Micah Henry Grimm [Approved, 1-4; Shinigami]

» Name: Micah Henry Grimm
» Titles: Izanami, True Death God
» Appearance Age: 20s
» True Age: around 250
» Gender: Male
» Affiliation/Rank: Gotei United | Stealth Force 3rd Seat




Carefree: Micah's the type of guy that never seems to take the circumstance seriously, much to the annoyance of onlookers. He goes about life seemingly without much thought or consideration, not for himself, anyone, or anything around him. And, to be fair that's very much true, but it's in a sense that--beyond being carefree--Micah outright doesn't care whatsoever. He's not just carefree but apathetic to a large extent, such that he can comprehend emotional input, but--and especially when people get into the negatives--he can't appropriately sympathise. When someone's suffering, he can't really come to grasp it, a characteristic predominately dictated by his immense sense of nihilism.

Uninspired: That sense of nihilism finds root in Micah's lack of interactive and inspiring purpose, interactive and inspiring being an important distinction. Micah is well aware of his purpose and upholds himself to it whole-heartedly; he's largely associated his work with his purpose, and as a shinigami, his job isn't just what he does for a living but as a reason for living, his zanpakuto being a powerful reinforcement for this idea. Beyond that, he can't really find himself attached to anything else, in general feeling "unattached" to the world as a whole. This is also why Micah finds a hard time treating things seriously, as nothing really matters outside that purpose; as a result, Micah to the unfamiliar portrays himself as uninspired and unambitious, as Micah also doesn't find much reason to aspire.

Easily Interested: In a sense, that lack of empathy and ambition has caused Micah to be driven by impulse and interest at the smallest hints. Everything to him is mundane, and the concept of sentimentality or "value" on a lot of things fall short for him--something he feels no shame, and as a result also absolutely no shame in pursuing the smallest of things. His tendency to often trivialise everything serves to make him more interested in actually trivial things, partake in simplistic and straightforward activities, and often times approach things in a similar manner, somewhat like a kid who set their eyes on a new toy, something of small and simple amusement. To a degree this also causes Micah to be very meddlesome, particularly to induce something that might excite or spark some interest in him, and not infrequently at someone else's expense.

Objective-Oriented: Considering his purpose in life is to fulfill his duties, aside from those small bits of self-satisfaction achieved through pursuing those small, sporadic,a nd often inconsistent interests, Micah is usually--as a straightforward person--very objectively driven. Not just in thought but application; his life is his living, and at the end of the day that means so long as the job gets done, the job gets done. Micah follows the principle of "ends justify the means" considering he usually doesn't care about the means, and the end just means the jkob was completed. The shinigami has neither the time nor interest in the manner of approach, and so long as the boxes on his clipboard are checked off, it's fine. This in mind, Micah often times takes the responsibilities of the Vice Captain of the Stealth Force--and in administrative or logistic circumstances, sometimes even the dual captain's responsibilities--in lieu of their inactivity on the relevant subjects. This is a massive reason why Micah's unambitious and uninspired portrayal mostly refers to those unfamiliar with him, as most shinigami--especially in the Stealth Force--recognise him as a responsible, capable, and focused leader.

Self-Aware: Micah knows how strange he and his perspective can be, assenting to remarks on his general apathy. In that sense, he can also be short-sighted as--despite understanding this sort of persona--he attributes to it as the cause of his actions all the time, glossing over his humanising moments and disregarding them as someone else's misunderstanding. Micah can be self-aware of his apathy, but rarely is he aware of when he has a break in character and offers an empathetic version of himself unknowingly. This is blatantly evident in his hypocritical moments of self-prioritisation, or during his usual pleasure-seeking. The most often circumstance comes into play when he finds amusement in other people's reactions and emotional input, often teasing his allies or opponents in combat, shutting them down if given the chance, and antagonising people around him in search for charged responses. This is also why Micah can often isolate himself, knowing that his persona can poorly mesh with other people, even when the impulse to conversate hits him unwittingly here and there.




» History: Micah found himself in a field of pure white. And from his chest protruded a chain. Why had it been broken, or why had it been there for that matter, he couldn't gather. His mind was fuzzy as a whole, and his thoughts wandered, absent with memory. It was in this moment a person bathed in black had brought forth the bottom of a hilt and swung down.

