001. Death & Strawberry

Ichigo Kurosaki is a teenager who can sees ghosts. But when she encounters Shinigami Rukia Kuchiki, his life will never be the same again. Specially when a creature called a Hollow attacks his family and that he must become a Shinigami to defeat it.

Summary
It’s 2 : 23 a.m. morning on a Friday at Karakura Town. A black butterfly flies near the moon. A woman dressed in a black kimono stand on an electrical pillar, looking at some sort of map. She senses strong spiritual activity. She then jumps off of the electrical pillar.

Later that day, around 7 : 13 p.m., a young man wearing a gray school uniform and having orange hairs has beaten up a skate-boarder by the name of Yama-Bro. His name is Ichigo Kurosaki. Yama-Bro’s friend, Toshi-Bro, ask him why they should leave this place and was prepared to fight, but he was defeated by Ichigo by using only his right foot. The skate-boarders are terrified by Ichigo’s strenght. Ichigo yells at them to look at the broken vase. He asks Mit-Bro, the third skate-boarder, what that vase represents. Mit-Bro says it’s an offering to the kid who here recently. Satisfied by the answer, he defeated him. He then asks the skate-boarders why the vase is broken. One of them says they knocked over while doing skate-boarding. He then says to them to apologize to the Dead Girl, who has some blood on her left side, right next to him. It’s indicate that he can see and talk to ghosts. The skate-boarders get scared and apologized to him and the dead girl. Ichigo apologized to the dead girl for using her that way. The dead girl is okay and said she was the one who asks him to chase them away. Ichigo give her new flowers for the vase and the dead girl thanked him.

Ichigo returned home, in which it’s also a hospital called the Kurosaki Clinic. Upon entering his home, he is greeted by Isshin Kurosaki, his father, with a kick in the face, saying Ichigo’s late and that dinner is always at 7 o’clock. Ichigo argues if that his way of greeting his son after performing a serious exorcism. While the argument continues, Yuzu and Karin, Ichigo’s sisters, are seated at the table having dinner. Yuzu tells them to stop and that the food will get cold. Karin tells her to leave them alone. Yuzu tells Ichigo that he has a new friend, a ghost with glasses. Ichigo complains that no matter how huch he exorcized them, they keep coming back. Yuzu tells him that most be tough having high specs. Yuzu says to them that she’s jealous of them since she can only senses ghosts, while Karin and Ichigo are able to sees and talk to ghosts. Karin tells her that she doesn’t believe in ghosts and regardless of whether she can see them or not, if she don’t believe in them, is the same as if they didn’t exist. This remarks leave Yuzu shocked and the ghost in the cold.

She then tells Ichigo about a new project she has planned on. Ichigo tells Karin to stop using him for her get-rich scheme. By while he was talking to her, Isshin used the distraction to put his son on the floor. But Ichigo retaliates and defeated his father. He then goes to his room. Yuzu is worried about him. After Karin mades a remark on her father’s lack of communication skills, he goes talking to a poster of her deceased wife, Masaki Kurosaki.

In his room, Ichigo noticed the black butterfly and wonders where it came from. Next, he noticed the girl with the black kimino and armed with a sword. Ichigo is intrigued by her. He kicked her from behind and accused her of being a burglar when she said it is near. The girl is surprised that someone like Ichigo can see her and kick her. Isshin comes to Ichigo’s room and beat him for making noices in the house. Ichigo says it’s all the samurai-costumed girl’s fault, but Isshin doesn’t see her. The girl tells him that ordinary people can’t see her and that she’s a Shinigami.

Outside, a strange-looking creature with a hole in his chest is eating the Dead Girl from before and says that a strongest soul is near.

At the Kurosaki’s house, the girl tells Ichigo that’s she a Shinigami from the Soul Society who came here to exterminate an evil sprit. Ichigo doesn’t believe her, saying he believes in ghosts, but not in Shinigami. Offended by his remarks, the girl used a technique called Kidō Bakudō no.1, Restrain. Suddenly, Ichigo is paralyzed and unable to move. She tells him that a technique that only Shinigami can use. She also tells him that she’s older than she looks and that the Spiritual Law prevents her from killing humans that have not been ordered to kill. She then uses the buttom of her sword handle on the Glasses-Wearing Ghost’s forehead. The ghost is afraid to go to hell, but the girl tells him that he’s going to the Soul Society which it’s a peaceful place. The ghost is sent to the Soul Society. The girl performed a technique that is called Soul Burial, to which the humans call it ‘‘Going to Heaven’’, in which it’s also one of the Shinigami’s duties.

