Yuriko Obara

"All these rules have made you Shinigami soft; in the old days, the enemy didn't even exist; no one would dare to cross us."

- Yuriko Obara

Yuriko Obara ( 里子  小原; Obara Yuriko) is the Captain of the Third Division. She originally retired long before the start of the Winter War, but was brought back upon it's conclusion to act as a temporary Captain for the Third Division. In spite of being promised that she would be dismissed after ten years, she has yet to be replaced.

Appearance
Yuriko is a shorter, elderly lady with a slender but muscular frame. Many mistake her as being quite frail given her age, which could not be further from the truth; with not an ounce of excess fat on her, a large portion of her weight is made up of well-developed muscle that she had obtained during her early years as a Shinigami, and has since maintained. Even during her retirement, she worked to ensure that she maintained a good form--partly because she hated doing nothing, and partly because she liked the way she looked with all those muscles. While they're no longer as well-defined as they used to be due to to her skin being a little on the loose side, they're still quite visible when exposed.

Her face is square in shape, and a little over half of it is marred by a horrible scar that she received during the first Quincy War. It covers the entire left side of her face and a large part of the back of her head, and the injury resulted in the loss of her left eye and left ear. While she cannot grow any hair in those areas, she still allows the hair on the right side of her head to grow out. It's silver in colour, and kept cut very, very close to the scalp. Her right eye is still intact, and while she is slowly starting to lose vision in it, it's colour still remains the pale green it was in her prime.

Yuriko wears the traditional, standard-issue Shihakusho and Captain's haori, and has made absolutely no changes to it.

Personality
Proud to the point of arrogance, Yuriko never managed to shake off her excess ego in all the years that she has been alive. She is of the firm belief that she knows all, and that the younger Shinigami know absolutely nothing; something that she justifies with a combination of her age (which supposedly indicates how much knowledge and wisdom she possesses), as well as how powerful she is. While she can be quite insufferable, Yuriko's justifications aren't entirely unsound; while she is not as strong as she once was due to the years having taken a toll on her body, she is still among one of the most powerful Captains in the Seireitei, being on par with Unohana and even the Head Captain himself. She takes great pride in this fact, and will flaunt it at almost every chance she gets.

Yuriko's beliefs and ideals are firmly rooted in tradition. It is because of this that she is having such a hard time adjusting to the new systems that the Gotei has implemented; the Gotei she knew was ruthless, and lawless in it's own way. There was no mercy for the soldiers, criminals, or the villagers; if anyone so much as put a toe out of line, they'd be beaten to within an inch of their life. But now everything has become much more civilized, and she absolutely hates it. Yuriko blames the Winter War and the Gotei's current situation on it's modern systems, claiming that they've made the soldiers soft, and given the people the chance to challenge the law. In an attempt to fight back against these changes, she has taken to running her squad as close as she can to how the divisions used to be run, although some regulations and rules have stopped her from adopting all her old policies. She has yet to see any true results, however, and has taken up complaining extensively about the system instead.

But as insufferable as she can be about it, Yuriko really does want the Gotei to succeed. Her constant complaining is her way of showing her fear for it's future; after all, the old Gotei barely managed to kill the Quincies, and they were bloodthirsty beasts back then. How would they deal with a war now when they're all soft and weak? Her snide remarks are also used to cover up her discomfort with her current situation. She would never admit it, but she feels horribly lost; as though she's a stranger in someone else's home, despite the fact that the Gotei had been her home long before the young Shinigami came along. Even the people she once knew--namely Yamamoto and Unohana--are vastly different from who they used to be, and it's all too much for her to take in.

However, Yuriko has not let her emotional distress crack through her outer shell. To others, she remains as stoic and cold as ever, and maintains an amazing work ethic. She acknowledges the fact that her body does not have the strength it once had, and trains twice as hard to ensure that she remains in what she deems "acceptable condition" because of it. She is, without a doubt, a fighter; something that becomes even more evident on the battlefield. When in locked in combat, Yuriko is cold, calculating, and aggressive. Her fighting style is very straight forward and bloody--something that hasn't changed at all throughout the years. While she never usually cracks a smile during a fight, she's smiling in her head; fighting is something that, unlike the Gotei, will never change, and cutting down the enemy is something that she never tires of.