With his consciousness returning, the young man found himself in a completely unfamiliar place, wholly different from the scene previously before him. There were people all around him, gazing in his direction. Buildings wreaked his vision, and his surroundings were full of life.

An unknown face walked towards him- just a child, glee filling her face which donned a smile.

Hiya mister! Are you new here? I've never seen your face around!

"Naturally, Micah responded in turn, lacking cordiality.

"Where am I?"

"Why, you're in Soul Society mister!"

The child briefly paused, directed his attention to a being cloaked in black, and with the likeness of youth continued speaking with blatancy.

"After you died, one of those guys brought you in. Judging by how clueless you look, you just got here didn't you?"

It was in this moment Micah's sable eyes were clear, and they glistened with desire. He knew what he wanted to be with the simple glance of what fell into vision.

____


After a few years adapting, Micah became accustomed to life in Soul Society. He was now capable of going around even for a simple walk, talking with people around him familiarly, and recognizing the hierarchy and basic information of Soul Society's economy. But his goals did not stray far from his initial desire that formed on his first day here.

Being "adopted" by the family that had taken care of the little girl whom was the first to greet him, his original personality and way of thinking surfaced along with slowly submerging into the family and this new society. He was renown to the locals for his sassy attitude and sharp tongue, but had done and taken care of anything asked.

It was not too soon after his first two decades since arrival that Micah's true interests became clearly known to his loved ones, rather than being a vague idea he had described. And with this new knowledge, said loved ones supported him. Inevitably, Micah had left on his journey.

___


It was 5 years since Micah entered the academy. He quickly established a proper grasp over fundamentals and could easily perform the basics with precision, being well adapted to the techniques and the dismissal of excessive performance. Though he had lacked in Kido and hand-to-hand combat when in comparison to his amazing speed and swordsmanship, he had still successfully reached the requirements rapidly. Though worried about how early he was set to graduate, as well as a lack of "proper manners", the results he had presented finalized the decision, placing him in the Gotei's 11th division, well suited to his swordsmanship.

Graduation from the academy was a but a quick moment in Micah's servitude to the Gotei. Jumping straight into the fray, the boy participated in as many missions allowed, even finally receiving personal mentorship from the VC of the 11th Division at this time. Similar to him, this Vice Captain was often reliant on the sheer power behind his strikes, and though not to the extent of a refined martial art fit with systematic strings of techniques used to fight, at the very least the man taught Micah the skills accumulated during his tenure, enough to be considerably beneficial for the new shinigami.

___


Several years passed in this fashion and Micah rose through the ranks, though most people attributed the speed in his ascension due to the Vice Captain favouring him as a kindred sort of spirit. By this time, Micah was one of the seated members of 11th division, an opportunity of leadership presented before him. Hot-headed and ambitious in these years, the shinigami took advantage of his position to prove his worth. He was the first to volunteer for an expedition into the realm of the living for a mission assigned by the captain, the goal being a fairly regular cleansing of the wastelands. The mission wasn't particularly special, but it was the first one where Micah would be in the lead, so the man was excitable.

Unfortunately, this was also around the time there was an influx in the wastelands due to a recent hegemon of Hueco Mundo rising up. Their ascension rippled throughout hollowkind, the wastelands seeing an influx of much stronger creatures than the norm. When Micah's group touched ground and recognised that the amount and strength of the hollows in the area were higher than usual, the go-to response was to report back to base and receive further instructions on what to do here. That wasn't what happened.

Young, hot-blooded, and having something to prove, Micah reassured his group that they were well equipped to venture forward. Hesitant at first, the group eventually put their faith in Micah once he mentioned that the Vice Captain gave him a method of direct contact so that they could immediately come to their rescue. Of course it was a lie, but Micah was feeling desperate. Ultimately, he figured the lie wouldn't matter if they just completed the mission smoothly and successfully, and he had no intentions of it going any other way. It did.

A single adjuchas was all it took to leave Micah the sole one standing in his group. They immediately contacted the Gotei when they took note of the adjuchas, and the group kept their cool until Micah confessed that a direct contact to the VC wasn't in his power. Berated over his lies, most members wanted to flee, but the hollow already took notice of them. It charged forward and kept the group put, the subsequent battle picking off one shinigami at a time until Micah was the only one left standing.

