Yoshino Sōma/Goethe

is the Doll of Yoshino Sōma.

Appearance
Goethe takes the form of a large, muscular, humanoid golem composed of an unknown substance that is filled with intense flames; his body is marked with thin, smooth lines tracing the outlines of a human's upper-body muscular system, specifically his abdomen, pectoral, and upper arm "muscles", as well as the joints of his fingers on each hand, effectively linking separate segments that make up his body. However, it is not completely symmetrical, with a crack-like marking covering his left pectoral and a marking on his face resembling a reversed lowercase lambda that emits a long trail of fire at the top where his left eye would be and can emit a jet of flame from the center, functioning as his mouth. The legs of Goethe are unmarked and end at the knees, where powerful jets of flames constantly surge out to keep him aloft, and he has an otherwise smooth body. His crest takes the form of a finger claw on Yoshino Sōma's left middle finger and a bracelet; to summon Goethe, Yoshino strikes the two together, creating a spark of fire that she arcs over her head and spreads across the ground in front of her, which causes Goethe to rise from the flames and assemble his body from its individual segments.

Personality
Goethe is a stoic and terse individual, almost always only speaking a few words at a time, with a habit of responding to Yoshino's commands with "I understand." Though brutal and efficient in carrying out Yoshino's orders, he is often enraged by either great damage being done to his body or his targets running away from him, leading him to use excessive force while roaring with anger. Unlike almost every other Doll, however, Goethe has a close bond with Yoshino and is unfailingly devoted to her, even when she is severely weakened and when her crest is destroyed, which would normally cause a Doll to go completely berserk; according to Jin Kariya, this is due to Yoshino's maternal Reiryoku influencing Goethe and causing him to carry feelings of love for her instead of simple loyalty, which leads Goethe to have no compunctions about dying alongside Yoshino if it is her expectation that this will happen and to grant her his own power so she can continue fighting in his stead. In his last fully conscious moments, Goethe addressed Yoshino as his mother.

Bount arc (anime only)
Note: Events occurring in this arc are only in the anime and do not constitute canon material. When she is confronted by Ichigo Kurosaki over her attacks on living Humans for their Souls, Yoshino Sōma summons Goethe and orders him to get rid of Ichigo, where he demonstrates his ability to constantly reassemble from Ichigo's attacks and puts him on the defensive with powerful fireballs. Though Rukia Kuchiki joins the fight and manages to protect Ichigo from a particularly strong blast of flame with '''Hadō #33. Sōkatsui, Goethe''' simply begins forming a massive fireball that Rukia realizes she cannot counter. However, before he can attack, Goethe is constricted by snakes created by Ryō Utagawa's Doll, Fried, and disperses.

The next day, Goethe helps Yoshino save a wounded Uryū Ishida from Utagawa by throwing a fireball at him, which Utagawa shields himself from, and unleashing a torrent of flame across the parking lot that he is fighting Ichigo's group in to separate him from Yoshino, who picks up Uryū and escapes. The following night, Yoshino summons Goethe again when Gō Koga attacks her with his Doll, Dalk, with the intention of taking her and Uryū back to Jin Kariya. Despite a fierce fight, Goethe is unable to truly harm the metal Dalk and disperses in a burst of flame once more when Yoshino is hit by a red-hot metal sphere fired at Uryū by Dalk.

Two days later, Yoshino summons Goethe once more after confronting Kariya at the ruins of the Bount Mansion, where Goethe learns she believes they will both die there and accepts this before rapidly attacking Kariya, who dodges all his attacks and leads him further into the wreckage of the mansion. After accidentally showering Yoshino in debris from one of his attacks, Goethe is immobilized by Kariya grasping Yoshino's crest and roars in pain when he eventually shatters it. However, rather than attacking Yoshino, Goethe instead bonds with her and grants her his power over fire so she can continue fighting Kariya, but ultimately dies alongside her at Kariya's hand.

Powers & Abilities
Fire Generation: Goethe can create and unleash powerful fireballs and jets of flame hot enough to melt steel and forceful enough to crater concrete on impact; additionally, he can also fire the individual segments making up his body as fire-propelled projectiles with incredible force. When requested by Yoshino Sōma to utterly destroy an opponent, he can form a fireball much larger than his own body, which the Kidō-proficient Rukia Kuchiki believed was too big to counter with standard Kidō. Goethe can also unleash a jet of concentrated flames and sustain it for several seconds in order to overwhelm more durable foes. With permission from Yoshino to fight with reckless abandon, Goethe can consistently unleash attacks strong enough to vaporize large brick-and-mortar chunks of buildings.
 * Reconstitution: Goethe can reform himself from slashing attacks by reattaching the pieces of his body to each other with tendrils of flame and completely mending the sustained injury; he has used this to recover not only from severed limbs, but also from being cut completely in half and stabbed through the heart, which caused his entire body to briefly fall apart. Because of this ability, Yoshino has stated that he is immune to all cutting attacks.


 * Flight: By intensifying the jets of flame emanating from the stumps of his legs, Goethe can fly through the air at high speeds.


 * Blue Flames: When Yoshino's crest was broken by Jin Kariya, a briefly berserk Goethe displayed the ability to produce flames of an even higher temperature and power that were blue-white in coloration instead of orange-red; using this heat, a single attack from Goethe was enough to visibly intimidate Kariya, who had been completely dismissive of his base level of power.


 * Hybrid Form: As a last-resort technique, Goethe can merge with Yoshino by exploding in a torrent of fire, condensing his inner flames down to a small orb, and entering her body, which subsequently becomes completely covered in yellow-orange armor with outlines of her muscles and begins constantly emitting fire from her feet, knees, back, hands, and head. Both Yoshino and Goethe can speak in this form, though Yoshino is in control, and Goethe himself can briefly manifest as a being composed entirely of blue flames outside of Yoshino's body. should Yoshino be lethally injured, the armor will burst off of her and crumble.


 * Enhanced Speed: This form greatly increases Yoshino's speed, allowing her to keep up with Kariya, whose physical abilities had been greatly enhanced by merging with his own Doll.


 * Enhanced Strength: This form greatly increases Yoshino's strength, allowing her to not only create explosions with the force of her punches, but easily trade blows with Kariya, whose fusion with his own Doll gave him demonstrably superhuman strength.


 * Enhanced Agility: Yoshino's already considerable agility increases greatly upon fusing with Goethe, allowing her to perform rapid physical attacks and match Kariya blow-for-blow.


 * Fire Generation: Yoshino gains the flame manipulation powers of Goethe in this form, allowing her to enhance her blows with fire, throw powerful fireballs, and summon a specter of Goethe composed entirely of flames to attack her foe.

Weaknesses
Constriction: Though Goethe cannot be permanently harmed by cutting attacks, if he is constricted with incredible force, he will be forced to disperse in a burst of flame, requiring Yoshino to summon him again.

Harm to Yoshino: Should Yoshino be sufficiently injured, Goethe will no longer be able to maintain his physical form and will disappear in a burst of flame.

Crest Pressure: If an enemy grabs the finger claw of Yoshino's crest and grips it tightly, Goethe will fall to the ground and be completely immobilized.

Quotes

 * (To Yoshino Sōma) "Finish him? I understand."


 * (To Yoshino) "So we're going to die together? Alright."


 * (To Yoshino) "Yoshino...mother..."