Haineko (Zanpakutō spirit)

This article is about the manifested spirit of Rangiku Matsumoto's Zanpakutō. For her Zanpakutō and its abilities, see Haineko.

is the manifested spirit of Rangiku Matsumoto's Zanpakutō that is seen during the Zanpakutō Unknown Tales arc.

Character Outline
Haineko's spirit takes the form of a werecat with peach skin and brown chin-length hair. While looking mostly humanoid, she possesses a tail, cat ears and pink fur over her body. The fur on her upperbody covers her more like a more provocative shirt, not covering her shoulders and mid-section. The fur on her lower body appears as stocking on her legs and puffy shorts that extend to mid-thigh. She possesses a voluputous figure not unlike Rangiku's own that borders on being exaggerated. She is highly mischievous and tends to get bored rather easily. She also seems to enjoys taunting and making fun of Matsumoto.

She is rather superficial in appearances and had a passion for perfumes. She also appears to be infatuated with Hyōrinmaru, calling him darling. He desire for leaving Rangiku appears to flaunt her self-perceived superior beauty in comparison to Rangiku's. In addition, she seems to have a rivalry with Tobiume and often argues and fights with her.

Synopsis
She first appears when the Zanpakutō spirits are in a cave waiting for Muramasa's return. She claims to be bored and wishes to go outside, but the spirit of Sode no Shirayuki tells her that they have to wait for the rest of their companions to awaken.

She is last seen along with the rest of the Zanpakutō spirits when they appear before the Shinigami that have gathered at the Sōkyoku Hill. She passes by Rangiku and taunts her for a second, then forcibly pushes her before bidding her farewell.

Later while arguing with Tobiume at their hideout, Muramasa returns with new orders to capture Ichigo Kurosaki. She says it'll prevent her to be bored.

While hunting for Ichigo, she wonders where Hyorinmaru went, blushing while saying that "he's cute when he's shy". During their argument about who will find Hyorinmaru first, Senbonzakura appears before them without warning, scaring the two. When he asks them about Muramasa's whereabouts, they tell him they don't know and he leaves. They soon spot Ichigo and immediately attack him. Haineko strikes at Ichigo with her ash wave and soon gets into another argument with Tobiume. Ichigo, not wanting to get into another fight, tries to run away, but the pair attack him once more. Just than, Rangiku and Momo Hinamori arrive and engage their former Zanpakuto, while Ichigo leaves to continue his search for Byakuya. Haineko argues for a while with her former wielder, calling her an "old hag" and bragging on how relieved she is on being set free.

The two than begin to fight, with Haineko constantly mocking Rangiku's appearance and claiming she is old and fat. Haineko even goes so far as to say that Rangiku has "went past her expiration date". This causes Rangiku to go into fits of rage and the two end up clawing and pulling at each other. Eventually with a tagteam strategy with Momo, Haineko is finally subdued along with Tobiume. After which, Momo explains how she would like to get older as to lose ner naiveness. While Haineko doesn't understand, Rangiku explains that a kid, meaning Haineko, wouldn't be expected to understand.

Powers and Abilities
At anytime, Haineko can manifest the sealed sword form of her former self. This is a straight-bladed katana with a cross guard is in the shape of a cat's head, with two triangles on the top half curving into ear-points and the bottom half tapering down into a single point.


 * Shikai Special Ability: Haineko can produce ash which floats in the air. Though it now takes on the look of scattered ash, each particle is a tiny blade. Haineko controls the ash to attack from any direction as soon as her hand, ultimately enveloping and tearing up the enemy. So evidently, Haineko's ash is very hard to fight against in this form. The main attack strength of the ash comes from how much ash makes contact, thus why it is clumped together. If the ash was to attack the opponent in single particles, the damage would be little to nothing. The ash can cut through objects as easily as a sword would, similar in principle to Byakuya Kuchiki's Senbonzakura.

Enhanced Speed: Haineko has showned tremendous speed comparable to Shunpo, great enough to fight on even ground with her former partner.

Expert Swordsmanship Specialist: Haineko has shown great swordsmanship as well, able to easily keep up with Rangiku.