Solas Foiche [Approved; 0-5]

The early life of the woman known as the 'Anti-Mage' was an interesting, if brief spectacle. Her parents were a pair of wealthy landowners living in Ireland, that chose to move into a home that seemed too good to be true. They had purchased this home for a price that most men would kill to get on a property this large, and they were going to dedicate themselves to fixing up this property and selling it on with a renovated home on top of it. They were going to make a killing, they told themselves. Of course, they did not count on what was living in the house with them.

From an early age, Solas was capable of seeing spirits. At first, they were merely hazy spots in the background--at the age of three, you never really understood exactly what it was that you were seeing, whether it was a person in the background, or something completely different. She asked her parents a couple of times, but her mother Eowyn told her each time that it was nothing. She, unlike her husband, was perfectly capable of recognizing spiritual power when she saw it--having recognized her own mother's for her whole life. She would choose to wait, however, and see where Solas would go with this power. She was only three years old, after all.

Her father, on the other hand, was far more strict and commanding. He wanted his daughter to have a proper education, leaving the coddling to her mother and making certain that everything she did was under proper control. He loved her dearly, but wanted her to not turn out like her uncle, his brother. Unlike Gamleil, his brother was a bit of a problem child. He had never been disciplined, and grown up to reach a point of no return. Addicted to drugs and strapped for cash constantly, Gamleil and Eowyn found themselves consistently being asked for small loans from this man. Loans that continued to add up.

With this, there would be two triggers that caused the death of Solas. First, the brother finally broke. He entered the house in a drug-addled rage, breaking down the door with a feral yell. This, of course, woke up the entire household. Gamleil was the first down the stairs, with shotgun in hands. He was followed by Eowyn, while Solas remained in her room, cowering under her blankets. She could only hear a shot being fired, and then screams. She recognized the screams of her mother, followed by the shouts of her father. Two more shots would occur, and all would fall silent. As it had happened, Gamleil's brother had been shot at, managed to wrest control of the rifle off of his own brother and then shot the two in cold blood. He then moved upstairs to hunt for money to fuel his addictions, coming across little six-year old Solas, huddled up in her bed and crying her little heart out. "Don't be afraid." was all that he said as he ripped away her clothing. Apparently, he hadn't felt the touch of a woman in a long time. Solas remembers more of this event than she'd like.

However, he left her alive and traumatized. He guessed that she'd be too scared to say anything to make anyone come after him, and he wanted to get out as quickly as possible--despite his desperation for sex, killing a child didn't seem to be something he wanted to do. So she was left in this pool of her own fluids, crying and waiting to be found. While she was found by the authorities not too much later, something else managed to find her parents--something that Eowyn's mother had warned her of. Eowyn had not managed to discover it--mostly because Solas' own burgeoning power was stifling, and the spirit itself was weak.

But this spirit was not so weak that it could not corrupt the souls of two parents wanting revenge.  Their powers would combine, forging a malevolence that sought only destruction--a Hollow was born of the melded wills of these beings. Gorgon, as it was known, would seek out its first target--Gamleil's brother was found dead two weeks after he had killed his own brother and sister-in-law. This did not sate its hunger, however. Despite the fact that the Hollow had the wills of both of Solas' parents, there was something more sinister in the mix--the malevolent spirit that had combined them both would seek only destruction, and so it sought out the thing that smelled of Gamleil's brother: Solas.

It could not kill her, at least not for the first ten years it chased her. Over these years Solas had been thrown from family to family, trying desperately to find her a home. For some reason, however, these families would all die under mysterious circumstances. In order to get rid of Solas, the home that she was staying at would not reveal this little fact, instead simply saying that bad luck had befallen each of the families--and that they were not involved. Interestingly enough, the orphanage had already realized that someone--or something--was hunting down Solas. Understanding this to be profitable for them, they made haste to loot each of the homes that contained the dead families, making more money off of Solas being carted around than they'd originally considered.

As you would expect, this was not to last. Gorgon found the home, and routinely murdered everyone inside--as their associations with Solas left them smelling of her power, and the beast itself had eventually started chasing Solas with a single-minded instinct. Solas was in her room when she first heard the screams, and realized immediately what was to come of it. She charged out of her bedroom in an attempt to escape... but it was too late. She fell to the ground as her vision turned red, and heard a voice in her head: "Don't be afraid." She was screaming as she died.

And then there was a flash of white light, and a being stood between her and the monster. She looked down and recognized her body on the ground--she then looked up and saw the figure enrobed in black, holding up a sword between her and the creature. The being swung at the beast, but it vanished before the blade would make contact. Taking this as a sign of retreat, the person turned to look at her and smiled kindly: "Ah, I see that you have survived--well, as well as anyone could survive a Hollow attack. My name is Himegato, and I'm a Shinigami. Here, I'm going to take you somewhere safe." He leaned in and planted the hilt of his sword against her forehead, and the world around her vanished into bright light.

