Tsukiyo, Kionchi [SHINIGAMI]

►Compassion (Jin)
”No matter the victory - or the cost - know that I walk my path for the sake of her. Of you. Of everyone.”
A samurai must always be aware that he fights for the sake of others. Kionchi believes in the depths of his heart that even his most despicable deeds are for the sake of purification and balance: his primary goals on his mission to cleanse the world of evil even at the cost of his own soul.


►Courage (Yu)
”The only thing that can truly end a life is the fear of death.”
Courage is not merely a lack of fear, but rather choosing to accept that dear and allowing it to drive your actions and thoughts. And while he refuses to accept his repression as a form of instituted phobia, the shinigami is otherwise a soul who refuses to hesitate in even the most dangerous situations. In fact the hardest part of upholding this tennant might just be the constant need to recognize and respect the dangers around him to ensure his courage doesn't devolve into ignorance or foolishness.


►Courtesy (Rei)
”My honor. Your not worth it.”
Their is no need for a true warrior to show their strength in anything bit their blade. No need to add insult to injury at the expense of one's own honor - and no need to make yourself out to be nothing more than a cold-hearted killer having dispatched of an unworthy foe. Regardless of their difference in power or skill Kionchi shows his opponents the same level of respect before or after any test of their might and prowess.


►Duty (Chugo)
”I am a tool and as such will strive to accomplish my master's wishes and desires as vividly as possible. When one looks at me they should see only my master and his work. And for that I am proud.”
The most difficult of his tenants to keep, Kionchi takes great pride in his duty to both his captain and Seireitei as a whole. Even when imprisoned for a crime he was ordered to carry out he accepted his fate as a scapegoat for the Central 46 without hesitation. And yet he recognized the irony inherent in taking pride in his loyalty when a sacrifice of his pride should be the top-most priority of this code. Nevertheless he understands that his actions and words are not his own but rather a filter for the desires of his masters and the world as a whole: a burden that never leaves his thoughts.


►Honesty (Gi)
”Justice is determined by those pure enough to use me rather than sully their own hands and hearts. And as long as I am used, I can do no wrong.”
Another of his more warped tenants that has long since devolved into a form of irresponsibility, to Kionchi justice and honesty are ideals he need not concern himself with so long as he follows his master's wishes without failure. He still believes in this vow and never tells a direct lie. But his idea of good and evil has become so black and white that he is almost unable to accept a rational view of morality: taking it on like a disease he can cure rather than a fundamental truth that must be kept in balance.


►Honor (Meyo)
”I am my own judge, no matter how guilty.”
To the samurai honor is not an external matter of praise and glory. But rather an internalized affair of one's own mettle. That honor is reflected outwardly in how they act and are accepted, but they must always test themselves and never settle for the judgment of others.


►Sincerity (Makoto)
”I promise.”
Getting Kionchi to swear to a task or mission may be rare, but he is as sincere a man as you'll find. Above all things one cannot argue that he doesn't keep his word to the best of his abilities; even if he is so ready to wipe his own mind of a promise he couldn't keep despite his greatest efforts.

”Every Failure is a Mark Irreparable. Each Page Made Imperfect Another Page Wasted.” Kionchi's Father

Born third in line to a family of the fourth highest caste of the [acronym=794-1185]Heian Era[/acronym] [acronym="Ancient Capital of Japan"]Kyoto[/acronym] aristocracy, Kionchi's life had been planned out by his clan long before he was even conceived. For his parents had long since owed a peculiar debt to the sixth crowned prince and [acronym="Territorial Ruler"]daimyo[/acronym] of a powerful estate near [acronym="Ancient Tokyo"]Edo[/acronym]. The gift of a scribe as pure as he was chaste to serve forever in his courts once he had completed his [acronym="Coming of Age Ritual"]genpukku[/acronym]...or else their family would risk banishment from the courts to live their life as [acronym="One of the Lowest Castes/Non-People"]heinin[/acronym].

The smell of fresh ink dripping from table to [acronym="Floor Mat"]tatami[/acronym]. The shrill shriek of his mother running to clean her youngest son. The pressure of those steps from outside the hall. And the shame of his father's gaze upon the juvenile Kionchi on whose shoulders rest the future of their family.

The life of a scribe in Heian Japan was one of abstinence and asceticism. And Kionchi's early years were no different: defined by an almost tyrannical focus on purity was coupled with his already natural predisposition towards perfectionism and order. And while many saw the pairing of his station and his mental condition as a blessing, it didn't take long for the family to realize that the shunned and cloistered youth was so wholly incapable of comfortable social interaction that his placement in the daimyo's court would be taken as both a curse and an insult. And so Kionchi was promised in the indebted lord's name to a monastery, and his older brother promised as a representative of the [acronym="Special Kyoto Police Squad"]Shinsengumi[/acronym] in order to repay a favor owed by the daimyo to the shogunate.

It was a life of modicum and ritual; a repetitive and repressive childhood day in and day out...up until the moment her met her.

She was unlike anything he had seen before. From her mannerisms to her clothing the foreign hollow Evelynn was as much a curiosity to the young Kionchi as she was a thing to be feared. And yet above and beyond that natural hesitation came a yearning for something to change. A desire for something he could have over the others in his family, even if it was just this secret friend that only he seemed capable of seeing. And while she would entertain him with her presence every other full moon, the young boy found the rest of his life without the stimuli of any other distraction. But destiny took a turn as the young boy was brought outside the estate to witness his brother's genpukku. And it was on the way home from the somber and dry ceremony that he would see a cat with a fish. The nimble beast ran deftly from a clumsey merchant only to find itself on a collision course with the very same wagon the young noble was riding. The beast stopped, death in its eyes as it stared right up at Kionchi who had since ran to the front of the cart on the other side of the Oxen. And without a minute to spare the cat was caught by another: the mother of the stray swiftly zipping just in time to grab the thing by its neck and drag it out of the street and into the safe confines of the shadows of some alley.

It's family was there for it. The parent risking its own life for its son. No. Risking its own life so that its son could experience something Kionchi never had.

Freedom

From that day forward the boy would ask his mother and attendants almost ceaselessly about the strange beast. And, much to his amusement, the gentler of the two parents was always willing to answer whatever questions he asked and theme whatever stories he wished to hear around the tales of the cats so common in the streets of Kyoto. Be they ayakashi or yokai or merely the fickle cat of a young wandering monk, the stories behind the animals able to see freely risk their life for food for their young was one that had enchanted him. So much so that he even would risk punishment on occasion to draw the young things when he had any extra paper to spare: a luxury that would have cost him a beating had his father learned the truth behind the wasted pages. Even Evelynn would laugh and smile as the young boy went on and on about the stories of his precious four-legged companions and all their traits he so desperately longed for.

But there was a seed of jealousy within the young man's heart. A desire to choose in a society without choice and a yearning for the same excitement of his shinsengumi brother that would be known only by one other. He knew not the name of the Hollow that visited him that night; nor why she'd appear every full moon and listen so courteously as he foolishly spilled his guts. She was pretty and cordial and even kind of kind: qualities so lacking anywhere else in the house. And while the antisocial Kionchi found himself even paralyzed by fear in his dreams, for whatever reason he felt safe saying whatever it is he wanted in the presence of that mysterious spirit. From drawings and dreams to hopes and desires, he would tell her everything she asked and never questioned once why she so cared. And while once he brought her up to an attendant in the house, he was made quickly aware of the problems it would cause were he to tell anyone else that he was seeing ghosts that no one else seemed to see.

For even though his brother had the Shinsengumi and his sister a husband, the young Kionchi had her: that special secret thing only he knew that no one else forced him to learn. That special someone who'd listen when everyone else only spoke.

