#shadowstrand

he started out like every other trainee in his class, spending every waking moment alongside his zanpakuto. he developed a unique bond with one of his teachers, considering them to be a parental figure and a great influence in his life. things were looking up for him. and then, he discovered the power of his zanpakuto.

it was during a training match with his teacher. he had figured out how to activate its shikai, but he didn’t know the power of his sword, so his teacher suggested a sparring match. it was only after akashi had nicked him with the blade that they noticed something was wrong. the cut didn’t seem to be clotting. akashi called for medical attention, but when it was discovered that healing kido wouldn’t close the wound... he ran. he ran, and ran, and ran, until he reached the outskirts of the rukon, with nothing but his sword. later that day, his master died of exsanguination. all the blood in his body trickled out of that wound.

akashi spent the next year trying to figure out how to survive and avoid detection. he knew that none of the shinigami ever came out here... but he noticed that in the rukon, there was injustice, crime, and wrongdoing. akashi’s late master had instilled in him a sense of righteousness... and he determined that he would lay down the law. if his zanpakuto was a death sentence, then he would only hand it out to the guilty. he came to patrol the rukon, not as a shinigami, but under a new alias: the red judge.

centuries passed. akashi was good. he became a thorn in the side of the crime lords that ruled the outer districts. but he got cocky. and then he got caught. after weeks of torture, his captors ruled that a fitting end would be to stab him with his own deadly blade. little did they know that when they plunged it into his stomach, they signed their death warrants. his bankai activated for the first time.

now, much older and wiser, akashi roams the rukon, dealing justice to those who would do wrong against its citizens, and handing out guilty verdicts to only the most deserving.

tl;dr, he got kicked out of shinigami school and lives in the rukon being batman.

here’s his sword:

Aku Saibankan (悪裁判官, “Evil Judge”): In its sealed state, Aku Saibankan is a double-edged nodachi with a circular tsuba with a curved wedge in which Akashi uses to cut his thumb and activate its release.

Shikai: Its release command is “They are guilty” (彼らは有罪である, Karera wa yūzaidearu). To activate his Shikai, Akashi must cut his finger on the edge of the sword and draw blood. His sword then absorbs the blood and changes shape, becoming a straight double-edged scimitar with five notches along the back edge of the blade. Akashi’s wound closes after activating his Shikai.

Shikai Special Ability: Any wound that Aku Saibankan causes is unable to be healed so long as the Shikai remains active. The blood cannot clot in the wound, and healing Kido is useless due to the fact that while one’s reiatsu may be restored, the physical damage dealt is permanent and cannot be undone. Therefore, the victim will continue to bleed from the wound area until they are completely drained of their blood and perish. This makes Aku Saibankan’s cuts “death sentences”, and Akashi never uses his Shikai unless he is only in the presence of those he will have no hesitation to kill.

Bankai: Aku Saibankan Baishin (悪裁判官陪審, “Jury of the Evil Judge”): Akashi’s Bankai is activated whenever he is injured with the blade of Aku Saibankan in its Shikai form. Any wound inflicted on Akashi triggers the Bankai, as all wounds caused by the sword are mortal wounds, but Akashi tends to stab himself through the stomach when willingly activating his Bankai in order to make himself bleed as fast as possible. When Akashi is cut, blood begins pouring out of the wound until he has the appearance of a corpse, haggard and gaunt. The blood pools around him, eventually shaping itself into twelve man-sized entities, each one with the face of a demon and carrying a sword identical to Aku Saibankan’s Shikai. Blood continues to pour from Akashi’s wound over time, making the demons grow to a limit of nearly eight feet tall as time progresses.

Bankai Special Ability: Each of the twelve demons is as strong and as fast as Akashi himself, and while Akashi has control over who they attack, they do not share his sense of mercy. They attack all at once in an attempt to overwhelm the opponent. The swords that these demons carry are identical to Aku Saibankan’s Shikai in both form and ability, and any wound they cause cannot be healed and will cause the victim to bleed out and die so long as the Bankai remains active. However, the demons will not stop attacking the opponent until they are completely drained of their blood. Even more frightening is the fact that since the demons are made of Akashi’s own blood, they are unable to be harmed, as they are masses of liquid charged with Reiatsu. Cutting one would be like swinging a sword at a waterfall.

Because Akashi uses his own blood to create the demons, he is essentially immune to all harm as well, as the only thing keeping him alive is his own Reiatsu. He becomes, as he calls it, a “corpse that calls forth judgement”, but rarely does any fighting as the twelve demons do it for him. Akashi has to concentrate on his Bankai to maintain it, which is relatively easy due to the overwhelming force of the demons being able to keep his opponent away, but he will eventually fall unconscious due to the fact that he has no blood flowing to his brain. He can maintain his Bankai for a maximum of ten minutes before he has to call the blood back into his body, otherwise he risks falling unconscious or even dying. Upon the deactivation of his Bankai, the demons melt into puddles and the swords shatter. The pool of blood flows back into the wound that Akashi used to activate his Bankai, and heals his wounds, as his sword reverts back into its sealed state.

Aku Saibankan Baishin: Shikei Hanketsu (悪裁判官陪審：死刑判決, “Jury of the Evil Judge: Death Sentence): This ability causes the twelve demons to merge into one gigantic demonic entity and the twelve individual swords to combine into a gigantic metal spear. The massive demon wears attire that makes it slightly resemble an executioner. The demon then hurls the spear at its intended target, coating the spear in its blood to give Akashi telekinetic control over it and ensure it will never miss. The spear then impales the target and the blood coating the spear enters their cardiovascular system, forcing all the opponent's blood out through the wound and killing them almost instantly. Akashi must use this move as a one-hit kill, as the effort involved greatly taxes the Reiatsu reserves that are keeping him alive.