Masao Hiraishin



Masao Hiraishin (避雷針正夫, Hiraishin Masao) is a Shinigami and the deuteragonist and later an antagonist of the series. He is also the cousin of Kōtaishi Hiraishin and Masanori Hiraishin, the grandson of Masayoshi Hiraishin, the nephew of Masaru Hiraishin, and the son of Masato Hiraishin. At the beginning of the series he was the lieutenant of the Second Division under Masaru Hiraishin. He later defected along with the Seventh Division captain to join Masaru's Army.

Appearance
Masao is a fairly tall teenage boy with smooth fair skin, neck-length black hair, calm dark eyes, and a compact body build. His attire usually consists of the average Shihakushō uniform. He is known to always have a clam expression on his face no matter what situation he is in. His black hair and dark eyes are features commonly seen amongst the other members of his family.

Personality
Masao is known to be a very serious Shinigami despite his acclaimed young age. He doesn't like to have fun or show emotion. According to Masao himself he has never smiled, cried, or even yelled and he is proud of that. Masao views emotions as a severe weakness and considers those that let their emotions overcome them as weak. Masao is misanthropic and obviously has a dislike towards humans. He has even admitted to refusing to perform soul burials on deceased spirits out of hatred for them. Masao even rejects his own cousins at first due to their half-human heritage.

In combat Masao is merciless and his goal is to usually kill his opponent. Masao also appears to fight with no specific pattern and has proven to be uncaring of those around them. Nevertheless he aspires to be a brutal combatant. Losing is never an option for Masao as defeating his combats in battle gives him a sense of accomplishment. If Masao were to lose in battle the fact that he had been defeated would irritate him and eventually force him to seek revenge.

Masao also possesses ill will towards his own father due to his life so far. Due to Masato's being strict on him his whole life Masao started to feel that his father had no love for him and was only using him to promote his image. Nevertheless Masao has always maintained a great work effort and eventually he began to put his Shinigami training before anything else. Masao eventually began to develope a father-son relationship with his uncle Masaru which quickly spawned into loyalty.

History
Masao never knew his mother as she died while giving birth to him. He was said to be born prematurely and was unexpected to survive. Fortunately his life was able to be saved at the price of his own mother's. Masao was left to be raised by his father, Masato Hiraishin who wanted his son to grow up and become an all powerful Shinigami. From a very young age Masao began to resent his father for pushing him so hard. Masao also believed that his father was truly responsible for the death of his mother. Nevertheless Masao had no choice but to obey his father's wishes and he was enrolled in the academy as soon as possible.

Masao's cold outlook on existence in general began during his time in the academy. While he was educated on how to be a Shinigami he began to look behind the purpose of the Gotei 13. He began to formulate ideas that the Gotei 13 was nothing but a gang and he began to consume hatred for the organization. At his current stage in his training however Masao was unable to do anything about it and continued on with his education in the academy. While he was categorized as a prodigy amongst his instructors he was very well disliked by the other students do to his overly serious personality.

After graduating from the academy Masato sent his son to the Seventh Division to be under the tutelage of his uncle, Masaru Hiraishin. Quickly Masao found himself a role model in his uncle with the reason more than likely being that Masaru shared many of the same thoughts as Masao. Masaru had come to hate the Soul Society as well as the Gotei 13 over the years and he quickly began to influence Masao. Eventually Masaru made Masao his lieutenant and the younger Shinigami pledged complete alligence to his superior.

Masao's misanthropy began during various trips he took to the World of the Living. He began to envy the lifestyle of humans and promptly began to hate and distrust them. Despite this, one day Masao came across Kōtaishi Hiraishin who the victim of a Hollow attack. Both Masao and Kōtaishi were completely unaware of their relationship with one another and Masao quickly dispatched the Hollow and saved the life of his cousin.

