Takezō Musashi

Takezō Musashi is the current 5th Seat of the 12th Division that was born in the 300th District of the Rukonga and was a former criminal that only managed to enter the limelight of the Shin’o Academy by murdering Sasaki Kuchiki, a top-tier student at the academy who was supposed to originally defeat Musashi as a test of his Zanjutsu as it was later discovered.  Once Sasaki was killed in combat, Musashi was offered a chance to redeem himself by entering the Academy, in which he had no choice but to accept; through the Academy he has proved that his mind alone was not only a weapon he was able to use in combat at a near masterful level, but was also able to create some of the most intricate creations that has made life for some members of the Gotei 13 significantly easier.  As of recently, he seriously injured his right arm in a spar against the Captain of the Eleventh Division in order to see the vast difference in swordsmanship and has request a green light to work on Artificial Limbs and Powered Exoskeletons, though no answer has been given since this request was made.

## History

Musashi’s story is similar to many others that have lived in the poorest districts of the Rukongai, as at the age of five he watched as Shinigami from the Gotei 13 were doing their best to fix the balance of souls quickly, which in turn caused them to enter the Rukongai and begin killing several thousand citizens at a time and if it was not for Musashi’s mother hiding him away, he might have died too that day.  Watching his mother and father get murdered, many expected the young man to take up arms against the Shinigami in attempts to avenge them in the later years, but he did not seemed too troubled by it as he knew that life was short as he had previously seen his best friend die a few months prior from a strange disease that caused him to have a slow and painful death. It was from that point onwards that Musashi understood that if he was going to survive in the 300th District of the Rukongai, he had to not only be as strong as he was able to fight back against those that might bring harm to him, but also become extremely intelligent, which caused him to begin reading each book he was able to find, which was not too hard as most people in that district used those books as either fuel for their fireplace or to make their “furniture” stand up properly.

When he was finally eight years old, having read every book that he was able to find in the 300th District and honing his skills to the best of his ability, Musashi finally began to travel the Soul Society, searching through every crack and crevice of each district to see if there was a mystery to be found, though he mainly found a few corpses of recently deceased thieves who tried robbing the wrong people, or corpses of people who tried fighting back against the wrong thieves.  This is also around the time that Musashi began to truly understand the harsh reality of the Rukongai, for not only was there needless death at seemingly every corner, but food was extremely scarce, even the market places of the poor districts were nothing more than five tomatoes at maximum it seemed, but they were expensive and without hesitation Musashi knew that being a thief was the only way he had a chance at not starving to death; then thieving from vendors became thieving from farmers and so on until he looted his first corpse at the age of nine.  He knew that many considered this wrong no matter the circumstance, but Musashi did not care as it was his only chance of surviving, that feeling alone is what made him understand that the honor of the Gotei 13 he had read about was nothing more than stupidity as it is the victors that write history and those victors will take any opportunity they are able to seize the victory, whether or not it is seen dishonorable others.

Eventually, Musashi entered his first fight at the age of thirteen when a Rogue Shinigami named Gotō Arima from the Eleventh Division who fled the Gotei 13 due to him committing a series of murders while no one in the Division was watching, after a few years he was finally found out and rather than facing a trial, he ran off to commit more and Musashi seemed to be his challenge; at first Gotō  tried to perform traditional Zanjutsu against Musashi and nearly killed the child, it was not until his flight or fight instincts kicked in that he began using his environment, then when Gotō was pushed onto the floor, Musashi literally beat him to death with the bamboo stick that he used as a weapon and since his own makeshift blade forged from stone was broken, he stole the one that Gotō carried.  From that point on his life became a series of duels through the Rukongai, until eventually he began to be a criminal himself, yet his crimes were not that of murder or rape, rather thievery of food and books which as he reached near the center of the Rukongai, it was much more common, meaning the more he stole, the more he was able to eat and read at the same time; as for anyone who tried to stand in his way to defend their items, he severely wounded them, unless they still tried to go against him and he had to put them down for good.  Being the brilliant man he was, he did not just randomly choose his targets, rather made sure to focus on middle-class citizens due to them never having an escort, yet seeming to have some good items with them and on top of this, he refused to show his face or say his name under any circumstance, instead he fought with a bandana around his face and bamboo hat with tassels to hide his eyes from those he stole from.

