╰☆╮Character Information
Name: 霧原愛音 - Kirihara Aine
Nickname:
Age (Appearance): 24
Actual Age: 345
Birth Date: May 5th
Squad: Thirteenth
Rank: Captain
Reitsu Color: Pure Black
╰☆╮Appearance
Eye Color: Bright Emerald Green
Hair Color: True-black with violet highlights
Hair Description: An ever characteristic chicken-butt styling, with long forelocks reaching her chest while the back of her hair is shorn short and stands at attention in soft spikes.
Height: 5’
Weight: 102 lbs.
Markings: A singular white scar just below her left shoulder, slashing horizontally across the skin.
Description: Small in stature, Aine’s slim build is well proportioned between torso and legs but possesses long toned muscles hidden just below her milk and honey skin. Because of her fit physic, she has almost no chest and a firm posterior reminiscent of an Olympic gymnast, yet she still holds her feminine curves. Easily seen as cute, Aine’s face is soft with a small nose and marginally thin lips. Her large eyes are bright emerald in color and surrounded by a thick lacing of coal lashes. Framing her entire face is her strangely cut ebony locks, with her bangs hanging long enough to brush the underside of her nose and messy forelocks that reach down to her chest, while the back of her hair stands at attention in soft, short spikes. Also, she sports a hideous scar just below her left shoulder, a remnant from nearly loosing her arm as a child. Finally, her last two distinguishing features are her blunt and naturally black nails, and the tattoo of a single, nondescript, black butterfly on the front of her left hip.
Although Aine is well built and undoubtedly pretty by most standards, she doesn’t particularly like to take care of herself beyond standing under a burning hot shower once a day. Her least favorite activity is brushing her dark hair, so she needs to be reminded by those around her to actually get the tangles out more often then not.
As for clothing, Aine has forgone much of her old attire in exchange for, what she feels emulates human world clothing more closely then the standard Shihakushou. Wearing the top of a sleeveless Shihakushou, a short sleeved red hoody has been placed underneath, while painted on black jeans swath her legs. Her Haori hangs loosely off her left shoulder, the long sleeve engulfing her slim hand while the right side of the garment has been cut away. The Haori continues to flow past her waist, but is cinched in place by a thick white obi, layered with a black dual pronged belt, studded with eyelets down the length of the leather, while the split tails of her Hoari end just before her feet, the lining flashing deep red-orange. Encasing her legs from just below her knees down are a pair of three inch, chunk heeled, red converse boots, detailed with white stitching and laces. Lastly, she strings her Zanpakutou across her back from left to right, along with the matching set of six daggers, three on either hip.
╰☆╮Personality
Relationships: A brother-sister relationship with the Eleventh Division Captain, Ketsu Eki. Although Aine is the, by far, older of the two, the big man refers to her as his 'younger sister' and inserts 'chan' after her name whenever possible. Additionally, he's a bit of a perv when she's around.
Description:
Extraordinarily layered, here’s a break down of those psyche layers in a more manageable set of three.
The Outer Layers – The sarcastic, confident, snippy and snarky woman that Aine wears as her persona day-to-day. She speaks harshly, and with little consideration for those around her unless she is obligated due to ranking. That being said, she rarely complies since there is only one rank higher then her own beyond the control of Central 46. In battle, Aine is hard and mocking, taking a perverse delight in taunting her opponents when she can, and running circles around them with her overly abundant speed.
The Middle Layers – A scholar, Aine is more intelligent then she typically lets on, and will correct her subordinates quickly with proper information and teachings, or will offer her services should it be necessary. Tactful when need be, these layers include her dislike of showboating in battle. Should an opponent do such, she will retort with disdain, feeling it is the utmost of a waist to give away a technique when it could be conserved for later surprise use.
The Inner Layers – Far more kind then she wishes she was, Aine is highly empathetic and concerned for those she cares for. Of course, because this is buried within her conscious mind, very few see this soft side. She’s also clumsy outside of battle, inner thoughts distracting her until she simply runs into a wall, poll, person or Hollow.
