The Legendary Quincy

The Legendary Quincy is the eleventh episode of the Bleach anime.

Statistics

 * Original Airdate: December 14, 2004
 * English Airdate: November 17, 2006
 * Opening Song: *~Asterisk~
 * Ending Song: Life is Like a Boat
 * Manga Chapters: Chapter 33, Chapter 35, Chapter 36.
 * Kanji: 伝説のクインシー
 * Romaji: "Densetsu no Kuinshī"
 * Arc: Agent of the Shinigami arc

Summary
The relieved escapees walk down the school grounds together, with Asano thanking Rukia for saving them from punishment. Just as Ichigo argues that she was trying to sell him out, Rukia's cell phone Hollow detector goes off. She pretends that she has something to talk to him about, and the two go running off away from the rest. As they all observe the strange behavior, Orihime Inoue muses quietly on whether the two may be dating. Everyone follows curiously, but Chad is distracted by the shadowy figure of someone observing them from a school window.

Meanwhile, Ichigo and Rukia come by an alleyway, expecting to find their reported Hollow, but only come across a frightened plus spirit. The spirit confesses that there was a Hollow, but he cannot remember what had defeated it. Ichigo and Rukia send the soul away through Soul Burial, while a mysterious shadowy figure watches them from above, glasses glowing suspiciously.

Back at school, the girls celebrate Orihime placing third for an academic assessment. Asano badly teases Ichigo for placing 23rd in the boys' assessment, betraying their "below 50" pact. He tries to become buddy-buddy with Chad, who then points out that he came 11th overall. Asano and Mizuiro freak out, and run away. Ichigo scoffs at their reaction, then looks over at the chart listing to see who came in first amongst the boys. He reads off the name, "Ishida Ametatsu," and mumbles that he's never heard of the person before. "It's Ishida," Orihime says from beside him. "Ishida Uryū. He's in our class." Ichigo's embarrassed that he can't recall him, and tries to remember.

Elsewhere in the school, Rukia argues with her cell phone as she tries to get in contact with Urahara, the sandal-hat shopkeeper. She wonders whether her command receiver is malfunctioning or not. Suddenly, it starts beeping, warning of a Hollow. She grabs hold of Ichigo from the hallways, stealing him away from his pals. Amano and Mizuiro comment that the two must really be dating. As they run down the halls, a quiet figure with glasses passes them by. Ichigo's shoulder bumps into his, and Ichigo barely has the time to yell out an apology. The figure turns back around, with the same eerie reflective glasses as before. He brushes off his shoulder calmly without a word.

Later, Ichigo and Rukia find themselves in an empty street, with no Hollow to be seen. Ichigo's getting angry at what he considers Rukia's worthless phone. He tells her to get it fixed. Suddenly, a white-clad figure appears in the darkness. He sports the same eerie, glowing glasses. The stranger greets Rukia and Ichigo politely by name, however he bears a tone of malice. Ichigo asks who he is, and how he knows them. But the stranger interrupts, "Kurosaki-kun, you can see ghosts, can't you?" Ichigo and Rukia are shocked by his knowledge. But the stranger is distracted by the sensation of a new Hollow in the area. As he mentions this to them, Rukia's cell phone begins to beep a Hollow alert. Without any physical aid, the stranger already knows the exact direction of the Hollow. He scoffs that Ichigo doesn't even know how to detect the location of the Hollow, yet he calls himself a Shinigami. His silver cross suddenly releases blue energy upward and downward from the stranger's hand, forming a blue archer's bow entirely made out of spirit energy. The stranger releases the arrow, and it flies across the skies and destroys a Hollow far in the distance. "Who are you?!" Ichigo demands. The stranger turns to face him, introducing himself as Uryū Ishida, a Quincy, who hates Shinigami, including Ichigo.

The next day, at school, Ichigo can't get the memory of Ishida out of his mind. He is filled with anger and resent. However, he can't even remember his name. Orihime notices Ichigo's frustration and reminds him of the name. She states that Ishida's in the Handicraft Club with her, much to Ichigo's disbelief. Sure enough, they peek into the club's classroom, and spot that evil looking villainous boy thread his needle of doom and repair a torn stuffed toy in record's time. Orihime asks Ichigo if anything happened with Ishida, but Ichigo walks away and says it was nothing. Orihime smiles for a moment, but an expression of sadness comes over her as he walks off.

Uryū climbs up a flight of stairs on the way home, stopping suddenly, and then asks into the open air if Ichigo is going to continue following him. Ichigo shows himself and faces Ishida, impressed that Ishida was aware of his presence. Ishida states that he was aware of Ichigo's spying since Orihime and him were watching on at the Handicrafts Club. He says he can notice it because Ichigo lets his spirit power leak out foolishly. He continues to say that Ichigo doesn't have the ability to sense those with high spirit power, especially considering he has not noticed Ishida until this day. Ishida explains how he, all along, has noticed Ichigo's massive proportion of spirit power, and how Ichigo obtained Shinigami abilities around the month of May. He is also aware of Rukia's true identity. Suddenly, long white strips of fabric-like material appear and float vertically around Ishida. Ichigo recognizes them as spirit threads, spirit power that is condensed and visualized. Ishida reaches out and grabs a red spirit thread, which startles Ichigo. It is Ichigo's spirit thread, and Ishida explains that Shinigami's spirit thread are a different color. He then challenges Ichigo to a match, to prove who is superior, and to show Ichigo that Shinigami are unnecessary. Ichigo thinks the thought is ridiculous, and that he has nothing to do with Ishida's resentment to Shinigami. Ishida taunts Ichigo, saying he is afraid because he is only a temporary Shinigami and not a real one.

At the Urahara Shop, Rukia approaches Urahara with a few questions to ask. Urahara explains to her about the Quincy clan, an anti-demon clan that specialized in anti-Hollow combat. They had been scattered across the globe, but were destroyed 200 years ago. Unlike the Shinigami, who purified a Hollow and sent the released soul to Soul Society, the Quincys actually destroyed the Hollows they fought against. The Quincys believed that there was no benefit in sending Hollows, who ate the souls of many innocent people, to Soul Society, and thus, they destroyed them. But Urahara explains that it was this philosophy that would be their undoing.

Ichigo decides to accept Ishida's challenge, pulling out Kon from his schoolbag and switching to his Shinigami form. Their battle begins.