Shinra Kusakabe

About Shinra Kusakabe

Shinra Kusakabe is a third-generation pyrokinetic who ignites his feet to fly and kick at rocket speed. When nervous he grins, a tic that made people call him a devil after the fire that killed his mother and took his brother. He joined the Fire Force to become a hero, and to find the truth. He carries the Adolla Burst, the pure flame the Evangelist's cult will do anything to claim.

Appearance

Shinra is a lean teenager of 173 cm with spiky black hair and distinctive red eyes with white, ringed pupils. He wears Company 8's dark firefighter uniform with its glowing blue stripes, heavy boots and protective gear. His most famous feature is his smile: under stress or nervousness his face twists into a wide, devilish grin he cannot control, the tic that made strangers call him a devil after the fire that took his family. In motion he is a streak of blue uniform and orange flame, trailing fire from his feet.

Personality

Shinra is earnest, awkward and stubbornly kind. He wants to be a hero in the simplest sense, the person who arrives in time, and he measures himself against that promise every day. The nervous grin makes people misread him as cruel or unstable, and he has learned to endure the misreading without letting it harden him. He is brave to the point of recklessness, quick to anger at cruelty, and completely unable to abandon anyone the way the world once believed he had abandoned his own family.

Background & Story

Twelve years before the story, a fire destroyed Shinra's home. His mother died, his baby brother Sho vanished and was presumed dead, and Shinra, seen grinning at the scene because of his stress tic, was blamed and branded a devil by his neighbours. He alone insisted he had seen a horned figure in the flames, and nobody believed him. Determined to become a hero and to find the truth, he trained at the Fire Force academy and was assigned to Special Fire Force Company 8, the brigade that investigates the other companies. There he learns that his flame is no ordinary ignition ability: he carries the Adolla Burst, the pure, original flame that the Evangelist's cult, the White-Clad, will do anything to claim, and that his brother may not be dead at all.

Powers & Abilities

• Ignition Ability: Devil's Footprints: Shinra ignites flames from his feet, using them as rocket jets to fly, hover and deliver devastating high-speed kicks, the burning footprints he leaves behind named the ability.

  

• Adolla Burst: Shinra carries the Adolla Burst, a pure and immensely powerful original flame linked to the other world of Adolla, the reason the White-Clad cult hunts him as a Pillar.
• Adolla Link: Through his Adolla Burst, Shinra can connect with other Pillar bearers and sense presences across the boundary between the world and Adolla.
• Superhuman Speed and Flight: By blasting flame from his feet with precise control, Shinra achieves flight and bursts of speed that let him outmanoeuvre almost any opponent.

Key Relationships

• Sho Kusakabe: His younger brother, believed dead in the fire twelve years ago, in truth taken by the White-Clad and raised as their commander. Getting Sho back is Shinra's deepest goal.
• Arthur Boyle: His rival and fellow rookie in Company 8, the 'knight' to Shinra's would-be hero, and the partner he trusts most in a fight.
• Akitaru Obi: Company 8's captain, the unpowered firefighter whose example defines what Shinra believes a hero is.
• Iris: Company 8's Sister, whose prayers close every mission; her gentleness is a steadying presence for Shinra.
• Leonard Burns: Company 1's captain, who was present on the night of the Kusakabe fire and has kept what he saw there silent for twelve years.

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