And while his drawings had always been hidden, his mother's servants understanding even when they found the pages tucked away in below the tatami of his room, it was a secret that could not be kept for long.

His mother's attendants busy with the stricken and sick mistress, Kionchi was horrified one day to step into his room at the exact moment his father's youngest servant had lifted the tatami for cleaning only to find the stack of papers so carelessly covered in drawings of cats. And were he a less honest person, perhaps he wouldn't have so quickly jumped for the pages in the hands of the bewildered young man. And had the man been briefed by Kionchi's mother, perhaps he wouldn't have been so eager to snatch back the precious drawings and rush them to the head of the house: his desire for a higher station in the new household weighed ineffectually against his inexperience with the then despondent head of the household's temper. For the sicker his wife got the deeper into an uncharacteristic despair the normally emotionless man fell. And having just learned of his eldest son's recent problems in the Shinsengumi, he was in no mood for a report of his youngest's secret disgrace.

The stick would slap and sting and welt as the boy lie crying under the man's inescapable fury. Neither screamed nor shouted or even uttered a word; Only the whimpers and tears of the boy only a month from being a man as he held back a shout lest his name be further shamed. The pages; those pages. His cats; his precious friends. They'd be fed to the flames alongside his most favorite brush for its use had been sullied by such woman-like whimsy and waste. And for the first time in his life the youngest of the clan felt a feeling he hadn't felt since the day of his brother's inauguration. A yearning and envy for that freedom and choices that the hollow had so tempted him with before. His mouth opened; the word “Stop” uttered from his lips. And when with one final smack his body lay flat. His father's bokken fell flat as he turned from his son: the servant rushing to attend to the young master's wounds. And yet once he was stabilized the young boy would find himself alone - the door to his room sealed and not even the evening servants going in to deliver him dinner that night, he'd have only the company of the moon-lit clouds and a certain arrancar who would leave the boy for comatose, his soul plucked from his body as per his foolish wishes.

The hollow had taken the boys soul; plucking it from his body the moment his desire for freedom overcame his duty to his family. She had granted him his wish: she had put his soul into that of a stray cat and just like that left him to fend for himself before he could even wake and thank her.

The first afternoon in the body was a dream; his life finally his own. He would flip and jump and eat and piss without a care in the world. He stole a fish like his predecessor and played with children out in the street; he wandered around the complex and even to the center of the shrine where he had been told never to go. He took a nap in the sun and stole Inarizushi from the shrine; He fought a cat from next door and even crawled under the floor of his own home!

And yet it during his exploration the estate that Kionchi experienced first-hand the high price of his wish manifest. His body had been taken by attendants from priest to doctor and back again, no one able to wake him from his eternal slumber. And with only a day or two past the father had already given up on the frail boy: his displays of anger cut short only by his need to desperately try to repay his debt to his superiors who had so quickly learned of the fate of his now comatose son.

The eldest son would be given to the monastery in Kionchi's place, his dreams of enforcing the law cut short by Kionchi's own greed. The family would have no male heir; the line would end with his selfish wish. The future of his family forever determined as his body slowly rotted; his only chance being finding Evelynn once more and begging her to return his soul to his body before it died.

But after a day and a half of searching it was obvious she would not appear. It was obvious he had been had and his family was doomed.

That was until a stormy-eyed goddess descended from the heavens and again gave him hope. Hope in the form of a shinigami named Allessandra. She had been called to investigate the spike in energy that corresponded with Evelynn's use of power in sealing the poor boy's soul and was quick to find the cat wandering the streets -- the residual energy left in its soul the strongest source of Hollow power in the otherwise abandoned ward. And like the mother cat pulling its child out of the way of the stampeding cart, so to was Allessandra ready and willing to risk herself in the hunt for the young boy's body. She hoped wherever it was she'd find the hollow responsible for Kionchi's curse. But after two days of searching the city, the pair somewhat bonding as they experienced the kind of adventure the young boy had always dreamt of. And even though he was ultimately a burden to his shinigami friend, the young boy was so awe-struck with her power and strength that he felt nothing but reverence and respect for being able to follow alongside that servant of balance.

And yet when the pair at last came upon his body, carried so pathetically by the then servantless mother who believed so in her son's little dreams, there was no sign of the hollow responsible for the catastrophe. And by the time Allessandra was able to place Kionchi's soul back into his body it was too late: the mind had rotted and atrophied such that even the hope-filled cries of its mother wasn't enough to elicit more than the most mediocre and basic of responses. That boy who wanted freedom was at least alive, but now trapped so hopelessly in the body of a dullard. His mind unresponsive and his memories all but wiped, the soul would be shackled to that prison of a living corpse.

It was neither pity nor spite that lead Allessandra's blade. But mercy that would free the boy's soul and duty that would send him on his way.

Examining your life is probably more boring than you'd expect. For Kionchi it was a luxury - the safety and luxury of the single-digit wards of Rukongai leaving him lacking any substantial wants or needs. And yet there was always a dissatisfaction in the shallow emptiness of his reflection. Perhaps it was being surrounded by so any others who had so much more going for them in death than even he had in life. Or perhaps it was his the melancholy of learning that the afterlife was as tedious and unfullfilling as his former existence. Needless to say the young noble was far from satisfied with his place in the world and would quickly grow agitated with his life as a plus.

He had found work as a scribe a mere two months after death, the philosophy heavy life of a reflective something that was less appealing to him than even that of his days writing. There he got closer and closer to the families and persons with the connections he needed to achieve his true goal: a life worth living like the hero who had saved him back on earth. And while his memory was to fuzzy as to remember his friend's face or name, his heart felt the desire to be the kind of hero that saved him so selflessly from the demons known as hollow.

It took only about a year before he could afford his first katana. And less time than even that before he found his first master. The old kendo instructor took only two students at a time and carried on a tradition of largely allowing his students instruct one another. And in the case of Kionchi, he found himself learning at the feet of a woman named Arashi. She wasn't much older than him, born to the same era and country and even dying around the same age, and yet there was an insurmountable gap when it came to their talent.

No matter how much he ran, she was always waiting a block ahead. No matter how much he struggled, she made the next task seem effortless by comparison. She was the pride of their master and considered by most the strongest of the Pluses in their district. And yet she was never arrogant nor proud, but rather so down to earth and kind that it just infuriated him further that she could be so much better. And yet this playful rivalry hit its peak when she found herself sick; a mild fever but enough that the master called Kionchi to deliver to her a meal. It was then he learned she was from a district much further from Seireitei than his own; in a home far less appealing. She lived in slums, to say the least, part of the 23rd ward and even then in a building far worse than those around it. And if that didn't irritate him further the imperfections just mounted every minute he stayed: learning shortly after bringing her food that she could neither cook nor write nor paint nor clean. That her swordsmanship was neither talent nor skill but rather a devotion that bordered on sickness that she had always managed to hide from both her master and the other schools and houses in the richer districts. And while at first learning of these flaws began to make the perfectionist feel sick, he just couldn't keep feeling queasy whenever he saw her eyes. In the past he had never shown any patience for those who didn't try to be perfect. And yet in that dump of a house there was something deeper than a desire to maintain order. Something more important than his quest for utmost purity. There was a human who needed him and whose failings he could fix. And who had spent so long fixing his that he had almost forgotten how hard it had been for her. No longer was she this angel whose perfection he could never reach; and no longer was that the only ending for which he strove. She completed him; and he completed her. And soon after they became a couple, inseparable and madly in love.

