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| “ | “He gave birth to the enchanted blades, the ultimate weapons of slaughter! Their only purpose...is to kill!” | „ |
| ~ Sojo to Chihiro Rokuhira as he talks about Kunishige Rokuhira's Enchanted Blades. |
| “ | "You think you're the only one who can speak for Rokuhira? I thought the same. But that's wrong. Anyone can take on that role. That's why this battle is meaningful." | „ |
| ~ Sojo acknowledging Chihiro's ideals during their final battle. |
Genichi Sojo is a major antagonist in the 2023 urban fantasy manga series Kagurabachi. Sojo was a ruthless arms dealer and the wielder of the Enchanted Blade "Cloud Gouger." He idolized the late Kunishige Rokuhira, the creator of the Enchanted Blades, and developed a personal rivalry with his son Chihiro Rokuhira. He collaborated with the Hishaku, a secretive group of villainous sorcerers, in an attempt to create weapons similar to the Enchanted Blades.
Personality[]
Sojo was a casual man but was very strict in a direct manner, having no sympathy for his subordinates, especially those who disappoint him. He often organized the torture of some of his informants for failing to capture Char. Going so far as to cruelly kill his recruited sorcerers when they fail. But he also strongly believed that humanity should remain committed to the life paths it chooses. Sojo was able to withstand his massive mental problems by enduring his past traumas that were forced upon him and has not shown any of his traumatic effects.
When Sojo first met Chihiro, a new aspect of him appeared. Because he saw another Enchanted Blade user like him, he was enthusiastic and almost crazy that he was going to fight Chihiro wielding Enten. This is due to his great admiration of Kunishige Rokuhira and the Enchanted Blades he created them for, and sees them as perfect for use in combat and killing. Despite his uncontrolled enthusiasm in battle, Sojo was still able to calmly analyze events and create new tactics based on the movements and skills of his opponents taking place around him.
Biography[]
Past[]
There is no information about Sojo's past except that as a child, he once stood in a flower field with bodies of unknown people lying over it. It is implied that this event was caused by him coming into contact with the Shinuchi, the strongest of the Enchanted Blades, as the same field of flowers appears when Kyora Sazanami unleashes the tip of the Shinuchi. It is also worth noting that Sojo and the unnamed wielder of the Shinuchi have similar appearances, but any connection between these two is completely unknown.
About 10 years later, Sojo became a blacklisted criminal in Kamunabi, marking him on the blacklist. Even though he was wanted on the blacklist, he was able to operate in the underworld, using his cunning and skills to escape from justice.
Shortly after, he met with Char Kyonagi's father and forced him to exterminate information about the Kyonagi clan, which he succeeded in doing. Sojo finds the house where the last members of the Kyonagi clan are, and when he arrived at their house, he kidnapped both Char and her mother. For many periods, Sojo continued to hold Char and her mother captive and frequently performed experiments on them to try to harness the powers of Datenseki by routinely removing their limbs and organs. Char's mother didn't want to let her daughter suffer such a fate so they finally decided to escape from Sojo prison, unfortunately the vent was too small for the mother so only Char could escape and her mother had to burn down the entire Sojo facility to cover her tracks and save Char at the same time die.
After Char escaped from his facility, Sojo decided to recruit his own and the dangerous Sorcerers to hunt Char and bring her back to him. Some time later, Sojo received an enchanted blade called Cloud Gouger from the Hishaku organization, serving as his weapon.
Vs. Sojo Arc[]
Sometime after Char escaped, Sojo assigned Norisaku Madoka the task of eliminating Chihiro and retrieving Char. On October 6th, upon receiving news of Madoka's failure from an informant he had sent to the area, Sojo had the informant nailed to a ceiling post in his bathroom while berating Norisaku's failure and lack of discretion. Intrigued by the possibility of a seventh Enchanted Blade, Sojo decided to place a bounty on Char and Chihiro's enchanted blades, declaring he would pay any price for Char and Enten. This move prompted a significant number of sorcerers to pursue Char and Chihiro.
Later on, the Kamunabi successfully took down the bounty. Around the same time, Sojo met with two members of the Hishaku and casually reported that everything was proceeding according to plan. Concurrently, the Kamunabi discovered that Sojo had submitted Shinuchi to be auctioned off at the upcoming Rakuzaichi. This information was passed on to Chihiro and Togo Shiba by Azami.
