Tasuku Kurosaki

Tasuku Kurosaki (黒崎 祐, Kurosaki Tasuku) is the 24-year-old main character of Dengeki Daisy. He's a school custodian at Teru's school, who forces her to become his "slave" after she accidentally breaks a school window. It is also later revealed that he is DAISY, the anonymous person who's been sending her emails through a phone that her brother gave Teru before he died.

Background
A 24-year-old young man working as the school janitor, Kurosaki is often depicted smoking, drinking, and participating in violent acts. Despite his outwardly unpleasant attitude, he cares deeply for Teru Kurebayashi, acting toward her with genuine kindness, and is extremely protective of her.

Teru is initially unaware that Kurosaki is also DAISY, a computer hacker who worked with her brother, Soichiro Kurebayashi, and has been entrusted with looking after her. Kurosaki has made it his mission to care for Teru on the request of his dying friend, Soichiro, though recently he has chosen to protect her as his true self also.

Appearance
Kurosaki is a tall, young man with blond hair, blue eyes, and a light skin tone. Teru's friends describe him as attractive; as a result, he is popular among female students though he dislikes the attention and only cares about Teru's opinion. Riko comments that when he was younger, Kurosaki resembled a "bishounen," which Teru finds difficult to believe given how rough looking he looks in the present. He often scowls and is effortlessly capable of intimidating most people.

Kurosaki's most distinctive trait is his blond hair. Some speculate that he dyes his hair, though he tells an inquiring teacher at Teru's school that it's natural while providing a slightly unlandish explanation. When Teru comments about why he bothers dyeing his hair as it makes him look like hoodlum, Kurosaki noncommittally remarks that is more troublesome not to dye it. Contradictorily, flashbacks to Kurosaki's childhood seem to imply that Kurosaki naturally has light hair. His hair becomes the subject of discrimination when a school teacher (Egawa) said that it made him look like a delinquent and that he should change it because he was now an adult.

Personality
Kurosaki is sarcastic, and doesn't generally display his emotions. He is often jokingly described as a pervert and a "lolicon" by his friends, as it is established among his closer companions that he has strong romantic feelings for Teru.

He becomes protective of Teru whenever something questionable happens, and occasionally loses control, such as when he suddenly embraces Teru after he had a nightmare about her brother, Soichiro, or when Teru is "kidnapped" by Masumi Takeda when they were shopping for cheesecake. Despite his strong feelings for her, Kurosaki believes that he has no right to love Teru as he is "the one that led her brother to his death." Throughout the manga he struggles between his feelings towards her and his own conflicting memories regarding his complicated past as a hacker. As DAISY, he's described as gentle and kind.

People usually comment that he's like a stereotypical tsundere, which is a Japanese character development process that describes a person who is initially cold and even hostile towards another person before gradually showing their warm side over time.

He is also shown throughout the manga to have a strong fear of horror, becoming frightened of scary movies and houses and easily getting scared in an abandoned building where a talking robotic anatomical model that Teru's brother built scared him.

Kurosaki is a somewhat picky eater, stating that he doesn't like things too spicy or too sour and prefers his curry sweet or mild spicy. He also doesn't like tomatoes or carrots, but likes potato salad, especially with ham and corn but not mandarin or apples. Kurosaki is a heavy smoker (his favourite brand of cigarettes is Phillip Morris) and drinker. He also seems to like to play mahjong online and make bets, and tends to hum when he is deep in thought.

Abilities
Kurosaki is seen as a skilled hacker, who has the abilities to crack into school databases, delete information, hack into Teru's phone, amongst other things. His abilities are notably high-level and most appears to be self-taught, given his lack of formal structured education from not completing secondary school. He is skilled enough as a computer programmer to serve as a work-ready computer engineer and previously worked alongside programmers including Soichiro Kurebayashi, Riko Onizuka, and Kazumasa Andou for three years. He is also the creator of Jack o'Frost, a computer virus.

Kurosaki's other skills include speaking proficient English, operating machinery such as chainsaws and lawn-mowers, cooking, and other miscellaneous skills required for a custodial worker. He is also primarily left-handed, though he is capable of using his right hand for tasks such as eating and writing when necessary. Having lived with Masuda for several years and working at Flower Garden, Kurosaki is a good cook, though he does not own cooking utensils as he considers cooking for himself bothersome. It is also believed that he has poor eyesight, as he occasionally wears glasses, but doesn't normally wear them in public because they don't fit his image.

Teru Kurebayashi
As DAISY, Kurosaki acts as Teru's guardian and secretly watches over her. In order to conceal his identity, his messages as DAISY are carefully constructed and stylistically different from his own way of communicating, though his words are completely sincere and supportive of Teru. Kurosaki is also protective of Teru and he often worries about her.

As himself, Kurosaki teases Teru to the point of bullying her, often making her do all his mundane work as the school janitor. However, his behavior is mostly to hide the fact that he is DAISY along with his true feelings toward her. Kurosaki does not deny the fact that he loves Teru to his friends, but understands that revealing those feelings would be potentially damaging to Teru, as well as his relationship to her as DAISY.

