Kohaku

Kohaku (コハク) is one of the main characters in Harukanaru Toki no Naka de 6 and its sequel. He becomes the Suzaku of Heaven (天の朱雀, Ten no Suzaku) for this era in the majority of its scenarios.

He has two character image songs titled Jikuu no Tabi Yuukyuu no Koi and Koi to Kanjou, and a duet with Tora called Koi Matsuri.

Background Story
Kohaku is a pseudonym given to him by Azusa during the main story. His real name is Zenjirou (善次郎, Zenjirō). He was born and raised within Suzaki, the southeastern red-light district of the capital. Though his father's whereabouts is unknown, Yoneshichi never considered relying on him and decided to raise her son on her own.

Shortly before the main story, Yoneshichi and Kohaku became ill. The disease they were afflicted with was known to be terminal, and their chances of surviving were slim. Yoneshichi persevered for her son and begged the manager of a local prostitution establishment to provide food and housing for the ill family. Since she promised to do all the cleaning throughout the building without a word of protest, the manager gave into her request. Kohaku didn't want to burden his mother and sought out local mentors. He earned money by spinning tops and kept track of his earnings by calculating them on an abacus. Whenever his body would allow it, Kohaku would try to earn money to provide medicine for his mother while his mother slaved away under her abusive benefactors. Ukigumo, one of the prostitutes, pitied them and befriended Yoneshichi. She helped the mother look after Kohaku.

After seeing his mother succumb to a violent coughing fit one day, Kohaku could no longer tolerate it. He strained himself out of his bed and lumbered into the streets with the hopes of finding medicine for his mother. While his heart was strong, his body was not and he collapsed within a secluded alleyway. While Kohaku was vulnerable, a Force Protection Squad recruiter was sweeping by with his unit. He mistook the collapsed youth for a homeless drunk who no one would notice if he disappeared, an ideal candidate for his mission. Kohaku wondered if he could perhaps earn enough to buy medicine for his mother and half-allowed himself to be dragged into the enlistment.

Shortly thereafter, Kohaku was subjected to the same experiment for Force Protection Squad soldiers. The other men surrounding him were healthy young recruits. When they were exposed to the adabana's essence, they lost their minds. Kohaku was able to keep his sanity only because he was gravely ill at the time of his experiment. The flower could not take over his mind, but it did scrub away his memories. He was able to benefit from the flower's supernatural strengthening as it granted him a completely healthy body.

Story Events
The freshly amnesic Kohaku is afraid of his eerie surroundings and successfully escapes his facility. The adabana vines violently whips anyone who acts aggressively to him, and Kohaku doesn't know how to contain the flower. He tries to distance himself from other people and unintentionally upsets a soldier on patrol at the botanical gardens. As the frightened soldier flees to call for reinforcements, Azusa, Darius, and Tora quickly subdue him.

Kohaku is surprised by their strength and suffers a chest injury that makes the vines disappear. Darius offers for Kohaku to join them before the Elite Squad comes to the scene; Kohaku bargains to do so if they provide food and shelter for him. As the demons stall to accept, Azusa offers to give Kohaku her share of the meal for the day. He is so grateful that he pledges eternal servitude to her. With the inclination of Kohaku's acceptance, Azusa and company return to the demon's manor by nightfall. Kohaku finally collapses due to his hunger and goes to bed. Since Kohaku is not in immediate danger, the group decides to let him enjoy the night of peaceful rest before questioning him again. They tell Azusa that he is a spiritually possessed. At this time, Azusa believes the local newspaper report about it being a serious illness and worries about his condition. She agrees to look after him as he sleeps.

The next morning Azusa awakens to Kohaku patting her head and singing a lullaby. He rejoices seeing her awake and bounces out of bed to eat breakfast. While he is eating, Kohaku's amnesia is brought to the forefront. Tora surmises that he is a resident of the capital based on his clothing, so Darius decides to shelter and employ Kohaku on the conditions that he regains his memories as soon as possible. Kohaku is quickly briefed about his world and agrees to help. Wanting to make it more convenient for everyone to refer to him, Darius tells Azusa to name the nameless youth. She decides to name him after the color of his eyes (topaz) which is happily accepted by Kohaku. While working under Darius, Kohaku helps Rudkhane with chores and surveys the city. He spars with the demons when they are together and learns how to harness his powers from these sessions.

Since Darius only tells him the barest essentials, Kohaku is just as surprised as Azusa by the events at Mount Atago. He clumsily helps the demons' attack on the Imperial Army. After they escape, Kohaku is conflicted. He doesn't condone Darius's actions to Azusa, but he doesn't want to turn against him since the Demon Chief has been nice to him. Wanting to help Azusa in any way he can, Kohaku uses the tree within Darius's garden to climb to her second-story window. He agrees to keep discreetly using this path while Darius and Rudkhane are away for their civilian jobs during the day.