Likes:
- Mango mochi
The colors; red, black, white and gold
A good sense of humor
Kenjutsu of any variety
Singing above all else
Dislikes:
- Idiots
Pushy men and women
Spicy foods
Hakuda and Kidou, she fails epically at both
╰☆╮Zanpakutou
Spirit's Name: 暗影 - Kuraiei a.k.a. An-ei
Sealed Appearance: In this early stage Aine’s zanpakutou is an arm and a half in length, or basically is an Oodachi, give or take a few inches for a person of her size. Looking at the blade the latent element is clearly visible in the black coloration of the Mune (Non-bladed edge) and Hamon (Bladed edge.) The Tsuba (Hand Guard) has a concave triangular form and is gold with flowing lines and delicate cut outs, making it appear frail. The Tsukamaki (Hilt Wrapping) is deep red and the Same (Diamonds formed by the hilt wrapping) underneath are gold. The Kashira (End cap or butt of the sword) is gold as well. The Saya (Sheathe) is black and the Koiguchi* and Kojira* (*Metal portions along the sheathe) are gold. The Sagoe (Cord used to keep the sword in the proper position at the waist) is a deep red and extending form it is a loop of cord that attaches to the Kojira and is used to keep the blade slung across Aine’s back. Also, Aine being the scatterbrain she is outside of battle often gets the end of the Saya or Tsuka (Hilt) stuck on things while she’s moving about.
Spirit's Description: An-ei is literally a shadow. He is an incarnation of the night itself so much so that he appears to be the moon hung in a black sky. An-ei is a tall 6’7” and lithe with a sharply angled face and thin bony hands that are a perfect, glowing alabaster white. His eyes are dark amethyst and are usually narrowed in distaste for one thing or another. Surrounding his thin face and hands is his long midnight hair and layered clothing that appear to be in constant motion, as if he’s submerged in water. The stark contrast of his skin, hair and clothing make it seem as though his face and hands are disembodied and his body is much larger than it actually is. An-ei is conniving, sarcastic and sly, and tends to dislike men that associate themselves with Aine, no matter who they are. Conversely, An-ei is deathly afraid of being subjected to Aine’s anger, although he never seems to think about his actions or words which causes him to take the brunt of her temper more often then not.
In Aine’s inner world, An-ei literally is her shadow, his feet connect to hers and his form is seen only through the water. He does have the ability while in the inner world to rise out of the water but the action tends to cause him immense pain to do so. But, the most interesting feature of An-ei is that he is independent of Aine. Although he is a zanpakutou and birthed from her soul, he can at his leisure, leave the inner world without her consent. He is in essence a separate being and at any time could leave Aine and take his powers with him, making her unable to wield him. Yet, An-ei is bound to her through an unhealthy form of love, which is why he’s immensely jealous of any man that associates with her. He wants her all to himself but is subservient to her whims over all else, causing quite the love -hate relationship between the two. Other then this strange alignment, An-ei makes good use of his freedom and is likely found in Aine’s living quarters during the day, while he’s seen trailing her at night.
Shikai Release Phrase: 無限な夜に達して,(Mugen na yoru ni tasshite) 暗影. (Reach into the endless night, Darkest Shadow)
Shikai Description: An-ei shrinks in size, back down to a standard katana length. At the tip of the blade the Kissaki (Very tip of the blade) remains intact but reverses over the Mune to pull another tip out of the blade to face backwards. As the Mune and Hamon, both still black in color, extend back towards the Tsuka they slightly thicken, the Hamon coming to a shallow point before turning up into the Habiki (Small metal block fit over the blade just before the tsuba). The gold Habiki runs a thin gold strip halfway up the Mune, the rest of the Habiki cupping the blade. Centered on the Mune near the Habiki are three small rivets that pierce the blade on both sides. The Habiki runs seamlessly into the Tsuka as the Tsuba is no existent on the sword. The Tsukamaki is still colored dark red and the Same remain gold along with the Kashira. Inserted through the hole in the Kashira is a thin gold ring about three inches in diameter. Hanging from the loop is a long dark red sash that is double over on itself, the ends of which are tattered. (Think of a mixture between a traditional katana and a scimitar) In addition, the six, eight inch throwing daggers of the sealed form remain.
