Post by Hanako Amaya on Apr 24, 2017 16:12:10 GMT -5
AMAYA, HANAKO
[ AT A GLANCE ]
Age / Apparent Age: 140/19
Gender: Female
Height & Weight: 180.34 cm (5'11"), 63 kg (140 lbs)
Hair & Eye Color: Sea Foam Green/Teal
Positive Traits:
- Calm
- Hardworking
- Logical
- Observant
- Principled
Negative Traits:
- Critical
- Venomous
- Blunt
- Cynical
- Impatient
Loyalties: The Gotei, Her Captain
Snapshots:
- Hanako is Born (1877)
- Hanako's Father dies in the Chichibu Incident (1884)
- Hanako's Mother is killed in the Sanriku Earthquake, leaving Hanako without parents (1896)
- Hanako marries a wealthy businessman (1920)
- Hanako gives birth to her first and only child: Tsutomu Amaya (1920)
- The Showa Financial Crisis occurs, leaving Hanako and her family penniless (1927)
- Tsutomu is drafted as a soldier during World War 2 (1939)
- Hanako and her husband are killed during the bombing of Hiroshima (1945)
- Hanako's despair and anger at the events of her life hasten her soul's corruption, turning her into a hollow (1947)
- Hanako is killed by a shinigami, sending her to The Soul Society (1949)
- Hanako's spiritual power is awakened (2000)
- Hanako Travels to the Seireitei and joins the academy (2001)
- Hanako graduates from the academy and is assigned to the Fifth Division (2004)
- Hanako's Shikai is awakened shortly after the events of the King's Key Eclipse (2017)
[ ON THE SURFACE ]
Physical Description:
Rather tall by the standards of her time, Hanako Amaya is a rather curious looking woman, even when wearing the black uniform that shinigami are so widely known for. For starters, she has a rather slim build, giving her a seemingly frail appearance at first glance. Of course, this is nowhere near the case in truth. Looking past her build, one would notice a very strange thing: her hair being green, rather than a normal hair color. Her hair itself is kept rather short, going down to just below her chin at its longest, and cut in what could almost be considered a layered bob cut. In truth, even she doesn't understand why all of her hair has become this strange sea foam green that it is currently. Her eyes also seem to be the exact same color at a glance.
However, looking into them for even a handful of seconds makes it very clear that they are in fact a light teal. Of course, these are merely the most obvious things that one would notice. A further look at Hanako would reveal that she carries herself much like she is just wanting to move onto the next step of things, be that another assignment, or something deeper. And when she speaks, it is rather hard to tell how old she truly is, as she speaks in a more modern way than would be expected of a spirit as old as her. That being said, she does have a rather soothing voice, causing most people to relax when she speaks casually. Of course, this can be turned around when she is forced to speak with anger, or in a serious tone. As a whole, Hanako is a rather interesting woman, despite her very average appearance.
Spiritual Description: Seemingly the polar opposite of how most would see Hanako, her released Reishi is actually rather unsettling in every aspect. In appearance, it clings closely to her body, appearing as a sort of flickering light, rather than an aura or a flare of energy. The fact that it is an almost toxic looking purple, flecked with what can only be described as an almost glowing green when contrasted against the toxic purple of her Reishi itself. Of course, like most every shinigami, Hanako's Reishi does invoke a feeling. However, it is a rather dark feeling: Fear. Nobody quite knows why it invokes such a feeling, but it can definitely be stated that Hanako's Reishi Signature is very strange.
[ BEHIND THE EYES ]
Personality:
Most who meet Hanako would describe her as a rather good person, given how calm she is in most stressful situations, and given how hard she works at almost everything she does. And yet, underneath all of that, there lies a woman with a fairly large capability for spite. This spite mostly shows up when someone manages to anger Hanako, or touch on a subject that she is particularly sensitive about. With that in mind, she can be a very venomous person, making such blunt observations without a single care for how it might hurt the other person.
And yet, these observations make one thing rather blatantly clear: she is a very observant person to begin with, noticing things that many would just overlook, and catching some things that would normally be hard to notice. And yet, these very observations make the most negative trait of Hanako's rather apparent. This negative trait is her natural cynicism, a trait that has followed her since her childhood. She doesn't have very much faith in people, always assuming that they will do whatever is in their best interest. Of course, she has her own principles, and outright refuses to go against them, seeing her own code as being the most important thing to follow--to keep her own level of integrity. But yet, besides all of this, Hanako is a very impatient woman. Sure, she works hard, but she never has a good time doing so, always either vocally or internally complaining about how long something takes or is taking.
