Shugo Kunisaki

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Shugo
.hack character
First appearance .hack//Legend of the Twilight
Voiced by Junko Minagawa (Japanese)
Bryce Papenbrook (English)
Profile
Gender Male
Class Twin Blade
Player Information
Name Shugo Kunisaki
Age 14
Gender Male

Shugo Kunisaki (国崎秀悟 Kunisaki Shugo?) is a fictional character from the .hack franchise that encompasses several video games, anime and manga. Shugo is the main character of the manga and anime series .hack//Legend of the Twilight. He uses a modified copy of Kite's character model, from the .hack//Games.

[edit] History

[edit] .hack//Legend of the Twilight

In the real world, Shugo is a laid back, unmotivated fourteen-year-old boy who believes that he has outgrown video games. However, he decides to try the popular online game The World when his sister Rena wins the special .hackers character avatars from an event and drags him in to play with her.

In The World, Shugo gains control of a modified copy of Kite's avatar, who is a Twin Blade character class. Upon entering the game, he quickly learns how popular and sought-out his avatar truly is. Feeling a bit more positive about the situation, he becomes less reluctant about playing and heads off into a field with Rena, who plays a modified version of BlackRose's avatar.

In Bursting Passed-over Aqua Field, feeling confident, he enters a battle, only to quickly get defeated by a level-one Monster (really a little puppy!), even forgetting to use his weapons. Here, we catch a glimpse as to why he dislikes video games. Rena chastises him for not making proper preparations, which quickly deflates his confidence. Another part of his character is revealed at this point, as Rena manipulates him by telling him that she had really wanted to play with him; Shugo is incapable of turning people down (much like the original Kite), especially his sister.

Shugo Kunisaki using the super deformed version of Kite's character avatar
Shugo Kunisaki using the super deformed version of Kite's character avatar

At this point, the two are attacked by a high-level Monster (a level 40 Devil Golem) and Shugo, trying to protect Rena, is instantly defeated. However, instead of a Game Over screen, he meets Aura, who revives him and gives him the Twilight Bracelet (a modified version of Kite's original Bracelet, which is incapable of inducing comas, does not drain Items or Virus Cores, and does not require Monsters to be Protect Broken), allowing him to Data Drain the Monster. It is also at this point that he meets the Blademaster Balmung (who is a system administrator at this point), but does not know who he is, and a Wavemaster Mireille, who becomes an active member of Shugo's party.

Throughout his adventures in The World, he also meets and befriends Ouka, a Werewolf class character as a result of his love for animals (Werewolf-class allows one to transform in a wolf; Ouka first meets Shugo in this form), and Hotaru, a Wavemaster and another character he meets as a result of his love for animals (Hotaru finds a sick Puchiguso and Shugo helps her find a cure for it). He also meets with Komiyan III, who is quickly revealed to be Komiyama, a student in Shugo and Rena's class.

In volume 2, he meets a Vagrant AI known as Zefie, a fully sentient NPC and daughter of Aura who is capable of manipulating The World in any way she sees fit. She is immediately attracted to Shugo's Bracelet and as a result, becomes hopelessly attached to him, who treats her as another sister. Because of Shugo's inability to ignore people who need help, he takes it upon himself to help Zefie find Aura, learning bits and pieces about what happened four years ago, during the Twilight Incident, along the way. This, coupled with some prior, rather reckless use of the Bracelet, causes CC Corporation administrators (specifically a Long Arm known as Kamui) to capture him and his party and put them in a jail cell (where user data is deleted when one logs out). With the help of Zefie and her powers, however, Shugo, Rena, and Zefie (the other were released prior) escape in the next volume.

After escaping from prison and meeting Komiyama, the whole party meet each other once more in the cathedral of Naval of Lake (Hidden Forbidden Holy Ground). Here, they meet Kazu, who was once Shugo and Rena's neighbour four years ago (as well as younger brother to the original .hacker BlackRose), and learn that Mireille is also the daughter of one of the original .hackers, Mistral. Kazu gives Shugo the Helba Key, a unique hack item that allows them access to Net Slums. They are, however, found out once more by CC Corporation administrators once more, led by Kamui. Shugo, Rena, Hotaru, Mireille, and Zefie all manage to escape while Kazu and Ouka hold the admins off.

After a final confrontation with Kamui, the five of them reach Net Slum, where they meet various damaged AIs (one of whom is a fragment of Lycoris, the original prototype of Aura from .hack//AI buster), and Balmung of the Azure Sky who reveals himself as one of the original and key members of the .hackers, led by Kite. Balmung tests Shugo to see if he is worthy of seeing Aura (Shugo was to inflict damage on him at least just once), and Shugo utilizes every bit of play knowledge he had ever acquired while playing The World. Despite the immense gap in levels, Shugo manages to gain a hit (a single point of damage) on Balmung, his respect, and Virus Cores allowing him access to Aura's domain.

Because the Virus Cores run on data from prior versions of The World (where only three Player Characters can be in a party at any one time), Hotaru and Mireille stay behind, while Shugo, Rena, and Zefie head off to meet Aura. It is there that Shugo learns of the reason why he and Rena have the .hackers avatars: rather than CC Corporation, it was Aura who held the Limited .hackers Character Event, which she manipulated so that Rena, who was already an active player of The World at that time, would win. This is all due to an incident four years ago, when Shugo, out of curiosity, played The World on Kazu's (when they were still neighbours) computer, and met Aura for the first time. Not knowing who or what Aura really was, he invited her to play with him, not knowing anything about the game. He told her about Rena and how he wanted to be a hero. Shugo, being one of the first true friends Aura has ever had, makes a rather large impression on her. He, on the other hand, was chastised by his peers because of his childish love of games and fantasy of becoming a hero. This in turn invoked him to turn away from such things, and made him a rather unmotivated individual. But, four years later, after playing the game for four months, experiencing so many new and different things, gaining so many new friends, as well as his newfound motivation, he realizes his love for The World and approaches Aura, to tell her of all he has done and witnessed since coming into her world.

[edit] External links