The Mod Soul Incident

The Mod Soul Incident is an event taking place during The Death Trilogy Overture which revolves around Rukia Kuchiki seeking a way for Ichigo Kurosaki to access his Shinigami powers without her help, which leads to a Mod-Soul, later named Kon, gaining control of Ichigo's body and wreaking havoc.

Prelude
At nighttime, as she holds up her Kikanshinki, Rukia Kuchiki notes that she is running low and sees the left side of her Gigai has weakened, which makes her decide to go shopping. The following morning, Ichigo Kurosaki knocks on his closet door while telling Rukia that he brought her breakfast, and when he does not receive a reply, Ichigo slams open the door.

However, Ichigo is surprised to see no one is inside and looks around his room while wondering where Rukia went, only to be startled when Yuzu Kurosaki berates him for walking around with food instead of eating at the table. Meanwhile, outside the Urahara Shop, Jinta Hanakari pretends to play baseball with a broom and declares a home run while Ururu Tsumugiya sweeps nearby.

Ururu reminds Jinta that Tessai Tsukabishi will be mad if they do not clean the front of the store, but Jinta angrily declares that he will not clean because he is scared of Tessai, and when Ururu states that he will clean precisely because he is scared of Tessai, Jinta claims he is not scared of anybody and begins pushing the end of the broom into Ururu. As Ururu tearfully shields her head and says she can boss Jinta around because she is three years older than him, Jinta refutes this by asserting that he is stronger and smarter than her.

Suddenly, Rukia grabs the other end of the broom and asks if the manager is in. Inside the shop, Tessai carries around a load of boxes and, upon hearing the door open, tells Jinta it is not yet time to open, only for Jinta to bring in Rukia while claiming she made him do it. Tessai greets Rukia and promises to get the manager, but Kisuke Urahara states that it is too late because he is already awake. Walking into the room, Urahara reveals that he received a shipment from Soul Society yesterday and asks how he can help Rukia. Rukia buys one cheap-grade power cell for her Kikanshinki and sixty Soma Fixers, which Urahara notes can be bad for her if too much is taken because leaving the Gigai will be hard if she stays in it for too long.

Rukia acknowledges this, but reveals her Gigai is starting to slow down and respond sluggishly. When Urahara inquires if this is going on her card, Rukia holds out her Denreishinki to use the bonus money from the Hollows Ichigo has purified. After noting Fishbone D, Hexapodus, and Acidwire were not worth any bonus money, Urahara sees Shrieker was worth 5000 kan. When Rukia asks if her order arrived, Urahara confirms this and has Ururu fetch it. In the storeroom, Ururu sees a box labeled "Soul" and grabs a wrapped item from it, which she gives to Rukia. Looking at the item, Rukia notes it is not the one she ordered, but Urahara says it was out of stock and the second-most popular one they did get was not easy to come by, so Rukia agrees to take it.

Later, at Karakura High School, Keigo Asano has Yasutora Sado's parakeet try and say that he and Ewan McGregor are twins, only for the parakeet to instead call him Asano Tadanobu, to Keigo's bewilderment. When Mizuiro Kojima asks him why the parakeet's vocabulary has been so drastically reduced, Sado admits that he does not know and it was like this when he woke up that morning, prompting Ichigo to think to himself that this is the aftereffects of the Kikanshinki at work. Entering the classroom, Rukia greets everyone and dismisses her lateness as being due to family affairs before asking to have a word with Ichigo, who tells her to just say what she needs to there. However, Rukia swiftly hits Ichigo, incapacitating him, and drags him out of the classroom while pretending that he is ill and needs to go to the nurse's office.

Outside, Rukia tosses Ichigo a container with a duck head on the end and explains that it contains a Gikongan, a pill which forces the Soul out of the body that Shinigami use to evict corpses. When Ichigo if this is why Rukia was not home this morning, Rukia confirms this and details how the Gikongan will force Ichigo's Soul out of his body and replace it with a temporary Soul to look after his body, allowing him to fight Hollows when she is not around. Ichigo notes that the container says "Soul Candy", which Rukia admits is due to the Shinigami Women's Association's having the name changed from the more clinical-sounding Gikongan.

