Mao Shu-yin [shinigami]

Name: Shu-yin, Mao

Age: 318

Visual Age: 22

Gender: Female

Division: 2nd (possibly captain? or else I must edit ._. )

Personality:
Well…there’s Mao, and then there’s Mao. Its not so much a matter of split personalities as the fact she’s split her personality for varying purposes. To begin there is her ‘execution’ personality, the main function behind this one being to kill without remorse. In order to carry out the duties of the second division; mainly assassination, Mao has created a sort of ‘side of herself’ that she can fall into to complete her duties and function efficiently once judgment is given that said thing or person is to be killed. In such situations she is calculating and observant in order to find the right time to execute orders without getting emotionally involved, but won’t cold-heartedly cut down allies in her ambitions to complete any and all goals.

In contradiction to her more serious and emotionless side, there is the ‘goofy’ Mao. This is likely the truest of all the Mao’s and exhibits a few traits. It has often been noted that she shows a more catty smile while her normal self or will smile a lot more in general. Stories of pranks and jokes amuse her quite a bit, unlike some of the harder second division folks, and she tends to be a bit lax, seeing no need to be “so serious all the time.” Often disappears from her office to wander about, especially visiting Toboe in the fourth division (sometimes in order to tease her friend) or chatting with another captain or some of the lieutenants. At the same time she can be prone to what some may call ‘obliviousness’ and yet it’s hard to tell whether it’s true or an act of cunning to let people’s guard down. Unsure due to certain events (sometimes involving tripping). One thing she doesn’t admit to would be that she does like being patted on the head (partly in thanks to her kitty appendages?) but only allows certain friends and individuals to do so.

The last side is more for formal events such as captain meetings, talking to noble family members, and for the less severe missions. In this one she is far more polite than she may otherwise be, yet doesn’t feel the need to give up her smile and takes on a rather amicable yet professional seeming personality. Also often used when meeting new people, as she can be terribly shy in social situations and so reverts to this side rather than falling into a blushing pile of frozen mush. Much more professional.

Appearance:
To begin with, Mao stands at 5’4” and is just fine with her short stature. As she says she can “hide easer” and isn’t affected by short jokes. She is thin but flexible and reveals more strength than people give her credit for at first glance, and skin is a simple peach color slightly pale but not quite. Hair mostly reaches her shoulders except for the locks that frame her face that reaches down to her chest, complete with bangs reaching down to her eyes and is a light to sky blue color. A black band with what appears to be a buckle adorns her head and flanked by a pair of black, pointy cat ears. Eyes were once blue but are now gold and a bit opaque with only vague hints of pupils due to her blindness. The final piece de resistance is the cat tail protruding from her behind, able to just ghost the ground when pointing straight down and is short hair – yes, its capable of standing one end and appearing puffy. The reason for the cat appendages being that the ears are for more sensitive hearing and the tail is sensitive to reiatsu, causing the hairs to tingle and thus alert her to most presences and making it hard to sneak up on her by sound or reiatsu pressure. Despite the appearance of being blind she is able to see but only in a special way through her zanpakuto spirit – explained in history. She wears the standard and slightly different uniform of the second division captain and often wears the captain’s haori unless it’s a rather hot day.

RP Sample:

The air was warm, the sky sunny with a lonely cloud in the sky. Birds chirped, squirrels squeaked, dogs barked, and cats meowed. One rather loudly…oh yeah Kuhn must be hungry about now. Mao’s eyes opened lazily to stare at the purely soft gray cat though only its face was really visible considering how close it was to her face. The moment she shifted he had the grace to move out of her face so she could sit up. Nope she’d been wrong as now he placed first one paw and then another into her lap to hoist him self up and then curled up. Purring now like a mad little man, yup, he was after one thing:

Loving.

An amused sigh left her lips as she began to run her fingers over his fur and the purring increased, as she’d guessed it would. It always did. He was a sucker for being pet…especially by women, curiously enough. One male shinigami had tried but Kuhn had quickly trotted off, yet whenever a female one was nearby he was quick to lie at her feet and being his purring ritual. Worked like a charm more often than naught. At least she’d had the common sense to get him fixed so he couldn’t procreate like crazy, but he was still a sucker for the ladies and kissed up like there was no tomorrow. Looking down she was sure his purring was on autopilot as he began his light-napping routine. At least he wasn’t quite the handful two other cats in her life could be, as the two halves were currently at odds with each other. Cue inner bickering – she was quick to shut off the noise mentally as they fell into another row. One thing would always be certain: Mica could outrun Yoru, but Yoru would always be the stronger side physically. Two halves that balanced each other out…now if only they wouldn’t try to kill each other every so often as that just seemed like more imbalance to her.

‘Will you two cut it out already?’

‘No way!’ ‘Forget it!’ they yelled in unison. It had been worth a shot.

