Cal Kolter

Shoichi Kusanagi (, Kusanagi Shōichi) is a character appearing in the Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS anime. Operating out of a food truck called Café Nagi, which doubles as his and Yusaku's base of operations, Shoichi is an ally of Yusaku Fujiki in his fight against the Knights of Hanoi, with integral knowledge of the LINK VRAINS.

Appearance
Shoichi is a young man with fair skin and grey eyes. His purple hair comes to the base of his neck, and it has multiple small bangs brushed over to hide his forehead, and he also sports a small goatee. Shoichi dresses simply, wearing a brown trench coat over a purple hoodie with a bronze zipper and light blue shirt, and teal pants tucked into burgundy boots with prominent black soles.

Personality
Shoichi is a rather friendly individual. He's shown to be sympathetic towards Yusaku and hopes he can one day enjoy Dueling again. He also regrets dragging him into the fight against the Knights of Hanoi.

Unlike Yusaku, Shoichi doesn't seem to actively show hatred towards Hanoi.

Abilities
Being the owner of a food truck, Shoichi is a capable cook; he was seen cooking hotdogs.

Like Yusaku, he's a talented hacker. He was able to get information about SOL Technology's activities and helped Yusaku capture Ai in the latter's Duel Disk. He was also able to figure out that Aoi Zaizen is "Blue Angel".

History
Shoichi's younger brother was kidnapped by the Knights of Hanoi in the past. At some point, Shoichi and Yusaku began fighting Hanoi.

Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS
Shoichi and Yusaku discussed SOL Technologies and Hanoi's recent movements. Shoichi told Yusaku about the Data Storm and that it could help Yusaku enjoy Dueling again. He also mentioned SOL was looking for an AI on the run and that they were planning a full scan of LINK VRAINS to find it. Hearing this, Yusaku came up with a plan to capture the AI and use it as a trump card against Hanoi and closed Café Nagi, despite Shoichi protesting that he was expecting customers that night. The two hackers managed to capture Ai into Yusaku's Duel Disk during an attack from the Knights of Hanoi. Shoichi was surprised when a Data Storm occurred when "Playmaker" challenged a knight. He was worried when Yusaku was sucked into a Data Storm tornado, and was relieved when Yusaku won the Duel.

Shoichi and Yusaku spent the next few days trying to figure out Ai's programming, but Shoichi struggled to understand the complicated algorithms that Ai was made out of. He then suggested to come up with a name for the A.I., to which Yusaku decided to name it "Ai", a pun on "eye". He was also impressed that the card data Yusaku obtained from the Data Storm was becoming a physical card. Trying to scan footage from "Ai's" memories caused the Knights of Hanoi's leader to track them down, however Shoichi shut down Café Nagi's power before they were found. The next day Shoichi gave Yusaku the "Decode Talker" card that had finished materializing before he went to LINk VRAINS to fight a supposed Knight of Hanoi that appeared. When the Knight turned out to be Go Onizuka, a program that prevents Playmaker from logging out was activated by SOL Technology. Shoichi worked on an escape route for Yusaku, but Yusaku refused to use it. After the Duel ended, Shoichi scolded Yusaku for not using the escape route, but also suggested that they could recruit Go for their fight against Hanoi.

Shoichi discovered that the real identity of the famous idol "Blue Angel" is Aoi Zaizen, a classmate of Yusaku. He thought about Yusaku meeting Aoi so they could get closer to Akira Zaizen in order to get more information about SOL Technology regarding his brother and Yusaku's memories, however he also doubted the plan would work because of Yusaku's poor social skills. A few days later, he was shocked when Playmaker and Blue Angel began a Duel before getting interrupted by a customer.

After the Duel concluded and Aoi was put in a coma, Shoichi hacked into the hospital's records to find out about Aoi's condition. Ai protested that hacking into the hospital was a crime, to which Shoichi casually said that hacking already was a crime in the first place. Ai explained that Aoi had been infected by a virus from Hanoi's card and the only ones with the anti-virus were Hanoi themselves. "Blue Angel" appeared claiming that she wanted a rematch against Playmaker. Shoichi knew right away that she was an impostor and instructed Yusaku to ignore her because it was clearly a trap, but Yusaku went into LINK VRAINS anyways because he felt it was his responsibility to save Aoi. Revolver's appearance and subsequent manipulation of LINK VRAINS caused Shoichi's cameras to go offline, though he was briefly able to use SOL's cameras and later Ghost Girl's. He was displeased when Ghost Girl's camera stopped recording, making him unable to watch anything inside LINK VRAINS. To watch the Duel, Shoichi used the bugs in the Knights of Hanoi's program that created the Data Storm. This opened a path for the Ghost Girl to enter the Data Storm; she had her cameras record the Duel between Playmaker and Revolver, allowing Shoichi to watch it.