Karas Annai

"Law and purpose mean different things to different people, right? So how about you let me see it my way, and I won't judge you for seeing it yours."

- Karas Annai to Byakuya Kuchiki

Karas Annai (カラス案内: Raven Guide) is the Third Seat of Squad 6, under the command of Captain Byakuya Kuchiki and Lieutenant Renji Abarai.

Appearance
Karas has shoulder-blade length black hair that she wears down and jade green eyes. Her skin is fair and a vertical scar runs underneath her right eye. She is fairly petite and often mistaken to be weak by those who know nothing of her. She wears the standard shihakusho uniform of the Gotei 13.

She carries her zanpakuto with her at all times, keeping at her waist for easy access. In its sealed state, the zanpakuto looks like a standard katana with a silver starburst pattern on the cross-guard and off-black cotton wrapped around the hilt. The pommel has a length of ribbon tied to it, and the sheathe is simple black leather.

Personality
Karas is rash and impulsive, prone to a quick temper and a stubborn determination. She has no patience for sitting on her hands and she doesn't handle stupidity well. She tends to follow her instincts over her head, claiming that her gut is "never wrong...usually." She employs a sardonic tone of speech more often than not, and that's only on a good day.

Karas has issues letting people in. She's down with just about anything physical, but the second a relationship gets close or serious, she bolts. Her only "friend" is Captain Shunsui Kyoraku, though they're more drinking buddies than anything. She's much better at forming negative relationships than positive ones, not that she puts much effort in the latter to begin with. For reasons not even she fully understands, she's simply too cynical to care.

She has a healthy overdose of confidence in her abilities and appearance, however, and her ego often causes her to clash with her captain, causing the previous lieutenant and now Renji Abarai to have to come between them before swords are drawn. She thinks she knows better, and he believes that she must learn her place.

Karas does care about the welfare of the people she's charged to protect, and she puts the lives of others ahead of her own. She won't hesitate in killing someone she assumes to be corrupt or evil; however, she also doesn't see the world quite as black or white as that, and reserves those titles for the lowest of the low, and hollows. She expects thanks for her work, and will push the issue, but performs her duties with or without it.

Pre-series
Karas has no recollection of her life (or death) before coming to the Soul Society. Her first memories are of waking up in District 71 of the Rukongai. She took one look at the fetid squalor around her and did everything in her power to escape it; however, after a year, she had gotten nowhere.

A hollow attack was what saved her from a life of abject poverty. The hollow had been specifically targeting her, and when a patrol of seated officers from the Gotei 13 arrived, they discovered that she had taken it out single-handedly before passing out of exhaustion. When she came to later, they recommended that she apply to join Soul Arts Academy and become a Soul Reaper herself.

Becoming a Soul Reaper
She heeded their advice and was admitted into the Advanced Class, completing the six-year curriculum in five. Antipathetic to what she saw as the "sappy complacence" of the other squads and uninterested in mindless fighting or espionage, she signed on for Squad 6, starting at the 7th seat level. Within five years, she was promoted to 3rd seat.

The night she took herself out for a drink to celebrate her promotion was the night she became acquainted with Captain Kyoraku. He came up next to her and picked up her tab, citing that "beautiful women such as yourself should never have to drink alone." Her response to the inane flattery was to roll her eyes and knock off his sakkat, much to the older man's amusement. They spent the night in playful banter, launching their unusual friendship (not that Karas would ever admit that she considered him as such).

Her new station had her working much closer with her captain. That closeness was the starting point for their many disputes. They were often of separate opinions on how to handle a situation, though Lieutenant Shirogane was good at mediating such disputes. Sometimes, however, tempers would flare with voices and fists and slammed doors so that no mediation could relieve tensions.

For her constant insubordination, Karas was often rewarded with more than her fair share of the paperwork and errands better left to an unseated officer, and she was sent to the World of the Living whenever possible. She never minded the final point, however; she hated getting trapped behind her desk and she hated directly dealing with her captain. Oftentimes, she would volunteer for such postings, no matter how necessary it was to send a seated officer.

Despite her conflicts with Byakuya Kuchiki, though, she got along with his adopted sister alright. Karas and Rukia see each other around the Seireitei on occasion and will often take time to exchange greetings. While neither woman would claim the other as a friend, they can tolerate each other well enough.

New Student
In her second year of holding the 3rd seat position, Karas became the unwitting and unwilling mentor of one of Squad 6's newest unseated officers by the name of Eiji Mori. The boy had determination, as well as strong spiritual pressure, but little skill, putting him in many unfortunate situations that always seemed to happen around Karas. From what she could see, he would have been much better suited to Squad 4, and repeatedly pointed it out to him. Every time she brought up a transfer, however, he stated that he owed it to his family to stay with Squad 6. He never elaborated why, and Karas assumed that it was family pressure.

When she finally admitted that the boy was giving her own stubbornness a run for its money, she endeavored instead to teach him how to hold his own in a battle. Having great admiration for her, Mori readily agreed to her offer to teach. His calling her sensei annoyed her to no end, but whenever she tried to get him to quit it, he gleefully ignored her.

For the first while, Karas wondered if she had bitten off more than she could chew; his kido backfired, his zanpakuto ignored him, his punches landed him on the ground, and he could barely maintain flash-step without crashing into a tree. Slowly, though, his skills improved. They were paired together on missions to the World of the Living often, and as his became stronger, Mori began to rely on Karas less and less to finish the fights they fell into.

