Post by Shirou Karasu on Dec 22, 2017 18:34:10 GMT -5
KARASU, SHIROU
Unseated, Fourth Division
Personnel File
Age / Apparent Age: 226 / 25
Birthday: December 20th, 1791
Death Day: May 14th, 1812
Gender: Male
Sexuality: Heterosexual
Height & Weight: 83kg & 182cm
Hair & Eye Color: Golden eyes and dark blue hair
Positive Traits: Sociable, Complimentary, Accommodating, Deferential, Compromising
Negative Traits: Duplicitous, Arrogant, Heartless, Flighty, Shallow
Loyalties: Shirou's loyalties lie entirely with himself and those with power over his life.
Physical Specifications
Physical Description
A lifetime of varied interests has given Shirou a body that hardly conforms to the stereotype of a Kidō Specialist. He's exceptionally broad-shouldered stunningly well-muscled due to his past work with Zanjutsu and hand-to-hand striking-focused combat styles. This has made him extremely lean, and now he looks more like someone who has spent decades in Fifth doing heavy combat and body-building than someone who has spent just as long in Third and Fourth instead. This image is only further reinforced by his notably above-average height.
His dark blue hair and golden eyes have made him stand out as well. The eyes in particular are a few shades darker than the yellow of a Hollow, but have earned Shirou some negative comments over the years due to their relative rarity. They also stand out prominently against his otherwise tan skin, a testament to the amount of time he's spent outdoors for various tasks, especially when close-quarters combat claimed dominion over his heart and mind alike in the past.
All of these things complement the outgoing demeanor he always shows to everyone else. His intimidating presence turns into something reassuring, for many people, when they discover the more agreeable side to him. Instead of some hardass who refuses to budge on how he does things or how he behaves, Shirou's generally compromising behavior has earned him a lot of friends. The words gentle giant have at times been applied to him, and that's a public perception that Shirou is more than happy to accept.
More than just his physical body feeds into that perception as well. A warm, inviting manner of speech around others, with a more subtle aura of command and confidence, has generally helped people buy into the sincerity of his act. Even when he walks and stands, it's a more open, easygoing, carefree sort of vibe than one of power, purpose, and sheer grit. Once again, Shirou has found that people generally enjoy this contrast between his appearance and how he actually behaves.
Owing to his desire to stay largely under the radar, however, Shirou never makes any changes to his uniform. He spends almost all of his time in the Seireitei or on Earth on assignment. In all instances, he keeps to a regular Shihakushō that varies in no way from any others. His hair is generally parted off to the side, and sometimes covers one of his eyes. His sword remains tightly tied into the sash of his uniform. At most, he keeps more Western-style clothes as a throwback to his "successful" Human life as an Englishman, wearing blazers and suits when appropriate.
The only item of any importance or significance that Shirou keeps on his person is the journal he wrote two centuries ago that details the story of his fake life back on Earth.
Spiritual Description
Every being, even those without spiritual power such as mundane Humans, leaves an imprint on the world in the form of their Spiritual Pressure. Like fingerprints, the feeling it creates in others is always unique from person to person, and sometimes can reflect changes in the source's emotional state. For Shirou, these things are just as true. His spiritual presence, however, comes across as flatter and something approaching inscrutable. Part of his, no doubt, are the abilities he's gained in manipulating his presence, but the other part is that Shirou's total lack of empathy manifests as flatness. It reflects the leveled-out emotional affect with which he truly responds to the whole world, and most every situation, despite his outwards behavior.
Changes in this sensation can be felt when Shirou himself is engrossed in something compelling. A lively sort of energy can be felt at these times, a sort of sensation that might motivate others to stand up and spring into action for themselves. Otherwise, this window to his soul merely reveals the emptiness behind the wallpaper and other proverbial decorations that Shirou hands on his walls. Most people do not tend to look quite that far, and those that do write off what they see as some sort of fluke, or as meaning something else than what it appears to imply on the surface.
Psychological Profile
Personality
There are two distinct sides to Shirou, an inherently two-faced man, that twist together at either end. For instance, the outgoing and friendly behavior that Shirou shows publicly contributes to social skills that he always possesses. On the other hand, Shirou's honest lack of empathy allows him to say the painful but honest truths that few have the heart to share, but many appreciate hearing after being given enough time to reflect. Aspects both of his true feelings and his outward demeanor exist on either side of the mirror at all times.
