Maryu Tsuki

Maryu Tsuki (月まりゅう, Tsuki Maryū) is a Shinigami and later a Vizard born in the Tsuki family to Michimaru Tsuki and Shiroshuu Tsuki. He has a twin brother named Sengetsu. He has later married Mizugiri Gekkou and has a son with her, Kotetsuga.

History
Maryu was born as a part of the Tsuki family, along with his twin brother Sengetsu. Their father Michimaru noticed that they had great amounts of reiatsu and uncharted potential, and thus they were sent to the Shinigami Academy at considerably young age. However, during his academy days, Maryu was constantly approached by his Zanpakuto, Kyūbimaru, in his dreams, but Maryu failed to hear his voice through the screaming that was all around his dreams and effectively turning them into nightmares. Eventually Maryu tried to stop sleeping, resulting his mind thrown off balance. Just before he passed the final exams of the Academy, he lost it and attacked his fellow students and escaped. His brother Sengetsu, who had been very close to him during their childhood, interrupted his own Shinigami training and went after Maryu. Both of the brothers were labeled as exiled Shinigami. Escaping capture, Maryu plunged himself in darkness and gave in to the hidden desire in his heart to kill and let the blade of his Zanpakuto be covered in blood. Eventually the voice of his Zanpakuto became clear in his ears and it told him his name: Kyūbimaru, and that his greatest desire was to feel the blood of his enemies soak his blade. During his self-inflicted exile, Sengetsu and Maryu clashed on several occasions, and in all of these clashes Sengetsu insisted on Maryu to stop his foolish escape and return to their family, but Maryu refused.

Eventually both Maryu and Sengetsu began developing increasing amounts of both power and fame, resulting the Gotei 13 noticing them. However, Michimaru, who believed in Sengetsu's abilitu to turn the ways of his brother, stopped the Gotei 13 from deploying its forces on the brothers, allowing them to continue their exile. Eventyally both Maryu and Sengetsu developed Bankai in the same time, not knowing of that they had achieved their Bankais at the same time. Shortly after this they faced in a final clash, with Maryu using his Bankai, Zankō Kyūbimaru in the battle for the first time. Even though it's power was great, Maryu was eventually defeated by Sengetsu's will to save him, and after admitting defeat and agreeing to return to the lawful side, he fainted. The scouts sent by the Gotei 13 to keep an eye on the brothers carried both the fainted Maryu and the heavily injured Sengetsu away from the battleground, back to the Tsuki family manor, where they recieved treatment. After waking up, Maryu woved never to give in to his bloodlust again. However, the conversion had its price, as was seen later.

Not long after his conversion, Maryu began showing uncanny symptoms of some alien entity in his soul. It was later revealed to be an inner Hollow, which bursted out but was subdued by Sengetsu and Michimaru. Michimaru studied Maryu, and came into the conclusion, that his bloodthirsty Zanpakuto Kyūbimaru had absorbed to itself the inner emptiness from several Hollows Maryu had killed during his exile, and after he had turned away from the path of bloodshed, the emptiness was uncomfortable within his soul, resulting it to be gathered in one spot and gradually taking a distinct form. After this, the Hollow's influence on Maryu began to increase, until he was forced to subdue his inner Hollow in combat. He managed to defeat it, gaining control of Hollow powers in the process.

Later, he fell in love with a fellow Shinigami, Mizugiri Gekkou, and eventually married her. Later they had a son whom they named Kotetsuga.

Powers and abilities
Immmense Spiritual Power: Maryu's most notable feature is his immensely great amount of spiritual pressure, making even his brother Sengetsu admit that "it feels like looking into the mouth of a monster". It should be noted that after developing an inner hollow, the amount of reiatsu he normally has to use has actually dropped, because his inner hollow constantly draws a notable portion of his reiatsu to itself, as explained by Michimaru. Why he does this reamains a mystery.

Master Swordsmanship Specialist: Maryu's abilities in handling his Zanpakuto is great. The forms of his Shikai and Bankai have forced him to develop a personal form of swordsmanship that is hard to read when faced the first time. He aims to use his Zanpakuto creatively in battle.

Hand-to-hand combatant: Because of the extremely small size of his Bankai, Maryu was forced to learn basics of hand-to-hand combat. He rarely uses his hand-to-hand combat abilities, and he isn't especially powerful in this section of ability.

