[b]Name:[/b] Nobira Kaede  (Surname, Given Name)
[b]Appearance[/b]
[img]http://s2.postimg.org/47gzxsqgp/Shinigami.png[/img]
[b]Age:[/b] 432 (~20 physically)
[b]Gender:[/b] Female
[b]Class:[/b] Soul Reaper
[b]Powers:[/b]
Zanpakuto - Higanbana (彼我花 ; homophone for the word for Red Spider Lily, but written with the kanji for "The best of oneself and one's foe") Pictures when I again have access to my scanner.
[indent]Unreleased Appearance - Normally Higanbana takes the form of a nodachi. The crossguard is circular, with 5 spokes from the blade to the guard. The scabbard is glossy black, with a blood red sageo tied on to it.

Release Phrase - "Bloom out of Season" (Kuruizake, Higanbana!)

Shikai Appearance - During the release, Kaede takes hold of her sword's hilt with both hands. The sword glows and changes into red-and-black patterned handwraps, which wind around her hands and forearms. 
[hider=My Hider]Until I can do a hand-drawn one, here's the general idea. The coloration is different, and the wrapping goes up the forearms, but this is a pretty good picture for the most part.
[img]https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/0e/b3/3b/0eb33bb5e37541e490a193123612f76e.jpg[/img]
[/hider]


Shikai Ability - Higanbana is a sword that relishes bloodshed. While released, whenever Kaede is injured or injures someone, her speed, strength, and reiatsu are temporarily boosted. The strength of the boost depends on how bad the injury was.[/indent]
[b]History:[/b] 
[hider=Life]Kaede was born towards the end of the warring states period, in Gifu. Her family were rice farmers, with a hard-scrabble lot in life. When conflicts in the region came to a boil and lead to the Battle of Sekigahara, they lost everything. As the armies clashed during the fighting, the rice crop was trampled underfoot and destroyed.

Facing the cold reality of a winter without food, and full of resentment towards the samurai who'd brought about the circumstances, the farmers of the village took to hunting down the routed Toyotomi samurai in packs, wielding bamboo pikes. Mostly injured and exhausted, the defeated samurai were slaughtered. Their swords and armor would fetch a high price; they hoped high enough to keep everyone fed through the cold months, and to rebuild when the time came. 

The time never came though. The new regime was quick to call them bandits and outlaws. The samurai that came for them then weren't fatigued from days of marching or half-dead already, they were fresh and ready. The farmers didn't stand a chance this time. It was them who were slaughtered, Kaede included.
[/hider]
[hider=Afterlife]Even though the battle had long ended when Kaede was slain and became a Plus, the battlefield still teemed with chaotic action for the dead. Drawn by the vast number of violent deaths and wandering souls, many Hollows had come to feast on the Pluses that had formed there. At the same time, shinigami had come to purify those Hollows, and to perform the konso for the pluses. All in all, it was a tumultuous start to Kaede's afterlife.

After the konso, when the she arrived in Soul Society, she was sent first to the 54th district of Rukongai. It was a busy, run down place, much more urban than the farmlands where she'd grown up. She didn't like it. People weren't neighborly, there were gangs of rowdies and thugs, and she didn't even have her family with her. The sole silver lining was that she wasn't hungry any more.

She spent almost a hundred years there, having traded one type of hard life for another. Throughout that time she had a on-and-off relationship with the gangs of thugs; sometimes they clashed, and sometimes she rolled with them. After years of fighting, she started feeling hungry again, for the first time since she'd died. Seeing it as a ticket out of the slums, she worked to develope her spiritual strength and applied for Shin'o Academy. 

Her academy years went smoothly, and though she had certain behaviour problems, her results in training and examination spoke for themselves. When she graduated she was placed in the 11th Division, where they hoped her rough personality wouldn't be an issue. Her early exposure to Hollows proved a boon, as it helped her keep her head during her early missions against them.

While she was a seated officer, she said something that pissed off the captain (and current Kenpachi). He dragged her into a fight and spent well over an hour kicking the crap out of her. He evidently had fun, as he made her his lieutenant. For a few years the prevailing opinion was that the captain went easy on her, but whenever he heard members of the squad suggest it, he had them fight their new lieutenant. After a few of them were beaten to a bloody pulp, people stopped talking about it.[/hider]

[b]Details:[/b] [indent]
Poor hado and bakudo.
Good shunpo.
Trained herself to Master-level Hakuda to compensate for her shikai's form. In contrast, her zanjutsu hasn't progressed much since she attained shikai.
She's been lieutenant of the 11th squad for 50 years.
While she hasn't attained bankai yet, she's been training towards it for the past 11 years.
She doesn't usually get along with members of the noble houses, and disagrees with them on principle.[/indent]
[b]Evolution[/b] - Maybe aiming for Shunko?