By and large, however, Shirou's compromising and deferential nature is largely an act. While willing to evolve and adapt when necessary, deep down he cannot find it in himself to truly care for anyone else. This, coupled with the fake history of his Human life and the great power he keeps a secret from the rest of the Seireitei, has created a man who sees himself as mostly superior to everyone else. This lack of hesitation, attachment, and the raw might necessary create a man who appears to be built for great achievements.
Despite that, Shirou has largely failed to stand out from the crowd. His tastes, owing to his flat emotional affect and disregard for others, are shallow at best. He enjoys what entertains him, he enjoys women and a variety of them, and he enjoys a sense of power and control. He's unable to easily commit to something without an extreme interest in it, and flits from one passing fancy to another.
Naturally, he hates a lack of those things. The more he fails to acquire them, and the more extreme his debt of them, the more he hates it. Related to this, he is able to feel a somewhat full range of emotion; but only insofar as they affect him. He may rage over someone's death, but only because of his own pain and never because someone else's life was stolen from them, for instance. In some ways, he could be considered stunted and juvenile.
It is mostly not a mystery, then, that his Inner World is a dull library that stores everything he's ever observed. Between his flat emotional affect and mechanical, empty approach to life, it may very well represent the very best his soul could summon. Sometimes, it makes him wonder if that is part of why Maigo acts they way she does.
Goals & Achievements
For a man largely flat, empty, and lacking substance inside, his goals are similar. Others might have more intrinsic motivations for things they want. They may want to find a wife to enjoy having a partner in life, the emotional intimacy, and the sense of safety and acceptance. These nebulous concepts mean nothing to Shirou.
His interests lie mostly in what the world does not want you to know. He wants to uncover the secrets of the Seireitei and has, largely, learned all he can about the public rumors that may exist, though he has failed to actually discover any of these rumored places or mystical objects. After the Great Seireitei Massacre, Hollowification has become and remained his primary point of interest for a number of years, and he finds himself almost obsessively focused on that. The ability of his Shikai, then, to assist with mass memorization and perfect recall, has become a useful tool in his efforts.
Less tangibly, Shirou simply wants to live up to the image created by the fake history of his human life recorded in his journal. To him, this means that he must be a master of his life and world, and the secrets held by the Seireitei fly in direct contradiction to the lie that Shirou very much wants to live up to.
Zanpakutō File
Zanpakutō
Unlike the hidden prodigy he later grew into, Shirou's early life as a Shinigami was not marked by imminent greatness or power. He chose a katana from among his potential Asauchi, like many others.
His specifically started as a blade about sixty centimeters in length and particularly well-polished. To his eye, there did not appear to be a single blemish in the steel. The guard was flat, seemingly bronze, and chiseled with the rhombic symbol of the Gotei. On the other hand, the hilt appeared to be wrapped in a red string that had triangular patterns instead of rhombic ones, revealing the darkly-hued wood that makes up the grip of the weapon.
Zanpakutō Spirit
迷子, Maigo
Within Shirou's Inner World, his Zanpakutō Spirit manifests as a short, young girl of no more than eight years of age. She has yellow eyes, significantly lighter in shade that Shirou's golden, with matching, blonde hair that hangs down nearly to her feet. She typically wears a a black sundress with white frills along the bottom and a white, tied ribbon in front. Otherwise, her arms, legs, and feet are entirely bare. Only rarely will Maigo make eye contact with Shirou when he purposefully visits his Inner World, or when he visits in his sleep.
In fact, it is even rarer still for her to engage in actual conversation with him. When she is not wandering about the warehouse-like library of his Inner World, she will usually spend all of her time reading in some corner of it. She acts terrified of Shirou whenever he is around and, when prompted as to why, will always refuse to answer. Instead, she spends all of her time reading or, as she says, watching the world through Shirou's eyes. Despite being as cordial as possible with Maigo, in an attempt to lure her out of her timidity and apparent shyness, she never responds to Shirou's amicable demeanor. In many ways, Shirou feels as though she's permanently become the person he was when he first appeared in the Rukongai.
When she does speak, there are certain things Maigo has never done. For one, she never speaks highly of herself as a Spirit and insists that Shirou clearly has a handle on things all by himself. She seems uninterested when he calls upon her for Shikai and sometimes even quips about how minimally useful she can be to him. Never once has Shirou seen her smile, laugh, or express any sort of joy, happiness, or excitement.
