Momo Hinamori

**Momo Hinamori** is the lieutenant of the 5th Division in the Gotei 13 and her Captain is Shinji Hirako. Her former squad Captain was Sōsuke Aizen before his revolt two years ago. She is also a member of the independent Team Karakura and the mentor/best friend of the 10th Division's 3rd Seat, Karin Kurosaki.

## Physical Appearance

Momo is a petite young girl of below average height. She has fair skin, brown eyes, and wears the standard Shinigamirobes, with her black hair pulled in a bun held in a tied cloth. When in her Shinigami robes, she wears the 5th Division's lieutenant armband around her left sleeve. While in her pajamas, she wears a plain kimono, and her hair is tied in a loose ponytail.

## Personality

Momo is an upbeat, easy-going, and friendly girl who is generally quite trusting, but also very impulsive, emotionally vulnerable, and naïve (though she has said that she would like to grow out of her naivety). She has a strong friendship with Tōshirō Hitsugaya, whom she grew up with, repeatedly calling him "Shiro", despite his higher rank and complaints about this. Though normally kind, her rare bouts of anger and rage can appear rather menacing and dangerous, such as her outrage at Captain Ichimaru when she blamed him for causing Aizen's death. While serving as his lieutenant, Momo greatly respects and admires Aizen. She idolizes him to the point where a letter from Aizen leads her to attack Hitsugaya, her childhood friend, and even after being stabbed by Aizen, she, proclaiming Aizen was being manipulated, asks Hitsugaya to save him. When Aizen leads an attack on the Fake Karakura Town, Momo helps to defend the town from Aizen and his forces, but she still notably refers to him as "Captain Aizen".

During the one and a-half year gap in the *Bleach* series, she has developed a very deep friendship with Karin Kurosaki, whom she took in as her student during Karin's life as a Shinigami, eventually becoming friends and have deep respect for each other. She even considering Karin to be the younger sister she loved, and cried when she heard about Karin's presumed death, despite Karin telling her master to be strong.

Hinamori's main pastime activities are reading and drawing. Due to her talent in drawing, she has overseen work for book illustration in the Shinigami Academy. Her love for books was developed since Aizen regularly gave her the books he had read. In his absence, she frequently visits the library. She attends the *ikebana* lessons held by Captain Retsu Unohana. She frequently visits Tōshirō's grandmother in the Rukongai. Her favorite food is peach, and she does not like plums. She sometimes bakes cookies, and once made a batch in the shape of Aizen's glasses.

## Abilities

**Kidō Master**: Momo, like Izuru, but unlike Renji, excels at Kidō. Momo is a Kidō master as stated by Captain Hitsugaya and Izuru. Her abilities reach to such a pinnacle that she can devise ways to use multiple spells in conjunction with each other (as well as her Zanpakutō) to make a unique way in which to attack and incapacitate her opponents. In this way she can make common spells all her own. She is also able to use a single Kidō technique on two separate targets at once. Momo also has some skill with healing Kidō. After one and a-half year of intense training, Momo has mastered several advanced-level Kidō spells and is ranked at a masterful level. She can even teach her skills to her fellow partner, student and new best friend, Karin Kurosaki.

**Expert Swordsman Specialist**: Momo is proficient enough to cross swords with other lieutenant-level Shinigami. While she is capable enough in swordsmanship to attain her high-level seated position, she knowingly states when facing Harribel's Fracción that she knows she is not strong enough to combat them using her swordsmanship skills, instead sneaking up on them and using Kidō. Her swordsmanship skills have later improved to the point where she can hold her own against master swordsman fighters for certain periods of time and even allowed herself to attain her Bankai. She has later learned to use the fire from her Zanpakutō to enhance her sword strikes, which increases her damage towards her foes as well as leaving burn marks behind.

**Shunpo Practitioner**: Momo is skilled enough in the use of Shunpo that she can keep up with lieutenant-level Shinigami.

**Skilled Tactician**: Knowing her own limitations in direct battle, Momo has shown herself able to compensate for it through crafty combination attacks (such as when she caught Sung-Sun, Mila Rose, and Apacci in a Kido net). By using her mastery of Kidō, Momo is able to attack in a number of versatile ways. She was also able to deduce the mechanisms behind Cosmos's poisonous **Plant Magic** abilities, and use a combination of her healing Kido and Zanpakuto powers to negate its effects alongside Wendy's **Raise** spell during the Rescue Team's confrontation with the Garou Knights and the Fearsome Hand of Five.

