Noh, the Maverick

Name: Noh

Age: Four hundred and ten, give or take a few years.

Visual Age: Thirty-five

Years in Soul Society: Two hundred twenty or so

Years since banishment: One hundred ninety.

Gender: Female

Former Division: Second

Former Rank: Lieutenant

Appearance: Often stifled by the traditional Shinigami attire in her youth, Noh now wears elaborate, flashy garments that she feels better represent her. Her dark purple hair is wild and tangled, leaving pieces of it hanging around her head like a mangled flower. Small purple and pink hairpins keep this twisted look, each one looking like a small butterfly.

Long, elaborate robes cover her arms and chest, the cloth cut at the shoulder so that her delicate shoulders are left bare. In addition, the robes are cut short, so as to leave just enough of her décolletage showing. The material around her arms is especially loose, giving her large over-exaggerated sleeves. Rich shades of purple and blue decorate the cloth in intricate designs, drawing all the more attention to the areas not covered up.

For accessories, Noh wears delicate geta, further strengthening her appearance to a geisha. Along her waist is an extremely beautiful and delicate obi, covered in elegant butterfly designs. Striking shades of purple and gold cover this silk, shimmering with her every movement. Her Zanpakuto is strapped to her left thigh, covered by the draped fabric.

All of Noh’s clothes are specially made to be rebuilt automatically by Noh’s spiritual pressure, so as to keep her from revealing too much. Due to always hiding in the shade and flitting about, her skin is especially pale, likely helped out by a sparse coating of powder on her face.

Personality: Being one of the people that the femme fatale idea was based on, Noh is very cunning and tricky. She’s not above using her body or acting helpless to lure others into helping her out or treating her like a weakling. In actuality, she’s a rather sadistic person, laughing with delight when she sees others suffer.

Less of an honor-bound person, she instead keeps her alliances based on what can be given to her. The Gotei was no longer a place for her when she found her position compromised. However, money won’t persuade her. She can only be swayed to another alliance by the promise of power. It was this attitude which lead to her becoming a Vizard in the first place.

Noh is quite the strategist, despite what she’d lead others to believe. She tries to learn how different individuals respond to various circumstances, that she might exploit that information later on.

Inner Hollow Personality: Noh’s inner hollow is always mocking Noh, saying how much he adores her with one breath only to launch a surprise attack the next. When he does act seriously, he spends most of his time telling Noh how she’ll never be anything more than an aging whore, trying to destroy her self-confidence.

Inner Hollow Description: Noh’s inner hollow consists of a single large crow, half skeletal, muscles and tendons hanging from its exposed left half. The wing bones stretch out, reaching five feet from the rest of its body. Its legs are often seen tied together, the pelt on the right one bloodied and chafed, likely from being rubbed up against exposed bone for so long. Its eyes are beady and red, always watching anything it finds strange.

Fighting Style: Noh is a mistress of Hoho and Hakuda, striking as quickly and accurately as possible. Adopting what many would call a drunken one, she often twists and turns and makes strikes that wouldn’t seemingly work, just to get an easy strike in. She believes in getting as many hits in as possible and so will often attack while she dodges or use an attack’s motion to avoid a slower strike. Ever the strategist, Noh will often study the moves of her opponent and figure out how to dodge them early on in a fight.

History/Background: During her time on earth, Noh was known as the wife of the Demon King, Nobunaga Oda. However, she was less the wife and more his accomplice. As brilliant and powerful as he was, he was recognized far too easily. For espionage and assassination, he sent out his wife, the one he knew wouldn’t be discovered.

Ever the cunning woman, Noh was especially clever when it came to worming her way into the castles of neighboring lords, tantalizing them with her flesh while promising secrets of others. Back in those days, everything was so easy, men were tempted by well-formed flesh faster than their vassals could dissuade.

Over time, she had forgotten the mission she was originally given by her father. Noh had grown accustomed to this life of battle and luxury, a life which would be taken from her if she killed Nobunaga as told.

At times, she’d deliberately trick her husband’s allies into defeat; at other times she’d do everything she was told in order to defeat his enemies. To Noh, it felt as if she were simply trying to keep the war going for as long as she possibly could.

This came to a head during the battle of Honnoji, a battle which she’d help cause. Because of her tactics, Nobunaga’s allies were wiped out too easily, leaving only her, her husband, and his troops to fight. The merciless Mitsuhide Akechi maimed the two of them, leaving them to burn in the fires that surrounded.

