Zaburo Shōji

"Tch, pathetic whelps!"

- Zaburo Shōji

Zaburo Shōji (ざぶろしょうじ, Shōji Zaburo) is a 9th Seat Shinigami in the 11th Division of the Gotei 13. He is a member of the well-renowned and feared Shōji Beastman Clan who are known for their ferocity in combat, as well as their fierce loyalty.

Appearance
As a member of the  Shōji Beastman Clan, Zaburo is naturally a half-human half-beast hybrid in appearance, his animalistic side being that of a wolf. He's got black fur covering the vast majority of his body which is sometimes were furled up and unkept in certain areas, but he keeps the "hair" section of his fur surprisingly well-kept for some reasons. His musculature is very well-defined unlike his former friend Shino, and it is surprisingly visible due to his fur being rather short and trimmed over his torso and legs. He has no tail to speak of, and does not like to answer why he has none. His ears are pointy like a canine's along with a very canine-shaped snout on his face, and he has golden eyes which sometimes slit up when he turns more 'feral' in his behavior.

Foregoing the standard Shihakushō uniform that most Shinigami wield, Zaburo instead wields traditional garbs of the  Shōji Clan's design. On his chest is a golden tattoo which is the traditional kanji of the  Shōji Clan. Over his torso he wields a yellow-colored sash that is connected to his skirt-like cloth over his pants, arcing over his head and is held afloat by Zaburo's active spiritual pressure. The skirt-like extension over his midriff is a sash which a member of his clan earns through heritage. His pants are rather baggy and black-colored, and are also covered with numerous golden kanji letters, and on his feet he wears traditional tabi sandals without socks.

Personality
Zaburo, like any  Shōji Beastman, often has a very short temper about things and is prone to be rather aggressive in his approaches, even when he often means well. His speech is often mixed in with snarls and other animalistic tones as well, making appear as even more aggressive than he already sounds at times. However deep down inside he often just means well, and wishes no harm upon those he deems to be his allies. Another trait of the  Shōji lineage he's born from is that he will be incredibly loyal to those that he do deem to be his friends and allies, never once betraying them or even choosing death over betrayal.

Still, he has a few characteristics of his own that set him apart from his clan members. When he is around alcohol, he tends to be a whole lot calmer than his usual passive-aggressive self, and even openly conversate with complete strangers if he feels like it. He will be a lot friendlier and approachable in this state, but if someone asks him for a fight he will instantly snap back to being violent, maybe even moreso than normal due to the alcohol intoxicating his mind.

Life in the Clan
Zaburo was born into the  Shōji Beastman Clan under a bad sign, one that predicted that a great tragedy would befall upon him when he grew up. There were no details upon what this tragedy would be or when it would strike, so Zaburo's parents would raise him with as much care as they possibly could do whilst at the same time teaching him the fundamental customs and traditions of the  Shōji Clan. He was raised with an older brother of his named Raiō who taught him a lot about the fighting styles of their clan, and even regularly sparred with him from time to time when Zaburo was younger. Raiō would disregard any and all warnings about Zaburo's life in the future, only saying that old prophecies were for nothing if they didn't actually have a lot of specific details to it, if even that. He told Zaboru that you have to forge your own future, and don't rely too much on what others tell you about your life, for they don't know what lies ahead on your path. His little brother would take those words to heart, and kept going on about his life.

When Zaburo had grown of age and had become quite a formidable opponent to tamper with, he was introduced to a tradition that the  Shōji Clan had been practicing for ages; the "Combat of Completion". Once a  Shōji Beastman had come of age and was ready to fight to kill, he would be given a fight against an equal opponent that would be a battle to the death, his opponent too seeking to complete this challenge. Whoever would stand victorious in the end would have the right for "completion", and thus allowed to seek their fortune in the vast world beyond. Zaburo would be stepping up to the task and prepare himself for the inevitable combat lying ahead, but when he found out who his opponent was he was stricken with fear. Not because of the opponent being more intimidating or powerful than he was. But because of who it was. It was his older brother  Raiō facing him in the Combat of Completion, and he was ready as ever even when he saw Zaburo was his opponent. Zaburo - being in shock as he was - instantly refused to fight his brother who had been so kind to him over the years, but  Raiō merely said that if Zaburo was not going to come at him, then he would do it first. And so he did as he would clash blades with his brother, Zaburo going purely on defense in the first moments as he felt that this was not right. He was not about to kill his own brother like this, who had helped him so much in life. But  Raiō kept coming at him fiercely, not relenting in his assault once as he would actually try and kill him. That's when something kicked in on Zaburo, and as if his body was pulled by strings he began to aggressively retaliate, surprising  Raiō and in the end inflicting a fatal wound on him which made him fall.