When Ichigo asks why it has a duck's head, a flustered Rukia tells him to not worry about it and claims that she tried to get the rabbit-themed Chappy, prompting Ichigo to flatly note that she wanted the bunny. An embarrassed Rukia defensively states that she likes bunnies and angrily tells him to just take one, prompting Ichigo to put the Gikongan into his mouth, which causes his Soul to leave his body. As a surprised Ichigo notes that it worked, Rukia smugly declares that now his body will be animated and no one will know he was gone. Turning around, Kon, now in control of Ichigo's body, introduces himself as Ichigo and claims his motto is "early to bed, early to rise".

While Rukia claims that is the ideal personality designed by one hundred and eight of Soul Society's best scientists, a bewildered Ichigo proclaims that this personality will utterly ruin his image. Suddenly, Rukia receives a Hollow alert on her Denreishinki and states that Kon will take Ichigo's place while they deal with this Hollow before dragging Ichigo away as he tells Kon to get to class and lay low. However, as Ichigo and Rukia leave his sight, Kon drops the act and tells them to take their time as Urahara discovers that the box he was pulled from was actually labelled "Defective Soul".

The Mod-Soul's Mischief
Jinta has Ururu read the side of the box that she pulled Kon from and berates her for selling Rukia a damaged Gikongan. While Jinta tugs on Ururu's hair, Urahara tells them to stop because it is his fault for not disposing of it. When Tessai notes that Soul Society will not be happy if they find out and this could be bad for business too, Urahara states that they will have to find and neutralize Kon before he causes any trouble while in a Human body. At Karakura High School, Kon stretches his legs and arms before kicking a section of the nearby fence, which is left heavily damaged as Kon revels in finally being in a Human body after being imprisoned for so long.

a groundskeeper approaches him while mistaking him for Ichigo and asking if he broke the fence. Kon approaches the groundskeeper with a flat look on his face, which makes the groundskeeper panic and ask that they simply talk this over, before leaping over his head and landing on a section of the roof several meters away. With the groundskeeper looking on in disbelief, Kon mocks him before leaping away. Meanwhile, in the school, Orihime Inoue excitedly announces that it is lunch time, prompting Tatsuki Arisawa to remind her that it is a fairly mundane occasion, which leads Orihime to claim that girls only come to school to eat lunch.

When Orihime reveals she brought sweet bean paste and bread, Tatsuki states she simply brought normal food while Michiru Ogawa wonders how Orihime can eat such food and not get fat. Chizuru Honshō asks if she can eat with Orihime, who agrees, and is enraptured by Orihime not caring about the food on her face before telling Orihime she is hungry for more than food, prompting an irritated Tatsuki to tell her to back off and not corrupt Orihime. Chizuru criticizes Tatsuki as being too masculine for her tastes, which enrages Tatsuki further, and claims she would open Tatsuki's love horizons if she were a bit more feminine, leading Tatsuki to angrily attack her.

However, the two are interrupted when Orihime suddenly stands up and goes to sniff the windowsill. When Orihime claims she can smell Ichigo, a confused Tatsuki reminds her this is the third floor and Ichigo could not reach the window even if he were near, only for Kon to leap onto the windowsill while asking if this is class 1-3. As the girls scream in surprise, Tatsuki demands to know how Kon got up here, prompting Kon to nonchalantly state he jumped and bask in the attention of the girls, who discuss his sudden appearance among themselves. Looking over the girls in the room, Kon notes they are all attractive before focusing on Orihime and her chest.

Kon leaps over to Orihime and asks for her name while kissing her hand, which shocks Chizuru and Michiru. When Tatsuki puts him in a headlock and claims Ichigo has lost his mind, Kon notes she is pretty cute as well and gives her a kiss, which completely stuns Chizuru and Michiru. Outside, Ichigo and Rukia run back to the school as Ichigo claims he has damage control to do. Rukia asserts everything is probably fine, but Ichigo notes he has a bad feeling as a window breaks above them. Watching the glass fall, Ichigo realizes that is his classroom as Rukia states they should hurry. Inside the classroom, Tatsuki throws a desk at Kon, who chastises her for getting so mad over a small kiss, before smashing the desk he is crouching on. Watching the chaos unfold, Michiru tells Chizuru to do something, but a shaken Chizuru reminds her she is not Bruce Willis. Suddenly, Rukia appears in the doorway and tells Kon to freeze.

