Beat the Invisible Enemy!

After carrying his sister Karin home, Ichigo Kurosaki reflects on how rarely she cries as he races back into the fight. Meanwhile, the Hollow Shrieker pins Rukia Kuchiki against a wall, only for Yasutora Sado to punch him away. Though Sado cannot see or hear the Hollow, he strikes it by instinct with directions from Rukia, even wielding a torn-off telephone pole. The pair briefly gain the upper hand until Shrieker's leech-spitting Targets swarm them.

Rukia devises a plan and has Sado hurl her at the airborne Shrieker, but he covers her with leeches and detonates them by vibrating his tongue, wounding her badly. He then reveals he has brought the caged parakeet Yūichi Shibata to the scene as a hostage, forcing Sado to stand guard while Shrieker hunts a bleeding Rukia through the streets. Just as she turns to make her stand, Ichigo drops onto Shrieker's head and takes over the fight, introducing himself as a Substitute Shinigami.

As the two clash, Ichigo pauses his blade at Shrieker's neck to demand the truth. Shrieker confesses that in life he was a serial killer who murdered Yūichi's mother, then fell to his death when the boy grabbed his shoelace. As a Hollow, he sealed Yūichi's soul in a parakeet and dangled a false promise to revive his mother, savoring how the child broke down each time a protector was killed, only to run on when hope was rekindled.

Enraged, Ichigo shoves the Hollow's own leeches into its mouth, tears out its tongue, and slashes through its mask. Rather than pass on to Soul Society, Shrieker is claimed by the Gates of Hell for the sins he committed while alive, impaled and dragged into the void. Afterward, with Yūichi's Chain of Fate severed, Ichigo performs Konsō, sending the boy to reunite with his mother in Soul Society as Karin quietly thanks her brother from her bed.

Sado fights the unseen Shrieker with Rukia's guidance, using a telephone pole and his raw strength. Shrieker injures Rukia with exploding leeches and takes Yūichi hostage. Ichigo arrives, learns Shrieker was the serial killer who murdered Yūichi's mother, and defeats him. The Gates of Hell claim Shrieker for his living sins. Ichigo performs Konsō on Yūichi to send him to his mother.

This episode adapts Chapters 9 through 12 within the Agent of the Shinigami arc and concludes the fights against Shrieker. It marks an early appearance of the Gates of Hell, which claim Souls and Hollows guilty of crimes committed in life. Censorship reduces much of the bloodshed, including Rukia's wounds, Shrieker's severed tongue, and the depiction of Yūichi's mother's death.