is a fictional character in the anime and manga series Reborn! created by Amano Akira.

Character outline

Yamamoto was born in Japan and is 177cm tall, weighing 63kg. He is a Taurus with the bloodtype O. His future dream is to become a professional baseball player.

Addressed as 'Yamamoto' by almost everyone in the series, this baseballer-turned-mafia has a warm and friendly personality and is rarely seen not smiling. He is, however, very naive to the point of believing that Reborn's weapons are advanced kid's toys and that the mafia business is one big cops-and-robbers game. Yamamoto is regarded by various Reborn characters, especially Tsuna, as being reliable and almost never fails to deliver.

In the future arc, he is shown to have learned everything about the mafia and seems to be okay with it. Though he still acts like he is still clueless most of the time.

Abilities

Despite his easygoing personality, Yamamoto has shown that he has hidden talent as an assassin. His fast reflexes and strong body from sport gives him a natural advantage. Yamamoto also has the ability to learn extremely rapidly, committing to memory all 8 forms of the Shigure Souen Style despite being shown only once. He also manages to develop a new form of the style in a life or death situation.

Takeshi uses a bat that Reborn gives him. The bat turns into a katana when swung faster than 300km/h, though he initially did not have much skill in using it. He later receives a kendo blade from is father that becomes a sword when using the Shigure Souen Style.

Takeshi shows a great level of mastery with the sword and the power of the Vongola rings. Takeshi has stated that he practises with his sword every day and if even 0.01g chips off his sword he would sense it. He has a box of a swallow capable of making heavy rain and attacking opponents.

He also borrowed an attack of Squalo's called Attacco Di Squalo(Shark Attack) which when hit by his blade causes a moment of Paralysis because it is fused with his Rain Tranquility flame. It then dulls the paralyzed person's body.

Shigure Souen Style

After coming up short in his first fight against Squalo, and then being told that he would just get in the way by Reborn, he asked his father for kendo lessons. What he did not know was that his father is an incredibly skilled swordsman who uses his sword to kill. His father specializes in the .

The Shigure Souen Style is a notoriously deadly sword style that is only passed down to worthy successors. Each 'form' of the style is only shown once to the student - if the student is worthy to succeed, he only needs to see it once to remember how to use it from then on. However, as new forms were created the weaker branches deteriorate and others disappear as there is no worthy successor. Hence this style can be called as the perfect, flawless style.

The Shigure Souen Style taught to Yamamoto consist of 8 forms; four defensive, four offensive. Yamamoto has further created at least three new forms, forms 9, 10 and 11.

Forms

1. Torrential Rain 車軸の雨 (Shajiku no Ame) - Offensive' Yamamoto charges forward and attacks with a thrust.
2. Surging Rain 逆巻く雨 (Sakamaku Ame) - Defensive. Yamamoto lifts waves of water around him then ducks, putting his sword protectively in front.
3. Last Minute Rain 遣らずの雨 (Yarazu no Ame) -Offensive. Yamamoto drops the katana kicking it with his foot to send it flying in a stab.
4. Unknown, deducted to be defensive.
5. Early Summer Rain　五月雨 (Samidare) - Offensive. Yamamoto slashes diagonally but in midway he drops the sword, switching hands, before finishing the attack. Able to put off the timing in his opponent.
6. Unknown, deducted to be defensive.
7. Spraying Rain　繁吹き雨 (Shibuki Ame) - Defensive. Yamamoto holds the sword backwards and spins to create a whirlwind-like shield.
8. Pelting Rain　篠突く雨 (Shinotsuku Ame) - Offensive. Uses the blade of the sword to cut around the bearer.
9. Duplicate Rain　うつし雨 (Utsushi Ame) - Offensive. Yamamoto makes a tidal wave with his sword then defends and when his opponent attacks his reflection from behind he attacks from the front.
10. Special form Scontro di Rodine (Clash of the Swallow) - Special. Seems to be a tidal wave of water that surrounds him while he charges, led by the swallow from his box.
11. Special form Beccata di Rodine (Swallow's Beak)- Special. Yamamoto thrusts his blade multiple times with one hand.

