Chitose Wasuchiru

Chitose Wasuchiru is a male Shinigami who is currently the Lieutenant of the 12th division of the Gotei 13. He was previously in the 2nd division as an unseated officer and the 12th division as a 12th seated officer. His Captain is Kushina Yoshida.

## Appearance

Standing in at 168 centimeters and weighting 65 kilograms, Chitose is not an imposing figure. He is a man of average to slightly small stature. His frame is fairly muscular, but slender with decent definition on all of his muscles. This body type is something somebody would expect to find on a endurance athlete such as a distance runner, particularly one who takes the time to keep in shape.

He is a man who is almost always seen sporting a smile, as if laughing at a joke only he knows. However, the small bags under his eyes tell a story of deep seated exhaustion, a story that's mirrored in the blue eyes that his smile never quite reaches. Overall his face is fairly feminine, with a weak jawline and a fairly round shape, albeit this is balanced out by his overall good physical shape.

His hair was originally brown, but has since been dyed a rather dark blue. Overall it's about a foot long, but Chitose keeps it in a fairly loose pony tail to keep it out of his way.

His normal attire consists of the standard Shihakusho, a set of black robes over a white undershirt shirt with what looks like a long black skirt. However, unlike the normal uniform, which has long flowing arms and legs, his uniform is much more form fitting, though not as much as the 2nd division's. It's arms are locked down at the wrists by a pair of rust red vambraces, with his Zanpakutō strapped to the inside of his left forearm in the shape of a tanto. He wears a sky blue cloth belt closing the center of the upper robe instead of the traditional white one. His legs are fashioned to look more like pant legs, to the almost skirt look of the standard uniform. All in all the look is much more sleek than the average shinigami, leading to much better freedom of movement.

## Personality

People have a depth to them that most don't realize. They just look at the surface, and assume that the face they see is one's true self. In some cases that might even be true. However just as many, if not more, wear a mask in public. They hide their true selves behind these masks.

Chitose on the surface seems to be a happy man, the life of the party. He is always seen with a smile on his face, as if he's laughing at a joke that nobody else knows. His smile is his mask, always up in the presence of others. He's constantly laughing, getting into trouble. To most he just seems to be the happy go lucky squad prankster or idiot. But it's all just a mask, just an act, just a lie... He even believes it sometimes...

All one has to do is look at him in detail to notice that something isn't right. The slight slouch in his shoulders, the exhausted look in his eyes. Chitose at his core isn't a happy man, isn't a lovable idiot. He's a cynical man at heart, a nihilist per-se. Chitose has been plagued by a curse from the day he was born, and the closer one looks the more it is readily apparent. He laughs to hide the fear, the slight loss of sanity. He stays awake for as much as a month at a time to avoid the nightmares that plague his dreams.

These dreams show him visions of his deaths, as he has reincarnated many times. He's been stabbed, decapitated, beaten, starved, drowned, suffocated. He sees and feels what every lifetime that has passed has gone through, and all of them were despicable ends.

These nightmares have lead to a sense of nihilism. If he had met his end so many times, what was the point in fearing it? There simply isn't any. There wasn't any point to bowing his head just to maintain his existence. Politeness didn't matter in deference to the weight of all that time. Chitose just doesn't care about niceties, honor, or the like. He'll follow them when it doesn't matter, if only because it makes his life easier. But in the end it doesn't matter if you're the god-emperor of mankind or a normal soul, some low level hollow or Yhwach himself, he flat out doesn't care about your existence. Because in the end people don't really matter to him. They are all living on borrowed time as unlike him when they die they're gone, while as he will just come back and start the cycle anew. He avoids making true friends because of this, afraid that while they may help soothe his nightmares for a while, in the end they will die while he'll just continue his cycle. He merely fights on because he sees no reason to do anything else, and in the faint hope that one day he can break his curse and eventually die. This faint hope drives him forward, because in the end he truly has nothing else to live for. He has never been more than a shadow of his former glory, but eventually even shadows can fade.

A few things have stuck with him, even through the various deaths. Minor things, some people would just call them deja vu, such as an irrational fear of Retsu Unohana, a burning sensation whenever Genryuusai was around. Events that he couldn't ever remember, yet he just gets the feeling that they're there. It's almost enough sometimes to make him want to remember the past. Sometimes...