They would live together for 30 long years; a couple perfecting their arts. Kionchi learning the art of the sword while Arashi was given the home she had never dreamt of. He would work as a scribe and she would take over the academy, finding two students to call her own. But there was always that last gap they never felt like they could cross: the dangers of having a child without knowing when they'd reincarnate a tiny strain that would lead each to the same conclusion. For it was fifteen years into their union that they would at last reveal their secret: that they each wanted to live the life of a shinigami. And it was at that moment they both realized that their eternal happiness awaited them if only they could chain their souls to a foundation more stable than mere marriage.

And then along came a Raven.

Seireitei had opened its gates: a limited number of students were being accepted pending recommendation from an officer. And this year the couple felt right at last applying for their dream to serve the Gotei. But as luck would had it each division that year was limited to a single recommendation. And each assigned officer limited again to a single district. And as luck would have it the love-birds had moved in together several months before and so knew only one would be accepted. But knowing that shortly after the other would undoubtedly be accepted this only rekindled their rivalry and they promised to wait for the other when they'd be reunited. And so each was evaluated of their own merits: tested in both skill and will against the officer Tokiyo Fujiyaki in their vying for his favor.

But the week when the announcements were to be made he switched his and his wife's final evaluation with that of another recruit: Tokiyo suggesting it as to give the pair a bit more time before one would be called out to live as a shinigami. But the morning of the day of the announcement Kionchi again found himself alone. The other side of his bed empty; his lover's clothes lying bear. He had heard of this from others but had always hoped it wouldn't be: Arashi had reincarnated. Her fate sealed before she could ascend and be cemented in that realm as Shinigami. Her memories lost and her soul moved on only hours before she was to be accepted. Only hours before their love could be made eternal. All because of his desire to see her for a week: all a punishment for his impatience and weakness.

His psyche was broken and his spirit was crushed. But again to his relief came the shinigami. This time it was Tokiyo himself who made him a simple offer. He could give him his recommendation to join the third and help him: to become a healer and surgeon in the ever shrinking ranks of the Third and help ease the pain of the others in the Gotei. And in exchange he would erase Kionchi's memories and end his suffering: giving him the closure from the memories of a love long lost. And perhaps had he the time to grieve he would have stopped and given it more thought; Had he the maturity he could have tried to have dealt with the pain himself. But it was this pragmatism and malleability that attracted Tokiyo to the man in the first place. And the reason why Tokiyo had to assassinate the young Arashi if he were ever to cement his hold and harness the full potential of the promising young recruit. For in Arashi he might have seen a talented young swordsman, but it was in Kionchi that he saw something far more useful to his machinations. And far more promising than mere skill with the katana.

And yet there was one memory of hers he could never forget. That form of her kata. That perfection with a blade. And while he would never again remember a reciprocal relationship, he would always see her kendo in the dark recesses of his mind. And remember her stance and swing in the memory of his muscles. With each swing she came closer and with each day trained he would feel better and better over the loss he refused to let distract him from his studies.

And while perhaps it was the pain of loss that kept him so distanced from others, he was a recluse in his academy years. A perfectionist and over-achiever he would spend most of his spare time practicing his kido or his zanjutsu much to the chagrin of any student who tried to get too close. He felt no need for companionship; he knew his loyalty was to Tokiyo alone for having saved him from his memories. From his weakness. From his impurity.

This obsession with his perfection grew and grew those six years. And with it the distancing of his comrades and companions as he became more and more secluded from those he saw as distractions and impurities on his never-ending quest. For Kionchi the idea of failure was not synonymous with growth; but rather the delusion of his lost sempai whose art grew ever more brilliant with each passing session. That impossibly perfect swordsman who in only a year had used the fuel of nostalgia to drive far and above the grace, beauty and skill of its original progenitor. And yet Kionchi would never remember who she was, beyond that siren of the sword, no matter how much he dreamt. And even when he was haunted by visions of their life spent in bliss, fellow shinigami fighting for their captain as partners forever, he would merely shirk it off as a fantasy between himself and a woman that he must have just barely met. For it only took a handful of sessions with the devious Tokiyo before he had completely forgotten both his master and Arashi and left behind his past in favor of the perfection of a shinigami unburdened by such trivialities.

And yet while most of his teachers and even his peers would have even bet money that he'd be the prodigy of the class the studious Kionchi refused to give himself such credit. For with each minor success he just couldn't refuse himself that guilt of having caused so much failure. Even though his memories were wiped, the knowledge of the erasure only heightened each minor offense to the point of obsession. And while his monthly sessions with Tokiyo helped, he found himself using the kido without him on a more and more consistent basis. At first maybe only once a week and only after a particularly embarrassing mistake. But as the months turned to weeks and the weeks turned to days the poor fool found the use of the spell a part of his daily routine. And as he erased more and more of his failures his fellow students and teachers found him more and more distant in his own little world. And while most could explain the strange reactions and inability to remember them as mere focus on his studies, there was at least one incident where he clearly crossed the line.

It was a simple purification. His first time on earth since his death. The target was a young child; she had been locked in her room and eventually died of dehydration. They found her in a state of confusion and self loathing; unable to cope with the idea of her parent's unwillingness to keep her. His instructor wanted to back out of the lesson, knowing the trauma of an early case being so difficult could stunt a student's morale. But Kionchi was unyielding and refused to retreat. And yet there was a cold deadening in his eyes that scared even his advisor as he so readily approached the young girl with his asaiguchi. But the moment she looked up she saw the face of a hero whose kind eyes and gentle touch stopped her from shaking like a leaf and let him get close enough to complete the sacred duty. And it was the moment his sword hot her forehead and her worries left her mind that Kionchi's Reiatsu first spiked as an anger overcame him.

The sword went black, it's surface like obsidian. His zanpaktou awakened and its first words were like a song to the repressed young perfectionist:

"Be pure, Kionchi-kun. And do what thou wilt."

Like an animal unleashed the shinigami flew free. His blade found its mark as he sped through the house. The parents were slayed in an instant - their souls sliced clean by his black obsidian blade; The gates of hell quickly pulling them to their final cruel fate.

His teacher stood helpless, part horrified and part in awe. The student could only laugh, his kimono stained in blood and his sword shimmering bright. Even by the time the zanpaktou was resealed his instructor was still in shock: the katana made glass: it's transparency as haunting as it was sublime. And yet there something definitely wrong with the student's zanpaktou. For what should have been a massacre so completely one sided had ended with his body torn to shreds. He had used his zanpaktou beyond the limits of his own soul; his spirit writing a check his body couldn't cash. And with nearly every cell in the poor recruit's body screaming for release, and even with the kido of the top healers in the Gotei, it took seven full days for Kionchi to recover. During which time he would haunted by the memories of seven terrifying specters who would unveil to him the secrets of the code he'd call Shourido.

To this day the teacher is still unsure if why he didn't report. Perhaps it was the pity he felt for the child. Or the trust he had that it was merely a rookie mistake. Regardless the one thing that was for certain was that things would have been different had he not gone and asked Kionchi first. For it became obvious to both that his memories were cleansed as the only thing he remembered after the soul burial was the vision of the parent's souls being dragged into hell. The rampage was lost and the prodigy had achieved his initial release. And given the nature of his strange zanpaktou and the circumstances of the achievement, the teacher was sure to receive accolades for his great tutelage and would avoid the shame this report could have had on his career. Besides he trusted the young recruit from going crazy in the future and hoped it was just a one time thing. But he still would never look at him the same way again...

Having studied spiritual physiology almost as much as the art of the sword, the third was a natural fit for the recent graduate. Besides Kionchi's friend Tokiyo had always encouraged his studies in healing magic and he found he had a certain aptitude for binding. Unfortunately his destruction magic was all but useless, but his mastery of the sword had always made that a secondary concern.

