Aliases/ Nicknames:
Okyan-chan (tomboy)
Physical Description:
Physical Description: Akinori's hair is a shock of light purple that was originally clipped into an unevenly layered bob, but it's long since grown out of that style and falls far past her shoulders. The ends of the longest pieces, which fade to a lighter shade at the tips, curl like little whips around her knees. Her bangs are fairly unruly, one lock in particular determinedly remaining right over the bridge of her long, thin nose. Her almond shaped eyes dominate her heartshaped face, and always seem to have a bit of a mischevious glint to them. She's tall for her age and built like a runner, with a slim, boyish figure.
Aki sticks to the traditional shikuhasho, but she adds her own personal touches to it. The sleeves of her black kimono are a tad shorter than normal, revealing a few metal bangles that have been slipped around her slim wrists and occasionally catch on the hem. One can see the typical white kosode beneath the top. Rather than the standard white sash, she's chosen a slim sash in dark blue that's tied at the side in a simple knot, the ends dangling rakishly to her knees. Her standard-issue set of black hakama are a bit worn, but serviceable. Along with that, Akinori's got on the usual white tabi socks and straw zori. Because she's always running everywhere, she replaces her sandals more often than any other gear she owns, and would wear tennis shoes if she ever got the chance in Academy.
Zanpaktou:
Name: Shiraume (white plum tree)
Description: Shiraume is a katana kept in a black lacquered sheath. The hilt is bound in black sageo braiding, underneath which glint bronze menuki in the shape of plum flowers. An orchard of blooming plum trees are carved and highlighted in white lacquer across the unpolished, rough tsuba.. A scattering of plum petals are painted along the far end of the saya.
Command: Sake(bloom)
Shikai Form:(not yet achieved)
Akinori is so not a girly-girl, and she's kind of proud of that. Shiraume, however, is so feminine it makes her teeth itch, what with the flower motif all over the zanpakutou. Unfortunatly, she gets even more so when released, becuase Shiraume is, at its heart, that unacknowledged desire Akinori tamped down loooooong ago to be more feminine like her elder sisters.
In Shikai form, Shiraume turns into a steel and ivory warfan. It's about the width of Akinori's arm when fully unfurled, yet she can easily maneuver it with one hand. Engraved lines of kanji can be seen running down each of the fan's steel ribs, and set with mother-of-pearl. However, the script used is so old it's practically unintelligible to Aki. She can make a guess from the recognition of one or two words that they're Shinto prayers, but what exactly they say remains to be seen.
Given that she's studied the use of the fan in her martial art class, Akinori will learn to tolerate the extremely girly looking weapon. However, she won't *like* it. "You're ruining my image!"
Powers:
(work in progress)
Special Accessories:
She has a couple of metal bangles that she never removes.
Skills:
In life, Akinori was an accomplished practitioner of tai chi, and got pretty far studying it before she died. For all that she hates repeated patterns and exactitude, she loved the way the martial art taught you to flow with the punches, accept what was coming your way...and then either divert the attack or use its power against it. Learning the art was as easy as breathing for her, given her nature. Not that there wasn't a bit of teen rebellion going on there, what with her BANZAI JAPAN IN ALL THINGS family. Sometimes other cultures have wisdom to share, okay? No harm in learning a bit of it. So what if it's Chinese? It gave her grace, flexibility and athleticism - and burned off plenty of excess energy, which in the opinons of many was a good thing.
Abilities:
Kidou 1-10.
Personality:
Akinori is an openminded, confident shinigami that has learned to march to her own beat, rather than that of the drummer leading the pack. Someone once said to her “If you don’t like where the road leads, why not step off the path?” She’s approached her life (and her afterlife) with that mantra in mind, finding her own way through it even when others are going in entirely different directions. Aki will readily admit that sometimes her determination to forge her own path leads her into more difficulty than she’d want or expect, but she rarely ever chooses to step back into the tried and true because of a little adversity. She wants to be out there doing something new and interesting, rather than treading the same boring path everyone else has, but she doesn't stress out when things aren't going her way.
No surprise her name means "future brightness on the everflowing river", with the way she looks ahead.
Sometimes she annoys people (particulary the leader-types) with the cheerful, easygoing way she questions How Things Are and heads off on her own tangent. This is not to say that she pays no attention the lessons others have come away with, or is disobedient/rebellious; she listens, does her homework when she doesn’t understand a situation, and when she’s given directions or orders, she sticks to them (for the most part). It’s just that she can never accept that there’s only one way of doing things. However, Akinori is one of those people that tries to get stuff done the first time around, and stresses very little if she fails. There's always the next time - and a new way.
She is something of a tomboy, and proud of it. Sometimes people will get shocked at the way she casually uses 'boku' and 'watashi' to refer to herself, with the occasional 'ore' when she's really feeling cranky. The expected feminine 'atashi' gives her *hives*. You will *never* catch her using 'atashi'. EVER. If she ever does, there's something way wrong. Running would be advisable.
Biography/History:
Nagarekawa Kenji was really looking forward to the birth of his second child. He'd already been given the world's most perfect daughter, Kaede, who was the spitting image in looks and nature of his beloved wife Fuuka. He had a second daughter, Yuuha, who was following in the footsteps of the first. And now..now it was time for a son. A son who could be the heir to his name and his political seat in the Japan Diet. Kenji even had a name for him all ready: Akinori, in recognition of the bright future he foresaw for him.
Unfortunately, that was not to be.
Fuuka had warned him that boys were few and far between in her family, and she proved it by producing another girl. Why he went ahead and gave the name he'd been saving up for a son to his daughter, no one was ever really sure. Some joked he'd just given up after three times in the delivery room.
Anyway, Akinori got the name, and even if she was a girl, she refused to act like one from the moment she figured out crawling and then words. Her parents were never quite sure what to do with her; where her sisters both behaved like proper Yamato Nadeshikos, blushing and submissive, Aki was loud and boisterous. Where Kaede took up flower arranging and married well, and Yuuha contemplated a career as housewife, Akinori studied martial arts and wanted to be an archaeologist. She was never flat out *trouble* - no, her personality was just unexpected. No one knew where on earth she got that from. Maybe a family curse was coming to fruition, or something.
Naturally, that very personality got her a one-way ticket to Soul Society shortly after the age of sixteen, thanks to jaywalking and thinking she had *plenty* of time to beat the red light. Aki quickly learned, as the shinigami came to collect her soul, that sometimes rules have penalties. However, all she *really* learned from it is 'next time, be sure to run faster when you see the light starting to blink'.
Aki was one of the lucky ones, landing in a fairly decent district of Rukongai and being taken in shortly after by a scholar and his slowly growing brood of kids. For the first few decades, it seemed like she'd replaced a lifetime of schooling for an afterlife of same, but then a chance encounter with a peach merchant indicated her growing spiritual power. She sneaked a peach off his cart during a break in class and didn't realize what she was doing when she bit into it. It took a whack from her adopted father's ruler to make her realize she hadn't eaten once since coming to Soul Society, and what that meant.
Akinori was marched off to the Academy with very little delay, and she's been counting the days to graduation ever since.
Powers:
(Throughout your entire profile you should have been making a list of their powers, here you will simply list all of those powers.)
