Yagyuu Kyuubei

Yagyuu Kyuubei is the successor to the Yagyuu family name, the offspring of Yagyuu Koshinori and grandchild of Yagyuu Binbokusai. They were brought up as a male, following the code of a samurai. They are the main antagonist of the Yagyuu Arc.

(As in the Dekoboko Arc they decide they are "neither man or woman", since the singular "they" is a common and grammatically correct pronoun used for those who do not see themselves as either gender, this wiki page refers to Kyuubei with the pronouns, unless at some point Kyuubei later shows preference to be referred to with feminine or masculine pronouns.)


 * Japanese Name:柳生 九兵衛
 * Romaji Name:Yagyū Kyūbei
 * English Name:Kyuubei Yagyuu
 * Birthday:April 20
 * Age:17, 19 (two years arc), 21 (movie 2)
 * Nickname:Kyuu-chan
 * Race:Human
 * Gender:Female
 * Height:157 cm (5' 2")
 * Weight:45 kg (99 lb)
 * Eye Color:Dark brown
 * Hair Color:Black
 * Affiliations:Yagyuu Family, Diamond Perfume
 * Japanese VA:Orikasa Fumiko
 * English VA:Brittney Karbowski (movie)

Background
After Yagyuu Koshinori's wife died right after giving birth to Kyuubei, he never remarried and raised Kyuubei as a strong samurai along with his father Yagyuu Binbokusai. As the head of the Yagyuu family was traditionally always male and Koshinori was afraid Kyuubei could not properly back the family name as a woman, he decided to raise them as a man.

This caused children to bully Kyuubei during their childhood. At the same time they met Shimura Tae, who beat up the ones who made fun of them and became an important part of their life. They admired Tae's strong yet feminine personality and wanted to be just like her. When debt collectors physically abused Tae and her brother, Kyuubei attacked them to protect her. Kyuubei lost their left eye in the process, which filled Tae with guilt. She swore to Kyuubei that she'd become their new left eye.

Kyuubei later left with the ambition to become stronger than a man or a woman and even stronger than Tae. They underwent a rigorous training to achieve their goal, so they could one day return and marry Tae.

Appearance
Kyuubei dresses in masculine attire, wearing a white coat with a red trim and gray sides, with a blue kimono beneath that. They have black hair in a ponytail and dark-brown eyes, with an eyepatch covering their left eye. Their weapon of choice is usually a sword. When dressing femininely, they are shown to be very attractive as well, wearing their hair in twin ponytails and an orange flower covers their left eye with a pink kimono and short skirt and black thigh-length socks to go along with it.

Personality
When Kyuubei was first introduced, they displayed a bit of a cold personality, likely due to wanting to become stronger, since in their childhood they saved the young Shimura Tae and her brother, Shinpachi, from the debt collectors and lost their left eye, thus believing themself to be weak. Kyuubei became dedicated to sword training since.

Due to their father not remarrying again after Kyuubei's mother died, he decided to raise Kyuubei as a man, and, as such, they act in a rather masculine way. They are shown to not like when men try to touch them, and tend to reflexively throw them over their shoulder. In addition, when they speak, they use the pronoun "boku". After they and their group were defeated by Shinpachi's group in the Yagyuu arc, Kyuubei is shown to have become softer, and at times shown to have a feminine side

Kyuubei is in love with Tae. They tried to marry her, but gave up the thought after the Yagyuu arc. Despite this, however, they are still in love with her, and are very protective of her.

The Dekoboko Arc shows that Kyuubei was not sure whether they should live as a man or as a woman, due to having grown up as a man and struggling with their gender. In the end they decide they want to live as "neither a man or a woman" and Gintoki supports them, saying that even if they continue to waver on the subject, "So what?" They decided that they will live as themself "Kyuubei", regardless of being manly or womanly.

Strength & Abililties
They are a genius swordsman; surpassing average swordsmen in skills, and is able to hold themself against veteran swordsmen, like Hijikata Toushirou and Sakata Gintoki. They are famous of their lightning-fast sword strikes, and has mastered the Yagyuu Ryu sword school after going on a training journey.