He wasn't anything particularly special as an agent of the 3rd. His role as a support unit was no more or less valuable than any other. That was until the first time he was called into the field to do more than clean up the messes of Hollows long subdued. For it was then that the ferocity of his blade had finally an appropriate home: where his anger for the hollow-race found a place to express itself where he'd be judged as a hero rather than a butcher. And yet while one would presume his blade would lead him to quick and precise kills, the inquisitive young shinigami was instead all too focused on gauging the reactions of the vile beast's bodies. And whenever he was given the uncommon opportunity he was all too happy to study the things at length using a twisted combination of his scalpel-like precision and his mastery in binding leaving him free to vivisect his foes. And whilst his memories would always be wiped, his zanpaktou keeping him pure, the knowledge of his experiences were never fully lost in the up-and-coming researcher. And yet despite his prowess in the field and even relations to the 4th, the shinigami refused the invitations with the knowledge that he had yet to perfect his most important spell... Or finish his studies as a surgeon.

Lyvalaea quickly became more than merely an associate to the otherwise distant shinigami. As a teacher and a friend she was unparalleled: bringing with her advances in medicine and anatomy Kionchi could never had understood was it not for her patience and understanding. The advances in western medicine, anatomy and physiology she brought with her from earth were indispensable to a shinigami who had always focused on the more esoteric Eastern arts of healing and had become reliant on Kido for the sake of everything else. And yet for Kionchi it was a trial to master the focus required to give his patients that leg up they needed to stave of the specter of disease and death; a mission so unlike him given his lack of caring towards those who just couldn't be bothered to keep up their quest for self-perfection. And yet there was something special that he could never resist in the kindness and selflessness of his teacher and how she was so ready to forgive even her most reckless patients in making things harder for the often so overworked young Doctor. And perhaps it was this sweetness at both the table and the desk that had taught Kionchi a bit of a lesson about never giving up. Regardless it was around the time of his tutelage under the talented young recruit that he found himself the courage to again pick up his brush and resume his passion he had forsaken so long ago. That passion called art.
 
His first paintings were rushed and sloppy and even worse than before, the decades since he drew for his wife weighing heavily on his soul. He had always been taught by his master to keep up his calligraphy and drawing as a method of training his manual dexterity. And it was under the excuse of being a surgeon that he again found an excuse to pick up his brush. And even though his memories had been wiped and most of his regrets sealed tight inside his soul, there was still a part of him unable to cope with keeping the paintings secret. A shamed little boy deep within the man's full grown chest that refused to even leave without first destroying all evidence of his sad little craft. And so none of Kionchi's pictures would see the light of day; his three or four hour sessions at night the only time he'd give himself to devote to his art. Each stroke part of a calculated rhythm. Each whisk an unnervingly precise flourish of color and shape and light. And yet before even the entire gestalt of the piece could come into focus, the artist would destroy his piece in whole using the drain in the chemical shed where he'd hide his paint and tools.
 
Then along came a cat.
 
Her name was Choa and she was an unusual pet. With wings and horns akin to a devil one might assume the straight-laced and Evelynn-haunted Kionchi would abhor the little beast. And yet like many cats before her she instead found itself the object of his captivation as the secluded shinigami couldn't resist taking on the challenge of painting yet another cat. And perhaps if it wasn't such a captivating subject in the first place he would have heard its master's calls coming hours after the first few precious strokes. And yet it wasn't until the door opened, a flood of sunlight waking both artist and cat, that Kionchi came to his senses and looked back in abject horror at the vision of loveliness that had so suddenly intruded on his secret.
 
He had seen the shinigami around the 3rd before. He had seen her practice in the same courtyard in which he had seen her paint; both times as eloquent and demure as a porcelain doll. She was perhaps the most noble of the 3rd shinigami: her movement and dress as flawless as her long and beautiful hair. And yet the woman was as unapproachable to the recluse to any other soul with such a lack of flaws. One who would only be sullied by his touch and yet were among the only whom Kionchi trusted himself. And while he able to get over this with Lyvalaea and Tokiyo and Arashi and others, it was only ever in the context of teacher-and-student that he was ever able to get over his fear of a relationship devolving into one side sullying the other.

And yet there she was: standing before the paralyzed Kionchi as she picked up her cat and gave him a look as though waiting for him to introduce herself. And yet before he could manage, a minute or two of awkward silence only intensifying that stare, she decided that his painting would due in lieu of an introduction and stormed off with her cat in one hand and art in the other.

It would take him three days to muster the courage to meet with the superior officer in her office in the 3rd. And much to his chagrin he'd find his unfinished painting resting behind her desk, mocking her with the slightest imperfections only he would savvy too. Cursing him with an existence he couldn't let free. A physical manifestation of his failure that kept him from erasing the event his memory and, as he was quick to find out, a crafty superior who was unwilling to let her little 'gift' go without a fight.

And yet no matter how many duels or contests or schemes the crafty shinigami would hatch in an effort to recover his painting from the brilliant Seryu, he never once was able to best her. Never once able to overcome her. And never once able to grant himself the peace of erasing the failure from his mind: always hoping that he'd discover some weakness he could exploit so when he at last got the best of her he'd be able to free himself completely from her clutches. And over time it became routine that he'd challenge her or be challenged at least once every month. And month in and month out he'd lose to her again and again as he found his working piling up as fast as his failures.

And his struggle would continue even after he was recruited to the fourth thanks to a certain rousing success: the creation of the mobile memory erasure device and a tool used by shinigami around the world to this very day.

He was welcomed with open arms by a group of researchers already impressed with what he had accomplished without the use of the fourth division's labs. Nearly every team in the division wanted his assistance and yet there was one with whom he got along best and was able to learn from more easily than any other. Jinpei Minamoto was as grateful for the quick-study as Kionchi was for the open teacher. And together the pair would study and work and help develop a technology that would find itself in direct opposition to the conservative views of the Ethics Committee of the Central 46. It was called the Tenshintai: an device capable of artificially manifesting one's zanpaktou spirit that would have made the acquisition of a Bankai easily ten or twenty times faster than would be normally expected. Unfortunately for the pair the device was banned before they could work out its kinks and the dangers deemed too high for either to continue on the project.

Unfettered by the ban the researcher continued his investigation into the nature of the soul. But without a spirit upon which he could study he found his research had reached a dead-end. Fortunately for him theirs wasn't the only study under scrutiny of the Central 46 and the fourth had accrued over the years about as many hidden projects as it has documented in its records. And as luck would have it there was one such pet project left hidden in the same warehouse that the shy shinigami would keep himself hidden whenever he wanted to paint. The doll-like figure had been broken for years and to most it would probably appear nothing more than a toy. But a recent shaking of boxes had dislodged it from its hiding place and shattered its chest in which was hidden the gem that made it clear the “toy” was anything but.

The sphere was old: much older than any of his comrades or even his captain. It appeared to be made out of wood and yet was as heavy and durable as steel. There was a warmth to it that gave away the importance of the otherwise featureless orb. Well that and a single word etched roughly into the side of the disposed doll that Kionchi couldn't help but note: Munin.

It took thirty years and six months of studying the orb and its reactions to the compounds Jinpei and Kionchi used when they first developed the tenshintai. And it wasn't until an upgrade in portable Gigai and the acquisition of that researcher's notes that Kionchi was able to make the breakthrough he so desperately wanted. The orb served as a core and his own reishi as a catalyst in the development of what would become his most prized creation to date: the artificial lifeform known as Munin.

