Haruto Higurashi (Canon)/Muhammedmco



"The blue sky, and the blue sea. Buildings submerged in the water, and street lights that no longer turn on. In this perfectly clear, apocalyptic world...my weekend has come to an end."

- Haruto Higurashi

Haruto Higurashi is one of the 7 main characters of Zanki Zero: Last Beginning. His title is Editor of Sloth (怠惰の編集者 taida no henshū-sha) He is the protagonist of the prologue and Stage 01.

Through still unknown connections, Haruto got enrolled at Mashiro Publishing. He worked there for two years and then made an Interview for his first article about women in poverty. He interviewed a single mother for it, but she said he shouldn't publish any photos showing her face, because her ex husband could find her, which would bring her and her child in danger. He promised her not to publish any photos without allowance and went to write the article. Some time later, his article got published, however, a photo showing the woman's face was in it. He went to confront his superior about this, but he just acted like it was no big deal. It didn't take long for Mashiro Publishing's director to call him and to inform him that the single mother got killed by her ex husband because of the article. Haruto kept saying it wasn't him who put the photo in the article, but nobody believed him and he had to leave Mashiro Publishing. It is implied that the Chief Editor, his superior, was the one who put the photo in the article. He got the photos from the photographer who took them. Haruto should have predicted that there were still copies of the photo, but he pretended to not notice and used his business as an excuse.

On July 8th, 2018, Haruto climbed to the roof of Mashiro Garden Tower - the building of his employer - and looked out over the city at night. He reflected that each of the flickering lights below him represented lives and families, but that one of those lights had been snuffed out because of him. Unable to emotionally deal with the consequences of the incident, Haruto climbed over the guard railing and attempted to jump to his death. His watch stopped at 7:10 PM, the time in which he tried to kill himself.

Rather than the suicide he'd planned, Haruto awoke on the beach of Garage Island. Haruto was still in the same emotional state he had been when he had jumped - he was tired of living - but he was awoken by Sachika Hirasaka who insisted on taking him to the island's garage to meet the rest of the island's survivors. He quickly realised that his phone, wallet, keys, and other belongings had all been taken from him, so he had no choice but to follow her.

He met up with the rest of the group, who each introduced themselves to him. They each explained that they were in the same situation as him - they suddenly found themself on the island with all of their belongings stolen. Haruto found this explanation very hard to believe, considering it much more likely that the group had kidnapped him, particularly as it seemed they all already knew his name despite never having met him before. He learned that they had found out his name from Extend TV, an anime which airs on the TV in the garage which gives them quests to complete in exchange for rewards. Locating Haruto on the beach had been the group's latest quest. Additionally, each of the survivors, including Haruto, had an x-shaped button implanted on their belly button which could not be removed without surgery. Haruto learned that the group had been surviving on the island for 3 days so far, and that they suspected that based on the strange circumstances and the quest system, they must be in some kind of reality TV program.

Much later, however, it was revealed that humanity was wiped, and Haruto, alongside the other 7 human beings in Garage Island, were the last survivors of humanity as a result from Daichi Terashima's experiment with the worldwide virus Luciora, which eradicated life from the face of the Earth by transforming humans into Creatures that were infested with a powerful weapon in the form of tentacles called Clione.

What's more, there was the fact that Haruto and the others are actually clones which age in an extremely rapid race, and eventually die in 13 days, with Mamoru Ichiyo, who was one of the clones, happening to be the mastermind behind kidnapping Haruto and the others and turning them into clones to get his revenge on them for killing his sister, Sachika Hirasaka.

After making amends with Mamoru, defeating a revived Terashima and having Sachika being brought back to life through Extend Machine Unit 01 as a human, Haruto and his friends spent 5 happy years raising baby Sachika. That is, until the Extend Machine, which allowed them to revive from the dead, suddenly stopped working due to overuse and lack of maintenance, and Haruto and the others, sans Sachika, aged for the last time and died, with Haruto being the last in them.

Before disappearing inside his X-key, however, Haruto theorized the existence of another survivor of humanity beside Sachika, which caused the little genius girl to sail with Garage Island to find this survivor.

After Sachika found the other human, the Extend Machine on Garage Island operated again, with 2 other life bulbs lighting up in it. This, alongside the Extend TV inside the garage in Garage Island, coupled by Sho Terashima and Mirai, the mascots of Extend TV and AIs that were created by Daichi Terashima before his death appearing on the channel, as well as Daichi killing Sachika when she was a clone due to the fact that he feared of the fact that Sachika would eventually know the secret around nullifying the aging effect of the X-Keys of the Garage Kids heavily implies the fact that Haruto and his other friends has the high possibility of coming back to life should the game has a continuation in the future.

