Sayuri Suzuki [APPROVED; 3-5]

• Name: Sayuri Suzuki
• Titles:
• Gender: Female
• Appearance Age: 24
• Age: 217 (counting human years)
• Affiliation/Rank: Gotei 13

• Appearance Description: Bright flame red hair falls to Sayuri's waist, framing doe-hide brown eyes and a pale-skinned face. Of middling height and with a lean and wiry build, she appears to be extremely fit, though this isn't exactly obvious in her Shihakusho. Her shihakusho is the standard coloration, though the hakama-himo in her uniform has been replaced with a full obi. The obi is lined in silver with a tracery of roses and vines, as are the edges of the sleeves of her shitagi, visible due to her use of a short-sleeved kosode.

Spoiler:

• Appearance Picture:

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• Personality: Calm, cool, and collected, Sayuri seems completely unruffled at all times, even in the middle of sparring, her calm almost unnerving to some. In contrast to her twin, nothing seems to rattle Sayuri. Some would accuse her of being sociopathic or completely lacking emotions, but in reality Sayuri is extremely empathic, but is very good at not showing it even when someone else might.

While she is mentally brilliant, Sayuri isn't one to flaunt it, though she will occasionally point out one thing or another that can cause a hole in one plan or another. She is an extremely quick learner, picking things up within a few days of first encountering it, and is possessed of a near-photographic memory.

One thing that breaks the completely calm facade that most people see when dealing with Sayuri is when her twin sister is threatened or in danger. Then, it almost seems as if all that hidden anger, sorrow, and pain bubbles up to the surface, and she will fight with an almost terrifying ferocity to keep her sister safe.

• Likes: Sayuri prefers peace and quiet to noise and bustle, and will frequently go out of her way to find a spot to meditate, even so far as going back out into the Rukon Districts in the various woods there to meditate. Anything to do with gardening, she absolutely adores, carrying a few small gardening tools in one of the pouches attached to her obi.

If not gardening or reveling in peace, Sayuri can be found studying various strategy manuals or engaged in one game of strategy or another with others of the Shinigami. While she may prefer to live quietly, she knows - and is sometimes fairly vocal about it - that it is not the lot of a Shinigami to live peacefully and quietly all their long, extended lifespans.

• Dislikes: Panicing in the midst of a dangerous situation is a very quick way to earn Sayuri's dislike. With her own calm, collected nature, she doesn't believe that ANYONE should ever have a reason to panic in these situations.

Asking for her advice and then ignoring it is also a quick way to annoy her. Her belief - which she will very, very quickly tell you once danger has passed - is that if you ask for someone's advice, you're willing to take that advice and utilize it, not simply to make them FEEL like they've contributed.

Cybernetic Shinigami are another problem. Having studied everything she could about the history of the Gotei 13, she looks with scorn on these Shinigami, priding herself in the fact that no augmentation beyond what comes with being a disembodied spirit has gone into her own skills, and will oftentimes simply completely ignore a Shinigami she knows to be using Cybernetics, unless rank or otherwise forces her to acknowledge them.
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• History: As a Human, Sayuri was born in Japan with her twin sister -Baraka-, living with absolutely no knowledge of things spiritual or otherwise. They knew there were people out there that claimed to see things that weren't there, but she'd never seen any proof. Even the one incident when she was fairly young was only enough to make her wonder, but the incident itself was easily explained away as a random freak occurrence, nothing supernatural about it at all.

She went on living, ignorant of the supernatural, until she was 24. And the only reason she became aware was because after being in an accident, dying from a snapped spine and massive trauma to the head, she remembered sitting there half in her corpse, as a strange man in black robes pressed the pommel of a katana to her forehead.

When she next became aware of her surroundings, she was in Rukongai. She had gotten lucky, and showed up in the Third District of West Rukongai, fairly close to the walls of the Seireitei itself. Even luckier, her sister had appeared right beside her, something that she was told rather quickly was rather rare. Immediately, a few things became apparent. Even though several of the people she met there said the need to eat was no longer a problem, being dead, she still dealt with hunger pangs daily. In addition, she found she could almost feel the walls of the Seireitei, though she couldn't understand why. Finally, she always knew somehow when a Shinigami was coming through on business in one of the outer districts. But she thought nothing of any of it, even though all those around her were slightly astounded and alarmed at her persisting need to eat.

She ventured through the districts, though she never went past the Fifteenth District. Not out of a distaste for the areas beyond, but because she had seen some terrible things when she had traveled along the border between Fifteen and Sixteen, and did not feel like chancing her luck to hold out while she was there.

