Ichigo Kurosaki is a teenager from Karakura Town who can see ghosts, a talent which lets him cross paths with Rukia Kuchiki, a Soul Reapers whose task is guiding dead spirits from the World of the Living to the Soul Society and defeat Hollows, monstrous lost souls who can harm both ghosts and humans. Wounded by a Hollow she was hunting, Rukia transfers her powers to Ichigo so that he may fight in her stead while she recovers her strength in an artificial human body. Ichigo balances the demands of his substitute Soul Reaper duties and high school while gaining allies in his classmate Orihime Inoue, Yasutora "Chad" Sado, and Uryu Ishida of the Quincies.