Post by Akio Naito on Nov 3, 2017 10:28:46 GMT -5
This wasn't taken down?
"Shut up about that 'Quincy' thing. I expected something like that to happen once the seal snapped, and I don't want any more lectures.
I'm not going to run off looking to find Tsukisawa-san ever again, and I don't care about his fictional 'Emperor' anymore."
Password 1: [Gut's Jawline Just Looks Wrong in the new Berserk Adaption]
Password 2: [Seriously, #Rekt]
Type: [Soul Specialist Version 1?] "I scorched my body trying to grasp the power everyone else seems to have, might as well enjoy it now." (Boosting Spirituals)
Affiliation: [Free Quincy] "I work for the Time Castle, it's that simple."
Rank: [No formal ranking, Mercenary One by default] "I don't need a title like that."
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Name: [Akio Naito]
Age: [21]
Birthday (Month/Day): [7/4]
Blood Type: [A+]
RP Sample (Mandatory):
[A slight Ka-thunk~! cuts though the silence as the first of a line of empty soda cans toppled over, its side caving in as a sudden impact tore it from its perch. That left eight more standing. And four teenagers in high school uniforms to knock them down. They'd been gathering to throw rocks like this about once a week, mostly to give themselves something they could do during after school chats. Of the four, Akio was the only one with purely Japanese heritage. He wasn't quite sure what country in Europe the other three student's families had come from, but he was pretty sure it was the same one for all three of them.
"Good aim~" Akio smiled in response to his Sempai's comment, he'd been modeling himself off of them for a while, trying to follow in their footsteps. He wasn't sure if they noticed, and hoped they didn't. He wasn't entirely sure he wanted them to know that. "Oh, thanks. I learned from watching you." He confessed anyway, of course. Wondering how they'd react to the truth.
"That so? Then watch this." Said The oldest of the group, positioning himself the same way he would at back at school's archery range. As a member of the archery club, he'd have recognized that no matter where he was. "Keep you eye on the can to the left." He made motions like drawing an imaginary bow, pulling an arrow from a quiver, and drawing the string back, all empty handed. From there, Akio shifted his focus to the cans as he was asked, eyes fixing onto the one in particular. It was to that off-brand soda that only one vending machine in town was ever stocked with, the kind that none of them liked, but they always bought anyway. There was a short silence, a stillness of the air, and then the can went flying, the thin aluminum tearing open upon contact with... Nothing? "How did you do that?"
"You wouldn't believe me if I told you." Replied the eldest of the group, stringing the words like obvious bait. But Akio didn't bother asking. He could always ask later on, when they knew each other better. That would be better than pressing it here tonight.
The creepy red haired boy snickered like he was in on the secret already. "Cheating in front of your kohai? That takes all the fun out of watching them try to catch up with you." They just stood there, straightening their glasses. There was nothing wrong with their alignment to start with, of course, but they did it anyway. As far as Akio could tell, it was something the older student did just to keep his hands busy, the same way he'd fuss at his scarves, or shift his weight around.
The one female in the group stayed quiet, turning a smooth river stone over in her hand as she nodded with approval. They were only there because the red haired student was. Leaning on a tree and waiting for their chance to knock a few cans over. Thinking of it, he didn't even know her name. Not that he could ask her upfront, so he'd have to remember to ask Haru later in the week.
"Well I can't let you guys show me up like that!" And so the small student took another stone, can't let himself look bad in front of those two after all...]
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Height/Weight: [5'4"/130]
Physical Description: "You don't have to say it."
[A formerly average young man, Akio was the kind of person that just seems to melt away in crowded settings, with no real differences to separate him from any other person you'd see in the background of your life. His dull black hair is cut short, but isn't styled, simply tucked behind his ears, and otherwise left laying however it happens to fall that day. His nails are unkempt, recently burned out of shape. And not even his rounded features can make his face particularly memorable. His dull brown right eye shows very little emotion, even to the most empathetic of people, and his injured left is even worse, though usually covered. And was it even worth paying attention to his downcast expression of lingering boredom, given his face could easily be replaced with any other stranger's, before his injury?
Akio has gained a small, but highly noticeable and hard to hide collection of scars and lingering wounds that have still yet to heal properly. The least severe of which is a large set of clawmark like wounds on his back. That can be attributed to having had bad encounter with a large hollow in his younger days, which devoured his original spiritual ability, leaving him unable to use any type of release until his direct connection to the Dragon Streams beneath Karakura, which was motivated by a second set of scars and, ironically, caused him a third. Following a poorly thought out attempt at saving somebody, both of the heretical Quincy's arms have been severely burned from fingertips to just past his elbows, with a particularly deep burn around his left wrist, which have necessitated a wrapping of white bandages over both hands until further notice. The final injury is represented by a just that he hasn't been roughed up to a degree that would stand out among common mortals, unless he were wandering around shirtless, for some reason.
His build can best be described as that of any young man, a frame without any excess fat or muscle, and not really lacking anything, either. His skin is pale, bleached out by years spent avoiding the light of the sun. While this does make him appear to be somewhat unhealthy, such detail only serves as a fleeting distraction from the blandness of the whole, which ultimately makes him even more difficult to describe to those who haven't encountered him in person before. He is, to put it simply, remarkably unremarkable, leading the eyes of others tend to slide off of him in favor or something with actual substance to it.
His overall appearance has a certain artificial quality to it, a sense of intent in the lack of definition, almost as if his body were intentionally designed to be so supremely forgettable. Though presumably, as a naturally occurring human, he was not. Even his voice, while noticeably flat in tone, fails to register as a true identifying mark. There is nothing unusual about his scent, but he typically has a metallic or oil-like tinge, which only fits a wannabe mechanic, regardless of how specialized he is in that field.
Trying to maintain his mundane appearance, he wears plain colored button-down dress shirts with ordinary blue jeans and black deck shoes nigh exclusively, and the grand majority of his wardrobe consists of more of that set, though some new varsity has started to creep into his otherwise bland arrangement while he tries to find something that doesn't catch on his bandages so much.
The white bangle he used to wear has scorched black throughout from its use as a focus for the vast amounts of worldly reiatsu. After being modified to accommodate the alterations of its spiritual nature, the engraved pattern was replaced a pair of interlaced snakes with a cross and pentacle for eyes, has turned a deep red color, with the original engraving preserved along the inner side. He still wears it everyday, but not as a reminder of Tsukisawa anymore.
Absorbing reiatsu from the particularly strong flowing dragon streams beneath Karakura has overwritten the scars of his first and final combat encounter beside Tsukisawa, but has left his spiritual presence altered in a lasting way His reiatsu remains faint, but is surrounded by another layer, more in line with what the average spiritually aware being has. This second reiatsu has a strong 'grain' to it, similar to the reishi that pools in spiritually active areas of the earth. A mismatched blend of Quincy, nature spirit... and something else, a fragment of whatever ability he had in high school, but lost forever upon touching a hollow for the first time.]
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Dislikes:
Himself - Having become a Quincy after absorbing reishi from the Dragon Streams underneath Karakura, Akio himself has become a bit of a hazy spot in his understanding of the spiritual world. More exactly, he dislikes the lack of understanding he has his body and soul represent, and cannot truly be comfortable with them until he finds an answer. On a deeper level, he also regrets his lack of action throughout the past, even as he lets even more opportunities pass him by everyday. "I still don't understand, my self."
Hollows - Wild animals that hurt people, that's all. Best to avoid them before he burns his arm off entirely or something. A large chunk of this hatred and fear relates to how easily Hollows could harm him, and their new refusal to ignore his presence. But a larger part is actually that they're another complication for his worldview. "I lost interest when they started hurting me."
Broken Machines - Just a sad sight, to see the 'heart' of a noble machine crushed. "If only I could heal you..."
The Sun - Too hot, and causes irritation to his poor complexion. Though he can't honestly hate the sun itself. "I'm just a night person, is all."
Cut Flowers - A plant that's been killed so people can look at them. The gesture is nice, but they don't last long enough after the original impression. He'd prefer a trinket that can withstand the passage of time, at least for as long as the connection it represents will. That said, he'd at least be polite enough to thank anybody who gave him flowers, if such an event were to occur, somehow.
'Real' Violence - Raised in the modern world, where the true forms of warfare and strife are kept out of the public eye, Akio holds all forms of non-spiritual combat to be unnecessary in his life. Why fight when other people have that as their job? His job is to sell spiritual items, and it's true that some of those might be weapons, but that's no reason to play with knives or anything like that.
Likes:
Humans - Even without spiritual senses, they can do so much. The unconquerable rulers of the mundane universe, no matter who looks down on them."It's the ordinary ones who actually matter."
Hot Tea - A rare sign of the true personality from behind Akio's day to day boredom, he prefers tea over any other form of caffeine, favoring hot black tea above all others. A small but strong strong reminder that the he's not exactly what he seemed to be at first glance.
Live Flowers - A symbol of life and a source of beauty in nature. Perfect for somebody slowly growing disillusioned with a world of machines and artificial stone.
The Cool Feeling of Metal - A calming sensation that most people don't appreciate. Metal left out in the sun is of course, exempt from any gentle rubbing. Too warm.
Craftsmanship - The quality of an object's construction means a lot to Akio, when he's going to spend a good deal of time with it. Even if most don't notice it, factory made objects are the majority nowadays, so there's something special about human effort invested into an item.
Clouds - An overcast day is a day without the sun, bearing an abundance of cool shade to bask in. What could be better?
Rain - That, that is what's better than clouds. Cool, purfying water falling from the sky, plus all the benefits of an overcast day.
'Unreal' Violence - Raised in the modern world, where supernatural battles are a cornerstone of myth, fantasy, and mass-printed manga, Akio finds them quite entertaining. Why not spectate a bit and enjoy the show? Still not a reason for him to play with lasers or anything like that.
Flaws:
Self-Taught - While Akio doesn't see this as a flaw, mainly because he doesn't even know what the alternative is, in the context of the spiritual world, it's his single biggest weakness.
Simply put, he slipped through the cracks, giving him just enough freedom to piece together basic spiritual knowledge on his own. As a result, he has an extremely different worldview than other Quincy. Working with incomplete and often incorrect knowledge of even the most simple spiritual topics, such as the cycle of souls, and surprisingly deep knowledge of obscure topics he happened across, such as the flow of earth's reiatsu through the ground, he's likely a one-off error, capable of great breakthroughs, but inept at basic skills.
Needless to say, other Quincy would likely to confused by his attempts yo explain his methods. "I just gather the spiritual power that lies within the world around me, the land and the rivers. Isn't that how it usually works?"
Unremarkable - By virtue of his supremely generic appearance, besides the lingering wounds, he can be brushed off as unimportant and generally treated as if he wasn't there. This is inconvenient in many ways, especially when standing out or being remembered would be of help. He's not what most consider attractive, either, and lacks any real identifying markings, so someone describing him may have difficulty making out the finer details.
One Track Mind - If given an open-ended task, Akio will continue working towards it long after completing whatever was originally intended. He'll work diligently, as though his mind can’t arise from purely physical processes. At least until he hits some kind of obstruction that can get his attention long enough to remind him he's already done enough. This devotion to repetitive behavior has led him to self-harming extremes in the past, as he refuses to abandon his task for far longer than is healthy. "How long was I doing this, again?"
