libertine
New Member
AIM: misterkilroi
Name: Yui Minase (western)
Age: Appears to be around 30.
Age at death: 16.
Time in Soul Society: 62 years.
Persona:
Yui is considered by most shinigami that know her to be an extremely pleasant and thoughtful person to be around, a good listener to unload stresses of the day on - but there are days when she seems to be awfully thin skinned and stubborn.
She takes her time deciding about things, because her attention to detail makes her want to get things right the first time. Thus, practice time is important for her. She'll always be working to improve her skills, be it the latest binding spell she's learned or kendo. It ometimes drives people crazy how she'll pause with her inkbrush above the parchment, not making that first letter stroke until she's quite satisfied she'll write a character correctly, or how she'll remain completely silent until she knows what exactly to say. Going with the flow is not one of Yui's greatest gifts; while she's solid on techniques, she's not an on-the-fly innovator. The unexpected has a good chance of leaving her flatfooted, be it in combat or in everyday life.
This aspect of Yui also rears its head in social situations. Her endless patience ensures that it takes quite a bit for Yui to decide that a person isn't entirely worth her time, or that a task is impossible given her skills and knowledge at the moment. She sometimes overthinks on the most simple of tasks, and if she's not careful, can work herself into a tizzy trying to complete a task she's not ready for.
Physical Stature:
The past few years of training in Seiretei has marked Yui Minase with its distinct stamp; although she hasn't grown an inch since coming to Soul Society, Shinigami training has certainly changed her. This young lady looks to be in her very late twenties, standing roughly around 5'5" with a lean, athletic build that has very little curve at the breast or hip. Her sleek black hair frames her sculpted, pixie-sharp face, falling to midback in a simple ponytail that's tied with a deep purple ribbon. Yui's wide brown eyes blink owlishly from behind gold-rimmed glasses; they occasionally slip down her thin nose, giving her the air of a disaffected librarian.
Yui wears her shinigami gear with pride, given how hard she worked for it. She does her best to be impeccably dressed at all times. Her obi is the same shade as her hair ribbon, and is neatly tied into a simple bow at her back.
More perceptive people may note that she seems to have no shadow.
Division and Seat:
5th division, unseated.
Zanpakutou:
Given Yui's rather plain appearance, her zanpakutou is...slightly gaudier than one would expect. It's a mid-sized blade in the kazari-tachi (nearly straight) style sheathed in a lacquered black saya. Upon closer examination, one can see a rather curious menuki set beneath the aquamarine braid - where most swords have carvings of ki-rin, tigers, or dragons to aid one's grip, this one has bronze mice playing with gold and silver seashells. The tsuba is oval, and carved with the image of a an ancient sage laughing as he stands on a cliff, watching the waves crashing below.
(Nope, not kidding about the menuki - they exist. Here's a little picture of them, here)
(http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q212/misterkilroi/mousemenuki.jpg )
Biography:
The place: Hiroshima. August 6th, 1945.
The Minase household was like a million others that year. The war going on simply was something to endure. After a while, people constantly living under the gun learn to ignore the enemy squadrons that soar overhead from time to time, and go about their daily business as best they can. After all, what would be, would be.
Yui had not been thinking about the war that day. If she had, she'd have been thinking about her father and elder brother, who'd gone off to fight and hadn't returned yet, and letters from them were slow in coming. Or she would have been thinking of her mother, who'd gone off early that morning to claim their weekly war ration from the local council. But that was for adults to worry about, really. All she'd been thinking of was how she was going to explain her tardiness as she ran to school. She was late yet again, her younger sister having been slow to rise and leave the house, and as the responsible elder sister, she couldn't just allow Minami to walk to school alone. So she'd escorted Minami to the final half block, then took off in the other direction.
But that day...she'd been turning the corner to school when the ground suddenly shook. Yui was no stranger to earthquakes, but this ended up being different. On instinct, she turned to look, and was overwhelmed by light...and for half a second she felt as if she had been dropped into the sun's core.