The reason for this was his sudden unlocking of his Shikai; in self-defense, a name was whispered into his ear, and the embodiment of his profession had arisen. Micah defeated the Adjuchas, returned to the Gotei, and lied through his teeth regarding the progression of circumstance. His fallen comrades were given proper honours and Micah's reputation and respect along the acquisition of his Shikai had his seat risen.

Although his outlook on life and usually cheerful and aggressive demeanor had drastically changed, the efficacy of his work had risen.; Most attribute it to the nature of his zanpakuto, some say it was due to the event where he lost his squad. Either way, he seemed to be fine overall, just much more matured, and considering he started doing better at his job, no complaints were garnered. The only particularly strange result was that after the event, Micah requested a transfer to the Stealth Division, to which it was granted as his skill-set suited it well and nothing was inhibiting him from a transfer request. The Vice Captain of the time approved it--later regretting the approval as Micah earned his bankai after divisional transfer, and ever since the Shinigami had operated with the Stealth Force, even through its transition into the Gotei Reformed, then Gotei United, having since then risen to the 3rd seat.




» Energy Reserves: Micah's energy reserves sits at an appropriate level compared to the amount of development, combat experience, and combat expertise he's accrued. His energy and overall proficiency as a shinigami would appropriately have him sit in a Vice Captain position if it wasn't for his division's role already being filled, hence him instead sitting at the 3rd seat. What's more notable and impressive about Micah's energy isn't the quantity of it but the acute control and subtly of it, well fitted for a Stealth Force member. Micah maintains excellent control of his energy, keeping it suppressed to the utmost and only giving off his reiatsu when necessary for his work, or in execution of energy-based techniques, and even then as his usage is very focused, not much leaks out beyond the intended usage. As a result, even with a lower energy quantity, much of his abilities can be used with enough efficiency to emulate having higher energy endurance.

» Overdeveloped Speed: The main physical trait in Micah's repertoire, the shinigami moves with speed that entirely embodies what the Stealth Force is all about. Most all of the movements, combat expertise, and general characterisation of his strengths is exhibited through or in tandem with his speed. His impressive swordsmanship or hakuda comptency largely relies on the speed of reaction and execution of technique. Even his preference of completing a mission without making excessive decisions and moving straight for the objective and nothing else further reflects that Micah's attunement to the elements of speed isn't just a physical matter, but something the man embodies as a global characteristic.

» Serene Focus: Largely due to his apathetic nature and tendency to trivialise everything, Micah has shown a capacity of focus which envelops his life. As aforementioned, there's not much attachment Micah has in general, and though this has fed into the development of his focus, his current state is largely due to his overwhelming focus on personal objectives. Much of what he's achieved is due to being very set on it reaching his goals and cutting out distractions, not just from the situation, but from his life entirely. You could easily also pin Micah as a single-minded person, but it's undeniable that this natural state of mind in conjunction with his now generally apathetic outlook has served to remove a lot of emotional input from his decisions and achieve a serene, rational, and objective state of mind at base.

» Global Sight: Easily the most important and unique trait of Micah, and something which has direct and massive impact on the development of his talents and proficiencies, is Micah's special vision. Micah's eyes are incapable of focusing. A deformity of his cornea and its curvature fails to focus light into his iris, inherently making Micah also hypersensitive to light, and this has often proven a very sore weakness of his. However, instead of his vision being blurry entirely--which is usually what happens with acute or flattened cornea--Micah instead has total clarity from the centre of vision to his peripherals. At first a large inconvenience to his daily life, through training--especially in the academy--Micah has overcome the deformity and made him self capable of adjusting his focus at will--a practice which has in whole contributed to the progression of general focus and concentration as a person--or handle the sensitivity and total clarity appropriately, even using it in work as a means to take in so much more information than his peers in a much shorter time period.

» Swordsmanship: Out of all his practices, by a wide margin Micah excels most at swordsmanship. and even after joining the Stealth Force which often focuses on Hakuda, he hasn't let go of this talent. His swordsmanship is the primary reason he was first placed in the combat division, having even caught the eye of the then Vice-Captain (although it was heavily influenced by their shared character) and rising to the 3rd seat before transferring. The reason Micah pursued becoming a shinigami started with seeing one in action, and beyond that seeing the swords on their hip, sparking an interest which cultivated into a way of life. Although Micah's drive has been displaced to some extent, mostly in focusing on just performing his responsibilities, his preferred method of doing so has and always will be through the blade.

