OOC: Application for Balance

[achillea]

	Kenpachi Zaraki: Just so you know, there ain't a damn thing your little brain can come up with that I won't be able to slice through.
	APP HMD Barbarian Caitie

Player Name: Caitie
Age: 27
Contact: agentmaine
Timezone: EST (UTC -5:00)
Other character currently in game: Ogata Hyakunosuke

Character name: Kenpachi Zaraki
Age: Unknown, likely several hundred years old, with the appearance of an adult man.
Canon: Bleach
Canon point: Post-Series
History: Wiki link

Three key adjectives: Thrill-seeking, Straightforward, Self-assured

Influential Events:
- A nameless child is born in the lawless and violent Zaraki district of Soul Society, having to fight every day simply to stay alive. As a youth, he encounters Yachiru Unohana, the First Kenpachi and Captain of Squad 11 of the 13 Court Guard Squads. For the first time, he finds someone who’s his equal in battle when the two cross blades. Though victorious, Unohana remarks that she has finally found someone who might be worthy of inheriting her title “Kenpachi.” While the child has fought to survive all this time, it’s here where he truly finds the joy and thirst for battle that follows him throughout his life.

- As a testament to how Unohana left a mark on him, when Kenpachi (though he’s not yet gotten that name) finds a baby in the midst of the blood and corpses that he lives, a baby who reaches out to him, not even afraid of his sword, he adopts her and names her Yachiru, after “the only person I ever respected.” Despite his harsh living conditions, Kenpachi took Yachiru with him everywhere, and made her his second in command when he officially became Kenpachi Zaraki, Captain of Squad 11. Kenpachi and Yachiru are nigh inseparable, with Yachiru often riding around on Kenpachi’s back. When Yachiru goes missing, Kenpachi sends his entire squad to look for her, and only didn’t also search himself because he was ordered not to. While Kenpachi is overall a very rough man, prone to jumping to violence, it's not out of any real malevolence in his heart, and Yachiru is emblematic of that. Despite living in a place that couldn't be harder to survive in, he choose to take on the responsibility of caring for a child. Kenpachi fights because he enjoys fighting, not because he has uncontrollable rage. In fact, in battle he's usually smiling and laughing, because it's fun for him. Kenpachi's drive through life is to simply climb ever higher by becoming stronger and stronger. He seeks this not only for himself, but for those that follow him, encouraging Ikkaku, who is now his lieutenant, to "become strong enough to kill me" upon beating him in a fight. He stands as both an example and an obstacle to eventually be cut down and replaced, as is the fate of everyone bearing the name "Kenpachi," and he embraces that entirely. In a very visceral, violent way, it's a very paternal instinct, and you see that reflected in how, more than any other squad, Squad 11 both adores and is terrified of their Captain.

- When Ichigo & Friends invade Soul Society, Kenpachi specifically hunts Ichigo down because he wants to fight “the strongest one.” It takes him a while because neither he nor Yachiru have any sense of direction (though he claims it’s only Yachiru, and it’s her fault for giving him poor directions.) While he initially overwhelms Ichigo, his eventual loss is predicated on Ichigo becoming able to talk to and fight together with his sword Zangetsu, drawing out its real power. Kenpachi, having gotten as far as he has on pure brute force, was never properly trained, and fights without knowing his swords name. After beating defeated in such a way, he regrets that even though he personally knew how painful it was to not have a name, he never tried to learn the name of his sword, and resolves to try and do so, even though it’s long overdue.

- In an effort to force Kenpachi to draw out his latent abilities, he’s put in a death match against Unohana, now captain of Squad 4. She reveals that he’s always been holding back subconsciously, to prolong fights, because it isn’t fun for him if they end quickly. Kenpachi is forced to find the resolve to kill Unohana despite how he looked up to her, because losing meant death and death means he doesn’t get to fight any more. Essentially, for Kenpachi, the only way to know you're really alive is to stand up and fight to prove it. Insurmountable foes are just challenges to be accepted, and he enjoys this above all else. Simply surviving his childhood was a challenge he overcame, and he hasn't stopped since then. Upon his victory over Unohana, he is finally able to speak with his sword and learns its name, Nozarashi. Later, it is strongly implied that Yachiru was in fact the manifested spirit of Nozarashi, and thus she disappears following the release of the sword.


Link to Samples: TDM with Lorem; TDM with Chiron;

Chosen path: Barbarian
3 Abilities:
- (CANON) Nozarashi: all soul reapers wield a sword that is the manifestation of their spiritual energy and soul, called a zanpakuto. Kenpachi’s manifests as a long, chipped blade, which he wields one-handed. By invoking its release command, “Drink, Nozarashi,” the sword transforms to its Shikai state, a truly comically large, cleaver shaped blade. Nozarashi does not seem to have any special properties besides its size and abnormal cutting ability. (even as a weathered, chipped sword, it’s able to cut through a building.) The strength and size of the sword is a direct result of Kenpachi’s overwhelming amount of spiritual energy. Zanpakuto have names due to the fact that they are conscious entities, and a soul reaper has some ability to converse with them or even physically manifest them, the latter being a prerequistite for achieving Bankai.
Kenpachi does have bankai, having unknowningly manifested his sword's spirit as Yachiru for hundreds of years, but;
1. I feel like it would count as a second ability.
2. It’s a level of power and risk that I can’t imagine ever needing in game.
SO I'm just going to forgo it.

- Indomitable Might
- Fast Movement
- Rage (AC Gain): Kenpachi’s Rage has the unique aesthetic effect of turning him into a red-skinned demon with horns.
- Aura- Tundra (AC Gain)
- Danger Sense
- Feral Instinct
- Spirit Shield
- Reckless Protection
- Aspect of the Beast
- Intimidation

Why this path?: Rather than a swordsman, Kenpachi is really just a man swinging around a sword. What I mean is, he doesn't have any actual skill or training in kendo, but makes up for it by simply being massively strong and hard to kill. It’s not that he knows how to dodge or block, it’s just that you can cut him ten times and he won’t even seem to slow down. That’s what it means to be The Kenpachi™.

Reapp info: Never one to be especially focused on any sort of Mission, Kenpachi elected to stay behind in Lyrabar. He found he liked the rough and tumble nature of the city quite a bit, and felt some amount of familiarity in the pirates that made it their home. The wide expanse of the ocean was nothing he had experienced before, and he thought he rather liked that as well. Over the next few months, Kenpachi brute forced his way into some manner of a pirate crew. The name “Kenpachi” became one to be spoken in hushed whispers in the seedier taverns of Lyrabar. Rumors of a giant of a man who won his name in battle, and if you best him, you inherit all his name and treasure. When he wasn’t participating in swashbuckling activities, Kenpachi tried to take advantage of the vast serenity of the sea to talk to his sword. After months and months of trying, it finally happened. A voice. Yachiru’s voice.

It was not even two weeks later that Magic suddenly left the world and he lost her again. He felt it immediately and as one of his crew asked what was wrong he only had the chance to mutter “the Bureau” before he himself seemed to be whisked away on the wind like dust, leaving behind only his bracer and an old chipped sword. Distraught, Kenpachi’s crew rushed to port and hunted down one of those strange, static talking people with those same bracers. Demanded they help their captain. He used to work for you!! You have to help him! And so Kenpachi is returned to the Bureau.

blurb code by photosynthesis