Kokichi Kobayashi

Kokichi Kobayashi is a powerful Hero kept in the prisons of the Japanese Branch of the Hero Clan. In Volume 2, he was paired up with Kaoru, Percevall, and Tomoe as an observer tasked with eliminating Mina who at the time was deemed an SS-rank threat by the village, with this task being withdrawn after the Peace Treaty. It was soon revealed that Kokichi is a chimera using DNA from Jin Pendragon but was soon imprisoned in the Hero Clan due to the threat that he could pose.

Appearance
Kokichi is a young man in his twenties with long brown and silver hair tied with red ribbons and has been seen to be dressed in the main combat uniform of the Hero Clan. He keeps his eyes narrowed to slits rarely ever opening his eyes, however when he opens them it shown that they are red with slit pupils.

He also keeps his face set in a mocking smile, which Kokichi only wipes off on rare occasions of annoyance, surprise or anger.

Personality
"The thing that the Hero Clan must protect is not the world, but their reason for existence. They do things according to what they think is rightful. That's why they'll do anything and justify it if it means protecting this world from Blood-suckers, Bats and Crows. But if there is anything outside the scope of their mission, they don't even lift a finger."

- Kokichi's description for the entire Hero Clan He was first introduced as a calm and joyful person. Unlike a portion of the Heroes from the village in Japan, he doesn't hold a grudge against Arthur due to the incident from five years ago where he lost control of Banishing Shift and Incinerate Anthem. Kokichi appeared to be loyal to the village and followed the Elders' instruction without question as he was sent to eliminate Mina as an S-Rank Target without question despite being imprisoned due to how dangerous he is and even causing a certain "incident".

Despite not hating, Kokichi had even questioned Arthur, Le Fay, Lancelot, and Elaine who he felt was screwing around by protecting the daughter of the former Vampyre Lord but still acted as a minor overseer. Despite his jocking side, Kokichi has shown to be quiet intelligence and level-headed, as he had continued to think about forming a strong barrier that wouldn't cause damage to the city, while it also had to be a suitable location for their fight, while initially stopping both Percevall and Kaoru from fighting in the barrier that Valga created.

However, the loyalty that he held towards the Elders was all a facade so that he could prepare for his true goal to enact his vengeance against the Heaven, the Vatican and Hero Clan for creating and imprisoning him. Though Kokichi had initially hated and cursed himself for being born as one of their experiments, he later started to feel flattered that the Heavens and the Vatican went to such lengths to clone and recreate the power of Jin Uther Pendragon, even feeling respect for the latter.

Despite all of his actions and putting people on edge, Kokichi has never told a lie about the reasons for his actions. He fully understands the true nature of the Hero Clan and firmly believes that he's saving the world by destroying them, which Arthur agreed with to a certain extent, but still believed that the world needs the hero clan. Though Kokichi doesn't hesitate to use even normal humans to achieve his goals knowing that by defecting from the Five Factions to Qlippoth to further his goals, and removing the barrier he put around Kyoto could cause the Four Gods to run amok, which is the last resort for him to succeed.

Kokichi's confident in his abilities and prides himself on his intellect. He doesn't mind going out of his way to explain his himself, and even gives credit to people such as Arthur, Azazel and Cao Cao that are able to follow along with his thought process. He's direct and has a way with words that often cause him to get under peoples skin and put them on edge a bit.

Though, Kokichi ultimately loses to Arthur, Kokichi's grateful to Arthur, Rossweisse and Vali for sparing his life. He accepts the terms of Arthur's contract knowing that one mistake could easily end his life. He takes solace in the fact that although he lost to Arthur, he was still able to achieve his revenge against the Heroes and the Vatican and with that little bit of solace, he agrees to obediently follow Arthur.

History
At some point, Albareos who acted as the commander of the frontline in the New Vatican and the Special Department began using forbidden magic and experimented with cloning using the DNA of Jin Uther Pendragon whom they recognized as the stronger hero born among the entire Hero Clan and set their sights on his abilities, then had stolen one of his hair at the age of 14. But, none of the clones created could match Jin and were later disposed of. It was soon decided that they would instead create a stronger being through combining the cells of mythical and legendary beasts, spirits, Heroic spirits, Chaotic spirits, and Guardian spirits.

After the thirteenth batch of clones, once one of the Valkyrie Council, Jupiter had become involved to ensure that their cloning project was successful. At first, one of their clones now named Kokichi Kobayashi was deemed a failure, but he solved the issues with the corruption that were stored in the previous clones, as he could absorb and convert the corruption in him due to having the cells of a high-ranking demon in him meaning that Kokichi could soon be as powerful as Jin Pendragon.

However, Kokichi has started to grow too powerful and couldn't kill him fearing that all of the corruption within him would be released. So, the New and old Vatican researchers and alchemists had wanted to ask help from Jupiter believing that he returned to the Nordic Divine Realm, Asgard. Unbeknownst to them, Jupiter attempted to absorb him into himself using two armguards, but he ended up being absorbed into Kokichi instead granting him all the god's power, memories, and knowledge.

Since Jupiter abandoned the cloning project, The Special Department of the New Vatican was looking for a partner to share in their sin. In exchange for political power, a symbiotic relationship between the Village and the New Vatican was born. Kokichi was then transferred to the Village and held as a prisoner. Kokichi would then spend the next 20 years of his life like a bird in a cage plotting his revenge.

