scorched Application

[littlestkuchiki]

In Character Information

character name: Rukia Kuchiki.
Fandom: Bleach
Timeline: Post chapter 381.  
character's age: Unknown; could be anything from 60-150ish

powers, skills, pets and equipment:
Powers:  Rukia is a Shinigami, which is translated as Soul Reaper in the English dub. She is able to send wandering souls on to the afterlife by performing Konso, and is also able to purify evil spirits (known as Hollows) in order to allow them access to Soul Society or send them to Hell if their sins are too great for purification.

As a Shinigami, Rukia is able to sense and utilise spiritual power as well as being in possession of a large amount herself. While not the strongest character in the series by a long shot, Rukia possesses enough power that she is able to go toe to toe with Arrancar. Her powers also grant her the ability to use Kido. It is suggested, due to her ease in controlling and manipulating her spiritual powers during her childhood (she, unlike Renji, is able to manifest them into a visible sphere of raw spiritual energy), that this skill comes relatively naturally to her.

Skills: Rukia is a capable swordswoman, although by her own admission her swordsmanship is not her strongest skill area. Despite this, she is still able to hold her own with a bladed weapon. One of her strongest assests is her abilities in the field of  Kido. She has demonstrated the ability to use her kido for healing purposes and as a form of offensive attack. She proves to be to be particularly adept in this area, proving to be just as dangerous with it as she is with her Zanpakutou (lit. Soul Slayer, which originates in the wielder's soul), which is a Shinigami's primary weapon. Zanpakutou tradtitionally take the form of a bladed weapon when in their sealed form, but this form changes when a Shinigami attains shikai, or initial release, with their Zanpakutou.

Sode no Shirayuki is an ice-type Zanpakutou and is referred to as being the most beautiful Zanpakutou in Soul Society (Bleach's equivalent of the afterlife). Its abilities are referred to as 'dances,' and as of the most recent canon it is know to have three dances:

Some no mai, Tsukishiro: (first dance, white moon) Everything encompassed within a radius as drawn by Rukia with the tip of her sword is captured in ice and frozen. This also includes everything above it in the air.

Sugi no mai, Hakuren: (the next dance, white ripple) This attack is a powerful wave of ice that again captures and freezes any opponent in its path

San no mai; Shirafune: (third dance, white sword) In the case of Sode no Shirayuki becoming broken during the course of battle, Rukia is able to reforge her sword using solid ice.

Rukia is also intelligent and resourceful; this is demonstrated numerous times when she is bound to an artificial body without the use of the bulk of her powers and is still able to devise strategies with which she is able to assist Ichigo Kurosaki in his mission to hunt down Hollows (evil spirits). Her backstory also shows that she obtained good grades while studying at the Shinigami Academy.

Another very 'special' ability of Rukia's is her... talent as an artist. She is obssessed with bunnies, and somehow everything she draws ends up looking exactly like a kitsch cartoon bunny.

Equipment: Rukia will be arriving wearing her Shihakushou- her shinigami uniform- and carrying her Zanpakutou, Sode no Shirayuki. She will also be somewhat battered and bruised, having just suffered a close encounter with the 0th Espada, Yammy Llargo and been treated on site by Isane Kotetsu. Her upper body is bandaged and her arm is in a sling.

canon history: Rukia’s life, as followers of Bleach know it, began when she died in infancy and was sent to Soul Society. Her early (after)life was not an easy one, as she and her older sister ended up arriving in Inuzuri (lit. ‘Hanging dog’) , the 79th district of Southern Rukongai and one of the toughest places for a soul to survive. Hisana was unable to cope with raising a child under such harsh circumstances and abandoned Rukia to an uncertain fate. The child survived, and some years later she met with a ragtag group of street urchins. These boys soon became her family, and for ten years she and her gang roamed the streets, stealing food and ducking hostile opposition until only she and Renji Abarai remained, as Inuzuri claimed the lives of their friends. As the two had demonstrated some spiritual powers in their childhood, they resolved to enter the Academy and become Shinigami so that they could live a better life.