The next day, driven by a desire to satisfy his curiosity about Chihiro's Enchanted Blade, Sojo embarked on a quest to find him, wielding Cloud Gouger. Along the way, he ruthlessly eliminated Norisaku's mother and sister for their perceived failures before targeting and killing Norisaku himself. Afterward, Sojo reached out to the brother of the Puppet Sorcerer, who had perished at the hands of Chihiro. The brother, seeking revenge, provided Sojo information on Chihiro's whereabouts. Sojo thanked the brother for the info and moved to treat him as 'warm-up', preparing to kill him. Although the brother managed to use his sorcery to induce Sojo's past trauma, Sojo endured the experience, ultimately killing the brother and finding the sorcery fascinating.
Upon arriving at Cafe Haru Haru, Sojo immediately engaged in a clash with Chihiro, while Hinao and Char concealed themselves from the impending confrontation. Activating Cloud Gouger and unleashing a technique called Mei, Sojo propelled Chihiro through a wall. Chihiro, mostly unharmed due to the absorption of Aka (unnoticed by Sojo), questioned the bloodstains on Sojo's sword and whether it was tainted with the blood of evildoers. Sojo, indifferent, activated Cloud Gouger, prompting Chihiro to declare that Sojo had no right to wield such a katana as he summoned his black and multi-colored goldfish. Grinning in anticipation, Sojo summoned cloud dragons from his enchanted blade as Chihiro prepared to fight.
Reflecting on Chihiro's survival of Mei, Sojo pressed him on the origin of an Enchanted Blade he had never heard of. When Chihiro refused to answer, the two engaged in a rooftop dash, with Sojo using Yui to create a wave of ice that Chihiro cut through with Kuro. The intense clash continued, with neither landing solid hits, yet Sojo's superior skill was evident, as he remained unwinded.
During a brief pause in the intense battle, Sojo took a moment to elucidate his deep admiration for Kunishige Rokuhira, a figure he had extensively studied. He described obtaining Cloud Gouger as a dream come true. Despite this, he persisted in questioning Chihiro about the origin of his enchanted blade. Chihiro, unwilling to provide an answer, was instead asked about his reason for wielding the blade. Chihiro's response, centered on defeating evil and protecting the weak, disgusted Sojo. He believed that he alone understood Kunishige's true intent. Sojo gracefully backflipped off the building roof, landing on the streets below while charging the formidable Mei. All the while, he expounded on Kunishige's blades being ultimate instruments of slaughter, existing solely for the purpose of killing.
Upon landing, Sojo unleashed the charged Mei, but Chihiro cleverly used the absorbed Mei with Aka to redirect the lightning towards himself, avoiding harm to the citizens but causing significant injury to himself. Sojo, preparing for another usage of Mei, found himself unable to do so due to the cooldown period. Chihiro, retorting that Sojo misunderstood Kunishige's intent, activated Nishiki.
Sojo pondered how Chihiro was still active, attributing it to his own mere one week of experience. Sensing the imminent end of Mei's cooldown, Sojo insulted Chihiro's altruistic desire to protect the weak, deeming it the most inappropriate trait for Kunishige's 'weapons of mass destruction'. Enraged, Chihiro demanded Sojo refrain from speaking ill of his father, shocking Sojo with this revelation. Chihiro charged in, disarming Sojo of Cloud Gouger. Quickly recovering the blade, Sojo noted Chihiro's increased strength and speed, using Yui to gain some respite. Both launched attacks simultaneously, evading each other.
Chihiro then spotted a car containing Sojo's henchmen, with Char's leg visible through the window. Sojo casually reprimanded their negligence and unleashed Mei as Chihiro rushed towards the car. However, a wall erected from the ground, courtesy of Shiyumi Harima, blocked the lightning. Sojo observed four other Kamunabi sorcerers, as well as the presence of Shiba and Azami. Recognizing the challenging odds, he decided to cast Kou to create a cloud of mist, allowing him to make a strategic escape. Meanwhile, Chihiro dispatched Sojo's henchmen in the car, only to discover that the leg he had seen belonged to a diversion orchestrated by Sojo. Char had been taken more discreetly to a laboratory, and Hinao had been knocked out during the process.
Sojo arrived at the real car that Char was being transported in, and two mohawked sorcerers sitting in the back seats asked their boss about how he had fared with Cloud Gouger. Sojo replied he needed to deepen his understanding of it, as well as talk to Chihiro again. Either way, with Char, 'the material', back he concluded he could resume the plan 'to surpass Kunishige Rokuhira'.
Less than five days later, Sojo moved his base of operations to the abandoned Kaburato Castle. Around this time, he told Hishaku member Kuguri about the importance of deepening his understanding of an Enchanted Blade.
