Bleach Portal

Episode 11 - The Legendary Quincy

For a few milliseconds, we see a top view of Karakura High School. Silence. Then, suddenly, Boom! And the scene switches to Kagine Sensei, looking very annoyed and surrounded by flames. "Absolutely UNBELIEVABLE!" he says. The 7 "offenders" each have a different expression on them. Chad has his arms folded across his chest, Mizuiro looks slightly confused, Kiego with the word "guilt" written all over his face (actually, he looks constipated, if anything), Ichigo looking like he can't be bothered, Rukia looking at the floor with an apologetic look, Inoue with a slightly scared face and lastly Tatsuki looking annoyed and confused at the same time. Kagine sensei raises a remote control and turns on the TV. Now we see another very familiar face... Don Kanonji going "Bwahahahaha..." and then Ichigo running in the direction of the camera, security hot on his heels. A shadow over shrouds Ichigo and he subsequently gets squashed under the security guards. Kagine sensei is complaining that this video was broadcast all over the country - that is to say, Ichigo has shamed the high school greatly. He grabs Ichigo's lapels, only relaxing when Tatsuki asks why she and Inoue are there, since only Ichigo and Rukia were on TV. Kagine sensei replies that this is because they were there with Ichigo and Rukia. Ichigo comments that Tatsuki is just trying to save her own skin, to which Tatsuki makes a face. She and Inoue then make a move, and Kiego tries to follow suit, but is stopped by Kagine sensei, who says that he was guilty for being there and not stopping Ichigo.

Timidly, Kiego asks, "What's the big deal?" After all, Ichigo just appeared on TV. Kagine sensei explodes and gives Kiego a lecture. Rukia, her eyes brimming with tears, apologizes, claims that this is all her fault, causing Kagine sensei to release his grip on Kiego's shirt. She explains that she was "unable to stop Kurosaki-kun, who got so excited he tried to get on TV". Kagine sensei drops Kiego altogether and rushes to Rukia's side to try and comfort her, telling her that is wasn't her fault. Chad, Ichigo, Kiego and Mizuiro take this opportunity to escape via the open window, as Rukia continues her acting. Just as they were getting out, the 4 boys were spotted by Kagine sensei out of the corner of his eye, and they try to run, desperately. Kagine sensei calls after them to stop, but to no avail. He turns around, only to find that Rukia has disappeared as well! "Principal!" he cries. The principal does not seem to care much, telling Kagine sensei that he needn't scold them for appearing on TV. Kagine sensei begins to cry in disbelief...

"All's well that ends well! It's all thanks to you, Kuchiki-san!" exclaims Kiego as the 7 of them are walking together. Rukia, as always, acts flattered as Ichigo is annoyed and tells Kiego not to praise Rukia, since she had tried to push the blame on to him. Tatsuki tells him that thanks to Rukia's acting, he was able to escape. Rukia now acts high and mighty, just as the phone in her pocket beeps. Ichigo makes a face as Rukia says that she has to speak with him, then the two run off, leaving Tatsuki, Inoue, Chad, Kiego and Mizuiro staring after them. Inoue wonders if Ichigo and Rukia are a couple, which Kiego thinks is impossible. But, as Tatsuki says, something is very suspicious... Chad looks up at an upper storey window, at a shadow that appears to be looking down at the group. The person wears a blue and gold stripped tie and walks away, probably because Chad had noticed him. "Huh?" wonders Chad, but the scene changes just at this moment.

There is a fat man in glasses and pyjama-looking attire, shivering and cowering in a corner. Ichigo, in his Shinigami get-up appears annoyed as he does not see any hollows anywhere. Rukia, flanking him, looks at her phone, confused. Ichigo approaches the fat man (or "soul", if you please) and asks if he had destroyed the hollow. The man appears to know what a hollow looks like, but says in a trembling voice that he was scared and frightened, then promptly spouts tears and tries to embrace Ichigo. Ichigo places his foot on the man’s face, and curses. Rukia stops him, and grabbing the front of the man’s green shirt, interrogates him. To their disappointment, the man can provide no leads as to his saviour’s identity, as he had his eyes closed.

Ichigo then performs a soul burial for the man. From above, the person whom Chad had seen earlier stares down at the scene below. The reflection in his glasses show a hell butterfly fluttering past.

Now, a number of people are gathered around a list of names, of which Inoue’s is the third. Her friends all congratulate her… somewhat over-enthusiastically… Kiego, who is obviously not a nerd, says, relieved, that none of his “comrades” were in the top 50. However, Mizuiro points out the 23rd name. Surprise, surprise! Kurosaki Ichigo is the 23rd name, much to Kiego’s displeasure. Ichigo then tells him that he always goes home early and studies. Kiego expresses much dissatisfaction at this, exclaiming that he has always invited Ichigo to hang out, but has always been turned down. He then runs away while hurling various mild insults at Ichigo (nerd, deviant…). But he reappears and tries to present Ichigo with a gift of Soda Bottle Glasses, which Ichigo promptly hits and breaks. Ichigo laments that everything is tough thanks to his orange hair. Kiego now tries to present Ichigo with a headband that reads “Pass Exams”, which Ichigo cuts with a pair of scissors.

Kiego then turns his attention to Chad, thinking that Chad is not in the top 50 either. Unfortunately he is, and he is of higher ranking than Ichigo, too! 11th place is Sado Yasutora! Kiego and Mizuiro now run away, this time for good. Ichigo wonders who the top-ranked person is. It is “Ishida Amatetsu”, whom he has never heard of. Inoue tells him that it is actually Ishida Uryuu-kun, from their class. Evidently, Ichigo cannot remember faces to save lives, as Tatsuki had pointed out!

