Zaigou
General:
Zaigou are spirits that have been around for centuries. There has never been a large number of Zaigou, but as threats increase in Hueco Mundo, the Zaigou start propagating.
The Zaigou are specifically tasked with countering the threat of the Vizards and the more powerful Hollows. The threats these two groups pose to the continual cycle of souls to and from Earth is very real.
It is to counter this threat that the Zaigou are created and their powers are focused around. Their Reido blasts can counter Ceros from both Vizard and Hollows. They have enhanced senses to help the Zaigou hunt Hollows and Vizard.
Description:
Zaigou look like regular souls, with their own sense of fashion and personal looks. There is no real outward change to show that a particular person is a Zaigou or not.
There is one distinguishing mark on a Zaigou, and that is a specialized Z brand on their body someplace.
It shows that they are a Zaigou and it is a means of identifying a true Zaigou. The symbol burns where the Zaigou feels it when in the presence of another Zaigou, a hollow or a Vizard. When the Zaigou has changed into their hunting form, their reiatsu gains a black element that can either totally take over their aura or just accent it depending on the Zaigou’s personal power and experience. This is from the process that creates the Zaigou. Their natural reiatsu color darkens and in some cases the change is so massive that they have a black aura tinged by their normal reiatsu color. Their eyes glow with a black light, again tinged with their normal reiatsu color and to normal vision, their skin darkens slightly.
The Z symbol will become very visible and it will glow with the reiatsu color and be haloed with black again. This cannot be covered since the light will shine through anything that tries to cover it up. It can, however, be hidden from sight behind a body, behind an object or whatever. In other words it can be kept out of sight but not covered.
Powers:
The main power of the Zaigou is the Reido blast. This is a focused burst of reiatsu fired from the hand as a Cero is. This blast counters the reiatsu of Hollows and Vizard, and is countered by the same things. It has a physical force and if it is fired at a non-hollow, it can hurt them and knock them off their feet.
When fired against a being with Hollow powers, however, it disrupts the spiritual power of the being and shatters the bonds between the atoms of the Hollow. This has the effect of completely destroying a hollow without chance of it being recovered. Please note, this is similar to the Quincy’s power which destroys the Hollow spirit instead of salvaging the hollow to be reborn at some time on Earth.
When shot against high powered Hollows (like Arancar) or against humans with hollow based powers (like Vizard or Chad), it disrupts and cancels the blasts fired by those beings, and can harm them physically. It will not evaporate them as it will against minor hollows, but it will injure them as if they had been hit by a Cero blast. It will also knock them off their feet.
The Reido blasts can be used to destroy physical objects if desired.
The Reido blasts have several different power levels, and which power level the individual is at depends solely on the experience and reiatsu level of the Zaigou himself.
Abilities:
The Zaigou has enhanced senses, all physical senses and the reiatsu sense. They can smell everything in a 50 foot range, and can track by scent no matter how little physical trace there is to follow. Their vision is equivalent to 20/6 vision in both eyes (what an Eagle sees at) and can see things that are very far away as if they were very close. While it is not binocular vision, it is very close.
The Zaigou has excellent night vision. They have many more rods and cones in their retina and as such can see in a fully dark room as though they were looking at the same scene in full moonlight. With the extra cones in the eye, they have much better color saturation and quite a lot of natural camouflage does not work with them.
Add to that that the typical Zaigou can see movement much more accurately than many other creatures, and you have a being designed for hunting.
Hearing for a Zaigou means that, un-enhanced, they can hear a normal voiced conversation from the wall opposite of a soundproofed room. They can hear a fly buzzing and accurately identify it and place the location of that fly from nearly 400 feet away.
Touch sensitivity will allow them to read printed text with their fingertips by feeling the raised ink on the document. Taste sensitivity will allow them to taste a substance that is only 3 parts per million in water. In other words, the Zaigou would be able to accurately taste a substance dissolved in three drops of water which was then diluted into 150 liters of plain water.
Reiatsu sensitivity will allow a Zaigou to find, identify and track a person by spiritual pressure alone from a mile away. Closer than 100 yards, any shift in a target’s spiritual pressure will be easily sensed by the Zaigou.
The hearing sensitivity will mean that they can be overwhelmed by noises that are in excess of 150 decibels, deafening them for a time. Bright lights will likewise blind them, and very strong scents can mask a more subtle scent.
With their Reido, they can use it to create a personal shield by channeling it into their personal aura, allowing a cero blast that is fired at them which they are unaware of to be dissipated totally.
Their Reido can be used to add to the effectiveness of things such as Kidou and other reiatsu based abilities. But they must be in their Zaigou state for that to happen.
One special ability they have is the ability to go into a “berserk” state. Normally when a Zaigou is in Zaigou state, the Shinigami spirit (who they normally are) is the one in charge. They are rational and can direct their activities, plan, scheme and use tactics to overcome their enemy. But in their Berserk state, they let the Inner Hollow take total control and they loose the ability to rationally control their actions. They become a killing beast, reduced to the most primitive responses to stimuli possible. They cannot plan, they cannot use tactics, they also cannot control who they are attacking at any one time. They only live for destruction. All their physical abilities are enhanced and they gain boosts to their Reido abilities and are even more able to kill.
The can leave this state after some time (a d10 is rolled at the beginning of this state and after that many posts that are not one liners) the Shinigami can recover and return to their normal state. They can stay in the berserk state if they choose, but the post count is the MINIMUM amount of time they will be in the berserk state. After that time, they might return to “normal” or not, as they choose.
Genesis:
Zaigou are created, not bred. You cannot have a Zaigou baby from two Zaigou having sexual relations.
To create a Zaigou, a Shinigami who has at least their Shikai release must do two things; fight and kill on their own a massive amount of hollows, generally from 500 to 750 hollows in one setting. The other is then execute another Shinigami.
The mass murders of hollows “prime the pump” essentially and the Shinigami in question gets elevated to another level of spiritual awareness by this event. Deliberately hunting down and killing these hollow changes the mind from calm and rational to nearly psychotic.
The murder of the Shinigami apparently breaks down the bonds in their psyche and makes it possible for the next step to be done.
At this point the incipient Zaigou must fight an internal battle. Essentially what will happen is the proceeding process has fractured the soul of the Shinigami into several parts, the Inner Hollow that the Vizard use, the Zanpakto spirit which the Shinigami use, the spirit that is the Shinigami himself, and the Zaigou spirit which is unique to them. The Zaigou spirit has the function of protecting the Zanpakto spirit from the Inner Hollow. When the Inner hollow is alone, that is a Vizard, but when the Inner Hollow is kept away from the Zanpakto spirit, that defending spirit is a Zaigou.
It is this conflict between the Inner Hollow, the Zaigou spirit and the Zanpakto that is the source of the power that the Zaigou uses. When this conflict is occurring in earnest, the wellspring of the Reido blasts and the reiatsu merges with the former Shinigami, the new Zaigou and gives them the abilities specified above. It is this synthesis of the four spirits, Zaigou, Hollow, Zanpakto and person, that allows them to fight at such a high level.
