Yasutora “Chad” Sado

Background

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Powers and Abilities

Chad has always been unnaturally strong and resilient to harm. Even before being affected by Ichigo Kurosaki’s spiritual power, Chad was strong enough to lift I-Beams and capable of resisting high velocity impacts (like head on collisions with motorcycles) without harm.

Even before receiving any official training, Sado proved to be a powerful and effective fighter even when outnumbered.

After Ichigo’s rampaging spiritual energy awakened his latent spiritual powers, Chad’s natural strength and resilience to harm were increased to superhuman levels. It appears that his remarkable strength and resilience to damage rivals that of a Shinigami Captain.

In addition to increasing his own natural physical prowess, Chad gained the ability to focus his spiritual energy into his right arm, transforming it into an armored state. This transformation increases his right arms already prodigious strength and grants him the ability to fire devastating blasts of pure spiritual energy, capable of reducing buildings to dust, from it.

Chad refers to his right arm as the “Brazo Derecho de Gigante” (“Right arm of the Giant”) and has named his energy blast “El Directo”. Initially, Chad could fire his energy blasts approximately three times a day before he past out (in DC Heroes terms, the Fatiguing Limitation), but with training he has broken this limitation and can seemingly fire the powerful blast at will.

Finally, like everyone else who has spent any time around Ichigo, Chad is able to see and communicate with spiritual beings.

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History

Yasutora “Chad” Sado was born in Okinawa, Japan, but was taken to Mexico and raised there by his parents from a very young age. After their deaths, Yasutora was adopted by Oscar Joaquin de la Rosa, a man he believed to be his grandfather.

From the time he was but a boy, Yasutora was massive in size. Utilizing his great strength, he became a bully to the other smaller children, especially those who teased or annoyed him. Oscar, seeing the path that his grandson was headed down, attempted to teach him to be gentle, but was initially unsuccessful.

One day, Yasutora pushed the parents of the children that he bullied too far. He was attacked by them in retaliation. Oscar arrived just in time to interpose himself between Yasutora and the angry parents. He stoically accepted the beating that was meant for Yasutora, without emotion or retaliating.

The lesson

After witnessing his grandfather’s conviction, Yasutora was inspired by his example and worked diligently to become a decent person. Yasutora’s demeanor completely changed. As an reward for his good behaviour, Oscar gave him a unique Mexican coin that had great sentimental value to him.

Inevitably, Oscar fell ill and passed away. At his death bed, Yasutora made a vow that he would never raise his hand in violence unless it was to protect others, not even to protect his own life. The coin would come to symbolize this vow, which Chad now claims to hold more value than his own life.

With his grandfather gone, Yasutora had nothing to keep him in Mexico, and so he decided to return to the land of his birth.

Big in Japan

Upon his return to Japan, Yasutora entered Mashiba Junior High School. Just as it had in Mexico, Yasutora massive size often made him the target of unwanted attention from the local bullies that went to school with him.

Yasutora’s vow prevented him from retaliating, so the quiet young man suffered in silence all the while trying to ignore their hurtful words and weak blows. This continued for quite some time, until the day a particularly persistent group of young men stole Yasutora’s coin.

Though he was unwilling to fight for the coin, Yasutora could not let the boys simply keep it. He confronted the young men. Like his grandfather before him, he stoically accepted the beating they gave him all the while waiting for an opportunity to retrieve the coin. It was at that precise moment when Yasutora met the young man that would change his life forever.

Ichigo Kurosaki had watched the confrontation begin, and as Yasutora’s beating from the bullies increased in intensity, he couldn’t watch any longer. Ichigo tore into the bullies with a zeal that was unmatched by anything Yasutora had ever seen. When he finished punishing the bullies, Ichigo retrieved Yasutora coin and returned it to him.

Ichigo

Before he returned it, Ichigo questioned Yasutora as to why he wouldn’t fight back. After hearing the explanation, Ichigo asked that if Yasutora wouldn’t fight to save himself, would he fight to protect someone else. Yasutora pondered the question for a moment and hesitantly decided that he couldn’t watch someone else get hurt if he could prevent it.

Grinning widely, Ichigo stated confidently that from that moment on that the two of them would fight for one another in order to prevent either one of them from being hurt.

Perhaps it was Ichigo’s natural charisma, perhaps it was the twisted logic that he used. But most likely, it was gratitude and loneliness that made Yasutora agree to the pact that Ichigo proposed. The two friends began to watch each other’s backs, and due to Ichigo’s low tolerance for bullies, ended up fighting a lot of the gangsters that lived in Karakura town.

