Ayako Kyuugou
From Inga no Kusari wiki
| Kyuugou, Ayako ♀ | |
|---|---|
 3rd Seat, 12th Division | |
| Date of Birth | 14th August, 1864 (147) |
| Place of Birth | Sainshand, Mongolia |
| Zanpakutō | Gyobigata |
| Player | Ayako |
| Shinigami | |
Contents |
Appearance
Aya looks like she's sixteen or seventeen years old, she'd not exactly tiny, but she definitely ain't fully grown!! If she knew she was from Mongolia, she'd be really confused, because her skin is pretty pale and she just doesn't look all that Mongolian at all. No idea how that happened, but she must've had a bit of a bodyswitch or something when she was born!! Either way, Aya has pinkish purple hair and sorta pale skin, and a cute little button nose to boot!
She likes fireworks, so her shinigami uniform has been modded so there's no loose fabric that could get set on fire, her forearms are bound by bandages, to keep the sleeves from flapping, and her sash is reversed, so the knot sits on her back like a little bunny tail! Around Aya's neck she wears a neckerchief, which is for keeping her mouth safe from smoke and dirt and stuff, but usually it's just hanging down. On her back Aya wears a little harness which loops over her shoulder, on this harness she's got three fireworks and her zanpakutō, which is a little wakizashi, a real short sword.
Personality
Ayako is a happy go lucky kinda gal, impatient and flighty, she'll be tilling a field one day, and delivering newspapers the next. As a result of her kind've erratic personalty, she leaves in her wake a slowly growing pile of unfinished projects. Thank heavens she's decided to become a Shinigami! It's not that she gives up, far from it; if her heart's in it, she'll try her hardest, even if she completely and utterly sucks at whatever it is she's doing. She just gets... bored easily, and anyone she speaks to would know there's no hard feelings towards those pursuits that she's ditched. Hell, maybe even she'll pick 'em up again some day.
Loud but not boistrous, chirpy without being annoying (or so she hopes!), Ayako is a happy kid. She has a bit of a problem forgetting to use honourific terms, much to the chagrin of her superiors, but on the whole she's a good person, if a little goofy and arrogant. Arrogance is the one thing going against Ayako, it'll probably get her killed. Any opportunity, so long as it appears exciting, will stir her into action. This adventure seeking nature also explains her hobby, Fireworks. Making them, firing them, the smiles on people's faces, the loud noises (she especially likes the loud noises), the bright lights, everything about fireworks excites Ayako, keeps her the chipper person that she is.
History
Ayako doesn't remember much of her life as a mortal.. But then again, not many people do remember, so it doesn't bother her in the slightest. She was born in southern Mongolia, the Gobi Desert, to a clan of nomads. They were passing through a settlement when her mother gave birth, so it wasn't as arduous as it would've been out in the harsh wastelands, the medicines and experience of the local doctor saw her safely into the world. The wandering lifestyle of her family might go some way to explain why she's so erratic in her nature.
Life in the desert is harsh, you have to be tough to survive, take whatever chance you get and make the most of it, for the betterment of yourself and your clan. This noble duty was what Ayako was born into, and for the most part, it's stayed with her into her life as a spirit, despite the fact she's forgotten mostly every part of it.
She does, however, remember a hot sun, a cold moon, aching legs and sand... lots and lots of sand.
Ayako died at age fourteen in a sandstorm, she had been out divining for water when the dust clouds fell upon her. She suffocated in the whirling tumult of sand, it filled both her lungs and her eyes, preventing any hope of survival. It was a death of unbearable pain, so it's kinda fortunate that she doesn't remember it. By the time her parents found her afterwards, she was already well on her way to soul society, sent on by a similarly nomadic Shinigami.
District Nine isn't a bad place to end up when you're sent on to Soul Society, it's not so posh that your ears leak with wealth, and not rough enough to leave you with a missing arm by the end of the week.
Now it's got to be said here that Kyuugou Ayako wasn't her original name, that was lost to time and poor memory. The whole thing was made up, chosen by herself after some random guy asked her who she was a few weeks into living in the Rukongai. Kyuugou simply means 'number nine', the district she's from, and Ayako... well it just sounds neat, doesn't it? And a cool cat like Aya's gotta have a cool name to suit her, right?
As a growing kid, Ayako needed a job to pay for food on the like, especially considering she wasn't cute and young enough to be adopted by a family, living on the streets was hard, and food was scarce. Her nature made sure she was never doing something for too long, and helped build up a wealth of little bits of experience to lean on in later years.
The whole thing with fireworks came one tanabata festival, it might've been the year after Ayako arrived in Soul Society, it might've been longer. It's been so long now she can hardly remember. Either way, she was admiring the festival, pretty sure she'd never seen stuff like that before, when she finally got close to where they were being fired from, to see how it happened. It was so amazing, and so exciting to be able to let loose the exploding rockets full of stars, like caged animals into the wild. It'd be one of the most important events of her life...