Relationships

 * Yagyuu Binbokusai:Her grandfather.
 * Yagyuu Koshinori:Her father, he insists Kyuubei to call him daddy or papa due to the family's status as celebrities.
 * Toujou Ayumu:
 * Shimura Shinpachi: They treat Shinpachi as a friend since he is Otae's younger brother
 * Kondou Isao: Kyuubei hated him when they first met him the Yagyuu Arc, but in time came to accept him. They see Kondou as a rival fighting for Tae's attention, but they don't argue about it.
 * Sarutobi Ayame:
 * Tokugawa Shige Shige:
 * Katsura Kotarou: In recent Gintama chapters, Kyuubei became the target of jealousy of Katsura Kotarou, as he felt that they were becoming more active in the manga spotlight than him, even though despite this, Katsura was the more popular character. However, they did get along during Kyuubei's birthday, as well as when they both got lost on an unknown island with others during the Ryuuguujou arc.
 * Sakata Gintoki: As it was noticed that Kyuubei sometimes blushed or acted nervous around him, Toujou Ayumu tried to use Gintoki to make Kyuubei develop romantic feelings towards a man and forget the feelings they had towards Tae. Despite their aversion to touching men, they saved Gintoki's life during Episode 88. In the Kintama arc, when Gintoki grabbed their hand when they were about to fall, it caused her to throw him due to his past comments about them. In general, they built up respect for each other after Kyuubei was first introduced.
 * Shimura Tae: Despite having to realize that Tae doesn't love them back the same way, Kyuubei still holds feelings for Tae. In any case, the two regained and continued to hold friendly ties after the Yagyuu arc. They go wherever Tae goes and try the things that Tae does. They take every word Tae says to heart and would give their life to make Tae happy. It has even been revealed that they actually like Tae's cooking. They also protect Tae from the stalker Kondou Isao and anyone else who bothers her. In the Dekoboko Arc, they seemed to become even more interested in becoming Otae's 'boyfriend'. It was only during this arc that Tae reciprocated Kyuubei's feelings for her.
 * Jugem Jugem: A pet she is assigned to take care of; they become attached after spending time together.

Yagyu Arc
During Kyuubei's introduction, they had just come back after years of training. They tried to take Shimura Tae's hand in marriage as her fiancee, though Shimura Shinpachi and the rest opposed to it. But after losing against Shinpachi (and the gang) in a dojo challenge, Kyuubei gave up their plan, conceding that Tae does not love them back. The two remained friends after the incident..

Ryugujo Arc
They saved a turtle’s daughter from some punks, so he wanted to take them to Ryugu Palace. They saw Yorozuya in the sea and later got lost.

On a deserted island, they drew an SOS and an ice cream, but the waves erased half of it and made it look like poop, and they used their body as a wall to protect it from the waves. After they saw everyone who'd arrived, they became embarrassed and Otae tried make them feel better. The group found Kagura, stating that Laputa must definitely be on that huge cloud. As Kagura also felt very bad when she saw them, Otae tried to make her feel better with Kyubei. At last, they saw Katsura. He was drawing an SOS with his piss and was singing Taiyo no Komachi Angel. He saw a giant cloud and stated that Takizawa Crystal must be there and ran out of piss. He also protected the SOS from the waves with his body, making Gintoki and Shinpachi furious. They all talked about their situation and split into three groups. Kyubei and Shinpachi were in charge of finding shelter. The two went to the cave that he found earlier. In there, they found Kamenashi there and Shinpachi started to beat him. He caught Kamenashi from his hair and blamed him for being stuck on this deserted island, but Kamenashi stated that this is the Ryugu Palace. Hasegawa and Otae came and they entered into the cave. The skeleton was Kamenashi’s wife. Through tv, they saw the people in Edo getting old and Kamenashi explained that this is the work of Otohima and stated that they are the only ones that can stop her. Turtles appeared on the shore and attacked them. They tried to hold on until Gintoki and Katsura comes back, however, they returned as old mans and the turtles caught them.

Everyone got into the prison and started to talk about their strategies. Kagura thought Gintoki was eating something and attacked him. Katsura got disturbed by the noise and stated that kids must stop playing with the mega drive and go outside. They all got annoyed by Katsura and Gintoki’s behaviours and some turtles appeared, taking Otae and leaving. Then Kamenashi came and pushed the guard to the bars to make them take the keys, but Kagura kicked the bars down. The turtles attacked, but Kyubei and Kagura defeated them.

After they all went into the palace and Kamenashi told them to act like turtles, resulting in Kyubei acting like they were laying some eggs. Kamenashi told everyone that Otohime is doing this to make everyone look ugly, so she can be the most beautiful creature. Before they went to take Otae back, Kamenashi used spouzer to divide their power equally, and she was as strong as 7930 boobs. But the spouzer got destroyed as Gintoki and Katsura were too much of a burden. The soldiers found them and started to attack. Kagura and Kyubei hurriedly escaped, not wanting to be team up with Katsura or Gintoki.