Despite demonstrating better control than Renji in the early stages of her powers development, Rukia found herself lagging behind her friend and ended up being placed in less advanced classes than him. As he continued to outshine her and progress, Rukia began to feel less secure in their friendship. When she was later found and then adopted by the Kuchiki family, the chasm became too wide for their friendship to survive, as Renji pushed Rukia towards the adoption, thinking it was the better life that he believed she had deserved all, while Rukia assumed that he no longer wanted to be her friend and this was an easy way out. She was immediately placed in the 13th Division of the Gotei 13 (Soul Society's elite military) due to her adoption, and underwent intense scrutiny from her new company. Already uncertain of her new standing as a noble and lacking a confidant having lost Renji, Rukia was fortunate enough to be taken under the wing of Kaien Shiba, the charismatic second seat of the 13th Division. The two became very close as Kaien brought her out of her shell and trained her further in the Shinigami arts. (It is arguable that Rukia may have been a little in love with him, although she never acted on this as Kaien was very happily married to a woman who Rukia idolised). However, this happiness was short-lived. Disaster struck one night when a Hollow (evil spirit) named Metastacia killed Kaien’s wife while she was on an information gathering mission. Grief-stricken, Kaien asked to be allowed to deal with the Hollow’s extermination himself, which the Division Captain allowed for the sake of Kaien's honour. Rukia, along with her captain Jyushirou Ukitake, were forced to watch as the Hollow destoyed Kaien's Zanpakutou and possessed his body. Ukitake tried to defeat the now possessed Kaien, but was stricken with illness and left a terrified and subsequently powerless Rukia to put a stop to Kaien. Unable to act, Rukia watched in horror as Kaien regained consciousness long enough to throw himself upon her sword and thank her for letting him fight on his own. He died in her arms.

Kaien’s death affected Rukia deeply. She was so guilt ridden by her part in the accident that her self esteem plummeted, the extent that she believed that she too deserved to die for her inability to act in a way that could have saved Kaien’s life. It wasn’t until many years later that it became evident just how big of a problem it had become for her.

One night during a routine patrol of Karakura town, Rukia walked through the wall of a teenage boy's bedroom, and both their lives were never quite the same again.

The boy, Kurosak Ichigo, happened to have unusually high levels of spiritual energy, which enabled him to commune with the spirits of the dead. It is difficult to say who was the more surprised out of the two when Rukia walked through his wall and he literally tried to kick her out of his room. Unfortunately for Ichigo though, his power attracted a Hollow, which proceeded to attack the clinic and try to kill his whole family. Ichigo, being the main character and really very foolish for an intelligent young man, thought that by sacrificing himself he would be able to prevent the Hollow from decimating his family. It took Rukia sacrificing herself to convince him that this was not the case, and as a last ditch attempt to save them both, Rukia was forced to transfer her Shinigami powers to Ichigo by stabbing him through the heart with her Zanpakutou. Unbeknownst to them both, Ichigo's own spiritual power somehow caused the power transfer to be absolute, leaving Rukia stranded in a powerless spiritual body and Ichigo becoming a Shinigami.

As she was stranded in the Living World, Rukia was forced to take up residence in Ichigo's closet, having been loaned an artificial body by the local shady merchant with a tie to Soul Society, Kisuke Urahara. Rukia joined him at school, and secretly trained him in the ways of the Shinigami. Gradually, Rukia began to form bonds and became accustomed to her life in the Living World, and she and Ichigo developed a close partnership and mutual understanding. This was highlighted when Ichigo came face to face with the Hollow that had killed his mother when he was a child; in an echo of Kaien's fight with Metasacia, Ichigo demanded that Rukia allow him to fight on his own to avenge his mother. She is shown physically holding herself back and telling herself not to interfere. Her relief at Ichigo's survival is made apparent as she thanks his unconscious form for not dying while she heals his wounds after the fight.