Goals & Achievements:
In all honesty, Hanako hasn't led a very impressive life. Neither in her life as a human, nor during her life as a spirit. The most major accomplishment she made in her human life was her marriage, which was swiftly torn apart by the second world war, and the bombs dropping on Hiroshima. The most major accomplishment of her life as a spirit however, has been the achievement of her Shikai, which takes top priority in the list of achievements. However, she does indeed have goals of her own. The first and foremost of which is to become strong enough to protect the people--especially those that she cares about, as she has never seen herself as being able to do either of those things. And yet, she has a second goal which she would like to see achieved as well. That goal? At some point, Hanako would like to become the captain of a divison--or at least as powerful as one. Should she achieve both of these goals, she believes that she would be happier than she has ever been before.
[ GUARDIAN ANGEL ]
Zanpakutō Spirit:
As spirits go, Hanako's spirit is very unassuming at first. Standing at a mere five feet and four inches--or 1.7 meters--tall the spirit of Hanako's Zanpakuto, Fuhai no Kuchi, is a very obviously elderly man, dressed from head to toe in the typical attire of a knight. And yet..the armor itself is rusted..missing in places even. In fact, he doesn't even have his helmet on for the majority of the time that Hanako communes with him. The armor itself is dotted all across the breastplate, gauntlets, greaves, and even the joints in rust, and the chain mail worn underneath isn't in much better of a condition, missing several links and seemingly just hanging on his figure underneath the European style armor he wears. And yet, he is built like a man much younger than himself, with only the silver of his hair and thick beard being tells to his actual age, along with the slight amount of wrinkles that cross his face. But in spite of all of this, the strangest part of her Zanpakuto Spirit's appearance is that it wields a Katana.
As far as personality goes, Hanako's Zanpakuto could be considered the storybook version of a wise old man. Leagues more patient than Hanako herself ever has been, the spirit who initially gave himself the name of Kuichi is almost entirely the perfect foil to Hanako. However, there is one trait that this spirit possesses that seems to be the most wholly in conflict with Hanako: where she is cynical, he has faith in others--a trait which he dearly hopes to impart to his mistress. Of course, this is all due to the idea of chivalry that Hanako had first read about when she was a young child. It is an idea that has stuck with her, even if she doesn't remember it. Of course, even a spirit has their limits in terms of patience. And yet, even when he loses his patience, he is still an almost grandfatherly figure, full of knowledge and wisdom, but also with a firm hand.
Inner World:
Another strange bit about Hanako's Zanpakuto would be the appearance of her inner world. Upon entering Hanako's Inner World, there is a massive field that seems to stretch in every direction, with one of the only features within it being a massive Sakura tree which provides the only shade in the area. However, it is only noticeable because of the large wooden chair that is placed directly within the center of the inner world. Most of the time, Hanako's Zanpakuto Spirit will be seated within the chair.
However, he can occasionally be seen tending to the Sakura tree. And yet, there is more to this world than there seems, as Hanako herself has absolutely no control over this inner world. And yet, with a snap of her Zanpakuto's fingers, the whole area starts to dissolve away, revealing a scorched, bombed out battlefield, with various weapons from throughout time scattered throughout the area. Of course, this area is only used in the event that Hanako and the spirit need to or are forced to battle. Should she simply be visiting, it will remain the field that it normally is seen as, and potentially will even have a second chair, depending on her intentions.
Power: Fuhai no Kuchi has the ability of acid generation and manipulation. This allows the Zanpakuto to create its own special acid, which works remarkably well at dissolving substances, while also being similar to water in terms of its fluidity, making it easy to control where the acid ends up.
Zanpakutō: Like most Shinigami, Hanako's Sealed Zanpakuto takes on the form of a Katana, the most commonly chosen of the three sizes of Asauchi. Of course, every weapon is unique in some way or another, and Hanako's Zanpakuto is no exception to this. Its sheathe is composed of a lacquered walnut wood, while having been given a jet black finish. The cord itself is located a mere three inches down the sheathe itself, and is an almost pure white in color, making it the hardest part of her sword to keep clean, as it stains so very easily. Moving onto the blade itself, the handle is covered underneath the black silk bindings in samehada, while the wrappings of it coincide perfectly with the diamond shapes that katana in modern culture almost always seem to have.
