Post by Ruby on Jan 18, 2018 22:57:17 GMT -5
Oukami, Rubianca
Seated / Fifth Division
Personnel File
Age / Apparent Age: 28 / 22
Gender: Female
Height & Weight: 67 inches / 130 lbs
Hair & Eye Color: Brown / Literal fire
Positive Traits: Persistent / Dedicated / Bold
Negative Traits: Violent / Single-Minded / Rash
Loyalties: Soul Society / Herself
Snapshots:
Physical Specifications
Physical Description
Before the plague, Rubianca's appearance could best be described as dignified. The way in which she tied her silky, brown hair up in a ponytail spoke of her desire to portray control. Similarly she maintained her eyebrows with precision, plucking the stray hairs that loved to grow at the far ends of her brows. Her eyelashes were naturally long, and dark, accentuating the hazel of her almond-shaped eyes. Her features spoke for themselves: a feminine jawline, just the right amount of blush on the cheeks, small nose, soft pink lips - it was a combination of traits that had many of the Shinigami population glancing Ruby's way for seconds and thirds.
Though you couldn't really tell what Ruby was packing underneath her Shihkusho, it wasn't hard to imagine Ruby's near perfect proportions. A lazy glance at her bust and waste was all that many of her colleagues needed to visualize Ruby's hourglass shape. Add in the leanness of her arms and legs, the sharp curve of her lower back, her taller-than-average height of 5'7", and you had a woman you couldn't simply ignore.
She would glide from place to place, her grounded footsteps light enough to not make a sound, with her back straight and chest out. Never in her years would she dare slouch, always conscious of the image she portrayed to the scrutiny of both friend and foe: the former to demonstrate by example, and the latter to dissolve hollow courage.
Always duty-bound, Ruby sported her standard Shihakusho for the majority of her waking hours. On the occasions of her nights out - after a long, and sometimes bloody, day's work - she'd don her daisy dukes: a simple combination of short-cut, jean shorts and a black tang top. She enjoyed the contrast to her daily conservative wear, and it helped her to throw work out of her mind completely. She liked having a fine line between work and pleasure. She liberally wore a sweet plum perfume, so strong in fact that the scent lingered for some time within the halls and bars alike.
When talking appearance, Ruby's hasn't really changed all that much since the onset of the outbreak. Although the Shinigami plague has certainly altered her, the brunt of it has been on her psyche.
Where she once tied her hair up into that signature ponytail, she now lets the smooth of her brown mane - a surprise that she keeps up with its care - drape down her shoulders and back. She doesn't have the patience or desire to pluck her brows, and it's evident as the natural fur of her much larger brows transforms her once gentle appearance into one that is much more ferocious. The hazel of her eyes has been replaced with the raging fires of Hell itself.
Of note is her newfound draw to the color red, of which she has made clear by choosing to fasten her robes with the silk of a red sash.
Her once inspiring demeanor has all but vanished, bouts of its magnificence shining in between the cracks of her newfound barbarism. Although still as lithe, Ruby cares little for the how, which is evident in her slight slouch and general disregard for what people think. Where once she may have covered a yawn, she now lets loose with absolute abandon.
Spiritual Description
Once black and generally unpleasant, it is now a blazing mixture of white and red energies that entangle along the edges of her skin. The red overpowers the white under the brightness of the sun, and at night she is impossible to miss as the white takes center stage, much like the moon against the backdrop of the black sky.
Psychological Profile
Personality
Rubianca was once a woman of absolute virtue. Someone who you could look at and say damn, she's go it all figured out. And although the plague has wrought a considerable burden on her emotional stability, she still maintains many of those same virtues. It's just that she, well, has started to experience a re-emergence of some very powerful - and unacceptable by past Gotei standards - urges.
To really get a good understanding of Ruby's personality, applying the concepts of the id, ego, and super-ego may be useful.
If we were to look at Ruby as she is currently, we'd see a woman who possesses a strong conviction for what she believes to be true. She wants to make things better, but she doesn't know how. The conscious desire to become better and to overcome all challenges, no matter how difficult, is obvious. This aspect of her personality is personified within her Zanpakuto Spirit, Queen of Blades: the super-ego. She is Ruby's source of boldness, and at the same time, her rashness. More on her later.
If we dig a bit deeper, past the super-ego, we have the struggling girl known as Ruby. If we strip her of Queen of Blades, we are left with a being who doesn't care for the complexities of morality. To this part of Ruby, there is no right or wrong: there simply is. Without Kachi to guide her, Ruby functions as a conduit for her primitive desires. Thus, being the median between primal and morally-sound, Ruby is the ego. She is dedicated to pleasing both the demands of her super-ego and the urges of her id, but alas she cannot do both simultaneously. This is why she can be so single-minded in her approach, whichever end that may be.