Roughly five days later, on October 12th, Sojo entered his laboratory and observed the Datenseki he had obtained. At his mohawked henchmen twins' prompting, he explained the stone's ability to multiply inputted spirit energy, but the spirit energy would destroy the body upon returning to a human, blowing it up. Kunishige was the only one able to work with Datenseki and use it in the forging of weapons, the Enchanted Blades. Sojo believed with Char's regenerative Kyonagi cells, he could find a way to likewise harness the Datenseki's power.
Roughly 49 hours afterwards, on October 14th, Sojo visited the Chickenkeeper's Bath, lounging in a private room while musing over Chihiro's declaration of being Kunishige's son. He considered it possible, but declared it impossible to due Chihiro's ideals clashing with his own view of Kunishige. Three men then entered to return a briefcase containing semi-stabilised Datenseki that Sojo lent to them, which they had used to eliminate an enemy group, but their spokesperson exclaimed their sorcerer had blown up in the process. Along with Sojo having previously stated the stone was 'traceable', the three men were provoked enough to attack Sojo, but Sojo easily defeated them, before leaving the bathhouse with the briefcase, thinking about how controlling the Datenseki still wasn't going well. Upon leaving, Sojo encountered all six members of the Kamunabi's Anti-Cloud Gouger Special Forces and activated Cloud Gouger.
Sojo was slightly disappointed at Shiba and Azami not being there, so he wouldn't get to seriously test Cloud Gouger. Shiyumi's Gansui sent large portions of earth rocketing into the sky, Shiyumi then concentrating on moving the earth to the ocean while Kazane protected her. Simultaneously, Ikuto, Makoto, Uzuki and Kugara began attacking Sojo, the four sorcerers relentlessly barraging Sojo with attacks. Noticing that they weren't letting him charge Mei, Sojo used Kou to spread water onto the four sorcerers, increasing the ensuing Mei's area of effect. After staggering the four with that use of Mei, Sojo began charging a more powerful Mei, but as he unleashed it, three of the four sorcerers jumped away while Ikuto used Jikai to force Sojo and the water upwards, the lightning redirecting uselessly through the water. As the three Kamunabi sorcerers rushed to attack him, Sojo started thinking of Chihiro again, cursing the thought.
Sojo then unleashed a Yui at the sorcerers, flash-freezing the water around him to send ice spikes upwards. The Kamunabi dodged, and while Uzuki threw two poles next to Sojo, Makoto grabbed Sojo's sword-wielding right arm. Sojo then began crackling with lightning as Uzuki threw two more poles and cast Jobaku to bind Sojo with rope-like energy. Ikuto and Kugara made use of the lightning, with Ikuto using Jikai to force the iron-armed Kugara towards Sojo. The electromagnetic blast dealt great damage to Sojo and threw him off the floating earth, while Cloud Gouger was recovered by Makoto.
However, the still-crackling Sojo cast Mei again, creating a discharge around Cloud Gouger. Due to lightning attracting lightning, Sojo was blasted in the direction of his blade, tearing through Kugara and Makoto and catching his blade in his mouth. As Ikuto ordered Kazane to engage, Sojo intercepted his sorcery and sliced off his arm. The resulting battle was not shown, but Sojo was revealed to have defeated the Kamunabi, killing all except Ikuto and Kazane, and made his way to the courtyard outside his laboratory, in a standoff with Chihiro. Sojo recounted his improved harmonization with Cloud Gouger to Chihiro while commending Chihiro's own improved understanding, and cast Mei as Chihiro cast Nishiki, the two disappearing into blurs, both on their last legs. Sojo left the Datenseki-containing briefcase near the courtyard's front door.
The two immediately locked blades, Sojo grinning and Chihiro impassive. The battle between their resolves and ideologies, unseen to all except the two, was represented through the two sitting in a tea room, Sojo inviting Chihiro to eat some dango; though Chihiro noted he was not a fan of sweets. In between bites of a dango piece, Sojo remarked he had been thinking about Chihiro for some time, and now accepted the latter's beliefs, but disagreed with them either way, resolving to wielding his enchanted blade as a weapon of mass destruction. Chihiro disagreed based on his daily life with Kunishige, and though Sojo wished to know how Kunishige really was he angrily stated he could not know, as he had already developed his own interpretation of Kunishige, basing it upon Cloud Gouger's harmonisation with Sojo's own destructive intent, which indicated the blade accepted Sojo's will.
