Kite

About
Kite is a Dark Lord martial artist affiliated with the Kayblis Faction and a major antagonist in Rance Quest.

Prior to becoming a Dark Lord, Kite was a Human known as. Born in a small and peaceful village during the GI Era, Kite spent his early years living happily with his parents and older sister. Tragedy eventually struck Kite's family when his sister contracted Greening Disease, a terrible illness with no known cures that afflicts girls between the ages of 10 and 19 by turning their skin green and dooming them to die within 10 years. Out of fear of the disease spreading, Kite's parents sent his sister to live in Green Village, a closed community located on the outskirts of what would later become the Magic Kingdom of Zeth designed to quarantine girls suffering from the disease. Kite, then only five years old, made several attempts to travel to Green Village to visit his sister, but was caught by his parents each time and beaten as punishment. Believing his physical weakness to be the thing separating him from his beloved older sister, Kite abandoned his parents and set out into the world in order to train himself to become stronger.

During his training, Kite discovered that he possessed an affinity for martial arts, particularly kenpo. This great natural talent allowed him to quickly develop his skills through rigorous training until he was able to enter and win a high profile fighting tournament at the very young age of 15. Following his victory, Kite believed himself to have finally become strong enough to enter Green Village and reunite with his sister. Kite traveled to the isolated village alone, single-handedly fighting through the Monster-infested and maze-like forest it was hidden within, only to learn upon his arrival that his sister had long since passed away. As if to punctuate his trauma, Kite was unable to determine whether his sister had been killed by her disease or by one of the many monsters that routinely invaded the village, preventing him from even being able to properly grieve for her.

Heartbroken by the discovery, Kite became disgusted with the treatment of the girls who inhabited Green Village, and vowed to dedicate the rest of his life to protecting them in order to prevent them from suffering in the same way that his sister did. Using the prize money he obtained from the tournament, Kite bought the girls of the village food, supplies and medicine that was otherwise unavailable to them. Kite then entered several additional fighting tournaments, using all of the wealth that he amassed from his victories to support the village, hoping that he would be able to allow them to live more comfortable lives until a cure for the disease was discovered. All the while, he regularly patrolled the village's perimeter and fought off any monsters that attempted to enter it.

Over time, Kite successfully won every single organized fighting tournament available to him on The Continent. This caused him to become a legendary figure throughout the Human Realm, with many declaring him to be the single strongest man alive. Despite this praise, Kite remained cold towards the humans who lived outside of Green Village, seeing them only as selfish creatures who were content to abandon the girls to their misfortune rather than try and struggle to find them a cure. Eventually, he came to believe that humanity would never make the effort to cure greening disease, making him the only thing standing between the girls who had contracted it and complete misery. These beliefs caused Kite to venture into the Monster Realm and request for the Demon King Gi to transform him into a Dark Lord, hoping to increase his lifespan to allow him to continue protecting the denizens of Green Village for eternity. Likely due to Kite's outstanding strength, Gi accepted his request.

As a Dark Lord, Kite continued to visit, protect and provide for Green Village, though he rarely left the boundaries of the Monster Realm beyond this. On the rare occasions when he did enter human territories, Kite avoided causing any collateral damage, and only ever attacked humans who provoked him. At some point, he encountered the young martial artist Fletcher Modell, who had wandered into monster territory in the hope of encountering a strong opponent. Recognizing Kite for his legendary reputation as a human, Modell challenged him to a battle, which Kite agreed to. Despite possessing both enhanced physical abilities and an Invincibility Field due to being a Dark Lord, Kite ultimately found himself unable to defeat Modell, who utilized his supreme mastery of kenpo to redirect Kite's attacks back at him, allowing him to indirectly damage his opponent. While technically ending in a draw, this battle is recognized as one of only a handful of occasions when a human was ever able to successfully damage a Dark Lord, instantly causing Modell to become a legend.

In the year GI1015, Gi named Kurusu Miki, a human girl from an Alternate Dimension, as his successor, kidnapping her from her home in order to pass on his blood to her. Before Miki was able to fully awaken to the power of the Demon King, however, she was rescued by her boyfriend Ogawa Kentarou, who was able to temporarily stop her transformation through the use of Hirami Lemons. With Gi having allowed himself to be killed by Kentarou, and Miki refusing to accept the position of Demon King, the Monster Realm was left without a leader and thrown into a state of civil war. The war was fought between Hornet, Gi's daughter who desired to follow through with her father’s wishes and embrace Miki as the new leader of monsterkind, and the Elite Dark Lord Kayblis, who desired to become the Demon King himself and wage war against humanity. Despite holding no ill will towards Hornet, Kite chose to side with Kayblis due to his hatred of humankind, hoping that by making Kayblis Demon King he would be able to make it suffer in the same way that the girls of Green Village had.

