User:Suigetsu/Mayuri Kurotsuchi

Mayuri Kurotsuchi (涅 マユリ) is a fictional character in the anime and manga series Bleach created by Tite Kubo. He became captain of the 12th Division in the Gotei 13 and 2nd president of Soul Reaper Research and Development after Kisuke Urahara, the former captain and president, was sentenced into exile by Soul Society. His lieutenant is his daughter, Nemu Kurotsuchi.

Character outline
Mayuri Kurotsuchi is a researcher and personifies the stereotype of the mad scientist. In the earlier episodes of the anime, he is displayed as one of the most sadistic and cruel characters in the series. He sees everyone and everything not as a living being, but as an object to be researched—including himself. He has little respect or regard for most others, and was even willing to turn his own men (who were not aware of his plans) into human bombs in an attempt to capture Uryū Ishida and Orihime Inoue for experimentation. He takes great pride in his status as a master scientist, and condemns perfection as it renders a scientist's creations obsolete.

With black and white face-paint, as well as a set of prominently-displayed teeth, Mayuri possesses an almost skeletal visage. His fingernails are blue and, with the exception of the fingernail on his right middle finger, are all trimmed. The untrimmed fingernail, in exaggerated contrast, is as long as the finger itself. Along with his captain's uniform, Mayuri also wears a white hat with two extensions that point to his right, as well as a bloated purple cravat around his neck. He later revises his appearance, shortening his ear attachments, adding a longer attachment to his chin, and replacing his white hat with a pharaoh's crown. Without his face-paint and headgear, his appearance is like that of a normal human, albeit one with golden eyes and blue hair. Even in this form, he is heavily scarred and his ears appear to be permanently removed as a consequence of his bodily augmentation.

Mayuri seems to be one of the few characters in Bleach that is ambidextrous, as he wields his zanpakutō in his right hand and his scythe-ear in his left (often simultaneously). In the anime's Bount arc, he briefly wields his zanpakutō left-handed, as well.

Kurotsuchi's last name is one of the few Soul Reaper names in Bleach which uses kanji based on the meaning of the name and not the sound. 'Kurotsuchi' means black soil (kuro - black; tsuchi - soil), as does the kanji (涅). However, the kanji's reading (pronunciation) is ne or so.

Abilities
As the head of the Shinigami Research Institute, Mayuri is a talented inventor and scientist, having created a number of devices or techniques to aid him in battle or otherwise. Although Bleach does not explore his inventions as in-depth as Urahara's, quite a number of them are featured throughout the story.

Mayuri's most prominent invention is his lieutenant and so-called "daughter," Nemu Kurotsuchi. She is an artificial Soul Reaper constructed by Mayuri, the ultimate result of his gigai and artificial soul research. Mayuri uses her as a decoy and tool in combat.

It is implied that Mayuri has done extensive research on modifying bodies, and he has upgraded a variety of his own body parts to function as weapons or otherwise provide him with useful abilities. His left arm can extend like a grappling hook, and he is able to pull part of his ear out of his head to form a scythe attached to a rope-like ligament for use as a kusarigama. He can also blend into his environment with the aid of a topical camouflage which flakes away after he reveals himself. More impressively, he has demonstrated the ability to replace functional internal organs with false ones, a feat he performs on himself and his lieutenant to safeguard them from injury. This particular operation is conceived of and carried out in the span of less than an hour.

Mayuri has otherwise been shown to be an adept chemist, manufacturing a drug that can slow down a person's perception of time. It is able to make one second seem like 100 years for the unfortunate victim to whom it is administered. An undiluted dose of the drug causes the senses to speed up trillions of times while the relatively "slow" body fails to keep up, resulting in paralysis; on the other hand, it is implied that a diluted dose of the drug can greatly enhance the user's reaction speed. Mayuri has also developed a "regenerative serum," which can regrow limbs upon injection. Among his lesser achievements is the creation of a simple Bount sensor in the Bount arc of the anime. Though not as powerful as Urahara's equivalent modsoul versions, it is far more effective once properly calibrated. He also implants opponents with data-gathering bacteria of his creation so as to monitor them afterwards for various purposes.

Ashisogi Jizō
Mayuri Kurotsuchi's zanpakutō is Ashisogi Jizō (疋殺地蔵). Mayuri's zanpakutō hilt, which appears to be made of folds of metal, is wrapped in cloth, and has several spiky protrusions sticking out right below the blade, which appear to resemble leaves. Unlike most Soul Reapers, Mayuri hangs his zanpakutō's sheath directly in front of him, instead of to his side as they are commonly worn. Ashisogi Jizō's shikai command is "rip" (掻き毟れ).

In its shikai, Ashisogi Jizō's blade transforms into a deformed trident head with curved, serpentine blades and a guard shaped like a baby's head (as Ksitigarbha is depicted), all mounted on his sword's normal hilt. The weapon spews a poisonous vapor and when Ashisogi Jizō stabs an opponent, the poison cuts off the nerve signals that control limb movement, effectively causing paralysis while allowing the victim to still feel pain. During the Bount arc, it is shown that healing the stab wound doesn't immediately remove the inflicted paralysis.

Ashisogi Jizō's bankai, named Konjiki Ashisogi Jizō (金色疋殺地蔵), returns Mayuri's zanpakutō to its sealed state and produces a giant caterpillar in a red cape with a grotesque baby's head and a silver halo. The creature breathes a poisonous derivative of Mayuri's blood which is lethal to anyone who breathes it, aside from Mayuri and Nemu. Mayuri can change the composition of the poison, as well, ensuring that no foolproof antidote can ever be manufactured to cure it, and no immunity developed against it. Mayuri has physically modified Konjiki Ashisogi Jizō itself so that it will self-destruct and return to its sealed state if it were to attack him, implying that it is sentient as well as organic, reminiscent of Captain Retsu Unohana's Minazuki. Numerous blades can also extend from its chest, allowing it to run through opponents, if it does not consume them first.

Finally, should Mayuri be fatally wounded or otherwise unable to defeat a foe, he can reduce himself to a liquid state by stabbing himself with his zanpakutō. This leaves him unable to attack or be attacked, making it an effective escape tool, and allowing him to seep through cracks and flow up walls to evade his enemies. He returns to human form after three days, at which point his wounds are healed. His physical modifications appear to become undone each time he reconstitutes himself.