Shouhei Soyokaze

Shōhei Soyokaze is a Shinsengumi Member belonging to the IEO Division. At the given time he works as a waiter at the prestigeous and well-liked Cafe Mōsou - which is located somewhere in eastern Karakura Town, the place has many visitors and it is renowned for its calm and cozy atmosphere.

Due to his advanced age, Shōhei is a powerful combatant - capable of holding his own against Captain-level opponents, though only for certain amounts of time.

Shōhei is a member of the Shinsengum: And currenly works beneath his Squad Leader Kenshin Yagami in the IEO (Infiltration & Espionage Operations) Division.

Appearance
Shōhei's build is impressive for a Waiter, and he has a lean body - seemingly excersising at regular intervals. He's also rather tall, standing at a whole 6'5 feet in height, and as such he dwarfs most of his colleagues. Shōhei appears calm and composed, he's warm and friendly; a trait required as a waiter - and most of all, polite. When he's not at work he wears a black shirt and brown slacks; quite the ordinary sense of dressing it serves to prove that while preffering to look good he doesn't make too big a deal out of it. There is hardly any difference between Shōhei's Shinigami form and his Gigai one; as in great similarity to the Visored he wears the same outfit in both forms, depending on what he wore in the first place, though he seems to make use of Soul Pills nonetheless; he's horrible at choosing them and usually just picks them at random: Something which has left him with a "Chappy" at more than one occassion.

Personality
Shōhei's work as a Waiter at a prestigeous Cafe has left him especially concious of his mannerisms, choice of words and general ettiquette - this is subconciously transferred to his everyday behaviour which gives him a rather likeable personality overall, as most people tend to enjoy others being humble towards them. This also includes a generally non-violent way of dealing with problems. Despite this though, Shōhei is fully capable of acting in an aggressive manner when the situation calls for it, and while non-violent he's been known to hashly escort troublemakers out of the Cafe; this also applies to his encounters with Hollows, which he kills without remorse. He's also been known to occassionally, though this is especially rare - send stray pluses to Soul Society.

Young Life
Shōhei grew up in a small household in Rukongai, the family was quite well established, and they had surprinsingly few problems; prompting Shōhei to live a happy and fulfilled childhood despite the location of their home. Somewhere along the way it was discovered that Shōhei had latent Spiritual Power, though it wasn't of any great worth, he was sent off to train at the Shinō Academy nevertheless.

Shinō Academy
Shōhei was an attentive student at the Academy; and he got good grades in most fields, though he had to work hard for each achievement as being just a regular student, he was facinated with the concept of Kidō, so much that he spent alot of time working on it in his spare time, despite being only average at it at first he gradually managed to surpass the other students in this field - and upon graduation he was congratulated to have Kidō provess that was above the average. He was classified as an "Ordinary" Shinigami and he'll very likely not be remembered as anything great in the history of Soul Society.

Time as a Shinigami
Prior to his defection during a mission in the Human World Shōhei was a Seated Officer of an unknown Squad - he worked hard and earnestly but he was constantly exceeded by senior Officers which lead to him feeling slightly stuck, this in adition to certain other events lead to his defection.

Time in the Human World
Shōhei was able to incorporate well into the Human World, while he was unable to directly influence it in any way up until Urahara invented the Gigais he was still content in polishing his skills as he saw fit and train without restrictions, something which somewhere along the way lead to his refined skills. In recent times he has taken the study of a Waiter and currently works in the prestigeous Cafe Mōsou as one of its many waiters.

Plot
Nothing as of yet

Powers & Abilities
Great Spiritual Power: Shōhei is known to possess a Great amount of Reiryoku, being roughly equal in power to that of the average Captain-Level Shinigami; once unleashed it can be felt at a great distance, while it is great, it doesn't appear menancing in any way: It is also great enough for him to be able to cast several mid-level spells in quick succession with only a slight strain.

Expert Swordsmanship Specialist: Shōhei is skilled enough in Swordsmanship to be able to hold his own against more experienced Swordsmen, though only for a limited amount of time - his skills in this field is noteable still, and he's fully capable of using it as his primary means of combat.

Hand-to-Hand Combatant: Shōhei's skills in this field is strongly lacking at best, and he's only known to possess the bare minimum of skill required for Seated Officers, nothing worthy to note here: The knowledge however comes in handy when escorting troublemakers out of the Cafe.

Kidō Master: While in the Academy his skills with Kidō was easily at the top of his class, and as a Shinigami it was still concidered to be slightly above average; prideful of his abilities with Kidō Shōhei began to further his knowledge in the field so as to improve, and he soon became one of the most adept users of this art in his Squad. However, he didn't attain actual mastery until a few decades after his defection - he's able to cast spells up to level 86 without incantation in both Bakudo and Hadō: Anything beyond that requires the full incantation though.

Shunpo Master: Shōhei's skills in Shunpo was concidered to be quite above the average in his Shinigami days, being compared to some of the lower-ranking officers of the Second Division. To this stay, his skills in this field is rather refined. He's skilled enough to perform the two advanced techniques of this field.


