Kaede Mikazuki

"When life gives you lemons, don't make lemonade. Make life take the lemons back! Get mad! I don't want your damn lemons! What am I supposed to do with these results?! Demand to see life's manager! Make life rue the day it thought it could give me lemons! Do you know who I am?! I'm the woman who's gonna burn your house down! WITH THE LEMONS! I'M GONNA GET MY ENGINEERS TO INVENT A COMBUSTIBLE LEMON THAT BURNS YOUR HOUSE DOWN!"

- Kaede Mikazuki, Advancement Kaede Mikazuki (三日月=槭樹, Mikazuki Kaede) is a mysterious young woman; she acts as a tutor for Arata Yaguruma, Lisette Ienaga, and Eiji Sakuta, all while keeping all three blissfully aware of her true nature. She is the main antagonist of Rising Phoenix: Sealed Scarlet, Corrupt Black, as well as Bleach: Second Rising.

Appearance
Kaede bears the appearance of a young lady in her mid-late teens, with a slender figure, sizeable bust, and dark blue eyes. Kaede's hair is blond, and goes down to her waist in length. It is kept free, and is rather wavy. Her fringe is kept just above her eyes, and she has three sets of bangs; first going down to her upper-jaw, second, upper-neck, third, chest-length. Kaede's attire is a green and peach coloured dress, with the top being a dark green that has gold lining on it, and being sleeveless, as well as revealing a considrable portion of her cleavage, covered through a veil of sorts. She has a ribbon on her neck, which is red in colour, and has detached upper-arm portions of her dress' sleeves and has frilled gloves on her hands.

In her true form she grows to a size at least twice as large as Mitsuru with her arms and legs almost becoming reptilian in appearance. Her mouth stretches out widely to expose many sharp teeth and a fairly long tongue poking from the interior. Her head gains many spike-like appendages in addition to what appear to be tentacles and even a hand or two. In addition to this, a major feature is wing like features sprouting from the back of her skull. All that remains of the human form is the upper half of her face (nose, eyes, and forehead) and her torso, still featuring human breasts.

Personality and Traits
Although Kaede is normally smiling, she can be undoubtedly cold, ruthless, and uncaring, and appears to love nothing more than to bring other people down. Best described as a domineering woman of an intimidating personality, Kaede is a villainous "blood knight" who fights for the thrill of the battle and loves inflicting and receiving pain on her opponents. She has some femme fatale elements, as she makes provocative and suggestive remarks toward her enemies, deriving sexual pleasure from 'strong opponents', and also fools and betrays those she was working with for her own sinister plans. She possesses a strong, sensual figure, but is cruel, cunning, ruthless and sadistic, as well as an unforgiving fighter with a strong urge to cause havoc and destruction, having no qualms with claiming the lives of her victims.

She derives a demented form of amusement from others' suffering, due to her creation, where she was forced to cannibalize her fellow test subjects to survive, trying to make this horrific action enjoyable, before she found it truly enjoyable after a while, and is lethally addicted to murdering others. She has a bipolar disorder, due to her unstable emotions which stem from her creation. She is callous to others, and treats her allies as pawns. Her personality, particularly against women, is quite depraved. She delights in preying on others - when she is done with them she kills them gorily, as seen with several women and men.

Let it not be said that Kaede is incapable of thinking intelligently- most of the time, she merely relishes in living in the moment. When particularly focused, she is able to concoct incredible plans and she can modify them on the fly or adapt them at a moment's notice in order to meet her ends. Possessing no emotion nor empathy of her own, Kaede is able to warp and twist her own personality to make it seem as if she is an absent-minded young woman with a motherly outlook towards people she meets. She appears to be calm, kind and affable; certainly a person you'd love to sit back and have a cup of coffee with.