## History

### An Ancient Curse

Chitose at first glance, appears to be a normal soul, a normal Shinigami. On some levels, this may even be true. However the further one looks back through time, the more and more it becomes apparent that this isn't truly the case.

Chitose's soul, his origin, predates soul society and its sister realms in their entirety. He wandered the realms, both lost and found, for centuries before they even existed. He was the product of the end of a being far older than even his soul is. His origin can be traced back to an ancient dragon of life. A being that wandered the primordial planes, using her song to breath life into existences where there was none. Her name was Kōzanryūsui, a dragon whose joy was seeing life flourish like a skillfully played song. Eventually her song faded, and she passed into the void on a far flung plane on the extreme edge of the Dangai border world. Her body became one with the land and life she embodied, spawning a vibrant forest, vast in it's scope. Her spirit lingers there, her essence infusing the forest with life.

It was from this essence that Chitose was originally born. Enough of the essence had coalesced into the spark of life, a singular drop of dew, that eventually took what would be known as a human form. This was the beginning of Chitose Wasuchiru, a name he took upon being ensnared by the cycle of souls.

Chitose wandered the primordial planes for centuries, millennia, and even longer. He watched as many planes were born, both the fantastical and the mundane. He watched the rise and fall of countless beings, both big and small. He was alone, truly free to do whatever he wished. He wandered all over the planes, big and small. Eventually though, he got too close to one plane and wasn't allowed to leave again.

Upon being snared by the beginning of the cycle, Chitose was unhappy with the loss of his freedom. He was one of the very first people to exist in soul society, and overall he preferred to wander as he had always done. He spent nearly a thousand years diligently attempting to regain both his immortality and freedom. He delved deep, deeper than almost anyone into the depths of magic in an attempt to pervert the world enough for him to slip out of the cycle. To a degree, he even succeeded. In the end of a untold number of rituals, he slipped the chains that bound him. But he slipped into another set that bound him even tighter.

At the end of that last ritual, Chitose broke his own personal trip through the cycle of souls. He achieved his goal, but he did not get what he wanted. Instead of being bound to the cycle of souls, he was bound permanently to Soul Society itself, cursed to forever be reborn there. The creation of the curse itself destroyed Chitose's body, using it as fuel for the retribution that the world itself inflicted on him. This lead to his first reincarnation, though it definitely wouldn't be his last.

### Endless Cycles

Every life Chitose has lived since that fateful day, he has been so bound. That curse dragged him out of the cycle, and left him with even more chains. He lived lives beyond counting in Rukongai, being born and then dying again. However, the curse had a will of it's own, and wasn't content with merely enslaving him to this world. Each of his deaths was one of violence or suffering, from the numerous times he starved, or thirsted, or even froze to death. This is not even mentioning the numerous times he was cut down.

However this alone could not break him. He retained no memory of each of his last lives, however they were shown to him in his dreams. The curse had manifested itself as a unique personality within his subconscious as a being in an inner world, similar to what would eventually be known as a Zanpakutō. It held no real ill will towards each of Chitose's eventual reincarnations, however it grew rather bored over the millennium, leading it to torment it's host as a source of amusement. Every time he lived, he was repeatedly shown how he died. This lead to the vast majority of his incarnations developing sleep disorders, as one can only die so many times in their dreams before eventually they just wish to stop having them.

Most of his deaths occurred young, dying within ten or twenty years, whether it be by the blade or by his spiritual power level being high enough he could wither away. In every reincarnation he was born in eventually desolate 25th district, as after his ritual souls generally stopped being born there, being shunted to less tainted districts. There was severe violence there, similar to a sixties level district, even though it was a low numbered one. However, due to it's low population and minimal migration outside of it, the issues were mild and mostly unnoticed by the districts outside it.

Eventually, the Shinigami were born from the flames of leadership that were sparked by General Yamamoto. Each area would inevitably have some souls that were powerful enough to become Shinigami. However, the twenty-fifth district produced almost none, even accounting for the low population. There was never more than one a generation. Though unbeknownst to the population, each was a different incarnation of the same soul. This was a result of the curse tainting the area, binding most of the Reishi so it wasn't conductive to other souls with power being born there.

