Character

Kohaku

コハク

Kohaku is a young woman who is a descendant of modern humans. She is Ruri's younger sister and the daughter of Kokuyo. She is one of the protagonists of the series. After meeting Senku and witnessing his bravery, courage and talent, Kohaku invites him to her village. Since Senku assists and fascinates the village with many of his scientific inventions and turned out to be the savior the village ancestors talk about in the stories that are passed down, the population is ultimately rallied to fight and stop Tsukasa's tyrannic empire. After Taiju, Kohaku is the most loyal to Senku. Since learning about science and the delicate/complicated work it takes to make modern inventions, Kohaku often teams up with Chrome to scavenge ingredients and "persuade" Kinro and Ginro to help with the labor. Kohaku is a young woman of average height with a slim figure. She has a delicate face, blue eyes, and blond hair tied-up in a spiky ponytail. Her appearance is that of someone who appears to be a mixed heritage of American/Japanese, denoting her heritage as the descendant of Byakuya Ishigami and Lillian Weinberg. She shares a resemblance with her older sister, Ruri, but has wild hair in comparison to her sister's soft, flowing hair, and a slimmer body. Her clothing consists of a crude, navy blue dress. Underneath she wears makeshift garments akin to a bra and a fundoshi (traditional Japanese garment). The dress is tied with a rope tied in the middle, and uniquely shaped stone sandals. Kohaku is a kind young woman, caring deeply for her sickly older sister, willing to participate in the tournament for her hand in marriage just to protect her. This care extends to her comrades, and anyone she's loyal to. She was willing to lie and take scolding in order not to reveal she was attacked by Tsukasa as not to distress her sister and the villagers. In addition to this, she has a reckless and hotheaded personality, often reacting in anger to being called a gorilla or lioness due to her strength and physicality. She also acts on her emotions at times, going against rational thought. Kohaku also has a bit of a teasing side, asking Chrome if he could fall for her to her resemblance to her sister. She's repeatedly impressed by Senku's scientific creations, although at first, it took her a while to accept that it's not simply magic. Kohaku excels at fighting, hunting, and general survival skills. She is a tomboy by nature, having little interest in more typical feminine activities and has little knowledge about them, although she does seem to enjoy some lavish clothing that was provided to her. Kohaku has no problem with being around boys while swimming or changing clothes; she will, however, retaliate if a boy stares lustfully at her breasts. She possesses a sharp instinct and intellect. During the early part of the story, Kohaku tends to be a hair-trigger away from attacking people she distrusts. Such was her first impression of Gen, who admitted to being initially a spy for Tsukasa; she even attacked Tsukasa himself without really knowing why he attempted to kill Senku. She also possesses a strong sense of justice, which in pair with her hotheadedness leads her into dangerous situations such as her battle with a more competent fighter like Tsukasa. Thanks to Senku's numerous scoldings and encouragement to think more than one step ahead, Kohaku grows out of this habit, but her temper is still a problem. Perhaps because of her instinct, Kohaku seems to be a good judge of character. She was able to deduce that Gen was the kind of person who, despite being able to lie without batting an eye and claiming to only work for his self-interest, cherished his loyalty and friendship with Senku. She also recognized that Chrome was in love with Ruri, but hadn't realized his own feelings yet, and was able to read Senku's personality to an extent. Similar to Senku, she doesn't seem to be interested in romance, previously claiming to have fallen for Senku when she meant that she found him interesting as a person. It was stated that she had feelings for Chrome in some ways, she asked if Chrome would accept her as his wife as she and Ruri look alike. She has shown to hate shallow or selfish men, at first disliking Gen for wanting to switch to Senku's side due to the apparent benefits switching would reap. However, Kohaku later describes the kind of man she's into: "Men, who for what they believe in, will keep putting one foot in front of the other, for all eternity, chipping away at progress." This indicates along with several small moments, including hugging Senku when freed from her petrification that she does, in fact, harbor feelings for Senku, but is pragmatic enough to not act on them for the moment, preferring to do what she can to further the restoration of humanity and the defeat of Why-Man.