Greetings from a Stuffed Lion

Greetings from a Stuffed Lion is the seventh episode of the Bleach anime.

Statistics

 * Original Airdate: November 16, 2004
 * English Airdate: October 20, 2006
 * Opening Song: *~Asterisk~
 * Ending Song: Life is Like a Boat
 * Manga Chapters: Chapter 16, Chapter 17.
 * Kanji: ぬいぐるみからコンにちは
 * Romaji: "Nuigurumi kara KONnichiwa"
 * Arc: Agent of the Shinigami arc

Summary
At the Urahara Store, Urahara puts down a heavy something-or-other wrapped in bandages as Ururu timidly walks out from behind some shelves and apologizes to him for causing all the trouble. Urahara smiles and reaches out his hand. Ururu, thinking that he must be about to hit her, winces, but opens her eyes when she feels his hand on her head in a comforting sort of manner. Urahara tells her that it doesn’t bother him at all and asks her why she is so timid. Giving her a hug, he adds that they are a team, and he will fix everything. As Ururu begins to cry, Jinta and Tessai arrive and tell him that preparations are complete. The four of them, Ururu carrying the bandaged-wrapped thing and Jinta armed with a baseball bat, are ready to go collect their merchandise.

The three boys whom “Ichigo” saw are staring at him, wondering what he is up to, posing light he’s going to fight, and subsequently kicking the air. Rukia arrives and sees the fight between Ichigo and “Ichigo”, in which Ichigo dodges “Ichigo’s” attacks with ease. Ichigo explains that once he calms down, his moves are easy to dodge. After a few more unsuccessful attempts at kicking Ichigo, “Ichigo” is flung away by Ichigo, but escapes further damage by jumping over more fences. Rukia’s communicator beeps and she tells Ichigo that they have orders – A Hollow is going to appear nearby.

The three boys’ yells gets their teacher running over to them, and they tell her that an orange-haired high school student had tried to attack them. She notices their gameboys on the floor and picks one of them up and tells them that they have been playing too many video games. Meanwhile, “Ichigo” is running along rooftops, cursing the three boys and Ichigo for ruining his buzz. He stops short when he senses a Hollow in the direction from which he came, going to attack those kids, whose words flash through his mind.

The subjects of his thoughts have been made to stay back and clean up, and are complaining incessantly because of that. A caterpillar-like Hollow appears behind the unsuspecting and unknowing children, and laughs. Ichigo and Rukia are obviously running in the wrong direction, and as the phone beeps, Rukia says that her phone has been acting weirdly, and wonders if it is out of battery. Noticing the new Chappy charm on her phone, he says that if she had time to order it, she should have gotten an extra battery as well. Ignoring him, she says that she cannot sense the Hollow’s location.

The Hollow is suddenly kicked in the face by “Ichigo”, and the force of the Hollow landing on the ground behind them sends the three children flying back. They recognize him as the high school student from earlier, but instead of attacking them, “Ichigo” gives a war cry and runs at the Hollow, evading the first two extendable legs but getting cut on the shoulder by the next. As he lands back on the ground, the three children run away, frightened by “Ichigo” as well as the invisible thing that makes a crater in the ground behind him. Rukia and Ichigo spot the Hollow as well as “Ichigo” a distance away, and Ichigo dashes off in that direction, Rukia calling after him. The Hollow tells “Ichigo” to mind his own business instead of interrupting his meal and running around, and extends another leg to hit him on the back. Another leg comes at him as he lands back on the floor, but it is stopped by the real Ichigo, who chops off the end of it. However, he is not doing this to save the temporary soul, but because it is his body that has gotten all injured.

