Kurama

Unofficial

Kurama, more commonly known by his alias Byakko, is one of the three in the ; the triumvirate known throughout the world as the strongest the  has to offer in terms of pure fighting force. He is a man feared across the land by cut from all cloths, especially among those who have consumed   due to the nature of his own fruit power; the mythical, Yoko Yoko no Mi. Kurama is known to be a person that comes across as an ally of good and a devout follower of the Marines' code of, and this is definitely true of the Admiral, but there lies a far darker existence to this man that only those closest in his circle of trust could ever hope to understand.

Appearance
Rather average height of those who have carried the title of Admiral in days past, Kurama is known best for the long flowing silver hair that adorns his shoulders and hangs down toward the small of his back. His face seems almost innocent and caring, like that of a father figure who warmly attends to the needs of his subordinates, but his eyes display a fierce but quiet intensity that coupled with the man's smooth and deep tone of voice makes him feared even among his own subordinates. Kurama finds himself accustomed to wearing rather simplistic clothing, a basic martial arts uniform which appears to be of Chinese origin with the classic Admiral's jacket worn over his shoulders.

Personality
Rather fitting for a man who wields the power of a mythical fox, Kurama is an incredibly difficult to understand individual that comes across as off-putting; among pirates and marines alike.

On his surface, Kurama is portrayed as a caring leader among the marines. His soldiers affectionately refer to him as "Byakko-san" rather than with any more appropriate honorific. He is known to never show any signs of emergency, displaying a calm and composed demeanor even while others around him would panic. In battle, he further demonstrates this personality by both openly praising and mocking opponents, even ones that require a great effort to deal with and may seem as though they could have the upper hand against him. Ultimately, Kurama owes this relaxed demeanor to the idea that the world moves as it is supposed to, and that if his time to die has arrived, then so be it, but until then, he will continue to face each day with a leveled head and a grin. Of course, that being said, Kurama is known to display a shocked expression when certainly outrageous situations have arisen, though these are quite rare.

While he doesn't truly care for each of his subordinates, even sacrificing them for his own purposes, those he considers to be within his "inner circle" are like family to him. Among them, the most prominent are Sparrow D. Ryan and Moonie Prong Dion; both of which are Vice-Admiral level and stand together with him on many of his assignments when he is in need of assistance. However, since this is rarely the case, both of them are often on assignments by Kurama himself, being trusted with a slew of marine soldiers. Furthermore, an example of his trust in both of them is that, with his authority as an Admiral, he has given both of them the right to execute a if it is ever needed.

In battle, Kurama is never one to differentiate between men or women, attacking both of them ruthlessly, but will not strike down children. He states that the reason for this is that children have the potential to grow and continue becoming stronger, which means killing them prematurely means to destroy any chances of seeing them grow up and become strong enough to be a challenge one day. Kurama relishes a challenge regardless of the circumstances. He will often ignore the orders given to him by the fleet admiral or the commander-in-chief if it means getting the chance to face a powerful opponent; going as far as to issue a challenge to a or a  if he should feel a possible opportunity for a thrilling fight, despite the fact that those two aforementioned groups are those that exist to balance the power between pirates and the marines.

A rather rare perspective for a marine to have, Kurama does not appear to outright despise the existence of pirates nor does he believe in ending the age of piracy like so many marines and those allied with the World Government desire. In fact, he believes so strongly in the ideals of order that he believes pirates and marines are both in need of each other. Pirates must pursue freedom while marines must pursue order. Without one, the other's existence becomes unnecessary. Kurama does appear to have an interest in finding the One Piece. However, he does not appear genuinely interested in what the treasure might be but rather in what it represents. It was the existence of One Piece that sparked an upsurge of piracy a total of three times throughout history, which led to the strength of pirates to continue increasing as the marines themselves stepped up to plate and strengthened the soldiers in their ranks. The existence of both parties is needed for one another to thrive and to evolve, with the One Piece serving as that catalyst. If he should ever find it, he wishes to once again seize it and hide it away in order to once more spark forth a golden age of piracy.

Abilities and Powers
As one of the three Admirals that compose the World Government's Super Powers, Kurama boasts incredible skill and power reigned in through training and experiences that span his entire life. His mere presence strikes fear in the hearts of not only his enemies but his very subordinates for they have witnessed the sheer strength that this man possesses and the destruction he causes wherever he has designated to be his battlefield.

Like all Admirals, Kurama possesses the authority to order a to any location of his choosing.

Physical Abilities
Kurama is a remarkable martial arts master of superior skill that puts him at a level where only the best can stand.

