Masayoshi

Masayoshi has dark, unkempt hair reaching his neck with a single strand hanging between his eyes, gray eyes, and stubble tracing his jaw that lends him a rough look. Lean and wiry, he dresses in a standard Soul Reaper outfit but throws a tattered cloak over it to suit his life on the road.

Once he takes on Hollow form, the muscle swells across his chest and arms and turns green, while his hips and legs grow heavy and sprout brown fur. A white, horned mask hides red-glowing eyes, and his Hollow hole opens at his navel.

Masayoshi is a man of contradictions. Grave and driven by a strong sense of justice, he pursues it relentlessly and moves decisively in a fight, taking any death he might have prevented onto his own shoulders. A failure or a gap in his memory can leave him deeply agitated. Around Yachiru, though, he softens, and he once shared her fondness for sweets. Even as the Hollow within claims more of him, he keeps placing other lives above his own.

Long ago Masayoshi served in the Gotei 13, where he grew close to Yachiru Kusajishi over a shared love of sweets, and he had a wife he cherished. The two quarreled just before he left on an assignment, and by the time he returned she lay dead, seemingly killed by a Hollow. In truth he had been possessed on that mission and, as the Hollow, had slain her himself; the shock of catching his own reflection snapped him back to his old self and erased the memory, leaving him to blame a faceless monster. Consumed by guilt, he quit the Gotei 13 to wander as a lone Shinigami, vowing to wipe out every Hollow, above all the one he believed had taken his wife.

Traveling a forest beyond the Seireitei, he cuts down the Hollow chasing a young woman named Mayu and berates himself for not saving her family in time. There he reunites with Yachiru, who greets him by his nickname Mappy, and recounts his tragedy. When Mayu is later seized as bait, he charges into an ambush and carves through the swarm, his eyes darkening as the Hollow stirs. Pressed by Yachiru, he finds he can no longer recall his wife's name, and she reveals the terrible truth. The knowledge loosens his grip on the Hollow and warps him into a hybrid form, but when the beast lunges at Mayu he throws himself in its path, slaying it and taking a mortal wound. As the Hollow dissolves, he thanks Mayu and shares one final sweet with Yachiru before dying.

A capable swordsman, Masayoshi holds his own even when surrounded, wields Shunpo to close distance quickly, and carries the spiritual power expected of a trained Shinigami. His sealed Zanpakutō looks like a plain katana with an oval guard and a dark grip.