Nelliel Tu Odelschwanck

, originally incorrectly romanized as Neliel Tu Oderschvank, is the former Tres (three) Espada. She is also known as, and she is a small, good-natured, childlike Arrancar. She lives in the desert of Hueco Mundo with her adoptive brothers, Dondochakka Bilstin and Pesche Guatiche, and their pet, Bawabawa. Pesche and Dondochakka are her Fracción.

Appearance
Nel is a female Arrancar that has light green hair in the manga, but blue-green hair in the anime. She has a large scar coming down from her forehead to her nose, larger than average incisors, and a crimson line that stretches horizontally across her face right below her eyes.

The remains of her Hollow mask make up a cartoonish skull on the top of her head. A crack runs along the left side of the mask and four of the teeth on it are broken off. The location of her Hollow hole is currently unknown. Her clothing consists of a simple green gown, which, in her original form, tears to become a top and skirt.

Her previous form is that of a large breasted, full-figured woman with long waving hair but otherwise similar features. Her skull mask changes slightly, its features appearing sharper and less cartoonish with a pair of curved horns. A large "3" is tattooed on her back, indicating that she was the former 3rd Espada.

Personality
Nel's appearance is in stark contrast to her vocabulary, which contains a number of bizarre phrases and words one wouldn't expect such a small child to know, such as calling her uvula a "throat penis" and referring to herself as a masochist. Ichigo Kurosaki assumes her Hollow companions are responsible for this. Nel and her companions also represent oddities among Hollows, though most Hollows are evil, Nel actually fears Shinigami, assuming they are in fact the evil ones. In spite of this, she develops an attachment to Ichigo and follows him into Las Noches. During their super sentai intro she prefers the name "Thieves: Nel-Don-Pe." She also seems to speak with a lisp in her child form, frequently pronouncing "S"s as "T"s.

As Nelliel, she is much more mature, composed, logical, sophisticated, and intelligent than her child form. She is also relatively level-headed in terms of how to fight, stating that if one's excuse for a battle is to fight out of hatred, prejudice, or simple competition, as Nnoitra does, then it is merely instinctual and animalistic, and that it makes the challenger look "childish," "unworthy," and "not much of a warrior," though Nelliel has proven during her last few minutes as a full-fledged Espada that it is 'acceptable' when it involves vengeance, although she still seemed reluctant to actually fight and seemed to slightly curse herself as a result. Unlike many of the Arrancar, Nelliel is somewhat pacifistic, and according to her fracción, has despised engaging in combat even when she was still among the upper ranks of the Espada, unless it involves self-defense and protecting those dear to her heart. It is for this reason that Pesche and Dondochakka decided to simply be content with her child form and banished themselves from Las Noches. She refuses to finish off weaker or injured opponents, and will stop fighting them once they've been disabled or incapacitated, a trait shared with Kenpachi Zaraki.

As witnessed during her numerous fights with Nnoitra, Nelliel's shown to be relatively calm and silent when fighting, preferring to speak only when spoken to, a rather uncommon trait among most Arrancar. She is even shown to enjoy reading, usually seen reading a book after her mission or after waiting for Nnoitra to wake up after their recent battle.

Nelliel's also shown to be a loyal, respectful, and trustworthy warrior, who will diligently follow the orders of her commander, provided said commander has proven his worth.

She's also knowledgeable, analytical, easygoing, fairly compassionate (usually towards her friends), humorous in her own right, and exhibits a cheerful, energetic demeanor when off-duty. Although having grown up physically, she somehow retains her child-like affection over Ichigo, best-shown when she unexpectedly bear-hugged him after attacking Nnoitra without realizing that Ichigo was losing consciousness (although the anime's flashback of Nel's accident suggested that she was always somewhat childish outside of combat).

History
Nel Tu was once an Espada in Aizen's army and held the rank of 3rd Espada. During her time as the 3rd, she would constantly be challenged by Nnoitra Jiruga to fights to prove that males are stronger than females. Nel would prove victorious in every duel. Later, Nnoitra would team up with Szayel Aporro Granz (who was not an Espada at the time) to perform a sneak attack on Nel. Nnoitra ripped off the masks of her two Fracción Pesche and Dondochakka, apparently an unspeakable act among the Arrancar. Nel charged at him in a rage, but the Nnoitra she was seeing was actually an illusion created by Szayel Aporro, and the real Nnoitra used this distraction to attack her from behind, landing a blow directly to the mask on her head. The attack itself (from Nnoitra) broke off part of her mask, scarring her forehead and leaving her unconscious. He threw her and her Fracción out of Las Noches so that he could increase his power by the time she returned, but was disappointed to find that she had reverted into a child.

