Bleach Portal

Episode 13 - Flower and Hollow

Shinigami Ichigo is running along the path by the river, still looking for his sisters. He bumps into Kon, who is in his body, and asks where he has been. Kon indignantly says it was Ichigo who ran off all of a sudden. Grabbing Kon by his shirt lapels, Ichigo demands if he knows the whereabouts of his sisters. Kon tells Ichigo that both of them are at home, where he had just come from. Entrusting his sisters to Kon, Ichigo goes off to find Ishida.

In the meantime, Chizuru and Tatsuki are still cleaning up the shattered glass from the window. Chizuru complains about having to clean up just because she came to see what had happened. She and Tatsuki have a small quarrel, and Chizuru notices Orihime staring off into space, dustpan and broom in hand. Chizuru goes up to Orihime and performs her normal lesbian antics, saying she will kiss Orihime if she continues to stare off into space. Tatsuki, being protective of Orihime as usual, asks what she is doing running her mouth all of a sudden. Orihime suddenly mentions that there is a TV show which she wants to catch, and so wants to quit cleaning and go home. She pushes Tatsuki and Chizuru along.

This is her reaction to the Hollow she had noticed earlier. At first, she wished she hadn’t noticed it, then she knew she had to get away from there, from the dangerous thing. Every cell in her body had been tingling, telling her to run and so, to keep the others from panicking, she acted like nothing was happening.

She continues to urge her two friends to hurry, but as she realizes that the Hollow has disappeared, Tatsuki tells her that she has to go change and runs off. As Orihime calls after her to wait, Tatsuki insists that she will catch up with them soon and continues running. Suddenly, there was a loud boom. The octopus-like Hollow was hovering directly behind Orihime’s head. Swallowing hard, Orihime turns around and looks at the Hollow, who asks if she can see her (I’m pretty sure this Hollow is female).

The screen cuts to where Ichigo has just sliced yet another Hollow in half subsequently cutting yet another four more. Ishida too, is killing Hollow after Hollow, and has just killed his twentieth. He says that all this and his eventual win will be for his Sensei’s sake.

Chizuru is unable to see the Hollow, and simply asks the horrified Orihime what is wrong. Orihime tells her to run away, but before Chizuru does, large pimple-like bumps appear on the Hollow’s forehead and shoot out, breaking all the windows. Chizuru is unable to see the seeds either, and just sees the windows shattering yet again. However, one hits her on the shoulder and she falls to the floor. Orihime runs over to her, as the green stain on Chizuru’s sleeve grows larger and darker. Chizuru gets up and puts her hand on Orihime’s cheek, asking why she is crying. She goes on to say that even though she looks cute crying, she looks even prettier smiling.

Suddenly she raises Orihime’s hand in the air, so high that Orihime winces in pain. Chizuru claims that her arm moved on its own. While the two girls are wondering what is going on, the Hollow appears above their heads, tentacles waving.

Meanwhile, Rukia is still pretty shocked and puzzled at the number of Hollows that are showing up on her phone. Back to Orihime and Chizuru. Chizuru now has a few veins popping up on her arm, and Orihime asks the Hollow what she has done to Chizuru.

The Hollow explains that as she dislikes fighting, she has used her “powers” to control her opponents’ bodies with the seeds from her forehead, thus making humans fight amongst themselves. Orihime is shaken by what she has learnt, but before she can digest what has happened fully, the Hollow calls out a large number of Orihime’s own schoolmates, all of whom had been shot by the seeds and are looking dazed. All of them extend their hands forward and lunge at Orihime.

Then, not a moment too soon, Tatsuki appears and beats up the students, and apologizes to Orihime for not noticing the Hollow earlier. However, like Chad, she is unable to see the Hollow clearly, only a sort of fuzz where the Hollow is. She tells the Hollow that she has chosen the wrong person to pick a fight with, “The rule is: Anyone who makes Orihime cry, always gets their ass whipped by me.” With that, she continues beating up the remaining students.

