This one is an oldie - over two years old now.
As of recently, the Sokyoku...To be more accurate, the entity inside Sokyoku, Kikoo ("Blaze Fledgling King"), has caught my interest. We know it is used for executions in Soul Society, particularly of Captains, and we also know that the Shihouin Shield, and artifact which was handed down to the Clan from the "gods", is capable of destroying the Sokyoku. We also know that it is supposed to boast the power of one million Zanpakuto, a power multiplied by tenfold when it strikes a target, and should have been impossible to block, even by Captains, yet Ichigo did just that.
It's debut was literally flaming, only to be destroyed within two chapters of its emergence. What Kikoo is has caught my curiosity, which has led me to speculate about what it is. For that, I have at least one theory on the subject: Kikoo is an imprisoned spiritual entity, with Sokyoku being its seal. This theory will go into a story narrative, so bear with me.
Millenia ago, when the Soul King was rising to power, he created the first King's Key, and gained access to what would be known as the Royal Realm. The Royal Realm is not simply a dimension hidden away in Soul Society that the King might have created, but it was an already existing dimension that the Soul King strove to reach. Originally, the Royal Realm was home to "The Abstracts", spiritual beings of great power beyond that of the Shinigami, and embodiments of the primary and fundamental elements of the Universe. In other words, "Beings of Reason".
Koutotsu was a "Being of Reason" embodying space-time, and Kikoo would be a "Being of Reason" embodying Fire.
When the Soul King arrived in the Royal Realm, he first conquered it, and the "Beings of Reason" that dwelled there. The Soul King could do this because he was a "Being that Defied Reason", or "one that transcends both Shinigami and Hollow". In the dynamic of the universe, the Shinigami and Hollow (or potentially a third, unknown spiritual race) embodies elements of the Universe themselves, which are opposites, like Yin and Yang. While weaker than the "Beings of Reason", they are the most numerous, as each "Being of Reason" is singular in what it embodies. In a reversal, the Shinigami would represent "Death", while the Hollows would represent "Soul".
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
My potential reasoning for this is because the Shinigami are the guides to the "afterlife", and Hollows might represent "soul" because of one simple fact: Fullbring is derived from Hollow reiatsu, and the basis of its power is "soul manipulation". This ties into my theory of a third spiritual race, since how can Hollow powers and Fullbring be so drastically different from one another? My belief is that Hollow and Fullbring powers are two separate parts of a "complete power". Of the Fullbringers, Ginjou was closest to it through his abilities after absorbing Ichigo's Fullbring, and the Arrancar are closer to it as well because they are Hollows who gained Shinigami-like powers. But they never reach it; while Ginjou might have gone beyond it by fusing Fullbring and Shinigami powers, Arrancars are only imitating it through their Shinigami-like powers.
This "Third Race" would possess all the powers of Hollow and Arrancar, but their function has a basis in Fullbring and "Soul manipulation". Because of this, the "Third Race" could potentially have "spells" that Human Fullbringers would consider to be Fullbring abilities (Memory manipulation, Dimension Creation, etc.), as their equivalent to Shinigami Kido. They would have their own Inner Worlds and "Inner Spirits" like the Shinigami, only with them being like Ichigo's Inner Hollow, because of the "Third Race's" relation to Hollow and Fullbringers, as part of the same family tree of power. Even if Hollow powers are a "corrupt" form of the "Third Race" power, and the Fullbringers a dilution, both of them still achieve the same effect as the "Third Race" when they fuse with Shinigami powers: "creating a power that transcends both Shinigami and Hollow".
Neither Shinigami nor Hollow are truly "good" or "evil"; they are simply opposite sides of the same coin. This is why when the two powers fuse together into one power, the being inside whom they fuse acquires power that "transcends the Shinigami and Hollow", as well as power that "Defies Reason". It could be said that Fullbringers and the "Third Race" would "manipulate reason" wtih their abilities, but with "Absolute Reason" like Koutotsu and Kikoo, they don't have any effect upon them, being beyond their ability to control.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Getting back to my narration.
Having conquered the home of the "Beings of Reason", and renamed it the Royal Realm, the Soul King imprisons all the "Beings of Reason", except two: Koutotsu and Kikoo. Koutotsu is a non-sentient "Being of Reason" embodying Space-Time. The Soul King decided to use Koutotsu as a "guard" for the Precipice World, with the Koutotsu's presence there attracting layers of space-time, accelerating time to a point where the 2000-fold time density in the Dangai now exists.
Kikoo, on the other hand, was one of the most powerful "Beings of Reason", embodying Fire, one of the four primary elements of the Universe. Not willing to let Kikoo run rampant in Royal Realm, yet none of the prisons he devised for the other "Beings of Reason" being able to contain Kikoo, he created Sokyoku. Stabbing Kikoo with it, it absorbed the entity, and sealed it inside Sokyoku, stripping it of its free will and sentience. He then presents the Sokyoku as a "gift" to Soul Society, which they use for the execution of Captain-level individuals, showing off the unbridled power of Kikoo, which is only truly released when it connects with its intended target.
The Shihouin Shield was originally devised as a means of destroying Sokyoku, and dispersing Kikoo, should the fierce fire spirit ever regain its free will, and begin to run rampant, seeking revenge for its sealing. However, it was instead used to stop it from destroying both Ichigo and Rukia by Ukitake and Kyoraku. The Soul King, having been locked away in the Royal Realm, is not aware of this. Because it is a "Being of Reason", Kikoo is not truly dead, and could one day reform, and return to exact its vengance for the injustice inflicted upon its kind...
No comments:
Post a Comment