The next second, Yui found herself blinking spots out of her eyes and gazing up in confusion at the young man in very archaic gear who'd suddenly appeared before her. His jaw set as he surveyed the area, then he looked down and said softly to her, "Come on. There's someplace I think you'll be more comfortable. And - no," he exclaimed, raising the hilt of his blade towards her forehead before she could ask who he was and what had happened. "Don't look. By the gods, please...don't look." He sounded so very sad.
However, the konso-blow never came, as they were both set upon by Hollows that had been drawn to the area by the sheer amount of spirits and emotional energy there. By the time the shinigami had taken the Hollow down, Yui had run away and he couldn't find her. Given the state Hiroshima was in, he and his fellows had their hands too full to try and find one girl's frightened spirit amidst all the mess... so she was lost in the shuffle.
Yui's death had been so sudden she was unable to come to terms with it; thus, she couldn't and didn't move on. Not that she really noticed the passage of time, to be honest, as the years, decades, and then centuries went by. She searched for any trace of her family during that time, but never found them (and still doesn't know their fates). Her focus on things outside of herself made her fail to notice small changes in herself. For example, it wasn't until several weeks after her death that she noticed she had no shadow; it'd been left behind, seared forever into the wall she'd been standing next to when she died.
Someone like Yui should have become a Hollow in due time - if not for the luck of the same shinigami finding her centuries later while Hollow hunting. Somehow, he recognized her, apologized for leaving her so long, and gave her a proper sending to Soul Society. The next thing she knew she was staring up at the walls of the Sixth District of North Rukongai.
A kindly old lady hailing from the Meiji period took pity on the very lost Yui and 'adopted' her, giving her both family and a sense of purpose. Though there were some wounds that could never be healed, Grandmother (as she was called) and her ersatz family did salve many of Yui's hurts. Slowly, she got better, beginning to help in the store by being an on-the-fly waitress and delivery girl (all that wandering gave Yui an in-depth knowledge of that region of Rukongai, she discovered). At this point in her 'life', Yui holds firmly to the theory that she would never have been stable enough to start absorbing spirit energy if not for Grandmother's loving attention.
Her discovery of this ability was with very little fanfare. While coming back from a delivery, she'd seen a vendor rolling by with a cart of peaches and suddenly had a hankering for a treat; it'd been a good day. She snagged a peach off the cart, paid the vendor, not really noticing the startled look on his face as she bit into it, and went home. It was only when several of her adoptive brothers' jaws dropped that she realized the magnitude of what she had done, because most people in Soul Society do not feel the need to eat. Well, none except those in Sereitei.
Of course she couldn't stay in Rukongai anymore; Grandmother pointed out that she had an obligation to them all to take advantage of this newfound gift, and if Yui-chan didn't go there immediately and apply for entry, she would drag the girl there, much to her embarrassment. Yui was in shinigami student garb by the end of the week. Such was the will of Honored Grandmother.
After long years of training, she's eager to take her place among the Gotei 13 and show Grandmother the kind of woman she's become. And, maybe now, she can truly find out what happened to her birth family - for better or for worse.
Stats
* Spiritual Pressure: 100
* Zanjutsu:20
* Hakuda: 15
* Hohou: 25
* Kidou: 40
* Connection: N/A
Kidou Slots:
Bakoudou #5, Mummification (40)
Hadou #4, Byakurai (25)
Bougyoudo #3, Blue Mist (25)
*THE SAMPLE CHAPTER*
(1,271 words)
The shadows lengthened about Yui Minase, and she hastened her steps till she was practically flying through the streets of North Rukongai's sixth ward. Evening was approaching, and even with the gradual lighting of the lamps along the neighborhood pathways, she didn't consider it wise to brave the streets after dark.
It'd been so long since she'd walked these streets, even though it'd only been...what, five years?
She'd left a delivery girl. She was coming back as a shinigami.