As the silence dawned upon the clan members watching the fight and witnessing Zaburo becoming the victor - at a very hefty price - they would soon proclaim him the victor and cheer for him. But Zaburo felt like doing anything else but cheering. His blood-stained blade would quiver in his hands and he would feel himself starting to sob slowly as he would begin breaking down quite slowly, but surely. Falling to his knees and dropping his blades, he was just about to cover his face in his hands and cry when he heard  Raiō's weak, but proud voice. He spoke in a few last words that he was proud of what Zabura managed to pull off, and that he should not feel sad about this at all. He was forging his own path. He shouldn't look on it as an act of shame, but an act of progress. Zabura still apologized for what he had done, but  Raiō merely chuckled it off, saying he knew that he would die in this fight. His little brother was a lot more skilled and younger than him after all. And then he drew his final breath. Zaburo would howl with sadness into the skies, before drying up the tears on his face and - as a final act of gratitude and brotherly love - took his brother's Zanpakutō along with his own, and due to their family bonds together the two blades would fuse together, creating one "sword-staff" for Zabura to wield. He would then be present to his brother's funeral, before he would set out into the world to find somewhere to call his own. He would find that place in the form of Soul Society.

The Academy Days
When Zaburo would find his way into Soul Society, he was recognized to be one of the  Shōji Beastmen and would be looked upon with both caution and dread, but the Captains of the Gotei 13 also saw a great deal of potential hidden within him both due to his ancestry and the fact that he had such an unusual  Zanpakutō. He would be taken into the Shino Academy for training and graduation, something he had to get used to in the beginning, but slowly worked himself over. He met a lot of people there as well, including what would be his new friends in the form of a young man named Shino Kase. Together with him, Izumo Murai, Tatsumi Hara and Hitomi Sugai, they would train hard within the Academy and rise through their ranks rather quickly. Zaburo would become an excellent fighter in Zanjutsu due to his clan's vigorous training from child-legs and the fact that his  Zanpakutō was very unique during his Academy days, and even at this point the Captain of the 11th Division was starting to take notice of him.

However, as successive as their Academy missions would be with the tasks of slaying minor Hollow threats and the like, one mission would change their lives around for good as they would be encountered by an Arrancar in the midst of a Hollow invasion. The beast slew both Izumo and Tatsumi very effortlessly, and despite their honorable efforts it also severely injured Hitomi, but not to the point of death. Zaburo had been fighing like a beast that day, doing all in his might to make sure that the monster would not slay more of his new friends, but the beast merely pushed him aside and went in for the final kill. That was when a Gotei 13 Captain would intervene and quickly slay the fiend, telling the three remaining trainees to not weep for their comrades. Zaburo knew what he meant as he had experienced the same with his brother, and he was told not to weep as well at that moment. They silently honored their comrades before moving on with their lives, splitting up into different Divisions when they graduated as Zaburo would be placed in the 11th Division due to his expertise in Zanjutsu and his fierce combat abilities.

Plot/Synopsis
TBA

Equipment
Sake Gourd: Zaburo is often seen carrying around a gourd of Sake wherever he walks as he carries it on his hip. It has a very round upper end and becomes thinner the lower it goes.

Wrist-Blade: Another part of his weaponry that he doesn't often use unless he feels it's really needed, he has a wrist-blade attacked to his left lower arm, which is basically a blade that is able to be folded out to stab and slash with. Otherwise it is folded over his arm.

