Post by Muffin on Sept 28, 2009 20:30:35 GMT -5
Name: Jun Naginata
Age: 214, but looks to be in her early twenties
Gender: Female
Personality:
Skill Level: Swordsmanship: Intermediate
Skill Level: Shunpou: Intermediate
Skill Level: Hand-to-hand: Advanced
History/Background:
Age: 214, but looks to be in her early twenties
Gender: Female
Personality:
Soft-spoken and polite, Jun is a shy young woman who can’t find it in herself to deny anyone anything. This does not make her a pushover; she simply does not want to be rude. She would most rather listen than talk, resulting in many people coming to her to vent their feelings. Almost always seen smiling, Jun is something of a wallflower in the Gotei 13. Despite this, Jun is a capable swordsman and will not hesitate to jump into battle in order to help her comrades.Appearance:
Jun’s deepest secret is her large appetite. Able to eat five cheesecakes in one sitting, Jun’s fondness of sweets is a result of a difficult childhood, which will be described in further detail below. Her favourite foods are anything sweet, salty or covered in fudge, and she dislikes spicy things. Jun also enjoys reading, gardening and sleeping.
There are only two known things that will cause Jun to lose her smile. The first is to hurt, insult or threaten her mother, Jun’s last living relative whom she shares an extremely close bond. The second is to steal her last potato chip.
Jun is a young woman with a lean build and a height of approximately 5’5”. Due to her extreme love of junk food, her weight varies, sometimes being around 115lbs [usually during missions where she must be physically fit] and sometimes reaching 150lbs [occurs near special occasions such as her birthday and other instances where she has the opportunity to eat endlessly]Zanpakuto Spirit:
Jun has long, light blonde hair that she ties in a high ponytail. Her bangs cover her left eye, and two fall on either side of her face, reaching her chin. She has green eyes, though her left one is blind due to her childhood, which will be detailed later. Both her ears are pierced with small, hooped earrings.
She wears normal Shinigami attire, but wears her family’s belt rather than the standard one. It resembles a white obi that ties around at the front. A strap of white leather with a zigzag pattern goes over her right shoulder and reaches all the way to the back of her belt. Her Zanpakuto is attached onto that strap over her right shoulder.
Jun’s Zanpakuto spirit is Mizuyanagi, a tall, lithe woman dressed in an ankle-length white chiton with a gold girdle around her waist, and various golden armbands around her arms. She wears gold gladiator sandals on her feet. Her sea-blue hair extends all the way to her knees, and there are three ‘hair-loops’ on either side of her face, meeting in a topknot, ornamented with a wreath of gold laurel leaves. She has blue eyes, and her lips are stained blue.Sealed Zanpakuto:
Mizuyanagi is quiet, gentle and motherly. Wise in thought and words, she often gives Jun advice on anything, whether it be about fighting, hollows, romance or flavours of cheesecake. However, she will not hesitate to raise her voice when Jun falls into despair, something that rarely occurs [such as when Jun tried to learn Mizuyanagi’s name]. In Jun’s spirit world, which resembles the interior of the Parthenon, with light pouring through the tall, marble pillars, Mizuyanagi is always seated in the middle of the room with a Go board in front of her. Mizuyanagi and Jun share a close relationship, as Jun refers to Mizuyanagi as “Mizu-shishou.”
Mizuyanagi looks like a regular wakizashi. The blade is about 30 centimetres long, with a white and blue hilt and a diamond hand-guard. Its scabbard is black with blue diamond designs running up the sides. Attached to her hilt is a yellow hair ribbon her mother gave her. It is simply for looks, it has absolutely no effect on the sword itself.Shikai Description:
Its release command is “Nami no Shoukan” [Summon the Waves]. Mizuyanagi’s blade turns into a long, white naginata with a blue blade. The staff is about four feet long, and the blade is two. Upon releasing Mizuyanagi, the hand-guard splits in half, and reforms around Jun’s wrist, like a bracelet.Shikai Abilities:
Upon releasing Mizuyanagi, Jun gains the ability to control water.
Jun has two abilities upon releasing her Shikai. However, since they are both water-based attacks, they are extremely weak against ice and lightning-type attacks.Bankai Description: Bankai Abilities: Skill Level: Kidou: Beginner
Mizuyanagi’s main ability is to transform the blade of the naginata into a water tentacle, about five inches thick, allowing Jun to attack or grab opponents from a distance. Its maximum length is fifteen feet. The farther she stretches the tentacle, the thinner it gets, and its minimum width is just under one inch. If Jun retracts the blade, she can use it defensively, to protect herself from attacks. However, this makes her extremely weak to lightning and an electricity-based attacks, as water is a conductor of electricity.
The second ability is called Namigashira. By swinging the naginata in a downward arc, Jun can send a crest of water about four feet tall and three feet wide at her opponent. Jun can control the size and strength of the wave. The closer her opponent is, the stronger the attack will be, and the larger the wave. This attack can only reach opponents fifty feet away, and if the attack goes beyond fifty feet without hitting anything, it will dissolve.
Skill Level: Swordsmanship: Intermediate
Skill Level: Shunpou: Intermediate
Skill Level: Hand-to-hand: Advanced
History/Background:
Jun was born in 1756 to Naginata Sakura, the daughter of the aristocratic Naginata family, and Kuromeru Satou, a samurai. The youngest of eight other children, Jun was originally named Amarini, which meant ‘too much’ and was treated like a burden to everyone except her mother, who loved all her children. Since Jun lived for over two centuries, she has little memory of her human life, though some have imbedded themselves into her mind.RP Sample:
One such memory was when her father, Satou, caught her asleep beside a pond. Infuriated that she was ‘bumming around’ instead of doing chores, he took his sake bottle and began to beat her, some of the alcohol entered her left eye, blinding her. Sakura was infuriated that Satou would do something so cruel to Amarini, and realized that his heart held no love for her or Amarini. It was then that Sakura took Amarini to her parent’s house in the Naginata mansion. Amarini stayed there for three months.
