Shinigami | Tachibana Aki

tachibana aki

AGE

ALIAS

RACE

SEXUALITY

OCCUPATION

ALLIANCE

personality

appearance

Aki can usually be seen wearing her captain's haori, unless she fears it might get hit by too much dust, then she settles for practical clothes, usually pant and shirt combination. She prefers clothes she can move around in easily, although she is not above wearing tighter clothing if she is going out or something.

history

Aki had not always been the way she is today. In fact, during her mortal life, she had not even been named Aki, but something else entirely. Not that she knows that, of course. To her, the rather uneventful life she’d had is one of the few mysteries she does not care to solve. To her, the only meaningful ‘life’ of hers began 99 years ago, when her soul arrived in the afterlife. Said day was nothing special, another new arrival, another person lost in a new world. There were quite a few that day, who naturally banded together, and spent a time together in what amounted to be an orphanage of sorts – despite their ages differing quite a bit. Some looked like experienced adults, others more akin to school children. Aki found herself smack dab in the middle. Yet in this new world, all of them were little more than children, growing up a second time in such a group. Some official gave those of them without any memories, and thus she became Aki Tachibana. Her friends, however, soon dubbed her Lee for some weird reason. She eventually decided to keep both of these names.

Either way, the years passed, and eventually, she and a few others joined the academy, after being deemed suitable. During early lessons, her perceptive talent became evident, and so she could keep up with the others, even though she had trouble learning actual fighting. She took supplementary training from the others in her group, yes, but her main focus quickly became dodging, she never defeated anyone in a straight up battle during her time in the academy. The only thing she could do was outlast them, wait until they made a mistake – and that was a hard thing to master by itself. Still, reading movements was always easier to her than emulating her, so she barely was able to graduate with the rest of her year.

Once more, she lost some friends, who were placed in other divisions. She made new ones instead in the nanabantai, due to her rather easy-going and amicable persona. Things got somewhat awkward though, in this smaller environment, as she kept her habit of often changing partners, when she grew bored of her current ones. Rumours spread, but she did not let them get to her much, focusing on work instead. Things went on like that for a while, and she even managed to become good enough to join combat groups and actually contribute in hollow slaying. Sure, there were some rather close calls and problematic encounters, but they managed to stay unmarred, forming an even tighter knit group.

That, of course, could only lead to tragedy. One day, after a skirmish in the human world, they came under attack while riding the Kōryū back to soul society. The being that attacked them managed to stabilize the current, even after cutting off one side of it. However, it did block the group’s escape and attacked anyone trying to sneak by it with extreme prejudice. Aside from that, though, it sat still on the first day, only reacting when attacked. During that time, it killed one of them and critically injured two others, among them the highest seats within the group. With no help on the horizon, and all their efforts to even wound the enemy failing, they despair fell over them after what felt like an eternity.

But eventually, the being, a bipedal mix of some sort of large insect and a fish, moved. Not away, though, no. It began to attack every now and then, without warning or any attempt at communicating. It first eliminated the wounded. Then the slow. Some could not handle the situation and the constant alertness anymore and threw themselves into the dangai. Truth be told, if it was not for her ties with the others, Aki would have done so as well at multiple times during this ordeal. They reinforced each other, even though their numbers were dwindling, and somehow managed to not give into utter despair.

The thing, however, kept on attacking, shortening the breaks, until it constantly lunged at them for a while. All the time, it barely moved from its spot, attacking with spikes, elongated arms, and other ranged attacks, simply shrugging off everything they threw at it. And while its offensive power was not too much, could even be blocked, it never gave them a window of opportunity. If they tried to distract it, it simply grew more limbs to keep them all busy. They could only defend or dodge, hoping to not make any mistakes. Thus the fight eventually became a battle of mind, not body, for them to keep going in some way. Oddly enough, something kept their bodies from giving out, even if they felt like it.

Still, when it eventually just up and vanished, only a handful of them remained, Aki being one of them. All of them had been wounded when the beast left, although not too severely, more in passing. And when they returned, no one believed them. A hollow attacked them, that was the official story. Everyone sticking to their version of the story was made fun of or put into detention, as no one had noticed anything amiss with the dangai. For most of soul society, nothing had happened during that time.

But those involved, they never forgot. Some became reclusive and shut others out, some swore to find out what happened. Aki was more in the latter group, although she had a different motivation as well. During the incident, her usually strong perception had improved more. Or so she believed at first. But eventually, she realized that she had begun to see something else entirely, had not just been reading movements, but seen bits of the future at times. That was helped by her having slightly prophetic visions as well.

Thus, she became more than just ‘intrigued’, but obsessed with finding out more about what had happened, and about herself. Believing to have been a fortune teller or something in life, she looked into that, she found nothing. She also could not find a single clue about that thing attacking her, at least at first. But she did find some clues in the oldest books she could find, even some links predating soul society’s age of order. Yet, sources predating the formation of the divisions were rare and hard to get, most of them restricted to the upper echelon, and likely even more kept in the soul king’s palace. Thus for years, her obsession drove her to further her skills, to seek chances to climb up the ladder.
That, however, burned her out eventually. Yes, she became stronger, and she did rise in rank, but devoting herself fully to that goal had her simply collaps one day. After learning that most of the others involved had suffered a similar fate, some even dying of it, she found herself at an impasse. Going on might kill her too, stopping would mean giving up something that occupied so much of her mind.
The answer to this, ironically, was friends. As cliché as it sounded, her makeshift family, those that were still around and connected, eventually managed to get her onto the right track. Not in one big gesture, no, but over months of constantly doing a little to assist her, to take her mind off of such things. She managed to find balance, to follow her goal without harming herself, to search for important information without neglecting life. Well, second life. Of course, she still would get pretty single minded if she found something, but she no longer tried to force it. And eventually, when giant flowers bloomed in the sky, only to whither down, she actually found herself in the position she had craved for. It was not her dream come true, no, at least not just that. But becoming a captain did give her resources and access she needed to improve on her research. And a division to look after, along with a responsibility to uphold a system she still, despite everything that had happened, still believed in.

WRITER