Afterward, Pesche and Dondochakka vowed that they would protect this newly weakened Nel at any cost. They took the roles of her playful older brothers, never revealing to her their true identities or her own identity for fear of her memories coming back. According to Pesche, this is because she had always hated fighting, and in her child form she was spared from it.

Hueco Mundo arc
After Ichigo, Chad, and Uryū Ishida enter Hueco Mundo to save Orihime Inoue, they come across what looks to be a young human chased by three hollows. After Ichigo attacks the three, it is revealed that the 'human' is actually an Arrancar named Nel Tu; the Hollows are her two brothers and their pet. After becoming friends (albeit Nel and her companions becoming momentarily panicky upon learning Ichigo's a Shinigami), the expanded group travels to the wall of Las Noches, where they are attacked by a sand-based Hollow, Runuganga. The Hollow is immune to their attacks, but the group is saved by Renji and Rukia, the latter of which freezes Runaganga in a circle of ice.

Ichigo and his group break into Las Noches and split into five directions, leaving Nel and her brothers behind. The siblings decide to follow Ichigo but get lost. Nel is the only one who catches up to Ichigo, arriving just in time to be confronted by Dordonii Alessandro Del Socacchio, a Privaron Espada with a number of #103. When Dordonii tries to fire a cero blast at Ichigo, Nel steps in, absorbing the blast and firing it back. Enraged, Dordonii attacks Nel, who is then saved by Ichigo, now using his Hollow powers and defeats him. Dordonni later wakes up to a drooling Nel who is using her saliva to heal his wounds.

During her trip further into Las Noches with Ichigo, she witnesses his clashes with Ulquiorra Cifer, the 4th Espada and Grimmjow Jaegerjaquez, the 6th Espada. After Ichigo finishes off Grimmjow they are suddenly attacked by none other than Nnoitra Jiruga, the 5th Espada.

After his Fracción, Tesla, finds her hidden behind a rock, Nnoitra identifies Nel as a former Espada during his battle with Ichigo, one who he found to be very annoying. Nel denies this accusation heavily as Nnoitra attacks Ichigo again. The fight ensues with Nnoitra dominating a severely weakened Ichigo, culminating in him breaking Ichigo's wrist. Nel's despair causes her to spontaneously transform into her true form. From here, she goes on to reveal herself as the former 3rd Espada and effortlessly deals with Nnoitra.

After using a double Cero blast against Nnoitra, Nel rushes to Ichigo and gives him a big bear hug as she would as a child. This causes him to go unconscious momentarily due to the pain of his injuries. Orihime tries to get her off since he passed out but this just causes her to hold him harder in fear for him. After this Nnoitra kicks his Fracción into a wall for letting go of Orihime in worry of him, then gets out of the rubble. As Nnoitra starts to gain the advantage, Nel decides to unleash her Zanpakutō, coming at him with full power. Quickly Nnoitra is at her mercy, though fine with the situation as long as she kills him. She reverts back to her child form however, before she can defeat Nnoitra and is left at his mercy. (One reason behind this maybe due to her Zanpakutō's release using up a lot of her spirit energy.) Laughing at this happening, he kicks her out of the way and tortures Ichigo now that their only savior was gone. She is soon healed by Orihime when Kenpachi Zaraki arrives to fight Tesla, then Nnoitra. It can be assumed she might have regained her memories yet again as she locked eyes with Nnoitra and says his name as he dies. But when Coyote Starrk suddenly appears to kidnap Orihime, she then remains on the battlefield as Ichigo leaves to rescue her.

Child Form
Nel does not carry a Zanpakutō in her child form, but has the unique abilities listed below.

Healing Vomit: She has the ability to heal others with her vomit, which has a similar appearance to saliva, leading her to believe it is.

Cero Doble: A unique ability to swallow enemy attacks and fire them back with a more powerful force exceeding that of the original hit, indicated by the eyes on her skull mask glowing, although using it seems to exhaust her.

Rudimentary Sonído: She is able to accelerate her movements with what seems to be a rudimentary form of Sonído, which she refers to as "Chouka Soku" ("Super Speed," "Super Acceleration" in the English dub). When she uses this Sonído form, her mask's eyes glow.

Original Form
In her original form, she carries a Zanpakutō. Despite her dislike of violence, as formerly the 3rd rank of an earlier generation of Espada, Nelliel's battle capabilities are understandably greater than that of other Arrancar outside of the said top ranks.

