Keigo Kurusu

Keigo Kurusu (来須 圭悟, Kurusu Keigo) is the Fourth diary owner, and initially introduced as an ally to Yukiteru Amano and Yuno Gasai. As the Chief Inspector of Sakurami City's police force, Kurusu uses his "Criminal Investigation Diary" to predict the crimes that he will investigate, using its power to identify other diary owners.

Appareance And Personality
Keigo is a man of about thirty, with shoulder-length black hair, a bit of stubble on his chin, and green eyes (grey in the anime).

Calm, cool and collected, Kurusu often acts laid-back, calmly challenging Minene Uryu when she bombs Sakurami Elementary School; this gives Yuki the confidence to face Minene himself. As his line of work brings him into conflict with often violent suspects, he strives to anticipate their actions and use their own personality quirks against them while preparing himself for the potential consequences or dangers to himself and his allies.

Initially, Kurusu has no interest in the title of God; his participation in the Survival Game is an effort to stop the murders that will occur if it continues. He makes an effort to recruit some of the other diary holders into his cause, but his main goal is to capture the ones too dangerous to be left roaming free. He was chosen by Deus to balance out the many criminals and maniacs that are also taking part in the game.

Kurusu is also a family man with deep attachments to his wife and son, almost to a fault. When he learns that his son has a terminal illness, he becomes wholly dedicated to winning the Survival Game in hopes of saving him; this leads to him becoming desperate and angry, taking increasingly drastic and illegal measures to eliminate the other diary holders. The loss of his morals leads to his defeat, but also awakens him to how far he has fallen; in his last moments, he can only ask his former allies to look after his family before he erases himself from existence.

Diary & Abilities
Kurusu uses the Criminal Investigation Diary, a cell phone which predicts criminal activities within his jurisdiction. This is an effective way to track many of the other participants, as they are mostly sociopaths who engage in multiple criminal activities during the Survival Game. However, the diary can only predict the results of Kurusu's own investigation, so he must work to make the best use of the information he can gather.

Being the Chief of Police of Sakurami City, Kurusu has absolute command of the police force. The fact they can fight for him without knowing of his Diary and his participation of the game implies he's a very cautious and manipulative individual if needed. He takes no chances if he can help it, once deploying an entire team of special units (SWATs in the manga & anime) to surround the Sakurami Hospital and almost trap Yuki, Yuno and Minene Uryu.

Kurusu also is an expert marksman and can shoot targets with incredible precision. During Minene Uryu's attack on Yuki and Yuno's school, he was capable of shooting at the terrorist with enough precision to keep her at bay without killing her (which would trigger bombs that would blow up the entire school). He also is fairly cautious and wears a bulletproof vest at all times.

Deus and Muru Muru consider Kurusu to be one of the favorites to win the Survival Game.

The Attack of The Ninth
Kurusu was investigating Takao Hiyama and Minene Uryu's crimes before receiving his diary from Muru Muru. After Hiyama's death, Kurusu turned his attention to Yukiteru, knowing Minene would target him next. In the first meeting of the diary owners, Kurusu was one of the few who didn't immediately target Yukiteru as a priority threat, instead promising to protect him.

During Minene's rampage at Sakurami Elementary School, Kurusu listened in on her demands and learnt of all of her weapons through his diary. As Yuki was surrendered to her by the students, Kurusu made his move and approached Minene and Yukiteru, introducing himself to the First and explaining the boy was merely bait used by Minene to lure him in. Kurusu aims his gun at Yukiteru when Minene threatens to kill everyone in the school, Yuki tearfully accepting his fate to die.



However, Kurusu lowers his gun and tells Yuki to pluck up his courage and stop Minene, advising him to cover up his fear and anxiety with a smile. Yuki follows Kurusu's guidance and manages to defeat Minene by puncturing her eye. Kurusu tells to Minene to surrender, but she uses smoke bombs and her Escape Diary to flee on a motorbike. Later, Kurusu admits he does not wish to play the game; he only wishes to stop the other diary holders from harming each other and innocent people. To this end, he forms an alliance with Yukiteru and Yuno, knowing that the other Survival Game participants will be coming for them.

