Does Rukia Die in Bleach? Here’s What Happens to Her!

Rukia Kuchiki is, as we know quite well, one of the central characters of Tite Kubo’s Bleach. We know how important she was for Ichigo Kurosaki, the story’s principal protagonist, as well as how much effort Tite Kubo put into developing her as a character. This is why a recent scene from the final season of Bleach, where Rukia’s body is seen, seemingly lifeless, shocked fans and had them worried whether Rukia Kuchiki would die in Bleach or not. In this article, luckily for you, we are going to reveal the answer to that question, as we are going to tell you what happened to Rukia in Bleach.

Rukia Kuchiki does not die in Bleach. She was severely injured on several occasions, including the Quincy War, but always recovered. She was exceptionally important and Kubo wouldn’t have simply killed her off. Rukia Kuchiki survived the Quincy War and would later succeed her former mentor, Ukitake, as the Captain of the 13th Division. She also married Renji Abari, with whom she had a daughter, Ichika.

The rest of this article is going to tell you two things – you’re going to find out how and why Rukia Kuchiki almost died during the Thousand-Year Blood War arc, as well as how she recovered and returned to the battlefield stronger than ever. As far as spoilers are concerned, they are going to be present in this article so be careful how you approach it. This is actually going to be the Rukia’s whole story, so prepare for a lot of info!

Does Rukia Kuchiki die in Bleach?

Rukia is in for a huge surprise when, while on the trail of a Hollow in the human world, she is seen and touched by Ichigo, a 15-year-old student. When a Hollow makes its appearance at the Kurosaki house, Rukia prepares to eliminate it but is hindered by Ichigo whom she leaves immobilized. Rukia, being weak from a previous fight with a Hollow, falls seriously injured. The situation is desperate, and Rukia has no choice but to hand over her powers to Ichigo, who becomes a Substitute Shinigami and kills the Hollow.

Although Rukia’s plans were to only give away half of her powers, Ichigo’s sudden reiatsu absorbs all of them, preventing Rukia from returning to Soul Society until she has them back. While Rukia recovers her powers, she pretends to be an exchange student in Ichigo’s class. The days go by, and Rukia ends up realizing that she is becoming very fond of a world that is not hers. Without telling anyone, she ends up leaving, surprising herself to discover that despite all the time that has elapsed, she has not managed to regain her powers.

Her departure coincides with the arrival of two Shinigami in charge of arresting her and bringing her back to Soul Society to be judged for having given her powers to a human. Ichigo soon arrives to fight the two envoys, who turn out to be Byakuya and Renji, the Captain and Lieutenant of the Sixth Division, and Rukia’s brother and Rukia’s old friend and comrade respectively. Ichigo ends up fighting Renji whom she manages to hurt, only to be utterly defeated and mortally wounded by Byakuya, who also removes the Shinigami powers that Rukia had lent to Ichigo.

Rukia tearfully orders him not to go looking for her and forget about her, under pain of never forgiving him, but Ichigo feels that he owes Rukia a huge favor for giving him the power to save his sister from dying and that is why he decides to go save her at the Soul Society after he finds out that she is falsely accused and sentenced to death.

Rukia Kuchiki’s case arouses the interest of several Shinigami, and the injustice of her sentence begins to sow doubts and suspicions that no one would be able to think about. However, the biggest surprise would be due to Ichigo breaking into the Seireitei, accompanied by Orihime, Chad, Uryū, Yoruichi, and Ganju to rescue Rukia.

At the very moment Rukia is about to die, in a critical and agonizingly crucial tenth of a second, Ichigo finally reappears and, along with the unexpected help of Captains Ukitake and Kyōraku, is finally released along with an emotional moment with his friend. As Ichigo confronts Captain Kuchiki, Renji picks up Rukia and carries her away until they are both intercepted by the Ninth Squad Captain, Kaname Tōsen, who turns out to be a traitor, and who teleports Renji and Rukia back to where they were.

