Inei Namikaze

"Trust no one. This is a sentence I've embedded into my mind. No one is your friend. Believe in no one. That is all I know."

- Inei

Inei Namikaze (波風陰影 Namikaze Inei, lit. Shadow of Wind and Waves) is a powerful, yet mysterious young man. His parentage is unknown, though many have presumed that he has a younger sister. Due to his mysterious nature, not a single person in the world knows much about him. His juniors avoid him whenever they see him.

A student at the Hyoho Niten Ichi-Ryu, no matter how much older or younger people are then him, he doesn't bother with them, and concentrates on doing only his own things.

Appearance
Despite his age, Inei somehow resembles a 14 year old, with the exception of his height. For his age, he looks like a young kid with an oval face shape. His skin is pale, along with his short yet spiky golden hair. His eyes are green, with black eye rings, usually showing no emotion in it. A distinct feature of his face is the kanji of "love" (愛, ai), in which no one knows the origin. His gourd has many cracks, causing some people to mistake him as some kind of beggar. Standing at a height of 165cm and a weight of 38kg, Inei is able to move easily and swiftly.

He is usually seen wearing a full body suit black in color. He wore a white cloth over his right shoulder and left hip. With that, he carries a gourd using a leather belt-like object. When travelling long distance, he wears a net-shirt as a first layer, a blue hood as the second, accompanied by a black jacket. He also wears a mask from his chin up to his nose.

Personality
Born a lone wolf, Inei is never seen around humans outside school hours. During class, Inei always pays close attention to everything the sensei teaches, not wanting to miss out on a tip that might possibly help him on a mission or assassination. Inei seems like the kind of person to have mist surrounding him all the time, almost everything about him unknown to anyone. Some people have commented on how he mysteriously disappears in the night, then suddenly appears early in the morning.

In fact, Inei wasn't always like that. He used to be just like any young child. He had big dreams of being the greatest swordsman ever. All of it changed when he met a certain young man in school. His name was Hattori. They were friends, until Hattori made Inei do bad stuff. When Inei refused to, they became enemies. During a conflict, Hattori was going to be drowned and he begged Inei to save him. Inei, being the kindhearted man he was, saved Hattori, only to get knifed in the shoulder.

Inei sometimes has flashbacks of his past despite trying to "kill" his memories. In one of those said flashbacks, Inei saw a couple, whom he presumed was his parents, dying. He noticed blood on his hands, realizing that he was the one who murdered his parents. However, instead of seeing himself as the boy he currently is, he saw a beige coloured-tanuki. Due to his mysterious past and personality, many people try to approach him to know more. Some even made bets on whether they can get him to open up or not.

Inei has been rumoured to be a spy for multiple organizations. In fact, he is quite popular with well-renowned yakuza and rogue shinigami. He does assissinations for any organization that pays him. Some of his occupations include reading samurai books and killing people for "training".

Childhood
Inei has no recollection of his childhood, except a few times of having flashbacks. In one of those said flashbacks, he say himself as a monster killing his parents. According to another one of his flashbacks, he was roaming the empty streets, stealing money from random people to get food and things necessary for his survival. Later, he remembered part of his past. Inei had been training ever since he was a kid. After realising he killed his parents, he trained hard in hopes of being able to control that monster inside him. He soon got found out by a man, whom took care of him and trained him. Then, a few years later, this man just disappeared. From then on, Inei learnt not to trust anyone.

Admission Into The Hyoho Niten Ichi-Ryu
Once again, not much is known about how he was admitted into the school. Rumours stated that Syuusuke found him and trained him, before he was admitted at the age of 14. Inei hasn't been seen responding to these rumours, so as to make people think of it as just rumours.

Equipment

 * Face Mask: Inei uses this face mask to conceal his identity when going on assassinations, and also when he travels.
 * Swiss Army Knife (十徳ナイフ, Juttokunaifu): A swiss army knife he stole from someone when he was younger. He used this to threaten most people for their money and food. It works just like any other knife.

Powers and Abilities
Immense Spiritual Power: Inei has been seen with a huge amount of reiryoku. A particular thing about his reiryoku is that it looks like sand, probably further enhancing his power in using the element. He has the ability to hide his reiryoku well, even Kaoru not being able to recognize it. He is also able to fight for a long time without being worn out.