Deeper still reside the aspects of herself that Ruby tries to repress. These are powerful urges that, no matter how hard she tries, have resurfaced due to the chaos brought on by the plague. Although there are a number of these impulses, the two strongest being the thirst for battle and the desire to overcome every challenge with violence. The former because she gets pleasure in tangibly demonstrating that she is better, and the latter because it's the quickest path from A to B. These suppressed primal compulsions are her id, and they are represented by Ruby's perseverance and her propensity for violence.
This is why Ruby seems so volatile. On the outside she gives off the air of control, up until an external variable steps on the tail of her nerves and then, BOOM, she explodes in a fit of fire and steel. These recent and turbulent years have wrestled with Ruby's control over her urges, slowly but surely wearing away at the hinges of the proverbial door. Where once it closed shut, it now rests just barely ajar, no form of security able to prevent the darkness from seeping through the cracks.
I'm certain the above write-up paints a bad picture of Ruby, but she's not all bad. Sure, she doesn't smile or laugh as often as she once did. And sure, she might get ticked off and start a fight. But she's still the Ruby that will put her life on the line. She'll help those in genuine need, and if something needs to be done she'll work tirelessly to see it through.
Goals & Achievements
If we place the super-ego and the id side-by-side, we'll find a deeply seeded goal shared by both. That goal is to become the greatest swordsman (or woman, in this case) that the world has ever seen. From the perspective of the super-ego, this manifests as the unrelenting need to solve any problem, and to overcome any challenge with her swordsmanship. In this sense it isn't a stretch to think of Queen of Blades as the toolbox, and the many weapons she possesses as the tools with which Ruby seeks to solve her problems. The purpose for this need is to be capable of overcoming any kind of challenge that may arise.
For the id, it's more about the journey; the countless battles and the humiliation of the enemy that proceeds the victory. There isn't much of an end-goal, save for the opportunity - and the subsequent capability - to continue to show the world who's the best.
A second goal of Ruby's, one that is desired solely by her super-ego, is to return the Gotei to its former glorious self. She knows that there's a great deal at stake, and that it is her duty to ensure this happens. How she goes about the reconstruction isn't important, as long as it happens.
Thankfully, Ruby isn't all talk. She's shown that she's got what it takes to meet the ambitious goals she's set for herself.
Zanpakutō File
Zanpakutō
Ruby's weapon is a standard katana. Its handle is wrapped in a delicate red silk, its ball-shaped pummel and circular guard a solid black, and its 36 in. blade a glimmering silver. It's evident that even after her weapon's evolution from a mere asauchi, the aesthetic difference is minor. She wears the sword over her left thigh, sheathed deep into the blackest of scabbards.
Zanpakutō Spirit
Ah, the one and only Queen of Blades. Ruby used to think her Inner Spirit was literally the Devil, but as we've all been made quite aware, that wasn't Queen of Blades. Just one of her weapons, acting the part!
Kachi's the name that Ruby's Inner Spirit goes by, who manifests as a youthful woman of pale skin. She has an almost Japanese look about her, although with some dominant Western features. In particular, her rounder eyes and more defined facial features. Her very straight, black hair nearly reaches her calves, and she likes to fold it over her shoulder, letting it rest over her left side. An aspect of Kachi's appearance that always gets to Ruby are the spirit's color-shifting irises, which range from the darkest of blues to the lightest of yellows.
Kachi wears a red and gold battle dress. The upper portion - covering her shoulders, chest and waist - is made of gold, fashioned to resemble body armor. She sports two shoulder-guards, the both of them also made of gold, the right one shaped to resemble a bull and the left that of a hawk. Where gold ends, her backless red dress begins, and it flows all the way down past her feet. She sports a half-cape made out of the same material as her dress - dark red in color - that is fastened underneath her left spaulder.
The collected spirit speaks down to Ruby with a ferocity that beckons respect, her chin held up high as the pale woman's command shakes the foundation of her Temple. It's common to find Kachi interrupting her master with an overpowering quip, especially when faced with unbearable ignorance.
Before the plague, Kachi loved to tease Ruby. She saw her master as inferior mentally, emotionally, and most importantly, she found Ruby to be unworthy with the blade. How could she muster the will to care at all for someone so...mediocre? She couldn't! At every opportunity she'd test her master by changing Ruby's weapon in the heat of combat, or by refusing to release altogether.
But all of that changed - gradually, of course - over the course of the chaotic years brought on by the plague. Slowly her perception of her master changed for the better as she caught glimpses of the potential for greatness. With the knowledge that this potential exists, Kachi - although still as cruel as ever - now approaches Ruby with an ever growing respect.
