What Is Yoruichi Shihōin’s Bankai in ‘Bleach’?

In the Bleach universe, the Bankai is the final and complete form of the Zanpakutō; it is the culmination of his training. For the Shinigami to obtain it, it is necessary to force the spirit of the Zanpakutō to materialize. Achieving Bankai is rare, and even once obtained, it takes another ten years of minimum training to perfect its mastery in most cases. A Bankai can be extremely powerful and thus extremely dangerous, which is why they are so intriguing. But, not all Bankai have been revealed in the series so far, and Yoruichi Shihōin’s Bankai is one of them.

But, as you are about to see, Yoruichi Shihōin’s situation is even more peculiar, as she is the only (former or current) Captain (save for the original Gotei 13) whose Zanpakutō was never actually released. In fact, it was only seen once during the Turn Back the Pendulum Arc in one brief scene.

This is how we know that she has it, but nothing else is known about it. This is why we have decided to compose this article for you. A special Fiction Horizon Presents insight into Yoruichi Shihōin’s sword and its abilities based on absolutely no information we have about it. This article is, of course, going to be just a theory, but it might help you understand why Yoruichi Shihōin’s Zanpakutō, neither in its Shikai nor in its Bankai form, has not been revealed in the series.

Yoruichi Shihōin is one of the series’ most powerful characters, but how is that possible if she never even uses her sword?

Every Bleach fan knows who Yoruichi Shihōin is. She was first introduced as a talking black cat that had a male voice, but her true identity was revealed during the invasion of Soul Society when she transformed into her human form and helped Ichigo activate Bankai.

Later, during the Turn Back the Pendulum Arc, more details were revealed, and we found out that she was the former head of the Shihōin family and that she was also the former Captain of the 2nd Division; in that capacity, she nominated Kisuke Urahara, a member of her Division, for the post of the new Captain of the 12th Division.

She seemed to be quite close to Urahara and trusted him, which is why she abandoned her family and her position to run away with him and Visored to the World of the Living, where she was living for years as a black cat.

So, knowing that Yoruichi was a Captain, we know that she had a Zanpakutō and that she must have achieved Bankai, as the only Captain to ever hold that position without a Bankai was Kenpachi Zaraki, but even he would, later, activate his Bankai. So, how was Yoruichi a Captain without even using her Zanpakutō? Well, she was simply too good even without it.

Namely, Yoruichi possesses extremely high spiritual pressure and is highly proficient in all four Shinigami martial arts. Furthermore, she is clever and can recognize very well what exactly needs to be done in a certain situation or recognize the truth behind the facade.

She is a capable leader as she once led the 2nd Division and the Onmitsukidō and served as a guide for Ichigo and his friends when they invaded Soul Society to save Rukia Kuchiki.

She has also developed various techniques herself, such as various types of Shunpo or Shunkō. As a former leader of the punishment squad, she is also an excellent assassin who is good at hiding herself and her spiritual pressure from others. This allows her to surprise even intuitive and strong characters like Sōsuke Aizen.

Of the four Shinigami martial arts, Yoruichi favors Hoho and Hakuda, and she is recognized as one of the best (if not the best) in these categories, and partially Kidō, although she is also proficient in Zanjutsu; although we haven’t really seen her used it as she normally prefers unarmed combat, a flashback showed her taking down a huge Hollow with a single attack from her sealed Zanpakutō.

As far as her Hakuda skills are concerned, Yoruichi is so good that she was able to defeat 50 Onmitsukidō members with no apparent effort and deal significant damage to an Espada.

Despite her slim build, her physical strength and her stamina also contribute to her mastery of this Shinigami martial art. Several scenes from the series confirmed this, such as her fleeing from Byakuya Kuchiki with an unconscious Ichigo on her back or her mauling the Espada Yammy Llargo very badly; even Ulquiorra perceived her as a danger because of that.

The Shunkō, Yoruichi’s hidden move, combines Kidō and Hakuda. Yoruichi created the technique, but Soifon eventually succeeded in creating her own version of it. However, Soifon’s version was never as effective as Yoruichi’s. The spiritual energy that envelops the user’s back and arms when employing this method is also evident in Yoruichi’s version, which she created 100 years before the current timeline.

Among other things, Shunkō can neutralize opposing techniques and inflict immense damage on contact with the opponent. In addition, Yoruichi’s comment after her battle with Yammy, when she said that she could’ve avoided taking any damage from the Espada had she activated her technique, implies that it also mitigates the damage done to the user’s body.

Yoruichi’s undisputed mastery of Hohō, the use of high-speed movement techniques such as Shunpō, is reflected in her nickname, “Goddess of Flash,” among other things. She can become so fast that, much like the Espada Zommari Rureaux, she can leave multiple afterimages of herself that may even bleed as if they were real. These afterimages are of such good quality that they even fooled Byakuya Kuchiki, who Yoruichi herself taught some advanced Hohō techniques.

She has mastered all existing techniques in this field and even developed some of her own, such as Utsusemi. Though she herself said she was out of practice, she could outrun Byakuya while carrying the unconscious Ichigo on her back.

