Kurono Shinguuji

"For entangling my own student on my own territory in their design, I'll have them regret it until they die."

- Kurono Shinguuji

Kurono Shinguuji (née Takizawa) is the current director of the Hagun Academy and formerly the 3rd ranking Mage Knight in the KOK A-League.

Appearance
Kurono is a slender yet curvy woman who is usually seen wearing a dark-colored suit. She also has short dark hair, which covers her entire forehead, as well as having a single bang that reaches down to her nose, as well as two other side bangs covering up some of her ears. She is also seen wearing her hair in short ponytail.

Personality
Kurono is shown to be a laid back person with signs of playfulness as seen when she enjoyed the initial bickering between Ikki and Stella. Kurono also shows great signs of care for her students. She went as far to refer to all the teachers involved in holding Ikki back as a trash and dismissed them as soon as she became Director. When Kurono was a middle school student, she looked like a young lady that grew up in a warm home. She was initially polite and more gentle, but she seemed to have developed a rather cold personality after her first meeting with Nene Saikyo.

History
Kurono's Blazer ability first manifested during her 3rd year of middle school, which caused her unable to attend Japan's Little or Senior Leagues. Kurono’s rare ability caused her to receive special education from the League’s Japan branch and Hagun Academy in less than a year. Kurono first met her rival, the "Yaksha Princess" Nene Saikyo, when they were at the end of their 3rd year in middle school. They had a mock battle which resulted in Kurono easily overpowering Nene and won. She then enrolled in Hagun Academy soon after. When she was a Hagun Academy student, Kurono faced off against Nene from Bukyoku Academy in the Seven Stars Sword Art Festival which is still famed till date, after Kurono countered Nene's Hadou Tensei in that match. After graduating, Kurono enters the King of Knights (KOK) and climbs her way up to the third ranking in the KOK A-Leagues before retiring after she married her husband, Takumi Shinguuji, and became pregnant.

A year before the current story, Kurono returns to her former school, taking over the Director position from the previous director, Bakuga Tsukikage. She also dismissed the teachers who were involved in holding Ikki, and promising the boy that if he wins the Seven Stars Sword Art Festival, she will allow him to graduate. Ikki also managed to beat Kurono in a battle, although she was handicapped in some way.

Failure vs. Prodigy
Kurono is first seen sitting in her office talking to Ikki after an incident she had with a new transfer student, Stella Vermillion. Being nonchalant over the issues of the two students, Kurono reveals that both Ikki and Stella are roommates, much to their surprised and further suggested that they do a mock battle to solve their issues. She then serves as the judge between Ikki and Stella's duel. After the duel concluded with Ikki's victory, Kurono visited Ikki and Stella's room, where she reveals Ikki's past and how Ikki's family stopped him by having Ikki hold back a year. She then leaves after asking Stella's goals and tells her to chase after Ikki.

Lorelei vs Raikiri
Kurono is next seen at the match between Shizuku and Touka, along with Nene. She then asks Ikki to explain what ability was Touka using, which Ikki explains perfectly. She then watches as Shizuku falls to Touka's Raikiri. It is then revealed by Kanata Totokubara that Kurono had asked the student council president to find some students to help deal with the issue regarding a giant causing problems in the Okutama mountains, as the staff was busy dealing with the preliminary rounds of the Seven Stars Sword Art Festival.

Siege, Reunion and Trap
Kurono was up in the stands along with Nene, Nangou Torajirou and Mamoru Akaza, watching as Ikki fought and defeated Touka, with only one swing of his sword. She had then announced the six participants of the Sword Art Festival and had given Ikki the title of captain of the Hagun Academy Team.

Akatsuki Strikes
Kurono, during Akatsuki's strike against Hagun, was out of town, but quickly came back, along with Nene, in order to deal with the situation. Upon arriving at Hagun the two had decided to split up with Kurono going to try and save Ikki. Upon arriving at Akatsuki Academy Kurono had seen a battered unconscious Ikki and an unscathed Edelweiss. She had at first become angered at the scene but calmed down before doing anything to Edelweiss who quickly leaves. As Edelweiss leaves Kurono realizes that Ikki managed to actually damage Edelweiss, cutting her with her own technique.

After Akatsuki's attack, Kurono informs both Ikki and Shizuku that Stella won't be around for an entire week as well as that some participants of Hagun Academy's seven sword team had dropped out for various reasons and told Ikki he didn't have to win to pass anymore. After Ikki's refusal to take the easy way out, Kurono then asks Shizuku if she would like to participate in the festival to which Shizuku states she would.

Party Crashers
Kurono is seen at the hotel room with Bakuga Tsukikage and through their talk finds what his true intentions are, which is to separate Japan from the League of Mage-Knight Nations, as they don't have the resources to continually help other countries in need. He then states that Akatsuki will prove the League of Mage-Knight Nations flaws and that he is right, to which Kurono tells him that the Hagun Academy students will beat them. Bakuga leaves looking forward to seeing how this all plays out.

