Post by Shiro on Jun 5, 2022 11:11:09 GMT -5
Kensei Shiromune
Other Names: Shiro
Epithet: “Demon” Shiro
Height: 170cm.
Build: Mesomorph
Age: 21
Gender: Male (he/him)
Race: Human
Occupation: Bodyguard
Bounty/Rank: N/A
Total X-Poinz: 300
Used X-Poinz: 250 [Grade 2 Weapon, Seaprism Stone]
Total Rebate: 125
Used Rebate: 100
Earned X-Poinz Record
[/font][/ul]
Rebate X-Poinz Record
[/font][/ul]
Name: Mujō (無常 - Impermanence)
Fighting Style: Demon Sword Style (Akuma no Yaiba)
Rank: Wazamono (Seastone +2)
Description: A large sword of the nodachi type, Impermanence was made in Wano by an elderly swordsmith, who then passed it on to the next generation. The hilt resembles most other katana hilts, with a black ito (hilt wrap), a brass pommel and guard, and lavender same (ray skin). The blade itself is nicked in several areas, yet it retains its character as a weapon. It is said that the history of Impermanence is tied to a long and strange line of events, one that its wielder will have to discover in time due. On the base of the blade, where the brass of the hilt meets the cutting steel, lie engraved these kanji characters; 絶望.
Personality
Having shed childlike innocence for a wrathful stoicism which reflects the way he fights - as though to completely wear himself out - Shiro maintains his sense of loyalty toward the dying wish of his father. He further retains the values planted like seeds unto his wounded soul; iron determination and the power of being true to oneself- to be vocal about one’s feelings. Shiro has internalised these characteristics to honour the ones he could not protect- and this breeds a kind of duality in his personality now. Though determined to see his father’s legacy through, the young man doubts himself and his judgement at every turn. That makes him hesitate even in spite of his determined outlook, and to sometimes blind himself to circumstances that endanger him. This, in turn, cultivates a billowing wrath within him. In reality, Shiro is a man who prides himself on his lineage and defends it at every turn. Even more so than being the vestige of his family's will, he often maintains silence toward others. Words are unnecessary, his acts speak loud enough instead.
Appearance
Clad in traditional samurai wear to honour his heritage and stay close to his long-dead father in whichever way he liably can, Shiro's clothing comprises a bright orange kimono and a black gi worn within out of reverence to the martial arts. His often wrathful eyes glare ever with intent, making it hard for many to look his way long enough to notice the embroidery of silks decorated in beautiful ink patterns over his broad, musclebound shoulders. As his name suggests, Shiro was born with noticeably pallid white hair, which he chooses to sometimes adorn with lavender highlights to harmonise with the violet steel on the hilt of his beautiful, prideful nodachi. Something in the way this young man dresses, in spite of his abrupt and ever temperamental attitude, adheres to the very heart of harmony; all colours blend together naturally as though to adorn his body of their own will.
Traits
Strength of a Demon | Seeking to topple the world itself is no easy feat- and that is why many a revolutionary and many a pirate alike work to increase their strength. Among those of the new generation to hit the seas is the man named Shiro, whose herculean power is owed to years upon years of endless exercise to reach his current level. Not unlike many other rising stars in the world of the high seas, the samurai is a force of nature when it comes to physical power.
Inhuman Reflexes | Though initially one may imagine Shiro to be a sluggish, clumsy swordsman, that couldn’t be any further from the truth. Having honed his skill with the sword at least to a point of understanding, he has developed and conditioned his body to react through heightened reflexes.
Stamina from Pain | Warriors of many cultures know one singular truth; there is no growth without hardship. The greatest lesson of all is overcoming one’s threshold, shattering one’s shell and surpassing one’s limit. To this end, these warriors have learned to push through immense amounts of torture, toil, and pain, managing to hold out a little longer during fights even when gravely injured. Of course, this takes a toll on their health in the long term.
Fighting Styles
Name: Akuma no Yaiba [Demon Sword Style]
Focus: Swordsmanship, Brutal, Slow
Class: E
Description: The sword style learned by the samurai named Shiro, this devastating, esoteric type of swordsmanship is characterised by rage-filled, intense combat. Because of the sheer strength behind each destructive slash, the Demon Sword Style takes a lot out of its user and benefits those who can end an engagement in very few strikes. Beware those who wield a force that so deeply reflects their empty soul. While all techniques in the Demon Sword Style are more devastating when gripping the sword in both hands, some practitioners use one hand. These look almost akin to an Oni swinging its club mercilessly, an unabating force of will.
Fighting Techniques
Name: Demon Sword Style: Four Thousand Severed Souls
Fighting Style: Demon Sword Style
Rank: 1
Description: A signature technique of the Demon Sword Style inscribed upon the martial arts manuals given to Shiro and his brother by his late father, the Four Thousand Severed Souls relies on the swordsman's ability to deliver four devastating strikes in rapid succession with no breaths taken. It is said that by forsaking to breathe, one opens themselves up to the Oni living inside their blade, becoming supposedly possessed by murderous bloodlust for the duration of mere seconds. Though the technique has passed through various stages of development in the hands of different masters, Shiro has personalized it in his own way. As though preparing to deliver swift death, the man performs the Four Thousand Severed Souls by sheathing his nodachi first. After a deep breath is taken to account for the technique's exhaustive nature, Shiro pounces forth and delivers four devastating, stabbing thrusts toward his enemy. It is not the number of strikes that makes the Four Thousand Severed Souls a dangerous technique, but the focus and power placed on just these four attacks alone.