However, as one of them places her arm on Tatsuki’s shoulder, Tatsuki turns and gets ready to beat her up too, but realizes it is Chizuru. Chizuru tells her to run away, as she thinks something is wrong with her (Chizuru). Undeniably, there is. She continues to tighten her grip on Tatsuki’s shoulder such that Tatsuki cries out in pain. Orihime too, has been restrained, her mouth covered and her body held by two other students. Subsequently, the Hollow fires another seed, this time at Tatsuki.

As Tatsuki lies on the floor wincing, the Hollow asks how she is feeling, and tells her that the seed will soon take root in her body and control it, allowing her (Hollow) to do what she wants with Tatsuki’s body. As Orihime watches on in fear, the Hollow descends next to Tatsuki. Tatsuki tells the Hollow to shut up, and orders her to release Orihime. The Hollow reminds her of her current situation; the loss of control of her limbs and other parts of her body. As the Hollow places a tentacle on Tatsuki’s cheek, Tatsuki gives it a bite, causing the Hollow to shriek and shout at her to let go.

Orihime fights against her restrainers while the Hollow continues screaming that she need not control Tatsuki, and shoots out three more seeds with the intention of killing Tatsuki. Just then, Orihime breaks free and runs to Tatsuki, who is falling to the ground, looking at Orihime and telling her not to cry. Suddenly, Tatsuki kicks Orihime in the stomach, and rises to her feet while Orihime falls to her knees.

Orihime remembers her brother, who admired her hair, which was later cut by older schoolmates. She had lied to her brother that she had felt like cutting her hair. She remembers the first time she met Tatsuki, who had offered to walk home with her when everyone else had left. Orihime says that the reason she could grow her hair out again was because of her, she knows that she will never have to cut her hair, which symbolizes her dependence on Tatsuki, again. She thanks Tatsuki for protecting her, and Tatsuki begins to cry. Orihime embraces Tatsuki and tells her not to cry, and declares that this time, she will protect her.

Then, her hairpins light up, and split into six, causing a violent wind that even the Hollow cannot believe, and that is blowing everyone away. Orihime tells the Hollow that while Tatsuki had said she had chosen the wrong person to pick a fight with, actually, she had picked the wrong person to hurt. She will not forgive anyone who hurts Tatsuki.

When the Hollow asks what the hell she is and what the weird things flying about her are, Orihime realizes the presence of the creatures, one of which is a bit surprised that she had not done so earlier. Another says that she must have noticed, after all, they were always the closest to her.

The last one to speak lands on her shoulder and like a flower bud, opens up, and out pops a fairy-like creature, who introduces the whole gang as the “Shun Shun Rikka” (6 flowers of the Hibiscus shield), her power, born to protect her. As the rest of them gather around, Orihime seems dazed and exclaims, “Aah, fairies! Flying fairies are talking to me!”

The same one who spoke earlier, evidently the leader, informs Orihime that they are not fairies, but the power of her soul, a part of her that only she can see, apart from certain people like Ichigo. She goes on to say that it was because of Ichigo that they were born. Suddenly, a black Shun Shun Rikka kicked the first, saying that he was talking way too much. He then tells Orihime that she need not know who they are or where they came from, prompting Orihime to say that he is so pompous despite his small size. He tells her to shut up and learn how to control them immediately.

An eccentric-old-man-look-alike, with a red haired girl and a large man behind him says that their power is to put up a shield and reject things. Then, the Hollow descends and gets ready to shoot seeds at Orihime.

Now, the eccentric old man, Hinagiku, the large man, Baigon and the red haired lady, Lily, introduce themselves, and the leader of the Shun Shun Rikka tells Orihime to repeat after her, “Hinagiku, Baigon, Lily! Sacred tri-link shield! I reject!” True enough, a triangular shield forms in front of Orihime, blocking out the seeds. The leader goes on explaining the task of Hinagiku, Baigon and Lily, then she and another shy looking Shun Shun Rikka fly over to where Tatsuki lies, telling Orihime that their task is to return what is inside the shield to how it was before it got destroyed.

