Iwazaru, Shuuto

IWAZARU, SHUUTO

Shuuto takes the appearance of a male in his late teens, his youthful face marred only by the serious expression that tends to take residence upon his countenance. Shuuto is notably lanky; his thin body appears to be almost stretched due to his height, though his wiry frame is somewhat deceptive of the muscle he actually possesses. His hair is a spikey mess of dark-brown, jutting out from his skull at ever changing and random angles, the un-styled mass fortunately unobtrusive to his his identically coloured eyes.

When it is required of him, which is practically constantly in Seretei, Shuuto clothes himself in the traditional Shinigami attire. While training, or on a rare visit to the human world, Shuuto wears a baggy white vest, a pair of black skinny jeans held to his waist by blue belt with a large, golden, buckle and a pair of red skater shoes. At all times, even in his Shinigami robes, Shuuto wears a tiger-skin glove upon his right hand, with a set of black prayer beads on his wrist.

Shuuto appears to be a religious man, reciting the mantras and partaking in the tradition of the monks who both raised and trained him in the Rukongai. The prayer beads that line his wrist and the ever-present tiger-skin glove are testament to the effect that had upon his ideologies on the world, bearing their symbols proudly. Shuuto is part of a religious sect known as Tenseism, named for it’s founder Daitora Tensei, an offshoot of Buddhism developed in Soul Society. While following the shitai of Buddha, and thus the hasshoudou, their beliefs are altered to account for the absolute knowledge of reincarnation system and the existence of Zanpakuto. Those who practice Tenseism believe that Zanpakuto Spirits are the souls of those who committed minor sins in their life, bound to an object until successfully redeeming themselves. Hollows are seen to be souls in constant suffering, and thus it is the duty of those who practice this religion to purge them from their sate of reincarnation and lead them into enlightenment in the Soul Society. As a result of these beliefs, all those trained in the religious scriptures of Daitora Tensei are also receive extensive combat training.

His tutelage in this religious environment impacted Shuuto’s persona in a dramatic fashion, changing the once rebellious and violent spirit of a boy into a man of apparent peace and self-control. He is known to engage in lengthy meditative sessions within his own quarters, the barracks of the Ichibantai and even the surrounding forests of Seretei in order to achieve his nirvana. Shuuto is still deeply involved in the operation of his shrines, responsible for spreading the message of Tensei amongst the Shinigami in the efforts of achieving greater peace in these times of constant war.

Shuuto is an example of respect manifest, greeting all he meets in a polite and appropriate manner. He is never outwardly antagonistic towards any souls, yet never displays more than a wry smile upon his face. He usually maintains a serious, or at least completely neutral, physiognomy that is indicative of the purging of his desires. He performs his duty to its full extent, which is one of the reasons he was promoted to readily to his prominent position; he is an exemplary soldier.

Yet within the depths of his soul is the constant doubting of his own beliefs, the guilt that he is nothing more than a hypocrite who preaches the teachings of a man he never truly believed in. Shuuto’s violent spirit has only been subdued, incapable of being fully extinguished, and is constantly reigned in by Shuuto. Shuuto truly attempts to believe in the teachings of Daitora Tensei, yet his inability to let go of his own anger, desire and blood-thirst proves him incapable of accepting these beliefs as true. He mimics the teachings in the hopes that, in time, the imitation will lead to true acceptance of these teachings. These flaws have lead to disharmony between Shuuto and his Zanpakuto, Son Goku. Shuuto resents Son Goku for being able to see his faults and often takes out his frustrations on his Zanpakuto spirit during his meditative state, often engaging in brutal fights with his spirit within his inner world.

Shuuto lead brief and unimportant life, living in rural Japan as a farmer’s son. Uneducated and undisciplined, Shuuto ran wild and was generally a nuisance to his family. The youngest of four sons, Shuuto was allowed to do whatever he wanted as he was too young to work the fields like his brothers, which in turn lead to him getting into all sorts of mischief around his small village. His death came suddenly and unexpectedly, a freak accident resulting his untimely demise. As he played alone in a nearby forest during a rainstorm, climbing to the tops of tall trees and jumping among the canopy, Shuuto was struck by a bolt of lightning. With nothing to ground it, Shuuto took the full force of the electrical shock into his body, killing him instantly.

When he opened his eyes from the shock, he found himself in a completely new environment with no memory of his past life. Shuuto had awoken in the Rukongai, in the 80th district of the Eastern Quarter, a lawless and violent place. Shuuto survived by stealing from the meager stalls that dotted the district and avoiding the men with large weapons who tended to go on murdering sprees. He had to learn how to fight to defend himself, engaging in viscous brawls where underhanded tactics such as eye gouging and genital mutilation weren’t out of the question, making use of make-shift shivs and broken katanas to arm himself when necessary. Shuuto built up a reputation in the area as a particularly brutal fighter, never holding back or relenting until his opponent was dead, never granting mercy on those who wronged him. He amassed a small following, something unheard of for a soul of his age, running a small gang in the area. He was able to live relatively comfortably, given the context of his existence in one of the worst areas of the Rukongai, allowing his gang to do most of the murdering and thieving while they paid him tribute in fear of invoking his anger. He felt like a God.

Eventually, a man was brought before him. The man was garbed in tattered brown robes, blood streaming from the various wounds upon his bruised face and dirt covering his entire being from where he had been kicked to the ground. A tiger-skin glove and a set of prayer beads covered each hand. It was explained to Shuuto that this man was a monk who had preached peace and harmony in his area, trying to convince the members of his gang to give up their wicked ways and live the teachings of Daitora Tensei, the founder of his religion. This interested Shuuto: he already felt like a god and now he had a man of God before him. He would let this monk live and try and convince him of his power, to spread his own God-like renown over the Rukongai in order to broaden his territory. A childlike idea for a child, and one that eventually backfired. Shuuto allowed the monk to live, feeding him with stolen food and conversing with the monk daily in order to convert him to Shuuto’s way of thinking.

