Eijiro Kirishima

Sharp teeth and red eyes angled slightly inward sit on a face marked by a little scar over the right brow. Eijiro is average in height but carries muscle well beyond his years, and gel holds his dyed red hair out from his scalp in every direction, with heavier tufts near his forehead like stubby horns.

At Mustafa Private Middle School none of that applied: black hair hung loose near his shoulders, and the change came soon after U.A. accepted him.

His hero costume leaves the chest bare under two gear-shaped shoulder pads in deep red, one tied by a jagged sash to a belt whose center holds a lighter red "R" for Red Riot. Baggy black pants, a ragged-hemmed half cape and dark red boots finish it, while a wired guard mask runs from hairline to jaw with fanged spikes near the mouth, landing close to an oni. Black sleeves arrived before the Provisional Hero License Exam so civilians would not be cut on his Quirk. The timeskip leaves him taller and thicker, with a white-furred cape added over the darker one.

Loud and open, Eijiro sorts the world by what he calls manly and unmanly. Bravery or stubborn decency can move him to tears and win his admiration outright, while cowardice and dirty tactics get named for what they are. He is selfless to the point of recklessness, and he takes both his values and his hero name from Crimson Riot, a retro hero he idolizes.

A code of chivalry built around never having to regret anything filters his honesty and warmth, making friends of nearly everyone he meets. Loyalty runs far enough that he will break rules to reach someone in trouble, and he punishes himself when things go wrong. The upside is relentless self-improvement: early impulsiveness and poor grades both gave way to someone steadier and sharper.

Hardening, by his own estimation, is a dull Quirk lacking the flash Pro Heroes get, and meeting anyone with something similar offends him. Much of that doubt traces to junior high, when he watched Mina Ashido stop a bullying while he froze. A recorded interview with Crimson Riot handed him the perspective he needed, and U.A. became the place to start over as Red Riot. He is no hot-blooded competitor like Katsuki Bakugo, yet measures himself against him without flinching, which makes Eijiro one of the rare people Katsuki respects.

Overall Abilities: Second at the U.A. Entrance Exam and eighth in the Quirk Apprehension Test, he marked himself early. Hardening lets him fight headlong, absorbing whatever lands and answering it, and with the Quirk up even bullets fail to break his skin, so he can stand as cover for allies or for civilians with nowhere to go.

Facing Tetsutetsu Tetsutetsu at the Sports Festival produced a draw, the two too alike to separate, and their arm-wrestling tiebreaker stayed locked until a shortage of iron drained Tetsutetsu's Steel. Against Katsuki he held one of the class's strongest on the back foot before his Quirk thinned out and cost him the match. In the Shie Hassaikai Raid, a single punch from Kendo Rappa removed him from most of the duel, yet he returned to weather the barrage far better, earning a rematch request from the brawler afterward.

Enhanced Durability: Katsuki noted that surviving point-blank explosions owed something to more than armored skin, so the Quirk amplifies a body already resilient.

Quirk: Hardening: Any part of his body, or all of it, turns rigid and sharp, his flesh going rocky and jagged. Damage accumulates against a ceiling, after which the Quirk falls away and holding it up drains him, though he showed against Kendo that he could refortify mid-fight. Hardened, he has shrugged off gunfire, Trigger-boosted blades, Dabi's Blueflame and a swipe from Gigantomachia, while his strength rises enough to drive fingers through concrete.

Ultimate Moves: Red Counter absorbs a close-range hit and returns a straight punch. Unbreakable pushes the Quirk to maximum for thirty to forty seconds, shrugging off nearly all physical attacks. Red Gauntlet charges into one heavy punch to the gut.