Musashi

Musashi (, Musashi) is the main protagonist of the manga Orient. He and his childhood friend Kojiro embark on a journey to form the best Band of Bushi of them all. He is also one of the founding members of the Kanemaki Bushi.

Appearance
Musashi has light blue eyes and spiky red-colored hair. He is a lean young man of an average height with an athletic physique that comes from his training. He wears an open black shirt with white designs, baggy, calf-high white pants, and black-and-red shoes that seem to be based on the sandals of the original samurai.

He seems to be quite attractive, and popular with girls; many have looked at him and thought that he was handsome.

Personality
Musashi is a very cheerful person who always cares for others. From the beginning of the series, he has proven to be someone who is very determined, since he firmly proposed to be a Bushi along with his friend Kojiro. However, because he was afraid of what others were going to say when they heard that his dream was to be a Bushi, he decided to hide it, causing Kojiro to judge him for it. However, when facing an Oni for the first time, he demonstrated what his true dream was when he fought alongside his friend.

On many occasions, Musashi has shown great appreciation and concern towards those he considers to be his friends. For example, he and Kojiro managed to save Tsugumi from her adoptive father by taking her with them on their adventure.

He is quick to make friends, partially due to the loneliness he felt in his youth. Due to that, he has also learned to analyze people and situations well. He is always quick to grasp a person's mannerisms and reasons for behaving a certain way, with the exception of certain individuals.

History
Musashi's parents were simple farmers that were friendly to the Kanemaki family, even through anti-Bushi sentiments were rampant in Tatsuyama. One day, Musashi came across Kojiro practicing his swordsmanship. After that day, he came by Kojiro's house everyday to practice and play with him. After Musashi's parents' death, he wandered from family to family to seek shelter. He then went to live with his relatives, who threatened to beat and punish him if he tried to interact with them. Musashi's relatives promised to fully accept him into their family if he threw a stone and insults Jisai Kanemaki. Musashi desperately wants to be accepted by his relatives and throws the stone, telling Jisai that he's better off dead. Musashi later visits the Kojiro residence to apologize to Jisai, who forgives Musashi. Jisai says that he was grateful that Musashi had befriended Kojiro, despite the social stigma surrounding their family in Tatsuyama. Jisai allows Musashi to live with him and raises him alongside Kojiro, teaching them swordsmanship and battle strategies.

Tatsuyama Town Arc
Last day at the miner's school, Musashi wishes to yell that he will be becoming a bushi, but once again the fear stops him. Worried that he may become a miner, he visits Kojiro after school. He shows him his pickaxe, calling it his katana for fighting oni and asks Kojiro to leave town with him and form a bushi band, however, Kojiro refuses. Musashi tells him to not abandon his dream, but Kojiro believes that Musashi himself had abandoned it as at he yells his dream is to become a miner, along with the rest of the class. Musashi leaves angry, but determined to show how serious he is.

The next day, Musashi and his class graduate and head into the mines where they meet oni for the first time. As they witness an oni eating one of them, they realize the oni are monsters. Musashi wishes to fight them, but as he had to leave his pickaxe outside, he takes an ordinary one. He fights the oni, but ends up loosing, and as he was about to be killed, Kojiro comes on his Kitetsuki and saves Musashi. Kojiro gives Musashi's pickaxe, who then easily kills the oni with it. A light appears in the sky and a Kishin appears. The two end up slicing it, but the Kishin regenerates. Worshippers gives food to the Kishin, who ends up turning to his true form and knocks Musashi and Kojiro. After the Kishin eats Kojiro's sword, Musashi heads on the Kishin and starts attacking its belly. The Kishin attacks him, but ends up helping him open his own belly. Musashi then takes Kojiro's sword from the Kishin belly and returns it to Kojiro, who agrees to form a band with him.

