Ikki Kurogane

Ikki Kurogane is the main protagonist of Chivalry of the Failed Knight. Despite hailing from a clan of well-respected Mage-Knights, Ikki is considered a failure amongst the members of the Kurogane clan as an F-rank Apprentice Knight and is known as the "Worst One". To make a name for himself, Ikki continues to study in Hagun Academy as a repeater, hoping that he would eventually become powerful enough to win in the prestigious Seven Stars Sword Art Festival.

Appearance
Ikki is a young man of average height with dark brown hair and brown eyes. Ikki is usually seen wearing the standard Hagun Academy male uniform. He's been noted to have a thin but well-built, toned body and a cute face that makes him popular with the girls. Sara Bloodlily described Ikki to have "beauty and kindness, yet with strength within his straight-backed, clean-cut figure and a robust musculature, honed and trained to unblemished perfection." These being the reasons why she wanted Ikki to be her nude model.

Personality
Ikki is a strong-willed and noble young man, with a caring personality; this is seen throughout the series as selflessly helps others. This holds truer for those struggling to become better on their own, as he understands what a hard road it was. Ikki can also be very cold in battle and doesn't mind enjoying a heated battle with a strong opponent.

Ikki is shown to be quite calm in even the most arduous of the situation, as seen when he stayed calm the entire encounter with Kuraudo even brushing off the fact that he was hit with a bottle, trying to avoid the fight.

When it comes to dealing with women of his age and the whole academy in general Ikki is clumsy because he has no prior experience with them outside of respect towards a superior or as a knight. This is shown when he confronts Stella on that subject. Due to his years of being discriminated against for being an F-Rank, Ikki is not entirely used to his sudden rise in popularity and often doesn't know how to best deal with his many female fans.

Despite situations implying otherwise, he is not very perverted. He usually tries his hardest to show restraint and respect to the woman who act lecherously around him, such as Stella and Shizuku. He also chose not to have sex with Stella at the log cabin they were staying, even though she suggested it, knowing he needed her family's approval first.

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 an F-rank, they immediately discriminate against him, forcing Ikki not to do anything while treating him like he doesn't exist.

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 to live on his own. During his time in middle school, Ikki would go to many different dojos and challenge their masters. They either refused his challenge or the students would gang up on him, which occurs on multiple occasions. He eventually started attending the Hagun Academy a year before the story, thanks to the 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 who avoided retaliation due to not wanting to be expelled.

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 summoned 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 Hagun Academy, reveals that they are roommates. Kurono further suggests the two to have a mock battle which escalated into a duel after Ikki's casual comment with Stella further adding a rule where the loser becomes the winner's slave for life.

The two then head to one of the schools practice ground for the duel. As the duel starts, Stella was seemingly the one with the advantage until Ikki's sudden counterattack. As Ikki was prepared to deliver the final blow, his attack stopped due to the difference of magic power between them. The duel then returned to Stella's favor who prepares to use her Noble Art to defeat Ikki. Ikki is remembering his dreams of becoming a Mage Knight activates his Noble Art, Ittou Shura, which temporarily removes his physical limitation. Upon using Ittou Shura, Ikki starts to move at super speed and dodged all of Stella's attack before entering Stella's blind spot and successfully deals a decisive blow, becoming the victor in 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. 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 his family's refusal to believe in him as well as his encounter with Ryoma Kurogane which gave Ikki hope and the dream to do the same for others in his situation. 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
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 Yuuri Oreki, the same teacher who taught him last year and explained the new school rules set up by Kurono. The orientation ended abruptly when Oreki vomits blood due to her weak constitution as Ikki calms the class down and takes Oreki to the infirmary. 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 new respect from those in his class, the male students begged Ikki to train them, which he agreed. 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 and enrages, causing Stella to get jealous and intervene, 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.

Several days after the incident, Ikki receives an invitation from Shizuku to go out for a movie with Stella forcefully injecting herself into the date. The next morning, while Ikki and Stella wait for Shizuku, they were surprised to see her in goth clothing and were further surprised to see Shizuku's roommate Arisu. At the mall while waiting for their movie to start, the mall was suddenly attacked by the Liberation Army, Rebellion, with Ikki and Arisu successfully avoiding enemy's notice due to Arisu's ability. Getting the permission of using their Device, Ikki and Arisu prepares for the counterattack, heading to the place where the hostages were being held. Waiting for a chance to counterattack, Ikki and Nagi were forced to watch as Stella was being humiliated by Bishou until Shizuku finishes her preparation as an enraged Ikki jumps out and cuts off both of Bishou's hands while his friends handle the other members of Rebellion. The situation ended with Kirihara shooting down Bishou who was holding an old lady hostage. Kirihara proceeds to reveals that he is Ikki's first opponent for the selection battle before leaving.

