Aaroniero Arruruerie

is an Arrancar in Sōsuke Aizen's army, and the noveno (9th) Espada.

Appearance
He usually covers his face with an elongated white mask covered with eight holes while in the light. In place of a normal head, he has a large, glass cylindrical capsule filled with red liquid and two small, floating Hollow heads. The two heads are both tattooed with the number 9 and tend to talk in tandem when revealed, giving the effect of two people speaking in turn. The upper head speaks with a deep voice while the other speaks in a high-pitched, child-like voice. The heads appear to have a level of individuality. His outfit, like that of most Espada, is customized; he wears a dress garb that covers his entire body as opposed to the normal jacket and hakama. He also wears a frilly nobles' coat that acts as his replacement jacket and a single white gentleman's glove. The remains of his Hollow mask fragments are on both of his heads, the upper head having three-quarters of his head covered with the mask, and the lower head covering only half of it.

Personality
Little can be said of Aaroniero's true personality, since he was imitating Lieutenant Kaien Shiba (albeit in a twisted, erratic fashion) for the majority of his appearance. He does express some amount of pride in his ability to 'continue evolving' and his position as an Espada, despite his Gillian status. Somewhat cruel and sadistic, Aaroniero enjoys toying with his opponents, particularly those he has information on from his absorbed memories, as seen when he asked Rukia to kill her comrades to make up for Kaien's death. Interestingly, his two heads appear to have a degree of individuality, since they refer to themselves in plural when exposed, and each reacted differently to the idea of death (the bottom head panicked and screamed for Aizen's aid while the top one merely cursed Rukia).

History
Aaroniero was a Gillian, the weakest class of Menos, before becoming an Arrancar, and the last of the first-generation Espada.

At some point in the past, Aaroniero gained the powers of former Shinigami lieutenant Kaien Shiba by absorbing Metastacia, the Hollow who killed and fused with Kaien. By doing this, Aaroniero was able to gain not only Metastacia's power to fuse with others but Kaien Shiba's powers and abilities as well as his Zanpakutō.

Arrancar arc
Aaroniero is seen for the first time when Sōsuke Aizen is creating Wonderweiss Margela. He is just seen standing there but this time only the upper half of his body is covered in shadow.

Hueco Mundo arc
He next appears, this time with his white mask on, when the Espada are gathered by Aizen about Ichigo Kurosaki, Yasutora Sado, and Uryū Ishida entering Hueco Mundo to save Orihime Inoue. He sits between Tia Harribel and Yammy Llargo and complains about the intruders along with Baraggan Luisenbarn, Szayel Aporro Granz, Yammy and Nnoitra Gilga. He is also heard talking for the first time and he has two voices: one for each head.

Rukia Kuchiki, noticing that Yasutora Sado's Reiatsu was fading, rushes to his rescue, only to run into Aaroniero's palace. Aaroniero uses Sonido to sneak behind her, giving her a fright. Aaroniero uses Sonido again, just to appear infront of the palace's door. Aaroniero tells Rukia to follow him, and she does so. Rukia rushes after him, and Aaroniero claims that he sent her inside of his palace because the sun outside annoys him. Aaroniero takes off his mask, and he introduces himself to be the Nuveno Espada, followed by his name, Aaroniero Arruruerie. He resembles Kaien Shiba, which greatly astonishes Rukia.

Aaroniero, posing as Kaien Shiba, gets closer to Rukia. Using his abilities, he able mimmic things Kaien Shiba would usually say, such as Just Kidding, causing Rukia to think that she was interacting with the real Kaien Shiba. Aaroniero walks to a compartment in the walls of his quarters, grabs two sitting pillows, and throws one at Rukia. The two sit down, and talk about his restoration. Aaroniero claims that the night he was fused with the artificial Hollow, Metastacia, his soul began to crumble. He further explains that whenever Metastacia was injured, it would go to Hueco Mundo to regenerate, and that the regeneration restored his body. Aaroniero continues to fool Rukia, claiming that he began to take more control over his body, and became an Espada in order to assist him in his revenge towards Aizen. Under Aaroniero's orders, while posing as Kaien, the two move location. Aaroniero nearly kills Rukia, though she quickly flees from the attack. Aaroniero, using an ability of his which allows him to use the memories of his absorbed victims, claims that she has improved. Aaroniero continues to fool Rukia, claiming that the joy of a superior is seeing the growth of his subordinate. Rukia begins to doubt that she was really with Kaien Shiba, though Aaroniero continues to throw lies; re-identifying himself, explaining his restoration, and claiming that he knows Rukia's name, and proving that he does by saying it. Aaroniero, through Kaien, claims that he is trying to kill Rukia, for killing him. Rukia, ready to take her punishment begins to think of what she has done to Kaien in the past. Instead of taking punishment, she gets up, and claims that she had come to Hueco Mundo to rescue Orihime Inoue. Aaroniero switches personalities, and claims that he was joking, stating that he wouldn't kill her for such an ignorant reason. Aaroniero explains that the only way she could repent was by bringing the heads of her friends, since she knew all of their strengths and weakness. If done so, the idea of killing her would matter no more. Rukia filled with anger grabs his hand, and shoves it off her head. Rukia claims that the real Kaien Shiba wouldn't joke about such a thing. She releases her Zanpakutō, Sode no Shirayuki, and readys herself to fight Aaroniero; the Kaien imposter.

