Kaede Kinjo

Kaede Kinjou (金城 楓 ー Kinjou Kaede) is one of the supporting characters in Free!'s third season, Free!-Dive to the Future-. He currently attends Naribusawa University and has broken multiple tournament records.

Appearance
Kaede is a muscular young man with messy, golden orange hair and sharp, hooded gold eyes. He sports the standard Naribusawa swimming team jacket - yellow with dark and light blue accents. When swimming, he wears a blue cap, purple goggles and jammers patterned with varying shades of blue.

Personality
From what is seen of Kaede's behavior, he is either oblivious to or uncaring about how those around him perceive his actions, as seen when he appears at the All-Japan Invitational. This is evidenced during the scene where Asahi Shiina and Hiyori Tono banter as they head toward the pool for their heat. Kaede appears from behind, knocking into Asahi's shoulder as he strides between them, causing Asahi to wonder about the swimmer's manners.

Kaede often maintains a condescending smirk on his face, even when swimming. His speed and power as a swimmer are noted by Ryuji Azuma as having been attained and maintained by keeping a singular focus on swimming to the exclusion of everything else in life, including relationships with others.

History
Kaede was originally a butterfly swimmer, but in switching to freestyle his times improved significantly. In a practice race, his time beat the national record.

Story
Kaede is first mentioned by Sosuke Yamazaki as coming close to Rin Matsuoka's times in freestyle, but is not seen. Nao Serizawa also refers to him as "the top ace at Naribusawa University," and "closest to beating the national record." He is also seen in an article written by Kon Kurimiya described as a "rising supernova with boundless potential," about his recent breaking of a tournament record.

Relationships
From what is presently seen, Kaede doesn't seem to have any close relationships.

Trivia

 * Kinjou's goggles and jammers appear to be of the brand Mizuno.