Yoshino Sōma

is an anime-only character in the Bount arc. She is one of the Bounts and Jin Kariya's former wife.

Appearance
Yoshino has long, soft brown hair, parted on the side. She wears a large-collared shirt with a vest over it that fans out at the bottom, giving it the appearance of tails. She compliments her outfit with a red tie. The bracelet and claw that she wears are actually her sealed doll.

Personality
As remarked by Uryū Ishida, Yoshino chooses to live next to a clock, waiting for the chance to live, rather than watch the passage of time. In the past, she was accepted only by Kariya, and was fiercely loyal to him. However, over time, their love faded and she was left opposing him, that is, after he began to attack the living.

History
Yoshino, many years ago, thought that she was different from all the others. She tried to hide it. She also tried desperatley to hide the fact from her friends. Time went by, as she saw her friends age, and she saw her surroundings change. She escaped from the village as angry villagers hunted her down, calling her a witch. She hated herself as much as they did. She always looked for ways to die. Driven with lonnlieness and despair, she decided to end her own life. Before she did anything, that was when Jin Kariya walked in through the door. He asked Yoshino to live with him, and that he will give her a reason to live. Kariya claims that his reason for living is her, and that their love is deeper than the ocean, that knows no limits. She then saw Kariya takingn a living soul. She was dissapointed because she couldn't do sanything to stop him. Ever since then, she couldn't forgive him. She also says that it was his lies that gave her a reason to live. Her reason to live, was to kill Kariya.

Bount arc (anime-only)
Note: Events occurring in this arc are only in the anime and do not constitute canon material.

When she first appears, Yoruichi Shihōin stops her from taking a living soul. Ichigo Kurosaki and Ririn then corner her and she releases her doll, Goethe. They fight for a while, as Ichigo kept trying to cut the doll into peices. It feel apart when Ichigo stabbed the doll right through his heart. It fell to peices, and all of them attacked him. When the attack hit him, it trapped him in wood, and metal, imobilizing him. Yoshino ordered Goethe to finish him off. The fiery doll almost kills him, but Rukia Kuchiki appears and saves him. Goethe generates a large fireball between the palms of his hands, and attempts to fire it at Rukia. Rukia realizes that she couldn't stop the attack. Shortly, several snakes (made out of pipes) capture her doll, and his fellow Bount, Yoshino. Yoshino attempts to resummon Goethe, but gets threatened to be killed by Utagawa's doll. She is then taken back to the mansion by Fried and Utagawa.

Soon, while Uryu was caught, and knocked out by one of Utagawa's snakes, Yoshino saves uryu, and takes him to her hotel room, where she explains to Uryu about the Bounts. She also explains the life she has lived as a Bount, and her life with Kariya, but Uryū loses consciousness. She then takes him to his father's hospital, where he is attacked by Hō and Ban. Feeling like a burden, Uryū wanders from his friends and Yoshino picks him up once more. The two talk and she explains that Kariya must want to go to Hueco Mundo. It is then that Gō Koga and his doll attack. Koga summons his doll, right after Yoshino summon's her's. Dalk then attacks Uryu and Yoshino with many metal balls. Goethe breaks through a window, as Yoshino and Uryu jump out from the opening. Dalk keeps manipulating her body, and keeps injuring goethe. Gothe attacks with many fireballs, but they all get dodged. While Uryu and Yoshino escape, was when Goethe hit Dalk with a fireball. Unfortunately, the metallic Dalk is impervious to fire. Dalk then attacks Gothe by shooting him with bullets comming from her gun. This opens a water tank, making Goethe dissapear. The doll then attacks Uryu, but Yoshino uses her body as a shield to protect him from Dalk's attack. They are then taken back to Kariya's mansion. Utagawa injures Yoshino, and locks her up in a storage room. Utagawa then fights Ichigo, resulting in Kariya's mansion being destroyed. Kariya then orders Ichinose to kill Utagawa for treason, as he tried to overthrow Kariya as the Bount's leader. Ichigo also looses to Kariya's hand. She is later taken to the Urahara Shop, where she was healed, and where she rested. The night after their attempt to save them, was when she escaped from Uahara's shop, and headed over to Kariya's mansion. Uryu then wakes up astonished, grabs Ririn, and runs over to the mansion aswell. Yoshino finally arrives to where Kariya is, and summons Goethe, ready to battle Kariya.