The genderless Munin served as both lab assistant and subject to the ever curious Kionchi. Little did either of them realize that Kionchi would build the thing to resemble his long dead wife: an act of subconscious projection likely the result of a memory from a Kionchi in a world wherein Arashi was never killed. Munin was everything Kionchi wanted in an comrade: a perfect doll neither judging nor afraid of Kionchi's peculiar lifestyle and all but ready to copy and accept his strictest codes and rules. An assistant as willing as he to wipe its own memories and a comrade willing to risk its life for the sake of Kionchi's perfect goal. In fact the only problem he had when it came to Munin's company was the almost lustful gaze of the other scientists who Kionchi so often had to scare to keep away from his precious friend. And it didn't take long before even he worried that his hands were too sullied to work on Munin and its artificial “soul”: and yet Munin would always say or do whatever it took to encourage Kionchi to continue the important experiment: the isolation of the soul's memory that upon success would be followed by an attempt at isolating the sin that Kionchi was sure existed somewhere in that theoretical element.

Taking every opportunity to purify hollows the 4th division recruit became quickly known for his surprising level of enthusiasm when it came to working the field. And yet the man's crusade against hollow-kind had taken on a new twist as he realized the the truth: that no matter how many limitations Central put on his work in the lab out on the field it mattered not what he did to any hollows he caught as long as in the end their souls were made pure. And so even without the use of the Tenshintai he found a way to still study the soul. Unfortunately it wasn't long before he again found another abusive parent: Another desire to release and another soul so tainted that he couldn't resist spilling mortal blood.

Fortunately for him the soul was sent to hell and the committee that judged him had their own agenda that required a man with his extraordinary combination of talents, loyalty and guilt.

The council determined that so long as they worked for him there would be no punishment as the soul was found evil by the will of the Karmic Cycle. And with the threat of incarceration forever looming over his head, a smaller cabal among the forty-six found Kionchi just the kind of asset they could trust for a task that should have never been.

A short period in Kionchi's life, but a substantial one in his career. The shinigami was set up in the Gifu mountains of Japan alongside a strange cult that had worshiped both Hollow and Shinigami alike without reservation. The Sugata family was set up generations ago by a group that even he had no idea was working alongside the hollows: the two halves of the group each hoping for the opposite effect in a human experimentation that would test the limits of Kionchi's own code of honor. For generations the family had been exposed to a combination of energy and liquefied lodestone injected strategically into their spiritual organs. The shinigami hoped to discover how to make a human with a soul that would naturally repel the mindless hollows that caused the Gotei so many problems over the years. Meanwhile the hollows were hoping the infusions of energy and natural selection of the most durable souls would have over the generations birth a soul whose consumption would permanently satiate the hunger of any hollow. Meanwhile a smaller group amid the conspirators worked both sides against one another whilst they pulled the strings of the entire experiment towards a darker and more sinister purpose...

It was a snowy late December when Sugata Kaede went into labor. Kionchi was the only shinigami allowed at the complex at the time. There she'd give birth to a pair of twin girls and Kionchi's greatest fears were made manifest. The girl's souls were incomplete: the prenatal injections stunting their growth to the point that their souls would be unable to produce enough reishi to survive outside the mother. He was ordered to kill the girls if this was the case, but a study he was given by one of the rogues in the cabal had lead him to another conclusion. Knowing the unholy experiments would continue so long as this witch of a mother lived, he slaughtered the bitch in cold blood.
The hesitation of his soul was such that his zanpaktou would shatter as it was swung in an imperfect arc. But the soul of the mother was still intact and used by Kionchi to bind the half-developed spirits of her dying children. Stitching their souls together in a ritual that he had long since removed from his own mind, Kionchi created the twins who'd later be known as Tenko and Kirishi: the heart and soulless mortals who'd later ascend to turn into the monsters that he so desperately hoped they'd somehow never become.

With one last order to Munin and a set of Gigai he hoped could guide the girls to live the lives of normal human children, Kionchi returned to Soul Society and a divided Central 46 who had come to learn of the debacle thanks to the spike of reiatsu Kionchi couldn't help but release during the drastic procedure.

He would never contest the judgment of the 46. And much to their relief he never even considered throwing his co-conspirators under the bus. As far as he was concerned this was just another order that he would carry out as their tool; another sacrifice the samurai-like shinigami was all too willing to accept. He was to deactivate his assistant and be kept in the Maggot's Nest. The shards of his zanpaktou were kept by the second save for a single shard of glass secretly sealed by Munin into its master's soul.

For eighteen years he languished in those maddening caverns of white. It took him only a year to find another with which he could maintain his sanity. The old man kept to himself in a corner, kept safe by his ability to produce a cheap sake. It wasn't much what with the lodestones limiting his emission of reishi; but it was enough to placate the more violent of the inmates who would have made his stay that much more difficult. There he collected stones and soon after Kionchi would find a partner with which to play his favorite game: Go.

The pair played for over seventeen years. The old man's Go was crude to say the least: some lines in the dirt and some stones he had been collecting from around the prison since before Kionchi was even an academy student. He never did tell why he was locked up; probably for the best given Kionchi couldn't return the favor even if he wanted. There was never really a meaningful verbal conversation between the wizened old warrior and his fellow inmate. No: the pair learned to communicate on a far more deeper level using the subtle language of the game. It was there that Kionchi learned, without even a word spoken between them, of the value of subtlety and shrewdness he may have been trained in but had always refused to use before his incarceration. Even the value of accepting the offer of a drink had become painfully clear after the man's third attempt to slip him a glass. But it was thanks to the meditative like precision of that ancient game that the shinigami was able to keep his wits about him for what would come next.

Its hard to believe that the third person he'd meet would come only months before he'd be released. And yet there was something about the time around Rufio's arrival that seemed rife with change. After all, in the past four years the Gotei had seen three Soutaichou and, if the guards were to be believed, the dissolution of the Central 46. Heck even numerous criminals imprisoned during Gilgamesh's short reign were let free in an act unprecedented since Kionchi stepped foot in the Nest. And yet it was this man and his sword who so intrigued Kionchi that he would break his vow of discipline and bother talking to him after so many years. Even the old man was delighted by his company: the quiet no-nonsense swordsman a vigilant spectator who seemed more interested in what the two had to “say” in their use of the stones than in trying to sneak a cup from the old man's provisions.

And yet it wasn't their games nor occasional talks that would lead Rufio to completing his strange journey. Rather it was a familiar aura that Kionchi just couldn't place his finger on that would pulse throughout the compound and cause a panic like Nothing he had seen before. The guards spoke of an invasion by a single little girl – and the betrayal of a young noble whose name he couldn't catch. And only minutes later that aura really struck home when the power of Kiriko's released form swept over the Maggot's Nest and the prisoners of the prison were forced to relive their worst crimes all at once.

The riot started with all the subtlety of a train-wreck: the screaming of the crazy overwhelming the shouts of the angry as half the nest fell to their knees in contrition and the other half just went mad. The guards had left to retrieve the new prisoner and there was no one else to quell the mob. The only three that seemed to keep their calm were the old man, Rufio and Kionchi. One whose eyes filled with tears thought long dried. Another whose pragmatism and identity as a mere sword lead him to feel no remorse for his past misconduct. And the third whose memory had been so destroyed in his efforts to keep pure that there was no wrongdoings left in his otherwise guilt-free head. And even with the pain of so many games lost over the past seventeen years, Kionchi was able to stand and turn to face the rioters who had focused their attention on the cloistered few who refused to participate in their macabre display of madness.

Even if he had kept his memories of that day Kionchi couldn't tell you the exact details of what transpired in that chaotic mess. That tiny bit of glass manifest in his hands: his zanpaktou freed from his soul in that time of great peril. He had managed to release Tsukuyomi despite not having the complete blade in hand: the shiv slicing open four throats before the rioters could react to the sudden spike in Kionchi's reiatsu. Rufio too was able to release: the blank zanpaktou Kiriko had given him at last accepting its new master and dealing with the remaining rioters with a cloud of poison fog. Unfortunately the old man didn't fare as well: his head smashed in with a rock sometime during the confusion.