Powers and Stats
Tier: High 6-A. Higher with Clione

Name: Haruto Higurashi, Editor of Sloth

Origin: Zanki Zero: Last Beginning

Gender: Male

Age: 25

Classification: Human Clone

Powers and Abilities: Superhuman Physical Characteristics, Weapon Mastery, Martial Arts, Charge Attack, Regeneration (Mid-Low, likely Low-Mid [Clones can heal from minor injuries by just resting. Furthermore, they can regenerate from goat charges, slash attacks from Monokuma, and bites from sea monsters. Scaling to Minamo, who instantly regenerated from having the tentacles of her Clione piercing through her arm]), Immortality (Type 8 [His existence relies solely on his X-Key and the Extend Machine respectively, and would die for good should the X-Key or the Extend Machine be destroyed]), Resurrection (Can resurrect himself by using the Extend function on the Extend Machine by inserting his X-Key. Not Combat Applicable), Pain Suppression (Numerous times of Extending himself had caused Haruto to not feel pain at all), Elasticity (Clione tentacles can extend into abnormal distances), Self-Destruction (Via SilBurst, which can release a huge explosion, albeit at the cost of the user dying), Ice Manipulation (Individually via the Freezing Gas Clione, and to all enemies via the Harsh Frost Coating Clione), Heat Manipulation (Individually via the Scalding Shot Clione, and to all enemies via the Heat Burst Clione), Electricity Manipulation (Can attack with electricity coated limbs, and induce paralysis to the enemies via the Electric Shock Clione), Poison Manipulation (Individually via the Decaying Spores Clione, and to all enemies via the Putrid Poison Toss Clione), Acid Manipulation (Individually via the Potent Acid Blast Clione, and to all enemies via the Potent Acid Spray Clione), Statistics Amplification (Via the One Thousand Fists Clione, which can grant its user enough power to knock back enemies that normally pose a threat to the Clione's user), Sound Manipulation (Can release sound waves in the form of an attack via the Sonic Wave Clione), Durability Negation (Via the Piercing Spear Clione, which can ignore and pierce through any kind of shields), Life Leech (Via the Sword of Rakshasa, which can absorb the life of its target and grant it to its user), Statistics Reduction (Can lower the strength of the enemy via the Depression Poison Clione, and lower the speed of the enemy via the Nervejack and Area Lockdown Cliones), Transmutation and Creation (Can transmute his enemies and turn them into Strengtheners via the Molecular Restructure Clione), Healing (Can heal himself to near full capacity via the Metempsychosis Clione, heal himself alongside his allies via the Gospel Clione, recover his own stamina via the Dried Food Generation Clione, recover his own and his allies' stamina via the Major Snacking Clione and cure all kinds of aliments via the Cure Aliment Clione), Power Nullification (Can reduce all kinds of physical, elemental, and aliment-based attacks, including, but not limited to Poison, Paralysis, Fear, Freezing, Sound, Heat and Acid for himself via the Diamond Cut Injection Clione, and can do the same to both himself and his allies via the Shoot Down Clione, as well as nullify Rage Power and Berserker Mode abilities via the Sedative Clione), Reactive Power Level (The several deaths that he sustained for more than the past 5 years had caused him to grow even more powerful, up to the extent that it can be possible for Haruto and the others to easily deal with Yosuke Kurosaki, who previously curbstomped the whole party by merely roaring earlier in the game, with normal blows, and without using the traps inside the lab that Yosuke was inside, as well as deal with Extend Terashima, upon said individual being revived, with ease), Immortality Negation (Was able to kill Extend Terashima, who was an immortal, without breaking his X-Key, with the X-Key of said villain breaking apart after his defeat), Reactive Evolution (The multiple deaths he suffered for the last 5 years and above were more than enough to allow him to gain Resistances to all aliments and diseases that can be found in life), Resistance to Poison Manipulation, Electricity Manipulation, Ice Manipulation, Sound Manipulation, Heat Manipulation, Fire Manipulation, Acid Manipulation (His numerous amounts of deaths allowed Haruto to gain resistances to these aliments and even more, growing even stronger with each 13 days passing), Possession and Corruption (The several deaths that were caused from overusing his Clione caused Haruto to gain immunity to the Clione's parasitic drawback which eats away the body of its owner, as well as take control of its host's body, turning said host into a Creature) and Pain Manipulation (Numerous times of Extending himself had caused Haruto to not feel any kind of pain, and thus should be immune to any kind of pain manipulation)

Attack Potency: Multi-Continent level (By Stage 07, Haruto and his friends grew strong enough to defeat Yosuke Kurosuki with single blows, destroying his Clione Tentacles with normal blows, with Yosuke having one-shot all of the 8 clone members by merely roaring in Stage 03. By the Final Stage, Haruto and his friends grew strong enough to take down both Extend Machine Unit 01 by themselves, where Unit 01 was the responsible for spreading the Luciora Virus, which wiped out all of humanity before anyone would notice it, generating this much energy. Was able to defeat Extend Terashima shortly after defeating Unit 01, where said resurrected immortal human was birthed and empowered by the power of the Luciora Virus)