Kuhn

Kuhn (クーン, Kūn) is a male Steam Gunner and the Epitaph User titled "The Propagation". He is the former Vice-Guildmaster of Kestrel, the founder of Canard, and is currently a member of Raven and the organization "G.U." He enjoys flirting with the female players of The World R:2.

Appearance
Kuhn is an elegant-looking man with long, blue hair and hazel eyes. His character is dressed in a richly decorated yellow and tan outfit. As a Steam Gunner, he wields a large bayonet-equipped gun in combat.

Personality
Kuhn is very cheerful and optimistic, but has a strong sense of justice. Though he acts like a womanizer, he cares deeply for his friends. He dislikes putting others in danger but he respects the strength of people such as Haseo and is willing to work with him. As the second player to activate his Avatar, he has gained almost complete control over Magus, whom he affectionately calls "My Magus".

Offline
In real life, Kuhn is a 24-year-old man named Tomonari Kasumi (香住 智成). He works part time at an arcade in Kanazawa and part-time at CC Corp. Tomonari loves attending mixed parties and according to G.U.+, was hired by Yata. His flirtatious attitude online hides a trouble with forming relationships in the real world. He confesses to Haseo that the only serious girlfriend he ever had was in high school. He prides himself in having the private email addresses of 972 girls on his cell phone and plans to make Pi's his 1000th.

Project .hack

 * See Sieg

.hack//Roots

 * [[image:Kuhnroots.jpg|right|thumb]]

Kuhn first appeared in Roots after he was ordered by Phyllo to teach Tabby and the newbies, Cashmere and Wool, how to play the game correctly. Inspired by this, he decided to create a Guild named Canard to teach and train newbies. Gaspard and Silabus soon joined this guild, becoming very close with Kuhn. However, while adventuring alone, Kuhn was attacked by an AIDA. This attack caused Magus to appear from his character.

Realizing that his Avatar had awoken, Pi appeared and met with him. Revealing Tarvos to him, she told him that he possessed a dangerous power inside of his character that she could teach him to control. Fearful that Silabus and Gaspard would get involved in such a dangerous thing, Kuhn had no choice but to leave the Guild and join Pi and Yata in Raven. Before leaving, he gave leadership of the Guild to Silabus.

Kuhn was soon taught how to control his Avatar by Pi and sent to battle AIDA with her. He was also told that the infamous PKKer The Terror of Death possessed an Avatar as well. Realizing that Haseo would need help he contacted Silabus and told him to help out Haseo should he ever run into him. Though Silabus wondered why a player of Haseo's power would need his help, he agreed.

.hack//Alcor

 * [[image:Kuhnalcor.jpg|thumb| Kuhn Alcor ]]

Kuhn encounters Nanase in a field and rescues her from a powerful monster. Recognizing her as a member of Canard he gives her advice on her problems with Silabus, Alkaid, and Bordeaux. However their meeting is cut short when Pi appears with orders from Yata, who tells Kuhn to keep track of the Epitaph User Endrance and his progress in the Arena.

.hack//G.U. Games
In Rebirth, Kuhn saves Haseo and Atoli from an AIDA that attacks them at the Lost Ground Indieglut Lugh. In doing so, he reveals the existence of Avatars to Haseo, and brings him to see Yata. Kuhn helps Haseo train to release his power at Δ Great Cursed In-Laws along with Pi. There, they share with him their knowledge of the Avatars. Although Haseo tries to summon an Avatar for a while, he is unable to do so. Pi begins to provoke him, saying he isn't worthy enough to use an Avatar, but leaves when Kuhn tells her to stop. They return to Mac Anu and call it a day.

Although Haseo can't awaken it until his Arena fight with Bordeaux during a tournament. Kuhn and Pi enter the same tournament as part of a mission from Yata to investigate Endrance, the reigning Champion. Kuhn is implied by Yata to be a more "awakened" Epitaph PC than Haseo.

When Haseo begins to use his new found power recklessly on other PCs, and scoffing at Kuhn when he tries to warn him of the consequences, Kuhn resolves to teach him a lesson. When Kuhn and Haseo eventually square off in the tournament, he easily overpowers Haseo, causing him to turn to Skeith for help. Kuhn calls Magus, and the two Avatars do battle. However, as Haseo is giving into his hate and anger and relentlessly beating up Magus, Skeith slowly takes over, until a powerless Haseo is forced to watch as Skeith brutally mauls one of his friends. Skeith ends his rampage by Data Draining Kuhn, causing Haseo to finally understand the danger of the Avatars. However, it is afterward revealed that it was not Kuhn that Skeith kills, but rather a duplicate made through Magus's special "Propagation" ability--the ability to copy data. Later, when Atoli is manipulated by Ovan into chasing after Tri-Edge, Kuhn joins up with Pi and Haseo to follow her. Traveling to the other side of Morrigu Barrow Wall they discover and battle with Tri-Edge, eventually defeating him.

Afterward, during the AIDA Server Incident Kuhn became disillusioned with Yata's methods, feeling that he didn't care for the normal users of The World. This attitude caused him to break away from G.U., although he still continued to hunt AIDA by himself, occasionally asking Haseo for help. After fighting alone for awhile, he realized that he was only able to accomplish a little working by himself. Moments before Haseo's fight with Sirius, the AIDA-infected Emperor of the Holy Palace, Kuhn decided to rejoin G.U. Along with Endrance he helped Haseo achieve a victory over Sirius and cleanse him of his AIDA infection.