The next day he would be released alongside his remaining comrade in arms. Tokiyo had found evidence to exonerate the exploited researcher. Furthermore Kiriko was interested in the man able to resist her aura. Unfortunately for Kionchi his arm had suffered more than usual attempting to draw out Tsukuyomi's full power from a mere glass shard. And while he was barely able to hold a brush with what remained of his damaged limb he still accepted Kiriko's offer of fealty and loyalty. And while he knew a shinigami capable of fixing his injuries and knew he had to reactivate his comrade Munin, he swore first to fix his precious Tsukuyomi and ask her once more if she was still willing to bear his sins. But how could he face her with his arm still broken from the riot? And how could he heal his own arm knowing it was her power that broke it?

The most defining moment of Kionchi's pre-history, made more relevant to his development in that the memories of the event were lost to him until he met Evelynn at the end of this arc. As a child he idolized the hollow named Evelynn. He wished to be as free as a cat, and she granted him his wish both by stuffing his soul into a cat and leaving him to grow on his own without someone always looking over him. And yet, returning to his family in a moment of weakness, he found his wish causing them nothing but grief and in his despair took her blessing as a curse that would drive him on his crusade to purify every hollow on his hunt for the one who caused him so much pain. His memories of her kindness and her desire to see him become what he desired to become long forgotten in the fog of reincarnation. Although a bit gimmicky, I really enjoyed the dialogue of a post here matching the dialogue of a post in “Falling into the Black”, the double meanings of his words really being highlighted in the process.



In his “prison thread”, Kionchi comes to learn that the experiments he worked on that lead him into prison were responsible for all the chaos happening in the Gotei around the time of his release. At the same time he's caught up on the sociopolitical atmosphere of the Gotei and hardens his heart against the current Noble Families he had always supported in the past.



Kionchi is let loose, given his first taste of freedom. His hands shake and his breath is shallow, overwhelmed by the potential of this second chance at life. Yet before he could even leave the confines of the Second he is immediately re-shackled by the bonds of servitude. At least for him kneeling before Kiriko is more of an honor than a burden. He immediately recognizes her as a being of immaculate perfection. His self-loathing and amnesia a natural counter to her aura of Penance. His undying loyalty and desire for purification making him a perfect candidate for one of Kiriko's most important tasks. She orders him to watch over Hanabi, who silently watches from behind a screen on the other side of the room. A majority of the thread is done behind closed doors as to maintain the secrecy and discretion of her orders, even from the reader. Important given so many of her other commands directly violate Kionchi's loyalty to his other masters, even though Kionchi himself doesn't recognize them as such. Hanabi's reaction in the thread is a kind of lonesome sadness: The hope of having another shinigami in her life dashed by Kionchi's soulless stare.




Completing Kiriko's first orders Kionchi returns to the Gotei in a matter unbefitting of his position. Why would Kiriko be so obvious placing a spy in the Fourth? Probably because Kionchi is the most oblivious spy in her arsenal. A spy whom with only a few hours of freedom under his belt has already found himself disgusted with the state of the Gotei. Five new Commanders since he was locked up, only two decades ago. An entire division's worth of Shinigami wiped from the Seireitei. And all the while an entirely new line-up of Captains clearly more interested in their own affairs than the betterment of the whole. With no ulterior motive, Kionchi announces his personal challenge to the entirety of the Gotei. He refused to serve under a Captain less fitting of the role than he and demanded that any who sought leadership of the Fourth first challenge him, in any way they saw fit. His bold declaration sanctioned by the commander, he would receive notice of Shun Minamoto's challenge within a day.




Before mending either arm or zanpakuto, Kionchi goes off to reunite with his long-time mentor. Ordered to wipe the memory of and rehabilitate the ex-'shinigami' Suiren Meiko, he finds himself the perfect specimen with which to test his newest invention. The Kikanshinki-Shirou: a memory wiping device capable of storing said memories in a sort of crystallized reiryoku sphere. And while theoretically the device more permanently rejected that part of the victim's personality and experiences, it did run the risk of returning the memories back to their former user if the gems broke in the same realm as the subject. Fortunately Kionchi needn't worry for the safety of the bauble: within minutes Tokiyo Fujiyaki appeared to thank his loyal henchmen and take possession of the young woman's memories. There Kionchi is given indirect permission to duel Shun Minamoto, the lack of a formal Captain otherwise preventing him from accepting the challenge. He asks about his new Mistress Kiriko and what Tokiyo thinks of Shun, all the while growing fiercely distraught over the state of the Gotei. He trusts “The Raven” and his plans, and yet there is a disconnect between the pair he can't quite put his finger on. A further disconnect than merely that of Master and Servant. The same kind of disconnect that exists between Kionchi and Munin, perhaps. Of researcher and specimen, perhaps? Either way he asks Tokiyo one more favor: permission to teach at the Academy. The thread both an epilogue and prologue. A capstone on a prior plot while functioning as a place with which to foreshadow future conflict. The use of chess metaphor in this thread repeats itself often in future threads. The distrust Tokiyo has for the returned Kionchi a foreboding instinct he'd be wise to follow, even though Kionchi at the time is completely loyal. Even the thread title itself could refer to either Kionchi or Suiren. One thing an unexpected mess cleaned up without a trace. The other a dangerous tool, useful but a single miscalculation away form calamity. And both undoubtedly “fakers”, given new identities and lives thanks to the blessings and curses of erasing one's memory.




Another reunion, this time between rivals. Seryu finds herself speechless at her long time missing friend, dangerously curious at where he had been all these years. This curiosity will culminate in a tension between her and Kiriko, Kionchi's explanation of the Former Sixth Division’s incompetence too far-fetched for her to believe. The thread establishes the relationship the pair has, Seryu getting Kionchi drunk as to force the Stupid Fox to let down his guard. It helps establish the kind of “freedom jitters” Kionchi still suffers from, the hostility between Tsukuyomi and Seryu and the kind of love-hate relationship that has developed between the pair over the decades. Kionchi is unwilling to reveal that his arm has been broken since he was imprisoned. Seryu can read him like a book. He denies it right up until the end, refusing to let her heal the wounds caused by Tsukuyomi. And yet Seryu knows Kionchi's short-comings and accepts them enough to drag him to Lyvalaea – even when Kionchi refuses, still guilty over using Lyv-sensei's research to get himself imprisoned. In the unwritten thread following this, Lyv heals Kionchi who refuses any Kaido, seeing it as a disgrace to Tsukuyomi to himself to heal any wounds caused by his sword, and yet a disgrace to himself if he accepted the art of another on a wound he himself caused. Yet the skilled hands of a surgeon are more than enough to at least treat the wound and while he is in no position to fight for several months, his long festering wounds are at least healed in a way that he can accept – the skill of Lyv's surgery merely allowing his body to heal itself.



In an abandoned training hall in the now defunct Sixth Division, Kionchi trains with his left hand hoping to perfect his swordsmanship in the limited amount of time he has before he has to fight Shun Mintamoto. His right arm is still injured. His zanpaktou still in pieces. He has still clearly atrophied during his stay in the Nest. And yet he refuses to request an extension to his duel with the future captain of the Fourth. He's interrupted by Mirabelle, who in her attempt to call out to him instead began to sing her haunting tune. The mute shinigami of the First had been helping relocate the wayward souls of the Sixth. Her perfect melody catching Kionchi's attention he decides to take a break and learn more about this paragon of Kido. He quickly bonds with her as a former scribe, her method of communicating with notes something he both admires and imitates with the hope it'd make her more comfortable. But after a while his injury flares up and she inquires why, if he has to duel so soon, he doesn't get it fixed. He tries to explain himself and finds Mirabelle strangely accepting of Kionchi's strict code. Admiring the woman's sense of boundaries and honor he wonders if perhaps he could replicate an anomaly that happened in the nest and takes her up on her offer to help...if she was willing to help him with something else.

