Kouran Kirigi

[sunshineapps]

Name: Kouran Kirigi
Canon: Original
Character Journal: crimsonbloom
Gender: Female
Age: 19
Birthday: May 15
Village Affiliation: Publicly unaffiliated, privately Land of Ice. Formerly Land of Iron.
Rank: Former samurai apprentice.

Canon History: N/A
Canon Abilities/Powers: N/A

Appearance: At 5'3", Kouran has the kind of pretty appearance that is frequently associated with the Yuki clan -- long dark hair, pale skin, fine features. She took after her mother a lot, actually. She has purple eyes, and wears her hair in a typical hime-cut hair style, with long fore looks and an evenly cut fringe. Sometimes she ties up her hair for the sake of practicality, but she prefers to let it down most of the time. She wears typical travelers clothing, and is almost always carrying around her katana. Notably her katana is decorated -- the sheath has a floral design and and she often ties actual flowers to it, mostly because she thinks it looks nice.
Personality: Kouran is at heart a cheerful and inquisitive girl, which her age and life have only tempered somewhat. She is enough of an optimist that she isn't usually kept down for long, and she genuinely enjoys getting to know people and learning new things, making her easy to get along with or at least agreeable enough. She is mostly earnest in what she does and incredibly sincere about her feelings, wanting to do good and honourable things with her life; she's the sort of person who has a hard time ignoring people who are in trouble or pain. Despite never having actually been to Ice for most of her life, she knows she is technically its princess and thus feels some level of responsibility towards it, especially in light of the turmoil it is in. In a lot of ways she comes off as naive or overly idealistic, she means well and desires to do good, but doesn't always understand how utterly ruthless and relentless the world can be. She's inclined to give the benefit of doubt, sometimes even when it's not the wisest choice.

That said, having been military-trained for some time and spending five years on the road with her brother has gotten her to mature out of some of that naivete, in so far that she is less overly trusting and gullible. Mind, she's still friendly and personable, but traveling around has led her to become better aware of where people ulterior motives may lie, though as mentioned earlier she does often underestimate exactly how deep the rabbit hole may go. The nature of their goals and the mercenary work they do to fund themselves means she has had to hurt or kill people, and while she takes no joy in it, it's generally stopped bothering her since it ultimately isn't anything personal. It's not a lie that she's still a sweetheart, and she would rather resolve problems with diplomacy than violence where possible, she just has less qualms drawing a blade and turning it on people than she used to have before.

A very important part about Kou is how important family, and to a lesser extent friendship, is to her. Having been raised with love despite her family's unfortunate circumstances, she is incredibly determined when it comes to doing things for the sake of her family, it is the easiest way to motivate her. They mean the world to her and she wishes to make them happy, which is one of the major factors behind why she chose to follow her brother despite his wishes that she stay behind, apart from her wanting to take responsibility. When provoked she can be fiercely protective over the people she loves, and ultimately her devotion is what drives her to strive to grow and be a better person. A lot of this applies to her friendships too to a lesser extent. That said, she's never been in a situation where she's had to choose between her family or her friendships --- as it stands she'd pick family over the other.

Strengths and Weaknesses: + Optimist
+ Personable and friendly
+ Determined
+ Devoted to her family and friends
+ Iaido specialist; strong focus on speed, parrying and feints. Combines this with her bloodline limit to incorporate ice and freezing techniques in her fighting style.
+ Earnest and sincere

- Naive
- Can be overly idealistic, at times
- Below average strength
- Very dependent on her blade to fight and defend herself; she isn't totally defenseless without one but this is where a lot of her fighting ability lies.
- Potentially easily manipulated; she's very earnest and sincere and it's not exactly difficult to figure out that she ultimately has straightforward desires and motivations. Someone who knows people well can use her sincerity and devotion against her.


Sunshine Abilities/Powers:

Kenjutsu - Kouran has been trained in the Land of Iron's signature swordsmanship styles, and is a competent swordswoman. She mainly focuses on iaido, or quickdraw techniques, using the speed to help compensate for a lack of physical strength on her end. More unconventionally, she also incorporates dual-wielding the katana's sheath into her fighting style, using it to block attacks or set up feints, and...well, just using it to attack by smacking people with it. She also isn't afraid of using the sheathed katana itself to attack in between drawing out the katana, and is fully capable of fighting with only the katana sheathed if she absolutely wishes to prevent causing fatalities. Fighting in such a way does put her at a disadvantage since she won't have any real cutting power on her, of course. Due to her emphasis on speed, she doesn't wear armor like many of Iron's samurai, making her less protected.

She also knows standard techniques to increase the range of her blade by channeling chakra, as well as using chakra to manipulate its shape and concentrated energy attacks via swing. Her fighting style also heavily incorporates using her bloodline limit with her blade, which will be further discussed below.

Bloodline limit - Kouran is the child who inherited the Yuki clan bloodline limit through her mother's parentage, and as such can use the clan's signature Ice release. By combining water and wind-based chakra, Kouran can create and manipulate ice. Ice created in this way is more resistant to fire and heat than normal ice, and the presence of water allows her to create ice more quickly. That said, Kouran is no ninja and has not be trained in ninjutsu, so she mainly uses Ice Release via channeling it through her katana to help her focus and concentrate the chakra. All her ice and freezing techniques are essentially centered around her katana; the concentration of chakra grants it an aura which she can use to freeze opponents with, and by swinging or pointing her sword she can create ice shapes to aid her attacks, such as spikes or waves. These ice formations however cannot be created too far away from her sword since they are channeled through it. She can for example, create ice spikes by swinging her sword, but they will basically be formed right in front of her. She could stab her sword in the ground and make a cage of ice to trap an opponent, but they would have to be at most a short distance away from her for it to work. Without her blade her ability to use Ice Release is highly limited.