Life officially changed for Musashi when he reached the age of 40 when he came face to face with Sasaki Kuchki, an academy student that was well known for being the best student the Gotei 13 has had in a hundred years, Musashi had only heard a little about him, but Sasaki wished knew a lot more about Musashi than he expected, yet there was a few things that Musashi knew that was definite, they were being watched by higher ranking officials that wanted to see Sasaki’s abilities tested against a semi-known criminal and the fight was going to be to the death.  Musashi understood how cocky that Sasaki might have been due to him not only being praised as the best student of the academy, but also the fact that his opponent was barely known to anyone higher than the fifteenth division, maybe even believing that this was only going to take a moment, so without hesitation, Musashi requested that the fight occur the next day so that they were both able to fight at their fullest, causing Sasaki to show surprise at the question, but accept it nonetheless, yet as he walked away Musashi heard Sasaki say, “I’ll let you die on the day you choose”.  This certified all of Musashi’s curiosities about Sasaki, so once again he was going to use his intelligence to win the fight and when the next day came, Sasaki was awake and ready to fight his opponent who did not arrive on time at all, instead he waited and waited and waited and waited, it was not until a full six hours after the proposed time that Musashi finally arrived with only a simple robe to cover himself and a bamboo stick at his side, causing Sasaki to become outraged at this fact, the rage only growing when he apologized as Musashi said he woke up late and ate some breakfast.  Sasaki threw his scabbard toward Musashi in a fit of rage, yet Musashi gracefully caught it and told Sasaki that he had already lost due to him throwing away his scabbard, saying that he was never going to sheath his sword again and after what felt like an hour of fighting between the two of them, accumulating bloody noses, broken bones and plenty of other types of physical damage, Sasaki’s anger and foolishness eventually clouded his senses entirely, leading him to go for what he thought was the final strike, but Musashi was able to get behind him at the last second and choke the life from his body. Everyone that watched the battle, including teachers of the academy were in utter shock as they expected Sasaki to be the victor, especially since he was from the same bloodline of the Captain Commander, Jiro Kuchki.

Musashi was not actually going to learn about any actions after the fight had reached its conclusion as he immediately fell unconscious, laying there in his own blood beside his fallen foe, but only to arise a week later in a top-tier hospital with bandages wrapped all around his body and a surprised nurse looking down at him.  Upon seeing the injured Musashi wake up, she left the room as quick as she was able to talk to a few of the higher ups who informed her that her next duty was to notify the Shin’o Academy as quick as they were able, it did not take long for one of the teachers to enter his room then and offer up a deal that Musashi was unable to turn down, unless he wished for death.  Essentially, Musashi’s file had so many criminal records that it deserved its own drawer, which was quite impressive considering that those charges against him were only the ones that he had been caught for, which was only about quarter of them overall, but it still meant that if they put him on any form of trial, they had enough individuals to where he was going to be executed.  Unless he was willing to forsake his old criminal ways and join the Gotei 13, it did not take him long to come up with his answer as his goal since day one was to survive at all coast, if joining the Gotei 13 meant this, then so be it; Musashi agreed that as soon as he recovered from the Hospital, then he was going to be taken to the Shin’o Academy and train to become a true Shinigami.  When he arrived a few days later at the Academy, he learned that not only did he receive his first assignment, but that his entire file was wiped completely from public record, with only high ranking officers and all of central 46 being allowed to access the database entry they had on him. As for his first assignment, it was incredibly simple, yet obviously showing that the Academy had a sense of humor as it was community service at farms around the Rukongai, something Musashi enjoyed doing far more than he thought.

