The Master of The Blue Flame....Kurei

this image was edited by LITTLE RAPTOR, SO YOU WONT FIND IT ANYWHERE ON THE NET (UNTIL SOMEONE TAKES IT, OF COURSE). IF YOU WANT TO USE IT, THEN ASK PERMISSION FROM HER FIRST ^_^. this special page for Flame of Recca's major antagonist exists for one reason...i like kurei. sure he's amazingly villanous and all...but when you see all the hell he's been through, you'll learn to understand his pain and sorrow. it took me until the urabutousatsujin to comprehend his character, but at least i got there. and though i do not put a single blame on recca, my heart goes out to kurei.
i guess kurei was born under a very unlucky star *_*. Nobody knows when his birthday is, probably because there weren't too many calendars in the olden days ^_^. he is the firstborn of ohka, the original flame master and his first wife reina. kurei was the original heir to the leadership of the hokage ninjas, being ohka's first born. when kurei was about 4, recca was born to ohka and his second wife kagero. it was then seen that recca also possessed flames on his right hand. the village elders considered this a bad omen, not for recca, but for kurei. a second child born to a flame master possessing flame powers indicate that the first born was unfit to be leader so someone had been born to take his place. reina, kurei's mom, argued with the elders and insisted that only one heir deserved the place, and that recca should be killed. the village elders however, ruled in favor of kagero and opted to have kurei executed. kagero begged to spare the innocent child's life and so mother and son had been exiled from the village.
reina, proud woman that she is, refused to accept help from anybody. she and her son were shacked up in a sorry little hut outside the hokage village. it came to a point wherein she got sick and was unable to care for her son. during this time, she also told kurei that recca's birth was to blame for all the suffering they are experiencing. kurei asked his mother, "if recca was to die, mother, is all our suffering going to stop?" to which reina answered in the affirmative, thus implanting in the little child's brain that recca's death will bring back the old, happy days. this was not to be, as one day, kurei comes home to find his mother dead from a disease (based on her symptoms, i'd say she died of tuberculosis). he was only 5 years old at that time. kurei is shocked

kurei took it upon himself to end all unhappiness and set out to murder recca, wielding a small kitchen knife. he wounds recca's cheek and is found out by kagero. the village elders throw kurei in prison. during that time, a war had been waged against the hokage ninjas by NOBUNAGA'S forces. as the village got wiped out (the hokages were outnumbered and they did not use their madougu), and set on fire, a little kurei was screaming in the prison. he was being engulfed by fire set by the enemy. it is at this time where kurei discovers his powers of the blue flame and is saved from death. he runs away and finds kagero sending baby recca into a time warp to save him from the throes of battle. kurei follows him and sets out 400 years into the future.
kurei gets adopted by a major @$$hole by the name of mori kouran, a wealthy but evil man. he raises kurei as his own son, seeing the boy's talent and vulnerability. kurei recieves cruel treatment from mori kouran, as he is being beat up for every mistake he makes. he was taught not to show any emotion or mercy for anything or anyone. Mori kouran wanted kurei to be as coldhearted and ruthless as he is. he accomplished this means by imprisoning kurei's foster mother.

kurei then falls in love with his foster sister kurenai (scarlet), a pretty young lady who was initaly peeved with kurei for destroying her flower garden. they became close afterwards, and it was only with her that kurei could open himself. he was lonely and in desperate need of love that mori kouran deprived him of. kuranei provided him all that, and a companionship that would make up for all his years of longing. (*sob* are you crying yet? ^^;; i know I am). mori kouran sees this and gets mad at kurei for showing the emotion of love. he kills kuranei right in front of kurei's eyes (*sob* more tears....huwaaaaa!) via a bomb he implanted in her heart. he had known that kurei would fall for kuranei so he did this to further hone the cold heart he wants for his foster son. kuranei's dying words to kurei were that she wanted to be with him forever. kurei then uses his flame powers to absorb kuranei into his flame. she then becomes part of him. he says that this is the way that they could be together for all time (*sob* cry...cry..cry...^^;;). kuranei touches kurei's cheek, producing that purple burn over his left eye, a symbol of their eternal love, i suppose. the uruha jyusshinshuu

