Bleach: Belmont Legacy and Anime Series

The Bounts

Bleach – The Heart of the Matter

By Tayla Drago

(Bounts: Part 1)

'No talking in this one, I wish. Just saying to get through the saga here. It's OK in my point of view. And if others don't like this one, I understand. Please enjoy.'

As his alarm clock begins ringing in the morning, a startled Ichigo Kurosaki bolts upright in his bed and looks around his room before turning off the alarm while noting that he came home. Suddenly, as Ichigo moves forward to stand up, Isshin Kurosaki greets him and crashes feet-first through his open window into the floor, narrowly missing Ichigo, who looks at him in confusion.

Quickly recovering as the dust settles, Isshin praises Ichigo for improving his combat skill and reflexes to this extent. With Isshin admitting that he is impressed by Ichigo being able to block his congratulatory kick, Ichigo simply tells him to shut up and kicks Isshin in the face when the latter attempts to perform another attack, causing the two to begin fighting and shaking the entire Kurosaki Clinic as Yuzu Kurosaki informs them that breakfast is ready.

Shortly afterward, Isshin sits and eats breakfast downstairs with a heavily bruised face before turning away in shame when Yuzu inquiries about his injuries. Across the table from him, Karin asks Ichigo if he has become more muscular recently, prompting a startled and nervously sweating Ichigo to dismiss this and instead question if she and Yuzu have finished their summer homework. While Yuzu asserts that they finished early since they had nothing else to do while Ichigo was on his trip, making him even more nervous, Karin reveals that Don Kanonji came by twice and told them that he had made Ichigo his disciple, which Ichigo attempts to deny.

However, before Ichigo can finish his sentence, Isshin kicks him in the face and declares that he still cannot defeat his father because his guard was down, causing an irate Ichigo to demand to know why he did this before sparring with Isshin over the table, to Yuzu's chagrin. Later, at Karakura High School, Keigo Asano enthusiastically greets Ichigo, who knocks him down by letting Keigo's head slam into his outstretched and braced left upper arm as he nonchalantly returns the greeting. With Mizuiro Kojima greeting Ichigo as well and walking into the nearby classroom with him, Keigo bleeds from his nose and weakly salutes Ichigo with his left hand.

Inside the classroom, Yasutora Sado stands with Tatsuki Arisawa and Orihime Inoue, the latter of whom cheerfully calls out to Ichigo as he greets Tatsuki. When Tatsuki notes that they have not seen each other in some time since Ichigo was not home during the summer, Mizuiro observes that Ichigo and Sado have nice tans, to Sado's surprise, before Keigo springs into the classroom and inquires if they went off somewhere together, interrupting Ichigo's attempt to get into his seat. Ichigo and Sado simply look at each other in confusion, prompting a shocked Keigo to inquire if something happened between them over the summer while donning a pair of glasses.

However, Ichigo jabs his fingers into the bridge of Keigo's glasses, shattering them, and admonishes him for letting his imagination run wild as Keigo stumbles back in pain. While Ichigo sits down, Tatsuki asks Orihime how she enjoyed visiting her relatives, and when Orihime vaguely claims they did a lot of things, Tatsuki questions what she did specifically, causing Orihime to recall how they went to a strange place, which alerts Ichigo and Sado. With Tatsuki expressing surprise at this, Orihime notes it was an Edo period-style town with lots of people carrying around swords, further alarming Ichigo and Sado as Orihime states there was also a talking cat.

Before Orihime can finish recounting how the cat transformed into a woman while Ichigo and Sado stare in shock, Tatsuki affectionately rubs Orihime's head and dismisses her tale as another product of her imagination, causing Ichigo to collapse on his desk in relief while Misato Ochi instructs the students to sit down at their desks. After Tatsuki wonders what is wrong with Ichigo and sits down, Misato realizes Reiichi Ōshima and Keisuke Sorimachi are not present, but dismisses this due to the two of them being delinquents, to the bewilderment of the other students, as Ichigo looks over at Rukia Kuchiki's former desk and recalls parting ways with her in Soul Society.