Beyond that, she taught him integrity in battle, just in case he got any funny ideas about what was permissible conduct towards an enemy. After all, his getting drunk on his steadily increasing power was the last thing she needed.

Karas began to see the boy as a little brother and let him past her walls. During some of their patrols in the World of the Living, she would share information about herself, and he would return the favor. He eventually admitted that his reason for staying in Squad 6 was his older brother Shirou Mori. He had died in service to Captain Kuchiki, and Mori was eager to see that his brother's efforts were continued. Karas mentioned that she recalled that the third seat before her was a Mori, to which the boy confirmed.

One night, Karas woke up with a bad feeling that led her to the forest in the outskirts of Rukongai. There she found Mori getting attacked by a group of Squad 11 thugs whom he had accidentally angered. Karas was tempted to enter the fray, but it seemed cruel to steal the boy's pride from him when she had helped him earn it. So she watched, and hoped for the best.

For a time, it looked like he would pull through. But it was five on one, odds that he had never been meant to beat. When they ran him through, she was quick in dispatching them.

After she was done, she attempted to heal him, even knowing that there was a reason she would have never lasted on Squad 4. As he bled out in her arms, he gave thanks to her, for showing him how to fight, for trusting him, for letting him die a warrior.

Guilt-ridden, she brought the body back to the family with her own remorse keeping her taciturn. She recommended that they not send any more of their children to the Academy and turned to leave. They, too, thanked her for what she did for their son, not that she thought she deserved it.

Grief
Karas applied to resign from her post and transfer to a new squad as a result of her failure. Captain Kuchiki was quick to return the papers to her with his rejection signed in, however. He explained that he saw no need to demote and exile her for an error in judgement and that while they often differed in opinion, he believed her to be the best candidate for her job. He also pointed out that by leaving her post, she would make the sacrifices of both of the young men worthless, but by continuing to serve, she would be carrying their legacy in her own way. She agreed to stay, and after he left, admitted that the rare show of empathy had raised her opinion of him somewhat.

Now
The next fifteen years progressed business as usual, though Karas became even more careful about who she let past her walls, afraid of failing them.

The most notable catastrophe that occurred within that time was Lieutenant Shiba's death, but she hadn't known him well and wasn't particularly close to anyone on Squad 13, so the loss didn't affect her so much.

Now, Rukia has been deployed to the World of the Living for her first posting. With any luck, the relative quiet would stay as such...

Zanpakuto
(for the manifested spirit, see Toui Yozora (spirit))

Toui Yozora (遠い夜空: Distant Night Sky) is an illusion-type zanpakuto with the intent to distract or unbalance opponents. This spirit has access to the hearts of those around it, and as such knows what to show to any challenger to cause them to hesitate. Being of a gentle heart, however, it refuses to prey on more than minor or moderate insecurities and desires. Both master and sword agree that to grunge up someone's emotional scars is shameful and repugnant. At times, however, Karas could create a sufficiently convincing case to her zanpakuto why it would be necessary to cross that line. Those instances are rare, however; master and sword also have a very different idea of "a well-thought-out plan."

Another reason for Toui Yozora's hold-out is that the illusions are manifestations of Karas's spiritual pressure; more potent illusions that could truly cripple an opponent would drain spirit energy much faster than it could be replenished.

In theory, the illusions are limited only by Karas's imagination, but in practice, the zanpakuto has final say of any illusions conjured in shikai. Being that Toui Yozora is more battle-focused, illusions of flying pink elephants or the like are rarely conjured.

The illusions are almost indistinguishable from reality by those with spiritual pressure lower than Karas. On equal footing, the illusions seem to be more ghostly mirages than true reality. Those with higher spiritual than Karas can't even see the illusions, thus making them immune to her abilities.

Powers and Abilities
Expert Swordsman: Karas excels at swordplay, knowing how to use her opponent's attacks against him or her.

Flash-Step Master: Karas's flash-step ability is almost comparable to that of her captain, allowing her to move much faster and for much longer than most Soul Reapers at her rank.

Kido Practitioner: While not the most skilled user of kido by a long shot, Karas knows her way around an incantation or two, having the best luck with bakudo and the worst with kaido.

Expert Hakuda Combatant: Karas is strongest in close-quarter-combat, and is incredibly skilled with or without a weapon. She could be outnumbered four-to-one and still come out on top.

Great Spiritual Energy: Karas exerts a high level of spiritual pressure on par with a captain. She can level most anyone to the ground with little more than her will alone.

Keen Observation Skills: Karas is good at reading people and their intentions, with or without her zanpakuto's help. She uses it in both social settings and in war. The observations she makes are oftentimes disconcerting...of course, the accuracy of her observations relies on her ability to keep a clear head, something she is notorious for not doing...

Trivia

 * Karas was initially based off of another original character in a completely different franchise before branching off to become her own character.
 * Karas enjoys reading adventure novels in high places such as trees or on top of roofs. According to her, reading on the ground like a normal person is simply too dull for her tastes. However, many suspect that it's more of tactic to hide from her captain than a matter of personal preference...
 * Karas came over with the scar under her eye. Despite not having the slightest clue how she got it, she's inclined to fanciful stories of sarcastic gallantry whenever anyone asks.
 * Karas tends to take out her frustrations on training dummies...depending on her mood, she might go through ten or more before working out all of her stress.
 * Karas enjoys viewing sakura tress in full bloom...of course, she'll never admit it, considering it to be "befitting of a bad-ass to like girly things like flowery trees." Somehow Byakuya ended up hearing about her official stance, and then one day she found an extra large stack of papers on her desk. Nobody's really sure why...