She attacks Kariya with many fireballs. While all of them get dodged, Kariya makes a sarcastic comment on how strong Goethe was. He then runs away from inside the mansion, in order to change the battle's setting, giving Goethe the impression that Kariya was really running away from their fight. Goethe chases him, but stops by Yoshino's orders. Yoshino runs to Goethe, and they go to Kariya together. Goethe attacks Kariya with another fireball, which also gets dodged. The attack made many rocks fall down, as some hit Yoshino. They continued to fight. Kariya then tells Uryu to come out of where he was hiding, suprising Yoshino of his appearance at the battle seen. Kariya claims that it was because Uryu had an old fashion way of being a hero, and saving a woman in despair. Kariya then shows Uryu how a doll would turn on a master. Kariya uses great speeds to get behind Yoshino, and grabs the crest which Yoshino uses to control Goethes strength. This paralyzes Goethe. Kariya then breaks the crest. This injures Yoshino, and makes Gothe's strength go out of wack. Kariya, expecting Goethe to attack Yoshino, gets attacked by Goethe. Goethe at full strength, causes a great explosion.

Yoshino then prepares to merge with Goethe. She holds her hand up to him, and generates her spirit energy. Goethe turns blue, and comes charging at Kariya with great speed. Before he even touches Kayria, he blows up, and turns to the form of a baby. Yoshino holds him, as Goethe's final words are "mother." They merge together, giving Yoshino a different form. Yoshino gaining great power battles at close range with Kariya. She throws a fireball at Kariya, at higher speeds then Goethe's attacks would do. Kariya then impales Yoshino through the chest, as the form desintegrates. She falls to the ground, as Uryu holds her. She dies, and turns to dust. Uryu cries, and screams in desperation, as Yoshino breaths new life into the dolls called Bittos.

Powers & Abilities
Skilled Acrobat: Yoshino has shown some acrobatic skills, as she was able to escape from places that were sealed without her Doll, how she was able to jump over a fence without climbing it, and how she backed away from Yoruichi doing many backflips.

Expert Hand-to-Hand Combatant: In her battle with Kariya, she had shown great skill in Hand-to-Hand combat. She was able to dodge most attacks from Kariya, until she got impaled through the chest. She was able to keep up with him, but only for a short amount of time, as Kariya is a master at close combat himself.

Hypnosis: Yoshino possesses the ability to hypnotize the souls of the living by singing a soft tune. She is able to specifically target someone in a crowd and can force that person to walk unwittingly to her.

Doll
is Yoshino Sōma's doll. It takes the form of a finger claw (on her left middle finger) and bracelet (on her right wrist) when sealed. To unseal Goethe, Yoshino strikes the two pieces together to create a spark, which releases him when she takes the fire created from the spark and creates a arc over her head an fire rages around the area. Goethe is a fire elemental, able to create and control flame. While mostly humanoid in appearance consisting of hardened magma and flames, it has no legs but fire acting as propulsion jets.


 * Fire Generation: Goethe's attacks primarily consist of fireballs and jets of flame. These manipulations of fire vary in intensity and size and commonly have a lot of concussive force behind them.


 * Reconstitution: If attacked physically it can reform itself if dispersed, as it is a being made of flame. When Ichigo Kurosaki attempts to strike him through the heart, believing it to be his weakness, Goethe splits apart and shows the ability to fire each body part as a weapon.


 * Hybrid Form: In Yoshino's last moments, she and Goethe merge to create a stronger, hybrid being, allowing Yoshino to control fire herself. Both Yoshino and Goethe are able to talk in this form, but Yoshino is the more dominant one. The fire they are composed of is a light yellow, in contrast to the original orange. In this form the resulting creature is a female humanoid. Unfortunately, her full capabilities weren't shown, as Kariya impaled and killed her in their last battle. The hybrid form is only a outer shell and easily crumbles away upon her defeat. It should also be noted that at the time of merger, her seal was broken and she wasn't completely merged, making the merger a product of her unique reproductive ability.

Quotes

 * (To Kariya) "I have done nothing that requires your forgiveness."