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basics
Name: Rokudo Mukuro 六道 骸
Canon: Katekyo Hitman REBRON!
Timeline: Chapter 273
Age: 25 - 26; occasionally takes on the appearance of his 15-year-old self
APPEARANCE: TYL (25), TYB (15)
abilities
"My body has already been through all Six Paths to Hades in my previous lives, and it has been carved into my memory. The six journeys through Hades have gained me six fighting skills."
"What . . . are you saying?"
"If that's true, then you are a monster."
Rokudo Mukuro, Sawada Tsunayoshi, & Reborn. KHR: Chapter 74, Page 19.
Honestly? There's not a lot that Mukuro can't do. One can assume that he most likely obtained his abilities through the various scientific experiments he endured as a child, though it's never really made clear in canon how he's capable of controlling such an amazing power. He's a master of illusions, at shifting reality and at ripping it to pieces and at tearing the floor right from beneath the feet of his opponents. In the manga, these illusions are often referred to as "real illusions." What Mukuro is capable of is essentially warping reality to his liking, or creating illusions in his head that he can materialize into the real world as actual, physical things.
He's capable of keeping a young girl alive with illusory organs that work in place of her real ones (KHR: Chapter 117, Page 16). That's the basic power of the "real" illusion. For all intents and purposes, it is real.
The majority of the time, his victims won't even realize that they've been pulled into one of his living nightmares until it's too late, and by that time, he already has them right where he wants them, backed into a corner in his territory (KHR: Chapter 117, Page 7). He can make people hurt without ever actually touching them. He can make people believe they're dead without ever actually killing them. And he can take all that pain away in the blink of an eye, as if it'd never been there.
Most of his power seems to stem from his right eye, where a series of numbers ( 1 - 6 ) will appear, depending on what power he plans on utilizing. He works with the idea of the "Six Realms/Six Paths of Reincarnation," and this eye lends him the power to create whatever illusion he wants to. It also allows him to possess both animals and people and to take advantage of their separate abilities and powers while possessed, though in order to do this, he must wound them with his trident.
He can also puppet people around without ever leaving his own body. Again, he needs to wound them with his trident to do this, but once he does, he can pull them under his control and use them for whatever purpose he may have in mind.
When possessing his victims, Mukuro does not feel any pain inflicted upon the body (KHR: Chapter 77, Page 11). The person he's possessing feels all of it, is the one experiencing all of it. Mukuro is just borrowing their body without ever actually becoming them, and he must abandon a body once it's reached its limit on physical damage. He can't push a body past its own exhaustion threshold.
He also appears to have some form of a psychic ability. Aside from being able to separate his consciousness from his own body at will, Mukuro seems to have the capability to step into the minds of certain people. We've only seen this happen once in canon; he was able to worm his way into Dokuro Chrome's head while she lay on the brink of death and convince her to follow him. He's also connected to Chrome in some way that hasn't been fully explained. He can "incarnate" himself in her body, taking control of it when she needs him to. Or when he needs to.
Pfft. Let's see you do that, Houdini.
Mukuro is inherently manipulative and vicious; he's familiarized himself completely with the human mind, with the weaknesses of other people. He has no issue with wearing people down with words alone, and he's certainly not beyond picking and poking at all their little weaknesses and vulnerabilities without ever actually engaging them in a fight. As much as humanity may disgust him, he knows how people are, how people work, and he takes complete advantage of this knowledge.
Finally, Mukuro claims to be "inhuman" and has also said on one occasion that he's "visited Hell," but whether or not these statements are actually true remains somewhat unclear. He certainly doesn't act human, but this is most likely due to the experiments he endured; the extent of his humanness, or lack thereof, appears to be left up entirely to the reader's discretion.
But, really, when he tells people he's been to Hell, he's probably bullshitting them, or telling them this to set himself apart from the rest of the human race. Lying is just another form of a spoken illusion, when you're as good at it as Mukuro is. (: Plus, Mukuro just sometimes likes to say shit for the reaction.
SIX PATHS OF REINCARNATION/SIX REALMS
❶ Realm of Hell 一
❷ Realm of Hungry Ghosts 二
❸ Realm of Animals 三
❹ Realm of Asura 四
❺ Realm of Humans 五
❻ Realm of Heaven 六
history
"Just as I thought, this world isn't worth it. Let's erase it all . . . Shall we go together?"
Rokudo Mukuro. KHR: Chapter 81, Page 8.
When Rokudo Mukuro was young, the world seemed very small.
Now, at 25, it doesn't look much bigger. Or better.
His history is fuzzy -- vaguely clear, at best, though his story remains ever infamous in the dirty world of the mafioso; he staked his claim on them long, long ago. Mukuro had the unfortunate privilege of being born into the Estraneo family, a mafia family so persecuted by its own peers that its members had been driven to conduct various experimental methods on children in order to ensure the safety and longevity of their name.
