TV-Series
Description
Kirio Kikuhara, also known by his code number 02, is a central figure in the narrative. A tall, handsome man standing at 184 cm with short black hair and sharp light-colored eyes, he often presents a professional and composed appearance in his business attire. He was born on February 1st and is 41 years old. A graduate of East Bay University with a degree in science, Kikuhara is a former student of a professor named Kousuke Chizu. He serves as the commander of the CCC, an organization he helped found and is deeply involved with, while simultaneously working undercover as the leader of A Squad in the Metropolitan Police Department's Public Safety Division 5. His allegiance, however, lies entirely with the CCC and its ultimate goals.
Kikuhara's personality is defined by a profound and disturbing contradiction. To his peers and colleagues, he initially appears gentle, calm, and charismatic, projecting an aura of someone who cares for his squad members' well-being. This facade allows people to feel safe around him, despite an odd and unsettling aura that some, like the protagonist Tsukasa Taira, can instinctively sense as terrifying. This gentle exterior is a cover for a truly ruthless and manipulative nature. Kikuhara is a dedicated and fanatical exterminator of devils, believing that sacrificing lives, even those of his own subordinates, is a necessary contribution to creating a safe world for humanity. He has no qualms about using violence, manipulation, or murder to achieve his ends and feels no remorse for his actions, only disappointment in himself when his plans are not perfectly executed. He acknowledges his own twisted sense of right and wrong and does not consider himself human.
The roots of Kikuhara's psychopathy lie in a deeply traumatic and abusive childhood. He grew up in a lonely environment, deprived of proper parental affection. His mother, Yuzuru Kikuhara, hated children and employed housekeepers to care for him, showing him no interest until his sophomore year of high school. At that time, she began to find him attractive and praised him for the first time in fifteen years. Although he felt a perverse happiness at finally receiving her attention, he also felt trapped by her inappropriate "love". This toxic relationship culminated one morning after they had slept together, when Kikuhara pushed his mother off a balcony, killing her. He describes this act not with guilt, but as the first moment he truly felt alive and freed from a curse. This event fundamentally shaped his inability to form genuine bonds, his distrust of familial love, and his complete lack of empathy. He is driven by a desire to exterminate devils, a mission that gives his otherwise apathetic existence purpose and amusement. He also has a long-standing desire for a specific kind of friend someone who walks in the same darkness and lives in similarly tough circumstances without depending on anyone, a camaraderie he believes he found in the young Yuuki Anzai.
As the commander of the CCC, Kikuhara is the primary orchestrator of the organization's terrorist activities against devils. His role in the story is that of a major antagonist and master manipulator, pulling the strings from behind his position in the police. He is responsible for recruiting vulnerable individuals with traumatic pasts into the CCC, offering them money and a sense of purpose while concealing the group's true nature as a terrorist organization. One of his most significant acts is his manipulation of a young Yuuki Anzai. Intrigued by Yuuki as the son of the mass-murdering devil Tamaki Anzai, Kikuhara befriended the boy, saved him from a tree, and then deliberately led him to an underground laboratory to show him his incarcerated father, a traumatic event that psychologically scarred Yuuki and influenced his hatred of his own devil heritage. In the present timeline, he masterminds Plan B, a scheme involving a public attack on a woman in Ikebukuro that is broadcast live, causing nearby devils to lose control of their bloodlust. This event publicly exposes devils, inciting mass panic and lynch mobs against them.
Kikuhara's key relationships are defined by manipulation and a cold, utilitarian worldview. His relationship with Yuuki Anzai is complex; he views Yuuki with a vested interest, acting as both a tormentor and someone who, in his own twisted way, offers help. Yuuki himself describes Kikuhara as having a disconcerting, gloomy presence but notes that his hands are paradoxically warm. He has a notably close relationship with Akihito Kanzaki, code number 12 or Queen. Kikuhara often wanders into Kanzaki's room to sleep, finding the hospital-like scent soothing, and Kanzaki is privy to Kikuhara's deepest secrets and long-term plans, acting as a loyal co-conspirator. He recruits and mentors Nanako Tenjo, the adopted daughter of his former professor, by preying on her vulnerabilities and convincing her to join the CCC's cause, while explicitly stating he cannot love her or see her sexually. He also has a profound impact on other CCC members, such as opening the heart of the isolated member known as 07, and being the subject of admiration from male members like 09. Ultimately, however, he views all his subordinates as disposable tools, willing to have them assassinated when they outlive their usefulness.
Kikuhara undergoes no redemptive development; rather, his role is to be a catalyst for the suffering and growth of others. His past is slowly revealed, providing context for his monstrous present. In the anime adaptation, his fate is left ambiguous as he is caught in a suspected explosion, but in the original manga, his ultimate destiny is not clearly shown. His notable abilities are not supernatural but psychological and intellectual. He is highly intelligent and a master strategist, capable of coordinating complex, multi-layered plans that manipulate public opinion and government policy. His primary weapon is his mind, using his charisma and gentle demeanor as a tool for recruitment and deception, while his lack of empathy allows him to commit atrocities without hesitation. A physical mark of his later involvement in the conflict is a set of burn scars on the left side of his face, sustained from a bomb.