Happily, not much had seemed to change in her absence. Old Man Insu was still smoking the same mix of tobacco in his pipe, it seemed to her as she dashed past his home on the third block; the husky scent filling her nostrils as she passed beneath his second-story window made her cough, as it always had. And Auntie Kyoko, one of the ladies in the brothel below, was still complaining about it, and swearing those fumes would ruin her unsurpassing beauty in fifty years. Drunken singing rang out from a nearby rooftop as local workers who'd had one too many told the world how they really felt about their boss, who no doubt heard and would call them on it in the morning. Same old, same old.
Time was a strange thing in Soul Society, Yui thought. After a while, you stopped really noticing the passage of it. It wasn't until she had to register in Academy that she had considered the fact that she'd been dead for centuries, yet hadn't aged more than maybe fifteen years then. To be honest, the thought hadn't disturbed her at all, and she'd wondered where all that time had gone, really. After all, the not-time of Soul Society hadn't really left a mark on her other than looking a decade older. She certainly didn't *feel* it.
She smiled. Some things would never change. At least she hoped not...
And then she saw her, a stoop-backed old woman clad in a faded green cotton yukata, closing the door of a rickety old tavern, locking up, and picking up her lantern. Before she could touch flint to tinder, though, and heave her basket on her back, Yui was kneeling at her side.
"No need for that, Grandmother," she said softly, lifting the lantern out of her astonished hands. "Allow me to see you home this evening."
The old woman's eyes widened, glittered with emotion. "Yui...?"
Suddenly, Yui was engulfed in a hug that took all the air out of her lungs. It made her wonder not for the first time at the old woman's strength, and she remembered just how much she'd missed her.
"Little Yui. I knew you would be back."
***
The festive atmosphere was not contained to Grandmother's home; as is the nature of most tenement blocks, the business of one denizen is everyone's business, in a way. The news that Yui Minase had returned from the shinigami academy spread like wildfire among the residents, and the house was full of folks coming in and out to gawk at the one who'd been to Seiretei and returned. Mugs and goblets were raised in toasts, and the best was brought out.
Yui watched all this with a bit of edginess; she hadn't expected this sort of impromptu reception at her homecoming; she'd been hoping for a nice quiet evening with her adoptive family. If she'd had a chance, she would have tried to fade into the woodwork, but Grandmother kept dragging her back with arms of *steel* and a murmured "be polite, Yui" to face yet another neighbor who had to shake her hand and burble at how proud they were of her. And half these people she didn't even *know* - did they even live on the block five years ago? Mercy!
But the gawkers faded away in time, thank god, and the house returned to relative peace and quietness. Yui let out the breath she hadn't noticed she was holding, and readjusted her glasses on her face.
"So where will you go, No-Shadow, now that you're moving up in the world?" Kuma inquired, refilling her cup of tea as her sister Etsuko's curious toddler squirmed into her lap, trying to examine the hilt of her zanpakutou. He was one of her elder adoptive brothers, nicknamed "Bear" for his height and build, and had always teased her that last annoying effect of her death so long ago. At her scandalized look, he laughed. "Don't give me that, Yui. You got here so fast, I wouldn't be surprised that you left graduation without even seeing where you'd be placed!"
She carefully held the sloshing cup just out of reach so it wouldn't get on her newly acquired uniform, stuck out her tongue at him, and readjusted the toddler on her lap. "I'm not that silly, Kuma. Of course I did... the Fifth division, I hope," she told him, a note of pride in her voice. There was a quiet hum around the room at that announcement, and she couldn't help but preen just a little. "They recieved my request a few days ago," she continued, "and from all reports their captain's reaction is positive."
"Fifth, huh?" Kuma dropped on a vacated cushion nearby, leaning forward with interest. " What're they known for?"
"Kidou, primarily," Yui replied. " I did fairly good in those classes; much better than swords, anyway. By the way, you're out some money, since you were betting I'd slash a limb off before I was done - "
"That was me, Yui! Get it straight," her brother Daichi hollered from the next room.
"Okay, okay, so it was YOU. Pay up. I -" She felt the toddler give a determined tug on her sword, and he was very off balance...****. "Oh, *here*, take this for a moment, would you?" she grunted, passing Kuma her cup so quickly he nearly spilled it himself as he juggled it to a nearby table. A breath later, she'd caught the tow-headed boy before he tumbled off her lap.