The first time they try to escape, the duo is immediately spotted by Tora who threatens to squeal to Darius. Kohaku pacifies him by offering him his entire pay from Mount Atago since he has no value of money. His contribution and Azusa's determination leads to him relenting. Five days later, Darius senses a heightened divine energy within the manor and directly confronts Kohaku and Tora. Kohaku confesses to what they had done in Darius's absence, insisting that he did it to try to help Azusa. Though Darius understands his sentiments, Kohaku is later punished with a threat and docked pay. He continues to work for Darius throughout the main story.

When the Force Protection Squad becomes the talk of the town, Darius leads a covert attack on a Force Protection Squad unit. While doing so, Kohaku regains his memories about the experiment and explains what occurred to Darius. Feeling obligated to see the other victims freed, he joins the others for the night assault on Ryounkaku. His testimony helps convince Azusa about the truth of the experiments. In the majority of story routes, he is donned the Suzaku of Heaven when Chiyo uses her powers to restore the broken Dragon Gem. Kohaku also implores for the Elite Squad to help evacuate the immobilized spiritually possessed before the skyscraper collapses. If the player chooses, he may be a party participant for the final battle.

The default route has him withdraw from the story after Seishiro's defeat, meaning the player cannot use him for the fight against Kagutsuchi.

In the best ending, Kagutsuchi is temporarily immobilized by Azusa's Black Dragon Priestess powers. After everyone evacuates the crumbling skyscraper, Kohaku is the first to voice his optimism in the trial to defeat the evil god. Even without the Dragon Gods' blessings, he states that they meet the requirements for the Eight Guardians anyway since there are eight male companions present. After they defeat Kagutsuchi, Kohaku happily attends Azusa's informal victory party.

Development
Kohaku and Murasame were the last of the main characters to be created. When they were being devised, the majority of the game's lore and the rest of the main cast had already been finalized. In Kohaku's case, he was made to better represent the spiritually possessed's creation. Developers wanted a character whose story would be a contrast to initial impressions, so they chose to make Kohaku's story "tragic". Another goal for his story was to feature different phases of maturity and independence so it would be "like a journey" for Kohaku's romantic character arc. During the story rewrite sessions, there was a clamor to have some way to save Kohaku from his fate which led to a drastic change from his original personal ending.

Ruby Party developers wanted the final two main characters to be dressed in a fusion of Japanese and Western fashion so as to better represent a worldly perspective of the setting. Developers wanted a "radiant, gorgeous and bright" design to contrast Kohaku's melancholy personal route. They think his chrysanthemum top and long wavy hair instantly distinguishes his character origins and his natural cheerfulness. The CG design team struggled with rendering his hair, but they adored the rough portraits that Tohko Mizuno sent them. It was difficult for them to select the ones they wanted to finalize for the game.

Abe commented that his takes were done easily and quickly; the main planner didn't criticize him too often during recording sessions and liked his "pure and innocent" readings. He liked acting out the different dynamics needed for Kohaku's personal route, although he personally considers him and the main protagonist to be somewhat like siblings rather than lovers. Kohaku is also a character favored by three of the main voice actors (Terashima, Takemoto, and Shitanda) whom admire his happy-go-lucky enthusiasm and determination.

Character Symbolism
Kohaku's symbolic item is the adabana. It is not commonly used within the flower language because it is a term for any flower that does not bear fruit. These types of flowers only live to bloom and wither. Alternative synonyms include itazurabana or mudabana, roughly implying that they are flowers of false hopes or short-lived expectations. Ruby Party chooses to have the flower represent mischief and ephemeral for Kohaku.

His symbolic colors are red and enji, a dark crimson shade. Its namesake is Yanzhi Mountain, a place famed for its vivid safflowers. Anything that was dyed by safflowers was originally called this name. Safflower was used for centuries to create rouges. Its association with women's faces is often believed to be the common basis for its meanings within the flower language: make up, adornment, and the power of love.

Talismans
If Kohaku and Shuhei have their Eight Guardian talismans equipped and start a co-op attack together, they will summon Suzaku on their target.

Visit Kohaku's favorite spots at least once in a single playthrough to unlock Demonic Lady on the map. Defeat it at least once at Ekou Shrine to obtain his last talisman. If Kohaku and Tora have their last talismans equipped and start a co-op attack together, they will perform a powerful non-elemental attack on their target.