Uryū Ishida

"I am Uryū Ishida, LAST OF THE QUINCY!"

- Uryū Ishida

"That was the day I decided… I would never become a doctor. If the job of a doctor requires him to mutilate even the body of his beloved, dead wife, then that’s not something I would ever consider…"

- Uryuu think about what Ryuuken do on chapter 659 Uryū Ishida is one of the main supporting characters of the Bleach series. He is a student at Karakura High School, where he is a classmate and friend of Ichigo Kurosaki. He is originally believed to be the last of the Quincy until it was revealed that a group of them escaped from the Human World into the Seireitei, forming an empire called the Wadenreich which Uryu becomes a part of.

He is voiced by Noriaki Sugiyama in the Japanese version of the anime and Derek Stephen-Prince in the English version.

Background
Uryū Ishida is a Quincy, part of an ancient order of mortal demon hunters who oppose and undermine the work of the actual spirit world's protectors Soul Reapers. Due to the fact that Quincy use a spiritual technique that irradiates souls instead of redeeming them the Quincy and Soul Reapers came to blows when the Quincy refused to stop killing Hollows, corrupted human souls turned to monsters. As a result of this the Soul Reapers declared war on the Quincy and began to systematically kill them to prevent innocent souls from being permanently destroyed. Uryū's grandfather was able to strike up a peace accord with the Soul Society promising that though he would continue to practice Quincy traditions he would not use his techniques to slay Hollows, thus earning him, his son and grandson mercy from the otherwise order-wide kill order. Uryū's grandfather taught Uryū about both Quincy tradition and history and discouraged his grandson from using his powers on an soul, even corrupted ones like the Hollows.

One day Uryū found his grandfather killed, the Soul Reapers who reported said a Hollow had killed him but Uryū recognized blade wounds and knew that his grandfather had in-fact been struck down, as of that moment Uryū decided to disregard his promise not to use his powers, believing Soul Reapers to be both corrupt and liars. During his time coming into his powers as a newly created Soul Reaper, Ichigo Kurosaki would meet Uryū and come to blows with him several times with Uryū claiming to be a rival and enemy who intended to kill Hollows before Ichigo could. Inquiring about him, Ichigo would eventually find out about Uryū's story. Ichigo's guide, Rukia Kuchiki would tell Ichigo that while it is possible the Soul Reapers involved had their own agenda such actions would not be officially sanctioned and the Head Captain would never break such an accord. Ichigo and Rukia's sympathy with Uryū along with their teaming up to stop a Hollow invasion would eventually earn a shaky alliance with Uryūl.

Soul Society Arc
Eventually Rukia would be brought in to the Soul Society on charges of treason. Rukia agreed to go quietly so that Ichigo would not be killed as an accomplish and went to face punishment for allowing a normal human to acquire her powers as a Soul Reaper. When Rukia got back she as locked up and sentenced to summery execution, without a formal hearing. Though Rukia felt guilty for having let her superiors down nearly everyone else in the Soul Society took issue with the decision however due to a stringent honor system that prevented them from acting against the council at Central 46 the execution was still set to take place.

When word got back to Ichigo by Kisuke Urahara, an exiled but still very well informed Soul Reaper, of what Rukia was facing he insisted to go straight into the heart of the Soul Society to get her back before she was destroyed. Ichigo's friends Orihime Inoue and Yasutora "Chad" Sado were eager to help save Rukia as well and did not want Ichigo to go alone. Uryū al.so wished to join partially because he did not trust Soul Reapers to tend to their own affairs, partially because he believed he would openly expose Soul Society corruption but also because, despite his pretenses, he considered Rukia and Ichigo his friends. Once the arrived in the Soul Society Ichigo and his friends ending up confronting all the Soul Reapers willing to follow official orders who considered the intruders to be accomplishes to Rukia and thus enemies of the Soul Society.

Uryū's main fight during the Soul Society arc was with Captain Mayuri Kurotsuchi, the head of the Squad 12, the Gotei 13's research division. Mayuri was kept on hand for his brilliance but was considered amoral, petty and sadistic, viewing his research as the be all end all. During the fight with  Mayuri Uryū pronounced his hatred for Soul Reapers and the root of his distrust, to which Mayuri casually admitted to being the one who put out a kill order on  Mayuri Kurotsuchi's grandfather and bribing the agents sent to kill him and bring his soul into for experimentation. Apparently Mayuri had been too intrigued by the exact nature of the Quincy's unique spiritual energy and wished to research the last known one in existence before he passed on naturally and was given a proper afterlife, lost in the system. Once captured Mayuri tormented Uryū's grandfather through several painful experiments until he could no longer take it and passed on. Mayuri Kurotsuchi's sole regret from the whole ordeal was that he had barely learned anything before Mr. Ishida;s soul collapsed in on itself. Hearing of the depravity Captain Kurotsuchi had resorted too Uryū became enraged and revealed his full powers to  Mayuri. Mayuri Kurotsuchi was not scared but in-fact overjoyed to see another Quincy alive and well delivered right into his hands to be a replacement guinea-pig. Though the battle was intense Uryū eventually defeated Mayuri, though Mayuri was able to reform form even a single cell and became airborne and floated away to heal and reconstitute himself.

Character Development
After the battle with Captain Kurosuchi Uryū came to believe that Ichigo, and Rukia were completely free of any part in the death of his Grandfather however he never did trust the Gotei 13, seeing Mayuri and Rukia's execution as prime examples of corruption in the Soul Society. After the conclusion of the Soul Society Arc saving Rukia Uryū became an open friend and supporter of Ichigo, though he would frequently snipe and criticize him in any failing he saw as situations arose. Though Uryū dislikes Soul Reapers he is still willing to work with them if he is convinced there are decent sized threats such as mass Hollow attacks, his association with Ichigo and Rukia is seen as a sign of weakness of character by Uryū's father who is also a Quincy but unlike Uryū and his grandfather never viewed the Soul Society as worth agreeing with, instead seeing it as just more trouble than it was worth to continue slaying Hollows if it meant making enemies of the Soul Reapers.

Skills and Abilities
In addition to being physically well trained and nimble Uryū's training as a Quincy encouraged marksmanship and adaptive combat styles. The Quincy signature weapon is a bow and arrow composed entirely of Reishi (essentially ectoplasm meets holy energy). He also has two blades he carries composed of Reishi as well. Uryū knows several rituals commonly seen as holy to the Quency and uses them to collapse others' spiritual power in on themselves. Though he seems to ignore the subject, the truth is all of Uryū's attacks do not simply send souls to the afterlife when killed but actually wipes them out on a spiritual level, destroying them and preventing both reincarnation or even proper afterlives. This is particularly gruesome when considered that more than a few Hollows are innocent souls twisted and enslaved by other Hollows.