Bleach Manga Chapter 346 – The Wrath

Above the roof of Hueco Mundo, Ulquiorra has released his true Arrancar form, which has enormous bat-like wings and a crown-like mask. Ulquiorra slices off the right eye part of Ichigo’s mask, noting that Ichigo’s Hollow form is stronger than before and he can maintain it for much longer. However, he insinuates that Ichigo is still no match for him. Meanwhile, Ishida is wondering about the apparently fake sky of Hueco Mundo as he gazes up at the hole Ulqiorra made. He refrains from telling Inoue that he is glad she is safe because he knows they are not safe yet. Instead, Ishida reassures her that Ichigo will win against Ulquiorra.

Back to the fight, Ichigo evades Ulquiorra direct attack, leaping back far enough to have time to fix his Hollow mask. Ulquiorra pretty much flies across and engages in a body-to-body stance. He tells Ichigo to use his Getsuga, Kurosaki’s strongest attack, only to show Ichigo how much stronger he is. Ichigo merely scoffs and boasts that he was planning to use Getsuga all along. He attacks Ulquiorra with a immense Getsuga Tensho.

Unfortunately, the Getsuga merely dissipates around Ulquiorra who laments that Ichigo is only human after all. While Ichigo stares in shock because he is unharmed, Ulquiorra notes that Getsuga is similar to his own cero. Kurosaki is disgusted at the comparison but Ulquiorra prepares his Cero Oscuras (Black Cero), covering everything in a black light.

Bleach Manga Chapter 1: The Death and The Strawberry

It is Friday, 2:23 A.M. in Karakura Town and a black clothed girl talking about spirits flies over the rooftops. The scene switches to a tall, 15 year old, orange-haired, sour-faced kid named Ichigo Kurosaki beating up a bunch of ugly skater boys. He’s angry with them for knocking over the flowers for a dead girl who had died on the corner. We then learn that Ichigo has the ability to see ghosts.

When he arrives home, we see that Ichigo has a violent-love relationship with his father, a doctor. He has two younger sisters Karin and Yuzu. In his room, he sees the same mysterious girl from the very beginning of the chapter. She doesn’t realize that Ichigo can see her. No one else but Ichigo can see the girl, who calls herself a Shinigami. The scene switches to horrific monster with a hole where its heart should be.

Back at the Kurosaki residence, Ichigo refuses to believe in the existence of shinigami. This, unfortunately, results in her using First Restraint: Obstruction on him, effectively immobilizing him. Then she demonstrates her shinigami powers once more by sending a wandering soul through Soul Burial to a place called Soul Society.

The shinigami girl decides to explain to Ichigo the science of souls. Good souls or common ghosts are called Pluses. Evil spirits are called Hollows. Ichigo comments on her horrible drawings (rabbits and bears), making her draw a French moustache on his face. As frozen Ichigo wipes his moustache on the floor, she elaborates that Shinigami must guide pluses to Soul Society through Soul Burial and also extinguish hollows.

Suddenly, Ichigo hears the roar of a hollow. The shinigami notices how she hadn’t heard its spiritual presence before. Karin is then seen, hurt, saying how a barely visible monster attacked their father and Yuzu. Ichigo, in his anger, is able to break the demon spell with mere human will, shocking the shinigami. He grabs a baseball bat and runs downstairs to face the hollow, which turns out to be an enormous monster with a black and white mask and large teeth. It moves to attack a petrified Ichigo when he notices it holding an injured Yuzu.

The hollow breaks the bat and throws Ichigo across the room and goes to make a finishing blow when the shinigami appears, slicing the hollow’s arm with her katana. The shinigami tells Ichigo that hollows eat souls with a high spiritual concentration like Ichigo. He is stricken, coming to the conclusion that his family was hurt because of him.

The hollow then flings the shinigami off to the side. Enraged, Ichigo screams a challenge at the hollow and watches foolishly as it attacks him. The shinigami saves his life by taking the blow for him and slamming her blade into its mouth at the same time. Severely injured, the shinigami gives him a proposition: that he must become a shinigami in order to save them all. She must stab him in the chest with her blade, giving him half of her power.

Hesitant at first, his resolve hardens when he sees that his family, though injured, is still worried about his well-being. Ichigo approaches the shinigami, who names herself Rukia Kuchiki. Their friendship forms as they hope that this won’t be their end. Rukia stabs Ichigo as the hollow draws near.

In a flash of light, the hollow’s arm is cut off as Ichigo appears, dressed in shinigami clothes, wielding an enormous sword. Instead of half, all of Rukia’s power was taken and that all this time, the spiritual power that was masking and distorting everything else was Ichigo’s immense power. She also notes that she’s never seen such an enormous zanpakuto (shinigami sword), which reacts in size and shape to the shinigami’s spiritual power. Ichigo destroys the hollow, leaving Rukia wondering who Ichigo truly is.