Over the weeks the monk stayed, Shuuto was convinced of the monk’s preachings, becoming more inclined to spare misgivings and show mercy where there was none before. Sensing weakness, his followers turned on him, reasoning that his mercy was unbecoming of their leader. It was impossible for Shuuto to fight all of his men alone, and so he fled with the monk back to his temple in the 40th district, starting a new journey on the path of peace rather than the path of endless bloodshed and violence.

On his arrival, Shuuto consistently stole from the monk’s stocks of food to store, fearing betrayal at every turn, his extreme paranoia and conditioning in the 80th district leading him to commit unnecessary crimes. It took months of the monk’s help to calm him from his wild state, the life of a bandit-God taking its psychological toll on the young boy. The monks raised him as their own, educating the child and purging the violence from him through a peaceful environment and meditative techniques. Life in the temple of Tensei was peaceful and educational; the monks were patient with Shuuto and his criminal tendencies, offering guidance and support to the youth. The youth would grow into a young man under the tutelage of these monks, learning the teachings of Daitora Tensei, including taking the first steps into formal hakuda training.

Shuuto spent the better part of a decade in the temple, becoming a fully-fledged monk of Tensei’s order, displaying all the proper mannerisms of a monk and following the teachings of his colleagues. However, something stirred within his subconscious that made him restless at night. It was obvious from the start that Shuuto was something beyond the capabilities of the souls that resided in Rukongai, his Reiatsu often leaking from his body while he slept, his energy rampaging and destroying everything around in violent bursts of kinetic force. The monks taught him the basics in controlling his spiritual energy, but it was not long before his wild power caught the attention of the swordsmen garbed in black: the Shinigami. With the blessing of his fellow monks, Shuuto joined the ranks of the Shinigami in order to properly learn how to control his rampaging energy, and hopefully dispel his aggressive subconscious. He brought few possessions with him, his trademark tiger glove and prayer-bead bracelet, along with select scriptures from the temple to remind him of his teachings.

Life at the academy was relatively painless for Shuuto, excelling greatly in the fields of Hakuda and Hoho due to his study of the arts. Shuuto’s main issues throughout the academy came from his proficiency with weaponry, shunning the use of material tools as they served as a grim reminder of his brutal past, something he desperately wished to purge from his being. Shuuto passed his Zanjutsu exam with the minimal marks possible, acquiring above average in all other fields, finally gaining access to his Zanpakuto and a set of Shinigami robes. He was now a fully-fledged Soul Reaper, placed into the Nibantai for his specialty in hand-to-hand combat. It was in this division that Shuuto honed his skills; learning to control his Reiatsu enough from him to completely suppress it, mastering the arts of Hakuda to the point where he could break a man in two with a single strike and improving his Hoho to allow him to move swiftly and effectively throughout the battlefield with his Shunpo. His focus on these disciplines, along with further decades of training and studying, allowed Shuuto to begin developing his own form of Shunko.

It was also during his time within the Nibantai that Shuuto began to unravel the nature of his Zanpakuto. The whisperings first started as he meditated, questioning his beliefs and motivations, endlessly distracting him from suppressing his bestial side. Shuuto tried his best to ignore these annoyances, initially believing the voice to be the first signs of some form of mental affliction stemming from his childhood trauma, and so decided to conceal and disregard the insane ramblings of his inner dialogue. It was not until he found himself in the midst of combat with a particularly strong Hollow in the Human World that Shuuto understood the origin of this voice, the anthropomorphic form of Son Goku appearing plain to his sight while the world around stopped. His Zanpakuto asked why he had been ignored for so long, to which Shuuto replied he had no desire to rely on the strength of others anymore. The Monkey King reluctantly granted the Shinigami access to his Shikai state by revealing his name, hoping the monk would see sense by displaying his power. The following battle was brief, the combined forces of Son Goku and Shuuto utterly annihilating the foes in his way. However in this state a terrible bloodlust came over Shuuto, the once calm monk’s composure shattered for that brief moment as he descended back into violence. Son Goku seemed to revel in Shuuto’s bestial nature, promoting its appearance at every turn, always in Shuuto’s head trying to pierce through his exterior tranquility. It was for this reason that Shuuto abandoned the use of his Zanpakuto, vowing only to ever use it in truly dire circumstances. This also promoted the unhealthy relationship between the two, the Monkey King constantly provoking the Shinigami into violence while Shuuto relieved his strength by entering his Inner World and engaging in brutal beat downs with his spirit.

Shuuto felt that the missions he was being assigned to, especially the defence of high-priority targets such as members of the Central 46, were detrimental to his mental health as it was difficult to focus on centering himself when he was in a constant state of stress and awareness. He was eventually transferred to a new division, the Nanabantai, where the focus was on the general defence of Seretei as a whole rather than a single target, mainly dealing with the few Hollow incursions in the Rukongai. This meant that Shuuto was able to protect the weak and poor of his home sectors rather than the nobles who oversaw the machinations of this world. It took a few journeys to his old temple for Shuuto to finally find peace with himself once more, the monks helping him purge the desires and emotion from his body while he patrolled the Rukongai, and yet the voice of Son Goku was always there, critiquing him and reminding him of his flaws. Shuuto managed to repress his Zanpakuto’s wishes for destruction, climbing the ranks of the Nanabantai until he reached the third seat, in a position of power and influence to properly spread the teachings of his temple and defend those who need it.

THE GOD OF HIGHSCHOOL - jin mo-ri | iwazaru shuuto PLAYED BY JAY

MADE BY ★MEULK OF GS