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Your Name: Claire
Your Age: 23
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Character: Urahara Kisuke
Series: Bleach
Timeline: During the Hueco Mundo arc; after he completes his projects for Yamamoto and thus is… likely just skeeving around in his shop or something instead of fighting, idk.
Wiki Us a Bio/History: Wikiiiiiiiiiii.
Elaborate, if necessary: Urahara is a character who has been shrouded in mystery for most of Bleach; it is only recently that his past as a noble, if spacey, captain has been revealed. A brilliant scientist laden with a questionable at best moral compass, Urahara managed to become a very powerful and capable Shinigami while escaping being well known in Soul Society’s social circle. It was a surprise to most when he was promoted to captain, having only been a third seat in an entirely different squad, but he had worked so long and so successfully in the prison program that he impressed enough of the leaders to be approved for the promotion. During his tenure in Soul Society, Urahara was cheerful, friendly, and easy-going. He wore his heart on his sleeve - every emotion that passed through him was always plain as day on his face and his mannerisms. He had a bit of a problem shutting his mouth, too, suffering semi-frequent outbursts in front of his peers and superiors when he should be keeping his composure.
He was very tolerant - he put up with getting hassled by other captains, being shot down by Mayuri, and being assaulted and screamed at daily by his own lieutenant. No amount of negativity ever turned him off anyone - he endured with a pleasant face and mild attitude. He appeared to regularly be lost in his own little world, a world filled with empty-handed combat and subtle friendships and endless experimental sciences. Indeed, it was Urahara that developed and invented the hogyoku, the substance that became the crux of Aizen’s coup in Soul Society. Ever-tolerant, he doesn’t put up much of a fight when he’s exiled - but the Shinigami are incredibly, even negligently swift to condemn him on circumstantial evidence - though it may be because he was almost immediately swept away by his long time friend and former captain, Yoruichi. Urahara displays a sadness at his situation, and it seems he never petitioned to return to Soul Society, but went on quietly to open his shop and lead a life as a human. Due to Yoruichi’s intervention, he was never stripped of his Shinigami powers as he was sentenced, and continued to invent things for the use of soul reapers and tinker with things like gigai and the higyoku. It’s an interesting crossroads: despite having run from his punishment, he is apparently let go without enforcement, and modern Shinigami such as Kuchiki Rukia are on good terms with him, to the extent of being regular customers of his shop. No explanation has been given for this, but it’s easy to assume that Urahara is simply too brilliant and talented to be written off. He is so valuable that even as an exile, he is given directions from the Commander of the Gotei 13 personally during the war with Aizen.
Brilliant is a key word with Urahara. He is a man unrivaled in scientific genius, able to mix magic and logic with ease and extraordinary power and an often shocking casual grace. It is within his scientific ventures that his flawed moral compass comes into play. Judging from his reactions to Aizen’s first discovered ploy in hollowfication, it’s clear that Urahara had dabbled in that particular art as well. He enlisted the help of Kurotsuchi Mayuri, a man imprisoned by the Shinigami for being a danger to Soul Society, giving him free reign to experiment and leaving him in charge of both his institute and his squad when he is exiled. It is probable that he did not seal the hogyoku until some time after his exile, having only trapped Rukia in the dark gigai at the beginning o the manga, which leaves an enormous span of time in which he could have been doing all sorts of experiments.
Since his exile, Urahara has changed, becoming far more self-aware. As if knowing that his appearance gives away so much about him, he’s taken to a much more disheveled look - his hair in slight disarray, his face often unshaven. He wears a hat low over his eyes, masking his expression. He’s still friendly and talkative, though there’s an edge to it, now - his words are often cryptic and misleading, and his humor is of a “lower class”; he even describes himself as a pervert (though a handsome one). Despite all the good things he has done, it is unclear which side Urahara is truly on. He assists Ichigo, but also recklessly risks his life. He tries to keep Orihime out of Aizen’s sights, but his tactics ultimately make it easier for her to be taken to Hueco Mundo. He assists the Shinigami and Ichigo’s cadre of friends training and with their war, yet unless it is absolutely necessary, he abstains from fighting - even though he is apparently terrifyingly powerful. There is a bizarre moment in the recent chapters of the manga in which a Captain-turned-Vizard remarks that they are in debt to both Urahara and Aizen - though what this means has yet to be revealed.