Another memory that stays fresh in Jun’s mind was the day she died. On her sixth birthday, Kiro, her eldest brother, as well as her other siblings, were killed, leaving Amarini the only child left. Infuriated that his only heir was a weak girl, Satou infiltrated the mansion and beat Amarini to death while she was asleep. Sakura, who walked in during the beating, tried to stop him, but was also killed. Realizing what he had done, Satou fled, and disappeared. Mother and daughter waited for about two years before finally being sent to Soul Society.
They were sent to District 32 in East Rukongai. They resided in a small house beside an older couple that liked to give the neighbourhood children sweet cakes. This was her first time eating sweets, and immediately loved them. When the couple asked for her name, Amarini was silent, because she didn’t want to tell them her name, which, to her, was shameful. Sakura immediately fixed it, changing Amarini’s name to Jun, which had a double meaning. One was “turn”, signifying their new life, and the other was “excellence”, something her mother believed Jun was capable of achieving. They also took shed the name Kuromeru, and instead took up Sakura’s last name, which was Naginata. Despite fragments of her past lingering in her memory, Jun accepted her new life and made friends with other children in her neighbourhood.
Her first encounter with a Shinigami was at a cheesecake store in the neighbourhood. Whilst choosing a flavour, she met a white-haired man wearing a black kimono. He helped her with her decision, and even paid for the cake. She found out that he was a Shinigami, souls who protect others from danger, and immediately, she wanted to become one. Though she was met with some apprehension from her mother, Jun eventually persuaded her mother to let her apply for the Academy, on the condition that if she failed to pass, she would forget about Shinigami.
Much to her mother's chagrin, Jun was accepted in the Shinigami Academy a few years later, and easily passed all her classes. The only two that she had troubles with were Swordsmanship and Kido. Jun found that she had absolutely no talent in Kido, and struggled just to pass the class, which she eventually accomplished, with the help of her newfound friends from the Academy.
Her difficulty in Swordsmanship, however, was the result of her father’s influence on her early childhood. Subliminally, Jun automatically attributed swords to samurai, which lead to her father, causing Jun to hesitate when using swords. She overcame this fear when she dreamt about her Zanpakuto spirit [though she didn’t know it at the time], who told her that although swords can cause pain, they could also be used to protect those she cared about. With new confidence, Jun proved her worth and excelled in swordsmanship, much to the surprise of her instructors. After seven years in the Shinigami Academy, Jun graduated and was accepted into the Gotei 13.
Although Jun was a fully-fledged Shinigami, she still had difficulties achieving her Shikai. Determined to know the name of her Zanpakuto, she isolated herself from her Division, only appearing when called for or for missions. For twenty years she did so, and eventually, she learned the name of her Zanpakuto…Mizuyanagi, the same spirit that helped her overcome her fear of swords. With her Shikai achieved, Jun began to slowly break out of her shell and climb the ranks of her Division. Jun became known as the ‘Shinigami that liked to give cheesecakes’, because when she is caught with a box of cheesecake, she gives it out, in order to keep her sweet tooth hidden.
Amidst the missions and training, Jun still frequents District 32 of East Rukongai to visit her mother and buy cheesecakes.
"-and THEN...Haru totally dumped me for MIKA! Can't you believe it, Jun-chan? He dumped me for that slut! How could he do such a thing...?"
Jun could only shake her head and smile slightly as her friend continued her rant about her backstabbing ex-boyfriend.
"-not only did he dump me, but he HUMILITATED me! Who goes to the Division potluck dateless?"
"Ano...I went to the potluck by myself," Jun replied quietly.
"Ah...ah...but you're too cool to go with a date." her friend stuttered, cheeks turning red.
"It's fine," Jun smiled, "I understand. It seems like Haru is quite a nasty jerk. I think it's a good thing he dumped you. Not only are you too good for him, but it just shows what a inconsiderate jerk he is for humiliating a lady."
Instantly, her friend's face lit up with a smile. "Thanks, Jun-chan!" she said, giving the blonde a quick hug, "You're totally the best."
"I do my best," Jun replied. After the hug finished, the other shinigami stepped back.
"Now that I'm available for the dating market again, I'd better look at some cute guys. Want to come?"
Jun shook her head, "No, that's fine. Please, go ahead."
With a shrug and a wave, the other shinigami disappeared, leaving the blonde by herself.
How long has it been? she thought as she looked at the sky, Fifty years? No, longer. A hundred, maybe? Most probably. Jun continued to walk down the cobbled streets of Seireitei. Being a Shinigami did so many things to my life. But is it what I want? To fight Hollows and defend my people for the rest of my life?
A gentle breeze blew through the streets. For an instant, the bangs in front of Jun's left eye blew to the side, revealing a pale green orb. Am I pathetic now? She cursed mentally, her fingers clenching into fists, Can you see me? I wonder how you feel about me now. If you can see just how strong I have become. I'm not your weak little-
No. Stop. Cursing is beneath you. That life was beneath you.
Jun took a calming breath before continuing on her path.
Things are good. Life is good. Everything will turn out for the best...won't it?
Jun smiled as a black butterfly landed on her outstretched finger.
Of course.