Powers and Abilities
Master Swordsmanship Specialist: Due to having utilized the Reverse Soul Technique to gain all of the real Kaede's knowledge about the forte of Zanjutsu, it can easily be said that Kaede is a highly competent swordswoman- that being an understatement; able to effortlessly defeat Kaori in their first encounter. Kaede focuses on quick, precise strikes, always aiming to hit her opponent's vital points in battle. She uses misdirection in her attacks and even though doing so allows for holes in her defense she is more than capable of making it up with surprise attacks. She uses heavy, lightning-quick blows which aim to inflict immense damage upon her opponents, and can even splatter limbs if enough force is poured into the strike. She is able to strike multiple times with changes of attack type (from slash to pierce) without any difficulty. She always fights holding her blade in both hands; overall, her fighting style is fluid and precise, as she is able to quickly change her attack pattern to suit the situation.
 * Ken'atsu (剣圧, "Sword Pressure"): A basic ability which can be learned by almost everyone and their mother, but it sure is deadly if utilized properly. Gripping her blade with both hands, Kaede unleashes an almighty slash, releasing a powerful blade of pressure that appears as faint ripples of wind at her foe at high speeds; this attack enables Kaede to assault things which are out of her sword's range, sending slashes which fly through the air itself; and can even remain floating in it until the right moment to slash. These blades of wind possess incredible range and devastating power; and Kaede has mastered this ability to the point that it can cut through barriers of spiritual energy.
 * Gobōsei no Ken (五芒星の剣, "Pentagram Sword"): Channelling spiritual energy into her blade, Kaede performs a series of five slashes at blistering speeds in a pattern that resembles a star. Because of the speed that she swings her blade, it seems as if Kaede has unleashed these blows concurrently, enabling them to all impact upon the foe's body at the same time. The slashes close on the enemy from all sides to create a prison, allowing no chance for defense or evasion. It should be noted that if her foe deflects one, then the others will surely hit, and due to the close range, if the opponent attempts to escape, Marishaten will quickly cut them down. However, during the process of slashing, a small opening is revealed for those with trained eyes: a tiny opening between her right arm and waist.

Master Hand-to-Hand Combatant:
 * Gunhira (軍平, "Force Palm"): A technique which is inspired from the Baguazhang style of martial arts. This technique builds up immense momentum through high levels of rotational force, along with Kaede's precise control over her own spiritual energy. This causes her spiritual energy to rotate continuously throughout her body and in her palms, with the energy being much faster than the normal spiritual cycle. Kaede, at any moment, can then strike the air itself with her palm, causing a large amount of spiritual power to dash forward and increase the pressure to the point where it creates a considerably powerful shockwave. Although powerful, it does take some time to prepare.

Immense Speed:

Immense Strength:

Enhanced Durability:

Psychic Powers: Kaede's trademark; she is known as the only non-Mototsu to possess ESP; her brand is labelled as 'Distortion'. Utilizing her eyes as a fulcrum, she can manifest axes of rotation within her field of vision, enabling her to warp them telekinetically; with this, she can cause gruesome deaths. Upon utilizing her eyes as her focus, her left and right eyes twist in their respective directions. However, a target needs to be designated for each direction; when Gai analyzes Distortion with his own psychic powers, the twisting appears as crimson spirals. In addition, Distortion is rendered null and void against concepts. Another psychic power she possesses is clairvoyance, which enables her to sense anything within a certain radius. With these two powers combined, she can bend things outside of her eye contact.

Immense Spiritual Power:
 * Reverse Soul Technique (反魂の術, "Hangon no Jutsu"): Kaede's main method of obtaining a physical form. After defeating her target, she clutches their soul and links her soul together with it, forming a bond through which to transfer all information into. Everything about Kaede- powers and abilities, species list, memories, and personality is inserted in her foe, the foe's own specifics are suppressed; the final blow is Kaede absorbing the foe's soul, allowing her to enter their body, healing them completely.

Zanpakutō
Marishaten (摩利支天, "Queen of Heaven") is the name of Kaede's Zanpakutō. When sealed, Marishaten takes the form of a traditional nodachi. Its hilt is wrapped in a crimson wrapping, outlining a series of azure rhombuses on it, ends in a emerald pommel and has a similarly light, mildly prominent metal disk separating the hilt from the handguard, which is a tsuba.