"Nice catch," her brother observed laconically, as her sister Etsuko retrieved the little boy, apologizing profusely.
"Hmph. I've had practice, brother dear."
"Oh, I am so sorry, Yui-san..." Etsuko stammered, aghast as she soothed her son.
"No, really, it's okay, Etsuko," Yui said soothingly. " Maybe he'll do better with this, though." Now that her hands were free, she reached into her belt pouch and pulled out an embroidered ball the size of her fist. Waving the brightly colored object at the whimpering little boy seemed to do the trick; the sword and the near-fall were quickly forgotten in favor of the puzzling red ball, and he was soon lost in play.
"That's the first temari you made, Yui! You don't want to part with that, do you?"
"I'll be fine, Etsu. I've made my own luck, now." The new shinigami gently patted her zanpakutou for emphasis. And besides... I brought this." Her hand slipped into her belt pouch again and produced yet another sphere, this one swirling with purples and greens in a wave pattern.
"I wanted you to have this, Grandmother," she said, pressing it into the woman's wrinkled hands, suddenly feeling shy. "I've been working on this one since I entered the Academy. A stitch here and there, remembering what you told me every day. And now it's done. I just wanted to spend one last night with you and the others - but primarily you, to thank you for all you've done and promise I won't forget a thing you've taught me. And I'll be back as I can, okay?"
"I know you will, little one." The hands squeezed hers, and she looked up to meet the old woman's smile. "I know you will."
Edited
1/14: Corrected typographical error pointed out on forum.
1/16 - Did a little grammatical tweaking to fix a near run-on sentence that opened up the Bio section. Same sort of tweaks in the Persona section. Fixed a few sentences in the Writing Sample portion. Hammered down a few details in her description. Also rearranged her stats to reflect her more focused skill in Kidou.
1/17 - made edits as per Kellar's suggestions, and using his time frame, made temporal edits in the bio to reflect decades instead of millenia.
1/19 - bio retooled again due to the timeframe issue. Kidou slots added.
Name: Yui Minase (western)
Age: Appears to be around 30.
Age at death: 16.
Time in Soul Society: 62 years.
Persona:
Yui is considered by most shinigami that know her to be an extremely pleasant and thoughtful person to be around, a good listener to unload stresses of the day on - but there are days when she seems to be awfully thin skinned and stubborn.
She takes her time deciding about things, because her attention to detail makes her want to get things right the first time. Thus, practice time is important for her. She'll always be working to improve her skills, be it the latest binding spell she's learned or kendo. It ometimes drives people crazy how she'll pause with her inkbrush above the parchment, not making that first letter stroke until she's quite satisfied she'll write a character correctly, or how she'll remain completely silent until she knows what exactly to say. Going with the flow is not one of Yui's greatest gifts; while she's solid on techniques, she's not an on-the-fly innovator. The unexpected has a good chance of leaving her flatfooted, be it in combat or in everyday life.
This aspect of Yui also rears its head in social situations. Her endless patience ensures that it takes quite a bit for Yui to decide that a person isn't entirely worth her time, or that a task is impossible given her skills and knowledge at the moment. She sometimes overthinks on the most simple of tasks, and if she's not careful, can work herself into a tizzy trying to complete a task she's not ready for.
Physical Stature:
The past few years of training in Seiretei has marked Yui Minase with its distinct stamp; although she hasn't grown an inch since coming to Soul Society, Shinigami training has certainly changed her. This young lady looks to be in her very late twenties, standing roughly around 5'5" with a lean, athletic build that has very little curve at the breast or hip. Her sleek black hair frames her sculpted, pixie-sharp face, falling to midback in a simple ponytail that's tied with a deep purple ribbon. Yui's wide brown eyes blink owlishly from behind gold-rimmed glasses; they occasionally slip down her thin nose, giving her the air of a disaffected librarian.
Yui wears her shinigami gear with pride, given how hard she worked for it. She does her best to be impeccably dressed at all times. Her obi is the same shade as her hair ribbon, and is neatly tied into a simple bow at her back.
