Ikki Kurogane

"Here, with my greatest weakness, I'll defeat your greatest strength!"

- Ikki Kurogane

Ikki Kurogane is the main male protagonist of Rakudai Kishi no Eiyuutan. Despite him hailing from a well-respected clan that has produced superior Blazers for generations, Ikki is considered to be a failure even for an F-Rank Blazer and known as the Worst One. He studies in Hagun Academy as a repeat student, as a result of the previous staff ensuring that he could attend classes.

After Kurono Shinguuji took the position as the Director and fired all the other staff involved in it, Ikki was promised that if he were to win the 62nd Seven Stars Sword Art Festival, then she would allow him to graduate. In the finals, Ikki became one of the three Desperados of Japan and became the current Seven Stars Sword King. He also is participated in the tournament between Vermillion and Cradleland as a part of Team Vermillion.

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 were 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 true 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.

Abilities
Desperado: In the finals of the Seven Stars Sword Art Festival against Stella, Ikki reached his awakening and he became a Desperado, a being that has broken the chains of fate. Like other desperados, Ikki is able to increase his magic power based on his training, a feat that normal Blazers can't do. He can influence fate along with being able to exert an aura that is able to intimidate others with just his presence. During his fight with Iris, he was able to influence the causation of "Killing" and could cut through her Orichalcos using his first secret sword technique.

Doubling Physical Power: Ikki's ability as a Blazer. He is able to double his physical abilities, however, this is a power that has been considered useless as other Blazers are able to enhance their physical abilities up to five to six times using their natural magical power as such he gained the title of Worst Knight. Though Ikki was able to use his superhuman body control and willpower in order to ignore his survival instincts, which resulted in his own Noble Arts, Ittou Shura and later Ittou Rasetsu.

Immense Strength: Due to his rigorous training regimen in order for him to make up for his low magic power, Ikki has an exceptionally strong physical condition that has been given an A-ranking. The force that he applies into his swordsmanship lets him counter the most powerful of attacks from the strongest Blazers with minimal effort. As a result of Ikki is able to ignore the survival instincts that prevent people from drawing out their actual full strength, it is possible for him to draw out huge strength to where he could beat someone of huge stature in arm-wrestling.

Immense Speed: Ikki is remarkably fast and has sharper reflexes than most people due to his daily 20-kilometer run. He can avoid high-speed attacks from powerful Blazers without any wasted movements. After he had stolen Edelweiss's swordsmanship, Ikki became able to move so fast that most people can't even see him.

Immense Stamina: As a result of his continuous physical 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 is most highlighted as he was able to survive several weeks of being fed poisoned food bars and continuing his matches for the preliminaries, but he was still able to walk to his match with Tohka and used Ittou Rasetsu. Before Ikki had entered Hagun Academy, his stamina and endurance, as well as his pain tolerance, was greater than that of even adults, as he endured the Violet Pain of Yuuri Oreki, which shares her pain with others, an incredible feat as even the pain from her sickness made multiple selection candidates and trained guards to collapse seconds later, while Ikk didn't even flinch.

Master Swordsmanship: Ikki is an extremely skilled and versatile master swordsman due to continuous training in order to make up for his lack of magic power. His skills are self-taught through sheer observation by analyzing all of the techniques of swordmasters like Kaito Ayatsuji and challenging dojos in middle school. He could fight on an almost equal level with the most powerful Blazers relying on his swordsmanship. He even received praise from Torajirou Nangou, a Legendary Blazer and God of War who admitted that Ikki was greater than his former rival in swordsmanship and Edelweiss, the Twin-Wings and World' Strongest Swordsman. She herself admitted that Ikki has the potential to become a worthy rival after he was able to wound her despite their age difference. During the Vermillion Empire Arc, Edelweiss admits there wasn't much she could teach him. Ikki was able to handle fighting against Iris Ascarid, the 4th Rank Blazer and was able to injure her despite her Orichalcos, after defeating her, he earned the nickname Sword God.


 * Seven Secret Swords: The seven original sword techniques that Ikki created himself.
 * Ten'i Muhou (天衣無縫, Heaven-Clad Null Shroud): Ikki learned the ultimate move of the Ayatsuji Itto-ryu, in which the user counters the opponent's attack with minimal movement. Ikki used an imperfect version of this move on Kuraudo.
 * Edelweiss' Swordplay: After his initial encounter with Edelweiss through the use of his Blade Steal, he was able to utilize her swordsmanship at the last moment before he passed out. Due to the nature of Edelweiss' swordplay, it boosted his speed to where the former Seven Star Sword King, Yudai Moroboshi couldn't even react though he heard the attacks and sense Ikki. Ikki can also use Edelweiss' technique, for other purposes then swordsmanship, such as restarting his heart after it stopped. It was said by Edelweiss herself, that Ikki has begun to make her swordplay his own, adapting it to fit him.
 * Tsunoou/Harmonic Bullet: A unison attack between Ikki and Stella, in which he jumps forward and attacks using Saigeki, then Stella sends him forward using a powerful swing sending him forward with much greater strength than normal. It was named Tsunoou by Ikki and Harmonic Bullet by Stella.
 * Amatsu Raikou: This is an evolved form of Amatsukaze, a secret technique among the Kyokujitsu Isshin-ryuu of the Kurogane Family that delivers a continuous 108 slashes, which is almost like lightning striking.

