Miyako Shiba

Miyako carries herself as a graceful young woman whose long dark hair is gathered up, with a loose strand left falling beside each cheek. A gentle smile and striking looks left a lasting impression on Rukia Kuchiki. Like the rest of the squad, she wears the regulation shihakusho.

Sharp-minded and soft-spoken, Miyako earned respect throughout the division and was looked up to by its members. Rukia considered her genuinely lovely, and she tended to those under her almost as a mother would, once wiping the grime and blood from Rukia's face after a scrape with a Hollow.

When Rukia joined the 13th Division, most of her comrades kept their distance because of her noble standing. Miyako, like her husband Kaien, refused to treat the newcomer as anything but an ordinary recruit and stepped in whenever she was hurt, and Rukia came to idolize her as a role model. Before leaving on what became her final assignment, Miyako made light of the danger, then reassured both Kaien and Rukia that she was proud to lay troubled souls to rest. On that mission her entire unit was wiped out by a Hollow, and it fell to Captain Jushiro Ukitake to deliver the news to Kaien. When Kaien later confronted the creature, Metastacia, it taunted him with regret that it had not devoured more of her. As a former seated officer she carried respectable spiritual power and some sword skill, though her Zanpakuto, a blade with a light red hilt and a rounded hexagonal guard, never had its name revealed. An anime retelling instead has her seemingly return home before rising that night under the Hollow's control, killing her subordinates until Kaien finds only her sword and robe where her body had been eaten away.