Ironically enough, by the time the two friends reached Karakura High School, they had both earned the reputation of gangsters themselves due to their constant conflicts with the others.

The cockatiel

Initially, high school life proved uneventful for Chad. His life settled into a easy rhythm. Despite their reputations, Chad and Ichigo managed to make friends within the school and even started to enjoy it. This all changed for Chad when he unwittingly acquired a cockatiel whose previous owner had died a mysterious death.

Chad initially regarded the bird as a curiosity, until it actually spoke to him. The bird revealed that it was not truly a bird. Rather it was all that remained of a young boy named Yuichi Shibata. Yuichi and his mother were murdered in a home invasion, but in the moment of their death managed to cause their killer’s demise.

Unfortunately for Yuichi, the killer had been reborn as a Hollow. He used his abilities to place Yuichi’s soul into the body of the cockatiel. The Hollow then used the bird as bait for unsuspecting mortals, hunting them in a game of cat and mouse while they attempted to protect the bird.

Horrified by the young spirit’s story, Chad resolved to protect Yuichi from the Hollow personally. Chad spent the next couple of days on the run and fighting the Hollow in a mad attempt to protect not only Yuichi but his own life. Fortunately for Chad, a mere two days earlier, Ichigo had become a Shinigami or Soul Reaper (a death spirit).

Ichigo, Substitute Soul Reaper

Even as Sado was attempting to survive his imperceptible foe, Ichigo and Rukia (the former Soul Reaper Ichigo gained his abilities from) were closing in on the rampaging Hollow. The two were forced to split up initially which resulted in Rukia and Chad putting forth their best effort in destroying the Hollow. However, they were unable to destroy the much more powerful enemy.

It wasn’t until Ichigo arrived that the three allies were able to destroy the ruthless Hollow and consign the spirit within it to hell.

Unbeknown to Chad, it was during this fight that he was first touched by his best friend’s rampaging spiritual energy. Something deep within his soul was awakened and had begun to blossom. However, Chad wouldn’t be able to identify the feeling that was rising within him for several weeks.

It became apparent during an impromptu duel that took place between Uryu Icshida and Ichigo. As a consequence of their egos, the two young enemies unleashed a multitude of Hollows upon Karakura town.

Hollows rampage

The Hollows rampaged about, attracted to any human that had a trace of spiritual energy within them. Chad was out searching for Ichigo, when he was singled out and attacked by a massive Hollow.

Even though he could only perceive the vague outline of the Hollow that was attacking him, Chad immediately realized that as long as he was present that all of the innocent bystanders that remained close to him were in danger. Without a second thought, Chad ran as fast as he could looking for an abandoned area where he hoped to either lose or fight the creature.

Unfortunately for him, instead he stumbled across Ichigo’s sister Karin. Like her brother, she could see the massive creature. As the ghostly being turned it’s attention to her, Chad hurled himself at the creature in an attempt to protect her life. Even as he raced into the face of danger, he felt something deep within his soul calling out to him, its voice raised to a brilliant crescendo.

Empowered

As the battle was joined, Chad’s own spiritual powers awoke. These transformed his already powerful right arm into an armored weapon and fully opened his eyes to the hidden spirit world. With a single blow (and a desperate prayer to his Abuelo), Chad destroyed the Hollow and saved Karin’s life. Even as he watched his defeated enemy fall, Chad felt the strength leave his body and passed out.

When Sado next awoke, he found himself under the gentle care of Kisuke Urahara along with Orihime. To his surprise, she had apparently developed supernatural abilities as well. It took some time for him to fully understand, but Sado took the time to listen to Kisuke as he explained the cause and nature of their abilities.

Kisuke then took Sado and Orihime to observe Ichigo in combat with the remaining Hollows, including a Menos Grande. This was to let the teens fully comprehend the world they were about to enter.

Soul Society Arc

At the conclusion of Ichigo and Uryu’s contest, things returned to normal for a few weeks. Ichigo continued to slay Hollows in his role as substitue Soul Reaper. But unknown to him, he had an audience now. Sado and Orihime watched in secret, not wanting to reveal their understanding of their friend’s predicament.

As things started to settle into a rythm, Rukia was abruptly abducted from the mortal world. She was taken by a pair of her fellow Soul Reapers for crimes against the Soul Society.

