Gen Shishio

"It's impossible. I... only know how to destroy."

- Gen Shishio

Gen Shishio (志々尾限, Shishio Gen) was the youngest son of the Shishio Family and a member of the Night Troop. He was an Ayakashi Majiri and possessed a wolf-man transformation. Gen was sent to Karasumori by Masamori Sumimura to help the Kekkaishi fight against Kokuboro, but was eventually killed in battle by Kaguro.

Appearance
Gen had a very serious appearance for a teenager, possessing sharp eyes (due to being half Ayakashi) like an animal's, with sharp spiky black hair with a green tint and a apricot skin tone. His clothing mainly consisted of two outfits, the one he wore during battles consisted of a ninja like outfit, with purple pants and a short sleeved robe, which opened slightly at the top, along with a black sash around the waist. He also wore a green mesh long sleeved shirt, with guards on both his arms and legs, which had a swirly pattern on them, and plain black shoes. Along with that his outfit also carried The Shadow Organization Star symbol on both the backside of the robe, and on both sides of the front. And during his stay at Karasumori Academy, his regular clothes mainly consisted of the Middle School's uniform, with the only difference being that he kept the jacket unzipped revealing a orange shirt underneath and various shoes. He also carried a special blue flame tattoo around his body, given to him as a boy in order to keep him from fully transforming, he also has a muscular build (most likely a result from his training with Atora). After he transformed, Gen's body took on a Wolf-Man like form, growing taller than he was before. He also had brown fur all over his body, with long flowing hair running down his back. His eyes became light green with slitted pupils and his body gained markings over his face and limbs, Furthermore the flame tattoo around his waist changed from blue to red after his transformation.

Personality
Gen had a very solitary nature, and was slow to trust or even interact with anyone. He had trouble understanding the way other people behave, and spent a great deal of time observing them and reflecting. He was particularly puzzled by the partnership between Yoshimori Sumimura and Tokine Yukimura (since their families are supposedly still feuding), and could not understand what Yoshimori sees in such a "scary girl". Even when around people he considered friends, Gen only opened up so much. Like Yoshimori, Gen thought nothing of stepping in to save someone despite any danger to himself, though his reasons stem from Masamori entrusting him with his duties, which he felt gave his life purpose. After some time, it was revealed that Gen was reluctant to get close to others out of fear that they might witness his powers, and either label him as a monster or be hurt by him.

History
Gen Shishio was born an Ayakashi Majiri (though it was not known at the time) and grew up as the youngest child in a large family. He was only close to his sister, Ryo; his brothers took great pleasure in teasing him and beating him up for fun. Gen also had problems with local bullies, and often got drawn into fights. Only his sister ever stood up for him, and Gen was fiercely protective of her. It was when she became a target of the bullies that Ryo first witnessed Gen's arm transforming. Still unused to his powers, Gen soon put a child that had been bullying him into the hospital and ran away. His brothers are sent to bring him home, but they tie Gen up with the intent of giving him a thorough beating for once again dragging their family name through the mud. Instead, Gen transforms and badly wounds all of them, only for Ryo to find them later on.

Gen's father decides that the best thing to do is to send Gen to The Shadow Organization. He admits to Ryo that there is a history of people with similar issues in their family, and hates to send his son away, but that they can do nothing else for him. Ryo reluctantly agrees, and unknown to them, Gen overhears her. Seeing this as a betrayal of the one person who protected him, Gen's full transformation is triggered, and he runs away again. Kyoichi Hiba and Masamori Sumimura arrive to track down and capture Gen. Kyoichi is seriously wounded, and Ryo reaches Gen next. She begs him to come home, but Gen refuses, and when she insists on going after him, he attacks her as well. Masamori has his Shikigami attend to Ryo's wounds while he pursues Gen. When Gen attacks him, Masamori uses his Zekkai to knock Gen out. Later, Gen wakes up at Night Troop HQ. Masamori has had a special tattoo (applied by Fumiya Somegi) placed around Gen's body, explaining that it will cause him great agony if he should fully transform again. Masamori invites Gen to join the Night Troop so that he can learn to control his powers, and Atora Hanashima happily becomes Gen's trainer.

A Troublesome Assistant
Gen first appears with Kyoichi Hiba, as the two are inspecting Karasumori Academy at night. Gen shows up at school the next day as a transfer student, and makes a nuisance of himself right away: he attacks Tatsumi Mino, beats up some bullies, and hunts down Yoshimori's Shikigami (they are looking for Gen at the time). Yoshimori finally confronts Gen on the school roof, and is quickly overwhelmed by his speed and power in the fight that follows. Gen reveals that he is not an Ayakashi in human form, as Yoshimori suspects, but a member of the Night Troop, sent by Masamori to assist the Kekkaishi in Karasumori's protection. He admits to being disappointed in Yoshimori's apparent lack of skills, and does not seem at all eager to work with Yoshimori or Tokine (who probably reminds him of his sister).

