Sumirebana Meiko [12th Division Fukutaichou]

None

114

18

12th Division

Lieutenant

5’2

40 kg

Standing at a very ‘imposing’ height of 5’2, Meiko has been described by a good number of people as ‘drop-dead gorgeous’. Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder, of course, but most individuals profess Meiko to be more than a sight for sore eyes. Shiny, raven-black hair crowns her head, and falls down smoothly to the base of her spine. The tips of her hair are cut to a straight line, including her bangs, which are fashioned in a very neat ‘Hime-cut’. Meiko has thin graceful eyebrows, forest-green doe eyes, a cute button-nose, and full lips, which reveal pearly-white dentition that would be the pride of an orthodontist when Meiko smiles or speaks. Her voice is light, soft and gentle.
Matching Meiko’s face, her form is rather luscious. Even though her frame looks delicate, Meiko has quite an ample bosom, a slim waist and rounded hips, coupled with well-proportioned limbs. On Meiko’s right shoulder is a tattoo of the kanji ‘ki’, meaning spirit (closer to strength of mind than soul). She seems to enjoy flaunting her curves because she is hardly ever seen in clothes that an average person would call decent. Even her Shinigami uniform is a testament to this fact. The front is left open enough to reveal a good deal of her bust, and rather than wear the traditional hakamas, her black Shihakusho extends to form two flaps, one at her front and one behind, fastened to each other by cords at her hips, and revealing a lot of skin. Meiko’s outfit is further held in place by a white and pink obi sash worn on her upper abdomen, to which her Lieutenant badge and zanpakutou are fastened at the front and back respectively. Hidden within her robes is a small pouch that contains vials for on-field material collection. She wears white, knee-high socks and high-heeled wedge sandals on her feet.
Meiko favors accessories and wears a number of bangles. She will also usually wear a pendant or choker (or both) whose color must match that of another clothing item she has on. Meiko is particularly fond of bandannas, which she ties in an ‘Alice-band’ style on her head. She also sports a number of piercings, four on each ear and a navel piercing. Whether this is practiced to the point of perfection or natural (which is unlikely), Meiko’s movements involve what many have described as “a jiggle here and a wiggle there”, with a graceful sashay when she walks.

Meiko

-Tea
-Cooking
-Beaches (it most likely has to do with beachwear)
-Friendly people
-Training and exercise
-Admiration
-Books

-Bullies
-Prigs
-Bugs, especially cockroaches
-Dirt
-Untidy places
-Getting fat
-Failure

-Vain (she will keep grudges if someone gets her dirty on purpose)
-Vindictive (Meiko repays, for good or ill!)
-Bipolar (she’s a bit stable, but when happy, she’s quite exuberant; when sad, she’s dismal to the point of despair)
-Suicidal (when defending people is involved)
-Rebellious (not to people she likes)
-Self-punishing, should she encounter failure

-Brave
-Altruistic
-Generous
-Vivacious and optimistic (when she's not in the emotional trough)
-Compassionate
-Collected
-Courteous and obliging
-Intelligent and wily thinker (makes a good tactician on the battlefield)

While Meiko appears to be quite amorous, it must be understood that Meiko is not as brazen as many people are led to believe by her actions and manner of dressing. While Meiko will, on a good day, wear articles of clothing which are quite shocking to the average prude, she will feel really quite embarrassed, were she to find herself on the street in next-to-nothing clothes. She will not feel so on a beach; it is after all quite normal to wear such there. She believes in a “look but don’t touch” concept: people whose hands wander about Meiko will most likely get their heads bashed in.
Another thing about Meiko is that she seems somewhat gullible around her friends and colleagues, but it's quite hard to say whether she really is, or it's just part of her coquettish antics.
Finally, Meiko is somewhat of a nerd, and loves to read. She tries as hard as possible to keep abreast of the technological differences between Seireitei and Earth, often with humorous results. Meiko seems to know a lot of unnecessary trivia, like the distance between the earth and the moon, and the fact that Pluto has actually more than one moon. She prefers to hide the really deep knowledge she has, making people think she isn't too bright. She has a habit of doing favors for people, even ridiculous ones, and even at her own expense.
Finally, while Meiko lets on the idea that she just wants admiration, no matter the sort, she is actually very responsive to people who can actually see through the facade of coquetry and appreciate her for a lot other reasons than her curves. Although she is not ashamed to admit it, Meiko will never reveal that she is actually the head of a well-to-do clan in Rukongai, unless asked.

None, at the moment

NAME: Tenkohaku Gyokuren [Divine Amber Jewel Lotus]
SEALED FORM: A simple, yet elegant guardless kodachi, with its hilt and scabbard made of a shiny pink wood.