Takeda Bushi then appears and surround the Kishin. Musashi believes they had already defeated the Kishin, but Naotora Takeda tells him a belly wound won't kill a Kishin and they witness the Kishin regenerating. Naotora tells them go somewhere safe, however, Musashi doesn't wish to let them steal their first win and intends to fight the Kishin. However his attacks have no effect. Musashi is then pulled to Takeda's Bushi camp, where Naotora tells him he can't defeat the Kishin alone. Musashi states it may be true, but he will regret for not trying and returns to fight the Kishin. Kojiro tells mUsashi to slash the Kishin's horn on the belly and Musashi attempts to, but his sword breaks. As Musashi is about to be killed, Naotora comes and slashes the horn, killing the Kishin. Musashi is angry that they stole their first victory, but as compensation Naotora gives Musashi a crystal. Later, he and Kojiro realize the crystal is kaleidoscope that leads to where the Kishin are. As they look at the scrolls, they learn more things and what's the Bushi's goal. Musashi then returns to Naotora and tells him he knows that Naotora's goal is to unify the country. However, the dream is so big, that no Bushi had managed to do it, so Musashi had decided to take on that dream as well. The next day, the two decide to leave town and find another Kishin to kill.

Kosameda Bushi Arc
Musashi and Kojiro head out for their adventure. However, they seen end up with no food and arguing with each other. As they start to fish, Kojiro gets beaten by a girl, Tsugumi Hattori. Musashi ends up fighting her, but doesn't fall for her tricks. Hearing a horn, Tsugumi takes their bike and returns to Kosameda Castle. Musashi and Kojiro follow the tracks to the castle, realizing its a Bushi band castle. As they enter, they meet Tsugumi again, who shows them around to meet the townspeople and eventually to join Hideo Kosameda, the captain of Kosameda Bushi, for dinner. Hideo assumes they are strong Bushi and wishes they to help him fight roaming oni, but as he learns they are beginners, he gets angry and imprisons them.

Musashi and Kojiro manage to escape, but see a large group of Kodama Oni heading towards the castle. They find Tsugumi, who agrees to lead them to their weapons if they help her with something. After getting their weapons, she leads them to a square when Hideo had gathered all the townspeople and wishes them to fight against the oni. Musashi tells Kojiro to make a plan and after that they throw smoke bombs at the square, and while Tsugumi distracts Hideo, Musashi and Kojiro manage to knock out the guards, however the people still doesn't wish to rush as they fear Hideo. Tsugumi then fights and defeats Hideo, giving courage to the people to escape the castle. As she stayed to keep Hideo, the oni are reaching the castle and she can't escape in time. Musashi and Kojiro then come with their bike and grab them, helping them escape the oni while the castle is getting destroyed. The villagers asks Musashi and Kojiro to take Tsugumi to save her from Hideo. Initially, she doesn't want to, but in the end agrees in order to avoid hurting the villagers in the future if Hideo ends up controlling her again.

Daito Mine Arc
Tsugumi acts weird, causing Musashi and Kojiro to wonder what to do, but she then reveals she wanted to be friends and didn't know how to do that. They understand her and clear the situation, stating they are already friends. Later an oni steals Kojiro's blade and Musashi chases it. He reaches a field full of swords and sees Shiro Inukai, who tells him to borrow a sword and kill the oni. As Musashi takes the sword, he feels energy coming out if it and then slays the enemy. The sword then starts collecting Kitetsu from the oni, but ends up breaking after that. Musashi apologizes, but Shiro tells him its fine. As Shiro's servant returns and they need to go, Musashi asks who are they, but Shiro tells him they are dogs for hire without name worth sharing. Kojiro and Tsugumi then joins Musashi, who realizes that Shiro and the swords have vanished. After explaining what happened and that he used a Kitetsu Blade, but doesn't know what it is, Tsugumi reveals is a weapon made of Kitetsu and that its the only way to cut an oni's horn. Musashi and Kojiro believe its hard to obtain, but Tsugumi tells them there are merchants that sell and leads them to the merchants.

Seeing all the Bushi gathered there, Musashi gets excited. As they still haven't decided on a band name, Tsugumi tells them they need to choose a captain as well. Musashi then sugets its Kojiro as all the band names are based on the family name of the captain and Musashi doesn't have a family name. Kojiro is surprised, but Musashi only wishes to be together and fulfil their dream.