Jumping to Conclusions - This is an extension of the fist flaw listed, but it invites deeper explanation. He tends to make first assumptions, then builds a massive theory around them in short order. Though he usually doesn't mind that much when he turns out to have been wrong... usually.
Terse - He doesn't speak much, using only as many words as he needs to make whatever statement he has to. As one might guess from this, Akio does not enjoy small talk. This is often an issue when communication would make things easier. "Sorry, I'm busy..."
Soul Burnt - Akio has lost most of his already unremarkable strength after his attempt to absorb a Dragon Stream, and has a hard reaching the level of power he would have had if he'd simply chosen to not have a release, and focused on crafting techniques for a style of his own. He describes himself as being content with what he pulled up from the deep, with no need to ask for more, but only heal enough to use it properly. Though it's impossible to be sure of what he'll think of that when or if the injuries heal completely.
Though truth be told, Akio intends to limit his future energy expenditure to a much smaller amount than he could actually use, hoping to avoid any consequences resembling when he gained those abilities. "Sorry, I just don't feel that way."
Limited Combat Experience - Akio has little actual combat experience, and what he does have doesn't account for the skillset he now has. But that isn't what this is about, his lack of combat capability comes from an overall unwillingness to fight a serious battle, combined with a severe lack of proper training compared to other spiritual individuals. "I've watched the others fight, and it's pretty clear that it's a few years too early for me."
Weapon Dependant - Akio's preferred fighting style often requires items or weapons he doesn't always have on his person. In the event he's forced to work without them, he'll often wind up with nothing but direct reiatsu abilities to work with.
Habits:
Doesn't Know When to Quit - An extension of his one track mind, Akio tends to forget what where the limits of his job fall, as well. Often performing at a higher level of effort than he actually needs to. As a result, he'll tend to exhaust himself overdoing things, not thinking to stop. "You didn't say how many to build, so I kept going until I ran out of pieces."
Avoiding The Sun - Akio feels distinctly uncomfortable in direct sunlight, and will go to... somewhat excessive lengths to avoid being caught in it for longer than he has to be. He'll even go so far as bending his path to catch extra shadows as resting points between sunlit stretches. This behavior is based out of a lingering light sensitivity from spending years indoors as a child. And even while it would be healthier in the long run to soak up a few rays, he's quite determined to keep that from happening. "It's just uncomfortable, is all."
Gardening - He takes time out of every night to care for the flowers on the apartment complex's roof. While he's technically not supposed to be doing so, the people actually responsible for doing so vanished shortly after Akio's move to the building. Abandoned and slowly fading in a tucked away area, the neglected plants have had only the young man to care for them, since. "I couldn't just leave them to die."
Forcing his Mouth Shut Mid-Yawn - As expected from someone who overexerts themselves and gets little sleep, Akio has a problem with becoming tired partway through his day. This results in that most horrible reflex, the yawn. But all is not lost should he start doing such an awful thing, because as long as he can catch his mouth opening, he'll slam it shut with such force he teeth emit an audiable clack. The fact that he'd rather force himself to commit painful jaw exercises than catch up on sleep may say quite a lot. CLACK~!
Sleeping in chairs - Akio is known to fall asleep sitting up, slumping over in whatever chair he was in at the time. This can catch others off guard if they find him in such a position. That may have something to do with his poor overall sleeping habits, however. "Why do you have that look on your face?"
Reading Dragon Streams - Akio places an unusual amount of importance on the environment's spiritual composition, constantly feeling for lines of underground reiatsu, reading the land, rather than any beings around him. Just another odd habit for one who couldn't even identify their own reiatsu if asked.
Fears:
Confined Spaces - Walls define the world around him, what's open and what's exposed. The closer the walls are, the less freedom of movement he has, and the more unease sets in. Most buildings aren't enough to worry him in the short term, but a small space like a closet or narrow hallway becomes unbearable in short order. "I need to find a dark, cold, and peaceful place, eventually."
Abandonment - After dredging up his past, he's decided that being left behind caused more problems than having his old ability eaten ever did. What kind of problems could being left behind again cause. "Leaving Like he did?"
People Staring at his Injuries - He's actually rather terrified of having to explain the scars, if he could at all. Not to mention the feeling of judgement and pity he gets. "My eye is over here."
Horses - The form of the Hollow that stole his original ability, it's hard not to recoil from anything with that vile shape. Thankfully rare in modern cities.
Goals:
Find Companionship - More of a passive tendency. The basic desire to find someone or something that can keep him in motion, and support his weak points. There's no real requirements he has in mind for that, beyond making his life exciting or somehow 'worth it'. As a vaguely defined impulse, it cannot be said Akio is actually working towards this, but rather waiting for it to happen on its own. Much like waiting for an unwound clock to come to a stop.
Understand Spiritual Matters on His Own Terms - Becoming a Quincy was not the best thing for Akio, as far as his understanding of things went. With many of his theories crumbling away in short order.
Master the Fuusuishi Arts - Throwing himself into the dusty old books he's been consulting, Akio's alternative viewpoint on spiritual matters leads him to work on the strange from of geomancy he believes is the 'purest' method for achieving spiritual strength. This is still more of a long-term goal, but nonetheless, it's going to inform the majority of his research and training when it comes to spiritual matters.
Heal - Self explanatory, the heretical Quincy wants his burns, eye, and back to heal completely. Any method is fine, so long as he can be free of his current state.
Prove the "Emperor" doesn't exist - Seemingly nothing by spite, but Akio would rather enjoy some definite proof that the "Emperor" his former Sempai once went on about never even existed in the first place. While he'll allow the possibility of a person who considers themselves an emperor, he rejects both the idea of an immortal one, and that an actual empire could exist without it becoming public knowledge.
Alignment: [Passive Neutral]
Overall Personality: "Is that a job requirement?"
[Apathetic by nature, Akio goes through life on autopilot. His casual behavior can best be described as robotic and repetitive, the true mark of somebody going through the motions, bound by routine and schedule to preform actions without any smile or complaint. This results in the appearance of someone without any drive whatsoever. That appearance is more or less the truth, as it turns out.
Unwilling to repeat the mistake he made in high-school, he avoids forging deep or lasting emotional bonds with others, favoring short, vapid conversations, leading nowhere in particular. In addition to this empty communication, he treats everyone he meets exactly the same, often acting as if all humans he doesn't know personally are interchangeable, speaking only when spoken to, and is gentle, quiet, and sensitive, at least to the limited extent he expresses anything.
He prefers a direct, practical approach to matters, keeping his social engagements one-on-one when possible and his conversations staying short and to the point. As a result, he's somewhat prone to saying too little, and doesn't make much of a conversationalist. He makes up for that by being honest and a hard worker, and is probably one of the nicer shut-ins one could meet.
Fittingly for someone with behavior bordering on the robotic. He finds rare moments of joy in being a mechanic, and equates working with machinery with playing a beautiful melody. Especially older ones, where he can see how the parts move, gears interlocking as they spin into life. This desire is deeply engraved to the point of overriding the sense of loss he drags though life. Though it would not be entirely true to say he can't set eyes on one without trying to understand its inner workings, but rather that he chooses to obsess as a distraction from other elements of the world around him. Electronics don't do that for him, though, so he tends to shy away from newer machines.
Disliking change and attention, Akio actively resists any attempt to disrupt his routine, and in the event he can't for some reason, he'll prioritize a return to his normal life far above anything else. But as much as he clings to his 'boring and colorless' life, and wishes for its continuation, he secretly longs for the excitement 'that person' once brought to his life. His self-perceived inability to do such on his own has been a constant source of missed opportunities and regret.
As he gets to know somebody, his apparent personality changes noticeably, as he adjusts his words and actions to better "fit" with them. And if a connection continues to deepen beyond that, he'll become increasingly energetic around that person, even going so far as to start suggesting courses of action of his own volition. He's also much more willing to break routine for somebody he's given this level of trust to. Oddly, he doesn't seem to notice this effect, himself. It's not entirely certain what would happen if he became aware of it.
Since his attempt to absorb a piece of the local Dragon Stream, and subsequent quincification, Akio's attitude towards the spiritual has shifted quite a bit, becoming more centered on research than practical matters. Though conversely, he has become more hostile towards the spiritual threats than his former passive acceptance, actually considering combat to be a viable method of dealing with hostile spirits where he didn't before. Treating every race with the same wariness until he can rule them safe or not, he's begun to weigh spirits with a dispassionate eye, and human ability users of all types with a cynical acceptance.
Depending on how that process works out, he either keeps acting disinterested, brushing aside any attempts at interaction, and works to lose the offending being at a casual pace, or he ends up treating them like ordinary people in short order, denying there's a difference to begin with. Even though his reasons for it are gone now, his dislike for looking directly at any spiritual beings, even while interacting with them, remains just as strong as it's always been. Keeping his head turned or tilted away, out of habit from years of deliberately ignoring non-physically embodied entities.
At work, however, while he keeps the detached, energetic tone, he stays focused on business, and explains the nature of some of the more 'exotic' antiques to customers who seem interested in them. A favorite of his to talk about are hell butterflies frozen in amber, which produces a perfect butterfly shaped hole for the non-spiritual. Though he often only knows enough about the items to sell them.
Finally, there's the matter of how he tends to treat inanimate objects as if they were capable of feeling emotions. From talking to the flowers on his apartment complex's roof, to the petting his car's hood after getting out of it, as one would do for a horse before they left. Some important distinctions are that he won't go out of his way to do this, and that he doesn't treat them like people. It could be said that his mentality and actions stem from a love for some quality these objects possess.]
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Fighting Style: "I couldn't do that before I burnt myself on a monster, and then a planet."
[The basic explanation of Akio's fighting style is that he doesn't have one, but has still somehow cobbled together a series of unrelated skills into an equivalent in a short amount of time. Though at the end of everything, it hasn't ever been put to use, and runs on unrealistic principles in several places, so it can simply be said he fails the basic test of having a style, and will not until he experiences the necessary hardships to act as a catalyst for a new one.
Knowing he's lacking compared to most opponents, he would take a more defensive role in any battle. In the old days, immediately after his ability was lost, that would have meant intercepting imagined attacks with his arms, and prioritizing running away over any actual fighting. Though it's unlikely he'd have the luxury of doing so in every battle, which was another factor that led him to avoid fighting altogether.
In his high-school days, when he still had his original ability, he had a sort of instinctive swordsmanship. A simple method, where he attacked with thrusts from the sword in his left hand, while keeping his right arm free to defend with an 'implied shield' style, deflecting blows with the forearm. Though in truth, he still has the fundamentals of this style in his memory, his lack of practice means that the more refined techniques have mostly faded away.
His archery, while kept in practice as a hobby as this time, has only ever been target shooting. Though if he were to carry a physical bow into battle somehow, he would have used his arrows to support others, aiming for the legs of an enemy to slow them for an ally, for instance.