Immense Speed: Due to his training as an assassin, Inei is able to move at speeds faster than a bullet train. Along with that, his weight enables him to run even faster. Despite this, Inei has NO skill in Shunpo. He relies only on running using his legs, sometimes causing him to have a disadvantage in speed against shinigami.

Swordsmanship Specialist: Inei has no skill in Zanjutsu. Probably due to his focus in training in hakuda more, he seems useless while wielding the sword. Of course though, he is able to strike an opponent, however without aim. He may be able to charge all his strength into a single slash, but hit the ground instead of his opponent.

Expert Hand-to-Hand Combatant: Another result of his assassin training, Inei is skilled in the ways of fighting with fists, also going to the boxing room often. He has seen to use a certain style of boxing combined with taekwondo. Doing both simultaneously isn't a problem for him either. He also has knowledge of the Niten Ichi-Ryu, but is working towards learning the Toko Niten Ryuu. Having learnt the art of Aikidō from an Aikidō grandmaster, Inei is highly capable of locking or throwing opponents whom use Hakuda. Despite his great skill in this aspect, he still isn't able to carry out high level locks, and is still in the process of learning.
 * Ikkyō (一教, "The First Technique"): The most basic technique of Aikido, it is used as a counter defence to when someone is being grabbed by the opponent in the wrist. It starts with using the hand that is being grabbed pushed towards the opponent's face, then grabbing the elbow and eventually pushing him down into a lock.
 * Nikyō (二教, "The Second Technique"): Another basic technique, the second lock is similar to the first in the way that both show counterattacks to when someone grabs you by the wrist. When the attacker grabs the wrist, take a side step, then turn your wrist into a full circle, grabbing his wrist at the same time. Then simply end it by imagining there is a weight near your fingers and put it down. Inei uses his other hand, if not occupied, to hold onto the grab the attacker is putting on him.
 * Koshinage (腰投げ, "Hip Throw"): A technique in which is useful for when an opponent tries to attack you. Having a tight hold on the attacker's hip, the user then pushes his hip the front, eventually throwing the opponent. Considered a basic technique, however, is quite hard to use it easily in battle.

Zanpakutō
Masago Hisen (真砂飛泉, Sand Waterfall) is the name of Inei's Zanpakutō. According to many, those who have seen the abilities of Masago Hisen, will never live to tell the tale, once again proving Inei's mysterious nature. Many have presumed that the sword he carries around is the sealed state of his Zanpakutō, though it has never been proven. Some others also assume that it has something to do with the gourd Inei carries behind his back
 * Shikai: Similarly to quite a number of Zanpakutō, Masago Hisen doesn't have a release command. Instead the moment Inei opens his palms, the stopper from the gourd positions itself onto his palm, letting there be a full release of sand from the gourd. In it's Shikai state, the gourd doesn't change, instead the mini swiss knife Inei carries around turns into a . Inei commented that the sword is just for show, to distract other opponents from knowing where the true power is coming from; the gourd.
 * Shikai Special Abilities: As the Zanpakutō name suggests, Inei utilizes Sand. He is able to manipulate sand into different forms, as both defence and offence. He can even use it as means of transport. Inei often says that he had been able to control sand since young, that however, has not been proven. Despite having what he calls is "absolute control" over sand, Inei still cannot call upon the sand fast enough, making it an obstacle for him. The sand he uses comes from his gourd, which does have limited sand. Due to that, Inei cannot do much if he battles indoors, where there is little sand to utilize.


 * Bankai: Not Yet Achieved.

Kenshin Matayoshi

 * Their relationship started with Syuusuke Maruyama's test. Inei and Kenshin are complete opposites. Kenshin being a cheery guy and Inei being the darkest he can be. Despite all this, the two of them still get along well most of the time. They train together and sometimes Inei asks Kenshin for help in his 5 star missions.

Quotes

 * (To Kaoru during their first training session) "Kid, let me teach you a lesson. In a real fight, there are no such things as "breaks". The only "break" you'll have is when you get beaten down to a pulp, or possibly even die. You're lucky enough sensei called a time out, or you might have more than that bruise on your arm,"