Nearing the end of the M-Testament arc, Kurosaki confesses to Teru on her birthday, making their relationship official. However, this made them more cautious of how they'd act around each other under the public's eye. (Chapter 68: I decided to be Happy/ Teru's birthday)

Riko Onizuka
Kurosaki and Riko share a relatively close friendship, though on the surface they appear initially hostile towards each other. She often subtly serves as his adviser on his situation with Teru, and frequently teases or acts violently toward him if she thinks he has done something inappropriate towards Teru. They are also drinking buddies. Kurosaki briefly harboured a crush on Riko when he first met her, but respected both Riko and Soichiro and their relationship and was content with seeing them happy with one another.

Though Kurosaki trusts and respects Riko's advice and opinions, particularly in regards to his relationship with Teru, he has also feared that Riko resents him for Soichiro's death. In truth, Riko has never held Kurosaki responsibile for Soichiro's death; in actuality, she had blamed herself for letting Soichiro exhaust himself working to save Kurosaki and being unable to think of another way that would have allowed Soichiro to live instead.

Masuda
After Kurosaki was arrested for his crimes as DAISY, Masuda was assigned as an agent from the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications to monitor Kurosaki's activities. Though monitoring Kurosaki's activities had been Masuda's primary assignment, he and Kurosaki developed a strong and trusting relationship. Before he began living on his own, Kurosaki resided with Masuda, who ensured that Kurosaki learned basic living skills, including how to cook, and generally served as Kurosaki's surrogate parent. Masuda also accompanied Kurosaki during the younger man's employment as a programmer at Kenbashi Electronics; to maintain his cover, Masuda was employed as a part-time clerical worker.

Because of how long they have known each other, Masuda is most familiar with Kurosaki's habits and thought processes. As such, he is the person most capable of finding Kurosaki whenever the latter has disappeared in the past. In turn, Kurosaki trusts Masuda implicitly, even though Masuda is still employed by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and has the responsibility to turn Kurosaki over to his superiors should Kurosaki perform any illegal acts. Masuda serves as Kurosaki's confidante, though like Riko, he does not hesitate to tease Kurosaki relentlessly regarding Kurosaki's feelings for Teru.

Kiyoshi Hasegawa
Because of how he and Teru met Kurosaki, Kiyoshi initially fears and distrusts Kurosaki. While Kiyoshi does not appear to realize that Kurosaki is DAISY, Kiyoshi expresses clear disapproval of Teru's association with hackers. However, after the incident when Kiyoshi is tricked and manipulated into attempting to steal Teru's phone, Kurosaki's act of saving Kiyoshi's life changes Kiyoshi's perspective of Kurosaki.

Expressing sincere gratitute toward Kurosaki saving his life and regretting his own actions for endangering Teru and himself, Kiyoshi comes to respect Kurosaki, particularly after learning about Kurosaki's history. As the supposed "price" for saving Kiyoshi's life, Kurosaki forcibly recruits Kiyoshi to become his second "servant." However, Kurosaki uses the act as a means of having Kiyoshi watch out for Teru when Kurosaki himself cannot, thus demonstrating that Kurosaki trusts Kiyoshi and his sense of judgment in potentially dangerous situations. Kiyoshi, after getting to know Kurosaki, does not hesitate to make fun of Kurosaki's feelings for Teru.

Kazumasa Andou
Kurosaki's current employer as the director of Teru's high school, Andou was also one of Kurosaki's colleagues at Kenbashi Electronics. He and Kurosaki appear to get along well, particularly given their shared interest and understanding in complex computer coding. Because Andou has been known to bicker with Masuda, Kurosaki used to mediate between them. While Andou does not hesitate to approach Kurosaki to deal with various security issues at the school, he is also aware of the nature of DAISY's activities and involves Kurosaki as discreetly as possible.

Though he occasionally makes rather sharp, biting observations regarding Kurosaki's relationship with Teru, Andou generally does not directly meddle with Kurosaki's love life and provides credible advice on various occasions, such as how important Kurosaki is to Teru when she is hospitalized. Andou usually plays a key role with forming different plans to protect Kurosaki and Teru alongside Masuda and, despite his strict analytical approach to situations, he cares for the people he wishes to protect.

Soichiro Kurebayashi
Possessing great admiration and respect for Soichiro, Kurosaki developed a strong brotherly bond with Soichiro during their time together as members of Team Kurebayashi at Kenbashi Electronics. Kurosaki had complete faith in Soichiro, who was one of the few people who believed that Kurosaki's father was actually innocent of the supposed charges laid against him before his death. When Soichiro was about to take a position as one of Hideo Midorikawa's research assistants, Kurosaki applied to a university in hopes of one day joining Soichiro.

When Kurosaki is arrested and wrongly charged for the death of Professor Midorikawa, Soichiro, despite suffering from stomach cancer, used the remainder of his life to decipher the data that would allow prosecutors to drop the false charges on Kurosaki instead of seeking treatment for his illness. However, the guilt-ridden Kurosaki believed this act is what ultimately caused Soichiro's death and blamed himself. He came to interpret Soichiro's last wish for Kurosaki to protect Teru as "DAISY" as a punishment rather than a chance to move forward. Kurosaki's guilt drives him throughout the early stages of his relationship with Teru.

Though Teru and his friends, Kurosaki gradually sees that Soichiro never intended to punish or blame him for his past and finds strength instead of guilt in Soichiro's last words for him to "remember the sin of DAISY."

Gallery
Tasuku Kurosaki/Gallery

Trivia

 * His birthday is on February 5th. His zodiac sign is Aquarius.