Rukia is attempting to call Urahara, who is not answering the phone. Rukia scolds him over his answering machine, saying that when she needs him he isn’t there, but yet when she doesn’t need him, he appears. Just then, the command receiver beeps and she runs off to find Ichigo. She finds him speaking with Chad, Mizuiro and Kiego, and drags him away. This leads Kiego to think that Rukia is “too forward”, and Miziro to think they are seriously dating.

As Rukia and Ichigo run off, Ichigo brushes shoulders with a student with glasses similar to those worn by the man Chad had seen as well as the one that had been silently observing Ichigo’s most recent soul burial….

However, Ichigo and Rukia once again find no hollow where one was supposed to be, much to Ichigo’s annoyance. They have a slight quarrel, and are interrupted by the appearance of the student they had seen earlier, who greets them and informs them of the appearance of a new hollow, and is even able to tell them which direction it is. We are able to see a sort of crucifix bracelet on his wrist. He asks Ichigo and Rukia how they call themselves Shinigami if they don’t even know that.

The crucifix begins to glow, and after a series of flashes, the man now has a bow in his hand, which he then uses to shoot the hollow. He now introduces himself as Ishida Uryuu, a Quincy (meaning Destroyer), a hater of shinigamis, and thus, he hates Ichigo.

Ichigo is pissed by the whole episode and tries to remember Ishida’s name. “Ishida… um… Willy…” he makes a wild guess, just as Inoue suddenly appears next to him and tells him Ishida’s proper name and also reveals that he is in the same Handicrafts Club as her, while striking a weird pose (Ichigo is doing the same weird thing). Ichigo is shocked to hear that Ishida is from the Handicrafts Club, and as the two spy from the door of the classroom, they see a girl, Michiru-chan, bring her stuff animal to Ishida to be fixed (it’s arm is coming off), which he does in a flash. Ichigo is rather amazed and then walks off after lying to Inoue that there was nothing between Ishida and himself.

The scene switches to Ishida, who is walking up the steps. He stops suddenly, and asks in that indifferent voice of his, “Are you going to follow me all the way home, Kurosaki Ichigo?”, and turns around. Ichigo emerges from behind a corner, evidently irritated that he was found out. Ishida reveals that he knew that Ichigo and Inoue had been spying at him from the classroom door that morning. He says that this is because Ichigo lets his spirit power “leak out like an idiot”, and insults Ichigo by saying that “even a monkey would notice” and says, correctly, that Ichigo lacks the power to sense others with high spirit powers, and hence has never noticed Ishida before.

Ishida tells Ichigo that he has noticed, since the day Ichigo transferred to Karakura High School, the inordinate height of Ichigo’s spirit power, and even that Ichigo obtained Shinigami powers around mid-May as well as Rukia’s true identity. He then shows Ichigo his spirit threads, and explains what spirit threads are. Subsequently, he pulls out one of Ichigo’s spirit threads, which is red and not white like his own. He informs Ichigo that a Shinigami’s spirit threads are red, something which Ichigo obviously wasn’t aware of. Now, he challenges Ichigo to a fight to let Ichigo see which of them the superior one is, and that Shinigamis are unnecessary in the world.

The scene cuts to Urahara Store, where Jinta and Ururu are playing Jan-Ken-Go! The outcome decides who cleans up that day. Since Jinta lost, Ururu happily passes the broom to him to clean up with. However, Jinta is a sore loser, and says that it was supposed to be “two out of three”. Ururu begins to protest, but Jinta bullies her by rubbing his knuckles against her temple, slowly at first then almost drilling his fists into her head. He is caught by Tessai, who raises him 3 metres in the air and asks in a terrifyingly low voice, “What might you be doing, eh, Jinta-dono?”.

Rukia appears and literally, kicks Tessai’s ass, which is obviously extremely hard. Tessai turns and looks at his assailant, who is squatting and holding her foot in pain. She asks if Urahara is around, which he is. Urahara feigns ignorance, saying “Need somethin’?” and so is hit by Rukia, who complains about him not answering her calls. Jinta asks where Ichigo is, then says that it doesn’t matter since he doesn’t like Ichigo anyway.

The scene moves back to Ichigo and Ishida. Ichigo thinks that the challenge put against him by Ishida is stupid, and Ishida takes this as a sign that Ichigo is running away. He then states the facts, that Ichigo is only a temporary Shinigami who had obtained his powers from Rukia, and that he is unable to lift a finger without her permission.

It cuts back to Rukia in Urahara’s store, where she appears to be telling him about the Quincy, Ishida. Urahara and Tessai express shock as both have not heard the word for a long time (200 years, says Tessai). Urahara then explains what the Quincys were. Basically, an anti-demon clan honed for anti-Hollow combat scattered over the globe that was destroyed over 200 years ago. He also speaks of the beginnings of Quincys, which is in a nutshell, people with high spirit powers training to stand against Hollows, similar to Shinigamis. However, Quincys do not purify Hollows like Shinigamis do, but rather, kill the Hollows as they see no reason is sending something that has murdered friends or family to Soul Society. However, because of this way of thinking, they were eventually destroyed.

It goes back to Ishida and Ichigo. Ichigo accepts Ishida’s challenge, opens his bag and takes out Kon who is complaining about having been stuffed into Ichigo’s bag. Ichigo tells him that they were switching, and follows by digging his finger into Kon and extracting the Soul Candy and swallowing it. He tells Kon, who is now in his body, to watch him “pound this guy concave”. Kon runs away with Ichigo’s bag and the stuffed toy. Ichigo asks Ishida to explain the rules of the match, and the episode ends with both looking determined and pleased with themselves.

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