### Modern Souls

Even with Chitose's past lives regularly becoming Shinigami, they never truly had a long lifespan. Most tended to die to one hollow or another while they were unseated Shinigami, and not a single one ever rose to the level of a seated officer over the two thousand years they plied the trade before his current incarnation. While there was significant irregularity among which division he ended up joining in each incarnation, the 12th or 13th divisions were by far the most common, while the only division he was never apart of over the 20 some incarnations that worked their way through the ranks of the Shinigami was the 11th division. His soul just simply didn't fit well with the type or style that division utilized. He was also pretty afraid of Retsu Unohana while she was captain of that division, a similar uneasiness that subconsciously lives to this day.

His overall style among each of the divisions tended to be more Kidō oriented. This was not to say he didn't have some sword based ability to go along with it. He achieved Shikai around 3-4 times among these incarnations, however he never lived very long afterwards, as his sword doesn't usually impart any new abilities among it's wielder immediately after being awakened, just taking it's Shikai shape. So even though he would learn the name of the sword when his life was on the line, it would make little to no attempt to actually prevent him from falling to whatever pushed him that far. In each and every case the Shikai of his sword was identical, as the curse overrides any other possible form the Assauchi could take, instead infecting it and manipulating it to become what it desires.

Sometime during this period one of Chitose's past incarnations came across a Venator Scientiae, though what exactly expired during this event is unknown. However it is known that it managed to glean the knowledge that Chitose was cursed, knowledge that would be passed to a different being.

### Life as a Shinigami

This incarnation of Chitose is over three hundred years old, which is by far the longest he has lived since the inception of his curse by over two hundred years. He was born within the 25th district of South Rukongai like normal, though he was abandoned shortly after birth. He was picked up by a travelling soul, roughly the equivalent of a priest. He ended up living in a small refuge in the middle of a half destroyed mansion for nearly twenty years. He weakened at first while there, as none of the other children needed food or water, but eventually the friar realized that he was spiritually strong enough to need sustenance to survive. He managed to obtain enough to allow Chitose to continue living. After around thirty years, he undertook the entrance exam for the academy, and passed with a high enough score to enter into the high class of the spiritual academy.

His time at the academy was marked with misfortune like usual, including a training accident that would have cost him a leg if a member of the 4th Division hadn't been around, caused during a sparring accident with another student. During this period he first began to feel the pull of his own curse upon his soul, as the nameless Zanpakutō he had received begun to feel slightly unsettling to be around, as the manifestation of that curse began corrupting the Assauchi that was supposed to be imprinting on his own soul but instead was twisted into the same manifestation as the previous incarnations of his soul.

After 8 years, Chitose graduated and took the exams. He did fairly well in the exams, scoring average on Zanjutsu and Hakuda, but scoring well above average in Kīdo, Hohō, and Intelligence. This trio of scores made him an excellent candidate for the 12th division, which he joined during the reign of Hikifune. During this he was part of a project to understand how the other various races high speed movement capabilities worked, with the primary three being Sonido, Hirenkyaku, and Bringer Light. During this time, he did his best to apply the principles from all three movement profiles to the standard Shinigami Hohō.

Around the time he was one hundred to one hundred fifty years old, Chitose was approached by yet another Venator Scientiae, one who knew of him by stealing the knowledge of another, after a balancing of souls that was ordered by his Captain. This Venator invited to the human world to help search through his past, so he ended up tricking Vice-Captain Hiyori to allow him to go. This encounter ended up leading throughout London and Europe as Chitose helped chase down an ancient goddess.

Chitose stayed in the 12th division for quite some time, eventually reaching the rank of 12th seat there, before transferring to the 6th division as the 6th seat officer, as there was no need in the 12th division for a 6th seat officer at the time, and the 6th division had an opening in that position. He has retained this seat since.

Chitose was generally on one mission or another during the early parts of Aizen's rebellion, doing patrols during Rukia's execution, and was stationed in Soul Society itself during the final battle with the Arrancar. He watched Aizen's and Ichigo's fight from a distance with his squad as the two duked it out, knowing there would be absolutely nothing they could do beyond getting in the way.

