Yūichirō Kurono

is a Third Generation associate of Haijima Industries.

Personality
Kurono is a stern and confident individual, implied to wishing to meet his end by a powerful person. Despite that, he is fixated on the weakness of others. Which is implied to be a means of measuring his own strength. He enjoys provoking the week into fights and will dismiss the orders of his superiors because he is more powerful than everyone around him. According to Victor Licht as 'The Craziest', in contrast to Benimaru's status as 'The Strongest'. These traits result in him underestimating strong opponents and showing confusion when they display anything other a weakness.

Appearance
Kurono is a tall man with dark coloured hair, very angular eyes with light pupils. His right arm as blackened an charred as the result of overheating his body, which he typically wraps in bandages. His attire consists of a collared shirt, long dark pants, and a belt which has a skull for a buckle.

Abilites
Kurono excels in hand-to-hand combat, he is capable of quick movement and powerful strikes. His overall power is viewed as equal to Benimaru Shinmon and he would be able to join any combat-focused group he wished. Using his Ignition Ability, Kurono can emit smoke and flames from his Ash Disease affected arm. With the smoke, he can manipulate its structure to manifest weapons such as knives and kunai. He is also capable to raising the temperature of a cold room to over 130 degrees and can sense movement with the smoke.

History
While Kurono was being held at Haijima Industries to be treated for his Tephrosis, he encountered a young Shinra Kusakabe, who viewed him as an evil person. Despite being capable of joining any Fire Force company, he chose to stay at Haijima Industries, with others saying he's waiting for his own destruction.

Haijima Industries arc
At Haijima Industries, Kuruno prepares Nataku for their third combat test against each other. Telling Nataku to show him his power, the boy attacks Kurono but is effortlessly defeated. Bring instructed to stop the fight, Kurono wraps his arm back in bandages. Getting into an altercation with a worker who watched the fight, Kurono calls him weak while choking him until his peer de-escalates the situation.

Being aware that Shinra was visiting the facility soon, he questions if the boy will be his opponent in the next experiment. Upon Shinra's arrival, Kurono faces Shinra in another combat test, during which he overwhelms him using his smoke control. When instructed to stop by the researchers, Kurono defies orders by using blocking their view, increasing the room temperature and continuing his battle.