She could do more than 300 Shunpō steps without tiring. Furthermore, she was able to hold back in the fight against Soifon, and her former student still didn’t find it easy to keep up. She can also use Shunpō in her cat form, but then she is slower than Ichigo, who was able to outperform her in a filler episode, which is why she had to transform.

As seen in the series’ final saga, Yoruichi also has a very special “cat form,” which she despises but is exceptionally powerful. The Shunkō: Raijū Senkei: Shunryū Kokubyō Senki is Yoruichi Shihoin’s ultimate technique and the pinnacle of her powerful Shunkō: Raijin Senkei technique.

Yoriichi gains a significant power boost. While she retains her human shape, her personality becomes completely feline, as well as her Reiatsu, which is so unstable that it changes 48 times per second. Kisuhe Urahara is actually the only person who can control her while she is in this state.

As you can see, Yoruichi’s powers are so amazing that it absolutely makes sense that she was able to be a Captain (and of the 2nd Division, mind you!) without using her Zanpakutō. Seeing how powerful she is in other fields, the Zanpakutō would actually be a complete hindrance to her, and it seems absolutely unnecessary. Now that we have cleared this up, we can actually elaborate on the mystery of Yoruichi’s Zanpakutō.

The mystery of Yoruichi Shihōin’s Zanpakutō – Why does she not have it with here and where could it be?

As we have explained, Yoruichi doesn’t need a Zanpakutō because she is powerful enough with it, and we have to credit Kubo for his creativity there, as it made Yoruichi unique. But, we have seen that Yoruichi has a Zanpakutō, that she has used it, albeit in its unreleased state, and we also know that as a Captain of the Gotei 13, she must have mastered Bankai (we’ve explained why in the previous sections). So, why does she not carry it with her?

Well, Kubo has, we have to be frank, not provided us with an official explanation, but a lot of it can be deduced based on how Yoruichi fights. She is a stealth master capable of fighting with just her hands and is a master in non-weapon techniques.

Considering how speed is her forte, carrying a sword would be highly impractical, even though the sword is useful. We don’t know how heavy the unreleased Zanpakutō actually are, but even if they’re light, they’re not small, and carrying them around while doing stealth- and speed-based missions would be impractical if you don’t really have a need for such a sword.

Sure, she could’ve placed it somewhere so it wouldn’t bother her, but on a general level – she did not need it, so she did not have it with her, which makes perfect sense.

Yourichi never cared that much for etiquette and always did what she preferred or deemed more practical. Going around without a sword is something she liked more, and since she could afford it – as she was powerful enough to defend herself even without it – she simply did it.

But, as she was once seen with a kodachi or a wakizashi type Zanpakutō, we can confirm that she carried it with her while she was younger. So, if she had it, where is it now? Kubo has not provided us with an answer here either, but there are two possible explanations. One, she took it with her and left it in the World of the Living (probably at Urahara’s Shop) and continued not using it as she did before. This seems like the likely option.

The second explanation is also a relatively popular fan theory based on the fact that the Ise family, a lower-class noble family Nanao Ise comes from, has only one family, Zanpakutō, and that it passes it down generation by generation to its heads.

This is why some fans think that by abandoning her post, Yoruichi also abandoned her Zanpakutō, which returned to her family as per the tradition. But, there are two issues with that. It is not known whether the tradition of the Ise family is used by some other family as well (in fact, it was implied that it was unique to them), so we don’t know if Yoruichi’s family also has a Zanpakutō like that.

Secondly, Yoruichi was succeeded by her brother, Yūshirō, who was also seen without a Zanpakutō, so we don’t think this is the case, as the Zanpakutō would have been with him had it been a family heirloom.

Yoruichi Shihōin’s Bankai could be similar to Soifon’s, which is why she simply rejected it

So, as you can see, as far as Yoruichi’s Zanpakutō is concerned, we know only that it exists and that Yoruichi doesn’t really use it. We don’t know whether it is, we don’t know what it does, we don’t know what its Shikai form looks like, we don’t know what its Bankai form looks like – heck, we don’t even know its name.

This is how big of an enigma this is, and unlike some other Zanpakutō, whose Bankai have not been revealed, but we have other information about them (such as Aizen’s and Ukitake’s), Yoruichi’s Zanpakutō is a complete mystery – actually, the biggest one in the series.

We don’t really know why Kubo never revealed any information about it anywhere, but we assume it has something to do with consistently developing Yoruichi’s character and not wanting to shift the focus to other things. From an in-universe perspective, it could very well be that Yoruichi abandoned her Bankai because it was similar to Soifon’s – it was big, heavy, and it slowed her down.

A Bankai doesn’t necessarily have to fit the combat style of the Shinigami (e.g., Soifon rarely uses her Bankai because it slows her down completely, while Muguruma’s Bankai is perfect for his combat style and it increases his power significantly) and that could very well be the case with Yoruichi’s Bankai. This would explain a lot, but since we don’t really have any information, we can only conclude this article by expressing our hope that Kubo will, someday, reveal at least some information about Yoruichi’s Bankai.