Debut Battle and Vow
Two days after the Rebellion incident, Ikki first selection battle finally starts as he faces Kirihara. The battle initially goes badly for Ikki who was at the mercy of his opponents invisible arrows. He was beaten up to the point where he nearly gave up due to the surrounding crowds further pressuring Ikki until Stella shuts the crowd up and outwardly shows her support to Ikki. This allows Ikki to regain his confidence successfully overcoming Kirihara's Noble Art and defeats him. Ikki then collapses due to his injuries and burden of using Ittou Shura as he was sent to emergency aid.

Ikki later wakes up in a hospital room with Stella by his side and after some minor bickering between the two, Ikki confesses his feelings to Stella and the two vow to reach the finals of the Seven Stars Sword Art Festival and have another match.

Disciple, Encounter and Betrayal
Ikki, a month after beating Kirihara, is next seen fighting against Renren Tomaru, who, just like him, has won all of her matches without a single scratch. Ikki is able to defeat her, with relative ease, keeping his streak intact. Ikki is then seen with his friends, where he points out the stalker, and accidentally causes her to injure herself.

Ikki is then seen with Ayase Ayatsuji, the stalker, helping her train her swordsmanship, as she had lost her original mentor due to injury in a match. Their days of training come to a hold as Ikki learns, from a message sent by the school, that he will face Ayase as his tenth opponent. The day before the match, Ikki was invited by Ayase, to the rooftops, to which he came alone. He is then tricked by Ayase, who revealed that she only invited to make him use Ittou Shoura.

Impossible Victory, Decisive Battle, and New Beginnings
Ikki is next seen, fighting Ayase. He initially looks as if he is unable to get to Ayase, thanks to Ayase's noble art being around the entire arena, which she had done before the match started. Ikki is able to see through the traps set by her, however, and is able to cut Ayase with the illusionary form of his Intetsu. Ayase then realizes that what she had done, and was doing was not right, and is unable to get back up, after Ikki's attack, allowing Ikki to take the win.

Ikki is then told by Ayase, her tragic back story, and goes to the formerly named Ayatsuji dojo, controlled by Kuraudo. Ikki goes in, after beating the guards outside, and challenges Kuruado to a duel. Kuraudo accepts, with the stipulation that they fight using their devices, and the first one to die loses. Ikki then fights Kuraudo and is initially outmatched in both strength and speed. Ikki, however, keeps fighting and can tire out Kuraudo by blocking most of his attacks costing Kuraudo most of his stamina. He then uses the latter technique of the last samurai and can beat Karaudo, regaining the dojo.

Ikki, two days after his match with Kuraudo, is next seen training with Stella, and after realizing they were alone, they try to share an intimate moment with each other, only to have it interrupted by Nagi, who had come with some fairly shocking, and worrying news. He had revealed to the couple, that Shizuku's next opponent had been decided, Hagun Academy's own number one student, student council member Tohka Todo.

Lorelei vs Raikiri
Ikki is next seen along with Stella watching the match between Shizuku and Tohka. During the match, Kurono and Nene come, and after seeing Tohka use the same move Nene had used to sneak up on Ikki during his preparation of the first preliminary match, Ikki is able to explain that Tohka was using the ability trackless step. Ikki then watches as his little sister is overpowered and beaten by Tohka.

Ikki is next seen with Stella in their room when they notice a figure walk past them. Ikki looks and accidentally trips the person, who turns out to be Tohka carrying a large stack of documents. He and Stella decide to help her take the documents over to the student council room where they are invited in for some tea.

Tohka, while in the student council room, is then reminded by Ikazuchi Saijou, about the request Kurono had made to her, which is revealed to be that she needed to find other students to help them on their job. Kanata, now coming into the student council room, then reveals that the student council members were asked to take care of a giant causing problems in the Okumata mountains. Ikki and Stella agree to go.

Incident of Okutama
Ikki, Stella, and the student council reach Okutama mountain and are eventually split off into pairs of two, to walk around the area. Ikki is split off with Stella, and the pairs walk comes to and end, as Stella becomes ill with a fever. Ikki takes her to a cabin near by, to treat her. Stella asks Ikki to help her undress her clothes that are only making her sicker. Ikki nervously does so and is shocked when she asks him if he wanted to have sex with her. She was happy when he replied that he shouldn't make a decision like that so soon.

