Jiro Musashi

Jiro Musashi​ (in Japanese: ジロー・ムサシ/　Hepburn: 武蔵　次郎 Musashi Jirou) is the protagonist of Shinobi 3D and the father of Shinobi series legend Joe Musashi in an alternate timeline. 
==​About==
Jiro Musashi is an Iga Ninja of the Oboro Clan , and the most masterful ninja produced by the Oboro in his time. A young prodigy in the disciplines of Obororyu Shinobi Arts (朧流忍術 Oboro School of Shinobi Arts), Jiro is highly intune with Mother Nature and holds great respect for the natural world. As a masterful shinobi, Jiro is made the leader of his clan early on in life as a young adult. But no sooner did his training be complete did the ZEED Ninja Army launch an attack on his village, forcing Jiro into action. After repelling the attack he watched his entire village be destroyed by a blue flash of light that destroyed the surrounding area. Protected by his Ninja Magic, Jiro's power and the energy react and send him spiralling through time, 800 years into the future, where Zeed's evil ruled the world. Now trapped in this unknown world with no way to return home, Jiro can only fight to survive as he seeks to avenge the loss of his old clan and restore order to this chaotic world.
 
==History==
Jiro Musashi was born in the Oboro Village of Kencho Era Japan, during the reign of Emperor Hanazono. A prodigy of the Ninjutsu of the Oboro Ninja Clan, and possessing a superhuman affinity with Mother Nature, Jiro would grow to become one of the greatest Ninja produced by his clan at an early age. As he grew into a young adult, the Empire recognized his talents and would often enlist him in daring operations that most would consider suicidal in order to preserve the Empire's prosperity. For his selflessness and loyalty, Jiro was given a golden amulet by the emperor himself, which Jiro wears proudly as a badge of honor for the Oboro ninja.
One day, in the year 1256 AD, the Eighth Year of Kencho, Jiro was sent on a mission to assassinate the ZEED Group; Ninja that defied the Emperor's will. Using his superior skills, the young shinobi easily slaughtered their forces, but the lords escaped from him. Confident that he'd find them soon enough, Jiro returns to his village to resume his Ninja training, seeking to hone his skills to perfection and fulfill his mission in due time.
A few days after his mission, while training with his Master in the Oboro Village Dojo, Jiro receives his Ougi Kaiden (奥義皆伝; Inner Secret Transmission), ceremoniously receiving full proficiency in the Oboro Ryu Ninja Arts. But while the two silently celebrated, Jiro's village is under attack by ZEED. After repelling the attackers from the village, Jiro and his mentor see a mysterious light shine in the sky. Sensing something ominous, Jiro prepares to investigate. His lover gazes at him, and it is presumed he promised he'd return to her safely.
After tracking down ZEED survivors in the caverns, Jiro would find himself in an unnaturally snow covered area, where he would meet a dangerous woman capable of controlling the element of ice and cold at will. Wasting no time, Jiro fought against the demonic Yuki-Onna in mortal combat, and cut her down where she stood.
But all was not well. No sooner did the monstrous woman fall dead to the ground did a firefly land on Jiro's blade. Jiro immediately knew it was a warning of impending danger as a mysterious light struck the village releasing a devastating explosion that destroyed the village and the surrounding area. Quickly using a Ninjutsu spell to protect himself from the blast, the energy from the explosion and Jiro's Ninja magic barrier clashed, and Jiro would be flung backwards landing unconscious in an unknown jungle.
A helicopter appears after sensing abnormal energy readings, and upon seeing Jiro, special forces soldiers, led by Colonel Sarah Krieger, pick him up hoping to find answers. As a firefly lands on Jiro's shoulder, Jiro wakes. The confused ninja thinks he's been taken prisoner, and kills the soldiers who brought him aboard, but spares Sarah, who bears a striking resemblance to the lover he lost. Sarah leaps out of the chopper with a parachute and Jiro watches her leave before escaping the crashing chopper.
