BLEACH EPISODE #3

This episode opens immediately with the battle of Ichigo and the hollow. The hollow attacks low and Ichigo jumps high, shouting “You’re mine!”, and comes down with a slash across the hollow’s mask. Rukia, off to the side, comments, “Too shallow”, referring to the fact that she didn’t think Ichigo cut deep enough. There is a silhouetted image of the hollow, and blue cracks begin to streak through it. The camera pans out, as we see the upper right quarter of the mask break off, revealing a very human-looking face…The hollow rears back in pain, and as Ichigo stares at this new revelation, the hollow disappears through a gate in the ceiling. Ichigo reveals that the face of the hollow is that of Inoue’s brother! Back on its own plane, the hollow is holding its head, shrieking in agony. Blue sparkles start to form near the cracked piece, and as the camera zooms in we see that the mask rebuilds itself. Roaring once again, the hollow is healed. Back to our heroes, Ichigo and Rukia are trying to figure out why Inoue’s brother, as a hollow, is after him. Rukia suggests that there is another, greater hollow hidden from them that wants to eat Ichigo’s spirit power, and that it is controlling these lesser hollow’s to hunt Ichigo. Ichigo immediately reacts to Rukia’s words, saying that he can’t just kill Inoue’s brother. Rukia tells him that it may be the only way to save him. Then she interrupts, stating that Inoue might still be in trouble.

Over at Inoue’s apartment, she and Tatsuki have just finished dinner, and are discussing the thought of Inoue’s green onion and sweet bean jelly dessert (she’s really strange that way). Suddenly, Inoue’s stuffed pink bear gets slashed across one ear, and falls from its place on the wall. This concerns both the girls, and as Inoue runs over to examine it further, we see her eyes get very wide.



Cut to Ichigo and Rukia roof-hopping across town to get to Inoue. Rukia explains that some hollows instinctively attack family members because, as a fallen soul, no one was present to send it to Soul Society, and it would “seek out the soul of the person it loved most in life in order to bury its lost heart.” She asks Ichigo if he remembers seeing the large bruise on Inoue’s leg earlier that afternoon, and explains that it was the mark of a hollow’s touch; possibly her brother.

Back in Inoue’s apartment, Inoue is kneeling on the ground, looking sightlessly at the wall, when something falls from above and drips onto her right hand, where she’s holding the stuffed bear. As she looks at the blackish ooze, a shadowed image of a hollow’s claw reaches right through her body, knocking her over, and knocking her soul from her body. The invisible attacker then turns on Tatsuki, sending her into the wall, and tearing open her shoulder. Confused, she looks around, and the attacker strikes again, sending her sprawling across the room. Tatsuki begins to make out a slight vapouros form in the air, and as she does, the hollow plants one hand to her right, leaving an indention on the floor, and looms over her. Across the room, Inoue, now as a spirit, can see everything that is going on, although she is still quite confused by it. She sees her body then, and looks down at the chain stemming from her heart to her body, and as she tries to make sense of it all the hollow starts crushing the life from Tatsuki. Inoue berates herself for zoning out, and throws her body into the hollow arm, freeing Tatsuki. Tatsuki scrambles backwards against a wall, and is really freaking out. Inoue is right there beside her, trying to reassure her, when the hollow tells her it’s useless. She cant her them, nor see them as they are. She asks how it knows her name, and it just replies that it is sad. So sad, it starts to reach back to strike her. As it throws forward, Orihime cowers, then looks up to see Ichigo standing over her, blocking the hollow’s strike with his sword. Ichigo taunts the hollow, saying he thought the hollow was after him. The hollow quickly retreats, and Ichigo looks over, lamenting the fact that Tatsuki got caught up in it. Inoue then asks Ichigo if it’s really him, and Ichigo is stunned that she can see him, till he notices the chain sticking from her chest to her body. He flashes back to Rukia, telling him that Death Gods are spirits, and can only be seen by other spirits. Ichigo thinks this over, as the hollow comes back to tell him he is correct: Orihime is dead. Ichigo rushes to attack the hollow, but it dodges around him, taking up Inoue’s spirit link chain and swatting Ichigo with its tail, sending him through the wall. Outside, the hollow tells Ichigo to stay back, and holds Orihime up in his hand. As Ichigo stands still, the hollow tail smacks him again, sending him hard to the ground. Rukia rushes to Ichigo, as Inoue squirms, concerned for Ichigo and wanting to escape. The hollow asks her why she has forgotten him, and as she looks into the eyes behind the mask, she realizes it’s her brother. Outside, Rukia gets Ichigo conscious, and asks him where he’s hurt. He says nowhere, although it is obvious he is bleeding quite a bit from his forehead. Rukia accepts his answer, and tells him that even if that hollow was Orihime’s brother, he’s a monster now, and needs to be destroyed.

