The Man Who Killed A Shinigami Substitute?! Tsukishima Makes His Move

 is the three hundred and fiftieth episode of the Bleach anime.

Summary
Following his bad feelings in regards to Orihime Inoue, Yasutora Sado and Ichigo Kurosaki begin rushing towards her house, running the entire way. Whilst running, Ichigo takes out his phone and Sado asks him what who he is trying to call. Ichigo responds that he is trying to contact Orihime of course, to see if she is alright. However, Sado reminds him that Orihime is not alone and that the moment she hears her ringtone might provide an opening for her opponent to attack. Ichigo asks if the situation is really that bad, but Sado replies that he doesn't know, all he's aware of is that Orihime's Reiatsu is currently under a lot of strain. Ichigo asks if they are going the correct way, but Sado replies that he isn't aware of the location and can't pin it down using his Reiatsu. Ichigo then realizes that he recognizes the direction they are moving towards and that soon they should arrive at Orihime's apartment as they continue to rush to her aid.

Back at her apartment, Orihime is still standing between Shūkurō Tsukishima and Moe Shishigawara with a determined look on her face. Tsukishima comments on her determination to stop him as he attacked Uryū Ishida; he refers to her words as ordinary and that it would never be written in a good book. Orihime begins to place her bag on the floor as Shishigawara continues to tell her that Tsukishima is being serious and that her actions are crazy. Orihime requests that he remains silent as she wasn't doing this for him, calling him "Sushigawara" in the process. Shishigawara appears stunned that she called him this and it seems to annoy him that she got his name wrong.

Oblivious, Orihime's concentration remains centered on Tsukishima in front of her as she quietly ponders her next move. Forcing herself to focus, she wonders if she should put up Santen Kesshun considering that he already has his sword drawn. However, she also surmises that this might provoke him into attacking, so she tries to think of another way to stop him from doing so. Suddenly, Tsukishima breaks the tense moment by turning away from her. Shocked, Orihime yells for him to stop, summoning her shield to ensure that he does so. However, Tsukishima disappears from her line of sight and reappears right behind her, slashing her from her left shoulder down to the middle of her chest before the tip of his blade glows green.

Below, Ichigo and Sado arrive at Orihime's apartment, pausing as Ichigo figures out the direction that Orihime's apartment is in. Once he remembers, they both begin ascending the stairs rushing as they go. When they arrive outside her apartment, they find Orihime sprawled upon the ground, sitting up, but otherwise uninjured. They demand to know if she's alright as she stares ahead of herself in a confused fashion. Orihime reaches for her shoulder, wondering why she is not cut considering she distinctly remembers Tsukishima's blade cut through her shoulder and chest. The knowledge seems to greatly disturb her.

Orihime's thoughts are interrupted as Ichigo finally gets her attention. She looks up at him, surprised the both he and Sado are there and requests to know why they are. Ichigo informs her that Sado felt fluctuations in her Reiatsu, so they rushed over to see if she was alright. Sado states that the changes in her Reiatsu were not normal and demands to know if she is unharmed. Orihime brightly exclaims that she is perfectly fine and that she was doubled over in pain because she had a stomachache. Sado disagrees with her theory because he had sensed somebody else there with her.

Orihime immediately brushes off their concern and insists that the other presence had been a friend of hers and that they had been with her the entire time. Just then, she realizes that she has just referred to Tsukishima as her friend and that idea appears daunting to her. Despite this, she still smiles to Ichigo and Sado, assuring them that her stomach began to hurt only after her friend had left. Inside, she is still distracted over the fact she keeps referring to Tsukishima as a friend when she knows he attacked Uryū. She bends down and picks up her bag and asks Sado and Ichigo to let her know if anything happens to them, much to their amazement. Quietly, she decides that right now she can't tell Ichigo about the attack nor about the fact she kept feeling like Tsukishima was her friend.

