Mato Kuroi

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Mato Kuroi is the main protagonist of the Black Rock Shooter anime and OVAs.

A happy-go-lucky girl who's very excitable and hyper. She's very naïve, however, and very closed-minded; she likes to marvel at things, and enjoys playing the guitar. She's also very skilled at basketball and is a bit of a Tomboy (although not quite as much as one would expect from her appearance).

In the 2012 anime, she seems to be fond of philosophical musings or just "zoning out" and staring at stuff. Saya notes that she is innocent, and that she has never hated anyone nor has, up until now, anyone hated her.

Has a younger brother, Hiro, and a mother who shows up a bit onscreen. Her dad is never shown, however the 2012 anime says he is often on business trips.

Her "other self" is Black★Rock Shooter. In both incarnations, she ends up merging with her at some point.

In the AWA fics, Mato is a student at the AWA Academy and is a part of Class 23. She is also part of the AWA Rookie 20 and is ranked # 8.

In the XP4 fics, Mato debuted in XP4 Heroes Coalition - Neo-City Diaries.

Appearance

Mato retains most of her appearance from the OVA, aside from wearing a different, non-seifuku school uniform. She wears a white shirt and a yellow almamater on it. She also wears a ribbon tie. Different from the OVA, she wears a pair of white socks and brown shoes. And also, the patch of bandage on her right knee is gone, though she now has a band-aid on her right thigh.

Personality

She is fond of philosophical musings, and often will vaguely say something that she sees (for instance, remarking "blooming" when seeing a patch of flowers) to no one in particular. Saya also describes her as the kind of person who has, until now, never hated anyone or had anyone hate her. Her favorite food is also said to be curry. She is very fond of the book Li'l Bird Li'l Bird Colorful Colors and reads it repeatedly.

AWA Fanfics

Mato is more outgoing and excitable, but she is very awkward around people she does not know. Internally, she is a sensitive and meek person, but eventually learns to gain courage. She has crush on Rook Blonko and gets jealous whenever he gets close to Chloe Valens.

XP4 Fanfics

Mato is a member of the Heroes Coalitions and is part of Destiny's Empire. She also attends at the Vanguard Academy as student.

XP4 Heroes Coalition - Neo-City Diaries

In Chapter 5, Mato is seen alongside Taro Yamada, Dac, Red, Karizza Stronghold, Sakura Kinomoto, Kaoru Matsubara, Maya Sparrow, Haru Glory, Shana, Sylvia van Hossen and Erena Reese are seen gathered inside the training area in the Training Facility. They all wonder about the decreased members in their group when Vegeta arrives and revealed that a lot of trainees drops out, much to their shock. Later, Son Goku arrives and reassured everyone that training goes on, Goku then ordered everyone to do a 500 laps, much to their dread and annoyance, Goku then minimized it to 20 laps.

In Chapter 6, Mato is mentioned by Regan Bladeworks.

In Chapter 12, Mato, alongside Eustace Bagge, Jaune Arc, Lie Ren, Wesley Bryans and Aria "Arinah" Sakurada, is seen doing an obstacle course at the Training Camp.

In Chapter 28, Mato is seen inside the Training Facility of Neo-City and later took part of a rope climbing exercise which ended in chaos.

In Chapter 45, Mato is present inside the auditorium of the Training Camp where she witnessed the formation of Team Idolo.

Abilities

AWA Fanfics

Mato can transform to Black Rock Shooter by touching a gem on her necklace. This gives her endurance is immense, being able to survive merciless pounding, impalement, slicing, bullets, being crushed, grinded, and many other things. Despite this, she still manages to stand up and fight effectively. She can be skilled enough to defeat even more powerful opponents than her, as well as take on armies single-handedly. Her attacks focus more on offensive and evasive maneuvers, having skill with ranged weaponry and great prowess in wielding close-quarter weapons. She also uses her unique athletic abilities in combat, being shown to be able to do many flips and dodges. She has displayed superhuman feats of speed and agility on numerous occasions. She can move at incredible speeds, leap long distances, react with perfect accuracy, and dodge attacks faster than the eye can see. She also displays great finesse in combat.

Outside her Black Rock Shooter form, Mato is a skilled fighter and is capable in taking down larger opponents.

Mato learned how to use chakra and magic. She also learned six moves of the Rokushiki and also gained the power to use Busoshoku Haki.

Trivia

• Mato alongside Yomi Takanashi, Kagari Izuriha and Yuu Koutari are the first characters from Black Rock Shooter to appear in the AWA fics.

• Mato's surname is sometimes misread as "Kokui" due to the fact that it would be the more common pronunciation of the kanji in normal wording: however, "Kuroi" as a surname is the proper pronunciation.
• The kanji for her surname means black clothes. "Mato," with certain kanji, can mean target (as in target shooting).

• In the AWA fics, Mato is called the Gunner Cutie by Eddy. Whether this is her official title or not is up to debate.

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