Karen Amagase

Karen Amagase (天ヶ瀬=カレン, Amagase Karen) is Gai Nagareboshi's adoptive mother and a former member of the Gotei 13 before deserting Soul Society's laws for a more peaceful life. Several thousand years ago, Karen was known as Wakana Yoshi, a lieutenant of the Gotei 13. She was forced by the then current Captain-Commander to assist him in defending Seireitei from the "Sōrai no Kishi", meeting a younger Mitsuru Inazuma in the process, with the two developing a close bond. After Central 46 ordered the Royal Guard to slaughter Mitsuru and his companions, with Karen only barely surviving due to the unexpected assistance of Nika, who used her memory manipulation to wipe the Central 46, Royal Guard, and the Gotei 13's memories of "Wakana Yoshi", allowing Karen to take upon a new name and begin anew. Mitsuru never found such a fact out, and became overcome by despair, obliterating the then authorities of Soul Society and unsealing a then berserk Gai Nagareboshi, whom Isshin Kurosaki dueled with. Immediately after, Karen was entrusted with the Mototsu by Isshin after he defeated Gai several hundred years ago; Karen cared for Gai as if he were her own son, helping him re-adjust to the world after receiving amnesia after his and Isshin's ferocious battle.

Several years later, after Gai had recuperated from his injuries and memory loss, Karen disappeared for reasons only known to herself. However, during Part II of Bleach: Rising Phoenix, she reappears to her son once again, saving him from Yuuki Kaburagi.

Appearance
For some peculiar reason, Karen looks strikingly identical to her adopted son, Gai Nagareboshi. This was the reason why Isshin left Gai in Karen's care, as the two looked uncannily similar. She has short, brown hair. Her bangs frame her face, draping down to her cheeks on both sides, and the rest of her hair situated upon her forehead is parted on the left side, having a single clip in the hair above her left eye. At the back of her hair, two thin strands of hair point down on the left hand side. The rest of her hair is tied into a short ponytail which reaches down to her neck. Like Gai, she has a slim and petite figure, though she is slightly more "beautiful" than "cute", with long legs and wide hips. Karen has wide, green eyes, though her eyes are slightly sharper than her adopted son's, whose doe eyes are droopier. Once again, the uncanny resemblance between Karen and Gai has caused some to mistake them as the same person, thus allowing several rumors to spread about Gai, specifically the rumor about him being a cross-dresser and growing breasts, which Nika always revives after it has died down.

Karen is often seen wearing an assortment of fashionable clothes, as opposed to the rarely-changing attires of the other main characters of Bleach: Rising Phoenix. In her first appearance, Karen wears a white kosode with black hakama, held together by a black obi that has crimson jewel-like items hanging from the ends. Around her body, a strand of cloth surrounds her symmetrically on both sides, white in color, with a sort of design on the outer surfaces. This cloth is shown to be over the white haori that is on top of her previously mentioned attire, having black fur around the collar.

Personality and Traits
Karen, as a contrast to Gai, is hot-blooded, energetic, and somewhat boastful. However, like her adopted son, she has a short temper which can frighten some people; though Gai states that he was never even slightly afraid of this part of her personality, and it can be assumed that Gai developed his short fuse from his adopted mother. Despite all this, deep down, she is a kind and caring individual, as she happily took Gai into her home and raised him without a second thought, bringing him up as if he was her own son. However, Karen usually attempts to hide this side of her, becoming shy and embarrassed if anyone brings it up in any situation.

Despite her age, Karen attempts to keep "in" with the trends at the time, though her eternally youthful appearance aids her in this desire. This is because she believes that since she will not be getting older physically anymore, "I [Karen] may as well act my appearance". As such, she is often found wandering through shopping malls with several shopping bags whenever one of the other characters try to locate her in order to receive help. Nika jokes that Karen's obsession with fashion and maintaining her beauty stems from being "past marriageable age in spiritual years", which Karen vehemently denies, often going to violent extremes to get this point across.

