Allegorical Bleach

The first time we see Nnoitra outside of the Espada meeting is during his interaction with Ulquiorra outside of Orihime’s room in 249. The most striking thing about Nnoitra’s part in the discussion is his initial comment about “taming” Orihime and his interest in how the relationship between her and Ulquiorra is progressing.

Despite the fact that Hollows are creatures of instinct, Nnoitra is the first Arrancar who has demonstrated an awareness of sex. The glance that accompanies the “taming” comment is all too knowing for him to be innocent on this matter. This comment begs the question of just why Nnoitra appears so knowledgeable about sex when the other Arrancars aren’t. Personal experience since becoming an Arrancar, perhaps?

This possibility is furthered in chapter 262 (“Unblendable”) and 263 (“Unexpected”) when we learn that Nnoitra has a Fraccion. After Nnoitra has one-shotted Chad in 262, he immediately begins looking off to the side for someone or something.

While he is waiting, he sits and uses Pesquisa to locate another target. Finally, he pauses with a peculiarly soft expression, his features shadowed with suppressed emotion.

Tesra appears with a smile of relief that Nnoitra is safe (the first real smile we’ve seen from an Arrancar), yet Nnoitra carefully remains seated with his back toward Tesra. Hiding something there, Nnoitra? It’s also noteworthy that within two pages of Tesra’s arrival that one of Kubo’s pairing tricks is in force: when the couple focuses on each other, the backgrounds drop out of the panels. Why would they notice the world around them when they are each other’s entire world?

Tesra questions Nnoitra as to whether he intends to finish killing Chad, to which Nnoitra provides an excuse for the lack of further bloodshed: he doesn’t kill those who are weaker than him. This is at odds with the Arrancars we’ve seen in battle up to this point, all of whom are quite willing to kill those who get in the way. Mercy is very much a human trait.

They finally begin to set off toward the next target. However, Chad decides to try attacking Nnoitra again instead of letting them leave. The result is surprising: Tesra intervenes and blocks the attack himself.

Now this is a visually striking panel! Chad is in black, with them in white. On the surface it looks like Chad is the antagonist here because he’s the attacker. We also know good guys don’t wear black normally, and villains don’t cooperate or care about each other.

It’s also noteworthy that Tesra drawn distinctly out of scale with Nnoitra. We see on the next page that he can’t be taller than Nnoitra’s shoulder. For as close as he should be standing to Nnoitra to block the attack though, he’s drawn very large compared to Nnoitra. Kubo knows how tall his characters are, but this is something he has done elsewhere to emphasize the big strong protector:

Tesra defends Nnoitra against Chad’s best attack with no more than the force of his will. This is the same attack that has already taken out one Privaron Espada, so a mere Fraccion repelling it is astonishing. If Chad’s attack had broken Tesra’s shield, his zanpakuto would have broken and he himself would have been at the very least badly injured. None of that mattered, though, because the important thing in his view is that nothing happened to Nnoitra.

His zanpakuto seems to work on the same principle as Harribel’s, that it’s empty normally until being filled with the force of the character’s heart. Harribel’s is filled when her Fraccion are torched. Tesra’s is filled by his desire to protect Nnoitra; he is literally protecting Nnoitra with all his heart. If his heart wavers, the shield will fail.

The very image of a rescuing knight, he is willing to risk everything including his own life to protect Nnoitra. Since we learn later that characters will fight to protect their hearts, the fact that he is able to hold off Chad’s attack with his shield would indicate that Nnoitra is his heart. This sort of heroic action tends to fall under the category of “shounen ideals”, don’t they? The attack foiled, Tesra even completes the heroic image by dramatically resheathing his zanpakuto.

Unfortunately for Tesra, Nnoitra’s reaction to being rescued is about the same as Rukia’s when Ichigo appears in Soul Society. He rapidly distances himself both physically and emotionally from Tesra and throws his zanpakuto to Tesla’s throat before yelling at him for interfering.

One might expect that such a response would have a lowly Fraccion groveling while waiting for severe punishment; these are supposed to be heartless Arrancars, after all. Not our Tesra, though. He actually argues with Nnoitra that he only did it so nothing would happen to Nnoitra. As we find out a few chapters later, characters fight to protect their hearts. Could this by why Tesra fights?

Apparently this argument has some merit in Nnoitra’s opinion because he removes the blade from Tesra’s throat (leaving Tesla completely unharmed, one might notice). He reminds Tesra that a weakling like Chad can’t hurt him because he’s the strongest Espada. A strange comment for Nnoitra to make because, as we find out later, his rank is Fifth. Now just why is he the strongest?

No real punishment for Tesra’s disobedience, though? Why bother making a show of threatening Tesra, if not to carry out the threat? Perhaps Nnoitra has a soft spot he doesn’t want to show, or perhaps he understands the reason for Tesra’s actions.

We don’t see them again for another twenty chapters, not even when Aaroniero dies. It’s rather odd that Tesra is introduced this early in the arc. Grimmjow’s Fraccion appeared for the battle they died in, as do Barragan’s Fraccion later on. The other Fraccion don’t appear until Aaroniero dies. Is there something that sets Tesra apart?

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