While his preferred tactics are dependent on weapons to fight, such as bows, swords, or even simple gloves, he hasn't acquired any spiritual items to fulfill those roles just yet, and has no formal training in the spiritual arts. Though that doesn't mean he's completely without defenses, teaching himself a sort of primitive geomancy, known as Fuusuishi Arts, entirely from written accounts. And the most functional techniques of those arts can now be considered his main means of spiritual attack, which he intends to use as a finishing blow on any opponents who wear themselves out against his defenses.
Even with his recent Quincification, he still has no means of catching up with a released opponent. Though he doesn't care for anyone or anything that strong to begin with, so he's had no real reason to plan about things like that so far. This further reinforces his preference for avoiding or escaping needless combat, as many enemies are simply beyond his ability to keep up with.]
[Bow Release Overall Theme] - [Spiral Vortex]
Bow Release Properties
Class Six Property
Form - [ZwillingsSchlangen]
A strange zweihander that has been stylized to resemble a pair of snakes embracing, bodies spiraling into intricate knotwork, with tails forming the hilt and guard, and heads meeting at the tip of the blade. The snakes, one white with a blue cross for an eye, and black with a red pentacle for an eye, are in a style not typically seen in Quincy weaponry. The entire weapon is not made of spiritual steel, but another, similar material, and while it is much lighter than it looks to be, owing to the many gaps in the blade that seem to be intended to reduce weight, it remains heavier than Akio would feel comfortable relying on, even with his strength reinforced by his general release.
The design of this was not by Akio's choice, and has taken some adjustments to include into his fighting style at all, but despite that, the heretical Quincy still treats it as if it were his favored weapon, because what it represents to him is worth limiting himself to accommodate the power the was not originally his. Because any point on the blade can fire Heilig Pfeil, he's able to thread his fingers through the gaps in the blade and wields it as he would a normal, if somewhat too heavy, bow, firing from the edge in a way he has more experience with. He can often be seen resting it against the floor, just to keep the weight from getting to him.
While the ZwillingsSchlangen's design is unique, the weapon isn't, and this is best shown by how Akio uses multiples in certain release techniques. Alongside other tactics that rely on abandoning it for the sake of maneuverability, among other reasons, only to manifest a replacement immediately after. It can function as a strength-based weapon, despite that being his lowest offensive stat, this is simply a reminder that his current abilities are not his original ones.
Class Five Property
Firing - [Strudel]
Class Four Property
Power - [Wirbelsturm]
Akio's spirals are vicious whirlpools, and that is the nature of his one and only strength. On its own, this property creates high-speed whirlpools of reishi. When combined with Akio’s bow form property, it can be used to wreathe the blade in rotation and vacuum, allowing it to block or cut through normally non-solid things such as liquids, gasses, energy, and reiatsu, as such things are ripped apart by the force of the vortex and drawn into the empty center. The reishi whirlpool created by Wirbelsturm does not necessarily conform to the dimensions of the blade it surrounds, allowing this property to extend the effective reach of the sword, if need be.
While the whirlpool without bow form active is considered wide enough to act as a shield for himself and, optionally, one other individual, the extended blade is limited to one meter of additional reach for every hundred points of Akio's Reiatsu Strength. Both uses of this property are, as expected, subject to normal rules for Clashes.
Class Three Property
Form - [Schraube]
This property changes Heilig Pfeil from simple masses of energy, to a screw-like form. Each arrow consisting of a metal shaft with a ridge that travels from the pointed tip of the projectile, continuing in a helical pattern, and stopping when it meets a hexagon shaped cap that bears an engraving of a coiled snake, forming a spiral along the same direction as the ridge of the screw. These arrows can be fired in both white, with crosses, or black with pentagrams, the exact same visual contrast as seen in ZwillingsSchlangen.
Projectiles with this property automatically drill into any surface they strike, the force behind the projectile suddenly twisting it into the target as it impacts. This causes unique interactions with Akio's firing property, Strudel. Screws that are embedded in such a way are still drawn back towards Akio's bow by the firing property, as would any other arrows influenced by it, and use his reiatsu strength to determine how forcefully they drag themselves back into the bow.
Similarly, when combined with the power property, Wirbelsturm, an embedded screw can develop a whirlpool inside of itself, clashing against patterns of reiatsu flowing through whatever it has burrowed into. Because of this, an arrow fired with both Schraube and Wirbelsturm active may clash against any technique applied to the structure of the target, ending them is successful. When that target is a living soul, it is able to clash against passive effects, ongoing self-modification techniques, and most things that would be phrased as a 'buff' or 'debuff', though removing the latter by impaling the subject may not be entirely welcome.
Class Two Property
Mass- [Drehung]
Not all spirals drag everything inwards, leading towards a predetermined end-point at their center. A spiral can also continue outward indefinitely, a single, curving line that can continue adding for an unlimited distance without ever changing the overall shape. That is the principle that this property functions on. While active, this property allows Akio to split an arrow into a circle aligned along the length of his bow, which are released one by one to form a spiral, additional arrows may be added to continue the spiral firing to the extent that he can afford their cost. This obviously causes a number of his arrows to hit himself, and naturally, the more he fires, the more the wheel of arrows will hit him.
When combined with the bow form, this property behaves differently, as it allows the sword to be thrown, upon which point it begins to spin independently, firing arrows from its edge indiscriminately. Unless interfered with, the weapon will naturally land blade-end first, and likely dissolve a moment later, as the weapon property either ends or Akio is forced to make a new sword to make up for the one he just threw away. Which is still better than a guarantee of hitting himself, in the longer term, even though it still doesn't fit his preferred fighting style.
Class One Property
Form - [ZwillingsSchlangen Neu Geschmiedet]
A more streamlined, angular version of the original, this greatsword is similarly stylized to resemble a pair of snakes embracing, keeping all the same knotwork, and glows with veins of red and blue reiatsu throughout the entire weapon, most prominently on its cutting edges. While the overall design is still far removed from traditional Quincy weaponry, to the extent that the cross and pentacle have both been removed, the entire construction has become equivalent to spiritual steel, if not actually a near-duplicate of the metal, and is even lighter, rendering it much less unwieldy.
While Akio still wishes he hadn't been given a greatsword, he makes the most of his misfortune, and is able to wield this version of it without discomfort. Much like the original, any point on the blade can fire Heilig Pfeil, though unlike the original, Neu Geschmiedet can produce arrows without bring touched, allowing it a bit more flexibility in use, such as by thrusting the blade into an object, where it could be used as a turret or sorts, until either its retrieval or dissolution. Unlike the original, the complete blade is unique, so duplicates caused by techniques that require multiple copies to exist at once are of slightly lesser quality than the original, even if it takes a close look to actually notice the difference.
Additional Tools or Techniques:
Class: [8]
Technique Type: [Cinematic]
Usable By: [Human World Races]
Technique Element: [World]
Technique Description and Effects: [Hanami is often considered to be a lamppost on the path of enlightenment, meant to grant the spiritual senses that other races take for granted to the mortals of earth. An elegant and simple application of basic spiritual theory to a practical field. While most mortals may lack the spiritual power needed for perception, the earth itself contains a vast supply of that very same power. The Hanami is a method of tuning the world's soul to act as a window for those un-gifted masses, in hopes of teaching them more about the world.
The most basic concepts in the Hanami are Stance (The alignment of the self with the natural flow of spiritual energy), Breath (The drawing in and casting away of spiritual particles), and Flow (The understanding of the world's spiritual presence as currents like those of air and water.). With these, one can redirect the natural flow of spirits without tainting the image with their own power.
Upon activation, Hanami produces a five meter-wide area of glowing blue ribbons that that slowly manifest from whatever surface the user is standing on (stone balcony, pool of water, air, etc) and sway as if in a light breeze for a few moments before dissipating into glittering clouds of deep blue reiatsu. Non-spiritually aware beings can perceive spiritual beings and phenomena within this circle for it's duration, though not perfectly. Instead of seeing them as they are, those witnessing through the lense of a Hanami perceive only an outline of the spirit’s form, a simple cutout through which they behold a storm of bluebell flowers by the thousands, all burning with deep blue reiatsu.
It is said that exposure to Hanami can spread enlightenment to any creature with a soul, and there is certainly some truth to that, for those who behold it may spontaneously become spiritually aware in the nights following their glimpse of the bluebells.]
How to use technique: [The user takes a moment to read the flow of the local winds and spiritual energy, takes a relaxed yet ready stance (and pays the stamina cost), and then preforms a series of ritualized blocks or parries with their hands (or weapon), followed by a single, decisive strike that redirects the flow of spiritual energy through their surroundings.]
Technique Drawbacks (Limitations, repercussions for use, etc) [This technique has no reiatsu cost, merely requiring a spiritual atmosphere and the stamina used in altering the flow. The only requirement for this technique is an Energy sensory of at least 25.]
Made By: [An Onmyoji]
Reserved?: [No]
Technique Name: [First Fuusuishi Art: Hashira]
Class: [7]
Technique Type: [General Spiritual Technique] (Geomancy)
Usable By: [Human World Races]
Technique Element: [Varies]
Technique Description and Effects:
[The most basic of the Fuusuishi techniques, Hashira, allows the user to attack with a pillar of Reishi from below.
A certain unorthodox quincy crafted the Fuusuishi arts, which make use of ‘Dragon Streams’, underground rivers of Reishi and Reiatsu that help maintain the balance of spiritual energy, as a modern revival of certain Onmyoji techniques that predate the widespread use of ginto.
Hashira is the most basic of these spells, which simply diverts part of the flow from a Dragon Stream to attack a target from below. As the surge of Reishi comes from the environment, rather than the user, it may be difficult to recognize the attack before it goes off.
As an expression of the natural world, it takes on the properties the world around it, especially based on the realm of existence it’s used in. In the mortal world, it typically takes the form of a pointed stone spire, or a burst of high-pressure water, though other elemental natures can occur if they fit the environment. In the soul society, it typically produces a beam of energy. In Hueco Mundo, it is usually a geyser of pressurized sand. And in Hell, the attack always takes the form of a mass half-melted chain links.
At learned level, the pillar erupts from the ground with force equal to half of the user's Reiatsu Strength, at Proficient or Mastery, it uses the full amount.]
How to use technique:
[The user holds their palm to the ground, speaks the incantation, and pays the Reiatsu cost to begin diverting Reishi from within the earth, then pulls their arm upwards forcefully, a pillar of environmental Reishi bursting from below the intended target a moment later.
Once mastered, the user no longer needs to touch their palm to the ground, though they still must remain in contact with it while they speak the incantation.]
Incantation:
["Earthly serpent, flow to the mountain peak!"]
Technique Drawbacks (Limitations, repercussions for use, etc):
[In addition to a base cost of thirty units of Reiatsu, this technique has additional drawbacks; The first that the user must remain in contact with the ground while using it, and that the blast only reaches a height of one meter for each twenty five points of Reiatsu Strength the user has, leaving it unfit for use against a flying or air-walking opponent. Secondly, there's about a second of delay between the user casting the spell, and the pillar emerging, during which a surge of natural energy can be felt through the ground, which can be used to anticipate the attack.]
