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PLAYER

✧ NAME: Angel

✧ LJ USERNAME: angelcide

✧ CONTACT (EMAIL, AIM, MSN, PLURK, ETC.): (email) Angelcide_1019@yahoo.com, and Plurk name is Angelcide
✧ CURRENT MUSE LIST: N/A

CHARACTER

✧ NAME: Kurosaki Ichigo

✧ SERIES: Bleach

✧ HISTORY: Bleach wiki entry for Ichigo

✧ TIMELINE: Chapter 381. Basically once Aizen has stranded everyone in Hueco Mundo, after pretty much telling them that they all played right into his trap. The point I was going with was just after Ichigo, and Unohana-taichou jump through the Garganta-thing that Mayuri found.

✧ PERSONALITY: A typical highschool student, and dealt with all the issues that come with it, save for the fact that his bright, orange hair made him stand out a bit, physically, and thus made him a target to bullies. But, Ichigo was never willing to back down from those who would try to take advantage of a weakness, and hurt Ichigo, or his friends with it. His teachers call him a delinquent because of his hair and he “gets back at them” by getting good grades and studying a lot. His carefully cultivated aloof, stand alone persona at school hides a smart boy, just brash, and thus temperamental, and reckless.

The strong desire to protect his loved ones stems from several things, but most especially from his mother, and the guilt he still has over the knowledge that she died to protect him from a hollow when he was only a child. Ichigo had adored his mother, and states that "I want to protect my mom, who protects me". Her death was a vital, if not the single most important aspect of his self-identity.

Ichigo's name even means "first guardian", meaning that he was born first, but also that as an older brother it's his responsibility to protect his sisters. His relationship with his father is a little less easily defined, but Isshin has encouraged this protector idea in Ichigo as well; arguably due to Isshin also having secrets of his own. Tireless, and merciless with himself, and his obsession with being strong enough to protect everyone, Ichigo's strengths are driven chiefly by loyalty, and his own moral code. This deep streak of reckless chivalry has been the source of a good amount of his strength, and he has no qualms with speaking his mind on a subject, and sharing his opinions ( or his fists, as the case may be?). To some it’s a mark of immaturity, but at sixteen, he’s had to do a lot of growing up in a short period of time. Yet, sometimes his age asserts itself, and his naiveté on issues has led to much embarrassment for him. His apparent aversion to boobs is less about not liking them, and more about being so terribly shy, combined with respecting women enough to not trivialize them for just their bodies. At least, that's how he sees it.

In many ways Ichigo's personal tragedies have always set him apart. He's never been quite "normal" from his appearance, to being able to see ghosts, to being a highschool student, and shinigami at the same time. This dual life has had deep effect on his soul as well.
During his first fight with Kuchiki Byakuya to save Rukia from execution, Ichigo actually did fall unconscious, and something like another personality took over. For the short time this inner hollow was in control of his body, all of Ichigo's strength, and speed took such a quantum leap that he wounded Byakuya before Ichigo, himself, was able to regain control; ripping the forming mask off his face. After meeting Hirako Shinji, Ichigo learned that a small group of shinigami had similar circumstances, yet they had subdued the hollow within themselves, and now wielded stronger, blended powers. They called themselves "The Vizards" because they could use, and release their hollow masks at will. Shinji at first tried to recruit Ichigo, but Ichigo refuses to join the vizards. Instead he demands to be taught how to control his inner hollow, which after a small scuffle, Shinji ends up agreeing to. The Vizards were still in the midst of training Ichigo when Orihime was kidnapped, and Ichigo took off to Hueco Mundo. After fighting almost nonstop through arrancar, and then Espada, Ichigo proved he could use, and recall his hollow mask reliably.

Ulquiorra, however, still beat Ichigo rather soundly, and repeatedly knocked the mask off of Ichigo's face. In fact, Ulquiorra would have killed Ichigo if the inner hollow had not taken over right at the end. The hollow took control, and proceeded to not just defeat Ulquiorra, but to tear the Espada limb from limb. The hollow has proven itself to be faster, and stronger than Ichigo, but without any hint of reason, or the rationality of Ichigo's consciousness. Essentially the hollow is a maniacal, bloodthirsty, remorseless fighting machine that Ichigo must actively subdue in order to regain control of himself again. In fact once Ulquiorra was missing most of his lower body, and an arm, Uryu tried to stop Ichigo from further hurting Ulquiorra, only for Ichigo to turn, and impale Uryu on Tensa Zangetsu. This second hollowfied form Ichigo has not yet beaten on his own, either. In a last ditch move on Ulquiorra's part, one of the horns on Ichigo's mask was broken. The mask shattered after that, and Ichigo seemed to further heal himself while his hair, and body changed back to his normal bankai. When he finds out that he was the one to have stabbed Ishida, and cut off Ulquiorra's legs, and arm, he is visibly upset. Ichigo even tries to demand Ulquiorra do the same to him so the fight "would be even" then. Ulquiorra, having used up too much power, begins to fade away. It's debatable if one could say Ichigo actually killed Ulquiorra, but that loss of control over himself, and his own powers obviously deeply disturbed Ichigo enough that the next time he tries to recall his mask, he notices that the mask "feels heavier". Unknown to him at that time, the markings on his hollow mask are drastically altered, as well.