Because of her adoption of Gai, Karen frequently dotes on him, even though he is engaged and can take care of himself better than she can. She is always intent on knowing what Gai does every day, and generally dislikes him being close to both males and females, often threatening them if they "so much touch a single hair on Gai's head". Some have commented on this, noting her to be "creepily possessive". In particular, she is often grabby with her adopted son, causing him to feel slightly uncomfortable when around her, though he notes that "she [Karen] isn't nowhere near as bad as Yuuki."

Zanpakutō
Sumitsukigasa (墨月牙鎖, "Fanged-Chain, Moon Ink") is the name of Karen's Zanpakutō, which she shares with Ōko Yushima, though after the latter's death, she is its sole wielder. Karen has had access to Sumitsukigasa before Yushima, and is far more innovative and skilled in the application of its effects. When sealed, Sumitsukigasa takes the form of an ordinary katana with a golden hilt with a red cloth-wrapping and maroon sheath. It has a rectangular tsuba with a cross shape embossed on it. Karen often wears it on her belt.

Shikai: As Karen utters the release command, "Seethe" (沸き上がる, "Wakiagaru"), Sumitsukigasa transforms into a double-headed voulge with red markings on it. It has seven blade protrusions on the back end of both blade tips. It also has a large hoop with multiple bladed protrusions along the outside of it. The hoop is set into the middle of the voulge bar, where the weapon is commonly held and twirled.

Shikai Special Abilities: With Sumitsukigasa, Karen is able to duplicate an adversary's attack and reproduce it, as well as absorb an adversary's reiatsu and turn it into her own. To elaborate, Sumitsukigasa is able to take slices of space and recreate them. To onlookers, this appears as if Karen is manipulating time, though this is untrue, as she uses Sumitsukigasa to recreate a space that didn't exist before and shifts her location in space in that instance. In addition, by spinning Sumitsukigasa right the central hoop glows pink, enabling Karen to absorb any attack that her Zanpakutō comes into contact with. When she spins Sumitsukigasa left the central hoop glows pink before launching the absorbed attack back at her opponent. While the 'spatial displacement' function of Sumitsukigasa is often left unused, Karen takes great pride in her skill in utilizing the 'attack duplication and reiatsu absorption' ability of her Zanpakutō, having developed a way to store the absorbed attack within Sumitsukigasa and fuse the different types of reiatsu stored within the blade to create several devastating attacks and abilities. When Karen saved Gai, Yuuki, who fought Karen, bitterly remarked that "brokenness runs in the family", which is ironic, as Gai could not be possibly classified as "broken", as at that moment, he was in possession of the Getsuga Tenshō-launching Suigetsu as a Zanpakutō.


 * Hajō Kūri (覇錠空蔾, "Tyrant Lock Void Bramble"): By striking Sumitsukigasa into the ground, an elegant fortress wall of purple reishi is formed. The wall transforms all energy around it into reishi, condensing it into a green ball before getting launched as a considerably powerful wave that decimates everything in its path. The wave can dispel even after it is launched. Due to Karen's skill, she is able to break the 'parts' of this attack into two separate attacks.
 * Harishō (覇蔾衝, "Tyrant Bramble Piercer"): Karen condenses stray reishi in the area into a green sphere, which she pierces with her Zanpakutō, absorbing the energy onto the blades of the voulge. As the reishi whirls around the blade, Karen condenses the reishi upon the blades before releasing it in the arc of the swing of the voulge, where upon the reishi converges at the moment of releasing, forming into the shape of a crescent wave similar to Getsuga Tenshō. This wave decimates almost everything in its path, and it can dispel even after it is launched.
 * Kūjōshō (空錠晶, "Void Lock Mirror"): Karen erects an elegant fortress wall of purple reishi from the ground by thrusting Sumitsukigasa into it. Activation of this technique makes it necessary for Karen to provide double the reiatsu to form the shield due to its unique construction, and if it is struck, she will feel pain and receive damage in accordance. Karen can also materialize it from a distance, allowing her to shield Gai from Harafumei without either of them realizing it. This wall can also disperse the resultant force of an impact with the wall as a concentrated explosion that is automatically returned along the attack's opposing trajectory.
 * Dimensional Portals: Sumitsukigasa is also capable of creating portals to connect with the Dangai. Karen is able to 'draw out' the Kōtotsu from these portals, unleashing it on a rampage against her foes, though this is rarely, if ever, done. If used, then even Karen herself must take caution, as it has an indiscriminate targeting system, and it will hunt down everything, travelling in a straight line, obliterating anything and everything it touches. It was through this ability that Gai was able to travel back in time to the creation of the Mototsu race and Kazuma Nagareboshi.