Kurusu sends Yuki and Yuno on a date to the amusement park so they can act as bait to lure out Minene. However, she does not show and the two go to Yuno's house unharmed. Kurusu has a police guard Yuki's house, noticing a drastic change in his Criminal Investigation Diary after Yukiteru opened a secret door in Yuno's house.

The Cult of The Sixth
The day after Yukiteru retreats to his house after seeing the corpses in Yuno's house, Kurusu appears at his house with Yuno. He explains Minene was captured the previous night by the Sacred Eye religion, led by the priestess Tsubaki Kasugano.

Upon arrival at the temple, Kurusu is shocked when he learns Tsubaki is a diary owner and considers calling for backup before Tsubaki explains that she does not wish to participate in the Survival Game. When Tsubaki reveals she has a Dead End on her diary, Kurusu supports her request to have Yukiteru guard her until her Dead End passes. When Ai Mikami and Orin Miyashiro try to assassinate Tsubaki with an explosion, Kurusu races into the depths of the temple to repair the faulty sprinkler systems. He succeeds and calls for backup, learning from Yuki of the situation upstairs.

Kurusu eventually finds Minene in the temple's dungeon, who tells him about the Twelfth diary holder, Yomotsu Hirasaka, and his powers of hypnosis. When Yuno kills Yomotsu and Tsubaki reveals her true intentions, Kurusu and Minene observe this from a rooftop and form an alliance; Kurusu will give Minene access to police files in return for aiding him in finding other diary owners. Minene is allowed to escape and Kurusu takes control of the temple after Yuki kills Tsubaki. Kurusu and Minene keep in touch over the next few weeks, with Kurusu contacting Minene to rescue Yuki and Yuno from the Fifth diary owner Reisuke Houjou.

The Fourth's Betrayal
Following the death of the Fifth, Kurusu learned that his son Yoi has a terminal heart disease and will die within three months. Distraught by the news, Kurusu decides to claim the power of God in order to save his son, betraying his alliances in the process. Unbeknownst to the Fourth, this was a drastic deviation from Deus's plan for the Survival Game, devised by Muru Muru as part of her own agenda.

Asking Minene to protect Yoi in case anything happens to him, Kurusu investigates the culprit behind the recent animal attacks, identifying him as the Tenth diary owner, Karyuudo Tsukishima. While the dog breeder was monitoring his daughter's battle against Yukiteru, Yuno, and their friends, Kurusu breaks into Karyuudo's house and shoots him in the back.

Framed for Karyuudo's death, Yukiteru and Yuno are taken to the police station for interrogation by his subordinate, Masumi Nishijima. Yukiteru is sent into a room with Kurusu, who quickly forces him into a game of Russian Roulette rigged to kill Yukiteru with the last bullet. Foreseeing this on her own diary, Yuno soon barges in to protect Yukiteru, shooting Kurusu multiple times before fleeing with the First; however, this was all part of the Fourth's plan. He had deliberately orchestrated the entire encounter to further implicate Yuno and Yukiteru, having worn a bulletproof vest to protect him from Yuno's retaliation; unfortunately, he hadn't expected Yuno to shoot at his head in the process. Narrowly surviving with his left ear blown off, Kurusu issues a manhunt for Yuki and Yuno, putting Minene on alert.

During their flight from the law, Yukiteru and Yuno coincidentally spot Kurusu's wife, who they met previously at a bridal fair, on her way to visit Yoi in a hospital. The pair are caught by Minene, but Yuki accidentally sets off bombs which alert Kurusu to their location. Now with most of his head bandaged, Kurusu calls Minene and threatens to kill her unless she co-operates, prompting Minene to abandon Kurusu and form a new alliance with Yukiteru and Yuno, capturing his wife and son as her trump card.

