“I see dead people.” -Haley Joel Osment

(Edit by Yuix)

Ichigo Kurosaki, Bleach’s Substitute Soul Reaper.

Yusuke Urameshi, YuYu Hakusho’s Spirit Detective.

The question of what comes after we die is something that many people have pondered on, but the question of what if the things that died came back to harm humanity is something that is terrifying to think about. Fortunately for humanity, two young Japanese delinquents turned supernatural heroes are the answer to the supernatural evil beings who assault the world. But in this battle only one warrior will continue the fight and the other will pass on into the realm of Heaven. Will Ichigo carve a path to victory and send this Spirit Detective to the Soul Society? Or will Yusuke give Ichigo an ass whopping so hard that the Spirit Realm feels it? Only one way to find out, with a DEATH BATTLE!

Before We Start…

Pretty simple here. Both Manga and Anime content for both Bleach and YuYu Hakasho will be utilized here, alongside additional info from guidebooks. Games for supporting evidence if worth mentioning. A key thing to mention is with the final segments of the anime adaptations for both. Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War both adapts the manga’s version of the final arc while adding new content as supervised by series author Tite Kubo, making it the definitive version of the series’ endgame arc. YuYu Hakusho on the other hand has its final anime arc vary more notably compared to the manga without the same author supervision. Feats and information from the anime’s endgame will be utilized to get a full analysis of Yusuke, though anything too contradictory to the source material will obviously be looked at with a bit more scrutiny. 

Background

Images by Yuix.

Ichigo Kurosaki

“I’m not Superman, so I can’t say anything big, like I’ll protect everyone on earth. I’m not a modest guy who will say it’s enough if I can protect as many people as my two hands can handle, either. I want to protect a mountain-load of people!”

Even as a child, Ichigo Kurosaki wasn’t exactly like most people his age – he was special. Namely, he could see Pluses – ghosts of the dead. He could barely even tell apart the living and the dead, and unfortunately, this ability led to tragedy for him, as one fateful June 17th, he saw a girl seemingly about to jump into a river, and ran toward her to stop her – not knowing this was the lure of a Hollow, a corrupted spirit. His mother tried to stop him, but he didn’t listen, and he woke up hours later, his mother’s dead body atop him. From that day forward, Ichigo’s crushing survivor’s guilt led to his attitude changing – the kind, always smiling young man became harsher, seemingly more detached, and more aggressive – and yet, said aggressiveness was always directed at bullies.

And yet, one day, everything would change one fateful day, when a Shinigami – one Rukia Kuchiki – entered his room. Ichigo could see her, like he could any spirit, and yet no one else could, at least not in his house. He learned about the differences between Hollows and Pluses, and about Shinigami. However, this meeting was short-lived, as a Hollow attacked the Kurosaki household that day, and Rukia could not defeat it, but she shared her power with Ichigo, who overwhelmed it and took it all for himself, becoming a Shinigami himself. Defeating the hollow, Ichigo then realized he would have to serve as a Substitute Shinigami – someone to fulfill Rukia’s position to help Pluses pass on and to reap hollows. However, Ichigo wouldn’t have to do this alone, as several of his friends had spiritual awareness like he did – Orihime, Chad, and Uryu would all join him in helping him fulfill his duties as a Substitute Shinigami until Rukia regained her powers.

However, this isn’t quite how the story would go – as the Shinigami of the Soul Society came to the Human Realm. Rukia had broken the laws of Soul Society by sharing her powers with Ichigo, and for that, she would be executed. However, Ichigo was not one to back down that easily, and after being beaten by Byakuya and unlocking his Zanpakuto, he went into the Soul Society to stop Rukia’s execution himself. He made his way to Byakuya, and trained to unlock his Bankai in the process, and the two battled – with Ichigo’s inner Hollow, White, unleashing himself in their battle when he was pushed into a corner, before Ichigo took control and unleashed his Bankai, defeating Byakuya and saving Rukia… only to find that the entire thing was but a ruse by one Sosuke Aizen, who sought to gain the powers of the Hogyoku for his own ends, before he quickly defeated Ichigo and left for elsewhere.

However, Aizen’s plans would not finish with Ichigo just yet – and his Arrancar would attack the town Ichigo called home, several times over. His powerlessness to both Grimmjow, one of Aizen’s Espada, and his inner Hollow growing to a fever pitch, he decided to train to gain control of his Hollow, to accept both sides of himself – and even so, he still was not powerful enough to stop Grimmjow on his own. Not powerful enough to save Orihime from being taken. And yet, he would still strive to his limits, to save someone he loved – he was tired of feeling powerless. He swept through several of the Espada through hardships – Grimmjow and Ulquiorra both ended up being defeated by him, and then he had to battle Aizen himself. Aizen had claimed that he had engineered everything in Ichigo’s life – from his birth to now, to create the perfect test subject – namely, Ichigo. And despite Aizen defeating everyone, Ichigo went on to confront his inner Hollow again – and realized the truth. His Hollow was part of his Zanpakuto, and his desire was to protect Ichigo no matter what. But, Ichigo knew to defeat Aizen, he’d need to learn the Final Getsuga Tensho, and sacrifice his own Shinigami powers – and his happiness – to defeat him. And yet, he did as much, to protect all he cared about. And so, many may say that’s where his story ended…

…but they’d be very, very wrong. Almost two years after Aizen’s defeat, Ichigo …felt lost, without his Shinigami powers. While he acted as if it was all fine, his powerlessness got to him – he wished to protect the ones he loved, and he couldn’t, anymore. So, when one Kugo Ginjo told him that as a child who’s parent was attacked by a Hollow, he was a Fullbringer and could access a new form of his Shinigami powers, Ichigo took it in an instant. Completing his Fullbring despite the troubles from Xcution he faced along the way, he found out that Ginjo had been playing him like a fool the whole time, to steal his Fullbring for himself. And so, Ichigo was left powerless once more, crying out for the power he’d lost and for his inability to protect the ones he cared about. …And once more, his Shinigami powers were returned to him, with Rukia stabbing him with a sword regranting him his powers once more. He defeated Ginjo, and despite learning he’d been spied on for a long time, he retook his Substitute Shinigami badge once more, finally having what he wanted all back.

But, of course, that wasn’t the end of his story yet. The Wandenreich, the army of Quincies led by their king, Yhwach attacked. And the one who could supposedly save the Soul Society… was him. He fought Yhwach, and his Zanpakuto was broken in half in the process, with him having to reforge it entirely. Ichigo found out that his mother was actually a Quincy, and had to truly accept who he was, for all of his heritage – his two Zanpakutos became two different blades, his true Zanpakuto, as he finally accepted himself for who he was. Even after being manipulated into killing the Soul King, he still fought on – and through a long and arduous fight, he defeated Yhwach, and set some sort of peace to the world. Finally having made peace with himself, he was able to protect the ones he loved, and got his happily ever after. But, make no mistake – anyone who tries to hurt Ichigo’s family and friends will have to deal with him, and he’ll make sure they’re safe, no matter what.

Yusuke Urameshi

“If you idiots got something to say, then say it to my face. Or else say it to my fist!”

Yusuke Urameshi was your average 14 year old delinquent. Always skipping classes for a quick smoke, picking fights and taking names for the love of the game, and overall being an utterly unlikable bastard. At least until that fateful day, when Yusuke Urameshi… lost his life. In an act of kindness that even the gods couldn’t have seen coming, Yusuke sacrificed it all to save the life of a small boy from an incoming car.

