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gallusrostromegalus · 1 year

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So now that we're getting into the nitty-gritty about the zanpakuto, I'm immensely curious about what you're gonna do with Kaname's zanpakuto. Cuz if I remember canon right, he "inherited" (graverobbed?) the sword from his deceased friend, who we are told is the impetus for his whole crusade and made it his own to honor her. I'm interested to see your thoughts :))

You are remembering canon correctly! Suzumushi is NOT Kaname Tousen's Sword! It's the Sword of his friend/unrequited love interest Kakyo NoSurnameInCanon, who was fridged murdered, and when the central 46 refused to prosecute her killer because of his Noble status, that's when Kaname's crusade began, carrying Suzumushi.

...yeah.

In AEIWAM, it's similar, but instead of a friend/unrequited love interest-

Kaname is twelve when he dies suddenly, and reincarnates in the Soul society as a Tween. He is unceremoniously dumped on a country back road in West 51 with only the clothes he died in and no memory of his previous life besides his given name. Kakyo is also about twelve when she dies, and is dumped about four feet away from Kaname five seconds later, and sprains her ankle on the fall. She remembers her past life ("It Sucked"), and reassures Kaname that the guy that left her here said there was a 50-50 chance she'd lose her entire memory. That must be what happened to him. Kakyo can't walk on her injured ankle, but she can see where she's going. Kaname is a strong lad with great balance, and offers to carry her on his back if she can navigate him towards a village. It takes several freezing cold nights, scavenging for food and a terrifying encounter with a rabid dog before they finally reach the village.

Since neither actually knows their birthday, but were both 'reborn' on November 13th, and because they look extremely different, they decide that they are now brother and sister. And ever since then, Kakyo and Kaname regarded each other as twins.

They actually stumble into a library at the edge of a fairly large river trading port, run by Tomoko Tousen, a retired Gotei-13 Archivist, and her husband Yasuke, a retired shinigami, who gained a surname when they married. They never had children of their own, and it's nice having the young things about, so they adopt the 'twins', and they become Kakyo Tousen and Kaname Tousen. Fortunate, as it rapidly becomes apparent the twins have spiritual powers of their own.

Kaname is the gentler and shyer twin, and closer to his godmother, who figures out how to enchant a pair of glasses so they can 'read' text he looks at and speaks it to him, and he takes to books and archiving and data science like a duck to water.

Kakyo is a litter rougher and more gung-ho twin and takes after her adopted godfather, and dreams of leaving home and becoming a Shinigami herself... but their godparents are elderly, and can't run the library on their own, and she doesn't want to leave Kaname completely on his own.

Still, when she wakes up one morning from fitful dreams to discover she's holding a sword of her own, the whole family rejoices. Suzumushi is a not very powerful Zanpaktou, and strangely eager to avoid conflict for a weapon, and is content to stay in the river town, practicing Katas with Yasuke and occasionally lightly Harassing her weilder's brother- but before the year is out, Kaname has gotten used to sometimes having what feels like a clockwork cicada climb up his back or sit on his head, chiming and chittering while he works.

One day though, Kaname is talking with Yasuke, about how neither of them remembers their previous lives. Yasuke confides that while he doesn't remember who he was or where he lived, there are some memories that not even death can erase, like how his body remembered exactly what to do the first time he picked up a sword.

Kaname has nightmares after that, of picking up Suzumushi and knowing exactly how to wield her.

Time passes, Their godparents pass. And Kakyo stays with Kaname. Neither one really wants the other to be alone.

Then one day, A komuso monk comes to the library, body covered in robes and face hidden by his Tengai. ... A Really Big Monk. His name is Komamora Sajin, and from the way he acts around Kaname, Kakyo can tell he's taken care of people who are frail and missing senses before. Kaname is very fond of him- they have similar natures, and the actually-nine-foot-tall Sajin is very good at getting things off of high shelves and convincing difficult patrons to behave themselves. Eventually, he asks to stay on a more permanent basis, and Kakyo begs him to do so- she needs to become a Shinigami, but she can't abandon Kaname. They agree, and when she tells Kaname "Stay here, and stay gentle." it her telling her how much she loves him, and wants him to be happy.

...So you can imagine how devastating her death was for him.

Doubly so when he arrives in Seireitei to handle her funeral arrangements and touches Suzumushi's hilt for the first time- the rage, the grief of the sword spirit courses through him, baying for vengeance- and worse still, so does his body's memory of how to weild a sword.

He and Kakyo were about as close as humans can get, and Suzumushi knew him for as long as the spirit had known Kakyo- if there's someone who'd be willing to avenge her master's death, it's her beloved 'twin' brother.