For a good majority of his youth, along with many other children, Mukuro was nothing more than a labrat, a guinea pig used for scientific testing. It's too bad the Estraneos hadn't kept a closer watch on these children, because these creations of theirs would eventually turn on them . . . horribly. Mukuro kills everyone (KHR: Chapter 81, Page 7) in the facility, everyone in his way, and he escapes with two boys named Kakimoto Chikusa and Joshima Ken, two people who would continue to follow him -- the child who had rescued them from Hell -- with all the loyalty and admiration in the world.
They would help him in his quest to purge the world of its filth, sparking a war amongst humanity and standing back as it destroys itself, turning everything into a pure and beautiful sea of blood (KHR: Chapter 80, Page 10). That's Mukuro's goal, his grand finale at the end of it all, fireworks and everything. Humanity both disgusts and disappoints him, and he doesn't believe people are worthy of the lives they so carelessly lead. So, he'll take them from them. Every single one.
When you've been turned into something akin to a god, with the capability to warp reality into whatever the hell you want it to be, you tend to start thinking like one, too.
The mafia, being the dirtiest and worst of all human organizations, was Mukuro's first target, and not long after his escape from the Estraneos, he was accepted into yet another mafia family. There, Mukuro forms a bond with a man named Lancia, who would grow to love him as if he were his own brother (KHR: Chapter 71, Page 11), taking Mukuro under his wing. Lancia, however, becomes Mukuro's first real possession victim; unbeknownst to him, Mukuro had found a way to take possession of the other man's body, using it to commit horrible crimes.
And then, one day, Lancia walked into his home, and found that every single member of his family had been killed. And he had killed them (KHR: Chapter 72, Page 13), through Mukuro's command, desecrating one more family, knocking the mafia down one more ledge.
Mukuro was 10-years-old.
What happens after this is a little uncertain. It's most likely that he was pursued and caught by the authorities, taken to Vindette Prison, a prison reserved for the worst of all criminals, and locked up there with both Ken and Chikusa, placed on death row for his crimes. Around the age of 15, on the night of his execution (KHR: Chapter 68, Page 3), Mukuro makes his escape with the two of them, fleeing the prison and arriving in the city of Namimori, Japan, with a set goal to eliminate the members of the well-known and respected mafia family of the Vongola and its future boss of all bosses, Sawada Tsunayoshi.
They roll into town with a bang, immediately attacking Namimori students and putting a good majority of them in the hospital, removing their teeth after each attack. Mukuro defeats Hibari Kyouya, one of Tsuna's guardians and an extremely dangerous opponent, and effectively kidnaps him, sealing him off in a small room for Tsuna and his friends to later find. Tsuna eventually goes to confront him in order to stop the random attacks being carried out by Mukuro and his gang, and he faces off against Lancia, defeating him.
Lancia informs Tsuna of his history with Mukuro, but he's promptly cut off by Chikusa, who silences him to keep him from saying too much. This is Mukuro basically cutting ties with the man who once thought of him as a brother, and Gokudera Hayato, Tsuna's Storm Guardian, even remarks that Lancia was "being used," regarded as worthless, a broken toy that needed to be disposed of, the second he outlived his usefulness (KHR: Chapter 72, Page 17).
Hibari is freed, and Mukuro begins his battle with Tsuna, taking possession of both Gokudera and Bianchi, his sister, as well as Hibari, Chikusa, and Ken. He at one point remarks that it doesn't matter what Tsuna does to him; he can't feel (KHR: Chapter 77, Page 11) any of it, anyway, not while he's housed in the bodies of other people. He moves back into his own body after awhile, and he is defeated by Tsuna when he uses his Dying Will flame to "purify" Mukuro's darker energy (KHR: Chapter 80, Page 22).
The Vindice, the notorious guards of Vindette Prison, arrive shortly after and place Mukuro, Chikusa, and Ken under arrest (KHR: Chapter 81, Page 11), dragging them back to their confinement where they would wait to stand judgment for the crimes they'd committed.
Sometime after this incident, Mukuro plans an escape with Chikusa and Ken, and once more, they break free of prison. They're unable to get very far, however, as their escape doesn't go as smoothly as it did the first time, and Mukuro tells the both of them that they need to split up, that Chikusa and Ken are holding him back. But he's lying; when Chikusa and Ken are gone, Mukuro allows himself to be captured (KHR: Chapter 116, Page 21), falling behind in order to allow the both of them to escape.
Consequently, Mukuro is thrown into a lower cell for his actions, injected into an assumably comatose state (KHR: Chapter 116, Page 20 ), to prevent something like this from happening again.
