Tetsuji Arafune

"I want to find methods that work for everyone and then mass-produce Perfect All-Rounders. My long-term goals are different from Kō's."

- Tetsuji Arafune to Tatsuya Kuruma

Tetsuji Arafune is a B-rank Sniper (formerly an Attacker) and the captain of Arafune Squad.

Appearance
Arafune is a light-skinned, lean young adult with messy, medium-length brown hair. He is often seen wearing buttoned shirts and leaving the top buttons undone and a black cap with a turquoise visor. At Border's HQ he wears casual clothes, such as a skin-tight black shirt and a light-colored sweater he keeps tied around his waist. His squad's uniform consists of a jet black jacket with turquoise stripes around the raised collar, along the zipper, around the hem and the wrists, and white ones around and inside the raised collar and on the outer side of the sleeves. There are also four white lines, arranged in two columns of two, to each side of the zipper. Above the topmost left white line is the B-rank logo with the squad's position emblazoned on it. The attire is completed by jet black pants, boots, and the same cap he wears in his casual clothes to keep the sun out of his eyes.

Personality
Arafune may come initially across as rude due to his habit of not mincing words and his manner of speaking occasionally being coarse, but he is considered a nice guy by other Border agents, and he was seen speaking harshly only to or about his friends and people who would not get upset. Although he enjoys competition and combat and can be observed smiling before and during rank battles he does not resent agents who best him. When the stakes are real, such as during Neighbor attacks, he is serious, focused and keeps his speech neutral and to the point. He is very self-confident and ambitious, his aspiration being not only to become the first Perfect All-Rounder since Reiji Kizaki, but also to develop theories based on his experiences to mass-produce Perfect All-Rounders.

Quotes

 * (To Tamakoma Second) "Amateurs! You gave yourselves away!"
 * (To various people) "I'll cut you down to size."
 * (To Kuruma) "I want to find methods that work for everyone and then mass-produce Perfect All-Rounders. My long-term goals are different from Kō's."
 * (To Murakami) "Hey Kō, sounds to me like you're drunk on your own power. You think just because you beat me, now you're king of the world? You're 'stealing everyone's hard work'? My teaching skills are just that good! Don't be so full of yourself! That crap should be saved until after you beat Tachikawa, Kazama and Kage! All right?"
 * "They don't bite, do they? I don't like dogs..."
 * (To Ema) "If you're so worried about her then go protect her yourself!"

Trivia

 * Arafune likes okonomiyaki (a type of Japanese pancake), chilled tofu salad, action movies, and tea and dislikes dogs.
 * The reason behind his fear of dogs is that he was bitten by a small dog on his right butt cheek for no reason when he was young, leaving a scar that still remains even now.
 * He is unable to swim, to the point where he is reluctant to submerge his face.
 * He goes to a prep school and is one of the few B-rank agents with good grades.
 * Arafune is considering getting a motorbike license.
 * He erroneously assumed that Yūma had been taught by Kizaki and Yūichi Jin, when in fact his only mentor in Border was Kirie Konami.
 * In the magazine release of Chapter 87, Arafune's uniform is erroneously drawn with the white stripes colored in. This was later fixed in the volume release.
 * The author joked that since he often draws Arafune jumping off buildings, the Sniper chooses them precisely so that he can leap off later.
 * His voice actor, Eiji Takemoto, also voices Katsumi Karasawa.