Made By: [Akio Naito]
Reserved?: [No] [/spoiler]-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Birthplace: [Karakura]
Current Residence: [Nonspecific Apartment Complex]
Memorable Figures:
[Haru Tsukisawa] - The archery team captain from Akio's high school, and the ‘Sempai’ that he tried to model himself after. While He thought they had some sort of mentor/student dynamic going, the older student abandoned him, immediately following the loss of his spiritual ability during an evening together. Shortly after, they started avoiding him at school, and eventually left to go find someone they called the “Emperor.”.
["The Boss"] - The owner and manager of the store where Akio works, addressed by title and not name. They seem to know a lot about spiritual matters, but refuse to explain to others, claiming that to teach someone himself would rob them of understanding they can only gain on their own. They’ve displayed a strange ability they use to keep unruly customers from becoming a problem.
[Horse Hollow] - The 'monster' that devoured Akio's original ability, leaving his soul unstable for years to come. They escaped as last the young medium had seen them, but were never seen again.
History:
[An average person, raised by average parents, Akio has never been one to stand out. He was well behaved from the start, and while never ahead of the curve in any aspect, was never behind either. As he grew, he went to school as any other child would, without actively differentiating himself from the others, and never appearing unusually high or low in class rankings. His life leading up to high-school was so uneventful as to raise the question of if he even existed before that point. As opposed to simply occurring when the correct conditions were met, like a natural phenomenon. Of course it can be said with certainty that he didn't, but his lack of drive from the beginning suggests something was already abnormal.
And even that abnormal sense of normality was flawed to begin with. As there was already something about him that could not be viewed in line with his supposed normality. It first began when he took apart his toys as a child, trying to see how they worked. He would try to reassemble them afterwards, but in most cases he couldn't restore them to their original state. As he grew, he would disassemble more and more, and then put them back together, with increasingly less damage to the subjects of his work. It could be said that this behavior was the first outward sign that he was much more motivated than he actually appeared. His interest favored more complex pieces, machinery such as analog clockwork and other mechanical devices. This behavior later led him to study mechanics online when he had the time, and he still does, always looking for a deeper understanding.
And then, in his first year of high school, he enrolled in the archery team, where they first met Haru Tsukisawa. They were a half-foreigner from a strained family, he knew that much. Akio was innately drawn to them, and clung to them without initially knowing why. In hindsight, it was probably just because of how their reiatsu felt to him, and that neither of them had another spiritually aware student to talk to.
They were the first person he ever really got to know, to bond with. Some unknown quality in the older boy's personality made them inviting enough that even somebody like him could approach them, made them easier to come out of his shell for. They were the wellspring of entertaining chaos that could both complement and counter his excessive order. Together, they would explore parts of the city that he would never have gone on his own, doing things that he'd have never done without them. For those two years, they were the classic pair of inseparable opposites. More than that really. Friendship bringing someone out of their shell is such a cliche, but it seemed to work for him.
There was the occasional scuffle involved in those adventures they made for themselves. But neither minded much once they noticed each other's spiritual abilities. Tsukisawa with a bow and healing, and Akio with his original ability, which calcified his spiritual pressure into a blade-like object that repelled any spiritual force without a definite form. It had been more than enough for fighting with the occasional fullbringer or hostile plus. Neither ever managed to understand how the other worked, for their own reasons.
It was one of their usual nights out when it happened for the first time. A clear spring day with strong winds. Akio was, as usual, ignoring the hazy, beast-like shapes that occasionally walked by. Having to pretend to be confused by his friend's sudden insistence that he leave, as they didn't seem to be ignoring the creature. He deflected the requests for his absence in favor of asking why. As far as he'd known back then, the creatures weren't harmful, just... blurry, something that he couldn't focus his vision on, or the distortion would only worsen. He'd simply never seen a Hollow as a threat before. And then, the reason hit him, in a quite less than metaphorical way, the sharp-edged hoof crashing through his ribcage with a crunching sound he'd rather forget, finally able to see the vaguely horse like beast clearly as his vision faded to black.
Regaining consciousness to find himself lying on the cold concrete, his eyes regained focus to see Haru standing over him with shining white wings, the vile horse fleeing into a dark tear in the world. His red-haired sempai dropped a single, glowing arrowhead that sank into his wound, and began a process of painful healing that overwrote his burned and bleeding torso. He blacked out again in short order. His second awakening was in a hospital bed, where he found they had blamed his injuries on a out of control car. He'd seen everything, of course, but he never spoke up to Haru about it. It was enough to know an angel that saved his life, without asking for more.
It wasn't the physical injury that had been the problem, though. The spiritual damage had been more severe. That first encounter with a hollow had been quite a unfortunate one, merely touching the creature had permanently weakened him, and all traces of his ability were gone, absorbed by the horse-like hollow. That had been his flaw all along, as it turned out, as a true human and not a fullbringer, his ability was never meant to touch hollow reiatsu, and upon doing so, it vanished forever.
Having lost his ability, he recovered soon enough, but his relationship with Tsukisawa was over. They didn't spend time after school with him for a while after, growing a bit more distant, more focused on something something they wouldn't talk about. They started disappearing more often, and for longer. And in the time they were separated, Akio trained to deal with the indistinct shapes on his own. It was the first in a long, long series of mistakes, and the best and worst thing that ever happened to him, at least in his opinion. He allowed the breakup to roll along without resistance, why burden someone with protecting you after the first close call?
Haru's favorite excuse for vanishing was their health, but when they were around, they didn't seem sickly at all. Akio has a sense they they were tangled up in something bigger, but he could never tell just what. Looking back, he probably never really will. Since neither would speak up, the rift between the two only grew, until they finally parted ways. If only they could have done that the normal way.
It was early winter in their third year, when Haru left. They had told him they'd be back soon, that they were going to look for someone they called the "Emperor". Tossing Akio a gleaming white longbow and telling him "Hold onto this for me, okay?", before it curled up around his wrist, compressing to a much smaller size as a plain band of white steel. "Oh, and by the way, you're trying to hard. I could tell from the start when you were looking away."
And so they left him. Clutching the bangle tight, he began waiting for the time to come to return it. He wore it every day since, keeping it as a reminder of the best and worst person he ever met. At first, Akio waited every day after school, then he started checking the places they had gone together. But they weren't there anymore, and eventually, he just had to give up the search. Time passed, graduation day came, and they never did come back. Rumors began to circulate, all kinds, but he refused to believe them anyway. People don't just disappear like that, they would have told him if something had happened, right? Still, after hearing people's baseless speculation, the world seemed just a bit more dull to him, out of focus. Eventually, he simply couldn't take it anymore, so he gave up on looking for the missing archery club member.
He spent two years after graduation, settling into a new routine, surviving off online shopping and a supportive family. Once more ignoring the slightly less blurred figures he could now identify as 'ghosts' and 'monsters'. He searched online to find a job where he could work with the machines he loved, and had a low enough number of customers that he didn't have to worry about them becoming overwhelming. And so he became one of the few employees at a quiet little shop called Time Castle.
Time Castle as it's called, is publicly known as an antique shop focused on analog clocks and restorations. Its fixed gaze into the past makes such a business anathema to the modern world of data and electricity. And indeed, the store is seemingly eternally on the edge of closing down, yet never actually doing so. While Akio is thankful for the stability, something is quite unnerving about how a place so fixated on entropy, with an owner who will lecture one at length on the inevitability of an ending if given the chance, can remain calmly balanced on the edge for so long, the way it does. In truth, the low income is actually supplemented by the sale of lesser spiritual items, or repairs to existing ones. That his boss insisted he learn that on the job was a bit unnerving, though he could understand the lack of explanations.
During those two years, he found that spiritual beings wanted nothing to do with him. With most encounters quickly derailing, and even hollows seemed bending over backwards to avoid him, as if merely acknowledging him was a poison they couldn't bear. It took him a while to determine why, exactly, his new accessory repelled spirits, but the strange repulsion allowed him to develop his own imagined structure for how the spiritual side of the world must work. Needless to say, that belief system was neither complete, nor correct, but still guided many of his actions.
It was only recently that he began looking into spirits again. Purely for research reasons. While he's found occasional leads on his topics of interest, there have been no results so far. Just as expected, given the lack of progress ever since he met the archer in white. Though he could never blame them for his being overlooked.
It was actually early into the searching that the arrowhead in his all but forgotten wound began to corrode, its component materials beginning to seep out into his soul. The onset of this phenomenon came alongside severe chest pains, the first set of which led him to collapse at work. The store owner explained to him as best that he could, without breaking their stance on giving out information they expected him to learn on his own, but Akio brushed them off, claiming he'd been aware of the problem for a while already.
He wasn't, of course, but there was no need to dredge up his past just yet. Better not to worry the others while he looked into this. After pouring over some of the spiritual books in the antique store, he began working on a personal system of understandings that he believes will lead him to the answers he's looking for... At least, if he doesn't get himself killed looking into something he shouldn't.
Eventually, he grew tired of being ignored by Hollows, and his own inability to replace his original ability. Until he finally attempted to gain a new ability by connecting his soul directly to a Dragon Stream, which severely damaged his body, but instead broke the lingering Quincy seal which had repelled Hollows from him since the initial incident, causing his soul to rapidly quincify... and his severe injury, in the short term.]
[Appraisal]: This mental skill represents a broad knowledge or intuition of the qualities of items. It allows one to determine the materials, craftsmanship, state of repair, and overall condition of an inanimate object. Depending on the points in this, a character would be able to weigh the quality and value of things they encounter, though it takes a longer, more detailed observation to make a completely accurate appraisal. The purpose of an item's construction can be determined by this skill, as can any flaws or weaknesses in its structure. With a 1, one is not bad at it, but could be better. Someone who knows the basics of what to look for would have a 1. A 2 means someone has actual training or experience in this skill. And a 3 would probably mark one as a professional, one who preforms appraisals for a living. A 4 implies a better understanding of an item's true value and quality than even its creator or owner.
[/ul]
"Shut up about that 'Quincy' thing. I expected something like that to happen once the seal snapped, and I don't want any more lectures.
I'm not going to run off looking to find Tsukisawa-san ever again, and I don't care about his fictional 'Emperor' anymore."
-Opening-
Password 1: [Gut's Jawline Just Looks Wrong in the new Berserk Adaption]
Password 2: [Seriously, #Rekt]
Type: [Soul Specialist Version 1?] "I scorched my body trying to grasp the power everyone else seems to have, might as well enjoy it now." (Boosting Spirituals)
Affiliation: [Free Quincy] "I work for the Time Castle, it's that simple."
Rank: [No formal ranking, Mercenary One by default] "I don't need a title like that."
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-Basic Information-
Name: [Akio Naito]
Age: [21]
Birthday (Month/Day): [7/4]
Blood Type: [A+]
RP Sample (Mandatory):
[A slight Ka-thunk~! cuts though the silence as the first of a line of empty soda cans toppled over, its side caving in as a sudden impact tore it from its perch. That left eight more standing. And four teenagers in high school uniforms to knock them down. They'd been gathering to throw rocks like this about once a week, mostly to give themselves something they could do during after school chats. Of the four, Akio was the only one with purely Japanese heritage. He wasn't quite sure what country in Europe the other three student's families had come from, but he was pretty sure it was the same one for all three of them.
