Shihouin Yoruichi

Shihouin Yoruichi is an intelligent, beautiful, and deadly shinigami, the former head of the noble Shihouin family and leader of the shinigami special forces. Like her better half, Yoruichi serves predominately as a guide and teacher to Ichigo and company. While Urahara prepares Ichigo to infiltrate the Soul Society and save Rukia, it is Yoruichi who finds Chad and Orihime and offers to teach them how to better control their abilities. She is also the one to lead Ichigo and the others to the Soul Society, through the rukongai, and finally into seireitei. She also teaches Ichigo how to achieve bankai quickly, using the method that Urahara developed.

Despite her intimidating appearance and noble lineage, Yoruichi is remarkably down-to-earth and high-spirited. She has a very playful personality, and enjoys teasing people and doing shocking things simply for the reaction; she is, in many ways, rather shameless and un-ladylike. She also has the unique ability to transform herself into a black cat with the voice of a man, which always makes the revelation of her true form a bit of a suprise to those who don't already know about it. Yoruichi is one of the strongest shinigami of the Soul Society, though, rather than in the use of a zanpakuto, her skill lies in her ability to use shunpo (flash steps) to move faster than the eye can see, and shunko, which focuses her spiritual energy to make her hand-to-hand combat even more deadly. She has such skill with these techniques that she is know as shunshin Yoruichi, or the "Goddess of Flash".

As previously mentioned, Yoruichi was born into the Shihouin clan, one of the four noble houses in the Soul Society. She was made head of the family and leader of the special forces, a position that she enjoyed up until 100 years prior to the start of Bleach, when she abandoned her post, status, and even her protege, Soi Fon, to help Urahara, her childhood friend, escape from the Soul Society. Following his exile, she chose to flee with him into the human world, where she presumably remained until she escorted Ichigo and friends back into seireitei.

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