Tao

Tao (韬, Tāo), better known in the Soul Society as the Midori no Ake (緑の狼, Green Wolf), is the 5th Seat of the 11th Division under his captain, Miyuki Kenpachi. He is the one half of the Hirui Ookami (比類狼, Parallel Wolves), the other being his partner, Kris. Like Kris, purely with hardwork, he turned into one of the highly regarded shinigami.

Appearance
Due to him being partners with the animal controller Kris, Tao has since been able to enter two forms. The first being his normal human form. His second form is that of a cat in a frog suit. The frog suit he wears is green, the colour highly resembling an actual frog. The suit covers his ears all the way down to his tail. The only two parts the suit doesn't cover is his face and his stomach. His stomach has a particular sign that looks like an hourglass. The hourglass has a red dot on the top and a part totally coloured red at the bottom. Kris told Mayuri to specifically include this detail when he created the pill that causes Tao's transformation. In this form, he is about 35cm and 7kg.

In his human form, people have thought of him to resemble a man in his early twenties. He has a triangular shaped head with spotless skin. Usually with slanted green eyes, his eyes showcase no specific emotion. Very rarely does anyone see him smile and look happy. While the cause of it has yet been known, Kris has hinted that it may be because he was lonely as a child. He has light blue hair with a shade of white around the outsides. His normal attire is a purple scarf wrapped around his neck, similarly to the previous 5th Seat of the 11th Division, Yumichika. A cloak resembling the captain's haori is seemingly attached to the scarf. It covers the shoulders, then the sides of Tao's body. He wears a grey robe below the cloak accompanied with black pants that are covered by a metal plate that has multiple crosses on the sides. He then wears brown shoes as footwear.

Personality
Though different from many other shinigami of the 11th Division that are loud and boisterous, the one trait he shares will most other 11th Division shinigami is his thrist for fighting - even though he doesn't show it much. As opposed to his partner, he seldom speaks, causing people to sometimes say that he doesn't have confidence. Due to his shyness, Tao often says something to Kris, whom then repeats to those comrades he wants to speak to. Tao has shown to be very open with his close friends, as shown when he randomly plays around with Kris and Miyuki when it's just the three of them alone. Also, he seldom defies the people of higher ranks than him unless he strongly opposes their thinking.

Tao used to be like any other 11th Division shinigami; loud and violent. According to Kris, Tao's close friends have got into a lot of trouble due to his old laidback, care-free attitude. When people said he was too much of a busybody, he ignored them and continued to stick his nose into other people's business. It was because of this that one of his close friends had been killed. Ever since that happened, his attitude had changed completely - not even a trace of the old him currently present.

Again, being different from Kris, he is usually very unbiased. Probably because he rarely has any emotions, he can be a fair judge in almost everything. However, he is sometimes biased towards his captain and Kris due to spending much time with them. As he is a quiet young man, he enjoys reading books to going out to fight and going to parties. In some ways, this helps his concentration and in turn, enhances his abilities, which needs a person to calm their mind totally.

Birth
Tao, born to an unknown father and a mother that died at birth, was always lonely kid ever since he was young. This made him somewhat attention seeking in school. He was supported by his uncle, who made him do many wrong things. In school, he aced the class and yet was considered a delinquent. Even though he was popular, he never actually had any friends.

Meeting Kris
Tao actually met Kris, another rich kid, in the school. He was the new transfer student. Because of them being freshmen, the other older kids would sometimes make up rules to treat the newest student as an invisible man. Tao did not agree with their methods and stood up for Kris, which made people comment on how much of a busy body he was.

Death
Tao died after being too lonely since Kris died before him. He then went to Rukongai with the help of a Shinigami. There, he found Kris in District 11. Kris was fighting off the people whom tried to steal his food. After meeting again, they were found by Miyuki who was on a mission. Since then, they entered the Shin'o Academy.

Days in the Shin'o Academy
Ever since he entered the Shin'o Academy, he had many friends who actually liked him for who he was and not because they feared him. He got close to them and eventually, they went on many missions together. However, because he tried to settle something between his friend and a rogue man, his friend got killed. Ever since then, he decided to become a quiet man who seldom spoke. He quoted himself that a part of him died when his friend did.

Powers & Abilities
Expert Swordsmanship Specialist: As a shinigami of the division specialized in offence, Tao is proficient in wielding a sword; both in Shikai and while sealed. Despite undergoing the same training Kris did, Tao isn't as proficient as Kris due to that point in time where he sealed himself off from the world. After training a lot under Miyuki, the gap between his power and Kris's power was lessened greatly. While Kris usually uses the reverse grip only on his left hand, Tao is able to use that grip on both hands. Probably also due to his playing of tennis with Kris when they were alive in the Human World, Tao can hold the swords with every tennis grip. His favorite was actually the Semi Western grip. Due to his and Kris's continuous sparring, his skill in the sword has improved even further.

High Spiritual Power: A high seated officer in the Gotei 13, Tao boosts a high amount of reiryoku. Like Kris, his nickname also came from the color of his reiatsu - green. Kris said that compared to his own, Tao has great control over his reiryoku and as such, would not let any of it leak out; hiding his presence completely when needed. Due to this trait, Tao is suitable for assassination jobs.

Expert Hakuda Combatant: Due to his balancing out his training, his hakuda is currently on par with his sword skills. He sometimes trains with shinigami from the 2nd Division, learning more techniques from those shinigami. He is proficient enough to hold his own against a Números during his fight with one.

Zanpakutō
Kakou no Kisetsu (下降の季節, Fall of the Season) is the name of Tao's Zanpakutō. It's sealed form is actually Tao's purple scarf. It's sealed form allows Tao to control shadows.
 * Shikai: Kakou no Kisetsu is released by the command, Hyouketsu (氷結, Freeze). When Tao releases his Shikai, his scarf loses its color and turns white. Instead, a sword with a purple sheathe is attached to his outfit. As opposed to his natural good control over his reiatsu, his reiatsu begins to leak a little bit. A black ray comes out of his arm when he releases his Shikai for the first time that week.
 * Shikai Special Ability: Kakou no Kisetsu allows Tao to control time over objects. He can change a liquid into a gas by forwarding time and rebuild a bridge by rewinding time. That isn't his only ability. He also has the ability to "pause" a movement in his eyes. Even if the movement is extremely fast, his eyes turn into something like a video player. With that effect, he is able to sometimes search for blind spots in a technique. He can only use his "video sight" 9 times during his Shikai as it takes quite a lot of reiryoku to activate.


 * Bankai: Not Yet Achieved.

Trivia

 * Tao's appearance is based off Rogue Cheney from the anime, Fairy Tail.
 * Similarly to Kris, his name is Tao due to my friend's current obsession with a Korean group called EXO. Tao is the name of the youngest in the group.