There's a number of practices, styles, and techniques he's accrued in his years as a shinigami, some involving spiritual energy and the specific usage of his zanpakuto, and other methods which solely rely on the form of the sword and precision of its movement, no spiritual empowerment involved. Most notable is Micah's capacity to use multiple swords, though his zanpakuto is only one blade, he often carries a second, this one differing in type and purpose. It's therefore assumed that Micah is experienced in more than one sword type, and furthermore that he's capable enough to adapt these different swords into his combat style, whether it be adjusting his footwork to accommodate for the length of a wakizashi, or changing the manner of his swings for a full fledged nodachi.

Though Micah's developed a mastery in many forms and techniques of swordplay, the shinigami is most proficient in Voiding and Remising due to their reliance on reading the opponent with situational awareness and having a speed that matches up to your predictions and reflexes. In most all situations Micah values the quickest and easiest approach to a situation, and combat is no exception. When it comes to voiding, it's much easier to just exit the range of his opponents' strike zone rather than contesting them for control over this area, or to just outright dominate them through a test of strength and technique. As for remising, though Micah isn't weak, it's much easier to just rescind his movement if he finds that it will be appropriately challenged. So, instead of trying to force his way through after he's made the action, he lets the opponent's reaction--most usually a parry or block--carry through, continuing his swing or thrust with little force and instead moving his commitment to the return strike he dishes out. Micah's favour for remises is often why he uses two swords, allowing the opponent to match his noncommittal preliminary action and following up with a heavy-handed remise.

» Stealth Force Proficiencies: His entrance into the Stealth Force naturally prompted Micah to adopt a wide array of techniques, abilities, and general knowledge necessary for one of their members. So, in the matters of stealth operations, espionage, executions, etc., Micah has developed more than enough experience and skill to be accurately gauged as the pseudo-vice captain. Outside his direct superiors and potentially other captains with a wide breadth of experience in these matters, not many members of the Gotei surpass Micah on these capabilities.




» Kido Inefficiency: The subculture of the combat division provides that there is little to no value to kido and therefore no point in investing in it; though Micah hasn't held that philosophy to heart and taken the most radical approach to it, much of his career was spent focusing on things he was already good at and interested in to begin with. Since moving to the Stealth Force, Micah has accrued a bit more experience and knowledge in using Kido, but by a long-shot it is his weakest of the four fundamentals. He's at least developed considerable knowledge in it, as a part of being the Stealth Force involves having to handle other shinigami, and Micah's dedication to his job provides that he at least study the arts. In terms of practice, his area of expertise--if you could call it that--is in Bakudo. He developed some degree of practical usage in Sealing most specifically from his time working with the Onmitsukido Patrol Corps. It's only in some of the lower level Sealing bakudo that Micah can perform the spells without an incantation.

» Hoho Practicioner: Micah's most excellent physical attribute is his speed, but funnily enough he doesn't take advantage of its synergy with Hoho. His time in the Stealth Force has inherently made him considerably better at Hoho, but the bulk of his focuses has been in Zanjutsu, so while Hakuda is likely his second best of the four fundamentals, it's not far ahead of Hoho. Reason being, Micah's natural speed is so fast that he's developed a reliance on it, foregoing spiritual enhancements to outrun his opponents. At most, he maintains using his pure physical speed in combat to delude the enemy into thinking either that he isn't capable of shunpo, or if the opponent is considerably slower than him, that his normal speed is him using Shunpo, then at critical junctures to the fight he pulls out a flash step to overwhelm the enemy.

» Hakuda Practicioner: Like Hoho, most of Micah's experience in Hakuda comes from his tenure in the Stealth Force, and most importantly, due to the nature of his zanpakuto, the method of combat he chooses any time the situation doesn't call for any lethality. Micah exclusively uses Zanjutsu when it's a life or death situation. That said, although it doesn't reach the level of his swordsmanship, particularly in the context of spiritual enhancement Micah is more than well equipped to be the 3rd seat of the Stealth Force with his skill in Hakuda alone. What's most important to note is that he largely incorporates a lot of the technical knowledge of swordsmanship into his hand-to-hand, although the manner of manipulating his spiritual energy to enhance it is very different from his Zanjutsu.

