Zanpakutou Post: Katen Kyokotsu and Sogyo no Kotowari
Been a long time since I did one of these, hasn't it? Well, Sogyo no Kotowari and Katen Kyokotsu keep showing up only to disappear, so I'm doing this in the hopes that they'll stick around long enough to be written this time. (Before I forget and just in case anyone's reading who doesn't know, Sogyo no Kotowari is Ukitake's zanpakutou, and Katen Kyokotsu is Shunsui's.) First off, let me once again emphasize that this is NOT CANON, and not intended to be taken as such. This is just my interpretation. I am a devout follower of the church of Cover Thine Own Ass, so call this a non-fic disclaimer.
I tend to think in pairs with this bunch. There's Shunsui and Jyuushirou, Shunsui and Katen Kyokotsu, Jyuushirou and Sogyo no Kotowari and Katen Kyokotsu and Sogyo no Kotowari. See? They are single entities, but they act in tandem more than the others.
Appearance
First, have some pictures.
Like it says, Katen Kyokotsu (half of him, anyway), in both sealed and shikai forms.
And part of Shunsui releasing his shikai. Go ahead and click on that if you've never seen it, I borrowed pretty heavily from that one sequence when I was envisioning his inner world.
I'll update this with more Jyuushirou/Sogyo no Kotowari pictures as soon as I get off my ass and scan them.
But for now, here's two pictures of Sogyo no Kotowari in shikai form.
That's the canon appearance of their sword forms. Now on to my image of their spirit forms. These two are both human-looking zanpakutou spirits. I said in Spreading the Word Through Zanpakutou, part 2 that they looked like a double exposure. I honestly couldn't figure out how to explain it any better than that until I remembered a certain Sanzo picture. It's a little like that, except both images are doing the exact same thing, and if you touched them, both would feel solid. Clear as mud? Sogyo no Kotowari wears green and silver-grey and has short black hair, dark eyes and pale skin, though not as pale as Jyuushirou's. Katen Kyokotsu is built like Shunsui, but he has long, straight dark (but not black) hair that he usually wears pulled back. He has eyes the color of bone and usually wears blue and pale gold clothes. Usually. I don't know what style their clothes are--don't have that clear an image of them. Sogyo no Kotowari favors loose, flowing, layered garments and Katen Kyokotsu favors clothes that are cut closer to the body. That's all I really know at this point.
Relationships
Both zanpakutou have a close relationship with their shinigami. At one time, Sogyo no Kotowari was something of a mentor to Jyuushirou, but nowadays they're equals and relate to each other accordingly. They aren't always completely formal with each other, but it's a rare instance indeed when they're informal. If Jyuushirou has a problem, Sogyo no Kotowari is more likely to confront him about it and make him talk it out, then give him a slight push in the direction of the answer once he's figured out for himself what's wrong.
Shunsui and Katen Kyokotsu have a more relaxed relationship. They walk the same path and fight the same battles (yes, you have seen that phrasing before). If one of them's lagging behind, the other drags his sorry ass along until he finds his feet again, then gives him a good smack for it once they're back on level footing. They're not brothers, not even close, but some of their interactions have a brotherly element to them. If Shunsui has a problem, Katen Kyokotsu will make an absolute pest of himself--being noticeably present in Shunsui's mind every second of the day, commenting on his thoughts, people he sees, ogling Nanao and Jyuushirou and a good half of the other people Shunsui runs across. He keeps it up until Shunsui just blows up at him, Jyuushirou blows up at Shunsui for being a cranky bastard or Sogyo no Kotowari loses his patience with all of them. The older they get, the longer their collective fuses are, so their respective divisions can be in a pretty tight spot until someone reaches critical mass. After one particularly miserable week followed by a spectacularly destructive fight, Nanao paid a visit to the Thirteenth Division and worked out a system for tag-teaming Shunsui handling the situation without resorting to violence with Jyuushirou. After a while, she learned to spot trouble looming in either of them, and started reporting to Jyuushirou on himself if things looked like they were going to get out of hand, which has always amused him to no end.
Back on topic. Sogyo no Kotowari and Katen Kyokotsu are the old married couple of the zanpakutou, literally and figuratively. They are lovers, and have been for a long time. You can choose whether you think they have glowy, metaphysical sex or down and dirty physical sex, depending on how much thought you want to give to the mechanics of two people with their unique physiology having physical sex and how squicked you would be on carrying that over to Zangetsu and Zabimaru, who are working their way toward a similar relationship. (Or possibly already have one, they're not being very clear just yet.) Personally, I tend to gloss over it. Any and all sex is happening "off-screen," as it were, anyway. *shrugs*
Home
This is a big part of why I think of these two as a unit--I conceived of their home and their relationship with each other before their personalities. We're going to cover a few generalities, then go on to specifics. First, as I mentioned in the previous paragraph, zanpakutou can and do take lovers. The equivalent of a fling has no discernible effect on their homes, but a stable relationship will cause a "bridge" of sorts to form between the two worlds. It's small at first--usually just a strip of land or something similar connecting the two--but if the relationship continues, it can grow larger. Sogyo no Kotowari and Katen Kyokotsu are one of the few recorded cases where the bridge has expanded until the two zanpakutou's homes merge.
