Gonryōmaru (Spirit)

"Thunder and Lightning are my allies. It is in this rain that I can display my special powers that make me great. Prepare yourself, Shiro-dono!"

- Gonryōmaru training with Shiro Morimoto

Gonryōmaru (厳霊丸,Stern Spirit) is the manifested spirit of Shiro Morimoto's Zanpakutō.

Appearance
Gonryōmaru's spirit takes the form of a man dressed as a traveler, or ronin, from Japan's Meiji era, with thunderbolt designs on his shoulders. He has long, black hair covering a cloth wrapped around his forehead. His eyes are completely black and he carries a large, box-like pack on his back, and has a long pike in his hand.

Personality
Gonryomaru is a very polite and honorable Zanpakutō Spirit, at least to others who are not his wielder. He is generally quiet and solitary, but tries harder to act cool when other people are around; having a strong sense of honor that transcends reason, never going back on his word. He has a tendency to say things melodramatically; and can be slightly hammy if the situation requires it to be. He often refers to people by the -dono honorific, which means lord or master.

However, when he is angered, this demeanor completely shifts; as he becomes stubborn, short-tempered, strong-willed and impulsive, flipping out at anything that he sees as an annoyance. Amusingly enough, he tends to shy away from proper vulgar words; only using phrases that he thinks are "rude", such as "idiot" and "moron". What should be noted is that he only gets annoyed when he is conversing with Shiro, who teases him for being too uptight.

Powers & Abilities
Immense Spiritual Energy: Gonryōmaru as a Zanpakutō Spirit, has an extremely high spiritual power. Shiro Morimoto commented that it matches the level of his spiritual energy or even passes beyond that. Gonryōmaru releases his spiritual energy that atmosphere becomes heavy and dark grey clouds appear in sky. When Gonryōmaru spiritual energy releases an overwhelming force from his body, unleashing a powerful shockwave which causes a crater in the earth; infecting the ground around them to enable small chunks of rock to float upwards just by his mere presence. His spiritual energy takes the form of purple electricity. In the aftermath of releasing his spiritual energy, static is left in the air which shocks anyone who touches something metal.

Master Swordsmanship Specialist: Gonryōmaru demonstrated highly proficient skill in swordsmanship, enough to keep up with Shiro's skills. Gonryōmaru's style of fight could be determined to be elegant. His style of fighting resembles to that of Fencing. Gonryōmaru divides this techniques and movements into two categories; Offensive and Defensive. The Offensive techniques such as the Thrust, which consist of extending the blade to declare an attack and attempt to pierce a the opponent's vital points such as the heart or the throat, and the Lunge, which deals with a typical épée action of making a second after attack after the first attack is parried. This may be done with a change in line; example, an attack that targets the opponent's shoulder and then followed with an attack to the the thigh or from theouter arm to the inner arm or chest. A second continuation is stepping slight past the parry and angulating the blade to bring the tip of the blade back on target. And the Defensive technique is called the Parry; also known as the basic block to the opponent's weapon while it is preparing or executing an attack, the parry block is used to deflect the enemy's blade away from any harm.

Enhanced Speed:Gonryōmaru has shown great speed, enough to keep up with Shiro Morimoto, and able to outmaneuver a number of relentless assaults from Shiro himself.

Zanpakutō
Gonryōmaru (厳霊丸, Stern Spirit):Like all Zanpakutō spirits, Gonryōmaru is able to wield his own sword form in combat against both his master within the inner world, and physical opponents should he manifest. When Gonryōmaru is in his sealed form, it is an average katana with an ornate double-fanned hand guard and a deep red handle. Though, oddly enough the seal form of Gonryōmaru that Shiro owns looks completely different.The sealed form is a Daito like weapon with a star shaped guard, of which has a circular piece going around the tips of the star's arms. The handle, as with much of his attire, is light purple in color


 * Shikai: Gonryōmaru is released into shikai form with the incantation Pierce (穿て, ugate). When released Gonryōmaru's blade glows purple and its engulfs the entire blade with electricity before it being struck by lightning as it manifests into a rapier with a katana's blade.

