Hanatarō Yamada

He is a small Shinigami with blue eyes and black hair cut to his chin, the fringe brushing the sides of his face. Over his standard black robe he slings the medical satchel that marks his squad, the kit he leans on far more than any blade.

Awkward and easily fooled, his gentle, jittery manner makes him a favorite target for pranks, and he calls himself the most picked-on soul alive; fittingly, he was born on April Fools' Day. Yet timidity is not the whole of him. Moved by Rukia's plight and by watching Ichigo fight for his convictions, he risked imprisonment to aid her rescue and resolved afterward to stop watching from the sidelines, even beginning to carry his Zanpakutō.

During the Soul Society campaign he stumbled into Ichigo Kurosaki and Ganju Shiba, who grabbed him as a hostage before the trio became allies. Knowing the Seireitei's sewers, he guided them toward Rukia's cell, recounting how he had befriended her during janitorial duty, and he mended Ichigo's wounds after the brutal duel with Renji. When Byakuya cornered the group, the unarmed Hanatarō offered to stall the captain himself so the others could flee, a bluff that ended with Ganju taking his place; he was later arrested for his part but broke out again to heal Renji.

He accompanied Byakuya into Hueco Mundo, where the mind-controlled Rukia struck him down before Isane Kotetsu healed them both, and his restorative power later helped return Ichigo's abilities. He turns up once more tending the wounded through the Wandenreich's assaults. His gift is mending rather than fighting: he excels at the healing art Kaidō and carries the tranquilizer Shinten, while his Zanpakutō Hisagomaru soothes rather than cuts, its gauge filling as it draws in injury until it shifts into the scalpel-shaped Akeiro Hisagomaru.