Rukia Kuchiki

"I'm a Soul Reaper, my name is Rukia. We stand in awe before that which can not be seen."

- Rukia Kuchiki

Rukia Kuchiki is the main female protagonist of the anime/manga series Bleach, surpassed only in importance by Ichigo Kurosaki. She is a Soul Reaper/Shinigami and the one responsible for giving Ichigo his powers.

She is voiced by Michelle Ruff in the English version of the anime and by Fumiko Orisaka in the Japanese version.

Origin
Rukia Kuchiki was originally a Death God/Soul Reaper, a spirit appointed as one of the guardians of the afterlife. Rukia patrolled the Land of the Living for her Squad Captain Jushiro Ukitake hunting Hollows, soul devouring demons that were themselves corrupted souls. Rukia's job was to protect mortals put in danger by Hollows, save ghosts hunted as food by the Hollows and send both ghosts and Hollows to their respective afterlives when found. During one of her patrols Rukia was injured by a Hollow and could not fight it, and in the spur of the moment asked a young psychic boy named Ichigo Kurosaki, who could see her and the Hollow clearly, to pick up her blade and stop the monster before it could kill him or the ghosts it was after. Upon picking up Rukia's blade Ichigo's psychic talents had an unforeseen reaction and transformed him into a Soul Reaper, absorbing the energy of Rukia's blade. The Hollows were defeated however as the blade was linked to Rukia's spirit energy absorbing it's power began robbing Rukia of her powers, with no apparent way to return them at first. Rukia stuck with Ichigo, in part to help him deal with his new powers and urge him to hold himself to the duties normally accompanied with such power but also to see if she could regain her power. When Rukia was convinced her powers were slowly fading permanently she began instead to see Ichigo as her replacement, one she felt obligated to train before she could no longer exist in the World of the Living at all.

Soul Society Arc
Eventually Rukia is hunted down by her brother Byakuya Kuchiki and his Lieutenant and Rukia's old training partner, Renji Abarai. Though Ichigo tried to stop the abduction Rukia stopped him in an effort to spare him fro her brother's immense power and merciless resolve to follow order. Rukia was also aware she had broken Soul Society protocol by calling on a mortal to help her defeat a Hollow, let alone entrusting her spirit energy to one and expected to face disciplinary actions for her mistakes. In exchange for sparing Ichigo's life Rukia went with her hunters willingly. When Rukia arrived back at the Soul Society she faced disciplinary action as she expected, however what neither she nor any of her peers expected was that she was to be executed for her punishment. Upon finding out of Rukia's predicament from Rukia's contact, Kisuke Urahara, an exiled Death God, Ichigo decides to go into the Soul Society to save her. Ichigo's friends, Orihime Inoue, Yasutora "Chad" Sado and Uryu Ishida all join Ichigo and with Urahara's help travel to the Soul Society to retrieve Rukia before she can be executed. The entire arc is about the dust-up about created by the radical and seemingly unreasonable orders, as even the Captains themselves find themselves willing to fight each other over following orders versus doing the right thing. In their effort to save Rukia Ichigo and his friends end up fighting through waves of Soul Reapers, including many of the Death God Captains themselves.

Rukia is eventually saved when a scheme of one of the Captains named Sōsuke Aizen is exposed as trying to retrieve a great power hidden within her called the Hogyoku. It turns out the Hogyoku was hidden in Rukia's spirit when she was outfitted with a physical body by Urahara, who was exiled in the first place for (among other things) his work creating the Hogyoku. Hogyoku is revealed to be what triggered Orihime and Chad's powers and what was truely preventing Rukia from gaining her powers back. Rukia's execution was in fact an elaborate ruse by Aizen to extract it forcably from her body without compromising his true goals by making her death look like just a system oversight. Once Aizen was exposed though by Captain Retsu Unohana, he throws caution to the wind and just extracts the Hogyoku from her body using Kido to get it and flee the Soul Society before the weight of all his former allies came down on him. Rukia lives through the spell and can again regain her former powers with the Hogyoku gone but severely weakened by the Kido and unable to assist Ichigo in his confrontation with Aizen allowing Aizen to make his escape with the Hogyoku, though nowhere near as cleanly as he had originally planned. After the story-arc Rukia regains her powers and assists Ichigo as his liaison in his officially appointed title as "Substitute Soul Reaper".

Personality
Initially born into a lower class, Rukia retains her modesty, even as an adopted member of the nobility. She is graceful and "clean", yet chooses to talk to ordinary people. However, her cool and lone demeanor often forces her to hide her personal troubles, even from her friends. According to Ukitake, Rukia never opens up her heart, and has difficulty making friends. Rukia is clueless about the ways of the modern Human World. She is very good at acting, having acted her way through a number of tough situations, such as getting out of trouble with school teachers and convincing theKurosaki family to let her stay at their house.

Rukia always has trouble finding clothes that fit her, especially when inhabiting a Gigai in the Human World,leading to her stealing clothes from Ichigo's sister, Yuzu. She likes to climb to high places. Rukia likes everything rabbit-themed, and becomes quite sensitive when someone insults her obsession with them. People often have difficulty understanding her drawings, which are typically rabbit-like, and doesn't like it when people complain about their quality. Rukia's favorite foods are cucumber, eggs, and rice dumplings.

Rukia is extremely brave, perhaps to the point of fearlessness, staying disturbingly calm in almost any situation and willing to accept death if she sees no way out. She's also very selfless and just about always puts the good of her friends before her own, especially Ichigo's. However, this has been criticized by Ichigo as being excessive, believing she spends too much time worrying about him and not enough time worrying about herself. Another flaw she has is her tendency to blame herself for things that aren't really her fault, as noted by Renji, who tells her that she should learn to share her burdens with others.

Powers and Abilities
Rukia is a skilled swords master, and considerably fast, however her sword skills and martial skills were considered sub-par to what was expected of her as a Kuchiki. Rukia's real talent was use of Kido (magic). Rukia has memorized several of the spells available to Soul Reapers. Each Kido has a corresponding number and incantation required for activating it, making it potent but impractical for most Soul Reapers to use, Rukia is one of the few  who chose to specifically focus on training with it. Rukia's Kido requires time to use and a clear mind to recite but Rukia can usually use it with relative ease, however her dependance on it makes her attacks easier to react to than most, though rather devastating when someone is actually caught in it's wake. As a Soul Reaper Rukia has a sword linked to her inner-spiritual powers. The Shikai, a powerful release of her blade, is called Sode no Shirayuki, which unleashes waves of ice that will either freeze or shatter, if not both, all that stands before her. Late in the storyline after training with the Royal Guard, Rukia is able to tap into her sword' Bankai, Hakka no Togame, which produces an even stronger and larger radius of freezing power which affects her in addition to her target, however when lowering her body to Absolute Zero, Rukia effectively becomes ice herself, allowing her to manipulate her body mentally even while technically frozen, thus allowing her to function even while caught in her own frigid powers.