JULY 9, 2014.
Post by KAORI ITTANDA on Dec 11, 2013 11:49:10 GMT -5
NAME:
Kaori Ittanda (一反田馨, Ittanda Kaori).
AGE:
Appears 26.
GENDER:
Female.
ALLEGIANCE:
Gotei 13.
POSITION:
Captain, Tenth Division (Rukongai Patrol Corps Head).
APPEARANCE:
Standing at 5’7”, Kaori is surprisingly tall for a woman of Japanese descent. Her frame carries this height well, though, with a bust and curves that belie her lithe muscles. Her face is narrow, with dark brown eyes that are always furrowed, and her long black hair is pulled into a thick ponytail braid out of the way of her forehead. Thus, Kaori doesn’t have much in the way of bangs, in fact finding them annoying to deal with.
Despite her natural attractiveness, though, the Sixth’s captain doesn’t particularly like exposing herself. Her shinigami uniform is therefore relatively unmodified, with the kosode, hakama and haori of proper length and cut. The only accessories Kaori wears are two plain gold rings on the middle and ring fingers of her right hand. The latter are meant to draw attention away from her sole physical flaw, which is the absence of the last knuckle on her left pinky.
However, Kaori has a quirk. She rarely shows much skin to others, and there’s a reason why. This is because of the massive tattoo that covers her back, chest, biceps and the curves directly underneath her breasts, immediately marking her as a member of the yakuza criminal underground. The tattoo specifically has many elements, particularly lotus flowers and koi, but is dominated by the image of a willow tree. This tree has its roots at the base of her spine and follows her back up, until it bursts into green leaves across her shoulder blades.
PERSONALITY:
On the outside, Kaori appears to be a coldhearted, callous bitch. And... that's pretty much true. She isn't the type to offer a shoulder to lean on or a comforting word. Instead, she'll tell people to man up and get it over with, because by God she's a woman and why do I see grown men breaking down at shit like this I've seen so much worse in my life. (More on that later.) She can snap at the littlest things and often regrets her outbursts just as quickly: she has never considered herself good under stress. However, Kaori is not apologetic. She's never gotten anywhere in life with being apologetic for her actions, and this distinctly prickly attitude has rubbed many a shinigami the wrong way.
Kaori doesn't feel that she needs other people, in fact. She instead feels that she takes what she needs from others - no more, no less. To her, they can cloud her mind and lessen the strength of her convictions. Yes, she appreciates the presence of others, but if you make yourself useless to her, she will drop your ass faster than a bag of smelly laundry. That said, she likes to go out for a drink with people at the end of the day (as long as nobody does anything particularly stupid, that is). She's a delicate balance of contradictions: sociable and absolutely cruel, extravagant and down-to-earth. Navigating these complexities is essential.
Finally, justice is a big buzzword for Kaori. She's firm in her thoughts and mindset, and if she believes someone has become a toxin on the world, by God she'll do anything and everything in her power to wipe them out. It's this singlemindedness that gave her the position of captain, and it's a fact she's not shy about enforcing. Kaori looks for shinigami who share her devotion and her morals, and if you can't do that, you're not going to be too high up on her list.
HISTORY:
It is well known that Kaori does not originate from a shinigami family. However, the details beyond that are foggy at best. Many know that the 14-year-old girl arrived on the doorstep of the Shino Academy on the day of exams in a fluster, pleading with the guard to let her in and saying she "forgot her papers." This, of course, being a far cry from her personality now; but nobody has really remarked upon the stark difference. Dig into the shift in attitude, though, and you'll realize that her freakout was merely a ploy. A ploy to escape something far worse. A way to wash the blood off her hands.
The captain is a princess of sorts. An ex-princess, to be more precise. She was born to Hidetada Yamagata, boss of the Yamagata-kai that had wreaked havoc across the Rukongai for many years. Kaori had been raised with the full expectation that she would inherit her father's position and take over the Yamagata leadership. Initially, this was in fact something she looked forward to. Kaori had always been a girl with a mind for luxury, and as long as she could be pampered and called "Daddy's little girl," she didn't mind. She also knew her father wasn't a sterling example of parental righteousness. Once again, she didn't mind. Kaori spent her life coddled, so she never had to confront her father's ugly lifestyle.