kurei forms the uruha jyusshinshuu, consisiting of raiha, neon, genjuroh, joker, kai, jishou, noroi, mikoto, rassen and meguri kyoza . uruha jyusshinshuu is actually subdivided into several groups: uruha moboroshi (led by genjuroh), uruha oto (led by neon), uruha ma (led by magensha), ura uruha (led by rasen), uruha rai/ikazuchi (with only raiha as the member) and uruha kuranei (led by kurei himself). there are still many people under these groups, so uruha jyusshishuu is a pretty big assassin organization. it's rather amazing to note that majority of kurei's forces are extremely loyal to him, in particular neon, raiha, jishou, and the uruha kuranei. the uruha jyusshinshuu defend him from people's misconception of him as being cruel and insensitive. although kurei would often isolate himself from them, they would still be faithful to him.
kurei serves as executor of all of mori kouran's evil schemes. it is his men that do the dirty work of kidnapping yanagi and attempting to dissect her for purposes of research on where her healing powers come from. when she was recovered by recca and company, it had been kurei's job to attempt to bring her back. this end was to be accomplished by the organization of the urabutousatsoujin.
kurei's major weapon is the hoh oh/sacred flame. it is actually the soul of his beloved kuranei blended into his blue flame. it's been said that kurei's power is not only kuranei, but is actually to absorb the powers of dead people, particularly those close to him. he also absorbed the power of his servant jishou who died in the third round of the urabutousatsoujin (killed by magensha). kurei first introduced the power of the kuranei when he met recca and friends in his mansion. she comes across as a blue flame angel/phoenix. in the urabutousatsoujin, kurei reveals his ultimate weapon, known as the "sacred flame" in the form of a blue phoenix. resshin (or obashi?), recca's eighth dragon and the two boys' father (ohka) said that this was the sacred flame of the hokage. what the elders had been afraid of was kurei's flame to be cursed, when in truth and in fact, it was not. the elders had suspected an incredible power contained in kurei and had subdued it in fear of what it could do. this raw power was honed by all the pain and unhappiness kurei had gone through. conclusion? kurei was a worthy flame master as his brother recca. and if you look well at the urabutousatsoujin's final bout (the final inferno), recca and kurei's flame were equal in power, as neither one could subdue the other. if recca's power was contained by his tekkou, kurei's power was protected by his multiple bracelets.

(THIS SCREENSHOT COURTESY OF MISELL FROM WARMTH OF HOKAGE) recca's half-brother isn't as bad as he seems. his uruha assassins defend him from his detractors. he is actually a compassionate man. he had opened his doors to neon and her sisters ahki and miki when they had nowhere to go. he treated them as he would his true-blood sisters. and you can see when he had punished magensha for attempting to kidnap yanagi. he did not want to fight unfairly and wanted to win yanagi in a square battle. and though he comes across as being cold-hearted and insensitive, raiha defends his master by saying he was merely enforcing the rules of the uruha jyusshinshuu. kurei was doing this not out of the pure coldness of his heart, but fear, i suppose. he's been hurt severely by mori kouran everytime he makes a mistake and i guess he doesn't want to be hurt anymore so he is compelled to yield to mori kouran's every command, and enforce all his wishes. in the end however, one could see that he does begin to resist the pulling of mori kouran's strings.
if you analyze kurei's character, you'll discover, he's more of a victim than a villain. he lived a screwed up life the minute he was born. his mother was too proud, the elders were too narrow-minded and his foster father was too demented. deep inside the cold shell was a wounded man still searchng his soul and looking for his feet. he echoes his sentiments in the final bout of the urabutousatsoujin when he says to his half-brother, "You don't know me. you don't know what hell i've been through." he laments the fact that he was not able to protect the two persons who meant the most to him, that being his mother reina and his lover kuranei. perhaps kurei's biggest mistake was that he blamed it all on recca. recca points this out to him, and kurei realizes this a little while later. kurei should have woken up to the truth a long time ago, that he shouldn't let anyone take charge of his life, particulary mori kouran who had no love lost for his foster son. another thing kurei failed to realize was that he had friends, he just didn't acknowledge their presence. he was too busy basking in hatred and revenge for recca and isolating himself from the world. Neon points this out, asking raiha what kurei thinks of them. raiha answers that perhaps someday kurei would wake up to this truth, that they were there for him.
and as the urabutosatsoujin closes, there remains one more question.
is kurei dead?

i haven't read the manga, but it think it was implied there, that kurei had indeed passed away. (ORORORO! I WAS WRONG *_* KUREI IS ALIVE!!!!!) however, he was later resurrected. this is also an open question in the anime, as mori kouran's car crashes into kurei and a loud explosion is heard. manga fans know that mori kouran did live to from another assassin organization, so he probably survived that crash. did kurei?
hopefully he did. it would've been extremely disappointing if kurei finally wakes up to the truth of his life, only to die a few minutes later. what life is that when one is born so tragically and dies as such without realizing a little bit of happiness? it's as bad as prince haineru's life in voltes v. (man, that oav made me feel awful. i wish they let haineru live). kurei should be given a second chance to live, and this time he should have more smiles than tears. he needs them, and he deserves them too. as for mori kouran, he ought to serve eternal sentence in hell. man, he is so screwed up.
if you want to know more about kurei's assassin organization, the uruha jyusshinshuu....then you'll have to wait awhile. i'm on the throes of making one. for the meantime, you can visit the other members of the hokage team, or you can go back to fuuko's shrine.
KUREI BITS AND PIECES:
1. kUREI, in the manga, followed mori Kouran'S bidding only because he had held kurei's beloved stepmother Tsukino Mori in captivity, and had a bomb inside her that he threatened to blow off if kurei did not do as he pleased.
2. Kurei is actually *not* Kurei. In manga no. 9 it was explained by Anzai-sensei himself, that Recca's Bro's name was "CRAY."
3. Reina, Kurei's Mom, did not die before Nobunaga attacked the hokage ninja clan. She was even the one to give Kurei the knife to kill Recca with during that time of chaos. When Kurei cried because he was afraid, his mother slapped him.
4. Kurei's flame, the Hoh Oh is *Not* KUrenai. it has her from, as well as the one with Jishou in it, but it is not them.
5. In his first appearance in the manga volume 3, Kurei wore sunglasses and he had a tape on his cheek. (think Kenshin covering his battousai scar).
6. it was Kurei who actually *first* saw Yanagi in her Birthday clothes (if you know what I mean).