Then the betrayal of Captain Aizen and his subordinates, Captains Ichimaru and Tousen, who were behind Rukia’s excessive condemnation, is discovered. Why they were interested in seeing Rukia dead was because, when Urahara gave Rukia the gigai upon losing her powers, he hid in that artificial body a dangerous artifact, called Hougyoku, capable of combining the powers of a shinigami with those of a Hollow. The moment she died, the Hougyoku would be released from Rukia’s soul and would fall into Aizen’s possession.

However, in all the time he had been hiding from Soul Society, Aizen had figured out a way to extract the Hougyoku without killing Rukia, which he does before handing her over to Ichimaru to finish her off. With Ichigo knocked out, Rukia’s death finally seems inevitable until, to everyone’s surprise, it is Byakuya Kuchiki himself who stands between his sister and Ichimaru, being seriously injured.

This period is long enough for the remaining captains and lieutenants to make their appearance, but they can only witness the march of the three traitors to the Hueco Mundo, the place where the Hollows live. Rukia is finally forgiven and ends up reconciling with her brother when he reveals that Hisana, her older sister, had been her wife and had begged him to take care of her.

In the meantime, the Shinigami prepare for a war with Aizen, but after the latter kidnaps Orihime, the original plan changes. Shortly after, both Rukia and Renji were returned to the Soul Society, to later secretly leave – and disobey the orders of the Captain-Commander – to Hueco Mundo, along with Ichigo, Uryū, and Chad.

As they enter Las Noches, Rukia faces the Noveno Espada, Aaroniero Arruruerie, who looks like Kaien and has his powers, so Rukia must once again face her past. After a battle in which Rukia is pierced by the Arrancar and sees her Zanpakutō break, she manages to defeat the Espada but is left mortally wounded. In such a state, she is about to be killed by Zommari Rureaux, but at that moment her brother Byakuya Kuchiki arrives to save her. She is later healed by Captain Unohana.

She would later after Ichigo sacrifices his powers to defeat Aizen, help him regain his powers back. When a military force from the Wandenreich known as the Sternritters begins an invasion of Soul Society, Rukia is ready to fight the enemies; despite the danger she poses and the doubts of her companions. At the moment that the Research and Development department informs the soul society about Ichigo’s coming to her aid, Rukia listens to the news with hope.

Before long, Rukia realizes that something happened to her brother and runs to catch up with him, however, the Sternritter that she was facing criticizes her for turning her back on her and proceeds to attack her, knocking her unconscious. Sometime after Wandenreich’s departure from Soul Society, Shinji informs Ichigo that Rukia and Renji have survived.

At some point, Kuchiki comes to, so Ichigo asks her if she’s alright, but she calls him stupid, asking him if he didn’t listen to the medical opinion they just told him, and then thanks him for coming. Later Senjumaru Shutara wants to take Rukia, along with Renji and Byakuya, to the Reiōkyū; Unohana points out that her condition is too delicate for them to leave the Seireitei, but the Royal Guard insist on taking them.

Arriving at the Reiōkyū, Rukia and the other wounded are taken to the Kirinden, Tenjirō Kirinji’s palace, and placed in the hot springs, to be healed. Once she fully recovers, they proceed to Ichibē Hyōsube’s palace to begin training. Later, during the Second Quincy Invasion of the Seireitei, Rukia arrives with Renji, and acknowledges the resounding change of the place by calling it “Wandenreich” instead of Seireitei. Later, she reappears with Renji before he begins his battle with Mask De Masculine to take charge of protecting the captains defeated by the Sternritter, while the lieutenant fights him.

Convinced of the new increase in power of her partner, she tells him that Quincy has no chance against him. During a slight flashback that Renji has, Rukia is seen talking to Renji about the plan when they entered the Soul Society, which was to move separately and at the end of a battle hide for a while. Rukia then moves around the place, looking and saying that she couldn’t sense the reiatsu of various divisions, although this was helpful since she easily located Isane Kotetsu.