Synopsis

Introduction Arc

Takeshi is the star of the school's baseball team, making it into the regulars even though he is only a first year student. He is generally known as the nice and popular guy. He has a lot of love for the sport, but has been experiencing a bad slump. One day he gets his hopes up after some small talk with Tsuna, but breaks his arm during training. He thinks his career in baseball, the only thing he's good at, would go downhill from there, and plans to end his life by jumping off the school roof. Tsuna saves his life. This is however left out of the anime in which Yamamoto became friends with Tsuna during a volleyball game. After he is 'rescued,' he becomes one of Tsuna's good friends and joins Tsuna on his adventures during this arc.

Kokuyō Gang Arc

During the Kokuyo Arc, Takeshi is ranked 2nd as Namimori Junior High's strongest student, making him a target of Mukuro's gang. He faces his opponent Ken at the Kokuyo's hideout, where Yamamoto falls into the old animal cage and is effectively trapped with Ken who broke his baseball bat. During the fight Yamamoto shielded his body, as if injuring himself would mean a loss. This was because there was an important game in the autumn season coming up. However, when Tsuna is pushed down by Reborn, Yamamoto sacrificed an arm in order to defeat Ken. Yamamoto was later badly injured in his fight with Lanchia.

The Varia Arc

After his first defeat by Superbi Squalo, Takeshi is trained by his father in kendo. During his battle, Takeshi fought Squalo again for the right to bear the Ring of Rain. After an extensive, bloody sword fight, Takeshi won out in the end by using his newly created ninth form of the Shigure Souen Style, Mirroring Rain, and became the official successor of the legendary deadly sword style.

In the sky match he was revived by Hibari. Meeting up with Gokudera, the two then proceeded to the gymnasium to rescue Chrome. The second they entered the field however, they had been trapped into Marmon's illusion, after Belphegor rescued him. They were required to surrender the rings, in exchange for Chrome's life. Yamamoto devised a cunning plan to turn the tables on the two. However this backfired and they were ultimately saved by Ryohei, who broke the gym and the illusion.

Future Arc

Nine years and ten months into the future, Takeshi is no longer the oblivious person he used to be. He makes his first appearance when he arrives to lead Lal Mirch and the accompanying Tsuna and Gokudera to Vongola's secret hideout. As he tells Tsuna about the war, we learn that his father has been killed. His future self was replaced by the younger Takeshi later during a fight with members of the black spell.

At the beginning of Lal's training, Takeshi drew out the ring's power in an instant, however his flame was only strong enough to open one of his boxes. He fought a losing battle against Gamma with Hayato when they were searching for the future Hibari, during which he had a fight with Hayato. Both of them worked together but were beaten badly in the end. They were saved by Hibari, and Takeshi began a new intensive training with Reborn as his home tutor.

Yamamoto's training reached a point where Reborn cannot help him anymore as he is a gunman, not a swordsman. Therefore he shows Yamamoto a video that Squalo has given him roughly titled 'The Road to becoming the Swords Emperor'. It has recorded the 100 battles Squalo won for him to be declared the new Swords Emperor. This video gave Yamamoto new motivation and after three days, he is able to use his newly created Shigure Souen Style form to pierce Reborn's hat. Reborn declares his training complete. Following his training, Reborn tells Yamamoto about the secret of the Arcobaleno, but asks him not to tell anyone else until after their attack on the Millefiore base.

During the attack against the Millefiore he was he was separated from Ryohei and Gokudrea when Shouichi transformed the base. Afterwards, while following a map of the Millefiore's base Yamamoto encounters the Millefiore's strongest swordsman, Genkishi. After chargeing forwards with his Scontro Di Rodine (Clash of the Swallow) he was knocked unconscious by Genkishi's Mist Box Weapon, as since the beginning of the fight the construction of the room had been an illusion.

Notes and references