SPIRIT: The spirit of Tenkohaku Gyokuren is a young woman, of about Meiko's age in appearance with flowing long hair which obscures the left side of her face. Like Meiko, her hair is a jet-black, but her visible eye is golden. She wears a pink kimono, which seems to be made of flame at first glance, but one would quickly notice that the 'flames' have a solid constituency. She sits usually in an amber-colored crystal lotus, a sedate expression on her face.
Tenkohaku Gyokuren is, like Meiko, calm and tries to always present an unruffled appearance. She has the habit of poking fun at and teasing Meiko, although Gyokuren, as Meiko calls her for short, really does care about her wielder's well-being. She also has the habit of shocking Meiko, wherever and whenever she can. In Gyokuren's opinion, it's the law of karma: Meiko scandalizes prudes if she can, Gyokuren scandalizes Meiko if she can.

INNER WORLD: A vast expanse of yellow crystalline plain, with a lot of crystal outgrowths and a bleak, dark sky. At the center of the world, over the crystal plain, floats the crystal lotus in which Tenkohaku Gyokuren sits.

RELEASE COMMAND: Amakudare, Tenkohaku Gyokuren! [Descend from Heaven, Tenkohaku Gyokuren!]

DESCRIPTION: On releasing, Tenkohaku Gyokuren dissolves into a mist, and coalesces into two bracelets that look like large Buddhist mala, one on each of Meiko's wrists. As Meiko's reiatsu comes in contact with the bracelets, Tenkohaku Gyokuren's signature appearance is revealed: two huge 'shells' that coat Meiko's arms almost up to her shoulders. Each shell is a bright golden in color, crystalline in constitution, and characteristically resembles a flaming kirin's head. While the shells look to be made of crystal and are probably just as hard, they are quite light for Meiko to swing about.

Tenkohaku Gyokuren Released

TYPE: Kidou-based. The main idea of Tenkohaku Gyokuren's power is absorbing and discharging kidou and spiritual energy.

TECHNIQUES:

For: Shikai
Name: Daiten Shinrou [Great Heaven Spirit Prison]
Type: Supplementary
Cost: Low
Range: Self
Description: This is Tenkohaku Gyokuren’s primary ability. On giving the command “Igame!” (“open!”), Tenkohaku Gyokuren’s shells will glow a bright golden, and absorb any energy in contact with them, at which point, the eyes on the shells begin to glow blue. Such energy includes energy-based hadou spells, cero, etc. Note that if the Seijuu stat of the user of the energy to be absorbed is greater than Meiko’s she will not be able to use her Daiten Shinrou technique to absorb anything. If the Seijuu stat is between -3 to +3 of Meiko’s, she will absorb half of the energy, leaving a more weakened version of it. She may choose to use both shells on her hands to absorb such energy, in which case she will be able to absorb it fully. If Meiko’s Seijuu stat exceeds +3 of her opponent’s, she will absorb the energy completely. Meiko does not have any restrictions to absorbing any energy released by herself.
Once energy has been stored using Daiten Shinrou, Meiko can, at will, release the stored energy in Tenkohaku Gyokuren’s shells in an explosion that radiates outward from whichever shell Meiko chooses to release the stored energy. The range of the explosion is a 5-meter radius outward. Of course, anyone standing beside or behind Meiko will not be affected by the blast. Meiko can choose to release energy from one shell at a time, or both at once.
Note that when Daiten Shinrou is activated and Tenkohaku Gyokuren has absorbed energy, Daiten Shinrou cannot be used again until the stored energy is discharged. The energy can be stored indefinitely, and if both Tenkohaku Gyokuren’s shells have stored energy, Meiko can choose to discharge the energy of the two shells at different times.
After energy stored by Tenkohaku Gyokuren is discharged from a shell, a cooldown of two posts is required for Meiko to use Daiten Shinrou from that shell again.