The most basic of powers that An-ei possesses in Shikai, the basis behind the blade is the ability to pierce and extreme accuracy. The Shikai release is comparatively very weak to others and is meant to be. The only redeeming factor is that although weak, it has the capacity to cause severe piercing wounds if Aine has the proportional reiatsu to her opponent or can overpower them with a quick burst, which most likely ends up draining her.
Abilities:
- 薄明毒液 (Hakumei Dokueki: Twilight Venom) An-ei is a zanpakutou with a base in precision. As Aine has a lower amount of strength and is smaller in size than most of the opponents she has to face, precision in striking an opponent is key to her fighting style. Hakumei Dokueki is a close range piercing attack that really only works within a foot of the opponent’s body. By charging An-ei with reiatsu, Aine can manipulate a single or multiple points on the blade to produce fast striking barbs, only about six at a time. The closer the range the fiercer the attack is, as these barbs, if still connected to the blade, pierce a part of the body, a powerful numbing muscle relaxant is injected causing the injected area to fall limp. The poison doesn’t stay in the system for long, only staying in the area it was injected and quickly degenerating over about eight minutes [Two to three posts at max] The barbs can also be fired a few at a time, about six just like before, but are completely devoid of poison. (For clarification, the venom generated in this attack is reiatsu based, carrying Aine’s unique reiatsu signature which gives the poison a high resistance to extreme heat.)
影剔 (Eideki: Shadow Cutting) A passive technique, just like it sounds, this is the ability to cut shadows and subsequently cut the object that cast the shadow. (For instance, if a tree were casting a shadow towards Aine and her opponent was standing near the tree. Aine could cut the shadow and make the tree fall onto the opponent or something similar) The limitations of Eideki are proportional to Aine’s reiatsu exertion. She can cut others through this technique, but must increase the output of reiatsu to effect opponents who are intrinsically stronger then her. The same can be said for cutting materials like metal, crystal or resistant synthetic materials. If she can’t cut it normally or with the addition of reiatsu, she can’t cut the object using Eideki.
Bankai Release: 沖天暗影- Okiten Kuraiei (Raising Heavens Darkest Shadow)
Bankai Description: Aine has possessed her Bankai for quite some time and although she’s spent countless hours perfecting her already existing abilities, she’s still has issues controlling her Bankai correctly at times. Just like Shikai the innate abilities of the blade remain intact, but instead of remaining as the only innate abilities speed is added to the list. Because her Shikai release is subdued in power, her Bankai makes up for the lack by expressing the power that should have been present in the Shikai within this total release. Effectively, her Bankai is on the higher end of exponential increase, which includes her own innate speed. Due to the new excessive boost in speed, Aine can accidentally give herself whiplash while stopping or turning from the built momentum. Over time these occurrence have become few and fare between but Aine periodically suffers from bouts of arthritis like symptoms.
Blade Description - An-ei returns to its original Oodachi length, but in this form instead of curving like traditional katana, the blade remains completely straight. The Mune at the end of the blade stops abruptly and turns downwards at the Hamon, both still black, the Hamon itself continuing on for a few more inches until forming the Kissaki and then cutting downwards. Following the Hamon back to the Tsuka, the blade becomes thinner than at the tip. Before coming to where the Habiki would be the Hamon curves down slightly and then turns back up. The Habiki and Tsuba are completely forgotten, the blade turning straight into the Tsuka. The Tsukamaki is yet again still dark red, the Same are now black and the Kashira is black as well. On the slight point at the base of the blade near the Tsuka is a very slim black gem that fills a round portion of the area. Another larger gem sits just right of where the Mune falls towards the Hamon. The Shinogi (Blood groove) is a ¼ inch thick dark red gash running the length of the blade about a ½ from the back of the blade. Near the gem next to the Tsuka the Shinogi forms three small diamonds about ¼ inch apart.
Release Description - Aine’s Bankai release is in no way spectacular, in fact, it’s rather sedate. When she calls the release, her body is swathed in her black reiatsu for the half second it takes for the blade to shift to its new form. Afterwards, Aine is revealed as the field around her begins to darken, allowing the shadows in the area to spread and blend together. If she happens to be wearing a shihakushou, after she’s revealed her kosode and undershirt are missing, replace by a deep red wrapping just over her chest, and a skin tight black fabric that circles her neck, falls over the top of her shoulders and surrounds her upper arms. If Aine is not in a shihakushou, an ethereal tailed coat forms from her reiatsu and roils from her back and shoulders like thick smoke before dissipating at the ends of the tails. To make it perfectly clear, Aine’s Bankai transition takes less then a second to complete, allowing her to continue fighting without pause. She’s also fond of attacking others whose releases take more then five or six seconds to conclude, since she finds it easy to zip in and out, especially if the release has to be undergone while stationary.