But, despite everything, Mukuro somehow manages to wander into the consciousness of a dying girl named Nagi. She hears his voice, and intrigued by her, Mukuro tells her that they are both the same, one not unlike the other. He forms something of a psychic connection with her, keeping her body alive by substituting illusory organs for real ones, and Nagi takes on the name "Dokuro Chrome" as she essentially merges part of herself with Mukuro, allowing him to incarnate himself in her body (KHR: Chapter 163, Page 8).
Mukuro and Chrome both become Tsuna's Guardian of Mist, and with a substantial amount of help from Mukuro, Chrome manages to defeat the Arcobaleno Viper for the Ring of Mist. Mukuro later goes on to tell Tsuna that the only reason he agreed to become his guardian was to put himself in a "better position" to possess his body (KHR: Chapter 117, Page 14). Tsuna says nothing, but believes he's lying, and Mukuro disappears from Chrome's body, as he'd never really been there to begin with.
He was still in prison, trapped in his immobile state, where he would remain.
-- For ten years.
Now. Here he is, years later, 25-years-old and making progress despite his rather obvious handicap. Possessing the body of a man named Guido Greco, Mukuro manages to infiltrate Byakuran's base and spy on him, feeding him false information in order to direct Byakuran's men to where he wanted them to go. He also assists Chrome in her defeat of Glo Xinia (KHR: Chapter 165, Page 16), one of Byakuran's captains, before he is injured by Byakuran so badly he's forced to retreat back into himself in order to recover.
Assumed to be dead by Tsuna and the rest of the Vongola guardians, Mukuro reappears during the epic showdown with Byakuran, where the Millefiore boss reveals that Mukuro has been trapped in Vindette Prison all this time (KHR: Chapter 256, Page 6), unable to escape and controlling various people and situations from inside his cell. Mukuro is eventually freed by his apprentice, Fran, and by Chikusa and Ken, and he promptly catches up with the others to aid them in their fight against Byakuran.
But he's dragged into Siren's Port before he's able to see the outcome of the battle.
personality
"Rokudo Mukuro! What do you think people are?!"
"Toys . . . I suppose."
Sawada Tsunayoshi & Rokudo Mukuro. KHR: Chapter 74, Page 15.
Rokudo Mukuro is a solid example of a scientific experiment gone horribly, horribly wrong.
He's all the nasty wicked awful bad that humanity has to offer, rolled up into one delicately-limbed package and set out on the doorsteps of his unsuspecting victims. Mukuro lacks human depth for the simple reason that he does not consider himself to be human, because he's been turned into something else, because he's been given the power of a god, and gods are fickle creatures, these days.
Don't ever mistake him as being someone who cares. He doesn't give a shit about you or your problems; he doesn't give a shit about how much of a saint you may have been in your life, or how many bodies you managed to rack up in your wake. Really, he doesn't want to be bored with the details of it all. He has things to do, a war to start, and you're either going to get out of his way, or you'll die trying to stop him.
At least, that's how he sees it.
Point blank. Mukuro is a wanted criminal that has been exiled from the very mafia in which he originated (KHR: Chapter 65, Page 12). He is ruthless and manipulative, and according to Reborn, a character in the manga, he's driven even the highest of legal authorities into the most desperate and dangerous of situations.
That's what he does. He drives people into corners. He strips away everything they have, everything they value, until all they have left is him -- in other words, he doesn't just wait for people to rely on him. He forces them to, one way or another, because Mukuro likes to get what he wants, and what he wants are puppets. And his puppets are the ones that have it easy. They tend to live longer than everyone else.
It'll seem like he makes everything into a game, and in a way, he does. This is a game to him, all of this, everything he does, all the people he toys with. This is his game, and he's making up the rules as he goes along, throwing in twists and turns when people least expect it just for shits and giggles, just because it entertains him. But as for what he wants, as for all of his goals? Those aren't games. He means that shit; he's not kidding around when he says he wants to destroy humanity. That's not funny to him. It's tragic, but it's necessary, and in his eyes, people only have themselves to blame.
Humanity depresses him. He says he's not being cynical (KHR: Chapter 79, Page 13), but that's just Mukuro, and he treats his word as if it's fact, even if it's not. He is cynical, without a doubt. He's cynical because people have made him cynical, people turned him into what he is now, into the glorious monster that he parades around as . . . that's all humans are really good at. So, frankly, you can take your half-full philosophy on life, and shove it right up your ass. The world is not beautiful. It's ugly, and humanity has destroyed it, so he's going to destroy humanity to fix it.
An eye for an eye, motherfucker. He's waiting for the blindness to set in.
