Shinigami | Shimizu Naomi

shimizu naomi

AGE

ALIAS

RACE

SEXUALITY

OCCUPATION

ALLIANCE

personality

appearance

Being short-sighted without correction, Naomi can often be seen wearing some of the various sets of glasses she possesses. While others might dislike wearing things like this, she usually displays them proudly, going for brightly colored, thick frames most of the time. The actual color is of less importance to her though, as long as the frame itself is what she deems stylish, but it most often ends up being red or purple, sometimes blue. The latter has the weakest contrast with the dark shade of cyan her eyes most often appear as, although lighting can have them appear more clearly blue at times. Eye shadow, along with other cosmetic upgrades like lipstick is quite the rare sight in her face, as those would simply distract from her sharp features.


The whole of the face is framed by her straight red-brown hair, often hanging down in lose strands in front and to the side of her face. The rest of it is pushed back by her other persistent accessory, a headband, and usually collected into one or two somewhat long braids. Aside from that, there really aren’t many staples as to what Naomi wears. She tries to go with fashion trends coming from the human world, whenever she does not default to either the standard garb of the shinigami, or more formal kimonos.

history

Being born a noble was certainly fortunate. While Nao was neither born into the most influential, nor the most prestigious family, that still allowed her to live a perfectly fine life, although she never technically lived to begin with. Either way, despite not being born the head’s child, she still was at a reasonable place in terms of succession, so she was challenged from young years on to better herself. And technically she accepted that challenge, although not for the reasons her parents wanted. Sure, even when she got into puberty, Naomi was not exactly the most rebellious child, but she also did not exactly exhibit the traits that made a woman a lady, either. Intelligence, physical training, she could do those with ease and grow quite competitive in them, but her character was always a tad bit of a problem.


While she did get the part where one would look down on commoners, she usually failed when it came to actually be respectful and polite towards those above her station. Especially when no one used pressure to cause others to bow down on default, she would stay her frank, sometimes insolent child.


To the young shinigami, things like this were always odd. She could excel in all those other things she was told to do, but still had to bow down to the children of other families, or even her own, despite being better than them in some fields. Maybe it was because she did not grow up as some kind of genius in any given field, as some people actually expected of her. Her actual talent, to quickly grasp the basics of something and become moderately proficient in it was wholesomely worthless in a society built upon being far ahead of the curve. She could work her way up to become better, yes, but by then, teachers and instructors were already fully engrossed by those with talent, those born to do things.


Thus, despite being a noble, she often felt somewhat worthless in comparison. Despite growing up having near anything, she was made to feel lacking, no matter how hard she tried. But given that there was preciously little to fill her life with at that time, as friends and the like were usually either above or below her, she simply focused anything into improving herself, so she could get the fame and respect she desired, no, deserved. But still, that was enough. One simply could not catch up to a genius, not if that genius was also improving on themselves.


And this went on for years, with Nao becoming progressively tired and annoyed at not being able to live up to the standards and expectations of others, until she eventually snapped. Not in one big, violent gesture, no. That was after she entered the academy, after all. But she kind of just shut down eventually, lost the drive to do anything. She lost more than two years to that depression, but in the end, it had unexpected upsides. Those who never cared about her beyond being an ‘export’ deemed her a failure forever, and those did care, well, they began putting less pressure onto her. And, most of all, she came to terms with herself and her own status, simply by getting so far behind that she could never catch up. That, in turn, allowed her to simply grow up and stronger for her own sake.


Or, well, the sake of the job at least. After all, she did end up in the Gobantai on her own merits alone, giving her something to be proud about. Okay, technically just prouder,  for she was not one who would become all humble just frp, falling down such a pit, no. Quite to the opposite, over the years, that grew to her head as well, gradually pushing dark memories away in favour of always only remembering her triumph.


However, once one of the more prestigious young members of the clan betrayed the Seiretei, the backlash was enormous. While the family tried to control the damage caused by this, it also used its remaining influence to get the younger members, especially those somewhere in line of succession, out of the public eye by having them reassigned to divisions and duties in the human world, while the elders tried to set things right again.

This was also more befitting of her shikai, actually. Due to its nature, Nao always had problems using it much in the Seiretei, to the point where she was actually forbidden to do so at times, back when her control over it was lackluster. Despite her talent in quickly getting into the swing of things, or rather, simply because of it, Nao had to spend years trying to master this particular blade, just to use it. Which also explains why her fighting style incorporates quite a bit of Hakudo, since for a long time, this was the only thing she could actually excel in. In the human world, however, where there was much spirit particle density, especially in the environment, her flames were much less contagious – beyond what a normal wildfire might cause. Yet by then, she had already gotten it under control sufficiently anyway, although her superiors hardly believed that.

WRITER