The Reaper

The Reaper also known as Gabriel Reyes during the Overwatch era is one of the main antagonists of the Senran Kagura: The Black Swordsman series and one of the major driving forces behind many of the events of the series.

He is one of the returning characters from OverWatch and the third after Genji Shimada and Angela Ziegler.

He was originally a human and Agent of the organization know as OverWatch, centuries later before the main storyline, Gabriel gain dark powers that consumed his entire body and soul transforming him into a immortal and powerful being know as The Reaper who epithet is "the manifestation of death itself"

Appearance
He wear a black robe in which several of his munitions and shotguns are attached to it, he wear a hood and a white mask to hide his identity.

In his final form, he take the form of a human skeleton draped in pitch black robe, carrying his giant scythe and has six wings on his back.

Personality
Gabriel describe himself as a a "high-functioning psychopath", having a passion for murder and vengeance and is willing to kill even without a solid motivation. He is often conceited, sadistic and petty.

He also have no remorse when under the disguise of Dõgen kill his former OverWatch comrades including Hanzõ Shimada the brother of Genji and the Grandfather of Asuka.

He will do anything to accomplish his goal, even using the elite shinobi of Hebijo to do his dirty work.

However he retain some of his good personality as he take Kakine Teitoku and seven others kids under his wings and train them to carry on his legacy in case something happen to him.

Ultimately The Reaper was the catalyst either direct or indirect of the majority of the events of the series, he was a member of OverWatch, the teacher and guardian of Kakine Teitoku and seven other kids, the murderer of Asuka's grandfather and the leader of the yoma's army, that make him the most powerful character of the series until he got stopped by Yuuki Kõtetsu and Homura Kurenai.

Background
Prior to the events of the series, The Reaper was a man known as Gabriel Reyes a former senior officer in the US military. Born in Los Angeles, Reyes was enlisted into the US's Soldier Enhancement Program, and through it became close friends with Jack Morrison, who would later became known as the vigilante Soldier: 76. When the Omnic Crisis began and the UN began to assemble Overwatch, the two accepted the offer to join alongside Reinhardt Wilhelm, Torbjörn Lindholm, and Ana Amari. Though Reyes led the strike team, Morrison was recognized as the team's moral fabric.

When Overwatch successfully put down the crisis, Morrison was promoted to Strike Commander while Reyes became head of Blackwatch. He oversaw Overwatch's covert ops missions and trained agents like McCree. Over time, Reyes began to resent Morrison for receiving the public's attention while he received none. He began to organize a rebellion within Overwatch that ultimately led to a conflict at the Swiss Headquarters, resulting in an explosion that supposedly killed both Reyes and Morrison. Overwatch was disbanded shortly after.

Reyes narrowly survived. At some point, Blackwatch member Moira experimented on him, altering his cells to decay and regenerate at an increased rate. He joined Talon's forces and developed a new identity as Reaper, a masked terrorist that hunts down and assassinates former Overwatch agents.

Sometimes after the events of Overwatch and prior to the events of The Black Swordsman series, The Reaper's physical body perished after his fight against Hanzõ Shimada and became a spirit, he managed to take control of Homura's arch-enemy, Dõgen at some point and revive himself through him, then went to Academy City under his new identity and take Kakine Teitoku and seven other kids under his wings as his apprentices and train them to become stronger to carry on his legacy in case something happen to him.

He and his apprentices are also responsable for the invasion of the yomas on Osaka which led to the disappearance of Akimoto's wife Katsumi, seeing that she could be a dangerous element to their plans, they use a powerful technique which transport her in the Realm of Darkness making her trapped there for centuries, her disappearance cause Akimoto's personality to become more serious and strict as he swear to get revenge of him and his apprentices.

Powers and Ability
The Reaper himself is the representation of death, as a spirit he has access to many powers related to Darkness, Earth, Fire and Lightning, his weapon of choice when he was humain was a twin shotguns, but under his spirit form he use a scythe as his main weapon of choice.
 * Immense strength: The Reaper has show to be extremely strong, as he was able to counter and reflect many of his enemies attacks, he was strong enough to take down half of the Shinobi Allied forces and destroy half of Osaka and Tokyo.
 * Enhanced speed: The Reaper also possess incredible speed as he was able to avoid several attacks from the Shinobi Allied forces without breaking a sweat, his speed allow him to reach his targets and give them several fatal blows all at once and can even surpass the speed of former OverWatch member Hanzõ Shimada.
 * Immense durability: The Reaper also proved himself to be extremely durable as he was able to take many attacks at once and getting out of it without any scratch, under his true final form his durability increased to the point that his body become near impervious, however this wasn't enough against Homura's White Magic of Mars's nullification ability.
 * Master mage: as a mage The Reaper possess an incredible mastery over magic, he has a perfect mastery over darkness, earth, fire and lightning which combined together create an destructive version of The Reaper's magical powers, he can also use his powers to create a barrier all around him which protect him from all attacks whatever it is, however the barrier disappear when The Reaper got hit by Homura's White Magic of Mars which neutralize not only the barrier but also his powers render him powerless and defenseless.

