Shinigami - Rinako Shikakawa - [B-3]

[Wicked]

Name: Shikakawa Rinako
Age: 124
Gender: Female
Personality:

Reticent and obedient, Rinako isn't one to defy an order. She knows her place, she knows the chain of command, and she'll follow it dutifully. She does not speak out of turn, however, this is more out of fear than obediance. Rinako is, admittedly, a coward. She is not in any sense of the word "couragous".

Very gentle, Rinako does not like to see people hurt, nor will she attempt to cause harm to a person. She will not point out when someone has insulted her, simply taking the insult and nodding, even if it stings deep down (except for ONE exception--below).

Her choice style of fighting is to turn the other way and run, not wanting to get mixed up in a full-on bout. If she has no option, she does not run, but instead turns the other cheek. She does not give into provocation, not showing anger of any sort. Despite this, she is not emotionally strong, she simply lacks the drive to grow angered at people (Except in one single situation--below). She often has doubts about herself, her abilities, and what others think about her.

The only thing that seems to make Rinako angry is when people come up with pet names for her. She grows red as an apple whenever someone makes up a nickname for her, and she insists that people call her "Rinako".She especially hates when people call her "Rin".

She seems to grow very embarassed when complimented, as she doesn't like to have the spotlight turned to her. She far prefers to be a background character, she far prefers to blend in. If complimented in front of a group, she tends to have thoughts of what will occur if she lets it get to her head. She can go from feeling on top of the world to wanting to crawl into a hole and hide from the world.

Rinako does not give herself credit that matches her abilities, she does not like to open up to others. She remains skittish around those she outranks, and she remains skittish around those who outrank her. On the off chance that she becomes friends with someone, she tends to lean on them for help. The thing is, she usually doesn't get that far in the first place, being too timid to do so.

While she is loyal to her friends, duty comes before friendships, for the simple reason that it would be no good if both were harmed because either decided to go against duty. Rinako often confuses sarcasm from higher-ups with actual orders, causing a lot of confusion in her actions.

Rinako is a very expressive character. Her facial expressions seem to know no bounds, as, despite her timid disposition, she is very poor at masking her emotions. The thing is, her emotions are very dramatic, any small amount of joy results in the appearance of hearts in her eyes, any small amount of sorrow resulting in a bawling child, and any small amount of shock results in the dropping of her jaw. {Yay for countless chibi expressions!}

Appearance:

Rinako is a small girl, standing just short of five feet at four eleven and weighing only eighty-three pounds. She has a porcelin complexion, skin as pale as skin gets. Unfortunately for Rinako, this also means that when someone embarasses her, a crimson blush floods her face and is quite conspicuous. Her head is round and immature in shape.

Her hair is a mousy brown hue, falling just to the backs of her shoulders. The texture is rather grainy no matter what she does to it. Two long bangs frame her face, grown out and falling a couple inches below her jaw. On the right side, a small strand protrudes from her bangs. She has a few wispy bangs on her forehead, and the rest of her hair curves inwards below her head and outwards before it comes to its stop at her scapula.

Her eyes are a luminous brown hue, deep in shade, rivaling the hue of dark chocolate. They are large and round in her head, the highlight of her features. Her eyelashes are thin and wispy. She has a pair of light and thin eyebrows, accenting her expressions.

She wears the robes of the shinigami, standard for the most part. Her sleeves fall to the base of her thumbs on either hand, slightly longer than the sleeves on the standard uniform. Her obi is tied both through the respective area for it to hold the Hakama up and over it; attatched is her sword, horizontally with the hilt facing her left side.

In her gigai, she favors something such as a pair of jeans and a t-shirt, wheras when off duty in the Soul Society she wears what seems like the garb of many rukongai residents, probably in an attempt to blend in (as she has put it in the past).

{A failed attempt. ^^}

Zanpakuto Spirit:

Name: Jinkou (Aloe)

Appearance: Standing at four feet tall, Jinkou is a man made of a twisted plantlike matirial, spines litering the sides of his arms and legs. His arms are made of several vines, twisted and gnarled together, flexible with no skeletal structure to speak of. His torso is like a stalk with several vines wrapped around it, spiralling. His hands aren't actually hands, but are instead pointed with a slight curve, like the ends of an Aloe plant. His legs are nonexistant, instead a single cluster of vines connects him to the ground.

His face is that of a normal man's, long, slightly narrow, a flat chin, narrow eyes. However, his hair is composed of a cluster of tubular flowers, each their own crimson hue, each hanging six inches off of his head in a messy fashion, similar to dreadlocks.