This would be the first time Kionchi Soul Resonates with another Player Character. The procedure allows two characters to temporarily synchronize their souls by bonding with one another's zanpakuto. It lets them use one another's reishi, in addition to giving them various insights into one another minds and spirits. During their resonance Mirabelle sings, the immaculate precision of her song allowing Kionchi to lose himself in her and adjust his spiritual wavelengths to match that of her partner, Beldame. Meanwhile Mirabelle feels a bond with Kionchi, the man who tried so hard to prove his strength and his honor without any help from others. That kind of reliability an admirable trait in someone with enough strength to stay independent. During the resonance Kionchi is able to use Mirabelle's spiritual energy with his own Kaido to finish healing his arm without breaking his code. At the same time Mirabelle is able to communicate directly with another person, her thoughts opening up as she admits the thing she wants more than anything else is to be loved. Oblivious of such an obvious confession, Kionchi takes her statement as the wish he promised her he'd take on in exchange for helping him heal his arm and enact Resonance. He swears he'll find her a lover, only to be forced again into another promise: To survive.




On the verge of giving up, Kionchi lies in the shrine devoted to fallen shinigami with the shards of his long since broken Zanpakutou. The child-like figure of Tsukuyomi tries to resassure him its not his fault he cannot repair his sword, but he refuses to listen. Wiping most of his memories of what he did to make the twins, he's soon after confronted by Kohara Hi-To. The vice-captain of the second analyzes the recruit, coming to learn of the man's adherence to his vows that have lead him to such an unfortunate situation. Kionchi accepts Kohara's help, the vice-captain a symbol of everything Kionchi wishes he could be for Kiriko and the Gotei. Impressed by his fearlessness, he begins to reforge the shattered blade of Tsukuyomi, at the same time opening up his soul to Kionchi who unconsciously resonates with Hi-To. Kionchi's aura and eyes change to match Hi-To's as the vice-captain gets a sudden vision of Kionchi's past, a memory long since erased from Kionchi's mind. Their zanpakutou spirits manifest and dance, Kionchi losing consciousness as Tsukuyomi appears before Kohara and thanks him for his help. Hi-To touched by the loyalty and devotion of Kionchi's zanpakutou, and of the unconscious shinigami to his vows of absolution.



His zanpakutou and arm repaired, Kionchi looks to restart some of his old experiments. He meets Robert, having blasted apart a lab during a fight with his zanpakutou. Robert and Kionchi break into the ex-Captain's office and find the location of the projects stored after Kionchi's imprisonment. Robert reveals he's Kionchi's vice-captain, leading Kionchi to develop an unnatural fear of the ambitious shinigami. Kionchi erases his memories in front of him, losing any respect he might have had with the man fighting against his own memory loss. Ordered to haul all the experiments out of the warehouse, Kionchi finally stumbles upon Munin and unseals his long dormant experiment. The robot requires some maintenance and repairs, and the trio ask him what it's like having been completely isolated for eighteen years.



Kionchi is delivering a package for Tokiyo when he stumbles upon an Arrancar in Rukongai. The suicidal Mazezura is looking to be purified, but refuses to go out without a fight. Kionchi accepts his challenge, impressed that there still exists the kind of warriors who'd challenge another to a formal duel. He steps into the arrancar's garanta and the pair duel atop a mountain in Tibet. Kionchi tries his best to play the hollow before giving the final blow, testing his mettle as he begins to wonder what'll happen to such an honorable and powerful soul after he's reincarnated. Kionchi learns to cut through a cero during this engagement, in addition to cutting down his opponent in such a way that his bloodstains formed kanji with which he could channel his Bakudo, letting Mazezura in one his little secret set of vows (“Shourido”) before wiping his memories, giving him the name “Genjiro” and finishing him off in the snow.



Pondering the meaning of his life, Kionchi quickly catches the suicidal Hanabi right outside her dorm in the academy. While he was the girl he was assigned to protect, could he really call himself a successful bodyguard if she no longer had any desire to live? And why did he rush to her rescue before he recognized her, his code very strictly forbidding interfering in another warrior's suicide. He learns that she far from idolizes the “goddess” Kionchi had vowed himself too, and decides to take her to a place where she can yell all she wanted about Kiriko without the Second Division Captain ever learning, promising to wipe his own memories if she didn't trust him to report it all to Kiriko after the fact. The pair go to the mountaintop where Kionchi purified Genjiro, watching the stars together and discussing what it means to truly live.



Kionchi uses his fourth division training to create an artificial ear for Reyne. This thread is planned to merely demonstrate Kionchi's ability to create inventions and heal. There might be more to it, but my thread partner disappeared. The first post still demonstrates his work on his kikanshinki-shirou on his downtime.



Working to maintain the servers on the orders of a false memory, Kionchi is interrupted by Seryu whoe invites him out to a picnic. Knowing his maintenance was ultimately trivial, he decides to take a break and escort her to lunch. There she explains that the meal comes with a price: playing something of a game with her for purposes of training her reiatsu perception. Always the competitive type the second he's challenged (and never one to back down), he accepts and begins his game of Hide and Seek with Seryu through a park in Seireitei. There he pushes his Shunpo to the next level, learning to rebound from one reishi platform to another in addition to using his hands to help navigate mid-flash step. In the midst of the games, he loses control of himself and actually touches Seryu for the first time without permission, an out of character action for someone as reserved as Kionchi (especially with regards to someone he see's as perfect as Seryu). Seryu tries desperately to sort out her feelings for him, still seeing him as an image of her dead husband she can't get out of her head. He demands she finally look at him, rather than avoiding eye contact as she usually does when he finally gets serious. After an abrupt end to the game, she invites him to her mansion. Shocked at the ruins and the mess, Kionchi hears that she is tracking down her friend Nagisa, now possessed by some monster, and asks him for his advice. He says that he refuses to let her get hurt and tells her that she is acting honorably attempting to stop her friend's rampage, but the anger in his words are evident even to her. The destroyed mansion something he can't stand laying eyes upon, evidence of Seryu's imperfection (and his own lapse in judgment).



The duel is finally underway! Kionchi arrives with his violin and a letter prepared for Mirabelle if he doesn't survive. Shun with an audience, much to Kionchi's chagrin. The pair face off trading Kido, Kionchi using the pretext of escaping a Bakudo to cause something of a danger to Shun's witnesses and forcing the man to choose between winning the duel or saving the onlookers. The moment Shun saves the crowd, Kionchi releases his zanpakutou and the fight really heats up. He winds up losing his arm to the more experienced Minamoto, but not without inflicting some damage on Shun's hand. The pair face off in a final desperate charge, Shun using his zanpakutou's power behind a field of debris to get the better of Kionchi, who admits that Shun had won the challenge the second he chose to save the crowd rather than defeat Kionchi. Horrified but impressed by the ambitious recruit, Shun heals his fallen subordinate, Kionchi admitting to him a secret he had never told another soul (or even openly admitted to himself), the memory-erasure effect of his zanpakutou ensuring he wouldn't remember it himself: He fears Tsukuyomi. He fears what he can become when he wields her. And he fears that someday he'll lose himself to her completely.