Aaroniero begins to dodge and clash with Rukia's attacks, claiming that the best she can do was nothing against him. Rukia uses her first two dances, Tsukishiro and Hakuren, both used to distract and attack. Aaroniero, again using his memory based ability, claims continues to effortlessly dodge Rukia's attacks. Aaroniero, wanting to finish the off the battle, releases Kaien's Zanpakutō, Nejibana. Aaroniero begins to give Rukia more of a challenge since he released Nejibana, giving him the upper hand. Using yet another one of his abilities, he was able to copy Kaien's stances and muscle capacity, allowing Aaroniero to use Kaien's fighting style. Rukia begins to clash against Aaroniero's fierce attacks. As she dodges one of Aaroniero's attacks, Nejibana crashes to the floor, causing an explosion of water. Rukia steps back, and recalls Kaien's fighting style; his high stance, the spining of his Zanpakutō by using his wrist as an axis, how it resembles a beautiful coreography, and how he uses the shockwaves caused by the trident's attacks, to crush and split the enemy in two. The two continue clashing against eachother, causing Rukia to lose grip of her Zanpakutō. Left with no other opertunities, she uses Sōkatsui, in attempt to blow Aaroniero's head off, though he effortlessly dodges the attack. Aaroniero notices that she used an incantation omittance, and claims that it was still not enough to defeat him.

Aaroniero notices the opening Rukia's Sōkatsui made on the wall, which allowed sun to enter Aaroniero's palace. Aaroniero uses Sonido to flee from the spot he was standing, causing Rukia to grow suspision. She then begins to notice that everything Aaroniero had been saying was a lie, adding on to her distress and anger. Rukia uses Hainawa to trap Arroniero, and then Rikujōkōrō, to completely immobilize him. After combining both bakudō, she used Sōren Sōkatsui to blow another hole on the wall, revealing Aaroniero's true indentity; which consisted of two smalls heads in a jar.

Aaroniero reintroduces himself, and displays some knowledge about the kidō Rukia has used; as such information was gathered from Kaien's body. Aaroniero breaks free from Rukia's kidō combination, and uses Sonido to move away from the sunlight he was standing in. Now knowing that it really was an imposter, Rukia readys herself for the true battle. Aaroniero eases her confidence, stating that aslong that he is away from the sunlight, he can use his powers as many times as he wanted. Aaroniero morphs back into Kaiens form, and states that he is the only Gillian in the Espada, and that he was bestowed the rank Nuveno because out of all the other Arrancars in excistance, he is the only one with the limitless potential for evolution.

Aaroniero introduces his real Zanpakutō, Glotoneria, and it's ability to absorb dead Hollows and their abilities along with their Reiatsu; which increases his power all together. He futher explains how he gained Kaien Shiba's powers and abilities, which was after eating Metastacia, which had Kaien's soul in it. Aaroniero releases his Zanpakutō, astonishing Rukia. The release of his Zanpakutō is the result of the 33,650 Hollows Aaroniero has devoured. Aaroniero catches sight of the look on her face, and claims that he enjoys her expression; fear.

Rukia, thinking of Kaien jumps up to Aaroniero, in attempt to attack him. Without any damage done onto Aaroniero, Rukia ended up being impaled by the tip of Nejibana, breaking her Zanpakutō. As Rukia hangs on the tip of Nejibana, nearly dead, Aaroniero begins to laugh at her. Rukia, with the last of her strength grabs Nejibana, and raises up her arm close to Aaroniero's face, angering him. She uses a special move named Shirfune, which regenerates her sword through the use of Reiatsu. Upon the regeneration, her sword impales Aaroniero through the head. His quick defeat leads to Aaroniero's astonishment, in which he had underestimated Rukia.

The jar holding both of Aaroniero's heads cracks, revealing his real identity once again. Aaroniero's resurreccion blows up into a strange liquid, and the jar holding both heads breaks. Aaroniero and Rukia both go plumetting to the floor, where one of the heads with the high voice scream out in pain and calls out to Aizen. The head dies, and the other head splits in two. Right before Aaroniero's death, he used his broadcasted sight to show every Espada his death at the hands of Rukia.

Powers & Abilities
Expert Swordsmanship Specialist: By absorbing Kaien Shiba (albeit indirectly), Aaroniero was a highly skilled swordsman fighting Rukia based on Kaien's memories. Kaien's techniques and form are revealed during the battle, and are described by Rukia as "His upper-body stance. Spear technique reminiscent of a dance, using one wrist as the center of its rotation. Then crushing the opponent between the spears thrust and the rising waves".

Sonído Expert: After Rukia's Kidō spells wore off, Aaroniero used Sonído to appear behind Rukia almost instantly, surprising her.

Broadcasted Sight (Synchronized Awareness in the English version): Aaroniero also has the ability to broadcast information of whatever he is currently seeing or experiencing to other Arrancar, which he does prior to his death at the hands of Rukia.