Abilities:
- 薄明毒液 (Hakumei Dokueki: Twilight Venom) This is simply a pumped up version of the former Hakumei Dokueki. The range of the attack increases to about five feet and the venom not only numbs an area but injects and anticoagulant, allowing the small wound to bleed freely for a time.
影剔 (Eideki: Shadow Cutting) Like Hakumei Dokueki, Eideki is powered up and allows Aine to use a lesser amount of reiatsu to cut difficult objects. She still has to proportionally tune her reiatsu to cut those stronger then her, but the act becomes less difficult with the release of Bankai.
天井天下 (Tenjou Tenge: Heaven’s Wrath) This is a single shot attack that can only be use twice per battle because of the amount of reiatsu to perform the technique and the time in which it takes to set up. To begin the attack Aine has to charge spots or objects on the ground with pockets of her reiatsu. Once she has at least three places suitably charged she then has to lure the opponent into the triangular field and hold them there in one way or another. To activate those charged pockets on the ground, Aine has to release a wave of reiatsu downwards from above the opponent. This triggers the stored reiatsu which then burst upwards in the form of three black lightening strikes. They are nearly instantaneous and are extremely difficult to avoid. To think of how the attack really work, think of how lightening forms with negative and positively charged ions in the air and in the ground.
Aine will often use her set of daggers to help set up the reiatsu pockets. Each one of her daggers is implanted with a core from her zanpakutou, letting them resonate and hold her reiatsu without shattering.
悪血の哀歌 (Akuchi no Aika: Lament of Impure Blood) Aine usually reserves this attack for a last ditch bid at winning a fight. When she has been bloodied from battle, by imbuing her voice with her reiatsu and calling the name of the attack…all of the blood that she has spilt from her body turns black. She is then able to manipulate this blood by mind, voice or by hand movements, each consecutively better for controlling the attack. With the blood she is able to form thin shield and whip like blades or needles, making this fairly useful for both offensive and defensive measures. The attacks structure is very simple so it lasts as long as she is able to control her reiatsu, or until she’s so run down she’s nearly let go of all of her reiatsu.
神 祐 (Shinyuu: Heavenly Protection) One of the only pieces of Aine’s Bankai that’s directly tied to darkness as a whole. Shinyuu has two forms; the first is simply the manipulation of shadows with the use of hand gestures to form temporary shields. The second form is much more difficult to use and expends more energy, by being in a darkened area which the release of her Bankai supplies, Aine is able to cloak herself in shadows and travel through them for short distances, only about a hundred feet at a time. The only difference between other shadow manipulators is that Aine actually sinks into the two dimensional shadow, melding with it as she travels or hides. This makes it exceedingly hard to find or strike her while she’s amerced, but the transition between two dimensions to three dimensions takes a toll on her body and depletes her reiatsu reserves quickly.
╰☆╮Abilities
Aine is a prodigy at Zanjutsu and headed in the same direction with Hohou. Zanjutsu is a passion for her and she is always practiced and patient because of regular kata sessions. Hohou on the other hand came very natural to her over the years, yet she was able to walk on air long before being able to use shunpo. Combining the two skills together, Aine has become a formidable close range fighter, who is limited only by how physically weak she is, especially when it comes to Hakuda. Even with such a weak frame Aine compensates with extreme flexibility, reaction time and her agility, all cumulating in a quick and efficient style of fighting.
Aine also holds some impressive thieving skills due to her past in the Rukongai, so she’s adept in lock picking and bypassing most security measures while remaining silent. Her hang up on infiltration is with technologies she’s unfamiliar with but she’s a typical fast learner with a decent short and long term memory, great for keeping up with whatever she’s presented with. Besides that, Aine is an armature at using herbs for healing. Growing up the way she did made it difficult to afford anything, so she had to learn ways to take care of herself, especially when sick. Over time and through trial and error she learned what herbs she could use for what ailments. Other than all these practical skills Aine has an immense talent for singing…it comes naturally to her along with her musical voice. Because of her musical inclination she tends to take time to write down songs she’s recently been contemplating. Yet, she easily becomes embarrassed if she’s caught singing. She’s perfectly fine if she decides to sing around others, its only when she’s caught.
