Kaoru Shinsuke

Kaoru Shinsuke (信介薫, Shinsuke Kaoru), better known in the Hyoho Niten Ichi-Ryu as Dokugan Genzou (独眼幻像, One-Eyed Phantom) is a young human with shinigami powers. Grandson to the old daimyō of Kyoto, Kaoru strived to prove his worth and loyalty to the former and also to Syuusuke Maruyama. He has a growing hatred towards Yuuta Maruyama, mostly seen calling him bad names.

Appearance
Kaoru has an oval shaped head with a fair complexion. He seldom displays any emotion on his face, mostly seen spacing out. Kaoru only shows his right eye, the left always being covered, a trait his brother also has. He is slim but well-built. He has spiky purple hair, of which his fringe covers the bandages on his left eye. Despite sometimes calling Yuuta a shorty, Kaoru isn't that tall himself, only about 10 cm taller than the aforementioned. Though he is 17, people mistake him to be in his early 20s.

Kaoru usually wears a V neck haori with nothing inside. His haori is puple in colour, with some butterfly prints on it. The sleeves are golden, and he wears pant with similar prints. His pants are styled in a way that it looks like a skirt, with the bottom part being golden as well. He is also sometimes seen in a dark blue inner kungfu piece, with a darker blue haori going down to his knees. His haori has purple strips at the side, making it look like a guard uniform. He wears loose pants with a karate-like belt. With that, his sword goes in between the karate belt and his slacks. When in the Hyoho Niten Ichi-Ryu, he usually wears a formal shirt, loosening the tie and wearing another black jacket over it.

Personality
Kaoru is generally nice to everyone in the Hyoho Niten Ichi-Ryu, but is ruthless towards those that he hates. A student in the school since he was 12, he was the youngest ever to join the school. Back then, everyone adored him, due to his ancestry. All that changed when Yuuta joined in. When Yuuta joined, everyone treated him better than they ever did with Kaoru, since he was a son to Syuusuke Maruyama afterall. Kaoru fumed with rage and jealousy, also noting that the girl he had an interest in was always with Yuuta. After that, he became the ruthless and filled with rage Kaoru. He can be described as "attention-seeking", but not anything else. He hates it when people say that he has no capabilities and disgraces his family.

Later, Kaoru was sent along with Yuuta to go on a spying mission. Despite always being envious about Yuuta and the urge of killing him, Kaoru protected Yuuta, a feeling he felt he had to do. According to Kaoru, he always wanted a younger brother, and when he could finally protect someone, he just did. During that mission, Yuuta got severely injured near his shoulder, causing his left arm to be useless. Kaoru drew his sword and swiftly killed the bandit which was disturbing their mission. After that, Kaoru carried Yuuta all the way back to the school. This experience has changed many people's opinions on Kaoru, praising him as a hero.

Having lost his parents at a young age, Kaoru strives to improve in everything he can to "avenge" their death. Despite many people telling him that it's useless, he continues to find his parent's murderer. Kaoru's grandfather, the 15th daimyō of Kyoto, wanted him to learn the way of the samurai, so he put Kaoru into the Hyoho Niten Ichi-Ryu. Even through his connections, Kaoru had to go through all the tests, and got into the school easily. Due to the time he spent in the castle of his grandfather, he has gotten much attention from others, making him a very spoilt young man. His attitude started to change when he met the well-known samurai, Syuusuke Maruyama. Under his training, Kaoru changed his attitude completely. Kaoru looked up to Syuusuke, yet resented him for taking in Yuuta.

Kaoru, unlike many people, actually doesn't hate Death, sometimes even looking up to him. This was first noticed when he was asked of who his enemy was and who he looked up to. His answer for the first was Yuuta, and the second consisted of two great shinigami. The first being Syuusuke, and the second being Death. Due to this, many view him as potential evil, and some even think of him as a spy. In truth, all he wants is for him to be someone's role model, acknowledged by many people, and to make his parents proud.

Childhood
Kaoru was the grandson of the 15th daimyō of Kyoto, known as Rin Shinsuke. He lived a normal life with his parents, who lived like any ordinary family, not wanting people to know of their ties with the daimyō. According to how Kaoru told his story, he himself didn't know that he's related to Rin Shinsuke. However, all that changed one day when he walked home after school, only to see his parents near a pool of blood, face pale and not breathing. He stayed in his house along with his brother, hiding in the kitchen.

