Ishiyo Kozume
From Inga no Kusari wiki
| Kozume, Ishiyo ♀ | |
|---|---|
| Date of Birth | 14th October, 1993 (18) |
| Place of Birth | Yokohama, Japan |
| Bow | Kolibri |
| Player | Rockfall |
| Quincy | |
Contents |
Appearance
Ishi knows what she's good at, and her athletic build reflects that. There's nothing exceptional about her body; she's of average height with just a little muscle tone, but she's flexible, sometimes unnervingly so. If she didn't spend her evenings rescuing the souls of the dead from eternal damnation, she'd probably be quite the gymnast. Alas, we can't all have what we want.
Her head is dominated by a fluffy bob of dark, wavy hair- she was once unfavourably compared to a Shih Tzu (and that didn't end well). It engulfs all of her head save for the chin, and stops just short of her dark brown eyes. As for the eyes, they're surrounded by dark rings, evidence that it's a hard life doing homework and eradicating the hollow threat; she doesn't get much sleep.
Despite the fact Ishi says she doesn't like attracting attention, her dress sense is rather... loud. Striped stockings, a skirt of some description (usually black, but she's been known to wear shorts once in a while), t-shirts, usually dark and shin height combat boots. She wears arm warmers that cut off at the elbow, usually black- these are actually to hide the bracer she's got on her left arm. To top this all off, she carries a small messenger bag filled with books and silver tubes and other trinkets; Ishi only leaves home without it when she's on patrol.
As for her quincy uniform, Ishi keeps things simple. Swapping the dark arm warmers for white with the signature cross motif along the back, she substitutes her t-shirt for a long, white, sleeveless cotton jacket that reaches down to her knees. The jacket has side slits on either side from the waist down, and a silvery zipper keeps it sealed down the front. Across the chest is a single blue line that encircles the entire body. She wears a white belt around her waist with a white saddlebag attached, resting against her right thigh. The bag contains all of her silver tube and seele schneider supplies.
Her quincy cross is a daintily crafted Croix de Lorraine with smaller crosses of blue gem inlaid at the points where each crossbar meets the middle. It hangs from a single, foot long length of silver chain attached to a bracelet on her left arm.
Personality
Ishi would say she's a Stoic, but really she's just moody. There is a level of stoic about her actions, but only a little: she tries to stay detached from that which happens around her, which allows for a calm, collected and unbiased reaction when the occasion calls for it. Despite this desire to be calm however, she can sometimes fly off the handle is pushed too far; Ishi's temper is a fickle one. Reluctant to talk and even more so to smile, she's quite introverted around strangers and that demeanour just leads to most everyone being a stranger to her.
Deep down, Ishi probably yearns for friendship, but it's not a thought that she would readily make apparent. Seventeen years of strict training alongside her more conventional education from her noble father have instilled a respect for secrecy and restraint. If she were to allow mortals into her life, she knows that eventually some slip would occur, endangering them all.
Those that she does hold close, however, Ishi holds very close. Mostly family and other members of the Yokohama Chapter, she values their input and advice whatever that may be.
Ishi is a dedicated young woman, both in respect to her loved ones, her education and, most of all, her quincy pride. Because of this dedication, she is very well read in the areas which she has been taught, but sometimes finds herself a little lacking when it comes to subjects outside of her scope of knowledge; it's all or nothing.
Ishi's favourite food is coffee jelly and she does sudoku puzzles for fun. She hates cotton candy.
History
Ishiyo Krause can trace her family line back to the quincy homeland of northern Germany. Somewhere in the 16th century, her patriarchal family arrived in Japan from the west- missionaries intent on spreading the quincy order through the country. During the period of isolationism that came into place just forty years after Ishiyo's ancestors made landfall, the quincy sects went underground; relying on the new followers of the order to keep their existence outside of Dejima a secret.
More than three centuries later, Ishiyo was born. The second child of Kazuo and Yumiko Krause- she was raised in the traditional quincy way, as her parents had been before her and their parents before them. Even before she had learned to read, Ishi was capable of forming a simple bow, albeit small and powerless. She showed great promise for the trials that no doubt lay ahead.
