Captian Ukitake's Illness [49 Spoilers]

[Reatrea]

I just can't seem to figure out what Captian Ukitake's illness is. Was I the only one who noticed that it seemed to take him getting alot less excited currently than it did in the past. And in Shikigami years that wasn't that long ago... whatever his illness is... it's kiling Ukitake-dono... and fast.

What could it be? Possiablly an old battle wound.... and why hasn't he been removed because of this illness. If he nearly collapes over just arguing with Captian Kuchiki, how can he maintain all of the pressures of being a Captian without falling over in a serious illness. * Cries at the thought*

(Personally I love MOST of the Captians (the current 12 weirds me out) they all are such cool people)

[jonat3]

Hmmm, you have to keep in mind that Ukitake is a spirit. When a spirit is sick, i consider that sickness of the mind. It's a curious thing, since people who have sickness of mind tend to be weak mentally, but Ukitake is a captain.

[Crimson_Stigmata]

Not sure what his sickness is, but I do know that it does happen in real life. People coughing up blood and stuff.

[farseerdk]

hmmm, i wonder how powerful ukitake would be healthy... probably insanely powerful since he was like the second or third captain EVER.

as for his illness, its obviously not killing him or he'd be dead by now. i think this is foreshadowing to something that we will see later on in the manga. ukitake will play a larger role later. him and sake-man. trust me.

[sinkinswimmer]

Not sure what his sickness is, but I do know that it does happen in real life. People coughing up blood and stuff.
i believe the "disease" in question is tuberculosis. however, there's no real way to know, so it's just a guess.

[Crimson_Stigmata]

Humm if that was true then why did:Byakuya say that he shouldn't be all emotional because it was shortening his lifespan right after Captian Ukitake started coughing?

hmmm, i wonder how powerful ukitake would be healthy... probably insanely powerful since he was like the second or third captain EVER.

as for his illness, its obviously not killing him or he'd be dead by now. i think this is foreshadowing to something that we will see later on in the manga. ukitake will play a larger role later. him and sake-man. trust me.

[sinkinswimmer]

"Symptoms include a productive, prolonged cough of more than three weeks duration, chest pain, and hemoptysis. Systemic symptoms include fever, chills, night sweats, appetite loss, weight loss, and easy fatigability. The term consumption arose because sufferers appeared as if they were "consumed" from within by the disease." ~Wikipedia Not a medical dictionary, but this a close enough description for what we need.

So what I think Byakuya was getting at, is that in his condition, he shouldn't allow himself to be so easily excited. He should be conserving his energy to fight the disease, not his emotions.

[Crimson_Stigmata]

Hum that is interesting..can something like that exist in soul society? If you think about....if there are medics that can heal..huge wounds couldn't they also heal diseases?

"Symptoms include a productive, prolonged cough of more than three weeks duration, chest pain, and hemoptysis. Systemic symptoms include fever, chills, night sweats, appetite loss, weight loss, and easy fatigability. The term consumption arose because sufferers appeared as if they were "consumed" from within by the disease." ~Wikipedia Not a medical dictionary, but this a close enough description for what we need.

So what I think Byakuya was getting at, is that in his condition, he shouldn't allow himself to be so easily excited. He should be conserving his energy to fight the disease, not his emotions.

[sinkinswimmer]

Hum that is interesting..can something like that exist in soul society? If you think about....if there are medics that can heal..huge wounds couldn't they also heal diseases?

I know exactly what you're saying. Ukitake's illness puzzles me as well.

[Nyao]

Mmm...perhaps Ukitake's cause of death was tuberculosis (this is actually a rather common disease in anime...), and it somehow stuck with him when he was sent to soul society. but maybe not...no one really knows how things like that work...

It's possible that if there was no way to cure it in the real world, it may not be possible to cure it in SS either...

it might be something else though, seeing as tuberculosis is contagous, ne? But maybe people just overlook that fact when they create characters with tuberculosis-like lung diseases...

