Yuichiro Kurono, bearing aliases like "Death" and "The Ashen Grim Reaper," serves as Haijima Industries' Third Generation pyrokinetic chief overseeing the Skills Development Laboratory. His striking features include short black hair, angular pale yellow eyes with blade-like pupils, and a perpetually charred right arm—a testament to prolonged pyrokinetic exertion—swathed in white bandages removed only in combat. He dons a plain gray collared shirt paired with a black tie secured by a skull-shaped pin, black pants cinched with a skull-emblazoned belt, and polished black shoes. Driven by an obsession with weakness as a transient condition to manipulate, Kurono openly advocates for a world order where "the strong are shielded and the weak obliterated." He provokes inferior opponents to gauge his own power while avoiding personal risk, a methodology fueling both his underestimation of skilled adversaries and strategic targeting of vulnerable foes. Despite radiating contempt toward underlings, he maintains strict adherence to Haijima’s hierarchy, executing corporate directives with precision. His pyrokinetics manifest as corrosive black smoke erupting from his scorched limb, reaching blistering 130°C (266°F). This smokescreen doubles as a sensory web detecting movement, propelling aerial maneuvers, and infiltrating victims’ bodies to induce internal combustion. He materializes the smoke into kunai, knives, and swords, wielded with lethal accuracy. Signature techniques include "Hidden Eclipse" for vanishing within his smoky shroud and "Right Corruption" to sear adversaries from within. Exceptional stamina allows sustained ability usage without visible strain. Kurono’s history traces to Haijima Industries, where he underwent Tephrosis treatment and crossed paths with a young Shinra Kusakabe, who sensed his malevolence. Climbing the ranks to command the laboratory, he earned infamy for brutal combat trials on juvenile subjects, most notably Nataku Son, whom he psychologically tormented under training pretexts. However, he later intervened to stabilize Nataku’s psyche during a crisis, paradoxically counseling against desperate pursuits of strength—a nuanced shift reflecting pragmatic interest in preserving test subjects. During the Great Cataclysm, he faced an Adolla-born mirror image embodying public perception’s grotesque cruelty. Their clash revealed Kurono’s institutional loyalty as he subordinated personal vengeance to corporate protocol, overcoming the double by asserting his role as Haijima’s instrument. This cemented his paradoxical synergy with corporate objectives, balancing destructive impulses with pragmatic crisis interventions like collaborating against apocalyptic threats. His charred arm, a relic of Ash Disease, serves as a visceral emblem of power-through-self-destruction, reinforcing his moniker as pyrokinetics’ "Maddest" practitioner. While initially antagonistic, his actions during critical junctures expose a warped pragmatism operating within Haijima’s twisted moral architecture.