Her brother, ten years her elder, set a precedent for excellence that was sometimes hard to keep up with. He had graduated by the time Ishi entered into elementary school, and her father, a devoted but often humourless man, expected his daughter to follow in the same footsteps of his son. Unfortunately, that was not to be the case. Where Minoru effortlessly balanced the three pressures of school, friends and training, Ishiyo was a little less adept. Whilst she could hold high her education and quincy pride with absolute perfection, the social side to Ishi's triangle seemed to droop. She struggled to make friends, and those that she did hang on to after more than a single occasion often faded away due to her serious nature.
Kazuo and Yumiko made no efforts to correct their daughter's failing social life, not out of any kind of spite or cruel intention to have her focus solely on school and life as a quincy, but because Ishiyo frankly seemed unaffected by the loss of friends. Though she hadn't studied philosophy at this time, the stoic nature that she would profess to was already beginning to surface. Ishi figured that if these so-called 'friends' valued her, then they wouldn't leave simply because she did homework four nights a week and training on the other three. She gained a penchant at school for being the quiet and creepy one, but considering the fact she was mostly indifferent to everyone in her class, it never really bothered her. Sure she would spend some nights curled up, wondering what life would be like if she took Sunday evenings off, but her father had always said that allowing your emotions to surface was equivalent to stretching your neck out for the executioner.
Life continued as normal for Ishiyo for many years. Well, as normal as life as a member of a demon hunting sect could be. She kept her head down, worked hard on her studies and even harder on her training. Her parents were proud, her brother was supportive, by the age of 14 she was allowed to go with Minoru on patrol. Ishi's arrows were still left a little to be desired, but after she had gained a taste for the eradication of hollows things really started to develop. Knowing what all those years of training had been for, it really paid off for her. Instead of training, she spent four nights a week out on patrol with her brother, her father, anyone that was responsible that evening really. She loved hollow hunting, even on the occasions that there were none to be found, or when the shinigami got to the beast first.
Things took a turn for the unexpected one day when Ishi was sixteen. Indifferent to her classmates, she rarely acknowledged their existence let alone heard what they said. For the most part they left her alone, and she did the same to them. On those few occasions when they did choose to approach her, whether for innocent reasons or ill, Ishi brushed them off with a few soft words. They usually moved on after that, knowing that the girl didn't really respond... at all, to their words. On one occasion however, on the last day of term before the spring break, a girl sidled up to Ishiyo determined to get some sort of reaction. Her insults were broad and varied, and did little to affect the young quincy, but when the girl compared Ishi's hairstyle to a Shih Tzu...
The girl was admitted to hospital with minor burns on her forearms, Ishiyo was immediately withdrawn from school by her father. How the burns occurred, nobody could be sure, nobody besides the members of the Yokohama chapter of the quincy order. Ishi had brought shame to her family by breaking her quincy pride. The damage could have been widespread if the true nature of the girls' fight broke out. Kazuo made the decision to send his daughter away from Yokohama, where she could perhaps meditate on her wrongdoing and regain her honour. Under the pretense of performing missionary work, Ishi was put under the care of her cousin Angeline, who had denounced her quincy heritage after the destruction of the local quincy chapter in 2009. Ishiyo moved to Okumichi city, taking on her mother's maiden name in order to avoid unwanted attention.
Combat
Strengths
Gymnast - Ishiyo is flexible, sometimes supernaturally so. Jumps, backflips, cartwheels, it's all in the nature of her work. This comes especially in useful when facing opponents who just won't get out of your face and dodging the occasional blow to the head...
Dedication - At school and on patrol, Ishi sees everything through to the end no matter what. She's a really bad opponent to come across, and even if you or she considers it better to retreat, you'd better believe that she'll follow you to the ends of the earth until she wins.
Weaknesses
Stubborn - The downside to Ishi's great dedication is that sometimes she can't see much further than what lies right before her. If she does withdraw from battle, it's only in the most fraught of circumstances. The same goes for other situations in life, if she can't see an outcome that adheres to her logic then she'll probably be difficult.
Detached - Not being very vocal, let alone having the willingness to open up to others, makes things a little awkward for Ishi when things get tight. Unable or just unwilling to call on friends and allies, she's got very few safety nets available if she ends up biting off more than she can chew. And with heer die-hard attitude and quincy pride, she's probably gonna choke.
