Souten Ai, Shinigami and 3rd seat to 12th Division
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Age: 465
Height: 5'4"
Weight:Varies
Speech/Reiatsu:Violet, Violet(rather sparky)

Appearance:
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Ai is easily recognizable as a member of 12th Division. It would be difficult to place Ai's age by appearance beyond being vaguely youngish looking. Her face is unlined due to her infrequency in smiling, furring her brow, or indulging in facial expressions in general. She has wide, staring eyes, it's to be noted that she hasn't blinked with them in over a hundred years. While the previous is interesting and noticeable after close examination, most would be more immediately drawn to her light mauve complexion. Less immediately, Ai has matching circular markings on her cheek that are a much deeper shade of the colour. Her hair is an off pink that may have been a pale yellow at some point and is cut short to exactly one inch all around. Over her Shinigami uniform she almost always wears the standard lab coat of the 12th. Ai wears a skull cap on her head that appears to be made of coiled copper. Her hands are bare save for copper bits covering where her finger tips would be, there is also something resembling a large marble imbeded in her left wrist on the palm side. Should someone be drawn to Ai's feet they would see that they are slightly narrower and seem abnormally long. Ai has an extremely stiff bearing, her movements are forced and awkward. When looking at Ai, Zanpakuto not be noticed immediately. From the back or side, one my see the sword hilt behind her head, from the hilt's angle the blade itself appears to be stuck in her spine..

Personality:
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Ai's life revolves around her work in the 12th division. In her hundreds of years of life she refrained from involving herself in anything unrelated her division duties or her own individual contributions in it. In matters concerning the 12th Ai speaks and acts in a brisk and steely manner, she keeps herself aloof. As the above states this means she almost always speaks and acts in a brisk and steely manner, and keeps herself aloof. In recent times Ai has become aware that she is completely socially inept. Her inability to cope with casual interactions or in making connections with her fellow shinigami has started to trouble her. Ai had begun taking steps to remedy this with careful research into social stratagems, So far it's not going well. She's also attempting to secretly smuggle self help books from the mortal world.

Contrary to what her appearance and what the above suggests, Ai is more then a block of wood. While outwardly this is the case, deep deep inside that grainy layer is a personality. Ai is proud, she thinks highly of herself and of her achievements within the division. Criticism frustrates her as as does anything that restricts her creative process. As Ai's own research was almost always high risk and experimental, she's none to fond of the existing safety measures that greatly inhibit her. It is Ai's belief that there is nothing that can't be improved upon. While understanding the nature of things is fine, it's only the foundation to higher things in Ai's mind. Ai has gone so far as to literally apply this outlook to herself. She has very little in the way of reservations about forcing it on others, if she could only have the chance!

Backstory:
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Ai's history is shrouded in mystery and hearsay... among the interns at least, talking about the strange purple person is always a popular topic.

Ai is likely the last scion of her clan, a clan she has little intention of continuing. Her clan is hardly a prominent one in the Soul Society, but since the founding of the 12th Division, the clan had always held a firm place in the division's registry. Ai was raised with all expectation of joining the 12th and obviously she had. Initially admitted as an intern, under the tutorage and direction of her fellow Soutens within the division, Ai proved to be a promising young prodigy. upon gaining full membership within the 12th, Ai became a rising star in it's ranks, she would often be trusted with critical tasks in various projects.

The first black mark on Ai's career came on a day like any other day. A prominent scientist within the 12th and head of the meagre Souten clan had in mind a project that he assured would redefine the soul society for all time. The exact nature of the project has been struck from the records but Ai herself was granted a vital role in monitoring stability in the experiment. Some short days after the initial success The Souten elder was struck dead and she herself was severely injured. In the aftermath, the Captain cracked down on the the involved parties. Her comrades attemped to slot blame onto her (one of the scapegoaters was actually family if you could imagine..) she stated in her defence that she was completely successful in her duty as the experiment technically remained stable and that, if anywhere, the flaw would be in the theory itself. In the end, Ai managed to evade blame for the incident but at the cost of estranging her colleagues.

