Ankoite

The Ankoite (暗黒·射手), otherwise known as Dark Heretics and Shadow Balancers, where a reclusive collection of individuals created in the rare instance a living Quincy awakened powers; Ankoite itself was a derogatory term used to identify these individuals, but eventually became a badge of pride to those it identified. Although low in number, and hunted by the pure Quincy as an affront to their pride following the Quincy massacre, Kagura artificially created a large number of Ankoite in his attempts to create the Tsuji. Following The Collapse the number of Ankoite dropped significantly, to the point Lloyd, who resided in Grat and cooperated with the new Gotei 13 as a member of the Shinsengumi's Grat cell, was recognised as the "Last Ankoite".

Overview
Although the Ankoite existed in nature, albeit rarely, they where viewed with extreme hostility by their pure Quincy kin, who where aware of their existence. Pure Quincy routinely hunted down and killed Ankoite they discovered, though exceptions existed. The Ankoite where viewed even more poorly than the Gemischt Quincy, though this improved marginally after the "Hajime Group" sacrificed their lives for the Quincy.

The Ankoite, uniquely, boasted their Shinigami abilities in their Human form; they had no need to separate their spirit form from their physical body to fight as a Shinigami. This meant they shared some traits with a Fullbringer, as an Ankoite fought using their physical body supplemented with spiritual abilities. This meant they had to build the necessary stamina to use their powers effectively. An Ankoite could manifest a Zanpakutō under the right circumstances, but their primary weapon remained the common amongst Quincy.

Uniquely, the Soul Society did not initially target the Ankoite. This was due to the fact that most Ankoite documented possessed particularly high levels of reiryoku on-par with Lieutenant-level Shinigami, and where capable of performing if taught; thus nullifying the catastrophic potential of high Quincy numbers as a danger to the spirit cycle. However, over-reliance on Spirit Weapons, which endangered the spirit cycle, resulted in their extermination; in the same manner the average Quincy where exterminated by the Shinigami.

Biology and appearance
The Ankoite, at their core, are Human. They possess the same variances in terms of appearance and personality as normal Humans; the sole exception being the ability to exhibit Shinigami powers in their Human body. As a result an Ankoite is capable of reproducing with any race a normal Human can. Their presence, however, is described as dark and foreboding; this led directly to their moniker of "Dark Balancers".

Behind the scenes

 * The Ankoite where originally conceived by Razo and expanded based on observations made by APS. The page was reworked by Kenji following the 2015 retcon to the shared story of the aforementioned authors, whilst tying the Ankoite to the existing Tsuji plot element.

References & notes