He's all polite, cryptic words and polite, cryptic phrasing. He's going to insult you if you give him an opening, but most likely, you're not going to realize it until after, and then you'll just be wondering what the fuck happened. He is an excellent liar, but he is sincere in almost everything that he says, and his words ring with an earnest sort of genuinity you won't find in a lot of places. Of course, he can certainly be genuine about wanting to kill the whole human race -- just because he says things nicely doesn't make them any better or less horrible.
He finds humor in almost everything, picking apart people's sentences and the things they say and laughing at them, as if they exist for his own amusement. Not much gets under his skin or phases him, though it's definitely not impossible to do so. It just takes the right person to be able to find that hidden nerve of his, and it takes an even better person to be able to hit it. And Mukuro doesn't get mad, he doesn't throw fits or burst into tantrums. He just gets cold, and then he gets deadly.
For however inhuman he claims to be, Mukuro's not all bad. He's mostly bad, make no mistake, there's not a lot to his personality that is redeemable in the slightest. But there are a few special people he seems to actually legitimately care about (KHR: Chapter 164, Page 8). These are the people he sticks his neck out for, he does things for. He still uses them to get what he wants, to further his own goals, but there is something there, some form of a distant affection, that keeps him from being a complete sociopath.
He has no use for terms like "good" or "evil," and he doesn't limit himself to them. He does not, by any means, consider himself to be an evil person. If anything, he's doing the world a favor, doing humanity a favor, taking everything out quickly so no one is forced to drag themselves through a long, drawn out death. He's putting the world down like the sick, emaciated dog it really is, injecting poison into its bloodstream and waiting for it to fall into a sleep it won't wake up from.
And, to him, if you don't get it, if you don't understand, then you aren't meant to. He doesn't need to explain himself. He doesn't need to make excuses for anything that he does. He's above and beyond that.
A wise man once said, if the devil does not exist, and man has therefore created him, he has created him in his own likeness and image. That's basically how Mukuro sees it, and the whole of his personality is based and shaped around that very idea, narrowed it on it to almost an obsessive point.
He's not the tragedy here. Everyone else is.
weaknesses
"Don't sympathize with him. Don't ever forget what Mukuro has done to you."
Reborn to Sawada Tsunayoshi. KHR: Chapter 117, Page 17.
In the end, Mukuro only damns himself.
His arrogance is his greatest pitfall, as it is both undeniably present and ridiculously over the top; he believes he cannot be stopped because no one, thus far, has ever been able to permanently stop him. You can throw him in prison all you like, entomb him in a glass vial and chain him in place, but how can you really stop someone when they're capable of branching out of their own mind and into the heads of others, controlling their bodies as if they'd always belonged to him?
Mukuro would love to know the answer to that, too, because no one's gotten it yet, no one has any idea how to put him down for real, and he is absolutely, 100% aware of this. He doesn't watch his back, he doesn't look over his shoulder, for the simple reason that he doesn't believe he needs to, and that's where his problems begin, really.
With great power comes great insanity, and Mukuro is so very goddamn good at making it seem like he's the normal one, he's the sane one, everyone else has just lost their minds, and that's why he needs to take them out, put them down. But -- don't let him fool you. He's psychotic, mentally unstable in more ways than one, and when that mask of his cracks, when his pleasant facade slips, it's kind of . . . terrifying (KHR: Chapter 79, Page 19).
But it's also where he starts to lose control. And when Mukuro stumbles? He stumbles hard. The bigger they are, the harder they fall, and his handle on his own control is not as tight as he would make it seem. Sometimes, all it takes is a little push, and he'll get so high on his own crazy that he loses focus of everything else around him, that he gets two steps ahead of himself, and effectively runs his face right into a concrete wall.
He is majorly dependent on his abilities; without them, he is not near as powerful as he'd like to be. He's just -- another human, another emotionally unbalanced person seeking vengeance on those that have hurt him, and when it comes down to it? That's really the only reason why Mukuro does anything, why he wants to tear humanity apart, why he wants to rip it to shreds. When a person becomes so damaged by something, gut instinct is to lash right back out and hurt it just as much as they've been hurt themselves, though . . . God help you if you ever call him out on this.
-- And there is one last thing. While his exact feelings toward Chikusa, Chrome, and Ken are never made crystal clear, it's very, very apparent that he has something of an attachment to them, though how far that attachment extends is virtually unknown. His general demeanor with all three of them is incredibly different. He's almost gentle with Chrome, and he sacrificed his freedom for the freedom of both Chikusa and Ken, letting them escape from Vindette Prison while he stayed behind. This is a particular weakness he guards carefully; not many people are going to be able to pick up on the fact that Mukuro actually maybe cares about these people more than he lets on, but. He does. Definitely.
Human weaknesses are best left for those that are truly human, and Mukuro is quite content in pretending he's immune to them. And no one, after all, is quite as good at pretending (KHR: Chapter 70, Page 12) as he is.
references.