"Good aim~" Akio smiled in response to his Sempai's comment, he'd been modeling himself off of them for a while, trying to follow in their footsteps. He wasn't sure if they noticed, and hoped they didn't. He wasn't entirely sure he wanted them to know that. "Oh, thanks. I learned from watching you." He confessed anyway, of course. Wondering how they'd react to the truth.
"That so? Then watch this." Said The oldest of the group, positioning himself the same way he would at back at school's archery range. As a member of the archery club, he'd have recognized that no matter where he was. "Keep you eye on the can to the left." He made motions like drawing an imaginary bow, pulling an arrow from a quiver, and drawing the string back, all empty handed. From there, Akio shifted his focus to the cans as he was asked, eyes fixing onto the one in particular. It was to that off-brand soda that only one vending machine in town was ever stocked with, the kind that none of them liked, but they always bought anyway. There was a short silence, a stillness of the air, and then the can went flying, the thin aluminum tearing open upon contact with... Nothing? "How did you do that?"
"You wouldn't believe me if I told you." Replied the eldest of the group, stringing the words like obvious bait. But Akio didn't bother asking. He could always ask later on, when they knew each other better. That would be better than pressing it here tonight.
The creepy red haired boy snickered like he was in on the secret already. "Cheating in front of your kohai? That takes all the fun out of watching them try to catch up with you." They just stood there, straightening their glasses. There was nothing wrong with their alignment to start with, of course, but they did it anyway. As far as Akio could tell, it was something the older student did just to keep his hands busy, the same way he'd fuss at his scarves, or shift his weight around.
The one female in the group stayed quiet, turning a smooth river stone over in her hand as she nodded with approval. They were only there because the red haired student was. Leaning on a tree and waiting for their chance to knock a few cans over. Thinking of it, he didn't even know her name. Not that he could ask her upfront, so he'd have to remember to ask Haru later in the week.
"Well I can't let you guys show me up like that!" And so the small student took another stone, can't let himself look bad in front of those two after all...]
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-Appearance-
Height/Weight: [5'4"/130]
Physical Description: "You don't have to say it."
[A formerly average young man, Akio was the kind of person that just seems to melt away in crowded settings, with no real differences to separate him from any other person you'd see in the background of your life. His dull black hair is cut short, but isn't styled, simply tucked behind his ears, and otherwise left laying however it happens to fall that day. His nails are unkempt, recently burned out of shape. And not even his rounded features can make his face particularly memorable. His dull brown right eye shows very little emotion, even to the most empathetic of people, and his injured left is even worse, though usually covered. And was it even worth paying attention to his downcast expression of lingering boredom, given his face could easily be replaced with any other stranger's, before his injury?
Akio has gained a small, but highly noticeable and hard to hide collection of scars and lingering wounds that have still yet to heal properly. The least severe of which is a large set of clawmark like wounds on his back. That can be attributed to having had bad encounter with a large hollow in his younger days, which devoured his original spiritual ability, leaving him unable to use any type of release until his direct connection to the Dragon Streams beneath Karakura, which was motivated by a second set of scars and, ironically, caused him a third. Following a poorly thought out attempt at saving somebody, both of the heretical Quincy's arms have been severely burned from fingertips to just past his elbows, with a particularly deep burn around his left wrist, which have necessitated a wrapping of white bandages over both hands until further notice. The final injury is represented by a just that he hasn't been roughed up to a degree that would stand out among common mortals, unless he were wandering around shirtless, for some reason.
His build can best be described as that of any young man, a frame without any excess fat or muscle, and not really lacking anything, either. His skin is pale, bleached out by years spent avoiding the light of the sun. While this does make him appear to be somewhat unhealthy, such detail only serves as a fleeting distraction from the blandness of the whole, which ultimately makes him even more difficult to describe to those who haven't encountered him in person before. He is, to put it simply, remarkably unremarkable, leading the eyes of others tend to slide off of him in favor or something with actual substance to it.
His overall appearance has a certain artificial quality to it, a sense of intent in the lack of definition, almost as if his body were intentionally designed to be so supremely forgettable. Though presumably, as a naturally occurring human, he was not. Even his voice, while noticeably flat in tone, fails to register as a true identifying mark. There is nothing unusual about his scent, but he typically has a metallic or oil-like tinge, which only fits a wannabe mechanic, regardless of how specialized he is in that field.
Trying to maintain his mundane appearance, he wears plain colored button-down dress shirts with ordinary blue jeans and black deck shoes nigh exclusively, and the grand majority of his wardrobe consists of more of that set, though some new varsity has started to creep into his otherwise bland arrangement while he tries to find something that doesn't catch on his bandages so much.
The white bangle he used to wear has scorched black throughout from its use as a focus for the vast amounts of worldly reiatsu. After being modified to accommodate the alterations of its spiritual nature, the engraved pattern was replaced a pair of interlaced snakes with a cross and pentacle for eyes, has turned a deep red color, with the original engraving preserved along the inner side. He still wears it everyday, but not as a reminder of Tsukisawa anymore.
Absorbing reiatsu from the particularly strong flowing dragon streams beneath Karakura has overwritten the scars of his first and final combat encounter beside Tsukisawa, but has left his spiritual presence altered in a lasting way His reiatsu remains faint, but is surrounded by another layer, more in line with what the average spiritually aware being has. This second reiatsu has a strong 'grain' to it, similar to the reishi that pools in spiritually active areas of the earth. A mismatched blend of Quincy, nature spirit... and something else, a fragment of whatever ability he had in high school, but lost forever upon touching a hollow for the first time.]
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-Personality-
Dislikes:
Himself - Having become a Quincy after absorbing reishi from the Dragon Streams underneath Karakura, Akio himself has become a bit of a hazy spot in his understanding of the spiritual world. More exactly, he dislikes the lack of understanding he has his body and soul represent, and cannot truly be comfortable with them until he finds an answer. On a deeper level, he also regrets his lack of action throughout the past, even as he lets even more opportunities pass him by everyday. "I still don't understand, my self."
Hollows - Wild animals that hurt people, that's all. Best to avoid them before he burns his arm off entirely or something. A large chunk of this hatred and fear relates to how easily Hollows could harm him, and their new refusal to ignore his presence. But a larger part is actually that they're another complication for his worldview. "I lost interest when they started hurting me."
Broken Machines - Just a sad sight, to see the 'heart' of a noble machine crushed. "If only I could heal you..."
The Sun - Too hot, and causes irritation to his poor complexion. Though he can't honestly hate the sun itself. "I'm just a night person, is all."
Cut Flowers - A plant that's been killed so people can look at them. The gesture is nice, but they don't last long enough after the original impression. He'd prefer a trinket that can withstand the passage of time, at least for as long as the connection it represents will. That said, he'd at least be polite enough to thank anybody who gave him flowers, if such an event were to occur, somehow.
'Real' Violence - Raised in the modern world, where the true forms of warfare and strife are kept out of the public eye, Akio holds all forms of non-spiritual combat to be unnecessary in his life. Why fight when other people have that as their job? His job is to sell spiritual items, and it's true that some of those might be weapons, but that's no reason to play with knives or anything like that.
Likes:
Humans - Even without spiritual senses, they can do so much. The unconquerable rulers of the mundane universe, no matter who looks down on them."It's the ordinary ones who actually matter."
Hot Tea - A rare sign of the true personality from behind Akio's day to day boredom, he prefers tea over any other form of caffeine, favoring hot black tea above all others. A small but strong strong reminder that the he's not exactly what he seemed to be at first glance.
Live Flowers - A symbol of life and a source of beauty in nature. Perfect for somebody slowly growing disillusioned with a world of machines and artificial stone.
The Cool Feeling of Metal - A calming sensation that most people don't appreciate. Metal left out in the sun is of course, exempt from any gentle rubbing. Too warm.
Craftsmanship - The quality of an object's construction means a lot to Akio, when he's going to spend a good deal of time with it. Even if most don't notice it, factory made objects are the majority nowadays, so there's something special about human effort invested into an item.
Clouds - An overcast day is a day without the sun, bearing an abundance of cool shade to bask in. What could be better?
Rain - That, that is what's better than clouds. Cool, purfying water falling from the sky, plus all the benefits of an overcast day.
'Unreal' Violence - Raised in the modern world, where supernatural battles are a cornerstone of myth, fantasy, and mass-printed manga, Akio finds them quite entertaining. Why not spectate a bit and enjoy the show? Still not a reason for him to play with lasers or anything like that.
Flaws:
Self-Taught - While Akio doesn't see this as a flaw, mainly because he doesn't even know what the alternative is, in the context of the spiritual world, it's his single biggest weakness.
Simply put, he slipped through the cracks, giving him just enough freedom to piece together basic spiritual knowledge on his own. As a result, he has an extremely different worldview than other Quincy. Working with incomplete and often incorrect knowledge of even the most simple spiritual topics, such as the cycle of souls, and surprisingly deep knowledge of obscure topics he happened across, such as the flow of earth's reiatsu through the ground, he's likely a one-off error, capable of great breakthroughs, but inept at basic skills.
Needless to say, other Quincy would likely to confused by his attempts yo explain his methods. "I just gather the spiritual power that lies within the world around me, the land and the rivers. Isn't that how it usually works?"
Unremarkable - By virtue of his supremely generic appearance, besides the lingering wounds, he can be brushed off as unimportant and generally treated as if he wasn't there. This is inconvenient in many ways, especially when standing out or being remembered would be of help. He's not what most consider attractive, either, and lacks any real identifying markings, so someone describing him may have difficulty making out the finer details.
One Track Mind - If given an open-ended task, Akio will continue working towards it long after completing whatever was originally intended. He'll work diligently, as though his mind can’t arise from purely physical processes. At least until he hits some kind of obstruction that can get his attention long enough to remind him he's already done enough. This devotion to repetitive behavior has led him to self-harming extremes in the past, as he refuses to abandon his task for far longer than is healthy. "How long was I doing this, again?"
Jumping to Conclusions - This is an extension of the fist flaw listed, but it invites deeper explanation. He tends to make first assumptions, then builds a massive theory around them in short order. Though he usually doesn't mind that much when he turns out to have been wrong... usually.
Terse - He doesn't speak much, using only as many words as he needs to make whatever statement he has to. As one might guess from this, Akio does not enjoy small talk. This is often an issue when communication would make things easier. "Sorry, I'm busy..."
Soul Burnt - Akio has lost most of his already unremarkable strength after his attempt to absorb a Dragon Stream, and has a hard reaching the level of power he would have had if he'd simply chosen to not have a release, and focused on crafting techniques for a style of his own. He describes himself as being content with what he pulled up from the deep, with no need to ask for more, but only heal enough to use it properly. Though it's impossible to be sure of what he'll think of that when or if the injuries heal completely.
Though truth be told, Akio intends to limit his future energy expenditure to a much smaller amount than he could actually use, hoping to avoid any consequences resembling when he gained those abilities. "Sorry, I just don't feel that way."
