Harold Stokes

Harold Stokes (ハロルド・ストークス Harorudo Sutōkusu) is the protagonist of the series, and one of the recurring antagonists in the JRPG game Brave Hearts. He is currently possessed by Kazuki Hirasawa, an ordinary university student from Japan.

Appearance
Harold has glossy black hair and red pupils. His face has the features found on people outside Japan and non-Asians. At age 10, he's roughly 140cm in height.

At the beginning of the story, he's often dressed in a pure white shirt with a cross-tie and knee-high half-pants. He's been described to be having the appearance which was exactly like a painting of a young boy coming from a distinguished and noble family.

Personality
In Brave Hearts, Harold is a ruthless and selfish person, with no regards for human lives, especially commoners, much like his parents. He is described to be heinous and arrogant, and a sore loser, as he repeatedly challenges the hero party despite getting defeated by them all three times. He is famously known for his foul mouth and his not very subtle superiority complex. Seeing most people as trash below himself.

However ever since Kazuki took over his body. His personality obviously changes due to him. Every foul thing, that the original Harold, would have done, instead turned into acts of kindness and compassion in accordance to Kazuki's good will. Though Harold's foul mouth was still present, much to his chagrin.

Despite his claims that everything he does was in order to avoid the appalling "Death Flag", he willingly helped others knowing that the ultimate future he knows of the game would be altered, further increasing the amount of uncertainties he had to face. First, he saved Clara Ameller, the maid the real Harold ended up killing on a whim. This event ends up altering the future of not only her but most importantly her daughter Collette, a future member of the Hero's Party. However he still had to relay the fact the he killed her and her daughter even though he didn't so as to not arouse suspicion from his family. Due to this he has been thought of in disdain and hatred by many. Even so he didn't care about what others thought of him as long as he was able to save someone.

His selfless nature was further emphasized when he saved the Sumeragi by providing them an antidote to the disease caused by the miasma affecting their territory. In addition to that he also gave them the LP (Life Potion) Farming Method which drastically turned their fortunes around due to its revolutionary innovation. This saved countless lives in their territory and made them greatly indebted to him. But for all of this to take effect he would need Tasuku, the head of the Sumeragi, to annul his engagement to Erica. The engagement was nothing but a political one since the Sumeragi family required support due to the problems they were facing, but now that there problems were almost nil, Harold requested for the annulment of the engagement. Moreover he made Erica hate him as much as possible by admitting to be guilty of the killing of his servant, although she later finds out that it was all a pretense. He didn't want her to be another flag which would bring his demise but his ulterior motive can be inferred to prevent her from marrying someone she isn't in love with and also most importantly for her to join up with the Hero's Party without any deviations from the game.

Abilities
As one of the bosses who repeatedly faced the hero party, Harold is immensely power, and in terms of pure stats is even better than the playable character - i.e. the heroes etc. He is only matched by strong boss characters on the level of Vincent - which means except for the final boss, there is no one stronger than him.

In the novels, he has shown to far surpass his game counterpart - though the special state he had gone through is still a little debatable (he has likely surpassed that as well).

Currently in the novel, he is the strongest character, though the final boss is still far stronger than him.