He was on a mission during the initial Wardenreich invasion, leaving him absent during Yamamoto's death. He returned to Soul Society for the second one. His squad of the 6th division was put in charge of protecting Isane's Battlefield Hospital. Most of them were either killed or incapacitated by Gremmy and his constructs before he killed the captains within. Chitose spent the rest of the war unconscious in the hospital he was supposed to protect.

## Powers & Abilities

### Natural Abilities

**High Natural Speed:** Chitose is naturally quick on his feet. A slim frame and good flexibility allows him to outmaneuver and out move that vast majority of opponents. His speed however doesn't manifest as a simple sprinting speed, where he is above average but not exceptional. His true speed lies in how maneuverable and agile he is. Chitose is as flexible as any Olympic gymnast, regularly flexing his body in all directions during combat. He regularly uses his false Shikai as a veritable sort of monkey bars, swinging around it at all angles in an effort to use the over-sized weapon as a shield. Adding another dimension of movement on top of the normal dimensions people expect.

This is only enhanced by his extensive use of Hohō during combat. While his modifications to the art have overall increased his speed, they have more importantly increased his maneuverability to extreme levels. He is as comfortable moving up side down as right side up and everywhere in between.

**Cursed Existence:** Chitose's original incarnation was once a free spirit, who roamed the primordial planes of existence longer than almost any other intact being. Indeed, he'd probably argue that he is older than the Soul King himself, let alone all the untold number of human souls that the king had created created when he created Soul Society. However, with the binding of his soul to Soul Society itself, he was inflicted with an extremely powerful curse, which ripped him from the cycle of souls and forced his repeated incarnations to stay within soul society, where they have been met with extreme misfortune.

The curse itself doesn't change from incarnation, and has been aware since the day it came into the existence at the end of Chitose's first life. It retains the memories from all of his lives, including his original. However, due to the poor relationship between Chitose and his Zanpakutō, it generally only shows him the bad parts of his previous lives. Any true help it offers comes at a price. As the relationship between the two improves in the wake of Chitose's growth, this may change, but for now it is a very real stumbling block that Chitose must eventually overcome to truly regain his self.

However, despite all the pain heaped upon him by his curse, it has bestowed him with several benefits as well, such as the inability to have his soul bound or destroyed, as the curse itself would protect it until it is finally broken, which is not a trivial task by any means, and a pair of unique abilities related to the fact that his Zanpakutō is repeatedly overwritten into the exact same sword by the manifestation of the curse itself.

The first is the extreme difficulty required to cause his sword to rebel against him. The curse has bound the soul of his sword to him in such a way that breaking the binding would be as difficult as dispelling the curse itself, and to be more precise, Chitose's relationship to the sword is more akin to him being the weapon than his blade itself. The curse is the base of an existence, and he is bound to it's existence, roughly comparing to him being his sword's weapon.

The last ability is the fact that his blade is capable of exerting control over Chitose and his body by it's own volition. He is subservient to the curse, not the other way around. If it so desires it is fully capable of taking control of him, but it would rather watch him struggle through whatever life throws at him. As its original purpose was merely to bind him, it leads to this only happening in situations where Chitose's mind itself is no longer capable of controlling his body. This will cause the curse to protect him out of self-preservation. Due to the extreme amount of time it has been in existence, it has begun to come to the feeling that it is ready for this curse to finally end. Which has let this version of Chitose mature to the point where he may finally find a way to break the curse that has afflicted him for ages untold.

### Combat Abilities

High Spiritual Power:Chitose's spiritual power is of an average amount for someone of his rank, if not slightly high. However, he is not one to exert his power in a manner to attempt to intimidate the opposition, as all this is is a pointless display of ego stroking in his opinion. So while his spiritual power would be enough to potentially intimidate an unranked Shinigami, he prefers to suppress his spiritual power and focus it where it is needed, as it's only a waste to put it on display, and also potentially could be a severe disadvantage, as the opponent could gauge your own spiritual power more easily.

