Kokoro Utsubo

Kokoro's appearance during TYBW

*"Even if my existence is something artificial, the feelings inside my heart will always be real!"*

* Overview
* Image Gallery

**Kokoro Utsubo** (靭 心, *Utsubo Kokoro)* is an Artificial Soul created alongside her younger twin brother Akira by Erina Utsubo and Hiromasa. She is a former student of Karakura High School. She is married to Yasutora Sado and has a daughter named Kohaku Sado.

* Kokoro at the beginning of the series
* Kokoro's full design during the start of TYBW.
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## Appearance

Kokoro is a teenager often mistaken for being younger than she actually is due to her short height. While that is the case, her figure is developed enough for a girl of her age and creates a contrast to her childlish face, however it is often hidden by the clothes she is wearing. She has long brown hair reaching to her hips and always tied into twin buns, with blunt bangs ending right above her eyes, light skin and blue eyes. There is a scar running across her chest from when she took Hiromasa's attack in order to protect Sado.

She is always wearing her black choker, except when she is in her pajamas. She usually dresses in a rather casual style and does not own a lot of dresses, most of them being bought by her father and brother. She has her ears pierced, but they are often hidden by her bangs.

Seventeen months after Aizen's defeat, Kokoro's bangs are longer and messier. She is also usually wearing her hair in a low ponytail and has started wearing a pair of blue hairclips.

In her fully evolved form, Kokoro has a more mature look, her body changing to that of a tall young woman with longer hair. This appearance, according to Erina, is what Kokoro was supposed to look like originally had her and Akira's spiritual energy and growth been balanced. She permanently attains that body around a year after Ywach's defeat, during her stay at Soul Society.

Ten years after Yhwach's defeat, Kokoro has assymetrical bangs and has also cut her hair to her neck.

## Personality

In the past, Kokoro used to be a quiet and shy girl, not really wanting to interact with other children. This was due to her innocent and cute appearance being mocked by other kids, as she looked weak and many people would always try to spoil her against her own wishes since she realized they were treating her more like an object instead. She had a habit of stuttering a lot due to the stress from talking to strangers because she was not sure who she could trust. After meeting and becoming friends with Kagami she learned to remain calm during conversations, even being able to smile a bit from time to time - it is later revealed that was a way for Kokoro to reveal her inner feelings without realizing it herself. Thanks to that she was able to play and talk with others even with her sometimes awkward behaviour. Her desire to care about people important to her without minding her own health started from there, as she got overprotective of Kagami to the point of not being able to function without her words of support.

After the accident, her mother's death and Akira's injury affected her deeply, though she tried to hide it from everyone by acting like she was fine. She spent a lot of time etiher silently observing her classmates or making only small talk, as she could not take the looks of pity they would give her. She tried to repress the fear and disgust of her own weak self in order to fix the situation, which in turn only made her push people away instead. Around that time Ichigo and Sado actually caught her attention due to the amount of rumors she would hear about them on a daily basis. She never believed any of those in the first place, resentful of people talking about somebody behind their back due to receiving the same treatment. Thanks to the fateful encounter with them, Kokoro learned how to trust somebody again as in their presence she felt comfortable and grateful that they accepted her. Because of that she is very loyal towards Ichigo and Sado and considers them her most important friends for whom she would happily do anything. She wished to avoid fighting when possible, as deep inside she felt she would start to enjoy the aspect of it, which scared her. Instead she would simply run away or let herself get hurt if it was for someone's sake, as she never wanted her friends to get injured because of her.