Kikuhara's personality is defined by a profound and disturbing contradiction. To his peers and colleagues, he initially appears gentle, calm, and charismatic, projecting an aura of someone who cares for his squad members' well-being. This facade allows people to feel safe around him, despite an odd and unsettling aura that some, like the protagonist Tsukasa Taira, can instinctively sense as terrifying. This gentle exterior is a cover for a truly ruthless and manipulative nature. Kikuhara is a dedicated and fanatical exterminator of devils, believing that sacrificing lives, even those of his own subordinates, is a necessary contribution to creating a safe world for humanity. He has no qualms about using violence, manipulation, or murder to achieve his ends and feels no remorse for his actions, only disappointment in himself when his plans are not perfectly executed. He acknowledges his own twisted sense of right and wrong and does not consider himself human.
The roots of Kikuhara's psychopathy lie in a deeply traumatic and abusive childhood. He grew up in a lonely environment, deprived of proper parental affection. His mother, Yuzuru Kikuhara, hated children and employed housekeepers to care for him, showing him no interest until his sophomore year of high school. At that time, she began to find him attractive and praised him for the first time in fifteen years. Although he felt a perverse happiness at finally receiving her attention, he also felt trapped by her inappropriate "love". This toxic relationship culminated one morning after they had slept together, when Kikuhara pushed his mother off a balcony, killing her. He describes this act not with guilt, but as the first moment he truly felt alive and freed from a curse. This event fundamentally shaped his inability to form genuine bonds, his distrust of familial love, and his complete lack of empathy. He is driven by a desire to exterminate devils, a mission that gives his otherwise apathetic existence purpose and amusement. He also has a long-standing desire for a specific kind of friend someone who walks in the same darkness and lives in similarly tough circumstances without depending on anyone, a camaraderie he believes he found in the young Yuuki Anzai.
As the commander of the CCC, Kikuhara is the primary orchestrator of the organization's terrorist activities against devils. His role in the story is that of a major antagonist and master manipulator, pulling the strings from behind his position in the police. He is responsible for recruiting vulnerable individuals with traumatic pasts into the CCC, offering them money and a sense of purpose while concealing the group's true nature as a terrorist organization. One of his most significant acts is his manipulation of a young Yuuki Anzai. Intrigued by Yuuki as the son of the mass-murdering devil Tamaki Anzai, Kikuhara befriended the boy, saved him from a tree, and then deliberately led him to an underground laboratory to show him his incarcerated father, a traumatic event that psychologically scarred Yuuki and influenced his hatred of his own devil heritage. In the present timeline, he masterminds Plan B, a scheme involving a public attack on a woman in Ikebukuro that is broadcast live, causing nearby devils to lose control of their bloodlust. This event publicly exposes devils, inciting mass panic and lynch mobs against them.
Kikuhara's key relationships are defined by manipulation and a cold, utilitarian worldview. His relationship with Yuuki Anzai is complex; he views Yuuki with a vested interest, acting as both a tormentor and someone who, in his own twisted way, offers help. Yuuki himself describes Kikuhara as having a disconcerting, gloomy presence but notes that his hands are paradoxically warm. He has a notably close relationship with Akihito Kanzaki, code number 12 or Queen. Kikuhara often wanders into Kanzaki's room to sleep, finding the hospital-like scent soothing, and Kanzaki is privy to Kikuhara's deepest secrets and long-term plans, acting as a loyal co-conspirator. He recruits and mentors Nanako Tenjo, the adopted daughter of his former professor, by preying on her vulnerabilities and convincing her to join the CCC's cause, while explicitly stating he cannot love her or see her sexually. He also has a profound impact on other CCC members, such as opening the heart of the isolated member known as 07, and being the subject of admiration from male members like 09. Ultimately, however, he views all his subordinates as disposable tools, willing to have them assassinated when they outlive their usefulness.
Kikuhara undergoes no redemptive development; rather, his role is to be a catalyst for the suffering and growth of others. His past is slowly revealed, providing context for his monstrous present. In the anime adaptation, his fate is left ambiguous as he is caught in a suspected explosion, but in the original manga, his ultimate destiny is not clearly shown. His notable abilities are not supernatural but psychological and intellectual. He is highly intelligent and a master strategist, capable of coordinating complex, multi-layered plans that manipulate public opinion and government policy. His primary weapon is his mind, using his charisma and gentle demeanor as a tool for recruitment and deception, while his lack of empathy allows him to commit atrocities without hesitation. A physical mark of his later involvement in the conflict is a set of burn scars on the left side of his face, sustained from a bomb.