Sakurai Sakutaro

Sakurai (櫻井,) is a fictional character in the manga series Shaman King Flowers. He previously appeared in Hiroyuki Takei's one-shot, Death Zero.

About
When Sakurai was alive, he had been a second lieutenant (少尉, Shoui) in the 801 Squadron of the 309th Naval Air Division of the Japanese Navy during the Second World War. At some point, his plane had been shot down and crashed on Peleliu Island, located southwest of the Palau Archipelago, after it had been conquered by the enemy. It is believed that he died sometime later afterward with a scene showing his skeleton with a fatal injury to the head while still in his plane (now sunken underwater), but his soul became trapped in the Asura Realm of the Great Spirit. Failing to realize he had died, he later became obsessed with rebuilding his fallen Zero fighter plane in order to return to the defense of his country.

In Shaman King Flowers, Asakura Hana finds Sakurai still gathering parts of his plane and believing the war is still ongoing. He later learns that he is deceased and accompanies Hana to Thalim's coffee shop. While there, he reminisces on old memories while drinking coffee before questioning Hana as to why is he fighting. Afterwards, he witnesses Hana's fight with Kamogawa Yosuke. After blasting Hana away, Yosuke incites his pilot, Anderson, to kill Sakurai. Having recognized Sakurai as the infamous "Death Zero" for his role during the war, Anderson hesitates to shoot Sakurai out of fear, allowing Sakurai to take the opportunity to kill the pilot. When he tries to shoot Yosuke, he is mortally wounded when Yosuke freezes time and repositions the bullet on his neck. While fatally wounded, he still manages to empty his pistol into Yosuke. Before fading away, he states that while he won't return to his homeland, at least he'll be able to see his comrades again.