Hachigen Ushōda

Towering and heavyset, Hachi stands well over eight feet and is easily recognized by his pink hair, marked with a black crossbone in the middle, and a matching pink mustache above golden eyes. In the present day he dresses in an olive-green tuxedo finished with a yellow bow tie. A century ago in Soul Society his look was quite different: a long purple mantle worn over standard Soul Reaper robes, his hair shaped into two small black-tipped horns, and the emblem of the Kidō Corps set at the center.

For all his bulk, Hachi is a mild and gentle soul, deferring to the more forceful Visored and carrying out their orders with only the occasional muttered grumble. He warms to kind company, especially the like-minded Orihime Inoue, and keeps a courteous manner, even addressing Suì-Fēng by her captain's rank despite owing her no such respect. That gentleness pairs with a keen, watchful intellect: in combat he studies his enemy closely, which lets him turn Baraggan Louisenbairn's own power of aging back against him.

Roughly a century ago, Hachi served as the Kidō Corps lieutenant beneath Captain Tessai Tsukabishi and was sent to investigate the disappearances plaguing the Gotei 13. He arrived in time to bind the Hollowfying Mashiro and Kensei with high-level spells, only to watch Kensei burst free of a rank-63 binding through sheer strength. The rescue party was then ambushed by Tōsen and doomed by Aizen's experiments, and though Urahara and Tessai saved the victims, the Hōgyoku failed to reverse the process. Condemned by the Central 46, the group was spirited away by Yoruichi Shihōin, and Urahara's reiatsu-masking gigai carried them into the living world.

When Ichigo comes to the Visored warehouse to master his inner Hollow, Hachi maintains the barriers that contain the training and helps restrain him when the Hollow surges. His gentler talents shine when he fully repairs Orihime Inoue's shattered spirit Tsubaki, a feat even Orihime could not manage, and he gently counsels her that her powers, like his own, are not truly suited to fighting.

His finest hour comes during the battle for the fake Karakura Town, where he joins Suì-Fēng and Marechiyo Ōmaeda against the Espada Baraggan Louisenbairn. Learning that Baraggan's touch rots away even his barriers, Hachi devises a plan: he strikes a bargain to trap the Espada with his Shijū no Saimon so that Suì-Fēng's Bankai can detonate at point-blank range. When that fails to finish him, Hachi seals his own decaying arm inside a barrier and transfers it into Baraggan's body, unleashing the aging power against its own wielder and destroying him from within. Later he heals the wounded, and in the war against the Wandenreich he mends Renji with Kaidō and stands with the Visored against Gerard Valkyrie. Throughout, he remains a Kidō master without peer, crafting original barriers that ordinary Soul Reaper spells cannot undo, though he insists his gifts were never meant for battle.