Kiyoraka Kiyoko (Approved)

A slim, short girl, Kiyoko weighs in at 85 pounds and stands to just an inch under five feet, arguably a stick of a human. She has soft, easy to manage, naturally straight shoulder length purple hued hair that is usually let down and rarely ever tied up. Her eyes are typically a soft, warm, friendly light purple color. Her skin tone is rather pale and sensitive to sunlight, easily getting burned. There’s a slight burn beneath her left eye, an old reminder of a play fight with an old friend before she went to the shinigami school. She typically always has on either a white or black extra small, thin, semi-tight tank top and equally matching shorts barely a hand long along with similar colored thin, short, ankle-length socks. Kiyoko generally always has a thin, somewhat tight, black hair band on her right wrist and sports a small, lightweight gold chained necklace.

When at home in the Soul Society Kiyoko, like everyone else, dons the black shihakusho that all shinigami wear, however she tends to prefer a sleeveless version of the shinigami garb over the sleeved one as the sleeves irritate her. Her robes seem to always be a bit too big for her though, and as such it is a little looser than others, yet still fits comfortably enough. Her zanpakuto is within easy reach, typically by her side, occasionally worn on her back sheathed in its own dark purple, nearly black, sheath. However, Kiyoko tends to prefer her tank top and shorts over the shihakusho, and as such, she tends to discard her shinigami robes when she can, or at least the upper half of her robes. And more often than not, she’ll go about barefoot or with her socks only since the sandals tend to get irritating to her and make her feet hurt more

Her outfit when in the real world isn’t all that different from her general wear, however that are some additions and differences. For one thing she tends to wear a clean, white colored long sleeved, button up, collared shirt over her tank top with a loose, comfortable, soft, black vest with black slacks and a matching belt with a soft, light silver colored buckle. Along with black, ankle length socks, she’ll be wearing a pair of black flats, tennis shoes, or flip-flops, depending on how she’s dressed and what the situation calls for. Asides from the hair band and necklace, Kiyoko bears a small, simple, silver colored, analog watch that’s usually kept in her pocket and generally only worn on her left wrist when she’s wearing her shorts.

A bit of a cross dresser, Kiyoko sometimes dresses up as a guy, in both Soul Society and the Real World. Asides from a complete change in personality, she also changes in appearance. She still retains her soft, purple hued hair, but with a little help from hair products her hair only reaches the nape of her neck in some places and thus gives off the appearance that she is a boy. Relatively flat for her gender and age, it only helps her façade. Her eyes change in appearance as well, without help of any kind as her eye color tends to change with her personality, from their soft, friendly light purple to a calm, cool, detached soft blue color. As a boy she tends to wear a long sleeved, upturned collared, black dress shirt with a faint pattering of leaves in a light-dark purple color that has a moderate sized v-cut; however, this is of little concern to her as she still wears her black tank top beneath it. She’ll typically be wearing similar colored slacks with black, ankle length socks and shoes. She obviously ditches the hair band, but also loses the necklace; however, she does carry a pack of cigarettes and a lighter. Her zanpakuto is usually nowhere to be seen or either by her side, changing only in the coloring of the sheath: from a dark, nearly black purple to a moderately dark purple color that shares the same leaf printing as her shirt. It doesn’t matter if she’s in Soul Society or the Real World, but she won’t wear the shinigami’s wear and as such, is often overlooked and not considered a shinigami by most.

Kiyoko is naturally a timid, quiet girl who doesn’t say very much and can easily become startled and shy. She can be quick to blush, but is hard to anger or annoy as she is rather friendly and nice to most, keeping an open mind about everyone and anyone. One would think that because of her general friendliness and openness to others she would be rather trusting and believing of others, but she holds strong to her own ideals and beliefs and is actually rather cautious with others despite her friendly outlook and aura, although she has a bit of soft spot for children.

Even so, it’s usually easy to tease or make fun of her due to her timid nature; however, her ‘helpless’ outward appearance is a complete opposite of her skill as a fighter. In reality she’s quite capable of protecting herself and others and is a fairly decent fighter. Her weak, helpless, fragile appearance thus gives her a slight advantage in battle since few expect her to be truly capable of fighting her own battles. This side of her, the serious, confident, merciless Kiyoko is largely unknown of to the regular Shinigami and most of the Lieutenants, even a few Captains, as she only shows this side of her in a battle.