That is, until she was nine. One day, her father called her into his office in Sabitsura district, telling her he wanted her to "see something." Being the good little obedient girl she was, Kaori naturally did that, but she was confronted with a man, bound and gagged and on his knees. Without a further word, her father stepped forward, unsheathing the wakizashi hanging at his side, and casually cut the man's throat. Kaori stifled a gasp as she saw the blood drain from his throat and the corpse drop to the floor, but she cried out once more as Hidetada walked over and slapped her across the face.
"This is your job," he warned her. "I expect nothing more than discipline from my child. Or, rather, my successor." His tone was harsh. "Correct?"
Kaori nodded, the blood flushing to her cheeks. The sleeves of her pink kimono quivered. Never before had she been exposed so directly to the harshness of the Yamagata life. She wasn't so sure now if being pampered was worth it.
Kaori's bodyguard was sympathetic to her plight, and she knew she could easily manipulate him to let her get away from her father for a while. Thus, with him by her side, Kaori started to vanish from under her father's watch whenever she knew he was out on "business."
Remember, Kaori was a bird in a gilded cage. She rarely, if ever, saw the world outside the Yamagata complex. Thus, to be engulfed in the squalor, the hustle and bustle of the Rukongai, opened her eyes. It simultaneously enthralled and disgusted her. Kaori never realized her life wasn't, well... "normal." And normal was now something she so dearly desired. The squish of mud between her toes, the smell of food frying in stalls... It was heavenly. She was a victim, wrongly incarcerated and only now seeing the light.
But she knew she couldn't stay outside the cage for long, so every night Kaori returned under the cover of dusk. One day, however, she went too far, and on her way back, she was ambushed by a beast she had only heard about in rumors.
A Hollow.
She had given her bodyguard the slip earlier for some reason - some kinda plea to "oh, I'm old enough now" - but she was 11. And this was nothing an 11-year old child should ever need to face alone. It was a freaky monkey-like being with way too many joints and teeth. Even the sight of her father cutting a man's throat paled in comparison to this.
Kaori didn't know how to fight. Her father never taught her. So she curled into a ball, extended her hand out as if to push the rapidly-approaching Hollow back, and awaited her second death.
What she didn't expect, though, was the ball of fire that spat out of her palm and blew the monkey to bits.
Uncurling herself, Kaori looked at the tendrils of smoke emanating from around her fingers and grinned. That was the justice she needed. The victim being properly rewarded. The attacker in pieces. It was the beginning of her life's ideology, and she now knew how she was going to properly... execute it.
Each of her excursions now were devoted to one thing - training. Her bodyguard didn't mind: after all, it was in his best interest if those that were more powerful got offed. So, for the next few years, he trained her in reiatsu control. As Kaori channeled the energy in and out of her body, using it in new and different ways, she saw her power increase exponentially. Neither she nor her bodyguard was surprised when she manifested her zanpakuto. It was only a sign of what was to come, something they both knew was an eventuality.
Of course, the events of how exactly Hidetada's comeuppance occurred were lost to memory. The only solid details were all those that happened after the fact:
1. A kido alarm blaring in the night;
2. A handwritten poem stained with a copious amount of blood, wrapped inside of which was a joint from a pinky finger; and
3. The corpse of Yamagata Hidetada with a three-inch hole right over the heart.
By the time of these discoveries, Kaori was long gone. She smudged her dress, ground mud into her face, and vowed to herself that the name "Yamagata" was dead. Instead, "Ittanda" was her new surname - it was the street where she encountered her first Hollow so long ago. The girl poked herself in the eyes a few times, got the tears flowing, and on that fateful day approached the gates of the Shino Academy.
Once Kaori graduated, it was unclear how she so rapidly took the position of Captain. The most likely theory is that she used some of the Yamagata coffers to bribe those in control, to look the other way when she messed up and to sing her praises when she was victorious. (Her bodyguard taking over the Yamagata control was no accident.) The tattoo only came when she took the seat officially, even though she had been somewhat manipulating the movements of the Tenth for a while now. It was to remind her of her past, and to remind others that Kaori Ittanda was a woman never to be crossed.