They are soon attacked by a giant rock doll, who attacks the cabin, although Ikki was able to get Stella out in time. Ikki and Stella then try to fight the monster but are unsuccessful as the monster continued multiplying as well as its onslaught. They are however saved by the arrival of Utakata and Tohka, who are able to quickly take out the monsters.

The group then go to the bottom of the mountains, to a lodge, where the rest of the student council members were at. Ikki is then met with Akaza, a person from the Kurogane family, who tells him that his relationship with Stella has been publicized and that he should come with him, to which Ikki agrees to.

Siege, Reunion and Trap
Ikki after following Akaza back to the Japan Mage Knight Branch was then forced to undergo harsh questionings for weeks, given an insufficient amount of food and was poisoned. Ikki, during his captivity, was faced with his father, which ended with Ikki realizing that his father did not hate him, but just gave up on him. He later eventually succumbed, to the brutal treatment, and gave in to Akaza's original plan, on having him fight against Tohka for his final selection battle.

Ikki was then seen barely able to get to the ring in time and, while being encouraged by all the students, was able to defeat Tohka with one swing. Before passing out, Ikki then proposed to Stella and was relieved when she accepted. After a week of recovery, Ikki was then pronounced as the captain of the Hagun Academy team after he and five other participants were named to be going to the sword art festival.

Training Camp and Scheme
With Okutama out of commission, Ikki and his teammates were sent to Kyomon Academy for their training camp before the Seven Stars Sword Art Festival. Ikki, having defeated all the coaches sent to him in three days, is seen training both the Hagure Sisters by the fourth day, easily defeating them and points out on their weaknesses prior to the arrival of his next coach, Torajirou Nangou.

At the end of the fourth day of their training camp, Ikki and Stella are seen running together due to Stella's frustration over losing to Tohka prior before heading to the shopping district for dinner. Over there, Ikki noticed a deranged electrician and became wary of him as he starts to follow him out of concern that the man might randomly assault someone. When Ikki's prediction proved to be true, he immediately tried to hold him down but stopped due to someone else, stopping the man first. Realizing that the person who stopped the deranged man was a Blazer from Kyomon Academy, Ikki decides to leave the situation to him before being flabbergasted over the young Blazer's lack of plan, jumping in to rescue him.

The rescued Blazer, Amane Shinomiya then thanked Ikki and turns out to be a huge fan of Ikki, treating both Ikki and Stella to dinner before leaving after asking for an autograph from Ikki. Ikki, however, gets a bad premonition from Amane's gesture when he was leaving and decides to ask Kagami for any information regarding the boy.

Akatsuki Strikes
Ikki while on the bus finds out that Nagi was an assassin for Akatsuki. Although initially mistrusting of Nagi's intentions the group decides to trust in Nagi and follow with his plan.

Upon arriving the Hagun representatives are able to defeat the Akatsuki members. Nagi is then struck down by Amane, and the Akatsuki members reveal themselves as well as revealing that the people that were taken down were nothing more than wooden dolls. Hiraga takes away the unconscious body of Nagi as Ikki takes chase following Shizuku, who was chasing Hiraga. Ikki eventually decides to help Shizuku in bringing her friend back.

They arrive at Akatsuki academy and Ikki tells Shizuku to leave him, as he noticed a woman on top of the building giving off a tremendous aura. Shizuku does so and Ikki begins to fight the worlds strongest blazer herself, Edelweisse. Ikki is outmatched by Edelweisse through the fight but Ikki had refused to give in, causing Edelweisse to see Ikki as a true opponent. She then decides to fight seriously and comes at Ikki with her full force, deciding to kill him. Ikki, however, is able to survive being able to somehow evade certain death, although he does fall unconscious.

After the incident with Akatsuki Kurono informs Ikki that the Hagure sisters, Kanata, and Nagi had dropped out of the festival for various reasons. Ikki still wants to participate and learns that Shizuku will be participating as well. Ikki eventually learns that his next opponent will be none other than Yudai Moroboshi, last year's Seven Sword Art King.

Party Crashers
Ikki, along with Shizuku, went to the seven sword art festival representatives party, a party in which all representatives of the festival are welcomed to participate in. While there Ikki had a confrontation with various Akatsuki members.

The Akatsuki member Sara Bloodlily had gotten very close and personal to Ikki, to the point where she started stripping him, however Ikki was saved by Shizuku. Ikki then met with Rinna who had offered him a job. The two Akatsuki members had then taken their leave. Ikki is then confronted by Yui Tatara who showed how dangerous Akatsuki can be by nearly feeding Shizuku some very detrimental meat, although Ikki is able to slap it out of her hand before she takes a bite. A fight between Ikki and Yui nearly broke out, but was stopped by other representatives, who were appalled by Yui actions. Yui eventually left and Ikki soon leaves, in embarrassment, after realizing his shirt was still ripped.