She does also technically have the Arashi bloodline limit from her father's side, but because the Yuki bloodline limit more strongly manfiested in her, it ended up being suppressed and is thus very weak in her. It's basically not worth elaborating much on the Arashi bloodline limit for her here, since she can't actually use it. It is however noting that while she cannot use any of the limit's techniques, she can feel the family heirloom sword's attempts to "communicate" if she were to ever wield it, as it is basically sentient and responds to the presence of the bloodline limit. Not that she can actually properly wield it, regardless.

Taijutsu - She knows how to fight in hand-to-hand combat, yeah. That said she's a bit small, and isn't very strong physically, so while she is knowledgeable and capable she doesn't have much of an advantage here. If she finds herself forced to fight without her blade she can hold her own for a while, but she would really, really, rather use a blade if a fight is happening.


Sunshine History: Kouran comes from a clan who have been daimyo of the Land of Ice for generations, known for their ambition and megalomaniacal tendencies. Perhaps unsurprisingly this has left the daimyo fairly unpopular among the citizenry; while not necessarily incompetent leaders they were often tyrants and dictators (and mad scientists of a sort, such as using forbidden jutsu to engineer a bloodline limit, artificially creating a summon, etc.). Her mother, Kaguya, was the illegitimate daughter of a Water noblewoman and Yuki clansman, who was sent off in an arranged married with the then-daimyo's son as soon as she was old enough in order to conceal her true parentage from the rest of the nobility. Her father Ryuunosuke eventually became an even more unpopular daimyo despite his more benevolent ambitions however, as he lacked the ability to properly use the family's bloodline limit, discrediting his legitimacy as an heir to the lordship and further reducing public trust in him. Combined with the sins of his forefathers, in time there was a coup d'etat, overthrowing the Arashi family and executing the daimyo. The only survivors were her mother and older brother Yamaru, who fled to the neighbouring Land of Iron, seeking refuge from the political turmoil in Ice and assuming her maiden name.

At the time the coup happened, Kouran's mother was already pregnant with her, and she was born a month after they settled in Iron. Her early childhood was fairly normal, oblivious to her family's history and the circumstances that brought them there, at least until she started asking why there wasn't a papa. At four years old she was never really told much about her father; her mother never had the chance to properly grieve and often didn't want to say much about her dead husband, and Yamaru only offered a little more. As the baby of the family, both her mother and older brother were rather overprotective of her, and tended to coddle her. In turn, Kouran was super attached to both of them, which didn't change much even when her brother was scooped up for an apprenticeship.

She was six years old when the Yuki clan bloodline limit manifested itself in Kouran, which also meant the bloodline limit from her father's side was at best weak within her. Despite Kaguya's attempts to keep it hidden, this soon gained the attention of the local samurai, and naturally it was expected that she'd become an apprentice to a teacher in order to hone her skills. Since she had been spoilt somewhat by her family she had difficulty at first, but with some encouragement and time she managed to adjust and keep up with her training. All proceeded as normal, or at least as normal as it could be. Kouran was talented in her own right, and in particular took to the iaido school of kenjutsu very well.

When her brother Yamaru turned 18 however, he decided it was time to begin the effort to retake their homeland in earnest, before he could be pressured into swearing fealty to another lord. As she was only 14 at the time, he attempted to persuade her to stay behind in Iron to protect their mother while he was off on his journey. But she was uncomfortable with the idea that she was simply to stay while he was working hard to reclaim a homeland she had never seen; it left a bad taste in her mouth and a sense of guilt that she had not tried to help, since whether or not she remembered it she was still technically its princess. It didn't feel right to call herself that when she had done nothing at all, so to speak. After explaining this to her mother, she left to follow after her brother with her blessing. Needless to say he wasn't exactly pleased to find out, but he reluctantly allowed her to do as she wished.

Since then the two of them have traveled around, building a network of contacts and potential allies, and occasionally taking on mercenary work to build up a reputation among the nations. During the years they have managed to find the family's personal summon, though the Kuzuryu is grumpy and uncooperative after years of being abused by its previous masters and then being neglected after the coup wiped most of the family and their retainers out. They have also found Ashiko, the last survivor of the family's closest personal retainers and servants, though she isn't quite onboard on the idea of rejoining them just yet. Things have been going well!

Prose sample: Here!

Missive Sample: Dear mother,

I know it has been a while since I last sent you a letter! Nii-sama and I have been very busy, and only now I have been able to sit down long enough to properly write. We have been eating well. I have even learnt some local recipes during our travels! I would be happy to share them with you, if you are interested.

Our travels have taken us far and wide, and I've seen many things! I wish you could have seen some of the sights we have. I have gotten some souvenirs for you, for when we return, there was a very pretty hairpin being sold at one of the villages.

I miss you very much, and I hope to see you again soon. Please take care of yourself.

Your beloved daughter,
Kouran.