For Hakuda, Micah uses the fairly fundamental technique of infusing spiritual energy into his body to enhance his physical parametres, with the focus being his limbs. The shinigami's favourtism towards the sword has made his grip the crux of his Hakuda techniques, most of them being less about striking and more about manipulation of the opponent's body in his grasp. That said, a lot of the techniques he uses mimics grappling-based martial arts like jiujutsu and aikido, both of which take advantage of his speed to establish the situation to be in his favour.

Micah frequently uses spiritual energy to interact with his opponent as weight, the power behind his movements being carried as if his mass is far more than what his physique lets on. As such, much of his attacks hit like a truck, and if he successfully puts you on the ground, there should be no expectation that you can get up without outright being vastly more powerful than him.

Starseizing Hand: A technique which takes advantage of Micah's incredible grip. For the most part, the ability functions as a general enhancement to any grip technique Micah might use, specifically increasing the strength of his grip. The reason this technique is called the "starseizing hand" is due to the size of the objects Micah can handle. The increase in strength as is would make Micah capable of lifting a boulder, but the spiritual energy that flows into his hands also forms something of an aura around it that interacts with physical constructs, making a translucent hand large enough to hold that same boulder in his hand as if it were a stress ball. In theory, if Micah poured enough energy into this technique--which takes a fairly hefty amount of energy--it's possible that he could expand this aura to grip the base of an entire building. Furthermore, as this aura interacts with physical constructs, Micah can potentially use it defensively to shield himself with its size. At will, Micah can make disperse the energy of the aura to make it intangible, but pour enough just to keep the form, meaning he can later pour more energy back into it to make it once more corporeal. The second part of the "starseizing hand" is that this aura exudes incredible heat, enough that those without particular resistances to heat would feel like being in Micah's hands is like being grasped by a star. As a mere Hakuda technique, those who are experienced with fire--especially those with polarising thematics or mastery over heat themselves--might not find this aspect of the Starseizing Hand too fearsome, or even those with a focus on durability, but against most of Micah's VC-level peers it's an effective attribute.

Golden Idol: An overhaul on the physical attributes, Golden Idol follows the same principles as Starseizing Hand when it comes to execution, and most other Hakuda techniques in general. Micah flows his spiritual energy throughout his body, enforcing each fiber of muscle and skin, essentially increasing his overall strength and durability. This is the technique most frequently used in heated situations, and the reason the shinigami favours weight simulation, as Golden Idol increases his weight at least 10-fold. Unfortunately this is at the cost of reducing his speed. That said, Micah won't use this technique unless his speed isn't really an effective factor in the situation. The durability increase makes it so that Micah can effectively fight armed combatants with his bare hands and match them. This technique involves a considerable amount of concentration to maintain, but the energy-cost is actually less than Starseizing Hand, as a lot of the energy that goes into maintaining it mostly involves sealing off Micah's reiatsu and redirecting any latent reiryoku he's giving off to empower his physical body, also serving to offer no spiritual presence, as it's all contained within him. The only significant energy expenditure that goes into this ability is the initial acceleration of spiritual energy production, which goes into empowering his body.

» Zanjutsu Mastery: By far Micah's best subject amongst the four fundmentals of shinigami training, Micah's developed a wide breadth of abilities and utilisations of his zanpakuto, and most specifically the spiritual enhancement of his swordsmanship. His investments into other areas after switching divisions has served to perhaps slow his progressions in Zanjutsu, but not by nearly enough to make anyone think his Zanjutsu wasn't fearsome. Even still, if he were to be in the combat division and moved up to Vice Captaincy--granted a large proponent may be that no-one is currently filling the role--there'd be no valid complaints amongst the organisation. He's more than earned the right to be called a talented practitioner of Zanjutsu, and outside of the captains and incredibly acute outliers, there aren't many that could challenge him on this. Beyond pure technique, there's a lot of malleability in Micah's spiritually enhanced swordplay, and out of all the various ways he can project his power through his zanpakuto, Micah's become known by his comrades for embracing four particular stances that typically assures his victory once the shinigami draws his sword.

Soleheart Stance: A defensive stance dedicated towards one-on-one combat. Best used with at least two swords, the basis of this technique is to receive the opponent's blows, combining technique and spiritual reinforcement to transform his blades into a figurative black hole. A concentration of spiritual energy manipulates the area around him to have objects--of spiritual or physical nature--follow the lines of unaffected space following the principle that objects tend to move through the easiest avenue forward. They're drawn into the range of his swords, slowing down or taking more time to hit their targets as the unaffected space somewhat spirals into his defensive posture, in the end allowing him to receive a plethora of attacks and even abate or weaken ones beyond his usual strength. With a change of intent Micah can rotate these lines and effectively transform this defensive posture to operate like the metal compactor, crushing weaker foes and objects in Soleheart's grasp.