In the physical battle between the two, Sojo knocked Chihiro down and prepared to slash at him, but a kick to Sojo's arm forced him to switch hands, buying Chihiro some time. Nevertheless, Sojo managed to slash off Chihiro's right forearm, but the time Chihiro had gained allowed him to dash away, Sojo dashing off as well. Back in their mental battle in the tea room, Sojo declared anyone can speak for Kunishige, which is what gives their battle meaning; the winner shall prove themselves to have the better understanding of Kunishige's will, in a sense. Back on the outside, Sojo ran through what he knew about Chihiro's abilities and decided to double the amount of spirit energy cloaking himself, further increasing his speed, but Chihiro managed to dodge Sojo's ensuing attack.
On the inside, Chihiro picked up and ate an entire stick of dango, before acknowledging the truth in that both of them could speak on behalf of his father. However, that was precisely why Chihiro refused to show Sojo any respect—he refused to let Sojo spread his interpretation of Kunishige. On the outside, Chihiro slashed off Sojo's left arm, his sudden surge in speed surprising Sojo. As Chihiro charged in again, Sojo attempted to counter with a slash, but Chihiro halted his momentum by releasing Nishiki in favour of readying Kuro. Sojo attempted to charge a Mei last minute to parry the attack, but Chihiro's slash cleaved Cloud Gouger in two and landed a devastating hit to Sojo's chest.
As Sojo fell, he was shocked that Chihiro managed to cut through Cloud Gouger, and remarked to Chihiro that the enchanted blades had chosen him. Chihiro replied they had chosen Sojo too, but added Sojo couldn't even come close to being equal to his father, so he would cut him down. Sojo then began crawling into the ruins of his laboratory, attempting to utilise his newfound understanding of the enchanted blades in order to control the Datenseki, but it reacted violently, damaging Sojo and eventually igniting an explosion that destroyed the Kaburato Castle. His last moments were spent screaming Rokuhira's name in confusion and despair. Sojo's corpse was later identified by the Kamunabi at the scene.
Equipment[]
- Cloud Gouger: "Cloud Gouger" was one of only seven Enchanted Blades crafted by Kunishige Rokuhira in the period during and following the Seitei War. Cloud Gouger, like the other Enchanted Blades, was forged out of datenseki, a type of rare ore that multiplied any spirit energy poured into it. Datenseki was exceptionally volatile, and as a result Rokuhira was the only person who managed to stabilize and use it to forge Enchanted Blades. The spirit energy stored within an Enchanted Blade flowed into its user, enhancing their own spirit energy. Additionally, each Enchanted Blade possessed a set of unique abilities that its wielder could make use of. Cloud Gouger's special abilities were related to the generation of weather-related phenomena, and upon being drawn, the sword's power manifested visually as a pair of eastern-style dragons formed out of clouds.
- Ice Generation: The first of Cloud Gouger's three principle abilities was "Yui," which allowed its user to swiftly generate large amounts of ice in the direction of the sword's point. Cloud Gouger's ice was strong enough to completely immobilize a target in place. An extension technique of Yui which Sojo made use of was "Ketsu," which consisted of using Cloud Gouger to generate large chains of spiked ice around the user to shield from harm and pierce any nearby opponents.
- Lightning Generation: The second of Cloud Gouger's three principle abilities was "Mei," which allowed its user to summon and project powerful bolts of lightning. Mei's lightning was the most dangerous offensive ability of Cloud Gouger, as it was able to incinerate whatever was struck by it. Additionally, by building up the lightning before firing it off, the user of Cloud Gouger could exponentially increase its destructive output and range. Firing a charged lightning bolt placed stress on Cloud Gouger, and as such Mei could not be used for roughly ten to twenty seconds after being discharged at full power. Genichi Sojo, as a result of his latent skill with Cloud Gouger, was able to develop an extension technique of Mei wherein he cloaked the lightning summoned via Mei around his own body in order to drastically increase his own movement speed. Additionally, the cooldown period of the fully charged Mei reduced the more Sojo acclimated to the blade.
- Water Generation: The third and last of Cloud Gouger's three principle abilities was Kou it allows the user to create an enormous amount of water which can form clouds of mist to disorient enemies and obscure the wielder or be used to conduct the electricity generated by Mei, massively increasing its area of effect. Similarly, it can also be used in conjunction with Yui to generate more ice.
External Links[]
- Genichi Sojo on the Kagurabachi Wiki
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 Villains
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Hishaku Sazanami Clan Sojo's Organization Other | ||