Ash Crimson

"Oh, I've been ready... but are you? Are you ready to lose everything you got?"

- -Ash

"Sayonaraaaa~"

- Ash

Ash Crimson (アッシュ・クリムゾン, Asshu Kurimuzon) is the protagonist of the Ash Saga; his first appearance is in The King of Fighters 2003 as the leader of the New Hero Team. His official nickname is The Sneering Blaze.

About Ash
Ash Crimson is the mysterious new protagonist of the Ash saga who is in-between a villain and a hero. Feminine, attractive and possessing green flames with an unknown origin, his initial ways appear to be that of a complete villain for his obsession with stealing Kyo's, Iori's and Chizuru's powers, but the end of his journey remarks him as somewhat of a worthy hero by erasing himself from existence which showed his true colors as to why he did everything he did in the saga.

Childhood
Ash was raised in France and belonged to a royal family. He soon lived with another royal family with a childhood friend known as Elisabeth Blanctorche.

Ash spent much of his early life with Elisabeth. At an unknown age, years later he left the Blanctorche family and their teachings for reasons still not entirely divulged.

KOF '03
At age sixteen, Ash entered the 2003 King of Fighters tournament alongside other fighters known as Shen Woo and Duo Lon, his allies and friends. Ash's team does not win the tournament however, as Shen Woo and Duo Lon leave Ash to settle with their own vendettas.

However, in secret, Ash followed suit to the winners of the 2003 King of Fighters tournament, which was K's team. After K's team fought Mukai--the final boss of KOF '03 who was a seemingly ancient rock-like humanoid beast, Kyo, Chiziru, and Iori left their teams and partnered up together after sensing the Orochi energy in the Orochi seal leak, which unknown to them was because of Mukai fighting against K' and his teammates in the Orochi seal itself.

As they arrived and tried to investigate the scene, Chizuru was suddenly down for the count by a surprise attack from Ash. It appeared that not only Ash wounded her heavily, but he stole her Yata Mirror from her own body--which is her personal clan gem that allows her to use her powers. Ash absorbs this and easily gains the power of the Yata Clan, allowing him to use their teleportation and power sealing abilities. Kyo and Iori noticed this, as Iori was surprised but stayed quiet, silently furious--while Kyo was extremely furious at Ash and had no idea who he was, although neither did Chizuru or Iori.

Kyo vowed to revenge Chizuru and hurt Ash in unimaginable ways, in which Ash simply teased him and left abruptly. Ash was now considered a major threat to Kyo and Iori and other people related to them as allies.

Chizuru survived, but personally felt she could no longer fight now that she had lost her powers.

KOF XI
Two years later in the King of Fighters XI, he enters the tournament with Shen again, but with a new teammate known as Oswald. Ash requested for Oswald to join the tournament based on rumors he heard about him. Since neither knew much about the other, the conditions for joining the team was decided in a poker game; the winner would choose to do what they pleased. Despite having a winning hand, Oswald recognizes Ash's skill and accepts defeat - he introduces himself to his teammates then.

They do not end up as winners of the team in KOF XI, however, some time after the tournament's grand finish--Ash told Oswald that Shen Woo is the one he requested to assassinate for unknown reasons, in which Oswald accepts the offer, soon encountering Shen and dealing with him at that time.

Ash leaves soon after, finding Kyo and Shingo struggling against the fight against Iori in an abandoned rainy city who has transformed into his uncontrollable Orochi form after feeling Orochi's strong presence for reasons unknown. Orochi Iori easily had the upper hand and knocked out Shingo completely in a few moves while Kyo was trying to protect him--while he was nearly about to kill Kyo, who was now unconscious as well. However, Orochi Iori was suddenly paralyzed by a surprise attack. Ash appears behind him and appeared to be the one who did this. Ash then opens up his hand which is revealed to have the Yasakani Jewel, the Yagami clan's personal gem that allows them to use their powers. He then closes his hand and absorbs it into himself.

Because his own powers were stolen that rendered his Orochi form useless, Iori fell down on one knee and reverted right back to his normal form, before falling down unconscious completely. Shingo slowly regained consciousness and saw Kyo and Iori defeated, while Ash appeared and briefly sat next to him, telling him that a wisp of mercy saved him. Ash then leaves, as Shingo falls unconscious soon after.

As Ash appears in the tournament to leave, Elisabeth and her team appear before him. She accuses Ash of "abandoning their mission" and fighting for personal gain. Ash simply intimidates her friend with his new purple Yagami flames, telling them he is very satisfied and warns them that Kyo is next--before teleporting away.

Ash continues to keep Iori and Chizuru's powers for five years.

KOF XIII
Prior to the KOF XIII tournament, Ash openly joins Those From the Past, the true antagonists of KOF XIII and essentially prior to that-the final part in the Ash Saga. They are led by Ash's distant ancestor, Saiki, who is the leader and the western emissary of Gaia. They seek to awaken Orochi for their own means, and to do this they must open a ceremony to open a direct doorway to go back in time and eradicate any significant enemies that would become major threats, then proceed to awaken Orochi and use him for their own means. Ash has completely disbanded himself from any ally, even his own true friend Elisabeth.

