The mod soul continues attacks on Ichigo. Ichigo admits that once he calms down and focuses, the mod’s kicks are easy to dodge.* So the mod soul flees the scene. Ichigo wants to pursue him, but an order comes – a hollow is nearby. Ichigo and Rukia head off, leaving the three kids alone to explain what they saw to the P.E. teacher.**

Running along rooftops, the mod soul complains that the soul reaper and those kids killed his buzz, the buzz of being free. His complaining is interrupted when he senses the presence of a hollow, which he deduces, is going to attack those kids. Rukia’s phone is acting up, and the two can’t locate the hollow themselves. Back in the school yard, a large caterpillar hollow finds the three kids and swoops in for a snack, only to be kicked aside by the mod soul.

 

Catepillar hollow and the mod soul.

He fends off the hollow and lures him to a building roof, away from the school. Ichigo sees them and saves the mod soul from a lethal hollow attack. The two manage to defeat it, but while it flies through the air dissolving into nothing, the mod soul quickly kicks it before it hits the ground. The hollow disappears, but the kick left the mod flying over the railing. Ichigo only barely manages to catch him in time. He didn’t want the ants to die when the hollow landed on them. Ichigo overhears the kids explaining to their teacher once more that they were saved by a blood-soaked teen.*** Ichigo asks the mod why he saved them, if he hated them. The mod replies by retelling the story of how the day he was created, was the day they decided to scrap him. Luckily, he fell in the wrong crate, and was spared. He’s decided he never wants to kill, or see anyone die, ever again (kind of reminds you of Trigun’s Vash).

Never to kill, never to let die.

Just then, Urahara show up to reclaim the mod soul. He pokes the mod in the head with his cane (which sports the same symbol as Rukia’s glove), and the pill pops out leaving Ichigo’s body inanimate. Urahara admits he has to destroy it, according to Soul Society laws. Rukia takes the pill away from him, and reminds him that he works outside the law himself. Rukia also reminds him it’s her purchase; he has no right to take it back.

 

On the way home, Ichigo isn’t satisfied with just yelling at a pill. He searches for a soulless body to slip it into. No soulless body is found, but an abandoned stuffed animal is. Rukia reasons it should work, considering the body she inhabits isn’t real either. Ichigo slips the pill into the stuffed animal’s mouth. The mod soul animates it, and threatens Ichigo to continue their fight (then, panics realizing he is now much, much shorter). Ichigo grabs the mod soul by the head, and says he’ll take care of him, “so say your prayers.” They name him Kon, short for konpaku (soul). 

 

Kon wakes up Ichigo.

The next morning, Kon proves himself a real nuisance, and a pervert. (This whole morning scene is especially humorous, I would recommend getting this episode for it). Ichigo overslept, and as he dresses he notices Rukia had erased his friend’s memories of yesterday. He also notices the date on his watch: June 16^th.

 

Ichigo notices it's June 16th.

 When he arrives at school, Ichigo acts rather friendly towards his classmates – something that Orohime picks up on right away. Tatsuki explains he only acts that way when he’s tense. When a classmate mentions it’s June 16^th, Tatsuki knows she’s right. “I know the reason. Tomorrow is the day he takes off from school.”

A family meeting is held that evening at the Kurosaki residence. Ichigo’s dad passes out jobs to Yuzu and Karin for tomorrow (carrying bags and packing lunches). Afterwards in his room, Ichigo asks Rukia if he could take the day off tomorrow from soul reaper work. When Rukia asks why, Ichigo reveals that tomorrow is the anniversary of the day his mom was killed. Ichigo dreams that night of that day, that day his mother died, tormented because he feels responsible.

Tormented by guilt.

As the episode closes, two soul reapers converse in a place that appears to be Soul Society (which looks very much like feudal Japan), about Rukia Kuchiki. She’s exceeded her time limit for staying in the human world and needs to be retrieved.****
                                                                                                                                                

* Never happened. Ichigo caught up to the mod soul at the roof.
** The kids are never seen with the teacher. Only in the hollow attack.
*** Ichigo doesn’t overhear this, his conversation with Kon is sparked when he notices the ants.
**** This scene doesn’t occur in the manga.