Most of the time, everyone knows her as a timid girl who can be quick to blush at the slightest thing who’s willing to help most everyone if she can. So, most of the time she’s stuck doing the paper work or the odds and ends of jobs no one really likes to do. Even the 4th Division that’s usually pushed around to do everyone’s bidding and dirty work ask of her to do this or that for them now and then. Although she can say ‘no’, she just prefers to help everyone and will usually say ‘yes’.

Even so, she absolutely refuses to give away her body in any sort of way and can not be easily taken advantage of in that area, not to mention she can actually tolerate a pretty big dosage of alcohol (which is largely unknown since she doesn’t drink too often in public), but she tends to dislike smoking and similarly dislikes smokers, being unable to stand the smell of the smoke. Not to mention she’s not that big of a fan of most males…

Kiyoko herself doesn’t mind fighting, but is a tad bit calmer and more relaxed and less hotheaded than most of her fellow 11th Division Squad Members. It’s something that makes many wonder why she’s even in the 11th Division in the first place, but since is a part of the 11th Division one can only assume and know she’s at least gifted with the blade, considering she’s the 3rd Seat as well. Her general train of thought is ‘let others fight and fight when necessary’. She tends to prefer saving her strength and energy for the fights her comrades can’t win alone and takes more of a supportive role, letting others deal the finishing blow an taking credit for defeating the opponent. However, this is only applicable when fighting in a group or with others. When alone, she can easily take charge and seem like any other member of the 11th Division. Her reasoning for this is because she has the experience of having fought others, whilst her fellow comrades have yet to have the same level experience or expertise. Rather than weaken them by fighting everyone and everything herself she’d rather help strengthen them by giving them a chance to prove themselves in battle.

When it comes to food and drink, Kiyoko had a sweet tooth, a really big one, the vast majority of her diet composing of fats, oils, and sugar. She loves just bout any kind of junk food and will eat just about anything that has sugar in it. Her particular favorites are chocolate, but never in liquid or frozen form, and plain flavored potato chips with a spicy, cheese dip. Despite her bad diet, she maintains her weight largely because of her body’s fast metabolism. As such, she’s generally munching on something, and since the easiest thing to snack on is junk food its little wonder she had such a bad diet.

She’s not all junk food though, even if it does make up the large bulk of her diet. She loves meat and pasta (but detests seafood), the two making up the second largest portion of her diet. This may be the reason why she always seems full of energy despite rarely sleeping for long and is stronger than she looks. She doesn’t mind eating some fruits such as strawberries, blueberries, and apples, but after a few bites her tongue tends to go numb and she is incapable of eating more. As for vegetables, she absolutely hates them and rarely eats them, generally only eating them when consuming ramen or when she’s not paying attention to what she’s eating. As for dairy products, yogurt and milk are about the only things she consumes from them, along with cheese now and then, but other than that she doesn’t consume many other dairy products.

Her favorite drinks are typically sodas, often having a stock of them around. When she can’t drink such fizzy, sugary drinks she’ll opt for juices, primarily apple juice or orange juice. And if she can’t have juice, she’ll settle for milk, but not water. Water is about the only thing she won’t drink and rarely does. Its something she only drinks when there really is nothing else around to drink. As for wine, sake, alcohol, and so forth, she drinks sparingly, if at all ever. She hates coffee, getting sick from smelling it, much less drinking it, and never, ever drinks it.

In her free time, Kiyoko is still as quiet and shy as ever, preferring to do activities that don’t require help from others, usually reading, writing, or drawing. Interestingly enough she has a good voice, but rarely sings out in public or around others and thus sings alone within her room whilst listening to one of her many songs of all genres of music in all sorts of languages. She’s been told she has a nice body and is flexible enough to learn how to dance, but her timid nature prevents her from truly trying and learning.