Inner World
Queen of Blade's sanctum is the Temple of a Thousand Blades, an enormous black pyramid nestled atop a platform that hovers high up in the red clouds of an unknown world. The pyramid rises higher still, its flat peak barely visible from ground-level. Atop the pyramid rests Kachi's throne, and beneath it, the Temple's entrance.
What's extremely odd, and similarly extremely frustrating, is that there are no steps that lead up to the throne. There is no path, or stairs, or ladders that grant Ruby passage to the peak. Ruby is left to shout at her Zanpakuto Spirit from the base of the Temple as powerful gusts attempt to hurl her off into the bottomless abyss of her Inner World.
The only other object of note is a second throne, identical to that of Kachi's, that sits atop a slightly elevated square platform facing the Temple. Ruby has attempted to discern its purpose, insofar that she's sat in it, only to be disappointed when nothing happened.
Shikai
Release Phrase: 装備, Sōbi (Equip)
Queen of Blade's power is simple: upon Ruby's behest, Queen of Blades may transform into any weapon known to man, Shinigami, and otherwise. This means that if Ruby wishes to wield a sword the size of a car, all it takes is a desire to do so and bam, she's cleaving buildings in two. Be advised that Ruby's skills cast a very large net, so don't be surprised if she pulls out a longbow for those pesky wizards who enjoy the comforts - and relative safety - of distance.
Documented History
Origin
Rubianca was born in 1988 to Akimitsu and Hana Oukami. Her father, an unseated Shinigami of the 5th, earned a modest living. Rubianca's early years - from the time she was born to just months shy of her 5th birthday - were lived comfortably in the 10th District of the Northern Rukongai. With her father gone most of the time, Rubianca grew up knowing very little about him. Even so, she grew fond of the stories her mother would tell her before bed. Of how mighty her father was with the sword. Of how he'd cut down hundreds of demons in the blink of an eye. But they were just that, stories, something that could never replace the real deal. Unfortunately she never got the chance to enjoy the fulfillment of a father-daughter relationship. She was so disconnected from him that on the day the news of his death came, she only cried because of her mother's shock. To her, he wasn't a real thing, just a fantasy from a world far, far away.
The years that followed his death were difficult. Her mother, overcome with grief at the loss of her love, succumbed to the addiction of alcohol. She spent all of her days drinking herself into a coma, leaving Ruby with no choice but to find a means of living to support both her mother and herself. She took on various jobs at nearby establishments, usually cleaning or cooking, working long days to make ends meet. These four years forced Ruby to grow tremendously, but the immense burden caused a darkness to grow inside of her. She became easy to anger and temperamental, lashing out at anyone and everything. Her life came to a screeching halt when - after an exhausting day of work - she found her mother on the floor of their apartment, dead.
Hours turned to days, days to weeks, and it all seemed like a blur until she heard banging on the door. She'd been locked up in her home for weeks, her life turned upside down as she attempted to cope with her new reality. Thrown into the streets, Ruby joined a band of abandoned children, living with them as she found new work. Slowly her wits returned to her, and for once in what seemed like forever, she found pleasure in things. Of particular interest were the books that told the stories of all of the great swordsman of the Gotei, her collection growing into piles and piles over the years. She loved Mitsutaka Karahashi, Captain-Commander and former Captain of the 4th, and his whimsical style of sword-fighting. And the mighty Jasper Aizawa! The Lightbringer! A legendary swordsman from the 5th! She would wonder if the Lightbringer had known her father, sometimes making up stories in her head about the two of them fighting alongside one another.
Years later, she was adopted by a herb merchant named Ray Katawari, who Ruby worked for. Ray nurtured and groomed Ruby, teaching her much about life and, obviously, about herbs. Eventually her spiritual pressure grew enough to warrant an invitation to the Shinigami Arts Academy, and with dreams of following in her father's footsteps, accepted the offer.
Rise to Power
Ruby quickly adapted to the Academy, learning the strictures of military life. This was a big departure from her life in the Rukongai, so the first few months were difficult. She didn't make many friends until about half way through the first year, when her talent for Zanjutsu was discovered. Academy students were a superficial bunch, and popularity among them was measured by the successes earned within the varied Shinigami fields. Her swordsmanship bought her many invitations to study groups and training sessions. Unfortunately, due to her embarrassing failures with Kidō, Ruby didn't make many wizard friends.
Years into her studies, Ruby started to hear a foreign voice coming from within. At first she wasn't sure who's voice she was hearing, but after many questions directed at instructor and colleague alike, she realized that she was on the cusp of a new stage in her progression as a Shinigami. What had started as uncontrollable excitement turned to fear as the voice grew more violent. It wasn't until the Great Shinigami Massacre, brought on by the late Tova Diablo, that Ruby discovered first hand the nature of her powers. Surrounded by a sea of Hollows, and covered in the blood of friend and enemy alike, Ruby unleashed her destructive Shikai. What ensued was a disorienting blur of madness and carnage. When Ruby opened her eyes again, she was strapped to a bed in some hospital in the 4th, the nurses looking down at her with bewilderment. How had she survived, found unconscious, surrounded by the dead? It was a question asked to her too many times during her debriefings with the interrogators of the Second, and the answer was always the same: she didn't remember.