She tells her to call their names, Shun’ou and Ayame, and the magic words, “Sacred dual return shield! I reject!” They form a pod shaped thing around Tatsuki, and Tatsuki’s wounds seem to get healed. While Orihime is crying over Tatsuki, out pops the black guy, who tells her she has no time to cry. His power is to reject both sides of the shield, putting up a shield inside their body and rejecting their physical bonds, or simply put, splitting the enemy in half. “Tsubaki! Sacred solitary cutting shield! I reject!”

The eyes of the Hollow grow large as Tsubaki flies towards her at high speed, and splits her right down the centre into equal halves. Orihime is pleased at the results, then collapses, alarming the Shun Shun Rikka. Shun’ou says that it must be because she used them all at once. All six of them fly up into the sky and with a bright flash, fall back on the ground as Orihime’s hairpins.

A sandaled foot peculiar to one person steps next to Orihime. It is Urahara, who looks at Orihime and smiles. Behind him stands Tessai, who is supporting Chad. Meanwhile, Yuzu, Karin and Isshin have arrived where Chad was supposed to be, but isn’t anymore. They ask Karin if she is sure this is the place, and Karin says that it definitely is. Isshin interprets his daughter’s actions as the result of him being preoccupied with work and thus unable to play with her. He then rips the front of his shirt and tells Karin to “leap joyously into your father’s bosom”. Karin replies with a punch which causes Isshin to roll around on the floor in pain. Kon, watching from the top of a telephone wire post, upon seeing that all is well, jumps away.

At the Urahara Shop, Orihime wakes to see Chad, and asks where they are. As Chad replies that he doesn’t know, a voice sounds from the door. Orihime asks who he is, but Chad doesn’t know either, though it was he (Urahara) who saved them both. Urahara confirms that and wonders where he should begin.

At the same time, Ichigo is still looking for Ishida and cutting Hollows along the way, and declares that he will make Ishida cry no matter what. Ishida’s fingers are bleeding, and he is losing his ability to kill Hollows in a single shot. He, too, is wondering why there are so many hollows drawn by the bait, and he thinks there must be another huge power attracting them. He declares that he will avenge his sensei, then shoots an arrow.

Rukia tries to perform demon arts, but the Hollow rebounds it back at Rukia with an arm easily, though Rukia was able to move in time. Rukia laments that this Hollow is a weakling, and yet her demon arts cause it no harm whatsoever, meaning that her powers have not returned at all. At that moment, Kon appears and lands a flying kick on the Hollows face. Rukia thinks that it is Ichigo, but changes her mind when Kon launches himself into her chest, saying that he has missed her. When she kicks him in the face, he says that he finds even this delightful.

Rukia realizes that Kon being in Ichigo’s body must mean that Ichigo is now on Shinigami mode. Standing behind Rukia, Ishida says that the two look alright, and this is the first time he and Rukia have talked one on one. Kon is annoyed that he wasn’t even acknowledged, and Rukia just kicks him again so that she can converse with Ishida peacefully. She asks Ishida if the current happenings are his handiworks, and Ishida confirms it, saying that this is a fight between a Shinigami and himself. He even says that he does not intend to let any person in the town die: even if Ichigo runs out of strength, he will stake his life to protect the townspeople while the Shinigami look on. As Rukia notices the blood on his fingers, he clenches his fist and says that if he cannot, the fight has no meaning. As a Hollow appears behind Kon and Rukia, Ishida produces his bow.

In Urahara’s store, Chad and Orihime are finding it hard to believe all Urahara has told them about Shinigami and Hollows. However, Urahara asks them if they can deny the fact that they were attacked by Hollows, a question both find hard to answer. Urahara goes on to say that as they speak, Ichigo is fighting Hollows as a Shinigami, and that the power oozing from him had affected them both. Whether or not they wish to open the door before them is up to them. Just then, Tessai appears at the door and informs Urahara that the “sky crests” have begun converging, and that the preparations are complete. Urahara prepares to go off, and asks Chad and Orihime if they will come too, so that he may show that what is beyond the door.

Just as Ishida prepares to shot down a Hollow, it gets cut in half by Ichigo, who has jumped and lands behind Ishida. As many dark circles loom above them, the two grin at each other.

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