Yamada Asaemon Isuzu

Yamada Asaemon Isuzu
Kanji	山田浅ェ門 威鈴
Rōmaji	Yamada Asaemon Isuzu
Biological Information
Race	Human
Gender	Female
Personal Status
Status	Alive
Elemental Attribute	Water
Relatives	Yamada Asaemon Genji (Brother)
Occupation	Asaemon Female Combat Instructor
Affiliation	Yamada Clan
Debuts
Manga Debut	Chapter 46

Yamada Asaemon Isuzu (山田浅ェ門 威 (い) 鈴 (すず ) , Yamada Asaemon Isuzu^?) is an unranked Asaemon in the Yamada clan. After the shogun became impatient of the first team acquiring the Elixir of Life, Isuzu and Kiyomaru were chosen to join Shugen and Jikka to be a part of the second team sent to acquire the elixir.

Appearance

Isuzu as a child.

Isuzu is a very tall, dark-skinned woman with long, unruly hair. She wears the standard attire of an Asaemon with a dark haori on top and carries two swords strapped to her left hip.

Personality

Isuzu is very respectful towards her allies and wishes to avoid any conflict between them. In battle, or when one of her allies steps out of line, such as Kiyomaru, Isuzu behavior changes and becomes more serious and fierce. Isuzu is also capable of self restraint, that is greatly expressed on face, when dealing with a troublesome situation, such as when she tried to hold back her anger and reason with Sagiri as she continued to defend Yuzuriha from her. Isuzu highly respects Shugen and follows his view of justice in believing that criminals should not be given mercy or to those that protect them as well. To this point, she is not willing to cooperate with criminals even if dire circumstances arise. However, she was willing to set aside her morals just once by working together with the criminals of the vanguard to destroy the Banko.

Similar to her brother Genji, Isuzu follows the samurai code of honor known as bushidō. After Gantetsusai brought Fuchi's dead body, Isuzu was prepared to commit seppuku for the death of her fallen Asaemon comrades on the island and hoped that her death would appeased the shogun.

As a child, Isuzu was sensitive about her stature and would often be referred to her as a gorilla. However, after receiving words of encouragement from her brother about gorillas being strong animals, Isuzu no longer took it as an insult and believed that gorillas embody the concept of bushidō.

Plot

Lord Tensen Arc

Main article: Lord Tensen Arc

After being assigned to be a part of the second team to retrieve the Elixir of Life, Isuzu and Kiyomaru meet with Shugen and Jikka and are told to make preparations for the departure.

The Treasure Barge make their arrival on Kotaku.

During their time sailing, Isuzu tries to calm Kiyomaru down after he becomes annoyed with Aoki concern about them being unranked. She then see him boasts about his superiority by cutting one of the ninjas mask. Isuzu draws her sword and strictly demands that he behaves himself. She then apologies to one of the ninjas for his behavior but the ninja says that there was no problem since they are absolutely loyal, causing Kiyomaru to order the ninja to kill himself to prove his statement. Isuzu shockingly watches as the ninja follows his orders by stabbing his neck with a sword and becomes impress with the man's resolve. The group then arrives on Kotaku.

Isuzu and Kiyomaru protecting Shugen from the Mōnshin.

After finally making landfall on the island, Isuzu holds Shugen's sword as he is about to fight a group of Sōshin that approaches the group. She and Kiyomaru watches in amazement as he defeats them and comes to his aid to see if he is injured. They are then reassured that as their senior he will take on the responsibility of handling lesser matters that do not involve their purpose as executioners, causing them to feel delighted. As the group moves forward they stumble upon Eizen's corpse, causing Shugen to cry over his death and takes the time to lay his soul to rest. However, they are met with conflict by a horde of Mōnshin commanded by a Dōshi. As one is about to attack Shugen, Isuzu and Kiyomaru protects him as he continues to grieve over Eizen's death. However, one Mōnshin slips past them and charges at Shugen. They are then relieved after Shugen notices the monster and cuts its legs but are shocked to see him chipping away at his sword and declaring vengeance for the death of Eizen.

Hōrai Arc

Main article: Hōrai Arc

While traveling to Hōrai, Isuzu breaks down in anguish after the ninja presented her evidence of Genji's death. Having found out more of his comrades have died, Shugen takes drastic measures by using the Dōshi's whistle to summon the Mōnshin from their nest and uses them to quickly transport him and the Asaemon to Hōrai.

Isuzu fights Yuzuriha.

After arriving in Hōrai, Isuzu and Kiyomaru follow Shugen as he makes his way forward. Isuzu arrives in the Rentan Temple where she reunites with Yamada Asaemon Sagiri but becomes displeased to see that she has chosen to cooperate with the criminal, Yuzuriha. Though she had her reasons, Isuzu asks that Sagiri join her side as she fights Yuzuriha. Shortly after, Isuzu hears the Iwagakure shinobi signaling that they have captured the Elixir of Life, meaning that the mission is complete. Sagiri begs her to stop from fighting Yuzuriha but is furiously told by Isuzu that once the elixir has been captured the lives of the criminals should be of no concern and sees no other way of settling matters with them.

The two landing parties join forces.

After hearing an explosion from outside, Isuzu checks and witnesses the setting in Hōrai change by Zhu Jin fused with the Banko. She then defends herself against the monsters created. Despite the situation unfolding and Gantetsusai bringing Yamada Asaemon Fuchi's dead body, Isuzu continues to refuse to cooperate with the criminals since she has faith in Shugen's abilities and prepares to commit seppuku to atone for the lives of her deceased comrades. However, Jikka arrives with the convicts and Iwagakure shinobi to tell her that they need everyone to join forces since it is the only way to take down the Banko and return home. Although she swore on the passing of her late brother that she would not conspire with the criminals, Isuzu gives in to the fact that cooperation is essential and temporarily puts off Shugen's orders. Isuzu pairs up with Kiyomaru, in accordance to the Tao restoration match up, and sets out to destroy the tandens of the Banko.

Abilities and Powers

Despite being unranked, Isuzu is undoubtedly skilled as her skills were vouched by Shugen and became employed by the shogun as a Female Combat instructor. She was capable of defeating a group of Mōnshin, a feat Rien noted was anything but normal for a human, and keep them at bay from attacking Shugen. Isuzu was also able to bring the highly skilled kunoichi Yuzuriha to her knees (though the latter did note that she could not fight at full strength after her earlier battle with Ran).

Physical Abilities

Isuzu has impressive physical strength, being able block a Mōnshin's attack, causing it to get knocked off balance, and cut off its limbs. She is also able to shatter the ground to send out rubble towards her opponents as an attack.

Swordsmanship

Isuzu is noted by Shugen to be talented with a sword that only a rare few can match. She is able to dual wield a pair of swords and perform instant slashes. Once combined to form a double-bladed sword, Isuzu is able deflect attacks that are complimented from her strength and cut large targets like the Mōnshin to pieces. She can also use her katanas to fight from mid-range by striking the ground to send out large amounts of rubble aimed at her targets. As an Asaemon, Isuzu is capable of decapitating her victims with a single cut of her sword.

Weapons

Isuzu's combined double-bladed sword.

Isuzu carries two katanas that she can combine to form a double-bladed sword.

Trivia

• "I" (威, "I"^?) means "authority", and "-suzu" (鈴, "-suzu"^?) means "bell". The name "Isuzu" (威鈴) could roughly translate to "authority of the bell."