For: Shikai
Name: Kaminori Taibatsu [Punishment of Divine Law]
Type: Offensive
Cost: Medium
Range: Short/Medium/Long
Description: On Meiko’s giving the command “Kudakero!” (Shatter!), one or both of Tenkohaku Gyokuren’s shells will shatter into dangerous flying fragments that move in all directions and can easily cause deep lacerations when the embed themselves in an opponent. While the crystal fragments of Tenkohaku Gyokuren’s shell will avoid Meiko by default, as long as she stands still at what time the shell bursts, this ability does not distinguish between friend or foe. If Meiko has used Daiten Shinrou to store energy which has not been released, the shattering of Tenkohaku Gyokuren’s shell will not release the energy, so Meiko can increase the range of the explosion caused by releasing the energy absorbed through Daiten Shinrou, by first giving the command “kudakero!” before releasing the stored energy. However, if Meiko is caught in the explosion, she will be wounded by it. The shards will evaporate into an evanescent yellow mist at the end of the post. If energy is unreleased when the shards evaporate, the stored energy will be lost to the surroundings as harmless reiatsu.
Meiko can shatter her shells whether they are close by or far, and can only control the flying shards to change their trajectory once.
Requires a two-post cooldown to reform a shell when Kamigirin Taibatsu is used.

For: Shikai
Name: Hishin Kirindan [Flying Spirit Kirin Bullet]
Type: Offensive
Cost: Medium
Range: Long
Description: Hishin Kirindan is activated by the command “Tobe!” (“Fly!”), at which point, either one or two of Tenkohaku Gyokuren’s shells (subject to Meiko’s determination) is/are launched from Meiko’s hands to fly in a straight line. This technique causes bludgeoning damage if a blunt part of the shell hits an opponent,or piercing damage if the horn of the shell meets the opponent first. The strength and speed of this technique is based on the values of Meiko’s Seijuu and Hohou stats respectively. A shard released by Hishin Kirindan will remain where it has fallen for two post cycles, and Meiko cannot form a new shell on a particular hand until the detached shell from that same hand is dissipated. After two post cycles, the shell will evaporate into an evanescent yellow mist.

For: Shikai
Name: Tennojinkei
Type: Supplementary
Cost: High
Range: Close
Description: On giving the command “...” (“Cleanse!”), Meiko will place one or both of her hands on a living target. On giving the command, the shell(s) of whatever hand Meiko has placed on the target will turn an ethereal blue and engulf the target, healing wounds and cleansing poisons. Meiko can use two shells on two targets, or combine the shells to heal at twice the normal healing speed, although the spiritual exertion of this is enough to make Meiko pass out for 3 posts after performing the technique, if the healing takes longer than one post, and even if she awakens, Meiko will be too tired to fight. Both Meiko and her target must remain stationary for this technique to work.
Small wounds, cuts and bruises will heal in one post.
Average cuts, bruises and wounds need two post cycles to heal.
Serious injuries need three posts to heal.
Life-threatening injuries need four post cycles to heal. Meiko is terribly stressed when healing life-threatening injuries.

Tennojinkei can only be used twice in a thread (one with each shell), or once in a thread, if the two shells are combined to heal a target.

Soon to come. It is rumored that Meiko is quite close to gaining this power.

Sumirebana Meiko was born to a very wealthy clan in Northern Rukongai, 1st Sector. While the Sumirebana Clan was rich enough to have expansive properties, they always aspired for higher positions of honor. Of course, since the entire Soul Society is practically governed by Shinigami, what better way to be more honorable than to be a Shinigami Captain? The Sumirebana even hoped that should things turn out as they wanted, they would be soon regarded among the great noble houses of Seireitei. As a result, arranged marriages and subtle cross-breedings were very common, giving rise to a more-than-normal occurrence of spiritually ‘active’ people within the Sumirebana Clan. Meiko wasn’t the first child; she was preceded by another daughter named Hiko (Child of Light) because the girl had very light hair. Meiko was also named by her hair (‘Meiko’ means ‘dark child’).

From the get-go, the favourite Sumirebana child was obvious: Hiko. Hiko was assertive, in command and confident. Meiko, on the other hand was painfully shy, albeit with a very good heart. But in a dog-eat-dog world, good hearts have nothing to do with gaining prestige, and as such, Meiko was shunned by her family. While Hiko was being groomed to be the next head of the Sumirebana Clan, the best that Meiko's folks could think for her was marriage to the heir of another wealthy clan, which her parents had strong convictions about, due to Meiko's beauty. Desirous to please her parents and gain a similar status as Hiko, Meiko began mercilessly exerting herself to find her major talents, in the hopes of gaining favor in their eyes. Very soon, Meiko realized her gifted hands and talents of innovation and resourcefulness, but she was told by her parents when she tried to impress them with her skills, that such skills were useful only for tinkers, and she was shaming their pedigree by working that way with her hands. Soon she began to get estranged from her family, while sinking into great depths of depression.

