Rukia Kuchiki

**Rukia Kuchiki** is the lieutenant of the Thirteenth Squad under Captain Jushiro Ukitake and the main deuteragonist of the *Bleach* franchise. She is also the younger sister of Hisana Kuchiki, the adoptive younger sister/sister-in-law of Captain Byakuya Kuchiki, and the girlfriend of Renji Abarai.

## Physical Appearance

Short and petite, Rukia has light skin, violet-colored eyes and black cropped hair that hangs around her face with straight lines, with one strand of hair always hanging between her eyes. According to Byakuya, her appearance strongly resembles that of her sister Hisana.

Rukia wears a short-sleeved variation of the standard *shihakusho* (along with the standard white *obi*, a pair of white *tabi*, and a pair of *waraji* sandals) As a lieutenant of the Thirteen Court Guard Squads, Rukia wears her Squad's Badge around her uniform's left sleeve. She also wears a pair of fingerless white *tekko*, similar to Byakuya's, which extends above her elbows.

## Personality

Initially born into a lower class, Rukia retains her modesty even as an adopted member of the nobility. She is graceful, "clean" and lady-like, yet chooses to talk to ordinary people. However, her calm, cool, and lone demeanor often forces her to hide her personal troubles even from her friends because she does not wish to burden others. According to Ukitake, Rukia never opens up her heart and has difficulty making friends. However, she is a very straightforward person, often speaking bluntly (though accurately) and never sugarcoating. Her maturity and sense of emotional perception is what allows her to get those around her - namely Ichigo - going again and is shown again and again throughout the Bleach series. Rukia is clueless about the ways of the modern World of the Living. She is an accomplished actress, being able to act her way through a number of tough situations, such as getting out of trouble with school teachers or convincing the Kurosaki family to let her stay at their house.

Rukia always has trouble finding clothes that fit her, especially when inhabiting a Gigai in the World of the Living, leading to her stealing clothes from Ichigo's sister, Yuzu. She likes to climb to high places. Rukia also likes everything that is rabbit-themed or resembles a rabbit People often have difficulty understanding her drawings, which are typically rabbit-like. Rukia's favorite foods are cucumber, eggs and rice dumplings.

Rukia is extremely brave, perhaps to the point of fearlessness, staying disturbingly calm in almost any situation and willing to accept death if she sees no way out. She's also very selfless and just about always puts the good of her friends before her own, especially Ichigo's. However, this has been criticized by Ichigo as being excessive, believing she spends too much time worrying about him and not enough time worrying about herself. Another flaw she has is her tendency to blame herself for things that aren't really her fault, as noted by Renji, who tells her that she should learn to share her burdens with others.

Her attitude towards Ichigo varies: at times she is a bickering adversary, and at other times, she worries about him and dispatches advice like a wise old sage. Despite their quarrels, the two have a deep understanding of each other, often being the only ones able to talk each other out of a funk, which proves their very close bond.

## Abilities

**Kido Expert**: Rukia's greatest strength is her knowledge of the Kido, amongst her known skills are those for binding, healing, purifying, and destruction. However, as she said herself, while her Kido skill at the Soul Reaper Academy were the highest of her class, the sheer power of them were just average when she joined the Thirteenth Squad. Through continuous training she has greatly developed this skill, such as using a level 73 Hado spell without the incantation and with considerable effect. She switched from Zanjutsu to Kido without delay upon losing her Zanpakuto. She has shown she is able to use several high-level Kido in rapid succession without incantations and still have considerable control and power. She can even use low-level spells to great effect and has also shown great skill for using various spells in unique combinations, even using multiple low, mid, and even high-level spells simultaneously. However, she needs to chant the incantations to perform multiple spells at the same time. After two years of training, her skill, strength, and control over Kido has increased greatly and she even knows to use Hado 85: Zaiten Sokatsui, though needs to perform the incantation to use the technique due to her own level of kido prowess.

**Expert Swordsman Specialist**: Rukia knows the basic levels of Zanjutsu, of which she seemed to have only mastered the rudimentary skills. By her own admission, she has less talent in swordsmanship than Kido. However after much training by her former mentor, Kaien Shiba, her skill drastically improved. She has shown to hold her own in a battle, like defending herself from attacks dealt by the Novero Espada, Aaroniero Arruruerie, who possesses the same swordsmanship skills as Kaien Shiba.

**Shunpo Expert**: Renji says that Rukia is also helpful and effective because of her high speed. During her battle against the Adjuchas of the Menos Forest, she skillfully dodged multiple attacks from several enemies.

**Hakuda Combatant**: She was also seen in a Gigai fighting enemies with her physical strength (kicking, punching, etc.). She is also capable of having hand-to-hand combat while in her Shinigami state, with augmented strength.

**Keen Intellect**: Repeatedly in missions, Rukia has shown herself to be very intelligent, as seen from her ability to compensate against stronger opponents with combination attacks. During her forced stay in the Human World after losing her powers, Rukia proved herself very resourceful in assisting Ichigo with his new Soul Reaper duties. Rukia is also very knowledgeable, as shown from her high marks in the academy and her knowledge of Soul Society's history.

**Enhanced Strength**: Despite her size, Rukia is actually powerful enough to defeat a superior opponent. Even without the aid of her Zanpakuto, she was still a considerable opponent.

**Enhanced Endurance**: Despite her size, Rukia is quite resilient. She was able to withstand being impaled by Aaroniero's **Nejibana**, in conjunction with his **Glotoneria**, and finish him off before losing consciousness.