Great Speed: Even though Maryu fails to achieve as great speed as his brother Sangetsu, he still is considered fast. He has expert-level abilities in Flash Steps. He can further enhance his speed by sticking Kyūbimaru's blade to the ground and extending it, causing him to be plunged to the opposite direction with great force. He does this fairly rarely and mostly in Bankai state.

Zanpakutō
"Hear me, Maryu! Let my blade be soaked in the blood of your enemies! I need the feeling of blood dripping on my blade to truely bring me alive!"

- Kyūbimaru to Maryu

Kyūbimaru (九尾丸, Nine Tails): In its sealed form, Kyūbimaru is a regular katana with a rectangular tsuba.

The spirit of Kyūbimaru is a humanoid, black furred fox with nine tails and a generally ragged outfit and a near-constant angry gurn on his face. He speaks with an angry tone and he can be heard snarling from time to time. His nature is very bloodthirsty, even indicating that his greatest desire is to feel his blade being soaked in blood. Sometimes, when he is used in blattle, a bloodthirsty scream can be heard from the blade. His nature makes him a very difficult Zanpakuto to handle, as he makes it easy for Maryu to throw himself in rage, increasing the chance of surfacing his inner Hollow.
 * Shikai: Kyūbimaru's release command is Extend your claws. In its shikai, Kyūbimaru changes from a katana to a straight-bladed black longsword, with one longer blade and eight smaller blades extending from the base of the blade.
 * Shikai special abilities: Maryu can extend each of the blades by will. The blades can extend about 30 meters in straight line. Maryu can also change the angle of the smaller blades.


 * Maryu can drastically increase the cutting power of the blades with the command Rip, in process enveloping the blades to his reiatsu. With this ability he has even almost sliced through Sengetsu's Zanpakuto on one occasion.
 * Bankai: Zankō Kyūbimaru (斬鋼九尾丸, Steel Cutting Nine Tails): Maryu has called his Bankai "the smallest Bankai ever", a title fitting to Zankō Kyūbimaru. In its Bankai state, Zankō Kyūbimaru completely changes form and ceases to be a sword. Instead, it becomes two sets of metallic claws, one on each hand, wielded like Wolverine wields his claws. The length of the claws is less than thirty centimeters when in their unextended state. In each hand there is three claws. The major advantage of the small size of his Bankai is the drastic increase in Kyūbimaru's cutting power, increasing it to the point where he was casually able to slice through Sengetsu's Zanpakuto when the latter was in its Shikai state.
 * Bankai special abilities: Like in shikai, Maryu can extend the blades. However, in Bankai the blades can extend an indefinite distance and can now change direction mid-air. HE can use the extending blades very versatilely, using them as shields or wrapping the enemy in them and making an omnidirectional attack with his other Bankai abilities.


 * Maryu can make the extended blades shatter into small blade fragments with the command Shatter. This command is usually used in preparation for the next technique.
 * Mary can make the shattered blade fragments created by the use of the previous technique to attack any target he desires with the command Attack. The blades will always choose the straight route and thus can be blocked.
 * Maryu can further increase the cutting power of the blades with the command Rip, in process enveloping the blades to his reiatsu.

Hollowification
"You friggin' idiot, Maryu! Foxes don't make good pets... 'cause they bite you!"

- Hollow Maryu after being defeated by Maryu

After Maryu's return to the lawful side, he developed an inner Hollow. Maryu's inner Hollow is very powerful and has an eccentric personality, bordering lunacy. Unlike most inner Hollows, Maryu's inner Hollow appears in two different forms in Maryu's inner world: The "false form" looks more like a hollowified version of Kyūbimaru, but the "true form" looks like a copy of Maryu himself, only having blach hair, gray skin and white clothing. The inner Hollow has, in some occasions, referred to himself as a fox, possibly as a homage to his look in his "false form".

By calling some of the power of his inner Hollow, Maryu can call up a Hollow mask and increase his own power and abilities. He can hold his mask only for about two minutes because of the high power and uncontrollable nature of his inner Hollow.
 * Hollow mask: Maryu's Hollow mask is a demonic, remotely fox-like mask. When donning the mask, Maryu also begins to grow white cover on his hands and feet, further signifying the lack of control Maryu still has of his Hollow.