The girl decide to explain through illustrations about the 2 types of spirits in this world to Ichigo. The first type of spirit is called Plus, which is the most common spirit. That’s what the ‘‘Ghosts’’ Ichigo usually see are. The second type is Hollow, a spirit who attack the living and the dead and eat their souls. They are what the hummans called ‘‘Evil Spirits’’. Through her explanation, the illustrations of representing the two spirits are full of cute rabbits And bears. After Ichigo make a a comment on her horrible drawing,the girl is offended and made a doodle moustache on him. She tells him that the Shinigami have two duties. The first duty is to guide the Plus to Soul Society using Soul Burial. The second duty is to exterminate Hollows. She came here to exterminate Hollows. Ichigo asks her why is she loitering at his home while she must get rid of it. She tells him that, for a strange reason, she can’t feel it’s presense anymore, as if a great power is hindering her senses.

Then, a huge voice is heard. Ichigo was the one to hear it. The girl regonizes it as the voice of a Hollow. She is surprised that Ichigo was able to hear it before she ever did. A girl cry can be heard. Ichigo notices that is Yuzu’s voice and he’s getting worried for his family. The girl leaves the room to get rid of the Hollow, leaving Ichigo who is still paralyzed. The girl tells him that even if he comes to help her, there is nothing he can do. While reaching the door, she felt the Hollow’s immense spiritual force. She and Ichigo noticed Karin, wounded but alive. She said something invisible has wounded their father and attacked her and Yuzu and she came here to warn Ichigo. Then, she lost consciouness. Ichigo try to break free from the incantation. The girl tells him if he try that, his soul will be destroyed. But he managed to break free from it with out being hurt. She is surprised and shocked that a human managed to break from from a Kidō spell.

Ichigo then goes to the living room. He sees his wounded father and the room devastated. He notices a holw in the wall where he sees the shadow of a creature outside. The creature revealed it self to be a monster with a hole in the chest and had a mask-like face. That’s creature was the same one who ate the dead girl earlier tonight. The name of this Hollow was Fishbone D. Ichigo concluded that the creature is a Hollow. Although he refused to admit it, Ichigo was terrified at the presence of the monster. He notices Yuzu being held captive by the right hand of Fishbone D. He tried to attack it with a baseball bat, but the monster defeated him easily with just one punch and send Ichigo to the wall. He was about to crush Ichigo, but the Shinigami girl cut his arm with her sword, freeing Yuzu at the same time. Ichigo managed to catch safely her little sister.

The girl reassured him that none of his family’s soul were eaten. Ichigo wonders why Fishbone D hadn’t eaten his family while he was attacking them. The girls says that Hollows wanders searching for souls with high spiritual concentration and for that arbitrary, humans are sometimes attacked. Which means that Fishbone D was searching for Ichigo due to his enormous spiritual powers that gave him the ability to see Shinigami and break free from their spells. This revelation made Ichigo feels guilty about was happened to his family.

Meanwhile, Fishbone D managed to regain his right arm and defeat the girl quite easily by send it her to a wall. She then notices Ichigo facing the Hollow, challenging it to fight him. Fishbone D was about to eat the teenager, but the girl stop him while getting injured in the process. She tells him that with his power is no match for it and she can no longer able to fight the Hollow. Ichigo feels even more guilty than before. Then the girl asks him if he wants to save his family. Ichigo wonders if she knows a way to save his family. The girl pointed her sword at him and tells him and the only way to save his family is to become a Shinigami like her. All he have to do is to pierce the middle of his chest with her sword, which it’s called a Zanpakutō and she will insert half of her Shinigami powers to him. She also tells him that the percentage of success is not high and if it fails, he’ll die, so there’s no time to delibarate. After seeing Yuzu pleading for his brother to run away, Ichigo decide to accept the girl’s deal. The girl introduces herself as Rukia Kuchiki. Ichigo introduces himself also.

While Fishbone D approaches them quickly, Ichigo takes Rukia’s Zanpakutō and a light appears, blinding the Hollow for a moment. Suddenly, his left arm is cut off quickly. It was Ichigo’s doing and he wears the Shinigami outfit and holding a Zanpakutō with a large blade. Rukia is surprised that Ichigo has take all of her Shinigami powers while it was supposed to give him only half of her powers. She also concluded that it was Ichigo’s powers that was hindering her senses. She’s also surprised that the blade of his Zanpakutō became large due to Ichigo’s Spiritual Energy.

While Rukia is thinking about it, Ichigo cut off Fishbone D’s right leg and extermionated the Hollow completely about cutting it in two.

The chapter concludes with Ichigo’s stats:


 * Ichigo Kurosaki/15 years old
 * Hair color/Orange
 * Eyes color/Brown
 * Occupation/High school student and Shinigami

Characters
Characters in order of appearance:
 * Rukia Kuchiki
 * Yama-Bro
 * Ichigo Kurosaki
 * Toshi-Bro
 * Mit-Bro
 * Dead Girl
 * Isshin Kurosaki
 * Yuzu Kurosaki
 * Karin Kurosaki
 * Glasses-Wearing Ghost
 * Masaki Kurosaki
 * Fishbone D