Rather than get into the middle of it she shut them out again as what mattered was that they were as one during a fight – which to their credit, they often were. Outside of assignments and fights though they acted more like brothers than anything and she swore they were some comedic duo made for some cosmic force’s amusement. Time to let one out before she discovered them both dead. Around her body curled the great black tiger, Yoru. A roguish grin formed and she could see the clear pearly whites amongst the black furred mouth, moon-white stripes floating on him from head to tail tip, which curled around to her outstretched knees.

“How goes it?”

“Shut up and be a pillow for a bit,” Mao commanded with no real harshness and leaned against Yoru. It had turned out he made quite a good pillow despite his attitude towards some. Taking Kuhn’s lead Mao fell into a light nap, as did the slapstick duo.

Skill Ranks: (Rank from 1 to 5 your specialties as a shinigami) Your choices for Shinigami are Kido, Shunpo, Hand-to-hand, Weapon Proficiency, and Endurance.

1. Weapon proficiency lvl 3
2. Endurance lvl 3
3. Hand to hand lvl 3
4. Shunpo lvl 2
5. Kido lvl 2

(Yes, I HAD to split it up this way ._. )

History/Background:

[Earthly Existence]

When she was born in the human world it was in a war-torn area and her father was enlisted in the army. While the troops were fighting off the ‘resistance’ it turned out one day to be a decoy while the resistance bombed the troops’ living area and unfortunately Mao’s home was one of the ones hit and destroyed – mostly by rubble and the force of an explosion rather than a bomb straight on it. Her life was saved only because of her mother who shielded her with her body as she tried to runaway and had her lower half crushed by rubble. Subsequently, the decoy still had its risks and her father ran out of luck, managing to step on a landmine and lost many appendages in the proceedings. Still alive but with only one working hand and one foot that couldn’t function he instead chose to give up Mao in the hopes she could have a happy life with a full and normal family elsewhere rather than a crippled father. His luck being out, his wish went unfulfilled in the end.

Now up for adoption, Mao was eventually shipped out to a relatively small town that housed maybe a thousand people max and forced to live with the other children under the church’s care. The people were nice and always happy and smiling, which bolstered Mao’s own personality into being a happy one alongside them and was often referred to as an ‘angel’ by the sisters and pastors. The older she became the more she tried to help out, even caring for some of the other children until they were adopted though she was always overlooked – she could never figure out why but accepted this fate. The reasons behind this would later be revealed to her.

As time passed she began to learn of the god they seemed to worship in this church and wondered over it, but was always unable to say the name right. Some of the depictions had made her curious though and a bit confused as to whether he was friendly or…not. Always trying to be optimistic she chose to deem them as just creepy depictions of his kindness, creepy deemed by the art style rather than what he may or may not be doing. Yet the ‘red waters’ would always keep her second-guessing at the back of her mind. The people who worked for this church often told her she was special and that their god would accept her lovingly in time…when her time came. The older she became the more frequent this seemed to be said over and over again until it was driven into her mind and deep inside alarm bells were ringing. Alas there was nowhere to run or someone to cry to and ask in full confidence what this all meant without feeling as though they’d be judging her. Finally tired of lacking all the facts she picked her way into the head priest’s office and read through his papers only to find out that the depictions she’d been amused by as a child were the god not hugging or bringing close people to love them but to devour their souls or drink their blood dry. With this horrid realization she was caught and told that her fate had always been intended to be sacrificed to this god once she was old enough and explained a few children’s disappearances throughout the years when she was sure they hadn’t been adopted. They were all just ‘gifts’ though and she would be the main course he was given every fifty years to satisfy his hunger for a soul while the others were all for the sake of blood.

That night she was brought to the main sacrificial grounds where there were four slabs pointed towards a rock formed circle. Each slab had rusty colored stains, caked on from years of draining blood from the children - one child every two years…one rock appearing to still have fresh stains that glistened in the moonlight. Rather than being taken to any of the slabs she was taken to the circle of small stones that had a pole protruding from it and was tied to it while some of them piled straw and twigs at her feet. They told Mao that her body would be burned so that their god would only receive her soul in death to devour rather than having to strip it from her body and the pile was lit. Despite the pain of the growing flames and the sharp sting of betrayal she refused to cry, bringing her head up from staring at the ground to watch the moon and dreamed of being remade instead. Once the pain became unbearable she felt a snap inside and the pain ceased.

At this she found she could pull away from the pole and stood staring at the people before her and tried to ask them why they had to do this but they call acted as though they couldn’t see her. Turning around she discovered that her body was still very much burning and her head was pointed towards the ground…and behind her body, leaning on the pole was a large, masked monster. Thick saliva dripped from its mouth into the fire and made it dance wildly as deep rumbles sounded in its chest. It introduced its self as the ‘god’ they were worshipping, admitting to eating ALL of the children’s souls…not drinking their blood whatsoever. Once again resigned to her fate she stared forlornly at the monster but refusing to run regardless of its yells for her to give him sport. Beginning a roar he stopped midway as though stunned and then burst in half before her eyes. Revealed by the curtains of its body falling away stood a person wearing a black uniform with a white robe over it and appearing thoroughly disgusted at the people behind her. The highest of the religious people yelled at the woman for ‘killing their god’ and that ‘the girl had summoned a white-bearing demon,’ and told the group to run. The woman introduced himself as a ‘shinigami’ and a captain at that: Sunari Hikura, and assured Mao that she’d be going to a far better place than the belly of a monster. After that Mao thought of the people no more.