Physically, the Admiral is quite sturdy. Having went through the training of a marine soldier in his lifetime, he has built up an incredible degree of strength that allows him to overpower most normal adversaries with minimal movement on his part. With a simple strike of the hand, Kurama can demolish structures composed of even concrete with little effort on his part and lift massive boulders with a single hand to throw at his enemies. While not actually being as strong as him, Kurama's physical strength has been compared to the late on multiple occasions by those that have witnessed him in battle due to the abnormal feats he is seen performing. The Admiral has demonstrated throwing cannonballs from his battleships with his bare hands, carrying such speed and force behind the throw that they create an even more violent explosion than the normal cannons which fire them. Kurama's leg strength gives him the capability to move with tremendous speed that allows him to cover a vast distance on foot. During his own training regimens, he would challenge himself to race around the entirety of a total of one hundred times in under three hours. It took him ten years of training, repeatedly trying to complete the challenge he set upon himself, and each time that he failed to do so, he would have to undergo a punishment of some kind of alternate exercise which pushed him to his limits. Kurama, as a younger man, was known to visit many mountain ranges in the in order to further his physical training; climbing them straight to the top with no breaks, and often times, carried heavy rocks on his back to make it harder upon himself. Once reaching the top of those mountains, he would lower the boulders and conditions his fingers, palms, elbows, and even knees through repeated strikes against the boulders, until managing to break them apart. He eventually reached the point where his strength allowed him to shatter these rocks with a single strike.

Kurama's fighting style is a constant shift in tides between the nature of hard-type and soft-type martial arts. Like the waves of the ocean that crash as hard as stone and flow as soft as air, Kurama moves through the battlefield upsetting the flow of the fight in order to better suit his intentions. Simply put, it isn't possible to pinpoint exactly what Kurama's fighting style is, as it encompasses the very fundamentals of what makes up martial arts themselves; allowing the Admiral to change his method of fighting on a whim should the situation demand it.

Having went through the obligatory training of the marines, Kurama is trained in all six techniques of the martial art discipline. However, it is not that he has only managed to become proficient in this art form, but rather that he has grasped the very concept of what the Rokushiki actually is: embracing the ideals of the six powers of conquest.


 *  (鉄塊, "Iron Mass"): Otherwise known as "Iron Body", it is the pinnacle of physical defense for a martial artist to achieve. Embracing the very notion of being like that of steel itself, a master of the Tekkai is like a piece of iron: immovable and unbendable in their existence that none may pass through. It is the utmost precipice of hard-style in the martial arts, attainable only when one has resigned themselves to the perfection of bodily conditioning. To most practitioners, the Tekkai is nothing but the act of tightening one's muscles at the point of impact so as to resist damage. They have fine-tuned this basic control of their body that by tightening their muscles and focusing on their stance, their bodies become so durable that they can resist attacks that would normally cause them immense injury and pain. But for Kurama, who has mastered this skill, his very existence is Tekkai. Facing many training trials in his quest for greatness, he practiced every day to properly hone the Tekkai skill as something natural; not as a technique but as a way of being. It is for this reason that Kurama is one of very few Rokushiki Masters that can maintain the Tekkai even while in motion, but this merely scratches the surface of what it truly means to grasp at the very nature of Tekkai. For one to be capable of doing so, it suggests a complete mastery of their muscle control; a refinement of martial art fundamentals. Should the fist of an opponent make contact, slowly pushing forth to project force into the body, Kurama's skill with Tekkai allows him to actually tighten his muscles at the instant following the fist's initial contact; bouncing off his opponent's assault. But then, in order to not expend any unnecessary stamina, he can once more allow his muscles to relax and once more tighten when he strikes. In other words, there is no absolute way to determine when Kurama will perform the Tekkai simply because his mastery over the Iron Body technique is such that it is an aspect of himself without requiring conscious effort on his part. In order to overcome the Tekkai, Kurama's opponent must force their way through, for allowing themselves to try and predict the rhythm to which Kurama's Tekkai behaves is nothing but folly. Kurama's Tekkai is great enough to resist tremendous force, resisting the force of even gunfire and cannonball explosions, and then shrugging them off like dust on his jacket. Only the greatest of powers can ever hope to pierce the absolute defense that is Admiral Kurama's Tekkai.

Being a master of the martial arts, Kurama has demonstrated the ability to control every aspect of his body through a fundamental discipline known as "self-control" that all martial artists should have fully mastered when reaching a certain point. While he hasn't shown the extent of his skill with the Life Return, he has demonstrated several techniques which make use of his body's features to the utmost degree.
 * Kami Shibari (髪縛り, Kami Shibari; literally meaning "Hair Bind"): By lengthening his silver hair, he can utilize it as an additional limb and control it during combat. When in his Kitsune form, Kurama can apply the same technique to his single lavender tail, causing its size to expand quite considerably.

To know the world and understand the flow of the universe... That is what is known as Kenbunshoku Haki. Kurama is able to feel out the presence of all things with his willpower.

Devil Fruit
Kurama possesses the power of the Yoko Yoko no Mi, meaning "demon fox" (妖狐), which is a. It essentially transforms the user into the mythological Kitsune, while subsequently granting said individual the powers and abilities associated to the creature. Having been acclaimed to have completely mastered the fruit's powers, at least on a fundamental level, Kurama can enter the transformation state attributed to the Zoan-type fruits on a whim with little to no indication of the shifting; allowing him to enter and release the form instantaneously. As a Kitsune Human, Kurama maintains a humanoid shape and form as his silver hair lengthens and darkens into a shade of illuminating lavender while his eyes and brow furrows into a matching set with similar coloration. In addition, he grows a long lavender tail from behind, which can be used as a fifth limb in close-quarters combat; in particular, Kurama is known to use his tail to strangle his victims or to hold them in place while he delivers a point-blank finishing blow. However, a complete transformation is not needed to invoke certain aspects of the Yoko Yoko no Mi's powers. For instance, only transforming his eyes allows him to use the hypnosis abilities of his fruit, while turning only his hair allows him to invoke elemental absorption. This demonstrates just how far Kurama has come to master his fruit's powers.