Shinzou (心像, Mental Imaging) - Besides her skills, an ability that Aine has perfected over time is the ability to read large amounts of individual reishi, interpreting the way they are displaced and using it to read movement around her. In the past she learned early on that she had reiatsu and with that reiatsu she could push and pull the air to produce small rasping sounds. With practice, she was able to create symphonies from what little musical instruments she’d heard, but a side effect of such skill was the awareness of the reishi in the air, and extremely fine control and understanding of her own reiatsu. In the Academy is where she put this awareness to good use, although it caused her to pass out countless times from the shear volume of information assaulting her senses at once, yet it came in especially handy for detecting those using Shunpo or other types of fast movement. Even after graduating she continued to hone the ability and overcame her fainting spells. Now her reishi sense is one of her greatest assets, but she can be overloaded if she’s forced to track five or more targets at once. Other draw backs include the distance she can sense at, only about 15 meters at max and with extreme concentration. So, typically she will reduce the area of sensing down to four feet or less. Think of it as a spiddy sense, she can feel movements coming at her, but may not be able to evade them.
Shunpo (瞬歩, Flash Step) - Ever since she was a child, Aine has had an unusual affinity towards fast movement. Shunpo was only natural to her and she pushes the limits of the higher speeds of the movement. She’s never been strong, so she traded away the majority of her physical strength to focus solely on her speed, flexibility and agility. That being said, her speed can still use improvement and refinement. Aine is never happy with her last set goal, her will forces her to continue to push her limits and ever increase her speed.
Senda (閃打, Flash Strike) - Senda is a technique created by Aine through trial and error under her attempt to emulate Shunpo through her arms. With her exceptionally fine control and understanding of her own reiatsu, she postulated that similarly to forming a reiatsu based springboard against the foot to enter Shunpo, she could do the same platform building with her hands. After a few painfully sprained wrists she found the correct amount of reiatsu to gather about her hands and all the way up to her shoulders. The coating both supports her arms from hard impacts and collapsing while pushing off or landing, but also restricts the movement of her fingers due to the pressure exerted on her hands from the coating. Those pressures, if left unmanaged through missing concentration, can slip and literally shred her skin and cut deep enough to sever tendons and scar muscle tissues. To help prevent that, Aine is constantly aware of where her hands land while using Senda. She has to make contact with the plam of her hand and no other parts of the hand or she risks crushing her fingers, breaking her hand or loosing control of the reiatsu coating. Though, if done correctly instead of using her feet for all forms of propulsion, she can emulate the same speeds as her typical Shunpo with her arms.
Senda Kantsuu (閃打貫通, Flash Strike: Pierce) - The singular Senda technique that conforms to Aine’s specific reiatsu structure. Senda Kantsuu is geared towards focusing the reiatsu encompassing the hand into a fine point at the end her fingertips or before the knuckles. The technique was highly influenced by her Zanpakutou, forcing the attack to become an accurate and piercing strike. The technique isn’t particularly effective against normal armors, but can pierce through reishi or reiatsu based protections if Aine has proportionally similar reiatsu levels as her opponent, or if she expends a high enough amount to match or overpower the opponent for a split second. This attack is particularly difficult to avoid since Aine tends to use it in close quarters. The coating of reiatsu on her arm collects and travels down her arm to propel it, without making contact with a surface, at Shunpo speeds. The rapidly collecting reiatsu effectively blasts the piercing point forward to stab at the target, the release is usually far too quick to avoid at close range and especially if she times it with typical Shunpo to add additional momentum to the strike. The downside of Senda Kantsuu is that after each use, Aine has to avoid using the technique for at least a minute since the pressures around her hand, if allowed to stay in place, will crush the appendage no matter what. Considering that she’s predominately right handed, she can’t afford the loss of her hand since her skill sets are highly dependent on swordsmanship and almost nothing else.