Another metric of his own spiritual power would be the size of his blade, as up to captain class it can be a fair metric of the power of the individual who holds it. However in Chitose's case this is not true, as he tends to suppress his own power to the point where the blade usually doesn't exceed a foot in length when sheath. though he tends to alternate it between a foot and six feet in combat, utilizing his spiritual power tactically to increase his fighting capability. This is his best means to utilize his spiritual energy offensively, adding new dimension to his swordplay.

Hohō Expert: Hohō is one of Chitose's more advanced abilities. While his base usage of that may not be all the quick on it's own, being average at best for someone of his level, he has combined and refined it with several other techniques as well.

During his time with the 12th division, Chitose was part of a team that was assigned to a research project dedicated to studying the movement abilities of other spiritually aware beings, primarily focusing on Sonido, Bringer Light, and Hirenkyaku. This was so Shinigami could learn how to identify, and hopefully counter, these movement techniques.

However Chitose went beyond that. He did a personal experiment to combine elements of those techniques with Shunpo in the hopes of that by applying the principles, he could increase the effectiveness of Shunpo to new heights. In this regard, he is of the opinion that he is on the road to revolutionizing the core of Shunpo itself, eventually allowing for the possibility that his research may pave the way for Shinigami to significantly outpace other combatants.

The first principle he applied was that of Sonido. From his observations, the speed behind Sonido was related to the forceful ejection of spiritual power from the base of the user's feet during movement. This ends up creating an additional burst of force beneath the feet that pushed on the user with each step, accelerating them to much faster speeds than normal. While extremely effective this technique was also exhausting to use at a high level for an extended period of time. The large amount of spiritual power it needs is why it is mostly used among the highest levels of hollows. Chitose on the other hand chose to utilize a much weaker version, only utilizing it sparingly by adding the technique only on the first step of each use of Shunpo, letting him accelerate extremely quickly, which is useful for catching opponents off guard. If need be, Chitose has used this modification to Shunpo to temporarily move at extreme speeds, but can't maintain that pace for very long.

The next step he took was to throw the Quincy's High Speed Movement technique into the mix, Hirenkyaku. Unlike Sonido, adding this technique did little to increase his own speed. Instead, what it did is give him unparalleled maneuverability. But skating along the pathways of power in an area, his movement profile became extremely erratic, making it hard to truly predict exactly where he was going to strike. In addition, orientation and direction began to matter little to him during movement, as he could as easily attack while upside down as he could right side up. This is something most Shinigami have trouble with. The base air walking ability requires one to be mostly upright, and this technique removes that restriction.

Lastly, he applied the technique of the illusive Fullbringer, Bringer Light. While not truly a technique, it had some extremely useful attributes. Even if Chitose had to actually train himself in order to utilize the technique it was worth it. By pulling on the soul of the surroundings, one was able to give themselves an extra kick. This in turn allowed them to move much faster. Chitose was unable to use that version of this technique, but he bastardized it so he could pull together the Reishi making up the environment to do a similar thing. He'd force the ground or air push on him as well as him pushing on it. It was a jury-rigged version of the original technique, but by applying the concepts to his own natural Shunpo it allowed his overall speed to increase.

All these combined with the base usage of Shunpo, which greatly reduced the number of steps one needed to take in order to move a distance, allows him to move at extremely high speeds compared to him using Shunpo alone, and forms one of the cornerstones of his abilities.

Zanjutsu Practitioner: While not his strongest category, Chitose is fairly proficient, albeit unorthodox, in his usage of Zanjutsu. Due to the fact that he tends to keep his blade extremely short compared to the average Shinigami, he isn't as suited to straight up clashes of blades, which tend to be contests of strength. His fighting style is more that of an assassin, quick glancing blows until he can open up a hole for a more decisive strike. It also is centered around the usage of his Kidō in order to chain together combos in a sword and spell manner. Lastly, due to the flighty and agile nature of his combat, his moves tend to be unpredictable compared to the average combat style of a Shinigami, something that is enhanced by the fact he changes the size of his blade actively during combat, so one can never be truly certain of the reach of his blade.

