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) is the orphaned child of Zen and Ayame, living in the slums of the Beltrum Kingdom capital. He swore revenge on the person who murdered his mother, but soon underwent a serious change as he became the reincarnation of Amakawa Haruto, who died of an unfortunate bus accident in Japan. As such, their memories and personalities melded into one, thus becoming a combination of Rio and Haruto.

Afterwards, a sudden turn of events dragged him into a kidnapping incident where he rescued the Second Princess, Flora Beltrum. As a reward, Rio was allowed to enroll into the Beltrum Kingdom Royal Institute, but got himself involved in their political disputes; a false accusation caused him to become a fugitive before graduating, and was forced to escape from the country.

He soon travels far east to his parents' motherland, Karasuki Kingdom, where he tried finding his roots and settle his inner turmoil. Later on, Rio returned 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, his most striking feature is his black hair, an extremely rare trait outside the far east, and caramel eyes. His androgynous appearance, a combination of Rio and Haruto, making him most distinguishable amongst the other orphans.

Growing up, Rio grew into a handsome young man, developing a slender yet firm build. He has a bunch of old scars from the time he lived inside 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 differences being his eyes changing from caramel to crimson and his hair changing to white.

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.

Later through the story it is implied that he starts to change his perspective of his relationships towards the girls due to the influence of his close friends whom he considers as family, and he doesn't want to lose the bonds that he has made with them.

Background
Rio was born to two immigrant parents that migrated to the Beltrum 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 group's 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 Beltrum as an orphan in the slums. Since awakening to Haruto's memories, things have only gotten harder. As a beneficiary of the King of Beltrum, Rio was educated in the royal academy despite a lack of peerage.

After the false accusation of attempted murder of Flora Beltrum, 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 Black Wyverns attack the village as a result of Reiss' action of stealing their eggs and misdirecting them towards the village. Before they cause 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, each elder gave him a reward; Syldora, 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 'til 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. Just like 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 organization'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 warns him to be careful.

Rio later went to the Beltrum 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

After saving the First and Second Princesses of the kingdom of Beltrum, the King decides to offer Rio an enrollment in the Royal Academy's Elementary school, asking the director of said school to keep an eye on the boy as he believes that there was more than meet's the eye. The Director thus puts Rio in Celia's class as she was the only person whom Rio seemed to trust.

Over the course of the several years that he stayed at the Academy, Rio developed a friendship with his professor, Celia Claire, by having regular meetings in her research lab / office where Rio would help her in her research, keep her company, clean the messy office and make the two tea. Rio is also the victim of bullying due to the fact that he was a commoner, and was thus treated unfairly by everyone, particularly Alphonse and Stewart. The only student who attempted to help Rio, during the Field Exercise, was the Second Princess Flora, who asked her sister why they couldn't help Rio.

During the Field Exercise, the group (led by Alphonse), get lost by following a map that was bought from a old soldier of Stewart's guard(?), though it is later hinted that it was Reiss who payed the man to give the faulty map, and end on a cliff. They get attacked by a large monster and Flora is thrown over the cliff, though Rio saved her before she died. Once the battle is over and done with, Alphonse and Stewart are quick to blame the ordeal on Rio who was missing.

When the Field Exercise is over, Rio is branded as a criminal for having attempted to murder the Second Princess.

Sprit Folk Village

Rio, now branded as a criminal in the Kingdom, tells his professor of his leave and he promises to write her letters, much to her pleasure. Thus begins his journey to the Yagumo Region and to his ancestral homeland.

Stewart's father asked the slave Latifa, a beast person, to kill Rio, which she is forced to do because of the collar of submission that's around her neck which forces her to follow orders from her masters. However, Rio easily took her down and released her from being a slave. Confused and still unable to believe this Latifa instinctively followed Rio having no idea where to go, thus Rio and Latifa head for the Wilderness.