Kyuubei and Kagura then came to save Tae and freed her from the rope, teaming up to kill the sharks as well as Otohime's subordinates. After that, Tae beat up the last guards protecting Otohime and finally continued beating Otohime up until she stopped her project. Their fight was interrupted by more subordinates surrounding Tae with their guns, buying Otohime enough time to let the poison spread inside her palace, letting everyone, including her own subordinates, age extremely fast.

Kyubei and Kagura thought that Otohime was their son’s wife, Michuko, and tried to stop Otohime with lots of questions. They won and everyone in Edo got back to their old selves. Otohime lost and got stuck under the parts of the cannon that was destroyed. Kyubei and the others saved her.

Character Poll Arc
Kyuubei, Otae, Sarutobi and Tsukuyo sharing the rank 6. Their Group is Diamond Perfume.

Santa Arc
Kyuubei dress as Santa in Shinpachi and Otae's house in their small Christmas party.

Timeskip Arc
Devastated over the loss of Otae to Kondou, Kyuubei underwent a sex reassignment surgery; they then tried to join the okama club.

It was proven they hadn't gone through a procedure when Shinpachi hit everyone with a paper fan to destroy the parasitic alien "Kyusainetol". The Kyusainetol is an alien boil-like parasite that attaches to an organism, and takes over the body. While the host becomes gradually smaller, the boil becomes bigger. After two days, the parasite takes a human shape and size, and the host is concealed within it. The Kyusainetol gathers information from the host body and roughly in three days, becomes its replica. With enough time, the parasite interprets "the host's ambitions" and becomes what the host has themselves inspired to be.

People infected usually claim that two years have passed; they also take the appearance they would have within 2 years. In order to stop the Kyusainetol, the afflicted must be stroke with a paper fan-like object. Kyuubei returns to normal by the end of the arc.

Kintama Arc
They along with Tsukuyo and Sarutobi tried to kill Gintoki for supposedly destroying Tama and trying to attack Kintoki but later changed sides to aid Gintoki.

Dekoboko Arc
Kyuubei came into conflict after being given the opportunity to become a man, as in several previous instances they'd favored the idea, secretly wanting surgery. Their wish makes a strange woman to call the "Lord Dekoboko" to turn everyone in the Kabuki District into their opposite sexes. They along with Yorozuya, Shinsengumi, Otae, Sachan and Tsukuyo try to find the archbishop and her army and solve the situation.

During the finale, they state that after much thought they'd concluded that they are "neither a man or woman," and Gintoki says even if they waver from then on, "That's fine, isn't it?" While Gintoki does state that they may go back to living in a "female body" (onna no karada) compared to the one they were in now, they are not referred to as female by Gintoki. Gintoki goes on to state, "Manly, womanly, are those random values that someone else made up really what you were striving towards?" He continues that whether man or woman "or you or me" (anata mo, ore mo), all people live their own lives with their pains, but live them all the same, and while he may not understand "the complicated stuff," none of them will take the Dekoboko's stringent enforcement of gender roles lying down.

Kyuubei later meets Lord Dekoboko with certainty, saying "I'm not Juubei! Neither a man or a woman, I am... 10 minus 1 is (juu hiku ichi wa)... Yagyuu Kyuubei!"

Trivia

 * Yagyuu Kyuubei is based on the feudal era samurai Yagyū Jūbei Mitsuyoshi 柳生 十兵衞 三厳 who was later regarded as the best swordsman of the Yagyu Clan. There is a legend in which Jubei had only one eye and wore an eyepatch.


 * Also on Date Masamune 伊達 政宗 who was an outstanding tactician, he was made all the more iconic for his missing eye, and Date was often called (独眼竜) or the "one-eyed dragon" and his helmet was famous for having a crescent-moon, an allusion was made for both on the Group Date Arc.


 * The "kyuu" in Kyubei is the word for "nine", and the "juu" in Jubei is the word for "ten". Along with the name of the samurai who Kyuubei is based of, it makes a pun at Dekoboko Arc referring at the fact that Juubei turned into Kyuubei, 10 minus 1 making 9.


 * During the Scandal Arc, Kyuubei is the only one who actually felt that they went too far in punishing Gintoki. They were convinced however by Otose that the punishment was perfect.


 * Kyuubei has the same voice actress is Rukia Kuchiki from Bleach, Satsuki Momoi from Kuroko no Basket.