[Reatrea]

At any case we do know that it is getting worse. Remeber how in eps. 49 when he was fighting..... it wasn't untill he ran around qutie a bit with the chaseing and then fight that set him off. But then at the end when he was just getting upset with Captian Kuchiki, it hit him. So it's getting worse. But then again, it doesn't take much out of a Captian to take out a hollow, and her seemed to have realy like Rukia, so when he went up to her brother and he was so cold about it that really aroused his emotion and most likely his heart rate and that's why it hit him then.... I don't know what I getting at....

[hasuke]

Hint: The Soul Society is just like the real world, with spirits. You guys questioning how a soul can get sick should also question how a soul can bleed, spit, sweat, and get physically exhausted.

[omfgman]

meh there are no evidence of wat causes his sickness the best way is to sit and read/watch to find the answer...

[Samiizz]

am not sure about this.. but I think that he had a seal on him.. something that kept all his spiritual pressure from getting out normally..
but I maybe wrong

[Crimson_Stigmata]

You got a source to your info? I haven't heard of anything like that about him?

am not sure about this.. but I think that he had a seal on him.. something that kept all his spiritual pressure from getting out normally..
but I maybe wrong

Umm interesting...point.
Hint: The Soul Society is just like the real world, with spirits. You guys questioning how a soul can get sick should also question how a soul can bleed, spit, sweat, and get physically exhausted.

[Samiizz]

if as soon as he gets excited he drops to his knees because he is sick.. then how come towards the end of the SS arc he was fighting against his "Senpai" as he said it and was able to stay up and fight well?
makes u question the situation..

[Sandal Hat]

We never actually get to see the battle though, just the end

[Rage against the mundane]

Yeah, I always wondered about that. Maybe he can use his spirit power to repress it for awhile?

[cavignone]

hmm i bene trying to figure that out myself how can he be sick. it abit odd. we know soul get hungry but most only need water. powerful souls need food to keep form being hungry. i would guest here maybe it rare but maybe there at rare times could be a spirt version of a a illness that affects poeple now and then. low odd of happen and very rare, but once affected either you got to beat if off yourself , suffer through it for "life", or die from it.

i like to see when it started how he get ill or was he one of those sickly kind of poeple in life and always been sick since he was born.

[nanao_kawaii]

maybe he got a disease... so sorry for him.. he's one of the goodlooking captain..*sigh*

[ginnylin]

Well, people can do amazing things to surpass their physical capacity when the mind calls for it. So yeh, he's probably really damn sick but can fight well when the occasion calls for it. But it is weird that he was made a captain in THAT condition man...
The whole coughing up blood thing looks A LOT like consumption, maybe he had some really terrible thing in his past that pushed him to the drink...i am sure it will all be explained in later chapters...

[Thaliel]

His illness majorly resembles either consumption or tuberculosis.
Both are hard to cure and we have no idea how the medical standards in SS are...so it is most likely either of the two.

[Crimson_Stigmata]

maybe he got a disease... so sorry for him.. he's one of the goodlooking captain..*sigh*

Looks like someone has a crush. ^-^"

[AltoK]

Maybe they will find a cure for him. Technology evolves in Soul Society, too.

About his illness, I don't think it's any equivalent of tuberculosis (VERY contagious, we'd know it) or consumption. I'm with the idea of some kind of some "seal-illness" invented by some Kurotsuchi or some Aizen.
Maybe, too, it has something to do with the first experiments of Hougyoku (by some Urahara, this time).
Maybe it's a bit of both !

What'd you say if he had AIDS ? O_O X_X

[newsaidin]

My guess would be either something a hollow did to him, or some shinagami with a vicious kind of soul slayer.

[AltoK]

Sounds good, too !

[Thaliel]

What'd you say if he had AIDS ? O_O X_X

as far as I know, HIV doesn't make you cough up blood.

I am just thinking, maybe this illness is some kind of punishment for sumthin he did in his forelife (if he had one...)

[omfgman]

as far as I know, HIV doesn't make you cough up blood.