Personality: Quiet and reserved, Jinkou doesn't speak much. He spends much of his time swaying and moving around his domain, ignoring almost every one of Rinako's questions for him. His oppinions towards his young weilder are witheld, however, inwardly he is very similar to Rinako, being a cowardly, gentle, shy soul. He does not like being used for violence, which suits Rinako just fine since she does not like to take part in violence.

It can be assumed that Jinkou feels a kinship with Rinako, however, it is still uncertain to Rinako. In actuality, he finds Rinako to be too hard on herself, but he would never openly admit this. In fact, Jinkou never openly admits anything.

Inner World: Jinkou resides in a desert, the sky in a perpetual night, the moon high in the sky, silver in hue. The sands are a deep brown, and they seem to extend forever, unending, infinitely expanding over the horizon. The dunes tower over Rinako and Jinkou, the highest point being at least forty feet in the air. Around the world, there are a few cacti, though there are not many.

Sealed Zanpakuto:

Horizontally, facing her left, is her zanpakuto, a sakabato the size of a wakizashi, a very small wakizashi with a foot long blade, not much. The blade is reversed, with what would normally be the sharp end being dull and smooth, and what would normally be the dull part being sharp. The hilt is the exact same size, making the entire weapon two feet long. The sword has no guard, instead it is just connected straight to the sheath. The hilt is covered in a dark green mesh composed of very thin threads. The sheath is a very simple black.
___________________________________________________
Rinako is left-handed.

Shikai Description:

Release Command: "Stick, Jinkou."

When releasing her zanpakuto, Rinako holds her sword out horizontally, paralell to her chest in her left hand. The blade faces her right when she does this.

Appearance: The blade itself holds no immediate change, however, the hilt grows several limp, red, tubular flowers from the end of it, five total. Each flower is eight inches long. After several posts, these flowers will perk up and spread out, forming a five-pointed "star" of sorts. After this happens, the dull end of Rinako's blade will grow covered with a green substance, similar to the gel found inside of aloe plants.

{Oh wait a minute!}

Shikai Abilities:

Rinako must wait for two posts in addition to release before she is able to access her abilities.

Aloe - The gel that Jinkou produces is very similar to aloe, however, it has a slightly stronger effect. It dries over a span of two posts after the application, and can be used to close wounds to keep a person from bleeding to death while someone heals them. Each time the aloe is used, the flowers slowly begin to wilt.
limitations - This can be easily washed away by water. Each time the aloe is used, the flowers slowly begin to wilt. The aloe can be used five times total.

Adhesive - This can have a slight adhesive effect if Rinako mixes more of her reiatsu into the aloe and flings it off with a slash of her sword. The adhesive can hinder movements, holding fabric together {Or be used to glue allies' shoes to the ground for comic relief}. The aloe remains in a small gel-like clump about the size of Rinako's fist. When it lands, it dries slightly quicker than the normal aloe, taking one post (one post after application to dry). The effect lasts for about three posts before the aloe becomes brittle enough for just about anything to shatter it.
Limitations - This can still be washed away by water, very easily. People who are stronger (or in advanced with kido and the same tier), can simply release a surge of reiatsu to shatter the aloe once dried, or can break out of it if they are a higher tier. Once the aloe becomes brittle, people entire tiers lower can break out by just moving. Rinako can use this a maximum of five times, including the normal aloe. (Takes an extra 10% reiatsu for each time it is used)

She can only use her abilities five times total, for example, she can use the regular aloe twice and the adhesive three times, and that would be the end of it. She can use one ability per post.

Bankai Description:

{Aloe Vera that destroys you all! MUWAHAHAHAHAHA!}

None

Bankai Abilities:

None. But it'd be cool if she did have it!

Skill Level: Kidou: Advanced
Skill Level: Swordsmanship: Beginner
Skill Level: Shunpou: Beginner
Skill Level: Hand-to-hand: Beginner
History/Background:

Time in Rukongai

Born and raised in the Eastern Rukongai, Rinako was in a fairly tame area, that area being the fourteenth district. Really, there wasn't much that could or should have gone wrong for her during this time. Keywords being should and would. Indefinite. At first, her time was fairly calm, she had her mother, Reika (Rinako was the spitting image of her mother), and her father, Kotaro, who called Rinako "Rin". She spent much of her first few years completely relying on her parents, not being outgoing enough to attempt at making friends with other residents of the Rukongai. Often times, she leaned, completely and utterly, on her parents for guidence.

At some point in her childhood, when she had grown up a small amount, Rinako had decided she would try to be "better". She was completely sure if she didn't try to rely on herself, for once, she wouldn't amount to anything. The thought didn't sound so good to the young girl, hence her reasoning for traveling out into the woods outlining her district. Little did she know that she would manage to run into, of all things, a hollow in the woods. This hollow had somehow slipped its way into Soul Society, much to Rinako's misfortune.