Dinner and Confrontation
Ikki, Shizuku and Nagi go out for lunch being invited by Yudai Moroboshi, no less, to his place, although while walking Ikki has sensed an ominous presence. After finishing their lunch Ikki and company had left the restaurant, Ikki decided to go off alone while Shizuku and Nagi went back to the hotel.

Ikki was then confronted by his older brother, Ouma, at a park. Ouma demands that Ikki quits the festival but Ikki refuses, causing Ouma to try and force him out of the tournament with brute strength. Ikki in turn welcomed the challenge and a fight between brothers broke out.

Ikki was able to keep up with Ouma for a while being able to dodge all of his attacks. Ouma, however, decided to end the match quickly by using his blazer abilities to only give Ikki a minute worth of oxygen to use, less if kept on fighting. Ikki was nearly able to get the upper hand on Ouma, but for some reason stopped short before he could hit him, causing he himself to be hit by Ouma's mighty attack. Ouma had then tried to use Kusanagi on Ikki but failed to do so by Yuudai's own tiger bite, stopping Ouma's attack completely.

Battle of Kings
The next day Ikki was set to face Yuudai in the fight. During the fight, Ikki had, at first, been at a disadvantage as every time he had come close to Yuudai he was stopped by Yuudai's Houkiboshi, which allowed Yuudai to keep a safe distance from Ikki. Ikki was, however, able by pass this and go in for a second strike, however Yudai was able to use his tiger bite to destroy part of Ikki device, causing Ikki to be forced to back off once again. On Ikki's third try however Ikki was able to bypass even Yudai's noble art, but when he was about to strike he had stopped, just like the night before with Ouma.

It is revealed to Ikki that his fight with Edelweisse left him with more then he had ever expected, as he had gain the strongest swordsman's technique. With it he was able to overwhelm Yuudai and eventually defeat him.

After the match Ikki goes back to his gate where he gleefully meets Stella who had just arrived to the tournament.

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. His swordsmanship has been praised by legendary Mage-Knights such as Torajirou Nangou, the God of War, and Edelweiss, the strongest swordsman in the world. The former admit that Ikkis' swordsmanship was greater than his old rival Ryoma Kurogane. Edelweiss even acknowledge that Ikki has the potential to become a worthy rival for her after he not only survive fighting against her while she was serious, but even manage to land a hit on her despite his young age.
 * Seven Secret Swords: The seven original sword techniques that Ikki created himself. Out of the seven, six of the secret sword (秘剣 hiken) techniques has been revealed.
 * Ten'i Muhou (天衣無縫, lit., "Flawless"): The ultimate move of the Ayatsuji Itto-ryu style of swordsmanship, the user counters the opponent's attack with minimal movement. Ikki used an imperfect version of this move on Kuraudo.
 * Trackless Step (抜き足 Nukiashi): This technique combines the user's breath control and footwork at the same time to decrease the distance from the user and the target in an instant. This technique actually does not accelerate the user's movements, but by making one's movement difficult to perceive as dangerous and seeping into the opponent's rhythm, the opponent becomes unable to react until too late. After witnessing it multiple times, Ikki is able to apply the same concept on an entire crowd of civilians looking for him and reproduce this technique to walk directly through them completely undetected.
 * Cognitive Empathy/Ability Replication (認知的共感 (Ninchi-teki kyōkan) 能力の複製 (Nōryoku no fukusei): Ikki has been noted to understand techniques and even apply them to his own, such as when he observed Ayase using her fathers techniques during their training which by observation was able to deduce, and understand all her fathers techniques intimately. Also Ikki has the ability to implement and improve other Blazers techniques such as Edelweiss's Trackless Step! By observing how she moved during their encounters, Ikki was able to understand everything about Edelweiss and even go as far as to use one of her own techniques as well, such as Inertia to build momentum.

Expert Hand-to-hand combat: Ikki is very adept in various styles of martial arts. He has proven he can easily deal with 5 unskilled Blazers wielding their Devices without using his own Device while holding back enough to not hurt them.

Expert Weapon Specialist: Ikki is skilled in using kodachi techniques, spear work, and even archery. Enough that he been able to teach theses skills to others. Stella said the reason why Ikki learned so many different fighting styles was to help him better make up for lack of magic abilities.