Limited Combat Experience - Akio has little actual combat experience, and what he does have doesn't account for the skillset he now has. But that isn't what this is about, his lack of combat capability comes from an overall unwillingness to fight a serious battle, combined with a severe lack of proper training compared to other spiritual individuals. "I've watched the others fight, and it's pretty clear that it's a few years too early for me."
Weapon Dependant - Akio's preferred fighting style often requires items or weapons he doesn't always have on his person. In the event he's forced to work without them, he'll often wind up with nothing but direct reiatsu abilities to work with.
Habits:
Doesn't Know When to Quit - An extension of his one track mind, Akio tends to forget what where the limits of his job fall, as well. Often performing at a higher level of effort than he actually needs to. As a result, he'll tend to exhaust himself overdoing things, not thinking to stop. "You didn't say how many to build, so I kept going until I ran out of pieces."
Avoiding The Sun - Akio feels distinctly uncomfortable in direct sunlight, and will go to... somewhat excessive lengths to avoid being caught in it for longer than he has to be. He'll even go so far as bending his path to catch extra shadows as resting points between sunlit stretches. This behavior is based out of a lingering light sensitivity from spending years indoors as a child. And even while it would be healthier in the long run to soak up a few rays, he's quite determined to keep that from happening. "It's just uncomfortable, is all."
Gardening - He takes time out of every night to care for the flowers on the apartment complex's roof. While he's technically not supposed to be doing so, the people actually responsible for doing so vanished shortly after Akio's move to the building. Abandoned and slowly fading in a tucked away area, the neglected plants have had only the young man to care for them, since. "I couldn't just leave them to die."
Forcing his Mouth Shut Mid-Yawn - As expected from someone who overexerts themselves and gets little sleep, Akio has a problem with becoming tired partway through his day. This results in that most horrible reflex, the yawn. But all is not lost should he start doing such an awful thing, because as long as he can catch his mouth opening, he'll slam it shut with such force he teeth emit an audiable clack. The fact that he'd rather force himself to commit painful jaw exercises than catch up on sleep may say quite a lot. CLACK~!
Sleeping in chairs - Akio is known to fall asleep sitting up, slumping over in whatever chair he was in at the time. This can catch others off guard if they find him in such a position. That may have something to do with his poor overall sleeping habits, however. "Why do you have that look on your face?"
Reading Dragon Streams - Akio places an unusual amount of importance on the environment's spiritual composition, constantly feeling for lines of underground reiatsu, reading the land, rather than any beings around him. Just another odd habit for one who couldn't even identify their own reiatsu if asked.
Fears:
Confined Spaces - Walls define the world around him, what's open and what's exposed. The closer the walls are, the less freedom of movement he has, and the more unease sets in. Most buildings aren't enough to worry him in the short term, but a small space like a closet or narrow hallway becomes unbearable in short order. "I need to find a dark, cold, and peaceful place, eventually."
Abandonment - After dredging up his past, he's decided that being left behind caused more problems than having his old ability eaten ever did. What kind of problems could being left behind again cause. "Leaving Like he did?"
People Staring at his Injuries - He's actually rather terrified of having to explain the scars, if he could at all. Not to mention the feeling of judgement and pity he gets. "My eye is over here."
Horses - The form of the Hollow that stole his original ability, it's hard not to recoil from anything with that vile shape. Thankfully rare in modern cities.
Goals:
Find Companionship - More of a passive tendency. The basic desire to find someone or something that can keep him in motion, and support his weak points. There's no real requirements he has in mind for that, beyond making his life exciting or somehow 'worth it'. As a vaguely defined impulse, it cannot be said Akio is actually working towards this, but rather waiting for it to happen on its own. Much like waiting for an unwound clock to come to a stop.
Understand Spiritual Matters on His Own Terms - Becoming a Quincy was not the best thing for Akio, as far as his understanding of things went. With many of his theories crumbling away in short order.
Master the Fuusuishi Arts - Throwing himself into the dusty old books he's been consulting, Akio's alternative viewpoint on spiritual matters leads him to work on the strange from of geomancy he believes is the 'purest' method for achieving spiritual strength. This is still more of a long-term goal, but nonetheless, it's going to inform the majority of his research and training when it comes to spiritual matters.
Heal - Self explanatory, the heretical Quincy wants his burns, eye, and back to heal completely. Any method is fine, so long as he can be free of his current state.
Prove the "Emperor" doesn't exist - Seemingly nothing by spite, but Akio would rather enjoy some definite proof that the "Emperor" his former Sempai once went on about never even existed in the first place. While he'll allow the possibility of a person who considers themselves an emperor, he rejects both the idea of an immortal one, and that an actual empire could exist without it becoming public knowledge.
Alignment: [Passive Neutral]
Overall Personality: "Is that a job requirement?"
[Apathetic by nature, Akio goes through life on autopilot. His casual behavior can best be described as robotic and repetitive, the true mark of somebody going through the motions, bound by routine and schedule to preform actions without any smile or complaint. This results in the appearance of someone without any drive whatsoever. That appearance is more or less the truth, as it turns out.
Unwilling to repeat the mistake he made in high-school, he avoids forging deep or lasting emotional bonds with others, favoring short, vapid conversations, leading nowhere in particular. In addition to this empty communication, he treats everyone he meets exactly the same, often acting as if all humans he doesn't know personally are interchangeable, speaking only when spoken to, and is gentle, quiet, and sensitive, at least to the limited extent he expresses anything.
He prefers a direct, practical approach to matters, keeping his social engagements one-on-one when possible and his conversations staying short and to the point. As a result, he's somewhat prone to saying too little, and doesn't make much of a conversationalist. He makes up for that by being honest and a hard worker, and is probably one of the nicer shut-ins one could meet.
Fittingly for someone with behavior bordering on the robotic. He finds rare moments of joy in being a mechanic, and equates working with machinery with playing a beautiful melody. Especially older ones, where he can see how the parts move, gears interlocking as they spin into life. This desire is deeply engraved to the point of overriding the sense of loss he drags though life. Though it would not be entirely true to say he can't set eyes on one without trying to understand its inner workings, but rather that he chooses to obsess as a distraction from other elements of the world around him. Electronics don't do that for him, though, so he tends to shy away from newer machines.
Disliking change and attention, Akio actively resists any attempt to disrupt his routine, and in the event he can't for some reason, he'll prioritize a return to his normal life far above anything else. But as much as he clings to his 'boring and colorless' life, and wishes for its continuation, he secretly longs for the excitement 'that person' once brought to his life. His self-perceived inability to do such on his own has been a constant source of missed opportunities and regret.
As he gets to know somebody, his apparent personality changes noticeably, as he adjusts his words and actions to better "fit" with them. And if a connection continues to deepen beyond that, he'll become increasingly energetic around that person, even going so far as to start suggesting courses of action of his own volition. He's also much more willing to break routine for somebody he's given this level of trust to. Oddly, he doesn't seem to notice this effect, himself. It's not entirely certain what would happen if he became aware of it.
Since his attempt to absorb a piece of the local Dragon Stream, and subsequent quincification, Akio's attitude towards the spiritual has shifted quite a bit, becoming more centered on research than practical matters. Though conversely, he has become more hostile towards the spiritual threats than his former passive acceptance, actually considering combat to be a viable method of dealing with hostile spirits where he didn't before. Treating every race with the same wariness until he can rule them safe or not, he's begun to weigh spirits with a dispassionate eye, and human ability users of all types with a cynical acceptance.
Depending on how that process works out, he either keeps acting disinterested, brushing aside any attempts at interaction, and works to lose the offending being at a casual pace, or he ends up treating them like ordinary people in short order, denying there's a difference to begin with. Even though his reasons for it are gone now, his dislike for looking directly at any spiritual beings, even while interacting with them, remains just as strong as it's always been. Keeping his head turned or tilted away, out of habit from years of deliberately ignoring non-physically embodied entities.
At work, however, while he keeps the detached, energetic tone, he stays focused on business, and explains the nature of some of the more 'exotic' antiques to customers who seem interested in them. A favorite of his to talk about are hell butterflies frozen in amber, which produces a perfect butterfly shaped hole for the non-spiritual. Though he often only knows enough about the items to sell them.
Finally, there's the matter of how he tends to treat inanimate objects as if they were capable of feeling emotions. From talking to the flowers on his apartment complex's roof, to the petting his car's hood after getting out of it, as one would do for a horse before they left. Some important distinctions are that he won't go out of his way to do this, and that he doesn't treat them like people. It could be said that his mentality and actions stem from a love for some quality these objects possess.]
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-Powers-
Fighting Style: "I couldn't do that before I burnt myself on a monster, and then a planet."
[The basic explanation of Akio's fighting style is that he doesn't have one, but has still somehow cobbled together a series of unrelated skills into an equivalent in a short amount of time. Though at the end of everything, it hasn't ever been put to use, and runs on unrealistic principles in several places, so it can simply be said he fails the basic test of having a style, and will not until he experiences the necessary hardships to act as a catalyst for a new one.
Knowing he's lacking compared to most opponents, he would take a more defensive role in any battle. In the old days, immediately after his ability was lost, that would have meant intercepting imagined attacks with his arms, and prioritizing running away over any actual fighting. Though it's unlikely he'd have the luxury of doing so in every battle, which was another factor that led him to avoid fighting altogether.
In his high-school days, when he still had his original ability, he had a sort of instinctive swordsmanship. A simple method, where he attacked with thrusts from the sword in his left hand, while keeping his right arm free to defend with an 'implied shield' style, deflecting blows with the forearm. Though in truth, he still has the fundamentals of this style in his memory, his lack of practice means that the more refined techniques have mostly faded away.
His archery, while kept in practice as a hobby as this time, has only ever been target shooting. Though if he were to carry a physical bow into battle somehow, he would have used his arrows to support others, aiming for the legs of an enemy to slow them for an ally, for instance.
While his preferred tactics are dependent on weapons to fight, such as bows, swords, or even simple gloves, he hasn't acquired any spiritual items to fulfill those roles just yet, and has no formal training in the spiritual arts. Though that doesn't mean he's completely without defenses, teaching himself a sort of primitive geomancy, known as Fuusuishi Arts, entirely from written accounts. And the most functional techniques of those arts can now be considered his main means of spiritual attack, which he intends to use as a finishing blow on any opponents who wear themselves out against his defenses.
Even with his recent Quincification, he still has no means of catching up with a released opponent. Though he doesn't care for anyone or anything that strong to begin with, so he's had no real reason to plan about things like that so far. This further reinforces his preference for avoiding or escaping needless combat, as many enemies are simply beyond his ability to keep up with.]
[Bow Release Overall Theme] - [Spiral Vortex]
Bow Release Properties
Class Six Property
Form - [ZwillingsSchlangen]
A strange zweihander that has been stylized to resemble a pair of snakes embracing, bodies spiraling into intricate knotwork, with tails forming the hilt and guard, and heads meeting at the tip of the blade. The snakes, one white with a blue cross for an eye, and black with a red pentacle for an eye, are in a style not typically seen in Quincy weaponry. The entire weapon is not made of spiritual steel, but another, similar material, and while it is much lighter than it looks to be, owing to the many gaps in the blade that seem to be intended to reduce weight, it remains heavier than Akio would feel comfortable relying on, even with his strength reinforced by his general release.