The auction for the Kitetsu Blades starts and Ryuzoji Band show their swords. Musashi wonders how to choose, and Mitsuru Osafune, head of the Ryuzoji Band band, tells him to go with the one he falls in love at first glance. Finding Mitsuru attractive, Musashi agrees and choses Enma's Oodachi. Mitsuru then tells them to pick up the sword as there is a trial and the sword needs to accept them. As Musashi picks his, he feels strange and finds himself in a dark place. He sees Jisai's final moments and moments later a woman appears who hugs him, but then turns into larger muscular one and tells him they don't need him. Spike appear on Musashi and black aura surrounds him and he fails the trial. He attempts with other swords, but fails them too. Mitsuru explains his soul color is black and all Kitetsu Blades will reject him. Realizing he cannot hunt oni, Musashi wonders on what to do. A Kishin appears and sends its lesser oni, which causes Musashi to fear them as he knows he can't defeat them. Kojiro saves him and all the Bushi head towards the Kishin, leaving Musashi behind. Shiro then appears and shows that he also have black aura and invites Musashi to join him. Shiro explains that Musashi can become stronger if he lets himself go during the Kitetsu Sword trial. He then demonstrates how powerful he can be and cuts a large pit in the ground and tells Musashi he can become the ultimate Kitetsu Blade. Musashi realizes he means to turn him into a sword and refuses, wanting to be with his friends. Thinking about it, Shiro decides to make his friends swords too and pushes Musashi into the pit, along with a Kitetsu Blade.

Musashi falls for a while and ends up seeing the falling sword. He manages to get it and uses it to stop himself from falling, but as he holds it, black stones start to grow out. He sees the bottom of the pit is full of magma. Musashi starts using the black stones as climbing tool to get out, but the Obsidian Goddess inside of him, states she cannot allow that and that they need to hide for now. More stones then grow out of Musashi and he ends up falling in the burning magma. Musashi then awakens in a strange world, where the Goddess tells him to stay with him forever. Musashi refuses, wanting to go back and help his friends. The Goddess tells him he doesn't need anyone and makes him remember his past, where he sees how his parents died from an epidemic and he was taken by relatives, but because of his faithless parents, they or anyone else never spoke with him, making him feel dead. One day, he was told to throw a stone at Jisai, which will make everyone look better at Musashi, falling under the pressure, Musashi threw the stone. The Goddess tells Musashi that he is willing to do anything to feel wanted, and being a Bushi is just an excuse to be with his friend. She apologizes for reminding him of his past, but she needed to break his fight spirit and avoid being captured.

Nanao takes out Musashi out of the pit, but is surprised that he is still alive, and explains she must have turned him too soon before he completely turned to black stone. Recalling what happened, Musashi heads to the top of the mountain to help his friends. He manages to come in time just before Shiro kills Kojiro. As Shiro sees him, he steps aside and lets Tsugumi and Musashi join Kojiro. Nanao also joins Shiro and Musashi explains they are after him, but he had to come as he knew his friends were in trouble and Bushi fight together. Hearing that, Kojiro and Tsugumi decide to fight with Musashi, but Nanao reveals they will be fighting only her. However, her Kitetsu Blade turns into seven flying swords and they are unable to reach her. Musashi suggests they break up her blades and Kojiro comes up with a plan.

Kojiro knows that Nanao will attack him or Musashi and makes Musashi and Tsugumi run back. Nanao attacks Musashi, not wanting to let him escape, but Tsugumi captures her flying blade using her whips. Musashi then cuts one of Nanao's staff parts which then breaks one of her blades. The group is excited, but Shiro decides to fight instead of Nanao and using his Kitetsu Blade, he creates a cube and flips everything upside down. As Bushi start to fall and eventually Musashi too, time stops and the Goddess appears stating she finally understood what kind of person Musashi is. As his death would be a problem for her and Shiro is one of her enemies, she offers her remaining power to save Musashi, but hearing only he will be saved, Musashi declines, stating that he can't do anything alone and is weak, but when he is with others, he feels power and wishes to see how far they can go together. The Goddess comments that she thought his selfishness made him unfit to be her vessel, but now he has allies and seems to have the power to draw others to his struggle. That's a valuable temperament, because pooling strength with comrades in order to fight is the only way the fragile humans can fight the Kishin. The Goddess decides to give him his power and will demonstrate how she fights using his body. She tells Musashi that she will be going to sleep and doesn't have time to explain what they couldn't finish with Jisai. As she demonstrates how she fights and defeats Shiro, Musashi gets excited.