After enrolling to high school Kokoro started acting friendly towards everyone, this time approaching people out of her own will instead of waiting for somebody to talk to her first. She would always wear a smile on her face because she did not want to make her friends worry. Though she became a lot more optimistic when compared to her younger self, she still takes notice of the comments people are making about her appearence. Instead of showing her reactions however, she keeps them all inside her, only allowing herself to get sad when she is sure nobody can see her. She refuses to let her friends see that side of hers, even her own family, because she feels her troubles would only put a burden on them or even worse, cause them to leave her side which is her biggest fear. Her self-punishment goes to the point of refusing to ever cry in front of people. She did not value her own life before, holding the guilt from surviving the accident and feeling that instead she should sacrifice it for others if there would ever be the need to do so, since in her eyes she did not deserve happiness anyway. Kokoro's wish to stay by her friends' side and the self-imposed "duty" to amend for her past with her life constantly conflict each other, putting a lot of mental pressure on her. After discovering the origin of her existence and finding out Kagami was simply the projection of her deepest inner hopes and dreams, Kokoro became paranoid about everyone thinking of her as a monster and abandoning her, refusing to let anyone approach her. Thanks to Hanako's training and everyone's words, Kokoro learned to accept herself for who she is, now honestly expressing the will to live as a human would and fight alongside her friends. She accepts the fact that she was created as a weapon at first, but believes that aside from her combat abilities she also has a proper human heart that can love and care for others. During any battle she treats her opponents in various ways as a response to their attitude towards her and whether they doubt her fighting abilities due to her appearance.

At school Kokoro is always seen as a cheerful and slightly childlish girl, often joking around with everyone. She is also very affectionate towards people she feels close to, hugging them as a greeting or basically keeping the distance between them really small. She rarely gets angry for her own sake, however she can become agitated when seeing those she wants to protect in danger, either from their own circumstances or them trying to protect Kokoro from harm. Though initially stubborn about her troubles, the bottled frustration from being defeated by Megumi Nashida and inability to protect her friends made Kokoro properly face her weakness in order to mature. While people still think she does not take anything seriously, she immediately takes notice when things get grave and adapts herself properly to the situaton with a calm demeanor. Her expressions have also stopped being fake, now less afraid to show how she is really feeling at any time. She perfected the ability to say the cruelest things with the sweetest smile, which sometimes surprises even Kokoro herself.

## History

16 years ago, Kokoro and Akira were created by Hiromasa and Erina through techniques similar to those of Kisuke Urahara and Mayuri Kurotsuchi as final results of the experiments Hiromasa was conducting for years in order to create two perfectly balanced souls that could work as powerful weapons agains Hollows. Hiromasa's ultimate wish didn't come to fruition however, as Kokoro ended up absorbing the bigger part of Akira's spiritual power, thus ruining the balanced growth between the twins. Soon after their birth they were taken to the Human World by Erina who couldn't bear to see children being used like tools, even if they were created through artificial methods. She became their mother figure and along with a Fullbringer named Banri Utsubo they created a warm and happy family. Because the twins were in a coma-like state when Erina took them out of Soul Society, both her and Banri poured their life force into them to make them function like normal humans. While Akira was growing up without any problems, Kokoro's unbalanced growth started showing through her physical appearance, being smaller and looking weaker than her brother, as well as her irrational levels of spiritual energy which she couldn't control by herself, causing her to break into high fever from time to time.

Due to her seemingly weak appearance, other kids usually avoided her. She became a target of bullying after they had noticed Kokoro talking to herself, while in fact she was spending time with spirits only she could see. She was suspicious of the way most of the adults were looking at her, as she felt she was just an adorable object in their eyes. Because of that she became scared of talking to others and hated herself for being weak, so she spent a lot of her free time in her own room or hiding in tiny areas whenever she was coerced into going outside. In order for her to gain more confidence - and secretely ensure Kokoro and Akira would be ready to protect themselves in the worst case of Hiromasa ever finding out their whereabouts - Erina started teaching martial arts to the twins. Kokoro refused to put the techniques being taught by her mother into use at first because unbeknownst to herself at that time, her mind refused to act in accordance with the fighting instinct implanted into the siblings by Hiromasa. She was scared to lose the sense of own self, which fully bloomed inside of her as she spent time with the family she loved deeply.

