Shinra Kusakabe

Shinra Kusakabe is the main protagonist of the manga Fire Brigade of Flames. He is a Third Generation Fire Officer at the Special 8th Fire Brigade of Tokyo. In training school, he was nicknamed Demon.

Appearance
Shinra is a young boy of average height with short and spiky dark brown hair, and glowing red eyes. He's first seen wearing a black suit over a white shirt, a pair of black trousers and black boots which burnt like many others when he ignited them to save Iris. He was later given a Bunker gear, which consists of a tank top buckled at the waist with a belt, which presses a middle part that's strapped to his shoulders, and dark colored shorts. Those are later topped by protective outer jacket and trousers, and finished with a helmet.

Personality
Shinra is energetic and confident, not hesitating to act immediately when the time calls for it and is very proud of his ambition of becoming a hero. However, Shinra suffers from nervous laughter, which is a real life condition where animals naturally grin or show their teeth when nervous, stressed, angered or uncomfortable. Such things as running into a schoolgirl even made him nervous and when he saved Iris from a falling object. He was quite easily made shaky by Akitaru Ōbi staring him in the face, and is naturally nervous around girls since he's been in training with males only for an extended period of time. Aside from this, he isn't easily agitated by other people's words and opinions on his ambitions, as demonstrated when Takehisa Hinawa asked if he wanted to become a hero just for his reputation.

Background
During his childhood, an event happened involving flames, which led to Shinra attempting to move to his grandmother. However, she thought of him as a monster, calling him a demon and saying he doesn't even realize what he has done. This occurrence led to Shinra being blamed, even though Shinra himself states that there was another "black shadow" beside his own shadow on that day.

It is also known that during his childhood, possibly prior to this event, he made a promise to his mother to become a hero, so that he could protect her and his little brother.

Plot
Shinra attempted to catch up with the train, which had already left the station, but, while on the move, he noticed that his foot was flaming up, which distracted Shinra, causing him to bump into a girl, who got scared way by the boy's creepy and awkward grin. Saddened that he was not able to use his powers to catch up with the train, Shinra, while in the train station, heard an alarm and noticed that the train was caught in flames, from which, a flaming creature appeared. As the boy readied himself to face the threat, a person announced that the Special 8th Fire Brigade had arrived to save the station. Told by Akitaru Ōbi to leave, the boy overlooked how the man handled the situation, impressed that the man was able to extinguish and kill the combustion human with low difficulty. When the lights started falling from the ceiling, straight at Iris, Shinra jumped in to save the woman, revealing his powers to the public and burning through his shoes in the process. When asked who he was by Takehisa, Shinra introduced himself as a Fire Officer, to be enrolled in the Special 8th Fire Brigade. Shinra later arrived at the Special 8th Fire Brigade Church, where he was given his own uniform, and met Akitaru, while also was formally introduced to Takehisa. The two superior Fire Officers then teased Shinra when they learned of his nervous laughter, and followed up with a question regarding why he decided to join the brigade, to which he replied that his ambition was to become a hero. A little bit later, Shinra met Maki Oze and was formally introduced to Iris. The boy got excited, having attention of two attractive girls, which was unusual for him in the past. Akitaru then delivered a talk regarding known information of the Human Body Ignition Phenomenon, which made Shinra recall his past and current ambition in the process. While in bed, Shinra recollected the "black shadow" that has wronged him in the past, but his train of thought got cut short when the sound of a siren signaled trouble. Maki ran into the boy's room, telling him to get ready and informing him of the situation in the process. Shinra, alongside the rest of the team, got into the Special Armored Fire Engine, nicknamed "Matchbox", and moved out, dedicated to become a hero and encouraged by Akitaru to do his best.

Powers and Abilities
Shinra is a Third Generation ignition user, able to kindle, control and utilize flames he generates to his own will. So far, he has only shown the ability to ignite fire on his feet, allowing him to run longer distances with much greater speed. The ashes he leaves on the floor in image of his footprints were noted to be called the "Demon's Footprints".

Trivia

 * "Shinra" (森羅) is derived from the Japanese word "shinrabanshō", which, when translated, can mean either "all creation" or "all things in nature".