Jiro descends into an unknown city, and everywhere he looks he sees that ZEED had taken control. To escape the corrupt city, Jiro battles his way through a swath of ZEED enforcers, battling advanced weapons he has never seen before. As he dashes through the streets of the city, he notices the sounds of gunfire and sees Sarah skillfully destroying ZEED enforcers with minimal effort before escaping the carnage via helicopter. Jiro watches her depart and begins to believe that there's far more to her than he original thought. Soon afterwards, Jiro ascends a ZEED controlled skyscraper, where he is attacked by the mechanized soldier Trickshot. Jiro studies its moves and finds it's weakness before slashing it to pieces. As the machine soldier explodes, Jiro jumps out of the high rise's window, carefully descending as he escapes on the Hyper Transport MG97.
Jiro fights his way through the transport, attacked by ZEED underlings and battling horrifying genetic experiments created by ZEED. As he reaches the end of the train he catches a glimpse of a man doning a crimson oni mask calling himself the "Shadow Master". As the man vanishes in a puff of smoke, the monstrous Cryoborg appears to battle Musashi. Jiro wastes no time dispatching the creature, escaping the exploding Hyper Transport using its debris to escape into the jungle.
After escaping the city, Jiro makes his way through the Jungle of Blood, but is attacked by an H43 Attack Chopper. Sent into the underground waterways Jiro navigates the current of the waters surfing on wooden debris. After landing on dry land, he finds himself under attack by a ZEED Submarine beneath the water. Escaping the caves, the H43 Chopper appears.  Using his ninja skills he outmaneuvers it and stabs at the cockpit killing the pilot and causing it to crash.
After the battle Jiro trecks through the forest, and he comes across the sight of a ZEED air raid on an aircraft carrier. Deciding to assist the Massive Carrier in its moment of need, Jiro repels the ZEED forces and slips past the security as he stows away on a jet fighter as he battles Zeed Forces attacking the jet he's on while anticipating the aerodynamic changes of the vehicle. As the jet fires a sidewinder missle, Jiro jumps on using it as a means of transportation to the Zeed Stratobase before him. As he infiltrates he takes down many ZEED soldiers and goes deeper into the base's crumbling laboratory, where he comes face to face with its monstrous Super Soldier. Taking advantage of its apparant lack of combat intelligence, Jiro defeats the seemingly invincible beast by exposing its back, the only place unprotected by its bio armor. 
As the Anti-ZEED forces' attacks intensify and destroy the lab, Jiro barely escapes and grabs onto the chopper as the base explodes. But a few seconds later, Jiro begins to lose his grip on the chopper's rail, and nearly falls to his death before being saved by Sarah. After finally coming to an understanding, Jiro and Sarah become comrades at last.z
Jiro and Sarah hold a strategy meeting, as they prepare to infiltrate a top secret base belonging to ZEED. Understanding his role in the plan, Jiro goes off to the base, leaving Sarah to hope he returns safely. As the Oboro ninja battles through the ZEED forces, he infiltrates the deepest part of the lab, where he is attacked by the monstrous bioshark Mechalodon. After defeating the beast and falling into magma filled caverns, Jiro treads carefully with Mechalodon still giving chase. Jiro then finds himself under attack by not just the Mechalodon but the Lava Crawler as well. Jiro narrowly eludes the monstrous shark while avoiding the Lava Crawler, attacking the pilot from a distance. Eventually, he defeated the Lava Crawler and escaped the caverns.
Jiro makes his way through the Shadow Temple, where the inner sanctum of ZEED is said to be. Jiro traverses various dimensional gates within the deadly and complex maze as he cuts down many of the ZEED forces while heading to the spaceship as it takes off.
In the control room of the ship is where he finds Sarah under attack by ZEED's leader, the Shadow Master. Jiro saves Sarah from being killed by the Shadow Master's blade, but is shocked when Sarah's accidental gunfire breaks his mask, revealing Jiro's own master as the Shadow Master's true identity.
