Yūshirō Shihōin

Small and androgynous, Yūshirō is a dark-skinned youth who ties his black hair into a heavy ponytail held by a white cord. Pink fingerless gloves run all the way to his elbows, white pads cap his shoulders, and a dark one-piece garment sheathes his torso and legs. A broad pink sash trimmed in white wraps his waist.

Devotion to his sister colors nearly everything Yūshirō does; he assembles a hoard of supplies the moment Yoruichi reaches out after their long separation and dissolves into tears when he arrives too late to catch her. His manners are impeccable, bowing low and thanking Gotei 13 officers for looking after her.

That earnestness comes paired with a headstrong, tunnel-visioned streak, as when he bolts after her Reiatsu inside Wahrwelt and nearly plummets off the city after failing to form footholds. He normally calls himself boku, but slips into speaking of himself in the third person whenever emotion gets the better of him.

Yūshirō belongs to one of the four great noble clans, and that pedigree grants him a formidable reserve of spiritual energy, enough that Askin Nakk Le Vaar admitted the boy outstripped his expectations. He is a master of Hakuda, the Shihōin family's hand-to-hand art, capable of landing a flurry of punishing blows in seconds.

His signature technique is a fire-based Shunkō, an advanced fusion of close combat and Kidō that wreathes his back and arms in compressed energy, tearing the sleeves and back from his uniform when it ignites. Channeling that pressurized Kidō outward produces Bakuen Musō, a concentrated burst of flame that engulfs and scorches whoever it strikes; he mastered the whole art in remarkably short order under Yoruichi's own coaching. In Hohō he falls short of his sister's legendary skill yet still moves fast enough with Shunpo to nearly match her stride.