Nelliel Tu Odelschwanck

Reduced by injury, Nelliel spends much of her time as a small, wide-eyed child in a hooded green gown, the shattered remnant of her Hollow mask perched atop her head like a cracked cartoon skull, oversized lower fangs jutting from her jaw and a scar dropping from brow to nose above a red band drawn across her cheeks. Her genuine self, once restored, is a tall and strikingly built woman with long, wavy green hair, hazel eyes, and the same crimson estigma streaking her face. That mask now curves into a pair of sharp horns, a large numeral three marks her back from her Espada days, and her torn garment hangs as a matched top and skirt. After Kisuke Urahara later fits her with a device to keep her power in check, her outfit turns white with tan fur trim and her mask takes on a longer, goat-like shape.

The child Nel is a bundle of contradictions, blurting out crude and grown-up vocabulary no toddler should know, speaking with a lisp, and, oddly for a Hollow, fearing Shinigami as the true villains, though she quickly grows devoted to Ichigo. Her adult self is a different creature entirely: measured, sharp-minded, and thoughtful. She holds that battle waged out of spite, bias, or mere rivalry is nothing but beastly instinct, unworthy of a real warrior, and she leans toward pacifism, having loathed combat even at the height of her Espada rank unless she was defending herself or someone she cared for. That aversion ran so deep that her Fracción chose to leave Las Noches rather than restore her memories of a life spent fighting. She will not strike down a foe already beaten, a mercy she shares with Kenpachi Zaraki, and away from battle she is bright, easygoing, and fond of a good book.

In her days as the third-ranked Espada, embodying the aspect of death called sacrifice, Nelliel was hounded by Nnoitra Gilga, who kept challenging her to settle whether men outmatched women and who slaughtered fellow Hollows for sport against Aizen's orders. She bested him with ease every time yet always spared him, dismissing his bloodlust as the mark of a beast rather than a soldier. Nnoitra eventually conspired with Szayelaporro Granz, then not yet an Espada, to ambush her; a trick of Szayelaporro's making distracted her long enough for Nnoitra to shatter the front of her mask from behind and hurl her from Las Noches. Spiritual energy bled from the wound and collapsed her body into that of a small child. Her two Fracción, Pesche and Dondochakka, their own masks torn away in the attack, resolved to guard the helpless Nel and kept her true name and history from her, sparing her the fighting she had always hated.

Years later Nel crossed paths with Ichigo Kurosaki as his group pushed into Hueco Mundo to rescue Orihime Inoue, mistaken at first for a human girl fleeing three Hollows. She guided and clung to him across the white sands, terrified of every Shinigami she met, until Nnoitra reappeared and beat Ichigo down. Seeing him wounded triggered her return to her adult body, and the reborn warrior struck back at Nnoitra, swallowing his Cero to answer with her signature Cero Doble before releasing her zanpakutō. The transformation drained away soon after and left her a child again, but by the time Kenpachi Zaraki arrived to cut Nnoitra down, her memories had settled back into place for good.

Seventeen months after Aizen's fall, the Wandenreich overran Hueco Mundo and captured its new ruler Tier Harribel, and Nel dropped out of the sky into Karakura Town to warn Ichigo before joining the counterattack, now able to hold her adult shape thanks to Urahara's armband. She fought beside his allies through the Wandenreich's world and later dashed into Askin Nakk Le Vaar's collapsing trap to haul out the souls caught inside. Her arsenal befits a former Espada: immense pink spiritual pressure, polished swordsmanship, iron-hard Hierro, and mastery of Sonído, all crowned by Cero Doble and by her Resurrección, Gamuza, which reshapes her into a lance-wielding, centaur-like knight whose spinning Lanzador Verde drills clean through an opponent's guard. Even trapped in her child body she keeps lesser tricks, from healing spit to a startlingly painful low punch.