Bankai: Arazomekū Sumitsukigasa (退紅空•墨月牙鎖, "Faded Scarlet Void: Fanged-Chain, Moon Ink"): It is known that only Karen's variant of Sumitsukigasa possesses a Bankai. Karen tends to loathe using her Bankai, as she sees it as "unfair" to her opponents, and being the 'battle nut' that she is, can easily shorten the length of a fight as well as obliterate any chances of a good challenge for her. As such, Karen only releases her Bankai when facing up against a foe which she cannot defeat by any other method, or if Gai is in danger. To date, she has only shown her Bankai twice in Bleach: Rising Phoenix, ironically both times she was defeated soon after releasing. Arazomekū Sumitsukigasa is not to be used in RPs, unless the other(s) participating agree to it.

In Bankai, Karen's attire drastically changes, becoming a red and black long, revealing dress that is cut to show the entirety of her cleavage and the top part of her stomach. The sleeves of her dress are detached, and she has a giant black ribbon wrapped around her waist to show off her wide hips. The back of her dress is cut off, showing her sculpted back lines. Her dress has a slit that goes all the way up to her hip. In addition, she wears black traditional Japanese sandals and red gauntlets. Karen also becomes clad in a jet-black cloak, with a deep night-blue tattered fur collar around her neck area and the fringes of her cloak.

In this form, Sumitsukigasa takes on an extremely different form, transforming from its voulge form into the form of a scythe with a long black, staff-like haft. Despite being made out of metal, the haft is capable of bending, sometimes at incredibly drastic angles. The scythe blade is white and gold, with the two colours separated by a zigzagged line going along the blade. Next to the blade is a prominent decor in the shape of an elliptical white eye with a slitted crimson pupil, framed by gold metal, which goes around the eye and then splits into two strands of metal, which latch themselves onto the edge of the blade. Below the eye is a triangular zigzagged pattern, split with the colours dark grey and light grey. A slight extension, with small wing-shaped objects, one red and one black, is seen next to the eye, opposite to the blade.

Bankai Special Abilities: While Arazomekū Sumitsukigasa retains its dual abilities, Karen places preference in the 'Spatial Displacement' ability over the 'Attack Duplication and Reiatsu Absorption' ability in this form, which is due to her rarely revealing her Bankai, and when she does, it is a sign for her going 'all-out' against her foe. Despite Karen having lost both times she activated her Bankai, Arazomekū Sumitsukigasa is without a doubt, one of the most powerful Bankai in Bleach: Rising Phoenix, coming in third place, with the second place going to Mitsuru Inazuma's Yakusa-no-Ikadzuchi and Gai Nagareboshi's Shinonmyō no Kakusei being the strongest.