As Kon frantically runs toward the window, Ichigo appears there with the intention of cutting him off. However, Kon leaps past Ichigo and falls to the ground below, to Ichigo's horror, before landing safely and running away at high speed, prompting Rukia to realize he is a Modified Soul. As he, Mizuiro, and Sado walk through the hall, Keigo wonders why Ichigo did not show up and theorizes he is alone with Rukia when Mizuiro suggests he went out to eat. Mizuiro observes Keigo already has a crush on Orihime, which he confirms, and notes his heart belongs to the nearest cute person, prompting a flustered Keigo to claim he is a respectable young man with natural feelings while pointing out that Mizuiro also gets with a lot of girls.

When Keigo berates him for always getting the attractive girls because he is rich and popular, Mizuiro apologizes and cries to Sado about Keigo picking on him, which Keigo dismisses. Opening the door to their classroom, Keigo is startled by all the desks on the ground and sees an enraged Tatsuki standing in the wreckage, which intimidates him and Mizuiro. A teacher enters the classroom and demands that Tatsuki tell him what happened, but is similarly intimidated when she turns around to face him. As Michiru tells him that a stranger came through the window and Tatsuki was simply protecting them, the teacher does not believe her because they are on the third floor, but Ryō Kunieda backs up her story, prompting the teacher to acquiesce before ordering the students to clean up the mess as he leaves to alert the staff of the intruder. As Ryō notes that Ichigo was acting weird, the other girls agree, but Orihime asserts that it was not Ichigo, to the confusion of those present. Meanwhile, a frantic Ichigo realizes that they lost Kon and stresses over him apparently having kissed Orihime in front of their classmates. Rukia brushes this off under the assumption that modern teenagers do much more than kissing normally according to what she has read, but Ichigo declares that it is in fact a big deal and wonders how he is going to go to school tomorrow after having the image he spent years building in people's minds shattered, leading Rukia to realize he looks and acts so rough on purpose.

Calming down, Ichigo asks Rukia what exactly a Modified Soul is, prompting Rukia to explain how there was once something in Soul Society called Project Spearhead that aimed to inject fighting spirits into corpses for use as soldiers against Hollows, which would supercharge part of the host's body for combat purposes. Noting that the enhanced leg strength Kon displayed makes him an Underpod type, Rukia notes that Project Spearhead was scrapped because some thought it was morally wrong to use dead bodies as soldiers, which meant all the Modified Soul that had been created were supposed to have been destroyed, and admits she is not sure how Kon survived.

A stunned Ichigo asks her if Kon is really being condemned just for being what Soul Society designed him to be, which Rukia confirms, and when Ichigo asks if this seems right to her, she states that it is not for her to judge before reminding Ichigo that the laws condemning Kon exist to protect Humans and Souls. As he departs with Rukia, Ichigo wonders how Kon feels now that he has a body after surviving a destruction that he did nothing to deserve. Elsewhere, Kon bounds down a street in front of several pedestrians and basks in the attention while proclaiming that he feels great and noting that he must have personal magnetism in addition to his special powers.

At Karakura Elementary School, Yuzu Kurosaki sees Kon and calls out to him as Ichigo, prompting Karin Kurosaki to ask what she is doing. Learning that Yuzu saw Ichigo jump over the wall, Karin dismisses this as daydreaming because the wall is eight feet high, only to watch in shock as Kon leaps fifteen fight into the air above the wall. As Yuzu tries to wave to Kon, Karin pulls her back and declares that is not Ichigo before telling Yuzu to not tell anyone about this because Ichigo may be in trouble again. Upon seeing that Midoriko Tōno saw Kon leaping about, Karin grabs her by the collar and threateningly proclaims that neither of them saw anything.

Aftermath
At another part of the schoolyard, Kon comes across Ino, Hashigami, and Kaneda sitting behind a shed and playing video games on their handheld consoles. As Kon sits on top of the gate nearby, Hashigami complains about P.E. while Ino states that Karin gets mad at him whenever he misses the ball. When Hashigami loses a battle in his game, he expresses annoyance at the character who lost, and when Kaneda suggests he delete the character, Hashigami agrees while declaring that characters who will not obey their masters should die. While a stunned Kon looks on, Hashigami deletes the character and states he will just make a better one while laughing.

At the Urahara Shop, Urahara finishes preparations for capturing Kon as Ururu apologizes to him for causing this situation before asking if he is mad. However, Urahara pats her head and reassures her that accidents happen and they are friends before hugging her as he promises to take care of everything. When Tessai informs him that everything is ready, Urahara tells his employees to move out and commence "Operation Recall".