Soon, however, Soul Society was made aware of her crime of transferring her powers to a human and sent men to hunt her down. These were none other than her childhood friend Renji Abarai and her brother Byakuya Kuchiki. Although she was defended by her classmate, Uryuu Ishida, and then Ichigo, they proved to be no match for Byakuya. Ichigo actually fared relatively well against Renji, though it took Byakuya wounding him to the extent that he became a powerless human soul for Ichigo stay down. Even with that great extent of damage, Ichigo was ready to fight again, though Rukia stepped in and threatened him not to follow her. Convinced that she had condemned Ichigo to death due to her actions, she returned to Soul Society where it was revealed that she was to be sentenced to death. Believing that this harsher than usual punishment was fitting for her (due to her previous 'crimes' of killing Kaien and Ichigo- as she believed him to be dead at the time of her sentencing), Rukia accepted her sentence and went to her imprisonent to await her execution. Though she claimed peace of mind from this, her resolve soon began to shake when she learnt that Ichigo had not only survived his fight with her brother, but had come to Soul Society with the aid of her former classmates Uryuu Ishida, Orihime Inoue and Yasutora Sado (and Urahara and his friend Yoruichi) to save her. She was reunited with Ichigo soon after an attempt was made to free her from her solitary confinement, though this does nothing to restore her serenity in the face of her execution as she began to fear for the lives of her friends who were battling desperately to save her.

In the meantime, the date of her execution was being brought further and further forward in light of the murder of a Captain within the Gotei 13.

The date of Rukia's execution dawned, and despite a last ditch made by Renji (now siding with Ichigo on Team Save Rukia) to save her, she went to the scaffold where she was due to be killed by the Sougyoku (an absurdly powerful Zanpakutou). Just as the blade had transformed into a flaming phoenix to evaporate her Soul, Ichigo arrived in the nick of time to block its attack and rescue Rukia. He destroyed the scaffold and passed her to Renji, with orders to get her far away as possible as he dealt with the opposition in the form of Byakuya. Renji ran half way across Soul Society with her until they were caught by Gin Ichimaru and Sousuke Aizen, the Captain who had been supposedly murdered by the intruders. With all the key players assembled, Aizen revealed that he had been manipulating the situation behind the scenes in order to have Rukia executed so that he could get his hands on the Hougyoku, a powerful device which had been made by Urahara to break down the barriers between Shinigami and Hollow in order to gain immense power. With this, Aizen planned to overthrow the King of Soul Society. The location of this amazing device?

Hidden inside Rukia.

Aizen was able to steal the Hougyoku and make his escape, leaving Soul Society in turmoil, but in the aftermath Rukia learnt the truth about her adoption into the Kuchiki family; her sister Hisana had married Byakuya, and racked with guilt had made him promise on her death bed that he would find Rukia and make her part of the family, on the condition that he never tell her the truth as she felt she did not deserve to be called Rukia's sister after abandoning her. Byakuya had broken a promise made to his parents by adopting Rukia, and swore on their graves that he would never flout the laws of nobility and Soul Society again, hence his staunch aqquiescence with Soul Society's ruling on Rukia's life.  As a result of the whole fight to keep her alive, Rukia learnt that her life had some merit to it after all and that she did not need to die for her part in Kaien's death.

Her guilt was still not completely gone.

Some months after Ichigo and the others from Karakura had returned home, trouble began to stir with the arrival of some of Aizen's new Arrancar, who were powerful fighters that had once been Hollows, and had gained Shinigami powers with the aid of the Hougyoku. Ichigo was struggling with his own problems, having acquired a Hollow in his quest to restore his Shinigami powers in order to save Rukia, and had become paralysed by his own fear of the darkness inside him. Help was at hand, as Soul Society sent a task force comprised of familiar faces to Karakura town to combat the threat. Amongst them was Rukia. It took a reunion with her to snap Ichigo out of his malaise, but after she was badly injured in an attack made by a particularly vicious Arrancar named Grimmjow, (who was one of Aizen's 10 Espada, the strongest of all Arrancar) , he went right back to battling his Hollow and trying to master it. During this time, Rukia took on the training of Orihime Inoue and forged a stronger bond with the younger girl. Unfortunately though, her strange powers had attracted the attention of Aizen, and on her way back from Soul Society, she was abducted by another of Aizen's Espada. A guilty Rukia was forced to return to Soul Society when it appeared that Orihime had turned traitor, but when Ichigo and friends launched an expedition to Hueco Mundo (the world in which Hollows lived) to go and rescue her, Rukia and Renji ran off to join Ichigo, Ishida and Chad in their quest to save her.

