Karin Quest (Bleach)

While the quest, as said above, will be largely running on a narrative basis, I do need some way of keeping track of character progression - something which the voters have a great deal of control over.

Once again, thanks to @Maugan Ra for letting me play with his tools, credit to him for this.

The skills are as follows:

Hohō - The art of fast movement. By channeling spiritual energy through your body and out through your limbs, you can learn to travel much faster than you otherwise might, often to the point of being able to vanish from sight entirely. Increased skill represents higher speed and greater efficiency, allowing you to travel further for longer without growing tired.

Zanjutsu - The art of the sword. All shinigami carry swords, called zanpakutō, which serve as both badges of office and as the source of much of their power. Learning how to wield these blades in combat is a necessary part of any student's training. Higher skill represents greater speed, strength and accuracy in melee combat.

Kidō - The art of the demon. By forcing their spiritual energy out of their body and manipulating it with focus and will, a shinigami can produce a wide variety of different effects. Higher skill represents access to spells of more devastating and specialized power, while also making lower ranked spells easier to summon and wield.

Hakuda - The art of close combat. A shinigami must be prepared to fight even without access to their sword. In addition to standard martial techniques, this skill also allows the practitioner to focus their spiritual energy within their own body, resulting in greatly increased speed, strength and resilience.

Reiatsu Manipulation - The source of a shinigami's power, they must be able to manipulate the spiritual power their body produces, turning it into spiritual pressure and controlling it. As such, this skill has less direct impact than the other abilities, but acts as a soft 'cap' for skills - you may have only one primary combat skill ranked higher than Reiatsu Manipulation, representing a field of specialisation - and it can only be one rank higher.

Reiatsu Perception - Similar to the above skill, this ability governs the practitioner's skill at sensing spiritual power and the impact it has on the environment. While it has less direct combat applications than the four foundational skills, it has more out-of-combat applications and can be just as effective if used creatively.

With the talk of ranks, here is the ranking system I'll be using - possibly subject to change. Note: Reiatsu Manipulation costs twice the usual amount to level.

• Incapable - Not technically a level as such, this will only show up on a character sheet in the rare event that some circumstance makes it utterly impossible for you to learn or use a particular skill.
• Untrained - This represents the baseline, what you can accomplish without any focused training.
• Student (100xp) - Having received some basic training in the skill in question, you have started down the long road to mastery. Acquiring this level almost always requires that someone specifically educate you in the skill in question, though future improvements can be attained through solo practice.
• Adept (200xp) - You have supplemented your initial lessons with hard-won experience, and can now employ the skill with considerable confidence. This level is considered 'average' for an unranked shinigami.
• Skilled (400xp) - Your proficiency with the skill is worthy of note, even among the ranks of the Gotei 13. Seated officers will virtually always have at least one skill at this rank, increasing as they climb in status.
• Veteran (800xp) - Your prowess is notable - most Lieutenants will have this rank in the majority of their foundational skills.
• Master (1600xp) - You are truly a force to be reckoned with, and others will seek you out for advice and guidance in improving their own skills to a similar level. Most Captains have this rank in their basic foundational techniques, and it is on the strength of such mastery that their reputation is forged.
• Champion (2400xp) - Your skill is awe-inspiring, capable of sweeping aside those of lesser worth with minimal effort. Most Captains hold this rank in their areas of individual focus.
• Legendary (3200xp) - You have reached the absolute pinnacle of what is possible for this skill, and any future improvements will be of the tiniest increment at best. Perhaps one person in all of the Soul Society has this rank for any given skill.

Supplementary and Advanced Skills: These two types of skills are not capped by the Reiatsu Manipulation 'soft cap'. Instead, they are capped narratively - you need to actively be using a skill in-story, giving a justification to raise the cap. If a skill is capped, no matter how much XP you put into it, it won't upgrade until the cap is released - so for example Tactics would stay at 400/400 until there was a narrative reason to release the cap from Adept to Skilled. Leading a small team of people to victory in battle would count as a narrative reason.

Kidō Spells:
List of Hadō Spells
List of Bakudō Spells

Shamelessly stolen from We Stand In Awe.

Name: Karin Kurosaki
Current Teacher: Kisuke Urahara

Primary Combat Skills

• Zanjutsu: Adept
  • XP: 0/400
  • Your swordsmanship is adequate, even by professional standards. You can hack and slash with the average of them!

• Hakuda: Adept
  • XP: 0/400
  • You can defend yourself effectively even without your sword, and are capable of enhancing your body to inhuman levels of physical ability.

• Kidō:
  • Bakudō: Adept
    • XP: 0/400
    • You have an acceptable level of ability in the art of Binding, able to cast spiritual wards and binds up to #30.
  • Hadō: Student
    • XP: 0/200
    • You have the barest knowledge of the Way of Destruction, able to cast up to #10 with care. You have a long way to go, grasshopper.

• Hohō: Adept
  • XP: 0/400
  • You are noticeably quicker than human baseline, able to disappear from sight in short bursts of speed when necessary.