“Ichigo” says that he is only fighting because he took so long to arrive, and Ichigo tells him to shut up, and mocks the fact that he is supposed to be a battle soul. The Hollow interrupts their little quarrel, and together, they defeat the Hollow, “Ichigo” kicking the Hollow and Ichigo slicing the Hollow. The Hollow falls backwards, and it looks like it will fall out of the rooftop boundary to whatever lies below. Seeing this, “Ichigo” runs and gives the Hollow another kick, dissipating it, and he himself falling down. However, Ichigo grabs his ankle just in time, and chides him for taking such a risk when there was no one around, as a Hollow will disappear on its own if its mask is cut. He then hears voices coming from below: it is the three children once more, trying to convince the teacher about the existence of a “blood-soaked teenager”. She does not believe them and instead tells them to stay back and clean up the next day too.

The two Ichigos watch as a line of ants marches past them, and Ichigo asks “Ichigo” if he used to hate those children. He replies that it doesn’t matter, as if he hadn’t saved them, they would have died – and he doesn’t kill anyone. He remembers and retells his life story, whereby right after his birth he was ordered scrapped – the day after he was born, the day he would die had already been decided. Inside the pill, he was afraid everyday while watching the comrades around him disappear day by day. He was lucky enough to mix with other medicines and escaped the warehouse, but continued to live in fear that he would be found and scrapped. He asked himself all the time why his life is decided by strangers, and why he can’t decide for himself. After all, living and dying belong to each individual person. Therefore, he will kill no-one and will not see anyone die.

Urahara had heard the entire thing, and complains that now, the equipment he had brought is completely useless. Using his cane, he swiftly pokes out the little green pill, which falls just next to the body. He picks it up and walks toward the rest of his gang, saying that the collection is complete. Jinta is displeased because he had thought he was finally going to get a battle after so long. Ichigo asks Urahara what he plans to do with the pill, and he replies that he will destroy it. Ichigo is surprised that Urahara is able to see him, and asks what he is. Before Urahara can answer, the pill is snatched out of his hand by Rukia, who finishes Urahara’s sentence, saying that he is a greedy merchant. Urahara tries to get back the pill, and Rukia asks him if his store does not refund goods they take back. Urahara reluctantly agrees to refund her, but Rukia replies that there is no need as they are satisfied with the product. Furthermore, he is acting out of spirit laws – there is no obligation for him to go that far to retrieve the pill. Urahara replies that if any trouble comes, they’ll just go into hiding and Rukia replies that she’s become quite used to trouble.

She passes the pill to Ichigo and they go off on their way. Ichigo winces in pain and complains that the temporary soul only did as he liked because he knew it wasn’t his body. He starts to scold the pill, and Rukia comments that he looks weird like that. He asks Rukia how he can complain directly to the temporary soul, and Rukia replies that he should put it in some dead body. Ichigo says that there is no way they could find that, but he suddenly spots a lion plushie. He wonders if that will do, and asks Rukia. Rukia thinks he is carrying it too far, then remembers that her body right now is also not flesh. They decide to try it as an experiment, and put the pill in the lion plushie’s mouth. He picks up the plushie, and is annoyed that their experiment has failed. But wait! As he spins it in the air, it comes alive and calls Ichigo a dumbass, saying that it hurts. He then demands a rematch with Ichigo, but suddenly realizes that he is a stuffed toy much, much shorter and smaller than Ichigo. Ichigo puts a hand on his head, making the plushie squeak. He tells it that he better say his prayers, but it declares that even in this state, he will fight Ichigo.

The next morning, he wakes Ichigo by jumping onto his chest and demanding an apology, or else he will hide in his bag and go to school with him so that the girls in the class will think him gross for carrying stuffed animals around in his bag. Ichigo picks him up and throws him against the closet, telling him to be obedient and be quiet like a normal stuffed animal. Ichigo says that calling him “Modified Soul” is such a hassle, so he has shortened it to “Kon” (from the “konpaku” part of “kaizon konpaku”). Kon suggests that he be called “Kai” instead, because “Kon” sounds lame. Ichigo refuses because “Kai” sounds cool and therefore pisses him off. The closet door opens and Rukia emerges, complaining that they are too loud so early in the morning, depriving her of peace to change in. As she jumps out of the closet, she steps on Kon. Kon does not protest, after all, from where he is, he has an excellent view. Yuzu suddenly walks into the room, informing Ichigo that Mizuiro and Keigo are downstairs. She sees her brother frantically plastering himself to the closet door, and wonders what he is doing. She tells him it isn’t at all early, so Ichigo hastily starts to change his clothes. He looks out of his window and shouts to his friends that he had overslept, and would be down in a while. They tell him to enjoy rushing, and he steps away from the window. Rukia opens the closet door and Kon falls out. Ichigo asks her if she had once again erased his classmate’s memories, and Rukia says that she did, if not, he would have problems too. As he puts on his watch, he thinks to himself lately, despite the number of happenings, everything goes on as normal.