Jigokuchou Affinity - Completely unrelated to anything battle worthy, Aine inexplicably attracts Jigokuchou. The tiny black and red messengers flock to her in droves no matter where she is in the Seireitei, and although Aine can manipulate her reiatsu to the finest of levels and subsequently repulse the little buggers, she rarely does and simply tries to ignore the entourage that follows her every step. The only problem she has with the affliction is that she has no idea why the Jigokuchou flock to her. She does possess quite a bit of control over the creatures, able to send complex messages through them and follow them more effectively then others through the Senkaimon.
╰☆╮History
“I seriously can’t believe you’re asking me to tell this story, but I suppose it’s required…” Fidgeting in the chair provided to her, Aine sighed before continuing. “As far as I know, I was born as Yoshikawa Michiko in Okinawa seventy-seven years ago. I can only assume from what I’ve been told, but I died in a cross country bus trip. The vehicle was reported to have been forced off a highway and crashed in the bamboo forest below. After that is when I actually start remembering anything, and what I can is jumbled.”
I recall that I wandered the streets of the South Rukongai #65, staring at the degenerates all around before ending at the fringes of a forest. It was dark there and I liked it, it was also the first time I heard whisperings from my zanpakutou. I was too stupid to realize what it was then, but the whisperings called me into the forest and the shade it provided. From there it gets fuzzy for me; I found a place to reside in out there but the next instance I can clearly remember is watching a band of gang members assaulting other residents and sparring with boken.” Pausing, a soft smile of remembrance drew her lips upwards. “I stole one of there boken and carted it back to the forest and began practicing, always guided by that baritone whisper on the forms I should try.”
After about two years I realized the small blossoming of reiatsu I had and I took to learning how to control the pressure with An-ei’s brilliant, if not unknown at the time, guidance. But, the first thing I was forced to do was steal, resort to thievery to sustain my growing hunger and spiritual development. So, using the few skills I’d been honing I went about procuring food, sometimes clothing. Nothing large enough that it would be missed, yet the only time I’d venture out was in the dead of night. Blame it on my zanpakutou but it was comforting to be under a blackened sky, still is. I would spend days on end hold up in the forest, practicing with the boken or running through the underbrush. An-ei urged me to gain speed, increase my stamina so that I wouldn’t be caught, wouldn’t be killed. From there it’s all but a blur other than the realization that I could force my reiatsu to create sound, but I remember running through those days like it was an endless summer. An-ei spoke with me, I learned from his instruction and our bond grew deeper with each successful increase of skill.”
Fourty-three years exactly since I’d entered Soul Society; I was caught during a raid late one night. I’d grown since then, appearing to be about sixteen years of age or so. The family I decided to raid it seemed had taken the time to learn my methods of breaking in, I can’t say I was incredibly intelligent then and it was a mistake to have traversed all the way to the first district just to find what I was looking for. Then again, I guess I was being a little greedy at the time. To make things short, I was caught by the men of the house and imprisoned in the basement then reported to the Seireitei as a threat to Soul Society. Hardly a fair ruling, but the family was enraged.”
Form there it gets sketchy again for me, I remember huddling there with my knees tucked to my chest and sobbing uncontrollably. You have to understand I had never been confined before other than by my own doing and being disarmed and unable to escape had made me mentally break down. Next thing I knew there was a pair of night cooled arms around me and a complete lack of light. It made me feel secure and whole, letting me rest. Later I learned that during the night the main house had filled with a black effervescence that literally pushed the residents out. I suppose that was the first unleashing of my reiatsu as a whole. Because of the effect the Squad who’d been informed arrived post haste with two skilled members who pushed in and drug me out between them. Soon as they touched me the darkness abated and I went completely limp. After some careful review and consideration I was thrown directly into the Academy. They didn’t want any more slip ups with me and my uncontrolled reiatsu.”
I spent a total of four years there, the minimum required, and graduated with honors in Zanjutsu. During my stay though I have to say it was a version of hell I’d rather not relive again. My first day there my name was mispronounced because being the genius I was then, I hadn’t been clear on how to string kanji together. Suffice to say I was tormented for it, and my looks didn’t help much. At every turn I was mistaken for a young boy with my short cut hair by both students and faculty alike.
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((Will continue shortly))