During the events of Rance Quest, Kite was instructed by Kayblis to investigate Zeth in order to search for Camilla, an Elite Dark Lord and the object of his affections, who was defeated and sealed away during the fall of Zeth two years prior. The nation was placed into a state of tension by Kite's presence, as its lack of a means to combat him forced it to call for mass evacuation of the populated areas that he entered into, while Kite's own distaste for needless fighting caused him to avoid direct confrontation.

In the middle of his search, Kite had a chance encounter with the warrior Rance, who had been hired to assist the ranch owner Meg Makibano in gathering her animals to prepare for the evacuation. Against the warnings of his allies, Rance attempted to attack Kite, but was easily tossed aside due to having left the Dark Sword Chaos, his sole means of penetrating the invincibility field and damaging Dark Lords, at his residence in the Free City of Ice. Frustrated by his defeat, Rance set out to Ice to obtain Chaos, only to discover that the sword had been stolen by the self-styled hero of justice Matilda Mateury. With no way of damaging Kite, Rance was forced to temporarily abandon his effort to defeat the Dark Lord.

Eventually, Kite gave up his search for Camilla's location and began to exit Zeth, making one final stop at Green Village before returning to the Monster Realm. Upon leaving the village, he was ambushed by Rance, who had reclaimed ownership of Chaos over the course of his adventures and was now capable of damaging him. Despite being caught off guard, Kite's formidable strength and masterful martial skill allowed for him to defeat Rance. Rather than kill the loudmouthed adventurer, however, Kite decided to spare his life, leaving him with a simple warning to never attempt to enter Green Village again.

Some time later, Kite made a second visit to Green Village, where he was horrified to discover the diseased girls lying dead on the ground. Kite learned from one of the few girls who had not yet died that the village was visited by a man claiming to be the Health Minister of Zeth, who ordered for its residents to be poisoned to death in order to avoid having the disease spread. This revelation caused Kite to be pushed over the edge into a state of rage and despair, resulting in him losing all of his remaining restraint and viciously rampaging across Zeth. Through mysterious means, Kite's grief began to emanate throughout his surroundings, filling all who crossed his path with the same anguish as felt. The Light Army, led by General Alex Valse, attempted to impede his progress, but was quickly crushed by Kite's overwhelming power and its inability to conventionally damage him.

Unbeknownst to Kite, it was actually the mysterious organization Shepherds, not the Zethan government, that was responsible for poisoning Green Village as part of its leader Am Isuel's plan to spread despair across the Continent. Using the potent Curse Magic of the Kalar queen Pastel Kalar, Am intended to transmit Kite's pain throughout the world, corrupting the Souls of every living thing until they became fully polluted and incapable of entering the reincarnation cycle. Kite became a pawn of the dark conspiracy, unable to see through the great sorrow that mired his heart. With the Zeth military having no way of damaging Kite, Rance was once again called in to attempt to defeat him, this time encountering him within the Makibano family ranch. Before any fighting began, Kite was approached by Calory Mate, a former resident of Green Village who shared an exceptionally close relationship with him, who had met, befriended, and gotten cured of her disease by Rance shortly after his previous encounter with the Dark Lord. Calory attempted to reason with Kite, but was unable to awaken him from his frenzy, forcing the party to face him in combat.

Rance and his companions eventually succeeded in defeating Kite, reducing him to a Demonic Blood Soul. Upon examining his blood soul, Crook Mofus determined that Kite's Soul had reached 100% pollution, meaning that his personality had been completely eroded by his feelings of despair. Crook deduced Am's involvement with the incident from the context, and resolved to defeat her as soon as possible to ensure that nothing like it would ever occur again. Kite's blood soul was then taken into the custody of the AL Church, where it was sealed away.

In the years following Kite's defeat, Calory, the sole survivor of the destruction of Green Village, would periodically visit the former site of the community to mourn him and her other departed friends. During one such visit early on into the year LP0006, she encountered the king of Zeth Ragnarokarc Super Gandhi, who had also went to the village to pay his respects. Gandhi admitted to feeling immense regret over his inability to improve the circumstances of the victims of greening disease, and promised her that the centuries of suffering they had to endure would be remembered by history as one of the greatest tragedies to ever happen within Zeth.

