Sitting alone in the haphazardly organized room that the 11th division had set aside for regulatory and legislative purposes, Kaede swiped at sheets of paper with an ink brush. The captain had left the paperwork to her. Again. She suppose that after fifty years she should be used to it, but his absenteeism still made her bristle.
"Lazy, no-good, do-nothing sumbitch..." she muttered under her breath, her words a heavy rustic drawl. It seemed to her that the only time the captain actually got off his ass was when he figured there was a good fight brewing, and anything less was beneath him. That meant that most of the actual running of the division fell to her.
While the hierarchy of the squads had been stable for decades, it was widely recognized that she'd be a strong contender if a captain position opened. The last real hurdle was her bankai, which she'd been working at for eleven years, and those in the know considered her 'past due' for it.
Finishing off the last few strokes of the report, she blew the ink dry and stacked the papers. Rolling them into a sheaf, she bound them with a ribbon and stamped it shut with a wax seal. Dozens of hollow exterminations, hundreds of konso rituals; the report had been long and exceedingly tedious to write. It wasn't a fun job, but it was hers. When she had the parcel bound tightly, she tucked it into an inside pocket of her shihakusho and made her way towards the 1st division's offices to deliver the report.
After seeing the various other charaters posted, I'm going to tweak Kaede a bit. While I like the idea behind her ability, a free-form RP might not be the best place for it. Think I'll go for something simpler.
Well what's stopping her is the part in the shikai description where she has to touch the end-destination of her portal with her sword beforehand. To put a rock in someone's brain, she would have had to already cut their brain with her sword. Kinda makes putting a rock their redundant.
I will admit though that there's room for clarification in the power, and making it so that a living being can't be the end destination is a good additional safeguard to the power.
@Archmage MC You mention that you're worried about the shikai I described, but do you mind if I ask what in particular worries you about it? I put a number of prohibitions on it to make it reasonable, but is there something abusive about it that I'm not thinking of? Criticisms and suggestions are welcome.
Probably the easiest way to think of it is as a two-way tunnel between her sword and a position she has to set up beforehand. Since she has to touch the blade against wherever she's setting the end-point of the 'tunnel' its much less useful if she doesn't have any time to set up. In a long, drawn-out fight, she might be able to set something up during the battle, but that would depend on how much her opponent is pinning her down and putting pressure on her.
Unreleased Appearance - Normally Uramichimori takes the form of a katana with a quatrefoil shaped crossguard, with a circular hole through each of the four 'leaves'. The scabbard is black, with a sea green sageo tied on it.
Release Phrase - "Open the path, Uramichimori"
Shikai Appearance - When released, the hamon of Uramichimori's blade takes on a labyrinthine pattern of right angles, and the hilt grows longer so that the sword resembles a nagamaki.
Shikai Ability - While released, Uramichimori has the ability to make an invisible mark at a particular point in space it touches. It can only maintain one mark at a time, and if a new mark is made the old one is lost. A sort of shortcut exists between the mark and Uramichimori, and Kaede can use it to either a) teleport something in contact with her sword to be in contact with the mark, or b) teleport something in contact with the mark to be in contact with the sword.
The marked end-point cannot be a part of or inside of a living creature. If an object would be teleported inside of something solid, the path of the teleportation is instead displaced to the nearest open space.
History:
Kaede was born towards the end of the warring states period, in Gifu. Her family were rice farmers, with a hard-scrabble lot in life. When conflicts in the region came to a boil and lead to the Battle of Sekigahara, they lost everything. As the armies clashed during the fighting, the rice crop was trampled underfoot and destroyed.
Facing the cold reality of a winter without food, and full of resentment towards the samurai who'd brought about the circumstances, the farmers of the village took to hunting down the routed Toyotomi samurai in packs, wielding bamboo pikes. Mostly injured and exhausted, the defeated samurai were slaughtered. Their swords and armor would fetch a high price; they hoped high enough to keep everyone fed through the cold months, and to rebuild when the time came.
The time never came though. The new regime was quick to call them bandits and outlaws. The samurai that came for them then weren't fatigued from days of marching or half-dead already, they were fresh and ready. The farmers didn't stand a chance this time. It was them who were slaughtered, Kaede included.
Even though the battle had long ended when Kaede was slain and became a Plus, the battlefield still teemed with chaotic action for the dead. Drawn by the vast number of violent deaths and wandering souls, many Hollows had come to feast on the Pluses that had formed there. At the same time, shinigami had come to purify those Hollows, and to perform the konso for the pluses. All in all, it was a tumultuous start to Kaede's afterlife.
After the konso, when the she arrived in Soul Society, she was sent first to the 54th district of Rukongai. It was a busy, run down place, much more urban than the farmlands where she'd grown up. She didn't like it. People weren't neighborly, there were gangs of rowdies and thugs, and she didn't even have her family with her. The sole silver lining was that she wasn't hungry any more.
