Aiko Taisho

Aiko Taisho is the Vice-Captain of Squad 9. She is a brash woman who was raised by her father, Akio Taisho a former member of the Kido Corps. She is a brash woman whose beauty is only surpassed by her stubbornness.

Appearance
Aiko is tall for a woman, being 5'7 and has green eyes. Aiko takes great strides to muffle her beauty, believing that as a woman police officer her beauty is a hindrance. She normally keeps her long black hair in a messy bun. She seldom wears make up, yet despite this her beauty still shines through. Aiko is very competitive, and trains as hard a male shinigami giving her a very fit body. She wears a standard Shinigami uniform with the exception of a short sleeved jacket she wears on top of her uniform..

Personality
Aiko was particularly close with her father, leading her to have a somewhat masculine personality. She is very competitive seeing as she surpassed her brother to become the only member of the family to join the Gotei 13. Aiko is a very principled woman, and is driven by the need to do the right thing. She will not stop until she achieves her goals. She is very secretive, but she does this only because she has a hard time trusting others.

History
Aiko entered the Shinigami Academy at a young age. She looked up to her father so much that she wanted to be like him. Aiko was discovered to have a natural talent for kido, but she considered the art something of a hassle, favoring direct combat instead. Her talent in Kido comes as no shock, since the Taisho family are decendants from one of the 5 Shrine families, the Tsukihana's being another. After only 3 years out of the academy she became the 14th seat of squad 9, having remarkable skill in tracking and investigation. She owes this in part to the fact she is psychometric. Unlike her father, Aiko is not proficient in controlling her powers. She has only moderate sucess in seeing the past, but her ability to see the future is erratic. Still, this rare power makes her valuable to the 9th Squad and the Gotei 13 as a whole.

She was promoted to Vice - Captain after she was the shinigami who found and helped defeat the Hollow Maleficent. This event brought her closer to Chiyemimaru Tsukihana, a man she has a very intimate work and professional relationship. Aiko reluctantly follows the orders of her new captain. She has yet to figure him out, so she still doesn't trust him. Nevertheless, she helps him adjust to his new position as best she can.

Powers and Abilities
Great Spiritual Power: As a Vice-Captain, Aiko has great spiritual power.

Expert Swordsmanship Specialist: Aiko is an expert in zanjutsu.

Hakudo: Aiko is an expert in Hakudo

Shunpo: Aiko is a Shunpo expert.

Kidō : As a member of Squad 9, Aiko needs to be proficient in sealing kido. As such, her particular specialty is bakudo kido, although she has more than proficient skill in hado. She is an expert in kido.

Taishō Kidō : As one of the 5 Shrine Families the Taisho Family specializes in Divination kido. Their kido has little battle application, other than warding off malevolent spirits and purifying souls. A few known techniques is scrying and feeling auras. Aiko doesn't like kido and only learned her family kido out of respect for her father. She seldom uses the kido to aid her, preferring to simply rely on her psychometric power. One known technique involves a long Shinto prayer that helps tell the future.

Tactician and Investigator: Despite her competitive and impulsive nature, Aiko likes to study her opponents first. She tries to come up with strategies to, neutralize her opponents. Sometimes she tries to read an opponent's aura, but in the heat of battle this is dangerous so Aiko seldom does this. Aiko uses her power to investigate criminals or track down people. She is very skilled in tracking down fugitives and dangerous hollows.

Psychometry: Aiko was born with a power that occurs in the Taisho family known as psychomety. This means she can touch an object and know it's history, and sometimes future. While this power is innate, through meditation it can be advanced, but Aiko's preferance form combat causes her to neglect this. Nonetheless, Aiko canaccurately see an objects past although not completely and she sometimes has headaches afterwards. Aiko must focus her spirit energy on an object to see it's aura. This is why sometimes when she touches people she is very limited, since certain spirit energies she has trouble reading. This is why she prefers objects rather than people. Aiko doesn't see all of an object's history on certain important events, usually things involving great emotions.

Zanpakuto
Junsuisho (Pure earth): In it's sealed form Junsuisho resembles a standard kodachi. It has a black scabbard and black hilt, with silver trimmings around the tsuba. It's release command is Burn, Junsuisho. In it's released state Junsuisho resembles 5 diamondlike segments jointed together as a straight sword. The blade is approximately 2 and a half feet in length.

Shikai Special Ability:

Purifying Flame: Aiko's zanpakutou uses the carbon in earth to make a malleable diamondlike substance which Aiko can control. For this reason, Aiko carries a pouch with a small about of soil in it to throw in the air to make her diamonds. When used on living creatures it has no effect other than normal burns.

Explosion: If Aiko's flame comes into contact with her diamond substance, a massive explosion occurs.

Equipment
Pouch: Aiko carries a small about of soil in her pocket of her jacket, just in case there is no earth around her. Fuda: Aiko sometimes uses a special set of fuda when she has trouble reading an aura.

Relationships
Chiyemimaru Tsukihana: He was once her boyfriend. He is the only person she trusts whole-heartedly, she will die for him. She is bitter though about their break up when she became Vice-Captain of Squad 9. She maintains a strictly professional relationship with him now,although secretly she wants more.

Trivia

 * Despite her detest for kido, she is qualified enough to be a seated officer in the kido corps.
 * She is often mistaken as a lesbian due to her tomboyish nature
 * She wears make up when she goes out.
 * Her favorite food is fish.
 * She is an accomplished cook.

Quotes

 * "a man who stands for nothing, has no meaning"