Aaroniero Arruruerie

is an Arrancar in Sōsuke Aizen's army, and the noveno (9th) Espada.

Appearance
He usually covers his face with an elongated white mask covered with eight holes while in the light. In place of a normal head, he has a large, glass cylindrical capsule filled with red liquid and two small, floating Hollow heads. The two heads are both tattooed with the number 9 and tend to talk in tandem when revealed, giving the effect of two people speaking in turn. The upper head speaks with a deep voice while the other speaks in a high-pitched, child-like voice, and appear to have a level of individuality. His outfit like most Espada is customized; he wears a dress garb that covers his entire body as opposed to the normal jacket and hakama. He also wears a frilly nobles' coat that acts as his replacement jacket and a single white gentleman's glove. The remains of his Hollow mask fragments are on both of his heads, the upper head having 3/4's of his head covered with the mask, and the lower head covering only half of it.

Personality
Little can be said of Aaroniero's true personality, since he was imitating Lieutenant Kaien Shiba (albeit in a twisted, erratic fashion) for the majority of his appearance. He does express some amount of pride in his ability to 'continue evolving' and his position as an Espada, despite his Gillian status. Somewhat cruel and sadistic, Aaroniero enjoys toying with his opponents, particularly those he has information on from his absorbed memories, as seen when he asked Rukia to kill her comrades to make up for Kaien's death. Interestingly, his two heads appear to have a degree of individuality, since they refer to themselves in plural when exposed, and each reacted differently to the idea of death (the bottom head panicked and screamed for Aizen's aid while the top one merely cursed Rukia).

History
Aaroniero was a Gillian, the weakest class of Menos, before becoming an Arrancar, and the last of the first-generation Espada. His original number was not mentioned (it is implied to have been quite high), but it is possible he was demoted to a lower number in accordance with the arrival of more powerful Espada. Aaroniero is possibly the only one of the original Espada not to have been demoted to the rank of Privaron Espada.

At some point in the past, Aaroniero gained the powers of former Shinigami Lieutenant Kaien Shiba by absorbing Metastacia, the Hollow who killed and fused with Kaien. By doing this, Aaroniero was able to gain not only Metastacia's power to fuse with others but Kaien Shiba's powers and abilities as well as his Zanpakutō.

Arrancar arc
Aaroniero is seen for the first time when Sōsuke Aizen is creating Wonderweiss Margera. He is just seen standing there but this time only the upper half of his body is covered in shadow.

Hueco Mundo arc
He next appears, this time with his white mask on, when the Espada are gathered by Aizen about Ichigo Kurosaki, Yasutora Sado, and Uryū Ishida entering Hueco Mundo to save Orihime Inoue. He sits between Tia Harribel and Yammy Riyalgo and complains about the intruders along with Barragan Luisenbarn, Szayel Aporro Granz, Yammy and Nnoitra Jiruga. He is also heard talking for the first time and he has two voices: one for each head.

Aaroniero later meets up with Rukia Kuchiki outside of his chamber and tells her to follow him. As she does, he brings her into a large dark room (his room), and takes off his mask to reveal the face of Kaien Shiba; much to Rukia's shock. He claims the reason he led her there was because Aizen could monitor everything in the "sunlight" of Las Noches. Aaroniero then deceives Rukia into thinking he truly is Kaien, explaining that Metastacia was built in such a way that it would return to Hueco Mundo when destroyed. Having been merged together at the time of its death, the two were sent back as one merged entity. Rukia believes it's actually him, so Aaroniero plays along with it.

He goes on to explain that Kaien is actually the dominant one, while the other Arrancar believe the Hollow is in control. However, Aaroniero's erratic behavior betrays his claim: he claims to be Rukia's friend and then strikes her, suggests that Rukia kill her friends in order to earn his forgiveness, and alternates between being serious and joking almost instantly. This leads Rukia to attack him, convinced that the real Kaien would not act in such a manner. Because Aaroniero possesses all of Kaien's memories, he knows all of Rukia's techniques, as Kaien was Rukia's superior officer and supervised her training. As such, Aaroniero uses Kaien's Zanpakutō to easily overpower her in the course of their battle. Rukia eventually concludes that everything Aaroniero said was a lie, and notices him running from the sunlight. She uses Kidō combination to restrain him and then blows a hole in the wall, forcing him to remain in the sunlight; Thus revealing Aaroniero's true face. With this, Rukia is finally given definitive evidence that Aaroniero is not Kaien. Assured that she won't have to hold back anymore, and confident that she has unveiled all of Aaroniero's transformation abilities, Rukia appears to gain the upper hand.

