Iai White Purity Style

Iai White Purity Style
Two users of the Iai White Purity Style, Yoji Uruha and Seiichi Samura.
Type	Sword Style
Users	Itsuo Shirakai (creator) Seiichi Samura Yoji Uruha Chihiro Rokuhira Iori Samura Hiruhiko
Debut	Chapter 47 Chapter 51 (Named)

For the chapter of the same name, see Chapter 70.

The Iai White Purity Style (居 (い) 合 (あい) 白 (びゃっ) 禊 (けい) 流 (りゅう) , Iai Byakkei-ryū) is a famous esoteric sword style developed by Itsuo Shirakai. It is renowned both for its speed and its extremely high difficulty to learn; in history, the only two publicly known to have mastered the style other than Shirakai were Yoji Uruha and Seiichi Samura.

Overview

The stances of the style.

The Iai White Purity Style is an esoteric iai sword style described to be a "legendary art", being of such difficulty that only two individuals outside the style's creator Itsuo Shirakai had achieved mastery of it. The basis of the style relies on Shirakai's view that fastest equals strongest, having developed stances to maximize one's movement and slashing speed. The style entails building up spirit energy in the sheathe of a blade before letting it release explosively upon unsheathing, resulting in bursts of extreme speed.

The style's rotation component.

Uniquely under the style, a sword fighter wields their katana in a reverse grip with the blade facing the wrist, opposite to standard grips where the metacarpals are aligned with the blade's edge. Due to the non-standard grip, a sword fighter must rotate the blade 180 degrees after drawing it before the blade reaches its target.

This comprises the primary difficulty of using the style. Usually, with a consistent grip, sword fighters maintain their channeling of spirit energy to their katana with ease. However, due to the regrip necessary as part of rotating the katana, a sword fighter's focus can be lost easily, the spirit energy dispersing. Hence, to use the style masterfully, a sword fighter needs to intuitively use their katana as a natural extension of their body without requiring additional awareness, effectively merging with their katana using spirit energy.

History

Past

Many years ago, sword master Itsuo Shirakai held the belief that speed equalled strength. Under this belief, he developed stances and a sword style that maximized a swordsman's movement and slashing speed: the Iai White Purity Style. At the time, most of Shirakai's peers criticized him; given the grip adjustment inherent to the style would disrupt one's buildup of spirit energy within the blade. However, Shirakai proved the strength of his style in combat after slashing down all of his opponents.

The name tags of the three individuals publicly renowned for mastering the style. From right to left: Itsuo Shirakai, Seiichi Samura, Yoji Uruha.

Later on, his style would become renowned for its prowess and difficulty to learn. To the present day, only Seiichi Samura and Yoji Uruha were able to attain certification indicating they had achieved mastery of the style, Uruha doing so at the age of 16. Uruha views Samura as superior to him in the art, crediting Samura with teaching him and viewing Samura as his master in the style.

Akemura Soga once encountered Shirakai, and though he had the skill to learn the style, he refused to do so due to personally disliking Shirakai.

Around eight years ago, Iori Samura began learning swordsmanship at the dojo where Samura worked, being extremely skilled so long as she was closing her eyes, concentrating only on wielding her sword rather than any disrupting thoughts. Samura additionally began teaching Iori how to use swords at their house, specifically teaching her how to use the Iai White Purity Style.

Sword Bearer Assassination Arc

After meeting with Uruha at Atago Station on the 9th of November, Chihiro and Hakuri sat down on a train headed towards Senkutsuji. Among other topics of discussion, Uruha provided advice on how to use the Iai White Purity style, commenting that one aspect of the technique consisted of building up spirit energy within the scabbard before letting it release explosively upon unsheathing the blade, resulting in extreme speed.

During the Hishaku's attack on Senkutsuji Temple, Uruha and Samura primarily used the style in order to fend off the invasion of Datenseki-wielding sorcerers.

Later, Uruha was killed by Samura after the latter explained his motivations to the former, the two both using the Iai White Purity Style. Chihiro was then transported to the area by Hakuri and Samura dispatched Chihiro in one iai slash.

On the 13th of November, Chihiro decided to use the Iai White Purity Style in order to catch up to Kuguri, drawing upon Uruha's words of advice and Samura's demonstration of the style on himself. Utilizing his observational abilities to imitate the style as best he could, Chihiro was able to move fast enough to catch up to Kuguri several dozen meters away and clash with him.

