Boomerang Tōjū

Broad and well-muscled, this Tōjū wears his colors in blocks: a black chest sits above a white waistline, with a wedge of orange marking the seam beneath his pectorals. Loose white trousers hang from a slim dark belt that tapers into an apron stamped with a pale arrow, and tall black boots climb to his knees. A cropped cape, split into a pair of trailing fins, fastens across the tops of his shoulders. His messy mane runs mostly dark blue, broken by a hooked band of yellow that curls back past either side of his skull.

Cocky and cruel once a fight begins, he needles Renji over the trick behind his boomerang and shoves Hebi from his path without a second thought. Above all he prizes the independence his rogue existence has handed him and refuses to give it up quietly. That craving makes him a schemer, conning Hebi into sparing him so his wounds can close, intending to dismantle Renji and the two Zabimaru halves separately rather than face them together. He grabs a hostage when it suits him, savors the moment an enemy sets down their weapon, and insists that neither comrades nor a master worth kneeling to hold any value, since being alone, to his mind, is freedom at its purest.

The Tōjū surfaces in the living world and is set upon by Renji Abarai together with Saru. His returning weapon nearly blindsides Renji, but a sudden strike from Saru wounds him and drives him off, batting Hebi aside as he retreats. Hidden in a tree to recover, he is tracked down by Hebi, who asks whether he will surrender peacefully. He refuses and instead sings the praises of liberty, noting how rarely creatures like the two of them ever taste it, and the speech convinces Hebi to look away and let him slip off.

After nightfall, once Hebi has quarreled with Karin Kurosaki, the Tōjū reappears and jeers at how the little snake is enjoying his freedom, admitting the earlier plea had merely bought him time to mend and pick the group apart one by one. Hebi lunges, and though the Tōjū slips the blow and answers it, Hebi's inventive Shikai steadily gets the better of him, pushing him to seize Karin as leverage. His golden double-bladed boomerang is the root of his edge, its hollow arms curved so a dodged throw can still clip a foe from behind, and he backs it with raw strength, blistering speed that outpaces even a Shunpo adept, and a cunning mind. He crushes Hebi and taunts him for leaning on friends, only for Hebi to answer that friendship is a privilege, and just as the finishing blow is coming, Saru and Renji return, take the battle off Hebi's hands, and put the Tōjū down.