Interestingly enough, she seems to be nocturnal, becoming wide awake at night and rather sleepy and tired during the day. Kiyoko suffers greatly from insomnia, but has gotten used to it over the years. But even so, she can’t rid of the random yawns and feeling of exhaustion that come and go throughout the day because of her lack of sleep. Staying up late most nights has caused Kiyoko to become unafraid of the dark and value the night for all its advantages. She’s also improved her night vision somewhat due to lying awake in bed for hours just looking about her room in the semi-darkness.

It can be joked about (and often is) that Kiyoko is a ‘vampire’ due to her general dislike of sunlight and lights (the reason why she’s so pale) and love of blood (something that makes her go a little berserk in battle), as well as her odd sleeping pattern and love of the night. And as Kiyoko is generally more awake at night, she is also more herself at night, becoming a little less shy and timid and more talkative and confident of herself.

An odd personality disorder, one could say, Kiyoko has an alternate persona known as Ankyo that she can easily be with little question to her really being a girl unless one managed to strip her down. However, in reality this little more than identity Kiyoko has created for herself over the years to compensate for her feelings of abandonment, loneliness, and being different. Normally, she vaguely speaks to 'him' within her mind, but over the years she's come to reject 'him' as a figment of her imagination and made him into a 'real person'.

Over the years, Kiyoko has come to make herself believe that Ankyo is an entirely different entity apart from her, that he is her twin or older brother she never knew. And as such, she rejects the thought of her being Ankyo or Ankyo being her and denies such a thing repeatedly within herself, lying to herself and effectively making herself believe such a lie. So if an outsider were to take a simple glance at her they might go 'Oh she has an alternate personality.' or 'Its just a multiple personality disorder.'

In truth, Ankyo is the 'real Kiyoko'. Due to her parents expectations of her and her feeling of being vastly different of others, Kiyoko developed a state of mind that appears to be her 'dominant, real' side since she is the type to want to please others when in reality her 'recessive, imagined' side is her real self, a mixture of who she really is and who she wants to be.

Asides from differing in personality, Ankyo also differs in gender, with Kiyoko literally forgetting about herself being known as ‘Kiyoko’ and thinking of herself only as ‘Ankyo’. She’s vaguely aware of her second persona, but very vaguely, not enough to fully register having two personas or be able to accept the fact that she has two personas (yet). Ankyo generally emerges due to trauma in Kiyoko’s life and generally returns to the place or area Kiyoko was it before Kiyoko takes dominance again, further preventing Kiyoko from finding out about her second persona.

Ankyo shares various similarities to Kiyoko, but one thing can easily be noticed between the two: he is not the least bit shy or timid, and oddly, he likes to smoke and drink. Overall, he’s always calm, laid back, and easy going. He’s not as quick as Kiyoko to helping others and seeks his own goals and wants before others, rarely doing things that others wish or want of him, yet he can be helpful when he wants to be. Outwardly appearing as a loner who wants to be left alone, he lives and does as he wishes; he is in truth seeking to break free of society’s laws and expectations, something that Kiyoko wants deep down and is only capable of expressing in Ankyo.

Arguably ‘handsome’ and ‘intriguing’ to females and the occasional male, Ankyo is usually uninterested, but can act interested, having much greater skills at acting and hiding his real feelings and emotions that Kiyoko. He typically treats women with a sort of respect and curtsey, something most males seem incapable of doing, gaining him further popularity with women, yet he takes no advantage of them and calmly tells them he is uninterested and points them away to someone more appropriate and suitable.

So, in truth, despite his near bad boy appearance and cold, distant attitude towards most people, he can be charming and helpful. But when it comes to fights he loses most of his charisma and focuses on the battle at hand, aiming to end the battle as quickly as possible, not necessarily as painless… but just quickly.

And he, like Kiyoko, shares most of the same diet, save for being able to tolerate coffee and preferring delicately prepared meals rather than quick supplements through junk food or micro-waved meals. And much like Kiyoko, he shares a general fondness over children. And just like Kiyoko, he suffers from insomnia and enjoys the night. But unlike Kiyoko he can tolerate the sun and enjoys being in the sun’s warm rays and doesn’t mind putting on a show or two for others with his voice or ability to dance.