Discoveries
A few days later, Kaoru and his brother were told to get into a long car. Being the children they were, they just followed without asking questions. Soon, they arrived at the golden palace known to hold the current daimyō. Their mouths agape, they slowly walked into the palace, wondering if they belonged. They were then warmly welcomed by Rin Shinsuke, later finding out that the latter is their grandfather. From then on, they lived in the palace, being taken care of by butlers and maids. He later had an encounter with a hollow. He was about to get eaten by the hollow, when an unknown man came to his rescue. Amazed at the way the man slayed the hollow, one of his dreams was then to become as great a swordsman as the aforementioned. He remembered the man's face, later known to be Syuusuke Maruyama.

Admission Into The Hyoho Niten Ichi-Ryu
Rin Shinsuke sent Kaoru to the Hyoho Niten Ichi-Ryu, saying that he was old and wanted Kaoru to protect himself. Kaoru had a request to try out the test instead of gaining direct entrance, as he wanted to make his grandfather proud. After finding out about the precedures of the test, he started training hard. The one time he took the test, he passed as the youngest to join; at the age of 12. He got the biggest surprise when he saw Syuusuke Maruyama, the man who saved him, with a contented smile on his face.

Powers & Abilities
High Spiritual Power: Kaoru has reiryoku comparable to Yuuta, as well as lieutenants. Kaoru's reiatsu comes off as a slight gradient of black and red, commented by many as a sign of his evil. Unlike Yuuta, Kaoru has a better control of his reiryoku, being able to supress his reiryoku when needed, and the ability to release all of it at once. However, Kaoru gets tired easily, causing him to seldom release all his reiryoku.

Expert Swordsmanship Specialist: Kaoru is the best swordsman in the school, easily surpassing his seniors. The weapon he prefers to use is actually the bō, a weapon he trained the most with. As a result, he has a close relationship with the bōjutsu teacher, whom he spends time training with a lot. Being a shinigami, he has learnt some tricks which combine his use of the sword and his reiryoku. Praised by many good swordsman, Kaoru has developed a special connection with his sword, noticed by Syuusuke Maruyama himself.

Hakuda User: Kaoru isn't skilled in using hakuda. When facing against opponents without his sword, Kaoru is as good as useless. Despite his incompetence in hakuda, Kaoru doesn't fail to tease those that are weaker than him, shown when he teases Yuuta even though the latter has won him in so many hakuda matches. Due to his strength, the only parts Kaoru has to improve on is his accuracy and speed. His punches and kicks are generally really strong, however, when he uses all his strength into one attack, with his luck, he usually misses, wasting a lot of his strength. After learning a couple of Aikidō techniques from Inei, his hakuda had improved quite a bit.
 * Ikkyō (一教, "The First Technique"): The first Aikidō technique he learnt, he took pretty long to successfully do it, let alone master it. Inei has commented on his demonstration of the technique as 'weak' but also saying that Kaoru may in the end successfully master it.
 * Nikyō (二教, "The Second Technique"): The second Aikidō technique he learnt. Seeing it as easy, Kaoru boasted that he would 'own' the technique, in which he later did not. Due to being new to this technique, he still cannot perform it, most of the time being luck. He, however, is training this aikidō technique the most.

Expert Shunpo User: Kaoru can use shunpo up to a certain extent. He is able to outrun Yuuta, partly also because of his natural speed in running. Despite having a heavier body than Yuuta, he has more skills and the perfect poise in order to run fast. His speed of Shunpo isn't that fast, hardly three quarters of Abarai Renji.

Kidō User: Kaoru isn't able to use Kidō at all, using excuses such as that far range is for losers and swordplay is all that is needed. As such, he is usually in deep trouble in a long ranged fight. His can use only Hado up to 5 and Bakudo up to 10.

Kyūjutsu User: Though he is alright hitting a moving target, Kaoru still can't grasp the techniques of Kyūjutsu. He is strong in shooting quickly, but his aiming fails most of the time.

Zanpakutō
Akami no Yuki (赤みの雪, Red Snow): Akami no Yuki, when sealed, takes the appearance Of two guns with two red parts at the top. Despite Kaoru knowing of his Zanpakutō, he doesn't know that the gun is actually the sealed form. As a result, he doesn't know of how to use the gun at all.

Shikai: Not Yet Achieved

Bankai: Not Yet Achieved

Behind The Scenes
Kaoru was originally created with an idea of Kazuki Oda, a rival of Jack Fletcher in the Young Samurai series. However I've changed him for storyline reasons.