Master Swordsmanship Specialist: As a former Espada, Nelliel has much experience at fighting, showing hardly any effort in her advanced use of swordsmanship. Her body flows elegantly when engaging in combat, so finely tuned that she can stop her attacks at a moment's notice and subsequently execute lethal attacks with absolute precision. She easily defeated Nnoitra a number of times, who is a highly proficient swordsman in his own right. In fact, despite Nnoitra's claim that the power levels of the current Espada surpasses the previous one and Nelliel's abilities had not fully recovered, his battle against her proved a losing one, and the only reason why he survived long enough (only to be cut down by Kenpachi later), was because Nelliel kept holding back in the entire battle and she reverted to her child form in the middle of the battle.

Expert Hand-To-Hand Combatant: Even without the aid of her Zanpakutō, Nelliel has shown herself to be a quite powerful fighter. During her battle against Nnoitra, she was shown able to skilfully dodge and counter his attacks. She has also shown using her swordsmanship in conjunction with her hand-to-hand combat.

Sonído Master: Her speed has greatly increased as well, fitting with her former position and was able to repeatedly sneak up on and effortlesly avoid Nnoitra with her speed. She was also able to easily take the badly hurt Ichigo to a safer place during one of Nnoitra's attacks.

Cero: Like other Arrancar, she is able to fire a considerably powerful cero blast. She can fire it from her mouth.

Cero Doble: She retains her attack absorption ability in her original form, but now performs it with greater ease. According to Nnoitra, Nelliel's specialty is to absorb an incoming Cero and fire one of her own while returning it, thus creating a potent Cero Doble, (Spanish for "double zero"). While her child form severely limits her Arrancar powers, she is still powerful enough to absorb and redirect a Cero blast from a Privaron Espada-class Arrancar in its released form, though the effort seems to tire her immediately. In her original form, the force(s) of the Cero Doble is augmented greatly, owing to the fact that she rebounds the attack while blending it with her own Cero, drastically increasing its power, as befits the former third Espada.

Hierro: Nelliel, while in her original form, has hierro befitting the strength of an Espada. It is strong enough to allow Nelliel to counter Nnoitra's blade with a kick, and showing no signs of injury.

Enhanced Strength: Her strength is greatly increased, fitting with her former position. With her great physical strength, Nelliel is capable of fending off attacks from even gigantic weapons like Nnoitra's, launching her opponent several meters away with a single punch and slicing the Hierro of an Arrancar opponent effortlessly in one swing of her Zanpakutō. She is also capable of stopping Nnoitra's Cero barehanded.

Vast Spiritual Power: Formerly being one of the top 3 members of the Espada, Nelliel may have been forbidden to release her Zanpakutō inside the dome of Las Noches. Nelliel has a grand amount of spiritual energy, powerful enough for her Fracción to sense it from a large distance. Renji even stated that her spiritual power was close to Ichigo's, confusing the two for a moment. This is also due to the fact that like Ichigo, her reiatsu is constantly leaking out.

High Intellect: While in her original form, she is shown to be quite intelligent. Having a great understanding of combat and the forms, and methods behind an opponent's skill and intentions, she can discern personalities easily. She also has a philosophy on life that provides a code of honor, respect, and mercy. However, her child-like antics can sometimes block her intelligence, latching onto Ichigo, who was clearly injured, to the point where he passed out, then latched onto him again.

Zanpakutō

 * Her Zanpakutō has a green sheath and a tsuba that resembles a pair of crescent moons joined together at the back (somewhat similar to Nnoitra's).


 * Resurrección: Its release command is . Nel holds her Zanpakutō up in front of her horizontally and calls out its release command. The Zanpakutō glows as a hazy smoke emanates from it. She calls out the name of her Zanpakutō and the glow intensifies into a huge burst of spiritual energy that greatly affects the surrounding vicinity. In her new form, Nel takes the form of a brownish-green ibex-like centaur complete with a black horse's tail. Her hollow masks horns become longer and more curved and also extends slightly, framing the sides of her face, particularly the cheeks. The crack on her mask also closes up, although the missing teeth remain. Her shoulders are covered by armored white spaulders that come across the shoulder blade to the neck, she has white armored elbow guards and white armored gauntlets. The parts of the arm that aren't covered by armor are covered with a black material as well as her hands. There is a white armored ring at the base of her tail. Gamuza itself transforms into a double-sided lance. She is one of the few Arrancar known to have a weapon after her release (the releases of most Arrancar de-materializes their weapons upon their true forms being unleashed). All these features grant her the overall appearance of a medieval knight or a jouster.