Generally speaking, Kiyoko is one to use speed to make up for her lack of raw strength, utilizing said speed to land quick, consecutive hits repeatedly. As such, her hoho ability is rather high, even for a 3rd Seat. She’s no where near the level of the legendary Flash Step Master Yoruichi when it comes to shunpo, but some say she may one day meet her level or even surpass her, but it’d be awhile before that happened. Her skill with the sword isn’t legendary, nor is it poor; it’s just a little more than average, steadily advancing towards that of an expert. A unique characteristic of her fighting style is her ability to recall her blade using her reiryoku (this will be explained/detailed with the creation of her zanpakuto) thus allowing her to be able to participate in some ranged combat and giving her another slight advantage due to few knowing of this particular technique in Zanjutsu. She is adequate in Kido, but uses it sparingly and mostly for ranged combat when needed (or in some cases, minor, light sniping) and is more of a practitioner than anything. In regards to her hakuda, she’s fairly decent as well and is advancing towards an expert.

Unlike Kiyoko, Ankyo’s hohoo and Zanjutsu skills are flipped. He shares the same unique ability to recall his blade using his reiryoku, but has far more superior Zanjutsu skills than shunpo (i.e. he has expert Zanjutsu skills and above average shunpo skills nearing an expert’s level). His ability with Kido is at the same level as Kiyoko; however, unlike Kiyoko, he is aware of the vast majority of most Kido spells, and thus is able to anticipate their attacks more so than Kiyoko. His skills in hakuda are quite similar to his Zanjutsu skills, being that of an expert. As such, Ankyo focuses more on strength and killing blows rather than relying on speed and quick, consecutive hits.

As a child Kiyoko had been much like any other child, but of course she was just a bit shy and a little clingy towards her parents. As a child, living with her parents had been of little problem and she had been like any other child, loving her parents with the kind of sweet, innocent love only a child could ever have. She grew up the second oldest of her family, but with her older brother having passed away when she was too young to remember, she quickly took up the role as the oldest.

As such, much was expected of her and she lived up to such expectations, making top marks in primary school. She had an avid life then, growing up with others her own age and easily making friends with everyone due to her friendliness and cheerfulness, but her shyness easily made others pick on her and take advantage of her. Still, those were the days when children could be children and such things were all mostly meant in play.

She was happy enough then, having a loving mother and caring father and getting to be a big sister around the 1st Grade. It was fun, no, it was always fun. Things were easy and simple then, the problems and worries she had would’ve been nothing compared to what she’d face as a struggling teenager in a household that made her think less and less of herself.

Living as a pre-teen and teenager, things started to become more and more difficult and confusing for Kiyoko. Her parents were not the loving mother and caring father she once knew of. And her younger brother was already getting on her nerves, driving her insane. It didn’t help much that kids at school continued to pick on her and take advantage of her friendliness, not really registering that they were causing her mental pain. That and her body was less quick to change than those her own age. Arguably, it could be said that this was when Kiyoko first began to develop an alter ego, a second persona, but it wouldn’t fully develop until adulthood.

Plagued by a dysfunctional family and a stressful school life, Kiyoko would find it hard to make lasting and trustworthy friends, but as she entered high school things uplifted for her a little, at least at school things did. Her private life at home had only gotten more and more out of hand though, what with her father never being home and her mother constantly ignoring her own dreams and forcing things onto her and making her stray from the path she wanted and a brother who simply didn’t understand her.

School was her haven, asides from the fairytales and worlds she lost herself to whenever she picked up a book, or the promising dreams she dreamt of at night when she could go to sleep, or the alternate universes and new realms she thought of whenever she wrote and drew or listened to music. Her real life friends might have been able to understand her and help her with her problems if she had only shared them, but she wasn’t one to have others worry about her, much less reveal her own personal, private affairs.

At least her family problems had ended, in a way, after she revealed her prominent interest in females rather than males to her mother and father by complete accident, only to be happy she had done so later on in life. More or less disowned and kicked out of the house, she found herself living with her older cousins who had come to terms with who she was and accepted her as she was, not trying to change her or making her feel even more inhuman than she already felt since her days in middle school. And she made new friends and began to be a little more of herself, taking some kendo classes and a couple of martial arts classes as well, starting to join the track team too.

