Atau Rindō

Rindō is a tall young man with light skin, a mole set below his right eye, and a mop of dark, unruly hair. He adapts the usual Shinigami uniform by cutting its sleeves short over a pale turtleneck that runs to his wrists, and he ties on a light-colored apron that drapes his waist and legs, a roomy pocket at either side.

Courteous by nature, Rindō adores animals enough to slip away from his lieutenant's duties and pass time among the creatures kept in the Seventh Division garden. Deafness leads him to speak entirely through sign language, and he stays patient with those who cannot sign or follow him, having taught himself to read lips as well. That gentleness vanishes in battle, where he grows savage and unflinching, dealing swift, gory ends to his opponents.

Rindō carries the elevated spiritual pressure expected of a Gotei 13 lieutenant. His sealed sword shows a lens-shaped guard above a pale scabbard, and rather than a fixed release phrase and name, he activates it by finger-writing the word give birth onto the blade, whereupon it becomes a segmented whip of linked talisman-like plates. What makes the weapon singular is that it has no set identity; instead Rindō signs the name of an animal to call forth a different assault. His shown form, Taka, turns the whip's segments into a flock of hawks that swarm a marked target and, in seconds, can gnaw a foe as massive as a Jigoku no Gaki down to a skeleton. He has yet to reach Bankai. Rindō first crosses paths with Ichigo Kurosaki on the night the lieutenants gather in the living world to capture a Hollow for Jūshirō Ukitake's funeral rite, unleashing Taka to instantly slaughter one of the attacking beasts.