Inner World
Much to Shirou's complaint, the entirety of his Inner World is a sea of books. Each of them exist neatly packed away in bookshelves, which are stacked on top of each other to impossible heights. Each bookshelf is identical, made some of medium-hue wood that Shirou doesn't care to attempt to identify. The books come in a variety of sizes. All of them are hardback. Their bindings and covers are a myriad of colors, but never mixed.
The larger building itself appears to be something like an entirely wooden warehouse. The floorboards are polished hardwood, there's a front desk where one would seemingly request assistance and check out with materials. Through the endless rows of shelves are tables and chairs, sometimes seating as few as four and others seating over twenty. The walls are paneled along the bottom, about a meter high, but transition into stone much like the Sekkiseki walls of the Seireitei. Not a single window or door can be found anywhere, and the walls extend so high up that the white-stone ceiling cannot be seen from the floor. There even exists ample, ambient light, but with no clear source.
Shikai Power
Few things complement a golden pair of glasses than the ability to memorize anything you see and here, without fail, while wearing them. This particular ability comes from Maigo herself, and capitalizes on her observational skills and the humility necessary to pay attention to others. She never misses a single detail and marks it all down within the books that exist within Shirou's mind. As long as the glasses remain in contact with him, he is able to access any detail within that collection of knowledge in an instant.
Outside of Shikai, naturally, his memory and recall are not entirely perfect. Certain details that he can only remember when his Zanpakutō is released become foggy and then forgotten after use. Others will gradually stick around, enlightening Shirou until he is able to remember all aspects of that particular subject even outside of his Shikai.
Shikai Appearance
Narae, Maigo! (Learn, Maigo!)
All Shinigami Zanpakutō take on the form of another object or, sometimes, even a living creature during their releases. For Shirou, this manifests not as an offensive weapon, but a physical tool during combat: a pair of golden-framed glasses. The frames around the lenses themselves are mostly rectangular, with only a slight curve to the lines. The lenses themselves are flat and do not modify incoming light in anyway. Despite the ability of his Shikai, the color of the frames most closely match Shirou's golden eyes and not Maigo's blonde hair.
Documented History
Snapshots
Origin
The Industrial Revolution hit England starting around 1760. One of the major industries affected, where handmade goods were pushed out of the market by machine-made products, was the textile industry. Unfortunately, Shirou was born to a family deep in the textile industry in 1791. This led to a life of increasing challenge as Shirou's mother died when he was young while the advance of the Industrial Revolution slowly eroded the living that he and his family once made. By 1812, Shriou and his father had joined the Luddite movement fighting against the job-destroying machines, only to be executed by the government for their participation in a riot within that very same year.
When he next opened his eyes, Shirou found himself in a strange world among even stranger architecture. He had awakened within the Rukongai, the afterlife where Feudal Japanese culture reigned supreme. Unable to speak the language, and horribly depressed by his failure of a life that resulted in his death at a young age and his father being hanged, Shirou did little bit sit in a half burnt-out shack. Without hunger, he was able to remain undisturbed for weeks.
Only being discovered by a member of the Karasu family, native to the Karasu District of the Rukongai, was Shirou stirred from his inactivity. It was discovered that he had experience with textiles and techniques that many members of the Karasu family did not. After demonstrating his skills, and finding hope in a world where machines had not yet replaced the labor of real people, Shirou began to live his life anew. His original, English name is lost to time, but it is around this point that he took on the name Shirou Karasu and began to fully invest in his new life as a citizen of the Rukongai.
He later reflected on his human life with great disgust, embarrassed by the inability of him and his father to adapt to the new world around them. When he learned about how he would lose his memories of his human life after about a year within the Rukongai, Shirou hatched a plan: To bolster his status, his confidence, and his future success, he would write a journal about his human life. He planned to frame the journal in such a way that it was a message from his past self, to his future self, reminding him of all the great deeds he accomplished and how much confidence he should have in his abilities. He even planned to bribe one of the fabled "Shinigami" for one of their memory-wiping devices, to erase his own knowledge of having written the journal.
Years later, his plan largely succeeded. He grew into a man full of confidence, life, and an outgoing, social demeanor. He was loved by his fellow residents of the Karasu District and, eventually, his Spiritual Pressure broke into the realm of Shinigami potential. The Academy took note of this and quickly invited him, earning mixed reactions of sorrow and well-wishes from his family and friends within the Rukongai alike.
Rise to Power
To the shock of many back home, Shirou did not excel into the ranks of legendary prodigies immediately upon his acceptance to the Academy. In fact, his performance during the six year program proved to be largely average except for a noted talent with Kidō. In light of this, Shirou was assigned to the Third Division for his magical inclinations, where he further tried to hone his talents in the two primary schools of Shinigami magic.
