Kon

Kon (コン) Ichigo's personal mod soul at the start of the series.. His name is short for. Kon originally wanted the name "Kai" ("Mod" in the official English dub) because it sounded cooler, but Ichigo Kurosaki decided his name was going to be Kon for that very reason. Kon is an artificial soul (modsoul) designed to inhabit Ichigo's body when Ichigo is in his Shinigami form; when not serving that purpose, Kon usually inhabits a lion plushie.

Character outline
Kon primarily serves as a comedic foil in the series; when not inhabiting Ichigo's body, his normal plushie body is treated with little respect and much disdain. His plushie body is the fake copy of the main character of the popular TV show, "Carnivor Kingdom" named "Ponkichi". It was a prize from the shooting game in the Karakura Town Festival. He is constantly stepped on and torn, at which point Ichigo will have Uryū Ishida repair the plushie. Uryū usually adds something unwanted or unnecessary when doing so, such as dressing Kon up like a designer doll. Uryū also sewed a Quincy cross on the back of Kon's head as revenge after Kon attacked Uryū for turning him into a doll. He is quite perverted and often takes advantage of his form to get girls to hug him to their chests. He likes Rukia alot, and calls her 'nee-chan'(sister). He also appears at the end of every episode during the Soul Society arc, giving a short course on individual members of the shinigami.



Early story
Kon's first appearance is shortly after Rukia Kuchiki and Ichigo obtain a like item known as gikongan (Soul Candy) from the Urahara Shop, which are candy-like orbs stored in dispensers similar to those Pez come in. The Soul Candy, when ingested, forces Ichigo's soul out of his body and replaces it with an artifical, pre-programmed soul, allowing Ichigo to transform if Rukia is not around.

Unbeknownst to everyone (including the Urahara Shop's employees), the particular Soul Candy dispenser Urahara gives Rukia had been declared defective by Soul Society, as it was made from a batch meant to be turned in for destruction. These pills contained modsouls, artificially created souls designed to combat hollows. Additionally, these souls have personalities, unlike the common artificial souls. Each modified soul was designed to have their own special strengths; in Kon's case, his legs. Upon first testing the item, Ichigo and Rukia leave it to its own devices while they go to fight a hollow.

The modsoul, now free and having no desire to return to its pill form, goes on a mischievous and damaging (to Ichigo's reputation) rampage, diverting Ichigo from the pursuit of a particularly dangerous hollow. The pair clash a few times during the course of the modsoul's spree, and would have continued had not the hollow chosen to appear and attack a group of children nearby. The modsoul acts on its instincts, attacking the hollow and giving Ichigo the time to defeat it.

Afterwards, Ichigo has a talk with the modsoul, who explains that he just wants to be free and experience life, similar to that of a real soul. Taking pity on him, Rukia and Ichigo ignore the standing directive to destroy all modsouls; they instead stick the modsoul into a lion plushie, giving it life. Ichigo gives the modsoul the name of Kon shortly thereafter, despite Kon's protests.

After this point, Ichigo uses Kon in the same manner as regular Soul Candy. When Uryū Ishida challenges Ichigo to a duel, the winner being decided by who could kill the most hollows, Kon is given charge of Ichigo's body. He joins in the fight around Karakura to defeat hollows, saving an ambushed Rukia. He later watches as Ichigo and Uryū team up to defeat a Menos Grande.

Soul Society arc
When Rukia decides to leave Karakura in order to protect Ichigo, Kon tries to stop her, but she ties him to the Kurosaki's toilet and gags him. When Ichigo, Orihime, Chad, and Uryū decide to go after Rukia, Kon tries to join them in Ichigo's body, but Ichigo makes him stay behind.

In the meantime, Kon is recruited by Don Kanonji as Karakura King in his Karakura Superheroes. He serves as a soccer ball for Karin's special attack, the Karin Impact Kick.

Bount arc
After the beginning of the Bount arc in the anime, Kon meets his fellow modified souls, Ririn, Kuroud and Noba. He does not get along well with his new companions. Ririn views him as a fool and they often fight, and Kon is jealous of Kuroud's assignment to guard Orihime. They do work together, however, most notably in episode 80, where they collaborate in the construction of several elaborate, yet useless, anti-doll traps.

When the Bounts infiltrate Soul Society, Kon joins Ichigo and the others to find them (partly due to fear of falling victim to Don Kanonji if he stayed behind in the real world again). Kon gets separated from the group in Rukongai and settles temporarily with a woman who owns a coffee shop. In contrast to Kon's usual lack of luck with women, this woman takes a shine to him. He eventually leaves to help fight the Bount, but continually arrives after the battles. After meeting up with everyone again (which is depicted during the non-sequitor previews for the next episodes), Kon brags about his stay with the woman, only to find out from Jūshirō Ukitake that it was actually a cross-dressing man.

Arrancar arc
With the arrancar invasion beginning, Kon takes over Ichigo's body to have a little fun on the town, only to run into Grand Fisher. He is saved by the timely re-emergence of Isshin Kurosaki, Ichigo's father, as a shinigami. Isshin quickly dispatches Grand Fisher with ease and Kon is forced to keep Isshin's true identity secret. Isshin reveals that he knew about Kon ever since meeting him during Grand Fisher's first attack at the graveyard.

Powers
During the few times that Kon is in combat, he has proven to be able to hold his own — in addition to possessing all the combat abilities of Ichigo's well-trained body, he was designed to have exceptionally powerful leg strength. He was able to fend Ichigo off in combat by using just kick-attacks and leg-blocks, and is able to kick aside massive hollows. He can run 100 meters in 3.8 seconds while in his plushie form. When in Ichigo's body, he is capable of jumping over 13 meters and 56 cm from standing position.