Yashamaru
From Inga no Kusari wiki
| Yashamaru ♀ | |
|---|---|
 3rd Seat, 11th Division | |
| Date of Birth | 16th June, 1409 (602) |
| Place of Birth | Iriomote, Ryukyu Islands |
| Zanpakutō | Fukumaden |
| Player | Yashamaru |
| Shinigami | |
Contents |
Appearance
Yashamaru, though a female, is an impressive and intimidating sight, even without knowing what she can do. Standing at 6 feet 5 inches (or a solid 2 meters) and weighing somewhere around 230 lbs, Yashamaru is easy to spot in a crowd, if the bright white hair and the giant, spiked iron club weren't a good enough clue. Her hair is often short, unruly and looks more like a mane than a hair-do, and her tanned skin makes it stand out all the more. Her body is sturdy and lightly toned, but she isn't grotesquely muscled like you might think because of her strength. You can see that she's definitely living an active life, the callouses on her hands and feet being clear signs if the lightly defined muscles and the tan aren't clear enough. As for her face, Yashamaru is actually quite pleasant-looking, even pretty. She's not a stunning beauty, but really, did you expect her to be? Her eyes are narrow, and though they are dark blue, they look dark from the distance. She has a button nose, her mouth a little small and her lower lip is fuller than her upper lip. Overall, Yashamaru looks a little cold and most her grins look incredibly creepy and malicious, but she can look friendly... Especially when drunk.
As for her clothes, Yashamaru has never been the one to conform. While the top of her uniform is sort of like the official set of shitagi and kosode, it's heavily modified. There's only one sleeve, covering her left arm, with no right sleeve present: instead, Yashamaru wears a long, black fingerless glove on her right arm. Underneath the top is a tigerskin wrap around her torso, covering her somewhat noticeable chest area. The shitagi and kosode, normally coming down to around knee level have been shortened still, now coming down to half-thigh, the whole top topped off with a wide tiger-print obi, tied with a bow on the back. Yashamaru doesn't wear a hakama, because she feels it hinders movement, but instead wears bandages on her legs, coming up to a little above her knee. She wears the standard waraji-sandals, but only on duty: she takes them off as soon as she possibly can. Yashamaru carries with her a large, heavy and spiked iron club: the club is almost as tall as she is. This is in fact her zanpakutō, Fukumaden, which is constantly released and Yashamaru can't seal it completely. It weighs a few pounds short of 200, making it a scary weapon even if it can't officially cut anything. Then again, to Yashamaru, it feels as light as a feather. On her head, Yashamaru wears a band with two black horn-like ornaments in it. The horns are somewhat small, but still very noticeable, and these act as spirit pressure limiters because of the large amount of reiatsu she generates. Even so, rare are the occasions where she takes them off. After all, what fun is a fight if it's over in minutes?
Personality
Yashamaru is exactly the battle-crazed, violent, over-the-top maniac you might think to find in the 11th Division. The only thing that might make it a little weird is the fact that she is a woman. She lives for the fighting, initiates battles whenever she can (and is able to in the legal sense) and unless you're stronger than she is, no way is she going to listen to any order or demand you issue. Yashamaru is rude, crude, obnoxious and straight-forward up to a point where she can unintentionally insult people. And she really doesn't care much. If you're not man enough to handle a few words then sucks to be you. Basically, Yashamaru is an easygoing gal, and enjoys being herself, she's just... Aggressive. Hearty slaps to the back of a friend aren't unusual, neither are buddy-punches: Yashamaru's custom way of showing affection also happens to be a somewhat violent way. She means well, honest!
Despite being a pretty straight forward crash-and-smash-type of person, there is a well hidden maternal streak. It doesn't matter whose kid it is, Yashamaru is quick to protect him or her and bail him or her out of trouble. She'll be gruff and nonchalant about it, but she will help. When it comes to kids, Yashamaru has almost unlimited patience. When it comes to grown people, well, not so much. Being as tall as she is brings with it some emotional trauma. For one thing, it's pretty hard to get a date when you tower over the possible target. But she was also shunned for being unusually tall and strong, especially in the academy. Of course Yashamaru took offence to that, but rather than sulk about it, she decided she might as well act like she wanted to: people would judge her no matter what, might as well give them something to judge about!
Yashamaru tends to get flirty when she's drunk. Aggressively so. While she's sober, she's prone to teasing others or giving them nicknames, but she really turns it up when she's drunk as a skunk. At this point, she might also stop worrying about her strength that much, and furnitures around her tend to suffer for it.
History
Before she was Yashamaru, before she was a shinigami, she was known as Sen. She was born in the Three Kingdom period of her island home, somewhere in the year 1409 and exactly 20 years before the islands were unified as the Ryukyu Kingdom. Sen was a small thing, an orphan, and learned the value of hard work at an early age. She lived a happy childhood: while she wasn't officially adopted by anyone, a few old couples in the area were happy to offer her a place to stay and food to eat in exchange for work and companionship, and Sen grew up into a lovely young woman, if not slightly rowdy one. It wasn't long into her teens when a local boy started courting her, and they eventually married. Sen became pregnant soon after, and nine months later, she gave birth to a little baby boy. It was the happiest day of her life, and she swore to protect him with her life if needed. Her life was filled with joy, and while she sometimes missed the freedom she had as a teenager, she was happy as a homemaker. Sen was happy watching her son, Yamatarou grow up, she was happy that her home became the Ryukyu Kingdom when her son was two years old and she was 20, she was happy to be married to her husband, however rash he sometimes was. She had started as a lowly orphan, but had carved herself a place among the townsfolk as a member of the community.
But alas, all good things must come to an end. Pirates had been raiding Sen's hometown every once in a while, but they had become pushier and more aggressive as of late. One night, when her husband was away in the next town over and her son was 9 years old, the pirates made a full-scale attack. Though Sen and her family lived a bit further away from the harbor, the pirates found their way into the house and demanded Yamatarou to tell them where the valuables were. When he didn't know, the one leading that band of pirates tried to kill the boy. And Sen snapped. She grabbed a knife from her cutting board and stabbed the man threathening her son, killing him almost instantly. When the others were still paralyzed about a small mother taking out one of them, giving Sen enough time to grab Yamatarou and flee the house.
But the men, angry at her deed, tried to follow them, and Sen ordered Yamatarou to run and hide, and get to his father as soon as possible. The boy hesitated, and as Sen turned to shout at him to obey like a good boy, she was stabbed to the side. It seemed to scare Yamatarou and he fled, leaving Sen to deal with the men. And she was beyond pissed. For three of the pirates, the last thing they ever saw was a woman charging at them with a small knife and screaming that they would never touch her son, ever. Sen attacked and fought like a madwoman, barely fazed by her injuries, taking down majority of the small raiding party before the two remaining pirates fled. Sen collapsed from exhaustion and the damage she received, and almost fainted until Yamatarou started shaking her, begging for her to live. She hugged the boy tightly and told him she'd always love him no matter what, and again pleaded him to search out his father. He almost refused, until they both noticed that the pirates who fled had come back with reinforcements. Despite her wounds, Sen got up and demanded Yamatarou to leave, and when she said it was her last wish, he couldn't refuse her and ran. Two pirates tried to follow him, but they met their end when Sen stabbed one with a fallen pirate's sword and slashed the other's throat open with her knife. She was getting delirious from blood loss by now, and stumbled around. The last thing she remembers before oblivion was her running at the pirates and screaming. And her last thought was a desperate plea that her son would make it out alright.
The next thing she knew, she was standing over her own, badly slashed and mangled body and with a chain on her chest. It was daybreak already, and she saw her husband running towards her and her son following. She tried to shout at them, to greet them, but... She passed right through them and they didn't even see her. She tried to console them, tried to talk to them as they cried over her body, but they didn't hear her. And for the first time in her life, Sen felt utterly hopeless. And it broke her heart to see how her death was affecting her beloved son. Soon after, she was buried and her family moved on with their lives, but Sen seemed to be unable to move from the place where she was killed. There was no light at the end of the tunnel, no one to escort her to the afterlife, no one. She spent her seasons alone, with only her thoughts to accompany her. Every now and then her son would visit the place, and it warmed her heart to see how he was growing up to be a fine young man. Year after year, Yamatarou returned to the spot faithfully, until there was a small gap in his visits. It saddened Sen, but he had his own life to live. Imagine her surprise when he came again one year, this time with his wife and two children. Once again, Sen was happy, even if she couldn't touch her grandchildren, and it was probably that happiness that kept her in her spot for years to come.
Sen had a very poor grasp of the time that had elapsed since her death, so it was a bit of a shock to see her son return to the spot as an old man. After he left once more, he never returned. And she was alone again. Time passed, and the happiness she felt started to ebb away. All her joyous memories, all the love she had for her family was slowly being replaced by destructive, horrible thoughts, bitter whispers and malicious intentions. She didn't even notice her chain eroding away until it was too late and a hole appeared on her chest. After that she... Wasn't herself. She could move out of the spot now, but she was hungry, she felt different and she wanted the townsfolk to suffer as much as she had!
She managed to rampage for only a very little until people in black clothing came and started to defend the townsfolk. Sen was enraged and fought back, but somehow, they managed to defeat her, and she felt calm again, after so many years. At last, she could be at peace. So she was pretty confused when she woke up again, this time in the form of a little child and tended by a strange man. She freaked out and kicked the man... Right through the wall. And then she freaked out even more. It took some time to calm her down from her erratic mindset, and even more time to explain to her where she was, why, and how. Sen's memory was a little bad at that point, and she only remembered bits and pieces here and there. And some of the stuff she remembered made her miserable. Maybe the man took pity on her for that, because he gave Sen a new name, to symbolize her new life in Rukongai. He named her Yashamaru, and started to train her in hand-to-hand combat. And so, Yashamaru started her life pretty much from scratch in the 79th district of Rukongai, and that place was one school of hard knocks. No one knew how or why Yashamaru was so strong, but really, if it helped her survive and get food, who cares?
With the guidance of the man, Raidou, Yashamaru became a capable fighter, an independent person and developed a taste for copious amounts of sake. She adopted the same rough, aggressive attitude her mentor had when she realized she actually liked fighting, something she had avoided in life, she was sure of it. She loved beating people up, she loved combat and above all, she loved the fact that she could go against a group of fighters and come out of it barely scratched. After about a hundred years of dwelling in Rukongai, she started havind weird dreams. A large, imposing demon-like entity kept trying to tell her something, and every time something drowned out his voice when he tried to say his name. Not knowing what the dreams were about frustrated Yashamaru and made her even more violent, prompting her to seek trouble in the 80th district. That didn't go over too well: while she took down several opponents, they also had bladed weapons to do in the teenage-looking girl. Raidou saved her behind once again, and after a rather violent (on both sides) interrogation, Yashamaru revealed the reason she went looking for trouble.
Raidou was no expert on dreams, but he did say that she should seek out an official shinigami and ask them what they were about. Without any other clue to follow, Yashamaru did just that, and went in search for any shinigami that might cross her path. After finding one (and shaking him for a few minutes for good measure), she found out that it might've been a zanpakutō spirit trying to reach her. It did answer her question, sort of, but her reiatsu invited many other shinigami to check out what was happening, and eventually she was told that she should become a shinigami. It was hard to leave the only person who'd viewed her as a family member and helped her on her journey, but Raidou didn't give Yashamaru much of a choice. It was harsh to push Yashamaru into the profession like he did, but it was his way of saying he was proud of her for being able to do something like becoming a shinigami.
In the academy, Yashamaru had serious trouble with almost every subject having to do with either kidō or hohō, but she excelled in hand-to-hand combat. Eventually, she got her zanpakutō and learned his name, Fukumaden. But when she got it, it turned out that it was in constant release and no matter what Yashamaru tried, she couldn't seal it off. It wasn't the first time a shinigami received a similar zanpakutō, but it still doesn't happen to every other candidate. But eventually, Yashamaru graduated was assigned to a division. The infamous 11th Division...
Combat
Strengths
Strength: Yashamaru is freakishly strong, as it's evident with her swinging an iron club almost her own weight around as if it's nothing. She can also jump pretty high.
Endurance: She'll come at you until either you're down or she's down. Even then there's no guarantee she'll quit when she's down.
Damage resistancy: Brawling and physical combat are Yashamaru's forte, and as such she is not that affected by physical punches or hits as much as she is affected by sword slashes or kidō spells.
Alcohol resistancy: Yashamaru isn't drunk until she hits her 14th barrel of sake. She can rarely get to that amount, however, because sake costs money.
Reiatsu: Yashamaru's reiatsu is huge. Without her limiters, people can feel it miles away, even be affected by it in the form of slight fear and panic. Yashamaru wears limiters so she doesn't freak out every person in her vicinity.
Weaknesses
Speed: She is strong, but she's not that fast.
Strength: With her unusual strength, it's like living in a cardboard world sometimes. Things just break even when she doesn't mean to break them.
Lust for battle: Yashamaru is quick to attack and attack mercilessly. The target matters very little, just so long as she gets to fight.
Pig-headed: The limiters stay on until she absolutely must remove them, as it would be in case of being an inch away from death's door.
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