It was thus that Noh perished, clasping the hands of the mastermind Oda. His last words as they lay there dying were revelatory to her. He had simply said that he knew what she did, and continued to love her.

Life for Noh in the Rukongai was a stark change from her time as a living, breathing human. A vague feeling of entitlement in her head, she found herself out of place in the rough, poor life of those around her. However, she found things a bit easier than most.

Due to her looks, Noh was often treated with kindness by the male souls. In exchange for sitting and talking to them, she would get a night or two of happiness. On occasion, she’d stay with members of the higher houses and would get to taste the luxury she’d eventually become accustomed to.

It was during one of these nights of intellectual discussion that her host, a young Shinigami himself, noticed a trace of spiritual pressure from her. Instantly intrigued, he offered to let her stay there for a while longer as he helped his ‘Butterfly Princess’ blossom. With her life of extravagance placed on her growth, she fought to develop control over her energy.

For years it seemed, they’d work together. Every day she’d train her energy, and then at night she’d study Soul Reapers, either reading from books or watching them in action. Whenever her caretaker had to leave on a mission she’d keep his home in order along with her training regime.

One day upon his return, after a rather long mission, he explained to her that he was only a twentieth seat and thus unable to teach her any more. She was, according to him at least, much more educated than he was. As such, he told her to go to the academy to properly learn how to harness the energy she’d gained control over.

Noh had a bright outlook on joining the Academy, that was until she met some of the instructors there. They were all hardened from years of teaching, only noticing students if they reminded them of past protégés.

She was shocked to find out that nobody wanted to hear what she’d been through, that nobody wanted to take pity on her for her years of suffering in the Rukongai. It never even crossed her mind that everybody else had the same life; she thought she was the only one to ever suffer.

Out of this came a much less caring attitude, one that saw others as pawns to be exploited for one’s own goals. As such, she began turning her attention toward the more advanced students. Noh would often pick out the most academic of the lot and tempt him or her with offers of flesh, trading her expertise for theirs.

Noh breezed through her Hakuda and Hoho courses through these advances, always knowing just what she would need to know before being tested on them. However, her lack of care for brute force or ranged combat left her far below average in Zanjutsu and Kido, only able to use them when her main strategies failed.

Spending only slightly less time than the rest of her class in the Academy, Noh graduated and found herself placed into the most rigid of squads, the Second. Despite her lack of caring for other people, she found herself paying attention to what her superiors told her. More than likely, this was due to finding a whole group of people who cared as little as she did.

After being in the division for a few years Noh gained her Shikai release, being slower than most Shinigami because of the attitude she had toward her Zanpakuto. In the end, she benefited from the knowledge of Shikai, since the assassin-like nature of it helped propel her into the higher ranks.

No longer just an unseated bitchy woman, Noh found herself growing in strength over the years. After eighty years in the Gotei, a hundred since her arrival in the Rukongai, she found herself placed into the rank of Tenth Seat. It was an accomplishment met with much cheering and cutting-up of Hollow, celebrating with a bath of blood.

Off like a rocket, Noh spent her time between missions training and trying to search down the man who had given her this chance. Although she found herself fighting more than she’d ever dreamed of, she still thought often of that kind soul who had changed her.

For years she would jokingly call him her lover when asked why she tried so hard, never letting others know exactly what had happened. After all, people would assume she’d whored herself out to get where she was, she might as well not even bother fighting it any more.

Time seemed to fly by, not even noticing how long she’d spent training, fighting, and searching until someone mentioned seeing her around a hundred years ago, back at the beginning of her search. Left unfulfilled, she simply left a large stack of letters overlooking a cliff and spoke no more of the one which clawed open her cocoon.

Two hundred years now behind her, Noh found herself able to talk almost freely with her Zanpakuto, wistfully recalling the days of nothing other than looking pretty and having fun with life. By this point, she found herself in the position of Third Seat, her motivation for advancement wavering a slight bit.

As Noh recalls, it was a scorching hot day in the Seireitei, likely reflecting her feelings, on the day her Captain retired. That man had named some nobody as his successor, someone who’d been a Shinigami for less than half the time she had.

For someone so thoroughly invested in her own power, being completely ignored like that was a major insult. Already close to the final release, being pushed aside so nonchalantly gave her the emotional boost needed to unleash Bankai.

