Beat the Invisible Enemy!

Beat the Invisible Enemy! is the fifth episode of the Bleach anime.

Statistics

 * Original Airdate: November 2, 2004
 * English Airdate: October 6, 2006
 * Opening Song: *~Asterisk~
 * Ending Song: Life is Like a Boat
 * Manga Chapters: Chapter 9, Chapter 10, Chapter 11, Chapter 12.
 * Kanji: 見えない敵を殴れ!
 * Romaji: "Mienai teki o nagure!"
 * Arc: Agent of the Shinigami arc

Summary
As in the previous episode, the Hollow tells Rukia that if she allows him to eat her, he will tell her what she wants to know. Rukia swiftly delivers a knee in the Hollow’s face, then performs Way of Destruction number 33. This however, has next to no effect on the Hollow – Rukia’s powers have yet to return but a little. Ichigo, as he runs to Rukia’s aid, wonders how long it has been since he saw Karin cry. Until their mother’s death, Karin and Yuzu had been cry-babies. Yuzu, strong and capable, tried to fill the gap left by her by doing the housework. Karin, not as capable as Yuzu, was only able to reduce the family’s worries by not crying – even if she lost in a fight with a bigger kid, even when she was lectured for throwing a ball through the principal’s window, not even when she broke a leg when hiking. He promises Karin to fulfil her wish.

The Hollow puts a hand around Rukia’s neck, asking her to shed the human shell. By some stroke of luck, help arrives for Rukia. Chad lands a punch to the Hollow’s cheek, sending the Hollow flying. Rukia is shocked that Chad hit the Hollow, thinking that he can see ghosts. However, she changes her mind when she sees him standing not far away, punching the air. The Hollow is relieved that Chad’s punch was merely a lucky one, but is soon punched again by Chad, who is pleased. Rukia wonders how Chad is able to hear the Hollow if he cannot see it, and hence, how he is able to coolly and fearlessly confront an enemy he cannot discern.

The Hollow curses, then jumps into the air, wings spread wide. He ridicules them for their inability to reach him, and Rukia shouts for Chad to run. Chad merely blinks and asks if “Transfer Student” can see ghosts. Rukia replies that it does not matter, as they cannot hit it when it is flying. Chad asks where the Hollow is, then tears off most of a telephone pole with his brute strength whilst the Hollow continues to scorn at them. With Rukia giving directions, Chad swings the pole down in front of him, smacking the stunned Hollow to the ground. Rukia runs up to the Hollow and tells it to give up, as someone able to get rid of him will arrive soon. Laughing, the Hollow props himself up, telling Rukia that is the reason why so many Shinigami are beaten by Hollows – because they underestimate the Hollows. As if on cue, little blue creatures (that look like Stitch from Lilo & Stitch) jump over the walls and pin both Chad and Rukia to the ground. The Hollow decides that he shall eat Rukia first before Chad, but Chad, to the shock of both Rukia and the Hollow, flexes his muscles and all the squeaky Stitch-like creatures go flying. As the Hollow asks if he plans on letting his muscles do the talking, Chad does just that by trying to punch him again. He misses, but continues punching the air as the Hollow comments that his intuition is amazing. Rukia instructs Chad to kick over her, and he does, once again sending the Stitch-like creatures flying.

The Hollow rises into the air once again, so Rukia tells Chad that she has an idea. Chad, poised to “shoot” Rukia into the sky, asks if she is sure this plan will work. Rukia replies that it will – a combination of his strength and her abilities. Chad comments that the idea seems rather dumb, but is shut up by Rukia, who tells him to shoot her in “Tiger direction”. Chad, however, does not know what she means, so Rukia has to tell him that it means the left. As the Hollow gloats that being so high, a telephone pole will be unable to hit him, he launches her in that direction, and as Rukia flies towards the Hollow, she tells him to give up. The Hollow says that it will give up, but a few seconds later withdraws that and a Stitch-like creature appears on his shoulder. The creature spits out purple things in a green liquid at Rukia, who begins to fall to the ground below. Chad runs towards her and manages to catch her, who apologizes for being caught off-guard.

Rukia tries desperately to remove the purple things from her body, but fails as they are leeches that do not come off easily. The Hollow tells her that they are also his targets, and rings his tongue, exploding the leeches. The leeches are in face mini bombs that resonate with the sound of the Hollow’s tongue and explode.

Chad walks up to the Hollow, ready to challenge him. The Hollow then reveals his captive – Shibata the cockatiel, who he had bought time earlier to capture. Shibata apologizes for getting caught and the Hollow tells Rukia to run around so that he can have fun hunting her alone. Rukia stands and tells Chad not to move or the birdcage will be exploded, then, telling Chad not to worry as she had promised not to slip up, takes off in the opposite direction. A large number of Stitch-like creatures chase her, followed by the Hollow himself. The creatures catch up with her, and shoot leeches at her, but she jumps and evades them. She is, however, covered in the leeches, which get exploded by the Hollow, when one of the creatures appears out of seemingly nowhere. Rukia begins to bleed, and the Hollow says that he likes the cute blood-stained look, then produces more of the creatures and leeches, all of which Rukia dodges. The Hollow asks her how long she will run, and says that if she like, she can attack him. She stops suddenly at a fence, and the Hollow interprets that to mean she is giving up. Rukia replies that she is not, but merely has no more reason to run. She will take on the counter-attack offer.