The fireworks master in charge of the display noticed the young girl excitedly watching each show get set up, almost leaping over the boundary fence in eagerness to get a closer look. She kept it up for the whole performance, and afterwards she was rewarded with an offer for an apprenticeship with the fireworks company.
The master, named Rantao, took Ayako under his wing eagerly, and threw her in at the deep end as far as constructing and setting loose rockets was concerned. She got a few burns during those days, but nothing too serious. It was the one thing Ayako stayed at for more than a month. For an five years she studied eagerly beneath Rantao, the only circumstances that ended her time with him were his gambling addiction, losing the entireity of his company in a game of dice.
With Rantao gone, Ayako was alone again, she had some knowledge of fireworks, but not enough to start her own company. A few performances were done here and there, some even managed to tide her over for a couple of months, but for the most part, she was forced to get back into gruelling and boring jobs. She made friends here and there, but promptly lost them when her wanderlust made her head to another district.
Shinigami were a thing spoken of, but rarely seen in the middling districts of Rukongai. Even in District 9 she rarely saw the black-robed dudes, so maybe there was a sense of wonder when one valiantly arrested a bandit, like a knight in shining armour (but you know, missing the knight hood, and the armour... and the shininess). She decided on that day that she was gonna become a Shinigami, even if just for a little while. She was fully aware of the fact that the training would be long and arduous, but hell, she wanted to do it at the time, and it seemed exciting!
The entry exams were easy, way too easy, and the years of training that followed were always filled with interesting bits and pieces. Oh sure the curriculum was hellishly boring, it even made her considering giving up now and then, but the people at the Academy were cool folks. There was always some brute picking on some weakling, and some honourable samurai trying to solve the dispute without using force, even though it usually came to a bit of a fistfight. Things like that would cause Ayako to whip out her popcorn and start munching away, the characters around the place were just too interesting to give up on!
After ten years and two failed graduations, Ayako finally completed her stint at the Academy. Instead of moving straight into the Gotei 13, she hung about for a little while, still willing to soak up the atmosphere of the place. Her tutors hated the fact she stayed even after graduating, and even moreso the fact that she hung around classes that she'd done a thousand times before. She joined a division after a year of monkeying around.
Seventh Division, the Guardians, was the first choice, cause hey, it's fun to guard stuff, you get to put up with the temperament of whoever you're a bodyguard for, and you get into plenty of fights too! It's an exciting choice of occupation, but who knows how long it'll hold out for?
Combat
Strengths
Ayako, like the fireworks that she loves so much, fights with quick movements and explosive attacks. She's more often than not airborne, hopping from spot to spot and using her weight to enhance her not-so-strong blows.
Crash Bang
Unlike most Shinigami, who stick to the four schools of combat that just about everyone adheres to, Ayako likes to mix things up a little, which is why she carries three fireworks attached to a harness on her back whenever she goes anywhere. She's grown experienced in being able to launch one of the explosive rockets from just about any situation without starting a fire, and despite her erratic attitude, she's got a sound mathematic mind... at least when it comes to high explosives!
Shooting Star
Keeping airborne when she fights keeps Ayako from getting hurt, it's true! When you're on the ground and get smacked by a heavy blow, more often than not, your resistance with the ground below is gonna get you injured. In the air, it's not as much of a problem, most of the force would just send her flying back, rather than forcing her body to absorb the shock. The fighting method also serves to make her attacks about as strong as a normal fella's, cause hell, she's not very strong, not too heavy either, but using her weight in an attack definitely helps sort out the strength problem.
Weaknesses
Being the excitement-seeking and erratic kinda gal that she is, Ayako somewhat sucks at making friends. Be it due to the fact she's so damn unpredictable, that she mysteriously vanishes after five days or the fact that those that do choose to ally with her invariably end up having to bail her out of one mess or another.
Deathwish
If it looks fun, she'll do it, this is all well and good when the fun thing happens to be... I dunno, delivering newspapers or something. But when you're a member of a fighting force like the Gotei 13, the exciting things tend to be big and brawny, they usually have teeth too. She'll often leap into fights without assessing the situation first, she'll even try it out against someone a thousand times more awesome than she is. Thank heavens that if she gets beaten she'll get bored a flee!
Light as a Feather
Okay so using her weight to help in attacks and avoiding serious injury are a few plusses for her airborne style of combat, but Ayako's still fairly light, needs to be really to be so nimble! A friendly shove would probably knock her over, and an aggressive punch, well that would send her flying, airborne or not! Being knocked into the air is fine, but when there's a wall or something nearby, that's not so good. Gotta be careful around walls.
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