More perceptive people may note that she seems to have no shadow.
Division and Seat:
5th division, unseated.
Zanpakutou:
Given Yui's rather plain appearance, her zanpakutou is...slightly gaudier than one would expect. It's a mid-sized blade in the kazari-tachi (nearly straight) style sheathed in a lacquered black saya. Upon closer examination, one can see a rather curious menuki set beneath the aquamarine braid - where most swords have carvings of ki-rin, tigers, or dragons to aid one's grip, this one has bronze mice playing with gold and silver seashells. The tsuba is oval, and carved with the image of a an ancient sage laughing as he stands on a cliff, watching the waves crashing below.
(Nope, not kidding about the menuki - they exist. Here's a little picture of them, here)
(http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q212/misterkilroi/mousemenuki.jpg )
Biography:
The place: Hiroshima. August 6th, 1945.
The Minase household was like a million others that year. The war going on simply was something to endure. After a while, people constantly living under the gun learn to ignore the enemy squadrons that soar overhead from time to time, and go about their daily business as best they can. After all, what would be, would be.
Yui had not been thinking about the war that day. If she had, she'd have been thinking about her father and elder brother, who'd gone off to fight and hadn't returned yet, and letters from them were slow in coming. Or she would have been thinking of her mother, who'd gone off early that morning to claim their weekly war ration from the local council. But that was for adults to worry about, really. All she'd been thinking of was how she was going to explain her tardiness as she ran to school. She was late yet again, her younger sister having been slow to rise and leave the house, and as the responsible elder sister, she couldn't just allow Minami to walk to school alone. So she'd escorted Minami to the final half block, then took off in the other direction.
But that day...she'd been turning the corner to school when the ground suddenly shook. Yui was no stranger to earthquakes, but this ended up being different. On instinct, she turned to look, and was overwhelmed by light...and for half a second she felt as if she had been dropped into the sun's core.
The next second, Yui found herself blinking spots out of her eyes and gazing up in confusion at the young man in very archaic gear who'd suddenly appeared before her. His jaw set as he surveyed the area, then he looked down and said softly to her, "Come on. There's someplace I think you'll be more comfortable. And - no," he exclaimed, raising the hilt of his blade towards her forehead before she could ask who he was and what had happened. "Don't look. By the gods, please...don't look." He sounded so very sad.
However, the konso-blow never came, as they were both set upon by Hollows that had been drawn to the area by the sheer amount of spirits and emotional energy there. By the time the shinigami had taken the Hollow down, Yui had run away and he couldn't find her. Given the state Hiroshima was in, he and his fellows had their hands too full to try and find one girl's frightened spirit amidst all the mess... so she was lost in the shuffle.
Yui's death had been so sudden she was unable to come to terms with it; thus, she couldn't and didn't move on. Not that she really noticed the passage of time, to be honest, as the years, decades, and then centuries went by. She searched for any trace of her family during that time, but never found them (and still doesn't know their fates). Her focus on things outside of herself made her fail to notice small changes in herself. For example, it wasn't until several weeks after her death that she noticed she had no shadow; it'd been left behind, seared forever into the wall she'd been standing next to when she died.
Someone like Yui should have become a Hollow in due time - if not for the luck of the same shinigami finding her centuries later while Hollow hunting. Somehow, he recognized her, apologized for leaving her so long, and gave her a proper sending to Soul Society. The next thing she knew she was staring up at the walls of the Sixth District of North Rukongai.
A kindly old lady hailing from the Meiji period took pity on the very lost Yui and 'adopted' her, giving her both family and a sense of purpose. Though there were some wounds that could never be healed, Grandmother (as she was called) and her ersatz family did salve many of Yui's hurts. Slowly, she got better, beginning to help in the store by being an on-the-fly waitress and delivery girl (all that wandering gave Yui an in-depth knowledge of that region of Rukongai, she discovered). At this point in her 'life', Yui holds firmly to the theory that she would never have been stable enough to start absorbing spirit energy if not for Grandmother's loving attention.