Shikai Special Ability: Gonryōmaru's Shikai Special Ability revolves primary around electrokinesis. Through focusing his power, he is able to produce, control and manipulate lightning and electricity at his will. With these powers, Gonryōmaru can create powerful lightning bolts which explode massively upon impact, create electrical fields, currents, and even electromagnetic effects with enough power. However, Gonryōmaru's true power isn't able to be shown without the use of his Bankai.

Another way to use this technique is by being activated by regular sword swings, this ability creates a perfect crescent-shaped arc of crackling electricity which follows the trail of Gonryōmaru beautifully, significantly increasing any damage he would deal and expanding in a half-circle to up to ten meters, allowing him to attack disengaging enemies or simply to harass an opponent from a mid-ranged standpoint until he's properly gauged their abilities, this ability consumes a fairly low portion of energy from Gonryōmaru's resserves and such can be used the most frequently.
 * Hotaru Shiden (Firefly Swordflash, 蛍紫電): is Gonryōmaru's signature attack. Within the form of a rapier-like foil, the Gonryōmaru creates a powerful electric current within it's blade. Activated by a aim and shoot, this ability can be used either at long range or in melee-range, but due to how it works its better used as a form of long range assault; after the initial aiming and shooting, a violent burst of electricity will strike at the intended area of effect, causing serious electrocution to the primary target and anyone unfortunate enough to be within the blasts immediate vicinity of the attack; this effect however is accompanied by a crackling noise and has a short delay before it strikes, allowing for quick and attentive opponents to escape from the area it effects before it lands, which makes it best used as a surprise attack - furthermore, should activate the ability with close proximity to his person, he himself will take damage as well provided he's struck. The power of this ability depends entirely on how much energy Gonryōmaru chooses to invest in it upon activation, and therefore its power may vary from static shocks to serious electrocution, even to the point of death.The effects of this shikai is very similar to the effects caused by touching a live wire. If the the Hotaru Shiden is blocked, the electrical current produced by the blade can flow into the opponent's sword causing their limbs to go numb momentarily.

Bankai: Kōkō Gonryō Rikyū (黄煌厳霊離宮, Yellow-Glittering Royal Villa of the Stern Spirit) Gonryōmaru raises his Zanpakutō above his head and produces a bolt of lightning from the blade which extends and transforms into pike.

Bankai Special Ability: Kōkō Gonryō Rikyū is a Bankai that can exert a very powerful Reiatsu. Like Daiguren Hyōrinmaru, Kōkō Gonryō Rikyū is revered as the most powerful lightning-based Zanpakutō in whole of Soul Society, and is even capable of affecting the weather similar to the way that Daiguren Hyōrinmaru can; to activate its ability, the pike releases a pulse of spiritual energy which affects the heavens, connecting the user's spiritual energy to the weather itself; giving the user natural dominance over winds, clouds, and lightning; basically, mastery over natural phenomena; the abilities granted are facets of the user's power to manipulate the weather over vast areas.


