Gin Ichimaru - Abilities

Abilities

Gin Ichimaru's zanpakutō is Shinsō (神鎗, Shinsō?, literally "God Spear"). It takes the form of a wakizashi when sealed. The guard is shaped like an 'S'. Shinsō's shikai is triggered by the phrase "Shoot to Kill" (射殺せ, ikorose?); in the anime, this was slightly changed to the declarative ikorosu. In the English translation of the series, the phrase is inconsistent between uses, but mostly describes stabbing (slay, impale, pierce). Another trigger phrase, used in the first Soul Society arc, was "Shoot 'em dead". Its first rendering in the Viz translation was "skewer that punk".

In its shikai, Shinsō's blade glows white and extends up to the length of one hundred sword blades and at high speed to impale Gin's opponents. In addition to making it a deadly long-range weapon, the extending blade also carries tremendous force without affecting Gin, making it useful for dislodging heavy objects, as seen when Gin pushes both Ichigo Kurosaki and the giant Jidanbō out from under the Seireitei gate, despite Jidanbō being firmly braced under it. Once extended, Gin can maintain the blade's length and swing Shinsō in wide arcs, simultaneously attacking multiple targets with speed and ease.

In his rematch with Ichigo he reveals his bankai, Kamishini no Yari (神殺鎗, Kamishini no Yari?, literally "God-Slaying Spear"). While in bankai, Gin originally said that his blade can extend to up to 13 kilometers or 8.07 miles, making him capable of bisecting a whole block of large buildings with a single swing while far away. The speed at which the sword extends and contracts is originally said to be 500 times the speed of sound (171,500 meters per second), reaching its full length in less than 1/10 of a second, making it the fastest zanpakutō. Gin would downplay the speed of his sword, by instead bragging to his opponent about the length and cutting force, in order to gain a psychological advantage. His bankai's technique Buto (無踏, Butō?, literally "No Step") uses his zanpakutōs speed and length properties to an amazing extent. By holding his zanpakutō to his chest with both hands, the blade extends and contracts at blinding speeds. A form of this technique Buto Renjin (無踏連刃, Butō Renjin?, literally "No Step: Serial Blade") is the same technique as Buto, but repeats the action in rapid succession many times over, appearing as a wave of blades attacking the opponent. The blade's extension and contraction speed makes the technique so fast, that the individual movements involved are unseen by the opponent, leaving little time for evasion.

When Gin turns on Aizen, he reveals that he lied about his bankai's length and speed, and that its true power is that it turns into dust for a split moment of the extension/retraction, in which would allow it to release a deadly poison that rests within the interior of the blade into whomever or whatever Gin stabs. Upon the command, "Kill" (殺せ, Korose?), the poison activates, dissolving the victim at a cellular level from the inside-out. Gin hid this ability from Aizen for decades, intending to use it to kill the latter after learning the weakness of his zanpakutō.

Before it was revealed in the actual series, various Bleach console games have depicted Shinsō as having additional abilities. In Bleach: The Blade of Fate, Bleach: Dark Souls, Bleach: Shattered Blade, and Bleach: The 3rd Phantom Gin possess an additional ability known as Yarisazame (槍紗雨, Yarisazame?, literally "Gossamer Rain of Spears"), activated with the command "Pour Down" (降り注げ, Furi Sosoge?, "Rain" in the English versions), where he fires Shinsō into the sky and swords similar to Shinsō's unreleased state rain all around him. In Bleach: Blade Battlers Gin shoots Shinsō into the ground and the blade hits the opponent from underneath, whereas in Bleach: Heat the Soul 5, a wave of blades instead shoots up from the ground to hit the opponent.