But as it turns out, all was not lost! Yusuke’s death was entirely unplanned by the Afterlife, and he was given the one in a million chance to come back from death! At first, he was hesitant… but seeing how those closest to him mourned and suffered due to his death, he accepted the deal, and upon proving his worth, returned to the land of the living. …With one small caveat. His experience as a wandering spirit left him with enhanced awareness of the spirits and demons that surrounded him, and he was selected by the Spirit Realm to serve as their Spirit Detective, solving cases of demonic foul play in the Human World! As the newly appointed Spirit Detective, Yusuke would be tackling all kinds of supernatural activities ranging from demons wanting to steal the secrets of various martial arts to those who want to see the world burn. Lucky for Yusuke, he wouldn’t have to do all of it on his own. He would be joined by self-proclaimed rival Kazuma Kuwabara and the demons Kurama and Hiei and together, all 4 of them would be the ones saving the Human and Spirit Worlds from those who dare to threaten it. 

Yusuke’s journeys would become progressively more challenging, and his strength would keep rising. A fact that gained the attention of perhaps the most powerful Demon present in the Human World, Toguro. Toguro’s lust for combat and desire for worthy adversaries mirrored Yusuke’s own nature, but twisted and deformed into a complete monster. Toguro made Yusuke join the legendary Dark Tournament and killed Yusuke’s master all seemingly in order to make a perfect opponent, but Yusuke’s resolve was stronger. His love for his friends and sincere desire to protect them ensured that he wouldn’t fall to the depths of Toguro’s madness, and that inner strength made Yusuke prosper… but there was still a truth that he had not uncovered about himself. 

After defeating Toguro, Yusuke’s next enemy was Shinobu Sensui, his predecessor as Spirit Detective. Sensui violently despised mankind and wished to tear open a hole to the Demon Realm, forcing Yusuke to step up and challenge him. But during this battle, a hidden truth was revealed as Sensui landed a fatal blow. Long, long ago, one of the kings of the Demon Realm, Raizen, made love with a human woman, resulting in a lineage that would carry dormant demon blood in their veins for generations until it reached one strong enough to awaken to it. And that descendant was none other than Yusuke Urameshi.

Upon reawakening and learning of this truth, Yusuke….

Didn’t really change that much, actually. For a while, it seemed as though his humanity was fading away, talking to demons about the consumption of humans as if it were the most normal thing in the world, but deep down, Yusuke was still the same delinquent he always was. Using his demonic connections, he set up a tournament in order to unify the Demon Realm, and kickstarted an era of peace between demons and humans. By staying true to himself, by sticking to his ideals until the very end, Yusuke changed the entire world for the better. After some time, he finally left Demon World, his wisdom having grown and remembering the promise to his friends back home. Yusuke waved goodbye to his allies of Demon World and returned to Human World. And by the sandy shores of Genkai’s estate basking in the sunset in front of Keiko, the girl that proved compassion is real, stood Yusuke. Reunited and surrounded by strangers wherever he went, Yusuke would thank each and every one of them for waking him up.

Experience & Skill

Ichigo Kurosaki

Ichigo is a very skilled fighter, even before awakening to his powers. Ichigo was consistently able to beat up common thugs like they are nothing and he was also able to match and surpass the skill of Tatsuki Arisawa. This is impressive because Tatsuki has trained professionally in Karate since she was young. After that fateful meeting with Rukia which awakened his powers he only proceeded to gain more skill in combat, defeating countless Hollows and managing to keep up with Ishida Uryu, a Quincy who is an expert marksman.

Ichigo is also pretty intelligent in general and has a great understanding of how to act as a Soul Reaper, which makes sense as he was taught and trained by legends like Kisuke Urahara and Yoruichi Shihoin, but even before being trained by those two Ichigo showed his impressive skill as a Soul Reaper as he could use Spirit Ribbons without any guidance at all, which is a feat that not even Rukia could accomplish despite her years of experience as a Soul Reaper. Ichigo also learned techniques from the Vizards, Xcution, and Squad Zero. He absorbed this information relatively quickly despite being a teenager with no experience with Supernatural Phenomenon.

One thing to note about Ichigo is that he learns very quickly and can eventually keep up with opponents even if they overwhelm him at first. In fact this trait of his is quite infamous. Ichigo has constantly displayed extraordinary growth in very short amounts of time. One big example of this is his training to learn the Bankai technique which normally takes a Soul Reaper 10 years to learn. Ichigo learned how to use a Bankai in only 2 days. In fact after the first day of his training, Yoruichi stated that Ichigo’s combat skill had improved significantly and it was also stated by Urahara that Ichigo is more gifted than he is.

This is insanely impressive considering Urahara is one of the most skilled Soul Reapers to ever exist. In fact, Ichigo is considered to be on the same level as him. Another point in favor of his insane growth is his battle against Kenpachi where he kept up with Kenpachi and defeated him. Kenpachi was able to give Unohana the toughest battle she ever had. Unohana is a swordswoman with over 2 millenia of experience and having mastered 8000 sword styles. He was also able to deflect Senbonzakura’s million death petals which shocked Byakuya as not many could even hope to avoid that attack, let alone deflect it. So in terms of growth, Ichigo is completely absurd and is able to match warriors with over a thousand years of combat skill. 

Ichigo is also able to hold his own against other enemies within the Supernatural World, For example He was able to hold his own and outmatch Grimmjow, Ulquiorra and hold his own against the Espada’s best swordsman Nnoitra Gilga, In fact during his brief fight with Nnoitra, Ichigo was still able to survive the battle despite Nnoitra having the advantage of knowing how Ichigo fights and Ichigo being weakened. Another foe Quilge Opie, the leader of the Jagdarmee and the combat director of the Stern Ritter admitted Ichigo was more skilled than him. But all this pales in comparison to Ichigo’s battle against Yhwach. Yhwach is a foe who is a threat to Yamamoto, a Soul Reaper who has mastered all forms of combat. Yhwach was also able to clash with Ichibe Hyosube, the leader of the royal guard and the person who has a million years of knowledge and experience. Despite all this plus the massive experience edge Yhwach had, he was still struggling to actually beat Ichigo and Ichigo was able to hold his own.

Ichigo is also very analytical. He picks up on details mid battle with opponents. Such as during his battle against Renji where he noticed Renji could only use his special attack three times before returning his Zapakuto to its default state. He also read the attack patterns of Ulquiorra and was able to pull apart Gin’s plan to deceive him. Against Quilge, he noticed the leader of the Jagdarmee had extreme overconfidence and took advantage of it, he also noticed that his halo was the source of his Reishi subjugation. Ichigo shattered it to prevent Quilge from becoming more powerful. During the battle against Yhwach, Ichigo was constantly analyzing his ability to find a weakness while he was being underestimated. All of these instances show that Ichigo is not a dumb musclehead and he does pay attention to details about his enemy and if he has the capability he will take advantage of any weaknesses his opponents show.

Ichigo also has good grades in school. (Take that Naruto)

Yusuke Urameshi

From the very start of the story, Yusuke was already presented as a born fighter, partaking in many street brawls and getting quite the reputation for it. A fellow delinquent, Kuwabara, who claimed had never lost a fight to someone his age before, would routinely get completely clobbered by Yusuke whenever the two crossed paths. Yusuke’s reckless fighting style also has some hints of ingenuity, as he can quickly come up with plans to get an advantage, even if they seem completely stupid at a glance. Such as when he quickly came up with the idea to reflect the Spirit Gun off of a mirror to strike Hiei, or when he tricked Suzaku by pretending to use his shoes to block lightning while actually setting up proper barriers out of his view. Though these strategies are reckless in their own right, Yusuke hardly plans for them not to work out. Soon enough, Yusuke would really get to elevate his martial arts game when he participated in a tournament to become Genkai’s new disciple. Not only did he manage to impress her a bit with his fighting capabilities but he would fight and defeat Kibano, a fighter who has mastered many kinds of martial arts and Rando, the demon who had defeated 99 other martial arts masters and can copy moves after witnessing it once.