One day, during Meiko's teenage years, after being disgraced in front of the entire clan for making a simple mistake, Meiko ran away from home. Foolishly, she ventured deeper into Rukongai, where she fell among thieves who would have violated her but for the timely intervention of a strange boy, apparently no older than she was, clothed in black and with a sword. Meiko recognized him by his outfit as one of the folks who seemed to be in charge of Seireitei. He carried the injured girl home and placed her in the hands of her worried parents. As soon as Meiko recovered, she attempted to sneak into Seireitei and find her savior, with the intention of finding a way to repay his kindness. Running away from home a second time, she tried to sneak into Seireitei but was discovered and sent back, although a gate guard commented that her reiatsu was decent enough to make her eligible to enrol in the Academy. Realizing this to be the only way to enter Seireitei, Meiko, against her parents’ wishes, enrolled in the Shinigami Academy.

In the Academy, she was the subject of a lot of cruelty by her jealous female peers, because she always seemed to attract the attention of most of the boys, even though she didn't intentionally attempt to do so. As a result, she didn’t have too many friends. One day, she happened to chance on the boy who had rescued her a while ago. She revealed to him that she intended to repay him for saving her in Rukongai. The boy, whose name was Kiroga, would hear nothing of it at first, but after being pressured by Meiko to tell him how she would repay him, Kiroga simply stated that to get him to tell her, Meiko would have to first learn to stand up for herself against her bullies. The first time Meiko tried it, she practically hated herself after receiving the reprisal from her tormentors. Kiroga encouraged her to continue to stand up to them; if she could not meet them with head-on force, she could be more tactical. Using her sharp wit, Meiko followed Kiroga’s advice, and it wasn’t long before Meiko’s bullies learned to keep well away from her. She began to cultivate her self-confidence, and in time, transformed into quite the plucky individual. Soon Meiko and Kiroga became close.

In time, Meiko graduated with recommendations due to her natural affinity for crafting, and became a 12th Division Shinigami. None from the Sumirebana Clan attended her induction ceremony, not even her sister. Only Kiroga was present, cheering for her. Life as a Shinigami was quite alright and majorly uneventful, although her parents didn't seem to respect her any better. After all, they reasoned, since Hiko was also a Shinigami, and a good one at that, Meiko wasn't of much consequence. With Hiko being a promising Shinigami in the 1st Division, she would soon become a high-ranking member of Seireitei, and maybe the Sumirebana would be recognized by all of Soul Society. Hiko was the hope of the clan. But very few people knew how wrong that statement was. And a series of unfortunate events served to ensure that fact. One day, on a big mission to the human world, Meiko and Kiroga were deployed together, along with a group of Shinigami to track down and destroy a high-level hollow. The entire mission ended up in on hell of a failure. Three-quarters of the deployed Shinigami were massacred, and to add insult to injury, the hollow refused to kill the weakest of the Shinigami, claiming that his killing them would be a stain on his power. Of course, Kiroga was among the strong, and so the hollow didn't discriminate staining its claws with his blood. Meiko was among the spared.

Meiko was devastated. But no one seemed to care, especially not her parents. And of course, she held a special place in her heart for them. A place of strong resentment. Hiko remained aloof as ever, telling Meiko that in time she would get over her pain. Meiko never did. And the thing that haunted her most was the fact that she was too weak to save Kiroga. Driven by this knowledge, Meiko began to train herself ruthlessly, spending all her days in the 12th Division quarters, and promising herself that such a thing wouldn't happen again: she would never be too weak to save those close to her. So began a regime of insane but very secret training for Meiko. If she wasn't training her body and fighting skills, she was nose-deep in her scientific pursuits. She activated her shikai, and no one even knew, due to her secretive lifestyle. Meiko didn't step into the Sumirebana Manor for about five years, until she received another piece of news: Sumirebana Hiko had been killed on a mission in Earth. Truthfully, Meiko thought she wouldn’t care, but she was surprised to see that the news actually hurt. But Hiko’s death brought about more than just hurt to the Sumirebana Clan. The next child of the Sumirebana main family was to be the next heir-apparent. And that was Meiko. The fact that she was a Shinigami even made her ascension to the role more legit. Well, it is said that half-bread is better than none. Grudgingly, the Sumirebana Clan accepted Meiko as its next head-to-be. And that being the case, Meiko would have to be more involved in clan activities. Her parents immediately began trying to groom her in the appropriate ways of a clan head. Meiko responded with violent rebellion, cultivating her outrageous dress-sense, coquetry and sporting a tattoo and piercings, much to the dismay of her parents. Sweet, sweet revenge!

