BLEACH EPISODE #103

Yoshi manages to defend herself in time from Ishida’s surprise shot, and heads back to finish him off. Ishida is unfortunately having trouble both controlling his aim and the power of his shots. Since he continues to think that this is a meaningless fight, Yoshi decides to tell him that she wasn’t looking for meaning in the first place - she just wanted to destroy things. She then rushes forward and slices into his shoulder and starts to kick him around. Ishida struggles back up, so Yoshi activates her sword form to finish him off. Meanwhile, Commander Yamamoto is getting an update from Captains Kyouraku, Unohana, and Komamura about the current situation, including what Ichigo told them about Kariya getting the Joukaishou. But for now, he still wants them to go after the intruders. At that time, Kariya is also filling Koga in on the Joukaishou. Koga doesn’t think that Kariya needs to go so far and is worried about how their allies’ spiritual powers have already disappeared. He can’t see the meaning to everyone dying, and because Kariya is ok with that, Koga gets angry. He slams his leader into the wall, but crumbles to the ground when Kariya answers with a quick strike to his gut. Kariya then walks off after giving a bleeding Koga his thanks helping him for so long.

Back in the fight against Yoshi, Ishida readies his bow again, remembering what his grandfather taught him about justice and his heart. He releases his arrow, but since Yoshi easy bats it away, he tries again. This next one doesn’t even reach her before it fades away, though Yoshi gets a big surprise when an instant second shot is fired after she lowers her defenses. But because Ishida’s aim is still off, it harmlessly sails over her shoulder. Though at first shocked at that second shot, Ishida begins to realize what he did and tries for it again. This time, he times the second shot so that it fires right as Yoshi is switching between forms and manages to hit her at point blank, right in the chest. Ishida explains to the wounded Yoshi that since she has to transition between her offensive and defensive forms, he can catch her off guard in the time lag in between. After defeated Yoshi falls to the ground and dies, Ishida also falls to his knees because of his wounds. By this time, Captain Kyouraku has gone and found Captain Ukitake in the library researching materials. The book Ukitake is currently holding gives an outline on the Joukaishou and is written by Rantao. He figures out that she broke up the information and hid it in different books, so he conscripts Kyouraku to help him look through them all.



A wounded Ishida is meanwhile stumbling his way through Seireitei when he starts to get visions of his grandfather. The vision tells him that he’s reached his limits after working so hard and should now rest, but Ishida resists because he’s still got more to do. In response, his grandfather explains that a desire for revenge can make a person’s heart firm, but there are times when going too far with stubbornness dulls the sword. Soon after his grandfather disappears, Ishida notices Ichigo and Sado approaching. He tells them about somehow beating Yoshi, and Ichigo fills him in about Kariya getting ready to blow up Seireitei. Ichigo understands that Ishida wants to go along to stop Kariya, but he insists on getting Ishida medical treatment first. As night falls on Seireitei, Koga is repairing his wound with spirit particles. Once that’s done, he gets back on his feet and goes off to find Kariya, believing that there’s no need to destroy Seireitei. The first group of Shinigami he meets up with attacks him, but he’s able to easily handle them all with Daruku. Having been informed of the situation, Hitsugaya and Rangiku are on their way towards a confrontation with Koga.

The thing I want to know why Yoshi just didn’t regenerate that wound. I thought the whole point of the Bount being so scary in Seireitei was because of that ability. It makes sense the ways that Mabashi and Sawatari died because those were both related to poison. However, Yoshi just took a shot to the chest that could have easily been fixed with some spirit particles, just like she did in episode 93. Aside from not understanding that though, I enjoyed the episode. In terms of story progression, it was good to see another Bount die, leaving just two now. Of those two, I had suspected that Koga wouldn’t be really evil since they portrayed him as sort of a father figure in episode 83. The question is whether Koga even be able to attempt to stop Kariya again, or if Hitsugaya or Rangiku will defeat him first. I guess we’ll find out next week.

To be continued...