The group split up to infiltrate Aizen's fortress of Las Noches, and Rukia found herself face to face with a blast from her past: Kaien Shiba. Stunned, Rukia learnt that the Hollow who had killed him had been turned into an Arrancar named Aaroniero Arruruerie, who was the 9th Espada. He tried to manipulate Rukia into killing her friends to 'atone' for killing Kaien. She was horrified and enraged at this insult and perversion of Kaien's memory and face and drew her Zanpakutou. This led to a gruelling battle, which ultimately resulted in Rukia defeating the Hollow who had killed her mentor, avenging his death and setting his soul free, though not without severely injuring and almost killing herself in the process. She collapsed, unconscious, having been impaled during the battle, although she had tried desperately to crawl to the aid of her friends, determined to save Orihime even though she was bleeding out. Her unconscious form was then manipulated by the 7th Espada in a battle against her brother, Byakuya, who had come to Hueco Mundo to give aid. The Espada did not live long enough to regret that particular strategy.

With her injuries healed, Rukia returned to battle to give aid to Ichigo as he raced to save Orihime from the 4th Espada. She, Renji and Chad fought off numerous Arrancar, only to eventually be overpowered by Yammy Llargo, the 0th and most powerful Espada. Eventually, Rukia was the only one who was left conscious and tried desperately and in vain to combat the enemy. She was flung to her death, only to be saved by Ichigo. Fresh from his victory against Ulquiorra Cifer, the 4th Espada, Rukia noted that something was not quite right with Ichigo as she watched him fight (she was right; Ichigo's Hollow had manifested in a truly terrifying way in the course of the battle and had completely dehumanised him in the process, scaring him horribly.) Ichigo's fight was interrupted by the arrival of Byakuya and the Gotei 13's 11th Division captain Kenpachi Zaraki, who told Ichigo that he was needed back in Karakura town where the might of the Gotei 13 had amassed to fight Aizen's most skilled fighters. Rukia was left to watch as Ichigo returned to the living world to join the fray.

(A complete overview of Rukia's background can be found here, although I will be playing her from the manga version and am discounting the anime filler arcs.)

personality:
Rukia has a multi-faceted personality. Amongst her school peers in Karakura who do not know about her true identity, she is old-fashioned and quirky, having learnt all her social cues from shoujo horror manga about how to speak and act in modern day Japan- this is an endless source of embarrassment to Ichigo, but seems to be quite charming to others. This also demonstrates Rukia's skill as an actress, as she has managed to fool numerous people with this act. When Rukia is on official shinigami business, she can act aloof and with great propriety, as she has been brought up to act aristocratically upon her adoption into the noble Kuchiki family. It is arguable that she does not feel comfortable when trying to appear noble, as she demonstrated when she joined the 13th division that she did not enjoy the scorn heaped upon her by fellow Shinigami for having her graduation from the Academy handed to her on a plate as a result of her adoption. Her relationship with her adopted brother Byakuya was also difficult, as he treated her coldly due to his inner turmoil about being true to his family and his promise to his late wife Hisana to look after her sister when doing so was against the wishes of his family. This relationship appears to have eased up and become warmer following Aizen's rebellion.

Rukia's true personality is most probably the one she displays when she is around those she feels most comfortable with, namely Ichigo and Renji. She is bossy and sarcastic and can completely dominate the boys with a well-aimed punch or kick if they disagree with her or irritate her, and is unafraid to squabble with them. She is also extremely good at talking her friends (especially Ichigo) out of sulking, either through harsh home truths or her own unique brand of encouragement (which usually involves some sort of physical blow from a fist or a foot). In battle, she is resolved and disciplined, and incredibly graceful. While she is generally a confident individual most of the time, she harbours a deeply melancholy side to her which is caused by her residing feelings of guilt over the death of Shiba Kaien, who she killed when he was possessed by a Hollow. This is mostly apparent during the Soul Society arc, where she believes that she deserves to be executed as just punishment for her part in Kaien's demise. It took the actions of her friends from Karakura, Renji, Ichigo, a great number of other Shinigami and finally her brother Byakuya to convince her that her life had some value and was worth saving. It is possible that by defeating the Espada Aaroniero Arruruerie, who had merged with the hollow that possessed Kaien, Rukia has managed to overcome these feelings and apparently forgiven herself for her actions on the night that Kaien died, but the manga has not yet presented an opportunity for this theory to be tested.