Battle of Kings
Kurono appears during Ikki's battle with Yudai Moroboshi and explains to Shizuku, Nagi, and Kiriko that Ikki wasn't able to finish Yudai because his subconscious was using a different style, the style of the world's strongest Edelweiss. She then watches on as Ikki is able to finish off Yudai.

One vs Four
Kurono watches Stella's match against Mikoto Tsuruya, Yui Tatara, Rinna Kazamatsuri and Reisen Hiraga. She also protects the audience from Rinna's maid Charlotte Cordé's attacks. Kurono is impressed by Stella's showings, as she easily wins the match.

Seven Stars Sword Art Festival Third Round - Beginning
Kurono saves the life of one of the contestants of the Festival, Renji Kaga, whose heart had been crushed by Ouma Kurogane, during their match. Kurono froze his body in time, allowing him to be healed.

Seven Stars Sword Art Festival Final
Kurono is talking with Nene on the terrace of Stella's hotel room regarding the upcoming match between Ikki and Stella. They both agree that they will have to be the ones to take care of things if the match becomes too dangerous. They then watch the final match, which Ikki wins. Kurono is later present at the awards ceremony, handing Hagun's school flag to Ikki when he is being crowned the champion.

The Festival is Over
After the finals of the Festival between Ikki and Stella, which Ikki wins, they are both asked to come to a meeting between Kurono, Nene and Bakuga. Kurono stops Ascarid's battle against Ikki and Stella, telling that the skilled Mage-Knight wanted to test their strength.

Ikki and Stella are then told about Desperados, with Nene teasing Kurono about being too afraid to become one, as well as the terrible visions that Bakuga has seen about the future of Japan. It's revealed that these visions are the reason Bakuga wanted to split from the League of Mage-Knight Nations, but as Akatsuki was defeated in the Festival, the people of Japan still have faith in the League. The meeting then ends with Bakuga wishing that Ikki and Stella could prevent the horrible future he has seen.

Abilities
Desperado: During her defense of Tokyo and battle against Douglas Appleton, Kurono reaches her "Brute Soul" after spending time with both Takumi and Mei. As such, she became a desperado unbound by fate and increase her magic power with training. Kurono also gained an "attractive force", which enables her to force upon the fate that she desires.

Time Manipulation: Kurono's ability as a Blazer is a causation manipulation, which is towards "time", letting her both control and affect time itself. This was amazing enough to be able to catch the attention of the entire nation's officials after manifesting.
 * Time Reversal: Kurono has the ability to reverse the time of objects, returning them to their previous form.

Immense Speed: She is able to move at superhuman speeds, above that of even other speed-oriented Blazers capable of running faster than even a bullet train keeping up with Nene.

Master Marksmanship: Kurono can wield her Propator and Ennoia using incredible speed and precision without missing. She was able to knock down dozen of projectiles in mid-air with relative ease coupled using her magic to stop time, which amazed everyone who witnessed it. Ikki even stated her skills hadn't rusted since her time in the KOK A-League.

Device
Propator (プロペレーター, Puroperētā) and Ennoia (エンノイア, En'noia): Kurono's Device, which takes form as a black and silver handgun respectively.
 * World Crisis: Kurono twists the space she shoots at into nonsensical state, destroying objects exposed to it and its full range is powerful enough to blow away Nene's Hadou Tensei. Because the space destroyed by World Crisis can never be restored, it was banned from normal usage due to the danger it poses to the world and can only be used after given permission from the League of Mage-Knight Nations during emergencies.
 * Clock Draw (クイック・ドロウ, Kuikku Dorō): Kurono stops time for an instant then shoots her target with a hail of bullets.
 * Clock On Death (クイック・オン・デス, Kuikku on Desu): An enhanced version of "Clock Draw", which super-accelerates the time of the target causing them to reach end of its life in an instant.
 * Clock Lock: Kurono shoots a bullet that freezes anything that it hits in time. This not only can immobilize her opponent but can also be used to save the life of a person, by freezing them in time.
 * Clock Up: She accelerates the time of her target, by extending the target's own time within one second of the world. During her youth, she was capable of making herself 10 times as fast as normally.
 * Rush Hour: A combination Noble Art of Clock Lock and Clock Up, where Kurono uses both techniques at the same time, which causes the time difference between her and the other person to become even wider, allowing Kurono to attack her opponent without them being able to even see her.
 * Three Thousand Worlds: Kurono's newest Noble Art achieved after achieving Brute Soul, which allows her to travel back in time to make interventions in the past, creating temporal copies of herself that appeared around Toyko.

Trivia

 * Her first name Kurono 黒乃 means "Black No".
 * Her surname Shinguuji (新宮寺) means "New Shrine Temple".
 * Her former name Takizawa (滝沢) means "Waterfall Valley".
 * Kurono and Nene came from the same year.
 * After Ikki and Stella's first match, Kurono told Stella that Ikki had managed to defeat her in a straight fight albeit with a handicap. No other details have been revealed about the fight.
 * Kurono was mentioned to be just one step away from becoming a Desperado, but she refused out of fear of not remaining "human" and losing her fate with her lover and child. However, she changed her mind since she eventually considered her family her new source of power.