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blue-dream-rhapsody · 8 months

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On Kugo Ginjo, Part 5 - Side A: The Blade

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I broached the subject of Kugo’s sword once a while ago, but I don’t think I really backed it up with much canon material. Then a little bit ago I saw MrTommo’s video about Ichigo’s Horn of Salvation form and it made me want to take another look, so here we go!

(Note: the numbered asterisks sprinkled throughout are more like tangents than proper footnotes. You can save them to the end without much trouble I think, the mark just notates what point I was making that I think it relates to best.)

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So even though Kugo and Ichigo are both hybrids, the differing circumstances that make Ichigo ✨ special ✨ mean he’s not very helpful as a point of reference for the rules of existence Kugo operates under. There are a handful of things about their abilities I think are clearly meant to match up between them, or at least point the way—and that is disregarding the obvious use of Getsuga Tensho as a blatantly stolen ability—but it doesn’t give us a full picture. So today I just want to take a look at Kugo’s sword, its various forms, and what I think is going on with his powers in the current state of things.

To begin, I do want to go back to the farthest in the past we have seen Kugo—Tsukishima’s memory of when they met, at which time Kugo appears to have still been a Soul Reaper and presumably acting as a Deputy.

Purely, to confirm that he had a completely standard asauchi at this point, which he carries on his hip like any other typical Soul Reaper.

Tite Kubo stated at one time that Rukia knew of the method for transferring Soul Reaper power to a human in an emergency because it had been done before, and that Ginjo was at least the successful example. Upon his own acquiring of said power, given Ichigo is the only one who ever has, as of years later, had his sword spontaneously appear rather than be forged by Oetsu Nimaiya (*1)—it would make complete sense for Kugo to have to take up the blade of the Soul Reaper who gave him their power, at least in the moment, to survive that situation. Whether he was issued his own asauchi to imprint later, or the former owner was no longer able to wield it and he ended up keeping it to make his own, I can’t say. The latter isn’t an unprecedented event either, as Tosen got Suzumushi from his friend Kakyo after her death. And truthfully, I couldn’t tell you if it makes a difference either way, at least for what we’re discussing here. What matters ultimately, is that this is so far as we can tell, a completely standard-issue zanpakuto that a typical Soul Reaper would have.

Now we never see that zanpakuto in anything other than its sealed state. No shikai, no bankai. This means, we don’t know what shape it would have in its unsealed states, so we can’t compare that to what we know of now as Cross of Scaffold. (Keep in mind, just because it’s slender sealed doesn’t mean its shikai is the same shape. Zabimaru is an easy example.) We don’t know anything about its ability, either, nor any name it goes by. But we know that in the present time, Kugo does use something he calls “bankai,” notably without ever saying a name. So is that a real bankai? Does that mean the sword is a zanpakuto even in the present, that is just no longer sheathed like a zanpakuto?

Well, to begin to answer that, I want to bring forward a specific set of panels:

What Kugo’s saying tends to get the focus for the plot reasons, but it’s his actions that interest me here. He pulls his own Combat Pass out of his pocket (*2) and Kubo makes a point to show him putting it against his sword, and that it changes.

As a reminder, here’s a clearer view of what the sword has looked like up until this point:

And in fact, let’s look at what’s visible of the sword when he used it on Uryu when he cuts him at the very beginning of the arc, too, for good measure:

You can ignore the actual blade part for most of this post, as it doesn’t significantly change at any point, but focus on the guard in particular, where the hilt passes through, and the hilt extension as well. Between these two moments they are clearly the same, meaning at least from the point of Uryu’s getting attacked, this is what Cross of Scaffold has looked like for the entirety of the arc so far.

Yet, once his Combat Pass makes contact with the sword, and they seem to combine, it looks like this:

The skull is of course the most obvious addition, clearly reflecting the image depicted on the Pass itself. But notice too that the hilt extension is no longer cross-wrapped like the rest of the hilt is (or like most zanpakuto hilts are, if in different wrapping styles). It’s become what looks to be a column of vertebrae, like the skull’s neck.

I point this out because it is critical to note that this transformation occurs before Kugo even begins to take Ichigo’s powers. It is purely a result of combining the Pass with the sword we’ve known as Cross of Scaffold. And keep an eye on these two specific aspects, the skull with cross marking and the bone hilt, as they will continue through additional forms—leading to a certain conclusion we will discuss in a bit.

Now the next change that occurs, we don’t see until after he has taken Ichigo’s power and his own form has changed. And I’ll actually give us a couple views, because it’s hard to see everything in any one image, and it also proves consistency in the design.

There are two major differences in this new form. The first is the addition of a backing shape beneath the skull, as best seen in the first two, which while far from an exact shape match, still evokes the plaque part of the Combat Pass. And the second, as seen in the latter two images, is that the entire hilt is now a column of vertebrae, not just the part extending into the blade.