This development of talent never truly happened. Instead, Shirou found himself lost in the larger, Shinigami world, and flitted from one thing to another. His interests drifted from one school of magic, to the other, and then to sword-fighting. For a while, he even developed an interest in hand-to-hand combat, along with Flash Step, healing magic, and many other non-Shinigami skills such as cooking, calligraphy, and, of course, women. The shine and excitement of something new almost always stole his attention away. Even by 1943, and in the midst of the Earth's Second World War, Shirou earned himself not even a single promotion despite his slowly growing power due to his inability to commit to a particular field.
Things truly began to change for Shirou, and in turn changed Shirou himself, upon his transfer into the Fourth Division. After learning more about the Seireitei's detection methods and equipment, used to keep track of the Dangai in detail along with Earth in general, Shirou became curious to see if he could find ways around him. This extended to other areas of petty taboo, such as unearthing the general existence of some of the Seireitei's secrets, such as the Central 46 repository of knowledge. Shirou never managed to find or acquire any of these places or things, but for years became obsessed with the creation of taboo methodologies that might earn him a prison sentence or a lifetime in Second's rumored prison for those the Soul Society would be best off forgetting.
With something truly igniting a passion within him, Shirou finally learned the name of his long-transformed Asauchi: Maigo. His first, private use of his Shikai proved to be a transformative moment for him, as his power started to balloon to truly incredible heights shortly thereafter. He hid these developments, and his acquisition of Shikai, from the world around him as he delved into the minor secrets of the Soul Society for decades.
During this time, Shirou's private knowledge of his greatly growing power, and his fervent belief in his natural superiority, started to reveal more and more of his actual personality. His concern for others, always superficial at best, vanished entirely within his mind. He came to acknowledge his total inability to empathize, and embraced it. Everyone else became an actor in his life, a thin fakery not worth real consideration. In pursuit of secrets he should not know, a natural inclination for lies and two-faced behavior rose to the surface.
It was also during this time that his already-quiet Spirit began to look at Shirou with great fear. She rarely spoke, and outright refused to ever explain her terror to Shirou despite his kindness and open demeanor around her. This ultimately led to a one-sided, positive relationship, much more mature than before; but it lacked true reciprocation from Maigo.
Call to Action
The arrival of the King of Hueco Mundo, by the name of Tova Diabló, changed Shirou's life once again. He escaped injury and death, something he could not say for many, and in turn gained a wild fascination with the power of Hollows. The Seireitei taught that Hollows themselves held no great advantage over the Shinigami and, in turn, always remained underfoot. The arrival of the monster known as Tova proved these ideas wrong. Instead, Shirou theorized that Hollows on the whole possessed not only greater numbers than the Shinigami but also greater power on average and greater potential to reach truly limitless heights. Their weakness lied only in their inability to properly organize and function as a unit, something the Shinigami used to great effect.
For years, Shirou scraped up every bit of information on Hollows, Arrancar, and the rumored process of Hollowification that everyone insisted must not exist. His work yielded next to nothing until Kiriko Chinda, then-Captain-Commander, revealed the existence of Vaizards, and therefore Hollowification within Shinigami, to the whole of the Seireitei. This kept the fire of curiosity alive within Shirou, despite the clear dangers of the subject, and committed him to something unlike anything ever had in his entire life.
Finally, with no real results to speak of as of yet even in 2017, Shirou drafted a plan to visit Hueco Mundo. There, he figured, must be more information about the process of Hollowification than anything he could dig up within the Soul Society. Whether among the Arrancar, or some secret base of operations within the endless sands, he believed to his very core that he would find what he sought somewhere in the land of monsters.
Unseated, Fourth Division
Personnel File
Age / Apparent Age: 226 / 25
Birthday: December 20th, 1791
Death Day: May 14th, 1812
Gender: Male
Sexuality: Heterosexual
Height & Weight: 83kg & 182cm
Hair & Eye Color: Golden eyes and dark blue hair
Positive Traits: Sociable, Complimentary, Accommodating, Deferential, Compromising
Negative Traits: Duplicitous, Arrogant, Heartless, Flighty, Shallow
Loyalties: Shirou's loyalties lie entirely with himself and those with power over his life.