Amongst her favourite things, Rukia counts her favourite foods to be cucumbers, eggs and rice dumplings, and she enjoys sitting in high places. Rabbits are also something of an obsession for her.

why do you feel this character would be appropriate to the setting? Rukia is a character who has proven her adaptability to changes in circumstance over the course of her canon. She has gone from living on the streets to rubbing shoulders with nobility and from there to dwelling within the closet of a teenage boy. This shows that she is resilient and capable of making the best of any sort of upheaval. She is a survivor, and she is not afraid of the supernatural, being something of a supernatural entity herself.

She is also a warrior; Rukia’s experience as a Shinigami, and living on the streets, means that her fighter’s instincts are keen and well honed, meaning that she would be able to hold her own against any hostile opponent that would come her way.

In addition to this, many core members of Rukia’s friends and family are already in the game, which would give her something familiar to ease her into her new surroundings (as well as leading to some awkwardness as two of them are supposed to be dead.)

Writing Samples

Network Post Sample: [There’s a small hand fumbling with the Forge, or at least there appears to be. A pale thumb partially obscures the lens and throws everything slightly out of focus, until whoever is holding it makes a small noise of irritation and shifts their grip.
A black haired girl with wide violet eyes is looking critically at the Forge, her dark brows drawn together slightly in a perplexed frown. She appears bruised and worse for wear, her entire upper body seems to be wrapped in bandages, and her left arm is in a sling]

I don’t understand… Did something go wrong? Where is everyone? They were right here with me, this isn’t right!

[She looks around, confused. Belatedly, she realises that the device is recording and she tugs the remaining upper half of her black kosode across her to preserve some modesty.]

What's happened?

...they didn't... he couldn't have lost...

Can anyone hear me?

[Again, she looks around her, confused.]

This isn't Soul Society, and it's not Karakura... What's going on? Someone answer me!

Third Person Sample:

This is wrong.

Rukia's first thought as she stepped out of the gateway was not an especially comforting one. She had hoped to be greeted with the familiar skyline of the Seireitei, or the equally welcome sight of Karakura town- preferably an intact Karakura town unravaged by Aizen's attack force. She was tired, exhausted actually, and while Isane-fukutaichou had done a wonderful job healing up the injuries she had sustained in battle against that behemoth of an Espada, she still felt achy and ready to sleep for a month. Hueco Mundo had been anything but kind to her, after all.

She had not expected to step out into the misty half light of an unfamiliar city, and she had certainly not expected to be alone once she had arrived.

Rukia was baffled; everyone had been right there beside her! Byakuya nii-sama had been leading them through, Renji had been limping beside her and cracking jokes about how Ichigo was getting the medical bill for leaving them high and dry for as long as he had, when suddenly... suddenly she was here and they weren't. Nor were Inoue or Ishida or Chad or Zaraki-taichou or his pink haired terror of a lieutenant, or Isane-fukutaichou or Hanatarou.

Dread began to twist itself into a knot deep in the pit of her stomach, and she reached for Sode no Shirayuki, wincing and inhaling sharply as the motion jolted her still tender shoulder. While it wasn't ideal for her to arrive in unfamiliar and potentially hostile terrain alone, she was certainly not unarmed and she would put up one hell of a fight. For a split second, as she laid eyes as she took in the unexpectedly unfamiliar landscape, she thought that she had stepped into a nightmare, a nightmare where Ichigo had failed and Aizen had defeated everyone and had actually succeeded and had somehow  transformed the world as she knew it into something new and terrible.

If that was what had happened, so help her she was not going to let herself rest until she got to the bottom of this. She had not just put herself through hell and back and finally seen Inoue Orihime safe and sound only to return to a surreal parody of the world that she had been expecting.

It was time to investigate.

Anything else? Nope!