Expert Marksmanship: Ikki has incredible skills in throwing projectiles with great accuracy. During his fight with Manabe, he quickly flicked an eraser which bounced off the ceiling and got wedged in between his gun's hammer and its percussion cap, disabling the large caliber revolver Device efficiently.

Insight: As a result of being neglected over the years, Ikki has mastered the skills to see through his opponent's technique simply by observing. Ikki can also read his opponent's next move simply through the opponent's muscle movement. Ikki's insight has even allowed him to properly sense how dangerous someone really is on the first meeting. A good example being when he felt that Amane Shinomiya was more dangerous than he appeared, something few others notice.
 * Perfect Vision (, lit., "Total Control"): During his fight against Kirihara, Ikki manage to improve his insight further to the point where he can read even his opponents' chain of thoughts and feelings.

Complete Body Control: Ikki can control his body at will as a result of his training. He can perform many superhuman feats due to his rigorous body control, such as dashing forward while his entire body nearly touching the ground and can turn off his sense such as sight and hearing to focus on his other senses. Ikki has shown he can transfer the acuity of his color sense in his vision to his motion perception to better read the movements of his opponents. After learning Edelweiss's technique, he hones his control even further, to the point of manually moving muscles inside his heart to make it beat after it's been stopped by Amane. In the final match of the Seven Star festival, Ikki is able to even see every strand of Stella's hair and hear the sound of his own bloodstream. Not only that, he is able to understand every muscle inside his body and even able to count the dust on his skin.

Immense Stamina: Due to his continuous training, Ikki has incredible amounts of stamina above that of most people. Even when heavily injured, Ikki is able to keep fighting efficiently enough to win. This also allowed him to survive several weeks of drugging, poisoned foods, and preliminary matches while being imprisoned.

High Intelligence: Ikki is highly knowledgeable and quick to pick on details even in the heat of battle. Ikki has often proven to know a lot about the workings and strong points of the human body and brain. With this knowledge, he was able to fix Ayase Ayatsuji's stance so she could use the Ayatsuji swordsmanship better with her female body. Ikki has shown to been able to understand and explain the details behind most people's fighting styles, abilities, and strengths after just seeing them once. For example, that Kurashiki reflexive sensitivity were lower than 0.05 seconds and giving a detailed answer about how Trackless Step work. He can figure out even the most mysterious Blazer abilities after just seeing them once using whatever hints he has, even rare causation manipulation abilities.

Blade Steal (, lit. "Imitation Sword Technique"): One of Ikki's techniques, he uses his great insight to observe and steal his opponent's techniques and further improve it through his swordsmanship. According to Ikki, he can grasp most sword styles with only a minute of exchanges. Additionally, his sword stealing is not limited to the techniques his opponent can immediately use. Once he understands a sword style enough to grasp its deepest secrets, he can reproduce its most advanced techniques even if he never saw it before, as shown when he learns Kaito Ayatsuji's latter technique by observing Ayase Ayatsuji's inadequate training.

Doubling Physical Powers: Ikki's ability as a Blazer. Ikki can double his physical strength. Even without the boosting of physical attributes a Blazer could gain far more force or mobility by applying magic, even up to 5 or 6 times, this ability is considered useless and fitting of his name as the worst knight. However, when Ikki uses his superhuman body control to forcibly ignore his survival instincts and strengthens this ability, this becomes the Noble Art Ittou Shura.

Device
Intetsu (陰鉄 Intetsu, lit., "Shadow Iron"): Ikki's Device takes the form of a black Katana. In the anime, it is called forth by Ikki by using the command phrase "Come to me" and striking his left palm with his right fist and pulling out the sword as if it came out of his left hand.
 * Ittou Shura (一刀修羅 Ittou Shura, lit., "Single-bladed shura"): Ikki's noble art and strongest technique. By forcibly ignoring his survival instincts with his superhuman body control, Ikki is able to magnify his blazer ability "Doubling Physical Powers" from double to several dozen times, allowing him to gain tremendous power but can only maintain it for a minute.
 * Ittou Rasetsu (一刀羅刹 Ittou Rasetsu, lit., "Single-bladed rakshasa"): An improved version of the Ittou Shura. It increases the abilities of the user by a hundred-fold. The drawbacks are quite evident, however. When it was first used, it lasts for only one swing. Also, the burden to the body is immense. When Ikki first used it, he had to stay in bed for a week.

Trivia

 * Ikki does not like sweet foods.
 * Ikki is not good with technology, and, as a result, did not realize how popular he became after his mock battle with Stella, which was shared all over the Internet.