Physical Specifications
Physical Description
A lifetime of varied interests has given Shirou a body that hardly conforms to the stereotype of a Kidō Specialist. He's exceptionally broad-shouldered stunningly well-muscled due to his past work with Zanjutsu and hand-to-hand striking-focused combat styles. This has made him extremely lean, and now he looks more like someone who has spent decades in Fifth doing heavy combat and body-building than someone who has spent just as long in Third and Fourth instead. This image is only further reinforced by his notably above-average height.
His dark blue hair and golden eyes have made him stand out as well. The eyes in particular are a few shades darker than the yellow of a Hollow, but have earned Shirou some negative comments over the years due to their relative rarity. They also stand out prominently against his otherwise tan skin, a testament to the amount of time he's spent outdoors for various tasks, especially when close-quarters combat claimed dominion over his heart and mind alike in the past.
All of these things complement the outgoing demeanor he always shows to everyone else. His intimidating presence turns into something reassuring, for many people, when they discover the more agreeable side to him. Instead of some hardass who refuses to budge on how he does things or how he behaves, Shirou's generally compromising behavior has earned him a lot of friends. The words gentle giant have at times been applied to him, and that's a public perception that Shirou is more than happy to accept.
More than just his physical body feeds into that perception as well. A warm, inviting manner of speech around others, with a more subtle aura of command and confidence, has generally helped people buy into the sincerity of his act. Even when he walks and stands, it's a more open, easygoing, carefree sort of vibe than one of power, purpose, and sheer grit. Once again, Shirou has found that people generally enjoy this contrast between his appearance and how he actually behaves.
Owing to his desire to stay largely under the radar, however, Shirou never makes any changes to his uniform. He spends almost all of his time in the Seireitei or on Earth on assignment. In all instances, he keeps to a regular Shihakushō that varies in no way from any others. His hair is generally parted off to the side, and sometimes covers one of his eyes. His sword remains tightly tied into the sash of his uniform. At most, he keeps more Western-style clothes as a throwback to his "successful" Human life as an Englishman, wearing blazers and suits when appropriate.
The only item of any importance or significance that Shirou keeps on his person is the journal he wrote two centuries ago that details the story of his fake life back on Earth.
Spiritual Description
Every being, even those without spiritual power such as mundane Humans, leaves an imprint on the world in the form of their Spiritual Pressure. Like fingerprints, the feeling it creates in others is always unique from person to person, and sometimes can reflect changes in the source's emotional state. For Shirou, these things are just as true. His spiritual presence, however, comes across as flatter and something approaching inscrutable. Part of his, no doubt, are the abilities he's gained in manipulating his presence, but the other part is that Shirou's total lack of empathy manifests as flatness. It reflects the leveled-out emotional affect with which he truly responds to the whole world, and most every situation, despite his outwards behavior.
Changes in this sensation can be felt when Shirou himself is engrossed in something compelling. A lively sort of energy can be felt at these times, a sort of sensation that might motivate others to stand up and spring into action for themselves. Otherwise, this window to his soul merely reveals the emptiness behind the wallpaper and other proverbial decorations that Shirou hands on his walls. Most people do not tend to look quite that far, and those that do write off what they see as some sort of fluke, or as meaning something else than what it appears to imply on the surface.
Psychological Profile
Personality
There are two distinct sides to Shirou, an inherently two-faced man, that twist together at either end. For instance, the outgoing and friendly behavior that Shirou shows publicly contributes to social skills that he always possesses. On the other hand, Shirou's honest lack of empathy allows him to say the painful but honest truths that few have the heart to share, but many appreciate hearing after being given enough time to reflect. Aspects both of his true feelings and his outward demeanor exist on either side of the mirror at all times.
By and large, however, Shirou's compromising and deferential nature is largely an act. While willing to evolve and adapt when necessary, deep down he cannot find it in himself to truly care for anyone else. This, coupled with the fake history of his Human life and the great power he keeps a secret from the rest of the Seireitei, has created a man who sees himself as mostly superior to everyone else. This lack of hesitation, attachment, and the raw might necessary create a man who appears to be built for great achievements.
Despite that, Shirou has largely failed to stand out from the crowd. His tastes, owing to his flat emotional affect and disregard for others, are shallow at best. He enjoys what entertains him, he enjoys women and a variety of them, and he enjoys a sense of power and control. He's unable to easily commit to something without an extreme interest in it, and flits from one passing fancy to another.