And so, four years flew by before she knew it and she found herself questioning what would happen to her now that she was a year away from legally being considered as an adult. Free at last of her parents, she wouldn’t have to live up to their expectations anymore, as much as she wanted to feel that they loved her for who she was, she decided to study to become a writer or perhaps an editor, something that would involve writing, for it was writing she enjoyed most, tied with reading.

Shortly after her first year of college, Kiyoko would begin to show the first visible signs of her alternate male self little by little. Still as shy and timid as ever, yet more confident of herself and able to make true friends, things in her life had turned out quite well, ever since she’d been kicked out of home it seemed. And yet, that small seed of doubt and distrust sown in her from her family remained in her and all her new doubts and feelings of betrayal fueled the creation of her alternate persona.

But before this persona could be truly born, she would come to be involved in an accident that would end her life at the young age of 20, in the middle of her third year at college. They say that being in love can make you do a lot of crazy and stupid things, but for Kiyoko, being in love had saved her from taking her own life back in her high school days. 21 year old Kasai Kali might have been the one to die on that fateful day had Kiyoko not gave up her own life in order to save his.

A simple hiking trip in the mountains had led to a disaster with one fatal misstep that had caused both of the young adults to slip and slide their way down into a powerful river that pushed them to the deep waters of a lake. Things might not have been too bad if both of them knew how to swim, but only Kali knew how to swim, but of course, if she could swim, she could help her get ashore, could she not? True, she could have, and it was what caused many to think that she had murdered Kiyoko once the rescue team had arrived, but what if the both of them had been ensnared by the uneven rocky flooring of the lake’s bottom? To be stuck underwater, having their feet trapped in-between the rocks from the force of the river’s current they would have had only so much time before they ran out of air.

The instinct to survive, to breathe, to live would of course be strong in the both of them, but panic would set in easily and that was true for both of them, despite having dating for nearly five years. Even if Kali could have freed Kiyoko, Kiyoko would’ve drowned anyway. And upon realizing this, Kiyoko instead helped Kali escape the sharp rocks. Kali of course, wanted to save her, but how could she even begin to help when she herself desperately needed air? Oh she tried, despite the obvious need to surface and breathe in fresh air, but it was this exact need that drove her to try to help Kiyoko escape, knowing that if she needed air this badly then Kiyoko would need it too, but how could she? She was already drained and battered from hiking all day, as well as the fight with the river and keeping Kiyoko alive during the trip downstream. Making a choice, Kiyoko instead inflicted pain onto Kali and forced her to leave her, letting her tears fade into the lake water and her mind remember nothing but Kali and their time together as water rushed into her lungs and she succumbed to death’s bittersweet embrace.

When Kiyoko next opened her eyes she would find herself in a world that greatly resembled that of feudal Japan. She had wondered if she might have survived somehow, but such a hope quickly faded as she caught sight of familiar faces… faces of the dead. Things were soon explained to her and she half heartedly accepted her new life, still longing to be with Kali.

She missed their days of having gone to school together and participating in the school activities and sports. At first she wondered if things such as ‘kendo’ or ‘track’ even existed here in the Soul Society, or at least some vague form of it. But she generally wasn’t the type to ask questions and instead lived each day like any other soul that had reached Soul Society, practicing her kendo and martial arts lightly when she felt like it and racing against some of the other teens and kids.

She was a little luckier than some, having come to the middle districts of Rukongai, living in neither poor slums nor lavish homes, but rather average ones. It reminded her of home, a lot, but she eventually got over it and accepted the fact that she would likely never see Kali again, not in this lifetime anyway. For a time she had thought about how her family and friends were taking it, her death, but didn’t dwell over it too much. After all, she was dead now and it wasn’t like she was going to be able to see them ever again. But she did hope, hope that maybe she’d be one of the lucky ones and get to be reunited with the people she loved in the afterlife.

Her old life skills as a practicing kendo student and track member, eventually caught up to her and Kiyoko began to spend her now long, long, log life here in Soul Society honing her skills, only to have a Shinigami notice her dedication and skill and in time, come to notice that she could perform very weak, vague forms of Kido, not true Kido itself, but a sort of baby form of it. His thoughts of her possibly being a latent Shinigami were steadily confirmed when he received reports that she, unlike most of the usual souls, could grow hungry and tired and needed to eat an rest. After having a word with his superiors and having her tested, Kiyoko became enrolled in the Shinigami Academy.