Underneath these wrappings, a few inches below the tsuba itself, is a small brass lizard. This is the grip ornament of the blade. Moving onto the Tsuba itself, it is a very common circular one. However, unlike most circular tsuba which are completely solid, Hanako's Tsuba has a carving of a lotus flower in the top of it..or at least, that is what it seems to have. In reality, the insides of this carving have been filled with another type of metal: Damascus Steel. In truth, the carvings go all the way through the Tsuba. This happens to be the most unique part of her Zanpakuto, as the blade is composed of the same materials and in the same fashion that every Asauchi is created.
However, the released state of Fuhai no Kuchi is an entirely different story. Upon being released, the blade emits a bright purple light before beginning to extend, the blade taking on the shape of what could be considered a stereotypical lance. And yet, a more close look at the weapon shows that it has more features of a rapier than a lance. And yet, both assumptions are only half correct. In truth, Fuhai no Kuchi takes on a rather..strange appearance. It is its own unique weapon, a hybrid of a Rapier and a Lance, borrowing the general shape of its blade--which is sharp on the entire surface, making it even more dangerous than a normal blade--from a lance, while the remainder of the weapon takes on the traits of a rapier.
The blade of Fuhai no Kuchi is a deep, oceanic blue, with several black markings covering the last third of the weapon. And yet, the blade itself seems to be segmented, making it take on the appearance of a drill, granting it the ability to freely rotate as well as giving it its unique shape. However, on one of these segments there seems to be a blank opening, seemingly for some kind of large gemstone. In truth however, this opening is actually filled with a pure black onyx, as well as the opening on the actual guard of the weapon, which ends in a curved point. The handle itself is made entirely of steel, wrapped loosely in some kind of leather. The full transformation takes mere moments, as the purple light disappears in what can only be described as a dripping manner, revealing the blade as the light seems to slide off of it.
[ LEGACY CREATED ]
Origin: Hanako's story begins in Chichibu, Saitama. A city a short distance from Tokyo, located in the Saitama prefecture, born to a moderately well off couple. Her father was a moderately successful businessman, one who worked as one of the cities merchants. Of course, he mostly sold produce and rice, which allowed him to support his wife and family. This became a struggle as the years passed and Hanako moved on from milk to needing actual food, as the taxes on farmers became more and more heavy because of reformations on land taxes, costing many farmers half of their crops, which negatively affected merchants like him. As time passed, her father made less and less money, eventually forcing him to take a stand alongside farmers.
Of course, when this revolt actually happened, Hanako was only six. Her father left the household eventually, joining the revolutionaries at a very unfortunate time..right before their final march, the march to Tokyo. The 'army' that the group of farmers had gathered was very unsufficiently armed, wielding anything from farming equipment, to swords, to even simple bamboo spears. Many of these marchers were killed in the ensuing battle against the police in Tokyo. Unfortunately, Hanako's father was among these people. And without her father, Hanako's family suffered, only getting a minor share of what money he made after his death. With that small amount of money, they were essentially forced to move to a smaller plot of land elsewhere in the country, moving from the Saitama prefecture to the Iwata prefecture, taking up their own living in the country. This all happened when Hanako was only six years old.
For years after that however, Hanako lived a fairly normal life. Her mother had taken to working in a textile mill to gather the money that they needed, occasionally calling upon Hanako's grandmother to watch her when she was younger, or even sending her off to her. She had fairly average schooling for the time as well. However, that all changed when Hanako turned eighteen, and the Sanriku Earthquake occurred. The tsunami itself didn't quite reach the place where Hanako herself was working..but it did reach the textile mill where her mother worked. The building collapsed extremely quickly, killing everyone inside. This included her mother. She was an Orphan at eighteen. Thankfully, she didn't lose the home that they had lived in. She had gathered enough money from her work to keep the home she lived in, allowing her a more stable position in life than most women did.