Naturally, he hates a lack of those things. The more he fails to acquire them, and the more extreme his debt of them, the more he hates it. Related to this, he is able to feel a somewhat full range of emotion; but only insofar as they affect him. He may rage over someone's death, but only because of his own pain and never because someone else's life was stolen from them, for instance. In some ways, he could be considered stunted and juvenile.
It is mostly not a mystery, then, that his Inner World is a dull library that stores everything he's ever observed. Between his flat emotional affect and mechanical, empty approach to life, it may very well represent the very best his soul could summon. Sometimes, it makes him wonder if that is part of why Maigo acts they way she does.
Goals & Achievements
For a man largely flat, empty, and lacking substance inside, his goals are similar. Others might have more intrinsic motivations for things they want. They may want to find a wife to enjoy having a partner in life, the emotional intimacy, and the sense of safety and acceptance. These nebulous concepts mean nothing to Shirou.
His interests lie mostly in what the world does not want you to know. He wants to uncover the secrets of the Seireitei and has, largely, learned all he can about the public rumors that may exist, though he has failed to actually discover any of these rumored places or mystical objects. After the Great Seireitei Massacre, Hollowification has become and remained his primary point of interest for a number of years, and he finds himself almost obsessively focused on that. The ability of his Shikai, then, to assist with mass memorization and perfect recall, has become a useful tool in his efforts.
Less tangibly, Shirou simply wants to live up to the image created by the fake history of his human life recorded in his journal. To him, this means that he must be a master of his life and world, and the secrets held by the Seireitei fly in direct contradiction to the lie that Shirou very much wants to live up to.
Zanpakutō File
Zanpakutō
Unlike the hidden prodigy he later grew into, Shirou's early life as a Shinigami was not marked by imminent greatness or power. He chose a katana from among his potential Asauchi, like many others.
His specifically started as a blade about sixty centimeters in length and particularly well-polished. To his eye, there did not appear to be a single blemish in the steel. The guard was flat, seemingly bronze, and chiseled with the rhombic symbol of the Gotei. On the other hand, the hilt appeared to be wrapped in a red string that had triangular patterns instead of rhombic ones, revealing the darkly-hued wood that makes up the grip of the weapon.
Zanpakutō Spirit
迷子, Maigo
Within Shirou's Inner World, his Zanpakutō Spirit manifests as a short, young girl of no more than eight years of age. She has yellow eyes, significantly lighter in shade that Shirou's golden, with matching, blonde hair that hangs down nearly to her feet. She typically wears a a black sundress with white frills along the bottom and a white, tied ribbon in front. Otherwise, her arms, legs, and feet are entirely bare. Only rarely will Maigo make eye contact with Shirou when he purposefully visits his Inner World, or when he visits in his sleep.
In fact, it is even rarer still for her to engage in actual conversation with him. When she is not wandering about the warehouse-like library of his Inner World, she will usually spend all of her time reading in some corner of it. She acts terrified of Shirou whenever he is around and, when prompted as to why, will always refuse to answer. Instead, she spends all of her time reading or, as she says, watching the world through Shirou's eyes. Despite being as cordial as possible with Maigo, in an attempt to lure her out of her timidity and apparent shyness, she never responds to Shirou's amicable demeanor. In many ways, Shirou feels as though she's permanently become the person he was when he first appeared in the Rukongai.
When she does speak, there are certain things Maigo has never done. For one, she never speaks highly of herself as a Spirit and insists that Shirou clearly has a handle on things all by himself. She seems uninterested when he calls upon her for Shikai and sometimes even quips about how minimally useful she can be to him. Never once has Shirou seen her smile, laugh, or express any sort of joy, happiness, or excitement.
Inner World
Much to Shirou's complaint, the entirety of his Inner World is a sea of books. Each of them exist neatly packed away in bookshelves, which are stacked on top of each other to impossible heights. Each bookshelf is identical, made some of medium-hue wood that Shirou doesn't care to attempt to identify. The books come in a variety of sizes. All of them are hardback. Their bindings and covers are a myriad of colors, but never mixed.
The larger building itself appears to be something like an entirely wooden warehouse. The floorboards are polished hardwood, there's a front desk where one would seemingly request assistance and check out with materials. Through the endless rows of shelves are tables and chairs, sometimes seating as few as four and others seating over twenty. The walls are paneled along the bottom, about a meter high, but transition into stone much like the Sekkiseki walls of the Seireitei. Not a single window or door can be found anywhere, and the walls extend so high up that the white-stone ceiling cannot be seen from the floor. There even exists ample, ambient light, but with no clear source.