Ichigo was horribly wounded and stripped of his powers during her abduction. Yet, he was doggedly determined to rescue his friend. He was approached with an offer of aid by Kisuke Urahara and accepted it willingly. At the same time, Kisuke arranged for his ally, Yoruichi Shihoin, to train both Sado and Orihime in the use of their own supernatural abilities.

His overall hope was that Ichigo, with the help of his friends would be able to infiltrate the Soul Society and rescue Rukia before harm befell any one of them.

Training montage

Sado spent the next 10 days intensely training. He learned to consciously call upon his power whenever he needed it. At the same time, Ichigo had regained his shinigami powers and completed his own training. With that, the quintet (Ichigo, Sado, Orihime, Uryu who joined them unexpectedly, and Yoruichi) set out for the Soul Society.

Despite their best laid plans, once the five entered the Seireitei (the home of the Soul Reapers), they quickly became separated. Sado ended up wandering throughout the massive headquarters of the Soul Reapers alone, but determined to not only find his friends but to rescue Rukia.

Using his massive strength and seemingly limitless spiritual powers, Sado smashed his way though a huge number of Soul Reapers. He went through the majority of the 11^th Division single handedly without much effort. It seemed that none of the Soul Reapers would be capable of slowing him down, much less stopping him. He eventually made his way into the quarters of the 8^th Division.

Defeated

It was there where he met Shunsui Kyoraku, the Captain of the 8^th Division. The two explained brief pleasantries, and to Sado’s surprise the Captain wanted to fight even less than he did. Both politely requested the other to surrender, but when they couldn’t come to an agreeable set of terms, a fight ensued despite their mutual wishes for a peaceful solution.

Sado unleashed his full strength against the Soul Reaper Captain, and at that moment he came to understand the gulf that separated the Captains and their subordinates. Sado was effortlessly defeated by Shunsui Kyoraku, and left mortally wounded, without landing a single blow.

To his own surprise, Sado awoke within a holding cell deep within the Seireitei. His wounds (along with those of Uryu who was also captured) were healed by the members of the 4^th Division to keep him alive long enough for interrogation. Fortunately for Sado, this never takes place as he was subsequently freed by Kenpachi Zaraki, the Captain of the 11^th Division.

The true plot revealed

Apparently, Ichigo and Orihime had earned his respect, trust and aid during their quest to save Rukia from her fate. Zaraki’s lieutenant, Yachiru Kusajishi, led the reunited teens to the Sokyoku where they waited and watched Ichigo and Byakuya Kuchiki fight. Ichigo eventually defeated Byakuya but not without receiving several deadly wounds himself. Even as he fell, Sado and his friends rushed to his aid.

As the friends tended to Ichigo’s wounds, they found out that the events at Soul Society were an elaborate plot masterminded by Sosuke Aizen. Aizen’s goal was to steal a powerful artifact called the Hogyoku which had been hidden deep within Rukia’s soul.

Upon hearing the truth, Ichigo rushed off to confront Aizen along with the other Soul Reaper elite. But Aizen retreated for Hueco Mundo with the Hogyoku in hand.

With the truth exposed, Rukia’s crimes were forgiven. An amnesty was declared on Sado and his friends. They spent a few idyllic weeks in the Soul Society recovering from their battles before returning to the mortal world.

The Vizgard arc begins

After returning from Soul Society, Sado’s life returned to a semblance of relative normalcy. He was first seen back in school along with Orihime and Ishida. He returned to high school with his friends, all the while keeping a watchful eye on Ichigo.

Initially, when Ichigo battled Hollows Sado and Orihime attempted to help, but quickly found that Ichigo could easily handle any Hollow that appeared in Karkura Town. Life was perfect once more.  Or at least it seemed to be, until two strange beings walked out of a hole in this air in the middle of a park in the heart of the town.

Even as the beings entered the mortal plane, Sado could feel their enormous supernatural power emanating from the area. Curious and afraid, both he and Orihime went to investigate the source of the power. When they arrived, the found several corpses on site. The bodies were whole but their spirits, their very souls, had been ripped out of their bodies.

Immediately understanding the danger that they were in, Sado attempted to convince Orihime to escape with any survivors that they found. Orihime began to reluctantly agree when the two spot one of their friends, Tatsuki, about to be murdered by one of the strangers.

The Arrancars

In a surge of motion, Sado interposes his own mighty frame between Tatsuki and the giant of a man who attempted to kick her. Even as Sado caught the kick with his “Right arm of the Giant”, he commanded Orihime to run away with Tatsuki while he held back the strangers.