Magic Powers

 * Unmei no kurai kenja ("The Dark Scythe of Doom"): one of The Reaper's attacks, his rotate scythes gather dark powers into it and proceed to throw them at his enemies using his telekinesis powers to control the scythes at distance.
 * Jigoku no moetsukiru ryūsei ("Flaming Meteor of Hell"): a powerful attack in which The Reaper raise his scythe in the air, it start glowing and several meteors appear behind him and proceed of throwing all on us at high speed using his telekinesis powers.
 * Jigoku no Raikō ("Dark Lightning of Hell"): The Reaper send out several dark lightning at his enemies from the sky, this attack is powerful enough to paralyze his enemies and prevent them from moving.
 * Circulus Pilorum Nigrorum ("Black Circle Javelin"): the only earth magic spell that The Reaper know, he summon a massive swarm of petrifying earth lances and throw them all at his enemies and hit them brutally, this attack is powerful enough to petrified his opponents on the spot.
 * Ankoku no jūjika ("The Black Cross of Darkness"): one of The Reaper's powerful attacks, He gather energy into his scythes and unleash several slashes in the shape of a X at his opponents, the damages caused by this attack can be critical.
 * Honō no kagami ("Flame Mirror"): one of The Reaper's attacks that act both as an offensive and defensive spell, he gather all of his fire powers and summon a wall of flame and unleash it toward his opponents, it can also be used as a shield to protect him from multiple attacks especially ice magic.
 * Jigoku no seinaru honō ("Sacred Flames of Hell"): A powerful attack in which The Reaper release sacred flames from his sword and attack his oponent at full power.Dāku ken no ame ("Rain of Dark Sword")
 * Jigoku no kuro suraisu ("Black slicing of hell"): an attack that The Reaper used against Yumi during the Shinobi Great War, he gather all of his dark magic into his scythe and rush at his opponent to give him a critical blow, the damages caused by this attack are critical and can also caused the death to his adversary.
 * Ningen kama no suraisu ("Slicing of the mortal scythe"): He raise his scythe and unleash a giant slash in the form of a moon in his opponent's direction and can cause brutal damages.
 * Junsuina yami no tsumetai me ("Cold eyes of pure darkness"): He summon several eyes of his above the sky and unleash several powerful beams of energy toward his enemies, leaving them no chance of escaping, this attack can destroy half of a city.
 * Kusakariki koa kurayami bīmu ("Soul Reaper's beam of darkness"): An attack which The Reaper release a beam of darkness toward his enemies.
 * Gōka no sākuru ("Circle of Flames of Hell"). one of The Reaper's most powerful attack,  like the name said he summon a circle of flames that appear around his opponent and hit him hard the extend of the damages from this attack can burn the opponent's skin.
 * Dāku ken no ame ("Rain of Dark Sword"): one of The Reaper's powerful attacks, using his energy, he summon a rain of sword with a dark aura that fell down from the sky right on his enemies.
 * Jigoku no kami no shinseina hashira ("sacred pillars of the god of hell"): An attack in which, he summon ten pillars of fire that surrounding his opponents, making them trap in it.
 * Shi no kami no hi sākuru ("Fire Circle of the God of Death"): an attack in which the ten pillars The Reaper summon start to bright and a tornado of flame appear right below his enemies feets.
 * Mugen no shin'en no kama ("Scythe of the infinite abyss"): a powerful attack in which his scythe start to glow red and unleash a powerful slash toward his enemies provoking an explosion of energy from it.
 * Honō no jigoku no uzumaki ("vortex spiral of the flaming hell"): The Reaper's most powerful and deadly attack of them all, he gatther all of his dark and fire energy and summon a vortex spiral of flames that caught his opponents in it before exploding, the damages caused by this attack is high as it use most of it's user energy.

Other abilities

 * Flight: The Reaper is show to be able to fly as in all his fights against the Shinobi Allied Forces and capable of avoiding some of their attacks with ease.
 * High level intelligence: The Reaper proved to be highly intelligent as he was the one who planned the yomas invasion of Osaka and the disappearance of Katsumi, his intellignece was show several time in the series such as during the events of the Hebijo War and the first two Shinobi Great War, he can make several plans and backup plans if the first ones fails, to achieve his goals by ordering his army to attack specific locations of japan, his intelligence make him extremely dangerous as he fully know that the consequences of his actions could destroy the world.
 * Telekenises: The Reaper also possess telekenises which make him able to use it along with his magic powers, he can also use them to grab several object or peoples and throw them out his way or at his opponents, he can also use his telekenises powers on his scythes as a mean to attack his enemies.
 * Resonance: a very unique ability possessed by The Reaper, as explaned by Daidõji it is a constantly active, god-like super ability that causes him to feel and remember the pain of everyone in existence without stop, having infinite range and not being limited by a certain amount of people
 * Revenge-Type Mental Possession: When being killed, The Reaper will take over the body of the one who killed him. It will take some time for him to take over the mind of his victim, however, that person is immediately granted his unique skill, Resonance after being possessed, and once his or her mind breaks from the burden of feeling all of humanity's pain, she will be reborn through them.
 * The Corridor of Darkness: even though it was not show, The Reaper has the ability to use the corridors of darkness to travel to a place to another, he gave this ability to his apprentices to make them able to travel different places like him.