The differences between Chitose's sealed sword form and his two Shikai sword forms necessitate a change in the way he uses his weapon, changing his fighting style significantly. While utilizing his axe, his fighting style becomes as fake as his Shikai. He starts the fight as a berserker, punishing his opponents with a series of heavy blows. His axe adds another dimension to his maneuverability as well, as he regularly uses it as not only another limb, but swings around it like a jungle gym. Leading it to be weapon, shield, and leg all in one.

His true Shikai on the other hand provides some unique problems. It is incapable of cutting things normally as it can only cut shadows. Essentially, Chitose is forced to get his opponent onto the ground to make effective use of it. The other downside is that while the trick on his Shikai is extremely powerful, it is also easily counter-able. The moment an opponent realizes that Chitose is no longer aiming for their body directly, but at their shadow, his Shikai's ability can become virtually useless. So he had to develop another style of fighting based around just this flaw. Deception was the name of the game. He has to aim for their shadow with neither his opponent nor any allies of theirs realizing what was going on.

Chitose has yet to figure out a surefire way around this, instead he tries to aim for the precise spot he slashed across the shadow with his sword. This way his opponents can at least figure out that somehow his weapon had cut through said spot, and the shadow part of his ability is still concealed.

Kidō Expert:

While Chitose is fairly proficient with most types of combat, Kidō is his specialty.

Chitose himself is a moderate caster at best, being able to utilize Kidō into the low 40s without an incantation, and up to the seventies with the full incantation before losing power. He is capable of casting into the 80s, but at this point the spells have weakened so much and are so taxing on his stamina they are but shadows of themselves

In terms of incantation altering, he is extremely proficient in the use of Nijū Eishō, combining his ability to weave two Kidō spells together with the ability of his false Zanpakutō release to allow him to utilize up to four spells at once, though it is incredibly taxing on his endurance to do it more than once or twice in a day. His Reiryoku simply isn't high enough to cast this ca

* **Kidō: The Forgotten Verses:** Kidō is a mainstay of Shinigami combat, albeit one whose usage varies widely among the various divisions of the Gotei 13. The 11th division for example looks down upon Kidō with disdain. This is due to their obsession with swordplay, something amplified by the usually bloodthirsty method by which the leaders of the unit come to power. However, the method of spell-craft is one of Chitose's strongest attributes, far outpacing his swordplay. This is due largely to the magic that his original self used as his primary method of fighting throughout the time prior to his death. However, the spells that would eventually become the Shinigami Art of Kidō were far different from their original incarnations.

The natural weakness of spell casting in the style of the Soul Society is the sheer length of time it takes to recite the full Incantation to utilize the spell at full power. This made it so only people who had spent centuries perfecting the art of using Kidō could effectively use the art in combat. In order to allow more of the people who kept soul society from falling into anarchy to utilize magic in combat, the Art of Kidō was created by streamlining spell casting and cutting out a good chunk of power from magic so less powerful warriors could use it effectively.

This resulted in the incantations being drastically shortened, and the spell structure being simplified to the point where it was possible to use the spells without the incantation at all if the person was powerful enough.

After millennium of this minimization, the power of the Shinigami spell-casting had weakened drastically, however the increased speed of this spell-casting more than makes up for the power that was lost, as it allowed lower level combatants to make use of it. Magic was no longer the realm of the grandmaster.

As a result, over the centuries, a vast majority of the knowledge of the original spells has been lost and forgotten, left in locked libraries untouched for millennium. Finding the original incantations is virtually impossible, as anyone who knew them has long since died of either natural or unnatural causes.

Chitose is one of the few exceptions to this, as he still has the ability to gain access to the memories of his original body, who existed back when spell-casting was still in it's original unwieldy form. This allows him to weave spells that virtually every modern practitioner of Kidō never knew existed, as well as to expand modern spells back to their historical roots. While he has accessed a few of them, his poor relationship with his sword has made it difficult to get it to tell him anything, meaning he only knows a couple of spell's original incantations.

#### Expanded Verses

There are currently less than a dozen spells that Chitose knows the entire set of verses to, and all but two of them are extremely low level spells, since they were the most widely known and used back during their heyday. While more powerful than their final versions, each was simply forgotten when it fell out of favor due to the long casting time of even the simplest of spells. Each of the verses that were cut added a little bit more to the spell, wrapping it in layer after layer of enhancements and modifications. These incantations almost always have a minimum of two verses, one to initially collect the power and one to shape and unleash it. Incantations over those two verses simply increased the number, power, or capability of the spells.

