The Mod Soul Incident

The Mod-Soul Incident is an event during the Agent of the Shinigami arc which introduces the use of a Mod-Soul named Kon as a means to separate Ichigo's soul from his body.

Prelude
After spending several months in the Human World, Rukia realizes it won't be long before someone of the Gotei 13 would come after her. She also realizes after all that time she hasn't regained any of her former powers. She decides to find a method for Ichigo to separate his soul from his body unaided. She goes to the Urahara Shop and using the credit she earned killing Shrieker she purchaces what she believes to be a dispenser of soul candy. When she meets Ichigo in school, she pulls him to an empty yard and forces him to take one of the pills. Once Ichigo's soul separates from his body, his body falls under the control of what appears to be an Artificial soul. Ichigo has reservations about the Artificial soul's behavior but Rukia receives an order on her soul phone and drags Ichigo away, leaving the Artificial Soul within Ichigo's body to his own devices. Back at the Urahara Shop Urahara discovers an open carton in storage that should have remained closed.