 * Enhanced Bankai Duration: As Karen can set Arazomekū Sumitsukigasa to constantly absorb any and all stray reishi from the area, theoretically, her Bankai has a near infinite duration, though Karen's love of battle prevents her from exploiting such a feature unless Gai is in danger. Ironically, the one time that she activated such an "overpowered" ability within the storyline of Bleach: Rising Phoenix, it was against Harafumei, who easily defeated her.
 * Ultra-Speed Combat: As Arazomekū Sumitsukigasa is constantly absorbing any and all stray reishi from the immediate vicinity, Karen can focus that stray reishi upon her feet before dispersing it in the form of a rocket-like burst of reishi, jet-propelling Karen in any direction she wishes at speeds exceeding even Hyper-Speed Combat. Normally, such an unorthodox method would expend a massive amount of reishi, leaving the user drained completely after a few minutes; however Sumitsukigasa's 'Attack Duplication and Reiatsu Absorption' ability removes such a risk, allowing Karen to utilize this incredible ability as much as she wishes. Her newfound speed is so tremendous, that it also greatly enhances her Shunpo prowess drastically.
 * Space Manipulation: By twirling Arazomekū Sumitsukigasa to the right, the portals created by the 'Dimensional Portals' ability are also able to negate attacks and record the information to recreate the space as Karen desires. This power to replicate can extend to various events: an opponent's attack, movements, even their Zanpakutō attack or attributes or more comically, their deepest secrets. This ability can only be used from one direction at a time. It also can be very taxing on Karen's energy-reserves from constant use, though with the 'Attack Duplication and Reiatsu Absorption' ability of Sumitsukigasa, this is hardly a problem. Twirling Arazomekū Sumitsukigasa to the left, Karen's Zanpakutō calls forth a portal that manifests the recorded event, which she is capable of doing once, after that, the recorded event is erased, requiring her to record another event within her Zanpakutō.
 * Clones: Karen has demonstrated the ability to use Arazomekū Sumitsukigasa's recording ability to record herself, thus producing a clone of herself. Unlike when she clones another person's abilities, the recorded version of her can act independently or under her orders until it is destroyed. Unlike Inaba's Zanpakutō, Karen is able to create up to nine duplicates of herself at a time, and when nine are out at the same time, she must wait until at least one is destroyed before activating the ability once again. When destroyed, these clones release an explosion which has enough power to decimate a small house.
 * Space Displacement: While appearing to freeze time, by using these portals on herself, Karen can in reality relocate herself instantly. With no warning to her new location, Karen can attack her opponent off-guard. She often uses this ability in rapid succession, sometimes racking up several hits against her adversary in a mere moment, giving her foe little to no time to react. This is also her preferred method of travel when in a rush. Before activating this ability, a bell-like chime is released from Arazomekū Sumitsukigasa, giving Karen's opponent a warning.
 * Kyūkei Mūkagami (無のミラーが粉々に, "The Mirror that Reflects Nothingness Shatters"): Karen condenses stray reishi in the area into an enormous sphere of reishi in front of her, which continues to suck in stray reishi at a rapid pace and near indefinitely. However, after a few moments, Karen traps the sphere right under the scythe blade of Arazomekū Sumitsukigasa, before slamming her Zanpakutō into the ground. This causes the sphere to impact upon the ground violently, dispersing the overwhelming reishi packed within the sphere in the direction of where the tip of the scythe is pointing at tremendous speeds, sending devastating shock waves through the ground in the direction Karen is facing. These shock waves are able to pass through and damage almost any substance, literally tearing it apart. The shockwaves can rise into the air if Karen takes time to absorb more than the initial reishi poured into the initial technique, possibly allowing her to attack her opponent from anywhere. This attack takes some time to prepare, so it is near incapable of use as a defensive technique unless Karen is some fair distance away.
 * Renzan - Hajō Kūri (連斬 覇錠空蔾, "Serial-Slashing Tyrant Lock Void Bramble"): A more powerful variant of Hajō Kūri, Arazomekū Sumitsukigasa produces this ability which surrounds Karen and forms an elegant fortress of green reishi. There are also various tendrils around the fortress which latch onto the ground beside it. A huge green light shoots into the sky, casting a Celtic-like symbol above the vicinity. This then proceeds to absorb the reishi that makes up Soul Society, and can fire concentrated green blasts of energy capable of destroying a large area within its blast radius. It can also block most external attacks. However, it is nowhere near as sturdy on the inside, as Mitsuru was able to use Kaminari Kesshō to shoot several thousand orbs of lightning inside the small openings, which detonated, destroying Renzan- Hajō Kūri.

Trivia

 * Personally, I couldn't be bothered to make both Gai's adopted mother and Mitsuru's friend who inspired him, so I made them the same person. Sue me, it adds somewhat more to the narrative.
 * Also, Aha and I had a wager: I couldn't make Sumitsukigasa from the Gotei 13 Invading Army Filler Arc even more broken, as well as create an even more powerful Bankai. Well, look up in awe at the overpoweredness which is Arazomekū Sumitsukigasa.