Shikai Power
Few things complement a golden pair of glasses than the ability to memorize anything you see and here, without fail, while wearing them. This particular ability comes from Maigo herself, and capitalizes on her observational skills and the humility necessary to pay attention to others. She never misses a single detail and marks it all down within the books that exist within Shirou's mind. As long as the glasses remain in contact with him, he is able to access any detail within that collection of knowledge in an instant.
Outside of Shikai, naturally, his memory and recall are not entirely perfect. Certain details that he can only remember when his Zanpakutō is released become foggy and then forgotten after use. Others will gradually stick around, enlightening Shirou until he is able to remember all aspects of that particular subject even outside of his Shikai.
Shikai Appearance
Narae, Maigo! (Learn, Maigo!)
All Shinigami Zanpakutō take on the form of another object or, sometimes, even a living creature during their releases. For Shirou, this manifests not as an offensive weapon, but a physical tool during combat: a pair of golden-framed glasses. The frames around the lenses themselves are mostly rectangular, with only a slight curve to the lines. The lenses themselves are flat and do not modify incoming light in anyway. Despite the ability of his Shikai, the color of the frames most closely match Shirou's golden eyes and not Maigo's blonde hair.
Documented History
Snapshots
- Shirou is born to a father who worked in textiles, in England, in 1791.
- Shirou and his father are both hanged after participating in a Luddite riot in 1812.
- Shirou awakens in the Rukongai, is adopted by the Karasu family, and takes on the name Shirou Karasu in 1812.
- Shirou learns that his memories of his human life will fade after about a year and decides to record a false and far more successful life in a journal come late 1813.
- By 1823, Shirou is known within the Karasu District of the Rukongai for his achievements as a Human and stories from England.
- In 1887, Shirou is recognized by the Shinigami for his above-average Spiritual Pressure and joins the Spiritual Arts Academy.
- Shirou graduates in 1893, after six years, and joins the Third Division due to a talent for Kidō.
- Shirou continues to grow in power and develops a variety of talents but, by 1943, has not moved beyond Unseated.
- Bored after 60 years in the Third, and no new grand achievements as a Shinigami, Shirou is attracted to taboo subjects within Soul Society and transfers to Fourth Division in 1944.
- Shirou keeps his head down and works diligently as a Fourth Division Shinigami, pursuing any forbidden subject that interests him while beginning to hide his growing power until 2013.
- In 2013, the Great Seireitei Massacre perpetrated by the Arrancar ignites an interest in Hollowification within Shirou.
- By 2017, Shirou has gone four years without progress in his attempts to learn more about Hollowification and begins to plan a mission to Hueco Mundo to see what information the Arrancar still have.
Origin
The Industrial Revolution hit England starting around 1760. One of the major industries affected, where handmade goods were pushed out of the market by machine-made products, was the textile industry. Unfortunately, Shirou was born to a family deep in the textile industry in 1791. This led to a life of increasing challenge as Shirou's mother died when he was young while the advance of the Industrial Revolution slowly eroded the living that he and his family once made. By 1812, Shriou and his father had joined the Luddite movement fighting against the job-destroying machines, only to be executed by the government for their participation in a riot within that very same year.
When he next opened his eyes, Shirou found himself in a strange world among even stranger architecture. He had awakened within the Rukongai, the afterlife where Feudal Japanese culture reigned supreme. Unable to speak the language, and horribly depressed by his failure of a life that resulted in his death at a young age and his father being hanged, Shirou did little bit sit in a half burnt-out shack. Without hunger, he was able to remain undisturbed for weeks.
Only being discovered by a member of the Karasu family, native to the Karasu District of the Rukongai, was Shirou stirred from his inactivity. It was discovered that he had experience with textiles and techniques that many members of the Karasu family did not. After demonstrating his skills, and finding hope in a world where machines had not yet replaced the labor of real people, Shirou began to live his life anew. His original, English name is lost to time, but it is around this point that he took on the name Shirou Karasu and began to fully invest in his new life as a citizen of the Rukongai.
He later reflected on his human life with great disgust, embarrassed by the inability of him and his father to adapt to the new world around them. When he learned about how he would lose his memories of his human life after about a year within the Rukongai, Shirou hatched a plan: To bolster his status, his confidence, and his future success, he would write a journal about his human life. He planned to frame the journal in such a way that it was a message from his past self, to his future self, reminding him of all the great deeds he accomplished and how much confidence he should have in his abilities. He even planned to bribe one of the fabled "Shinigami" for one of their memory-wiping devices, to erase his own knowledge of having written the journal.
