Bleach: Meet Boney and Lumpy – The Two Monsters Fighting with Yachiru

Yachiru Kusajishi from Bleach is the well-known Lieutenant of Kenpachi’s 11th Division. This small, pink-haired girl was both exceptionally funny and strong, as she showed – on more than one occasion – that she was able to pack a punch. Her fight with Guenael Lee was a great illustration of that, but as fans of the series will know, Yachiru had some help in that battle, as she was assisted by two intriguing monsters – Lumpey and Boney. In this article, we are going to introduce them to you and tell you who they actually are.

Boney, the larger monster that looks like a Hollow, and Lumpy, the small chubby monster, are two manifestations of Yachiru’s Shikai, Sanpo Kenju. The three-step Shikai involved Yachiru summoning these two monsters to help her fight. And while they attack almost simultaneously, the monsters attack at a slightly different time – Lumpy attacks one moment before Yachiru and Boney a moment after. This makes it difficult, if not completely impossible, to dodge Yachiru’s attack, as not many people can actually dodge three almost simultaneous attacks by someone. Lumpy and Boney both carry weapons of their own, while Yachiru’s Zanpakuto remains the same. This is what makes Yachiru’s Shikai unique.

The rest of this article will tell you about Yachiru Kusajishi and her Shikai, Sanpo Kenjū, focusing on Lumpey and Boney. We are going to tell you about the Shikai, what its powers and abilities are, especially its individual techniques, and we are going to tell you how it evolved from the original version we saw at the beginning of the series to the true version of the Shikai that we saw in Yachiru’s fight against Gremmy and his visions. The article will contain a fair amount of spoilers, so we have to warn you about that so that you know how to approach it.

Lumpey and Boney are two monsters, but not much is known about them and their nature

This story will be focused on Yachiru’s Shikai, so before we tell you what we know about Lumpey and Boney, we will tell you about Yachiru’s Shikai. As you probably know by now, her Zanpakuto’s name is Sanpo Kenjū, which literally means “Three-Step Monster,” and it makes sense knowing how it manifests. But, more on that in a moment. We have to state here that Yachiru’s Shikai is exceptionally strange and, as Isane said, seemingly unique.

The first oddity about Yachiru’s Shikai is that it has never been observed in the series before, but she appears to be able to discharge it without any release command (she does say, “Come out, Sanpo Kenju,” but it is unknown if it is a command or just a simple phrase). Uncertainty surrounds whether this was merely Kubo’s oversight or a specific quality of Yachiru’s Shikai, but given how exceptional Yachiru is, it wouldn’t come as a surprise to us.

So, how is Yachiru’s Shikai actually manifested? Interestingly enough, she summons two monsters from her Zanpakuto, which stays the same and doesn’t change its form, to help her in combat. And, as you might assume, the two monsters in question are Boney, a sizable, hollow-like creature, and Lumpy, a little, chubby monster coated in yellow fur. When Yachiru launches her attack, the two of them nearly immediately follow suit because they each have their own weapons.

Not much is known about them or their nature. The fact that she can summon two monsters without changing her Zanpakuto was described as unique and as something never heard of before in Soul Society.

This was confirmed by Isane Kotetsu, who said that such a release was unheard of, both because it produced two creatures at once and because the blade remained unchanged (for example, Unohana’s Shikai, Minazuki, produced a creature, but it produced only one and the creature was actually the transformed blade, which disappeared at that moment), which adds yet another layer to Yachiru’s story.

As said, Unohana’s Shikai, Minazuki, also produced a monster, but her Zanpakuto disappeared, i.e., it became Minazuki. The same thing happens to Byakuya’s Senbonzakura, while Komamura’s Shikai is not really comparable to this case.

This is why we actually don’t know what they are. With Yachiru being a fragment of Nozarashi’s full powers, it doesn’t seem too strange that she was able to develop a distinct Shikai, but where Lumpy and Boney come from and that they are is unknown. It is also unknown how sentient they are, although they do not seem to be “clones” of Yachiru in that aspect.

They are probably manifestations of her imagination and are made of Reishi, but this is simply a guess on our side. Also, their design is a question of debate, as it is now known why Boney looks a lot like a Hollow or something that came out of Hueco Mundo (or even Hell), while Lumpy just looks like a cute, chubby monster. They do not seem to be able to speak.

But the two of them are quite powerful, and together with Yachiru’s power, they make a very dangerous combination. As we have said, both Lumpy and Boney have weapons of their own (Lumpy has an axe-like blade, while Boney has a strangely shaped sword), and their attacks are powerful and dangerous. Because their shared attack – despite being seemingly simultaneous – actually consists of three steps, the Shikai is called Sanpo Kenju, i.e., “Three-Step Monster.” So, how does this work?

We’ve seen how Yachiru’s Shikai works during her fight with Guenael Lee. As we have said, the attack seems simultaneous, but it actually is not and consists, as we have said, of three steps, with each of the three attackers attacking at a slightly different time. The three-step technique is so-called because one of them attacks before Yachiru, and the other does so after her, making it nearly impossible to avoid both of their attacks at once. It is also very challenging to avoid three nearly simultaneous attacks. On top of that, these attacks have a lot of punch and are quite damaging, which isn’t surprising given how strong Yachiru was and how strong her Reiatsu was (and also makes sense given her true nature).

So, as you can see, Lumpy, Boney, and Yachiru make a very dangerous trio. They are able to pack a punch, as the destructive power of their three-step attack is enough to slice someone in half (they would have succeeded in doing that to Guenael Lee had he not used his Vanishing Slider technique to avoid that attack, but he still ended up with his nose sliced, i.e., with a serious injury to his face).

And this is, sadly, all we know about Lumpy and Boney, which is sad, as they were quite interesting characters. It would have been fun to explore their relationship with Yachiru in more detail, especially after seeing their cute little victory dance. But, due to the final saga being a bit rushed, we don’t have more information for you now.