 * Temperature Manipulation: The user can modify the temperature of the environment, control all forms of precipitation, humidity and moisture, and has demonstrated excellent control over atmospheric pressure. He can incite all forms of meteorological tempests, such as tornadoes, thunderstorms, blizzards, and hurricanes, as well as mist. He can dissipate such weather to form clear skies as well. His precise control over the atmosphere allows her to create special weather effects. He can create precipitation at higher or lower altitudes than normal, make whirlwinds travel pointing lengthwise in any direction, flash freeze objects and people, coalesce atmospheric pollutants into acid rain or toxic fog, and, along with his natural ability of flight, summon wind currents strong enough to support his weight to elevate himself to fly at high altitudes and speeds. Gonryōmaru_Powers.png
 * Thunderstorm: Activated by pointing Gonryōmaru to the sky, this ability releases all of the pent-up energy of the Zanpakuto into the atmosphere above him; creating a small, movable thunderstorm which he can direct at several or a single enemy, depending on the need - the thunderstorm releases powerful bursts of lightning that can severely electrocute and paralyze even some of the toughest foes Gonryōmaru would face; it has two modes of attack - area of effect, which sacrifices a lot of power for a massively expanded scope of effect, allowing him to kill hordes of weaker opponents with ease and single-target mode; which focuses tremendous powers into a single beam of energy potent enough to pierce trough most defenses, even defenses previously believed to be "absolute" - due to the tremendous range of these beams, this mode is sometimes classified as the Assassination Mode; as it can pick off key targets very quickly on the battlefield without Gonryōmaru ever needing to risk his hide to walk into range.
 * Thunderclap: By plunging Gonryōmaru's pike down into the ground; Gonryōmaru can release a powerful shock wave which takes the form of a quickly-expanding sphere of energy; this energy field is very dense in nature, dealing little damage but being capable of repelling most threats quite easily; deflecting powerful energy-based attack with hardly a dent and preventing anyone (allies included) from approaching Gonryōmaru until it has died out, which can take several seconds, depending on how much energy he invests into the technique upon activation.
 * Thunder Wave: This ability is activated with a thrusting, or stabbing motion of his Zanpakuto which results in the electricity building up inside Gonryōmaru's blade; before being released shortly afterwards in a massive pulse of electricity; taking the form of a wide beam which's color depends entirely upon how much energy the Zanpakuto had been building up, the blast has been described as being similar in appearance to Hado 88; Gonryōmaru can choose between making it the long-ranged beam attack described above or shortening it in a cone-like area, removing great range for much higher concentration of energy and a wider area fo effect; allowing him to annihilate several tougher opponents at once.
 * Electrokinesis: In Bankai, the electrokinetic abilities of this Zanpakutō are boosted to great heights. Simple effects may include the ability to generate electricity, shoot lightning, or overload a circuit. More complex ones may include manipulating the energy in a person, directing current in a more complex route than the one of least resistance, firing sparks, turning off electrical devices, or electrical constructs. With applications ranging from direct electrocution and high energy output, to more complex abilities such as hacking, and electromagnetism generation and constructs, Kōkō Gonryō Rikyū is able to control electrons in a variety of the effects that often yield positive results. However, with great power comes crippling limitations; Kōkō Gonryō Rikyū is very unreliable in nature, this is due to the fact that the Zanpakutō requires varying amounts of time to charge up to its power. Furthermore, while the Zanpakutō's powers can be manifested with different methods, the most common and definitely one of the most effective applications is with his pike movements, the movements are known to elicite a specific effect depending on which movement Gonryōmaru makes with his Zanpakutō. Its abilities are few, but all of them scales excellently with his current level of power. Gonryōmaru can freely adjust the level of energy employed by any of these abilities at his leisure, allowing him to surprise his opponents by opting to use different degrees of power each time.
 * Shōgoname (荘厳雨Solemn Rain): Gonryomaru's special ability is a complicated, yet simple one; when utilizing it, the wielder of the blade gathers spiritual particles in the atmosphere and condenses it upon it's form; additionally, they add their own spiritual energy into the mix; upon contact, the spiritual energy forces the particles to convert into pure energy; the energy is then compressed to its utmost limit, before the wielder raises the blade to the skies and a black box forms upon the hilt of the blade. There, the wielder decompresses the energy, which causes it to hastily shoot to the heavens—upon interaction with the skies, the wielder's spiritual energy transforms into that of dark black clouds and rain which pours down heavily and remorselessly; at any moment's notice with a snap of the fingers, the user can call down a torrent of rain from the clouds with tremendous force and speed, which can also serve the secondary effect of harming all in the vicinity sans the user themselves; this rain seems unending, almost. However, while the droplets of rain do indeed inflict "scratch damage", it does have a deadlier function. With the rain now pouring down, it gives the wielder of Gonryomaru free range to utilize their lightning to their fullest extent.


 * Tenjō no Shōgonrakurai (天上 の荘厳落雷, Solem Lightning Strike from the Heavens): Gonryomaru points his pike up in the air and releases a massive rounds of electric charges which extends and transforms into a dome of lightning, stationed far above his head and fastened to the ground by a large number of lightning pillars. A single pillar also reaches from the top of the dome toward the sky. This process dematerializing the pike and turns it into pure electric energy. Through the use of hand gestures, Goryōmaru can direct powerful lightning bolts to strike his opponents from the sky.

Trivia

 * Gonryōmaru's appearance is very eastern-like, while his owner prefers western culture.

Quotes
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