Her discovery of this ability was with very little fanfare. While coming back from a delivery, she'd seen a vendor rolling by with a cart of peaches and suddenly had a hankering for a treat; it'd been a good day. She snagged a peach off the cart, paid the vendor, not really noticing the startled look on his face as she bit into it, and went home. It was only when several of her adoptive brothers' jaws dropped that she realized the magnitude of what she had done, because most people in Soul Society do not feel the need to eat. Well, none except those in Sereitei.
Of course she couldn't stay in Rukongai anymore; Grandmother pointed out that she had an obligation to them all to take advantage of this newfound gift, and if Yui-chan didn't go there immediately and apply for entry, she would drag the girl there, much to her embarrassment. Yui was in shinigami student garb by the end of the week. Such was the will of Honored Grandmother.
After long years of training, she's eager to take her place among the Gotei 13 and show Grandmother the kind of woman she's become. And, maybe now, she can truly find out what happened to her birth family - for better or for worse.
Stats
* Spiritual Pressure: 100
* Zanjutsu:20
* Hakuda: 15
* Hohou: 25
* Kidou: 40
* Connection: N/A
Kidou Slots:
Bakoudou #5, Mummification (40)
Hadou #4, Byakurai (25)
Bougyoudo #3, Blue Mist (25)
*THE SAMPLE CHAPTER*
(1,271 words)
The shadows lengthened about Yui Minase, and she hastened her steps till she was practically flying through the streets of North Rukongai's sixth ward. Evening was approaching, and even with the gradual lighting of the lamps along the neighborhood pathways, she didn't consider it wise to brave the streets after dark.
It'd been so long since she'd walked these streets, even though it'd only been...what, five years?
She'd left a delivery girl. She was coming back as a shinigami.
Happily, not much had seemed to change in her absence. Old Man Insu was still smoking the same mix of tobacco in his pipe, it seemed to her as she dashed past his home on the third block; the husky scent filling her nostrils as she passed beneath his second-story window made her cough, as it always had. And Auntie Kyoko, one of the ladies in the brothel below, was still complaining about it, and swearing those fumes would ruin her unsurpassing beauty in fifty years. Drunken singing rang out from a nearby rooftop as local workers who'd had one too many told the world how they really felt about their boss, who no doubt heard and would call them on it in the morning. Same old, same old.
Time was a strange thing in Soul Society, Yui thought. After a while, you stopped really noticing the passage of it. It wasn't until she had to register in Academy that she had considered the fact that she'd been dead for centuries, yet hadn't aged more than maybe fifteen years then. To be honest, the thought hadn't disturbed her at all, and she'd wondered where all that time had gone, really. After all, the not-time of Soul Society hadn't really left a mark on her other than looking a decade older. She certainly didn't *feel* it.
She smiled. Some things would never change. At least she hoped not...
And then she saw her, a stoop-backed old woman clad in a faded green cotton yukata, closing the door of a rickety old tavern, locking up, and picking up her lantern. Before she could touch flint to tinder, though, and heave her basket on her back, Yui was kneeling at her side.
"No need for that, Grandmother," she said softly, lifting the lantern out of her astonished hands. "Allow me to see you home this evening."
The old woman's eyes widened, glittered with emotion. "Yui...?"
Suddenly, Yui was engulfed in a hug that took all the air out of her lungs. It made her wonder not for the first time at the old woman's strength, and she remembered just how much she'd missed her.
"Little Yui. I knew you would be back."
***
The festive atmosphere was not contained to Grandmother's home; as is the nature of most tenement blocks, the business of one denizen is everyone's business, in a way. The news that Yui Minase had returned from the shinigami academy spread like wildfire among the residents, and the house was full of folks coming in and out to gawk at the one who'd been to Seiretei and returned. Mugs and goblets were raised in toasts, and the best was brought out.
Yui watched all this with a bit of edginess; she hadn't expected this sort of impromptu reception at her homecoming; she'd been hoping for a nice quiet evening with her adoptive family. If she'd had a chance, she would have tried to fade into the woodwork, but Grandmother kept dragging her back with arms of *steel* and a murmured "be polite, Yui" to face yet another neighbor who had to shake her hand and burble at how proud they were of her. And half these people she didn't even *know* - did they even live on the block five years ago? Mercy!