The hollow was a bear-like creature, with claws and enormous paws to match. Rinako found herself faced with a large paw flying towards her and herself flying for the ground. Another attack nearly struck her down, but upon looking up, wondering why she hadn't been killed yet, she saw a shinigami with his sword pressed against the hollow's claws. She had watched just a small portion of the battle before she heard her father calling for her. With that, she fled from the scene, meeting up with her father.

She had very excitedly told Kotaro about the incident, about how she had been saved by a shinigami. When she let slip that she thought it was cool, she was met by a very peculiar glare from her father. He told her to stay away from shinigami, not revealing his less-than-positive relationship with a shinigami he had met a long time ago. Rinako eventually found this out by speaking with her mother. What a ridiculous grude, Rinako thought. Nevertheless, she never did tell her father that she knew.

Her relationship with her father slowly began to deteriorate, and any attempts at learning to fight were met with scoldings from her father. As far as he was concerned, it was her trying to prepare herself to become a shinigami. She eventually learned to loathe her father's newfound habits, and began to vanish from her home for days at a time. On one occasion, a repeat of that one unfortunate day occured, only she was not saved by a shinigami. Her father saved her, albeit, it was a temporary solution. The hollow was still alive, but pure rage had driven Kotaro to pound the life out of the hollow, despite injuring himself in the process. Rinako grew disgusted with her own weakness, and confronted her father about joining the Shinoreijutsuin. Needless to say, he was not pleased.

For the second time, Rinako heard the story of how her father and a shinigami had bickered about her mother, both claiming to be in love with her, the situation ending with a fistfight and Kotaro on the ground, half-dead. Reika had shooed the shinigami away, remaining by Kotaro's side. A frown crossed her face as she argued that this wasn't a good reason for her to not be allowed to join. Kotaro said absolutly nothing to this, not speaking to Rinako for days on end.

At some point, she just got sick of waiting for approval from her father, telling her mother she wanted to leave. Her mother agreed, and that was good enough for her. She began her journey, looking back and promising that she wouldn't return. She doubted this was a promise she could easily keep.

Time in the Academy

It took Rinako three tries to get accepted into the Academy. She had very little talent for swordsmanship, having never held a sword in her life and having been forbidden from even attempting to learn the art of swordsmanship. Her hand to hand and her hoho weren't much better, she found herself constantly asking for help during her time in the Academy.

Not a day went by that she didn't want to just quit, to just stop, but she remembered her promise and forced herself to continue. She had almost no talent whatsoever, leading her teachers to wonder how she got accepted at all. Well, there was one exception: kido. While in swordsmanship, she was hesitant, and while in hand-to-hand, she was too slow, while in Hoho she was clueless, in Kido she knew exactly what she was doing.

Passing through the academy took a lot of time, and a lot of patience. She found herself constantly asking for help from her seniors, a very difficult task for someone as shy as Rinako. A few people were kind enough to attempt to help the hopeless case that was Shikakawa Rinako. However, most just told her if she needed the help so badly, she should have quit a long time back. Among the few that helped her gain adequette skills to graduate the academy were Mitani Hinata and Takeme Sanmaru, both senior to her by years upon years.

With this help, she managed to gain the skills, albeit it was no easy task for someone such as Rinako, to pass the academy at the bottom of her class. She was referred to as a "Would-be-dropout" by many of her peers, who saw her as one of the lowest of the low. After all, she took the longest of anyone to pull her zanpakuto, the longest of anyone to get up to an adequete level, at least. Even then, her skills were barely worth mentioning.

Obtaining Shikai

For once in her life, Rinako found herself ahead of the game. Despite passing with low scores, obtaining no seat, and being refered to as a fluke, as many people thought she should not have passed through the academy, Rinako mantained a fair relationship with her zanpakuto spirit, despite him being naught but a nameless voice and face within her mind.

A few people considered this to be a lie from the Sereitei's least intimidating shinigami, however, it was the truth, and nothing but the truth. However, Rinako was not motivated to press her zanpakuto spirit to speak to her with his actual name. He was not motivated to speak to her without her initating the conversation. Thus began a cycle of not getting much of anything accomplished.

It took a talk with one of her senpai to discover that perhaps she should try to initiate the conversation and simply ask for the name. Thus began an interesting adventure between Jinkou and Rinako. She lead herself out into the rukongai, by request for a short leave, and then into the same forest where she had been attacked some time ago. Hours of meditation ensued, Rinako got absolutely nothing accomplished, merely opening her mouth and then closing it within her mind.