Years later, his plan largely succeeded. He grew into a man full of confidence, life, and an outgoing, social demeanor. He was loved by his fellow residents of the Karasu District and, eventually, his Spiritual Pressure broke into the realm of Shinigami potential. The Academy took note of this and quickly invited him, earning mixed reactions of sorrow and well-wishes from his family and friends within the Rukongai alike.
Rise to Power
To the shock of many back home, Shirou did not excel into the ranks of legendary prodigies immediately upon his acceptance to the Academy. In fact, his performance during the six year program proved to be largely average except for a noted talent with Kidō. In light of this, Shirou was assigned to the Third Division for his magical inclinations, where he further tried to hone his talents in the two primary schools of Shinigami magic.
This development of talent never truly happened. Instead, Shirou found himself lost in the larger, Shinigami world, and flitted from one thing to another. His interests drifted from one school of magic, to the other, and then to sword-fighting. For a while, he even developed an interest in hand-to-hand combat, along with Flash Step, healing magic, and many other non-Shinigami skills such as cooking, calligraphy, and, of course, women. The shine and excitement of something new almost always stole his attention away. Even by 1943, and in the midst of the Earth's Second World War, Shirou earned himself not even a single promotion despite his slowly growing power due to his inability to commit to a particular field.
Things truly began to change for Shirou, and in turn changed Shirou himself, upon his transfer into the Fourth Division. After learning more about the Seireitei's detection methods and equipment, used to keep track of the Dangai in detail along with Earth in general, Shirou became curious to see if he could find ways around him. This extended to other areas of petty taboo, such as unearthing the general existence of some of the Seireitei's secrets, such as the Central 46 repository of knowledge. Shirou never managed to find or acquire any of these places or things, but for years became obsessed with the creation of taboo methodologies that might earn him a prison sentence or a lifetime in Second's rumored prison for those the Soul Society would be best off forgetting.
With something truly igniting a passion within him, Shirou finally learned the name of his long-transformed Asauchi: Maigo. His first, private use of his Shikai proved to be a transformative moment for him, as his power started to balloon to truly incredible heights shortly thereafter. He hid these developments, and his acquisition of Shikai, from the world around him as he delved into the minor secrets of the Soul Society for decades.
During this time, Shirou's private knowledge of his greatly growing power, and his fervent belief in his natural superiority, started to reveal more and more of his actual personality. His concern for others, always superficial at best, vanished entirely within his mind. He came to acknowledge his total inability to empathize, and embraced it. Everyone else became an actor in his life, a thin fakery not worth real consideration. In pursuit of secrets he should not know, a natural inclination for lies and two-faced behavior rose to the surface.
It was also during this time that his already-quiet Spirit began to look at Shirou with great fear. She rarely spoke, and outright refused to ever explain her terror to Shirou despite his kindness and open demeanor around her. This ultimately led to a one-sided, positive relationship, much more mature than before; but it lacked true reciprocation from Maigo.
Call to Action
The arrival of the King of Hueco Mundo, by the name of Tova Diabló, changed Shirou's life once again. He escaped injury and death, something he could not say for many, and in turn gained a wild fascination with the power of Hollows. The Seireitei taught that Hollows themselves held no great advantage over the Shinigami and, in turn, always remained underfoot. The arrival of the monster known as Tova proved these ideas wrong. Instead, Shirou theorized that Hollows on the whole possessed not only greater numbers than the Shinigami but also greater power on average and greater potential to reach truly limitless heights. Their weakness lied only in their inability to properly organize and function as a unit, something the Shinigami used to great effect.
For years, Shirou scraped up every bit of information on Hollows, Arrancar, and the rumored process of Hollowification that everyone insisted must not exist. His work yielded next to nothing until Kiriko Chinda, then-Captain-Commander, revealed the existence of Vaizards, and therefore Hollowification within Shinigami, to the whole of the Seireitei. This kept the fire of curiosity alive within Shirou, despite the clear dangers of the subject, and committed him to something unlike anything ever had in his entire life.
Finally, with no real results to speak of as of yet even in 2017, Shirou drafted a plan to visit Hueco Mundo. There, he figured, must be more information about the process of Hollowification than anything he could dig up within the Soul Society. Whether among the Arrancar, or some secret base of operations within the endless sands, he believed to his very core that he would find what he sought somewhere in the land of monsters.