• Reiatsu Manipulation: Adept
  • XP: 0/800
  • You are able to marshal a significant amount of spiritual pressure, directing it with some finesse.

• Reiatsu Perception: Adept
  • XP: 0/400
  • You are capable of using your spiritual sense to perceive, track and identify unshielded presences near you.

Zanpakutō Skills
Name: Nejibana
Personality: A high-class lady, she demands a certain level of decorum, although you suspect she doesn't mind as much as she pretends to. She seems to be mourning something…

Release Command: Rage through the Seas and Skies
Shikai: Your sword transforms into a blue-tasselled trident, with a spiralling spike at its base. A constant flow of water comes from both the prongs and base, the result of which you are able to manipulate freely.

• Skill level: Adept
  • XP: 50/400
  • Your bond with your sword is newly established and fragile. Summoning forth and maintaining her true form tires you quickly, and overuse of her abilities will result in exhaustion if not careful.

Advanced Skills

• Intuitive Insight: 5/???
• Way of the Onmi: Initiate
  • XP 0/???
  • You have begun to learn how to become one with your surroundings. If someone is focusing their attention elsewhere and is unaware of your presence, they cannot detect you without actively looking.

Traits

• Inherited Ability: You are not the first wielder of Nejibana, and some of her previous owner's ability lives on in you. ???
• Wavedancer: You can use the water produced by your Zanpakutō to aid your maneuverability in battle - you can officially walk on water. Next thing you know, you'll be turning water into wine! (Shikai/Hohō)

You are Kurosaki Karin, thirteen-year-old Karakura Middle School student, twin to Yuzu Kurosaki and younger sister of Ichigo Kurosaki. You will occasionally deign to claim a certain goat-faced man as your paternal unit – much as you may wish it to be otherwise from time to time.

You finish buttering the toast that you intend to eat for breakfast, glancing around at the argument currently ensuing between your brother and Goat-Face. They're talking about the truck that hit the house last night, Ichigo trying to work out what happened. Honestly, you'd quite like to know that yourself.

A monster, roaring violent and loud. Blood spilling from your father's back. Pain. You won't cry, you can't.

You feel a headache coming on and you rub your temples with your fingers in an attempt to abate the pressure. You've been getting migraines on and off all morning – maybe you should ask Goat-Face to take a look? A brief look at him weeping at that ridiculous poster of your mother about Ichigo's 'lack of respect for his father' puts paid to that notion.

"Ah, Ichi-nii left without eating breakfast!" Yuzu says, rather distraught over the matter. Honestly Ichigo, you know better than that – you have to spend the rest of breakfast reassuring her that he'd at least packed his lunch.

After finishing your breakfast – sometimes you're envious of Yuzu's talent at cooking, but today you're just grateful – you pick up your bag containing all your schoolbooks, put your shoes on and head out with Yuzu.

"Bye Dad, see you this evening!" Yuzu says, waving behind her. Goat-face, naturally, is making a spectacle of himself by doing his level best to wave while in a handstand. You bring your hand up to your face and sigh into it.

"Don't encourage him Yuzu" you groan, removing your hand from your face and looking at your twin, "He'll never learn otherwise" you finish – he's kind of like a disobedient animal in that way, you muse.

"Eh, but you know…it's not so bad sometimes right? I mean, we've never had to worry about whether or not he cares, Karin." Yuzu says, frowning at you. Ugh, well – she's not wrong. He's just so embarrassing! You relay this complaint to your sister and she laughs, taking the opportunity to tease you about 'trying too hard to look cool'.

As you walk past your house, you note the boarded up hole in the wall – honestly, what kind of truck hit your house? Some of the marks on the brickwork look like something has clawed at it.

Crashing. The monster is coming. Yuzu!

You can't quite hide your wince of pain as the pressure in your head returns. Unfortunately, Yuzu notices and starts to fuss. You wave her off, but she doesn't leave it be until you get to school and the two of you head off to your separate homerooms. You staunchly ignore any apparitions that you see on the way – if you pretend that ghosts don't exist, it's the same as not seeing them!

School passes as it usually does. You have a pop quiz in maths that you handily pass – you've been ranked in the top 20 for your year since you started middle school, you're hardly about to drop down the rankings now, even if Yuzu has been beating you out recently. You chat to some of your acquaintances during your lunch break – you get a decent amount of mileage with the story about sleeping through a truck hitting your house, even if it does perplex some people as to how that happened – honestly, you'd like to know too!

The monster is holding Yuzu! Why can't you move – she'll die!

You hiss in pain as the persistent pain returns to your temples, and doesn't go away until lessons resume.

The school day ends – fortunately you're not on cleaning duty – and you pack up your things and start to head home. You got a new video game in the other day, and since you don't have any homework you're itching to play it. Yuzu, unlike you is actually in a club – Home Economics – so you'll be making the journey home alone, as opposed to your morning travels.

