Both of them have strong dragon motifs in their titles and noble arts.
 * Ouma's fastest sword technique, Amaterasu, is named after the Shinto's Goddess of the Sun, Amaterasu, while Ouma's signature Noble Art Kusanagi is named after Amaterasu's sword of the same name.
 * Despite his lean frame, Ouma is exceedingly heavy. Due to his extremely dense bones and muscles, he weighs about five hundred kilograms, making him heavier than Renji Kaga.
 * Since the start of his career as a Blazer, Ouma officially lost once against Stella in the 62nd Seven Stars Sword Art Festival and unofficially against Tyrant in the past.
 * Ouma's quest to test his limits could reference the concept of Musha Shugyō.
 * Ouma is the third Blazer to kill a desperado him needing to be one himself.