The design of this was not by Akio's choice, and has taken some adjustments to include into his fighting style at all, but despite that, the heretical Quincy still treats it as if it were his favored weapon, because what it represents to him is worth limiting himself to accommodate the power the was not originally his. Because any point on the blade can fire Heilig Pfeil, he's able to thread his fingers through the gaps in the blade and wields it as he would a normal, if somewhat too heavy, bow, firing from the edge in a way he has more experience with. He can often be seen resting it against the floor, just to keep the weight from getting to him.
While the ZwillingsSchlangen's design is unique, the weapon isn't, and this is best shown by how Akio uses multiples in certain release techniques. Alongside other tactics that rely on abandoning it for the sake of maneuverability, among other reasons, only to manifest a replacement immediately after. It can function as a strength-based weapon, despite that being his lowest offensive stat, this is simply a reminder that his current abilities are not his original ones.
Class Five Property
Firing - [Strudel]
A whirlpool is a spiral of force, and everything in it is either dragged towards its center, or shoved away entirely. In Akio's case, it's a bit of both. While this property is active, arrows are fired in curved arcs of various intensities, from a shot with a subtle lean to one side, to a tight orbit that will circle him several times without ever escaping arm's reach. The true use of this property is the inward vortex, which draws arrows that miss back towards his bow, automatically following the whirlpool's spiral back to the weapon he fired them from, where the gathered spirit particles disperse back into the air. Because of the return on missed shots, half the reiatsu cost of any arrows not intercepted before they can be retrieved in this way is refunded at the end of the post in which such retrieval occurs.
Class Four Property
Power - [Wirbelsturm]
Akio's spirals are vicious whirlpools, and that is the nature of his one and only strength. On its own, this property creates high-speed whirlpools of reishi. When combined with Akio’s bow form property, it can be used to wreathe the blade in rotation and vacuum, allowing it to block or cut through normally non-solid things such as liquids, gasses, energy, and reiatsu, as such things are ripped apart by the force of the vortex and drawn into the empty center. The reishi whirlpool created by Wirbelsturm does not necessarily conform to the dimensions of the blade it surrounds, allowing this property to extend the effective reach of the sword, if need be.
While the whirlpool without bow form active is considered wide enough to act as a shield for himself and, optionally, one other individual, the extended blade is limited to one meter of additional reach for every hundred points of Akio's Reiatsu Strength. Both uses of this property are, as expected, subject to normal rules for Clashes.
Class Three Property
Form - [Schraube]
This property changes Heilig Pfeil from simple masses of energy, to a screw-like form. Each arrow consisting of a metal shaft with a ridge that travels from the pointed tip of the projectile, continuing in a helical pattern, and stopping when it meets a hexagon shaped cap that bears an engraving of a coiled snake, forming a spiral along the same direction as the ridge of the screw. These arrows can be fired in both white, with crosses, or black with pentagrams, the exact same visual contrast as seen in ZwillingsSchlangen.
Projectiles with this property automatically drill into any surface they strike, the force behind the projectile suddenly twisting it into the target as it impacts. This causes unique interactions with Akio's firing property, Strudel. Screws that are embedded in such a way are still drawn back towards Akio's bow by the firing property, as would any other arrows influenced by it, and use his reiatsu strength to determine how forcefully they drag themselves back into the bow.
Similarly, when combined with the power property, Wirbelsturm, an embedded screw can develop a whirlpool inside of itself, clashing against patterns of reiatsu flowing through whatever it has burrowed into. Because of this, an arrow fired with both Schraube and Wirbelsturm active may clash against any technique applied to the structure of the target, ending them is successful. When that target is a living soul, it is able to clash against passive effects, ongoing self-modification techniques, and most things that would be phrased as a 'buff' or 'debuff', though removing the latter by impaling the subject may not be entirely welcome.
Class Two Property
Mass- [Drehung]
Not all spirals drag everything inwards, leading towards a predetermined end-point at their center. A spiral can also continue outward indefinitely, a single, curving line that can continue adding for an unlimited distance without ever changing the overall shape. That is the principle that this property functions on. While active, this property allows Akio to split an arrow into a circle aligned along the length of his bow, which are released one by one to form a spiral, additional arrows may be added to continue the spiral firing to the extent that he can afford their cost. This obviously causes a number of his arrows to hit himself, and naturally, the more he fires, the more the wheel of arrows will hit him.
When combined with the bow form, this property behaves differently, as it allows the sword to be thrown, upon which point it begins to spin independently, firing arrows from its edge indiscriminately. Unless interfered with, the weapon will naturally land blade-end first, and likely dissolve a moment later, as the weapon property either ends or Akio is forced to make a new sword to make up for the one he just threw away. Which is still better than a guarantee of hitting himself, in the longer term, even though it still doesn't fit his preferred fighting style.
Class One Property
Form - [ZwillingsSchlangen Neu Geschmiedet]
A more streamlined, angular version of the original, this greatsword is similarly stylized to resemble a pair of snakes embracing, keeping all the same knotwork, and glows with veins of red and blue reiatsu throughout the entire weapon, most prominently on its cutting edges. While the overall design is still far removed from traditional Quincy weaponry, to the extent that the cross and pentacle have both been removed, the entire construction has become equivalent to spiritual steel, if not actually a near-duplicate of the metal, and is even lighter, rendering it much less unwieldy.
While Akio still wishes he hadn't been given a greatsword, he makes the most of his misfortune, and is able to wield this version of it without discomfort. Much like the original, any point on the blade can fire Heilig Pfeil, though unlike the original, Neu Geschmiedet can produce arrows without bring touched, allowing it a bit more flexibility in use, such as by thrusting the blade into an object, where it could be used as a turret or sorts, until either its retrieval or dissolution. Unlike the original, the complete blade is unique, so duplicates caused by techniques that require multiple copies to exist at once are of slightly lesser quality than the original, even if it takes a close look to actually notice the difference.
Additional Tools or Techniques:
Class: [8]
Technique Type: [Cinematic]
Usable By: [Human World Races]
Technique Element: [World]
Technique Description and Effects: [Hanami is often considered to be a lamppost on the path of enlightenment, meant to grant the spiritual senses that other races take for granted to the mortals of earth. An elegant and simple application of basic spiritual theory to a practical field. While most mortals may lack the spiritual power needed for perception, the earth itself contains a vast supply of that very same power. The Hanami is a method of tuning the world's soul to act as a window for those un-gifted masses, in hopes of teaching them more about the world.
The most basic concepts in the Hanami are Stance (The alignment of the self with the natural flow of spiritual energy), Breath (The drawing in and casting away of spiritual particles), and Flow (The understanding of the world's spiritual presence as currents like those of air and water.). With these, one can redirect the natural flow of spirits without tainting the image with their own power.
Upon activation, Hanami produces a five meter-wide area of glowing blue ribbons that that slowly manifest from whatever surface the user is standing on (stone balcony, pool of water, air, etc) and sway as if in a light breeze for a few moments before dissipating into glittering clouds of deep blue reiatsu. Non-spiritually aware beings can perceive spiritual beings and phenomena within this circle for it's duration, though not perfectly. Instead of seeing them as they are, those witnessing through the lense of a Hanami perceive only an outline of the spirit’s form, a simple cutout through which they behold a storm of bluebell flowers by the thousands, all burning with deep blue reiatsu.
It is said that exposure to Hanami can spread enlightenment to any creature with a soul, and there is certainly some truth to that, for those who behold it may spontaneously become spiritually aware in the nights following their glimpse of the bluebells.]
How to use technique: [The user takes a moment to read the flow of the local winds and spiritual energy, takes a relaxed yet ready stance (and pays the stamina cost), and then preforms a series of ritualized blocks or parries with their hands (or weapon), followed by a single, decisive strike that redirects the flow of spiritual energy through their surroundings.]
Technique Drawbacks (Limitations, repercussions for use, etc) [This technique has no reiatsu cost, merely requiring a spiritual atmosphere and the stamina used in altering the flow. The only requirement for this technique is an Energy sensory of at least 25.]
Made By: [An Onmyoji]
Reserved?: [No]
Technique Name: [First Fuusuishi Art: Hashira]
Class: [7]
Technique Type: [General Spiritual Technique] (Geomancy)
Usable By: [Human World Races]
Technique Element: [Varies]
Technique Description and Effects:
[The most basic of the Fuusuishi techniques, Hashira, allows the user to attack with a pillar of Reishi from below.
A certain unorthodox quincy crafted the Fuusuishi arts, which make use of ‘Dragon Streams’, underground rivers of Reishi and Reiatsu that help maintain the balance of spiritual energy, as a modern revival of certain Onmyoji techniques that predate the widespread use of ginto.
Hashira is the most basic of these spells, which simply diverts part of the flow from a Dragon Stream to attack a target from below. As the surge of Reishi comes from the environment, rather than the user, it may be difficult to recognize the attack before it goes off.
As an expression of the natural world, it takes on the properties the world around it, especially based on the realm of existence it’s used in. In the mortal world, it typically takes the form of a pointed stone spire, or a burst of high-pressure water, though other elemental natures can occur if they fit the environment. In the soul society, it typically produces a beam of energy. In Hueco Mundo, it is usually a geyser of pressurized sand. And in Hell, the attack always takes the form of a mass half-melted chain links.
At learned level, the pillar erupts from the ground with force equal to half of the user's Reiatsu Strength, at Proficient or Mastery, it uses the full amount.]
How to use technique:
[The user holds their palm to the ground, speaks the incantation, and pays the Reiatsu cost to begin diverting Reishi from within the earth, then pulls their arm upwards forcefully, a pillar of environmental Reishi bursting from below the intended target a moment later.
Once mastered, the user no longer needs to touch their palm to the ground, though they still must remain in contact with it while they speak the incantation.]
Incantation:
["Earthly serpent, flow to the mountain peak!"]
Technique Drawbacks (Limitations, repercussions for use, etc):
[In addition to a base cost of thirty units of Reiatsu, this technique has additional drawbacks; The first that the user must remain in contact with the ground while using it, and that the blast only reaches a height of one meter for each twenty five points of Reiatsu Strength the user has, leaving it unfit for use against a flying or air-walking opponent. Secondly, there's about a second of delay between the user casting the spell, and the pillar emerging, during which a surge of natural energy can be felt through the ground, which can be used to anticipate the attack.]
Made By: [Akio Naito]
Reserved?: [No] [/spoiler]-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-History-
Birthplace: [Karakura]
Current Residence: [Nonspecific Apartment Complex]
Memorable Figures:
[Haru Tsukisawa] - The archery team captain from Akio's high school, and the ‘Sempai’ that he tried to model himself after. While He thought they had some sort of mentor/student dynamic going, the older student abandoned him, immediately following the loss of his spiritual ability during an evening together. Shortly after, they started avoiding him at school, and eventually left to go find someone they called the “Emperor.”.
["The Boss"] - The owner and manager of the store where Akio works, addressed by title and not name. They seem to know a lot about spiritual matters, but refuse to explain to others, claiming that to teach someone himself would rob them of understanding they can only gain on their own. They’ve displayed a strange ability they use to keep unruly customers from becoming a problem.