His extensive training under the martial arts and spirit energy master Genkai served to mitigate most of his flaws as a fighter. His mastery over his Reiki increased his versatility, allowing him to enhance and alter the Spirit Gun in various ways to deal with any situation, and his newfound skills allowed him to match even demonic powerhouses like Chu and Toguro in even matches when it came to fighting ability. Toguro was especially notable as a threat because he was the only equal to Genkai in her prime, and he continued to get stronger after he had traded his humanity in order to become a demon in the battlefield, on top of also being the last winner of the Dark Tournament. Of course, Yusuke wouldn’t only have the old bat as his teacher as he was approached by Hokushin, a Demon World denizen and right hand man of Raizen, one of the Three Kings. Venturing into Demon World once again, Yusuke would train with Hokushin and his men, being some of the strongest fighters in the plane and in less than a year, Yusuke had matched and had them all beat, even being the only person to point out the weakness in Hokushin’s fighting style.

Yusuke’s sheer unpredictable nature also adds to his skill in combat. Shinobu Sensui, a former Spirit Detective who had experienced several battles and had tons of experience to draw from in his own right, initially believed he could easily predict Yusuke’s attacks through his honed instincts, only to repeatedly be blindsided by Yusuke’s battle strategies. Sensui himself was skilled enough to utilize the Resshuken fighting style, a martial art so high level that Genkai herself states that it cannot be taught unless they have mastered all other forms and is the strongest one there is when compared to other barehanded fighting styles. Kurama also stated that Resshuken style is something meant to counter fighters like Yusuke. Sensui was also the only person to attain the holy powers of Sacred Energy, something that Genkai herself couldn’t obtain and yet he did it in less than 10 years. And Yusuke managed to make his own version of it, in a year. Just goes to show that even if your school grades are total garbage, you can still be a genius in other ways that can end up mattering more in the long run.

Yusuke can also make one mean bowl of ramen. (Take that, Naruto)

Equipment

Ichigo Kurosaki

Zangetsu

The Zanpakuto, or Soul Cutter, is the trademark weapon of any Soul Reaper. It is the tool utilized to purify Hollows as well as performing the Soul Funeral, which sends the souls of ghosts directly to the Soul Society. All Zanpakuto start off as the same basic blades given to all Soul Reapers, known as Asauchi, until they eventually transform into a personalized blade unique to the wielder. Ichigo’s sword, however, is a lot more complicated in its origins. For the majority of the series, Ichigo’s sword was merely a fragment of his true power, severely suppressed by his Quincy side. By the Thousand Year Blood War, and coming to terms with his true nature, Ichigo gained his true blade, the Blade that is him, the true form of Zangetsu. Due to Ichigo embracing both his inner Hollow and his inner Quincy as being “Zangetsu”, he has two separate swords to wield in battle.

Soul Candy/Gikogan

Don’t be fooled by its cutesy appearance. This may seem like any other candy you would find at a store but it is not a normal confection. Whoever consumes the candy will have their soul forced out of their body and the body will have an artificial soul that will replace it. Ichigo obtained this candy from Rukia to not leave his body helpless as Kon would temporarily possess it, though later on in the series Ichigo could just transform his normal body into his Shinigami body through other means which meant he no longer needed Kon’s help.

Substitute Shinigami Badge

A gift from the Soul Society to Ichigo, proof of his status as a substitute Soul Reaper. It allows Ichigo to quickly separate his soul from his body in order to enter his Shinigami form, as well as alerting him to the presence of nearby Hollows. It was also used by the Gotei 13 to keep an eye on him but they stopped doing that eventually.

Yusuke Urameshi

See-Through Glass

As a detective, Yusuke has been given plenty of tools to assist him in solving any cases that the Underworld sent his way. The first of these is the See-Through Glass, a lens that allows him to… see through objects. In the Gameboy Advance game, his trinket is called the “Psychic Spy Glass” and allows Yusuke to see demons in their true form. 

Demonic Aura Meter

The second of the detective tools Yusuke used for beginner detectives. It can track down nearby demons and pinpointing their location via a compass, detecting demons via their energy and how powerful they are.

Aura Booster Ring

A ring tailor-made to amplify the power of Yusuke’s Spirit Gun. Yusuke mainly had this for the beginning of his adventures, back before he had trained to increase the Spirit Gun’s power all by himself, but it’s a useful trinket to have in a bind. It’s stated to increase his power permanently.

Abilities

Ichigo Kurosaki

“All Of The Above”
Physiology

Ichigo Kurosaki is the son of Masaki, a Quincy that had been possessed by a Hollow, and Isshin, a Shinigami who had been inhabiting an artificial Human body. This means that Ichigo, despite being born a Human, had Quincy and Shinigami heritage, and his mother’s Hollow had similarly been passed onto him. He is also considered a Fullbringer, as those are essentially humans with Hollow Reiryoku in their bodies.

This means that Ichigo is uniquely every single different faction of the setting at once, which is… a lot. Let’s break this down. Of course we aren’t going to explain what a human is and if you want to know what a human is…There are sources that are available and we would suggest looking into them. Because not knowing what humankind is in this day and age is quite concerning.

Shinigami Physiology

Shinigami are beings entirely composed of Reishi, or spirit particles. This means that they are completely invisible to those lacking in spiritual awareness. Because of this, Ichigo initially had to separate his soul from his body in order to properly take on Shinigami form and make full use of his powers. However, eventually he could just naturally transform into a Shinigami rather than separating from his human form. As a Shinigami, Ichigo has superhuman strength and speed alongside his other natural properties, and has the ability to solidify the Reishi in the atmosphere to use as platforms and gain traction in the air.

Hollow Physiology

Being part Hollow, Ichigo has access to a multitude of abilities associated with them. Hollows by just existing are able to poison the souls of others, eroding them away unless you possess antibodies to counteract it. This isn’t the only soul related ability Hollows possess, as they’re able to eject souls out of someone’s body, consume them, or even seal them into objects. Like Shinigami, Hollows can generate and control their Reiryoku into attacks specific to their race, like the Cero: a concentrated stream of light. Ichigo’s Hollow heritage has also manifested into a white Zanpakuto Spirit, granting him the ability to transform and enhance his abilities. Despite being lost souls, Hollows are either blurry or completely invisible even to those who can sense or see spirits. Below are several techniques associated with Hollows that Ichigo should have access to.

Cero: As said above, the Cero is a Hollow technique that is a concentrated stream of Reiryoku that burns away those in its path.

Gran Rey Cero: The Gran Rey Cero is the Ultimate Cero, surpassing even the Cero Oscuras which increases the user’s power by an entire order of magnitude. This Cero’s output is powerful enough to distort space. In Ichigo’s case, he’s able to further power this move up by fusing it into his Getsuga Tenshou, making a move powerful enough to cut through Soul King Yhwach.

Fullbringer Physiology

Fullbringers are humans with the unique ability to be able to draw out and manipulate the souls of inanimate objects, as all things in the world possess souls to call their own. With enough attachment to a particular object, they can change its form and grant it new abilities. Basically, they Bring out the Full potential of an object, get it? As for Ichigo himself, he gets a couple of nifty usages through Fullbring. He can use Bringer Light to perform high speed movements by using Fullbring on things like concrete or the air to enhance his own moves, and he can utilize his Substitute Shinigami Badge as his primary Fullbring to clad himself with its soul and recreate his powers as a Soul Reaper.