...but this implies a lot of WIERD stuff about Kaname and his relationship with Suzumushi.

Sometimes Zanpaktou can be passed from one person to another, incarnating a bit differently each time (like how Senbonsakura is the Kuchiki Family Sword), but other Zanpaktou will die if thier wielder does. Suzumushi is not a particularly powerful zanpaktou- Tousen and Suzumushi are regularly ranked last in the "most powerful captains" fan-polls and rightly so I think. Rightly so, because I think Kaname's power is significantly nerfed by carrying a sword that is not his. Even if he and Suzumushi are particularly close, that's different than his own, and I don't think Suzumushi ever intended to be a heritable sword. Actually using her probably takes a ton more energy for Kaname that it ever did for Kakyo. Futhermore, Kaname might also be spending a ton of energy keeping Suzumushi alive past her time.

Suzumushi only has one potentially-lethal maneuver and that's an alternate form of her shikai. The regular forms are "Spell of take a nap and stop rioting" and "Spell of no for real you're losing your sensory privileges until you calm down". Both are way more crowd control abilities rather than Deuling ones, which fits with both his and Kakyo's characterization of wanting Soul Society to be a better place- Suzumushi is a sword that's practically built to get in the middle of a major battle and get everyone to STOP. And I gotta wonder- were these the original abilities of Suzumushi, or something she crafted for Kaname? Especially his Bankai- That's a weird Banaki for a sighted person like Kakyo to have. Or is it the original, drawn from Kakyo's experiences living with Kaname? Either way, he's either using tools not intended for him, or Suzumushi is heavily deviating from what she was meant to do, as a weapon.

My point is, as good as Kaname was- and he was good, he made Captain (and not just because they were... out of officers after the Turn Back The Pendulum Incident), but he did apparently hold his own in battle against everyone but fucking Kenpachi.

In AEIWAM, he does this by focusing on his technical skill as a swordsman- what he lacks in power or Zanpaktou abilities that are actually useful in Duels, he makes up for in learning really advanced, high-level Kido* and getting damn good at actually using his sword as a sword. In the fic, Kenpachi is a huge admirer and actually kind of Jealous of Kaname's technique- he declares that of all the captains, Kaname is the strongest, because he's the one punching highest above his weight class, while eveyone else (including him) is coasting by on their enormous power reserves or more duel-adept Zanpaktou, yet Kaname can go toe-to-toe with all

"It's like watching a little bitty Bat beat up a Tiger!" He says.

So, if Suzumushi is not Kaname's Zanpaktou, what is?

For that, I think we need to look at what happened to him after his hollowfication.

After dinner. this takes up a lot of brainpower.

#AEIWAM #An Elephant is Warm and Mushy #Bleach #bleach fanfiction #Kaname tousen #Kakyo #Komamura Sajin #Suzumushi #Zanpaktou

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littleeyesofpallas · 2 years

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i never even noticed but when Tousen uses his resurreccion, he uses an attack called Los Nueves Aspectos[九相輪殺]: "9 Sourin Killing" in Japanese and of course, "The Nine Aspects" in Spanish.

But there's a bit of wordplay in that [九相] is of course the same as the "9 Phases" that I went on a whole wild goose chase on about before(I'd reblogged directly at first but i forgot what a wall that post chain already was, so I'm just linking back instead) but a Sourin[相輪] is a part of traditional Japanese architecture, generally found on pagodas; and Kurin[九輪] specifically refers to the 9 ring structure making up the trunk. Nine Aspects and Nine(Ten...) Rings, just like his bankai. This also referencing the fact that these rings typically have wind chimes hanging off each layer, tying back to suzumushi[清虫]: "pure bug" being a pun on suzumushi[鈴虫]: "Bell bug" which can refer to a few different species of cricket.

So, bells, and rings, buddhist iconography, and the 9 aspects of decay all present in both his bankai and his resurreccion(or at least this one arrancar style attack)

And while not tied to Tousen's motifs here... incidentally, the very top of a sourin is a piece representing a hoju[宝珠]:"treasure gem", or Cintamani(चिंतामणि), which is a round or teardrop shaped jewel said to grant wishes...