And yet, this kind of backhanded luck continued even further. Mere months after losing her mother, Hanako met someone, a rather wealthy businessman who also lost several loved ones to the Tsunami. Over the course of several years, the two ended up developing a rather deep connection, eventually leading to their marriage in nineteen twenty. The reason for their marriage was rather obvious to anyone who knew her, as she was pregnant, leading to their marriage, as they had both been rather drunk at the time when they had actually gone through with the act. Near the end of the year, Hanako successfully gave birth to their only child: Tsutomu Amaya.
For the next six years, the three of them had a wonderful life as a new family. However, that all fell apart one year later, with the advent of the Showa Financial Crisis, popping the economic bubble that Japan had been in after the first World War. It was a very unfortunate time to own a business of any kind, as they very quickly lost all of their money, and were left penniless, like most families were. Eventually, World War Two began, and Tsutomu was drafted as a soldier, forcing Hanako and her husband to move to the large city of Hiroshima. They were able to afford living there from the job that Hanako's husband managed to get from his skills in business, allowing them to just barely afford to live in a city. Unfortunately, the two were extremely old at this point, with Hanako being Sixty Eight..and the city that they had chosen to live in would quickly end this, as Hiroshima was one of two targets near the end of the second world war that were hit with nuclear bombs. Hanako and her husband were near ground zero when the bomb detonated, killing the both of them instantly.
Unfortunately for Hanako, she and her husband were separated as souls, and she never saw him again. It is quite possible that he became a hollow and entered Los Noches. Of course, Hanako herself went unnoticed in the area for years due to the amount of chaos surrounding that period of time. However, she did not live in peace, wandering the city as a simple plus. In fact, her soul became corrupted rather quickly as she wandered Hiroshima, thinking of her life and how sad and full of misery it was, leaving her absolutely filled with despair and anger, turning her into a hollow. And yet, she didn't have much time to do very much at all, only being able to consume a handful of souls as a hollow before she did battle with a shinigami, losing the battle and purifying her soul, sending her to the soul society.
Rise to Power: Of course, at this point in time, there weren't too many things going on within the Seireitei or the Rukongai. Hanako however, found herself in the latter location, in one of the middle districts. It allowed her to benefit from the proximity to the Seireitei, while also affording some level of independence from the Seireitei itself, only having to see a shinigami on occasion. This pattern persisted for fifty years, during which Hanako had picked up her hobby of sewing to become a seamstress of sorts within the Runkongai. Not a very good seamstress, but a seamstress nonetheless. Up until this point, she had lived a very peaceful life, only occasionally getting into arguments with other souls within the Rukongai. Of course..at some point or another, she got into an argument with the wrong person. Apparently, one of the clients that had been the most hostile towards her--earning an outright refusal for her to do what she was being requested to do, which was use her skills as a seamstress to essentially repair something to harm innocents, a makeshift whip of sorts--had decided to gather a few of his friends and attempt to teach her a lesson.
Of course, Hanako was terrified, but refused to go against her principle of protecting innocent people. So for a good few minutes, she was beaten by the group of men, pushed around, and generally made to feel awful. At some point or another, one of them got the idea to murder her, as a lesson to the other merchants and businesspeople in the district. At this point, she screamed, fearful for her own life. And somehow, this had triggered something. She became surrounded by a toxic purple energy, flecked with green. She had managed to manifest enough Reishi to create an aura, a note that she had the potential to become a shinigami. This, combined with the terrifying feel of the aura itself, scared the men away, leaving her covered in bruises and small cuts. She did what she could to fix them up herself, but eventually she knew that she would heal on her own. Of course, she felt the flow of power throughout her body. She knew what she needed to do. She decided to apply to the academy. This itself wasn't too difficult, but it took a full year before she was able to apply and become accepted. Most of that time was spent travelling through the districts on foot to reach the Seireitei itself.
Her time at the academy was rather average. She was asked which size of Asauchi she wanted: the Katana, the Wakizashi, or the Tanto. She of course took the most common of the three, the Katana. Aside from her arrival in the academy taking so long, her stay in the academy was actually quite average, aside from the fact that she took a rather short time to develop a Zanpakuto of her own. At first though, few were able to notice the change, even Hanako herself didn't notice it. The blade didn't change, the weapon itself did not shift in any immediately noticeable way. However, the tsuba itself had gone from the rectangular shape that it had been known for to a circular one, with a lotus carved into the tsuba, with the edge remaining the black metal that had been the original color of the tsuba. In fact, the only reason anyone really noticed it was because one of the instructors in the academy was able to sense the connection. It was weak, but it was most definitely there. So, after a scant four years of work within the Academy--during which she actually ended up acquiring a good amount of skill with her weapon--she was assigned to division five. Mostly due to her skill with her weapon, but seeming lack of proficiency with Kido of any kind.
