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
After the theme song, we return to Rukia's initial attack on a Hollow she met in the last episode. She uses Demon Magic, but it had no effect. Meanwhile, Ichigo runs to find Rukia, remembering that Yuzu filled in around the house when their mom died, but Karin (not quite as useful as Yuzu) simply refused to cry. Returning to Rukia, she is completely defeated. The Hollow begs her to withdraw from her faux body when Sado appears, delivering a nice swift blow to the Hollow. It quickly becomes apparent, however, that he cannot see his foe. However, on the rare occasions he does hit, it seems to do quite a number on the creature. Rukia is amazed by this display. The Hollow suddenly lifts into the air and sprouts wings, taunting Rukia for her inability to do anything now. Rukia asks Sado to run, but he merely asks where in the air the Hollow has run to. As the Hollow taunts them more, Sado summons inhuman strength, tearing a phone pole from the ground and attacking the enemy with directions from Rukia.

The Hollow seems unphased by the attack, and dozens of little frog-like creatures takle Rukia and Sado. Before the Hollow can finish his monologue on who to eat, Sado breaks free and begins his assault again. Rukia has Sado free her with a kick to the frog-like creatures on her, then asks Sado to launch her into the sky where the Hollow has since fled to. After noting the oddness of their plan, Rukia gives him directions and he launches her. Mid-flight, however, the Hollow produces another frog-like creature that spits out leech-looking animals on her. After being thrown back to the ground, the Hollow lands and announces that the leeches have a special function. He opens his mouth and makes a high-pitched noise with his tongue, and the leeches blow up all over Rukia!

The Hollow announces that the leeches are bombs that respond to the sound from his tongue. With Rukia down, Sado bravely approaches his unseen foe, who has somehow gotten ahold of Shibata, the cockatiel from the previous episode. Using Shibata as a hostage, the Hollow announces his intent to hunt Rukia. Rukia explains the situation to Sado, then agrees to the Hollow's plans and takes off. She is quickly covered in leeches and bleeding. The Hollow taunts her more, and begins throwing frogs at her, saying she can attack back. She stops at a three-way intersection of the sidewalks. The Hollow assumes she has given up, but she states simply that now she intends to take him up on his offer to fight back.

Suddenly, Ichigo appears on the Hollow's head, and tells Rukia she didn't keep her promise and got herself into trouble so he had to work. After being thrown off the Hollow's head, Ichigo introduces himself as a substitue shinigami, and the Hollow announces he should've gone after Ichi. Rukia releases Ichigo's shinigami form, and the fight begins. Ichigo quickly figures out the situation between Sado, Rukia and Shibata.

About this time, Sado finds Rukia and Icigo's passed out body. Rukia tells him to hide Shibata to safety, and the battle continues. Things are looking bad on the hero's end, when Ichigo gets in close enough to cut the Hollow's mask. He asks the creature if he is the man who murdered Shibata's mother. Meanwhile, Shibata shares that somebody promised to bring his mother back to life. The Hollow also confesses that he was once a famous serial killer. He had killed Shibata's mother while she was trying to protect her son. Shibata grabbed the murderer's shoelaces and tripped him, leading to his death. As a hollow, the murderer forced Shibata's soul into the bird. He announces that he lied to Shibata, telling him that if he helped the killer, he would bring Shibata's mother back to life.

When Ichigo seems most bothered by the story, the Hollow rears back to attack. Ichi catches the frogs, crushing them and revealing the leeches. When the Hollow goes to explode them, Ichigo dashes up with inhuman speed and forces his fist, leeches and all, through the enemy's teeth and into his mouth, taunting him to explode the creatures. When the enemy refuses, Ichigo declares "then this toungue is MINE!" and tears his toungue out, cutting the mask in half. In the process of dying, a demonic looking gate appears. Rukia explains that a shinigami can only erase the sins of the afterlife. If a person has been evil in our life, the gates of Hell will come to take them away instead of a Soul Burial, which is what happened here.

Afterword, Rukia annonces that Shibata can no longer return to his body. Rukia tries to cheer him up by announcing that Soul Society is better than Earth. Ichigo succeeds in making Shibata smile by announcing that he will see his mother there. Shibata thanks Sado for never leaving him and protecting him. Shibata then appears in human form as a ghost, but before his soul burial, Sado asks if he can carry Shibata if they meet again someday in Soul Society. After happily agreeing, Ichigo preforms the burial. For a final scene, Karin, now sleeping soundly, thanks Ichigo for his help. The episode ends happily.

Characters in order of appearance

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

Powers and Techniques Used

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