Kurikara's sitting on the table was a little odd, but no more peculiar than half the habits of the shinigami he knew. He took another bite of his noodles as he pondered how best to talk about Hyorinmaru. With anyone else he would have made some comment about his reference to Hitsugaya as a 'boy,' but this dragon had earned it. He probably called everyone 'boy' or 'kid.'

"Hyorinmaru is...well, no one's exactly sure what they are. A shinigami's zanpakuto is part of his spirit, but it's more than that, too. It has its own personality, own strengths and weaknesses. And while a shinigami can always use his zanpakuto, it takes a long time to even learn its name. Longer still to learn how to borrow the zanpakuto's strength and fight together with it. Very few learn how to actually master the zanpakuto's spirit."

He ate another forkfull of plain noodles and swallowed before continuing. "Hyorinmaru is a dragon. When I travel to its spirit world, or when I make it manifest in the real world, it takes the form of an ice wyrm. When I release its power, it takes the form of a dragon. It's considered to be the most powerful ice-type elemental zanpakuto."

He shrugged. "Dragons don't exist in my world. The closest you'd ever see is in my bankai."