Usually, one would be placed into one of the various districts of Rukongai, in order to live out their lives as spirits. Solas had this happen to her as well, going straight to the 15th District. This one was not too bad, but not exactly amazing, either. She still had to fight somewhat to survive, but it wasn't so difficult that she couldn't completely do it. Over the next fifteen years, she found that her own small amount of power was definitely growing. First, it was the hunger. The hunger that panged her and made her seek out meals. That hunger was the most difficult part--as most spirits had no need to eat, so she couldn't always find something nutritious. She was stuck asking passing Shinigami for something to eat. This tipped them off to her power, but it wasn't enough just yet.

Eventually, however, someone came across her begging for scraps of food. This man, Himegato, took her straight to the Shino Academy, getting her in with minimal issue. It was during this time that she met a young prodigy named Arishima. Originally, she felt quite standoffish where he was concerned. She'd always make it her duty to be near him, feeling that maybe some of his prodigy-ness would  rub off on her, and she'd be able to do better at things like Zanjutsu.

However, things would change when she took her first Kidō class. Raising her hand up and preparing the incantation, Solas felt the surge of power... and that surge of power felt so right. On her first try, she let out an almost-perfect Byakurai, astounding most of her teachers with this unexpected talent. Even better things happened when she started taking hand-to-hand lessons. Although it was a rocky start, she was capable of taking down students twice her size with half the effort. Eventually, she would be placed against Arishima in a spar.

Let's begin this by stating that Arishima was a lot quicker than Solas. He would continue to move around her, throwing hits at her from different directions, and basically just trying to wear her down. Being unable to use Kidō, Solas wondered if this was going to be a good idea--the kid was still definitely something of a prodigy, and she was worried that this was going to be all that it took to completely defeat her. She understood that he was going to beat her. Why wouldn't he? He was better than her in every way. She should just give up here and now, and let him beat her down. However, she heard something: "Don't be afraid."

With a yell and almost completely renewed confidence, Solas let out one punch. This one punch could have missed. This one punch could have hit. However, it was simply one punch--what would one punch do to some prodigy? Why would a punch like this do anything? And yet it did. It collided with Arishima, who was moving too much and focussing too hard on Solas herself to realize the difference. It hit hard and knocked him back, causing him to slide out of the ring and lose the match-up. While the rest of the students stood there in awe--some of them jeering at either party--Solas walked up to Arishima and simply held out her hand with a smile.

"Good fight."

From then on, the two of them became friends. Solas marvelled at the level of skill that Arishima had already put out despite having been in the Academy for a very short time, and Arishima was, to say the least, kind of impressed with Solas' skill in Kidō. Solas felt happy to know that there were chinks in the armor of the prodigy, especially ones that she was capable of doing better. It made her feel a lot better about herself as a trainee, and she used this to her advantage. She performed better and better, even getting the eyes of a group of people that were looking to bolster their ranks.

However, about a year after their little fight, Arishima graduated. Solas was unhappy, but not surprised. Unlike the old Solas, though, she would not let this stop her from continuing to prepare herself. She would take this as a lesson to be learned, and continue to improve so that she would leave the academy faster. It took her another year-and-a-half to do so, but she graduated, getting placed in the First Division, under Yamamoto and Arishima.

Determined to not be shown up, she would immediately begin training for her Shikai. She had heard all of the stories, and was sure that she would have some awesome sword--it was imperative that she did. She needed to look the part. Every day, when not in her duties, Solas could be found in the outer forests of the Rukongai with her sword on her lap, attempting to communicate with her Zanpakutō. It seemed pointless, as the weeks passed by with no communication in sight.

Her movements were noticed by a group of bandits, who realized that she could be easy prey when meditating. They decided to try this, about two months into her Shikai training. She would awake from meditation with a blade at her throat, and a hand on one of her breasts. Her eyes opened to meet with those of a drooling bastard, looking at her like a piece of meat. She scowled at him, and he simply grinned, attempting to push her down onto her back. "Don't be afraid." Her eyes widened and she thrust upwards, knocking the bandit off of her body, though definitely taking a cut to her neck from the blade. She got to her feet and turned around, pointing her sword at them with a scowl and blood dripping down her chest. She knew that, if she didn't get medical attention soon, she would be done for--so her first instinct was to defeat them as quickly as possible.

"Don't be afraid." Her eyes widened, and she finally realized where the voice was coming from. Confidence and power renewed, she stepped forwards and gripped the blade of the Zanpakutō itself, cutting slightly into her fingers and swinging it downwards. "Soul of the Fluttering Magus!" She shouted out and finished the swing, holding onto a staff at the end. The bandits, of course, laughed. They were more convinced that she was weaker than before, and most certainly not a battle type. Their burning corpses proved that much to be wrong.

Try as she would, she could never return her Zanpakutō to its original state. Apparently, it was surmised, she had far too much density of Reishi in her body to be able to actually put it back. This wasn't to say she had lots of Reishi--it was just a lot less controlled and far more dense than most others. It also made it really difficult for her to hide her presence, and more often than not it was joked that she would make it really easy to find your way back to camp if you got lost. You just had to feel for the beacon.