Blood Drop Stance: The technically simplest of the four, the Blood Drop Stance exchanges simplicity and directness for sheer incomparable speed. There's so much force and speed to the technique that space is disfigured in the process. With more speed comes relative mass, such that--as if the blade was immeasurably heavy and gravity condensed around the tip of his blade, the distance between Micah and his target is compressed as his zanpakuto travels forward. Though the whole execution is already fast as is, the Blood Drop stance doesn't reach that peak of near incomprehensible speed until the end of the weapon's extension, and at that point the change in pace--in addition to the compression of space--happens so suddenly that, more than even the sword performing a shunpo all on its own, most opponents find the attack striking instantaneously.

Heavenbreaker Stance: Heavenbreaker is the embodiment of forced subservience. Instead of gaining relative mass like what Blood Drop performs, this technique adds actual perceivable and interactive mass to Micah's weapons, converging his energy and strength into it and striking for an unrelenting, terrifyingly destructive blow. Nicknamed "The Sword of Annihilation" by onlookers, with the amount of energy poured into the attack Heavenbreaker could serve to decimate an entirety city. Due to this strength, and especially as a technique which is out of Micah's usual nature of techniques--which tend to be more focused, direct, and subtle--Heavenbreaker demands some time to gather and start up the blow, as well as a bit of time after the strike for Micah to recover himself, especially as this is one of the few attacks where Micah performs with full commitment. There's also naturally a level of exhaustion that hits him due to the sudden exertion of massive amounts of energy. thus Micah usually neglects this stance unless it's uniquely appropriate for the circumstance.

Shadowless Stance: The most ephemeral and characteristic of MIcah's stances--and by extension also his preferred stance as it even synergises with his method of non-committal combat--the Shadowless Stance serves to make his blade generally imperceptible. At first, though the technique has some fair potential, it doesn't come across as immediately threatening--unless the opponent is someone who specialises in close quarters combat as much as Micah does. The shinigami blends his swords into the surroundings by manipulating his spiritual energy to mask the physical bodies of his blades. Furthermore, the signature given off by his zanpakuto is permeated throughout the surroundings, so much that opponents and allies alike would perceive Micah's sword to be everywhere and everything. Of course, his blade doesn't literally leave his hands, so you know it's not actually everywhere, but as you can't directly pinpoint where it is--as it feels and looks to be everywhere, and not just everywhere but also everything--such that the water in a nearby stream feels like his blade, and the air around you gives off its presence, it is effectively and identifiably nowhere. A trained swordsman likely would've grasped the parametres of his actual swords, therefore so long as they stayed outside its range they'd be fine. The most deceptive part of the Shadowless Stance is the fact that--once you actually enter the range of his weapons, a person will be able to identify where it is, so really the best method of debunking this technique is to enter its range. Furthermore, the perceptive combatant will also realise--once they discover how to find his blades--that if Micah aggressively and offensively approaches you, but you still don't see where his weapons are, it's almost certainly a feint since if it weren't, you would be able to sense and see the blade before then.




» Zanpakutō Name: Yama no Shinigami

» Zanpakutō Personality: Yama shares several traits with Micah largely because Yama was the biggest factor in Micah's changes as a person, the introduction and constant looming presence of the zan spirit weighing down on his host's mentality. That said, easily the most recognisable characteristic to Yama is his overbearing apathy to everything. As the embodiment to the harbinger of death, Yama doesn't exactly have any discernable level of emotional concern or care for anybody and anything. The fact that everything in his perspective is finite and--relative to the end--entirely insignificant results in absolutely zero attachment to any entity. In fact, even Micah doesn't seem to hold much meaning or significance to Yama, and their relationship operates almost entirely off the fact that their beings are mutually beneficial towards the execution of their job.

Another fairly obvious characteristic is Yama's total disregard towards the concept of morality. Maybe there's such a thing as good and evil, but it really honestly doesn't matter. Again, relative to the end, everything's a trifling circumstance. If anything, there's only order and chaos, in which case Yama would believe in morality, if only because--as a zanpakuto spirit which embodies a "guide" figure--everything of priority and importance for Yama relates to maintaining a sort of order to the world and the soul cycle.

