Yoshiko is a young female Shinigami. She is an albino, sporting pale skin, red eyes and white hair, however, due to her exposure to the outdoors her skin has acquired a fairly darker tone, but she is still quite fair though. Her long hair can be described as lazy silk, she has no distinct hairstyle and switches between ponytails to simply letting it hang loose behind her. It is unkempt but flows as if it is accustomed to regal pampering, despite the fact she has neither the time nor money to spend on such lavish treatments. Yoshiko’s red eyes are quite expressive, and despite their unsettling colour are seldom intimidating. Not that they can’t be when she wants to be.
Yoshiko is perhaps one of the most cheerful persons you will ever meet, though whether or not this is genuine happiness or a façade to hide her scars is something even she does not know. She is also a very empathic individual, and is easily affected by the general emotions of people around her. That does not mean however that she cannot create and sway the mood of others herself, as she will often times do if things are getting too doom and gloom for her taste.
As for her personality when fighting, there are two distinct aspects to them. One is when she is simply playing, and the other when she is truly fighting. In the former she acts like her usual self, but in the latter she becomes quite dedicated to the fight. She may still enjoy it, and smile even when in danger, but make no mistake that she takes the fight very seriously and will not stop until one, or both of them are incapacitated.
But even then she does not look forward to taking a life, even a hollow’s or an animal’s death leaves her disquieted. If it is necessary for her survival and that of others she will do it and still be fit for battle. Unfortunately, the trauma from her past left her a bit shaken, this causes her to break down when faced with the death of a friend. Not just an acquaintance, but a true friend.
In the not so distant past, Yoshiko awoke. Her first sight was the sun beams peeking through the leaves, blinding her sight and causing her to instinctively move her head away. The next thing she saw were the leaves, slowly moving back and forth from the faint breeze passing through them. Her first sensation was the firm, but oddly comfortable mess of branches that supported her light frame. The first sound she heard was the cracking of wood, followed by her first word “Eek!” as the branches underneath gave away and caused her to fall to the ground. Landing face first, her first taste was the soft but unfortunately not so tasty earth. Wiping her face clean with her tattered clothes, she looked around and found a house, or rather the remains of a house. Truth be told, she did not know how she knew it was even a house to begin with, as the thing was little more than a pile of wooden planks, a pile of broken wooden planks. Something happened here, but she could not remember. Nor she could remember anything.
Standing up, she examined the area some more and quickly found a path that led out of the clearing. Following it, as she had little reason not to, she soon found a small village. It took her a half hour or so, but she didn’t feel particularly tired, as if she had walked along this path several times. Drawing near it, she was met by a worried villager “Yoshiko!” yelled the woman, dropping her laundry basket and running over to Yoshiko. Confused, Yoshiko looked around and pointed at herself in a “Me?” like fashion. Embracing her, the woman ignored her question and simply asked ”Are you alright? We heard the noises last night, was it...?” the woman asked, to which she was answered by an even more confused look from Yoshiko ”Yo… shiko?” she spoke, like a child learning a new word. Suspicious, the woman lifted Yoshiko’s bangs and soon found some dried up blood, just barely reaching her scalp ”You hit your head, didn’t you? Come on, Sakura will bandage up your head and will see what we can do.” not feeling any particular pain, Yoshiko wondered why she was headed towards this, Sakura.
Arriving at the house turned clinic, or perhaps clinic turned house, Yoshiko was promptly treated, though it was actually fairly simple as most of her wounds seemed to have already healed. After getting bandaged and cleaned up, the woman and the doctor asked her what she was able to remember, and when Yoshiko replied that she could remember nothing, they attempted to help her remember, slowly. However, she was proving resistant, but when mention was made of her dead family, Yoshiko suddenly winced ”Didn’t you see the graves?” did she? Escorting her back to the clearing, the woman pointed out the two graves near the tree she fell down from. How did she manage to miss those? It was as if her mind was subconsciously making her miss them, causing her to turn her head, and shift her weight uncomfortably. Noticing this, the woman encouraged her to approach it, but was met by a firm “No!” in the form of her vigorously shaking her head. But the woman would hear none of that, and held her hand as they approached.
Upon arrival, the woman released her grip and softly pushed Yoshiko onward. Looking down upon the unmarked graves, no, they were marked. Focusing on the headstones Yoshiko slowly made out the words, and the moment she did her memories flood back like tidal wave.