 * Super Speed: Harold is the fastest character in the game. Kazuki had even complained how hard it was to fight him as he would keep on stringing combos together, and due to his speed, it was very hard to dodge them. In the novel, he is even faster than his game counterpart, due to his training and his higher level. It has been stated by the author that no character - other than Vincent - can react to Harold's speed.
 * Combat Sense: Harold is naturally gifted and very talented. He is as, maybe even more, talented that the knight leader, Vincent, who was stated to be the strongest knight in the history of the order. Though, Kazuki can't fully utilize Harold's true instincts as he is a normal person, until he got his "switch" and truly got over his fear of death, and started risking his life.
 * Super Strength: Harold also has displayed great feat of strength as well. Even when he was just 13, he has shown to be able to bend steel bars of the prison he was in. And in a duel between Francis, with just a single kick, he had made Francis fly 10 meters in the air.
 * Artillery Kick: An ability from the game which Harold, or more accurately Kazuki, was able to replicate. Its an ability for chaining up multiple combos but instead it was made into his own skill. A kick with the strength to shatter even the strongest of objects, hence its name.
 * Dexterity: Harold has shown to be able to manage his speed with ease, he can accurately move at supersonic speeds fairly easily. He has also shown to able to do complicated movements with ease, especially using his air dash to move through the air.
 * Air Dash: One of Harold's signature move. When Harold uses it, he makes an invisible scaffold in the air through mana and jumps from it. Using it Harold has comboed over 100 attacks in mere seconds while fighting Vincent.
 * Swordsmanship: Harold is very proficient in swordsmanship, his only equal being Vincent. Even with self-training, he has shown that he could easily surpass his family's guard in swordsmanship. And when he was just 13, he was even better than the average knight in the order.
 * Switch: Though it is called a "switch", it probably more accurate to call some sort of mental manipulation. Using this, Kazuki "awakens" the true Harold within him. Using it, he becomes more foul mouthed and also gains the true instincts and skills of the true Harold. This allows Kazuki to use his skills and abilities to the fullest, and he also gets stronger if he fights a stronger enemy.
 * Dual Wielding: Unlike in the games, novel Harold dual wields. The reason for that is his position as Justus' Assistant. He uses his Jade Sword (It doesn't have a name, so sorry!) and his black sword. Due to his swordsmanship skill and Harold's instincts, and Kazuki's determination to train for 12 hours straight, he is very proficient at dual wielding.
 * Magic: Harold is very proficient with magic. In the novel, he is probably the strongest mage - until the final boss shows up - as he has surpassed Erica - who is the strongest mage and the strongest member of the hero's party. Kazuki, in his spare time, has trained with every single magic skill in the game and states that the knows every single ability of Harold Stokes and the rest of the heroes party. He has also made his own original Technique.
 * Elemental Magic: Harold can use all elements in the game, although he is still the most skilled with lightning magic.
 * Healing: Harold is shown to be also proficient in the use of healing magic, he even stated that his healing was above Erica's technique which was known to be one of the best in the game. He used it for the first time to heal Vincent after their fight concluded.
 * Bolt Lance: A spell which produces, as its name suggests, a lance made of lightning.
 * Thunder Bird: A spell that creates as its name entails, lightning with the shape of a bird which pierces and burns to cinders its target.
 * Swift Lightning: A weaker lightning spell compared to Bolt Lance.
 * Lightning Clash: This is Harold's strongest spell but due to its immense power, charging it was a long process and it was also difficult to handle. However when it is successfully casted, even the strongest of opponents would fall. This is the spell Harold used to ultimately take down Vincent, arguably the most powerful character besides himself in the story alongside Justus.
 * Fire Column: Spell which engulfs its target within a pillar of flame.
 * Aqua Slash: Spell which creates sharp blades of water.

Equipment/Weapons

 * Jade Sword: The experimental weapon made by Justus and also the reason that Harold hasn't been executed as a traitor to the kingdom as he was intended to be guinea pig which tested the effects of the sword. Unlike his other sword, which is just a plain black sword, this sword has a green jade or crystal above the handguard. By consuming the user's soul, in other words their lifespan, it substantially increases their strength but to even activate its effect, the user would need to have an ample amount of mana. As an example, Cody couldn't even activate the sword due to his lack of mana in comparison to Harold. (It is heavily implied in the novel) to tremendously boost the user's strength. However due to the special effect of this sword, Harold has used it sparingly, only in cases where he needs the fight to end as soon as possible. The word double-edged sword fits this weapon to a tee. Another additional effect this sword provided, much to the surprise of Harold, was its strange ability to nullify the brainwashed status of the people afflicted by Justus. Prime example of this effect was during the end of Harold's fight with Vincent. He struck Vincent right in his abdomen with the sword, sheathed obviously, and afterwards he slightly regained his memories and how he came to be like this. He further proved this by freeing Lilium and Ventus, the two Star tribe members whom had their emotions stripped by the cruel experimentation of Justus with the same technique.
 * Black Katana: Harold's secondary weapon which he utilizes most of the time due to his reluctance to shed more of his life force by using the Jade Sword provided by Justus.