Initially, Gen shows no interest in working with the Kekkaishi: he simply appears, destroys the nightly Ayakashi before the Kekkaishi can, and then vanishes, leaving the clean up to Yoshimori and Tokine. Yoshimori is predictably furious with this habit, though Tokine makes several failed attempts to get to know Gen. It is only when Gen witnesses Yoshimori's defeat of Ookubiguruma that he starts to gain respect for the young Kekkaishi's power. Even though they have very different perspectives on many things, Yoshimori also begins to respect Gen's considerable power, and with Tokine's help, learns to support Gen and cooperate with him in battle. While Gen is never exactly friendly with the Kekkaishi, and tends to isolate himself when something bothers him, it is clear he comes to rely on them and values their input (even if he rarely shows it outwardly).

Kokuboro's Newest Recruit?
All of this begins to change when Gen first encounters Kaguro, a very strong member of the Ayakashi group Kokuboro. Naturally, Gen challenges Kaguro because he is the strongest enemy present, but is quickly and easily defeated twice in the same night. Kaguro makes it clear that he could kill Gen at any point, if he wanted to. Instead, he toys with Gen's mind, points out the similarities between them (their both being part Ayakashi, and how that makes them outsiders among normal humans), and eventually invites Gen to join Kokuboro as part of Byaku's plan to weaken Karasumori's defenses.

"In order to destroy a monster, I have to become a monster!"

- Gen, Episode 36

Soon after, Gen received an egg from Kaguro (which was a plot by Byaku to draw Gen to their side and weaken Karasumori's defenses). The egg contained an Ayakashi insect that would supposedly become a loyal minion to its owner, even sharing the features of that person. However, the insect constantly pointed out how different Gen was from normal people, and that there would be no need to hide his true self if he joined Kokuboro. Gen's growing doubts caused yet another rift between he and the Kekkaishi, which was especially troubling with a Kokuboro invasion on the horizon. During the invasion, Gen faced Gagin, one of Kokuboro's strongest Ayakashi. Overwhelmed by Gagin's strength at every turn, Gen realized he had to depend on his transformation to survive and win, even though it would likely mean that the Kekkaishi would see him as a monster (as most people inevitably did). Gen fully transformed into a wolf-man, but to his shock, Yoshimori and Tokine still accepted and encouraged him, and more importantly, he retained full control over his powers and mind, which had never happened before.

The Ayakashi insect's egg hatched at that point, but Gen realized he had no use for it and crushed it. With his increased strength, Gen began to gradually overcome Gagin, and was seconds away from striking the final blow when Kaguro suddenly appeared and seriously wounded Gen. Kaguro gave Gen one last chance to join Kokuboro, and upon Gen's refusal, Kaguro mortally wounded him. Unable to maintain his transformation, Gen reverted to his human form. Unfortunately, wounds caused by Kaguro's swords negated cell regeneration, which kept Gen's wounds from healing. Surrounded by his comrades, and with Yoshimori and Tokine pleading for him not to give up, Gen accepted that his life, while filled with hardship, still had plenty of good moments. With assistance from Karasumori's power, Gen chooses to die peacefully, with a smile on his face.

In Memory of a Friend
In order to finally seal away Chushinmaru, Yoshimori creates an enormous Shinkai at Hakuma, filling it with a sprawling town that greatly surpasses Chushinmaru's expectations. For inhabitants, Yoshimori creatures a copy of virtually everyone he has encountered during his time as a Kekkaishi, including Ayakashi (which Chushinmaru is fond of), townspeople, ability users, and deceased comrades. Afterward, Yoshimori creates a copy of Gen, who agrees to become Chushinmaru's friend at Yoshimori's request. Yoshimori claims that he made Gen's copy because of his own selfish desire. At Sumiko's suggestion, Yoshimori also adds a copy of himself, which immediately joins Gen's copy.

Powers & Abilities
Supernatural Strength, Agility, Endurance: Gen is notably stronger and more agile than normal humans. Even as an untrained child, his older brothers, all trained in martial arts and physically larger than he, posed no threat once Gen was sufficiently angered. He is easily capable of quickly disarming (and if angry enough at the time, severely injuring) a group of larger opponents who may underestimate him. Gen's body can also endure extreme amounts of punishment.

Above Average Hand to Hand Combatant: Though Gen is never shown to have actually trained at his family's dojo, between his family's integrated martial arts background and Atora's strict training, he is a proficient hand to hand fighter. In battle he fights primarily with his hands, using his transformed claws to slash and tear apart non-human opponents.