Human Life
Yuriko herself doesn't remember much of her human life, as she died at a very young age, and what memories she did have are mostly lost below more recent events. She was born in the early Yamato period (500 A.D.), and was one of many children in her family. Their source of income was a vast expanse of rice paddies--one that the entire family, extended and immediate, worked to maintain. Yuriko began helping out at a very young age, as had her siblings and parents before her.

When she was ten, Yuriko fell ill. While in the modern day, it would have been easily treated, there was no such medicine in those times. She died in her sleep less than two weeks later.

Life in the Soul Society

Soul Society then was not different in the slightest compared to the World of the Living. Between her age and former way of life, Yuriko had little trouble adjusting; her childish outlook on life allowed her to accept the fact that she had died and gone to a kind of afterlife. Not that she retained her naivety and innocence for long, though. Without any kind of governing body, Soul Society was a mess of rising powers all fighting to win control over the land. She was quickly exposed to violence, death, and other such horrors that no child should have to see. But as horrified as she was, her sense of self-preservation won out. She stole a wakizashi from the corpse of a fallen soul, and ended up making her very first kill the same day.

Killing the unruly countrymen who attacked her wasn't particularly difficult. Few had any actual talent with any kind of weapon... If they even had one. Swords were sparse, and highly coveted. It had been a nothing less than a miracle that Yuriko had found one so easily, although it drew quite a bit of unwanted attention. She disliked killing, but didn't want to be killed herself. In an attempt to try and make herself feel better, she would try to justify her actions by telling herself that "it was self-defence"; "they deserved it"; "they didn't deserve to live"; and so forth. While the first statement was indeed true, but the others were little more than lies. However, as time went on, those comforting sentences became her mantra--especially the one deeming the attackers unworth of living. Yuriko was becoming quite desensitized to murder and violence, which was probably only to be expected.

The years continued to go by, and Yuriko became more and more aggressive. No longer did she wait for people to confront her; she would now go out of her way to cut down anyone who so much as looked at her the wrong way. In her twisted mind, her attacks were more than justified--the victim obviously deserved it, all the time. The corpses piled up behind her, and her wanton killing started to attract a fair amount of attention. Eventually, word spread to none other than Shigekuni Genryusai Yamamoto, who was attempting to create order in this chaotic world. He had already begun to gather what would be the first Captains of the Seireitei, and they made it their mission to put an end to this murderous lunatic.

They confronted Yuriko in a small village. What was supposed to be an easy job resulted in the deaths of several innocent people, as well as three of Yamamoto's company. It was an utter bloodbath, and by the end of it, Yuriko was locked in a very one-sided battle against Retsu Unohana--or, rather, Yachiru Unohana, as she was known back then. Yuriko was on the losing side, but showed great tenacity; regardless of what attack was thrown her way, or how badly she was hurt. She may have been a threat to society, but in Yamamoto's eyes, she also had the potential to be a strong ally. He intervened, and proposed that Yuriko join their cause. He declared that she would be able to hunt down and destroy the true criminals in this world, appealing to her twisted sense of justice. Should she prove to be more a liability, he would have the resources to dispose of her anyway, so it wasn't much of a risk on his part. Yuriko, after mulling it over, agreed to the deal.

While her temper caused some problems in the early days, she eventually learned to control herself. She ended up getting along well enough with the other people in their growing group of law-enforces, although she never did come to trust Unohana. As their motley crew grew larger, they began to attract the attention of the people living in the Seireitei. Those people were the early Central 46--early servants of the Soul King that had been sent to the Soul Society to try and control it. However, the task had proven to be too difficult for them, and they were forced to wait for a more powerful, larger organization that would do the dirty work for them. Yamamoto's group met their standards, and they approached him with an offer. If he were to officially militarize the group and work under the Soul King, they would not only grant his people the ability to unlock their inner potential, but the power to bring order to the world. Eager to see his dream realized, he agreed to their terms, and thus the Gotei 13 was born.