 * Zaiten Shukketsu (在天出血波, "Heavenly Bleeding Wave"): Unusually, Marishaten possesses an ability in its sealed state; however, like most sealed state abilities, it is rather basic. Raising her blade to the sky, Kaede gathers and collect stray spiritual energy from the immediate vicinity onto Marishaten, charging and imbuing it with a elegant and mystifying crimson light. At a moment's notice, this incredible light converges into the nodachi's tip, giving the appearance of a blade of blinding, blazing brilliance. In the arc of the sword's swing, Kaede unleashes this light in the form of a deep crimson comet that tears through the atmosphere, devouring all it touches until it reaches her foe, before impacting with tremendous force, with enough power to blow them into the air or vaporize part of their being.

Shikai:

Shikai Special Abilities: Marishaten's special ability enables Kaede to absorb the spiritual powers in any form of a Zanpakutō, Kidō spells, and even Quincy Arrows. She can in fact absorb anything as long as it's spiritual energy—the moment Marishaten absorbs power, it permanently becomes Kaede's to utilize against her foes as she chooses. What seems to be unique about this ability is that it seems to have no limit—it is done by creating a concentrated sphere of spiritual energy that whirls around at an astonishing rate. The sphere searches out any spiritual energy in the area and, acting as a magnet, draws them in and absorbs them by changing its composure into spiritual energy which it then absorbs to grow in size, density and generally power. If the sphere makes contact with physical matter, then it will inflict heavy damage. After consuming a requisite amount of spiritual energy, the sphere slowly begins to decompose, and by doing so, it begins to attack those in the vicinity indiscriminately by bouncing around uncontrollably, releasing small amounts of flame with every bounce that burns the vicinity.
 * Being seemingly one-of-a-kind, Marishaten's first Shikai grants Kaede three concepts which she has absolute dominance over. As the world according to many religions in the World of the Living is composed of Heaven, Hell and Earth, Marishaten enables Kaede to take the form of the higher being which first manifested these realms and gain absolute command over them. The power of Heaven allows her light and air manipulation, the forces of Hell enable her to access fire and darkness manipulation, and last but not least, Earth's power gives her dominance over earth and water.

Bankai: Kanzadatō Marishaten (神座打倒摩利支天, "God's Seat is Overthrown by the Queen of Heaven"): Not Yet Revealed.

Bankai Special Abilities:
 * Zetsubū no Utage (絶望の宴, "The Banquet of Despair")
 * Reitei no Fukuin (霊帝の福音, "Gospel of the Spiritual Empress")

Kanzenkudō (完全駆動, "Full Drive"): Shūen no Ginga (終焉の銀河, "The End of the Galaxy"): Beginning by chanting, "All who live, the time for thee to return to your beginning has come! The white altar is here! O Heavens, take heed! O earth, incline thy ears!" (生命ある者よ、原初に還る時が来た！古の白き祭壇、今ここに！天よ聞け！ 地よ耳を傾けよ！, "Inochi aru mono yo, gensho ni kaeru toki ga kita! Inishie no shiroki saidan, ima koko ni! Ten yo kike! Chi yo mimi wo katamuke yo!"), this causes Kaede to take upon a form similar to Gai's Ruination Break. Her body becomes clad in red and white biomechanical armour formed over green, vine-like cables and wires emanating from a central point within. The plating on her forearms, shoulders, and knees bear strange, skull-like shapes, with hollowed eyes and long horns, like the heads of demons; adding to the demonic visage is a pair of demonic skulls hovering around her at all times; truly a fearsome sight to behold.