She was a child in Rukongai, having died in the Human World though why she could no longer remember. For the longest time she was alone, avoiding the villages out of fear and sticking to the forest. She learned to survive, to fight, to hide, to exist. But all that changed when she met someone, a boy of her age, in the same mess as she was. For a while they helped each other out, but the boy was a wanderer, and felt that it was time to move on as there was no longer any food here. But Yoshiko didn’t want to go, saying that this was her home, the tree that had served as her only means of shelter, the same tree she woke from. Both argued as they tried to convince each other that their decision was the right one. Eventually the boy conceded, but refused to stay in the tree as it’d break from their weight. Thus, slowly, they cleared out the area around the tree, using the wood to build a house, or rather houses, as it collapsed several times, sometimes while they were inside. But eventually they managed to make it sturdy enough to hold.
It went without saying that both of them felt something for each other, and since they were staying for good they saw no harm in trying to make a family. Unfortunately, they were destined for tragedy. Living so far away from a village they were prone to danger, but it was always usually just bandits and such, and they could easily avoid them or hold them back long enough for them to give up. But tonight’s intruder was different. In the dead of night it entered the clearing, steps muffled, it smelled their scent from inside their house and crept into it. The beast would’ve slaughtered them in their sleep, if the boy hadn’t somehow detected its presence. He fought it, pushing it out of their house before it could wreck the thing. Yoshiko attempted to join the fray, but was denied by the boy for their child’s sake. Not wishing to put either of them in danger, he led the beast out of the clearing and battled it there. But the forest was its territory, and though he had wounded it enough to give up and run, he laid there covered in blood. The doctors were unable to save him, and he died at dawn, leaving Yoshiko to bury him.
Not wishing to put her child in danger, she asked the nearby villages if she could move in, to which they heartily agreed, as the couple had made trips to the village when their scavenging came short. They were well loved as they were honest, and though the boy was a bit aloof, Yoshiko’s cheerfulness endeared her quite well to everyone.
But they would not be safe in numbers. Hungry and vengeful, the beast tended to its wounds and returned to the clearing, but found no one there. Following the scent he found the village, but did not immediately attack it. Stalking the populace for nearly a year for the opportunity, feeding itself on wild life but refusing to give up the possible banquet, and it soon found its chance. After a festival, the majority of the villagers were quite drunk, Yoshiko being one of them. Noticing their staggered steps, the beast waited for nightfall and pounced upon the nearest house. It managed to kill one of the inhabitants, before the shriek of another woke up the entire village. Adrenaline pumping through their veins they roused from their drunkenness and rallied against the beast. Facing the horde, the beast snarled but saw that they were not going to back down. In a fury, the beast ran back into the forest, but as a last act of spite it began hurling trees at the village. It crushed villagers and houses; among them was the house Yoshiko’s child was. Once again, Yoshiko greeted the dawn with grief as she buried her child next to his father. But the grief soon evaporated in the face of her burning rage. Despite the villagers’ protest, Yoshiko went back to the clearing that night, dead set on brutally murdering the beast.
And so, in the dead of night once more the beast appeared. Discarding stealth, it walked out of the forest’s shadows, eyeing Yoshiko with bloodlust. But she fearlessly returned the gaze right back at it. It roared, tearing the ground as it made its way towards Yoshiko, who in turn let out a fearsome cry of grief, hatred, despair and vengeance. It tackled her, but she managed to avoid it and climb on its back, sitting on its neck just behind its head. With sheer rage and fury it started pounding and clawing at its head, bruising it and tearing off shreds of its skin. In pain, the beast slammed its head into the trees, sending a wave of pain to Yoshiko’s back, as the branches dug deep into her flesh. But all the pain in the world would not make her let go of her grasp, she continued tearing him apart, and it continued dragging her through the forest. However, it managed to reach back and throw her out, hurling her towards the tree in the middle of the clearing. Battered and bleeding, Yoshiko tore off a branch from the tree she loved, the tree her family loved, as the beast climbed the trunk at lightning speeds. Grasping the branch, Yoshiko let out a cry before and while she plunged it straight into the beast’s gut, twisting it all the way. Paralyzed in pain, the beast could only watch as Yoshiko broke the branch in two, and plunged the other straight into its neck ”Get out of my home.” she spat out, before kicking the beast out of the tree, causing it to fall into the forests where it was most likely feasted upon by the other beasts in the forest.
