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Zanpakutou, or the Soul Cutter, is a Shinigami’s best friend. This weapon changes form in response to the spiritual power of the Shinigami who yields it. Soul Cutters usually have got a name. Upon the cutter’s release, the Shinigami will call out its name. The trick of using a Soul Cutter in battle is to use a Shinigami’s inner power and focus this on the Soul Cutter. For the power the Soul Cutter receives, in return, the Soul Cutter will also lend its strength to its owner. For a high-ranking Shinigami, there are two levels of Soul Cutter release. The first one is called the initial release, for this Soul Cutter state, the Shinigami must communicate and synchronize with its sword. The second release level is called Bankai (or final release). Depending on a Shinigami’s Soul Cutter, the form of power and release of initial and final differ. Bankai can increase one’s power 5 to 10 times. So for a Shinigami this Soul Cutter upgrade is quite handy.
So, how to achieve the state of Bankai? For this, the actual materialization and subsequent submission of the Soul Cutter to its yielder is needed. In basic it means that the Soul Cutter’s soul must be summoned to the present world of the Shinigami. This usually takes at least 10 years for a powerful Shinigami to achieve. There is however, a shortcut! There is certain device, called the Tenshintai (heavenly body transformer). Upon stabbing the Soul Cutter onto it, the device will forcefully materialize the sword’s soul. In the following period of three days, the Shinigami must then fight its Soul Cutter and render it to submission in training. It is believed that extending training past three days is dangerous. How the exact training process goes, is shown once for Kurosaki Ichigo to achieve Bankai. So just to take Ichigo’s training as an exmple; to achieve Bankai, the Shinigami must find his/her own sword out of a sea of swords fallen from the sky out of nowhere. With this one and only sword, the Shinigami must beat the materialized Soul Cutter. The sea of swords resemble pieces of the Shinigami’s soul, by finding the right sword, it means to find one’s will power to fight. To break it down to basic: the training is about learning to rely on your inner strength in battle.
The method of the Tenshintai was invented by the one, and the only, Urahara Kisuke. He was the founder of Soul Society’s research institute of technology and its first president. Urahara also tested his invention and until now, he and Ichigo are the only ones to have achieved Bankai in three days.
COMBAT TECHNIQUES
Other than the Soul Cutter, a Shinigami has several other skills to apply in battle. One of them is the ability to perform Reiraku. This enables a Shinigami to visualize spirits’ aura’s in the form of spiritual threads and so to locate a spiritual body. Another ability is using Demon Arts, which you could compare to a form of magic. It involves quoting incantations when focusing with body movements on the enemy. The impact of Demon arts depends on how powerful the Shinigami who uses it is.
Shunkou
This technique combines Demon Arts and hand-to-hand combat skills. In its final form, Shunkou starts by focusing a large amount of concentrated energy. Followed by a huge explosion, this energy is then installed in the Shinigami’s arms an legs to enhance them for battle. As a result of the explosion, clothing that covers the back and arms are blown to smithereens. This technique is introduced relatively late in the storyline, in chapter 158 we first see it performed and explained.
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