Jūbantai Fukutaichō - Mei Hatsumi

Juubantai Fukutaicho

NAME: Mei Hatsumi (メイ初美, The next coming of beauty)
ALIAS: Hebi Kōgō (ヘビ皇后, Snake Empress)
AGE: 159

APPEARING AGE: 18

ALLEGIANCE:  Jūbantai; Her Taichō
DIFFICULTY: Hard
APPEARANCE: Mei is a rather young looking woman, with an average physical build. She stands at a rather short five feet even, and weighs one hundred-twenty pounds. Her hair is black and rather short up top, but is braided in front of her and falls down to her bosom. Her eyes are yellow with black slits, making her appear almost snake like. Following that trait she has snake tattoos lining both of her arms. She wears a large hooded cloak, with white snake eyes on the head. The cloak falls down much like a dress, and has rather short sleeves. Underneath the cloak she wears the standard Shinigami Shihakushō and her armband is around her left arm. Most of the time she prefers to walk around barefoot, than with shoes. Her zanpakutō is in her obi, on her left side being that she is right handed.

PERSONALITY: Mei is a rather stoic woman. She prefers to stay quiet and usually only speaks when spoken to. She is the ideal lieutenant, keeping her focus on her task and completing it thoroughly. Her loyalty is to her captain, whom she adores, and that is it. She cares not for the Gotei 13 and what they do, she cares what he does. If he supports a decision, so does she. If he is against something, so is she. In her squad she is still rather quiet, but generally well received as she helps the members train and gives them assignments. She is not aggressive, or cold, just silently moving.

Deep within her is a love for chaos and anarchy. She likes to see the drama unfold, it is almost delectable to her. She doesn't show anyone this side of her and, in fact, is a well kept secret that she hides from her captain whom she knows will disapprove. She doesn't act on her needs, though, because she knows the fallout would be too great if handled carelessly. On top of that she is a big scientist and enjoys researching and studying people. It seems that she'd be be better placed in Squad 12, though her loyalty is to her own squad eternally. 

HISTORY:

Chapter 1

Once upon a time there was a young couple by the names of Megumi and Ryūsuke in Japan. They already had two boys but the mother wanted to try again to get a girl, desperate for a change of pace and some bonding time. Mei was that saving grace, and she was born nine months later. A healthy baby, she was fawned over by everyone that met her. She had a certain charisma even as a baby, always trying - and failing - but still trying to do things that she shouldn't have been able to do "yet". Her family always supported the things she pursued and so she always had a large sense of moral.

When she was three she wanted to be a dancer, and so she took classes. When she was four she wanted to play piano, and so she took classes. She wanted to do everything she could - mostly because she loved seeing the satisfaction on the faces of her family. They weren't exceptionally wealthy but they still helped her. For her whole childhood, her parents dressed her like her brothers and kept her hair short. She never asked why and, for all purposes, neither did anyone else.

She grew up and, for lack of better words, she had a rather small chest. Everything helped attribute to make her look like a man, so that she wouldn't be treated...harmfully. The only reason the government and hospital hadn't committed infanticide, or neonaticide, was because her family had come together in order to bribe the workers in the hospital to forge and change everything. She grew up being a guy but, like all secrets, the longer it continues the larger it becomes and the more extreme the blowout.

Her brother, who had join a Yakuza gang, had gotten farther into trouble than anyone anticipated. He had gotten too many ideas, and had found out her truest identity. In order to teach him a lesson, they kidnapped and tortured her. But it didn't work as they had thought, she stood almost silently and quietly the whole time. She didn't cry out, or beg, she sat there and cried. No sobs, she didn't want them to have any satisfaction. Tired with the way she was going about everything, they killed her.

Chapter 2

It was like waking up from a bad dream...except the bad dream had ended and morphed into a new one. She 'woke up' in a house that was torn and falling apart. Thinking that she was dreaming, she continued and walked through. She stepped out into the bright sun and shielded her face, as people were walking around talking and laughing. Booths were set up for food, water, clothes, and everything. She stood there, dumbfounded, until someone finally walked up to her and asked her name.

"I...I don't know" she managed to stutter out, and the fear was able to set in.

She was on the verge of panicking and the man simply smiled and took her on a walk. There he showed and explained everything to her, and she at least remembered her name. Thankfully they were on the first district so he was even able to show her the Sereitei from the outside. He told her of her death, not how it happened just that she died, and was most likely purified and brought there. He conceded that most people didn't remember their human lives. It made her feel better, because it didn't matter what had happened. It mattered what was happening now. She ended up with the moving in with the man and found out that he was alone. He worked all day and returned when she was asleep, so they didn't get to see one another let alone talk, save notes they left detailing their days. 

This went on for awhile and continued to harden her already morphing personality, making her more quiet and withdrawn. She had changed most definitely, and she had finally learned of the Shinigami. The man had withdrawn the information for the sake of sparing her of such a life, he felt like a father to her. It was kind and the affection was most definitely alive, however, she had a sense of restlessness. There was something missing from her life and she just didn't know. But she had explored and found out what was in the Sereitei. He had told her it was a prison and that's why there was a gate outside of it and why there was a gatekeeper. 

She stood and waited until he came home and informed him of her decision. She didn't know why - she didn't even know how it would end but she did know that she had to do it. They talked and she spent the time explaining. It was a tearful departure but one that she assured wasn't forever. She was going to come visit him as soon as she could and, so, she left and went to start her journey as a Shinigami.

Chapter 3

As with everyone else, Mei had to take an entrance exam to see if she had enough reiatsu to be any good to the Shinigami. She did and she was accepted, and enrolled in classes immediately. Everything was so new to her, especially the asauchi they all got and carried around. Classes weren't what she expected, as most of them focused on application rather than theory. She was more of a thinker, so it was odd for her to learn in such a hands on manner. Nonetheless she went through her years excelling at Kido, specifically Bakudo, and her Hohō. Her Zanjutsu was above average, as was her perception though, as she learned, there were many people in the Academy who trumped her in that area despite her little bit of pride in her analysis skills. Her Hakuda and her reiatsu control were the areas where she lacked the most and, at one point, she nearly risked failing.

Every time she was close to failing, she recalled the man who had taken her in, in the Rukongai and she pushed through. Graduation exams were a hassle, even if the hollow were nothing more than electronic play things. Surprisingly, she took authority of her group and helped "perform" konsō on the soul in order to complete the graduation exam. They were scheduled to graduate in two weeks and many of her friends were finding out the name of their zanpakutō, and it made her feel the pressure. She tried everything she could - training, meditating, even talking directly to the asauchi. A week away, while meditating, she finally heard it's call. They spoke and, though her spirit was a bit intimidating, she had awoken her Shikai. She trained desperately in the week, night and day, in order to become as proficient as she could in such a short time for squad placement.

Apparently, it had worked. On that faithful day, she met him.

Final Chapter

Finally the day she had been waiting for, the day when each captain chose who they wanted in their squads. Nerves racked, she had no idea what would happen to her. She had read and noticed all the captains and what they stood for. Personally she wanted Squad 12 in order to be part of the science department. Before she met the man that would change everything. Everyone had heard the names of the thirteen captains but, up until now, Mei had never once seen any of them. She was him, Okewa Kazuma, the man who appeared to be a spitting image of the man from the Rukon district. Fate had a sense of humor, apparently, as she was not only accepted into his squad, but, also as his second-in-command. Things were certainly interesting, for the young Shinigami.