It is revealed that the Shadow Master survived for 800 years due to the demon mask that he wore, given to him by the mysterious alien known as Orn As the Oboro were abducted to be used to create the ultimate interstellar space army. Jiro, undaunted by the loss of so many of his comrades in his home time, yet enraged by his former mentor's treachery prepares to end the Shadow Master's life. After a lengthy struggle, Jiro defeated his traitorous sensei, but lowers his sword not able to strike the final blow. Seeing this as a sign of weakness, the Shadow Master grunts a sinister laugh before he strikes the control console, causing a malfunction of the shuttle and perishes in the crash. After escaping the crashed shuttle, Jiro goes deeper into the space ship that houses the true mastermind of the Oboro Village Assault. 
Jiro goes deeper into the ship where comes face to face with the mastermind behind the events; an ancient alien Orn. Orn reveals that he masterminded the assault of the Oboro Village, corrupted Jiro's mentor, and led to the death of Jiro's lover, who is revealed to be reincarnated as Sarah. Jiro and Orn battle to the death. Despite Orn's advantage of self regeneration in the ship's core, Jiro emerging victorious. But Orn chastises Jiro, saying he sees a victory but has no idea what he's done. As Orn's body disintegrates, he shouts joyfully "At last, I am FREE!" as the ship explodes.
Jiro is cocooned by his Ninjutsu as he reenters the Earth's atmosphere, protected from the vacuum of space and from being incinerated upon reentry. As he lands back on Earth unharmed, Jiro walks away, presumably to begin the Oboro clan anew.
==Appearance==
Jiro is a young man of lean muscular build that wears a white Shinobi shozoku with leather and armor plates. He carries a golden amulet that according to the Shinobi 3DS comic was given to him by the Emperor, and a golden Oboro Emblem on his belt. His helm is modeled in the same manner as Hotsuma and sports the trademark red scarf. Strapped to his back is an uncharacteristically large shinobi katana (as traditionally they were shorter for ease of mobility) that appears to have been passed down in the Oboro Ninja Clan; most likely the Oborozuki Blade. In his unlockable unmasked appearance, Jiro has his hair tied in a Japanese ponytail, resembling Kage from "Legend of Kage".
Jiro has a indigo black eyes, but curiously, his eye color shifts from indigo black, to blue to brown, presumably due to animation issues.
==Personality==
As heir to the legacy of Oboro, Jiro is a loyal and rectitude man. Acting in service of the emperor, he undertakes savage missions of stealth and assassination in order to preserve the Japanese Empire's prosperity. He is also seen to be a very loving man, as he stares at a woman, his unnamed lover, with great affection and cherishes each member as family. Jiro also has a deep connection with Mother Nature, and so he shows deep respect and appreciation to the natural world.
As a man of Justice, he adheres to the teachings of the Shinobi, and is ready to lay down his life for the greater good, but is also intolerant of treachery, as is seen when the Shadow Master reveals himself to be the Ninja elder he was training with that betrayed Oboro to ZEED. He is not without a soft side though, as despite everything the Shadow Master had done, he still cared, as shown when he was about to cut him down, Jiro is hesitant to kill his own teacher. Also to his lover, he held great affection, and shows similar emotion to Sarah to a degree.
After facing Orn, the perpetrator of the attack on his homeland, Jiro Musashi decides to begin the Oboro anew, hoping for the future.
==Relationships==
*Jiro's Master/Shadow Master: Jiro's mentor was once a respected member of the Oboro, and the man who trained Jiro in Ninjutsu, the Shinobi Art of Stealth, Invisibility, and Perseverance. Jiro highly respected this man as a mentor and friend of his family. And as his student, he thought by performing dutifully for the clan, Jiro was honoring him. But unknown to Jiro, his own master was the ringleader of ZEED, a group of Ninja that defied the Japanese Emperor. After learning of his betrayal, Jiro was shocked and devastated, but more than that, enraged at what the man he called his friend betrayed him and their family. Despite this, Jiro couldn't bring himself to kill him, so the Shadow Master commits suicide by destroying the control system of the shuttle they are on and crashing into Orn's ship hanger. His corpse is visible upon start of the Secret Mission.
