LogFAQs > #902045712

wifebolo is watching Nacho Libre, which feels oddly appropriate

Bleach, Vol. 2 (of 3)
https://imgur.com/a/UMOkxpt

Chad disappears, and Karin is sick after seeing a vision from the parakeet. The parakeet has a human soul sharing its body, and Karin sees the human's memory of his mother's murder. Karin implores Ichigo to help the boy in the parakeet, while the Hollow that's after said boy beats up the still-mostly-neutralized Rukia. Chad shows up for the save, even though he can't actually see what he's fighting. Between his great strength and toughness and her ability to acutally see the enemy, they're able to hold of the Hollow until Ichigo arrives. We get a Fastball Special in there, even!

As Ichigo fights, we get the backstory. The Hollow was a serial killer, and the kid managed to knock him off a balcony after his mom was murdered. The Hollow took his soul, stuck it in the parakeet, and told him his mom would come back to life if the kid could dodge him for three months. He just likes playing with him and killing whoever tries to help. Ichigo gets the win. His/Rukia's Zanpaku-to cleanses the sins of the HOLLOW, but not from their life as a human, so jerks like that get dragged to Hell in terrifying fashion. File that one under "probably relevant later." We send Parakeet Boy to the Soul Society to be with mom.

Rukia vaguely buys some stuff from a dude with a hat and his underlings. They're important later, IIRC. Rukia gives Ichigo some Soul Candy- a substitute soul to occupy his body so he can leave it and do soul reaper things. Unfortunately, we figure out too late that this was actually a defective one. The soul is pretty excited to be in a living body, and demonstrates some super human abilities, steals a kiss from Orihime, and wreaks general havoc. Mod konpakus like him were created as a failed experiment, and supposed to have been all destroyed. It appears that his experiences have made him a pacifist, even if he's kinda a jerk- he saves some kids from a Hollow, and Ichigo shows up to finish it off. The shopkeepers show up to eliminate the mod, but Rukia doesn't let them.

My rating: 7/10
Bit combat-heavy for my tastes this time around. (at least considering that I am enjoying the characters more than the combat for this particular series) Still a good time though, and from what I remember it's a good intro to some characters that will be showing up more later. Then again we have one volume to go so I'm not sure how much that'll matter here.
---

Look at all those chickens
There's a hunger in the land, there's a reckoning still to be reckoned