#bleach #tousen kaname #suzumushi #bankai #suzumushi tsuishiki enma kourogi #resurreccion #suzumushi hyakkushiki grillar grillo

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love-music-t · 2 years

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2022/07/06 Suzumushi 3 そしてユイさんラスト見届けられて本当に良かったです！ LIVE前、LIVE後に Suzumushiのファンの一人一人へ心のこもったメッセージ付プレゼントを渡している姿を見て気配り、心配りのできる本当に素晴らしい方です Suzumushiをやめてこれからは Yui @suigetsu_yui 「Shigetsu」で音楽活動を続けられるということでこれからも応援させて戴きます！ #Suzumushi (Club upset) https://www.instagram.com/p/CfyaR-1pno0/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

#suzumushi

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heyneon · 1 year

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another year, another reika design

#reika suzumushi #senselessscrawlings

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enbyboiwonder · 1 year

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Ah, Chika’s grandparents live in Monshiro-chou, and it’s just that he and his parents used to live in Suzumu-shi. I’d thought his grandparents lived in Suzumu-shi, too.

#unless that got retconned #i'll have to try and find where suzumushi is mentioned in the first novel (aside from being where itoko attends high school)#2.43 seiin koukou danshi volley bu #haijima kimichika #ebw.op #2.43

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japaneseaesthetics · 3 months

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Kuniyoshi Utagawa: Satsuma Taira Tadanori for Suzumushi

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bankaizen · 13 days

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‧₊˚ EVERY BANKAI IN BLEACH: (4 / ?)

4. TŌSEN KANAME — SUZUMUSHI TSUISHIKI: ENMA KŌROGI

Suzumushi Tsuishiki: Enma Kōrogi (清虫終式閻魔蟋蟀, Cricket Final Form) Suzumushi maintains its form of a regular katana, though without the small ring. Tōsen holds up his sword in his right hand, and places his left palm against the ring on his cross guard. The ring begins to spin as it releases spiritual energy. As it spins faster, the circle grows bigger and bigger until it's large enough to surround his body. The ring then splits into ten other glowing rings of similar size that encircle Tōsen. With a slash of his sword, the circles go flying outwards and form a circular perimeter over a large area. Once in position, the ten rings begin to generate a black void, which grows in size until it forms a large black dome, which is centered around Tōsen's body and anchored to the ground by the ten rings. Each ring of Suzumushi Tsuishiki: Enma Kōrogi is inscribed with a unique kanji, which include Skeleton (骨, Hone), Scatter/Squander (散, Bara), Daring/Tragic/Pitiful (敢, Kan), Inflamed/Fester (爛, Ran), Blood (血, Chi), and Stretch/Spread (張, Chō) The dome creates a vacuum that nullifies the senses of spiritual energy, sight, sound, and scent, what Tōsen calls Mumyō (無明, lit. "No Light", popularly known as "Avidya" and defined as "Ignorance (of Buddhist teachings)"). The only sense the victim retains is that of touch. Unlike with some Zanpakutō, Suzumushi does not convert itself into the massive dome that it creates during Bankai. Instead, the dome serves as a separate extension of Suzumushi itself, allowing Tōsen to wield its sealed form as a weapon while inside the dome, but preventing him from using its abilities. The technique's main shortcoming is that anyone, not just Tōsen himself, touching Suzumushi's hilt is immune to the dome's effects, so anyone able to grab Suzumushi recovers their senses. The dome only exists as long as Tōsen wills it to, or if he happens to become seriously injured; in either circumstance, the dome shreds apart and dissipates.

#kaname tosen #tosen kaname #bleach #bleachedit #bankai gif series #suzumishi tsuishiki enma kourogi #tousen kaname #kaname tousen #g.gif #flashing gif #flashing cw #FINALLY got around to this one #phew!!

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blue-dream-rhapsody · 4 months

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On Kugo Ginjo, Part 5 - Side A: The Blade

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I broached the subject of Kugo’s sword once a while ago, but I don’t think I really backed it up with much canon material. Then a little bit ago I saw MrTommo’s video about Ichigo’s Horn of Salvation form and it made me want to take another look, so here we go!

(Note: the numbered asterisks sprinkled throughout are more like tangents than proper footnotes. You can save them to the end without much trouble I think, the mark just notates what point I was making that I think it relates to best.)

————

So even though Kugo and Ichigo are both hybrids, the differing circumstances that make Ichigo ✨ special ✨ mean he’s not very helpful as a point of reference for the rules of existence Kugo operates under. There are a handful of things about their abilities I think are clearly meant to match up between them, or at least point the way—and that is disregarding the obvious use of Getsuga Tensho as a blatantly stolen ability—but it doesn’t give us a full picture. So today I just want to take a look at Kugo’s sword, its various forms, and what I think is going on with his powers in the current state of things.

To begin, I do want to go back to the farthest in the past we have seen Kugo—Tsukishima’s memory of when they met, at which time Kugo appears to have still been a Soul Reaper and presumably acting as a Deputy.

Purely, to confirm that he had a completely standard asauchi at this point, which he carries on his hip like any other typical Soul Reaper.

