Fight to the Death! Ichigo vs. Ichigo

'''Fight to the Death! Ichigo vs. Ichigo''' is the sixth episode of the Bleach anime.

Statistics

 * Original Airdate: November 9, 2004
 * English Airdate: October 13, 2006
 * Opening Song: *~Asterisk~
 * Ending Song: Life is Like a Boat
 * Manga Chapters: Chapter 13, Chapter 14, Chapter 15.
 * Kanji: 死闘！一護VSイチゴ
 * Romaji: "Shitō! Ichigo vs Ichigo"
 * Arc: Agent of the Shinigami arc

Summary
Enter at night. Rukia sits on a rooftop, saying something about "not much left" and "time to go shopping." The next morning, Ichigo tries to bring her breakfast, but she's not in his closet. Ichigo readily eats the food himself. His family meanwhile, argues about what could be with the sudden increase of appetite and reclusiveness. The scene then changes to the "Urahara Store," where Hanakari Jinta is busy goofing off instead of cleaning. Tsumugiya Ururu tells him to keep working or Tsukabishi Tessai will get on their case. Jinta proceeds to bully Ururu until Rukia shows up, noting Jinta's behavior as typical of him and asks if the manager is in. Jinta seems unhappy to see her, but lets her in, werein Tessai offers to wake Urahara, who is already awake. He welcomes Rukia and gets straight to the point. After running through some inventory, Rukia notes that her faux body isn't performing well. She then asks about an item she ordered. Ururu runs to find the item, which is wrapped so we can't see what it is. She critizes it at first, but seems convinced she can't fake being human forever. She takes the item and goes to school. After greeting everyone, she pulls Ichigo aside (a bit forcefully) and throws him a candy-dispenser type item. She explains that when he eats the candy inside, a fake sould takes his place and he beomces a shigami. After critizing the childish appearance of the item, he gives the gumball-looking item a test run. It works flawlessly to Ichigo's amazement. The awe quickly wears off though, as the temporary replacement is nothing like Ichigo. Before he can do anything, Ichigo is dragged away to begin a new assignment.

Meanwhile, Urahara discovers that Ururu took the soul candy from the wrong box. Back at school, fake Ichigo tries out his new body. He seems pleased to be in a human body again when a teacher approaches, trying to get him in trouble for having kicked a metal wall in. Ichigo merely leaps the teacher in a single bound, flying farther then a normal person should be able to. He jumps from there to the roof, about two stories up as the teacher collapses. Inside, Orihime and Tatsuki become excite about lunch. Chizuru tries to flirt with Orihime when fake Ichigo jumps up to the window, asking if he has the right class. Elsewhere, Ichigo slays a hollow, noting that he has a bad feeling.

Inside school, everyone is shocked at Ichigo's new found powers. Fake Ichigo basks in the attention, deciding what girl to flirt with. He is insantly struck with Orihime's breast size. After tring to act gentemanly, Tatsuki scolds him as if he just made a repuation killing move. After calling her cute as well, the class panics. Real Ichigo, in the meantime, rushes back to school, convinced that something is wrong. He arrives in time to see a desk flying out the window. Inside, Tatsuki has been throwing desks at fake Ichigo for giving her a kiss on the cheek. Rukia appears to try and stop the fake, who dashes toward the window to escape but is cut off by Ichigo. Fake Ichigo then begins kicking real Ichigo, which makes him look crazy, and even knocks him back through the rows of desks. Fake Ichigo then jumps easily out the window and dashes away with a satisfied look on his face. She declares that the fake most be a modified soul, and real Ichigo jumps after it. Rukia runs to catch up as his classmates ponder what just happened. Tatsuki fumes while Orihime seems certain that it was not Ichigo who tried to hit on her.

Elsewhere, Rukia and Ichigo seem to have lost the mod soul, and Ichigo panics at the actions his body has been taking during his absence. After panicing, Ichigo questions Rukia about what a mod soul is. Rukia explains a project called "Spearhead." The project involved injecting battle-specialized souls into dead bodies. They would then be used as anti-hollow soldiers. With the aid of her poor drawings, Rukia explains that these souls often included specially enhanced abilities, such as strength or speed. After being hit for his commentary on her artwork, Rukia explains that the project was scrapped because of it's inhumanity. All mod souls were alledgedly destroyed. Ichigo critizes the cruelity of Soul Society, which Rukia defends generously. The two then embark on getting Ichigo's body back.

Ichigo tries to imagine what it's like to be the mod soul, having to watch everyone else die and finally regain freedom. Meanwhile, the mod soul appears to be having a blast, catching attention and soaring across town. He finds three boys playing handheld video games. When one of them notes that his character won't fight in a way desired by the player and tries to erase his game character, the mod soul suddenly turns serious and almost darker and tries to kill the children, only to be blocked by Ichigo. The episode ends in a tense standoff.