Kisuke’s powers, like his motives, are mostly mysterious and have only been revealed in bits and pieces. In addition to being a brilliant inventor and crafter (making ludicrous things like “Soul Candy” and flying carpets to making intensely powerful mod-souls with genocide modes, etc), he is immensely skilled in spell casting, able to skip incantations for some spells (see: freezing Rukia with just a twitch of his fingers). With his zanpakto, Benihime, he is able to counter the powerful Arrancar “cero” attack, and he is a talented enough combatant to play with the Espada Yammy, gleefully testing out new inventions on him and remarking that he’s already analyzed his opponents power entirely, implying that Urahara may be gifted with intuitive aptitude. Urahara is also a master at empty-handed combat, having had to learn to control the prisoners of Soul Society without weapons, which were not allowed in the prison. Though he of course has bankai, it is unknown at this time what it is. Urahara has only stated that it isn’t suited for training.
What are they bringing to Nuadoria?: His sword, Benihime, as well as an assortment of random mysterious baubles and items tucked away in his clothes.
Third-Person Sample:
Time was a fascinating concept. To mortals, it was a fixed thing: they only had so much of it, and once their time was over, life was swept away to an end. To those beyond, it was eternal, dragging on for millennia. It was exceptionally difficult to end a soul; you died, you were taken to heaven. Maybe you went to school to become a Shinigami. You lived for thousands and thousands of years, climbing the ranks, until you became ancient. Who dictated the aging process of the soul? The mind? How were human children fully grown by age seventeen, and soul warriors by the age of two hundred?
How did the glorious, prideful Shinigami become so old that they forgot their human lives? Were they all dead children, taken from the Earth so early that they had no memory? An army of infants, crushed before they could take their first steps.
Such thoughts were not pleasant. Sometimes they were even forbidden. But such were the thoughts of Urahara Kisuke - because he did not measure time in minutes nor years, but by his own reactions. Sometimes, a Shinigami would come to his store - it was frequent, though not regular. Few were those who made a habit of coming around, only those young enough not to remember. And rarely, oh so rarely, someone of any rank or importance would appear - sometimes held aloof with disdain at having to patronize such an establishment and sometimes with heads half-bowed in pitying tolerance. These were the moments in which Urahara judged his age.
He remembered clearly the first time it occurred. Some glorious captain held so high above him, looking down their nose, fist clench tight around the hilt of his sword, remembering with venom how this exile fled his punishment. The look would have been enough, then, but he dug it in - a remark, cold and with faint volume but such intense weight: His former life. What he’d lost.
Sad eyes had fallen, barely obscured by ash-blond hair. He’d accepted payment with weak hands and found he had no voice - not that his customer was waiting for a response. His chest had tightened and his heart had sunk.
He’d been very young, then.
It was hardly commonplace these days for captains to make the journey to the human world, so busy were they. But still, it happened, and it was always these new captains who had the attitude problems. Never the old guard, those gentle fading souls, but the biting, prideful youngsters. They’d glare at him or they’d stand awkwardly, some having heard the stories and hating him, some not knowing a thing but ominous rumors and wickedly devious gossip (all was true, he’d claim, of course). And Urahara would laugh and exclaim, “I knew you when you were still thiiiis tall and having tantrums about schoolyard games.”
The response had been like ice: “And I remember when your name had honor to it.”
He didn’t miss a beat, swinging his cane and looking over his shoulder, eyes glinting through the shadow they were covered in. “Such stale insults, don’t you think? And I hardly think you remember anything about that.” He chuckled, and moved on, collecting with nimble fingers each product request of him, a single thought dancing in his head: I am getting old, aren’t I?
First-Person Sample:
I suppose I could put some tea o………………………
……………Aa-ahh.
This is not where that door was supposed to go.