Soon, after the bloodlust was over, Yoshiko felt the pain, both physical and emotional. She fell unconscious, and the trauma forced her mind to repress the memories, until now.
When the flood of memories sank in, Yoshiko let out a loud cry, dropping to her knees in front of the graves. She then started crying, streams of tears flowing through her eyes. The woman began to cry as well, silently. Minutes passed, then hours. And still Yoshiko knelt there, crying. As night drew near, the woman left her, and told the villagers to leave her alone for a while. She didn’t know how long she cried, hours, days, nor did she care. The wound hurt so much, but this time there was no longer anything left to do but cry, no husband to bury, no child left that had to be taken care of, no murderer that had to be killed, just tears that needed to flow, and when that went dry all that was left was despair.
She fell into herself, or at least that what it felt like. Her body was still kneeling, no longer crying, but a defeated look on her face as it stared at her family’s graves, as if longing to join them. But her consciousness was in a different world. For a time she was falling, into what and from where she did not know. After an unknown amount of time she felt herself stop, and opened her eyes to see branches, or veins, perhaps hands creeping out from nothing and cradling her, branching out above, below and all around her until she could not find their origin. A light shone brightly above her, threatening to blind her if it were not for the tendrils that blocked its full light. From below, a yawning abyss sat there, nauseating.
Yoshiko wondered where she was, but it didn’t take long for someone else to appear, or at least a voice to provide company ”Comfortable?” the voice asked to which she simply nodded. But it quickly replied ”Really?” and she remembered her pain and loss, hanging her head low she shook her head in response ”Then where will you go?” and on command, a path opened between the two forces, the blinding light and the yawning abyss ”Will you dwell on your loss forever? Like a child crying over spilled milk?” infuriated that the spirit dared to imply that her family’s death was trivial, Yoshiko stood up to pounce, but was pushed back down by the branches ”Or will you stride on to tomorrow? The past is past; it is futile to dwell on it, hmm?” refusing to let it talk about her grief in such a way, Yoshiko tore the branches the held her apart and threw them at it, or at least where the voice came from ”Ah, throwing a tantrum I see. What now, brat? Will you just sulk there?”
”I won’t spit on their graves by forgetting about them.” Yoshiko replied ”Then fall into the abyss.” responded the spirit, closing the path to the light ”And I won’t spit on myself by wallowing.” closing that path to the abyss, the voice asked ”Then what will you do?” its tone growing less hostile and judgemental ”I don’t know. But I know what I won’t do.”
Content with that answer, the branches loosened and revealed themselves to be hands, or perhaps fingers, stretching out from a large womanly figure robed in white, yet restrained by it as well ”Good.” it spoke, bringing Yoshiko closer towards her, as she herself fit just snugly in the palm of one of her hands ”Some people enjoy life too much— and forget death.“ she began, suddenly ripping her garments apart and revealing a rotting corpse as she mentioned death, causing Yoshiko to let out a shriek of terror as she scrambled to get away ”While some wallow in death—and forget to live.” she continued, covering herself once more. However, she then slowly began to unravel her bindings once again, much to Yoshiko’s dismay, but what greeted her this time was a young motherly face, fair skin and ivory hair, eyes hollow yet conveying an expression filled with joy ”Take care not to be blinded by what you have, or to go mad from you have lost.” she spoke, as if she knew exactly what Yoshiko had gone through.
”Who are you?” came the hesitant question, as she feared she was going mad. With a soft chuckle, the spirit shrank down to roughly her size and smiled ”Sozoshi, I am your… friend.” the woman spoke, as if the word was foreign to her. Yoshiko stood there for a moment, digesting everything that happened, before smiling and hugging the spirit ”I’m Yoshiko Sho, it’s good to have a friend.” stroking her flowing hair, the woman could only nod back. Slowly, her consciousness drifted back into the real world. Sore, dehydrated and hungry after crying for perhaps days on end, Yoshiko stood up, taking some time to steady her legs. She made her way back to the village where informed them that she was leaving. Sozo had told her that she was a Shinigami, she figured it’d do her well to try and learn what that was, and the Academy was the best place to start. She told them not to worry though, she’ll certainly come back and visit, and she asked them to take care of the tombs for her while she away, she’d hate for them to be desecrated, somehow she knew her heart probably wouldn’t be able to take that.