The next day, Musashi asks Mitsuru if he can redo the sword trial and she agrees. As he prepares to do it, he tells Tsugumi, who told him earlier that she isn't sure if the swords are the symbol of the Bushi's sword, that he too isn't sure about it, but if you cherish the belongings of those who died, that's a symbol that they were once alive. As he picks the sword, it shines red and Musashi passes the trial. After being congratulated by everyone, Musashi speaks with Kojiro privately, telling him that the Goddess knows Jisai somehow and they wonder if Jisai has connection to Bushi outside of their town. As the Bushi camp comes to an end, Kojiro gets provisions and a map and suggests they go east, to which the group agrees.

Awaji Island Recapture Operation Arc
The group passes through a forest, but end up being attacked by a Octopus Pot Oni. Musashi saves them and discovers another person was captured by the oni. As he saves the person, he sees a young beautiful girl and ends up liking her. An old man then comes calling her a princess and introducing her as Michiru Saruwatari, the head of Saruwatari Bushi under the Uesugi Alliance. Musashi and the rest join Michiru as their Kitetsuki has an easy time moving through the forest. Musashi attempts to talk to Michiru, but he never replies back, but as his friends change the subject often, he gets annoyed as that doesn't give time for Michiru to reply. Due to bumpy road, Musashi and Michiru end up falling from the Kitetsuki and right off a cliff, but Michiru saves them using her blade. She explains that she is quite shy and didn't knew how to join the conversation, making Musashi happy that she wasn't mad at him. As they were heading to Harima port to join up with the rest of the Uesugi Alliance and slay a Kishin, Michiru invites Musashi, but he explains they are heading east. Michiru then tells him they won't reach far and points ahead, revealing a large black wall and explaining that's the Black Kishin, the first oni to come to Hinomoto and its current size is half of Hinomoto. After Michiru and the old man continue on their way, Musashi and Kojiro wonder if the Black Kishin is mentioned in the scrolls. As they check, Tsugumi explains that each Bushi band has such scrolls and this one has a seal stating it belonged to Uesugi Bushi. Realizing that Uesugi Bushi may have some knowledge of Jisai, Kojiro wishes to head to Harima port and the band agrees.

Kitetsu sword

 * Enma no Odachi (, Flame Demon’s Greatsword): Musashi's Kitetsu Sword, which was forged by the Ryuzoji Bushi, has a blade that is pitch-black with a pattern that resembles flames.

Powers and Abilities
Black Sword Soul: Musashi is shown to possess a black sword soul. Because of that, he was unable to wield a Kitetsu sword (although it is actually the Obsidian Goddess that causes this issue). It was revealed that black crystal users can control the flow of the touki, but when they are untrained it can run rampant and cause a kitetsu sword to reject the user. It is still unlikely as to whether Musashi has the same capabilities as the rest of the Obsidian 8.

Red Sword Soul: When the power of the obsidian goddess sleeps, his true sword soul color shines as a bright red. This color is noted to be one reserved for truly great Bushi and packs a lot of power in single bursts. As it stands, he can only use it in a basic beam with his current kitetsuto, which was able to destroy a green oni in a single blow.

Attacks

 * Kanemaki Isshin-Style Drawing Technique ( Kanemaki Isshin-ryū Battōjutsu): Musashi was trained by Kojiro Kanemaki's father, Jisai Kanemaki, using his Enma no Odachi to use this style of swordplay.In the English dubbed, it is called the Kanemaki Isshin Sword Technique.
 * Thousand Spiral-Rending Decapitation Blade ( Sensen Retsu Zanken): Musashi digs his great pickaxe into the ground as a "scabbard" and then unleashes a single powerful slash upon his target.In the English dubbed, it is called the Thousand Vortex Shredder.
 * Kanemaki Isshin-Style Demolition Technique ( Kanemaki Isshin-ryū Hakaijutsu): Another special sword style used by Musashi taught by Jisai Kanemaki.
 * Greatsword Slayer ( Daitō Goroshi): Musashi strikes the ground with his Enma no Odachi and causes massive damage to the surrounding area.

Etymology

 * The name Musashi means "military, martial" (武) (mu) and "warehouse, cellar, magazine" (蔵) (sashi).
 * Musashi is most likely named after the real-life samurai and master swordsman Miyamoto Musashi.

Trivia

 * Musashi is attracted to only older women because, in the abstinence training that the miners received, they could not admire the other girls in their town, so he and his companions could only notice their old teachers. This attraction also extends to mature (but not exactly middle-aged) women, like the time Musashi met Mitsuru Osafune.

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Мусаши