At the Shin’o Academy, Musashi managed to grow exponentially as warrior, student and most importantly as a person, as no longer did he see the world as black and white with only himself to worry about, instead he finally found himself being surrounded by people that he actually cared about, he found that not only was his stomach never empty, but the food did not require him to harm others or take from them and on top of that he always had a book to read.  During his studies he also learned that the event that happened when he was a child that caused his children to die was not exactly like he thought, instead of it being the balance of souls those members of the Gotei 13 were attempting to fix, it was their own selfish motivations that caused them to go on a killing spree and they were lead by a man named “Gotō Arima”, meaning that not only did he manage to avenge his parents, his whole opinion of the Gotei 13 changed from not thinking to highly of them, to actually respecting nearly every single member that stood in front of him.  Thus Musashi’s kinder side was finally showed to the world, allowing him to do the kindest of deeds for individuals who were in need of learning certain skills and simply allowing others to take credit for actions that he had actually done, nearly all the Captains as well as Lieutenants skipped over him due to his record being small, but it was the Twelfth Division’s Captain that noticed the intelligence the young man had as when he checked the database, he learned that not only did Musashi read over half of the books in the grand library that the Academy had, he also had a plethora of blueprints for different tools and weapons that were going to be able to help the Gotei 13 in at least some way, this intelligence combined with a strong ability to perform Zanjutsu allowed Musashi to not only enter, but also rise through the ranks of the Twelfth Division.

## Personality

Musashi is an extremely creative- intelligent, level-headed and highly perceptive individual that also just happens to make a strong and effective leader who is willing to do his damnedest to keep those under his watch alive and well, or at least when the situation arises, but those are words that you’ll never hear come from his mouth directly, rather those members of Division 12 and a few members of the Academy who worked with him on certain missions.  Through the years, he took charge of situations that might have been near-fatal, yet instead of reporting them as his own feats like they were, he allowed those beside him to take credit for all actions performed in the combat zone and allowed many to gain more recognition other than himself. He dislikes boasting about himself when it comes to bravery on the battlefield or his ability to wield a sword as it is what all Shinigami should know how to do in his mind, his attitude on this sort of subject does change in two situations, when he is drinking heavily or when he is speaking about his latest inventions, which suffice to say actually aid the entirety of the Gotei 13 in one way or another.  His use of intelligence to solve problems is the only source of pride that Musashi really has as most of his early life he was not able to showcase it to anyone as he grew up on the rough side of the Rukongai and it shows as when he is in a duel, he does not care how honorable it truly is as long as he is the victor at the end of the day. This can cause him to be disliked by several shinigami as some of them hold honor above their own life, but Musashi cherishes his own as even though he is still young for a Shinigami, he has grown to understand that life is precious and no one lives forever. To showcase this he constantly studies, creates, trains and does all he can to make sure one thing, that he is remembered in the annals of time, for there is no point in ever having existed if you are forgotten in time, this goal is not only obvious through him being a workaholic, but also him becoming incredibly afraid when it comes to nearly dying in combat or simply visiting an old graveyard with unmarked graves.

## Appearance

Without a doubt Musashi is a unique Shinigami for not only being a strong and capable warrior, but also being an intelligent one that is not that boastful or proud of his accomplishments and when he isn’t being the workaholic that he is, people may see him out on the streets enjoying himself to a little booze and they may be a little shocked at how humble his appearance is from time to time. For starters, he has quite a fine build which is no surprise as he trains nearly as much as he studies, on his nose he has a scar that he received from the battle with Sasaki Khuchiki and he has a rather interesting prison-style tattoo on his right forearm that is in Kanji, when translated it says, “The Legendary Spirit (伝説の霊 Densetsu no rei)”.  The latter of these unique traits was only discovered when he was forced to use the front of his traditional Shinigami garb as a makeshift sling due to him injuring his arm in a spar with the Captain of the Eleventh Division. Other than this, his short black and unkempt hair combined with his muddy brown-eyes make him overall boring in terms of appearance, though for some reason women still do try and flirt with him.

## Battle Stats

Offense: 30

Defense:10

Offense

D

Defense

E

Mobility

D

Reiryoku

E

Intelligence

C

Physical Strength

E

100
80
60
40
20

Mobility: 30

Reiryoku: 20

Intelligence: 60

Physical Strength:10

Total: 160