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Byakuya Kuchiki

Byakuya Kuchiki is one of the first antagonists in the series/manga Bleach.  He is the representative of Clan Kuchiki and captain of Squad Six who had the objective of arresting and executing his sister Rukia Kuchiki before being defeated by Ichigo and discovering it was all Sosuke Aizen's plan.

Personality[]

As the 28th Head of the Kuchiki Clan, Byakuya acts in an aristocratic manner. He always seems serene and apathetic towards other people, even while actually deeply conflicted. He is notably calm, even in battle. He generally acts indifferent, bordering on arrogance, to most situations he is faced with, and rarely views his opponent as being worth his time. Byakuya is easily offended if his name is not used properly. As such, he views Ichigo Kurosaki with disdain for always referring to him improperly. When Byakuya talks with Ichigo, he calls him by his full name. Byakuya is very perceptive, fully aware of the limits of his abilities, and anything he states in comparison to an opponent is usually justified. Despite consistently stating himself to be far stronger than opponents like Zommari, Byakuya retains a formal tone, always using "watashi" which is a formal way of referring to oneself. When he was younger, he was quick to anger and very hot-headed, as noted by his grandfather. Byakuya strongly believes in law and order. As a captain of the Gotei 13 and head of one of the great noble families, he works hard for a peaceful society. He feels that if someone in his position does not follow the rules as a good example, no one else will. He believes that to maintain the order, all law-breakers must be punished, even if it goes against his own wishes. Byakuya feels that "part of a captain's responsibilities is to make sure that the lieutenant's responsibilities are taken care of".

Abilities[]

  • Master Swordsman: Byakuya is a master of swordsmanship, possessing flawless precision and performing lethal attacks with little effort.


  • Shunpo Master: Byakuya is arguably best known for his skill in Shunpo. Having been taught by, but never beating "Goddess of Flash" Yoruichi Shihōin, he is easily one of the most proficient users of this skill in all of Soul Society. He remained able to use Shunpo after severing the muscles and tendons in his left leg.


  • Kidō Master: Byakuya has considerable knowledge of high level Kidō spells, casting several in quick succession, with no incantation and almost no effort, and still possessing formidable power. He has used spells up to level 81, and possesses advanced knowledge of Kidō application and consistency. He can use a low-level spell repeatedly in rapid succession and with devastating effects, as well as a counter to attacks. He uses a low-level lightning spell to burn a hole right through Ichigo's shoulder.


Hakuda Combatant: While used less often, Byakuya is highly proficient in this area. Byakuya stealthily knocked out several Shinigami guards with a single strike each. After discarding his Zanpakutō during the battle against PePe, Byakuya used Hakuda to defend himself from Shūhei Hisagi's rapid attacks with both Senbonzakura and Kazeshini.

  • Master Tactician: Byakuya is a highly perceptive fighter, almost immediately determining an opponent's attack patterns and weaknesses. He is a crafty tactician, effectively using Kidō to confuse his opponents. He can discern the motives and abilities of his opponents, and effectively uses his knowledge to end the battle in his favor.
  • Immense Spiritual Power: Byakuya can exert an immense amount of Spiritual Pressure, which, in addition to his already admirable combat skills and finesse, makes him one of the most formidable captains. His spiritual pressure can be felt from a great distance, and it has the tendency to make people perspire in fear. Ganju Shiba has stated Byakuya is the strongest leader in the entire history of the Kuchiki Clan, and Kōga Kuchiki has stated few, if any, of the Kuchiki Clan leaders have been as powerful as Byakuya is, further elaborating on his power level. His Reiatsu is white. Following his training within the Royal Palace, Byakuya easily dispatched three Sternritter while fighting five of them simultaneously.


Enhanced Endurance: While not having the most imposing appearance compared to other Shinigami, Byakuya is a very resilient fighter. During his fight against Ichigo, despite gaining severe injuries, Byakuya continued fighting effectively, even ignoring his wounds to the point where he seemed unfazed by them. At the end of the fight, he was able to remain standing and performed an impressive Shunpo to leave, and later survived being impaled by Gin Ichimaru's Shinsō, taking the blow in Rukia's place. During his fight with the 7th Espada Zommari Rureaux, Byakuya willingly damaged himself to escape from his enemy's possession attack, and continued to fight as though unaffected, eventually obtaining victory. During his fight with Tsukishima, he had his entire left arm mutilated by Senbonzakura, and used that same arm to catch its blades and thrust them at the Fullbringer, ultimately defeating him. Byakuya managed to survive a multitude of devastating injuries during his battle with Äs Nödt, including having his stomach ripped out and being viciously attacked by his own Bankai.