 * Senka (閃花, Flash Blossom): a special Shunpo technique where one moves to their opponents back. Directly attacking and sealing one's "Saketsu (鎖結, Chain Binding)" and "Hakusui (鎖結, Soul Sleep)" in one strike. The movement is so fast that an opponent may not be able to tell whether he was attacked from the front or the back and even an outside observer may find it impossible to tell what the movements are:


 * Utsusemi (空蝉, Cicada, referencing their molting): It allows for a movement at great speed leaving an afterimage behind. The afterimage may even appear to have taken damage. Shōhei is capable of performing this technique to impressive effects, he's stated that he's capable of creating up to three clones.

Stats
Shōhei is an Ichinose-Class Character

Zanpakutō
Oboruduki (朧月, Hazy Moon) - Shōhei's Zanpakuto takes the shape of a Chōkuto, with a black sheath and handle which is usually worn horizontally just where his back meets the lower regions. Its form as a guard-less weapon has forced Shōhei to become rather proficient in its use.


 * Shikai: Oboruduki's release command is "Captivate", followed by the name of the Zanpakuto itself; when released its outward appearance doesn't change at all, which makes it rare in comparison to most other Zanpakuto.

Shikai Special Ability: Shōhei's Zanpakuto possess the standard powers of most Illusion-Type Zanpakuto in that it is capable of creating illusions to deceive an opponent, its illusions are only semi-perfect though, and they can be unveiled or disbelieved by an inteligent individual: what truly makes this Zanpakuto unique though is its three "Phases" all which gives the Zanpakuto a different set of abilities alltogether - these Phases come in succession and equal three - while in one phase Shōhei's unable to make use of the abilities of the previous, or next phase.

First Phase:
Giman (虚偽, Japanese for Falsehood) Is Oboruduki's First Phase - while in this phase its ability is to create illusions in order to serve as decoys, defense and offense; these Illusions are rather elaborate and the only senses they don't fool are that of Hearing and Smell - if the illusions become too obvious as illusions, they can be disbelieved and when this happens Oboruduki's hold of your perceptions is effectively neutralized for the remainder of this phase.

This is in one way superiour to several other illusion techniques in that it allows Shouhei to control a total of three illusions at any one time, as opposed to the usual one.

Second Phase:
Tsukiakari (月明かり, Japanese for Moonlight) is Oboruduki's second Phase - while in this phase its primary ability is to manipulate a form of light that the Zanpakuto produces from its blade; this light is very hard to catch sight of, as the only indication is a faint shimmer that coats the blade in question: It has a set amount of associated abilities.
 * Invisibility: By curving the light of his Zanpakuto around himself Shōhei is able to make himself invisible to the naked eye, allowing him to hide, and to orchestrate ambushes, though when he's attacked once he becomes visible again - on the plus side though, he's capable of doing more or less anything that taking offensive action while like this.
 * Blades of Light: This ability is similiar to that of Maki Ichinose's Nijigasumi but it works slightly different - the Light Blades that Oboruduki creates can't be used as projectiles though they can be materialized in his other hand in order to weild them like a second blade; they're also capable of replacing the blade of his Zanpakuto if it ever breaks.
 * Displacement: By curving the light in odd patterns, Shōhei is able to displace his image a few feet to either the left or right; these aren't illusions though and when hit the attack simply passes straight trough it; when Shōhei himself goes to attack the opponent the Displacement moves accordingly in the same direction that he'll attack from, and its thus easy to guess that if one observes it closely it is possibly to discern Shōhei's actual location.
 * Sphere of Light: This is the primary ability of Oboruduki's Second Phase, and it works in the regard that Shōhei bends the light of his Zanpakuto to curve around a large area sorrounding his opponent; the effect that this produces serves to displace the images of their sorroundings, this alters the opponents range of percepion in such a way as to condemn them to go in eternal circles within the sphere of light: This ability demands a great amount of Reiryoku to use and its further limited that it can only be employed at the end of the Second Phase.

Third Phase:
Maboroshi (まぼろし, Japanese for Dreams, Phantasms) is the Third Phase of Oboruduki, and it is peculiar in that its abilities allows Shōhei to manipulate the dreams and fantasy of his opponent to a certain degree, enabling him to create illusions based upon what his opponent believes in and due to the illusions and dreams being crafted entirely by the opponent himself most mental protections simply fail to prevent it. In additions to this, it has several other abilities. Once this Phase is over, the whole Zanpakuto resets itself on Phase One, and the whole circle starts anew.
 * Phantasms: The illusions that Oboruduki manage to create based on your own perceptions are so realistic that opponents may take actual damage from their attacks, attacks like this doesn't leave wounds, but the brain still recognizes the pain as if you were actually hurt - making this both painful and unnerving.
 * Nightmares: Oboruduki can sometimes passively attack an opponents psyche with elaborate Nightmares whom appear real - the fact that these occur so randomly may even make the opponent unable to see the difference between them and reality, which greatly enhances the effectiveness of this state.