After the duel Kionchi loses track of Mirabelle, her absence in the grove they chose to met in disturbing to the perfectionist who refuses to believe a member of the first would be late to such an important meeting. Running around Seireitei, he finds out too late that she was assigned last minute to purify a hollow in Karakura. He arrives just in time to see her dying in a pool of her own blood, the enormous owl Lethas ready to deliver the final blow. Grabbing her with a flash step he gets her out of the way of danger while allowing Tsukuyomi to slice open the hollow. His blood forming those familiar seals, he does his best to heal Mirabelle while avoiding Lethas. The pair of shinigami, tired from their fight with Lethas and Kionchi's fight with Shun, manage to use Soul Resonance mid-battle to fuse their kido together, using Kionchi's blood seals to enhance Mirabelle's magic, and fend off the blood-thirsty hollow.



Reuniting with Genjiro, Kionchi is pleased to find the first part of his experiment a succeeds. He invites him to join the academy, using Kasumi to test the recruit and see how much spiritual energy the arrancar may have lost in his purification. He seems completely focused on the results of his experiment, his mentor Tokiyo coming to mind as he plays with the two souls for the sake of his ambitious goal.



Having gotten the go-ahead to teach a class at the Academy, Kionchi gives a philosophy lesson focusing on the warrior codes of various warriors from earth. Ending with the samurai code, he takes particular interest in Hanabi, Miyuki and Genjiro's interpretations of Bushido. He asks the three to stay after class, hoping to indoctrinate them in at least one of the virtues of Shourido and give them their first taste of hell in the battlefield the shinigami called earth, demonstrating the ferocity of a hollow first hand while trying to impress upon the students the importance of this radical new selfish code that Kionchi had begun to find more and more appealing with each passing year in prison.



On patrol in Karakura, Kionchi comes across Melody Black being terrorized by a prehistoric hollow. The pair fight off the lizard, her blood powers catching his eye. After treating him to ice cream, Kionchi making the uncharacteristic decision to cavort with the mortal despite its legal implications, the researcher becomes more and more interested in her blood powers. Going into an abandoned theater, he begs her for a demonstration and asks her more and more about her powers as he tries his best to avoid the topic of the twins whose bodies he had modified to become so much like what Melody was showing him. Afterwards he makes the rash decision to not erase her memories, but rather gives her a burnt out Kikanshinki and asks her to keep it as evidence that he tried to do so and that it was a mechanical failure, and not his own. He tells himself he's breaking the law for the sake of his research, wanting to find out more about the powered mortals on earth. But even Tsukuyomi had trouble believing him.



Rescuing another mortal on earth, Kionchi finds himself poisoned after a fight with a draconic hollow. He passes out in the arms of the quincy Freylief, who is left using her reishi manipulation and his cellphone to try to find a method by which she could heal the man who risked so much to save her. Little does Kionchi know that she's also roommates with Melody...



While Nagisa fights Jian, Kionchi recieves a text message from Lyv regarding Seryu. He arrives just in time to drag her away kicking and screaming, leaving the pair with something of a strained relationship as Kionchi meets a vaizard face to face for the first time in his career...and finds himself more curious than digusted.



Waking on a cold stone chair, Kionchi has flashbacks to his days in the Nest and wonders if the last few months had all been a dream. In truth he's in the banquent room of the King of Las Noches where he and the ghosts of his daughters snack away as he comes too. Erasmus invites him to eat, and Kionchi finds himself overwhelmed by the King's aura. He didn't even realize he was eating, the King asking him strange questions about the identities of the two angry girls. The feast changes before Kionchi's eyes into a horror show, his own half-eaten meal havin changed into two sewn together human hearts. Refusing to fall for the “trick”, he continues to eat as best he could as he keeps up his conversation with Erasmus, looking for an opening. The girls chests open up, the sealed memories of his experiments on the twins causing revulsion to over-take him at the same time the king runs across the room and lifts the shinigami by his neck. Kionchi tries to retaliate, but Tsukuyomi merely remains sheathed knowing the “best” possible attack at that point was to not attack at all. Erasmus beats him half to death, cutting out his eyes with his own Zanpakutou, reading the broken shinigami's memories as some of his own leaked into Kionchi, allowing his dark aura, channeled through Tsukuyomi in an unintentional soul resonance, to infect the Shinigami through his eyes. He then eats the glass Zanpakutou and orders Kionchi once again to remember what he did to the King's daughters. Unable to comply, he decides to take the matter into his own hands and says he'll go off to torture Seryu. Kionchi threatens to kill himself if he touches her, and Erasmus merely responds with another beating, followed by the threat of killing everyone Kionchi knows if he dies before he confesses his sins.



Trapped in Erasmus soul, Tsukuyomi finds herself in a gilded cage, a bauble containing Kionchi's sealed memories wrapped tightly in her arms, where she is confronted b the tyrannical ruler of Las Noches. Erasmus decides to visit the imprisoned spirit where they have a talk about her proper role as Kionchi's zanpakutou. He tells her that she's stunting his growth by refusing to allow Kionchi to learn from his mistakes. She explains that she believes her highest calling bearing the burden of her sins. Erasmus gets violent, choking Tsukuyomi and channeling his vision through her at the same exact time Kionchi was opening his eyes in the presence of Evelynn. Erasmus throws her to the ground before ordering her to release Kionchi's memories. Ready to give in, Erasmus breaks her hands before she has the chance and takes away her precious treasure before leaving the deluded spirit with an extra dose of Obsession with which to drives her further and further toward Kionchi. He breaks the memories in front of her, explaining that he will seed them in the souls of Kionchi's loved ones. Leaving her, Xiaobei decides to show up and see who this new inhabitant of her father's soul was. Tsukuyomi resonates directly with what she believes is some figment of her imagination (or possibly an inner hollow), allowing her and Kionchi to regenerate from Erasmus' beating.

After this thread Tsukuyomi is officially broken. Black marks around her eyes represent the tiny amount of Erasmus' corruption she was able to expel from herself before she gave in to her obsessive desires. She is now twice as sure of her love for Kionchi, refusing to believe that he'd think any different of her if he learned the truth of her power. She is still quite coddling of her shinigami, refusing to just unload all of her secrets at once and rather hoping she'll be able to ease him into a new and closer relationship. But it is still a desire motivated by fear of losing Kionchi if he learns of all the disgusting things she's done to protect him. A fear that he'll reject the part of his soul striving for perfection if he learns what its cost him in the long run.



“Do you know of a hollow like a dragon, who takes particular pleasure in ruining the lives of children?”

The question the shinigami asked every hollow before purifying it, his century long hunt driving him to see the specter of his childhood as the living embodiment of all things wrong with the world. And in Falling Into the Black he's thrust face to face with Evelynn, beaten and dying at the hands of the King and ultimately unaware of who Evelynn really is. Forcing him to tell her a story, Kionchi tries to capture her attention with a series of cliff hangars while he waited in vain for his energy to return. At the same time he hopes to use her for information, his obsession with finding her still taking priority over even his instinct to survive. And when he decides to tell her his own story, at one point using the same words he used in “A Boy Who Draws Cats”, Evelynn comes to realize just who he is. At the same time Kionchi's eyes erupt with Erasmus' power, every possible divergent time line from the moment his eyes open unfolding before them like every piling transparencies, blinding him in a maddening cacophony of forever lost worlds, leaving his already exhausted mind fractured and weakened. Stabbing him in the chest, she embeds a part of her soul into him, Kionchi responding with a Soul Resonance at the same time. The resonance has a bit of a feedback effect, Evelynn's illusory power and Kionchi's shattered memories becoming a series of visions the pair share, Kionchi coming to learn that Evelynn fancied him enough to want to see him grow on his own. That the gift of freedom she bestowed him was not a curse done out of malice, but rather a blessing born of an affection that he was too angry and narrow-minded to completely understand before now. His body begins to heal itself, the resonance with both Xiaobei and Evelynn enough to heal his more critical injuries, and he is lead out of the banquet hall to lick his wounds.