Takeshi Minamoto (Shinigami / 9th Div Cap)

by **Kensei** July 11th 2008, 1:29 pm

Physical Description
Name: Takeshi Minamoto
Age: 198 (Appears to be 34)
Gender: Male
Race: Shinigami
Rank: Gotei 13, 9th Division Captain
Hair Color: Black, with grey streaks
Looks: He has a very muscular body covered in many scars, and particularly large ones on his left hand and on his back. he has black hair with grey streaks, which he keeps in a wave cut at around his shoulders. He has a short stubble of a beard and has dark brown eyes with bushy eyebrows. He wears his Captain's haori over his Shinigami robes, but has a blue cloth belt around his haori. He puts his zankupato, Waikyokuten Kujikurei, on this belt. He wears a metal gauntlet over his left hand, designed to protect one of his two great weakspots.

Personality Traits
Personality: He has a fairly deep respect for his fellow Captains and other high-ranked officers, and has great sympathy towards his subordinates. He will also give his opponents some thought, allowing them to regroup or recover. He does not like conflicts, but will fight to help others. His greatest weakness is his fondness for children and women; he will not attack anyone under the age of 13, nor will he attack a woman. This can sometimes be his greatest asset, but also can be his chief weakness in combat. He speaks with some sort of an accent, uses honorifics, and usually with an informal tone.
Likes: Watermelons, Wood, Carvings, Music, The Number 5, The Color White
Dislikes: Loud Noises, Conflicts, People Who Are Rude To Others Below or Above Them
Loves: Someone with a deep understanding of and respect for others, one who is willing to sacrifice themselves for others.

Skills
Abilities: Shikai + Bankai, All Kido, (Advanced) Shunpo + Shunko, Kendo
Other Skills: Woodcarving (usually intricate small trinkets and toys made for fun), Music (he plays all instruments well, but he prefers the bamboo flute and is great at playing it)