Master Hand-to-hand combat: Ikki is very adept in various styles of martial arts in order to make up for his lack of magic power. He was able to deal with five Blazers wielding their Devices without using his own while holding black enough to injure them. Ikki has also shown to be skilled in Ukemi, a martial art, which focuses on receiving blows and strikes, then dispersing the force through his body, and surviving deadly blows.
 * Yagyuu no Mutoudori (柳生の無刀取り, Yagyuu's Weaponless Catch): Ikki uses the power of his fingers and wrist movement to catch the opponents weapon and snatch it away. Though Ikki used this technique while also using Ittou Shura, making it unclear how well he can use the technique without it.
 * 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 a crowd of civilians looking for him and reproduce this technique to walk directly through them completely undetected.

Expert Weapon Specialist: Ikki has shown skills in wielding kodachi, spears, and even archery. Enough that he been able to teach these skills to others. Stella said the reason why Ikki learned so many different fighting styles was to help him better make up for his lack of magic power.

Master Marksmanship: He has shown incredible skill in throwing projectiles with a great deal of accuracy, often being able to disable an opponent's weapon. In his fight with Manabe, Ikki flicked an eraser that bounced off the ceiling and was wedged in between his gun's hammer and its percussion cap, disabling the large caliber revolver Device efficiently. He was able to kick a small object on the ground with such amazing precision letting Ikki use a tube of lipstick to knock a knife out of man's hand and kicked a small rock into the scabbard of Narukami, thus it prevented Touka from using Raikiri.

High Intellect: Ikki has proven to be highly knowledgeable and quick to pick up on a lot of details in the midst of battle. He has proven to know a lot about the workings and strong points of the human body and brain, which let him fix the stance of Ayase so that she could use her feminine build in a correct manner thus improving her own Ayatsuji Itto-ryu to a better extent. Ikki has shown to be able to understand the details about ones' fighting styles, abilities, and strength after seeing or fighting them. This is highlighted as he was able to figure out the Marginal Counter of Kuraudo, which combined his inborn superhuman reflex and reaction. Ikki was able to figure out the workings of Trackless Step. He can figure out even the most mysterious of Blazer abilities after just seeing them once using whatever hints he has, even the rare causation manipulation. In battles, Ikki usually tries to outsmart his opponents because he understands he always at a natural disadvantage. A prime example of Ikkis' cunning was how he was able to defeat Iris Ascarid, the 4th Ranked Blazer in the KOK League without being in danger.

Insight: As a result of being neglected over the years, Ikki has mastered the skills to see through his opponent's techniques by observation. He can read his opponent's next move simply through their muscle movement. Ikki's insight has even allowed him to properly sense how dangerous someone really is on the first meeting, such as being able to tell that Amane Shinomiya was more dangerous than he appeared, something few others notice.

Perfect Vision : Ikki is able to see through his opponent moves by fully grasping their fighting style using his incredible insight to fully understand their personality and tendencies. Through this, it is possible to figure out their thought processes and as a result, Ikki is able to predict their moves and attacks in advance. It's as though he can see everything about the person in question. Complete Body Control: Ikki can control his body at will as a result of his training and is able to perform various superhuman feats, such as being able to turn off his other senses, as shown when he transferred the acuity of his color sense to his motion perception to better read the movements of his opponent. As well as being the basis for his Secret Swords, Ittou Shura, and Ittou Rasetsu. Learning Edelweiss' Swordplay, his control was honed further, to the point of being able to make his heart beat after being stopped by Nameless Glory as well as requiring Ikki to move all his muscles in unison along with raising his bodies' metabolism and blood circulation to utilize it. It has sharpened after his warmup for his fight against Stella in the Seven Stars Sword Art Festival Finals, Ikki was able to see every strand of her hair and hear the sound of his bloodstream as well as being able to understand every muscle inside of himself and count the dust on his skin.
 * Blade Steal : Derived from his Perfect Vision, Ikki is able to use his great insight to analyze and steal his opponent's techniques, then further improve it with his swordsmanship. According to him, he is able to grasp most syles after a minute of exchanges and seconds to surpass it, it isn't limited to sword styles and applies to other styles. As soon as he is able to understand sword styles enough, Ikki is shown to be able to grasp their deepest secrets, even reproduce their advanced techniques though he has never seen it before and trained in it as shown when he learned Ten'i Muhou through training with Ayase.

Mana Control: After his training with Edelweiss, Ikki was able to greatly improve the control of his mana. Ikki was able to use the basic mana defense used by Blazers to such a degree as to be capable of even blocking a strike from Edelweiss. Having better control of his mana can improve his Ittou Shura and the backlash from using Ittou Rasetsu is now less severe than before letting him continue fighting.

Device
Intetsu (陰鉄, 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, 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, Single-Bladed Rakshasa): An improved version of the Ittou Shura. It increases the abilities of the user by hundreds-fold but it can only be used for one swing only. Also, the burden to the body is immense as Ikki had to stay in bed for a week when he first used it. But after improving his mana control, he can still fight for a few more minutes after using this.

Trivia

 * His first name Ikki "One Gleam", which despite his low magic power, he thought was what his father wanted to say, However, limited you are, may you shine brighter than any other. In spite of him knowing about his low magic power from birth.
 * His surname means "Black Iron".
 * 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.
 * Kurono had hinted that through the harshest struggles, Ikki has achieved a kind of enlightenment, which has granted him true harmonization of mind, body, and weapon. As such, Ikki is able to cut down enemies faster than his thoughts to form and his body was able to react to his surroundings without conscious will. This lets Ikki fix himself after Nameless Glory had attempted to make him fail.