**High Spiritual Power**: Being a lieutenant of the Thirteen Court Guard Squads, Rukia boasts a high level of spiritual energy and can exert large amounts of Reiatsu when needed. She also has strong reserves, capable of using multiple and high-level Kido and Zanpakuto techniques without fatigue or exhaustion. Her Reiatsu color is white.

### Zanpakuto

**Sode no Shirayuki** (*Sleeved White Snow*): In its sealed form, Sode no Shirayuki is a normal katana with a rectangular tsuba with inward-curved corners as well as curved slits above and below the blade, and a series of curved lines embossed on either side of the blade. It has a reddish-brown hilt and sheath. Sode no Shirayuki is an Ice-type Zanpakuto.

* **Shikai**: Rukia holds her Zanpakuto out in front of her and turns it in a circle counter-clockwise. While she is turning it, the blade, hilt and tsuba turn completely white. The tsuba becomes a hollow snowflake-like circle and a white ribbon forms from the pommel from the end of the handle. Sode no Shirayuki is regarded as the most beautiful Zanpakuto in all of Soul Society. The transformation comes along with a rush of cold air in all directions and can potentially cause a cold fog to descend upon the area.

**Shikai Special Ability**: Sode no Shirayuki has control over ice, much like Toshiro Hitsugaya's Hyorinmaru (which is the most powerful ice and snow-type Zanpakuto), but uses it in a different manner. Like Kaname Tosen's **Suzumushi** and Kisuke Urahara's **Benihime**, Sode no Shirayuki possesses more than one ability in Shikai. Sode no Shirayuki's abilities are labeled as "dances" by Rukia. Besides ice techniques, Sode no Shirayuki's general ability is freezing. Sode no Shirayuki can freeze a target from a distance or used in a different manner, create a path or platform of ice in midair. **Sode no Shirayuki** does not actually spread coldness from its blade; its actual ability is to bring the body temperature of its wielder to a temperature below freezing. As a result, anything its wielder touches freezes, the sword itself merely increasing their reach. Due to this power, Rukia is capable of momentarily "killing" her body by controlling her own Reishi, putting herself in a form of cryostasis. She completely stops all the molecules in her body, preventing any material or substance attempting to affect her from doing so because it cannot enter her body. However, if someone uses an optical attack on her, it will affect her because her nerves are still working. Rukia can lower her body temperature to a point at which the ground below her feet freezes instantly, causing ice quakes, and can even reduce her temperature to absolute zero, though she can only safely maintain this temperature for no more than four seconds. However, when raising the temperature from absolute zero, Rukia has to do so slowly or risk harming her own body.
* **Some no mai, Tsukishiro** (*First Dance, White Moon*): Rukia calls out the name of the dance while holding her Zanpakuto upside down. The blade glows and then she makes a slashing motion when her target is in position. When she does this, a large ice circle forms around her intended target which freezes everything that touches it. The circle not only freezes the ground but everything within the circle's influence including anything above it up in the air, creating an extending pillar of light that then freezes all within in the circle. Shortly after being frozen, the victim then shatters along with the ice. Rukia appears to be able to control the size of the circle at will.
* **Tsugi no mai, Hakuren** (*Second Dance, White Ripple*): Rukia calls out the name of the dance, and punctures the ground once creating a large ice circle similar to the first dance, then she punctures the ground in front of her four times in a semi circle. She takes a battle stance as the ice particles begin to flow up from the protrusions she made in the ground. They build up and then fires toward the target in a massive, powerful pure-white wave of ice from Sode no Shirayuki's blade, in turn encasing the target in a block of ice.
* **San no mai, Shirafune** (*Third Dance, White Sword*): Rukia calls out the name of the dance, which allows her to reforge her Zanpakuto with ice particles if it is broken, piercing through objects in its path. After piercing its target, it continues to freeze any surrounding objects, including the battlefield.
* **Daiyon no mai, Juhaku** (*Fourth Dance, White Tree*): Rukia stabs the ground which creates a trail of ice in the direction of her intended target. The ice then freezes the target from the base up in a continuing freezing process, as it transforms the target into ice.
* **Daigo no mai, Shirawana** (*Fifth Dance, White Trap*): Rukia calls out the attack name, and stabs the ground with her sword, and her spiritual energy tunnels into the ground and shoots out like a geyser, surrounded the opponent. It begins to form pillars with very thin gaps, and hardens, forming a large and very durable cage. While this technique lacks of offensive potential, it is effective for search-and-capture missions, where Rukia can detain stronger opponents within her cage and wait for reinforcements to arrive.
* **Sora no mai, Koshiro** (*Sixth Dance, White Crystal*): Rukia calls out the name of her attack, and swings her blade in a wide arc, letting loose a flurry of snow-white crystals that can pierce through nearly anything, though they can be deflected rather easily. This is Rukia's preferred "aerial attack".
* **Kenage no mai, Hishiro** (*Seventh Dance, White Light*): Rukia's final Shikai technique, from the tip of her blade spills a large amount of luminous, flowing ice that lets off a brilliant glow as it touches the ground. The ice begins to merge into one small, glowing orb, and on Rukia's command, it explodes, sending a shower of luminous ice crystals that pierce the foe.
* **Ice-Rope Connection**: If Rukia can't reach her sword, she can create an ice extension to connect her hand to the sword hilt, which allows her to use Sode no Shirayuki's Shikai abilities at a distance.