Wind Breathing

Wind Breathing mirrors the wind, chiefly violent rushes of air and whirling vortices, and folds that into the user's movement and attacks. Almost all of its forms are purely offensive, many spinning fast to throw out cyclone-like slashes that stretch the wielder's striking range, while the user shapes the surrounding air into sharp, sickle-shaped flying cuts and gale-force blasts. Practitioners picture themselves stirring and steering the wind as each technique releases.

The style closely echoes the real swordsmanship school Jigen-ryu, which stresses ending a fight with a decisive first strike from a high guard. It branched from Sun Breathing through one of Yoriichi Tsugikuni's students who, falling short of Yoriichi's natural power, was taught a tailored method built around his own strengths and weaknesses that eventually grew into Wind Breathing.

Wind Breathing holds at least nine recorded forms, every one of them shown in the story. The First Form, Dust Whirlwind Cutter (Episode 62), dashes ahead at terrific speed while spinning to lay down a horizontal, tornado-like wall of cuts. The Second Form, Claws-Purifying Wind (Episode 56), lifts the sword high to the right and rakes down four vertical slashes in a single swing, like a set of claws. The Fourth Form, Rising Dust Storm (Episode 56), sweeps the blade horizontally to throw a circular whirlwind of slashes upward around the wielder from beneath a target. The Seventh Form, Gale, Sudden Gusts, leaps the user into the air upside down and swings the blade to churn out shredding gale-force winds. The Ninth Form, Idaten Typhoon, backflips aloft and, while inverted, unleashes a powerful circular gust that carves apart everything below.

The style's known wielders are the current Wind Hashira, Sanemi Shinazugawa, and Masachika Kumeno. The founder of Wind Breathing from the Sengoku era is noted to have worn a haircut strikingly like Sanemi's. According to the second databook, defeated demons recalled the style as excruciatingly painful and immensely powerful, with several sensing that the wielder genuinely hated them and showed not an ounce of mercy.