I am just thinking, maybe this illness is some kind of punishment for sumthin he did in his forelife (if he had one...)

the most common disease that causes death after the aquiration of HIV is TB.

anyway....................... maybe he's just born with it or soemthing? nothing to worry about.... however much speculation there is, i doubt some1 is close the the real answer that they will reveil... so just sit back and watch

[ginnylin]

omg no AIDS please... it would just make him look really.. i dont kno.. so no. lol
The soul slayer theory is good though. Legacy of an epic battle ..

[Lovekiller93]

Maybe he is just born with it.. But he's still my fav~
His sickness isn't that bad actually.. Its not like it holds him down everytime.. which is good.. i think

[Undying]

Looks to me that whenever Ukitake is in emotional stress, he begins to cough blood (remember he was angry at the Hollow?). So his sickness has a link to emotions (when he was calm, against Yama-ji, he didn't cough once).

[kevin_phamle]

Can ghosts, really die again?

Anywho, I think he has tubercleosis

[Aruko]

It could be a mental thing. He still feels guilt over someone he killed or couldn't stop from dying. So he became ill over constant worry.

[Shinomori]

Now the question is, why can't anyone heal it? Say, Unohana and her magical flying manta ray? :D

Maybe THAT is what she will finally show us her Bankai for. She'll cure Ukitake, and then he'll turn out to be ultra awesome.

Sheesh. I wish. :D

[AltoK]

Unohana's Shikai seems to heal wounds. If it could cure illnesses, she would have treated Ukitake already, don't you think ?

This is quite a strange illness : we know that he had the illness for quite a long time now, and he doesn't seem to be weaker a bit. I personnally think his condition is stable, yet handicapping. After all, it could be a kind of handicap rather than an illness.

This would truly make sense if the "soul illness" theory is true. It wouldn't be an illness that becomes worse and worse, but rather an handicap.

That would explain as well why neither Kurotsuchi, nor Unohana, nor even Urahara (nor anyone in the past 1 000 years, for that matter) could cure his illness (because it's not a "physical" illness).
What do you think about it ?

[Z_Blitz]

Hmmm... First I'd like to offer a link to a site that has some information about Ukitake. Here: www.flora-fleur.net/13/about.html

After reading the info on the site or if you're curious enough to find out click on the spoiler below.
As far as we know (after reading the info on the site) Ukitake's illness is indeed tuberclosis. One that has been with him ever since he was a child and is the reason why his hair color is white.

I've read (and posted myself) a few speculations about Ukitake's sickness. Some of these speculations include that its a soul disease as some mentioned. Which would explain why Unohona can't treat it. Others included that it was some guilt or burden that he carries around. I can't really remember every single one of them though.

But I think the soul sickness idea is the one that makes sense the most. As Altok said it will explain things like aging too.

[Specter]

The illness seems to me to be something like TB (terberculosis) but I believe that he justs has outbreaks of it, because he was clearly able to fight against the 1st devision capitain pretty well.

[Bemmie]

Don't forget that in his fight against Yamamoto, he said that Ukitake was weak even in school. He said they were always powerful shinigami even then so he must have been refering to his physical condition. So if it's been around since then, i'd say it has been around since he came to Soul Society...

[Lovekiller93]

He did have the disease since the academy, yet Yamamoto still said that none of your peers nor elders could equal you. Ukitake already had his disease then. My guess that if he didn't have the sickness, he would be much more powerful than Shunsui.

[contigo]

If it is a physical disease. does anyone think it's possible that Orihime will be alble to heal him??
Since Unoha said that Orihime was using some kind of time reversal healing technique. Which means that she brings the body back to a state before the injury has occured.

[choujiwong]

hmm.good point. Maybe Orihime has the possiblility to heal ukitake's illness. Finally, he's gonna be a full-fledge and a healthy captain... ..

[Daeruke]

not happening... unohana cant even do crap 4 him

[SLVR]

I think he just has bad cough or ahas a hard time breathing. Seems to cool to have something else.

[Kyouka Suigetsu]

not happening... unohana cant even do crap 4 him

We really don't know if Orihime can heal Ukitake or not. Ulquiorra commented that her powers resembled something like spacial manipulation or time reversal. Unohanna and her 3rd seat both noted that they were something special as well. If anyone can heal Ukitake, then it would be her.