Both Ichigo and Sado depart then and begin to walk home. Ichigo wonders what happened to Orihime, but Sado replies that he doesn't know. However, silently, Sado knows that Orihime is unaware of the situation with Ichigo getting his powers back and she doesn't want to drag him helpless into her fight, so he know she will keep whatever happened away from him. He agrees with Orihime's reasoning that it is currently too dangerous to get Ichigo involved in a fight in his current condition. To Ichigo, Sado merely continues to believe that Orihime must have been telling the truth and that it could have been an error with Sado's sense of Reiatsu. He decides to call Orihime later about the situation.

Back at Xcution headquarters, Kūgo Ginjō is drinking at the bar, sets his empty class on the counter and requests another drink. Giriko Kutsuzawa, who is cleaning the glasses, denies this request, telling him that he has had enough and that although he is excited about Ichigo's progress, that is no reason to go overboard. Kūgo explains that this isn't the case, however, he soon remembers that Riruka Dokugamine is still asleep on the couch whilst everyone else has left. He calls out to her to go home, but she remains where she is, apparently still unconscious. Kūgo again realizes his glass is empty and yet again, ask Giriko for another drink which is, again, denied.

Whilst Kūgo continues to plea for another drink, Jackie Tristan looks on in disgust before Yukio Hans Vorarlberna appears from another door and informs Kūgo that he has a call on his personal line. Suddenly serious, Kūgo picks up the receiver and tells the person on the other end that he will let them in. The door opens and Ichigo comes in. He begins by stating that both Orihime and Sado refuse to tell him anything, but he's knows that something has happened and wants to know what. He links Orihime's incident with the attack on Uryū not long before. Jackie is alerted by this fact and asks Kūgo if he thinks it is the same person whom she thinks it is. Kūgo agrees that it was more than likely Tsukishima's doing, shocking Ichigo when he realizes he knows who his person is. Kūgo reveals that Tsukishima is another Fullbringer who once belonged to Xcution as well, deeply alarming Ichigo.

Later, Ichigo shows up at Ikumi Unagiya's shop, where she accidentally opens the door and hits him in the face. Ichigo yells at her to be be more careful like he'd previously warned. Ikumi interrupts him and heatedly demands to know where he has been since he has been taking days off without warning or permission. She invites him in so that she can hear his excuses, but Ichigo denies the request and informs her that he needs more time off. Ikumi is greatly astonished by this and demands to know just how much more time he wants off given that he's been absent for a long time already.

Ichigo apologizes and turns to leave before Ikumi grabs him and pulls him back. She admits that while she doesn't know what is going on with him, he has to stop worrying about her because she is not one of his school friends and is too old to have a kid like Ichigo worry about her. Ikumi demands to know if something happened, he has to spit it out, because on the other hand, it is alright for children to rely on adults. This shocks Ichigo for a moment and, as Kaoru Unagiya listens quietly from behind a door, he thanks his employer.

Whilst walking home, Ichigo thinks about the things Kūgo told him about Tsukishima. He reveals that Tsukishima and he both came together and created Xcution with the same aim: to transfer their abilities to a Substitute Shinigami. Kūgo confirms that Tsukishima was their leader. He further elaborates that once some of their members had given over their powers, Tsukishima had a change of heart before killing the Substitute Shinigami and any member who had rid themselves of their power before disappearing from their ranks. Kūgo finishes with the possibility that killing the Substitute Shinigami and the other members might have been Tsukishima's objective all along before showing Ichigo the Substitute Shinigami Badge that belonged to that victim that he still carries with him.

Kūgo admits that he doesn't know what Tsukishima's true aims are since he wasn't the sort of guy to reveal them and they have't seen him since the day he left. However, the only thing he did know was that Tsukishima obviously wanted to stop them from making contact with Ichigo, another Substitute Shinigami. He surmises that Tsukishima's actions support that theory since he attacked Uryū and made contact with Orihime, attracting Ichigo's attention in a more violent way than Xcution did. These revelations greatly anger Ichigo, who seems speechless that all this had happened without his knowledge. Kūgo reassures him that now they know he has made his next move, they too want to speed up his training and will contact him as soon as they are ready to proceed with his next training lesson. For now, Kūgo tells him to go home and rest.