  • Enhanced Durability: Byakuya is able to resist the unique he aling properties of Tenjirō Kirinji's hot springs without rotting away after being fully healed; Kirinji even stated he stayed in longer than anyone else. Even after being struck with Gerard Valkyrie's gigantic shield, which caused the entire building Byakuya was standing on to crumble, Byakuya emerged with only slight bleeding and ruined clothes.


Zanpakutō[]

Senbonzakura (千本桜, Thousand Cherry Blossoms): Senbonzakura is a regular katana. It has a simple cross guard, with an open frame much like a four-pane window. It has a bronze guard, with lavender hilt-wrapping, and a white sheath.


Shikai Special Ability: In its Shikai, Senbonzakura's blade separates into a thousand tiny, slender blade fragments, which fly away from the hilt, leaving only the sword's handle in Byakuya's hand. While the blades are supposedly too small to be seen normally, they reflect light in such a way as to resemble cherry blossom petals. By swinging Senbonzakura's hilt, Byakuya can control the blade fragments, allowing him to shred opponents at a distance and break through almost any defense. The blades can be used for defensive purposes, as they can protect Byakuya from an incoming sword swing. In order to protect Byakuya from his own attacks in both Shikai and Bankai, Senbonzakura possesses a Hurtless Area where it does not cut anything within 85 cm of Byakuya unless he himself allows the blades to enter the area. During Byakuya's training with the Royal Guard, he obtained a finer understanding of his Shikai, granting him greater control and the ability to form more solid constructs at a greater scale.

  • Bankai: Senbonzakura Kageyoshi (千本桜景厳, Vibrant Display of a Thousand Cherry Blossoms): Byakuya's Bankai is a much larger version of Senbonzakura's Shikai. To activate it, Byakuya drops his sword straight down; the sword does not have to be completely intact for Byakuya to activate his Bankai, as he can simply drop all the pieces at once with both hands. The sword phases into the ground, as though it were a pool of water. Energy ripples expand out, turning the surrounding area dark, and within seconds, two rows of a thousand giant blades rise up from the ground. Those thousand swords scatter, and countless flying blades pierce the enemy. No one knows the exact number of blades generated, and no one can dodge or even see the movements of these blades. The number of blades is great enough that Byakuya can simultaneously use them for offense and defense. He commonly forms them into large masses to obliterate opponents instantaneously. As they move through the air like torrents of waves, they give the appearance of cherry blossoms flowing swiftly along the wind. Senbonzakura Kageyoshi's defensive use a defensive use allows Byakuya to cover himself entirely in these tiny blades, forming a body shield. Unlike his Shikai, his Bankai is mentally controlled. While Byakuya can control the blades with his mind alone, using his hands allows him to do so more effectively, making the blades move twice as fast. Similar to his Shikai, its attack is triggered with the phrase Scatter.
  • Bankai Special Ability: Byakuya's Bankai has several forms, achieved by arranging the blades in different patterns. Each form presents a different advantage, such as increasing offense at the expense of defense. This variety of techniques makes Senbonzakura Kageyoshi extremely versatile. These techniques are activated by saying the name of the technique, followed by the name of his Bankai, Senbonzakura Kageyoshi.
  • Senkei (殲景, Slaughterscape): The true form of Senbonzakura. This unites the scattered petals into complete glowing swords, numbering in the thousands, which form four rows. These rows float just above each other, and circle around Byakuya and his opponent in a continuously moving, column-like array. It abandons defense in favor of a concentrated offense. Though visually menacing, this form is not meant for attack from all sides; rather, it concentrates his Bankai into fewer blades, thus increasing his attack power. While Byakuya can mentally control these swords, he commonly calls them to his hands for actual melee combat. When in his hand, they lose their glow, and take the form of his sealed Zanpakutō. It seems to take fewer blows from a Senkei blade to gravely injure an opponent than the multiple cuts needed from the unfocused Bankai. Senkei seals Byakuya in with his enemy, allowing neither combatant to move very far from each other, though the area is still large enough for maneuverability. The deadliest aspect of the Senkei form is that it allows for use of all the swords at the same attack level, making it a way to effectively defeat an enemy unaware of the danger of the situation. It is extremely rare for Byakuya to use this ability, doing so only when he has sworn to cut down the opponent with his very own hands. Ichigo is the second being to ever witness the ability. This technique requires Byakuya's blood to activate.