Ash individually fights in the KOF XIII tournament. Team Japan wins the tournament, but after they do, every KOF team member gathers to encounter Saiki, as the entire KOF XIII tournament is laid to absolute waste and only the rose gate remains. Saiki and his members fight against Kyo, Benimaru and Goro. As it comes to an intense draw, Saiki suddenly notices instead of the gate opening, it is closing. Saiki is very concerned about this, and is suspicious of his loyal subordinate Botan who is scared to her core, but does not show any of her fear. Saiki's eyes then suddenly brighten to a dark red.

However, before Saiki can act, Botan's expression becomes shocked, and Saiki's own bodily energy is stolen right before his ancestor Ash, and his soul is utterly crushed as well.

Ash taunts him as Saiki quickly dies with only expressing extreme anger at the sudden kill, feeling his life essence fade away. Ash happily absorbs Saiki's power without hesitation, as he shows his new dark fire from Saiki.

The Final Battle
However, as Ash enjoys this and Botan is horrified--Ash's body suddenly goes boldly paralyzed, muttering what had just happened, and his eyes grow large and soulless. His eyes then roll over as his body is suddenly covered in a black, evil energy mass that consumes his entire body. It is revealed Saiki's essence and soul was able to take a physical form and outright stole Ash's body--merging the two together to form Evil Ash.

Saiki has complete control over Ash's body. He uses Ash as his body and voice, while Saik uses his own powers to attack.

The rose gate is completely frozen in time and the world has faded to white. All fighters are forced to fight Saiki to save the world and time itself.

Erased from Existence - Greatest Sacrifice
At the end of the fight, Evil Ash has more than enough energy to continue fighting while everyone is tired out and exhausted. However, Ash shockingly manages to take control over his own possessed body, in which Saiki is shocked by this sudden hold. In a last struggle, Saiki uses all of his power to release a final time wave, freezing all fighters in time but at the cost of the rose gate continuing to close.

This time wave defuses Saiki and Ash, as Saiki's dark presence morphs into his physical body while Ash's body is freed from Saiki's dark energy. Saiki calmly pleads Ash for him to cross the gate so that they can retry all of their plans once more. This implies that Saiki forgave Ash for a strange reason for absorbing his powers--while Ash made it clear he betrayed him because he wanted to take down Those From the Past themselves in a clever way, and deserves the consequence of the gate closing anyhow from the unfair and terrible thing's he's done.

Saiki refuses this, but becomes furious as the gate is almost about to close. At this point, he screams at the top of his lungs for Ash to enter--but to no avail, the rose gate promptly closes. Because the rose gate is connected to Saiki, Saiki realizes that he will no longer exist... but because of this, Ash will not exist either. Saiki screams in defiance and absolute horror, as he feels his body being promptly reduced to particles from bottom to top, as the particles then cease to nothing.

Ash watches Saiki cease from existence with an emotionless and cold expression, but he quickly takes the moment to unfreeze Elisabeth to allow her speak to him. Ash tells her that he's solved the main problem and that Those From the Past have been stopped.

It is revealed Ash's entire plan in the Ash Saga was to stop Those From the past to affect time and the fate of humanity, and he wanted to do this alone. While it is unknown why he stole Iori and Chizuru's powers (and wanting to steal Kyo's but failed to) whether for personal gain or some other reason, it can be assumed he did this so that he could be more than enough to Those from The Past.

Ash spends his last moments with Elisabeth, telling her he was sorry for what had happened and why it lead to this, and heavily regrets it. Elisabeth watches and listens to him in tears, but she refuses that he has to go. Ash sadly smiles as his body is quickly reduced to particles--and the particles themselves then reduce to nothing.

Ash is erased from existence.

However, Ash managed to discard the Yata Mirror and Yasakani Jewl left for Iori and Chizuru to reclaim.

Coming Back
The King of Fighters XIV reveals that Ash's last act distorted space-time and led to the creation of Verse (and indirectly, Shun'ei) which harnesses Ash's soul within itself. After Verse's defeat, Ash's soul is released and is founded by Kukri and Elisabeth on Carpathian Mountains in Ukraine.

Appearance
Ash has light blonde hair with a red braid--in which his hair covers a large portion of his right eye. His eyes are a diamond blue and has pale skin. He stands at 5'10 and has a pretty slim, somewhat muscular body. He also has freckles.

Ash's clothing consists of a scarlet, tight feminine leather outfit with blood red flame designs over it. He has multiple zippers across his outfit and possesses a leather zipper jacket with sleeves in the same colors. The zipper crosses uniquely in a different direction.

He wears a long studded black belt which hangs out, and wears black sleeveless gloves and white shoes. His nails are black with white designs over it.

Ash is considered physically attractive and very feminine. He can be easily mistaken for a woman because of his feminine design.

Personality
Ash is a cunning, self righteous, and flamboyant individual. Confident in his own powers, he doesn't take things too seriously and considers things that are of no interest bothersome. Even when faced with serious situations, he is calm and somewhat blasé.