Returning from his memories, Ichigo is still walking home before he spots his father, Isshin Kurosaki, standing in the dark street under a lamppost. When Isshin turns to see who it is, Ichigo has disappeared from view. Isshin is then approached by Kisuke Urahara who asks him what is wrong. Isshin replies that there is nothing wrong, but requests that they take their meeting to another area entirely just in case. For a moment, Urahara seems to object before looking towards the area Ichigo was hiding and then finally agreeing. Both of them move further away, up the street.

From his hiding spot, Ichigo listens as they walk away, thinking back to the time when Kūgo accused him of thinking that he really understood Urahara, when in truth, he didn't. Ichigo wonders if he should run after Urahara and confront him about Kūgo's words, but then thinks better of it, in case his old training instructor actually turns out to be his enemy instead. He then ponders that if Urahara was his enemy, after everything that they had been through, would he even be able to act against him in anyway. This new suspicion reinforces his conviction that he needs to regain his powers as soon as possible as the situation definitely wasn't a good one.

At her apartment, Orihime drops some pots and pans while on the phone with Sado, who asks if she is alright. Orihime insists she is fine and apologizes for making so much noise, her kitchen had just come tumbling down. Sado accepts this explanation before asking their previous conversation, before the interruption, was true. Orihime explains that it is true because she is positive she was cut by Tsukishima and yet, somehow, there was no wound following the attack. She then reveals that her feelings towards her attacker when they had arrived at the scene had been feelings of friendship. Sado pauses, clearly confused, and asks what she means. Orihime insists that she barely understands the situation herself, just that while she didn't recognize him, after the attack, it was like she thought back to the past, and she somehow knew who he was. She tells Sado to be careful as his abilities seemed frightening to consider. Sado assures her that he will be fine and asks Orihime if she knows their names and she gives them to him.

At the same time, Tsukishima is having dinner with Moe, who, when Orihime mentions his name to Sado, spits his wine over his leader's face. A soaked Tsukishima stares at him for a moment before taking out a handkerchief and wipes his face whilst asking if he can continue. A scared Moe is revealed to have had his collar forked to the table and he immediately agrees. Tsukishima states that in their current mission, Moe does not need to do anything more.

Moe disagrees immediately, pointing out that he is his apprentice he can't sit back and watch him do all the work. Tsukishima explains that he was speaking about Orihime and that he has already placed "It" inside her and that no further contact is necessary with her. As Moe sputters that he finally agrees, Tsukishima wonders who he should attack next. He moves towards his book and two pictures fall out: one of Sado and one of Ichigo. Tsukishima looks over them both, unable to decide before wondering out loud what Kūgo would think or do if he went after Ichigo directly instead of targeting his friends.

Shinigami Illustrated Picture Book
Urahara suggests a place he says he is fond of for he and Isshin to go to talk. When he gives a description, he mentions that there are lots of cute ones and that you can touch all you want. Isshin, thinking he is referring to attractive women, refuses, saying that he gave his word to Masaki that he wouldn't go to such places. But Urahara makes him go anyway, and it turns out to be cat cafe.

Characters in Order of Appearance

 * 1) Orihime Inoue
 * 2) Shūkurō Tsukishima
 * 3) Yasutora Sado
 * 4) Ichigo Kurosaki
 * 5) Moe Shishigawara
 * 6) Giriko Kutsuzawa
 * 7) Kūgo Ginjō
 * 8) Riruka Dokugamine
 * 9) Jackie Tristan
 * 10) Yukio Hans Vorarlberna
 * 11) Ikumi Unagiya
 * 12) Kaoru Unagiya
 * 13) Isshin Kurosaki
 * 14) Kisuke Urahara

Fights
None.

Powers and Techniques Used
Techniques used:

Fullbring used:

Other powers: