Name: Shizuka Hotori
Age: 20
True Age: 246
Sex: Female
Personality: Despite her age, Hotori is still mostly a child at heart. She derives most of her personality and tendencies from her former life.

She’s fairly optimistic in most occasions. As far as she’s concerned, there’s no reason to see a glass half empty. Because it’s always being filled up by things life brings around. If anything at all, it’s overflowing. She tends to have trouble fixing a good balance between a childish girl and a fun loving young woman.

In a stark difference to being optimistic, Hotori is also extremely logical. She tries to put everything to a science and explain things that way instead of relying on blaming mishaps or unexplained things on stuff that may or may not exist. She isn’t the type to go on reading fairy tales and hoping that her prince will someday come and sweep her off her feet. She’ll put on the suit of armor herself and defend herself with everything she’s got. Because of this habit of hers, she’ll either neglect or flat out refuse to send for backup, thinking she’s got what it takes to handle a job on her own. This has gotten her in trouble on quite a few occasions, though she’s still stubborn enough to not admit it yet.

She’s not quite the type to go up and talk to someone out of the blue, but isn’t afraid of conversation. She enjoys the time she is able to spend with her friends inbetween her duties. She has a love of people, driving her desire to protect those she loves.

Likes:
Sightseeing: A habit she retained from being human. This is usually the only time she enjoys being alone. It acts as a time to reflect on things that have happened or inner turmoil.

Working: As odd as it sounds, especially considering Hotori’s personality, she enjoys her work. End of story. She has a big drive to get stronger and gain respect as well. In her eyes, working is the main way to gain experience beyond monotonousS training, so she dives into it.

Eating: Even though it’s not necessary in heaven, Hotori likes eating. Not really because she is hungry or because she wants to put on weight, but because it gives her hands something to focus on. Plus, the fact that she easily burns off the excess calories doesn’t hurt either.

Talking: When she's not eating, she's probably talking. Talking to herself, talking to others. Talking to a tree. Etc.

Fears:
The dark: Rather self explanatory. Stemming from her childlike behavior at times, has a natural fear of the dark. She fears the dark to the point where she uses a nightlight at night.

Getting reprimanded/failing at something: She desires to be treated like an adult, so being in trouble with the higher ups makes her feel belittled. It’s a pride issue for her.

Being tricked: As much as she hates it, she’s far too easy to trick into doing something. She’s extremely naïve, though doesn’t do much to improve in this area.

Heights: Acrophobia. The unnatural fear of heights. There’s no history for this fear in Hotori, but never the less, she throws up at low heights (skyscraper height) and faints at high heights (airplane flying height and higher). This often limits her combat abilities in these areas. A regular office building only slightly hampers her balance and gives her a bit of Vertigo.

Character Appearance

Height: 5 feet, 3 inch
Weight: 90 lbs. Yes, very thin.
Physical Traits:

Spoiler:

Hotori is a skinny little girl. A useful combination of metabolism and fairly constant exercise gives her a look most high school girls would die for.

She has soft brown eyes, either wide open or half shut. Where she once had soft brown hair to match, it’s colored a bright red. She did this to gain a sense of individuality among a society where everyone wears similar clothes. Her hair is just above shoulder length and heavily layered. She doesn’t take extremely good care of her hair, giving it an ‘I ran a brush through it after waking up this morning’ look. She also wears a long, black bow in the back. The tails of this bow reach down to her waist. The ribbon is very slim.

Her face is pale with a soft complexion. A small nose and soft cheekbones give her a childlike appearance that matches her childish personality.

Jewelry wise, she wears silver hoop earrings and 2 studs in the cartilage of her left ear.

As has already been mentioned, she has a very slim figure. Despite her age, she doesn’t have the natural curves other women her age have. She’s an A cup and is forced to take more pride in her hip size than her chest size. She’s usually slouching, diminishing her already short height.

Clothing:
She wears the typical shinigami robes, adding as much of her own flair as she dares. This amounts to a red ribbon around her waist and a long thin bow in the back reaching to her heels instead of the typical white cloth. She still wears the bamboo sandals, but would always rather go barefoot.

Accessories: Silver hoop earrings, 2 silver studs in her left cartilage. A strange abundance of bows. (1 in her hair, 1 around her waist)

Fighting Style

General Fighting Style: She prefers to play around with her opponents, trying to learn as much as she can before the fight ends. Where she does love to do her best, in her mind, she is doing her best by trying to learn from the fighting styles of others. Even in a serious fight, she'll try to have fun.

Weapon wise, when fighting with her zanpakto in it's sealed state, she wields it backwards. Instead of having the tip facing towards the opponent, it's facing more towards Hotori's own elbow. She wields it like a dagger, hilt towards her enemy, protecting herself while still attacking.

In shikai form, she stance is similar. She'll hold onto the edge of one side of the fan with her elbow near the forte. The other hand is used to steady herself and to add power to ranged attacks. She can also fight with the fan in a closed state. Here, she uses it like she does a katana, assassin style.

Strengths: Close combat fighting (fist to fist, weapon to weapon), natural speed, learned speed (shunpo).

Weaknesses: Is bad at kidou. She has the ability to use it, but she never has the correct concentration to get it to work right in a fighting situation and it ends up blowing up in her face.

Zanpakuto & Kidou

Sealed Appearance: A very common looking katana. It’s blade is silver wrapped in a coarse black cloth. It’s worn on her low back horizontally.
Spirit’s Name: Celestial Peacock, Tentai kujaku
Spirit’s Appearance:

Spoiler:

A white peacock. It glows in the eternal moonlight of it’s homeworld. It's the same height as Hotori, though seems taller due to it's regal way of carrying itself.

Spirit’s Personality: Celestial peacock is a very noble spirit. It has a sense of honor that it won’t abandon, even at the brink of death. He matches well with Hotori, who had a great amount of pride and often refuses to ask for help in tight situations As a result, they naturally lean on and benefit each other.
Celestial Peacock uses honorifics when speaking and is never informal in his speech.

Inner World:

Spoiler:

Celestial Peacocks world is one of eternal night. Everything is cast in shadows and in the moonlight, white appears brighter than it actually is. This is the reason for Celestial Peacocks color.

Kidou: Hotori is capable of using kidou, yes, but it abnormally bad at it. Most end up backfiring on her somehow. There are a few that she has mastered and can use without fear. She knows and uses Bakudo 8 and 37 most often and usually to gain a distance for a ranged attack. She has been seen to use up to bakudo 37 with mixed results.

Shikai

Call Out Command: Be proud, Celestial Peacock. Hokori ni omotte kudasai. Tentai kujaku.

Appearance:

Spoiler:

The sword completely changes shape. Instead of being a katana, it now resembles a metal war fan ½ the height of Hotori. From the base of the fan, 5 white peacock feathers jut. These feathers are weighted and can be removed to be used as a distraction in fighting or to be thrown at the opponent to attempt to create an opening. Must be wielded with both hands or it becomes awkward and more of a danger to it weilder.

The fan itself weighs a good 15 pounds. Enough to force Hotori to wield it with both hands. It's made of tempered steel, so it can stand physical blows, but when pitted against another zanpakto, results are varied depending on the ferocity of the attack.

Abilities: Gust: stand at a mid distance to blow a blade of wind at the opponent. This strength and effects of the gust are identical to what would happen if it was a meele attack. (i.e. Hotori attacks in melee range. The effects and strength are the same at range, only she doesn't suffer the disadvantage of a return blow. Good against a melee fighter, neutral against most every other type.) Strength of the gust depends on the effort put into the blow. Can take almost no effort to a ton of effort.

If little effort is used, a multi Gust is possible. Same concept as a normal gust, only instead of focusing effort one one, she divides the power, but sends multiple blades instead. This may cause the opponent to feel overwhelmed if they're not expecting it. However, because the power is divided, it's fairly easy to block or counter.

Whirlwind: takes a large effort. Creates a continuous whirlwind around Hotori and her opponent. The diameter of the whirlwind varies. Anything from a few meters to half a mile is possible. Restricts movement of both combatants. This whirlwind lasts for a maximum of 3 turns before it dies down. While surrounded by the Whirlwind, neither Hotori nor her opponents will be able to leave, no projectiles can pierce it nor can any blade. It does not, however, have a top. It functions like a short tornado. Short enough that the combatants can still breathe and receive oxygen, but tall enough that it is very difficult to simply jump out.

This whirlwind is a mix of Hotori's reitsu and the wind that Celestial Peacock manipulates. She has a limit though. Her reitsu runs out particularly fast when using Whirlwind, so it makes the remainder of the fight alot harder on her.

Celestial Shield: Strengthens the metal on the fan for a maximum of three posts in order to provide a better defense against zanpakto and spiritual energy based attacks. This strengthening also adds another 30 lbs of weight to the fan, making it more difficult to actively attack with.

The blade itself isn't ever really weak. But to make up for the fact that it's a two handed weapon, it's there to defend against something that Hotori may not be able to repel or counter with another attack. While in this mode, however, Hotori is restricted in her movement and though may be able to block an attack, will be almost completely unable to counter with an attack of her own or jump out of the way without letting go of Celestial Peacock.

Boosts: None

Bankai

New Name: [What's your zanpakuto's new name? Ex: Tensa Zangetsu, Senbonzakura Kageyoshi, etc.]
Appearance: [What does your bankai look like? Character appearance changes, weapon changes, etc.]
Abilities: [What abilities does your character gain]
Boosts: [Increases in your character's physical capabilities. Speed, Strength, Stamina, etc.]

Back Drop

Background: Despite her name and nationality, Hotori was born in America and moved back to Japan with her immigrant parents only a few years after she was born. She knows relatively good English, but excels in Japanese as most Japanese do.

She was born in a town just south of Chicago, Illinois. Her mother and father were both immigrants running away from their own parents in Japan. However, when it became apparent that starting over in America wasn't as easy as the textbooks made it sound, they moved back. Hotori grew up living a fairly carefree life, not knowing much about her parents struggles until her early adolescence. Hotori was always a very happy child, always wanting to know more. In fact, most of her childhood was devoted to ballet lessons, or fencing lessons or horseback riding lessons or piano lessons. She gobbled up knowledge like it was ice cream.

School was always the highlight of her day. She was the one with the highest marks. Not because her parents told her to get the best marks or because she had a very elite school in mind, but just because she was consistently soaking up everything her teachers said. Her parents were, of course, proud. Her teachers were very impressed. Had she lived on, it's very likely she would have grown into a well paid doctor or scholar.

Unfortunatly, that wouldn't come to pass. Following her graduation from high school, she was kidnapped on her way home from the supermarket. She was kept in a dark cellar for weeks on end while her parents scrambled to come up with enough money for a ransom. While the police searched and her parents looked for money in places they wouldn't have looked before, Hotori slowly began to wither away in her prison. By the time somebody found her, she was dead from starvation.

In whole form, she haunted that cellar for years, wanting only for someone to come rescue her, resenting her parents for not being fast enough. Hating the police for not being good enough that their jobs. All she wanted was for her knight in shining armor to come alone and make everything all right again.

When a Shinigami finally arrived, however, her resentment had seeped into her very soul. No longer would she wait for years and years for something that might never happen. She'd take life by the reins and ride it for herself.

After arriving in the Seireitei, Hotori began her new life. Though after a few simple years, the boredom of heaven began to wear on her. There was nothing to look forward to. Nothing to work towards. Just living each day like the last. It infuriated her. She took steps towards increasing her spiritual powers and manifesting them, but it was still a good 15 or so years before she considered herself to be good enough to try and prove herself at the Shinigami Academy.