The army was divided up into thirteen different divisions, with Yamamoto at the head. Yuriko herself was appointed as the Captain of the Ninth Division. Since the divisions then were small, they had no need of Lieutenants at the time. The group moved into the Seireitei, and the Soul King's servants held true to their word. They granted the soldiers with Asauchi, and trained them how to use them. One by one, these soldiers were transformed into true Shinigami as they unconsciously planted pieces of their soul into these blades, effectively creating their own Zanpakuto. They were taught how to control these new powers, and were also taught Kido, Hakuda, and Shunpo (although these techniques would be greatly refined later on).

After a year of intensive training, the Shinigami were ready to tackle the mess that was the Soul Society. They were able to calm most conflicts through intimidation alone, although some required more aggressive means. Yuriko was especially violent when it came to dealing with those who refused to bend to the law. Bit by bit, they forced the residents of the world to conform to the laws that the Soul King had laid out and conveyed to his servants. The area around the Seireitei was then divided up into eighty districts, with the criminals and outlaws being driven to the furthest areas--namely Zaraki.

For many years, Yuriko and her peers ruled their divisions and commanded control of the Soul Society with little effort. Few dared to oppose the Gotei 13, who were known for being particularly harsh when it came to punishing offenders. Even the smallest step out of line was met with a beating at the very least, and few were willing to go through such pains. Central 46 was officially established at this time as well, and stayed behind the scenes, using the Gotei to do the grunt work. They continued to coach the Shinigami, however, and eventually took the Captains in for special training--Bankai training. This was something Yuriko was interested in, and she drove herself to obtain her Bankai in ten years, and no more. Having so much power when few others did was an exhilerating, and she wanted to enjoy it while she could.

Sometime during this, Yuriko met and fell in love with another Shinigami named Norio. He was a high-ranking member of her division, and after working together with him on several outings to spread justice throughout the Soul Society, the two began to get quite close. They married shortly after, connected by their passion for punishing those who dared to challenge the law. However, as Yuriko had no desire to leave her position, they never concieved any children of their own, opting to adopt some instead. They travelled to Zaraki, looking for children to "save" from becoming savage, unlawful beings. They returned to the Seireitei with five children, as opposed to the two they had intended to get, and educated them in the various was of life. ...Or, life as they knew it, anyway. From day one, Norio and Yuriko trained their children for a future in the Gotei, and after years, their work paid off; all five enlisted, and succesfully joined. They became a particularly powerful family in the end, with all seven members excelling in combat and holding several positions in the Gotei.

While their rule in Soul Society was being cemented, the Gotei's reach began to spread to the World of the Living. It was during this time that they learned of the Hollow, and made it their job to exterminate them in order to send more souls to Soul Society in hopes that they would join the army (the current residents were a little too afraid to even come close to the Seireitei). Yuriko was especially fond of these expeditions, and was known for venturing out quite frequently to deal with even the lowest-level Hollow. They were, in her eyes, worse than human deviants, and needed to be punished for their crimes (the fact that she enjoyed the thrill of the kill was just a bonus). It was during these adventures that she and the others discovered the existence of the Quincy. In the beginning, neither group wished the other harm; they were just curious as to who everybody was. However, when it was discovered that the Hollow the Quincy killed were destroyed, the entire Gotei was enraged--Yuriko included. How dare those human scum claim the lives of potential soldiers. It was unthinkable, and the Central 46 did their best to blow everything out of proportion as well. It was the Soul King's wish to destroy the Quincy--although it was because they were upsetting the world's balance, not because of the lost souls--and commanded that the Central 46 manipulate the Gotei into doing so. Between this information and the Gotei's general anger, Central 46 had little trouble pushing them to go to war; they made up a few crimes here and there, and before they knew it, a complete genocide was on their hands.

However, the war was not so easily won. The Quincy outnumbered the Gotei one hundred to one, and several hundred Shinigami were killed in the battle, and hundreds more wounded. Two of Yuriko's children were killed in the early stages of the war, and Yuriko herself only saw the first half of the struggle. She was in the midst of a skirmish in the World of the Living when one of the Quincy fired a reishi bomb. Her daughters, who had been with her at that time, were killed instantly while Yuriko suffered serious injury to her face. Forced to withdraw from the war altogether, she spent the latter half grieving for her lost family and for the fact that she would not be able to avenge them due to her condition.