Ichigo arrives and steps on the Hollow’s head by way of heroic entry to save the damsel in distress. Ichigo asks Rukia why she has slipped up this much despite her promise, but Rukia replies that what Ichigo had said were words from someone who was at least a little worried. The Hollow moves slightly and yells at Ichigo, asking how long he plans to stand on his head, then stands up fully when Ichigo jumps lightly off his back. Ichigo introduces himself as a “substitute Shinigami”, and tells the Hollow that if he were looking for someone to play tag with, he found the wrong person. The Hollow, hearing that Ichigo is a “substitute Shinigami”, curses, saying that he should have went after him from the beginning.

Rukia pulls on her glove and, while the Stitch-like creatures shoot out leeches and the Hollow rings its tongue, pushes Ichigo’s soul out of his body in time for him to attack the Hollow. The Hollow comments that Ichigo smells the tastiest, and Ichigo asks him if he had used the bombs to tie down Chad so he could have fun chasing Rukia, calling him a “dirty son of a bitch”. The Hollow retorts that now, he shall be eaten by that “dirty son of a bitch”.

Chad arrives with the birdcage in his arms, and the first thing he sees is Rukia watching what seems to be nothing and an unconscious Ichigo at her feet. Worriedly, he calls out to Ichigo, but Rukia stops him, telling him that right now, Ichigo is fighting. She also instructs him to take him and Shibata to somewhere safe. Meanwhile, Ichigo kills Stitch-like creature after Stitch-like creature, cutting them in half and spilling their insides (which are leeches). The Hollow laughs and compliments him, but reminds him that despite his slaying the creatures, the bombs are still detonable. To prove his point, he sticks out his tongue and rings it, exploding them all at once. His glee is short-lived, for Ichigo jumps out of the smoke, and swings his sword down on him. Catching him on the neck, Ichigo asks him if he was the one who murdered Shibata’s parents.

Shibata tells Chad and Rukia that all this is his fault, because he wanted to bring his mommy back to life. Hearing this, Rukia asks if someone had told him he could bring his mother back to life. The Hollow tells his life story to Ichigo, saying that when he was alive, he was a very fussed-about famous serial killer. Shibata’s mother, who ran around frantically trying to protect Shibata to the end, was his last victim. However, as he cornered them on the veranda, he ended up dying a stupid death – Shibata had pulled his shoelaces, causing him to fall to his death. Therefore, to punish Shibata, he shoved his living soul into the cockatiel and told him that if he could run around like that for 3 months, he would bring his mother back to life. The Hollow mocks Shibata, as he knows full well he cannot being a dead person back to life. The most fun part of the punishment was that he got to kill every human who tried to protect Shibata, who would whine. However, he would brighten the moment he was reminded of the eventual “reward” – the return of his mother. Ichigo begins to tremble, allowing the Hollow an opening to push away his Zanpakutou and jump back into the air.

He launches another two more of his leech-spewing creatures, but Ichigo catches and squishes them with his hand. He runs to the Hollow and smashes the Hollow’s front teeth such that his hand along with the leeches are in the Hollow’s mouth. He asks the Hollow if he still plans to explode the leeches, and to try ringing his tongue. The Hollow does nothing, so Ichigo claims the tongue by yanking it off and jumping away. As the Hollow winces, Ichigo jumps towards him once more, this time his Zanpakutou is ready. He cuts the Hollow’s mask, but the Hollow does not disappear as most Hollows would. A green light shoots out of the wound and a door with two skeletons on it appears. Ichigo is taken aback by what he sees, and Rukia explains to him that it is hell. Zanpakutous only wash away sins committed after death, but not those before. For those that have committed mortal sins in life, the doors of hell will open. For this Hollow, the doors do just that, the chains on them breaking one after the other.

The doors break open fully, and hell appears to be a fiery place. A strong wind blows as the Hollow now screams as his mask dissipates. A sword, held by a big blue hand, appears from hell and pierces the Hollow. The doors then slide close once more and shatter.

Later, Rukia reports that Shibata’s Chain of Fate has been severed and there is no trace of it. Therefore, he will be unable to return to his body. Seeing Shibata’s sad face upon hearing the news, Rukia tries to comfort him, saying that Soul Society is not a bad place, but rather, a place where you never get hungry, your body is as light as a feather, and it is 80-90% better than the living world. Ichigo comments that at least if Shibata goes to Soul Society, meeting his mother would be of higher possibility. Since they cannot bring his mother back, the best would be for him to go to her. Shibata’s crestfallen look is lost immediately, and he looks at Chad and thanks him, as he had carried him while running around and thus he did not get hurt. Chad says that it is nothing, and Shibata leaves the cockatiel’s body. Chad requests that should he die and go to Soul Society too, he would like to carry him and run around again. After Shibata agrees, Ichigo commences the soul burial, successfully fulfilling Karin’s wish. Karin, at home in bed asleep, thanks Ichigo as a black swallow-tailed butterfly flutters to the moon.

Characters in order of appearance

 * Rukia Kuchiki
 * Shrieker
 * Ichigo Kurosaki
 * Karin Kurosaki
 * Yuzu Kurosaki
 * Yasutora Sado
 * Yūichi Shibata (parakeet form)

Powers and Techniques Used

 * Hadō #31. Shakkahō (赤火砲, Shot of Red Fire) (erroneously dubbed as "Bakudō #33")