Wasted but Wanted

While Rukia is nearly conned by a market vendor, her device signals a Hollow appearing minutes away. At the elementary school, three boys blame their broken game consoles on an orange-haired teenager, but their teacher dismisses the tale; Karin insists the culprit was an impostor, since Ichigo would never bully children. Sensing the Hollow himself, Kon realizes it will target the boys and races back, snatching them clear as the millipede-like creature strikes.

Unable to see the Hollow, the boys mock Kon until a tentacle wounds his shoulder and sends them fleeing. Ichigo arrives to cut the tentacle short and reminds Kon that it is his body being damaged, telling him not to fight if he cannot avoid harm. Kon retorts that he only fought because Ichigo was late and that he saved the children. When the Hollow charges, Ichigo slashes its mask while Kon kicks its face, and as it falls Kon leaps again to knock it higher before it disintegrates, nearly tumbling off the roof himself.

Ichigo hauls Kon back and discovers he acted to keep the Hollow from crushing a line of ants. Kon explains that he was meant to be destroyed the day after his creation and survived only by being shipped out with ordinary pills by mistake; having been given time to think, he refuses ever to take a life, claiming his own right to live and die freely. Urahara appears to knock the pill from Ichigo's body and declares he will destroy Kon, but Rukia snatches it, arguing that a paid-for purchase is hers and that recalling Kon is not Urahara's business since they operate outside the law. She returns Kon to Ichigo, and later the two ponder news reports of a flying boy seen around town.

Kon and Ichigo defeat the Hollow together, and Kon's refusal to take any life, even an ant's, exposes his moral core. Rukia intervenes to save Kon from Urahara's destruction, keeping the modified soul alive.

The final chapter of the second volume and the Agent of the Shinigami arc resolves Kon's arc and secures his place alongside Ichigo. It was adapted into the anime's seventh episode, Greetings from a Stuffed Lion. Viz Media keeps the title Wasted but Wanted.