Haruko

Glasses and a curvy build mark Haruko out, and a golden clip pins the back of her reddish-violet locks, which spill past her shoulders onto her upper back. Her eyes are a deep purple. For clothing she favors a navy dress layered under an off-white blouse cut like a jacket, with a white shirt showing beneath, finished off by matching dark leggings and brown heels.

Courteous and soft-spoken, Haruko treats the people around her with warmth and speaks frankly, including about the spirits only she can see, though that gift privately unsettles her. She is a capable cook. Her breakup with her boyfriend Ken leaves her declaring she no longer wants to live, yet the instinct to survive still runs strong in her: when the Tapeworm Hollow corners her, she recoils from being devoured rather than welcoming death.

Lost while hunting for Karakura Mart, Haruko wanders into the Kurosaki Clinic and asks Ichigo for directions before heading off. On her way home from shopping she spots him crossing the sky in Shinigami form, another unwanted glimpse of the supernatural. When she mentions the sighting to Ken over the lunch she has cooked, he ends their relationship, disturbed by her ability to perceive the dead.

Distraught, she climbs onto a bridge to jump, but Kon, wearing Ichigo's body, blunders in and knocks her back to safety while tumbling into the water himself. Her death wish draws a predator: a man ridden by a Tapeworm Hollow offers to end her life, and the worm bursts from him to pin her. Kon drives it off, explains what Hollows are, admits he is a discarded Mod-Soul who managed to survive, and vows to guard her if she promises not to harm herself.

Ken reappears seeking reconciliation, but the Hollow has burrowed into his body and seizes Haruko instead, possessing her until Kon strikes it loose. Ichigo then finishes the creature with Getsuga Tenshō. Confused and grateful, Haruko throws her arms around Ichigo without realizing he is the one inside; Rukia afterward wipes the memories of both her and Ken, who go home recalling nothing of the ordeal.