Found to be telling the truth - and in need of capable soldiers - she was allowed to complete her studies. Fearing her Zanpakuto would cause her to fail - and worse yet, to rot away in some dungeon in the infamous Maggots Nest - Ruby vowed to never again release her power. With her mind refocused, the final few years went by quickly, until one day she found herself standing in front of a crowd celebrating her achievement. Having graduated with demonstrated excellence in - surprise, surprise - Zanjutsu, she was drafted into the 5th.
Ruby hit the ground running from the get-go, and she rapidly built a name for herself within the Fighting Fifth. Her first assignment to Earth came quickly, a successful and generally uneventful endeavor save for a happen-chance meeting with Shinpei Minamoto, the brother of the man she'd grown to idealize. Everyone knew of the legendary swordsmanship of the then Captain of the 4th, and his Lieutenant, Hazuki Tsukimiya. For the first time in her life, Ruby grew jealous of what someone else had that she didn't. Knowing that there was a woman out there better than her in the sword arts, and furthermore that this same person worked directly with the great Shun Minamoto, her motivation exploded. She embarked on a journey to remedy this discrepancy, and in the process she came to meet Noboru Takayama, the man who would act as the spring to propel Ruby to new heights.
He convinced her to face her fears, and reluctantly agreeing, Ruby reached deep down for something she'd tried to forget. Her powers unleashed, Ruby ravaged the training yard that her and Noboru had decided to spar in, all the while she fought to gain control within herself. The battle came to a hold when - finally - Ruby overcame her Zanpakuto's test. Having met her real spirit, aptly named the Queen of Blades, Ruby learned the true nature of her Zanpakuto. With her newfound strength, and still cruel as ever Zanpakuto, Ruby continued her ascension among the ranks of the 5th.
Call to Action:
The onset of the Great Shinigami Plague, swift and deadly, changed Ruby's life yet again. Escaping contamination and subsequently, death, Ruby watched as the Gotei - a paragon of order and might - crashed and burned. The death toll in the tens of thousands, and a growing need for Shinigami on Earth, Ruby was sent on her second assignment to the world of the living. She worked tirelessly for a year, keeping both Hollow and Quincy hostile populations to a minimum in an attempt to help maintain the balance. During this time, she knew little of what was going on back home, snippets coming through with the official reports.
Already taken past the limits of mental and physical exhaustion, those negative tendencies of her past - of which she believed long gone - resurfaced, hitting peak levels when she returned to see what the Seireitei had become. Queen of Blades, weary of Ruby's relapse, teased Ruby less and less, becoming the only source of stability for the volatile woman.
The force of the Gotei shrank to almost nothing, with many of its degenerate members either dead or deserters. Crime grew to levels that Ruby would have never imagined, Shinigami to Shinigami homicides happening by the day. Her rage at the worsening conditions reached a point where she could no longer stay her hand. Her greatest skill that of the sword, Ruby took to the streets of both the Gotei and the Rukongai, cutting down wickedness wherever she found it.
Of particular disgust was her discovery that the Second Division, leaderless, had become a hub for unsanctioned and otherwise classified acts of degeneracy. Corruption ran deep within the Division, and Ruby grew a tangible dislike for its members both new and old. Having lost the respect for the current leaders of the Gotei - and the lack of leadership thereof - Ruby's thoughts of taking matters into her own hands grew bolder by the day.
With a direct order from the Captain-Commander, Ruby is tasked with the grooming of fresh and weary-faced recruits alike, unbeknownst to her that this meeting would change her life forever.
Seated / Fifth Division
Personnel File
Age / Apparent Age: 28 / 22
Gender: Female
Height & Weight: 67 inches / 130 lbs
Hair & Eye Color: Brown / Literal fire
Positive Traits: Persistent / Dedicated / Bold
Negative Traits: Violent / Single-Minded / Rash
Loyalties: Soul Society / Herself
Snapshots:
- April 11, 1988 | Rubianca is born in the 10th District of the Northern Rukongai to a Shinigami father and mother.
- March 5, 1993 | Father dies.
- June 25, 1998 | Mother dies.
- August 1, 1998 | Rubianca is adopted by a local herb vendor.
- March 9, 2009 | Rubianca is accepted into the Shino Academy upon passing the entrance examination.
- March 9, 2013 | The late Hollow-King, Tova Diablo, invades Seireitei. Rubianca is found unconscious, surrounded by the bodies of friend and foe.
