Summary
The following contains major spoilers for the BLEACH: Can’t Fear Your Own World novels by Ryohgo Narita, as well as heavy spoilers for BLEACH: Thousand-Year Blood War, available onHuluandDisney+.
TheBLEACH: Can’t Fear Your Own Worldnovels by Ryohgo Narita reveal many important details about theBLEACHuniverse, including the truth behind the structure of the three realms, and the dark history of Soul Society relating to the Soul King.
The antagonist of the novel series is a sadistic, sociopathic man named Tokinada Tsunayashiro, who, through an intricate series of plots, got himself promoted from member of a branch family to head of the Tsunayashiro Clan – one of the Four Great Noble Families of the Soul Society responsible for protecting its history. Tokinada used his influence to gain access to the Tsunayashiro archives and liberate a powerful Zanpakutō capable of copying any other Zanpakutō that has ever existed: Enrakyōten.
A Family Zanpakutō
Enrakyōten is an Ancestral Zanpakutō
When Tokinada liberates Enrakyōten from the Tsunayashiro family archives, he does so because he lacks his own Zanpakutō. He is the husband of a woman named Kakyō – Kaname Tosen’s friend who was murdered by her husband, a Shinigami and officer in the Gotei 13 who was pardoned because he was a member of one of the Four Great Noble Families. After his trial, Tokinada’s Zanpakuto was confiscated, and its abilities are not known. As the family charged with the recording and archival of history, more specifically, through the Visuals and Surveillance Department, the Tsunayashiro family Zanpakutō reflects this ability because it is capable of assuming the form and abilities of any other Zanpakutō.
It is a Zanpakutō that is similar to and shares a motif with the Ise family’s Shinken Hakkyōken (“Divine Eight Mirror Sword”). It is also one ofthe oldest Zanpakutō in existence. There is a belief that the blade is cursed, and that use of Enrakyōten eats away at the lifespan of the wielder. However, given the incredible potential that the ability possesses, Tokinada thought it was worth the hefty price of its use.
Over the course of theCan’t Fear Your Own Worldnovels, Tokinada uses Enrakyōten to copy the abilities of various Zanpakutō, including Sosuke Aizen’s Kyōka Suigetsu, former Captain-Commander Genryūsai Yamamoto Shigekuni’s Ryūjin Jakka. The name Enrakyōten translates to “Law of the Bewitching Lucid Mirror”. Tokinada liked to keep the true power of Enrakyōten hidden, so he’d half-release it with a false name: Kuten-Kyōkoku; “Nine Heavens Mirror Valley”. He gave it this name to reflect the binomial nomenclature of Shinsui Kyoraku’s Katen Kyōkotsu. This gives it the ability to simply reflect attacks back onto the attacker; however, Enrakyōten is a far more devastating weapon, especially in the hands of someone who has access to the records of Soul Society’s entire history, like Tokinada.
Enrakyoten’s Special Ability
A True Blade of Reflection
Enrakyōten’s Shikai is activated with the phrase, “Sip the world and wear the horizon. Duplicate and curtail… All of creation equally,”, at which point the blade emits a brilliant light before it becomes invisible to the naked eye. The Shikai enables the wielder to then manifest the abilities of any Zanpakutō ability that they have witnessed beforehand, and Tokinada has seen the abilities of 7th Kenpachi Kuruyashiki’s Gagaku Kairō; Hanatarō Yamada’s Hisagomaru; Byakuya Kuchiki’s Senbonzakura; Zennosuke Kurumadani’s Tsuchinamazu; О̄maeda’s Gegetsuburi; Gin Ichimaru’s Shinsō; Rangiku Matsumoto’s Haineko, and many others.
What’s devastating about this is that not only can it copy multiple Zanpakutō abilities at once, and scales their strength based on the reiatsu of the wielder. To illustrate this, Tokinada’s Kyōka Suigetsu isfar less powerful than that of Aizen, but his copy of Matsumoto’s Haineko is far stronger than the original. While Enrakyōten could be a really powerful weapon in the right hands, it still has its weaknesses. The ability to copy any Zanpakutō’s strengths means that it also copies their weaknesses, and unless the wielder has a firm grasp of these weaknesses, they might be caught off guard.
While it can copy pretty much any Zanpakutō the wielder has seen, some simply cannot be copied. For instance, Ichigo Kurosaki’s Zangetsu can only be copied in form alone, and its unique abilities cannot be replicated by Enrakyōten, most likely because of the diverse kinds of reiatsu that form Zangetsu and its abilities. The fact that Enrakyōten feeds on the life force of its wielder is also a significant drawback, and probably the main reason why the Tsunayashiro family keeps it locked away in the first place. In Buddhism, mirrors carry a certain level of significance as objects that illustrate the “illusion of reality”, and are hence objects that are symbolic of wisdom; because reality is more than what we can see. These connections are also likely why Enrakyōten has no visible blade when activated, and how this is related to its function.