Tite Kubo stated at one time that Rukia knew of the method for transferring Soul Reaper power to a human in an emergency because it had been done before, and that Ginjo was at least the successful example. Upon his own acquiring of said power, given Ichigo is the only one who ever has, as of years later, had his sword spontaneously appear rather than be forged by Oetsu Nimaiya (*1)—it would make complete sense for Kugo to have to take up the blade of the Soul Reaper who gave him their power, at least in the moment, to survive that situation. Whether he was issued his own asauchi to imprint later, or the former owner was no longer able to wield it and he ended up keeping it to make his own, I can’t say. The latter isn’t an unprecedented event either, as Tosen got Suzumushi from his friend Kakyo after her death. And truthfully, I couldn’t tell you if it makes a difference either way, at least for what we’re discussing here. What matters ultimately, is that this is so far as we can tell, a completely standard-issue zanpakuto that a typical Soul Reaper would have.

Now we never see that zanpakuto in anything other than its sealed state. No shikai, no bankai. This means, we don’t know what shape it would have in its unsealed states, so we can’t compare that to what we know of now as Cross of Scaffold. (Keep in mind, just because it’s slender sealed doesn’t mean its shikai is the same shape. Zabimaru is an easy example.) We don’t know anything about its ability, either, nor any name it goes by. But we know that in the present time, Kugo does use something he calls “bankai,” notably without ever saying a name. So is that a real bankai? Does that mean the sword is a zanpakuto even in the present, that is just no longer sheathed like a zanpakuto?

Well, to begin to answer that, I want to bring forward a specific set of panels:

What Kugo’s saying tends to get the focus for the plot reasons, but it’s his actions that interest me here. He pulls his own Combat Pass out of his pocket (*2) and Kubo makes a point to show him putting it against his sword, and that it changes.

As a reminder, here’s a clearer view of what the sword has looked like up until this point:

And in fact, let’s look at what’s visible of the sword when he used it on Uryu when he cuts him at the very beginning of the arc, too, for good measure:

You can ignore the actual blade part for most of this post, as it doesn’t significantly change at any point, but focus on the guard in particular, where the hilt passes through, and the hilt extension as well. Between these two moments they are clearly the same, meaning at least from the point of Uryu’s getting attacked, this is what Cross of Scaffold has looked like for the entirety of the arc so far.

Yet, once his Combat Pass makes contact with the sword, and they seem to combine, it looks like this:

The skull is of course the most obvious addition, clearly reflecting the image depicted on the Pass itself. But notice too that the hilt extension is no longer cross-wrapped like the rest of the hilt is (or like most zanpakuto hilts are, if in different wrapping styles). It’s become what looks to be a column of vertebrae, like the skull’s neck.

I point this out because it is critical to note that this transformation occurs before Kugo even begins to take Ichigo’s powers. It is purely a result of combining the Pass with the sword we’ve known as Cross of Scaffold. And keep an eye on these two specific aspects, the skull with cross marking and the bone hilt, as they will continue through additional forms—leading to a certain conclusion we will discuss in a bit.

Now the next change that occurs, we don’t see until after he has taken Ichigo’s power and his own form has changed. And I’ll actually give us a couple views, because it’s hard to see everything in any one image, and it also proves consistency in the design.

There are two major differences in this new form. The first is the addition of a backing shape beneath the skull, as best seen in the first two, which while far from an exact shape match, still evokes the plaque part of the Combat Pass. And the second, as seen in the latter two images, is that the entire hilt is now a column of vertebrae, not just the part extending into the blade.

And lest you think these aren’t new aspects, but merely Kubo forgetting to draw part of his design in the first form, here’s a second panel from before Kugo begins taking Ichigo’s powers showing both of these things still absent:

(With a bonus Ichigo at the bottom still clearly having his Fullbring.)

It’s a “change” in a sense, from one to the other, but more than that these are additions, still in line with what we already have. That is not the case, however, for the last version we have to look at. With the form Kugo calls bankai, we have this:

The skull with X-markings and the vertebrae in the hilt extension both still remain, as ever. Notably though, the normal hilt has morphed again to an unrecognizable form which, quite frankly, I’m not sure how to describe. Its irregular shape makes it unclear if it’s still (the semblance of) bone, though it’d probably be a safe bet given the rest of what’s present in his entire design, not only the sword. There’s also resemblance, in the slightly arced shape, to part of the markings that appear on his face, but that’s not necessarily intentional.

The new hilt of Kugo’s blade does not resemble at all, however, the twisting horn shape the guard has taken on, which is also completely unlike the fleur-de-lys like pattern it has had even from its most basic form. And this is, notably, the most obvious thread connecting the sword and pendant forms, so it’s interesting it is absent here. Also worth noting this is completely different from the horns Ichigo’s Hollow has.