At the Academy, she found herself relaxing into the routine of a student again, desperately trying to soak up as much knowledge as she could. Unlike in the human world, however, she found a subject she found difficult to master. She developed a style of swordplay that suited her well and found that she was as athletic as ever, but couldn't get the hang of the demon arts. Her practice was spent on deciphering the inner workings of 2 or 3 of them, but after realizing how many spells could be used and how little time she had left to learn them, it became clear that she was cut out for other things. The two she learned well, 8 and 37, she began to use to create a distance from her opponent. She learned the incantations up to bakudo 47 before throwing in the towel.

Upon receiving her zanpakto, she was dissapointed that she couldn't hear it's name right away. She figured, that after all her hard work, she'd instantly be able to hear which creature's spirit resided in her sword. It was several more years before she began to recognize her swords voice and be able to enter it's world. The appearance of Celestial Peacock elated the still young soul reaper. Convincing it to reveal the secrets of it's power, proved to be difficult. Even now, she has been unable to pull more than a few simple moves from the mouth of the regal peacock.

Side Notes: None so far
RP Sample:

A breeze shuffled it's way through the decaying trees. A bright full moon briefly showed itself from behind the clouds before being covered up again. Hotori felt uneasy again. She shivered in her black uniform, her right hand hovering just above the grip of her weapon. She should have sent for help long ago. The winds were making her feel very uneasy.

A twig snapped behind her and on instinct, Hotori drew her weapon, bringing the hilt in front of her, letting the blade hover out towards her elbow. Her breath slowed as she listened for her pursuer to reveal himself again. She wasn't about to lose to no Hollow, but that didn't stop her hands from shaking. Whether it was from nerves or excitement, she couldn't tell. The wind picked up again, blowing her hair into her eyes. She blinked a few times, trying to clear her vision. Whoever had been following her took his chance then. She felt a brush against her leg and swung down on it, missing by a mile. She must have been unlucky. Low level Hollows didn't often know shunpo, and even if they did, it was usually unrefined. She didn't often miss.

"Quit being a coward." He called to the dead trees. "You won't be so lucky next time you take a swipe at me!" There was a shuffle off to her left. To her ears, it could have been a laugh. She knew she could get him, it wouldn't be hard. But she wanted to learn how he fought. And if it was just taking swipes at her from a distance, this wouldn't be fun. "Don't make me get serious, Mr. Hollow. Come out and play."

Cocky shinigami a voice cackled. You wouldn't know luck if it bit you like a snake. The voice was coming from, below her?

She quickly sidestepped, barely avoiding a strike at her ankle. A black snake with a gaping mouth was nipping at the ground where she had stood. "A snake?" She muttered, steadying her stance. I'll always be here, striking where you least expect. Just like before. The voice was soaked in venom. It sent shivers through Hotori's spine. She was done with this. "Stop fooling around!" She called, stabbing at the black snake. A cry was heard off to her left, gasping as if it was surprised she'd had the audacity to strike at him in the middle of his speech.

Stupid shinigami! He got no further. Before the hollow could react at all, his bird shaped mask split down the middle. The body, which had been about the size of Hotori herself, dissolved into nothing. "And here I wanted to have fun. Next time, make it more interesting. Sneaking around in the shadows only proves you're a coward."

She resheathed her zanpakto, clearing the disgusted look from her face. "Who's next?" She asked to the shadows.

Actually, for a girl, that is the best weight for her height. For a guy, that would be on the thin side. Under the zanpakutou and kidou section, the kidou is there for you to list the spells your character can use, not your zanpakutou spirit. More description on the shikai abilities, please, especially the Gust and Celestial Shield abilities. Is the weird fan like blade really that weak?

Do the background and RP sample as well as the above corrections, and then you will be on your way to the academy. Until the character app. is finished though, please put a WIP in the title, and then remove it when you're done.

The kido part still bothers me, but only because of the number of spells, but seeing as though you can only use Bakudo 8 and 37 with consistant success, I'm okay with it. I know there is a thread that says the number of Hado and Bakudo you may have at certain levels of power, but I can't find it at the moment. But there is no Bakudo 47, just letting you know. Everything looks good now.

First approval. Requires a second then your first thread needs to be in the Shinigami Academy.

Tier: 2-3