- March 9, 2015 | Rubianca completes her courses and graduates from the Academy. Her ability with the sword is recognized, so she receives a direct invitation to join the Fifth.
- February 15, 2018 | On the onset of the plague, the Seireitei plunges into chaos.
- February 16, 2018 | Rubianca undergoes her first quarantine inspection. She is found to be unaffected.
- March 5, 2018 | Rubianca passes her second inspection, and is sent to Earth on a year-long assignment due to her success in previous patrols.
- March 5, 2019 | Rubianca returns to find the Seireitei a crumbling shadow of what it once was. She embarks on a long journey to keep it from collapsing.
- September 1, 2019 | Her efforts, coupled with the diminished officer corps, lead Rubianca to a promotion to Seated Officer.
- January 5, 2020 | The state of Seireitei declining to the point of degeneracy and crime, Rubianca grows weary of the Gotei's leadership. She sets out on a path of violence in an attempt to curb a greater evil.
Physical Specifications
Physical Description
Before the plague, Rubianca's appearance could best be described as dignified. The way in which she tied her silky, brown hair up in a ponytail spoke of her desire to portray control. Similarly she maintained her eyebrows with precision, plucking the stray hairs that loved to grow at the far ends of her brows. Her eyelashes were naturally long, and dark, accentuating the hazel of her almond-shaped eyes. Her features spoke for themselves: a feminine jawline, just the right amount of blush on the cheeks, small nose, soft pink lips - it was a combination of traits that had many of the Shinigami population glancing Ruby's way for seconds and thirds.
Though you couldn't really tell what Ruby was packing underneath her Shihkusho, it wasn't hard to imagine Ruby's near perfect proportions. A lazy glance at her bust and waste was all that many of her colleagues needed to visualize Ruby's hourglass shape. Add in the leanness of her arms and legs, the sharp curve of her lower back, her taller-than-average height of 5'7", and you had a woman you couldn't simply ignore.
She would glide from place to place, her grounded footsteps light enough to not make a sound, with her back straight and chest out. Never in her years would she dare slouch, always conscious of the image she portrayed to the scrutiny of both friend and foe: the former to demonstrate by example, and the latter to dissolve hollow courage.
Always duty-bound, Ruby sported her standard Shihakusho for the majority of her waking hours. On the occasions of her nights out - after a long, and sometimes bloody, day's work - she'd don her daisy dukes: a simple combination of short-cut, jean shorts and a black tang top. She enjoyed the contrast to her daily conservative wear, and it helped her to throw work out of her mind completely. She liked having a fine line between work and pleasure. She liberally wore a sweet plum perfume, so strong in fact that the scent lingered for some time within the halls and bars alike.
When talking appearance, Ruby's hasn't really changed all that much since the onset of the outbreak. Although the Shinigami plague has certainly altered her, the brunt of it has been on her psyche.
Where she once tied her hair up into that signature ponytail, she now lets the smooth of her brown mane - a surprise that she keeps up with its care - drape down her shoulders and back. She doesn't have the patience or desire to pluck her brows, and it's evident as the natural fur of her much larger brows transforms her once gentle appearance into one that is much more ferocious. The hazel of her eyes has been replaced with the raging fires of Hell itself.
Of note is her newfound draw to the color red, of which she has made clear by choosing to fasten her robes with the silk of a red sash.
Her once inspiring demeanor has all but vanished, bouts of its magnificence shining in between the cracks of her newfound barbarism. Although still as lithe, Ruby cares little for the how, which is evident in her slight slouch and general disregard for what people think. Where once she may have covered a yawn, she now lets loose with absolute abandon.
Spiritual Description
Once black and generally unpleasant, it is now a blazing mixture of white and red energies that entangle along the edges of her skin. The red overpowers the white under the brightness of the sun, and at night she is impossible to miss as the white takes center stage, much like the moon against the backdrop of the black sky.
Psychological Profile
Personality
Rubianca was once a woman of absolute virtue. Someone who you could look at and say damn, she's go it all figured out. And although the plague has wrought a considerable burden on her emotional stability, she still maintains many of those same virtues. It's just that she, well, has started to experience a re-emergence of some very powerful - and unacceptable by past Gotei standards - urges.
To really get a good understanding of Ruby's personality, applying the concepts of the id, ego, and super-ego may be useful.
If we were to look at Ruby as she is currently, we'd see a woman who possesses a strong conviction for what she believes to be true. She wants to make things better, but she doesn't know how. The conscious desire to become better and to overcome all challenges, no matter how difficult, is obvious. This aspect of her personality is personified within her Zanpakuto Spirit, Queen of Blades: the super-ego. She is Ruby's source of boldness, and at the same time, her rashness. More on her later.