Ichigo needs his hollow's power to protect the people precious to him, but he fears how destructive it is. He fears abandonment by his friends over having a hollow (something Shinji reinforced unwittingly). He fears losing control to the monster he may (and has) become. The conflict is inside himself over his fighting for power to protect, or fighting for the pleasure of fighting. Through the Lust Arc, Ichigo states that he fought “because he had to win”, rather than stating he had to protect. While Ulquiorra meant to crush Ichigo, he still showed Ichigo "true despair', just not in the way either of them expected. The difference is rather small all things considered, since the second hollowfied form results from Ichigo's desire to protect. Or rather, the desire to protect gone horribly wrong.
Now Ichigo has no time to wrestle with these weighty internal issues, or even the fear he now harbors of being capable of hurting, and possibly killing his friends before realizing he needs to return to Karakura Town.

✧ ABILITIES/POWERS: Because of the way Ichigo gained his shinigami abilities, he not only gained back his "spiritual form", his shikai, and then later learned bankai, but he also became a vizard. As a Vizard, a hybrid of shinigami and hollow, Ichigo also has access to abilities associated with hollows. Among them are the vast expansion of reiatsu and raw strength and durability that come with the bone-white mask that appears over their faces signifying that they are tapping into their inner hollow's power. Skilled Vizards, such as Shinji Hirako, have been shown to be able to use Cero, a hollow specific, highly dense blast of energy known for its devastating power and sonido (the hollow answer to shinigami's shunpo, and while the range is short, the speed this technique gives is only limited by reiatsu level ). However, Ichigo has not shown to be able to use these abilities with the exception of one time during the manga.
Ichigo has received only the most rudimentary training in the shinigami areas of combat, unlike most other shinigami who attended the Great Spiritual Academy and received formal training. Because of this, Ichigo's skills are fairly lopsided. His natural talents have made him a master of zanjutsu and his bankai gives him incredible speed. Before even becoming a shinigami, he had formal martial arts training with his childhood friend Tatsuki Arisawa. Also, Ichigo's "popularity" with his peers have seen him in innumerable back alley fights and school ground scuffles, so his hand to hand skills are proficient, but he's seen to easily succumb to the skills of other shinigami like Yoruichi Shihouin. Kidou is Ichigo's greatest weakness, as in he has absolutely no skill in it. His incredibly vast spiritual reserves should lend him to be a devastating caster, but his shoddy control of his reiatsu and his swing-first-questions-later attitude make him an unlikely candidate for using kidou proficiently.

Zanpakutou "Zangetsu" ( Slaying Moon ) Unlike most other shinigami, Ichigo has no known release phrase. It's been stated that because Ichigo has such poor control over his reiatsu, and little to no proper shinigami training, he likewise hasn't learned to seal his zanpakutou. Unlike most zanpakutou, which can be sealed into their original form, Zangetsu is always in Shikai form.

Shikai; In this form Zangetsu oversized elegant cleaver rather than a formal "katana". He has no tsuba and no proper hilt; what Ichigo holds is only the cloth-wrapped tang. The sword is as tall as Ichigo is ( 1.75 meters ) and has a black blade with a silver edge. The cloth wrapping on the tang seems to react to Ichigo's will, changing length at a thought or twining about the blade in an impromptu sheath. Ichigo has also on more than one occasion used Zangetsu's wide blade as a shield from incoming attacks. While used mostly for melee combat, Zangetsu has one known special shikai ability. Getsuga Tenshou is a slash that takes the form of a silvery blue crescent moon shape, or wave when released. Ichigo has used this technique in several different manners, such as striking the ground to create an omnidirectional blast to knock away incoming attacks, or to strike at the ground in order to upturn it, and crush whatever is in it's path.