It should be noted, however, that Ichigo’s Fullbring powers were stolen by Ginjo before their final battle, and he has never utilized them at any point in the story afterwards. Likely because he frankly doesn’t need them, so these abilities are most likely lost. He is still considered a Fullbringer, however, as Yhwach claimed it would be necessary to wield the power of Quincies, Shinigami, Hollows and Fullbringers to destroy the Soul King’s seal, which Ichigo accomplished.

Quincy Physiology

_{(The form isn’t canon but shhhhhhhhh it looks cool)}

The Quincy are a special clan of humans unique in their ability to manipulate the Reishi, the spirit particles that make up souls, from their surroundings, merely coating them with their own energy. Unlike the Shinigami, who draw power from their own soul and use the power from within, the Quincy use the power from without, so to speak.

Ichigo, however, hardly ever uses his Quincy abilities in canon, in spite of one of his Zanpakuto spirits being the manifestation of his Quincy heritage. The only one of their powers he has ever displayed is Blut. This technique involves the manipulation of Reishi within one’s blood vessels in order to boost both strength and durability. However, these are separate powers. Blut Arterie is the increase in strength, while Blut Vene makes a Quincy overwhelmingly tough, and both cannot be active at the same time. Ichigo was shown to have access to Blut Vene in his first encounter with Yhwach, and it stands to reason he could also utilize Arterie.

Supernatural Awareness

Ichigo is able to see supernatural beings and entities, like ghosts, hollows and Soul Reapers who are normally unable to be seen by normal humans. Due to his unique affinity with the Supernatural, he can even interact with these entities and harm them. Ichigo has such fine senses for detecting the supernatural he is even able to sense specific supernatural beings. 

Reiryoku

Known also as Spiritual Power, Reiryoku serves as the basis for spiritual sensory and abilities as a whole. A person’s entire physicality is based around this energy as everyone is born with a certain amount. Due to the circumstances of his birth, Ichigo’s potential was far higher than others, allowing him to see and sense spirits. After becoming a Shinigami, Ichigo trained to increase his Reiryoku to new heights; learning how to fully control and shape its form. Shinigami use Reiryoku for strengthening their bodies, powering their abilities, and even controlling the shape and size of their Zanpakuto depending on how strong they are, with strong enough Shinigami potentially wielding swords the size of buildings. These capabilities aren’t all offensive, as Reiryoku has been used to heal wounds. As an energy tied to your spirit, Reiryoku is drastically magnified during a life or death situation. Much like Reiatsu, when two Spiritual Powers clash, the weaker of the two takes the damage, leaving the higher power unharmed.

Reiatsu

Known as Spiritual Pressure, Reiatsu is the physical force or “pressure” created by one’s Reiryoku. Reiatsu can be applied in multiple ways but the most common is letting it loose as an aura, crushing opponents down to even their soul. This crushing can also inflict fear onto others and paralyze them in place, even making it feel like they were attacked without their opponent moving. If the difference in Reiatsu is great enough, the stronger of the two pressures could overwhelm the weaker one, causing them to be unable to use their abilities or even erasing them outright. It should be noted that most uses of Reiatsu rely on there being a substantial or vast difference in power. Additionally, Shinigami all possess Reiatsu vents on their wrists that if covered will cause their own energy to burn them from the inside out.

Getsuga Tensho

Ichigo’s signature and most iconic technique. At the very moment of the attack, all of Ichigo’s spirit energy goes straight into his sword, before firing a massive wave of destruction from Zangetsu’s tip while Ichigo swings it. It is incredibly powerful, only getting stronger and stronger as Ichigo grew in power, and at his best, Ichigo can fire two separate Getsugas in a row to make Getsuga Jujinsho. Ichigo can also wrap Getsuga Tensho around his blade to make his melee strikes stronger!

Shunpo/Flash Step

A standard Shinigami technique, it allows for quick movements faster than the eye can track both for travel and in combat. Ichigo picked up the skill early on in his career as a Shinigami and has only further refined his use of it throughout the story, becoming a master praised by Byakuya Kuchiki and even the Quincy King Yhwach for his speed. With Shunpo, Ichigo can move across the battlefield with incredible speed, kicking up dust and even creating afterimages. Though he’s not adept with its more advanced techniques, its strongly honed baseline ability is more than enough for him in battle.

Konso/Soul Funeral

Konso is the process by which Soul Reapers are able to send souls to the afterlife, By tapping the head of a spirit with their Zanpakuto, A soul is marked and depending on how they lived their lives, The Soul is sent to the Soul Society to later be reincarnated, or they are sent to hell if they were a bad person. This is an incredibly basic and fundamental part of being a Soul Reaper, so of course Ichigo can perform the ritual as well.

Resistances

• Soul Manipulation: Being a Spiritual Entity, Ichigo has such strong Spiritual Pressure that attacks and abilities that target his soul should not be able to work. For example, Tatsuki has weak Spiritual Pressure and she was able to not have her soul eaten by Yammy.
• Possession: Ichigo is able to resist Hollow Zangetsu’s Influence and maintain control of his body
• Electrocution: Ichigo was unaffected by Candice’s Galvano Blast, which is a big electrical attack
• Sealing: Ichigo was able to break out of Yukio’s Dimension, which was described as unbreakable.
• Illusions: With powerful enough Reiatsu, one can dispel and power through illusions such as the Perfect Hypnosis of Kyoka Suigetsu
• Power Copying: Tokinada failed to copy Zangetsu’s Power.
• Extreme Heat: Potent enough Blut Vene can be used to protect from even Yamamoto’s Bankai reaching 15 Million Degrees.
• Extreme Cold: Ichigo should be able to replicate the same resistance as As Nodt due to being a powerful Quincy. As Nodt was able to resist Rukia’s Shikai which is very cold.
• Spatial Attacks: Ichigo can block and survive Ceros, which are attacks that can distort space.
• Fear Inducement: Ichigo is able to overcome the fear effects of Kenpachi’s Spiritual Pressure and actually attack him
• Intense Pain: Ichigo is able to continue fighting even after receiving insane wounds that are extremely painful. Lots of stabs and bruises and such, you get the idea
• Corruption: Ichigo can resist the passive effect of Hollow Corruption thanks to his spiritual strength and possessing Anti-Bodies against them

Yusuke Urameshi

Supernatural Awareness

Upon coming back to life, Yusuke’s affinity for the supernatural had awoken, being able to see and interact with yokai, something ordinary humans can’t do. He can also notice traits not normally visible to humans such as the horns on a yokai that is possessing a human or attempting to disguise as one. He was also able to evolve his spirit awareness to see the Ichigaki team’s invisible attacks, which were even invisible to those who already possessed spiritual awareness.

Reiki

Also known as Energy or Aura, it is something that lies in every person and is the source of all of one’s power and it is invisible to those who do not have a spiritual awareness.  For Yusuke, he uses his own Reiki to bolster his already good fighting capabilities to new levels, being able to use it to enhance the power of his own punches and kicks. Reiki can also be used to create barriers to protect themselves from an attack, sense others or used to heal themselves from injuries. Most notably, Yusuke has been able to use Reiki for a variety of long ranged attacks to blast apart foes. Reiki has a lot more principles to it than it initially may seem. When faced with danger or intense stakes, Yusuke can grow stronger and faster during a fight, allowing him to even out the fight, if not just outright dominate his opponent. The only disadvantage is that Reiki is limited and when it runs out, it leaves Yusuke with a lot less options for attack. However, Yusuke has a workaround to this, albeit a pretty dangerous one. When push comes to shove, Yusuke can charge himself up with his own life force to keep at it, being willing to throw away his own existence to gain more energy.