Powers and Abilities
Expert Hand-to-Hand Combatant: Masao is a great physical combatant and appears to have tremendous knowledge of the human body and how it can ultimately be used as a weapon. Masao has a pretty creative fighting style when it comes to hand to hand combat and likes to use many different moves and attacks while fighting. Masao also likes to keep his distance from opponents during hand-to-hand combat, normally striking with quick blunt moves before drawing back in an attempt to avoid being hit himself. Masao also appears to favor kicking over punching as with kicking he is able to extend himself from his target.

Enhanced Strength: Masao has a rather fit and compact body and is therefore strong. He is able to pick up beings and objects which are the same size as him and slightly larger. Masao has also been shown to be able to strike down weaker Hollows with the usage of a direct punch or kick as well. When it comes to other Shinigami equal in strength or stronger, Masao's physical strength can be be matched.

Keen Intellect: Through years of countless studying and maturing Masao has grown to be quite the intelligent young man. He is very analytical and observant about his surroundings and has come to enjoy studying period. It is important for Masao to learn how things work and the components of objects. Masao also appears to be quite educated in anatomy as he has proven to be able to name many different organs and muscles of the body. Masao is also a decent mathematician and has been known to use mathematics in planning combat strategies.

Great Tactican/Strategist: Being such a critical thinker Masao has also become a natural strategiest. Before acting in combat Masao will always analyze the movements of himself and his opponents as he knows very well that his actions may be the cause of his own death. Masao is very careful about certain choices which he makes during combat and whenever he does decide to go ahead with a plan he strives to make sure that his ideas will work out in his favor.

Expert Swordsmanship Specialist: Being that he was formerly the lieutenant of the Seventh Division of the Gotei 13, it is widely expected that Masao have some swordsmanship capability. While the constant melee use of a sword in combat isn't his preferred fighting style it is well believed that Masao is able to execute effective attacks with his weapon.

Great Spiritual Energy: Due to his lineage as a Shinigami, Masao naturally has a pretty decent amount of spiritual energy at his disposal. Through his consecutive Shinigami training which began while he was really young he has since developed his spiritual power over the course of many years. Despite maintaining the position of a lieutenant in the Soul Society he actually possessed the spiritual energy at the level of a captain.

Zanpakutō
Kōri no Akuma (氷の悪魔, Devil of Ice) is the Zanpakutō of Masao Hiraishin. In it's sealed form it appears as a regular katana with a sky blue colored hilt and a sheath which is black in color. A unique trait about the sword is that whenever it is drawn from the sheath the air temperature around Masao will temporarily decrease to much cooler levels. Shikai Special Ability: Like other ice-type Zanpakutō, Kōri no Akuma possesses the ability to manipulate ice along with the ability to lower the temperature of the air within the surrounding radius. While in it's Shikai form up to two techniques can be used.
 * Shikai: The Shikai command of Kōri no Akuma is Reveal (暴露, Bakuro). After saying the release command Masao will then rise the sword over his head and perform a diagonal slash. After doing so the katana will glow white then turn back to normal in appearance with the only difference being that there are two golden ribbons hanging off the hilt of the sword. Along with the transformation, the temperature around Masao will once again temporarily decrease to below freezing levels.
 * Kōrudoearasshu (コールドエアラッシュ, Cold Air Rush) After activating the Shikai form of the Zanpakutō the temperature of the surrounding area will cool down. Masao can then use Kōri no Akuma to whip up the cold air around him and send it towards his opponent in the form of a quick and unconcentrated blast. It is completely up to Masao as to how much cold air is used in each attack. More energy is required to unleash greater amounts of cold air however.
 * Tōketsu Burēdo (凍結ブレード, Freezing Blade) The technique involves Masao condensing the cold air around him and forming crystals made of ice from the air. The ice crystals will then attach themselves to the blade of Kōri no Akuma, transforming it into a sword of ice.

Trivia

 * The story of Masao's birth is inspired by Gaara's from Naruto.
 * He was inspired by both Sasuke Uchiha and Toshiro Hitsugaya.