Bankai ( Tensa Zangetsu "Heavenly Chain Cutting the Moon" ) Unlike most Bankai forms, which usually create some sort of massive creature or effect, Ichigo's Bankai actually shrinks his sword down to a daito (Japanese long sword) with a black blade instead. The cross guard has four prongs bent outward like a reverse swastika, and a short length of chain with a broken link at the end dangling from the base of the hilt. Ichigo's robe is replaced with a long-sleeved, ankle-length black coat (or haori) with red lining that is closed at his chest, then left to flare out into ragged ends. This coat is part of Ichigo's bankai and the damage it can take is directly proportionate to the remaining level of Ichigo's reiatsu. Tensa Zangetsu retains the use of Getsuga Tenshou and can be used in the same manner, as well as an enhanced form. When used in bankai, the cresents are black with a red outline and their path is more controlled, but the result is far more destructive. Ichigo can also charge, and keep Getsuga Tenshou within Tensa Zangetsu to augment his sword swings.
Along with enhancing his strength, Ichigo's bankai likewise enhances the speed of his shunpo exponentially, and can allow him to move so fast he creates afterimages of himself to confuse his opponent. Also, because all of his energy is "compressed", using his Bankai doesn't expel as much reiatsu as other shinigami's bankai from the point of activation; allowing him to use Tensa Zangetsu for longer than anyone has yet been able to.

Hollowification; When Urahara Kisuke helped Ichigo regain his powers, he threw his bound soul into something that Urahara called "The Shattered Shaft" and told Ichigo he had to learn to climb out on his own within the time limit, or else eventually turn into a hollow. Ichigo was actually midtransformation when he regained his shinigami powers, and since then, whenever he goes back to the "inner world", always by falling unconscious, he has seen a sort of doppelganger of himself, only twisted, and a little crazy. This "inner hollow", as it were, comes close to taking Ichigo over more than once. During his first fight with Kuchiki Byakuya Ichigo actually does fall unconscious, and something like another personality took over. For the short time the hollow was in control of his body, all of Ichigo's strength, and speed took such a quantum leap that he wounded Byakuya before Ichigo, himself, was able to regain control; ripping the forming mask off his face. After meeting Hirako Shinji, Ichigo learned that a small group of shinigami had similar circumstances, yet they had subdued the hollow within themselves, and now wielded stronger, blended powers.
After Ichigo did face, and defeat his inner hollow, he was able to call his hollow mask into being. When wearing the mask, Ichigo's physical strength, endurance, and the strength of his Getsuga's destructive power are improved.

✧ TIME OF ARRIVAL: Day

✧ MASK DESIGN: Here

✧ PLACE OF SOLACE: Kurosaki Clinic, complete with a tiny portion of Karakura Town surrounding it ( less than a city block or so )

SAMPLES

✧ FIRST PERSON:
...Okay, if this is all one big-ass illusion, I'll admit it's pretty good. But, I'm still not buying into it. What the hell is this 'Exile' person supposed to be? And why the hell does my Soul Phone now show a whole bunch of other stuff on it?!

And that mirror! Is this supposed to be some trick to try, and get me to break?! Because if it is, Aizen, it's not going to work! All it's doing is irritating the hell out of me! Come on out, and fight you damn coward!

✧ THIRD PERSON: Despite all the trouble he’s gotten in for it, Kurosaki Ichigo rather likes the color orange.
It’s bright, but not girly, and more importantly; the more orange he has, or wears, the louder, and prouder he is without ever saying a word; I know my hair makes me look different, but I don’t care!
In fact, he prefers the color so much, he has two shirts of almost the same style that are predominantly orange. Granted, Ishida was the one to make up the second one for him, and probably as a bit of a joke, but it didn’t matter. The joke was on Ishida, then, ha! Because Ichigo started wearing that stupid shirt around just to flip the proverbial finger at all those guys who used to try and kick his ass after school for the way he looked.
Of course, most of those guys didn’t mess with him anymore…and come to think of it, they gave a wide berth these days, and had done so ever since that last time he spoke to Tatsuki. Or rather, since she put the back of his head through a plate glass window.
How long had it been since he, Ishida, and Chad had first showed up at the Urahara Shoten? How long had they been running around Hueco Mundo? How long since he'd first heard that horrific laugh in his head, or the rattle of chains from Zangetsu?
Maybe, it was a lifetime. It seemed like it. Sitting here, on his own bed, in his own house, Ichigo watched the sun rise in a brilliant display of orange, and a little yellow just as the sun peeked over the horizon. It felt like the first dawn in a hundred years. Like the color orange was just now finding it's way back into the world, and chasing all the darkness, the ugliness, and the confusion back.
He knew he needed to get moving. But watching the sun come up, watching all that orange, then the yellow, and finally a little hint of blue coloring the sky made something that he refused to give a name to ease. He wouldn't name it, because he couldn't afford to recognize it. But still, the feeling of coldness, of maybe something like dread eased a bit in his chest. Because if the sun was coming back here, then maybe it was rising elsewhere. Maybe, somewhere far away, colors were finding their way back into all the other worlds, too.