At this point, however, Aaroniero finally chooses to display his true abilities as a "Hollow eater." He explains the truth behind the acquisition of Kaien's powers, and reveals that Rukia is indeed fighting Kaien's real spirit body. The news tears at Rukia: she had always reasoned that by killing Kaien, she had saved him from the enemy. The realization of her failure renders Rukia dejected and unable to lift her sword against Kaien's body. Aaroniero releases his Zanpakutō and impales Rukia on the end of Nejibana.

Spurred on by her memories of Kaien, she uses the last of her strength to perform her Shikai's third dance, impaling Aaroniero through his top face and shattering the container that sits in place of his head. The bottom face dies screaming in agony while feeling betrayed by Aizen's promise that he would never be in pain again, while the top face curses one last time before splitting in half.

Powers & Abilities
Expert Swordsmanship Specialist: By absorbing Kaien Shiba (albeit indirectly), Aaroniero was a highly skilled swordsman fighting Rukia based on Kaien's memories. Kaien's techniques and form are revealed during the battle, and are described by Rukia as "His upper-body stance. Spear technique reminiscent of a dance, using one wrist as the center of its rotation. Then crushing the opponent between the spears thrust and the rising waves".

Sonído Expert: After Rukia's Kidō spells wore off, Aaroniero used Sonído to appear behind Rukia almost instantly, surprising her.

Broadcasted Sight: Aaroniero also has the ability to broadcast information of whatever he is currently seeing or experiencing to other Arrancar, which he does prior to his death at the hands of Rukia.

Great Spiritual Power: Having absorbed thousands of hollows and indirectly absorbing a fairly powerful Shinigami like Kaien Shiba, Aaroniero has accumulated a rather large amount of spiritual energy. He has enough spiritual power to mimic the levels possessed of Kaien Shiba, going as far as to being able to use Kaien's Zanpakutō with presumably the exact amount of spiritual energy required to wield and use its abilities.

Zanpakutō
. Aaroniero's Zanpakutō takes the form of a deformed arm-like appendage with many sprouting tentacles that is concealed in his left hand under his glove. Because he indirectly absorbed Kaien Shiba, Aaroniero also possesses his Zanpakutō, Nejibana.


 * Resurrección: It is activated by the command . When released, it turns Aaroniero's lower body into a huge, blob-like mass resembling an incredibly bloated cartoon-style octopus, with dozens of stubby tentacles and mouth-like mask pieces. In the anime, the blob mass is colored purple.


 * Resurrección Special Ability:
 * Hollow Absorption: While all Hollows can cannibalize each other to gain power, Aaroniero has the ability to completely absorb other hollows, merging not only their extra power with his own but also gaining their individual abilities. The ability allows him to evolve without limit, unlike normal Espada. Though not used, Aaroniero gained all of the powers of Metastacia, including:




 * Body Possession: It allows Aaroniero to merge his spirit body with other beings, including Shinigami. This was originally Metastacia's ability.


 * Aspect Manifestation: Once a Hollow is absorbed in this fashion, Aaroniero can manifest any aspect of them at will, including their physical form. According to Aaroniero, he has consumed an approximate total of 33,650 Hollows. It is for this reason that Aaroniero, despite his Gillian status, was able to become an Espada. Through an unusual series of events, he also absorbs the Shinigami abilities of Kaien Shiba by eating Metastacia. The weakness of this power is sunlight, which nullifies it on contact and reveals Aaroniero's true form.


 * Manifest Absorbed Power: When sealed it allows Aaroniero to manifest any power he has absorbed through his Zanpakutō, morphing it into a perfect approximation of the one he absorbed, as he does with Kaien's Nejibana. When released it allows Aaroniero full access of his absorbed abilities. He can still manifest the powers of those he has absorbed in this form, but has no limit to the total number.


 * Mimic Knowledge: His absorption ability also allows him to perfectly mimic the accompanying battle styles of those powers, due to the muscle experience and the memories in the brain.

Appearance in Other Media
He appears in the video games Bleach: Heat the Soul 5, Bleach: Heat the Soul 6, and Bleach: Versus Crusade. These games have taking the appearance of Kaien Shiba, plus being able to preform his Resurrección. In Heat the Soul 6, his tentacles were a golden color, rather than the dark purple shown in the anime.

Trivia

 * Aaroniero's aspect of death is Greed.
 * Aaroniero wears a set of white gloves during the Espada meeting, but wears only a single glove when in his own chambers.

Quotes

 * (To Rukia) "Sorry, but I simply can't stand the sunlight, and the sunlight can't make it in here."

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