DIFFICULTY:
Hard.
Kaori Ittanda (一反田馨, Ittanda Kaori).
AGE:
Appears 26.
GENDER:
Female.
ALLEGIANCE:
Gotei 13.
POSITION:
Captain, Tenth Division (Rukongai Patrol Corps Head).
APPEARANCE:
Standing at 5’7”, Kaori is surprisingly tall for a woman of Japanese descent. Her frame carries this height well, though, with a bust and curves that belie her lithe muscles. Her face is narrow, with dark brown eyes that are always furrowed, and her long black hair is pulled into a thick ponytail braid out of the way of her forehead. Thus, Kaori doesn’t have much in the way of bangs, in fact finding them annoying to deal with.
Despite her natural attractiveness, though, the Sixth’s captain doesn’t particularly like exposing herself. Her shinigami uniform is therefore relatively unmodified, with the kosode, hakama and haori of proper length and cut. The only accessories Kaori wears are two plain gold rings on the middle and ring fingers of her right hand. The latter are meant to draw attention away from her sole physical flaw, which is the absence of the last knuckle on her left pinky.
However, Kaori has a quirk. She rarely shows much skin to others, and there’s a reason why. This is because of the massive tattoo that covers her back, chest, biceps and the curves directly underneath her breasts, immediately marking her as a member of the yakuza criminal underground. The tattoo specifically has many elements, particularly lotus flowers and koi, but is dominated by the image of a willow tree. This tree has its roots at the base of her spine and follows her back up, until it bursts into green leaves across her shoulder blades.
PERSONALITY:
On the outside, Kaori appears to be a coldhearted, callous bitch. And... that's pretty much true. She isn't the type to offer a shoulder to lean on or a comforting word. Instead, she'll tell people to man up and get it over with, because by God she's a woman and why do I see grown men breaking down at shit like this I've seen so much worse in my life. (More on that later.) She can snap at the littlest things and often regrets her outbursts just as quickly: she has never considered herself good under stress. However, Kaori is not apologetic. She's never gotten anywhere in life with being apologetic for her actions, and this distinctly prickly attitude has rubbed many a shinigami the wrong way.
Kaori doesn't feel that she needs other people, in fact. She instead feels that she takes what she needs from others - no more, no less. To her, they can cloud her mind and lessen the strength of her convictions. Yes, she appreciates the presence of others, but if you make yourself useless to her, she will drop your ass faster than a bag of smelly laundry. That said, she likes to go out for a drink with people at the end of the day (as long as nobody does anything particularly stupid, that is). She's a delicate balance of contradictions: sociable and absolutely cruel, extravagant and down-to-earth. Navigating these complexities is essential.
Finally, justice is a big buzzword for Kaori. She's firm in her thoughts and mindset, and if she believes someone has become a toxin on the world, by God she'll do anything and everything in her power to wipe them out. It's this singlemindedness that gave her the position of captain, and it's a fact she's not shy about enforcing. Kaori looks for shinigami who share her devotion and her morals, and if you can't do that, you're not going to be too high up on her list.
HISTORY:
It is well known that Kaori does not originate from a shinigami family. However, the details beyond that are foggy at best. Many know that the 14-year-old girl arrived on the doorstep of the Shino Academy on the day of exams in a fluster, pleading with the guard to let her in and saying she "forgot her papers." This, of course, being a far cry from her personality now; but nobody has really remarked upon the stark difference. Dig into the shift in attitude, though, and you'll realize that her freakout was merely a ploy. A ploy to escape something far worse. A way to wash the blood off her hands.
The captain is a princess of sorts. An ex-princess, to be more precise. She was born to Hidetada Yamagata, boss of the Yamagata-kai that had wreaked havoc across the Rukongai for many years. Kaori had been raised with the full expectation that she would inherit her father's position and take over the Yamagata leadership. Initially, this was in fact something she looked forward to. Kaori had always been a girl with a mind for luxury, and as long as she could be pampered and called "Daddy's little girl," she didn't mind. She also knew her father wasn't a sterling example of parental righteousness. Once again, she didn't mind. Kaori spent her life coddled, so she never had to confront her father's ugly lifestyle.