But the gawkers faded away in time, thank god, and the house returned to relative peace and quietness. Yui let out the breath she hadn't noticed she was holding, and readjusted her glasses on her face.
"So where will you go, No-Shadow, now that you're moving up in the world?" Kuma inquired, refilling her cup of tea as her sister Etsuko's curious toddler squirmed into her lap, trying to examine the hilt of her zanpakutou. He was one of her elder adoptive brothers, nicknamed "Bear" for his height and build, and had always teased her that last annoying effect of her death so long ago. At her scandalized look, he laughed. "Don't give me that, Yui. You got here so fast, I wouldn't be surprised that you left graduation without even seeing where you'd be placed!"
She carefully held the sloshing cup just out of reach so it wouldn't get on her newly acquired uniform, stuck out her tongue at him, and readjusted the toddler on her lap. "I'm not that silly, Kuma. Of course I did... the Fifth division, I hope," she told him, a note of pride in her voice. There was a quiet hum around the room at that announcement, and she couldn't help but preen just a little. "They recieved my request a few days ago," she continued, "and from all reports their captain's reaction is positive."
"Fifth, huh?" Kuma dropped on a vacated cushion nearby, leaning forward with interest. " What're they known for?"
"Kidou, primarily," Yui replied. " I did fairly good in those classes; much better than swords, anyway. By the way, you're out some money, since you were betting I'd slash a limb off before I was done - "
"That was me, Yui! Get it straight," her brother Daichi hollered from the next room.
"Okay, okay, so it was YOU. Pay up. I -" She felt the toddler give a determined tug on her sword, and he was very off balance...****. "Oh, *here*, take this for a moment, would you?" she grunted, passing Kuma her cup so quickly he nearly spilled it himself as he juggled it to a nearby table. A breath later, she'd caught the tow-headed boy before he tumbled off her lap.
"Nice catch," her brother observed laconically, as her sister Etsuko retrieved the little boy, apologizing profusely.
"Hmph. I've had practice, brother dear."
"Oh, I am so sorry, Yui-san..." Etsuko stammered, aghast as she soothed her son.
"No, really, it's okay, Etsuko," Yui said soothingly. " Maybe he'll do better with this, though." Now that her hands were free, she reached into her belt pouch and pulled out an embroidered ball the size of her fist. Waving the brightly colored object at the whimpering little boy seemed to do the trick; the sword and the near-fall were quickly forgotten in favor of the puzzling red ball, and he was soon lost in play.
"That's the first temari you made, Yui! You don't want to part with that, do you?"
"I'll be fine, Etsu. I've made my own luck, now." The new shinigami gently patted her zanpakutou for emphasis. And besides... I brought this." Her hand slipped into her belt pouch again and produced yet another sphere, this one swirling with purples and greens in a wave pattern.
"I wanted you to have this, Grandmother," she said, pressing it into the woman's wrinkled hands, suddenly feeling shy. "I've been working on this one since I entered the Academy. A stitch here and there, remembering what you told me every day. And now it's done. I just wanted to spend one last night with you and the others - but primarily you, to thank you for all you've done and promise I won't forget a thing you've taught me. And I'll be back as I can, okay?"
"I know you will, little one." The hands squeezed hers, and she looked up to meet the old woman's smile. "I know you will."
Edited
1/14: Corrected typographical error pointed out on forum.
1/16 - Did a little grammatical tweaking to fix a near run-on sentence that opened up the Bio section. Same sort of tweaks in the Persona section. Fixed a few sentences in the Writing Sample portion. Hammered down a few details in her description. Also rearranged her stats to reflect her more focused skill in Kidou.
1/17 - made edits as per Kellar's suggestions, and using his time frame, made temporal edits in the bio to reflect decades instead of millenia.
1/19 - bio retooled again due to the timeframe issue. Kidou slots added.
V