User:Yukaeshi

"Have you ever danced with the Devil on a pale moonlit night?"

is an elusive, enigmatic Shinigami from one of the early five noble families of Seireitei, and thus, current leader and heir to her clan- she and her family were the ones responsible for creating Kikōō, the true form of Sōkyoku, and it is known that she served in the Kidō Corps. It was thought that her whole kin, her included, were massacred, but she is apparently the sole remaining survivor- having been thrown in Hueco Mundo and during that time, she managed to absorb her Zanpakutō in a bid to survive, which resulted in an enhanced proficiency in kidō. That makes her the only Shinigami to develop and procure such augmented powers through such means and the only Shinigami who acquired the ability to merge with and detach her Zanpakutō at will. Later it is revealed that she is also the keeper, guardian and by default, the owner of Sōkyoku’s true form and power- Kikōō, and the only one who can harness its potential. According to Captain-General Yamamoto, she survived partly because she was 'protected' by her Zanpakutō.

General Appearance
Yukaeshi’s appearance is pretty much that of a woman in her mid-twenties such as Kuukaku, Matsumoto and Yoruichi, although by their standards she is less well-endowed. However, she is highly attractive and beautiful in her own manner, her skin being paler than most Shinigamis and her body shape slender- giving off a languidly seductive yet icy vibe. She also seems to be the only female to have extensive tattoos thus far- a tribal-styled band around her left ankle, a Gothic-styled serpentine ouroboros on the front of her left shoulder, an Oriental unending knot on the back of her neck and a chrysanthemum on the back of her upper right shoulder, although most of the time the tattoos are obscured by her clothes. Besides being tattooed, she also has several piercings on her ears, particularly her left ear. A small, rectangular scar is seen on the right of her left breast from the front and the left of her back from behind, where her heart is.

Her very wavy, mainly side-parted hair is crimson-black in colour and cascades down to between her shoulders and chest in sharp layers. It is usually pulled in a loose messy bun secured with a kanzashi, with a few strands hanging about and two small braids on each side leading towards the bun. Sometimes her hair can be seen just plaited in a single braid, pulled into a ponytail, put up in a half-herringbone plait or sometimes it is just let loose, and instead of a kanzashi her hair can be secured with a black chrysanthemum and flame-motive barrette. She has small, slanted raven eyes that seem to have between a greyish-purple to greenish tint, and the lids are heavily-lined black.

Accessories
The ornate gold and silver kanzashi that she wears in her hair is decorated with her symbolic familial crest of intricately intertwined feathers, flames and chrysanthemum motives and is a symbol of her status, much like Byakuya’s kenseiken, and is a proof of her status as a member of a noble family in Seireitei. The black chrysanthemum and flame-motive barrette that she sometimes wears in place of her kanzashi also seems to have the same connotations, and are both her most distinguishable trademarks and accessory.

She mainly wears a pair of black fingerless gloves that reaches up to her wrists especially during her time as Captain and in Las Noches and sometimes during her tenure in the Kidou Corps and during then she is also seen to have a black strap attached to her left thigh in which some sort of small, compact black pouch is affixed to. Sometimes she is seen with a plain black choker and a plain black band on her upper left arm.

Powers And Abilities
Kidou: Being in the Kidou Corps and even before the hybridisation incident, Yukaeshi is already known to be an extremely competent and expert user of kidou. It seems that she specialises mainly in destructive and binding kidou, although more of destructive, and is able to manipulate elements such as fire, wind, water and lightning to name a few without much effort.

Possessing vast amounts of reiatsu and being extremely proficient to the point of Master-level in kidou in the first place and then due to her having absorbed and being able to merge with her zanpakutou, causing her kidou skills to surpass that of any normal Shinigami or Arrancar permits Yukaeshi to perform her spells effortlessly without the need for lengthy incantations, although most of the skills that she uses are not known and/or taught in Soul Society or the Shinigami Academy due to their largely ‘dark’ and extremely powerful nature. This could be also due to her having practised and fought mainly in Hueco Mundo, which has a vastly different environment from Soul Society and allowed her reiatsu to flow freely.

The exclusion or lack of incantations required for her to perform her skills doesn’t seem to compromise its powers as it normally would, as her kidou spells are said to be all at full power and her skills maxed due to the current nature of her reiatsu, and incantations, if any, only seem to serve to strengthen the spells further or are just recited for the fun of it. However, there seems to be some very high-levelled, almost unknown spells that require at least its name to be called out to be utilised at full strength. Unlike normal skills used in Soul Society, the skills usually performed by Yukaeshi, especially the ‘darker’ skills, are not categorised under ‘Bakudo’ or ‘Hado’ nor do they seem to have any number of levels- only the name of the skills, if necessary, is incanted. However, before her hybridisation incident, she seems to still require some form of incantation to perform her skills, although they seem to be just as powerful.

Apart from the normal elemental manipulations, she is now also able to manipulate darkness, shadows, sound and illusions after the hybridisation, which she mainly favours and utilises due to their uniqueness and their seemingly enhanced powers, almost becoming her trademark. Hence, her kidou skills allow a wider range of offensive and defensive tactics apart from the standard normal kidou spells such as creating a rain of elemental daggers within a set radius/area, wrapping and overwhelming an opponent with shadows and white noise, creating a whirlwind of shadowy blades which can damage and knock back rivals, converting and absorbing available sound around her into blasts like electromagnetic pulses or sonic waves and creating a single line of sharp crystals from the ground in front of her. She is also able to create a barrier from kidou attacks and repel offensive kidou attacks by either absorbing and then returning it or absorbing and then negating it. Her skills and assaults are usually almost always chained due to speed and the elements of her attacks are not usually fixed to just one unlike usual kidou spells- she can actually decide on the elements of her attacks, making them very unpredictable and most of the time giving her an edge in battles.