Incidentally, the plaque-like backing to the skull has also disappeared, though the skull is a more concrete tether to the Pass.

There is one more addition which is maybe the one I find most unsettling by visual alone. The skull, though I haven’t mentioned it, has only ever been the top portion without the lower jawbone. (*3) And this still continues; however, the opening that the hilt extension passes through is now lined, top and bottom, by a row of teeth, like a giant gaping maw. And from the “gums” of the bottom row, another row aims out the other way toward the blade. Which is. Horrifying.

It’s important to take the context of this particular blade into consideration, too, because Kugo makes a point to say that this “bankai” form includes Hollow elements. And from bones to horns to teeth I would definitely say this is reflected. (Especially horrifying as, while I am not a dentist or a zoologist, the sharpness of those teeth strikes me as carnivorous. With the whole of this sword I overall get this sense of a hellish humanoid entity with a too-big mouth full of too many teeth, a neck that’s too too long. And it’s screaming.)

————

Now that we’ve seen all the forms at play, let’s come back to the fact that two elements remain consistent from when the Combat Pass is added in, up through his strongest form. You’re probably wondering why I keep hammering this home, and the reason is because these elements existed independently of Ichigo’s power. And while with the bankai form in particular, there are certainly some independent components, there are also changes that seem to just be extrapolations of what’s already there. What this means is that, while Getsuga Tensho is clearly Ichigo’s, and Ichigo’s completed Fullbring form was designed on a meta level, per Kubo, with the intention of being better suited to Ginjo from the start, it just can’t all be derived from Ichigo.

I think we have to consider what it means, too, that he combines the Combat Pass and Cross of Scaffold before he begins extracting Ichigo’s power from him. Not just for the divide between what’s from who, but for why he would take the time to do so before.

Keep in mind, there was no need to power up in preparation for a battle. The original plan had been to take Ichigo’s powers, so he would have nothing to fight back with, and then leave. When the Soul Reapers showed up, it was clearly a surprise to Kugo—and with Ichigo’s loved ones from the human world already also under Tsukishima’s thrall, they really expected no significant opposition. The chances it was in anticipation of a fight are certainly never zero in a series focused on fights, but with all of that being the case, they’re still very low odds. There must be a reason to do this at this point, though, so if not for a boost in power, then could it be for a change of power?

Kugo tells Ichigo that a Deputy Soul Reaper was able to take Fullbrings from those who had them, when he explains why Xcution wants to help him become a Soul Reaper again. While there was a ruse at play here, Kugo was not aware of it when he said this; he’s likewise not aware that he was himself the Deputy in question. Now the rule that Tsukishima’s ability can’t actually add or remove events or people, only modify them, didn’t get established officially until Can’t Fear Your Own World, but that rule dictates the power exchange between him and those Fullbringers did happen to at least some extent—and we see Kugo exchanging powers in canon regardless. He takes from Ichigo, but also gives to the others in Xcution. The question here isn’t whether this occurred in the past or not, but rather, is this ability one a Deputy Soul Reaper, generally speaking, has with Fullbringers? Or is it just that, without realizing it, Kugo was attributing the nature of his personal ability (as the only Deputy before Ichigo) to being something Deputies can generally do, since he didn’t know it was him from the start?

If it was his own ability all along, then, why did we never see it used during the bulk of the arc? Well, this is where we come back to the question of combining the Pass with his Fullbring. Why do so before taking Ichigo’s power? Perhaps because, without doing so, he would not have the ability to with the ability he currently has?

Was something contained within the Combat Pass, with the purpose of hiding it away? Something he wouldn’t realize was hidden away until the bookmark on him was undone and he remembered who and what he was? Something hidden as to not arouse Ichigo’s suspicion when he did start to become spiritually aware again, because Ichigo would recognize it as something other than the nature of a Fullbringer as someone who’s been exposed to other types of spirit energy before?

Is it a coincidence that, for all the other forms we’ve seen a Fullbring take—animate plushies, digital entities, destructive boots, time contracts, strengthened skin, hairpin spirits, brass knuckles—one of only two Fullbringers who aren’t Ichigo, a Soul Reaper, who has a sword as their Fullbring’s form, was also a Soul Reaper?

Even if it’s not the nature of his personal ability, and is instead just something Deputy Soul Reapers can do—doesn’t that mean he needs to already have Soul Reaper power at that moment to be able to take the Fullbring from Ichigo? And if it was something he did with the other Fullbringers prior to the slaughter that caused him to start killing and stealing from other Soul Reapers in the first place, doesn’t that mean that power can’t have originated from the Soul Reapers he killed?