More time passed, and Rinako still said nothing simply pacing around the desert within her mind. A vast wasteland. She wondered if it was supposed to reflect her lack of socialization. Or maybe that was the nameless plant of a man sulking around her mind. "Ne, Oji-san..."

A pause came, before a question: "Why don't you just ask, Rinako-san?"

She could have sworn it was her imagination, and then she found herself asking for help from the short man, who merely let a faint smile cross his lips, and agreed. His name was Jinkou, he told her. Rinako thanked her zanpakuto spirit, and then made her way to visit her father.

Unfortunately, she was met with her father's grave and an abandoned house. Her mother told her that her father commited suicide, but a neighbor enlightened her, remarking that Kotaro had simply abandoned the district, seeming to vanish into thin air as he left. He had gone the opposite direction, wandering deeper into the other end of the rukongai so that he would not meet his daughter. Such a bittersweet accomplishment.

Return

Rinako returned to Sereitei after her leave, having been gone for about a week. She was congratulated, (in some cases, insincerely), by her peers, and snapped at the only one who called her "Rin", in affection. The outburst was rather unexpected, and people began to wonder just what might have happened during her leave. However, as of yet, no one has asked, and the situation simply buried itself beneath Rinako's deep brown eyes.

RP Sample:

Sample #1

"OI! Kid, hurry up! These floors ain't gonna wash themselves!" The angry shouts of a division member rang in Rinako's ears. Why couldn't she just fade into the background? She was working as hard as she possibly could, considering this was on cleaning duty--again. Beads of sweat found their ways down Rinako's temples.

"G-gomen," she apoligized, squeezing her eyes shut as she began to quicken her pace, arms moving as a blur as she attempted to clean faster. The broom was naught but a blur as she began to sweep, dashing to and fro, dust rising into the air. She let out a cough, tears streaming from her eyes.

"OI! Careful!" One man shouted.

Another female shinigami added to this, shouting, "Watch where you're going!" She darted around Rinako.

Maybe Rinako should have spent more time learning how to Shunpo so she could work faster? She sped up, more tears forming in her eyes as the dust rose around her. She was too caught up in her emotions, fear, embarassment, humiliation, fear, to notice that she was making things even worse. "G-gomen nasai, senpai!"

"Don't apologize," the shinigami coughed, "STOP SWEEPING! BAKA!"

Rinako froze, the dust slowly beginning to fall, as if someone had just pressed a pause button and everything had stopped in Rinako's world. She shook, as if she had just screwed something up and was waiting for scolding.

Shockingly, she was only met with the rolling of her eyes and the shinigami waltzing away without a care in the world. "The idiots they let out of the Academy these days..."

---

Sample #2

"Oh..." Rinako sighed, lowering herself onto the deck. She had spent a few hours on cleaning duty, and she felt terrible. Like she had just had her arms chopped off and then sewed back on hastily. By a guy. Not to mention all the dust she had breathed in and coughed out during the ordeal. It was getting late, by this point, and Rinako wasn't even sure she wanted to try to sleep.

"Ah... I should go back to the barracks, shouldn't I...?" Rinako mused, rubbing the side of her head with her left hand. The brown-eyed girl frowned as she stared onwards. The sun was setting and all she could think about was how to go about being unnoticed as she slipped into the barracks.

Sofar, she had concocted what may have been her stupidest plan ever: she would climb in through the window. Yes, that may very well have worked! So she stood up, limping off to the window of her division's barracks, and jumped upwards, grabbing hold of the window ledge. Only then did she realize something...

"ITAI!" She wailed as she dropped back to the ground, her arms falling limp beside her. Oh this was a stupid idea! Now she had just made a scene! Only one thing to do now! She winced as she darted below the deck, avoiding the gaze of a few other shinigami who had come to investigate the situation at hand.

"Uh, what do you think happened here?" One asked. A male voice.

Next came a female voice. "I think... I don't know."

"Shikakawa-san?"

"Probably."

Kuso, the young shinigami thought. She winced. Was it really that obvious? HOW could it be so obvious, she wondered. Was it her voice? Her fingers? She had dropped her zanpakuto. It made perfect sense! Of course! Except... she was leaning against it below the deck.

"Whatever," the female shinigami finally said, walking away. The footsteps echoed beneath the porch, causing Rinako to bite her lip to keep from making a scene. She had already pretty much failed at that, but it never hurt to take extra measures, right?

"Eh, you're right," The male added, beginning to follow the other shinigami. Rinako slowly crawled out from beneath the deck, letting out a puff of air. At the very least, no one had seen her in the window...

Or had they?

[Rebel Raven]

Approved
Medium Level Strong