Once the two arrive within the wilderness, Rio remarks about a large tree in the distance, which Latifa denies seeing. They set up camp and in the middle of the night, Rio gets attacked by the Warriors of the Spirit Village, believing him to be a smuggler and so fight him. They eventually manage to subdue him and bring him back to the village, where Latifa wakes up and immediately searches for her brother (Rio). During this time, Rio/Haruto has a dream of the latter's childhood friend, Miharu Ayase, calling out 'Mii-chan' as he wakes.

The Spirit Village's Elders, Dominic (A dwarf), Syldora (a High Elf) and Ursula (beast person) apologize for the attack, and are delighted when Rio asks them to take care of Latifa. He is also introduced to the Humanoid Spirit Dryas, who immediately senses a dormant humanoid spirit within Rio, which sparks debate as to how to treat Rio as the Village deifies Spirits such as Dryas.

Over the couple months Rio spends in the village, he learns how to master Spirit Arts and soon enough masters all the elements, as well as sparring with some of the village's warriors.

Eventually, when Rio announces to Latifa that he'll have to leave to continue his journey, which makes her cry and run into the forest. At the same time, a flock of black wyverns fly near the village and start attacking it. The village's warriors attempt to protect the village, and one of them stumbles upon Latifa who was hiding in the forest. Before they can get killed by the Wyvern, they are saved by Rio who arrived in the nick of time yet again.

After this, the village Elder's give Rio a jacket made from Wyvern scales and a enchanted sword, as well as a space time cache for him to store his things in. He proclaims that he will always be the Spirit Village's friend and will do everything in his power to protect it before leaving for the Yagumo Region.

The Yagumo Region

At long last, Rio finally reach Yagumo region and after some time eventually ends up in his father's natal village, where he encounters his paternal grandmother Yuba, and his cousin Ruri. He informs Yuba about his parent's unfortunate demise and goes to pray at their tombs, telling the tombs that he fulfilled that promise. Yuba then offers for Rio to live with them for the time being and thus Rio begins his village life, where he teaches the other villagers how to use some of the more advanced spirit arts he had learned at the Spirit Village.

Months pass and during the harvest season, Gon (the second son of the village head of a nearby village) picks a fight with some of the town's boys, but the Yuba comes and disperses the situation, with Rio keeping an eye on them. Later Saga Hayate, the Tax Officer, arrives in order to deal with the taxes.

During the Tax Officer's stay, Gon and his goons break into Yuba's house in order to rape Ruri (And Sayo who happened to be there). The situation reminds Rio of what had happened to his mother when he was younger, when Lucius murdered his mother. In a fury, Rio beats up Gon within inch of his life and is only stopped when Hayate mentions that he was scaring the girls, where he immediately stops and apologizes. He promises himself that he will find Lucius and kill him, no matter what for closure and revenge, despite the clash with Haruto's morals.

Gon is thus arrested and the remainder of the harvest is set up to be sold at the capital. Yuba gives a letter to Hayate asking the latter to hand it in person to his father, which the man accepts. Yuba also asks Rio to stay with the convoy to protect it, which Rio agrees to do.

Some time later, in the capital, Rio went on a tour date alone with Sayo, saving a girl who was kidnapped on the way, whilst within the Saga House, Hayate delivers Yuba's letter to his father Gouki, who immediately asks if the letter met a man called Rio. As Rio and the other Villagers are celebrating (?) Rio feels several intruders, who immediately introduce themselves as Gouki Saga, his wife Kayoko and some others, who ask Rio to follow them to the capital to meet his maternal grandparents, the Karasuki Kingdom's Emperor and Empress.

Rio meets his maternal grandparents in the Palace, who immediately notice his resemblance to Royal Couple's daughter Ayame, asking him what had happened to their daughter and to him, which Rio warns isn't a happy story. The Grandparents are distraught by the story and when asked about Revenge, Rio says that he cannot forgive Lucius no matter what.

