Mastery #1 – A Papercut Above the Rest [Zanpakuto Resonance]

Mastery #1 – A Papercut Above the Rest [Zanpakuto Resonance]

Baseline: A Cheap Ploy w/Anatoly // Nao, stuck on a patrol for the first time in quite a while, runs into the shaman Anatoly. This man uses his abilities to force her to swap places with her Zanpakuto Spirit, bringing Murat into the real world and letting him flex his muscles. Because the spirit is in control, he fights with her power at a level far beyond what she ought to be capable of, creating barriers and binding Anatoly. He eventually lets Murat go, swapping him with Nao and then threatening to drown her under a cascade of water. Here she finally uses her Shikai to protect herself and try to strike back at Anatoly. Turning his own attack on him fails, but she makes it out to live another day.

Growth: Battle Arena Crackdown w/Sabitsura Rei, Slevin, Yuki Kameko, and Zenji Hatayama // After returning from Earth, Nao has had many arguments with her Zanpakuto Spirit. He wants her to use her Shikai to finish her work early and actually live her life, but she finds that disrespectful to her job. Prior to this, he had tricked her once, something she is disgusted by. She’s finally forced to use the power to stop Yuki and Rei from killing each other, first trying with a polite request and escalating to using her Shikai to forcefully bind Yuki. It is with Zenji and Yuki’s support and encouragement that she realizes that the fact that she has her first release means that she might be able to advance her position in the Gotei.

Mastery: Paper Beats Rock w/Zenji Hatayama, Misfortune Follows w/Anatoly & Zenji Hatayama, and Just In The Wrong Place At The Wrong Time w/Michael O’Donovan // Nao’s mastery moment occurs in her challenge for the Third Seat. She’s used Murat to protect herself and to stop others from hurting each other, but she’s never used him for something so selfish as an attack. This changes in her fight against Mimasaka. Using her unit’s old performance reviews, she launches a devastating barrage of attacks on her weakened opponent. Poetically, her first one doesn’t target the man she’s fighting and lands squarely next to the person her true ire is focused on. She then lays into her opponent, brutalizing him with documents until he falls before her onslaught.

The other two threads showcase a combined technique and, though they will be touched on in a subsequent Kaido mastery request, I wanted to include them here as they showcase her comfort with using her Shikai. She gives up on chasing down Anatoly to save her new friend, melding her Shikai and Kidou into a combined healing that is able to overcome the raw destructive power of a Quincy. She later uses the knowledge she’s learned to use the same technique again, calmly and without fear.
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Nao is thrust into the first use of her power by Anatoly, giving her an effective shortcut to Shikai. This is actually perfect for Murat, though, as he wants her to be lazy like her colleagues so she can actually experience her life instead of dedicate herself to her job to the insane level she does. When she takes hold of the quill for the first time, she’s able to use it to save herself, but she cannot pull off an attack. Murat is all too happy when she uses her power to put things back in place, and begins pestering her to use it to streamline her work.

Her subsequent uses of her power all have a poetic tinge to them. She uses closure notices to stop Rei and Yuki from fighting. She uses the performance evaluations that caused her to be filled with rage in her attack on the Chief Administrator. She binds Zenji’s wounds with changes she’s written for the First Division handbook regarding employee fraternization. She takes a Quincy prisoner using a copy of the codes of the Seireitei.

By the end, Nao has given in slightly to Murat’s demands. She’s used her power to simplify things in her life and make things easier for herself. I should note that there have been a few other threads I did not include because they are action-light where he convinces her to use her power to finish work. These moments lack the intense action impact of what I posted, but they highlight her opening up to her Zanpakuto Spirit and coming closer to actually experiencing the fun life she’s denied herself for so long.

PS: Judge me publicly.

Third request but the kid gloves are off! Let's get serious about this whole mastery business. Does Nao represent a master of her Zanpakuto?

Baseline - Pass - Very good. Murat sets himself up as the dominant partner in the relationship, heralds what is to come. This is an excellent baseline for a Zanpakuto Resonance request because it establishes there's so much room to grow.

Work - Pass - I think I called this ongoing problem out in the release thread. There is a lot of being at a stage without a lot of effort getting to that stage best exemplified by the fact where you have 3 threads for showing you've done the thing and one thread earning it. Still! Nao does show growth within the arena thread, a nice denouement from the first thread, it's just something worth building way more. Her going from no contact to mastery so quick both in-universe and narratively is tough but I won't hold you back at this stage for it.

Triumph - Fail - I like pinning the moment of attainment as her reaching beyond her own meekness not to just stop people or herself from getting hurt. Turning to tables and showing both specific mastery of the ability and over an aspect of herself, that was keeping her from attaining it is solid. However, one major aspect of your racial skill mastery is in the ability it grants over your second release which Nao does not have. This is a case where the triumph of the mastery of skill must be specific to the skill in question and while I think this proves she has control over her Shikai, she hasn't yet undergone the necessary work to justify it for what mastery here grants which is Bankai proficiency.

Spend more time with Murat and her, go a step further, consider shooting for second release based on that work and revisit this request. I must, at this time, deny the request. I'm not prepared to say you were doomed from the start for not having second release but ultimately that would be make or break for this request in particular.

Hit me up if you want this to stay open for fixes, otherwise, we'll throw it in resolved and you can borrow or repost as needed.