Ai came to a degree of notoriety some years later when she finally earned the opportunity carry out her own experiments. Ai's specialty was Reiatsu manipulation, and it became the base of nearly all her future experiments. Ai had long regarded Reiatsu as "waisted energy," constantly leaking out of ones body, very little of it was being put into practical use in her eyes. Her most ambitious endeavour ever was the creation of devices that would redirect Reiatsu internally, using it to power countless other devices inside a subjects body. many within her division were skeptical of her theory but after several attempts she achieved success and felt most assured that it would redefine the soul society for all time! Much to her Chagrin, the Captain seemed to dwell on her first two attempts. The first subject was unfortunately drained of all spiritual power and was forced into retirement, the second had exploded, but his sacrifice had given Ai the idea to include something like a surge protector. The third was perfectly successful, however his Reiatsu had been too weak for it to be of much use regardless. Ai was ultimately banned from continuing with this work to her extreme surprise. Despite the ban, she was stubbornly set on proving the practical application of her work; Ai was forced to use herself as she had little other choice in test subjects. She succeeded of course and spent the years since tinkering with and improving her augmentations. Whatever she made discoveries that interested others in the 12th, she was insistent that original experiment was a necessary component in it, and it usually was. The above only consisted of her personal pursuits, she still adamantly carried out her division duties and played her roles in what work was assigned to her. Despite past transactions, she continued to rise within the division through her consistency in excellence and her obsession with update and progress reports. She still nurses her injured pride and often falls into bitterness but she's not about that get in the way her duty just yet.

Abilities:
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Ai's augmentations:
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As stated in her backstory, Ai has spent almost 200 years tinkering with her own body, she's been very productive with her time. Ai's modifications aren't nessesarily limited to those listed beflow, these are her standard fare and it's hardly beyond her to devise new ones at a later date.

Reiatsu channelling device:
Just as the name implies, Ai has implanted devices that redirect her Reiatsu internally. Her Reiatsu is for practical reasons infused in her blood and is carried along all through her body (thus explaining her queer complexion). Her very special blood passes through a varied selection of inventions also by Ai, these items draw the spirit power from her blood and are thus powered. over time Ai discovered additional effects caused by the implants. Ai's nerves sense of touch have long been deadened by the flow of Reiatsu, aside from occasional twitching she's almost entirely incapable of involuntary movement. Much of her actions are carried out on a conscious level, any form of bodily expression is forced and done only out of courtesy for others. On that not she's mostly immune to pain and would only notice being cut when she feels her Reiatsu leaking out. on the subject of wounding, Ai has had quite a long time to examine the complex flow of her spiritual energy through her veins. Ai can now manipulate her super infused Reiatsu blood, similar to how other Shinigami make use of theirs. Ai may stop and harden her blood similar to an extremely powerful Hierro, only under the skin ...of course Ai has to stop her blood to actually do this. Ai may also force her blood to continue to flow where it would normally go even with a sizable gash, this is almost entirely unconscious, it would stop wounds from bleeding although it would be a bit much to expect the blood to through through where an entire arm used to be.

Strength enhancers: A number of Shinigami enhance their strength with their spiritual power. Ai also does this, although she's among the extreme end of this collection. She mostly uses this for lifting heavy apparatuses.

Multi-jointed:
Ai, with patience and care, has made herself absurdly flexible. It's quite disturbing to look at when she displays it, one would also expect it to be damn hard to trap her in a hold. This is not reliant on her spiritual energy.

Eye Enhancement:
She hasn't truly enhanced her eyes rather encased them in special protective lens'. Over time she played with them to enhance her sight but refrained from tinkering to much as a matter of pride (She makes a point of avoiding the Captain's inventions whenever she can due to past injuries). She also doesn't need to blink anymore, very efficient.

Spirit scouter:
Ai's tongue has been modified to detect spiritual anomalies. By simply tasting the air, Ai can detect the presence of others and their spiritual nature, assuming she's familiar with whatever they are. She may also calculate their reiatsu level when they're in her line of sight. An additional function of her tongue is the ability to taste other things besides spirit partials.

