Mitsuyoshi

**Mitsuyoshi** (ミツヨシ), also known as **One-Eyed Twin Lotus** (双蓮の隻眼 *Sōren no Sekigan*) and more famously as **Jūbei** (獣兵衛), is one of the Six Heroes. He is Konoe’s husband and Kokonoe’s father. He is also the progenitor of the Kaka race. He appears as a DLC playable character in *BlazBlue: Centralfiction*.

## Appearance

Mitsuyoshi is a two tailed, black and white cat, who stands upright like a human being. He wears a jacket similar to the Kaka tribe’s jacket, but with an Eastern motif and a cut in the back where his two tails poke out. He also wears an eyepatch on his right eye, although it is hardly seen due to the game’s affinity to flip and reuse the same sprite. His weapon, the Musashi, is carried on his back via a belt strap.

When he was young, he wore a Kaka ninja-like orange-yellow garment.

During the Great Dark War, he wore samurai-like armor, with a headband and collar.

## Personality

Jūbei is generally agreeable, sociable and optimistic. Whenever there is a great threat, such as Ragna or the Control Organization around, he always keeps his laid-back attitude and stays relaxed. He makes the best of every situation, and is always trying to see the good in everything.

At times, though, Jūbei shows a far more jaded and bitter side. Due to many of his friends having died, Jūbei shows deep-seated guilt over his inability to do anything. As such, he has felt that he is nothing more than a weak coward who runs home with his tail between his legs while leaving good people such as Hakumen and Bloodedge to their fate. The supposed death of his lover, Nine, and having to leave their daughter Kokonoe without a family, only wound him further. Because of those losses, however, Jūbei is even more driven to do what’s right, and will use the power he has to do so.

## Powers and Abilities

Jūbei’s powers, or at least the extent of them, have never been shown within the series thus far. However, being one of the Six Heroes, he is likely exceptionally powerful. Claimed by several, amongst them Hakumen and Terumi, to be the strongest creature alive, it is implied that Jūbei is nigh-undefeatable in combat as none have dared to engage in battle against him. This is furthered by the fact that when he catches Hazama off guard in Hazama’s gag scenario Hazama seems to just accept the fact that Jūbei will kill him and does not even try to put up a fight. His training of Ragna seems to attest to a great power.

He wields the Arch-Enemy Event Weapon, the Dream Blades: Musashi. With it, he seemed to be able to cleave the shell of darkness that Phantom had surrounded Lambda-11 with during her fight with Nu, but nothing more is known about it. As Jūbei’s mental faculties do not appear at all to be affected by the weapon in any way, it can be assumed that his mind is very resilient.

Underneath his eyepatch is the **Eye** (隻眼 *Sekigan*) of his deceased brother, which can force Terumi’s true form to materialize, as it was the last image that Tomonori saw. Jūbei has used this ability on two occasions: once in the past to help Hakumen seal Terumi away, and again during *BlazBlue: Chronophantasma* as part of a plan to destroy Terumi once and for all.

Jūbei’s Drive is **Sea Fire** (不知火 *Shiranui*). When used, Jūbei speeds past his enemy with a slash attack, marking them with an emblem. While the emblem is active, two of his Distortion Drives will allow him to warp right behind his opponent when executed. His Overdrive is **Arhat: Gleam of Five Elements** (羅漢 五輪煌 *Rakan: Gorinkō*, localized as **Five Circles of Nirvana**), strengthening the power of his Drive. Jūbei is a rushdown character that mixes martial arts with his master swordsmanship while making great use of his agility and small size to move around his enemy while performing multi-hitting attacks. He also has counter techniques to block both high and low attacks. However, he truly shines when the Distortion Drive **Immobility: Silk Lotus Formation**(不動 紗蓮陣 *Fudō: Sharenjin*, localized as **Immovable Object: Lotus**) is performed. This puts Jūbei in an install-like state represented by a glow and an emblem above his Heat Gauge. This makes use of his Eye and replaces his standard Drive with **Sea Fire: Steel**(不知火・鋼 *Shiranui: Hagane*) in which four paw-like emblems will appear, whereby Jūbei then quickly teleports and attacks at each point, giving him very powerful offensive options as there are variations that change the positioning of these emblems and which ones he’ll move towards as well as follow-up attacks to extend his assault.

Jūbei’s Astral Heat is **Asura: Flying Lightning Phoenix** (阿修羅 鳳雷武煉翔 *Ashura: Hōrai Burenshō*, localized as **Asura: Thunderbird Rising**), where he uses his Eye to paralyze the opponent before overwhelming them with a barrage of slashes with his Musashi, then dashing behind them while they’re still reeling and finishing the off with a vicious assault into the air with his claws. If this is used on Terumi (as himself or Susanoo), then his ghost form will be drawn out when the Eye is activatd.

Another skill of his is to be able to cook well, as shown in his initial interactions with Noel in her story mode of *Continuum Shift*, and may also possibly a trait that Ragna has honed under his mentorship.

## TMNT X Pokemon

Mikey likes to cuddle him much to his dismay. He usually stays away from Medaka because he can sense something very powerful within her. Something destructive. He likes to listen to Splinter's stories about his past and tries to help him as much as he can.

## Trivia

* Jūbei appears to be a bakeneko (specifically a nekomata), a mythical two-tailed cat said to be created when a normal cat grows to a certain age or size.
* Due the fact that he is wearing a tsuba for an eye-patch and wielding two kodachi, he appears to be named after Yagyū Jūbei Mitsuyoshi, a historical Samurai known for having founded the highly aggressive “Yagyū Shinkage Ryū” school of swordsmanship, and for wearing a tsuba for an eye-patch (as well as known for expanding the dual-wielding style honed by Miyamoto Musashi, the naming inspiration for Jūbei’s Event Weapon).
* Like the historical Jūbei, the two ending characters in his name (兵衛) can also be romanized as “bē” via an extended “e” vowel as opposed to “bei”.
* Jūbei’s Drive is named after the sea phenomenon that involves many phosphorescent lights seen on its horizon, and can also be written as “Shiranuhi” or literally translated as “Unknown Fire”.
* Jūbei is actually the one to finish the enemy in Taokaka’s Astral Heat.
* The first three digits of his Astral Heat’s damage, 6, 3, and 4 (六つ *muttsu*, 三 *san*, 四 *shi*), appear to be a nod to the name of his Event Weapon, Musashi.
* While Jūbei is able to resist any mental affects from his Musashi, it is shown in Hazama’s gag scenario that he cannot resist any of his cat-like urges when it comes to catnip.
* In *BlazBlue: Chronophantasma’s* Tutorial Mode, Jūbei will guide the player through the section *Stylish Lesson – Application*.
* In *BlazBlue: Centralfiction,* all the system voices have a scrapped audio calling him as a playable character, hinting the first playable appearance of him in the whole series, which was later confirmed for Summer 2017 release.
* When his Astral is used against Terumi or Susanoo he can bring out Terumi’s ghost form. Even when used against Hazama a slight bit of the ghost appears.