Now on to specifics. There's no separation between the two worlds now, just Shunsui and Katen Kyokotsu's part of the world and Jyuushirou and Sogyo no Kotowari's. Shunsui's part of the combined inner world is a boneyard under a forest of sakura trees. When Shunsui is present, or just whenever Katen Kyokotsu feels like it, manic laughter can be heard from deep in the forest. No matter how deep you go in, though, the source of the laughter is impossible to find. Jyuushirou's part is a rocky beach, and a vast ocean that is perpetually tossed by a turbulent storm. Periodically, a wind from off the water will sweep into the sakura boneyard, setting the sakura petals to flight and rattling the bones beneath them.
Personalities
Katen Kyokotsu and Sogyo no Kotowari are a lot like Shunsui and Jyuushirou. When I first started writing them for the Zanpakutou Chronicles, I wasn't sure whether I was getting them or whether the Shunsui and Jyuushirou muses were just cosplaying. There are some differences, though. Katen Kyokotsu is more manic than Shunsui, and more feral. He's a bit like a cross between Kaitou Kid and Zabimaru. (I could explain this better if I weren't half-asleep, I suspect.) All zanpakutou are weapons, not humans. As long as you aren't threatening their shinigami, aren't a hollow and/or aren't threatening someone their shinigami wants to protect (in precisely that order), everything's fine. Cross the line and the zanpakutou wants blood, period. With Katen Kyokotsu, all that is out in the open. Also, he doesn't have much of a filter between his brain and his mouth, so to speak, and a rather strange sense of humor. He isn't malicious unless you give him reason to be, but it pays to be on your toes around him.
Sogyo no Kotowari is more ruthless than his shinigami, and more calculating. Where a violent Katen Kyokotsu is typified by force and power, Sogyo no Kotowari is more of surgical precision and terrifying thoroughness. Katen Kyokotsu loses interest when his enemy is no longer a threat. Sogyo no Kotowari loses interest when his enemy is no longer in existence. He's all the fury, power and destruction of a hurricane making landfall, but contained, controlled and directed. I have the strongest impression that Sogyo no Kotowari's attacks have a particularly devastating power, but he hasn't confirmed or denied it. When he isn't in attack mode--which is most of the time, as he has an extremely slow build to violence under most circumstances--Sogyo no Kotowari is calm and collected. He's very observant. He sees more than most people realize, but he rarely comments one way or the other. He's not particularly forthcoming with anyone that isn't Jyuushirou, Katen Kyokotsu or Shunsui, in that order. Sogyo no Kotowari has given Jyuushirou a lot of power, experience and wisdom, but he's made him work for all of it.
That's it, I think. Comments or questions are welcome. I don't mind explaining something I haven't been clear on--it makes me think about it more.
I tend to think in pairs with this bunch. There's Shunsui and Jyuushirou, Shunsui and Katen Kyokotsu, Jyuushirou and Sogyo no Kotowari and Katen Kyokotsu and Sogyo no Kotowari. See? They are single entities, but they act in tandem more than the others.
Appearance
First, have some pictures.
Like it says, Katen Kyokotsu (half of him, anyway), in both sealed and shikai forms.
And part of Shunsui releasing his shikai. Go ahead and click on that if you've never seen it, I borrowed pretty heavily from that one sequence when I was envisioning his inner world.
I'll update this with more Jyuushirou/Sogyo no Kotowari pictures as soon as I get off my ass and scan them.
But for now, here's two pictures of Sogyo no Kotowari in shikai form.
That's the canon appearance of their sword forms. Now on to my image of their spirit forms. These two are both human-looking zanpakutou spirits. I said in Spreading the Word Through Zanpakutou, part 2 that they looked like a double exposure. I honestly couldn't figure out how to explain it any better than that until I remembered a certain Sanzo picture. It's a little like that, except both images are doing the exact same thing, and if you touched them, both would feel solid. Clear as mud? Sogyo no Kotowari wears green and silver-grey and has short black hair, dark eyes and pale skin, though not as pale as Jyuushirou's. Katen Kyokotsu is built like Shunsui, but he has long, straight dark (but not black) hair that he usually wears pulled back. He has eyes the color of bone and usually wears blue and pale gold clothes. Usually. I don't know what style their clothes are--don't have that clear an image of them. Sogyo no Kotowari favors loose, flowing, layered garments and Katen Kyokotsu favors clothes that are cut closer to the body. That's all I really know at this point.
Relationships
Both zanpakutou have a close relationship with their shinigami. At one time, Sogyo no Kotowari was something of a mentor to Jyuushirou, but nowadays they're equals and relate to each other accordingly. They aren't always completely formal with each other, but it's a rare instance indeed when they're informal. If Jyuushirou has a problem, Sogyo no Kotowari is more likely to confront him about it and make him talk it out, then give him a slight push in the direction of the answer once he's figured out for himself what's wrong.