Great Spiritual Power: Having absorbed thousands of Hollows and indirectly absorbing the fairly powerful Shinigami Kaien Shiba, Aaroniero has accumulated a rather large amount of spiritual energy. He has enough spiritual power to mimic the levels possessed of Kaien Shiba, going as far as to being able to use Kaien's Zanpakutō with presumably the exact amount of spiritual energy required to wield and use its abilities.

Zanpakutō
. Aaroniero's Zanpakutō takes the form of a deformed arm-like appendage with many sprouting tentacles that is concealed in his left hand under his glove.
 * Nejibana: Upon indirectly absorbing Kaien Shiba, through Metastacia, Aaroniero has gained Kaien's Zanpakutō, Nejibana.


 * Resurrección: It is activated by the command . When released, it turns Aaroniero's lower body into a huge, blob-like mass resembling an incredibly bloated cartoon-style octopus, with dozens of stubby tentacles and mouth-like mask pieces. In the anime, the blob mass is colored purple.


 * Resurrección Special Ability:
 * Hollow Absorption: While all Hollows can cannibalize each other to gain power, Aaroniero has the ability to completely absorb other hollows, merging not only their extra power with his own but also gaining their individual abilities. The ability allows him to evolve without limit, unlike normal Espada. Though not used, Aaroniero gained all of the powers of Metastacia, including:


 * Body Possession: It allows Aaroniero to merge his spirit body with other beings, including Shinigami. This was originally Metastacia's ability.


 * Aspect Manifestation: Once a Hollow is absorbed in this fashion, Aaroniero can manifest any aspect of them at will, including their physical form. According to Aaroniero, he has consumed an approximate total of 33,650 Hollows. It is for this reason that Aaroniero, despite his Gillian status, was able to become an Espada. Through an unusual series of events, he also absorbs the Shinigami abilities of Kaien Shiba by eating Metastacia. The weakness of this power is sunlight, which nullifies it on contact and reveals Aaroniero's true form.


 * Manifest Absorbed Power: When sealed it allows Aaroniero to manifest any power he has absorbed through his Zanpakutō, morphing it into a perfect approximation of the one he absorbed, as he does with Kaien's Nejibana. When released it allows Aaroniero full access of his absorbed abilities. He can still manifest the powers of those he has absorbed in this form, but has no limit to the total number.


 * Mimic Knowledge: His absorption ability also allows him to perfectly mimic the accompanying battle styles of those powers, due to the muscle experience and the memories in the brain.

Appearances in Other Media
He appears in the video games Bleach: Heat the Soul 5, Bleach: Heat the Soul 6, Bleach: Heat the Soul 7, and Bleach: Versus Crusade. These games have taking the appearance of Kaien Shiba, plus being able to perform his Resurrección. In the Bleach: Heat the Soul series, his tentacles are a golden color, rather than the dark purple color shown in the anime. In the videogame Bleach: Versus Crusade (only in his released form), he can shoot a light-blue Cero from his tentacles.

4th Movie Tie-In
In episode 299 and manga one-shot Imaginary number 01. the unforgivens, both promotions for Bleach: Hell Chapter, Aaroniero and Szayel Aporro fall into Hell together. Szayel Aporro says he's surprised to see him and notes the sturdiness of Aaroniero's tank. Aaroniero questions why he brought it up, suggesting that he wished it to crack. Szayel Aporro states he meant nothing by it, meaning only that if it had cracked, he could study the liquid inside it. Aaroniero tells him that he's never like him and moves to attack him with Glotoneria. However, Szayel Aporro yells at him to wait, saying that they should work together to figure out where they are. Aaroniero states he doesn't care about that, to which Szayel Aporro reminds him of the difference in their ranks. Aaroniero states those ranks don't matter outside of Hueco Mundo.

A voice interrupts the two. A man is seen standing on a tall rock and informs them that they are in Hell. Aaroniero demands he come down and explain, but the man mocks him and informs them they are both already dead. Aaroniero doesn't understand, but Szayel Aporro remembers his death and moves to attack the man. The man introduces himself as Shuren, and says they must follow him in order to survive in Hell. Three more beings appear behind Shuren. Shuren introduces them as Taikon, Gonjō and Garogai and orders them to attack to two Arrancar. Aaroniero releases his Resurrección and attacks. He tells his enemies not to underestimate the Espada and attacks Taikon. Both Arrancar are defeated and left slumped over some rocks.

Trivia

 * Aaroniero's aspect of death is Greed.
 * Aaroniero wears a set of white gloves during the Espada meeting, but wears only a single glove when in his own chambers.
 * In the Bleach best bout poll Aaroniero's fight with Rukia came in seventh place.
 * In Episode 299, Aaroniero's Resurrección is coloured yellow instead of the previous dark purple.

Quotes

 * (To Rukia Kuchiki) "Sorry, but I simply can't stand the sunlight, and the sunlight can't make it in here."
 * (To Rukia Kuchiki) "''If it's about our faces, keep it to yourself. We got tired of hearing people's thoughts about them a very long time ago.

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