History (NOTE: 1486 Words)
Takeshi Minamoto was born on December 19, 1921 in the seafaring town of Taiki, located in Hiroo District, Tokachi Subprefecture, Hokkaido, Japan. At that time, this town had little more than 200 people, and the effects of World War I did not reach such a far away and insignificant place. It was lacking in both technology and wealth; most of the inhabitants lived by the sea, fishing to get food to eat and to sell at the market. Most of them were quite poor, living in 3-4 room wooden shacks.
It was in this forsaken village that Takeshi was born. He was concieved by a fisherman and his wife, who was a merchant's daughter. They had a little more financial resources than others, and lived in a small wooden house. Takeshi lived a happy and carefree childhood while in the town; it was both safe from reformation, since it was so little, and to outside intrusion, for the same reason. The villagers had almost nothing to fear except for bad weather and empty nets.
However, after his 13th birthday, two murders were committed. A wealthy foreign trader who swore at Takeshi for spraying dirt unintentionally on his new tuxedo was found strangled in his house. Even more disturbing, Taiki's elder, who taught the village children, was found stabbed three times with kitchen knives after he berated Takeshi for getting into a fight with the village kids. People started to look at the Minamoto family with suspicion; whatever they said to cast off that manacle of suspicion was regarded as lies or, as they put it, "untruths." As Takeshi was still a child and could not be charged with anything according to Taiki's verbal laws, he lived 2 years in this manner. On July 25, 1936, his life changed forever.
The village council held a great vote ... to expel Takeshi Minamoto from the village for the crime of 2 manslaughter cases, if not murder.
The next day, Takeshi was put out of the town with a few clothes, some useful tools, such as flint and steel, a knife, and rope. The inhabitants of Taiki did not want to kill Takeshi; they just wanted him out of their peaceful lives. The bundle was a token of their last gift. "Think of it as a great journey," said a council member to Takeshi just before he left. "Wherever you go, whatever you do, may it bring fortune upon you." And with this blessing, Takeshi Minamoto was no longer regarded a fellow villager; he was "gently escorted" to the gates by the town guards.
Takeshi made for the high mountains of Hokkaido. He set up his makeshift home in a cave near the bottom of Mount Kumami. He lived a dreary life of hunting and being hunted; he chased rabbits and wild hogs, and was chased by tigers and other predators. He had to become very muscular in order to survive in the wilderness, and in such a fashion he recieved many bite and claw scars all over his body. The two main joys of his existence at that time were carving small trinkets resembling animals and plants, and blowing a bamboo flute, which he had made from a bamboo forest while hunting. He lived in this fashion for 6 years, until he became 21.
One day, a group of soldiers from the Japanese Empire came to send reinforcements to Sapporo, the chief city of Hokkaido. While passing Mount Kumami, they reported hearing a merry bamboo flute song from somewhere nearby. As they searched for the cause, they came upon a large man with very big muscles, and he was on the defensive. He had apparently forgotten his name, or even how to speak. They took him with them to Sapporo as a "recruit." He was adept at learning languages very quickly, and soon could fluently speek Japanese. The subject stated his name to be Takeshi Minamoto. Takeshi Minamoto was assigned, after his re-learning, as an Officer in Division 5, Squad 8. There he lived a military life for 2 years as an Officer, finally becoming a Squad Captain on May 2nd, 1944.
As a Squad Captain, and even before that, Takeshi was regarded by far the wisest and kindest of all the squad, and people asked him advice. Once, on a recon mission to wipe out a renegade base in Kyushu, the previous Squad Captain asked Takeshi about tactics, and although unlearned in the topic, his understanding was very large, and he had grasped by himself complicated maneuvers in which to move soldiers. When he became Squad Captain, there was not a voice going against that decision. The only weakness Takeshi Minamoto had was his fondness for children and women of all ages; he would refuse to attack them as an Officer, and did not allow others in Squad 8 to do so after he became a Squad Captain. However, his incredible strategems and fighting prowess made up for this weak spot twentyfold.
On August 8, 1945, Takeshi and the rest of Squad 8 were at a wine bar, drinking a toast to their latest victory in repelling an USA skirmish on a nearby town. Suddenly, a deafening roar and white light surrounded everything in and out of the bar, and Takeshi lost conciousness.
When he awoke, he was leaning against a tree on a dusty road in the middle of a wide forest. He was in District 42 of Rukongai, known for its green forests and large bamboos. He found a job in the town near by as a carpenter, and made small trinkets resembling animals and other people and also luxurious furniture, such as ornate beds and chairs demanded by some high nobles. As word spread of the mysterious muscular stranger named Takeshi Minamoto, who was the head carpenter of that unnamed town, his income grew and grew. As groups of bandits heard of the sudden influx of wealth in Rukongai's 42th District, a large coalition of bandits and rogues came unexpectedly to the town and destroyed everything in sight, pillaged, and looted. Takeshi fought valiently, but even he could not stand against such a number, and was knocked half-dead onto a pile of rubble that was once his own shop. His broken and blazing masterpieces were littered around him. It was in this fight that Takeshi gained a huge scar on his left hand and back.
After he had recovered from that incident, Takeshi decided to enroll in the Shinigami Academy after months of wandering. In the Shinigami Academy, he proved himself unmatched in hand-to-hand combat and kendo, as well as well-learned in the ways of controlling his incredibly high spirit energy. He bought for himself a leather glove at this point to block outside attacks to his left hand, and trained in the nearby woods in order to gain more control over his newfound power. At the end of the year, Takeshi Minamoto graduated early and was accepted into the Gotei 13 as the 6th Seat Officer of the 13th Division, Hollow Extermination.
During this time, he mastered his Shikai and perfected his new move, Koudoshunpo. He did not blame others for their mistakes, nor did he look down on them for being weak. At the end of his first year of real fighting, he was assigned to destroy Hollows in the Real World for 18 months. He faced many Hollows with different power levels, and he improved his already great combat prowess tenfold. He only faced one defeat, where a Hollow came up from behind his back and aimed an attack at his left hand. He was greatly injured, and was saved just in time by the 13th Division's 4th Seat, who was in the Real World at the time too. After he had come back to Seireitei, he decided to ask the 12th Division's Research and Development Institute for a way to better protect his left hand, and they came up with an almost-perfect solution; the Institute designed a metal gauntlet that sucked Takeshi's spirit energy and converted it into defence, so that the gauntlet was harder than a normal zankupato, and could pierce an Arrancar's tough steel skin.
Two years had passed since he had returned to Seireitei. During this time, Takeshi mastered both the Shunko and his Bankai. The 9th Captain's seat was left wide open after the original 9th Division Captain was promoted to join the Royal Guard. Seeing an opportunity to obtain the spot, Takeshi applied for the Captain Test. The 1st Division Captain, Baraku Kojisa, and the remaining Captains agreed to see Takeshi's abilities. He performed all his abilities against a group of 10 angry Adjucas. He used almost all of his spirit power, and he did get lacerated by the Adjucas' many synchronized attacks. After finishing off the last of them with the Kido "Black Coffin," Takeshi was given the seat of the 9th Division Captain.

by Baraku July 12th 2008, 12:10 am

Nice work on your profile, just one quibble, the Shinigami pat of your history seems rushed but thats fine the rest is very well thought out and written, hopefully you'll add more to it. Approved, ill set the moderation status