If Kugo’s Combat Pass monitors and controls him, and he hates that, why keep it on him like he has? And given that he has, why have the Court Guards been unable to track him down with it until Ichigo flushes him out? Something Hitsugaya explicitly says they were waiting for?

Any one of these things, or even any two, you could of course just handwave away, or find an explanation for. But altogether, these questions call to mind a possibility I find it hard to ignore: that Kugo is not entirely without Soul Reaper power prior to taking what he does from Ichigo—or at least, not without it stashed away, but close at hand. And that what is called Cross of Scaffold is perhaps not just a Fullbring object, but the physical vessel of his zanpakuto transformed by Fullbring into sword and pendant in turn—because isn’t a zanpakuto, in a sense, an object with a soul? The very thing Fullbring works on? In combining his Combat Pass with the sword, is he therefore bringing the spirit of his zanpakuto back to its home, adding it back into the mix of his power?

Of course the last of this is more extrapolation, but with no real precedent for this specific mix of power, it’s certainly interesting territory to tread.

————

Notes:

*1. Per Oetsu himself, he knows the location of every sword he’s ever made, so you may be thinking about the fact the Court Guards have been hunting Kugo as a fugitive for a couple years at least and wondering, “Well, if he has his sword still, shouldn’t Oetsu be able to find him so the Court Guards can catch him?” But keep in mind what Squad Zero’s job is. Their focus is the Soul King and preservation of the state of the worlds themselves. Kugo shows zero interest in the former, and of the latter, at most an interest in destroying the Court Guards soldier by soldier, and maybe usurping the social structure, neither of which does he really come anywhere close to. Being the all-overseeing Squad Zero as well, they may be aware of the circumstances of his heel-turn being orchestrated to begin with, and do not get involved not so much out of a sense of justice but just due to a lack of need to pursue him for not having particularly done anything. Soul Reapers just die all the time, what else is new? Even if Kugo had the desire to interfere with the Soul King, he’s no Aizen in terms of ability to do so, and they didn’t even interfere with him.

(Also if you take Klub Outside answers, Kubo stated this was meant in a more metaphorical sense than a GPS tracker, so do with that what you will.)

*2. Ichigo’s isn’t on a chain like this, is it? More like a leather cord? Is this meant to be a match to Kugo’s necklace chain? That said, Ichigo’s newest bankai at this point does still have the chain at the end of the hilt. This isn’t important, just something I noticed.

*3 You know what? The markings on the skull of course reflect markings Kugo’s face has in his bankai form, and the skull only being the top half also matches the Pass; but doesn’t that raise the question of which came first? Are they a change resulting from the Combat Pass being integrated in? Or was the Pass designed with the imagery it has because it was made for Kugo specifically?

Also, it just occurred to me that Ichigo and Kugo both have the Pass integrated at the base of the blade. Ichigo’s is much more literal about it, but the image on it does change to suit what form he’ll have in his upcoming shikai state. Suiting it moreso than it does his current Fullbring form, so that’s… interesting. Either way, this particular imagery that appears on Ichigo’s doesn’t present itself in Kugo after taking Ichigo’s powers, at least in any way he isn’t already connected with X imagery (like his belt-thing). It does seem to influence how Ichigo appears later, though, even after it’s taken away.

#bleach #kugo ginjo #ginjou kuugo #im not committing to there being a part B yet… but it exists in my mind #I also ended up scrapping some other tangents and you can thank mobile’s photo limit for that #Anyway this has been in my notes for a couple months I am glad to toss it into the world

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rharyx · 11 months

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Shinji's bankai being animated was cool.

I've always wondering if there was some significance between his Visored mask having an Egyptian pharaoh design and his shikai/bankai abilities involving flowers and aromas.

Like, I'm assuming the Visoreds mask are supposed to resemble what their inner Hollows look like. Or rather, their hollowfied zanpakuto spirit.

Like, from what we saw of Kensei's Hollow form in TBTP, it kinda looked like it was supposed to be a mutated form of his bankai -- what with things coming out from his back/shoulder area. (This was before Kensei revealed his bankai in the manga, so maybe Kubo hadn't finalized its design yet anyway.)

At least, the overlap between HollowKensei and BankaiKensei's designs was similar enough for my brain to go, "Oh, that form is probably supposed to look like an externalizing, hollowfied Tachikaze."

(To say nothing of the fact that even hollowfied, Tosen's Visored powers still called upon Suzumushi.)

Anyway, all of this is to say that their masks probably look like their zanpakuto spirit as well, only more Hollow-like. (Which, as an aside, has interesting implications for Tosen's mask being a blank white slate, presumably to represent his "purity.")

