Bleach's combat system is built largely around soul-cutting swords, or Zanpakuto, and it is mainly black-robed Soul Reapers who wield them in battle. However, the power of the Hogyoku granted Soul Reaper powers to unmasked Hollows, or Arrancars, complete with Zanpakuto. One of the most remarkable of these Arrancar Zanpakuto is Brujeria, which belongs to the 7th Espada, Zommari Rureaux.
Zommari's Zanpakuto was used in only one fight, but in that time, Brujeria proved itself an incredible powerhouse. If it weren't for Zommari's tragic hubris as a frustrated Arrancar, Brujeria could have brought him victory time and again. Its powers are unlike anything else in Bleach.
How Zommari's Zanpakuto, Brujeria, Works
Arrancar Zanpakuto vary widely in shape and size, and relatively few of them look like regular katana. Brujeria, when sealed, resembles a regular katana and can be wielded as such, with a cutting edge sharp enough to even slice through a Captain like Byakuya Kuchiki if it can catch him. That, paired with Zommari's unmatched speed with the Sonido technique, makes Brujeria's base form deadly already.
When Zommari releases the true power of Brujeria, the sword vanishes and Zommari assumes a new form, with his lower body taking on a pumpkin-like shape covered in one-eyed faces, while his upper body is coated with thick skin covered in even more eyes. Zommari doesn't move around much while Brujeria's true form is active, but he hardly even needs to. At will, Zommari can activate any of his eyes to take total control of anything it sees. Usually, this power seizes control of a single limb on the target's body, but if an eye sees the enemy's head, then the enemy's entire body will fall under Zommari's control. This ability affects only the body, not the mind, as the victim can still think and speak on their own accord even while being controlled like a puppet.
Zommari's body has 50 eyes in total, and against a single foe, more than enough to take control of an adversary's entire body, even if the head isn't affected. Victims have a black sunburst tattoo placed on the affected body part, marking them as Zommari's subjects until Zommari either re-seals Brujeria or dies. However, Brujeria's eye-based abilities are similar to kido spells, and can be blocked by spells like Danku, which can block lower-level kido. For defense, Zommari can retreat into his lower body and harden it, a technique he calls "El Embrion." It's tough enough to endure an attack from a Soul Reaper's Bankai, but isn't indestructible.
Brujeria's Role In Bleach
Zommari appeared partway through Bleach's Hueco Mundo arc, arriving in Aaroniero Arurruerie's palace and spotting an unconscious Rukia. He intended to behead her with Brujeria until Captain Byakuya Kuchiki arrived and challenged him. At first, they fought in a clash of sealed Zanpakuto, until Zommari released Brujeria to gain an edge Zommari's powers were quick enough to keep up with Byakuya's flash step and seize half of his limbs. To get around this, Byakuya sliced his own tendons, and to his credit, was still able to keep up despite these self-inflicted injuries. However, Zommari soon found another angle.
With his attention accidentally drawn to Rukia, Zommari used Brujeria to mark Rukia's head, taking control of her entire unconscious body. Zommari even threatened to make Rukia behead herself with her Zanpakuto to pressure Byakuya into surrendering, but it didn't work. Byakuya used Riku Jokoro, his signature kido spell, to lock Rukia in place, then activated his Bankai, Senbonzakura Kageyoshi, to go on the offensive. Zommari protected himself with El Embrion, but was still badly hurt, and had no way to take control of Senbonzakura's 100 million blades. Byakuya used Danku to block Zommari's last-ditch attack with the eight eyes on his forehead, then held Zommari at swordpoint. Zommari cried out praise to Aizen as Byakuya struck him down for good, ending Brujeria's spell at last.
