Ichigo Kurosaki is a fifteen-year-old high school student who lives in Karakura Town with his father, Isshin, and younger twin sisters, Karin and Yuzu. Ichigo Kurosaki (Sota Fukushi) can see ghosts, a talent which lets him meet Rukia Kuchiki (Hana Sugisaki), a Soul Reaper whose mission is to usher the souls of the dead from the World of the Living to the Soul Society while fighting Hollows. Hollows are monstrous lost souls who can harm both ghosts and humans by eating their souls. Rukia purifies those who remained among the living and transformed into Hollows. Ichigo fights bullies who harass the lost ghosts and helps them find their way to heaven. At that time, a Hollow that Rukia was hunting named Fishbone D attacks Ichigo's home after sensing his high spiritual energy. Rukia is wounded in the attempt to protect the Kurosaki family. Rukia says that if she stops fighting Hollows, they will devour all the souls and is forced to transfer her powers into a desperate Ichigo so he can defeat the Hollow as a Soul Reaper. Only Reapers can kill Hollows. Rukia stabs Ichigo in the chest with her Zanpakuto sword and transfers her power into him. Zanpakuto are the soul-cutting swords wielded by Soul Reapers. Post transfer, Ichigo's swords becomes enormous and he easily defeats the Fishbone and protects his family. Yasutora "Chad" Sado (Yu Koyanagi) is Ichigo's classmate and looks out for him against bullies. Isshin Kurosaki (Yosuke Eguchi) is Ichigo's father and supports him when he says that he can see ghosts. Orihime Inoue (Erina Mano) is also Ichigo's classmate and has a crush on him. Rukia explains that Hollows are souls that died with a grudge and now eat other souls. Reapers have 2 duties: Guide the whole souls to the Soul Society and destroy Hollows with Zanpakuto. After discovering Rukia has enrolled in his class the following day, Ichigo learns that she has lost her power, and he must serve as her substitute. Rukia says that she only intended to transfer half her power, but Ichigo's spiritual energy was too high and it took all of her powers. When Rukia recovers, she asks Ichigo for her powers back, but Ichigo is too weak to return his powers to Rukia until he amassed enough Reiyoku energy from defeating Hollows to transfer Rukia's powers back to her. But before that Rukia will need to train Ichigo to fight the Hollows. Rukia visits an Urahara shop where the owner Kisuke Urahara (Seiichi Tanabe) tells Rukia that she violated the reaper code by giving her powers to a human. Ichigo finds himself in a fight beyond imagination as he contends with both a pair of Soul Reapers Renji Abarai (Taichi Saotome) and her brother-in-law Byakuya Kuchiki (Miyavi) (Captain of the soul reapers) sent to retrieve Rukia against her will (as she violated the reaper code) and the monstrous Hollow known as Grand Fisher. First Renji confronts and attacks Ichigo but is driven by arrow attacks from Uryu Ishida (Ryo Yoshizawa), who is a Quincy and Ichigo's classmate. Uryu reveals himself to be of a tribe of spiritually aware humans called Quincies, who were nearly wiped out by the Soul Reapers as they obliterate Hollows rather than purify them. Uryu reveals that Quincy was a tribe hunted down by Hollows, so now he hunts Hollows & Reapers as Reapers hid in his village that led Hollows there. He offers to help Ichigo but wants to kill both Reapers and Hollows. Uryu declares himself an enemy of all Soul Reapers as he challenges Ichigo to a Hollow hunting competition, having deliberately summoned the monsters to Karakura Town. One of the Hollows summoned by Uryu nearly defeats Ichigo, but Renji intervenes in time and kills the Hollow. Renji then beats Ichigo. Byakuya scolds Rukia for having broken the Soul Society's laws by giving Ichigo her powers while giving her an ultimatum: either extract her Reiryoku from Ichigo or return to the Soul Society to be trialed and punished accordingly. As the former choice would result in Ichigo's death since he had not amassed the ideal amount for his survival, Rukia resigns herself for punishment. But Ichigo stops her at the last minute. On New Moon night, Rukia disappears. Ichigo seeks Uryu's help to enter the Soul Society. Ichigo tracks Kisuke, who helps him enter the society. There he makes a deal with Byakuya to kill the Hollow Grand Fisher, if they release Rukia to complete his reaper training and to gain enough Reiryoku for a non-fatal transfer. Ichigo vigorous training for the confrontation catches the interest of his classmates Yasutora Sado and Orihime Inoue. Ichigo learns from Rukia that Grand Fisher started out as the soul of a little girl. He remembers that as a boy he saw the soul of a girl standing in the river, drenching in the rain, while he was walking by with his mother. Ichigo went to help the little girl, only to wake up later to see that his mother Masaki Kurosaki (Masami Nagasawa) was on top of him, dead. He now understands that the little girl was the Grand Fisher, and his mom died, trying to protect him. While visiting Masaki's grave, Karin and Yuzu are attacked by Grand Fisher. The Grand Fisher attacks. Ichigo fights him with great skill & is joined by Uryu. Ichigo is able to free his sisters before taking Grand Fisher on in a highly destructive fight and defeating him with Uryu's support. Together they manage to defeat the Grand Fisher by striking a death blow to its forehead. The two are then ambushed and Uryu is injured by Renji, who with Byakuya decided to renege on their deal. Though Ichigo manages to overpower Renji, Byakuya steps in and defeats Ichigo with overwhelming pace. Rukia intervenes, convincing Byakuya to spare Ichigo as she extracts her Reiryoku while parting ways with him. The next day, due to the Soul Society's influence, everyone in Karakura Town has forgotten Rukia and everyone thinks the damage to the town from the battle with Grand Fisher was caused by a tornado. However, Ichigo sees a note Rukia had left in his book and seemingly regains his memories.
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