So with that mind, Shinji would have an inner spirit that should have some sort of pharaoh theme, but also a flower theme.

And I was wondering what exactly, if anything, Kubo was trying to get at with that.

Like, flowers appear a lot in Egyptian mythology, but I think it's mainly lilies and lotuses, not the kind that Shinji's bankai takes the form of. I think CFYOW called it a dianthus?

Idk, I feel like there's something interesting there, but I can't figure out what it is.

#bleach #shinji hirako #hirako shinji #bankai #cfyow #tybw #bleach tybw #bleach cfyow #sakanade

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miscellaneous-art · 2 months

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Kuniyoshi (1797-1861) Ukiyo-e Comparisons of the Cloudy Chapters of Genji, 1845-1846 Part II Chapter number: 38 Chapter name: Suzumushi (鈴虫, Bell Cricket) Scene: Actor Nakamura Utaemon IV as Fukuoka Mitsugi (福岡貢) defending himself against three ruffians in the kabuki play Ise ondo

#engraving #japanese #ukiyo-e #woodblock print

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madokackerman · 3 months

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Akinoyonaga Suzumushi

#doujinshi #dj #bl doujin #kimetsu no yaiba #tanjiro kamado #rengoku kyojuro

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gallusrostromegalus · 1 year

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So...uhh, you mentioned that tousen is the one captain who zaraki "if you don't fight with both joy and intention to kill you are a bitch" kenpachi actually respects because he punches WAYYYYY above his weight class, and you also mentioned that even if he is very skilled with it, suzumushi still isn't his sword. My questions are: In the event tousen gets his sword, what happens to suzumushi? he now has two zanpakuto? he can use both? can he actually do bankai with both? At the same time? My my second question is: If he gets his own zanpakuto, he will be able to punch SO MUCH HIGHER above his weight class, and with who it would actually be a fair fight with him at that point? because my man has both skills and absurd power now, so most captains can't top that. If you cannot respond to either of those questions because spoiler spoiler, just give me a "yes.", please and thank you

Short, minimal-spoilers responses:

Suzumushi dies. This is apparent from the second Kaname picks her up- she should have died with Kakyo and is living on stolen time.

The reason Kaname is so weak compared to the other captains is that, since Suzumushi is not *his* Sword, she takes A SHITLOAD of energy for him to keep alive, let alone use. The Curse he has in the fic does not help this situation! Suzumushi also changed her attacks to make working with Kaname easier, so even with all the added energy, her output is bad. Their partnership is generally wildly inefficient, but still a miracle- what he's doing should be, at most, only theoretically possible.

Suzumushi dies *in the middle* of Kaname's fight with Aizen, and my favorite scene in the drafts folder is him manifesting his own Zanpaktou in the middle of the fight to continue.

Which is another Only Theoretically Possible thing, and it evaporates when Kaname collapses

Eventually, he is sent to visit Oetsu to Actually Properly Forge his Zanpaktou (and uh. Update the royal guard on the everything that's been happening), but he does not get a second sword.

Because Koumori is not a Sword :)

Without going into too much detail, Kaname can now use his Zanpaktou properly and yes, it's very Rock-Lee-Dropping-the-Training-Weights. He has now properly entered his weight class, AND all that time working with Suzumushi is paying dividends.

Kenpachi is at first, DELIGHTED that Kaname can kick his ass even harder.

Then SPECTACULARLY DISAPPOINTED, Because Koumori is not a weapon for fighting, but a tool for stopping fights in their tracks, and particularly Noxious to Kenpachi, whose first life was as a sword.

Sure, he probably could beat Kaname and Koumori, and it'd be a hell of a struggle, but it would not be FUN. It would be the opposite of fun. He'd rather go get a root canal than fight that Fucking Thing.

#AEIWAM #an elephant is warm and mushy #Bleach #bleach fanfic #kaname tousen #tousen #zaraki kenpachi #kenpachi zaraki #zanpaktou #suzumushi

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littleeyesofpallas · 2 years

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I'm sorry if I've missed it, but have you discussed Komomura in depth here? I would love to hear your thoughts on this character and ending.

I have! But I am verymuch aware my random and erratic posting style makes old shit super hard to find and follow. I actually love getting little requests like this because it gives me an excuse to consolidate disparate thoughts on a character every once in a while. So buckle up, let's do a Komamura Sajin recap!

The surname Komamura is neat, it's made up of koma[狛] from komainu[狛犬] which are the "Liondog" statues used in Shinto shrines, and -mura[村]: "village." Straight forward, super appropriate, and tells us that somewhere out there there is in fact a proper settlement of wolf people, not just an old mandog in a cave.