**Enhanced Durability**: Despite her small appearance, Momo has an average degree of physical durability.

**Expert Artist**: Since her hobbies are reading and drawing, Momo is an exceptional artist.

**Great Spiritual Power**: Being a lieutenant of the Gotei 13, Momo boasts high levels of spiritual energy. Upon learning Bankai, this power increases on a scale of 5-10, which makes her a fight at the level of a captain-class Shinigami (even if she's a lieutenant). Her Reiatsu is light-red in color.

### Zanpakutō

**Tobiume** (*Flying Plum Tree*): In its sealed state, Tobiume takes the form a regular katana with the only slight difference being the five-petal flower designs stamped on the rectangular, bronze tsuba with a light-red handle and sheath. Her Zanpakutō is a Fire-type.

* **Shikai**: The command for its' Shikai is "**Snap**". When its Shikai is activated, Tobiume's blade straightens into a double-edged longsword and produces three jutte-like prongs along its length at various intervals, not like a Seven-Branched Sword.

**Shikai Special Ability**: In this form, Tobiume can release fireballs that explode on impact from its blade. The release of a fireball is accompanied by a sound, similar to a seagull cry. The fireballs that she launches combined with high spiritual energy, can stop a full-fledged Cero coming at her direction. Momo later gains the ability to use Tobiume's fire to enhance her sword skills, increasing that damage dealt to her opponents as well as burning them in the process.
* **Bankai**: **Kogo-Fushicho Tobiume** (*Scarlet Phoenix-Winged Flying Plum Tree*): Upon Bankai activation, Momo's Shikai blade remains the same, but her physical appearance is slightly altered: she gains a pair of elegant, scarlet-golden wings protruded from her back, with a orange-red energy aura surrounding them, and on the palms of her outstretched hands were two smooth, glowing ruby gems.

**Bankai Special Ability**: The power of her Bankai enhances her Shikai abilities to the point where her fireball attacks are more powerful enough to stop a Cero fired by an Espada and even cause massive damage to a known area depending the fireball's size and power. Another ability this Bankai has that the wings on its' back aren't only used for flight, the energy around the wings produce strong Reiatsu which gives Momo great reserves of spiritual energy if her spiritual energy is very low. In her Bankai, Momo's Reiatsu is now orange-red. It also gives her a vast array of new techniques and augment her Soul Reaper powers such as:
* **Bankai Regeneration**: Momo can regenerate her the missing parts of her Bankai by using the air in the atmosphere and turning it into heat.
* **Flight**: By using the scarlet-colored wings on her back, Momo can use these wings for flight in her Bankai, enabling her to combat opponents safer on the ground, and even gain equal grounds with opponents that are capable of using flight.
* **Shield of Fire Wings**:
* **Enhanced Kidō**: In Bankai, Momo's Kidō prowess has been greatly enhanced and can be used in rapid sucession.
* **Furōkagi** (*Fireball Flock*): Momo fires a barrage of fireballs from her Bankai that cause burn damage to her opponent when hit on impact.
* **Hisenjikōtsu** (*Silent Melody of the Phoenix*):

## Relationships

### Friends/Allies

* Tobiume (Zanpakuto spirit)
* Tōshirō Hitsugaya (Childhood friend and younger brother figure)
* Rangiku Matsumoto (Best friend and older sister figure)
* Shinji Hirako (Captain)
* Team Karakura
	+ Karin Kurosaki (Best friend, student and equal partner-in-combat; close as sisters)
	+ Ichigo Kurosaki (Teammate and older brother figure)
	+ Rukia Kuchiki
	+ Orihime Inoue (Close friend)
	+ Uryū Ishida
	+ Yasutora Sado
	+ Renji Abarai (Childhood best friend and classmate, also teammate)
* Izuru Kira (Childhood best friend and classmate, also teammate)
* Shūhei Hisagi (Teammate)
* Soul Reaper Women's Association
	+ Yachiru Kusajishi
	+ Nanao Ise
	+ Isane Kotetsu
	+ Kiyone Kotetsu
	+ Nemu Kurotsuchi
	+ Suì-Fēng
	+ Yoruichi Shihōin
	+ Retsu Unohana
* Wendy Marvell (Best friend and maternal counterpart, close as sisters)
	+ Carla
* Chelia Blendy (Close friend and friendly rival)
* May Chang (Best friend and maternal counterpart, close as sisters)
	+ Xiao-Mei

### Enemies

* Ryuha Armament Alliance
	+ Shin Uchiha
* Sōsuke Aizen (Former captain)
	+ Gin Ichimaru
	+ Kaname Tōsen
* Hollows
* The Arrancars
* The Espada
	+ Yammy Llargo
	+ Tier Harribel
	+ Ulquiorra Cifer

## Quotes

* *As long as I believe in my friends, I'll move forward to serve as a Lieutenant of the Thirteen Court Guard Squads!*