Ryuzawa Hogosha [Approved Shinigami: 4-4+ ]

» Name: Ryuzawa Hogosha
» Alias: N/A
» Age: 52
» Gender: Male

» Association: Gotei United, Second Division

» Appearance Written: Standing at six feet in height, Ryuzawa cuts a lean, wiry figure. Slim, even considering his height, there doesn’t appear to be much muscle on him. His hair is a nondescript black, quite in contrast to the striking blue of his eyes.

When outside the standard Gotei uniform, he garbs his Gigai in dark jeans or dress pants, button-down shirts with or without ties, and a double-breasted jacket.

» Appearance Image:




» Personality: Soft-spoken and mannerly, Ryuzawa is very much an academic. He’s a slow conversationalist – some would call him boring – but when he takes his time to answer an interlocutor, it’s because he’s taking care to consider his every word before he speaks. He believes strongly in avoiding acting rashly, and rather gathering as much information about a given situation as possible in order to inform one’s decisions; he considers the hot-tempered to be simple and brash, and much prefers to at least try to defuse tense situations with words before action. Even in the heat of battle, he maintains much of his charm; he has a habit of talking while he fights, either verbalising his examination of his opponent’s tactics or otherwise quipping eccentrically at them, all in an effort to distract or unnerve them. To friends and acquaintances, he is ever the voice of reason, habitually playing devil’s advocate in discussion and argument in order to help each side see from the other’s perspective and thus resolve disagreements.



» History: Like most who pass into the Soul Society, Ryuzawa has no memory of his human life. He awoke in a middling district of East Rukongai, where he worked for some years as an assistant to a local shop proprietor while he got his bearings and learned about his new surroundings. It was an uneventful time, but the lack of distractions allowed him to focus on the task of gathering information about this place. Even though fellows told him that he had surely known about the existence of the Soul Society as a human, adjusting to his new circumstances wasn't easy.

Right as he was getting used to them, those circumstances changed yet again, as he drew the attention of a passing patrol of Shinigami. They pulled him aside to speak to him, informing him of his unusually high levels of spiritual energy - the sure mark of a potential Shinigami - and offering him a place amongst them. Ryuzawa leaped at the chance to better himself and continue to learn more about how this strange place worked, and after saying his goodbyes to the handful of friends he had made, enrolled as a student of the Shinigami Academy.

From the outset, Ryuzawa was a mostly average student. While his swordsmanship and Hoho techniques could be described as adequate, he was next to hopeless when it came to Hakuda. He made up for this, however, with his intuitive grasp of Kido. Since his strengths and weaknesses had been exposed to him, he was quickly able to tailor the time he spent training outside of class to further hone his strengths; he would not need to fall back on his meager Hakuda, he reasoned, so long as he kept up a reasonable proficiency in Hoho and Zanjutsu, and used these as the foundation on which to freely build up his understanding of Kido.

By the end of his third year of study, it was clear to all of his peers that Ryuzawa was bound for the Kido Corps, and that is precisely the division he applied to join after his graduation. Much changed from its former self under the old Gotei organisation, the modern Kido Corps was as much a fighting force as an arbiter of spiritual law. Ryuzawa could be certain that he would learn a great wealth of things about his new life in the line of his duties.

Years, decades, have passed without much incident. Between assignments, Ryuzawa throws himself into his studies; not only to broaden his knowledge of Kido, but to deepen his understanding of his sword. While most of his sleep is dreamless, on some nights, he swears he can recall hearing a voice call out to him...



» Equipment:

• Denreishinki: Ryuzawa’s Denreishinki takes the form of a touch-screen phone, a form he chose for the ease with which it allows him to navigate through menus and information streams. The glasses that he commonly wears, particularly in his Gigai, are connected to the device; the lenses can act as a HUD, displaying pop-up notifications to draw Ryuzawa’s attention to new messages and alerts.
  
• Gokon Tekkō: Ryuzawa’s Gokon Tekkō is embedded in his right hand for convenience of use.
  
• Gigai: Ryuzawa outfits his Gigai as pictured above.

» Racial Abilities:

• Hoho: Ryuzawa has invested a lot of time into the sharpening of his hoho skills. As a Kido combatant first and foremost, he understands the importance of high mobility to his ability to keep his foes at range.
  
• Kido: As a volunteer to the Kido Corps, it is perhaps no surprise that Ryuzawa has excelled in his learning of the Demon Arts. He has demonstrated a keen tactical intuition for combining an arsenal of Hadō and Bakudo spells alike to best overcome the situation at hand, and is able to cast numerous low-level spells without their incantations.
  
• Zanjutsu: While he would by no means call himself a master swordsman, Ryuzawa maintains a proficient level of swordsmanship, in the knowledge that he cannot always rely on Kido. He keeps a firm grasp of the basics, but his fighting style when forced to draw his blade is firmly defensive.
  
• Hakuda: In trade for the great length of time Ryuzawa spends both studying Kido and keeping his Hoho and swordplay skills up to par, his Hakuda suffers. He understands the fundamentals, but his sorely lacking knowledge and experience will surely leave him outmatched in most hand-to-hand engagements.

