Rio Karasuki

"Words of gratitude are not enough for the greatest kindness you have bestowed upon my unworthy self. If ever a danger shall befall upon the spirit folk, I vow to assist you as your sworn friend — with my entire being."

- Rio's verbal pledge to Spirit Folks’ elders

Rio (リオ) was an orphaned child that lived in the slums of the Beltram Kingdom capital and is the reincarnation of Amakawa Haruto, who died due to an unfortunate accident in Japan. His most striking feature is his black hair which is extremely rare among the population and his androgynous looks which were a combination of his features from his previous and current life making him the most distinguishable amongst the orphans. He had sworn to take revenge on his mother’s murderer but his fate changed drastically after he awakened to his previous life’s memories as Amakawa Haruto. Their personalities merged into one with Haruto and Rio sharing control over the body and mind.

Afterward in a sudden turn of events, he got dragged into a kidnapping incident where he somehow saved the kidnapped princess, and as a reward, he was allowed to enroll in the Beltram Kingdom Royal Institute, only to get himself involved in their political disputes. Later, due to a false accusation, he became a fugitive before graduation and was forced to escape the country.

He travels far east to his parents' motherland where he tried to find his roots and settle his inner turmoil. Later on, he returns to the west with a new identity by using his previous life's name Haruto Amakawa (アマカワ ハルト), aiming to take his revenge over his parents enemies.

Appearance
As Rio, he had an appearance reminiscent of his previous life, with caramel eyes and black hair, a slender yet firm build and his handsome looks. There's a bunch of old scars on his body from the times he lived in the slums, but they faded along the years.

As his second persona Haruto, he has grey asymmetrical hair that's longer on the right side of his face. He has a sharp face with strong and serious eyes. He oozes a calm and collected air around him, this makes him give off a dangerous, yet warm and secure feeling.

After transcending, his appearance mostly stays the same as his persona Haruto. The only difference being his eyes changing from caramel to crimson red.

Personality
At the age of 7, Rio gains the memories of Haruto Amakawa, whose life concluded in a tragic traffic accident on earth. More than just memories of his past life, Rio gains all the abilities Haruto held. He has the appearance of a 7 year old kid, but mentally he comes off as very mature, having already had 20 years of prior experience and knowledge. Rio is calm, rational and quite the scheming person. He always wears a poker face and acts extremely humble (sometimes too humble according to a certain person). But it's an act to not stand out too much and incur jealousy (inefficient against people like Hiroaki). Rio is a diligent guy; he learns to adapt in any situation he finds himself in. After saving Flora from a kidnapping, he didn't hesitate to take up the king's offer to enter the royal academy and enroll despite being a commoner from the slums. Once he reached Seirei no Tami, he demands instruction in spirit arts. He saves Liselotte to inquire more about the Galarc summoned hero, etc...

Rio is a kind character who prioritizes his friends over his personal interest most of the time, but he is also very insecure about relationships with others; he believes that his desire of vengeance makes him unworthy of happiness (particularly with Miharu). On the other hand, Rio becomes angry when someone hurts his friends and can be quite merciless.

Background
Rio was born to two immigrant parents that migrated to the Beltram kingdom from far east in the Yagumo region. His father, Zen, was an adventurer that died around the time of Rio's birth, leaving the latter with only faint memories of him. He was then raised alone by his mother Ayame, and though their black hair often gave them trouble, his mother's positivity, gentleness and love enabled him to grow up peacefully until his mother was murdered by Lucius right in front of him. Rio, at the time, had just reached the age of five and was thrown into the slums, losing everything he had. He swore to take revenge on the man that took it all from him. He managed to survive and endure life in the slums as an adventurer groups slave until 2 years later. During one fateful morning, Rio got his previous life's memories back, coincidentally on the same day of the big event that would end his life in the slums.

Story
Rio has lived a portion of his life in Beltram as an orphan in the slums. Since awakening to Haruto's memories, things have only gotten harder. As a beneficiary of the King of Beltram, Rio was educated in the royal academy despite a lack of peerage.

After the false accusation of attempted murder of Flora Beltram, Rio left for Yagumo, the region his parents emigrated from. With Latifa, his failed assassin, he ventured into Seirei no Tami, the land of the Spirit Folk. Latifa was later revealed to be an elder's great-granddaughter, and as a reward for saving Latifa, Rio asked to learn spirit arts. He then gets introduced to the high-level spirit Dryas who told him that he's contracted to an upper-class spirit. In no time, Rio grew into the strongest spirit arts' user in the village. Shortly after, Reiss attacks the village using the wyverns he brought. Before they caused any more damage Rio killed the black wyvern, the rest of its subordinates fled. The dwarves subsequently crafted an armor set from its leather. Before he left the village, the elders gave him a reward; Syldra, a Time-Space Cache; Dominic, a weapon and set of armor, also a large number of medicines.

After leaving, he continued his journey to Yagumo. He traveled from village to village seeking information on his parents 'till he came across an elder that knew who he was. This woman claimed to be Zen's mother but refused to further discuss his parents because she was not in the right position to reveal the truth behind Rio's parents. Following that, Rio lived much like any other villager under his grandmother's care while aiding the village in hunting and farming.