She also could not perceive the presence of Quincy, then she perceived a strange presence which was As Äs Nödt, asking her if she was afraid. Äs Nödt tells him that he is alone and then asks about Senbonzakura’s whereabouts, after which Äs asks who she is Rukia introduces herself as Byakuya’s sister, then Äs asks about Byakuya and Rukia tells him that he has no reason to answer.

Äs begins to throw something similar to thorns, Rukia observes that when the thorns touch an object something starts to spread from that place, Rukia releases her Zanpaku-to to block Äs’ attack, but Äs tells her that it is useless to avoid fear of the rocks. Rukia is completely paralyzed, Äs tells her that this is the fear, that she won’t be able to move or be helped.

Rukia asks Äs if that is fear and what is his fear, Rukia raises her head a little and stares at him saying that he is scared that his fear might not work on someone. When Äs questions why his The Fear power doesn’t work and that this can’t be possible, this is when Rukia challenges him to attack her with his thorns again and Äs attacks her with his thorns but before that Rukia shows her Sode no Shirayuki, which he uses to protect herself from Äs’ attack.

Later Rukia explains that she needed to avoid said attacks to show the true power of his Shikai but Äs does not believe her and begins to explain and inform her about fear. Rukia agrees with him and tells him that his power will not work since she is not alive, thus dismaying the Sternritter. Rukia tells him that her Zanpakuto gives the user the power to bring their body temperature to degrees below zero. After this Rukia reaches absolute zero completely freezing the body of the Sternritter Äs Nödt.

Rukia begins to return to normal after she thinks she has completely defeated Äs Nödt, however, he manages to recover due to his fear of Yhwach, using the Quincy Vollständing thus, Äs manages to completely change his physical appearance and then Rukia falls prey to fear because she looked into the Quincy’s eyes which directly affects the Shinigami’s optic nerves so Rukia begins to scream then Byakuya Kuchiki cuts the fear produced by Äs Nödt.

Byakuya is attacked by the Sternritter but Byakuya gives up the battle to Rukia to finish him off, as well as telling Rukia that she has become strong to the surprise of the lieutenant. In addition, Byakuya advises her about fear and Äs, very angry, tells Sternritter Byakuya that this will be his end however Byakuya tells him that he will not be the one to defeat him and also informs his sister that his Äs face does not reflect fear but that the Quincy is scared and finally Rukia takes determination and uses the Bankai and he manages to defeat Äs Nödt by turning his entire body into ice.

Rukia along with her brother Byakuya head towards the place where the lightning comes from, which is the same place where Captain Zaraki is, however Rukia stops when she feels Ichigo’s Reiatsu reach the battlefield. She later joins her brother, Renji, Hisagi, Ikkaku, and Yumichika on the battlefield to stop the fight between Ichigo and the Sternritters. Soon after, Rukia and Renji arrive at Urahara’s lab after receiving an urgent call, where they meet Ōmaeda and Shinji.

Ōmaeda inform them how they survived Bazz-B’s attack and are surprised by Soi Fon’s arrival. Inside the building, Rukia is shocked to learn of Urahara’s intention to enter the Spirit King’s Palace. Rukia along with the other members of the Gotei13 goes out to face the torrents of power of the Spirit King, however, she is surprised that Aizen is free, and very annoyed she asks who it was, then Shunsui tells her that it was him and that it was necessary.

Later Rukia argues with Aizen, as the ex-captain congratulates her on her promotion to lieutenant. Rukia, annoyed, rubs in his face that someone like him should be in the Muken, but Aizen reminds her that someone like can’t be kept locked up for long. Rukia later arrives at the Spirit King’s Palace which is now under Quincy rule. After Yhwach’s defeat, Rukia ends up succeeding Ukitake as the Captain of the 13th Division and later ends up marrying Renji, with whom she has a daughter, Ichika Abarai.