As Kokoro got into the habit of taking long walks alone outside or simply running until she couldn't feel her legs anymore, her twin brother or parents had to search for her until evening to bring her back home. One day, when Kokoro was desperately hiding from Akira near a river because she didn't want to return yet, she met a girl who seemingly appeared out of nowhere. The girl introduced herself as Kagami and her smile immediately made Kokoro forget the severe bullying she was put through at school that day. After talking until the sun had already set, Kagami promised Kokoro she would always wait by the river if she needed help. Kokoro quickly became dependant on Kagami's kindness and through their chats she learned how to properly communicate with others without any fear, which helped her actually make some friends at school. At times however she would still question why she couldn't just see Kagami at any opportunity, as if she seemed to appear only in response to Kokoro's wishes. Kokoro would also feel very tired every time after meeting Kagami, blaming it on the excitement draining her of energy to avoid making her family worry. The last time they met was few months before Kokoro would entroll to junior high school. No matter how many times Kokoro would walk by the river afterwards, she never saw Kagami again - she could not find even a small trace of her existence. She felt lonely and betrayed at first, but bit by bit she started to understand that the girl wanted her to be able to manage on her own. The one regret Kokoro had was not being able to thank Kagami properly.

Before Kagami's disappearance, Kokoro started sensing an unknown presence around her family. It got stronger after she was saved from a Hollow attack by her mother, during which her treasured bracelet got destroyed, to the point of feeling lke somebody was constantly watching her and Akira whenever the twins would play outside. Scared and helpless, she didn't know how to warn her family and desperately tried to come up with a plan to protect them. She wanted to stay with them for as much as possible, so when Erina suggested a family trip she felt it was the perfect opportunity to find out what exactly was going on. The twins spent a week outside of Karakura Town together with their mother while Banri stayed at home due to his cold. During the trip Kokoro couldn't feel the strange presence at all, which allowed her to finally relax for a bit. Just when she started to think everything would return to normal, the trio got into an accident during their drive back home. Kokoro couldn't remember many details about it, aside from the appearance of a Hollow that actually ended up attacking them. Both her and Akira were hospitalized, with Akira being unable to properly use his dominant hand for two years. The twins believe their mother had died in the accident, however her body was never found.

Kokoro spent a whole month in the hospital after the accident with few injuries due to Akira shielding her with his body. She blamed herself for realizing the Hollow's presence too late, thinking there was something she could've done to prevent her mother's supposed death. After getting discharged from the hospital she immediately started atteding Mashiba J.H. School and tried acting normal as to not worry her brother and father, often forcing a smile onto her face to try and reassure everyone she was fine. She quickly got sick of the looks of pity people would give her whenever they would talk, alongside the whispers she would constantly hear behind her back about how she might use the circumstances to gather attention with her innocent and adorable looks. She felt she did not deserve to continue living happily and could not bring herself to even minimize the flood of rumors regarding her.

A year passed with Kokoro not being able to make any friends, keeping a wall between herself and other people. Though she stated feeling a closer connection to friendly spirits and animals instead, she could not help but become interested in Ichigo Kurosaki and Yasutora Sado after overhearing the amount of rumors surrounding the pair. She felt their circumstances might've been close, even when they felt different and they had not talked much before. Kokoro's inner shell, which she had created in order to protect herself from everything, began to slowly crumble until it finally disappeared the day she had her first proper interaction with the two classmates. During that time Kokoro was taking care of a family of kittens left nearby the Kurosaki Clinic, preparing to take at least one of them home while handing off the others to the shelter. Unfortunately she had been found out by a group of deliquent upperclassmen who decided to abuse the cats after discovering the box they were living in. By the time Kokoro got back, all the kittens had ran away except for one. Feeling desperate to protect the kitten, Kokoro started a fight with the deliquents, managing to knock few of them out before shielding the kitten with her body from the rest. Before the gang's leader was able to use a knife to attack her, Kokoro was saved by Ichigo and Sado rushing in and beating up the remaining people. Ichigo had actually been informed of Kokoro being in danger by a spirit lingering nearby who would always see her heading towards the kittens. Both her and the cat were carried to the Kurosaki Clinic by Sado, where their injuries were treated by Ichigo's father.