It is during this time that she would finally let her alter ego, Ankyo, out. Born at last, Ankyo was a source of mystery and wonder to those that met him for very few met him more than once, they might have seen him more than once, but to actually meet him and talk to him twice? No… Not even the Lieutenants and Captains knew of her alternate persona. One would think that if the are the same person they would have similar spiritual pressures, but no… it truly was as if Ankyo and Kiyoko were two separate entities contained in one body. Their voices, their appearance, their fighting styles, their spiritual pressures… they were different, yet similar, but only fleetingly so. It more often than naught led to those that had met both Kiyoko and Ankyo come to believe the two were siblings, maybe twins, but nothing more.

Her time there was cut by two years due primarily to her previous knowledge of how to handle a sword and ability to catch onto things quickly as well as her eagerness to learn and dedication to studying and practicing. Why the eagerness and dedication though? Eagerness because such a thing as Shinigami existing and the ability to perform Kido were naught more than figments of her imagination in her previous life. To be able to do so now was something she never imagined could happen. Dedication because she wanted to learn and was more than willing to put in the necessary effort to learn how to utilize Kido and become proficient with Zanjutsu and using Hakuda and Hoho. That and the studying and practicing was habitual from having spent years under a strict mother who demanded top grades. Upon graduating the Shinigami Academy she sought out a division to join, finally settling on the 11th Division primarily because many doubted her ability to fight due to her timid nature, let alone succeed in such a battle driven division. [spoiler=Seireitei — 11th Division]Upon her acceptance and joining of the 11th Division, she was immediately picked upon and teased, but once she showed her fellow squad members she was quite capable of handling herself, the teasing and picking stopped, the squad slowly getting used to her ways and accepting her as a full fledged member of the 11th Division. Eventually she managed to converse with her zanpakuto’s spirit and within due time was able to perform Shikai.

Her alternate persona, Ankyo, was also making more of an appearance and beginning to appear whenever she became overstressed with her duties as a shinigami or from trauma when she came close to losing her life or those she cared about in mock fights and against Hollows. Often times, she’d disappear for a months at a time only to reappear not saying a word about where she she had gone or why she had been gone for so long. And in truth, if you had asked her she wouldn’t have known what to say.

Her division slowly came to accept this and no longer thought much of it. They merely accepted it as a part of who and what she was since she didn’t explain what was going on, but always remained dedicated and loyal to the 11th Dvision, and of course, the Captain never said anything to her about either. And within the years, she had advanced her way through the 11th Division until she at last came to be a seated officer. She was content with being the lowest of the Seated Officers, but do accidents and deaths, she continued to climb up in the ranks until she at last reached 3rd Seat.

Kiyoko, having never set goals on becoming 3rd Seat or even expecting to be promoted to 3rd Seat, was quite surprised and shocked. Many of the members of the 11th Division she had known of had given up their lives in the line duty, others having transferred squads and so few that she had grown close to still existed. She still faced opposition from the newer members. The 11th Division’s fame and reputation preceded them, and they expected her, one of the top seated officers, to be formidable, to be terrifying, to be deadly with the blade… But she wasn’t. She was just a shy, quiet, timid, little girl who no one really saw fighting.

Many of the 11th Division’s newer members who had not been around at the time of Kiyoko’s entry to the division doubted her skills and prowess, but she would do nothing to confirm or banish their doubts. And as much as they wanted to challenge her, the fact that the Lieutenant and Captain knew of her and approved of her as 3rd Seat could only mean that she had the necessary skill to claim such a position despite her unsightly outlook and appearance.

And so, Kiyoko deals with others’ views of her, living life as life presents itself to her, remembering her past, hoping for a better future, and letting her dreams run wild. Friendly with all, loyal to her squad, protective of her comrades, fearful of her Lieutenant, and admiration towards her Captain… lost and seeking her place in life… That is the life of Kiyoraka Kiyoko.

Aren’t you all glad that this spoiler is so short? ^.^