Astral Projection

The ability to separate the spirit from their physical body. Yusuke hasn’t been shown to do this at will like Hiei and Kurama have, but it is shown that if he is rendered unconscious then it can be done without issue. Entering this kind of state doesn’t compromise his fighting ability, as he is still able to do all his usual moves.

Invisibility

As a spirit, Yusuke cannot be seen by those who do not have spiritual awareness.

Intangibility

In addition to not being able to be seen normally as a spirit, Yusuke can also just pass through people and objects as if they weren’t there. Even as a human, he is capable of interacting with and hurting spirits and demons that are normally intangible to ordinary people.

Possession

Shown in his initial death by the beginning of the series, and to make contact with the living world. Yusuke is able to inhabit a living person’s body and take full control of it. 

Dream Immersion

Yusuke has shown the ability to immerse himself in the dreams of others while being a spirit. He did this to help a little boy get over the fact that his dog is dying and that he must come to terms with the loss.

Spirit Gun

Yusuke’s most iconic move. By charging up his Reiki towards his finger and pulling the metaphorical trigger in his mind, Yusuke can fire off an energy blast to strike down anyone standing in its path. Yusuke has shown the ability to manipulate the power of his Spirit Gun, being able to have it push people forward, charge up an even larger version of the move and even fire off a more demonic version of the move. It has been stated that the Spirit Gun packs twice as much power as Yusuke’s own physical strikes.

Double Spirit Gun

A more advanced variation of the Spirit Gun. Yusuke fires off 2 Spirit Gun blasts in quick succession and the 2nd shot will collide with the 1st one, adding extra power behind it and resulting in a stronger attack! 

Spirit Shotgun

Yusuke extends his fist out and fires out a barrage of blasts that is useful for taking out multiple foes out at once or to make it incredibly difficult for a single target to dodge

Barriers

As bold and brazen as Yusuke can be, he’s still smart enough to care about his defenses! Forming from pure Reiki, he’s able to protect himself from all means of physical and energy based attacks.

Energy Expansion

Yusuke can release some of his Reiki as an omnidirectional wave of energy, blowing away foes in the vicinity or outright killing them if they can’t handle the pressure. This can occur when Yusuke simply summons more of his energy, expelling a large amount of it as he himself becomes stronger.

Spirit Wave

Created and honed by Yusuke’s master, Genkai, this blast of raw Reiki is used by focusing all of Yusuke’s energy – making his body a catalyst for a wide spread and inescapable attack when unleashed through a focal point of his body! With the hindrance of using up all his energy for one devastating unfiltered blast that’ll knock the wind out of you.

Energy Absorption

Yusuke is able to manipulate outside energy and directly change its form, turning it into spiritual energy that he can then absorb and use for himself. However, Yusuke must be strong enough to physically withstand the energy he is absorbing, otherwise it can seriously harm his body. 

Aura Cyclone

Reaching S-Class made Yusuke reach such a level of power that merely unleashing his energy against a fellow S Class could form several tornadoes around him from the emission of aura alone.

Flight

After coming back to life a second time, Yusuke can use his energy to fly and zip across large distances in a short notice. When Yusuke awakened to his demon powers, he seemed to be able to acquire a form of flight or levitation while battling Sensui.

Demon Gun

Only by tapping into his demonic heritage, Yusuke can charge up his regular primary ‘fire’ with the far more destructive and chaotic Demon energy – taking a wilder red appearance that’ll pack more punch to scorch the floor off any foe! 

Sacred Energy

In the anime version of his battle against Yomi in the Makai Tournament, Yusuke unleashes a mysterious, yellow Energy that he had never shown before. When witnessing it, Kurama and Hiei immediately recognized it as being the same as Sensui’s Sacred Energy, while Koenma believed it was something entirely new. Assuming Hiei and Kurama are correct in their assumption would mean that Yusuke had awakened to a level of Ki that surpasses all others, that even masters like Genkai cannot achieve, of such quality that even if rising other types of aura through quantity would not match it, even with increases of tens of times. It is also unique in its ability to resonate with techniques from the Spirit Realm, and granting those who possess it the power to completely negate attempts at sealing it away. 

Resistances

• Mind Manipulation: Unaffected by the powers of Hiei’s Jagan and his Jaganshi transformation (game ver.)
• Freezing: Yusuke should be relative to Hiei, who can break his limbs out of being frozen in ice
• Electricity: Survived Suzaku’s lightning attacks, which is stated to be able to instantly incinerate normal people
• Soul Manipulation: Toguro’s aura was affecting the souls of everyone in the stadium. Not only was Yusuke not being affected by it, his own aura neutralized the effects of Toguro’s
• Poison: Demon World’s atmosphere is poisonous. Yusuke suffered no ill effects from it.
• Power Nullification: Sacred Energy is unable to be shut off by outside forces and spells
• Sealing: Sacred Energy can block the Mafukan, which would’ve sealed Sensui and Koenma into Demon World
• Possession: Yusuke fended off Raizen possessing him

Forms

Ichigo Kurosaki

Half-Hollow

While Ichigo had multiple transformations tied to his Inner Hollow in the past, during the final battle with Yhwach, he achieved the one he has the most control over. He can call upon the power of his Hollow by drenching his body in powerful Reiryoku, doing so with Yhwach’s Quincy energy but pointing out how it worked through Shinigami or Hollow energy in the past. This form vastly increases Ichigo’s strength and allows him to combine his Getsuga Tensho with the greatest power of the Hollows, the Gran Rey Cero.

It should be noted that after getting his True Shikai, Ichigo far surpassed his previous limits, and does not have access to previous iconic forms like previous Bankai variants or his Hollow Mask. Though given how far he’s surpassed these forms, that’s not really an issue.

Bankai – Tensa Zangetsu

Each Zanpakuto from the Soul Society possesses two “Releases” that come when you call their name. Ichigo’s first release, the Shikai, is the form of Zangetsu he naturally uses in all of his battles. But when fighting a truly powerful opponent, Ichigo has to call upon the second release, the Bankai.

Achieving a Bankai is considered a great achievement and the mark of a truly powerful Soul Reaper, as it gives the strength of a Zanpakuto an increase from five to ten times and generally requires ten years to master. Ichigo managed to learn how to use it in two days, but only truly mastered it after fully understanding himself and Zangetsu, attaining his true Zanpakuto, and training with Squad Zero. 

His Bankai is called Tensa Zangetsu, the Heaven Chain Slaying Moon. Fusing both Zangetsus into one, this blade drastically increases Ichigo’s power and speed, as well as greatly increasing the power of his Getsuga Tensho. Most Bankai come with unique special abilities that make them more than a simple power boost, but Yhwach, even after absorbing the Soul King, believed Tensa Zangetsu’s power to be so much of a threat that he immediately shattered it in order to prevent it from being used. And even without said ability, Ichigo could still bifurcate Yhwach from the blade’s sheer strength alone. Because of this, we don’t know what his Bankai’s new ability actually is. Though given its presence made Yhwach focus on its destruction immediately, it’s most likely something extraordinary… which we’ll hopefully see in Cour 4.

Yusuke Urameshi

Mazoku

After awakening to his heritage as a Mazoku, Yusuke was briefly possessed by his ancestor Raizen and transformed into a more demonic form. While Raizen’s influence was a one-time thing, in the anime, Yusuke could reawaken the form by coming to terms with his reasons for fighting, utilizing it in his battle against Yomi. The form gives Yusuke a massive increase in power and grants him a supply of Demon Energy that he can use alongside his normal Reiki reserves, allowing for the much more powerful Demon Gun.