That is, until she was nine. One day, her father called her into his office in Sabitsura district, telling her he wanted her to "see something." Being the good little obedient girl she was, Kaori naturally did that, but she was confronted with a man, bound and gagged and on his knees. Without a further word, her father stepped forward, unsheathing the wakizashi hanging at his side, and casually cut the man's throat. Kaori stifled a gasp as she saw the blood drain from his throat and the corpse drop to the floor, but she cried out once more as Hidetada walked over and slapped her across the face.
"This is your job," he warned her. "I expect nothing more than discipline from my child. Or, rather, my successor." His tone was harsh. "Correct?"
Kaori nodded, the blood flushing to her cheeks. The sleeves of her pink kimono quivered. Never before had she been exposed so directly to the harshness of the Yamagata life. She wasn't so sure now if being pampered was worth it.
Kaori's bodyguard was sympathetic to her plight, and she knew she could easily manipulate him to let her get away from her father for a while. Thus, with him by her side, Kaori started to vanish from under her father's watch whenever she knew he was out on "business."
Remember, Kaori was a bird in a gilded cage. She rarely, if ever, saw the world outside the Yamagata complex. Thus, to be engulfed in the squalor, the hustle and bustle of the Rukongai, opened her eyes. It simultaneously enthralled and disgusted her. Kaori never realized her life wasn't, well... "normal." And normal was now something she so dearly desired. The squish of mud between her toes, the smell of food frying in stalls... It was heavenly. She was a victim, wrongly incarcerated and only now seeing the light.
But she knew she couldn't stay outside the cage for long, so every night Kaori returned under the cover of dusk. One day, however, she went too far, and on her way back, she was ambushed by a beast she had only heard about in rumors.
A Hollow.
She had given her bodyguard the slip earlier for some reason - some kinda plea to "oh, I'm old enough now" - but she was 11. And this was nothing an 11-year old child should ever need to face alone. It was a freaky monkey-like being with way too many joints and teeth. Even the sight of her father cutting a man's throat paled in comparison to this.
Kaori didn't know how to fight. Her father never taught her. So she curled into a ball, extended her hand out as if to push the rapidly-approaching Hollow back, and awaited her second death.
What she didn't expect, though, was the ball of fire that spat out of her palm and blew the monkey to bits.
Uncurling herself, Kaori looked at the tendrils of smoke emanating from around her fingers and grinned. That was the justice she needed. The victim being properly rewarded. The attacker in pieces. It was the beginning of her life's ideology, and she now knew how she was going to properly... execute it.
Each of her excursions now were devoted to one thing - training. Her bodyguard didn't mind: after all, it was in his best interest if those that were more powerful got offed. So, for the next few years, he trained her in reiatsu control. As Kaori channeled the energy in and out of her body, using it in new and different ways, she saw her power increase exponentially. Neither she nor her bodyguard was surprised when she manifested her zanpakuto. It was only a sign of what was to come, something they both knew was an eventuality.
Of course, the events of how exactly Hidetada's comeuppance occurred were lost to memory. The only solid details were all those that happened after the fact:
1. A kido alarm blaring in the night;
2. A handwritten poem stained with a copious amount of blood, wrapped inside of which was a joint from a pinky finger; and
3. The corpse of Yamagata Hidetada with a three-inch hole right over the heart.
By the time of these discoveries, Kaori was long gone. She smudged her dress, ground mud into her face, and vowed to herself that the name "Yamagata" was dead. Instead, "Ittanda" was her new surname - it was the street where she encountered her first Hollow so long ago. The girl poked herself in the eyes a few times, got the tears flowing, and on that fateful day approached the gates of the Shino Academy.
Once Kaori graduated, it was unclear how she so rapidly took the position of Captain. The most likely theory is that she used some of the Yamagata coffers to bribe those in control, to look the other way when she messed up and to sing her praises when she was victorious. (Her bodyguard taking over the Yamagata control was no accident.) The tattoo only came when she took the seat officially, even though she had been somewhat manipulating the movements of the Tenth for a while now. It was to remind her of her past, and to remind others that Kaori Ittanda was a woman never to be crossed.
DIFFICULTY:
Hard.
