Kusajika, Yachiru

Rank: Vice-Captain
Zanpakutou info:

Unknown? We have yet to see Yachiru in action with her zanpakutou. However, it is appropriately short to match her height with a flower shaped guard.

Biography:
Eleventh Division Vice-Captain Kusajika Yachiru is very tiny, and very adorable with her bubblegum pink hair. She wears the normal shinigami robes, and thus far we have only seen her with the vice-captain insignia on her arm. She appears to be the youngest, as well as the smallest, among the captains and vice-captains, but she is respected throughout her division. Generally she’s seen hanging on to Zaraki Kenpachi’s shoulder. Yachiru makes up nicknames for the people she knows, including “Ichi” for Ichigo, “Big Boobies” for Orihime, and “Ken-chan” for Kenpachi.

Yachiru first appears in volume ten, hopping from the roof of a building onto Kenpachi’s shoulder as he makes his way to find and fight Ichigo. She has a horrible sense of direction, but despite that Kenpachi listens to her directions, which get him lost every time. Even though she and her captain appear to be polar opposites, she is utterly devoted to Kenpachi, and he to her. When Yachiru’s hyper-activity and Kenpachi’s constantly serious and power hungry demeanor are combined, a comically sweet relationship becomes evident.

She first met Kenpachi in one of the worst districts of Rukongai, the 79th district of the North Alley, Kusajika, as a nameless baby. She crawled over to him after he had killed several other men with his unnamed zanpakutou, and was completely unphased by the violence she had just witnessed or the blood on the sword. Even as Kenpachi warned her that the sword was dangerous, she reached out and touched it, giggling as her hand was covered in the blood of dead men. He adopted her after that, saving her from certain death in Rukongai. He named her Yachiru – “The name of the only person I ever cared about…I’ll give it to you.”

There is some speculation that Yachiru’s post as vice-captain of the eleventh squad is based on nepotism. However, in the brief appearances of Yachiru’s serious side, we have seen that she is extremely fast and strong enough to carry Kenpachi, who is twice her height and more than six times her weight. Also, no one appears to harbor feelings of ill will against her, even though the seated shinigami of the eleventh division seem to be vice-captain or captain level.

In serious situations, Yachiru will take control when Kenpachi is indisposed. For example, she took over leading Orihime, Ishida, Chad, and Ganju to the Soukyoku when Kenpachi was faced with the prospect of fighting Komamura and Tousen. When the execution proceedings began, Yachiru used her super speed to go ahead and try to delay the execution as a favor to Orihime, who she seems to have taken a particular liking to, perhaps because of their similar innocent natures.

Most of Yachiru’s appearances are for comic relief, though her serious side is pretty scary. She is an intimidating figure when she wants to be. She is cute and quirky, and the president of the Shinigami Women’s Association. It seems that Ikkaku takes care of most of the vice-captain paperwork, probably because Yachiru doesn’t think it’s worth her time. From what we’ve seen in the color omake, her weakness is candy and one of her favorite things to do appears to be to run around like crazy and drive Ikkaku crazy.

For all her faults, Yachiru appears to be a competent leader, and the one of the cutest characters in Bleach. When she decides she likes someone she’ll go to any means to help them when they need it.