[Horse Hollow] - The 'monster' that devoured Akio's original ability, leaving his soul unstable for years to come. They escaped as last the young medium had seen them, but were never seen again.
History:
[An average person, raised by average parents, Akio has never been one to stand out. He was well behaved from the start, and while never ahead of the curve in any aspect, was never behind either. As he grew, he went to school as any other child would, without actively differentiating himself from the others, and never appearing unusually high or low in class rankings. His life leading up to high-school was so uneventful as to raise the question of if he even existed before that point. As opposed to simply occurring when the correct conditions were met, like a natural phenomenon. Of course it can be said with certainty that he didn't, but his lack of drive from the beginning suggests something was already abnormal.
And even that abnormal sense of normality was flawed to begin with. As there was already something about him that could not be viewed in line with his supposed normality. It first began when he took apart his toys as a child, trying to see how they worked. He would try to reassemble them afterwards, but in most cases he couldn't restore them to their original state. As he grew, he would disassemble more and more, and then put them back together, with increasingly less damage to the subjects of his work. It could be said that this behavior was the first outward sign that he was much more motivated than he actually appeared. His interest favored more complex pieces, machinery such as analog clockwork and other mechanical devices. This behavior later led him to study mechanics online when he had the time, and he still does, always looking for a deeper understanding.
And then, in his first year of high school, he enrolled in the archery team, where they first met Haru Tsukisawa. They were a half-foreigner from a strained family, he knew that much. Akio was innately drawn to them, and clung to them without initially knowing why. In hindsight, it was probably just because of how their reiatsu felt to him, and that neither of them had another spiritually aware student to talk to.
They were the first person he ever really got to know, to bond with. Some unknown quality in the older boy's personality made them inviting enough that even somebody like him could approach them, made them easier to come out of his shell for. They were the wellspring of entertaining chaos that could both complement and counter his excessive order. Together, they would explore parts of the city that he would never have gone on his own, doing things that he'd have never done without them. For those two years, they were the classic pair of inseparable opposites. More than that really. Friendship bringing someone out of their shell is such a cliche, but it seemed to work for him.
There was the occasional scuffle involved in those adventures they made for themselves. But neither minded much once they noticed each other's spiritual abilities. Tsukisawa with a bow and healing, and Akio with his original ability, which calcified his spiritual pressure into a blade-like object that repelled any spiritual force without a definite form. It had been more than enough for fighting with the occasional fullbringer or hostile plus. Neither ever managed to understand how the other worked, for their own reasons.
It was one of their usual nights out when it happened for the first time. A clear spring day with strong winds. Akio was, as usual, ignoring the hazy, beast-like shapes that occasionally walked by. Having to pretend to be confused by his friend's sudden insistence that he leave, as they didn't seem to be ignoring the creature. He deflected the requests for his absence in favor of asking why. As far as he'd known back then, the creatures weren't harmful, just... blurry, something that he couldn't focus his vision on, or the distortion would only worsen. He'd simply never seen a Hollow as a threat before. And then, the reason hit him, in a quite less than metaphorical way, the sharp-edged hoof crashing through his ribcage with a crunching sound he'd rather forget, finally able to see the vaguely horse like beast clearly as his vision faded to black.
Regaining consciousness to find himself lying on the cold concrete, his eyes regained focus to see Haru standing over him with shining white wings, the vile horse fleeing into a dark tear in the world. His red-haired sempai dropped a single, glowing arrowhead that sank into his wound, and began a process of painful healing that overwrote his burned and bleeding torso. He blacked out again in short order. His second awakening was in a hospital bed, where he found they had blamed his injuries on a out of control car. He'd seen everything, of course, but he never spoke up to Haru about it. It was enough to know an angel that saved his life, without asking for more.
It wasn't the physical injury that had been the problem, though. The spiritual damage had been more severe. That first encounter with a hollow had been quite a unfortunate one, merely touching the creature had permanently weakened him, and all traces of his ability were gone, absorbed by the horse-like hollow. That had been his flaw all along, as it turned out, as a true human and not a fullbringer, his ability was never meant to touch hollow reiatsu, and upon doing so, it vanished forever.
Having lost his ability, he recovered soon enough, but his relationship with Tsukisawa was over. They didn't spend time after school with him for a while after, growing a bit more distant, more focused on something something they wouldn't talk about. They started disappearing more often, and for longer. And in the time they were separated, Akio trained to deal with the indistinct shapes on his own. It was the first in a long, long series of mistakes, and the best and worst thing that ever happened to him, at least in his opinion. He allowed the breakup to roll along without resistance, why burden someone with protecting you after the first close call?
Haru's favorite excuse for vanishing was their health, but when they were around, they didn't seem sickly at all. Akio has a sense they they were tangled up in something bigger, but he could never tell just what. Looking back, he probably never really will. Since neither would speak up, the rift between the two only grew, until they finally parted ways. If only they could have done that the normal way.
It was early winter in their third year, when Haru left. They had told him they'd be back soon, that they were going to look for someone they called the "Emperor". Tossing Akio a gleaming white longbow and telling him "Hold onto this for me, okay?", before it curled up around his wrist, compressing to a much smaller size as a plain band of white steel. "Oh, and by the way, you're trying to hard. I could tell from the start when you were looking away."
And so they left him. Clutching the bangle tight, he began waiting for the time to come to return it. He wore it every day since, keeping it as a reminder of the best and worst person he ever met. At first, Akio waited every day after school, then he started checking the places they had gone together. But they weren't there anymore, and eventually, he just had to give up the search. Time passed, graduation day came, and they never did come back. Rumors began to circulate, all kinds, but he refused to believe them anyway. People don't just disappear like that, they would have told him if something had happened, right? Still, after hearing people's baseless speculation, the world seemed just a bit more dull to him, out of focus. Eventually, he simply couldn't take it anymore, so he gave up on looking for the missing archery club member.
He spent two years after graduation, settling into a new routine, surviving off online shopping and a supportive family. Once more ignoring the slightly less blurred figures he could now identify as 'ghosts' and 'monsters'. He searched online to find a job where he could work with the machines he loved, and had a low enough number of customers that he didn't have to worry about them becoming overwhelming. And so he became one of the few employees at a quiet little shop called Time Castle.
Time Castle as it's called, is publicly known as an antique shop focused on analog clocks and restorations. Its fixed gaze into the past makes such a business anathema to the modern world of data and electricity. And indeed, the store is seemingly eternally on the edge of closing down, yet never actually doing so. While Akio is thankful for the stability, something is quite unnerving about how a place so fixated on entropy, with an owner who will lecture one at length on the inevitability of an ending if given the chance, can remain calmly balanced on the edge for so long, the way it does. In truth, the low income is actually supplemented by the sale of lesser spiritual items, or repairs to existing ones. That his boss insisted he learn that on the job was a bit unnerving, though he could understand the lack of explanations.
During those two years, he found that spiritual beings wanted nothing to do with him. With most encounters quickly derailing, and even hollows seemed bending over backwards to avoid him, as if merely acknowledging him was a poison they couldn't bear. It took him a while to determine why, exactly, his new accessory repelled spirits, but the strange repulsion allowed him to develop his own imagined structure for how the spiritual side of the world must work. Needless to say, that belief system was neither complete, nor correct, but still guided many of his actions.
It was only recently that he began looking into spirits again. Purely for research reasons. While he's found occasional leads on his topics of interest, there have been no results so far. Just as expected, given the lack of progress ever since he met the archer in white. Though he could never blame them for his being overlooked.
It was actually early into the searching that the arrowhead in his all but forgotten wound began to corrode, its component materials beginning to seep out into his soul. The onset of this phenomenon came alongside severe chest pains, the first set of which led him to collapse at work. The store owner explained to him as best that he could, without breaking their stance on giving out information they expected him to learn on his own, but Akio brushed them off, claiming he'd been aware of the problem for a while already.
He wasn't, of course, but there was no need to dredge up his past just yet. Better not to worry the others while he looked into this. After pouring over some of the spiritual books in the antique store, he began working on a personal system of understandings that he believes will lead him to the answers he's looking for... At least, if he doesn't get himself killed looking into something he shouldn't.
Eventually, he grew tired of being ignored by Hollows, and his own inability to replace his original ability. Until he finally attempted to gain a new ability by connecting his soul directly to a Dragon Stream, which severely damaged his body, but instead broke the lingering Quincy seal which had repelled Hollows from him since the initial incident, causing his soul to rapidly quincify... and his severe injury, in the short term.]
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-Stats-
Strength - 60 SP x 50% = [30]
Speed - 60 SP x 50% = [30]
Spiritual Pressure - 25 SP = [25]
Reiatsu Strength - 25 SP = [25]
Light Aura - 50 SP = [50]
Dark Aura - 50 SP = [50]
Instinct - 50 SP x 50% = [25]
Senses - 60 SP x 50% = [30]
Energy sensory - 0 SP x 50% = [0]
Healing Expertise - 0 SP x 50% = [0]
Total SP - [280]
-Abilities-
[Calm Mind] {1}
[Focused Eye] {1}
[Crafting] {1}
[Memory] {1}
[Learning] {1}
Weapon: [Bow] {1}
[Imitation] {1}
[Stealth] {1}
(Akio doesn't actually acknowledge this, but rather has an innate tendency to be below notice when idle)
[Appraisal] {1}
(A devoted employee of Time Castle, Akio can weigh an object's approximate value and status easily enough, if given time)
[Analyzing] {1}
-Stats-
Strength - 60 SP x 50% = [30]
Speed - 60 SP x 50% = [30]
Spiritual Pressure - 25 SP = [25]
Reiatsu Strength - 25 SP = [25]
Light Aura - 50 SP = [50]
Dark Aura - 50 SP = [50]
Instinct - 50 SP x 50% = [25]
Senses - 60 SP x 50% = [30]
Energy sensory - 0 SP x 50% = [0]
Healing Expertise - 0 SP x 50% = [0]
Total SP - [280]
-Abilities-
[Calm Mind] {1}
[Focused Eye] {1}
[Crafting] {1}
[Memory] {1}
[Learning] {1}
Weapon: [Bow] {1}
[Imitation] {1}
[Stealth] {1}
(Akio doesn't actually acknowledge this, but rather has an innate tendency to be below notice when idle)
[Appraisal] {1}
(A devoted employee of Time Castle, Akio can weigh an object's approximate value and status easily enough, if given time)
[Analyzing] {1}
[Appraisal]: This mental skill represents a broad knowledge or intuition of the qualities of items. It allows one to determine the materials, craftsmanship, state of repair, and overall condition of an inanimate object. Depending on the points in this, a character would be able to weigh the quality and value of things they encounter, though it takes a longer, more detailed observation to make a completely accurate appraisal. The purpose of an item's construction can be determined by this skill, as can any flaws or weaknesses in its structure. With a 1, one is not bad at it, but could be better. Someone who knows the basics of what to look for would have a 1. A 2 means someone has actual training or experience in this skill. And a 3 would probably mark one as a professional, one who preforms appraisals for a living. A 4 implies a better understanding of an item's true value and quality than even its creator or owner.
[/ul]