Feats

Ichigo Kurosaki

Overall

• Defeated Grand Fisher, Renji, Kenpachi, Byakuya, Grimmjow, Ulquiorra, Aizen, Ginjo, Quilge, the Bambies, and Yhwach
• Saved Karakura Town from Hollows on numerous occasions
• Unlocked Bankai in less than 3 days
• Rescued Rukia Kuchiki from her execution
• Changed the Soul Society to improve in-spite of its harmful millennia old traditions
• Prevented Yhwach from permanently destroying the Three Worlds and ending the cycle of life and death completely
• Married Orihime!

Power

• Destroyed a building with a single slash
• Carved a trench with a Getsuga Tensho (60.2 tons of TNT)
• After his Dangai training, could easily destroy mountains with just a swing of his sword (148.2 megatons of TNT)
• Was able to blast apart part of Sokyoku Hill (632.8 petatons of TNT) (High-End)
• Vasto Lorde Ichigo shook all of Hueco Mundo
• Easily shattered Aizen’s Kurohitsugi
• With a Getsuga Tensho, could part rain clouds in half
• Ichigo and Ulquiorra’s Ceros’ had a massive clash (1.389 exatons of TNT for just Ichigo)

Speed

• Early series Ichigo is able to react to and block a light speed Cero from a Menos Grande
• Dangai Ichigo creates really fast shockwaves (Mach 21.61) 
• Deflects the petals from Byakuya’s Senbonzakura
• Scares the piss out of Ginjo with a fast Getsuga Tensho (Mach 170.5)
• Vasto Lorde Ichigo makes more fast shockwaves with Ulquiorra (Mach 245.1)
• True Shikai Ichigo schmoves pretty fast (Mach 369.76)
• Could easily outspeed several Sternritters at once
• Ichigo reacts to Gin’s Bankai, which is stated to move at Mach speeds (Mach 239.1 – Mach 625.4)

Durability

• Ichigo was able to block an attack that was able to shatter the ground, casually.
• With his Hollow Mask, could completely no-sell Grimmjow’s Gran Rey Cero
• In Bankai, completely no-sold a massive blast from Bankai Ginjo with his bare hands
• Withstood punches from Meninas, whose punches could be compared in raw strength to Zaraki Kenpachi himself
• Ichigo tanks an Ultrafragor from a transformed Aizen (125 –  520.6 gigatons of TNT)
• Casually blocked the Sokyoku, which could destroy the Soul Society through the power of a million Zanpakuto (Low end: 215.7 – 863 teratons of TNT) (High end: 644.4 exatons – 2.6 zettatons of TNT)

Yusuke Urameshi

Overall

• Came back to life… twice!
• Classified as an S-Class Demon, the absolute highest rank of all demons
• Led Team Urameshi to victory in the Dark Tournament
• Defeated Shinobu Sensui and prevented the destruction of the barrier between the Human and Demon Worlds
• Founded the Makai Tournament, uniting the entire Demon World under one banner
• Defeated Gouki, Hiei, Suzaku, Chu, Bakken, Jin, Toguro, Doctor, Yakumo.
• Fought evenly with Yomi

Power

• Casually able to fight and knock out dozens of other teenagers
• Immediately after his death, could beat up a large spirit monster
• His Spirit Gun blows up a large rock formation
• His Spirit Gun sent Sensui flying through a forest
• The Spirit Gun also blew apart an entire plateau
• Fighting with Sensui created various tornadoes around them
• Sent the entirety of his block flying with just a few attacks in the Makai Tournament
• Channeled the Power Sphere, converting it into Spirit Energy and later destroyed it, which had the power to blow away the Human World and replace it with the Netherworld
• Genkai believes that if Yusuke wanted to blow up the whole world he could do it, and no one could stop him
• His clash with Yomi created a large pillar of energy that shot upward (4 Zettatons of TNT)

Speed

• Can dodge and move in tandem with supersonic buzzing vortices
• Was able to dodge five of Suzaku’s lightning bolts
• Is able to outrun gunfire
• Can catch up to speeding cars using only a bike
• Can dodge, catch and destroy shots from Sniper, even when they home in on him
• Is able to outrun an oil tanker on foot
• Yusuke’s attacks are described as being supersonic
• Launched several demons into the horizon within seconds
• Was able to react to Genkai’s light mid-movement

Durability

• While he was a spirit, managed to survive being launched into orbit
• Survived lightning attacks from Suzaku, which can instantly incinerate others
• Survived a building collapsing on top of him
• Was able to withstand being punched through several trees
• Bakken’s punches had zero effect on Yusuke
• Raizen smashed him through a wall and dragged him through a forest
• Withstood and absorbed the Spirit Orb, which possessed energy comparable to that of a small star (10.8 Quettatons)

Scaling

Ichigo Kurosaki

Having gone through vigorous training and numerous life or death battles, Ichigo is very easily one of the top tiers in Bleach. Even setting aside his numerous showings against beings like Ulquiorra, Aizen, and even Yhwach, a plot point within Bleach is that the Soul King’s power holds the three realms together, and without it, everything falls apart. Ichigo was secretly being set up to replace the Soul King as he possessed all the necessary requisites to take his place, including the required power. Having explained all that, Ichigo scales cleanly to any feat performed in the series.

Soul Reapers

• Toshiro conjures up storms (12.83 Megatons of TNT)
• Rukia aura farms and freezes a huge area (1.13 Petatons of TNT)
• Yamamoto could burn all of Soul Society to ash (Low end: 2.9 Exatons of TNT) (High end: 1.65 Yottatons – 3.3 Ronnatons of TNT)
• Kenpachi splits the Dangai with Azashiro (Low end: 7.9 Zettatons of TNT) (High end: 8.04 FOE)
• 156 Kido Corps members could charge up a Kido cannon to destroy a Valley of Screams (872.2 Ronnatons of TNT per Kido Corps member)
• Kenpachi splits Gremmy’s meteor (980 zettatons of TNT) (Mach 3633.45)
• Hiisagi moves and schmooves against Balas (Much faster than 20 times FTL)
• Senjumaru makes a shockwave (106.7 Zettatons of TNT)

Espada

• Ulquiorra’s Lanza del Relampago makes a huge explosion (1.3 Exatons of TNT)
• Starrk tanked a blow from Love’s Shinkai 
• Starrk survived getting impaled through the chest by Shunsui
• Yammy tanks a point blank Sōkatsui from Rukia
• Yammy survived a combined strike from Kenpachi and Byakuya
• Ceros are light speed, Balas are 20x faster
• Starrk shoots a thousand Ceros at once (1276.2 times FTL)
• Starrk dodges Ceros so fast it look like they hit him
• Aaroniero was fast enough to dodge natural sunlight, remaining in the shadows to avoid having his identity revealed 

Quincies

• Sternritters make big fire columns (3.4 gigatons of TNT)
• Quilge makes a large explosion (166.3 petatons of TNT)
• Soul King Yhwach lifts the Wandenreich (1.5 Yottatons – 4.4 Yottatons of TNT) (9.51% – 16.2% Speed of Light)
• Uryu outspeeds his own shadow (FTL)
• Gremmy instantly created “Outer Space” (16 ExaFOE)
• Yhwach’s Auswählen reached the Soul Society’s surface quickly (4.7 times FTL)

Blanks

• Valley of Screams/Kyogyoku are created by Blanks (10.01 Exatons of TNT for each Blank per second)
• Senna pushes back two realms (Low end: 11 Zettatons of TNT) (Mid end: 32.7 Ronnatons of TNT) (High end: 27.9 Quettatons of TNT)

Soul King

• Soul King maintains the three realms with his power (Low end: 143.403 Zettatons of TNT) (High end: 478.9 Ronnations of TNT)
• Soul King goes bleh and makes a death quake (106.7 Quettatons of TNT)
• Mimihagi schmooves (2.8 times FTL)
• Soul King makes a really fast shockwave across the realms (1509.7 times FTL)

Yusuke Urameshi

Given all the hard fought battles that Yusuke has faced in his life, he stands among the others as one of the strongest fighters in the series. He has conquered most major adversaries such as Suzaku, Toguro, Sensui and Yakumo and went even with Yomi for an extended period of time. Yomi is one of the Three Kings and one of the absolute strongest fighters in the Demon World and most people thought the only even fight would have been between him and Mukuro, another one of the Three Kings. Yusuke going even with him to the point that it caused Yomi to end up losing his next fight to a random nobody very quickly shows that he is comparable to him. With all that explained, Yusuke scales to any and all feats within the series.