 * Resurrección Special Ability: The only attack she has used in this form so far is Lanzador Verde. The full extent of Gamuza's abilities are still unknown.


 * Enhanced Strength: While in her released form, her might increases further.


 * Enhanced Spiritual Power: While in her released state, her spiritual power increases significantly.


 * Nel throws her lance at her opponent with extreme speed. As it travels through the air, it begins to spin and build up spiritual energy. When it reaches its target, it acts as a drill inflicting extreme piercing damage. The technique is powerful enough to push back Nnoitra as well as break his Zanpakutō that he was using to block the attack. The name is also a misnomer since the lance, when thrown, emits violet energy in the anime.

Fracción
is a large, spotted, humanoid Arrancar with a tiki mask and compound eyes. He appears to speak with a Yakuza-style accent (Mafia in the Dubbed episodes)- often ending his sentences with "dont'cha know" ("know what I'm talkin' 'bout?" in the dubbed episodes) - and is fairly tame in comparison to other Hollows. Despite his menacing appearance, he is prone to tear-filled outbursts at the slightest provocation, usually when he's worried about something.

is a seemingly harmless, humanoid Arrancar whose mask resembles an insectoid head with a large pair of mandibles. He wears an eye patch and a loincloth. His Hollow hole is slightly lower than normal, positioned near his stomach instead of his chest. He and Dondochakka were once Nel Tu's Fracción, but had their masks forcibly removed by Nnoitra Jiruga and Szayel Aporro Granz, and were left for dead with Nel. After realizing that their master had reverted to a defenseless child, he and Dondochakka pledged to protect her. According to Pesche, they hid their true identities from Nel because they feared not doing so might cause her memories to come back. Neither of them wanted this, because Nelliel strongly disliked fighting, and in her child form, she would no longer have to fight. He and Dondochakka spent the following time traveling around Hueco Mundo, keeping Nel amused with games like eternal tag, while still training (probably without her knowledge) to better protect her.

is a giant, eel-like hollow whose mask consists of a simple plate on his head with a pair of horns. He is a parasite that Dondochakka keeps inside him if not out, giving him a particular Fracción-state. He acts as both a pet and transportation for Pesche, Dondochakka, and Nel Tu. Bawabawa tends to get upset for not being included in the group's super sentai-styled introduction sequences.

Appearances in Other Media
Nelliel is a playable character in a few of the newer Bleach games, first appearing in Bleach: Heat the Soul 4 in her child form. She also appears in Bleach: Heat the Soul 5 in her child and adult form, and Bleach: Versus Crusade in her adult and Resurrección forms; and Bleach: Heat the Soul 6 in her child, adult and Resurrección forms. She also has her own character album as part of the Bleach Beat Collection 3rd Session. The two vocal tracks are entitled Kokoro Oasis and Every Fight!.

Trivia

 * Interestingly, both Nelliel and Tia Harribel were the Tres Espada, are female, share certain personality traits, and actually cared about their Fracción, who work together by combining their Cero blasts into one. In addition, their attacks are named after weapons and colors, although the spiritual power emitted by that attack is different from the name, with Lanzador Verde being violet instead of green and Proyectil Azul being yellow instead of blue. Additionally, both were betrayed by their allies.
 * In the English version of the anime, Nelliel's child form doesn't speak with a lisp. She does, however, call Ichigo "Itsygo" at times.

Quotes

 * (To Nnoitra)"Because...you are weaker than I."
 * (As Nelliel Tu Odelschwanck) "We've been transformed from humans to Hollow, becoming beasts. And we regained logical minds once we became Arrancar. Those that think logically require a reason to fight."
 * (To Ichigo)"This time, allow me to protect you."
 * (Crying to Ichigo) "You almost squished me to death and now you're yelling at me! I don't think you're very nice!"
 * (To Orihime) "Itsygo's out dere fightin' for you! Why're ya acting like yer afraid of Itysgo? Din't you say Itsygo's a nice person?! Well yer right! Nel tinks he's nice too! Itsygo's so nice, when he heard Ulquiorra say yer name, he charged right at 'im! Itsygo is a human! But den he became a Shinigami, an' even put on dat mask and used dat dangerous power! Dere's no way Itsygo isn't gettin' hurt! He's gotta be sufferin'! But Itsygo's usin' his powers and gettin' injured all cuz he's fightin' for you! What's-- What's gonna happen if ya don't cheer for Itsygo?!" 
 * (To Ichigo) Yep! Nel's a serious maso-kiss, so it no fun if I don't cry a lil!

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