And lest you think these aren’t new aspects, but merely Kubo forgetting to draw part of his design in the first form, here’s a second panel from before Kugo begins taking Ichigo’s powers showing both of these things still absent:

(With a bonus Ichigo at the bottom still clearly having his Fullbring.)

It’s a “change” in a sense, from one to the other, but more than that these are additions, still in line with what we already have. That is not the case, however, for the last version we have to look at. With the form Kugo calls bankai, we have this:

The skull with X-markings and the vertebrae in the hilt extension both still remain, as ever. Notably though, the normal hilt has morphed again to an unrecognizable form which, quite frankly, I’m not sure how to describe. Its irregular shape makes it unclear if it’s still (the semblance of) bone, though it’d probably be a safe bet given the rest of what’s present in his entire design, not only the sword. There’s also resemblance, in the slightly arced shape, to part of the markings that appear on his face, but that’s not necessarily intentional.

The new hilt of Kugo’s blade does not resemble at all, however, the twisting horn shape the guard has taken on, which is also completely unlike the fleur-de-lys like pattern it has had even from its most basic form. And this is, notably, the most obvious thread connecting the sword and pendant forms, so it’s interesting it is absent here. Also worth noting this is completely different from the horns Ichigo’s Hollow has.

Incidentally, the plaque-like backing to the skull has also disappeared, though the skull is a more concrete tether to the Pass.

There is one more addition which is maybe the one I find most unsettling by visual alone. The skull, though I haven’t mentioned it, has only ever been the top portion without the lower jawbone. (*3) And this still continues; however, the opening that the hilt extension passes through is now lined, top and bottom, by a row of teeth, like a giant gaping maw. And from the “gums” of the bottom row, another row aims out the other way toward the blade. Which is. Horrifying.

It’s important to take the context of this particular blade into consideration, too, because Kugo makes a point to say that this “bankai” form includes Hollow elements. And from bones to horns to teeth I would definitely say this is reflected. (Especially horrifying as, while I am not a dentist or a zoologist, the sharpness of those teeth strikes me as carnivorous. With the whole of this sword I overall get this sense of a hellish humanoid entity with a too-big mouth full of too many teeth, a neck that’s too too long. And it’s screaming.)

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Now that we’ve seen all the forms at play, let’s come back to the fact that two elements remain consistent from when the Combat Pass is added in, up through his strongest form. You’re probably wondering why I keep hammering this home, and the reason is because these elements existed independently of Ichigo’s power. And while with the bankai form in particular, there are certainly some independent components, there are also changes that seem to just be extrapolations of what’s already there. What this means is that, while Getsuga Tensho is clearly Ichigo’s, and Ichigo’s completed Fullbring form was designed on a meta level, per Kubo, with the intention of being better suited to Ginjo from the start, it just can’t all be derived from Ichigo.

I think we have to consider what it means, too, that he combines the Combat Pass and Cross of Scaffold before he begins extracting Ichigo’s power from him. Not just for the divide between what’s from who, but for why he would take the time to do so before.

Keep in mind, there was no need to power up in preparation for a battle. The original plan had been to take Ichigo’s powers, so he would have nothing to fight back with, and then leave. When the Soul Reapers showed up, it was clearly a surprise to Kugo—and with Ichigo’s loved ones from the human world already also under Tsukishima’s thrall, they really expected no significant opposition. The chances it was in anticipation of a fight are certainly never zero in a series focused on fights, but with all of that being the case, they’re still very low odds. There must be a reason to do this at this point, though, so if not for a boost in power, then could it be for a change of power?

Kugo tells Ichigo that a Deputy Soul Reaper was able to take Fullbrings from those who had them, when he explains why Xcution wants to help him become a Soul Reaper again. While there was a ruse at play here, Kugo was not aware of it when he said this; he’s likewise not aware that he was himself the Deputy in question. Now the rule that Tsukishima’s ability can’t actually add or remove events or people, only modify them, didn’t get established officially until Can’t Fear Your Own World, but that rule dictates the power exchange between him and those Fullbringers did happen to at least some extent—and we see Kugo exchanging powers in canon regardless. He takes from Ichigo, but also gives to the others in Xcution. The question here isn’t whether this occurred in the past or not, but rather, is this ability one a Deputy Soul Reaper, generally speaking, has with Fullbringers? Or is it just that, without realizing it, Kugo was attributing the nature of his personal ability (as the only Deputy before Ichigo) to being something Deputies can generally do, since he didn’t know it was him from the start?

If it was his own ability all along, then, why did we never see it used during the bulk of the arc? Well, this is where we come back to the question of combining the Pass with his Fullbring. Why do so before taking Ichigo’s power? Perhaps because, without doing so, he would not have the ability to with the ability he currently has?