After Sakaki took over as leader of Project G.U., Kuhn and the rest of the Epitaph Users broke ties with CC Corp. With Pi busy searching for Yata in the real world, Kuhn became the de facto leader of Project G.U. During the Sage Palace Tournament, Kuhn joined up with Haseo and Atoli. Together they fought through the tournament bracket, eventually fighting against an AIDA infected Taihaku in the finals. During fight Kuhn helped Haseo destroy Taihaku's AIDA infected weapon Maxwell. Afterward, when a heavily injured Haseo was attacked by Sakaki Kuhn helped him summon Skeith by loaning him some of Magus' power.

.hack//G.U.+

 * [[image:KuhnGU-.jpg|thumb| Kuhn in GU+. ]]

Kuhn first appears after he rescues Haseo from an AIDA infected Bordeaux. Summoning Magus, he cleanses the AIDA from her character. Pi appears shortly afterward and introduces him as a member of G.U. She explains that Haseo has a similar entity hidden inside of him. Assigned as Haseo's partner, Kuhn travels with him to the Lumina Cloth Arena. There, they notice Endrance summon Avatar Macha. Kuhn tries to talk Haseo out of fighting Endrance, but Haseo ignores him. Kuhn can only watch from the sidelines as Haseo's Skeith fights against Endrance's Macha.

After the fight, G.U. finds Endrance's dead PC body underneath the Mac Anu bridge, normally an impossible occurrence. When the characters of "The World" are forced into an AIDA server, Kuhn assists Haseo in his search for Atoli. He shows anger upon Ovan's revealing of the existence of the operational folder, and later fights against Azure Kite alongside Haseo and Pi. After the trio return to the Serpent of Lore, Kuhn argues with Yata over the nature of the G.U. and quits to protect players his own way. He is later PKed by Tri-Edge, but is brought back along with the other coma victims due to Corbenik's Rebirth.

Kuhn's next major appearance is with Atoli at Moon Tree's @Home, along with Haseo and Atoli, he learns the truth of Aura and Cubia, and what might happen if Kazumi succeeds with the R.A. plan. After warping to the Net Slum, and later using one of Ovan's Signs to hack into the Serpent of Lore, Kuhn is caught up in the explosion left by Kazumi.

GU Novels
During the novel, Kuhn's character is a Lord Partizan. After leaving G.U. he becomes infected with AIDA and takes sides with Ovan. He later becomes the new leader of Project G.U.

.hack//G.U. Trilogy
During the movie, Kuhn only appears a couple of times. After traveling to Outer Space with Pi and Haseo to find Atoli, Tri Edge appears and causes the group to fall into Avatar Space. When Tri Edge becomes the Azure Flame God, Kuhn gates back to the locker room with Pi and Atoli. During Atoli's AIDA infection Kuhn travel with Pi to the Inverted City Megin Fi where he is later killed by Ovan. Following the Rebirth, Kuhn's body is restored and his consciousness is returned from game.

.hack//LINK: Twilight Knights

 * See Sieg (LINK)
 * See Kuhn (LINK)

Gameplay
Kuhn is a Steam Gunner, a mix of close combat and ranged combat. He is the only Steam Gunner to join Haseo's party (aside from Matsu, who is an Adept Rogue, but is essentially a Steam Gunner as well since he only uses one type of weapon).

Being an Epitaph User, Kuhn can acquire a Lost Weapon during Volume 2 by collecting Adler's Keys: a rare Bayonet called "Silent Jade" (which is renamed to "Silent Eden" once evolved to its final form), which increases critical hit rate by 25%, and increases Arts damage by 25%.

Stat-wise, Kuhn has very balanced and above average parameters, in a similar fashion to Haseo and Silabus, with his physical attack being his strongest attribute.

Trivia

 * Kuhn's starting weapon is a rare Bayonet, the Water Bayonet.
 * One of Kuhn's concept designs depicts him as a Blade Brandier.
 * Kuhn's character is 5'10" (177 cm) in height.
 * Kuhn's arena team in the Demon Palace Tournament is named "Thunder Storm".
 * For whatever reason, Kuhn, despite his rivalry with Balmung and Orca seven years earlier, has no reaction upon seeing Azure Orca and Azure Balmung.
 * According to an e-mail to Haseo, Kuhn's favorite kind of female celebrities are "Big-breasted lolita types."
 * According to his profile, his favorite kind of girls are "plentiful," and his least favorite are "non-existent", though this could also imply that he likes many girls and dislikes none.
 * Kuhn is the only pure Steam Gunner who joins Haseo's party.
 * Matsu, while essentially functioning as a Steam Gunner, is actually an Adept Rogue with proficiency in Broadswords, but refuses to use them because of his past as a PKer.
 * Ovan, despite being a Steam Gunner, has been merged with his special AIDA, thus granting him different powers from those of a normal Steam Gunner.
 * Coincidentally, Kuhn has been attacked by Skeith both in The World and The World R:2.
 * Kuhn has considerable skill with the steam bike as he is in the top rankings for all of the "Bike Mission" usually placing 4th.
 * In Roots, Yata and Pi ask Kuhn if he has heard of the legend of the .hackers. Kuhn responds that he has and says that it is just part of the The World's background stories. This is unusual since Kuhn (as Sieg) took part in the final battle against Corbenik in R:1.
 * According to Jun Bansyoya's Interim Report #6, Tomonari's character in R:2 was the very first Epitaph User created, since Magus was the first Phase they managed to extract for Project G.U..
 * After Jyotaro Amagi's R.A. Plan failed, Jun managed to extract Magus once again, according to his Interim Report #9.
 * Kuhn, Yata and Haseo are the only Epitaph Users that don't get infected by AIDA.
 * Kuhn (Roots) and Crim (Sign) share the same voice actor in their japanese versions, Shinichiro Miki.