Team Urameshi

• Hiei dodges the Spirit Gun from a few centimeters away (28.8c)
• Hiei unleashing his Dragon of the Darkness Flame for the first time causes water to erupt
• Kuwabara can outrun sonic blasts
• The Dark Dragon also tears up a large chunk of the stadium
• Kurama raises a giant tree (536.16 petatons of TNT)

Yokai

• Suzaku can catch lightning
• Suzaku and Jin both deflect the Spirit Gun
• Toguro at 60% can level an entire building
• Toguro punches a really big crater
• Karasu blows a hole through the stadium
• Shigure creates a massive tornado and crashes down to create a massive crater
• Yakumo flooded the entirety of Spirit World

Misc. Fighters

• Genkai blows up a large rock
• Sensui releasing a part of his energy puts strain on the earth and causes earthquakes
• Sensui wipes out a large horde of demons in one go

Cosmology

Ichigo Kurosaki

The core of Bleach’s cosmology are the Three Worlds of Soul Society, the World of the Living, and Hueco Mundo. These three worlds originally existed as one, a primordial sea where life and death had no distinction. These worlds all exist within a massive void known as Garganta, which also contains spaces such as Dangai. The death of the Soul King is said to bring the destruction of everything connected to Soul Society, including the Dangai and Hueco Mundo, so all of these individual realms are important to understand Ichigo’s scaling.

World of the Living

The World of the Living is referred to as “the world of Kishi”, as in, the material world not composed of spiritual particles. Essentially, out of the Three Worlds, this is one inhabited by humans and made of solid matter. Bare minimum, this world contains the Earth, and most likely also encompasses all celestial bodies visible and identifiable to the average human, such as the Sun, Moon, and stars. 

There is also a statement that Kon “kicked a pebble to another Galaxy”, meaning galaxies are known to exist in Bleach’s setting, which is good evidence for the World of the Living being far larger than merely the planet Earth.

Soul Society

The Soul Society is “the world of Reishi”, existing parallel to the Living World and directly being shown to be equivalent in size through graphs, as well as having its own sun and day-night cycle. This leads credence to the idea that the Soul Society, similar to the Human World, could contain far more than simply a planet and its star.

Hueco Mundo

While not a lot of information is given about Hueco Mundo, we do have some pieces of information to go off of. It exists in between the Soul Society and the Living World, and can only be accessed through “portals that tear the fabric that keeps dimensions apart”, meaning that it exists separately from the other two spatially. Given its role as one of the Three Worlds balancing the flow of souls, it should be comparable to the Soul Society and the Living World in size.

Dangai

The Dangai is a space that serves as a passageway between the Soul Society and the Living World. Isshin describes it as being a “separated space surrounded by a torrent of layers and layers of time”. As such, it is a separate space from the Three Worlds that also has a completely separate time flow, a denser time where one human year would equal 2,000 years in the Dangai.  

Garganta &
Valleys of Screams

The Garganta is the empty void that fills all space between the other parts of the cosmology. Outside of the Dangai and the Three Worlds and encompassing all of them, is the Garganta. It is that all-encompassing nature that allows the Arrancar to utilize Garganta to freely travel between any of the Three Worlds, as it would naturally connect to all of them.

The Garganta also holds various Valleys of Screams. These are separate spaces from the Three Worlds made by souls ejected from the cycle of death and rebirth that are large enough to contain stars, while also being considered significantly smaller than the Three Worlds.

Yusuke Urameshi

_{(best i can do, sorry -Ed)}

While Yusuke doesn’t have or scale to any feats affecting his entire cosmology all at once, his most impressive feats involve the Netherworld from the Poltergeist Report movie, and Yakumo’s plan to transform the Human World into a new Netherworld. In order to understand the scale of these feats, we looked into all parts of Yu Yu Hakusho’s cosmology.

Human World

Also known as the “Ningenkai”, it’s the world where all humans and living things dwell, as well as being the focal point for both the Spirit and Demon Worlds. Most people in this world are unaware about the Spirit and Demon Worlds. It contains the planet Earth and things such as stars and cycles between day and night. Characters also occasionally say things such as “I’ll blast you to the end of the Universe”, which could support it being the same as our real world in size.

Spirit World

The “Reikai” as it is otherwise known as, is the place that governs souls after they die. It is a parallel plane of existence that exists above the Human World and is in balance with that one. “Heaven” is also said to be a small part of the Spirit World as well, and it is said that “time passes very quickly in Heaven”. It and the Demon World are said to be “just one face of a die” when compared to the Human World, so they’re all likely comparable in size.

Demon World

The “Makai” (Darkstalkers!!) is the locale for all demonkind and like the Human and Spirit Worlds, it is a parallel place of existence, just located beneath the Human World instead. The absolute strongest in this world cannot be stopped by Spirit World and “Hell” is said to be a small part of the Demon World. In the anime, Koenma refers to Demon World as endlessly vast while in the English dub, he says it’s infinite.

Netherworld

The Netherworld was once another plane of existence, similar to the Spirit World and the Demon World. Like the relationship between the Human World and the Spirit World, the Netherworld existed to balance the Demon World as its own counterpart. It was the realm of Yakumo until King Enma destroyed it and sealed its energy within the Power Sphere, a sphere of unimaginable Netherworld energy.

Hyper-Space

The space that exists between Worlds. It acts as the connecting bridge between Human, Spirit and Demon Worlds. Between Human and Demon Worlds is a specialized barrier that filters out certain levels of demons, preventing access to the Human World.

Weaknesses

Ichigo Kurosaki

Perhaps Ichigo’s greatest weakness lies in his primary weapon, Zangetsu. If it is shattered by an enemy in its Shikai state, Ichigo could eventually restore it through his own Reiatsu. But if he releases its Bankai and it gets shattered in that state, it is rendered completely unfixable and lost forever. This would leave Ichigo without his main method of fighting, and render most of his powers moot.

Yusuke Urameshi

Awful grades in school aside, Yusuke’s primary weakness is his own Reiki reserves. He only has so much of it before he’s empty on it, which will leave him with a lot more limited options for attacking, not helped by the fact that some moves use up a ton of Reiki. If he runs out of energy, his only method of staying in the fight would be to use up his own Life Energy, which could easily result in death.

Fan Art

Verdict

Stats

When it comes to these two’s physical stats, there is far more to dissect than one would expect from the surface. Both Ichigo and Yusuke are practically the strongest beings in their respective series, and have displayed a variety of incredible feats of pure strength. Both have destroyed entire mountains, and could easily destroy the very world they live in, but at the end of the day, Ichigo has the advantage in all things power. 