Over the night of the 13th of November within the Kyoto Bloodshed Hotel, Chihiro practiced the Iai White Purity Style, though was having trouble maintaining spirit energy in his swordsmanship during the style's regrip, which Ro admitted was a notable drawback to the style. He advised that Chihiro needed to be able to merge with his katana using spirit energy, using it as a natural extension of his body. Having experienced in syncing using spirit energy through Nishiki, Chihiro understood Ro's meaning.

After Ikura arrived on the roof where Iori and the Masumi were confronted by Kuguri and a horde of yakuza, yelling about how Iori had to return to school, Iori's desire to protect her ordinary life crystallised and the seal on her memories fully shattered, reawakening her memories of having learnt the Iai White Purity Style and promptly using it to defend Ikura against the approaching yakuza with her eyes closed.

During his fight with Hiruhiko within the hotel, Chihiro continued using the Iai White Purity Style, aiming to hone his skill with the style. Recognizing Chihiro was using kata stances, Hiruhiko mocked the notion before attempting to use the style himself. While imperfect, the following unsheathing motion launched Hiruhiko at Chihiro with notable speed, Chihiro recognizing Hiruhiko had imitated his own use of the style with incredible skill. Hiruhiko commented on the style's difficulty as he moved into an elevator to pursue Iori, Chihiro following in an elevator of his own.

Hiruhiko decided to use the Iai White Purity Style's superior speed over his usual deception-based swordplay, knowing skill was necessary in place of trickery. Chihiro calmed himself down and visualized Samura's example though was beginning to stress. As the two elevator doors opened and the two began to rush at each other, Chihiro spotted Iori expertly using the Iai White Purity Style to slice off the attacking yakuza's fingers, expertly disarming them. With a perfect example of the style right in front of his eyes, Chihiro was able to land a successful slash on Hiruhiko, slicing his blade in two.

When Hakuri later encountered Uruha within Kamunabi Headquarters, Hakuri doubted it was actually Uruha at first. However, once Uruha used the Iai White Purity Style to fend off two Kamunabi traitors pursuing Hakuri (along with calling on a phrase the two both recognised), Hakuri realised that Uruha was actually alive.

Uruha later used the Iai White Purity Style while fending off the Hishaku's assault on Kamunabi Headquarters, combatting skilled swordsman Hokuto and the Hishaku's leader Yura, with the assistance of Kamunabi squad commander Natsuki Misaka. Hokuto recognised and respected Uruha's use of the style, and was eager to face off against it.

After Yura began using the powers of Magatsumi, was teleported to the surface by Shiba, and agreed to have his body taken over by Soga, Soga was able to match Samura's speed using the Iai White Purity Style even without Magatsumi amplifying his physical abilities. With Magatsumi's amplification and draining of Samura's vitality, Soga was consistently able to surpass Samura in strength and speed. Samura was only able to match Soga by consuming his life and turning Suzaku's flames black to completely nullify the life drain effect, and was still killed by Soga, though not without landing a notable slash wound on the younger swordsman.

Users

Certified Users

Itsuo Shirakai

Creator

Seiichi Samura

Yoji Uruha

Other Users

Chihiro Rokuhira

Iori Samura

Hiruhiko

Gallery

Uruha cuts down an attacker using the style.

Samura easily kills the Datenseki-wielding sorcerers.

Uruha fights alongside Samura, both using the style.

Samura proves his superiority in the style over Uruha.

Samura demonstrates the style to Chihiro.

Chihiro's Iai White Purity Style stance.

The speed of the style allows Chihiro to catch up to Kuguri.

Chihiro uses the style to kill the hotel attackers.

The stances of Iai White Purity Style.

The rotation component of Iai White Purity Style.

Chihiro struggles as he practices the style.

Hiruhiko imitates Iai White Purity Style from Chihiro.

Iori combats the hired criminals using the style.

Chihiro takes example from Iori's stance to strike down Hiruhiko.

Chihiro defeats Hiruhiko once again.

Samura seemingly kills Toto and Hiruhiko using the style.

Samura uses the style to save Iori from the hired criminals.

Uruha's stance while using the style.

Uruha uses the style to slash down two Kamunabi traitors.

Samura prepares to take Chihiro out.

Chihiro prepares to deflect Samura's attack.

Chihiro and Samura clash.

Samura uses his full strength in his clash with Chihiro.

Chihiro uses the style despite his wound.