Gilga, Nnoitra

ノイトラ・ジルガ

Nnoitra is the fifth Espada, marked by the "5" tattoo on his tongue. He is an exceptionally tall and slender arrancar, towering over Yasutora Sado by at least a foot (even when leaning forward). He has long black hair and almost always wears a wide grin that exposes his upper teeth. He wears an eyepatch, three bracelets on each wrist, and his arrancar uniform features an exaggerated, spoon-shaped hood; however, in the past, it had only a standard collar and his hair was just above shoulder length. The remnants of his hollow mask and hole are not visible.
Nnoitra appears rude and lecherous, emphasized by his snake-like eye and his nickname for Orihime Inoue, "pet-sama". He even asks Ulquiorra how far he has progressed with Orihime's "training", prompting Ulquiorra to turn away and call him disgusting. Flashbacks to his time as the 8th Espada show him to be a staunch believer in male chauvinism, as he constantly attempted to ensure that women deemed stronger than men, such as Nel Tu, were assigned to more "appropriate" inferior ranks. Although he initially seems very sadistic, he has no desire to kill those he views as weaklings because doing so does not help prove that he is the strongest Espada, a fact he is quite concerned with establishing. However, he has no issue fighting strong opponents who are injured and exhausted, a trait that both Ichigo and Grimmjow berate him for.
Despite his resentment toward females, he is not entirely emotionless regarding his subordinates. When his subordinate Tesla engages Kenpachi Zaraki, he screams for Tesla to retreat before Tesla is killed. However, the prospect of a new battle quickly erases this feeling from his mind.
His zanpakutō, Santa Teresa, takes the form of a giant axe-like weapon bearing two crescent moon blades fused together at their backs. Several flashbacks reveal that it used to have only one crescent. Upon release, Nnoitra gains two additional pairs of arms, and each of his hands acquires an identical scythe-like weapon. In his released state, Nnoitra's wounds heal almost instantly, and he can also regenerate severed limbs.
Nnoitra is drawn to the site of the battle between Ichigo Kurosaki and Grimmjow Jeagerjaques. While he tortures the exhausted Ichigo, his former companion Neliel Tu Oderschvank returns in what is revealed to be her adult form and attacks Nnoitra to protect Ichigo. Although she nearly defeats him once again, her amnesia returns and she is left at his mercy. Kenpachi Zaraki soon arrives to assist them, and he and Nnoitra exchange increasingly devastating blows, each finding great enjoyment in the fact that they can survive one another's attacks and thus prolong the battle. After a long and destructive fight, Nnoitra dies what he believes to be a "warrior's death"; his life ends a split second before his body hits the ground.