For the next four years, Hanako served within the fifth division as an average rank and file Shinigami. She spent most of her time on patrols throughout the Seireitei and some of the closer districts of the Rukongai, but was occasionally sent out to the world of the living to battle hollows and purify souls. Of course, it was in her fifth year as a shinigami that some..rather interesting things occurred. For one, it came to light that the Central 46 was trying to create Shinigami-Hollow hybrids--a fact that Hanako was not aware of just yet--along with many other general acts of corruption. Along with that, Hanako was introduced to some of the most intense spiritual power she had ever felt. She was nowhere near the Captain-Commander's district at the time of her forced resignation. In fact, she was actually on a routine patrol through a district of the Rukongai. However, even in the Rukongai, she felt an almost crushing amount of Reishi flowing throughout the area. Of course, when she returned, the Central 46 had paid for their transgressions with their lives, and the Captain Commander had shifted to another, who had decided to rule from the Fourth Division, rather than the first.
And yet, the chaotic displays of power had become nowhere near finished. Another being, just as powerful as the one she had sensed, had appeared within the Rukongai. His announcement? A cero blasted into the sky. This being marched to the Seireitei through the Rukongai, wounding many shinigami, while killing at least three hundred, with the new Captain Commander being one of them. Eventually, the Sixth and Second divisions combined into one, leaving the Gotei Six as the Gotei Five. And yet, there was nowhere near enough time to adjust to this. Soon after this transition was completed, something caused the three planes of existence: The Soul Society, The World of the Living, and Las Noches, to become physically close to each other, causing an unprecedented level of hollows and humans to wander into the Soul Society. Now, this event was dealt with much more quickly. However, after this, the rumors she had heard of Shinigami-Hollow hybrids existing were confirmed, as the newest Captain-Commander announced the existence of these Vaizards. Unfortunately, her reign as Captain Commander ended rather quickly. This was marked by the destruction of the Second Divison's command annex, along with the immense amount of spiritual energy that flooded through the Seireitei. Now, there is yet another Captain Commander. As far as Hanako has been able to tell, he seems to be the one who shall hold the role.
And yet, the excitement did not end there. Soon after the King's Key Eclipse, Hanako was pulled into her inner world in her sleep, meeting the elderly knight that was her Zanpakuto spirit. He introduced himself as Kuichi, giving her a name to refer to him as temporarily. They conversed very politely for a few moments, giving her time to adjust to the new realm she had found herself in. Once this was done, she accepted that she was to challenge her Zanpakuto, to either convince it to give her its name, or to beat it into submission and force the name from it. Of course, the former occurred. While Hanako herself was proficient in the use of her blade, her Zanpakuto was worlds more proficient in the use of the blade than she was. And yet, this loss did not end in her being forced to try and learn it at a later time. Strangely enough, the spirit seemed to see something in her. She was given its name, and the phrase to call out its power, allowing her to utilize her shikai. She has been practicing with the use of her Zanpakuto. While its power brings a slight amount of shame to the girl, she practices with it in secret as much as she can, along with learning how to utilize the strange form that her Zanpakuto takes on in its initial release.
Call to Action: And in fact, it is the very event of her unlocking her Shikai, combined with the massacre of the Central 46 and The Kings Key Eclipse that drove Hanako to do this training in the first place. While she considered herself fairly strong for her position, she came to realize that she was nowhere near the level of power she could be, or even anywhere close to the level of power she needed to be at in order to protect the innocent as she so desperately wished to do. She could watch as these events happened, but without power, she was unable to prevent as many casualties as there were. With that in mind, she has decided to attempt to take a more active role within her division, even going as far as to look for someone of a higher level of power who could train her further in as many ways as they could possibly do. She has hardened her resolve, deciding that she needed to become a Captain, no matter what was needed of her to achieve this goal.
