Ichibe'e Hyōsube

Ichibe'e is a towering, broad-shouldered man, bald and red-eyed, framed by thick brows and a long black beard. Over his shihakushō he wears the white haori of the Royal Guard, left open enough to show a hairy chest, and he loads his neck with heavy red prayer beads and his feet into single-toothed tengu geta. When killing intent takes hold of him, the pupils drain from his eyes, leaving them a chilling, blank white.

Loud, grinning, and quick to erupt into laughter, Ichibe'e plays the jovial elder while mentoring the likes of Ichigo, Renji, and Rukia, praising their growth and nudging them past their limits. Beneath the cheer lies fierce devotion to the Soul King and an uncompromising duty to keep the Three Worlds in balance, which he will enforce with ruthless authority. He is obsessed with names, having coined the very words Zanpakutō, Shikai, and Bankai, and he curses anyone unworthy who dares speak his own name into losing their voice. Pragmatic enough to have once offered Yhwach peace yet cruel enough to relish overkill, his wisdom and skill led the Wandenreich to rank him among Soul Society's Special War Powers.

Ichibe'e commands the true names of all things, knowing every Zanpakutō's name from the instant it takes shape as an Asauchi and able to sever or overwrite a name to strip away the power tied to it. His spiritual pressure is immeasurable yet so masterfully controlled that Yhwach could not sense it at all, and he ranks as a master of the sword, Shunpo, and Kidō, flinging foes a thousand ri with Senri Tsūtenshō and unleashing the secret Hadō, Teppūsatsu. Even beheaded, he can rebuild his whole body by borrowing a sliver of another's strength. His Zanpakutō Ichimonji is a giant calligraphy brush; released with the command Blacken, its ink erases the names and thus the powers of whatever it touches, and each release draws to him all the black in existence. His Shin'uchi, Shirafude Ichimonji, rewrites a struck target's name entirely, as when he branded Yhwach Black Ant, while Futen Taisatsuryō obliterates a soul so completely it cannot reincarnate. He halved and dismantled Yhwach in single combat until The Almighty reawakened and slew him, only for Ichigo to revive him with a spoken name, at which point Ichibe'e passed on the task of stopping Yhwach.