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Episode 12 - The Gentle Right Arm

Episode 12 starts off with an aerial view of where Ishida and Ichigo are. Behind Shinigami Ichigo is the empty stuffed-toy Kon and Kon in Ichigo’s body. Ichigo asks Ishida to explain to him the rules of the match (Ishida earlier challenged him to one). Ishida remains silent, but reaches into his breast pocket and takes out a flat, circular object. He holds it between his thumb and forefinger as Ichigo looks puzzled and asks what it is. Ishida tells him that it is anti-Hollow bait, which when broken and scattered would attract Hollows. Ichigo is shocked, but Ishida continues to tell him that the one who is able to beat the most Hollows within 24 hours would be the winner.

Ichigo does not wish to fight this way, as he is afraid of getting the townspeople involved. Ishida tells him to shut up, claiming that he will kill every last Hollow. He goes on to say that if Ichigo is confident of being able to protect the people from the Hollows, then he should be able to accept the challenge.

With that, he shatters the anti-Hollow bait, and a rumbling noise sounds, getting louder. Kon is a bit scared and as Ichigo is looking at the sky, a black circle appears, then “grows” hands. It’s a Hollow that looks like a triceratops. As it lets out a loud roar, Ishida’s arrow hits a bull’s eye – the Hollow’s mouth. The flash of the arrow as well as the Hollow dissipate and the screen zooms in on Ishida, who with a smug look on his face and his hair blowing in the wind, says, “One down.”

Ichigo gets angry and hauls Ishida by the front of his shirt and pushes him to the floor. Ishida nonchalantly tells him he should see his face. Ichigo demands that Ishida send the Hollows back, but Ishida still looks like he couldn’t care less as he tells Ichigo that the town will soon be covered in Hollows. “The die has been cast, as it were,” he says, and asks Ichigo if there’s something he should be doing instead of attacking him, if he wants to protect as many people as possible from the Hollows. Ishida pushes Ichigo away and gets to his feet.

He reminds Ichigo that Hollows have a tendency to go after people with high spiritual power. Ichigo at first does not get the significance of this, until he remembers that Karin and Yuzu were once attacked by Hollows. He runs off to find them, trailed by Kon. This is however, not exactly what Ishida intended. He now declares that he will defeat all the Hollows, to show how weak Ichigo really is.

Ishida clenches his fist as he remembers his sensei, then extends his hand to produce his bow. He reminds himself that he hates Shinigami.

The screen changes to Tatsuki, in her martial arts uniform, leaning against the wall and sipping a drink. In the background, there appears to be a couple exchanging sweet words. It is actually two ghosts. Tatsuki is disgusted by the fact that they are petting so early, and curses the ghosts. Someone calls for Tatsuki, telling her that the break is over. She walks off in the direction of the calls, but Inoue stops her and asks if she has a minute.

Tatsuki remembers that she has almost no memories of the night she went to Orihime’s place, except that is was extremely painful and that she saw someone resembling Rukia. Initially, she had passed it off as a dream, but when she retold it to Orihime, Orihime said that she had had the exact same dream. Ever since, Tatsuki had started seeing weird things.

Presently, a ghost bothering Tatsuki gets her pissed. She tells it to stop disturbing her, then apologizes to Orihime for her odd actions, and as Orihime is about to tell Tatsuki something, they hear the sound of glass shattering. Indeed, a first floor window had just shattered. The two friends go to check out what happened, but as Tatsuki runs off, Inoue stops and looks at the sky, where a wisp of dark cloud has formed.

It appears that Karin is feeling as uneasy as Inoue. She stops short as she runs forward to kick a ball and looks up at the sky as well, ignoring the impatient calls of her friends. Urahara also looks like he senses something.

Another Hollow comes out of a dark circle in the sky, and flies towards Ichigo, who promptly slices it in half. He says that this is his third hollow, then laments that it’s late, and that she (probably Karin) is probably playing elsewhere. Ishida, on the other hand, is shooting down Hollows at an amazing rate, and has shot down more than twice what Ichigo has sliced. He lets off two shots in succession, raising his Hollow death toll to thrice of Ichigo’s, then shoots down yet another two more.

Urahara senses something and raises his head, prompting Rukia to ask what is wrong. Just then, her phone beeps and she begins to walk out of the shop, apologizing to Urahara. However, the Hollow signal is lost, and she believes that this is because Ichigo has killed it really quickly. Urahara probably knows what was truly going on, from the serious look on his normally jovial face. Rukia starts back towards Urahara to continue their conversation, but her phone beeps yet again, then stops almost as soon as it started. She believes that her phone is really broken. It begins to beep again, and she mutters to her self that it is impossible for Hollows to appear at this rate. A shocked look engulfs her puzzled face, as she stares horrified at the phone, which is showing the presence of six Hollows. She runs out of the store and looks at the black cloud in the sky, asking herself what the wildly chaotic spirit pulse could be. Urahara is still sitting there, almost as though he is planning something.

B part starts with Ichigo running frantically, but he is waylaid by three Hollows. He cuts the first, a green caterpillar-like one, horizontally into half, and the next, a red human-looking one, vertically into half. He jumps onto the second Hollow’s head and from there jumps to slice the last.

While Ichigo is running around looking for Karin, Ishida is still standing on the bridge. He draws his arrow, takes aim, and shoots.