He suddenly notices the date displayed on his watch – 16 June. Just about to jump out the other window, she notices Ichigo staring at his watch and asks him what the matter is, but he says that it is nothing. In school, Michiru asks Tatsuki if she is in the Art Elective, and when Tatsuki replies that she does, she asks if she has done “the future me” assignment. She wants to see Tatsuki’s because she thinks hers is no good. Tatsuki’s art piece shows her in a boxing ring holding up the champion’s belt. As Michiru stares at the art piece in awe, Tatsuki declares that one day, she will become the female Vale Tudo champion. When asks, Orihime gladly pulls out hers because she actually feels secretly proud of it.

The “future Orihime” has a top speed of 380kph, from the mouth 20000 C flames, from the eyes special destruction lasers. In front of her, a student calmly continues his needlework. As Ichigo walks into the classroom, Orihime greets him, and strangely enough, he greets her back with a smile – something his classmates aren’t too used to seeing. Tatsuki asks Michiru for the date, and hearing that it is 16 June, knows what is up with Ichigo, who is in a corner with his friends, laughing. She says that Ichigo makes that face not when he is happy, but when he is very tense. Tomorrow, he will take off from school.

Outside the Kurosaki clinic is a notice, saying that they will be closed the next day. Inside, Isshin says that they will now decide on the jobs for the next day. However, he, being the chairman, has complete authority to decide. Karin opposes that, arguing that that is not how meetings work, but Isshin tells her to raise her hand if she wants to speak, addressing her as “Chief of Staff”. She finds that this “Chief of Staff” job doesn’t sound too bad actually. Yuzu is given the job of “Lunch Staff”, and Karin’s bubble is burst when she hears that she has to carry the bags. Isshin also seeks their opinion in his new haircut.

Back in his room, Rukia comments that the family meeting looked fun, and asks if he plans to skip school tomorrow and go on a picnic. The closet door opens and Kon says that a picnic sounds good, but Rukia shuts the door in his face. Ichigo asks if he can take the day off Shinigami work tomorrow, but Rukia refuses, asking him what is wrong with him, as he has been acting strangely since the morning. Ichigo replies that tomorrow is the anniversary of his mother’s death, or rather, her murder. Outside, clouds cover the moon and it begins to rain. Orihime looks out her window at the rain, remembering what Tatsuki had told her about Ichigo, and wondering if she were the rain that binds together the earth and sky, which in all eternity will never mingle, would she be able to bind two hearts?

Ichigo lies in his bed, a towel over his eyes as memories of that rainy night flash through his mind. As he walked with his mother he had seen a girl by the river bank take a step into the raging waters, and had gone to rescue her. Ichigo covers his eyes, trying to block out the painful memories. His attempts are unsuccessful, as he remembers his mother calling after him as he ran to the girl. The next thing he remembers is being by the side of his dead mother.

Over in Soul Society, a number of little children and a Shinigami are playing with tops. The Shinigami loses, and says that he will play again, and definitely win. Another Shinigami with a sheet over his face appears and the first Shinigami has no choice but to leave the game and speak with the other. The sheet-faced Shinigami tells the other that it is no. 13, Kuchiki Rukia. Hearing the name “Kuchiki”, the latter laughs and asks what “the little princess” has done. The other replies that she has exceeded the time limit for staying in the human world, and also that there must be more beneath the surface for him (the other Shinigami) to investigate. He is told to leave right away.