The Punisher

The Punisher, otherwise known by her alias as Sakura Kojima (小島桜, Kojima Sakura), is a powerful entity that serves as a judge of souls and Hollows as well as a punisher for rogue spirits and entities within the spiritual world. She serves as one of the central antagonists in Bleach: The Children of Izanami.

Appearance
The Punisher's appearance is relatively humanoid. She is a young, Caucasian woman with a somewhat slender build, light orange hair, and blue eyes. The fact that her body is somewhat slender and suited for a lady disguises her ability to fight brutally to great effect. She commonly wears a red kimono with a yellow butterfly sash tied around her waist. The kimono reaches down to the thighs, revealing knee-high high-heel boots. Her expression is commonly formed into a sly, calm-headed expression the majority of the time.

Personality
The Punisher is a rather dark, twisted individual. Her motives and actions are fueled by a desire to learn about, toy with, and destroy the psychology of the mind both for her own amusement and to perform her duties as judge to optimal efficiency. She is a cunning and manipulative woman, commonly putting on facades of human emotion in order to shift the situation and attitude within her favor in given situations. A trait that is considered to be normal attitude is carrying herself in a sly, calm, and casual manner. Some of these traits are akin to the mythical succubus.

The Punisher actively socializes with Souls and humans alike. In this manner, she holds a rather tomboyish and assertive attitude. Despite her status, she has a habit of indulging in events and things that are looked down upon by the good society (such as drinking, gambling, etc). She is a skilled seductress, even allowing herself to to fall into the hands of sexual needs. This stems from a high masochism and sadism level; she revels in pain, relishing it as it is inflicted onto herself as well as others. This addiction to agony is commonly displayed in combat, when she constantly jeers her opponents and goads them to deliver devastating injury on her person. Her bloodlust is insatiable, and her hunger for death is fueled by her duty as the afterlife's executioner.

Unlike her fellow cult members, despite her inhumane nature of violence and death, she is not without her own personality weaknesses. Because of her overwhelming desire for pain, she feeds on it like a drug and seems to teeter on the line between rationality and insanity. Often, when she goes too far with her punishments, the Monitor is forced to restrain her and remind her of her mission. This very same addiction to pain causes her to have an opposite view of the positive feelings of the soul. She is quick to reject kindness and gentleness in the fear that it would make her weak and helpless. This fear, in turn, has caused somewhat of a paranoid attitude when it comes to gentle souls she encounters. Although she never admits it, she has an overwhelming fear of such individuals and will do whatever it takes to stay away from such.

History
The existence of Red Sun spans back to the beginning of early Japan by Izanami-no-Mikoto and Izanagi-no-Mikoto. After giving birth to the incarnation of fire Kagu-Tsuchi, Izanami died and was sent to the realm of the dead. Izanagi was so enraged and grieved by her demise that he killed Kagu-Tsuchi. Although Izanami was in the world of the dead, she could feel the newborn's death as if it were her own. At that given moment, she felt grief, rage, and betrayal at Izanagi for taking the innocent life. Her feelings caused her to become disillusioned with the fate of humanity and consume the fruit of the underworld. Upon consumption, it is said that her flesh was ripped from her body and formed into separate entities.

One of those entities was Keibatsu (刑罰, Punishment). It is said that Keibatsu was born with barbed wire wrapped around and slicing deep into her wrists in a manner similar to hand-cuffs. The first thing she felt was pain, and because of her newborn state of mind, she recognized it as a sort of gift for being alive. After she was deemed the judge and punisher of corrupt souls by her mother, Keibatsu would continue to wear the barbed wire in an effort to continue feeling the agonizing pain of the thorns slicing into her wrists again and again. Because of feeling the excitement of seeing corrupt souls struggle, beg for mercy, and break down in the face of their judgement, she deemed their pain too be far more exciting than her own, and she had the barbed cuffs removed.

Portraits of her with the barbed cuffs can be seen on propanda posters created by radical cult members.

Joining As One Arc

 * Bleach: Joining as One Arc: Signs

Children of Izanami Arc

 * Children of Izanami: Initialization
 * Children of Izanami: Confirmation (mentioned)

Ahijados Arc

 * Los Niños de Izanami: Inicialización
 * Los Niños de Izanami: Confirmación

Powers & Abilities
Master Zanjutsu Specialist: The Punisher's sword style is best described as one of ferocity. Her strikes and movements are bold and direct, proving to be unnerving to hesitant opponents. It is also unpredictable, and she hakes a habit of shifting her attack patterns in order to unbalance her opponents even more. Her way of swordplay focuses on offense rather than defense. It is said that she channels her very emotion into her attacks, effectively enhancing the power backed behind each blow.

Decimating Reiryoku: As one of the members of Red Sun, the Punisher possesses decimating spiritual power within her. The wild, dangerous, and explosive nature of her energy is enough to wither even the strongest of opponents who cross her path. Her power is further fueled by the emotion she carries, being enough to outstrip the likes of the Gotei 13 Captains.

Genius Intellect: The Punisher exhibits a heavy knowledge of how the mind works, using any and every way in order to manipulate it to her advantage. It is not uncommon for her to use psychological warfare against her enemies in order to expose their own hidden doubts and fears as well as break their concentration and destroy their resolve. This is not limited to mere words alone; she will use physical actions and assault in order to add insult to injury and bring her opponents down to a more vulnerable state.

Hohō Master: The Punisher tends to use her speed commonly, but in an unpredictable manner that matches her sword style. Her skills with Flash Step allow her to appear and re-appear suddenly to the trained eye, catching them even further off balance than she would've with her zanjutsu alone.

Immortality: The Punisher has an infinite life-span, being born at the times of Japan's birth. She has lived for thousands for years under the influence of Izanami like all of the other children born from the goddess's flesh.

Immense Strength: Despite her deceptive build, the Punisher is capable of achieving feats of godly strength. The way in which she commonly utilizes this is through hand-to-hand combat and blunt physical trauma. Only a few fist and leg blows from her is necessary to cripple and kill her opponents, including stronger ones. She is capable of withholding her strength when it proves necessary.