But her pain did not stop there. Norio and her only surviving son would not live to see the end of the war either; Norio was killed after being ambushed in the World of the Living, and her son would die just days before the war ended after being attacked and left for dead by he Quincy. In his weakened state, he was unable to defend himself from the horde of Hollow that descended on the area, attracted to the high amount of reiatsu.

Yuriko's world was shattered. Victory had never tasted so bitter--a sentiment that her comrades shared. She spent a long time sitting in her misery, unable to do anything due to her wounds. However, while she grieved endlessly for her family, she swore that she wouldn't disgrace them by letting the grief eat at her. She put on a strong face as she tried to figure out what she was going to do after being discharged--the Gotei wasn't too kind to those with any kind of disability, regardless of their contributions. Yuriko knew full well that once she recovered, she would be honorably discharged along with every other poor soul that had suffered some horrible injury.

This prediction held true a year later, when Yuriko was finally released from the hospital. She bid goodbye to the Gotei--the only home she had ever truly known--and returned to the Soul Society, which was but a far cry from the place she had grown up in.

Retirement
A few days after living in the first district, Yuriko realized that she was not built for lazing about with nothing to do. The nightmares and the trauma had started to catch up to her even during the day, and that was causing some serious problems for her. She needed to do something to keep herself busy. That something ended up becoming the Soul Society's first orphanage--one that would groom the children for entrance into the Gotei, regardless of whether or not they ended up being adopted. Using the compensation money she had received from the Gotei, she purchased a large estate in the Rukongai's third district, and began by picking up kids from the furthest districts. She deemed those ones to be of the highest priority, as most were well-versed in combat, but had to be caught before they turned into mindless, murderous monsters.

While Yuriko's appearance hindered her in her negotiations with interested parents, her reputation often more than made up for it, as did the children themselves. While she was not particularly sensitive when dealing with adults, children were another story. She was determined to give them the love and care that they deserved, and even if she was a bit tough on the children, she always meant well. Many of the orphans went on to the Gotei if they were not adopted, which was fairly common; few souls at that time had the resources and security that were needed to rear a child. Nevertheless, every child who was left at the orphanage grew up to be succesful; Yuriko made sure of it, even if they weren't going into the Gotei. Eventually, stories of their success spread, and business began to take off after the second or third generation grew up and left home.

However, as time went on and technology in the World of the Living got better and better, fewer and fewer young souls came to the Soul Society. The introduction of the Shino Academy also lessened the amount of children coming to the orphanage, and after some hundreds of years, she was forced to close up due to bankruptcy. But she was in no shortage of connections; she managed to secure a quaint little house in the first district with the help of one of the children she had raised. And that was when Yuriko was finally able to rest. She still grieved for Norio and her lost sons and daughters, but the good she had done the other children she had taken in helped to ease her pains. The memories came back to haunt her sometimes, but for the first time in a long time, her dreams were finally (mostly) pleasant.

Her peaceful retirement, however, was disturbed when the Central 46 requested that she pick up her sword after all these years. She had been quite surprised to see the notice, but her duty to the military refused to let her decline the offer. So it was that Yuriko returned to the Seireitei, taking up a position as the Third Division's Captain.

Soul War

In spite of their promise to replace her in ten years, Central 46 still has yet to dismiss Yuriko from her position. She remains as Captain of the Third Division.

Equipment
Radio: As the Arrancar and Humans cannot make use of the Hell Butterflies, every officer, regardless of rank, was given a radio that they could use to communicate with everyone.

Spare Katana: At the start of the war, all Shinigami were issued a standard katana in case their Zanpakut ō  broke, or they preferred not to use their Zanpakut ō  unless it was needed.

Rejuvination Pills: Originally used only by the Fourth Division, these pills were distributed among the rest of the Seireitei in hopes that they could increase the fighting capacity of the soldiers and limit the number of casualties.

Powers and Abilities
Natural Abilities

Master Swordsman: Yuriko has had over 1500 years to perfect her skill with a sword--something that she never ceased to work on even during her retirement. While her raw physical strength has been greatly diminished by age, she as more than made up for it with Tamashi no Kokoro, a technique that she developed in order to counteract the negative effects of her age.