Despite his best efforts the two beings, who identified themselves as the Arrancars Yammy and Ulquiorra, easily defeated Sado and tore off his armored arm. Sado immediately lost consciousness from the shock of being dismembered.

When Sado regained consciousness some time later, he was laying in his bed at home. His pain was rapidly fading, and to his relief his arm had been reattached to his body. One of Orihime’s spirits circled his arm repairing the damage even as he watched and tried to comprehend the events of the day.

Unfortunately, he didn’t have much time to think. He once again felt the malevolent power suddenly emanating around him.

Without a word, he shooed away Orihime’s spirit and rushed out of his apartment, with his armored arm ready to fight once more. As the door opened and he took a single step, an Arrancar that he had never encountered before drove a straight edged blow directly into his chest, faster than Sado could react. For a brief moment, Sado wondered if he was dead, as he felt no pain

Back to Kisuke

When his eyes finally caught up to the action that was unfolding before him, he realized that Ichigo had arrived and caught the Arrancar Di Roy Linker’s blow before it penetrated more than a centimetre into his chest. A small speck of blood welled up and started bleeding when Di Roy’s finger had touched Sado, before Ichigo bade Sado to run away.

Embarrassed and angry, Sado did the only thing he could to help his friend. He ran. As he did, he wondered if he would ever be able to fight alongside Ichigo ever again.

After the second Arrancar attack was repelled, Sado went the only person he could think of that could possibly help him gain enough strength to be useful to his friends. He went to the Urahara Shop and begged Kisuke to help make him stronger. Kisuke initially refused Sado’s request, but upon witnessing his devotion and determination changed his mind.

Besides, Kisuke realized that he could kill two birds with a single stone. Kisuke was being harassed by a young Soul Reaper Assistant Captain at the time named Renji Abarai. This man refused to leave him alone until he agreed to train alongside him. Kisuke agreed to aid Renji, but only after he trained alongside Sado and increased the mortal’s strength.

Sado and Renji then began a gruelling regime of battle. Sado was continuously fighting against Renji’s much more powerful Bankai. The training lasted for days, until the Arrancar attacked a third and final time. This attack had a much more sinister purpose, acting as a distraction in order to abduct Orihime Inoue.

Counter-attack

Enraged, Ichigo set out to gain access to Hueco Mundo – the spiritual dimension where the Hollows originated from. He found his desires stymied by Yamamoto, the leader of the Soul Reapers. Yamato believed that Ichigo’s strength would be needed in the mortal world when the Arrancar’s returned in force. He ordered him to remain there.

Unfortunately for Yamamoto, Ichigo had never been particularly good at following orders. Without pause, Ichigo sought out Urahara once more and made preparations to single-handedly retrieve Orihime from Hueco Mundo. Once he has made sure that his absence would not be noticed at home he returns to Urahara’s shop in anticipation of his trip.

Sado waited patiently for Ichigo to arrive, having already been told by Kisuke about Ichigo’s plans. When Ichigo arrived, he was surprised to find not only Sado waiting for him, but Uryu as well. Like Sado, Uryu had spent the summer intensively training, in order to gain enough strength to fight the Arrancar by his side.

When Ichigo, afraid for their safety, initially refused their aid Sado unleashed a powerful punch at Ichigo. Ichigo was barely fast enough to stop the blow and was forced back onto his heels by its simple strength. When he realized how much Sado had grown over the last few weeks, he finally relented, secretly greatful for his friends’ loyalty and aid.

With that Urahara opened the gate to Hueco Mundo, and the 3 brash youths plunged through with one central thought in all of their minds. They would save Orihime, return home safely, and destroy anything that stood in the way of that goal.

Description

Sado is a teenager of mixed decent, his look combining some of the best traits of his Japanese and Spanish heritage. He has long wavy hair that always hangs over his eyes, and his skin appears to be naturally a shade or two darker than that of his peers.

His actual frame is massive in size (especially for a manga character). He stands at a whopping 6’ 5” and weights nearly 250 pounds. With his barrel shaped chest and thick muscular arms, Sado appears much older than he actually is.

At some point in time, Sado got a tattoo on his left shoulder which says Amore e Morte (“love and death” in Italian) and consists of a heart, a snake and angel wings around the heart. He typically wears either his school uniform or flashy short sleeved shirts with open collars. He also wears a dark, long-sleeved shirt with a rose emblazoned on the left sleeve.