Kite is briefly mentioned during the events of Rance X after Calory awakens in bed after recovering from an illness, mistaking Rance, who had spent the night watching over her in her delirious state, for him. Calory mentions Kite a second time if the Dark Lord Kesselring is recruited into the forces of the Dark Lord Extermination Squad, wherein she recounts Rance's role in curing her illness and subduing Kite while being interviewed to assess whether Rance was a good person or not. Calory begins to trail off in sadness after speaking Kite's name, causing Kesselring to encourage her to be happy; claiming that there was no greater way to honor his memory. In the non-canonical Kichikuou Rance, Kite assists the rest of the Kayblis Faction in decisively defeating Hornet and seizing control of the Monster Realm. After declaring war on the humans, Kayblis orders Kite, alongside Galtia, to invade the Human Realm through Zeth. If Kite is allowed to conquer Zeth palace, he will transform it into a fighting arena, where he forces conquered humans to fight against each other before publicly executing the losers, claiming to have turned the palace, a symbol of humanity's greed, into a place of punishment.

After fighting against Kite for an extended period of time, the Leazas Army will learn of his frequent visits to Green Village. If Rance chooses to visit Green Village after obtaining this information, he will inadvertently discover that human semen cures greening disease, leading to most of its population being cured. When Kite makes his next trip to the village, he is shocked to see that the disease has at last been cured. While Calory makes an effort to persuade him to come live with her, professing her love for him in the process, Kite declines, claiming that with greening disease finally cured he has no reason to remain in the world, after which he disappears, never to be seen by anyone ever again.

If Kite is killed in battle before Rance visits Green Village, he will be reduced to a demonic blood soul. Before dying, Kite will murmur Calory's name as an apology to her and the other girls of Green Village for being unable to continue protecting them.

Personality and Appearance
Kite has the appearance of a somewhat short man with an exaggeratedly muscular build, narrow eyes, tan skin and a bald head. Kite possesses a set of six red circular markings along his forehead, resembling the markings of a Buddhist monk. Kite's clothing consists of a tattered martial arts dogi, which he always wears wrapped around his waste. Upon becoming a Dark Lord, Kite's physique transformed into a rock-like substance, causing his already excessive muscularity to grow even further.

Kite is a generally polite and reserved man who prefers to avoid creating conflicts with others. Unlike the other members of the Kayblis Faction, who have no qualms with spreading destruction across the Continent, Kite generally avoids attacking others whenever possible, only doing so when he is first provoked. Kite is also perfectly willing to express respect and admiration for opponents who he believes are deserving of it. This respect was most notable during the War of the Factions, where Kite regularly apologized to the members of the Hornet Faction for having to fight against them.

Along with his courteousness, Kite is an incredibly compassionate person who holds a profound amount of sadness in his heart for the victims of greening disease. As his own older sister passed away as a result of the disease, Kite feels a particular amount of responsibility for the inhabitants of Green Village, all of whom suffer from both the disease and human society's poor methods of treating it. During his life as a human, Kite worked tirelessly to raise the funds to buy higher quality medicine and better living conditions for the girls of Green Village, and he continues to prioritize their protection above all else even after becoming a Dark Lord. Kite sees the older sister that he failed to protect within every girl that falls victim to greening disease, causing him to experience intense anguish whenever one of them succumbs to their illness.

Despite his honorable nature, Kite possesses an intense, irreconcilable hatred of all humans outside of Green Village. Believing greed and callous indifference, the two emotions responsible for the continued suffering of the victims of greening disease, to be traits inherent to humanity, Kite considers all humans to be detestable creatures deserving of nothing less than an agonizing death, and has completely disowned his previous identity as one as a result. While Kite is generally capable of keeping these strong feelings in check, his normal persona will disappear completely whenever he observes a human doing something that he perceives to be corrupt in front of him. In these instances, Kite enters into a state of rage-filled savagery that causes him to remorselessly attack all humans within his vicinity in order to punish them, often in monstrous and unthinkably cruel ways. Kite shows no restraint during these rampages, attacking women and children with the same level of viciousness as he does men.

