Kokutō

Lean and tall, Kokutō has pale skin and white hair falling to his shoulders. He goes about in a sleeveless white shirt striped in the fashion common to the Togabito, with black bandages wound over the top of his head and a black sash at his waist, while the chains that mark his damnation ring his wrists and throat.

When he finally unwinds the bandages, they reveal severe burns running down the right half of his body and past his midsection, along with far longer hair braided into cornrows on that same side.

Kokutō can play the part of a warm, sympathetic friend, invoking his own lost sister to explain why he wishes to help Ichigo, but that mask hides a cold and conscienceless nature. He thinks nothing of running Ichigo through and then casually asking whether he is all right.

Long years of clawing for a way out of Hell twisted him into someone who goads Ichigo toward Hollowfication and shows genuine instability, assaulting the boy to force his own release even after Ichigo had already agreed to free him. He clings to the belief that spreading his agony to others might somehow quiet his grief over his sister.

In life Kokutō was an ordinary human whose younger sister was murdered by a group of assailants. He hunted down and killed every one of them, yet vengeance brought him no peace, so by his own admission he set out to inflict his suffering on others, a cruelty that condemned him to an eternity in Hell as a Togabito. He watched Ichigo's clash with Ulquiorra from a heap of skulls before forcing his own body back into being.

Across The Hell Verse he shadows Ichigo, first pulling Karin from Gunjō's grasp and turning on the Togabito Shuren, then agreeing to open the Gate of Hell so Ichigo can reach his captive sister Yuzu while warning that leaning on his Hollow powers will eventually devour him. A skilled swordsman who wields chained blades, extends a whip-like reach, and can wrap himself in a blue energy shield, he cuts down foes with ease before unmasking himself as the architect of the entire ordeal. After impaling Ichigo and revealing his burns, he taunts the boy into losing control, disclosing that Yuzu is beyond saving to tip him over the edge. His scheme unravels when Ichigo instead draws on Hell's own power in a golden Skull Clad form; struck down and freed at last, Kokutō savors his liberty for only a moment before fresh chains erupt from the ground and haul him back into the depths.