* Hadō #1 Shō: One of the simplest spells in existence, all Shō does normally is create a strong force that punches into a target. In it's base form, it is little more than an annoyance to higher level combatants, but an effective disciplinary tool for lower ranked subordinates. However, once you start layering on the power increases it can be devastating in terms of it's penetration and striking force. At three verses, it's intensity more than triples, and at four it's size so the area affected is roughly the size of an umbrella. This is the level that Chitose usually incants up to, as the verses for this spell are fairly short up until that point, being shorter than two verses of some higher level spells. The fifth and sixth verse merely increase its base power again while the seventh modifies it's shape to add an incredible amount of penetration to the spell, allowing it to punch through hardened defenses. Eight and nine refine it's power even farther, while ten is unique. It modifies the spell with a chant of multiplication, continually producing the spell to pummel the target to pieces, restrained only by the spiritual energy of the caster. In his hands, it's a hurricane of hammerblows, though as one gets stronger in magic, it's abilities only get greater.

* + Incantation:*To be added later*

## Zanpakutō

 File:Seika no Hikage.jpg
**Sealed Form:** Chitose's Zanpakutō normally takes the form of a tanto, which he keeps sealed on the inside of his left arm, hilt facing down. This is to allows him to keep his weapon mostly hidden underneath his uniform, as well as making it quick and easy draw when needed. Due to the extremely short length of it's sealed form, it doesn't get in the way of the movement of his arm. However, he intentionally keeps the amount of reiatsu he feeds to his Zanpakutō to a bare minimum to keep it this small while it is sheathed, he increases the amount to a normal level once he draws it, increasing it's size to around two inches shorter than the average katana at the start of the fight. His Zanpakutō is noticeable straighter than the average blade, having almost no curvature at all, as befitting its normal tanto size and shape. It has a very minimal tsuba, which is jet black with silver highlights in the shape of a pinwheel. The hilt is just long enough for him to hold with both hands. It shares the design scheme of the tsuba, although it isn't as dark with gold highlights run down through the diamond pattern common to the design of Zanpakutō. Its sheath maintains a similar pattern. The blade itself is an inverse of the normal coloring scheme for a blade of this design, with the cutting edge being black and the back being a burnished silver.

* **Shikai:** *Seika no Hikage (日陰乃栄華, Lit.Shadow of Glory)* It's Release command is **Cast a Shadow**. Upon releasing, the blade of *Seika no Hikage* lengthens to three feet in length, as well as turns jet black. the blade starts curving in a manner similar to most katanas, and then the hilt bends back the opposite direction, in a manner similar to a pistol grip though, not as severe. The blade is accentuated with a red tassel hanging off the end of the hilt. The tsuba disappears for the most part, instead ending in a pair of metal flanges that sheath the first inch of the blade from the handle, increasing it's resilience.

* + **Abilities:** *Seika no Hikage* is a Kidō type blade with the ability to control shadows and their relationship to the objects that cast them. A simply explained power, it however becomes devastating the more you look into exactly what it can do. At base, it gives him no special advantages, but when utilized correctly and smartly it can be used to allow Chitose to defeat opponents he shouldn't normally even be able to injure, though such a victory would be due to the opponent's own stupidity as much as his own power.

The blade granted Chitose three abilities, two passive and one active.

The primary passive ability is that whenever an object comes into contact with the blade the relationship between the object and its shadow becomes reversed. That means the object's shadow now defines the object's shape and properties. This makes it so the object can't change its shape since the shadow is what defines the shape of the affected object or person. This effect can both be a benefit and a massive disadvantage. On one hand, the object can't be sundered by weaponry besides Seika no Hikage itself except under the most extreme of circumstances. This includes living objects as well as static one, potentially rendering humanoids struck by this ability significantly more durable. Essentially, objects and people who are affected by this weapon are immune to slashing type attacks, though they can still cause blunt force trauma.