If we dig a bit deeper, past the super-ego, we have the struggling girl known as Ruby. If we strip her of Queen of Blades, we are left with a being who doesn't care for the complexities of morality. To this part of Ruby, there is no right or wrong: there simply is. Without Kachi to guide her, Ruby functions as a conduit for her primitive desires. Thus, being the median between primal and morally-sound, Ruby is the ego. She is dedicated to pleasing both the demands of her super-ego and the urges of her id, but alas she cannot do both simultaneously. This is why she can be so single-minded in her approach, whichever end that may be.
Deeper still reside the aspects of herself that Ruby tries to repress. These are powerful urges that, no matter how hard she tries, have resurfaced due to the chaos brought on by the plague. Although there are a number of these impulses, the two strongest being the thirst for battle and the desire to overcome every challenge with violence. The former because she gets pleasure in tangibly demonstrating that she is better, and the latter because it's the quickest path from A to B. These suppressed primal compulsions are her id, and they are represented by Ruby's perseverance and her propensity for violence.
This is why Ruby seems so volatile. On the outside she gives off the air of control, up until an external variable steps on the tail of her nerves and then, BOOM, she explodes in a fit of fire and steel. These recent and turbulent years have wrestled with Ruby's control over her urges, slowly but surely wearing away at the hinges of the proverbial door. Where once it closed shut, it now rests just barely ajar, no form of security able to prevent the darkness from seeping through the cracks.
I'm certain the above write-up paints a bad picture of Ruby, but she's not all bad. Sure, she doesn't smile or laugh as often as she once did. And sure, she might get ticked off and start a fight. But she's still the Ruby that will put her life on the line. She'll help those in genuine need, and if something needs to be done she'll work tirelessly to see it through.
Goals & Achievements
If we place the super-ego and the id side-by-side, we'll find a deeply seeded goal shared by both. That goal is to become the greatest swordsman (or woman, in this case) that the world has ever seen. From the perspective of the super-ego, this manifests as the unrelenting need to solve any problem, and to overcome any challenge with her swordsmanship. In this sense it isn't a stretch to think of Queen of Blades as the toolbox, and the many weapons she possesses as the tools with which Ruby seeks to solve her problems. The purpose for this need is to be capable of overcoming any kind of challenge that may arise.
For the id, it's more about the journey; the countless battles and the humiliation of the enemy that proceeds the victory. There isn't much of an end-goal, save for the opportunity - and the subsequent capability - to continue to show the world who's the best.
A second goal of Ruby's, one that is desired solely by her super-ego, is to return the Gotei to its former glorious self. She knows that there's a great deal at stake, and that it is her duty to ensure this happens. How she goes about the reconstruction isn't important, as long as it happens.
Thankfully, Ruby isn't all talk. She's shown that she's got what it takes to meet the ambitious goals she's set for herself.
- She achieved mastery in Zanjutsu, and has contributed to the strengthening of the Gotei by passing on her knowledge to follow Shinigami.
- She overcame the fear of her inner demons, attaining Shikai in the process.
- She has fought many foes, and still breathes.
- During a tumultuous time, she stood in the face of chaos and was promoted for her efforts.
Zanpakutō File
Zanpakutō
Ruby's weapon is a standard katana. Its handle is wrapped in a delicate red silk, its ball-shaped pummel and circular guard a solid black, and its 36 in. blade a glimmering silver. It's evident that even after her weapon's evolution from a mere asauchi, the aesthetic difference is minor. She wears the sword over her left thigh, sheathed deep into the blackest of scabbards.
Zanpakutō Spirit
Ah, the one and only Queen of Blades. Ruby used to think her Inner Spirit was literally the Devil, but as we've all been made quite aware, that wasn't Queen of Blades. Just one of her weapons, acting the part!
Kachi's the name that Ruby's Inner Spirit goes by, who manifests as a youthful woman of pale skin. She has an almost Japanese look about her, although with some dominant Western features. In particular, her rounder eyes and more defined facial features. Her very straight, black hair nearly reaches her calves, and she likes to fold it over her shoulder, letting it rest over her left side. An aspect of Kachi's appearance that always gets to Ruby are the spirit's color-shifting irises, which range from the darkest of blues to the lightest of yellows.
Kachi wears a red and gold battle dress. The upper portion - covering her shoulders, chest and waist - is made of gold, fashioned to resemble body armor. She sports two shoulder-guards, the both of them also made of gold, the right one shaped to resemble a bull and the left that of a hawk. Where gold ends, her backless red dress begins, and it flows all the way down past her feet. She sports a half-cape made out of the same material as her dress - dark red in color - that is fastened underneath her left spaulder.