Kanzenkudō Special Abilities: In this form, Kaede's attacks each pay reference to mythical beasts such as the Seiryū, Genbu, Byakkō, Suzaku, and Kirin.
 * Seiryūrin (青龍鱗, "Azure Dragon's Scale"):
 * Ryūō Gekirin Kō (龍王逆鱗光, "Dragon King's Imperial Wrath Light"):
 * Genbu Gōdan (玄武剛弾, "Black Tortoise's Iron Bullet")
 * Byakkō Kō (白虎咬, "White Tiger's Bite"):
 * Kōō Gatōda Shōteki (虎王牙闘打・衝敵, "Tiger King Fang Fighting Strike - Enemy Impale"):
 * Mai Suzaku (舞朱雀, "Dancing Vermilion Bird")
 * Shijin Shinka Kirin Hakke Jin (四神真火麒麟八卦陣, "Four Gods True Flaming Kirin Eight Trigrams Formation"): It should be noted that the Shinka Hakke Jin is the cauldron used by the celestials to impose capital punishment on Sun Wukong, after he wreaked chaos in Heaven. Since Sun Wukong was born of rock, blades could not cut him. With no conventional way to execute him, the celestials decided to cook him alive for forty days inside a special cauldron, but Wukong survived the ordeal and later escaped.

Envoy Powers (Stolen)
Due to having removed Gai's powers via the Reverse Soul Technique, Kaede has obtained a portion of his own Envoy of Destruction powers. Though utilizing these powers temporarily removes the seal placed on Seikyo at the cost of the user losing their sanity while their life is devoured by the power, as Kaede has no Envoy to speak of, she can utilize it without limit.

Legilis Drive
Legilis Drive (神覇龍 (レジリス・ドライヴ), "Rejirisu Doraivu"), also known as the God-Dragon of Supremacy is the form of Kaede's Envoy of Destruction armour. Legilis Drive is manifested based on the data of Gai's Rising Phoenix Juggernaut Overdrive. As the armour is reverse engineered, some of it's concept and design have derived from older forms that Kaede has witnessed with newer concepts she had gathered while studying the Nagareboshi lineage. In Legilis Drive, Kaede becomes clad in a glistening white armour that possesses somewhat demonic features- in addition to the white, there is crimson and black colour schemes engraved around the arms, legs, and chest. However, it possesses claw-like growths on the hands and feet, as well as horns and a fanged mouth on the helmet, the mouth capable of biting opponents- the addition of twelve large draconic wings and a serrated tail only further serve to intimidate her foe. It is also illustrated with gold accents on the forehead, a golden collar to signify a dragon's mane, and a elaborate horn/V-fin. The Legilis Drive is equipped with several vernier thrusters throughout the body armour, allowing Kaede to move in higher speeds in any terrain as well as increased maneuverability.