As your footsteps trace the familiar path home along the pavement, you feel a sense of peace fall over you. The sunset illuminating the relatively deserted town, the occasional passer by, the girl calling out to you from the park-

You glance over at the latter. She looks about your age, with brown hair, wearing a plain white sundress and…with a broken chain protruding from her chest. Damnit, it's getting harder and harder to tell the difference between ghosts and real people the older you get. You wonder how Ichi-nii deals with it. Having determined that the person calling to you doesn't exist, you look away from her. Maybe if you pretend you didn't see her-

"Please, I know you can see me! I just want you to take a message to my sister!" the girl cries, tears beginning to fall down her face.

I won't let Yuzu cry again. Not if it's within my power.

Damnit. You turn and hurry across the road, making a hushing gesture at the waif-like ghost. Stopping before her – you're of a height, you notice – you look around to see if there's anyone nearby who might be watching. No? Good.

"What do you want?" you ask, brusquely. You just want to get this over with. Sometimes you wish you didn't have a conscience, it would certainly make things easier. Her eyes brighten with relief, the tell-tale gleam of tears disappearing from them.

"Oh thank you thank you I thought I'd never find someone who could see me!" she babbles, seemingly overcome at the mere act of you speaking to her. Your stomach twinges in guilt – you'd planned on just ignoring her until she went away. Still, you don't have all day, so you hold up your hand to interrupt the flood of words.

"Yeah, look – you need to hurry up and go to heaven already – it can't be good sticking around here. What did you mean by a message?" you say, meeting the spirit's eyes with a steady gaze. She gulps before straightening her shoulders, collecting herself.

"I just want you to tell my sister…it wasn't her fault. I've seen her, she blames herself…it wasn't her fault at all! Just because she's older, she assumes it was her fault" she says, imploring you with every inch of her body. Damn, you can't really turn this down now, huh?

You inquire further as to the details that you'll need – an anonymous letter should handle it, people are superstitious enough.

"Thank you, Miss!" the ghost girl says, extraordinarily cheerful compared to how she was earlier. Her sister is really important to her, it seems. Well, it's not like you're one to talk, ha.

As you turn to leave, an unearthly screech rings through the air, setting your teeth on edge and making your bones, muscles and your very skin vibrate to your core. It feels fundamentally wrong in a way you just can't describe. You've…experienced this before…

Monster. The monster is coming.

Pain. The headache that you've been struggling with all day has returned with a vengeance. You stagger under its force, trying to focus through the blinding agony.

"Miss, you need to run!" the wayward spirit is currently shaking you, trying to get your attention. "You can't stay here, the monster will eat you!"

That's right…last night…there had been a monster. The pain clears and you remember.

The monster smashes through your wall, your father is bleeding. It strikes at you – no, Yuzu! You have to get help! Ichi-nii!

It wasn't a truck at all. Last night, your family were attacked by a monster. And you were helpless to do anything. The screech sounds out again, rattling through your body. You have to run, there's nothing else you can do!

You hurl yourself into a headlong sprint, not caring where you go as long as you get away-

"You can't stay here, the monster will eat you!"

You halt, feet skidding along the ground. If the monster would eat you…what would it do to that ghost girl that you just talked to?

You claw yourself forward, dragging your body forward with your arms. You have to get to Yuzu. She has to be okay. Moving arm over arm, you inch towards the gaping hole in the wall.

You turn and retrace your footsteps at a run, cursing yourself for an idiot the entire time. But you just can't let someone die, even if they're a ghost. Not if you can help it!

Gasping, you finally reach the opening and you can see outside. There is a terrifying thing outside and it is holding Yuzu!

You turn a corner and see a monster looming over the brown-haired girl. A horrifying visage, it has four skeletal arms, each with a scythe-like protrusion at the end, two bone legs and a skull-like mask to complete the image of some horrifying giant skeleton, here to feast upon the living.

It reaches out to the girl, it's going to kill her-

The monster is holding Yuzu, there is nothing you can do-

You move. There was never any choice in the matter. Your body collides with the spirit, knocking her out of the way and then-

Pain. Soul-deep agony. Your vision shatters briefly as you feel the beast's arm collide with your body, sending you flying to crash upon the ground.

Groggy and hurting, you sit up, a clanking sound echoing as you do so. Ah…that's your body over there, covered in blood. You look down. A broken chain protrudes from your chest. Cold spreads over your body as you realise what has happened.

Is this it?

The monster approaches slowly, and you can imagine it licking its lips. It's enjoying this.

No. You won't let this be the end. You'll fight, even if it's useless! Resolved to fight to the end, you clench your fists and stand.

Yes, this is how it should be. Better to die on your feet than live on your knees.

A voice echoes from the depths of your mind, and you feel a dragging sensation, pulling you down into yourself-

"Welcome to this world, Karin Kurosaki"

Your vision clears and you see the person who has greeted you.

[] A regal woman, clad in a flowing blue kimono, holding a trident.
[] An orange eyed girl with purple hair, wearing a tan blazer and brown skirt
[] A bleached version of yourself, with deathly white skin, silver hair and yellow-on-black eyes.

A/N - Yes, this is the Zanpakutou spirit choice. One should be obvious, one is from a movie/filler arc and the last is a zanpakuto that was seen in canon, but the spirit never was. You may now post. I will confirm accurate guesses.