Hero and Chimeric Powers
Shiba is a powerful Hero who Arthur considered to be "Over-Talented" rather than a "Genius" and he is far more dangerous than Banishing Shift, and is comparable to a Longinus. Unlike most heroes, he emits a vicious red-black aura. His power is so incomprehensible that it may exceed that of the Four Gods: Byakkomaru, Seiryumaru, Suzakumaru, and Genbumaru combined, and each of the Longinus. Kokichi is later revealed to be a clone of Jin Uther Pendragon made using genetic material from other beings, thus making him a chimeric being with the potential to rival Jin due to being able to absorb and convert corruption into power; however, he grew too powerful and having absorbed Jupiter who desired his power, he became a being no one in the Hero Clan could mess with. His strength alone caused even the leaders of the Four Gods, Kouryuu and and the Valkyrie Council, Magnus to both accept Kokichi as an authoritative figure. In Volume 21, after amassing almost infinite ki through him syncing with Kouryuu via due to being compatible with the Five Elements and using Jupiter's full power made him superior to Arthur and the others who completed their Master-Servant Vow. Asirel speculated that if Kokichi were to absorb a manifested Kouryuu, then he would become an omnipotent being, however, his loss was due to him being unable to obtain the power of Yang, a major flaw in his strategies. Corruption Absorption: Because his body posses cells from several high-level demons, Kokichi had a unique power to absorb and store corruption that could end the Hero Clan due to their actions in committing taboo, then convert that into power. Despite all the threats that Kokichi can pose to the Hero Clan and Vaticans, no one could kill him fearing that it could release all the corruption stored inside of him and swallow the entire New Vatican. Kokichi is also able to absorb living beings and take their power for himself, this is first shown when he absorbed Jupiter taking his power including his knowledge and memories.
 * Immense Strength: He has immense strength superior to that of even most heroes, being able to break the special barrier, which handled the powerful shock waves of Valga using a single light attack. Kokichi was able to block a boosted Caliburn with one hand, then send him backward a great distance.
 * Immense Speed: Although not on par with Arthur, Kokichi is an extremely fast and agile fighter, being able to appear in front of him without being noticed in a false attempt to kill him. In their initial clash, he was able to avoid all Arthur's attacks even react when he used his Banyuusekiryoku to move at god-like speed.

Ki Manipulation: Kokichi is a ki-based fighter, as such, he can control his ki and the ki of others around him. He can use absorb ki and use it in different ways, He utilized it in order to put Percevall, Traversa, Chi and Yao near death by overloading their ki after blocking their attacks. He can utilize ki for long-ranged combat by firing off a wave of it. Along with being able to cover himself in a different colored aura by gathering the elemental-based ki around him (thus gaining a brown-colored aura using the earth-based ki). Kokichi can sense the ki of others as he could sense and predict all of Arthur's attacks, by sensing his killing intent, then avoid them accordingly along with being able to notice that he realigned the imbalance in his spirit letting him use Banishing Shift again. He can sense the ki of the unborn children in a woman's womb and discover a person's identity based upon their ki. He's also able to completely suppress his presence, and appear invisible by using ki. Master Combatant: Kokichi is one of the most skilled and fear combatants in the series. He effortlessly defeated Percevall, Traversa, Chi and Yao. He proved he's capable of overpowering both Arthur and Vali and almost succeeded in killing them in their first match. Kokichi mainly uses kicks and punches sometimes covered by Ki, but when he gets serious, he uses Jupiter.
 * Totsuka-no-Tsurugi (十拳剣, Sword of Length of Ten Fists): In his final battle with Arthur, Kokichi combined five different ki to create a red colored dragon-god sword to use as a final trump card against Arthur.

Immense Speed: Although not completely on par with Arthur, Kokichi is exceedingly fast and agile especially in combat. This is first seen during a meeting with Arthur's group after they returning to Hero village when was able to move in front of Arthur, without him even noticing in a false attempt to kill him. During their first battle, Kokichi was able to avoid all Arthur's and Vali's attacks and even when Arthur used his Universal Rejection power.

Master-Servant Contract (Servant): Arthur formed a master-servant pact with Kokichi, but instead of him using Hinami's power, he used his own, as such if Kokichi ever betrayed them, he would be sent to Limbo, the zero dimension. It is later revealed that Kokichi formed a Master-Servant Vow with him without the others knowing.

Other Skills
Master Strategist: Kokichi is a master strategist, planner and manipulator as he planned several steps ahead of even Arthur, The Elders and Drakon using even simple ideas that the five of them overlooked in being able to "bring down" Kouryuu instead of just "summoning him", then even outsmarted him in bringing Suzakumaru along with him after using Traversa's Durendal to summon a fake Suzakumaru, while he already planned on using it as the vessel for Kouryuu. Aside from being able to outsmart Arthur on multiple occasions, he has a particular skill in psychological warfare as Kokichi used a number of emotional situations to an edge on people.

Equipment
Jupiter: The Valkyrie God in charge of the project attempted to absorb Kokichi by using two arm guards, however, he underestimated Kokichi and got absorbed into him becoming his magic gauntlets. Rossweisse states that in terms of raw power alone, his gauntlets surpass swords such as Excalibur, Almacia, Hrunting, and basic Ancient Gears, but weapons such as Caliburn, Gram and Longinus. In Volume 21, Kokichi draws out the full power of Jupiter within him, by allowing his arms guards to corrode his body, producing a Demonic organic armor. It's stated that Kokichi drawing out the full power of Jupiter should have swallowed Kokichi's flesh and mind, but due to absorbing 4 out of the 5 elements, he was able to maintain his body.

Trivia

 * His surname means "Small Forest" (小林).
 * After the events of Volume 21, Kokichi moves into Rossweisse's old apartment and lives rent-free.