Legilis Drive Special Abilities: Being reverse engineered from Gai's Rising Phoenix Juggernaut Overdrive and installed with the special powers of the Nagareboshi lineage, Legilis Drive is overwhelmingly powerful- as it was designed with Kaede's fighting style in mind while keeping the little touches of Rising Phoenix Juggernaut Overdrive, it focuses a little more on mobility. This monstrous masterpiece of an armour represents the pinnacle of Kaede's personal combat style, and is a perfect match for the beyond-comprehension power of Rising Phoenix Juggernaut Overdrive Xceed.
 * Overwhelming Speed: The armour of Legilis Drive boasts high mobility and features large thrusters mounted in a wing-like arrangement on the back. Sporting multiple vernier thrusters throughout the frame of the armour, Kaede is now capable of achieving precise movements and high speeds- this is assisted by dissipating excess heat by shedding the outer layers of the armour. This process creates afterimages of Kaede's figure made up of metallic particles, which can deceive not only the eyes of foes, but also radar and other sensors. In Legilis Drive, Kaede can cross even the vastest of distances in the blink of an eye, with speed that ensures that her foes cannot even see her movements.
 * Devastating Strength: In Legilis Drive, Kaede is capable of obliterating a mountain with the swing of her arm. She, with enough force, is able to shatter the armour of Kachihi's Ruination Break with one punch and further more, with her new power, she is able to match Gai's Rising Phoenix Juggernaut Overdrive blow-for-blow.
 * Shining Onslaught (炯然躍進 (シャイニング・オンスロート), "Keizen Yakushin"): An exceedingly overwhelming spiritual technique which resembles a 'X' spinning blast of light, unique to those of the Nagareboshi bloodline; the attack is always within their Zanpakutō's ability. Shining Onslaught is formed by condensing stray spiritual energy onto their weapon, adding their own power into the mix before releasing it. This attack is most useful when activated towards the end of a battle between high-level opponents, since the area will be saturated with excess energy from their attacks. The power, speed, blast area, force, and size of the Shining Onslaught is far beyond any other application of the technique; to point of seriously harming a Tenjōgekido, which are stated to be impossible to harm unless their opponent is the Soul King, a Seishin, or another Tenjōgekido. Kaede's tremendous speed allows her to move faster than the Shining Onslaught itself, allowing her to fire multiple blasts from different directions. It cannot be deflected by most defences and tears through any conventional armour material.
 * Particle Seekers: Kaede channels the energy of Legilis Drive outwards, manifesting it as multiple collections of pure spiritual energy surround her. Using a variant of telepathy, Kaede is constantly sending signals from her brain to these seekers, creating a communication network that enables her to move them around the area almost effortlessly. These collections unleash condensed blasts of energy which appear similar to lasers at her foes; she prefers to use them to attack her foes from long-range and often in conjunction with other techniques, though due to their ever changing form, they can attack head-on; with the Particle Seekers, she can can take down an entire force using psychic brainwaves. These Seekers are used primarily to allow Kaede to engage large numbers of opponents at the same time, or to allow her to overwhelm a powerful foe. However, they are shown to be vulnerable to Arata Yaguruma's Hijack Impulse.
 * Zero Reaper (零刈り手 (ゼロ・リーパー), "Reikarite"):
 * Raiser Boost: Raiser Boost is an inherent feature of Legilis Drive that temporarily increases its spiritual particles output beyond normal parameters for greatly enhanced combat performance. When Raiser Boost is activated, Legilis Drive operates at full power by releasing all of the stored spiritual particles and increasing it's operation rate to its maximum output. When using Raiser Boost, Kaede leaves afterimages, these afterimages normally confused by people seeing them as the human-shaped spiritual particles, but in fact they're oscillating spiritual particles at a speed much higher than the speed of sound. As she possesses Raiser Boost, Kaede has extreme high speed and maneuverability, along with unlimited bursts of accelerations. This increases her speed, attack and defense by ten times the amount. The psychic frame of Legilis Drive emits a golden-orange glow when Raiser Boost is activated, giving it the nickname "psychflame".
 * Ruin the Extinct (爪の魔弾 (ルイン・ザ・エクスティンクト) Ruin za Ekusutinkuto, lit. "Claw of Annihilation"): A special weapon fixed on the left arm of Legilis Drive. It is a psychic-embedded destructive vise-like weapon that utilizes super-vibration to effectively destroy her foes. When Kaede wishes it, the weapon transforms into a shape similar to a dragon's claw. It is treated with spiritual energy-resistant coating and can also be used as a shield or striking weapon.
 * Shining Smasher (炯然砕き (シャイニング・スマッシャー), "Keizen Kudaki"): Kaede's most powerful attack- The chest armour of Legilis Drive slides open, before gathering and condensing stray spiritual energy from the atmosphere within the cannon now revealed, causing it to become far more powerful the later it's used- it is most useful when activated towards the end of a battle between high-level opponents, since the area will be saturated with excess energy from their attacks. It is a recycling of the spiritual particles just used and spread over the battlefield. Therefore, even though Kaede has been exhausted from spiritual particles, the ability can still be invoked. Kaede condenses stray spiritual energy in the area into the cannon, in addition to the spiritual energy she has absorbed with Marishaten's special ability, as well as her own immense spiritual energy, intensifying the spiritual energy by convergence and acceleration, before releasing it as an energy beam of immense power fired from the cannon, which, at full power, possesses enough force to turn an acre of desert into a sheet of molten glass. Against living beings, Shining Smasher has enough firepower to vaporize a few Shinigami with one shot.