*Colonel Sarah Krieger: Initially these two met on awkward circumstances. When Jiro was flung into the future, the energy that surrounded him upon landing in the future lured her and her squad there. As soon as Jiro awoke, he was confused, and believed he was being taken prisoner, so he kills the squad, but is unable to kill Sarah, whose face reminded him of his lover, back home; the woman he laments failing to save. After helping her Special Task Force fight off Zeed, Sarah begins to see Jiro for who he truly is; a fighter like her, who wants Zeed brought down for good. After Jiro is saved by her, they finally come to an understanding and become friends. As shown by how Sarah looks at Jiro, she holds a secret feeling for him. It is later discovered that she is in fact a reincarnation of Jiro's lost love, and Jiro saves her from Shadow Master, not wanting to lose her too.
===Orn===
As the mastermind behind the attack on the Oboro Village and his master's corruption into the Shadow Master, Jiro despises Orn with a passion. Orn attacked his home and used Jiro's beloved clan as a template to create the ultimate space ninja army. His actions on the village also lead to its ruin, and the supposed death of Jiro's lover. Orn is pracitically the first living being Jiro had true hatred towards, because not only did he force Jiro to be trapped in this unfamiliar world, he destroyed everything Jiro ever loved.
==Powers and Abilities==
*Taijutsu​: As a master Ninja, Jiro's physical skills have been honed to perfection since birth. As a master of the Obororyu's Taijutsu, Jiro can traverse dangers and access secret areas that average men would find impossible.
*Master Infiltrator: An expert in the stealth aspect of Shinobi, Jiro can look for the least obvious places to infiltrate enemy territory.
*Ninjutsu Extraordinaire: A trait that would be inherited by his son Joe Musashi, Jiro has mastered the various Ninjutsu (Shinobi Magic), enabling him to decimate his foes with relative ease or to access hidden levels of strength.
*Kenjutsu Master: As a skilled shinobi, Jiro has great skill with the katana, enabling him to repel bullets, or perform gravity defying skills.
*Master Assassin: ​As a shinobi, Jiro is skilled in assassination, from performing stealth kills, to finding an opponent's weakness and exploiting them with relative ease, enabling him to match the likes of Zeed's entire army, and even triumph over Orn.
==Trivia==
*It is revealed on a Japanese source site that Jiro's timeline is a completely different one from previous Shinobi games, making Jiro's debut a reboot of the series. Because Jiro was catapulted into the year 2056 AD, Joe Musashi was not born in the 20th Century and thusly the continuity does not exist with the original SEGA plot, but is an alternate universe altogether.
*Jiro's circumstances mirror that of Samurai Jack; a noble warrior thrown through time and flung into the future battling his hated enemy. He also gains feelings for a woman of that time who was initially an enemy.
*The incident between the Shadow Master and Jiro mirror Masked Ninja Nakahara and Joe Musashi from the very first Shinobi game; a ninja stopping the ringleader of a criminal operation who by cruel irony happens to be his own master from the same clan the ninja belongs.
*In the Shinobi 3DS comic, Jiro's timeline is revealed to be 1256 AD, Kamakura Era Japan.
*Jiro has an affinity with nature, and so every time a firefly appears, it acts as an crisis alarm for him.
*In Project X Zone 2, Hotsuma possesses some of Jiro's attacks, further linking the fighting arts of the Oboro Style.
*Jiro Musashi is the first ninja in the entire Shinobi franchise to actually have the ability to use stealth kills on unwary foes.
*Historically Jiro could count as a proto-ninja, as the Iga shinobi from which the Oboro were born from, did not have Ninjutsu until the Muromachi period.
Category:Honorable
Category:Ninjas
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