Karuta

Karuta カルタ Karuta
Karuta
Gender	Male
Eye color	Blue
Hair color	White
Hometown	Kūga Village
Region	Unknown
Relatives	Father (deceased), Mother (deceased), Iroha (cousin)

Karuta (Japanese: カルタ) is a character in the Pokémon RéBURST manga.

Character

Karuta is a young ninja from the Kūga Village. His home village was plagued by a disease that had claimed several of his friends and family. He is extremely loyal to his village and is willing to even let his own mother disown him so that he can travel far and wide to find a cure for the disease.

Karuta is known as "Crybaby Karuta" (Japanese: 泣き虫カルタ) in his village, because he tends to start crying very easily. After traveling with Ryouga and his friends, Karuta gains confidence in himself and rapidly grows in body and mind into the body of a teenager that now stands taller than Ryouga.

History

Karuta's original appearance

Karuta first appears as one of the many contestants of the Burst Warrior tournament, Burst Heart Survival. By using his Burst, Karuta passes the preliminary first round known as "Suddenly Bottomless Survival" and makes it to the second round along with the fifteen remaining contestants.

In the next round,Box Escape Survival, Karuta is paired up against Ryouga in the E Box. As they try to escape the giant-sized box, Karuta becomes desperate to escape and decides to defeat Ryouga to free himself. With the time limit nearly finished, a desperate Karuta activates his Burst and attacks Ryouga. Karuta reveals to Ryouga why he entered Burst Heart Survival: to win the prize money and help the sick people of his home village.

Ryouga manages to easily block Karuta's attack and pins him to the ground. Luckily, Ryouga figures out a way to break both of them out of the boxes and go onto the next round. Ryouga presses the button that opens the door to free them while Karuta goes out of the box and presses the second hidden button, freeing them and allowing both of them to move on.

In the third round, Add-up-to-ten Survival, Karuta is given the medal labeled "2" due to him being the second-to-last person to come out of the boxes. Unfortunately, his medal is stolen by Dokan, who is fought by Ryouga who aims to get Karuta's medal back for him. Karuta is soon eliminated from the tournament and has his Burst Heart taken away.

Later, when the third round is finally finished, Ryouga accidentally ends up to the location where the other losing contestants ended up. Ryouga meets up with Karuta—who now has his arm broken—again and is taken back to Pauline and the others while the defeated contestants are allowed back in the tournament so they can watch the next matches.

Some time later, the final match ends in a tie between Ryouga and the Boss of Great Gavel, Fraud. Great Gavel leaves the area and leaves the prize money there. After returning all of the stolen Burst Hearts, Ryouga, Miruto, and Yappy travel with Karuta to buy the medicine he needs to heal his dying village. After buying the medicine, Karuta and the others are attacked by a Great Gavel member named Rūkamu. When Rūkamu uses his Burst, no one is able to take him seriously, angering Rūkamu enough to display how strong he is.

Karuta arrives to find his mother dead

After Rūkamu sends Miruto off of the bridge, Ryouga runs to go rescue her, leaving Karuta alone to face the Scraggy Burst Warrior. Despite his best efforts, Karuta is unable to land any hits on Rūkamu and is angered when Rūkamu calls him "Crybaby Karuta", a nickname that he is referred to in his village. Eventually, Ryouga returns with Miruto and defeats Rūkamu by sending him flying into the mountains. After defeating Rūkamu, the group proceeds to the village but, upon arrival, Karuta tells them that he doesn't want to go into the village.

After explaining to them how he got his nickname and who his father was, Ryouga tosses Karuta into the village and gives him words of encouragement. Moved by his words, Karuta gives the medicine to his dying village and heals the sick people. Unfortunately, when Karuta arrives at his house to see his mother, he finds that she had died this morning. Later, his cousin, Iroha, gives him a letter written by his mother. It reveals that his father was, at one point, just like Karuta is now.

After finishing the letter, Karuta begins to cry again until Ryouga tells him to stop. Before the conversation can go any further, a furious Rūkamu returns and attacks the village. Karuta battles Rūkamu single-handed, this time actually managing to defeat the Scraggy Burst Warrior. Afterward, Karuta stays in his village while Ryouga, Miruto and Yappy continue on their adventure.

They do not stay separated for long, however, as Karuta quickly catches up to them with his new body. At first, Ryouga, Yappy, and Miruto do not recognize the now-tall Karuta until he clarifies his identity to them, shocking them due to the fact that it has only been a few days since he last saw them. Karuta explains to them that he is on a training journey and has been given a task by the people of his village.

He also lends Ryouga his Burst Heart to be used in the Compass of Light. However, they soon encounter a group of thieves that intend to rob them. When one of the thieves, Rug, tries to steal the Compass of Light, Karuta grabs it before she can and battles her Burst form, a Purrloin.

Rug and Karuta battling Ryouga

He also lends Ryouga his Burst Heart to be used in the Compass of Light. However, they soon encounter a group of thieves that intend to rob them. When one of the thieves, Rug, tries to steal the Compass of Light, Karuta grabs it before she can and battles her Burst form, a Purrloin. Though he has the upper hand at first, Rug uses a technique to take control of Karuta's body and forces him to battle Ryouga. Despite Karuta's newly gained strength, Karuta is unable to defeat Ryouga and Rug is defeated, breaking her control over him and them gaining a new friend in the process.

After stopping to rest in another town to decide which Burst Heart to track down next, Karuta gets trapped in an argument between Miruto and Rug to decide who likes Ryouga the most. Karuta, assuming they meant the platonic kind of like, states that he does, angering Rug and getting the two of them into a fight. Suddenly, Ryouga arrives with a sign to inform them of a tournament being held in Kanai Village with a Burst Heart as a prize.