Finger Tools:
The metal tips of her fingers are there to ensure she has essential equipment always on hand haha. The left hand bits slide open to reveal several generic tools, she routinely changes them. The right hand has a more permanent selection of Reiatsu powered lasers (To the enthusiastic approval of her Captain). They serve all manner of functions where lasers are appropriate and some where they aren't! For combat application, Ai must straighten her arm out to link up additional charged implants along her arm.

Soul phone/holo projector:
Rather complicated sounding, but essentially the phone is part of her hand and works much like this. The projector takes the form of the large marble in her wrist, it can display a similar if more advanced version of the Soul phone's hollow radar. The projector may also display other information for practical usage in the labs.

Wheeled feet:
Yes, as the title states, Ai has wheeled feet. One of the strangest and a personal favourite invention of Ai herself. it starts off with her oddly narrow feet, she actually has only three enlarged toes to each, something she regards as important in this. Her "big toe" has copper plate for a nail, the plate isn't so much a plate as an extending band. The band would extend in a snap to form a wide ring that goes into her heel. Once the rings are complete, she rolls around with dexterous ease upon them. With them she moves with obscene speed and can switch directions with minimal loss of momentum. She may also airwalk, or rather roll with them, when doing so they gather violet sparks. For some reason Ai can't fathom, they have yet to catch on in Seireitei.

Abilities:
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Hoho:
Ai is fairly proficient with this technique.

Hakuda:
Yes, Ai the scientist is no stranger to the mysteries of connecting the fist the ever vulnerable face. Her interest in it began some hundreds of years ago where she took serious injuries, she's since resolved never to be caught flat footed again. She's very well versed in the techniques and, combined with her Reiatsu enhanced resilience and strength (not to mention her flexibility), she is very formidable.

Zanjutsu:
It is assumed that she is not the most proficient of sword users as she has opted to keep the thing embedded in her spine. She can actually unsheath the thing but, unsurprisingly, her technique is not a fine example of the Soul Society's noble art.

Kido:
With a clear voice, an unmatched memory, and excellent control of both Reiatsu and Reiryoku, Ai is a poor practitioner of Kido. Of course for one so talented and having all the right qualities it was a physical effort to be so bad at it. Ai really dislikes Kido and has nothing but contempt for those incense huffing mystics. That isn't to say Ai didn't study enough to grasp the useful bits regarding Reiryoku manipulation and other useful tidbits that can be gleaned in that arcane dribble for her research. Ai can actually use some Kido spells, although only ones she managed to convert to proper scientific calculations over those absurd mantras. She hasn't given much time to it so she only as access to the least of Bakudo and Hado. She can't use any without the words.

Zanpakuto:
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Sealed state:
Ai's Zanpakuto is more likely the length of a Kodachi or wakizashi over a katana given that Ai doesn't have a small metal blade sticking out much like a tail. the hilt looks fairly standard with the bindings a dark violet colour to match the rest of her.

Inner World:
..Is hardly important, it's not like you'll be seeing it. it's probably lightningy or something..

Shikai: "Connect, Saki"
In Shikai, Ai's zanpakuto transforms into a plain metal pike with a copper sheen, her appearance is amusing reminiscent of a bumper car given it's still stuck in her spine. The pike serves much like a spiritual conductor, drawing spiritual energy from that is expelled from others, and collects enough to send it back in the form of bolts of energy at her unfortunate foes.

Ai doesn't use it for this though, instead she jerry-rigged the sword (much to it's indignity) to provide herself with additional spiritual power. Ai becomes rather giddy with the power boost, she quite literally trembles with power. special spiritual surge guards would begin to kick in at this point to keep her from overloading which would be followed with dying. The guards can be manipulated manually from an area somewhere on her body.

Bankai:
Ai has not achieved Bankai, she doesn't seem to think much about it..


Character added to the first post here