One day, one of the others that lived with her came back from gathering materials to trade for things needed for the house wounded. She didn't know what difference it would make, but she did make an attempt to bandage him, sure he would die from his wounds within a week. Two days later, however, he was up and walking around, no trace of the injury that had nearly severed his leg at the knee.

She, of course, was dumbfounded by this, but didn't put it down to anything she did, but simply attributing it to the fact that they were basically spirits now.

At least, until a week had passed, and a woman, in the same attire as the man who had sent her here after her death, came to the Third District, telling her that she had the potential to become like the man she had seen only once. She explained to the woman that this was her home, and that she'd had the luck to not be separated from her sister on entry, and she would need time to think it over. The woman agreed, and said she would return in one week for Sayuri's answer.

The next week for Sayuri was rough. She wanted to go. She believed that people like her sender were doing good work, seeing to it that the souls of the dead didn't go straight to hell, or whatever fate awaited those who didn't get the benefit of one of the Shinigami finding them. But she didn't want to leave her friends behind.

In the end, it was her own sister that convinced her she should take the opportunity, by saying that if she had the capability to help as they had been helped, she should take it. So when the woman returned at the end of the week, it was to find Sayuri waiting outside the house with all of her possessions wrapped up in a small pack, waiting for her.

So Sayuri Suzuki left behind another stage in her life, and moved on to the Seireitei. She immediately began schooling at the Shino Academy, where they began teaching her what she would need to know as a Shinigami, a member of the 13 Court Guard Squads of the Seireitei.

The schooling went well enough. She showed a loose grasp of both Kidou and Martial fighting, but didn't exactly excel at either of them. However, when the instructors took the students through to pick their training Zanpakutō, she was drawn, above all the other styles and types of training blades there, to a wakizashi, a blade she even now carries with her.

With this blade, she now showed that while she wasn't adept at outright brute force combat, when it came to fighting defensively and outlasting your opponent, she excelled with the shorter blade, learning quickly to use brief openings caused by the longer blades coming free of hers to inflict minor wounds. She never caused serious damage with a single attack, but each one tired her opponent, and made them slower and more clumsy. She never outright won, but several times the matches were called draws because her attacks couldn't get through, but her opponents couldn't fight anymore.

Throughout her time in the academy, however, she showed that while she might not be able to perform many of the concepts she learned, she could teach them almost as effectively to the younger students. Many times, a student in their first or second year would use one of her tricks, and astound the teachers. Once they learned this, however, they began asking her to mentor the younger students when she wasn't doing her own classes.

So the years progressed for her, learning and teaching as best she could, always under the watchful eye of the actual teachers or the older students. It wasn't until her fiftieth year at the Shino Academy that any of this paid off, however, landing her group representative and mock lieutenant on her first trip back to the World of the Living since her death almost seventy years before.

The trip was uneventful, but when a few of the other students wandered off, she kept the others still where they were while the seated Shinigami found the missing students and brought them back. This left an impression on those watching over the trip, one that would last.

Within a week of this trip, she was placed into the advanced classes at the academy, learning higher sword techniques and actually practicing using Kido, though still under supervision, and much more closely this time.

Even after graduation, Sayuri retained this thirst for knowledge and helping others, volunteering to serve as a teacher's assistant within the Academy for a time, rather than being immediately assigned a squad. All her spare time - when not sleeping or working with the teachers at the academy - was spent perusing strategy and theorycraft, even going so far as to submit requests to the noble families for permission to peruse their libraries - under supervision if required - for strategic tricks and ideas to expand her own knowledge.

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• Reiatsu Color: Silver-blue

• Zanpakutô Spirit Name: Akimura

• Zanpakutô Spirit Appearance:


Akimura has an appearance very similar to Sayuri's twin sister, -Baraka-, down to having the same hair and eye color. The hair is short-cropped, and a band around her head holds the hair back up and out of her face. Akimura wears a skin tight one piece suit in a pale red, with black lining at the seams and hems, held closed and together by straps across her front. Her pale, crystalline blue eyes are always half focused, seeming to start off into nothing even when she is speaking directly to Sayuri.

• Inner World:


The extent of the Inner World inhabited by Akimura is in the middle of a forest, with a simple wood cabin in the middle of it. While the forest itself is usually brightly lit, there are patches of shadow deep enough to swallow that light throughout, just on the edges of sight. No animals traipse through the trees, and no sound can be heard aside from the sound of the wind through the trees, and the distant babbling of a small brook.

