Genjuro Kibagami

**Genjūrō Kibagami** (牙神幻十郎, *Kibagami Genjūrō*) is a Soul and Shinigami of the Gotei 13. He is currently serving as the Lieutenant of the 8th Division.

## Appearance

Genjūrō is a powerfully-built man with long red hair that he styles in a ponytail. He possesses masculine features, accentuated further by the masculine energy that he exudes.

He wears the traditional Shihakushō along with a white obi, white tabi and a pair of standard waraji. The only alteration to his attire is a red kosode that he wears over the black hakama.

Genjūrō can regularly be seen with a custom-made pipe in his mouth, with which he likes to smoke spiced tobacco.

## Personality

Genjūrō is a man whose love for the Gotei 13 and the Soul Society as a whole stems from his desire to acquire absolute agency over his own life, acknowledging that his own welfare is tied to that of the organization he belongs to.

He has an inflated sense of the self, believing that he is in a class of Shinigami above most others, though his intent isn’t malicious. On the contrary, he believes that this superiority bestows upon him a responsibility to protect those beneath him, of which he often finds tiresome.

This arrogance bleeds into all facets of his existence, though most of all within the realm of the arts. He holds a deep appreciation for all forms of artistic expression, especially in his own unique twist on the medium: smell. He believes that through the arts, the culture and tradition of a society is maintained and furthermore enriched. What better way to do that then through the greatest sense of them all? He calls himself the *connoisseur of fragrance*.

Genjuro is bold in and out of battle, a fierceness rivaled only by those of the mighty 11th Division. He possesses a keen taste for battle, as he has come to realize that in the end, life is but a series of conflicts that determine your right to continue living. Power, to him, is greatest of all. He is a pragmatic person who takes any opportunity to win, as he believes that in love and war, all is fair.

Although he is a loyal and honest individual, Genjūrō is a vengeful person who will keep a grudge until the score is settled.

## History

### 291 Years Ago

Genjūrō was born into the Kibagami Noble family, one of the Lesser Houses of the time. He was the first-born to Nakasuke, brother to the nobility’s leader. His early childhood was a reflection of the House’s situation at the time, stable and privileged.

### 250 Years Ago

Young adult Genjūrō was the epitome of what most of Soul Society thought about the nobility: lazy, privileged, and self-serving. The kid lived like a king with little regard for the consequences of his actions, knowing full well that he sat above the confines of the Soul Society’s laws. There was no need for him to develop his strength, for he shared a lineage with some of the strongest Shinigami in existence. Within the fantasy of his deranged reality, he was untouchable.

### 177 Years Ago

At the behest of his parents, and the continual persuasion by his cousin and former Vice-Captain of the 9th Division, Miname, Genjūrō joined the Shino Academy. Initially reluctant and aloof, he went about his first year stumbling from class to class with reckless abandon, not giving care to what he was doing or where he was. This changed when he met a prodigious group of students whom he fed off of for motivation.

Having a peculiar difficulty communicating with his Zanpakutō, Genjūrō took to learning the other Shinigami Arts. He earned above average marks in most categories, the exception being Hoho, of which he ranked at the top of his class.

He was recruited into the 8th Division upon his graduation, having been scouted by the then acting Vice-Captain, who grew a liking for Genjūrō and the young Shinigami’s uncanny ability for the art of *persuasion*. Unfortunately, neither his Captain nor Vice-Captain could shield him from the reckoning awaiting him.

### 132 Years Ago

Over the years, many of the highest ranking and most powerful members of his extended family were either killed or went missing, to include his uncle, the presiding leader. Alongside their losses in personnel was an equally devastating dwindling of their political power and influence, which opened the door to the meddling of his family’s affairs by the Great Houses, notably the Shiba. The two families had been at each other's throats for the longest time, so it was no surprise that the bastards would seek to deliver the final blow.

With little support from the rest of the Noble houses, and a dying presence within the Gotei 13, the Shiba in coordination with the Tsunayashiro, pushed a false narrative to accuse the Kibagami of purposely abandoning their oath of servitude to the Soul King. The Central 46 came to agreement, though with some reluctance from the Kuchiki delegation, that the Kibagami had committed treason by means of dereliction of military duty by their members serving within the Gotei 13, and that the greater Nobility of the Kibagami forfeited their position among the Great Houses with the disappearance of their elders.

Genjūrō knew deep down that his House’s demise came by the making of the Shiba, that his uncle’s disappearance, and the other senior members, hadn’t been by happenstance. But he couldn’t prove anything and so he too came under the ire of the corrupt Central 46. He was sentenced to 100 years within the 4th level of the Central Great Underground Prison, the Seidjiteki Hangyaku 政治的反逆, where those convicted of political rebellion go to serve their punishment.

### 100 Years Ago

The Central Great Underground Prison was a place that rejected the concept of time, a dark abyss of eight levels, each crueler than the last. The fourth level, the Seidjiteki Hangyaku, was tailor made for criminals like him; created for the falsely accused and wrongly convicted.

The prison was constructed in a manner to keep the most spiritually powerful Shinigami from escaping, built out of Sekkiseki to negate the Demon Arts. The more dangerous criminals were also sealed with Bakudo, confined to their own cells, and their items of power confiscated.

Genjūrō knew this from personal experience, as his anger led him down a path of callous rebellion, time and again forced into submission through less than favorable methods. Eventually the Wardens lost their patience, and threw him into solitary confinement, sealing him in his cell for the remainder of his sentence.

The universe worked in mysterious ways, a taste of life’s bitter irony that a man scorned and full of murderous intent would be rewarded with something as life-changing as the name of his Zanpakutō. He couldn’t remember *when* he first heard her sweet, delicate voice, as his senses had been taken from him and his sense of time all but gone, but he heard her nonetheless.

The decades that followed seemed like mere days as he delved deeper and deeper into his soul as he learned more about his Zanpakutō, and in some ways, about himself. He was initially perplexed by the nature of his innermost being, but the more he spoke with the beautiful spirit, the more he let go of the anger that had clung to his heart. She had a way with him, to soothe him from the suffering of a man burning out from the inside, unable to act upon his desires. She taught him the benefits of a serene body and a calm mind, and although his spirit seemed like the good to his evil, there was something unsettling about her…

By the time of his release, he learned her name.

### 32 Years Ago

Genjūrō's release from his century-long incarceration was expectedly uneventful, as most of those close to him were either imprisoned themselves, or had been killed during his time away.

With his asauchi returned, and having discovered his inner spirit, it didn’t take long for the blade to transform into a full blown Zanpakutō.

He joined the only Division that one of his caliber of person would, that being the 8th, and he’s been there ever since.