Supernatural Regeneration: Gen's body typically begins to heal from most wounds almost instantly, and healing proceeds at an accelerated rate. He can even regenerate entire limbs in a matter of seconds while at Karasumori.

Enhanced Senses: Gen sometimes tracks Ayakashi and humans with powers by scent, and has stated that his nose sometimes causes problems for him.

Ayakashi Transformation: Wolf: Gen is an Ayakashi Majiri, and has a wolf-man transformation that he can access at will. He most often only transforms his hands into enlarged claws and feet into wolf feet for battle, which gives him substantial boosts in speed, agility, endurance, and strength. In dire situations, Gen can fully transform his body into that of a wolf-man Ayakashi, but this often results in a total loss of control, and he is much more likely to attack friends and foes in this state. For this reason, Masamori Sumimura had a special tattoo placed on Gen that causes incredible pain when he fully transforms, forcing him to revert to his human form to escape the agony. The pain grows sharper as Gen attempts to draw on more of his power.

High Spiritual Power: Gen possesses a great deal of spiritual power. When activating his Ayakashi transformation to any degree, he releases a powerful aura that is easily detected by Kekkaishi.

Tetsusai and Mrs. Shishio
Gen's constantly finding himself in trouble as a child was a source of great strain for his parents, who were regularly forced to apologize on his behalf. They agonized over the decision to send him away, but realized he was becoming a danger to everyone around him, and that there was little they could do to help.

Gou, Shou, and Yuu Shishio
Gen's older brothers amused themselves by picking on him, lashing out at him both verbally and physically. Though they sometimes did so under the excuse of punishing him for bringing shame upon the family, they clearly never needed much of a reason. This continued until Gen's Ayakashi transformations began to appear, and he ruthlessly attacked them when cornered. Though his brothers survived the beating, from that point on they considered him a monster.

Ryo Shishio
Despite coming from a large family, Gen was only close to his older sister Ryo, who constantly encouraged him, defended him from bullies, and helped him apologize when he got dragged into fights. Ryo promised that she would always protect Gen, but he became increasingly violent once his Ayakashi transformation appeared, prompting his father to reluctantly arrange for Gen to be sent to the Shadow Organization. Gen overhead Ryo agreeing and fully transformed, running away from home. Ryo tried to apologize and bring him back, but Gen attacked her in his anger, and had to be captured by Masamori Sumimura. Any mention of his sister after that was enough to send Gen into a rage, as he continued to blame himself for hurting her, unaware that Ryo wanted to apologize to him just as much as he did to her.

Atora Hanashima
Atora and Gen have a very close relationship, both personal and business. Atora was chosen to be Gen's trainer when he was ten years old, and has scared him into disobeying her so badly that he cannot refuse an order unless his ears are plugged. When he is scolded (very strictly) by Atora, it spirals him into an embarrassing depression. Atora has even revealed that they used to take baths together, which Gen embarrassingly denies, especially when she announced it in front of Yoshimori and Tokine. Gen seems to respect Atora because he either cares about her or is scared to upset her.

Tokine Yukimura
Gen initially has trouble speaking to or even being near Tokine: her overall friendly, but sometimes pushy nature is a clear and painful reminder of Gen's sister Ryo, who he has unresolved issues with. More than once Gen runs away from Tokine's attempts to befriend him, preferring to avoid her instead of facing the uneasiness he has in her presence. Over time, Gen relaxes somewhat around Tokine, if only because she is not constantly challenging or threatening him the way Yoshimori does. They eventually reach a point where they are able to work well together, with Tokine providing support for Gen in combat.

Yoshimori Sumimura
Gen and Yoshimori initially do not get along at all. Having been greatly impressed by Masamori's skill as a Kekkaishi and a superior, Gen believes Yoshimori to be very weak for a Legitimate Successor, and informs Yoshimori of this repeatedly. Not surprisingly, Yoshimori openly claims to hate Gen and spends most of his time either badmouthing Gen, or thinking of ways to get rid of him. Even while on duty, Yoshimori is constantly annoyed by Gen stealing his prey, and then leaving Yoshimori and Tokine to clean up afterward. During the battle with Ookubiguruma, Gen realizes he and Yoshimori are very similar, and that this is why Masamori hoped they would work well together. Gen develops a reluctant respect toward Yoshimori, and comes to consider him an ally, if not a friend.

Trivia

 * According to Hiromu Tabata's data, Gen is very popular with the girls at Karasumori Academy. He even has a fan club in the high school division, because "wild types" like him are rare.
 * Gen's name (限) means to limit.
 * Gen's brothers (and their habit of beating him up for fun) are only present in the manga.