He isn't one who considers working with others, but instead uses others to achieve his goals. He tends to flaunt the superiority of his halfhearted effort and speaks in a playful and condescending manner, which often irritates the characters he is speaking to. Ash doesn't like to feel insulted or irritated himself by other characters, and will either tell them to get out of his way or fight them directly.

He views Elisabeth as his older sister figure, and notes that she is "too serious". He feels that Duo Lon and Shen Woo are his good friends, although he appeared to them with mysterious intentions. He also has a habit of calling people pet names such as "Betty" for Elisabeth, and "Ozzy" for Oswald.

Abilities

 * -|Ash= Ash Crimson
 * Combat - Ash is capable of combat.
 * Custom Fighting Style - Ash fights using an acrobatic style combined with fire abilities to give a graceful fighting style.
 * Enhanced Strength - Ash is much stronger than the average human.
 * Enhanced Speed - Ash is much faster than the average human.
 * Green Pyrokinesis - Ash can generate green flames in which he has full control of. They usually look like melted wax. The origins of Ash's flames are still unknown to this day.
 * Power Absorption - Ash can absorb and steal the powers of seemingly anyone he chooses. He always uses this ability in secret or when his target is in a very dire situation. To use, his hand glows white and he must physically touch his target to absorb any of their powers he desires.
 * Post-Mortem Power Absorption - Ash can kill people in the process of absorbing their powers, evident with Saiki being killed quickly once Ash absorbed his powers.

Former Powers

 * Yata Teleportation - Because he absorbed Chizuru's powers, he was able to use her clan's power to teleport. When he teleports, his body becomes a bright blue. This power was returned to Chizuru after he was erased.
 * Yata Limited Power Sealing - Because he absorbed Chizuru's powers, he was able to use her clan's power to briefly seal anyone's powers for a short time. This power was returned to Chizuru after he was erased.
 * Yagami Pyrokinesis - Because he absorbed Iori's powers, he was able to use his clan's power to generate and have full control over their Orochi flames. Just like any member of the Yagami clan, sometimes the fire will rarely become the original crimson flames from the Yagami's clans presence before they made a blood pact with Orochi--and just like Iori, Ash cannot do this intentionally. This power was returned to Iori after he was erased.

Evil Forms
Evil Ash is the result of Saiki's soul's presence taking over Ash's body completely and using him as a host, essentially merging the two together to form Evil Ash.
 * -|Evil Ash= Evil Ash

Evil Ash's hair has completely faded to white, and his formerly scarlet leather outfit has faded to a complete black. He is covered in a constant dark and sinister evil aura. His skin paled to gray and the diamond blue eyes from Ash's body was kept. However, sometimes he may exhibit black eyes, or no eyes at all.
 * Combat - Ash is capable of combat.
 * Ash's Fighting Style - Evil Ash still fights using an acrobatic style combined with fire abilities to give a graceful fighting style.
 * Supernatural Strength - His strength is now combined from Saiki and Ash, allowing him to massive aircrafts.
 * Supernatural Speed - His speed is now combined from Saiki and Ash, moving slightly above the speed of sound.
 * Saiki's Fighting Style - Because Saiki's essence takes control over Ash's body, Evil Ash possesses Saiki's fighting style.
 * Combined Fighting Style - Because he possesses both Saiki's and Ash's fighting style, he combines them both to use this as his main fighting style.
 * Umbra-Pyrokinesis - Because Saiki has this ability, Evil Ash can use his dark flames. It is noted that Evil Ash's dark flames could be a fusion of Iori's, Ash's, and Saiki's, resulting in a dark flame that is many times stronger than the three's flames individually.
 * Umbra-Ergokinesis - Because Saiki has this ability, Evil Ash keeps this ability.
 * Power Absorption - Because both users have power absorption, Evil Ash keeps this ability.
 * Post-Mortem Power Absorption - Because Ash possesses this, Evil Ash does as well.
 * Umbra-Geokinesis - Because Saiki killed Mukai and absorbed his powers and his darkness taints this stolen ability, Evil Ash keeps this ability.
 * Umbra-Yata Teleportation - Because Ash still possessed Chizuru's powers and Saiki's dark energy tainting it, he keeps this ability. When he teleports, his body is a black mass of dark evil energy.
 * Yata Limited Power Sealing - Because Ash still possessed Chizuru's powers, he keeps this ability.
 * Chronokinesis - Because Saiki could manipulate time by stopping it, slowing it and fast forwarding it, Evil Ash keeps this as well.
 * Automatic Time Stop Presence - When Evil Ash was born, time completely stopped at will. Although, those nearby him are unfazed by this ability.
 * Automatic Pocket Dimension Presence - When Evil Ash was born, not only did time stop but a pocket dimension was created by the entire area around the KOF fighters brightening to white.

Trivia

 * It's been noted Ash appears feminine because the designers for Ash chose the latest KOF protagonist to be radically different than Kyo, Iori and K' and the feminine look was deemed favorable.