Ikka Senjinka (一咬 千刃花, One Bite, Thousand Bladed Flower): Byakuya attacks a single target with all of his Senkei swords at once. Fitting to Senkei focusing solely on offense, it is Senbonzakura Kageyoshi's ultimate attack.

  • Gōkei (吭景, Mawscape): This form increases the number of tiny blades immensely. It creates a spherical formation of innumerable blade fragments, which swirl around the opponent like a cloud before flying into them from every possible angle, leaving no blind spots and no possibility of escape. It proceeds to collapse in on itself, obliterating the opponent. When used, it completely obliterated a very large building from the inside out, and the resulting shockwave generated by the attack forced Byakuya himself to Flash Step away.
  • Shūkei: Hakuteiken (終景: 白帝剣, Endscape: White Imperial Sword): This condenses each and every one of his blades into a single, potent sword, drastically increasing its cutting power. The spiritual energy and pressure released by this form is immense. The blade appears bright white, and its aura takes the form of a bird, earning it the name Hakuteiken (白帝剣, White Imperial Sword). Pure white wings form on Byakuya's back, as well as a halo-like circle, made of concentrated spiritual energy. This form's blade can create aggravated injuries in a single blow. The wings can be used for flight.

Trivia[]

  • His theme song, as chosen by Tite Kubo, is Giovanni Mirabassi's "Je Chante Pour Passer Le Temps".
  • Byakuya was voted the 7th most popular character in the fourth character popularity poll after ranking 19th in the first, 10th in the second, and 6th in the third. However, in the fifth, he ranked 3rd.
  • His Zanpakutō, Senbonzakura, was voted the 5th most popular Zanpakutō in the first Zanpakutō poll, and its Bankai, Senbonzakura Kageyoshi (all forms), ranked 25th. In the second Zanpakutō poll, Senbonzakura was voted the 2nd most popular Zanpakutō.
  • In the first best bout poll, Byakuya's fight with Ichigo Kurosaki ranked 1st, while his fight with Renji Abarai ranked 6th. In the second, Byakuya's fight with Renji ranked 1st, his fight with Zommari Rureaux ranked 16th, his fight with Shūkurō Tsukishima ranked 25th, his fight with Kenpachi Zaraki ranked 37th, his fight with Äs Nödt ranked 41st, his fight with Yoruichi Shihōin ranked 68th, and his fight with PePe Waccabrada ranked 83rd.
  • He has a column in the Seireitei Communication titled All About Etiquette.
    • The Shinigami Women's Association attempted to publish a Photo Collection showcasing Byakuya, called Prince of Silence, but it is now experiencing difficulties.
  • In the manga, his scarf, kenseikan, and tekkou are shown to be silver white, but in the anime, they are all shown to be light green.In the manga, Senbonzakuras petals are white, while in the anime they are pink. Byakuya has created an imaginary character named Wakame Ambassador (ワカメ大使; Wakame Taishi) who he is particularly fond of and often creates themes based around him. He suggests the character become his divisions entry into the Jump Fiesta, creates food and snacks of the same shape as the creature along with a sand sculptor at the beach and has been known to dress up as the ambassador.
  • The Wakame Ambassador appeared as both a small and larger mini-boss in the game, Bleach: Soul Carnival 2. In the manga, Byakuya sliced apart the segments of Hihiō Zabimaru.
  • In the anime, however, Hihiō Zabimaru merely collapsed to the ground while in midair. In the anime against Zommari, Byakuya was erroneously shown with Senbonzakura's hilt because it was not yet disclosed Senbonzakura's hilt reforms when Byakuya deactivates his Bankai. In the manga, Byakuya was not shown with Senbonzakura's hilt when Senbonzakura Kageyoshi is active.
  • In Ryōgo Narita's novel Bleach: Can't Fear Your Own World, it is mentioned that Byakuya would be the most likely candidate to succeed Shunsui Kyōraku as Captain-Commander of the Gotei 13.
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