Bleach Episode 3: Good Night My Sister

Written by Hikaru no Michiru

First Aired: October 18^th, 2004

Corresponds with “Bleach” Vol. 1, Chapters 4, 5 and 6

Opening: Asterisk, by Orange Range

Ending: Life is Like a Boat, by Rie Fu

When we last left off, Orohime’s dead-brother-turned-Hollow decided on hunting Orohime’s soul

Ichigo defends Orohime from Kakie.

over Ichigo’s. After knocking Orohime’s soul out of her body and beating Tatsuki around the room, the brother Hollow gets face to face with his little sister. He mourns to her that she has forgotten his voice. Ichigo bursts into the apartment in the nick of time to save Orohime from the Hollow’s attack. Ichigo is shocked to find that Orohime can see him. Looking down, he notices that Orohime’s soul is connected to her body on the other side of the room by a long chain. Before he can ask further, the Hollow knocks him through the window and out of his way.

Orohime in the grasp Hollow.

Now alone with Orohime, the Hollow reveals his identity: Kakie, her older brother. Kakie reminds Orohime of the time after he died, how she used to spend all her time praying and telling him how her life was going, how that made him happy. But when she made friends with Tatsuki, she spoke to him less and less. And once Ichigo came into her life, the prayers stopped completely. He saw himself fading out of her life little by little, and that loneliness drove him to become this monster. Before making another attempt to kill his sister, Ichigo pops back in and slices Kakie’s hand off.
 

At that point, a pin in Orohime’s hair reminds of the days when he used to take care of his little

Orohime stops her brother from harming Ichigo.

sister. Driven further into his loneliness, he continues his conflict with Ichigo. As the battle goes on, Kakie catches Ichigo off his guard and makes a fatal lunge for his soul – only to be stopped by Orohime, who had thrown herself into

Kakie realizes his mistake.

his path. She tells her brother that she only wanted to share her happiness with him, so that he wouldn’t suffer for her. She tells him that she didn’t realize how lonely he was, that she loves him, and then collapses on the ground. The Hollow mask fades from Kakie’s face, and he stoops over his sister to see the pin. Ichigo tells him that she wears that pin every day, that the living and the dead, they both feel alone.

With this, Kakie takes up Ichigo’s sword, to take his own life so that he doesn’t lose himself

Kakie decides to protect Orohime from himself.

 again and go after Orohime. Before it was too late, Orohime sat up and told her brother what she meant to tell him the day before he died. “Big brother, have a nice day.” And with that, Kakie thrust the sword through his chest, and vanished into the sky as a flurry of petals.

The next day at school, Orohime and Tatsuki are oblivious to last night’s events, thinking some Yukuza gunmen had broken in and shot up the place. On top of that, their wounds are healed. Rukia explains that as a former Soul Reaper, she has the ability to cover up her tracks. With the Kakie incident still in mind, Ichigo makes a deal with Rukia – he’s going to do this Soul Reaper job of hers until she gets her powers back. There are still plenty of people to protect.

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