He returns to the village, building a waterwheel and intending to leave the village better off than when he came. Before Rio leaves for his return to Beltrum, Sayo confesses her love to him, which Rio rejects, feelings ashamed by it. Sayo promises that she'll work to be better and asks Rio to do the same before he leaves, on his way back to Beltrum.

Return to Strahl

Two weeks after he left his parent's village, Rio lands inside of the Spirit Village, where Latifa and the others from the village come to greet him warmly. He meets with the Elders, telling them that he won't be able to stay very long. Lady Dryas also notes how the presence of his contracted spirit is stronger and tells him that it shouldn't be too long before it wakes. Rio also asks the Elders that he would appreciate it if he could get a house that he could transport via the space time cache.

Some time goes by and as Rio gets ready to leave, the Village Elders give him teleportation stone that allows him to return to the village from anywhere, and Rio promises that he'll be back faster and with his Contract Spirit.

He continues his journey towards the Strahl region, 6 giant pillars of light descend from the sky throughout the  Strahl region,  and before Rio can even understand what's happening, his Contract Spirit tells him to save the three in the south east and thus goes to the southeast as the voice told him too.

When he makes it to a prairie, he feels a high concentration of mana/ode, seeing a slaver convoy not far from where he was. He approaches and whilst talking with the Slavers, he hears someone cry out 'help' in Japanese, which makes Rio furious. He kills the captain and demands for the three Japanese people to be freed. He is shocked when he discovers that the third person is none other than his childhood friend Miharu Ayase.

Rio then decides to protect them until they can return to Japan, unsure of what to do with Miharu and his younger sister and step brother(?). They stay inside of the stone house, where Rio asks some questions about why they are here.

The following morning, Rio is shocked to find his contracted spirit naked in his bed with him. He screams, which incites Miharu to open the door, before she returns to the kitchen.

He tells Miharu that it's a misunderstanding and that the naked girl was his contract spirit, whom he later names Aishia. Aishia, he and Miharu go shopping and Rio takes the chance to write a letter for Celia. Over the course of the next month and a half, Rio teaches the three how to speak and read the language of the kingdom, before deciding to return to the Spirit Village hoping to gain more insight into what he should do with the three and how to find their two friends.

The Village Elders agree to having the three stay in the village as long as they agreed to keep silent about the village and Rio tells Latifa about Miharu and the others, asking her to promise that she won't tell them anything about him.

Rio fortunately returns to the stone house just in time to help Aishia protect the three from some monsters. They talk about the village and then use the teleportation stone to teleport to the village.

Magical Abilities
As a reincarnate, 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, which was increased from receiving her blessing.

Spirit Arts: 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. After Rio received official Spirit Arts training, mastering the Five Elements, in addition to receiving Dryas' blessing, letting him use them on a much larger scale. Against Lucius, he created lightning balls and an eight-headed water dragon.
 * Spirit Contract (精霊契約, Seirei Keiyaku): He has a spiritual contract with Aishia, a high-ranked humanoid with a universal attribute spirit, who resides inside of him.
 * Spirit Pact (精霊霊約, Seirei Reiyaku): A secret technique much stronger than the usual Spirit Pact, causing Rio and Aisha to unite more than before, considering more of an assimilation. Aside from letting her remake his body to resemble a Spirit's, it lets him change his soul into a weapon or armor, like the Spirit Equipment.

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 Arbor, 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 equipment, 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 Galarc Kingdom.
 * Mithril Sword: In addition to his black armor, Rio gained an ancient artifact-class silver mithril sword that has a gem in its guard. 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. The sword was destroyed by the great Spirit of earth in volume 20
 * Space Time Cache: Rio is given a space time cache in order to put his belongings in by the Village Elders. It uses Space-Time magic which is very complicated to make and thus rare. He stores his rock-house inside of the Cache when not using it.

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 tongue, 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.
 * His favorite food is omelet rice and spicy food.
 * The type of partner that Rio prefers is an easygoing type of woman where they don’t have to force themselves to chat with Rio if there really isn't a topic to talk about.
 * His major in Tokyo University was Liberal Arts.