Ryo Hashimoto

Ryo Hashimoto (橋本両, Hashimoto Ryo, his surname literally means bridge) is a freshman in Ichigo Kurosaki's school during the later's last year. He transfered there for his second year in highscool. He later becomes known as the Black Dragon (黒龍 Kuroi Ryū) in Soul Society and is feared by normal pluses due to his inability to control his immeasurable Reiatsu completely. He is on good terms with the Gotei 13 even though they had been chasing him for 2 years after the incident that gave him his powers.

Appearance
Despite his relatively newly aquired monstrous strengh his physique is not intimidating even though he is always in good form and has a good built. He has short dark brown hair and brown eyes. He is fairly tall. During his time in the real world he is seen waring the usual school uniform when in school and everyday clothes outside. His clothing does not change when he uses his spiritual body.

Personality
After being chased by the Gotei 13 for 2 years he developed some traits. He rarely trusts someone completely and unless someone is a confirmed friend he will treat him the way he is being treated by them, although he rarely treats someone who is not his friend with kindness. Just like his friend Rai commented it's not that he is antisocial (Rai himself tends to be cold at times but not antisocial), it's just that he is not very social. Once someone earns his trust Ryo will be kind and (over)protective. Another trait he shares with his friend Rai is his personal pride even though his is not as vast. During battle he almost never changes his facial expression no matter what the situation and is always calm yet merciless. He usually finishes his fights quickly with his sword and/or Kido which he learned by watching the Shinigami that chased him and spent every night training. Another interesting characteristic is his insurmountable need for his powers. Before he aquired them he cursed his everyday life and the fact that it was all pointless and so he wished for something special to happen. Kutotsuchi Mayuri commented that when the insident that gave him his powers occured it was his will to get these powers that increased the full potential they whould normally reach -when used by the original Shinigami- to an incredible amount.

History
Not much is known about his past apart form the fact that he cursed his daily routine before the incident happened. It was similar to Ichigo Kurosaki's story with some little changes. For example the Shinigami that gave him his powers, gave them willingly to him wanting to live a peaceful life as he had planned everything, having ready a reiatsu supressing gigai and all, but it was later revealed that this was all part of a greater scheme...and the other detail is that it was his sheer willpower that increased his powers and not his blood relation to an actual Shinigami. After his powers were used for the first time, The Gotei 13 sent a 4 man squad to track him and kill him but he escaped by making them faint with just his reiatsu. After that he bagun hiding and training his swordmanship and control over his reiatsu. His case was kept a secret or was never even taken seriously because he was never found by the second squad. It wasn't until he defeated an Adjuchas in Okinawa two months after the war with Aizen that he bacame a problem once again.