• Sealed Zanpakutô Apperance : The base weapon that is Akimura is a simple katana. The tsuba is a ring, held out from the weapon itself by four identical rose thorns. The handle is wrapped in red and green ribbons, interwoven and interlaced to form a checkerboard pattern. Two additional six inch ribbons have been bound to the pommel, one red, one green, and seem to perpetually flutter in the breeze, even when there isn't one.

• Release:
Shikai: Now, Crimson Rose, pierce the sky!
Bankai: Stoop, Blood Rose Dragon, and unleash your fury! Ban... KAI!

• Shikai Description: The tsuba of Akimura becomes much more ornate, extending out into a basket around Sayuri's hand, making it much harder to disarm her or take away the Zanpakutō. The blade itself straightens, and becomes a straight, double-edged blade, fading to an almost invisible point. The ribbons attached to the pommel becomes an ornate rose bud that flutters slightly with each swing as though it were a living rose. A cross-guard extends out, vaguely resembling draconic wings that lead to petal-like points.

• Shikai Abilities: Swirling Rose Barricade: Envelops Sayuri in a swirl of rose petals, protecting her from a few strikes (4 Weak or 2 Medium), though a strong enough strike will pierce it through with minimal resistance (Strong attack downgrades to Medium, destroys barrier), can only be used every (4 posts)

• Bankai Description: (You may fill out your Bankai Description, but unless you get staff permission, you may not use your Bankai right off the bat. There are expectations, however.)

• Bankai Abilities: (You may fill out your Bankai Powers, but unless you get staff permission, you may not use your Bankai right off the bat. There are expectations, however.)

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General Skills

• Durability: Beginner
  
• General Speed: Adept
  
• Strength: Beginner
  
• Weapon Skill: Adept
  

Racial Skills

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

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• Roleplay Sample: Sayuri observed everything she could, but slowly began to lose herself, her memories flooding back for a moment, her eyes unfocusing as she drifted back to her earlier days in the Shino Academy, prompted by musings on exactly how much longer these events were going to echo within the Soul Society.

* * * * * * * * * *


There was a crack, and Sayuri landed on her side, rolling a few feet, her own shinai landing several feet away from her, a welt already rising on her left forearm, an angry red streak across her skin. She winced, managing to push herself back to her feet. She stared across the floor at her opponent, a gangly male whose training garb seemed two sizes too big for him. Turning, she moved to retrieve her weapon, her head tilting as she stiffened at the sound of rapid footsteps.

She spun, barely avoiding the swing that would have caught her on the right hip, dropping low under the follow-up lunge, though it did catch the top of her shoulder. She backpedaled, scooping up the weapon and holding it in a loose grip, pointing forward and down. She winced again, feeling the sting of several earlier blows that had struck her in various places. She'd yet to land a single blow against this one, and she was trying everything she felt confident would work.

She figured it was finally about time to try something unorthodox, something she'd seen one of the older students pull off, but that she wasn't quite sure she'd manage to make work. When her opponent advanced again, she dropped the shinai point even lower, flicking it up once they actually crossed, bringing his aim up and over her shoulder. Even as he did, she stepped in, disengaging the weapons as she spun around, her own coming clear and around, landing hard against his back with a ringing snap, rebounding with enough force to actually jar her hold and nearly cause her to drop it.

She stepped back, and then immediately stepped in again, the bamboo training tool coming around in a second attack, this time from the opposite side as he attempted to leap away, catching him on the hip.

“HOLD!” came the call from the sensei, and she immediately flipped the shinai around as if sheathing it, dropping to a knee and waiting. “Well done, both of you. I can see that your... substandard performance during normal training is only due to a lack of challenge. You are dismissed.” She rose, bowing deeply to the male, before settling the shinai back into the rack, and heading for her room, wanting to clean up after the brisk exercise.

* * * * * * * * * *


She was brought out of her reverie by a shove at the small of her back sending her stumbling forward. She turned, and one of the other unseated members of her division waved her forward. "Go! Captain Commander is calling for representatives of those divisions that have no Vice Captain," the culprit hissed.

She sighed, and then swallowed, stepping up to line up with the others that were there, ten paces back from the Commander, seeming to shrink as she sent a furtive glance up and down the line, before drawing herself to the best solemnity she could muster, taking a few deep breaths to steady her shaking hands. She hadn't expected anything like this so soon after her graduation. But she had to put up a strong appearance, and she wasn't about to seem like an incompetent. She'd never make her way up the ranks if she did.