Ikki Kurogane

Ikki Kurogane is the main protagonist of A Chivalry of the Failed Knight. An F-rank Apprentice Knight who strives to become a real Mage Knight.

Appearance
Ikki is a young man of average height with dark brown hair and brown eyes.

Personality
A noble young man with a caring personality. Ikki can be very cruel under certain circumstances. When it comes dealing women of his age and the whole academy in general Ikki is really clumsy because he has no prior experience with them outside of respect towards a superior or as a knight. This really shows when he confronts Stella on that subject.

History
Ikki is a member of the Kurogane Family, a family that has produced superior Blazers for generations, the most well known being Ryoma Kurogane. When his family found out that Ikki is a F-rank, they immediately discriminate against him, forcing Ikki not to do anything while treating him like none existing.

During a new year celebration, Ikki unable to withstand the environment, ran out of his house and got lost in the snow. Down to his final breaths, the almost dying Ikki cries out his frustration as Ryoma Kurogane appears in front of Ikki, telling Ikki to never give up and to become strong.

Ikki eventually left his house and live on his own attending the Hagun Academy a year before the story, thanks to the unbiased evaluation by his examiner, Yuuri Oreki. While there, Ikki faced opposition from his family, who forced the school to make Ikki fail and made him retake a year. He was also harassed by many students during that time, mainly Shizuya Kirihara who even challenged Ikki to a fight and attacked Ikki.

Failure vs. Prodigy
Upon returning to his room from his usual daily training, Ikki stumbles upon a half-naked girl who was changing which was made worse by Ikki's desperate and bad attempt to solve the situation. He was then summon to the Director's office where Ikki and Stella Vermillion, the girl who was in Ikki's room, bicker over the issue as Kurono Shinguuji, the director of the Hagun Academy, reveals that they are roommates. Kurono further suggest the two to have a mock battle which escalated into a duel after Ikki's casual comment. To Ikki's shocked, Stella further included an addition ruling where the loser becomes the winner's slave for life.

The two then head to one of the schools practice ground for the duel with Kurono as the judge. As the duel starts, Stella was seemingly the one with the advantage until Ikki's sudden reversal of the situation using his swordsmanship. As Ikki was prepared to deliver the final blow, his attack stopped due to the difference in the amount of magic power between the two. The duel then returned to Stella's favor who prepares herself to use her Noble Art and strongest attack, Katharterio Salamandra, to defeat Ikki. Ikki remembering his dreams of becoming a Mage Knight, prepares to use his Noble Art, Ittou Shura, which temporarily removes his physical limitation allowing Ikki to increase all his skills including his Magic Power. Upon using Ittou Shura, Ikki started to move at a super speed and dodged all of Stella's attack before entering Stella's blind spot and successfully deals a decisive blow, becoming the victor to their duel.

After the duel concluded, Ikki was seen sleeping in his bed due to the burden of using Ittou Shura as a now curious Stella climbs on top of the sleeping Ikki only to be surprised when Ikki wakes up and accidentally injures herself. Stella, who learnt of Ikki's situation from Kurono, decides to ask Ikki on his reasons to become a Mage Knight as Ikki remembers the frustration he faced from the distrust and refusal of his family to believe in him as well as his encounter with Ryoma Kurogane, who encourages and gives Ikki hope to become strong. This encounter also helped form Ikki's dreams to do the same for others. Ikki then reminds Stella of the ruling of their duel, much to Stella's chagrin, who initially refused before conceding as Ikki orders Stella to be his friend and roommate.

New Term, Reunion and Rebellion
A few days after his duel with Stella, Ikki was once again seen continuing his daily training alongside Stella who started to join him as Ikki looks forward to the upcoming school term where he seeks to attain his dreams and to meet his younger sister for the first time in four years.

As the new term starts with Ikki once again attending the class under the same teacher who taught him last year, Yuuri Oreki, who welcomed the new students and explained the new rules set up by the new director of the school. The orientation ended abruptly when Oreki starts vomiting blood due to her weak constitution as Ikki calms the class down and takes his teacher to the infirmary while leaving the students in charge of cleaning the blood. After returning to the class having sent Oreki to the infirmary, Ikki was greeted by a group of female students who gained interest in Ikki after having his match with Stella post on the internet which ended up gaining displeasure from a group of male students who challenged Ikki to a fight. Refusing to fight, Ikki easily disables those students without his device much to everyone's shock except Stella. Having gained further respect from those in his class, Ikki's younger sister, Shizuku comes to Ikki's classroom, complimenting Ikki's strength before suddenly kissing him in front of everyone much to their surprise. While Shizuku prepares for a second kiss, an enrages and jealous Stella intervenes, claiming that she is Ikki's slave which earns the displeasure of Shizuku as both Stella and Shizuku ends up fighting each other, destroying the classroom in the process.

Abilities
Master Swordsmanship: Ikki is extremely skilled in swordsmanship due to his continuous training in that field to make up for his lack of magic powers.

Insight: As a result of being neglected over the years, Ikki has mastered the skills to see through his opponents technique simply through observing. Ikki can also read his opponents next move simply through the opponent's muscle movement.

Immense Reflexes: Due to his continuous training, Ikki possesses reflexes that are above that of a normal human. In fact, he can even use his reflexes to further enhance his insight.

Sword Steal: One of Ikki's technique, Ikki using his superb insight to observe and steal his opponents techniques and further improve it through his own swordsmanship. According to Ikki, he can grasp most sword styles with only a minute of exchanges.

Doubling Physical Powers: Ikki's ability as a Blazer. Ikki can double his physical strength and when use in tandem with Ittou Shura, his physical powers improves five to six times the normal rate.

Device
Intetsu (陰鉄): Ikki's Device, it takes a form of a black Japanese long sword.


 * Ittou Shura (一刀修羅): Ikki's noble art and strongest technique, it temporarily removes Ikki of all his physical limits, allowing him to gain tremendous power but can only maintain it for a minute.