But besides this ability preventing outside objects from affecting and afflicted object's shape, it also prevents it from changing shapes via a release, essentially shutting down most Bankais or even Shikais. The essence of the shadow itself would change even if the object's shape only changed slightly. This locks a person into fighting at roughly their current power level, restricting them to a shadow of their own glory. This ability is the true danger of Chitose, as he effectively shuts down the activation of a trump card of his opponents before they can even release it. This ability however is incredibly dangerous to Chitose from a political standpoint, as his ability could be extremely dangerous to the Gotei 13 since it can potentially seal the Shikai and Bankai of far higher ranking members if he ever went rogue. If used properly, it could even be used to easily destroy Bankai, permanently destroying a major power of most captains. If the Central 46 ever found out just what his sword was capable of doing, there would be a good chance he'd be executed to prevent his power from being disruptive to the order of things. Because of this he crafted a false release for his sword.

The second passive ability is heavily linked to the first ability of his blade. As the shadow of any object that comes into the contact with the blade of his sword defines the shape of the object that cast it, it becomes true that any ability capable of directly attacking the shadow itself is capable of affecting the object. Due to this, Seika no Hikage is capable of cutting the shadow of any object affected by the first ability of the blade. Any damage inflicted on the shadow is mirrored to the object or person to whom it is linked. This means if Seika no Hikage were to cut through the arm of the shadow of an opponent, their arm would be immediately severed as well. This means with the right tactics Chitose could potentially fell beings far more powerful than himself if they are not careful.

This ability tempers the major downside of the blade. It is completely incapable of cutting objects normally. The only thing that Seika no Hikage is capable of cutting is shadows. This has lead to Chitose's death in the past, as he obtained a weapon he couldn't use effectively when he needed it the most.

The active ability involves Chitose infusing the blade with more potent shadows, allowing him to release a blast of dark reiatsu similar to a large number of melee types. This ability isn't very powerful, however it does give him some additional flexibility with his Shikai as it can be an effective distraction to an opponent.

* **False Release:** *Hikage no Seika* In order to hide the ability of his real Shikai in an effort to prevent the possibility of it causing his death, Chitose developed a false release for his Zanpakutō to act as a stand in for it. It is activated by saying the name of the blade in a reverse order with the same release command. When it gets released, it takes a shape completely opposite to the normal compact sleek blade of the normal release. Instead the blade takes the form of an extremely pompous and ceremonially styled Great ax. It is a double sided affair with a large amount of gilding and a massive blade, similar in size to the previous 11th division commander's Shikai. It is a large and cumbersome weapon, standing taller than Chitose himself does, though he still manages to wield it fairly proficiently.

* + **Abilities:** *Hikage no Seika* is a melee type blade, unlike his primary Shikai. Overall, it contains no impressive abilities, though it does have a passive ability that seems useless at first, but Chitose made the best of a not so great situation.

The passive ability this weapon grants is that it is a conduit to allow Seika no Hikage to speak through whispers to the outside world. The entire weapon emits a whisper that seems to push at the edge of the consciousness of anyone in the area, whispering tales of madness in a language so old that most never knew it existed. Normally, this ability is fairly useless, as it provides no offensive, defensive, or really even any supporting abilities. However, Chitose managed to convince Seika to speak what he asks him to through these whispers, allowing him to utilize the whispers to recite the incantations for Kidō spells during a battle without Chitose himself being forced to spread his attention. Though it can be advantageous to him to chant a spell as well, as it allows him to cast multiple spells simultaneously. If you also throw in his ability to weave chants together, he is capable of casting up to four spells simultaneously through double spelling both the spells he weaves with his own voice and the spells weaved through his Zanpakutō, though it is exhausting to weave so much power at once.

This ability is temperamental however, as it relies on his not so great relationship with his Zanpakutō spirit. It is essentially a mouthpiece for the spirit, which doesn't always cooperate with what he wants to do.

**Bankai:** *Not Yet Achieved*

## Trivia

* This character's appearance is based off of both of the character Soujiro Seta's appearance in both Rouroni Kenshin and Log Horizon, whose characters look similar enough that the author is treating them as a single image source.

* This incarnation of Chitose is his 1000th, to go with the thousand in his name.