Bleached Ichigo

Bleach Manga Chapter 2: Starter

Ichigo has a nightmare about the previous night and is awakened by a jumping kick from his father. To his surprise, no one is injured and everyone seems to believe a runaway truck caused the hole in their wall. Ichigo decides it must be Rukia;s doing and heads to school.

At Karakura High School, a day dreaming Orihime Inoue is teased by her friend Tatsuki Arisawa for thinking about Ichigo all the time. They here from Ichigo’s friend, Mizuiro Kojim, that he may be late because of the incident at his house. Ichigo does show up for class, but as he sits down he is greeted by Rukia who is sitting next to him and wearing their school uniform.

Later, Ichigo takes Rukia to a secluded place to ask what is going on. She reveals that she can’t return to Soul Society because Ichigo took away her Shinigami powers. In the mean time, she is residing inside this gekkai (artificial human body) until her powers recover. She asks Ichigo to taker over her Shinigami duties for the time being, but he immediately refuses.

Rukia puts on a special glove and forcefully removes Ichigo’s soul from his body. He brings Ichigo to a small park and tells Ichigo that her orders from Soul Society say a Hollow will appear soon. Right on cue, a spider-like Hollow appears and attacks the ghost of a young child who resides in the park.

Ichigo instinctively grabs his Zanpakutou to save the child, but Rukia tells him to stop. She tells Ichigo he can’t just use his Shinigami powers to help only those in front of him; it is a Shinigami’s duty to treat all souls equally and put their lives on the line to protect them. Ichigo pulls out his Zanpakutou and easily defeats the Hollow, but he tells Rukia it doesn’t mean he has accepted to become a Shinigami. However, Ichigo is also not someone who would leave his debts unpaid. He agrees to help Rukia as a substitute Shinigami.