After Ryouga joins the Strongman competition, Karuta fights with Rug to see who will get the last spot, only to lose it to Yappy. After Ryouga wins the Burst Heart prize, a man covered in bandages named Sabin steals the Compass of Light from Ryouga and runs off. Despite Ryouga's protests, Karuta and Rug chase after Sabin to retrieve the Compass. Despite their best efforts, Sabin proves too powerful and the both of them are defeated by the Sigilyph Burst Warrior. Later, Karuta and Rug show up injured, but still alive after it is revealed that Sabin is a good guy.

Sometime later, Karuta has his Burst Heart stolen by Ryouga so he can meet Arcades alone due to him not wanting to keep putting his friends in danger. Before he can put the Burst Hearts in the Compass, Karuta and the others stop him and clarify that they are not separating, each with their own reasons for doing so. Hearing that his friends are together with him to the end, Ryouga decides to let them join him.

As Karuta, Ryouga, and Rug fill the Compass of Light with Burst Hearts, they are interrupted by three people, Amu, Rovy, and Ganku. The three people introduce themselves as the Three Generals of Great Gavel and turn into their Burst forms, the legendary Pokémon Cobalion, Virizion, and Terrakion. Faced with new enemies, Karuta, Rug, and Ryouga each Burst as well and prepare to fight the Three Generals.

Karuta and friends setting off again

Amu picks Ryouga as his opponent and goes off to fight him alone, leaving Karuta and Rug to face Ganku and Rovy together. Despite his best efforts, Ganku proves too powerful for Karuta and he easily defeated. Although defeated, the group is saved by Hariru and Carola, who battles the generals in their place. After Hariru manages to defeat the two, Miruto heals his and Carola's wounds before they decide to separate from her and the others. They see the two off as they go to take their revenge on Fraud for what he has done to them.

Later, Ryouga senses that Fraud has revived, with a new, much more powerful strength. Fearing that he has become too powerful to be defeated, Ryouga takes the Compass of Light at puts all the Burst Hearts into it. All five grab the compass, which starts floating and flies off to where Arcades is. They eventually reach an unknown island, where they find a statue of Garyū atop an altar.

Ryouga expresses pride that his father is great enough to have a statue, only for a young woman to correct him on the figure being a statue. The woman introduces herself as the manager of Arcades, and reveals that the statue isn't a statue, but Ryouga's actual father turned to stone. She goes on to explain that the name "Arcades" and the power belonging to it isn't something that belonged to the person Ryouga once knew, but rather to several people over the years and that Garyū is the current one.

She goes to say that if Ryouga can touch the statue, he can gain the power of Arcades, but at the cost of suffering the same fate as his father. Karuta and the others immediately protest against this, only for Ryouga to claim that he needs to in order to beat Fraud. Before he can touch the statue, Arcades' manager stops Ryouga and says that he has to pass a test in order to gain the power of Arcades.

Ryouga agrees to the test and even has his friends help him try and stop the caretaker from moving, but all attempts to beat her end in vain. As Ryouga continues the test, Rug discovers a tracer on Yappy's person. Realizing that they are being tracked by Fraud, Karuta and Rug go to buy time for Ryouga before Fraud arrives. They find Fraud there on the island, but are easily defeated by his powerful Reshiram Burst. Before falling unconscious, Rug tells Fraud that Ryouga is going to get the power of Arcades, intriguing him.

Later, Karuta and Rug are taken to a hospital while Ryouga battles Fraud at the Eternal Tower for their final battle. The fight ends in Ryouga's favor after Fraud turns into a statue from having abused the power of Arcades he stole far too much.

Several months later, Ryouga decides to leave his home to go on another journey. After doing some research, Ryouga has found a place where he can free Zekrom from its Burst Heart. Together, the five friends set off on another adventure.

Pokémon

Accelgor

Debut	Mother

Accelgor is Karuta's only known Pokémon. Karuta uses Accelgor to Burst, allowing him to use the abilities that Accelgor possesses.

Burst

As a user of Burst, Karuta can use many of the abilities of the Pokémon he combines with, his Accelgor. Due to Accelgor being a ninja-based Pokémon, Karuta can implement his own Kūga Ninja Arts Secret Techniques into his Burst techniques.

Known techniques

Kūga Ninja Art Secret Technique: Shed Skin Shadow Clone (Japanese: クーガ忍法秘技ぬけがら影分身, Kūga Ninpō Higi Nukegara Kage Bunshin). Karuta glows with energy and creates several clones of himself which fly out and attack the opponent. After growing up, Karuta's clones have gone from being mere illusions to actual clones, although with only a fifth of the real Karuta's strength.
Moonsault Bite (Japanese: 宙転杭刺 Midair Turning Stake Pierce; read as ムーンサルトバイト Moonsault Bite). After using Shed Skin Shadow Clones, Karuta has his four clones flip off of a nearby wall and simultaneously stomp on the opponent. It has a similar ability to U-turn.

Karuta's Burst form
Karuta's Burst form prior to his growth spurt
Karuta's Burst Heart
Attacking with clones. Named "Shed Skin Shadow Clone"
Attacking with clones. Named "Moonsault Bite"
Attacking with clones. Named "Moonsault Bite"

Names

Language	Name	Origin
Japanese	カルタ Karuta	From いろはがるた Iroha Garuta. May also be from 軽い karui ("light" or "agile") and アギルダー Agilder (Accelgor).