Few days after the incident, after Kokoro had rested properly and got back to school, she approached Ichigo and Sado and invited them to eat lunch together to the shock of everyone. She made them bento as thanks for helping her out and to her own surprise, actually expressed openly a wish to know more about them. She started talking with the duo on a regular basis, often spending the breaks with them or even trying to help them out while they were getting in fights by pretending to call the teacher over. Before she had even noticed, the relationship with them became something Kokoro would happily call a proper friendship. She felt the most comfortable and safe to open up a bit near them, though she was still hiding a lot of her worries in fear of destroying what she had finally managed to create. The first to notice Kokoro feeling conflicted and trying to keep up her cheerful facade was always Sado who tried to help her relax and reassure her that she could be honest with him and Ichigo when something was actually troubling her.

In the meantime Kokoro continued training martial arts and running in her free time as a way to occupy herself whenever she would feel her own thoughts suffocate her, wishing to get stronger though she also hoped she wouldn't need to get into an actual fight ever again. All while smiling, stubbornly refusing to show her "weakness" to others.

## Synopsis

### Agent of the Shinigami Arc

At school, Kokoro cheerfully greets Ichigo from behind Sado and asks if he is not injuried from last night's accident, joking that he seems to be like a magnet for bizzarre occurings. She then greets Rukia Kuchiki as she arrives and is later seen interacting with her more in attempts to become friends. Few days later, Ichigo notices the slight changes in Kokoro's behavior and upon finally catching her, he notices that she has a fever. As she tries to play it off, Ichigo scolds her and calls for Akira to get her back home. The twin quickly thanks Ichigo for informing him of the situation upon arriving and heads back, carrying Kokoro on his back. After they are gone, Rukia appears in front of Ichigo and tells him about the weird sensation she has been feeling from the Utsubo twins for a while. As the siblings are on their way home, they suddenly get attacked by a Hollow. Though Akira tries his best to protect Kokoro, he gets heavily injuried instead and falls unconcious. As Kokoro is desperately trying to drag him away from danger, Ichigo and Rukia arrive to save them. Fearful, Kokoro mumbles out that she has seen the Hollow that attacked them in the past before her fever drains her of all the energy. Rukia heals Akira's injuries and modifies both his and Kokoro's memories of the events.

When Uryū Ishida lures a massive number of Hollows to Karakura Town, Kokoro is shown on a shopping errand while on phone with Sado. Suddenly sensing the presence of a Hollow near her, she abruptly ends the calls and runs off to a more secluded place, not noticing at first that it is the same spot in which she got attacked by a Hollow for the first time in her childhood. When the Hollow finally catches up to her, she realizes that it is the same one which caused the car accident in her past, supposedly killing her mother. In panic, she laughs at the irony of the circumstances before attempting to tackle the Hollow. All her efforts end up in vain as she is quickly captured and she finds herself unable to breathe. Before anything else can happen, Akira appears and stabs the Hollow with the katana that was left for him by his mother, which makes it turn its attention to him instead. As Kokoro watches helplessly while Akira is trying to defeat the Hollow, she starts cursing her own weakness and gathers the resolve to fight properly as she refuses to see Akira get hurt while protecting her again. This determination fully awakens her powers in sync with Akira activating his from the strong will to save his older sister. Together the twins manage to defeat the Hollow for good and they both pass out from the burden the fight took on their bodies. Afterwards, they are taken alongisde Orihime Inoue and Sado by Kisuke Urahara to his shop , where he explains their powers.

As she watches Ichigo and Uryū fight a Menos Grande with the rest, she reveals that her memories of the previous events have come back and she wonders what will happen to them from now onwards. After Rukia is arrested and taken to Soul Society, she checks up on Sado to confirm if she is not the only one feeling confused about Rukia's whereabouts. Her and Akira later decide to help their friends and they begin training their abilities under the guidance of Yoruichi Shihōin, who notes that there might be something particular about their powers, as well as the immense amount of spiritual power Kokoro is unable to control, causing her physical pain from time to time. She spends her last day in Karakura Town with everyone else, mostly tagging alongside Sado. She also makes a promise with her brother to always watch out for each other's backs, no matter what.