Powers & Abilities

 * Average Spiritual Power: Zaburo is still an average in terms of his spiritual power, but he is still slightly above that of the average terms as is proven with how he usually keeps his sash flowing over his head with seemingly little concentration on actually doing it. When released as an aura, his spiritual power has a slight lavender color.
 * Expert Swordsmanship Specialist: His earlier training with Zaburo_Zanjutsu.jpg own Beastman Clan along with the training received at the Shino Academy has granted Zaburo an above-average rating in terms of swordsmanship and Zanjutsu, being capable of taking on multiple opponents at once due to his unique  Zanpakutō as it is both his own blade and his brother's lodged into one single "Sword-Staff" (けん棒, Kenbō). He is able to detach and reattach the two blades with hinges located at the bottom of each sword's hilt that he attached himself, to use it both as a staff and a pair of dual-swords.
 * Hōzan Kenbu (崩山剣舞,  Fallen-Mount Sword Dance): A Zanjutsu technique that involves the user swiftly swinging their  Zanpakutō around their bodies without cutting themselves and as such making a presumably "impenetrable barrier" around themselves which opponents can't get through without getting themselves injured. However, this technique still has a lot of flaws if an enemy is perceptive enough to check for an opening. However, Zaburo makes this technique slightly harder to see through due to the fact that he has two Zanpakutōs that he is able to swing around.
 * Bōjutsu Specialist : Due to being able to use his swords as a staff, this has made Zaburo somewhat of a natural when it comes to staff-related combat as he is able to swing around his swords when in their staff form at rapid speeds to make them appear as almost a complete blur, as well as being able to efficiently swing both of them around.
 * Average Hand-to-Hand Combatant: Albeit being an expert in handling his sword and Zanjutsu skills, Zaburo is still rather average in the arts of Hakuda as whilst he was trained in this during his time at the clan, he is still considered and average by the Shino Academy standards.
 * Expert Shunpō: His Shunpō skills are a bit more developed than other Shinigami of his rank, and he is able to quickly dash out of danger and into the heat of it again whenever he needs to. This expertise in Shunpō mainly came from his training from his clan, where he focused a lot more on handling his sword and his speed. It also comes from his animalistic nature as he is given enhanced reflexes out of it.
 * Keen Intellect: His intelligence is keen at best due to his animal nature, but he is still able to perceive a lot more details than the average person could.
 * Enhanced Strength: His  Shōji Beastman Clan ancestry means he is physically stronger than regular humans and Shinigami, giving him enhanced physical strength that allows him to fight further and harder than regular fighters.
 * Enhanced Durability: The Clan's ancestry has also bestowed great amounts of durability upon him as he is able to take a lot more hits than regular Shinigami before going down, but is nowhere near as durable as those on the immense level.

Zanpakutō
Mouretsu Tenrai (もうれつてんらい, lit. Raging Thunder) is the name of Zaburo's  Zanpakutō. However it is only the name of his  Zanpakutō, and he has yet to discover the identity of his brother's since he wields both of them. Both of them look the same however, which is a long-bladed katana having a black handle with golden stripes over it. The hilts of both swords resemble a tiger leaping in a circle.



Shikai: Mouretsu Tenrai is released with the command Run Rampant (はびこる, Habikoru). When Mouretsu Tenrai is released both of his  Zanpakutō will be affected since they are bonded with each other, and will thus change at the same time. When in Shikai, Mouretsu Tenrai and its twin-sword will change shape into two larger, flat blades with crescent-shaped innings at each blade, the blades themselves being black in color with dark yellow edges. Along the insides of the blades there are numerous tribal kanji letters written, just like there is on Zaburo's pants.


 * Shikai Special Ability: Being a melee-type  Zanpakutō, Mouretsu Tenrai does not really have too many special abilities to speak of other than that it enhances Zaburo's strength greatly. The way it does so is that the blade itself will fuel Zaburo with the power that is inscribed into the kanji letters upon the blade, which are  Shōji Clan blessings of might and strength in battle. As long as Zaburo is in battle, Mouretsu Tenrai will give him increased strength.


 * Reiatsu Shockwaves: One thing that Mouretsu Tenrai is able to do in Shikai is that it grants Zaburo the power to unleash shockwaves by swinging his blades in a 360 degree swing, either in dual-sword form or sword-staff form, and then unleashing a circular shockwave consisting of Zaburo's own spiritual pressure. However, if he over-uses this technique too much, he might find himself drained of energy much quicker than normal.

Trivia

 * Zaburo  Shōji's appearance is based off of the warrior Tsuna from the game Otogi 2: Immortal Warriors.
 * ​His History is also slightly based off of Tsuna's story in terms of that both Zaburo and Tsuna used to have brothers. Zaburo had to kill his own brother in his clan's traditional Combat of Completion, and Tsuna's brother died at the hands of the demonic Spider Clan.