Shunsui and Katen Kyokotsu have a more relaxed relationship. They walk the same path and fight the same battles (yes, you have seen that phrasing before). If one of them's lagging behind, the other drags his sorry ass along until he finds his feet again, then gives him a good smack for it once they're back on level footing. They're not brothers, not even close, but some of their interactions have a brotherly element to them. If Shunsui has a problem, Katen Kyokotsu will make an absolute pest of himself--being noticeably present in Shunsui's mind every second of the day, commenting on his thoughts, people he sees, ogling Nanao and Jyuushirou and a good half of the other people Shunsui runs across. He keeps it up until Shunsui just blows up at him, Jyuushirou blows up at Shunsui for being a cranky bastard or Sogyo no Kotowari loses his patience with all of them. The older they get, the longer their collective fuses are, so their respective divisions can be in a pretty tight spot until someone reaches critical mass. After one particularly miserable week followed by a spectacularly destructive fight, Nanao paid a visit to the Thirteenth Division and worked out a system for tag-teaming Shunsui handling the situation without resorting to violence with Jyuushirou. After a while, she learned to spot trouble looming in either of them, and started reporting to Jyuushirou on himself if things looked like they were going to get out of hand, which has always amused him to no end.
Back on topic. Sogyo no Kotowari and Katen Kyokotsu are the old married couple of the zanpakutou, literally and figuratively. They are lovers, and have been for a long time. You can choose whether you think they have glowy, metaphysical sex or down and dirty physical sex, depending on how much thought you want to give to the mechanics of two people with their unique physiology having physical sex and how squicked you would be on carrying that over to Zangetsu and Zabimaru, who are working their way toward a similar relationship. (Or possibly already have one, they're not being very clear just yet.) Personally, I tend to gloss over it. Any and all sex is happening "off-screen," as it were, anyway. *shrugs*
Home
This is a big part of why I think of these two as a unit--I conceived of their home and their relationship with each other before their personalities. We're going to cover a few generalities, then go on to specifics. First, as I mentioned in the previous paragraph, zanpakutou can and do take lovers. The equivalent of a fling has no discernible effect on their homes, but a stable relationship will cause a "bridge" of sorts to form between the two worlds. It's small at first--usually just a strip of land or something similar connecting the two--but if the relationship continues, it can grow larger. Sogyo no Kotowari and Katen Kyokotsu are one of the few recorded cases where the bridge has expanded until the two zanpakutou's homes merge.
Now on to specifics. There's no separation between the two worlds now, just Shunsui and Katen Kyokotsu's part of the world and Jyuushirou and Sogyo no Kotowari's. Shunsui's part of the combined inner world is a boneyard under a forest of sakura trees. When Shunsui is present, or just whenever Katen Kyokotsu feels like it, manic laughter can be heard from deep in the forest. No matter how deep you go in, though, the source of the laughter is impossible to find. Jyuushirou's part is a rocky beach, and a vast ocean that is perpetually tossed by a turbulent storm. Periodically, a wind from off the water will sweep into the sakura boneyard, setting the sakura petals to flight and rattling the bones beneath them.
Personalities
Katen Kyokotsu and Sogyo no Kotowari are a lot like Shunsui and Jyuushirou. When I first started writing them for the Zanpakutou Chronicles, I wasn't sure whether I was getting them or whether the Shunsui and Jyuushirou muses were just cosplaying. There are some differences, though. Katen Kyokotsu is more manic than Shunsui, and more feral. He's a bit like a cross between Kaitou Kid and Zabimaru. (I could explain this better if I weren't half-asleep, I suspect.) All zanpakutou are weapons, not humans. As long as you aren't threatening their shinigami, aren't a hollow and/or aren't threatening someone their shinigami wants to protect (in precisely that order), everything's fine. Cross the line and the zanpakutou wants blood, period. With Katen Kyokotsu, all that is out in the open. Also, he doesn't have much of a filter between his brain and his mouth, so to speak, and a rather strange sense of humor. He isn't malicious unless you give him reason to be, but it pays to be on your toes around him.
Sogyo no Kotowari is more ruthless than his shinigami, and more calculating. Where a violent Katen Kyokotsu is typified by force and power, Sogyo no Kotowari is more of surgical precision and terrifying thoroughness. Katen Kyokotsu loses interest when his enemy is no longer a threat. Sogyo no Kotowari loses interest when his enemy is no longer in existence. He's all the fury, power and destruction of a hurricane making landfall, but contained, controlled and directed. I have the strongest impression that Sogyo no Kotowari's attacks have a particularly devastating power, but he hasn't confirmed or denied it. When he isn't in attack mode--which is most of the time, as he has an extremely slow build to violence under most circumstances--Sogyo no Kotowari is calm and collected. He's very observant. He sees more than most people realize, but he rarely comments one way or the other. He's not particularly forthcoming with anyone that isn't Jyuushirou, Katen Kyokotsu or Shunsui, in that order. Sogyo no Kotowari has given Jyuushirou a lot of power, experience and wisdom, but he's made him work for all of it.
That's it, I think. Comments or questions are welcome. I don't mind explaining something I haven't been clear on--it makes me think about it more.