As the Kitsune is still technically a fox, the fruit bestows Kurama with the attributes of a fox. This includes an enhanced sense of smell and a sharpened hunter instinct which provide him with an edge in battle. It also grants Kurama an incredible increase in physical strength, speed, and durability. His strength is roughly four to five times that of his normal base strength, which make it possible for the Admiral to perform various impressive feats such as launching massive boulders with ease or smashing apart steel. What is perhaps Kurama's most impressive feat is that, while in this form, he managed to impose a significant crack to a considerable sized piece of before managing to actually smash through it with a following blow. Of course, this required some degree of effort on Kurama's part to accomplish. Kurama's speed is enhanced to a degree rivaling the concept of, as he vanishes and reappears a vast distance away, manages to actually leave behind afterimages in his wake, or manages to escape narrow assaults with little space to move. His durability has also increased to a degree that he can take on a tremendous amount of damage without faltering enough to lose ground in a fight.

In classic Japanese mythology, the Kitsune are best known for their trickery and deceit. This is due to the fact that they possess an incredible ability to create lifelike illusions. Kurama has shown the use of illusions to often mislead his opponents and to throw them off to his actual presence. He is able to create a vast amount of illusionary clones completely indistinguishable from the real thing. Furthermore, he can even place others under a state of hypnosis, which is an extension of a Kitsune's power to deceive. In doing so, Kurama has amassed a rather significant amount of contacts around the world by manipulating certain individuals under his hypnosis and controlling them to do as he pleases. At first, his hypnosis caused those he placed under the technique to display a rather dazed expression while performing whatever he ordered them to do, but after training his skill and practicing it enough times, he can place a person under hypnosis and have them do as he wishes without the slightest change in their demeanor; almost as if each and every choice they make as a result of Kurama's influence is their own. What makes this even more frightening is that even the observational Haki cannot tell whether or not somebody is under hypnosis, but it can alert the user should they be targeted for hypnosis, allowing them to resist it to some degree. His skill with the supernatural deception skills of a Kitsune are proficient enough that he can even throw off a user of Haki with relative ease. However, that being said, an elite warrior with a sharpened Haki sense can still see through his illusions and even resist hypnosis, if not shatter it outright. However, this is also dependent on the victim's willpower in comparison to Kurama's own, which becomes the deciding factor.

What makes Kurama's power so feared among other Devil Fruit users is tied directly to a Kitsune's method of feeding. Kitsune are stated to feed off of the energy of their surroundings; the environment itself is sustenance for them. As such, Kitsune are known to feed on the elements themselves. In locations were Kitsune are known to roam, it is not uncommon to notice forests withered away, lakes and rivers dried up, and even the heat from an entire space can be absorbed leaving behind a cold and barren wasteland where no life can exist. Kurama, as a Kitsune, is able to actually consume the elemental powers released by Logia-type Devil Fruits; fire, water, air, light, even darkness itself, and so on and so forth, no matter the element used, a Kitsune can consume it, rendering it null and void. It is for this reason that Logia types are fearful of this Admiral's power, for no matter the nature and strength behind their fruit, it can be swallowed up by the Kitsune fruit's power. However, that being said, like all skills, its limitations are based upon Kurama's own limitations. And because these elemental forces are sustenance to Kurama, much like any normal food or drink might be, he can only absorb as much as his body is willing to take in until he is full. Attempting to take in more than what he can handle in terms of food consumption, which is rather high in its own right, can cause serious issues to his internal organs. Kurama has stated that he is able to perform a technique that can quite literally steal the Logia-type powers from the devil fruit eater through a rather lengthy process, which disables his ability to absorb elemental energy for three days, but at the end of those three days, he will have obtained the powers of the devil fruit he stole. However, to this date, Kurama has yet to successfully steal a Logia-type power.

By accessing the "awakening" form of his Devil Fruit power, Kurama releases the true power of the mighty Kitsune. He loses his humanoid shape and greatly increases his size to a point where he just about surpasses a in height. His build also appears to widen as he assumed a considerably more bulky body structure. His entire body takes on the form of a fox with silver fur, his one tail in the normal Zoan form splitting into nine as they too lengthen to nearly average human body height.

Behind the Scenes

 * Kurama's name, epithet, and the nature of his Devil Fruit was all inspired by two sources: Kurama from the anime and manga series, Yu Yu Hakusho, and Kurama from the anime and manga series, Naruto. Ironically enough, the Kurama from the former series was the inspiration for the latter mentioned Kurama.
 * Despite bearing a different name, this character has a fellow fanmade counterpart in the anime and manga series, Bleach, named Seireitou Kawahiru.