Was something contained within the Combat Pass, with the purpose of hiding it away? Something he wouldn’t realize was hidden away until the bookmark on him was undone and he remembered who and what he was? Something hidden as to not arouse Ichigo’s suspicion when he did start to become spiritually aware again, because Ichigo would recognize it as something other than the nature of a Fullbringer as someone who’s been exposed to other types of spirit energy before?

Is it a coincidence that, for all the other forms we’ve seen a Fullbring take—animate plushies, digital entities, destructive boots, time contracts, strengthened skin, hairpin spirits, brass knuckles—one of only two Fullbringers who aren’t Ichigo, a Soul Reaper, who has a sword as their Fullbring’s form, was also a Soul Reaper?

Even if it’s not the nature of his personal ability, and is instead just something Deputy Soul Reapers can do—doesn’t that mean he needs to already have Soul Reaper power at that moment to be able to take the Fullbring from Ichigo? And if it was something he did with the other Fullbringers prior to the slaughter that caused him to start killing and stealing from other Soul Reapers in the first place, doesn’t that mean that power can’t have originated from the Soul Reapers he killed?

If Kugo’s Combat Pass monitors and controls him, and he hates that, why keep it on him like he has? And given that he has, why have the Court Guards been unable to track him down with it until Ichigo flushes him out? Something Hitsugaya explicitly says they were waiting for?

Any one of these things, or even any two, you could of course just handwave away, or find an explanation for. But altogether, these questions call to mind a possibility I find it hard to ignore: that Kugo is not entirely without Soul Reaper power prior to taking what he does from Ichigo—or at least, not without it stashed away, but close at hand. And that what is called Cross of Scaffold is perhaps not just a Fullbring object, but the physical vessel of his zanpakuto transformed by Fullbring into sword and pendant in turn—because isn’t a zanpakuto, in a sense, an object with a soul? The very thing Fullbring works on? In combining his Combat Pass with the sword, is he therefore bringing the spirit of his zanpakuto back to its home, adding it back into the mix of his power?

Of course the last of this is more extrapolation, but with no real precedent for this specific mix of power, it’s certainly interesting territory to tread.

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Notes:

*1. Per Oetsu himself, he knows the location of every sword he’s ever made, so you may be thinking about the fact the Court Guards have been hunting Kugo as a fugitive for a couple years at least and wondering, “Well, if he has his sword still, shouldn’t Oetsu be able to find him so the Court Guards can catch him?” But keep in mind what Squad Zero’s job is. Their focus is the Soul King and preservation of the state of the worlds themselves. Kugo shows zero interest in the former, and of the latter, at most an interest in destroying the Court Guards soldier by soldier, and maybe usurping the social structure, neither of which does he really come anywhere close to. Being the all-overseeing Squad Zero as well, they may be aware of the circumstances of his heel-turn being orchestrated to begin with, and do not get involved not so much out of a sense of justice but just due to a lack of need to pursue him for not having particularly done anything. Soul Reapers just die all the time, what else is new? Even if Kugo had the desire to interfere with the Soul King, he’s no Aizen in terms of ability to do so, and they didn’t even interfere with him.

(Also if you take Klub Outside answers, Kubo stated this was meant in a more metaphorical sense than a GPS tracker, so do with that what you will.)

*2. Ichigo’s isn’t on a chain like this, is it? More like a leather cord? Is this meant to be a match to Kugo’s necklace chain? That said, Ichigo’s newest bankai at this point does still have the chain at the end of the hilt. This isn’t important, just something I noticed.

*3 You know what? The markings on the skull of course reflect markings Kugo’s face has in his bankai form, and the skull only being the top half also matches the Pass; but doesn’t that raise the question of which came first? Are they a change resulting from the Combat Pass being integrated in? Or was the Pass designed with the imagery it has because it was made for Kugo specifically?

Also, it just occurred to me that Ichigo and Kugo both have the Pass integrated at the base of the blade. Ichigo’s is much more literal about it, but the image on it does change to suit what form he’ll have in his upcoming shikai state. Suiting it moreso than it does his current Fullbring form, so that’s… interesting. Either way, this particular imagery that appears on Ichigo’s doesn’t present itself in Kugo after taking Ichigo’s powers, at least in any way he isn’t already connected with X imagery (like his belt-thing). It does seem to influence how Ichigo appears later, though, even after it’s taken away.

#bleach #kugo ginjo #ginjou kuugo #im not committing to there being a part B yet… but it exists in my mind #I also ended up scrapping some other tangents and you can thank mobile’s photo limit for that #Anyway this has been in my notes for a couple months I am glad to toss it into the world

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