The collected spirit speaks down to Ruby with a ferocity that beckons respect, her chin held up high as the pale woman's command shakes the foundation of her Temple. It's common to find Kachi interrupting her master with an overpowering quip, especially when faced with unbearable ignorance.
Before the plague, Kachi loved to tease Ruby. She saw her master as inferior mentally, emotionally, and most importantly, she found Ruby to be unworthy with the blade. How could she muster the will to care at all for someone so...mediocre? She couldn't! At every opportunity she'd test her master by changing Ruby's weapon in the heat of combat, or by refusing to release altogether.
But all of that changed - gradually, of course - over the course of the chaotic years brought on by the plague. Slowly her perception of her master changed for the better as she caught glimpses of the potential for greatness. With the knowledge that this potential exists, Kachi - although still as cruel as ever - now approaches Ruby with an ever growing respect.
Inner World
Queen of Blade's sanctum is the Temple of a Thousand Blades, an enormous black pyramid nestled atop a platform that hovers high up in the red clouds of an unknown world. The pyramid rises higher still, its flat peak barely visible from ground-level. Atop the pyramid rests Kachi's throne, and beneath it, the Temple's entrance.
What's extremely odd, and similarly extremely frustrating, is that there are no steps that lead up to the throne. There is no path, or stairs, or ladders that grant Ruby passage to the peak. Ruby is left to shout at her Zanpakuto Spirit from the base of the Temple as powerful gusts attempt to hurl her off into the bottomless abyss of her Inner World.
The only other object of note is a second throne, identical to that of Kachi's, that sits atop a slightly elevated square platform facing the Temple. Ruby has attempted to discern its purpose, insofar that she's sat in it, only to be disappointed when nothing happened.
Shikai
Release Phrase: 装備, Sōbi (Equip)
Queen of Blade's power is simple: upon Ruby's behest, Queen of Blades may transform into any weapon known to man, Shinigami, and otherwise. This means that if Ruby wishes to wield a sword the size of a car, all it takes is a desire to do so and bam, she's cleaving buildings in two. Be advised that Ruby's skills cast a very large net, so don't be surprised if she pulls out a longbow for those pesky wizards who enjoy the comforts - and relative safety - of distance.
Documented History
Origin
Rubianca was born in 1988 to Akimitsu and Hana Oukami. Her father, an unseated Shinigami of the 5th, earned a modest living. Rubianca's early years - from the time she was born to just months shy of her 5th birthday - were lived comfortably in the 10th District of the Northern Rukongai. With her father gone most of the time, Rubianca grew up knowing very little about him. Even so, she grew fond of the stories her mother would tell her before bed. Of how mighty her father was with the sword. Of how he'd cut down hundreds of demons in the blink of an eye. But they were just that, stories, something that could never replace the real deal. Unfortunately she never got the chance to enjoy the fulfillment of a father-daughter relationship. She was so disconnected from him that on the day the news of his death came, she only cried because of her mother's shock. To her, he wasn't a real thing, just a fantasy from a world far, far away.
The years that followed his death were difficult. Her mother, overcome with grief at the loss of her love, succumbed to the addiction of alcohol. She spent all of her days drinking herself into a coma, leaving Ruby with no choice but to find a means of living to support both her mother and herself. She took on various jobs at nearby establishments, usually cleaning or cooking, working long days to make ends meet. These four years forced Ruby to grow tremendously, but the immense burden caused a darkness to grow inside of her. She became easy to anger and temperamental, lashing out at anyone and everything. Her life came to a screeching halt when - after an exhausting day of work - she found her mother on the floor of their apartment, dead.
Hours turned to days, days to weeks, and it all seemed like a blur until she heard banging on the door. She'd been locked up in her home for weeks, her life turned upside down as she attempted to cope with her new reality. Thrown into the streets, Ruby joined a band of abandoned children, living with them as she found new work. Slowly her wits returned to her, and for once in what seemed like forever, she found pleasure in things. Of particular interest were the books that told the stories of all of the great swordsman of the Gotei, her collection growing into piles and piles over the years. She loved Mitsutaka Karahashi, Captain-Commander and former Captain of the 4th, and his whimsical style of sword-fighting. And the mighty Jasper Aizawa! The Lightbringer! A legendary swordsman from the 5th! She would wonder if the Lightbringer had known her father, sometimes making up stories in her head about the two of them fighting alongside one another.
Years later, she was adopted by a herb merchant named Ray Katawari, who Ruby worked for. Ray nurtured and groomed Ruby, teaching her much about life and, obviously, about herbs. Eventually her spiritual pressure grew enough to warrant an invitation to the Shinigami Arts Academy, and with dreams of following in her father's footsteps, accepted the offer.