Back inside, the hollow has put Inoue down, and tells her that it really is him. She says that her brother wouldn’t act like this, to which he replies that he’s just so lonely, and he’s been watching her forget about him, slowly. They flash back, to a younger Orihime, praying at a shrine to her brother. He says that he watched her there everyday, but then she became friends with Tatsuki, and she stopped praying as much, then went into high school, and stopped praying for him completely. He then tells him that she needs to obey him, if she ever loved him at all, and that he would be right back after he eats Ichigo. As he starts to leave, Orihime yells at him that he shouldn’t do this, that Ichigo isn’t part of this, to which he grabs her, and tells her its all her fault anyway.

Ichigo then comes in through the window, stabbing the hollow in the tail, repeatedly. The hollow writhes in agony, the darts forward to grab Orihime, but Ichigo is already there, and slashes off the hollow’s hand. As he checks on Orihime, he asks the hollow if he knows why brothers are born first: to protect the little sisters and brothers being born later. He continues, saying a big brother can never tell his little sister “I’ll kill you”, even if it costs your own life. The hollow says she belongs to him, since he raised her in place of the parents that abandoned them both. He’s always protected her, and asks Orihime if she goes with him, he will spare the others. Rukia interrupts, telling Inoue that this hollow no longer has the heart of her brother, and it’s a trap. The hollow flashes back on memories of raising Inoue, and then makes the decision that she does belong to him, and attacks Ichigo, teeth first. Ichigo blocks with his huge soul slayer, then the hollow leaves out the hole in the wall. Ichigo follows, jumping out the window. Rukia yells after him as he hesitates, and the hollow spits some green acidic stuff at Ichigo’s hand, causing him to drop his sword, and then swats him to the ground. The hollow swoops in to finish him off, and it looks like the end for Ichigo. But he is still standing, and as he looks over, he sees that Inoue stepped in front of him, and took the hollows bite herself in the shoulder. The hollow immediately stops, and Inoue apologizes, saying it is her fault, because the told him not to leave her alone the day he died. That’s why he couldn’t go to heaven. She said she always knew he was there, and even realized that he saved her from being hit by a car earlier, which led to that bruise on her leg. Ichigo and Rukia stand by, waiting, as Orihime explains that she just wanted her brother to know that she was happy, and that he didn’t need to worry. Then she drops to the ground, and the hollow rages against his conscience, causing his mask to fluctuate. Rukia says to Ichigo that he is struggling against the hollow within him, and that he didn’t become a hollow because he wanted to, but because others made him. She explains that powerful hollows use this technique to find souls that make it harder for those Death Gods, in this case Ichigo, to fight. The hollow shatters his mask, revealing Inoue’s brother’s face, right before Inoue passes out. Her brother and Ichigo both rush to her, but Rukia calls them back, stating that as long as she has that soul chain connected to her body, she won’t die. Rukia then uses her demon magic to heal her, and Inoue’s barrettes start to react to it. Ichigo tells the hollow he knows that they were a gift from him, and that Orihime told him that’s why she wears them everyday. The hollow walks away, grabs Ichigo’s soul slayer, and prepares to end his own life. Ichigo goes to stop him, but Rukia holds him back, saying that he needs to do this. When they kill hollows, it doesn’t mean they are destroyed; it frees their soul from sin and lets them ascend to Soul Society. That’s the job of a Death God, and why they exist. As Ichigo looks over, Inoue’s brother nods, and prepares to take his life. Then Inoue tells him to wait a moment. She explains that the day he bought those for her, she got mad because she thought they were childish. She didn’t say anything to him as he left for work that day, and that was the day he died. She ends it by telling him, finally, “See you later”, like she should have. He responds in kind, and drives the sword home, dissipating into a whirl of glowing fragments. Inoue begins to cry, and Rukia reaches out to her.

The next morning, Inoue is at school trying to tell her friends that a sumo champion really did come to her home and blow a hole in her wall with a gun. Nobody believes her, though, and it fades back a bit to Ichigo and Rukia, and they fade to the memory of what happened after the battle, where Rukia used this smoke on Inoue, with replaced her memory of the real events with made up ones. The memory being random was the wild card, but Rukia was sure it wouldn’t be so bad…. Ichigo asks her if she used that on his family too, and she says yes. Then she looks at Ichigo, who falls silent, and asks him what is wrong. He says that he’s not quite sure he’s ready for all this. He doesn’t know if he’s ready to lay down his life for people he doesn’t know, but he knows he can’t just stand idly by. So he agrees to help Rukia with her Death God work, and the deal is made.

End Episode