Perhaps the only starkly humanising trait of Yama is how direct and stubborn he is. Framing your approach correctly is a waste of time, and time is very much relevant to the end--which is the only thing that matters. There's no point in trying to phrase things in a certain way, coming across or establishing some sort of first impression. Just say what you need to say, do what you need to do, move on. In fact, as Yama so strictly adheres to this philosophy and asserts it as the only one anything "reasonable" would abide by, this can also be interpreted as a sort of stubbornness. Especially when relative to his job. For example, if Micah were about to Konso a plus soul, and someone came along pleading him not to; Micah might pause to hear why, but Yama wouldn't waver. It doesn't matter why they want him to stop, they're definitely wrong. Continue the Konso, that is objectively the right and therefore only proper thing to do. There is no amount of convincing that could ever change Yama's perspective, and in this sense he is also a very decisive individual.

» Inner World: Micah's inner world is an infinite plane of nothingness. No ground, no buildings, not even gravity. If it wasn't for the fact that there also wasn't even a star or celestial body in sight, you might mistake it for empty outer space. The only entity floating around is Yama no Shinigami. It's largely because of this emptiness and very upfront meeting with the spirit that Micah was able to grasp the abilities of his zanpakuto, as he could immediately and always come across Yama as well as easily meditate in his inner world with no distractions. That said, the overbearing emptiness has also definitely served to break down Micah's empathy with the absolute emptiness of sound, force on his body, literally everything. As such, Micah actively avoids entering his inner world unless he feels it absolutely necessary.

» Shinigami Thematic: Yama no Shinigami is the embodiment of the Shinigami, the whole central thematic of zanpakuto encapsulating a psychopomp, and the primary reason Micah underwent a massive change in persona, and someone particularly effective at his job. Since, you know, his zanpakuto was literally made for being a shinigami, both its physical and conceptual self.

Reaper Physiology: The awakening and access of Micah's Zanpakuto served to transform many parts of his body, senses, and spiritual capacities. Admittedly, there are a lot of passive changes and abilities it offers, but this is largely in exchange for having very few and straightforward abilities in shikai and bankai. Additionally, many of these passives are fairly general or one-dimensional, such that there isn't really any boosts they receive once he goes into a release state--only the traditional release state boosts to physique and energy levels, hence the prevalence in base. These are ones which stand out the most and can be more powerfully or creatively used outside of just narrative context.

• Inherent Konso: Micah can forgo the usage of the hilt of his zanpakuto to perform konso on a plus. Through just physical touch, he's able to send the entity on its way to soul society. Additionally, killing a hollow even without his zanpakuto will also serve to purify it. This even works on entities outside the human-based soul cycle, so similarly to demons and iramasha, Micah can in theory convert demons, iramasha, or sugiurans into pluses and--potentially--shinigami. Of course this only applies to willing participants (NPCs or OOC-planned plots), and he can do this indiscriminately.
  
• Life Force Vision: If it's a living being with low enough spiritual energy (in particular pluses, humans, animals, plants, etc.), Micah is capable of seeing the total aggregate energy and/or "life force" of the individual, provided this ability isn't directly inhibited or there's no supernatural/spiritual interference in their life that changes these values. This ability is specifically for assessing the general lifespan of the individual, as it's the reaper's job to--in their passing--guide the deceased soul appropriately.
  
• Death Perception: An additive to Life Force Vision is the ability to have the generalised understanding of how a relatively mundane living being may die, also provided there's no supernatural or spiritual interference in the creature's life that may make their demise more ambiguous. This also largely helps Micah understand the progressions of a plus that may be at risk for hollowfication, as a less than amiable death. In a way this also gives Micah some direct insights into the Soul Cycle, with potential to evolve into a dedicated perception and understanding of the process and the ability to see it in a more tangible form.
  
• Death Sense: Provided there's nothing actively hindering or interfering with this ability, Micah gets a sort of sense for when and where something dies, including deaths in other realms. Of course, that's kind of a lot of death, and for the most part this would be a sensation which constantly plagues him, so Micah usually doesn't really distinguish any individual death as they sort of happen billions constantly. It's only for when there's someone of a certain prestige, such that their death essentially causes a more noticeable ripple in this Death Sense that stands out from the death of some random being, from plant to some sort of sentient creature. Otherwise, it requires him to focus if he's specifically trying to pin-point an oncoming death.

