Hiyori Sarugaki

Hiyori Sarugaki (猿柿 ひよ里, Sarugaki Hiyori) is a former lieutenant of the 12th Division under captains Kirio Hikifune and Kisuke Urahara.

History
Hiyori was the former lieutenant of the 12th division before the development of the Shinigami Research Institute. She served under both Hikifune and Urahara Kisuke before their respective promotions. Although she initially refused to accept him as her previous captain's replacement, Hiyori stays at her post and agrees to serve her new captain. Following Urahara to a Soul Society prison, he explains to her the policies of Soul Society concerning the prisoners. He tells her that anyone who the Soul Society believes to be a danger to the peace is locked away in the prison ward, but shares his dream of building a new institution within the 12th Division with the help of the most dangerous prisoner. Although initially appauled by the idea of locking people up for virtually no reason, Hiyori agrees to help him, and participates in Urahara's creation of the Shinigami Research Institute. During her brief time as a member of the institute, Hiyori served as a lab manager, while clashing with then Third Seat Officer Mayuri Kurotsuchi, over who has more authority under the captain.

She was eventually dispatched by Kisuke Urahara to investigate the disappearances in the Rukongai, but is attacked by the unfortunate victims of Sosuke Aizen's hollowfication experiments. Struck from behind by Kaname Tōsen, she soon faces the same fate as her comrades, and begins to transform into a hollow. Although Kisuke Urahara attempts to stop Aizen and save the victims of his twisted experiments, Aizen escapes and frames Urahara for the crimes. Kisuke Urahara uses the Hogyoku in an attempt to save Hiyori and the others, but they are soon forced to flee Soul Society, or be dealt with as hollows.

Appearance
Hiyori is a tiny, blonde-haired girl who wears her blond hair in pigtails. As a shinigami she wore a standard lieutenants' uniform, while as a vizard she wears a red jogging outfit decorated with the first kanji of her name. She also has an overly long fang protruding from the left side of her mouth. As a result of her thorny disposition and possible insecurities, Hiyori never seems to display much emotion besides anger, and always appears to be frowning.

Personality
Despite her small size, Hiyori is an aggressive and short-tempered girl with rather violent tendencies. Her most common victim is Shinji Hirako, whom she frequently abuses, usually by slapping him with one of her sandals. She has even made it a reflex to use him as a human shield when necessary, and show him an obvious lack of respect, a gesture that he seems to return. This behavior dates back to her time as a lieutenant, despite the fact that Shinji outranked her back then. She shows very little respect to the majority of people around her, easily loosing her temper or getting into fights. Having viewed her former captain Hikifune as a mother figure, Hiyori was quite hurt by her departure and initially refused to accept Urahara as her replacement, even treating him with her trademark violence and disrespect, despite his attempts to be her friend. Hiyori also seems to harbor a hatred of both shinigami and humans, which she noted in a rare quiet moment with Shinji, implying she has some identity issues. It could also be said that her violence is a form of defense mechanism.

Hiyori is the one who makes Ichigo pass the test but he nearly killed her with one hand and all the other vizards had to intervene. She got him to train on her "super walker" though he quickly lost his temper, believing the training to be a waste of his time. She seemed to be worried when he fought his inner hollow, unusually quiet and serious. Love Aikawa said she was quite happy of Ichigo's appearance in their group because their family was growing as Hachigen is happy to see Orihime. Hiyori is the one who trains Ichigo. She never succeeded in making him call her "Hiyori-san".

Powers & Abilities
As a vizard and former lieutenant Hiyori is a capable fighter, while her aggressive tendencies often make her lash out at other people even under normal circumstances.

Zanpakuto
The name of her zanpakutō is unknown and her Shikai (First release) has not been shown. Her zanpakutō is standard in appearance though its tsuba (decorated sword guard) is decorated in small hearts, a contrast to her not-so-girlish personality. She normally carries her sword from her right shoulder.


 * Shikai: Not Yet Revealed


 * Bankai: Not Yet Achieved?

Vizard
Hollow Mask: She took the longest to defeat her inner hollow out of all the current vizard (excluding Ichigo, who took about the same amount of time), at 69 minutes and 2 seconds. Her hollow mask is rhinoceros-like in appearance, sporting a prominent horn centered on the forehead with a row of diamond shaped markings over the eyebrows.