He was approached by a vassal of the Karasuki Kingdom and then informed of the situation involving his parents. His mother, Ayame, was a former second princess of the kingdom and his father, Zen, was a rising star warrior charged as her guard. The Karasuki Kingdom had a long history of conflict against the Rokuren Kingdom, and one time, the latter sent a ceasefire proposal to Karasuki. A celebration gathering from both sides was held in the royal capital of Karasuki. The ceasefire agreement passed nicely, and later the prince was supposed to go back to his home country without any incident. But in the evening of that day, someone tried to kidnap Ayame. The culprit was the assistant of the Rokuren Kingdom’s prince, who belonged to an opposing side to the ceasefire agreement. Zen, who was secretly protecting Ayame from the back, managed to capture that person. Though some circumstances were omitted, having been trained to commit suicide with an unknown ability, that person was found dead. The next day, while the Karasuki side asked for an explanation for this matter, the Rokuren prince was angry, with reason that his assistant was brutally murdered. Despite the fact that their opponent is the one who instigated all of this, due to the sudden death of the culprit, Karasuki decided to treat this case with caution. But the Rokuren prince pressed on even more and made a fuss of himself going all the way to the enemy kingdom only to be betrayed like that. The negotiations of both kingdoms were going down the drain. Justlike that, the situation almost forced the breaking of the ceasefire agreement. The Rokuren prince proposed a way to fix the ceasefire agreement: the execution of Zen, who personally killed his assistant, and a demand for Ayame. Homura, as king, pretended to accept the Rokuren prince's demands and secretly attempted to attack the Rokuren kingdom– with a scale which couldn’t be sniffed out by Rokuren and the opposing domestic nobles– picking only the most elite amongst the samurai organisation’s fighters to dispatch them without being found out. The Karasuki Kingdom successfully defeated the Rokuren Kingdom, making them a vassal state, but they made a blunder by deceiving their citizens.

After staying for a while in Karasuki, he decided to leave and return to the Spirit Folk Village. Sara and the others were shocked seeing Rio become more mature than before. He then meets with Latifa and having a bath together, he told her that he's returning to the Strahl region to see his benefactor, Latifa warning him to be careful.

Rio later went to the Beltram kingdom and in his journey, he reunited again with Miharu who was dragged to this world in the heroes' summoning along with Aki and Masato. He saves them from the slave traders and brings them to the Spirit Folk. They accepted Miharu's group and had a welcome party. Shortly after, Rio finds his contracted spirit had awoken, seeing her sleep beside him (naked). Miharu witnessing this looked shocked. Rio in panic explained the situation.

LN Route
Academy Era

Sprit Folk Village

Silver Bride

Magical Abilities
As a reincarnator, Rio has a great amount of odo. When Celia built a measuring device meant to detect magical power, when Rio test it, the device is unable to measure Rio's odo. Dryas checks on Rio and feels immediately that he has a huge amount of odo.

Spirit Art: At first, unnamed, Rio could mimic magic principals since he never succeeded in the contract ceremony. Despite not knowing about it, he mastered it to a good extent, learning things such as healing, strengthening, and hypnosis surprising Ursula. Arriving at the Seirei no Tami, Rio trained in Spirit Arts, he mastered it utilize all the elements (Earth, Fire, Wind, Lightning, and Water) on a large scale; in his fight against Lucius, he created lightning balls and an eight-headed water dragon.

Martial Arts
From Haruto's memories, Rio inherited his knowledge in «Ancient Martial Arts», which had allowed him to defeat an assassin, having strengthened himself using Spirit Arts. Later on, he further trains himself at Beltrum Kingdom Royal Academy, developing his own style, excelling in swordsmanship giving his instructors a hard time and he's capable of besting the Royal Guard, Charles Albor, something he fellow competing classmates couldn't do. At 16, Rio became a master swordsman, multiple people being impressed by his sword skills. In addition to this, he was skilled in unarmed combat, and could stop Takahisa's sword in a duel shocking Satsuki.

Equipment
Rio possesses different magical equipments, most of which was created for him by the Dwarves of Seirei no Tami after defeating the Black Wyvern near their village. Thanks to the knowledge of the spirit folks, Rio is also able to create magical objects like his necklace, which change his hair color.
 * Unnamed Armor: A armor set crafted using the Black Wyvern's leather by the Dwarves, consisting of mithril fiber cloth armor, black dragon leather armor, gauntlets, boots, and long coat. It also earned himself the moniker as the Black Knight in the Galwark Kingdom.
 * Mithril Sword: In addition to his black armor, Rio gained an ancient arifact-class silver mithril sword that has a gem in its guarde. It received an enchantment that enforces his Spirit Arts, and is durable enough to endure the Heroes' Divine Arms. Most of the time, he uses his sword with Wind Spirit and Strengthening Arts.

Intelligence
In his previous life, Haruto was already a university student before he died. Combined with Rio's knowledge of the new world, Rio is considered multilingual, being able to properly speak Japanese from his past life as Haruto and 3 different languages from the new world: the Strahl tounge, Yagumo and Spirit language. Although initially illiterate at first, Rio quickly learned and surpassed his peers in the academy.

Trivia

 * He considers himself to be both Rio and Haruto.
 * The first woman Rio met was Gigi in ACT 1 – Kingdom of Lies, Whereas no Gigi appears in the anime