Rise to Power
Ruby quickly adapted to the Academy, learning the strictures of military life. This was a big departure from her life in the Rukongai, so the first few months were difficult. She didn't make many friends until about half way through the first year, when her talent for Zanjutsu was discovered. Academy students were a superficial bunch, and popularity among them was measured by the successes earned within the varied Shinigami fields. Her swordsmanship bought her many invitations to study groups and training sessions. Unfortunately, due to her embarrassing failures with Kidō, Ruby didn't make many wizard friends.
Years into her studies, Ruby started to hear a foreign voice coming from within. At first she wasn't sure who's voice she was hearing, but after many questions directed at instructor and colleague alike, she realized that she was on the cusp of a new stage in her progression as a Shinigami. What had started as uncontrollable excitement turned to fear as the voice grew more violent. It wasn't until the Great Shinigami Massacre, brought on by the late Tova Diablo, that Ruby discovered first hand the nature of her powers. Surrounded by a sea of Hollows, and covered in the blood of friend and enemy alike, Ruby unleashed her destructive Shikai. What ensued was a disorienting blur of madness and carnage. When Ruby opened her eyes again, she was strapped to a bed in some hospital in the 4th, the nurses looking down at her with bewilderment. How had she survived, found unconscious, surrounded by the dead? It was a question asked to her too many times during her debriefings with the interrogators of the Second, and the answer was always the same: she didn't remember.
Found to be telling the truth - and in need of capable soldiers - she was allowed to complete her studies. Fearing her Zanpakuto would cause her to fail - and worse yet, to rot away in some dungeon in the infamous Maggots Nest - Ruby vowed to never again release her power. With her mind refocused, the final few years went by quickly, until one day she found herself standing in front of a crowd celebrating her achievement. Having graduated with demonstrated excellence in - surprise, surprise - Zanjutsu, she was drafted into the 5th.
Ruby hit the ground running from the get-go, and she rapidly built a name for herself within the Fighting Fifth. Her first assignment to Earth came quickly, a successful and generally uneventful endeavor save for a happen-chance meeting with Shinpei Minamoto, the brother of the man she'd grown to idealize. Everyone knew of the legendary swordsmanship of the then Captain of the 4th, and his Lieutenant, Hazuki Tsukimiya. For the first time in her life, Ruby grew jealous of what someone else had that she didn't. Knowing that there was a woman out there better than her in the sword arts, and furthermore that this same person worked directly with the great Shun Minamoto, her motivation exploded. She embarked on a journey to remedy this discrepancy, and in the process she came to meet Noboru Takayama, the man who would act as the spring to propel Ruby to new heights.
He convinced her to face her fears, and reluctantly agreeing, Ruby reached deep down for something she'd tried to forget. Her powers unleashed, Ruby ravaged the training yard that her and Noboru had decided to spar in, all the while she fought to gain control within herself. The battle came to a hold when - finally - Ruby overcame her Zanpakuto's test. Having met her real spirit, aptly named the Queen of Blades, Ruby learned the true nature of her Zanpakuto. With her newfound strength, and still cruel as ever Zanpakuto, Ruby continued her ascension among the ranks of the 5th.
Call to Action:
The onset of the Great Shinigami Plague, swift and deadly, changed Ruby's life yet again. Escaping contamination and subsequently, death, Ruby watched as the Gotei - a paragon of order and might - crashed and burned. The death toll in the tens of thousands, and a growing need for Shinigami on Earth, Ruby was sent on her second assignment to the world of the living. She worked tirelessly for a year, keeping both Hollow and Quincy hostile populations to a minimum in an attempt to help maintain the balance. During this time, she knew little of what was going on back home, snippets coming through with the official reports.
Already taken past the limits of mental and physical exhaustion, those negative tendencies of her past - of which she believed long gone - resurfaced, hitting peak levels when she returned to see what the Seireitei had become. Queen of Blades, weary of Ruby's relapse, teased Ruby less and less, becoming the only source of stability for the volatile woman.
The force of the Gotei shrank to almost nothing, with many of its degenerate members either dead or deserters. Crime grew to levels that Ruby would have never imagined, Shinigami to Shinigami homicides happening by the day. Her rage at the worsening conditions reached a point where she could no longer stay her hand. Her greatest skill that of the sword, Ruby took to the streets of both the Gotei and the Rukongai, cutting down wickedness wherever she found it.
Of particular disgust was her discovery that the Second Division, leaderless, had become a hub for unsanctioned and otherwise classified acts of degeneracy. Corruption ran deep within the Division, and Ruby grew a tangible dislike for its members both new and old. Having lost the respect for the current leaders of the Gotei - and the lack of leadership thereof - Ruby's thoughts of taking matters into her own hands grew bolder by the day.
With a direct order from the Captain-Commander, Ruby is tasked with the grooming of fresh and weary-faced recruits alike, unbeknownst to her that this meeting would change her life forever.