Brazo Derecho de Gigante

When manifesting his power, Sado’s right arm is covered all the way up to his shoulder by a liquidy form of ectoplasm that solidifies into a form of armor. Over time, and as he grew stronger, the shape of his armored arm altered cosmetically.

Initially, the armor sitting just above his shoulder extended upwards, reaching all the way up to the top of his head. The plating was separated though, into a two pronged tuning fork like shape. At the same time, two similar wing-like protrusions extended to either side of his wrist.

As Chad’s strength grew, the shoulder plating became a seemingly solid piece that culmunated into a point, losing the tuning fork like shape, but only until he actually fired his energy blast. Upon firing the blast, the point would once again separate into the tuning fork like shape and vent plumes of wild energy out from between the two forks.

The arm itself was black with a dark magenta strip that ran down the middle of the arm tapering down towards a point that stops at the wrist. The dark magenta strip was outlined by a thin white line. These patterns were both on the top as well as the underside of his arm. As Chad’s strength grew, the patterns on arm grew more complicated with more lines involved.

Personality

Unlike many other characters, Sado is a relatively simple youth to describe. Like many “big man sidekicks” in Shōnen Manga, he is possessed of a couple common and one uncommon character traits that make up his personality.

The first is that he is the stoic big man of his group of friends. Sado is a quiet (near silent), stoic teenager. He rarely smiles or outwardly shows emotion even when he’s happy. Quite often, people assume that he is less intelligent than he truly is simply because of his reluctance to speak. Yet he actually has a sharp intellect (he is ranked 11^th out of 322 students in his school).

The second trait that Sado displays is his pacifism. Sado will go to nearly any length to avoid a fight. Despite his obvious talent for carnage, Sado was taught by his Abuelo to avoid conflict and to never misuse his great strength for selfish reasons or in anger.

As such, Sado will never fight for selfish reasons, not even to protect his own life. This combined with his silent countenance and massive size has made him the target for bullies, all of whom hoped to make a name for themselves by picking on the biggest kid they could find.

The final trait that Chad displays is an unswerving loyalty to Ichigo, and by extension their friends. When Ichigo protected Sado from the group of bullies that stole his Abuelo’s coin, the two swore an oath to one another that Sado is compelled to uphold. Sado will fight for Ichigo, no matter what the personal cost is to himself or how insane the odds are.

By extension, if Ichigo feels strongly about an individual (for example, Rukia or Orihime) than Sado will extend his protection to that individual as though it were Ichigo he were fighting for as well. And despite his complete lack of anger during the fight, woe be it on the individual that stands in Sado’s path when he is attempting to reach his goal.

Sado is seemingly fearless, tireless, and appears to have a lack of the self-preservation instinct in combat. If his friends are in danger, he will fight to the death in order to protect them.

Quotes

(Praying to the spirit of his dead grandfather while charging a rampaging hollow) “I understand, abuelo. My giant fists are not for the sake of causing pain. My giant body is for the sake of protecting others. I understand everything. I understand it all. So, so even just a little. Please lend me your strength.”

(Explaining why he’s willing to risk his life for Rukia) “Ichigo wants to save her. Ichigo went all out for her, and that’s enough. That’s all the reason I need to put my life on the line for anything.”

“The more complex a person is, the weaker they are.”

“Ichigo… trust us. Don’t carry such a heavy burden by yourself. That’s what friends are for.”

(After casually blocking a punch from a Hollow) “What’s wrong, weren’t you boasting about your strength ? Can this really be all you got ?”

(Approaching a Hollow who’s power proved ineffectual against him) “Sorry. The truth is, I don’t like doing things like dealing the deathblow to opponents who have lost the will to fight, but it seems that this time I can’t afford to play Mr. Nice Guy.”

DC Universe History

Being mired in the supernatural underbelly of Japan, the world of Bleach would have little no direct contact with the rest of the DC Universe. If anything, people like John Constantine or perhaps Zauriel may have come into contact with the Japanese death gods and as such may have some limited contact with Sado.

With his ability to see and converse with the dead, Sado could have an interesting encounter with Deadman.

By Bryan Gittens.

Source of Character: Bleach Manga Volumes 1-27 (Strawberry and the Soul Reapers – Goodbye, Halcyon Days.)

Helper(s): Wikipedia, Tom Eilers, Darci, William Chamberlin.