Ichigo would scale to Shinigami like Yamamoto and weapons like the Sokyoku, both of which have been said to be able to destroy the entire Soul Society. He would also scale to the Kido Cannon, which can destroy entire dimensions such as the Valleys of Screams, likely scaling to the weapon’s full power given that the average Kido Corps member is far inferior to Ichigo. While the size of realms in Bleach is a heavily debated topic, those feats alone would make Ichigo at least on a star level scale of destructive power. And lastly, we have his position as Soul King Candidate, meaning he can exist on the same level as the Soul King, whose mere existence sustains the entirety of the Bleach cosmology, Three Worlds, Valleys of Screams, Garganta, absolutely all of it.

As for our Spirit Detective, he’s no slouch himself. He was stated to be able to destroy the entire planet on a whim by Genkai, and withstood the energy of the Spirit Orb entering his body, which was said to be equivalent to a small star. Perhaps most importantly, he was able to withstand the energy of the Netherworld Power Sphere, which contained the full energy of that realm and was impossible for even A Class beings like King Enma to command. 

Both of them have very similar power boosts to draw upon too! Ichigo’s Bankai gives him a boost in power of up to ten times, and Yusuke’s Sacred Energy enhances the quality of his aura to a point that’s superior to a ten times boost in energy quantity, according to Sensui. In addition, we have the Half-Hollow and Mazoku forms, which are unspecified in how much they enhance each character’s power, and would likely cancel out. In an equal match, Yusuke technically would have a slight advantage here!

…But while the feats appear similar on both ends, Ichigo holds a significant advantage. Comparing the Spirit Orb to the Valley of Screams directly favors Ichigo, and Soul King scaling trumps over the Netherworld Power Sphere due to affecting a far greater number of realms in one go. While you can argue that Yusuke could hold the Netherworld’s energy relatively early in his story and would upscale said feat hundreds if not thousands of times over, the same logic could be used for Ichigo. Remember, Yamamoto and the Sokyoku could destroy the entirety of the Soul Society, which has extremely similar arguments for being an entire universe as the Netherworld. Ichigo could vastly upscale from Yamamoto even as early on as his fight against Aizen, and he has only gotten stronger and stronger ever since that event. The raw numbers favor Ichigo, and upscaling simply isn’t enough to catch up.

Speed is a similar story. Ichigo has always been able to react to the lightspeed Ceros, even discounting many of the displays of cosmic level speed from the endgame of Bleach, but Yusuke’s opponents like Hiei could similarly react to the Spirit Gun, which displays many properties similar to that of light itself. Ichigo has a massive advantage here, however, as characters like Starrk and Shunsui can fire and react to thousands of these lightspeed attacks all at once respectively. Sure, Hiei reacted to the Spirit Gun as a D Class, and by the end of the series as an Upper S Class Demon Yusuke would be thousands of times faster to match the Starrk feat… but Ichigo eclipses Starrk’s level of speed by the end of the Thousand Year Blood War. Yusuke would always be playing catch up trying to match Ichigo’s level of speed, and there’s not much he can do to actually get there. Speed also goes to Ichigo.

Abilities

Neither of these fighters are particularly complex in terms of what abilities they can bring to the table, mostly relying on their bread and butter beam attacks and pretty much nothing else. Ichigo can’t rely on being invisible due to Yusuke’s great spiritual awareness, but Yusuke would likewise have absolutely no luck trying to play any of his ghost tricks on Ichigo if he happened to get knocked unconscious. Even if Yusuke could somehow gain access to Ichigo’s unconscious body he wouldn’t be able to possess it due to Ichigo resisting similar types of abilities in the past.

Neither of them could crush the other from sheer power alone due to both being able to resist that kind of power already. Yusuke can transmute forms of energy into Reiki and then absorb them, which is a pretty useful power here, but he was only shown to do so outside of a combat scenario since Yakumo just stood there and let it happen. Ichigo has a similar quick and easy wincon by performing the Konso on Yusuke’s soul, which would immediately send him straight to the Soul Society and prevent him from continuing the fight as a spirit, but he’s never really done so to finish a fight.

Ichigo’s Blut could help him increase his defenses and make it harder for Yusuke to deal major damage, which is pretty useful in a brawl where raw power takes center stage, but Yusuke could keep growing in power due to his ability to greatly increase his Reiki in the middle of fights, evening things out all over again.

Essentially, none of them has a particularly game-changing advantage in their toolkits, so we’ll call this category a tie.

Tertiary Factors

Yusuke is likely a superior fighter compared to Ichigo when it comes to raw combat skill. His ingenuity and unpredictable nature comes across as a threat to even the most talented of martial artists, and he’s quicker when it comes to coming up with strategies on the fly. Ichigo is no slouch though, as he can hold his own against even the most skilled of Shinigami, Hollow and Quincy without having many issues, if at all. Even if he struggled against Yusuke’s trickery at first, he’d eventually be able to power through, like he usually does. However, the same can be said for Yusuke, who fought against some incredibly skilled humans and demons in his life and is more than willing to take a literal shot in the dark to make his plans work.

Stamina is a debatable topic, with Yusuke having the far more direct feat of matching Yomi in a 60 hour long all out brawl. Ichigo can be argued to surpass that due to fighting against Zangetsu inside the Dangai. While we don’t have confirmation on how long the battle actually lasted, time in the Dangai passes 2,000 times slower than the real world. Ichigo’s father Isshin had to use his own Reiryoku to ensure Ichigo could learn the Final Getsuga Tensho, claiming that he could withstand doing that for around 2,000 hours, which Ichigo would be comparable to. It’s a lot less direct of a feat than Yusuke, but it’s a far greater showing of stamina than anything in Yu Yu Hakusho.

Ichigo would similarly have far better arguments when it comes to mobility and attack range. Yusuke could fly in his fight against Sensui, sure, but Ichigo’s ability to form reishi platforms under his feet combined with the blinding speed of his Flash Steps would far surpass Yusuke and make it far harder for him to reliably land a hit. And while the Spirit Gun is utterly massive at its peaks, it would comparatively be a lot easier to avoid compared to the Getsuga Tensho, let alone something like the Getsuga Jujisho. 

Once again, Ichigo has more advantages in this category, leaving us with a nearly clean sweep.

Conclusion

“…If fate is a millstone, we are the grist. There is nothing we can do, so I wish for strength. If I cannot protect them from the wheel, then give me a strong enough blade, and enough strength… to shatter fate.”

Advantages:

• Takes stats with every single end
• More nimble
• Superior stamina
• Greater range
• Number One
• Johnny Yong Bosch

Disadvantages:

• Less battle savvy
• Bount Arc
• Crunch time

“Nothing as trivial as a violent death or a few drops of demon blood mixed in with mine is going to keep me from helping out my friends and saving the world, and kicking the bad guy’s ass.”

Advantages:

• A more skilled fighter
• Sacred Energy is a slightly better power increase than Bankai…
• Smile Bomb
• Anime Dub

Disadvantages:

• …But it’s not enough to make up for the pre-existing gap in power
• Massively slower at every end
• Less stamina for a drawn out fight
• Inferior range
• Movie Dub 

The picture of this outcome is pretty clear once all the pieces are set in place. Yusuke was an incredible fighter, and had more going on than most people would have expected coming into this debate, but Ichigo simply operated on levels of power and speed that are unheard of in Yusuke’s own adventures. Ichigo truly was Number One in this match, leaving us with nothing left to say to Yusuke but Sayonara Bye Bye. The winner is Ichigo Kurosaki!

Final Tally

Ichigo Kurosaki (10) – Adam, door-kun, Kazemagician, KrisWarlock, Garf, greymerlion2, TheCardinalKing, The Kagurabachi, The Monster King, Yuix

Yusuke Urameshi (0)