» Shikai Release Phrase: Dust to dust, Yama no Shinigami.» Shikai Appearance: There's no discernable changes in Micah's shikai, largely because at least physically there really isn't any change. His physical zanpakuto doesn't change shape or form, his clothing doesn't change, there's nothing manifested from his Zanpakuto; if anything, one could feel a shift in Micah's presence, as well as the massive increase in spiritual energy emanating from him.

Solitary Death God: One of Micah's only two abilities in shikai, and for most people a seemingly useless ability. When the shinigami chooses a single target, Micah's able to encapsulate the two of them in a world of darkness, essentially extending a globe of black around the two, until eventually there's nothing either of them could sense or see or outright interact with in this world of darkness except each other and a pitch black ground. It's important to note that the globe is fixed with Micah as the epicentre, and if Micah moves, the globe will move with him. In a way it's similar to bringing his opponent into his inner world, though technically Micah is manifesting this world of darkness into the real world. You can escape this globe of darkness by just running out of it, as the distance of Solitary Death God extends to only 150 metres away from Micah. That said, considering it's fixed to have Micah at the centre, so long as Micah moves, so does the world of darkness, so the opponent also has to essentially outrun Micah before they can escape. This darkness doesn't effect anyone besides Micah's primary target, however if they enter the 150 metre distance, they won't be able to see or sense Micah and his target. Outside of his 200 metre radius, someone still couldn't see Micah and the target, but they'd be able to sense their energy signatures.

Soulless Eyes: Particularly synergistic with Solitary Death God, Micah exudes nothing resembling killing intent or a will to fight. This is a technique which increases his focus by canceling out his emotional input or the conveyance of any force of "will" enabling his actions. Through and through, Micah becomes a zombie like entity, and making eye contact with him can also serve to have these effects pervade a victim. Over time, relative to Micah's Focus, the opponent's willpower will be chipped away at until they also drop down to a zombie like state. The major difference is that Micah does still have a will and can act willfully, he just exudes no presence of it.

» Bankai Appearance: Following the trend, Micah's bankai similarly has no physical changes to his being, only a tangible increase in spiritual energy. At most, making eye contact with him may allow someone to see the silhouette of Yama no Shinigami behind him.

Realm of the Death God: This ability combines Solitary Death God and Soulless Eyes to form an overall enhanced version. The 200 metre range extends to 500 metres and can now envelope multiple targets, all of them not being able to see, sense, or interact with anything in this world except for Micah. The targets won't be able to interact with each other as well, not through energy sensing or the five traditional senses. On top of that, the world of darkness has the effect of Micah's eyes, everything around them draining at the opponents' willpowers and on top of that whittling their energy--or whatever their personal life force is--down until they're eventually incapacitated it. Of course the rate of degradation depends on their tier and willpower, but in its current state it would likely take 8 posts to whittle someone with Elite willpower down, or 5 posts to whittle someone of equal tier down--provided they all stay in the range of Realm of the Death God, and more importantly keep their eyes open. The draining and whittling effect of the ability only operates on sight still, just transferring the effect from Micah's eyes and instead into all the darkness around them.

Yearn of the Damned: Synergistic with Realm of the Death God, this ability allows chains to manifest from the empty darkness. Of course, considering the darkness pervades everything within the 500 metres, any manifested chains usually feel like they pop into existence out of nowhere, but it's an important distinction that none of them can exist and extend out of the range of the Realm of the Death God. These chains can manifest from any direction with theoretically infinite range so long as it stays within the 500 metres. Furthermore, if a chain is cut, then it can't be controlled, and Micah must manifest a new chain. The upper limit he can control simultaneously is up to 25, and the strength of these chains are equivalent in strength to a shinigami's shikai (of equivalent tier).



General Skills

• Durability: Adept
  
• General Speed: Elite
  
• Strength: Advanced
  
• Weapon Skill: Elite

Shinigami Skills

• Hoho: Beginner
  
• Kidō: Adept
  
• Zanjutsu: Elite
  
• Hakuda: Advanced

Will Skills

• Willpower/Determination: Advanced
  
• Mental Deduction: Adept
  
• Pain Endurance: Adept
  
• Focus: Elite