His private name, Sajin[左陣] is written with "Left"(as opposed to right) and "(Battle)Formation/Encampment/Position" Which is again a play on the komainu, as they appear in pairs on either side of the entrance to a temple grounds. So literally he is the "left position stone dog" of the traditional pair. It does sort of imply there ought to be an Ujin[右陣]: "Right Position" complementary to him?

His shikai is just Tenken[天譴]: "Heaven + reprimand/censure/reproach" which is pretty straight forward but not especially descriptive. It is noticeably not the term Tenchu[天誅], which is lit."Heaven+DeathPenalty" but generally translated as "Divine Punishment" "Divine Justice" or "Divine Retribution." As far as I can tell it's meant to be pretty literally the act of being reprimanded, which is distinctly less severe than being executed...

But the big thing to dig into here is of course his bankai. Kokujou Tengen Myouou[黒縄天譴明王]

Kokujou[黒縄]: lit."Black + Rope/Cord" but refers to the Kalasutra, a level of buddhist "hell" in the somewhat elaborate layered structure of buddhist cosmological karmic penance. It is a place specifically for punishing killers* and thieves. It is so named as the monstrous torturers brand their charges with burning iron ropes/cords and then cut them along said branded lines. It is also supposed to be a burning copper plate, likely the reason Tenken's armor is the color it is.

Tengen[天譴] is still the same, the pronunciation just softens a little

Myouou[明王]: lit."Wisdom + King" is the two literal words put together but refers specifically to the so named figures in buddhist mythos. They are wrathful and often monstrous divine beings that punish those who would deviate from the path of buddha, hence Tenken/Tengen's seemingly mild use of "reprimand." There are various mythological structures that count them in sets of either 5, 8, or 10. (As it happens, one of them is Aizen Myouou[愛染明王], Aizen Sousuke's homonym namesake.)

*I could've sworn I heard that this is supposed to be a very specific subset of murderers but I cannot seem to find a specification on that now...

Initially this has a fun dynamic with Tousen's bankai, Suzumushi Tsuishiki: Enma Kourogi[清虫終式閻魔蟋蟀] as Enma[閻魔] aka "Yama" is the Buddhist king of hell and judge of the dead. In Chinese buddhist cosmology, which serves as a source of much of Japanese Buddhist mythos, he assumes the distinctly Chinese bureaucratic role of judge and not just king as he does in his earlier Hindu counterparts, and is the figure in charge of determining not only whom amongst the dead are sent to the naraka or not, but also which specific naraka they are assigned, according to their crimes in life.

The fun idea being that Tousen served as judge who determines guilt but that Komamura served as executioner to actually mete out punishment.

But with the added context of Komamura's meeting with the wolf elder, we learn some round about but really vital details about Bleach's Buddhist based world building. On the one hand, the elder's cave entrance is marked by a tori gate with shide paper wards, like the stone dogs they are all associated with Shinto shrines, and not generally Buddhism, save for when the lines between the two are blurred, which is admittedly not especially uncommon.

But when the elder talks about how the wolf clan is punished by their appearance for the crimes they've committed, and refers specifically to chikusho[畜生] which refers to "beast" or "animal" in terms of the buddhist wheel of reincarnation, and the "6 realms." It seems to confirm that Bleach's reincarnation cycle operates by Buddhist cosmological rules, suggesting that the wolf clan were all at one point souls in Hell who came back as subhumans almost as a kind of parole, not prisoners anymore but also not free to live with the full dignity of human personhood.

This in turn recontextualizes the reference to the Kalasutra naraka in Komamura's bankai, as the reflection of his inner soul as associated with a very specific place in hell implies that prior to being (re)born as a wolfman he served his penance in hell in Kalasutrea as a killer or thief.

In any case then there is his human form bankai, which retains all the previous bits but adds, Dangai Joue[断鎧縄衣]

Dan'[断]: "Abstain from..."/"Cut off..."

gai[鎧]: "Yoroi"(the specific iconic style of samurai armor)

Jou[縄]: "rope/cord" same as in Kokujou

e[衣]: "clothes/garment/robe"

Nothing special here, just a literal description as having discarded armor and now wears only ropes. Also while the "black rope" title refers to the naraka and thus doesn't necessitate literal ropes present in the original bankai design, this form does have literal black ropes, and in a sort of kabuki-esque nio-tasuki style; which i also recently went on a tangent about, which also evokes a left side and right side gateway statue imagery.

I think that covers most of the things I've ranted about concerning Komamura at different times...

#bleach #bleach meta #sajin komamura

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