However, Kurusu refuses to negotiate with her and sends in a SWAT team to capture Yuki, trailing behind to kill the First personally. Yuno charges in and shoots the entire SWAT team before threatening to kill Kurusu using a grenade given to Yukiteru by Minene. Kurusu lets Yuki go, but Yuno grabs him to detonate the grenade and take them both out; however, it fails as the bomb was actually a flash grenade. After recovering from the blast and a subsequent explosion caused by Minene. Kurusu confronts Yuki, beating him up before holding Yuno at knifepoint. Yuki raises a gun, with Kurusu daring him to shoot, warning him that he'll likely shoot Yuno instead. To his surprise, Yukiteru manages to miss Yuno with his shot, hitting Kurusu in the stomach.

Despite his injuries, Kurusu struggles to his feet in an effort to kill Yuno, only for Minene and Nishijima to enter. Nishijima calls Kurusu out for his criminal actions, having legitimate evidence to clear Yuki, Yuno and Minene of their crimes. (In the anime, Kurusu's conviction is extended when Minene reveals she recorded his original request to guard his son. She also mentions that he has been stripped of his rank as a police officer, negating the powers of his Criminal Investigation Diary.)

Realizing the error of his ways, Kurusu asks if his family were saved; Nishijima confirms they were evacuated before Minene's bomb exploded. He then asks Minene to make one last deal with him; continue guarding his son in exchange for his own life. Without even waiting for Minene's agreement, he snaps his diary in two, apologizing to Yukiteru for his actions and admitting that he was not expecting his final act to earn forgiveness. He tells Yuki to survive and win the game before the destruction of his diary erases him from existence.

After his demise, Kurusu was revealed to have left all of his investigative files to Nishijima, including the recovered diaries of those eliminated from the game.

The Final Battle
Kurusu is seen alive when Yuno, Muru Muru, Yuki and Minene perform a time leap to the new third world, arriving two years before the Survival Game was set to begin. Minene calls Kurusu on a public telephone, anonymously telling him of his son's future disease and advising him to get him treatment immediately. While surprised by the tip-off, Kurusu heads out to investigate a series of strange events: the disappearances of Yuno and Ushio Gasai, and reports of explosions at Sakurami Elementary School.



Accompanied by Nishijima and Saika Gasai, Kurusu arrives at the school, only to have to chase Mrs. Gasai inside when she spots her husband. When he caught up, he found the Gasai parents protecting their daughter from what appeared to be a second Yuno. Unsure what to make of the strange happenings around him, Kurusu confronts Yuno as she struggles to come to grips with her feelings for Yukiteru, eventually firing a bullet at her when she charged at him with a knife. His shot was blocked by the second world's Muru Muru, who arrived with Yukiteru in tow after breaking out of the illusion world Yuno had trapped them in. Kurusu watches in silent confusion as Yukiteru reunites with the aggressive Yuno, the latter's suicide in the former's arms, and Yukiteru and Muru Muru jumping into a time portal. Before he could ponder on what had transpired, Kurusu noticed another Muru Muru extracting a strange object from Yuno's body; he prepares to shoot her, only for a third Muru Muru to arrest her for her prior misdeeds. A hopelessly confused Kurusu can only watch as the Muru Murus disappear before his eyes.

Two years later, Kurusu's son is shown to have recovered from his illness and the family are seen among the happier characters in Sakurami City. In the anime, Kurusu, along his wife and son, are waiting for Nishijima to pick them up, but he's late.

Trivia

 * Kurusu is named after Mercury, the Roman god of messengers, merchants and travelers.
 * His surname Kurusu (来須) means "coming soon", relates strongly to his Roman god Mercury.
 * His first name Keigo (圭悟) means "the precious announcement", also based on Mercury.
 * Kurusu is the only diary holder besides Yukiteru and Yuno to kill another diary holder.
 * Kurusu's character theme song is "Running For Your Life" by Shoukichi Ishida.
 * Kurusu is implied to have placed third in the first world's Survival Game, due to the revelation of his son's illness and his subsequent betrayal of the "Future Alliance" happening much later.
 * In manga volume 3, there's a little block showing his email address is "kurusu-k@gmail.com".