She spent almost a hundred years there, having traded one type of hard life for another. For most of that time she had trouble with the local thugs, fighting (or more often running from) them. Eventually a surprising change came about: she started feeling hungry again, for the first time since she'd died. That was all the motivation she needed to aim higher, and so she applied for Shin'o Academy.
She failed the first application, but got in on the second try. Her academy years went smoothly, and though she'd had a poor showing on her entrance exam, her results improved dramatically throughout her training. When she graduated she was placed in the 3rd Division. Her early exposure to Hollows proved a boon, as it was easier for her to stay calm during her early missions against them. She gained a reputation for levelheadedness, and eventually rose to hold the 3rd seat of the 3rd division.
Details: Above average at shunpo, below average at hado. Evolution - Space to be filled
Name: Nobira Kaede (Surname, Given Name) Appearance
Age: 432 (~20 physically) Gender: Female Class: Soul Reaper Powers: Zanpakuto - Higanbana (彼我花 ; homophone for the word for Red Spider Lily, but written with the kanji for "The best of oneself and one's foe") Pictures when I again have access to my scanner.
Unreleased Appearance - Normally Higanbana takes the form of a nodachi. The crossguard is circular, with 5 spokes from the blade to the guard. The scabbard is glossy black, with a blood red sageo tied on to it.
Release Phrase - "Bloom out of Season" (Kuruizake, Higanbana!)
Shikai Appearance - During the release, Kaede takes hold of her sword's hilt with both hands. The sword glows and changes into red-and-black patterned handwraps, which wind around her hands and forearms.
Until I can do a hand-drawn one, here's the general idea. The coloration is different, and the wrapping goes up the forearms, but this is a pretty good picture for the most part.
Shikai Ability - Higanbana is a sword that relishes bloodshed. While released, whenever Kaede is injured or injures someone, her speed, strength, and reiatsu are temporarily boosted. The strength of the boost depends on how bad the injury was.
History:
Kaede was born towards the end of the warring states period, in Gifu. Her family were rice farmers, with a hard-scrabble lot in life. When conflicts in the region came to a boil and lead to the Battle of Sekigahara, they lost everything. As the armies clashed during the fighting, the rice crop was trampled underfoot and destroyed.
Facing the cold reality of a winter without food, and full of resentment towards the samurai who'd brought about the circumstances, the farmers of the village took to hunting down the routed Toyotomi samurai in packs, wielding bamboo pikes. Mostly injured and exhausted, the defeated samurai were slaughtered. Their swords and armor would fetch a high price; they hoped high enough to keep everyone fed through the cold months, and to rebuild when the time came.
The time never came though. The new regime was quick to call them bandits and outlaws. The samurai that came for them then weren't fatigued from days of marching or half-dead already, they were fresh and ready. The farmers didn't stand a chance this time. It was them who were slaughtered, Kaede included.
Even though the battle had long ended when Kaede was slain and became a Plus, the battlefield still teemed with chaotic action for the dead. Drawn by the vast number of violent deaths and wandering souls, many Hollows had come to feast on the Pluses that had formed there. At the same time, shinigami had come to purify those Hollows, and to perform the konso for the pluses. All in all, it was a tumultuous start to Kaede's afterlife.
After the konso, when the she arrived in Soul Society, she was sent first to the 54th district of Rukongai. It was a busy, run down place, much more urban than the farmlands where she'd grown up. She didn't like it. People weren't neighborly, there were gangs of rowdies and thugs, and she didn't even have her family with her. The sole silver lining was that she wasn't hungry any more.
She spent almost a hundred years there, having traded one type of hard life for another. Throughout that time she had a on-and-off relationship with the gangs of thugs; sometimes they clashed, and sometimes she rolled with them. After years of fighting, she started feeling hungry again, for the first time since she'd died. Seeing it as a ticket out of the slums, she worked to develope her spiritual strength and applied for Shin'o Academy.
Her academy years went smoothly, and though she had certain behaviour problems, her results in training and examination spoke for themselves. When she graduated she was placed in the 11th Division, where they hoped her rough personality wouldn't be an issue. Her early exposure to Hollows proved a boon, as it helped her keep her head during her early missions against them.
While she was a seated officer, she said something that pissed off the captain (and current Kenpachi). He dragged her into a fight and spent well over an hour kicking the crap out of her. He evidently had fun, as he made her his lieutenant. For a few years the prevailing opinion was that the captain went easy on her, but whenever he heard members of the squad suggest it, he had them fight their new lieutenant. After a few of them were beaten to a bloody pulp, people stopped talking about it.
Details:
Poor hado and bakudo. Good shunpo. Trained herself to Master-level Hakuda to compensate for her shikai's form. In contrast, her zanjutsu hasn't progressed much since she attained shikai. She's been lieutenant of the 11th squad for 50 years. While she hasn't attained bankai yet, she's been training towards it for the past 11 years. She doesn't usually get along with members of the noble houses, and disagrees with them on principle.