Hakuda Expert: One would expect an older lady to have issue properly executing Hakuda techniques, but this could not be further from the truth. Between her use of Tamashi no Kokoro and her high level of intelligence, she has managed to remain a formidable force in the art of hand-to-hand combat (admittedly, she is far from what she was in her prime).

Kido Master: Yuriko's Kido techniques are raw and unrefined, as she was discharged from the Gotei before she had the chance to streamline them. While the accuracy of her spells is definitely not 100% (part in thanks to her eye--or lack thereof-- and part in thanks to her technique), they possess immense power that more than makes up for that.

Shunpo Master: While she's far from being as fast as she was, Yuriko is still able to travel long distances in a very short amount of time. She has no issues keeping up with the other Captains, and can go for quite a ways before becoming winded.

Tamashi no Kokoro: A technique that Yuriko began to work on when she realized her body was no longer up to snuff. It involves channeling reiatsu to a specific point (i.e. a fist or sword or arm), and using that to give the attack some extra "oomph".

Zanpakuto
Seisui (盛衰; Rise and Fall) takes the form of a regular katana when sealed. The wrapping on the hilt was initially a red-orange colour--a reflection of her former position as the Ninth Division's Captain--but has since changed to the Third Division's palge green. The cross guard is circular in shape, and is not decorated in any way.
 * Shikai: Seisui's release command is, "Build them up then tear them down."  From there, it turns into what is possibly the smallest pair of warhammers in existence.  Each a mere two feet in length and boasting solid, stone heads that are only around thirty centimetres in thickness, Seisui is by no means an intimidating weapon.  Both hammers are identical, with their wooden handles wrapped in some kind of leathery, green material.  The only thing that differs between them is that one has a "+" sign engraved on the top, while the other has a "-" sign on it's top.
 * Shikai Special Ability: Seisu's abilities are fairly straight forward.  Its first and most-used ability is the one that amplifies the amount of damage done to the enemy, which is done by hitting them with the "negative" hammer.  This attack increases the amount of damage done by two times, three times, and four times--in that order.  The amount of damage increases with each hit (i.e. first hit has no damage multiplier, second hit's power is multiplied by two, and so forth), and "resets" to one after four attacks.  The attacks do not have to hit the enemy in order for the damage multiplier to come into effect; in other words, the amount of damage done will increase regardless of whether or not Yuriko actually hits her target.
 * The second ability is activated when Yuriko hits something with the "positive" hammer.  Like the first attack, this one also has multipliers of two, three, and four, although it's effect is entirely different.  Upon hitting an inamiate object, Yuriko can increase it's size by the aforementioned multipliers.  The multipliers do stack--so for example, if she hits something twice, it's size will increase by two times; if she hits it again, it will expand to three times the size.  Once she hits something four times, however, she cannot inrease the size.  If she hits it a fifth time, the object will either break or shrink to it's original size.  The object affected must be no bigger than one metre in height and one metre in width; if Yuriko were to hit anything larger, such as a building, only the things within a square metre (with her hammer as the centre point) would be affected.  This ability does not work on living things such as trees, animals, or people, and if the "positive" hammer is used to hit one of them, it will just cause normal damage.  Using the "positve" hammer as a weapon does not increase the hit-count of the "negative" hammer.


 * Bankai: Seisui: Sakusei to Haki (盛衰：作成と破棄; Rise and Fall: Create and Destroy).  To activate it's true form, Seisui must first be in it's Shikai form.  As weapon's name is recited, the two hammers must be brough together so that the base of the handles are touching.  They will then merge together, and the handle will drastically increase in length to the point where it is around 4'10" long.  It also increases slightly in width, and retains the green wrapping around the center, where Yuriko's hands are usually placed.  The heads of the hammers increase in length and width as well, now appearing to be slightly oversized in comparison to the rest of the weapon.
 * Bankai Abilities: Seisui: Sakusei to Haki has no new abilities, but rather increases the limitations placed on the Shikai abilities.  First of all, there are no designated "positive" and "negative" hammer heads; rather, the property of the hammer changes depending on what Yuriko wills it to be.  The damage/size multipliers have also been added to, and now allow five-times and six-times multipliers, bringing her total hit count (before resetting) to six.  The size restraints on the items affected by size multipliers has also been increased, allowing for anything that is three metres by three metres to be manipulated.