Bleach Episode 6: Fight to the Death! Ichigo vs. Ichigo is the final episode for the day according to my Bleach 67-Day Watch Plan. I have been really enjoying my rewatch and putting together these posts. I am currently rewatching the anime so that I shall be prepared for the final arc that is coming our way, the Thousand Year Blood War.

Arc: Agent of the Shinigami arc / Manga Chapter: 13-15

What happens in Bleach episode six

Rukia is running out of something and seems to be having difficulty with her gigai. Ichigo goes to give Rukia some breakfast but notices she is not in his closet. Isshin Kurosaki, Ichigo’s dad, starts to insist there is only one reason why his teen son would barricade himself in his room, after listening to Yuzu and Karin chat about Ichigo’s change in behaviour. Annoyed, Ichigo starts to rough-house with his dad.

Ururu Tsumugiya, and Jinta Hanakari are outside of the Urahara Shop when Rukia arrives. They let her in and she bought a couple of things from Kisuke Urahara. Urahara cautions Rukia about a few of the items she is buying – as taking too many can be toxic in the long run. Rukia says she does not have much choice, since it is becoming difficult to move around in the gigai. She follows up on an item that she has ordered, and Kisuke sends Ururu into the back of the shop to collect the item.

Rukia gets to school late and asks if she can borrow Ichigo for a moment, punches him in the stomach and drags him out of the class. Once they are alone, Rukia gives Ichigo a Gikongan, explaining that when he swallows one of the pills, an artificial soul that will force a regular soul out of its body and take its place. This way, he can switch to his soul reaper form even when she is not around. After embarrassing Rukia a little, Ichigo admits that he did not understand her explanation. Ichigo then takes one of the pills and is upset at the politeness of the substitute soul. At that moment, Rukia gets a notification for a hollow, so they decide to leave the substitute soul in Ichigo’s body while they go deal with the hollow. Ichigo is not happy with this decision.

Meanwhile, Kisuke Urahara discovers that Ururu has given Rukia the wrong product—a defective good. Jinta bullies her about this mishap. Tessai Tsukabishi points out that this particular defective good could cause trouble. Kisuke decides that he and his staff/team will need to go and retrieve the product. Straight afterwards, we see Ichigo’s body stretching and causing some property damage. After leaving a shocked groundskeeper behind, the substitute soul leaps up to Ichigo’s classroom window, which is on an upper floor. While fighting a nameless hollow, Ichigo expresses that he is getting a bad feeling and wants to rush back to school.

Ichigo’s classmates are shocked at the way he enters the classroom. The substitute soul eyes out the girls in the class and narrows in on Orihime and her *coughs* super-size assets. He instantly starts to flirt with her. Tatsuki pulls him off of Orihime, just for him to flirt with her too. Ichigo and Rukia hear a loud commotion from the school and see a school desk thrown out of their classroom window. Ichigo and Rukia rush to the class to do damage control.

The substitute soul in Ichigo’s body and Ichigo start to fight. Well, the substitute kicks Ichigo repeatedly. All that the classmates can see is Ichigo kicking randomly at nothing. He then jumps out of the window, leaving Ichigo and Rukia behind. Rukia starts getting suspicious over what could be wrong with the substitute soul, that he is a mod-soul.

After losing track of the mod-soul, Ichigo asks Rukia to explain what that means. Rukia explains that the Soul Society had a plan to put artificial souls into dead bodies to fight against hollows. Each of the selected souls had been altered so that they would have enhanced abilities. The project had been rejected after it was deemed uncouth and that the mod-souls had to be destroyed. Ichigo feels pity for the mod-souls because they were to be destroyed for being exactly what they had been made to be. 

The mod-soul is enjoying its freedom in Ichigo’s body and comes across a group of kids playing games on mobile video game consoles and gets upset at their conversation over deleting a character and starting over. Considering his own past, this triggers the mod-soul and he goes to attack the kids. Ichigo makes it just in time and saves the boys.

Memorable moment of the episode:

The substitute soul flirting with Orihime in Ichigo’s body was pretty fun and Tatsuki destroys the classroom while trying to beat up Ichigo due to the resulting actions. Ichigo worried about his reputation being ruined.

Fights in this episode:

• Ichigo vs random hollow (complete)
• Ichigo vs Substitute Soul