It is unknown what Soul Society in general has to say about her kidou skills- on whether it is a branch of forbidden kidou or not, since they have never encountered a Shinigami who is able to master these levels of powers. But because Yukaeshi has not been prosecuted, nor has Soul Society made any move to teach their Shinigamis, it is largely assumed that their stand is currently still neutral.

Kidou Special Ability- Hakikukaze (Chrysanthemum Blade Wind): This skill was initially thought to be her shikai, but it turns out that it was a skill that she had learnt and honed by herself, a result of her enhanced adeptness in kidou. Prior to her disappearance she has used it at least once, and has been honed to take on a darker and slightly more shadow-y side after the incident.

By stabbing the ground in front of her, she is able to create a small storm of up to three to five round crimson chrysanthemum-shaped orbs around her which she can then manoeuvre offensively by converting them into spinning projectile blades like shurikens. The orbs also enable her to manipulate inanimate objects by forcing the sphere into an object- in which it can then be manipulated mainly for attacking purposes like a puppet, or for spying purposes, in which the implanted orb is later removed to retrieve the information, making her useful for espionage missions. These spheres, whenever required, also give her the ability to see through any possible illusions even if they have been performed or are ongoing, but do not have the power to break the illusion.

Using this skill, however, is mostly very draining and consumes a large amount of reiatsu, and in her shikai/bankai and resurrecion release state the number of orbs is increased to six to ten. Yukaeshi very rarely uses this skill during battles, preferring instead to utilise it for reconnaissance or as a means of escape, although in her shikai/bankai and resurrecion release state when she has excess reiatsu she would make use of it when required.

Fighting Style: Besides being very skilful in kidou she is also very adept in sword fighting and is able to hold her own in hand-to-hand combat. Despite a lack of brute physical strength, she has extremely enhanced agility to compensate and is a highly perceptive and strategic combatant herself- being able to gauge and utilise any of her enemy’s weaknesses against them. Her fighting style mainly comprises of a mixture of kidou and swordsmanship, and when necessary, will use hand-to-hand combat alone of a mixture of hand-to-hand combat and kidou to subdue her opponents.

Agility and Speed: Having tremendous speed and agility, she is able to confuse her foes and dodge most physical attacks aimed towards her. Nevertheless, now her speed seems to be have been augmented to be based on Sonido instead of originally Shunpo like most Shinigamis and her skill in Sonido is such that she is able to leave sonic waves in her wake when she moves and dodges, especially in her shikai/bankai and resureccion release state, which she can then project at her opponent for damage- something that can’t be done with Shunpo. Sonido also allows kidou to be used at the same time- permitting chains and giving her attacks an added element of surprise and ambush. It is not known, however, if her Shunpo before her disappearance was as fast or adept as Yoruichi’s, but she was definitely highly proficient in this aspect and remains one of her strongest specialty.

Arrancar Skills: It seems that she has also managed to master some Arrancar skills- Pesquisa, Bala and the multiple varieties of Cero for example. This makes her a rather formidable and versatile opponent as she can hence utilise and switch between both the Shinigami and Arrancar fighting styles.

Unlike Arrancars though, her Bala and Cero are also unique in a sense that they seem to bear properties of sound waves much like electromagnetic pulses and can encompass a certain region around her instead of just firing straight, and are scarlet or gold in colour. Her Pesquisa allows her to keep track of her opponents and/or allies as she moves around and to trace their presences, and she is able to ‘lock’ onto a certain reiatsu and locate the owner of the reiatsu. It is noted that she might have some basic form of Hierro as well as she is able to block and defect physical attacks such as swords and spiritual attacks such as Cero to some extent with only at most bruises as a result, but stronger attacks damage her.

Limitations and Weaknesses: Despite her powerful kidou attacks and manipulations, enhanced agility, skilful swordsmanship, capabilities in basic Arrancar skills and the like, any injuries inflicted on or sustained by her through any means takes longer than usual for her to recover and heal, even though she can heal herself with basic healing kidou. Similarly, absorbing kidou attacks also damages her, even if the attack was returned or simply negated, unless it was done using her katana. Therefore, prolonged, continuous and constant battling weakens Yukaeshi severely, and thus she rarely battles unless completely required or it is planned out beforehand, and she relies heavily on her speed to dodge attacks and her skills to finish the battle as soon as she can. Her stamina and endurance during battle once she starts is high, but there’s a limit to how much her body can keep going- she is able to keep on fighting if she wants to, but her weakened body will impair and hinder her attacks.

Zanpakutō

 * Yukaeshi’s Zanpakutō is concealed in the form of a normal, traditional katana with a lacquered and silk-wrapped black hilt and an ornate chrysanthemum, flame and feather motive decorated gold square-shaped guard, sheathed in a lacquered black scabbard with an elaborate traditional silk hanging cord near the top and tipped with gold.


 * Shikai: Triggered by the command "Destroy" (Kihai Suru). When her shikai is released a pair of skeletal, flaming phoenix wings protrudes from her back and flashes of lightning and shadows flickers and crackles around her in vague forms of chrysanthemums, and occasionally the image of a blood-red serpentine ouroboros will flare from it- forming a circle around her.


 * Bankai:


 * Resurrecion: