Kurokyura

Kurokyura is a small vampire exclusive to the Pumpkin Zone of Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins; there is only one in the game. To attack, it sends small bats known as Minikyura towards Mario. Mario can either jump on top of these Minikyura or avoid them. Afterwards, Mario can defeat the Kurokyura by jumping on its head or shooting a fireball at it. It is one of the few humanoid enemies found in the entire Mario franchise.

Jumping on one of the Minikyura is key to reaching a secret goal in the stage.

A single Kurokyura also appears in the Kodansha Super Mario manga in the Super Mario Land 2 arc, where it takes the role of Wario's right-hand man. Shortly after Mario and Luigi enter Mario's castle and defeat hoards of enemies, Kurokyura appears as a bat and steals their sack of Carrots. The brothers give chase, and eventually find it in Wario's throne room, where it returns to its vampire form and aids Wario in handling Luigi. After Mario is quick to defeat Wario, Kurokyura tosses him a Carrot so he will power up. It is eventually defeated and seeming killed when Luigi prepares garlic soup and forcefully feeds it to it.

Later on, however, it does appear alive, aiding Wario in framing Mario by disguising as Luigi and robbing a bank. Their plan goes wrong, and they get arrested alongside the true counterparts, however, Peach claims that Wario's group (still disguised as the heroes) are the innocent party. After Mario and co escape, they are able to save Peach and defeat Wario's gang again.