[Soul Society and Onwards]

Within the belly of Rukongai, though more in the middle to closer noble regions she learned more and more about the shinigami, their duties, and especially the captains. The one she admired the most was Sunari of the second division and wanted more than anything to gain entrance to the Gotei 13 ranks. First there was school to be attended to, and she found quickly that kido wasn’t for her and it did take her awhile to get the hang of Shunpo. However in turn she build up a high endurance to last longer in a fight and shake off some of the heftier kidos a bit more while knocking off weaker ones far more easily. One thing she always wanted to be able to do was to defend herself though, and through this will she found and made a pact with her zanpakuto spirit while still in the academy: Mica. The cheetah was more than happy to meet his new master’s acquaintance as well as ready to serve her. The only problem was the element he appeared to wield: Time. Upon learning of it the Central 46 quickly became interested and enamored with her, often requesting her presence for special missions before graduation, and she was soon passed before her classmates so she could be more ready at hand.

In her time serving the Central 46 personally she also found herself hopping from squad to squad a lot. First she found herself in defense, but was then carried over to the research and development squad – mostly to be studied, and then was shifted into information gathering and covering up leaks. It was around then that a major complication arose: each time she went back in time to change an event for the Central 46, she lost a bit of her sight, such was discovered first by a fourth squad member. Quickly after she was shoved into the reserves while she was being looked over especially by the captain and lieutenant of the fourth squad to see if there was a way to reverse the effects but it wasn’t to be. Soon enough the last of her vision faded away and she was lost in a world of darkness – where she’d hoped never to be, and thought it was rather like being devoured by that hollow long ago. Now feeling useless she was rather down, but to cheer her up the captain of the fourth squad had her transferred over to fourth as her ability to heal with her time abilities was second to none, being able to even reverse an injury so no scar would appear. Often how she’s explained the lack of them on her body later. The squad still wasn’t to her favor despite the better treatment there.

Now, a far kinder spirit than some have appeared to be throughout shinigami history, Mica felt as though her blindness, and thus, uselessness was his fault. Making another pact he fused energy of his into Mao permanently and caused the manifestation of her ears and tails, which allowed her to hear better than most – already enhanced by blindness, as well as the tail acting like a sensitive sensor to reiatsu – though it couldn’t pinpoint where it was coming from. The last act of kindness restored her vision...sort of. While still technically blind she could also ‘see’ through the time steam in what Mica in a most genius manner dubbed “Time Sight” – the ability to see what Time could see. It had its limits in that she could only see what was in the present, but always held truth to her as ‘Time couldn’t lie’ – thus making illusions ineffective on her. Mica’s kindness would allow her to see her hero far more often as soon she was shipped over to second division.

Sunari had heard of the blind time user and thought that there might be other ways for her to be of use as such an element was strong in their ranks – perhaps too strong as some considered. Still, for such a line of work as stealth or assassinations, surely a sensitivity to sound – gained by blindness – would be handy for stealth and time wonderful for assassinations? The gained abilities from Mica turned into only a bonus in her eyes and Mao became her apprentice as well as lieutenant rapidly. Unbeknownst to Mao, Sunari was also imbuing some of her own zanpakuto spirit’s energy into Mao’s blade to help counterbalance the current element and while watering down its overall powers over time it gave it a balance and more easily controlled aspect to Mao. What didn’t go unnoticed was the fact that Mao soon found she was able to control water in conjunction with her time element and techniques. Accidentally Sunari overestimated and over time shared more energy than she’d meant to which in turn caused Mica to split personality wise and gave birth to his ‘other side’…dubbed “Yoruyonaka Taiyou” (called ‘Yoru’ for short). Though both sides were truly one in the same they often didn’t act like it and came to be seen as a sort of yin and yang figure: Mica handled the time aspect of the powers while Yoru handled the water side…taking on Fayte’s more sinister aspect of powers (Sunari’s zanpakuto spirit) and thus being able to wield and store blood for later use.

More time passed and Mao was able to smile again as she aided Sunari in whatever way she could, and coming to know Toboe, Ryuujin, and some of the other captains that Sunari was friendly with. With time though came change and she found herself losing the sight of her hero as Sunari was promoted to squad zero sometime after the old fourth division captain. Much to her surprise Mao was chosen for the spot, readily accepting as she’d learned to control both sides of Mica: time and water (blood), to become an effective weapon for the Gotei 13. Thanks to Sunari she could no longer time travel (at least beyond a few minutes and would quickly be forced back) so the Central 46 soon left her alone, though she would always speak up if they saw fit to abuse other shinigami.

Accepted~