Chad, too, is feeling the presence of something, and he stops for a while. His friends urge him to hurry up as lunchtime is almost over, and threaten to make him pay the difference. Chad is a bit taken aback and says that that is a problem. His friend agrees and tells him to come on already. Suddenly, Chad hears a rumbling sound, and this time as he looks at the sky, he sees a black cloud. He says that this bad feeling is familiar, but his thoughts are interrupted as his friend performs a flying kick, his foot landing square on Chad’s face. However, instead of Chad falling over, his friend is thrown back by the impact. Apparently, Chad does not even realize what happened, and just scratches his head. His friend gets even more impatient and tells him that his life is on the line since he has to string meals together on his meager wages.

Chad apologizes, and his friend gets him to repeat after him, “I risk my life for a bowl of food.” As his friend continues yapping at him to get a move on, something crashes right behind Chad, blowing both of his friends backwards. The two mistake it for a gas explosion, but Chad sees a figure faintly amidst the dust and dirt, and continues to stare at it. His friends want to get away quickly, but as the Hollow stands up, he pushes both of them away and tells them to run away. The Hollow attempts to punch Chad, but Chad dodges the punch in time. However, the glass display windows behind him were shattered. Chad realizes that the Hollow is after him, and decides that though he knows not what the huge thing is, he will run to somewhere where no one will get caught up in the fray.

Karin is clearly not performing well in soccer, pre-occupied by the odd feeling of the Hollow’s presence. She kicks a ball into a friend’s face, and another asks her what is with her today, since she keeps spacing out and kicking randomly. She looks at the four gathered around her and they think that she is picking a fight with them. Instead, Karin tells them that’s she is calling it a day, and subsequently, walks off, telling herself that she will take an early bath and go to bed.

Chad suddenly appears in front of her, panting from running from the Hollow. Karin remembers him as Ichigo’s friend, the “parakeet dude”. Chad, too, remembers that Karin in Ichigo’s sister, and as Karin asks Chad what he is doing there, Chad abruptly gathers her into his arms and ducks out of the Hollow’s reach. Evidently, Karin is able to see the Hollow clearly, but she does not know what it is either. Chad uses his body to shield Karin, as her friends look shocked at the scene before them. They, of course, cannot see the Hollow. All they see is a muscle man in a pink shirt hugging Karin and lots of dust and dirt kicked up behind them, as well as a strong wind coming from behind the two.

Chad wishes he were able to see the Hollow more clearly, and is shocked by the fact that Karin can actually see it, let alone very clearly. He does not realize that the Hollow has come up behind him, ready to attack. Karin sees this, and tells him to move. Karin becomes Chad’s eyes, telling him which way to dodge whilst riding on his back. Karin realizes that Chad is unable to see the Hollow, and tells him to hold on to her, as she sees it for him. Chad thinks this unacceptable, but Karin tells him that it is, as well as the fact that she has encountered such things before, and that she has been wondering for quite a while how the Hollows were related to Ichigo.

At that moment, the Hollow appeared on their left, and she tells him to dodge. All of a sudden, Chad is able to see the Hollow which he punches on the hand. The enraged Hollow swipes at the two, but Karin’s order comes too late, and they get knocked to the ground and skid quite a distance away. While Chad seems pretty badly injured, Karin appears unscathed, save perhaps for some scratches. Karin’s four friends rush forward, thinking that she fought with Chad and won. Karin tells them to go away. Insulted, they ask her what is up with her attitude, as after all they were just worried about her. The Hollow walks up behind the four boys, prompting Karin to jump up and push one of them down.

This seems to awaken some of Chad’s memories. His Abuelo (Spanish for Grandfather) asks him if he has hit someone again, and what the point of hitting actually is. “Hurting those who hurt you, and what is left?” he asks the young Chad. He tells Chad that he is strong, big and beautiful, born with just about everything people asks of the gods. As his Abuelo continues, Chad begins to shed tears.

He tells Chad to be gentle, and whilst he speaks, Karin has pushed the boy down onto the ground fully, and appears to be shouting something at the rest. Chad remembers that the reason that he has such a big, strong fist, the reason he has such a big body is so that he can protect others – not hurt them. As he stands, Karin’s friends are frightened and run off. The Hollow roars as he continues to assure himself and his Abuelo that he knows the reasons for his fists and size, and asks his Abuelo to give him strength, even if a little.

His Abuelo answers his “prayers”, and as his fists land, the Hollow is thrown back and its arm blown off. Karin looks on in fear as the dust clears. Before her stands Chad, his right arm now transformed into something, looking almost as though he is wearing a glove that covers his whole arm, sticks out at the top like the ends of a bar magnet, and with slight protrusions at the wrist region. Karin wonders what the arm, which is smoking, is.

As the Hollow “screams” in pain, Chad runs towards it and lands another punch, dissipating it. Karin runs towards him, asking if his arm is alright. Chad gives her a thumbs-up, which she finds really dorky. Suddenly, Chad falls over. He too is wondering what the weird armor on his arm is, what the power he ended up with was, and how he was suddenly able to see the Hollow clearly.

Despite being in the condition he is, he asks Karin if she is okay, and she returns that the only one hurt is he, the stupid ass. While Chad thinks this is “good”, Karin obviously thinks otherwise and kicks him, asking him what’s so good about it, as it was already bad if anyone got hurt at all. She thinks Chad’s logic is a show-off’s logic, similar to Ichigo’s. She gets all worked up, and tells him to stay put while she gets her dad. Chad thinks that Karin is exactly like Ichigo… in the way she kicks.

Meanwhile, Orihime, Tatsuki and Chizuru are cleaning up the shattered window glass, and whilst Tatsuki and Chizuru are sweeping up the glass, Orihime is staring up at the roof. There, appears a Hollow.

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