Both Kite's love for the inhabitants of Green Village and his hatred of careless humans were tragically taken advantage of by the Shepherds, who, while posing as self-important government officials, poisoned the entirety of the village's population. Upon discovering each of the girls that he had sworn to protect dying miserably, seemingly as a direct result of the very kind of humans that he hated, Kite experienced a deep and uncontrollable level of despair which, in conjunction with the amplifying powers of Pastel Kalar's magic, caused his soul to achieve 100% pollution in a single instant. After reaching 100% soul pollution, Kite was completely stripped of his ego, causing him to become a mindless brute intent on destroying everything in his path. In this state, Kite was described as being closer to a natural disaster than a person by Crook Mofus, who claimed that no traces of his former personality remained.

While Kite was very close to all of the girls of Green Village, he had a particularly strong relationship with Calory Mate, a longtime sufferer of greening disease who had resided in the village for much of her life. Calory shared Kite's drive to protect her fellow villagers, practicing medical care in order to better tend to their needs and training under him to develop the survival skills needed to look out for their needs in his absence. Kite placed a great deal of trust in Calory as a result, believing her to be capable of taking his place while he was preoccupied with his duties as a Dark Lord. While Kite viewed his relationship with Calory as being entirely platonic, as he did with his relationships with all of Green Village's residents, Calory harbored strong romantic feelings for him, and desired for the two of them to live a happy life free of hardship together above all else.

After achieving 100% soul pollution, Kite's feelings for Calory, like the rest of his personality, completely disappeared, to the point of failing to recognize her at all even after being given a heartfelt plea to remember by her. Calory continues to mourn Kite, along with the other victims of the Green Village massacre, long after his death, recognizing that he was not himself during the time when he attacked her. Kite's legacy lives on through Calory, who continues to devote herself to the health and welfare of disadvantaged people all across the Continent.

Abilities
Kite is a very powerful Dark Lord who specializes in physical combat. He possesses a Level Cap of 170, giving him a high amount of potential even for a Dark Lord. Kite is listed as having reached Level 169 in Kichikuou Rance, making him one of the highest-leveled Dark Lords, but it is unclear if this is still considered to be the case in canon.

Prior to becoming a Dark Lord, Kite was a martial artist of global renown who achieved the status of a legend after refining both his body and fighting technique to peak condition. Possessing the Unarmed Combat Lv2 Skill Level, Kite has a natural talent for martial arts that allowed him to quickly and constantly improve his skills as a fighter from a very young age, as well as create several new and effective techniques in the process. By the end of his human life, Kite was recognized as the strongest man in all of humanity, and had won countless martial arts tournaments to support this claim. Kite's fighting style was revolutionary to the world of martial arts, with many of the skills utilized by contemporary martial artists, such as Patton Misnarge, being derived from techniques that he created.

Upon becoming a Dark Lord, Kite's skin turned into an extremely thick, rock-like substance, greatly increasing both his offensive and defensive capabilities in the process. Kite's punches are strong enough to shatter skulls with a single strike, while his skin is hard enough to shrug off swords as if it were an impenetrable coat of armor. Outside of his improved physical attributes, however, becoming a Dark Lord did not grant Kite any additional powers. While this causes Kite to appear to be somewhat plain and unimpressive when opposite the generally unique and fantastical abilities of the other Dark Lords, he is nonetheless still an individual who combines the technique of a legendary martial artist with the power of a Dark Lord, making him an incredibly dangerous opponent for even the strongest warriors. Kite's great strength was best shown during his first encounter with Rance, where he quickly beat the brutal warrior into submission in spite of Rance's possession of a weapon capable of damaging him and naturally outstanding strength.

Outside of his individual ability, Kite is instinctively followed by all members of the Kite Clone species of Guy Monster. The Kite Clones desire to emulate Kite as closely as possible, and often follow him into battle in order to better observe his technique. It is unclear if Kite's leadership over the Kite Clones is a result of his status as a Dark Lord or an entirely unrelated phenomenon.

Trivia

 * Kite came in 9th place in the "Males" category of the Rance Quest Popularity Poll.
 * Kite's name is used several times throughout the Rance Series spin-off game Nise Naguri Makuri Tower, where the second-strongest items in the hachimaki, knuckle, and boot equipment classes all bear his name. Patton, the game's protagonist, is also capable of learning a skill referred to as Kite's Secret Technique (カイトの奥義, kaito no ōgi), which redirects an enemy's attack back at them for twice the damage.
 * At just 168cm, Kite is one of the shortest adult male characters to ever appear in the Rance series.
 * Kite is the only Dark Lord known to have had a type of monster modeled after him.
 * Early concept artwork of Kite shows him with a completely different appearance, resembling a corrupt monk rather than a serious martial artist. This suggests that his character was at one point entirely different from its current incarnation during its early development.