Name: Demon Sword Style: Eight Heads of Hachiman
Fighting Style: Demon Sword Style
Rank: 1
Fighting Style: Demon Sword Style
Rank: 1
Description: Among the esoteric writings regarding the Demon Sword Style, one of the most forbidden of samurai teachings, there lies the Eight Heads of Hachiman technique. According to scriptures and the drawn image manual granted to Shiro by his father's will, this technique consists of eight consecutive upward diagonal slashes each aiming to punishingly push back an opponent with use of sheer force. Meant to control the pace of combat, the Eight Heads of Hachiman that Shiro uses is usually single-handed in terms of grip, accentuating the style which was borne out of rage, despair, and anguish. Though the technique may vary with each practitioner, the arc of Shiro's swings is wide and aims toward a foe's limbs instead of their torso.
Background
Originating from a lesser Estate in Wano Country under loyalty to the Shogun, Kensei Shiromune led an easy life for the longest time. His childhood was characterised solely by the manner of its leisure- for Wano was a rich, doting parent when need be. In the present, however, the man has cut all ties to his past to become a demon of the high seas. What happened, for his life to come to this? Let me regale you with the story of the demon known as ‘Shiro’.
Life in the provinces within the borders of reclusive Wano was drab, and young Kensei worked the rice fields alongside his brother, Koda, to support the family. In truth, while the two boys’ family was somewhat richer than those of the neighbourhood immediate, it paled bluntly in comparison to the lavish riches of the Shogun’s castle and the flourishing businesses surrounding it. The only times Kensei and Koda got to see the castle was from afar in the mountains, where they would spend their time training with wooden swords. Little boys playing at being more than naive, more than brats- tempting a fate that soon would come. Over time, their father would grow ill from some form of degenerative lung disease- something that the local doctor could not handle given her limited means.
The boys were forced to labour in place of their father, and playtime became scarce, thin, almost eclipsed by the sudden thrusting of responsibility in their lives. More responsibility than they could handle- and then came a grim reminder of mortality. One night cloaked in the gloom of dusk, the boys’ father, Satomaru Shiromune, called them to his chamber to express his parting words knowing that he was soon to pass away into the next life.
“Inherit my blade and will. Find your mother.”
These few words would ignite a fire in Koda and Kensei that burned brighter than the stars. That very same night the two boys would leave Wano forever, in search of the only other person who could fathom the pain of their loss. The problem was; they’d never met their mother, not even once or even in vague memories of childhood. That alone was a red flag- one they woefully would ignore as they leapt into a boat and forsook their past life, for now they both were vagabonds. Within the will of their father, one key detail stood out to the boys. Their mother was a strong pirate who had been lost somewhere in the New World. Due to her Vivre Card still being intact however, in the chambers of Satomaru, they at least knew that she was alive.
But the New World is unforgiving. The high seas are ruthless, brutal- and two kids have no place in them. It would rapidly occur to them that leaving Wano Country was a path that, if they suffered from misfortune, would bring them only ruin. They were determined to reach their mother, and thus stopping was out of the question. How could one convince two brats that what they were doing was nothing short of suicide?
There was but one way to do that. The way of nature’s law- the way of the sea. For days on end, perhaps even dragging toward months given the boys’ perception of time was never the best, they scrambled to share rations whilst a hinderless storm raged against their flimsy wooden boat. They wouldn’t be able to survive in this weather- and thus Koda, the older of the two, came up with a plan which he never truly disclosed to Kensei until it was too late. Koda starved himself while pretending to be eating his share of rations, ensuring that his brother would live on for them both. The storm never abated and at some point the waves threatened to turn their bedraggled boat over- yet they managed to squeak through once more. It was only too sluggishly, too late, that Koda noticed his father’s sword sliding off the ship like an oar to meet the sea. Instead of losing their father’s legacy in one fell swoop, the boy decided to jump after it into the raging tide and so he did. Whilst Kensei was too busy trying to keep the oars from falling as well, he wouldn’t notice anything more than the shifting of weight as Koda made the eager, ambitious dive after the sword.
Thunder struck. In vivid panic to not get hit by an ensuing pillar of lightning, Kensei clasped his hands protectively over his head and failed to notice- the sound of the crackling arc, followed by a morose underwater bubbling. A child’s brain only ever notices immediate danger… and so Koda was an afterthought. The boy’s limp body, struck by baleful lightning, resurfaced with the sword meekly strapped along his back for protection. Kensei shrieked in painful horror and disbelief, and fainted.
The next day, Kensei Shiromune awoke on the deck of a ship much larger than his done-in boat. He had been rescued by a pirate crew, with which he silently spent his early childhood. He was nobody, he had nobody but a distant mother and a sword- and over time, he would change his name to cut all ties with a past that was too painful to recall; Shiro became his persona. Kensei became Shiro, a wrathful young man with bitter thoughts on his own worth, grasping at a task he was unsure he ever could complete. When the pirate crew returned to the Grand Line to convene with an ally of theirs, Shiro - who was becoming quite the unbearable presence to the particular collective’s happy-go-lucky attitude - was booted out and left on the desert island of Alabasta. That turned out to be quite the opportunity for the young man to discover himself and train in the way of the sword, a form of self-imposed therapy which aided him in dealing with the grief of the two persons most important to his growth. Deep within, Shiro wonders whether his father and Koda are proud of his current path; the path of a revenant samurai without nakama, without a crew nor a family. It is high time for him to write his tale anew, in honour of them.