It wasn’t long after that when the hotshot, as she always knew would happen, got himself killed. Or, that’s what she thought happened. Nobody ever was too consistent on what had happened to her Captain. As the lieutenant of that division, Bankai and time behind her, she was even more secure in that she’d get the spot.

Once more, the Seireitei managed to overlook the beautiful cunning she had and her perfection for the spot, giving it to another young one. This time, Noh snapped and vanished from the Seireitei, only taking her Zanpakuto, a Gigai, and a pile of glorious clothes she’d bought elsewhere.

Ever the manipulator, Noh got by in the human world by deceiving all around her. She escaped Shinigami for years by scouting them out and deliberately avoiding them. She knew distance would weaken their ability to track her.

Most of the sent Shinigami focused on the larger areas whenever they focused on Japan at all, which wasn’t often. Unable to explain why, Noh found herself drawn to the smaller areas, the ones which still observed the cultures of over two hundred years ago.

In one small town, a sign on it calling it Mino, Noh found a small stash of scrolls which went over the events shortly before her first memories as a soul. They spoke of a fierce demon king and his equally cruel wife, Nobunaga Oda and Nohime. Inexplicably, Noh found herself quite interested in these figures.

She spent years, acting as a normal person in that town while she studied and daydreamed about the events that shaped feudal Japan. The similarities didn’t escape her, between the name of Nobunaga’s wife and how he was often compared with the crow, her to the butterfly.

After fifteen years, her cover extended by spending most of her time inside, Noh was forced to leave the town she’d gotten used to. They were getting weary of how she never seemed to age, and questioned her on why she was as interested in ancient history as she was.

The time in Mino behind her, Noh spent time wandering around Japan, staying for as long as she could in various towns, never finding it all that interesting. Occasionally, she’d hear whispers from Hollow about new forces in the world, but she never was good at following up on anything not related directly to her.

Approaching what she dubbed ‘middle age’, Noh decided to go find excitement. With three hundred years of death behind her, she figured it’d be simple to find a place to stay. After all, who wouldn’t want someone as…diverse as she was?

It only took her a few months of searching before her prey was found. He was a tall, handsome man. Strangely enough, he seemed more focused on her power than on her body or sensuous words. Even stranger, he offered her the chance to become even more powerful.

Never the fool, Noh took him up on his offer. Unable to grow any more on her own, and still desperate for power, she leapt at the chance to surpass the one who had taunted her so many years ago with his triumph.

Used to physical combat, Noh found her resolve fading quickly under the kind of mental assault her hollow self offered. As he told her once, he liked seeing her frenzied and unable to do anything but cry.

He’d whisper into her ear tales of much greater women, those who didn’t need to rely on fading looks and sub-par intellect to get by in life. This torment continued for years, the normally strong-willed and independent woman becoming subservient to this much darker presence.

It took her a long twenty-five years to finally break free, only finding a reason to rip the wings off this raven when a comment was made on her past, how she would be absolutely nowhere without her looks.

With the last obstacle out of her way, Noh felt she was ready to go defeat her Captain. Somehow, she’d always known he was alive, and hoping he experienced all she had to. She’d even seen someone much like him once before, but was too terrified by his reiatsu to think of attacking.

Like most things in her life, Noh found that by the time she was ready to strike, the target was gone. She had everything needed to cut him down to size, except for the person himself. Incensed by this, she went on a pissed-off rampage, either dismembering or eviscerating every Hollow she came across.

As she’s commented to passersby, if she can’t be in charge of a group, she feels nobody has any right to. So she decided to cut down the weakest of the groups, the weaker Hollow that made a feast out of unsent souls.

For over a hundred glorious years, Noh spent her time cutting a blazing path of destruction across Japan, unknowingly matching the very path made by her former self over three hundred years ago.

During the White Rebellion, the cocky woman found herself face to face with a figure, telling her of an organization called the Mavericks, one which would surely accept her. Full of mercenaries and wanderers alike, they wouldn’t mind having someone as drenched in blood as she was.

Life since then has been far from calm, much to Noh’s liking. Every day she gets to wake up and do whatever she wants, knowing that she can act in the open with no fear because of the protection granted by finally being in a group.

Nothing at all to say except great job.


APPROVED

with every fiber of my being.