» Zanpakutô Name: Miyamori (Court Guard)

» Zanpakutô Appearance: The sealed Miyamori is a katana of standard shape and length. Its hilt is wrapped in deep purple fabric, the saya made of lacquered wood of the same colour, and its triskelion-shaped tsuba and end cap are a smoky gunmetal grey.

» Sealed Zanpakutô Power:

• Reiatsu Conduit: The core of Miyamori’s power is to serve as an amplifying conduit for all of Ryuzawa’s external manipulations of his spirit energy; first and foremost, his Kido. He can use the weapon as an aid in casting Kido, and this allows him to exert a finer level of control over the effects of some spells; for example, he can use the blade as the anchor point for a Hainawa line, or compress a Shakkaho blast along the blade's edge to intensify its destructive power at a smaller point of impact. However, this does not increase the efficiency of his spellcasting; that is, it cannot substitute for incantation for those spells that require it of him.

VII. Shikai

» Shikai Release Phrase: “Pass judgement”

» Shikai Appearance: In a burst of violet reiatsu, Miyamori's saya disintegrates and a second tsuba and blade materialise on the sword's bottom end. The curve of the blades increases slightly, and two curved tines extend from their back edges an inch beneath the tips of the blades. The points of these tines are joined by a string of purple reishi; in effect, the weapon becomes a strange marriage between a twinblade and a longbow.

» Shikai Abilities:

• Reiryoku Arrows: By drawing upon his reiryoku, Ryuzawa is able to form arrows of condensed spirit energy. These arrows will stick into any solid surface they impact against, and linger for as long as Ryuzawa has the reiatsu to sustain them. At will, Ryuzawa can cause these arrows to condense their forms and explode in a small but violent blast of reiatsu and kinetic force, comparable to a low-level Shakkaho.
  
• Sengen (Declaration): In its released state, Miyamori’s ability to serve as a conduit for the invocation of Ryuzawa’s Kido is greatly amplified. When Ryuzawa casts a Kido spell, he can choose to manifest it from the location of any of his extant reiryoku arrows instead of his own body. The process demands a significant measure of concentration on its own, however, and Ryuzawa can only use it in conjunction with Kido in whose use he’s proficient enough not to need their incantations, although speaking these incantations still of course allows him to invoke these spells in the fullness of their power.

VIII. Bankai Powers

» Bankai Appearance:

» Bankai Abilities:




Will Skills

• Willpower: Master/Advanced/Adept/Beginner
  
• Mental Deduction: Master/Advanced/Adept/Beginner
  
• Pain Endurance: Master/Advanced/Adept/Beginner
  
• Focus: Master/Advanced/Adept/Beginner
  

Skill Sheet

General Skills

• Durability: Master/Advanced/Adept/Beginner
  
• General Speed: Master/Advanced/Adept/Beginner
  
• Strength: Master/Advanced/Adept/Beginner
  
• Weapon Skill: Master/Advanced/Adept/Beginner
  

Racial Skills

• Hoho: Master/Advanced/Adept/Beginner
  
• Kidō: Master/Advanced/Adept/Beginner
  
• Zanjutsu: Master/Advanced/Adept/Beginner
  
• Hakuda: Master/Advanced/Adept/Beginner
  

» Roleplay Sample: Those people? Vaeros could make an educated guess, based on what that protocol droid told him, at who those people may be. He was curious, of course; but the Union Intelligence operation here was delicate, as both Niamh and Mainline had stressed, and Vaeros might only complicate things, for them and for himself, by getting involved. Perhaps it would be for the best that he kept a wide berth. He'd be getting himself into enough trouble this week as it was.

For now, he had a room to claim. Bowing his head in acknowledgement to Samuel, he grabbed his suitcase and wheeled it towards the stairs, carrying it up to the second floor. He made a right turn at the doorway, inspecting the number plaques next to each door. 204, 203, 202... there, 201. He swiped the keycard, smiled at the beeping tone of the lock disengaging, and crossed the threshold as the door slid open. The room was as crisp and well-kept as one could expect of a recently cleaned hotel space, with a double bed, sizeable bathroom and kitchenette. It would do nicely... a shame he had other things to do tonight than get comfy.

He set the suitcase at the foot of the bed, took off the satchel, and rummaged through it to take what he thought he'd need inside the club; the ticket for entry, the datapad with his ID, a hundred credits in coins and small ingots, and one of the gas grenades Niamh had provided. These, he stowed in the inner pockets of his jacket, over the top of his blaster. Thus prepared, he took his leave of the room, keycard in his pocket, and headed back downstairs to exit the hotel altogether.

Head down, hands in pockets, he retraced his steps. At the first big junction, he turned left, regaining the main street, then crossed to the other side and continued until he reached the dancing Twi'lek. From this end of the street, he took a right to pass it, and continued straight... There it was, up ahead, its signage quite unmissable. Sanctum. His objective. Sure enough, there were two queues leading from the main entrance, one significantly shorter than the other. That must be the fast-track line, for which he had a ticket; so he swallowed his trepidation, keeping his focus to shrug off the dizzying feeling of so much life around him, and took his place at the back of that queue, ready to present his ticket when he reached the front. All that remained was to wait.

END OF THE POST