## Powers & Abilities

### **Natural Abilities**

**Spiritual Awareness**: Kokoro has been able to detect spiritual energy since her childhood and was also able to fully see Hollows even before she encountered Ichigo and the rest.

**High Spiritual Power**: As first noted by Rukia, Kokoro possesess a significantly bigger amount of spiritual energy than an average Human does - it is later revealed to be due to Kokoro being an Artificial Soul created in order to constantly fight against Hollows. After consciously using her powers for the first time, the pressure from her spiritual energy became too much for her body to handle, which in turn made her frequently collapse with fevers and chest pain after those symptoms disappearing sometime during her childhood. Thanks to her training with Yoruichi and then Hanako, Kokoro managed to learn how to fully control and manage her spiritual power, being able to use her powers more efficiently. Her Reiatsu is turquoise blue.

**Eidetic Memory**: Kokoro is able to recall images from her memory with a high precision after only seeing something just once. She can quickly point out minor details that might've changed since the last time she saw something whenever it is needed, along with any difficult sequences, simply by recalling them as photographs inside her head. Because of that and her intelligence, she ranked 9th out of 322 students in Karakura High School.

**Memory Chikan Resistance**: Though Rukia used the memory chikan on her, Kokoro was later able to recall the memories of Ichigo fighting a Hollow.

**Enhanced Speed**: Kokoro's speed is above that of an average Human's, although she hasn't been able to tap into her full potential before learning about her origins. She is shown to easily keep up with Shunpo and its variations.

### **Sōzō**

**Sōzō** (創造, *Creation*): A unique ability possessed by Kokoro, which allows her to create constructions out of her spiritual energy. The size and power of each construct varies with the amount of energy Kokoro poured into it - her range of creation has been shown from a small cube to a fake person with whom you could hold a normal conversation with for longer periods of time, although the latter took most of Kokoro's Reiryoku out of her in exchange. She can also wrap her creations around her own body to use them in direct combat.

## Weaknesses

**Construction limit**: If Kokoro puts too much Reiatsu into a single construct, it becomes difficult to create any additional ones at the same time.

**Reiatsu density**: Smaller constructs can immediately get destroyed by a stronger Reiatsu simply through a reaction to the opponent's presence.

## Trivia

* She refers to herself using pronoun "boku".
* When making nicknames, Kokoro uses people's last names due to her still feeling distanced from everyone, even when she herself doesn't realize or want to admit it. The sign of her showing her honest feelings is when she abandons them for a moment. She later starts using her friends' first names as well.
* Kokoro's fighting style is similiar to Taekwondo.
* In her free time Kokoro likes to make stuffed animals - she has been shown to be quite good at sewing. She likes to give the plushies she is proud of the most to her friends as random gifts. She also often asks Uryū to make outfits for her stuffed toys.
* Due to her past, Kokoro particularly dislikes porcelain dolls.
* According to Orihime, Kokoro has a massive colection of huge plushies and pillows inside her room, to the point of being able to make a whole fortress out of them.
* She has a habit of jumping at somebody from behind to hug them as a greeting.
* Though Kokoro is really good at singing, she is too embarrassed to try it in front of anyone, even her own family.
* Similarly to Akira, Kokoro has a huge sweet tooth and always carries few snacks.

## Quotes

* (About Megumi Nashida) *For just one moment, I heard her mention my eyes being "that of a beast"... I don't have such determination. I couldn't even win against her...*
* *I hate fighting, I'm not the right person to stand on the battlefield... is what I've always thought, but now I've abandoned that way of thinking. I had to stop hesitating if I don't want to see my friends get hurt again.*
* (Thinking about Yasutora Sado) *While I'm always clinging to his back, does he think of me as a burden? Sado-chan, I want to have enough strength to protect you... no. I want to stand by your side and fight together with you. I want to always see your face clearly.*
* (To Orihime Inoue) *Thank you for accepting me for who I am, Inoue-chan. You're my precious friend and I will always fight for your happiness.*
* *I'll always think of myself as a human, simply because I have friends who accept me as one.*