In time, during another dangerous expedition to Earth, Meiko was tasked with operating a number of 12th Division data collection devices, while a number of Shinigami would protect the devices, which had a troublesome side-effect of attracting hollows. The mission turned out to be a near-failure, as the number of hollows in the area started becoming too many for the present Shinigami to handle. That was when Meiko stepped in, released her zanpakutou and singlehandedly saved the day. All her years of training in secret brought forth their fruit that very day. Surprised at the sudden 'appearance' of such a Shinigami, and in a Division which lacked a Lieutenant, Meiko was soon promoted from a rather low seat to fill that vacancy. On attaining the prestigious title of Lieutenant, her clan had no choice but to confer on her the leadership of the clan. Not like she cared much for the title. All the same, she accepted the title, majorly to show her parents that she wasn't the write-off that they had claimed her to be a long time ago.

This is the story of little Sumirebana Meiko. Well, the story continues, and even though Meiko isn't so interested in furthering her clan’s desires by becoming a Captain, she still lives by the promise she made to her deceased loved one: that she will never be too weak to prevent the death of someone close to her again.

The full moon shed its gentle rays on the slumbering landscape, as the shadows between the tall houses and urban structures created an almost lunar monochromic effect. A lone shadow was crouched atop a building, quite visible against the light of the moon. Even from a distance, it would be easy to see that the character was female, from the long hair to the curvaceous frame. And it was also obvious to see that she was waiting. But for what?

Meiko opened her eyes, and scanned the environment for the umpteenth time. Her quarry was getting quite annoying. The young Shingami female rose with a sigh, her long, jet-black hair flowing on a gentle breeze, as she set her forest-green eyes on a dark alley from which a malevolent reiatsu seemed to seep. That was where he was. With a whispering sound, the girl vanished from her position atop the building and landed at the edge of the shadows. Immediately she saw the pair of blood-red eyes, and a set of jagged claws whipped out of the darkness, and would have spattered the tarmac with her blood. But Meiko was fast, and coupled with the fact that she was expecting the attack, simply stepped out of the way and flung a clenched fist between the glowing red eyes. There was a mild crack, and the creature in the shadows slid out of his hiding place into the open. He was a menacing creature to look at: upside-down triangle-shaped head, ursine form, and three long barbed claws on each hand, whose arms were disproportionately longer than his legs. ”Well hello, handsome,” Meiko said, as she just concluded a flash step through the darkened alley in which the hollow previously hid. ”You shouldn’t play so hard to get. Ladies like confident guys, you know that?”

”I eat stupid female. Then stupid female talk no more. HRRRWWAAAAARRRRR!!!” The hollow roared as he spread his arms apart and charged the waiting Lieutenant. ”Even such an unsexy accent,” Meiko said, unruffled as the hollow closed the space between himself and her. ”You really know how to rake the ladies in.” The hollow made a double horizontal slash that was sure to segment Meiko’s frame into three irregular chunks of bloody meat, should he succeed. But Meiko ducked under the slashes, placed her left hand palm-down on the ground and shot up her right foot into the hollow’s jaw. As the hollow reeled, she performed a twisting flip over the hollow and as her feet touched the ground, she drove a swift and powerful elbow into the hollow’s back. This blow sent the creature sprawling. ”Now for what I want,” the 12th Division Shinigami thought silently as she drew her short blade from its resting place at the back of her obi, along with a small, yellow-tinted bottle from within her robes. As the hollow rose, Meiko dashed at the creature, slashed at its leg, and drew blood. The hollow shrieked as the girl, apparently oblivious to the fact that it was still battle-worthy, knelt to collect some of its shed blood. Enraged, the hollow swatted at her, only for its claws to meet hard, grey tarmac. Meiko had used a flash step to get above the hollow, so it didn’t see the next attack coming. Meiko’s thrown kodachi landed square on top of the hollow’s head, and before it could respond, her heel, descending from an aerial axe-kick, smashed into the hilt of her zanpakutou, burying it fatally in the hollow’s cranium. With a cry, the hollow dissipated into the emptiness of the night.

”So that’s how you treat me, huh?” Tenkohaku Gyokuren complained within Meiko’s head. ”After all the loyalty I show you”. Meiko laughed. ”Don’t blow a gasket, after all, what are swords used for?” she asked her zanpakutou spirit mentally. Amid amusing threats of getting payback coming from her zanpakutou , Meiko pulled out her cellphone and dialled, a smile on her face.

”Command? This is Sumirebana Fukutaichou, calling from District 142, Kyoto, Japan, on the Human World. The mission is a success; specimen A has been acquired. Requesting extraction via Senkaimon.”

AD-0

HAN: 11
REI: 10
HAK: 11
SEI: 13
BUK: 02
HOH: 13
Points Earned: 0
Total points: 60

Sprobe

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