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This is a question really about how the spiritual body is "comprised" How and
why do shinigami bleed, have internal organs etc, it is shown they do not need
food, so why a digestive tract at all.

All things in soul society is made of reishi, are we to believe reishi is the
equivalent of "atoms" or "particles". "Spirit particles" is commonly used to
describe energy that a quincy uses... so the main question is... In cannon,
has it been explained why shinigami have a body that is still basically
human...


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2015-08-04T21:35:18.327
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2020-06-05T16:49:19.633
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question
bleach
Why do shinigami bleed?


I believe you've answered your own question - it's not _really_ blood that's
draining from a shinigami, it's the reishi of that person draining away, thus
weakening their soul. Ichigo and co (and the viewers) only _perceive_ it as
blood because that's something our minds can actually grasp and understand. In
more extreme cases, such as Ulquiorra, when critically injured, the person may
simply disintegrate directly into particles before one's eyes, due to a sudden
uncontrolled collapse of spiritual energy. Nell's wound results in rapid and
ongoing "bloodloss" (reishi-loss) in her adult form, forcing her to 'reduce'
her 'mass' back to a smaller size, that of a child.


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2015-08-15T23:49:25.273
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2015-08-15T23:49:25.273
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answer


## Short Version:

Shinigami bleed because they have blood. Thanks to science-minded characters
like Captain Mayuri Kurotsuchi and Szayelaporro Grantz and their talk of
organs and nerves, we know that a shinigami's body has these components and
functions very much like a living human's body. Thus, we can infer they also
have blood vessels and blood.

## Long Version:

The question of what sort of substance a soul is made up of is one that many
philosophers have taken on through the ages. A follow-up question would be how
this substance interacts with other substances. _Bleach_ seems to give partial
answers to these questions for the universe in which it exists.

So, in Bleach, there are two substances: The substance that makes up a living
human body (physical matter), and the substance that makes up a Shinigami and
Wholes (Reishi). As it turns out, in the world of _Bleach_ these substances
are very similar. Living humans and spirits both have organs and bleed. Though
there is some uncertainty with how physical matter and reishi interact, at
least when separate in their own worlds (the World of the Living and the Soul
Society) they behave in similar manners.

In western culture, we tend to view spirits and the afterlife in a very
ethereal way. The substance of the soul and the body are considered to be very
different. This is probably why it seems so strange in _Bleach_ that ghosts
can bleed. The idea of a more physical afterlife was not unknown in the
ancient world, though, and can be seen in the [Norse
Valhalla](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valhalla), where fallen men eat,
drink, and do battle. Also, many Christian denominations believe that Jesus
ascended to heaven with his physical body and that there will be a physical
resurrection of the body at the end of times.

Also relevant: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resurrection> and
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transcendence_(religion)>


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2016-08-19T02:09:04.347
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