What’s the matter?!
Taking your sweet time to analyze the situation?!
You want to get this over with, right?
Same here!
Just as I suspected...
He didn’t simply make Kurosaki’s Fullbring his own...
His attacks are combined with the
power of Kurosaki’s Spiritual Pressure...!
This is going to be a problem...
So, did you come up with any great ideas?
What’s that supposed to mean?
Just that.
You’re the one who suggested we analyze the situation.
Weren’t you trying to come with an idea to quickly take him down?
Are you stupid or something?
There’s no such thing.
What? There isn’t?
I was observing his Spiritual Pressure.
Listen to me.
His Spiritual Pressure contains your...
Well, I’ll be going, then.
Wait, Kurosaki!
The fact that his attack is combined with your Spiritual Pressure means...
Ah, you finally decided to come out...
So?
Did you come with a plan while you were hiding?
I just checked.
He didn’t have any, so I came on out.
A Getsugatensho, huh?
Bring it on.
I almost died because of that the last time.
If you’re going to beat me, I suppose that’s the only way.
Don’t do it, Kurosaki!
He’s egging you on!
Getsugatensho!
The fact that he has your Spiritual Pressure combined with his own
means it’s possible that he can also use your techniques...!
Are you listening, Kurosaki?!
I heard you.
Quit nagging.
Who’s nagging?!
You have a bad habit of not hearing people through!
Listening to you won’t change a thing!
It’s not as though that’s going to diminish his powers!
It does change things...
At least you can be careful.
Watch it, Kurosaki.
His last blow made it very clear.
It wasn’t just your Spiritual Pressure and Fullbring that he took.
He’s probably acquired every one of your abilities...!
How cruel of you…
Am I not…your benefactor…?
Doesn’t it pain your heart to do this…?
You are indeed my benefactor.
And I do appreciate it.
However, you are Ichigo Kurosaki’s enemy.
I will not hesitate to kill that enemy.
Regardless of who they are.
Damn…
Good, you’re finally out.
Captain! You got out pretty quick.
Shut up. You’re just slow.
Abarai.
What happened to you? You’re a mess.
You look pathetic!
Sorry…
I escaped that dimension quite a while ago via the explosion,
but I was unable to move for some time, so…
Oh, so that huge explosion came from you?
What about your opponent? Did you kill them?
She’s dead… I think.
What about you?
Uh, well…
He disappeared after I scolded him a little…
Scolded him?!
That’s why you took so long!
Taking your damn sweet time!
Sorry, sir…
Why’re you guys arguing the minute you show up…?
Huh?!
This is none of your business!
You’re right. Fine.
Get it out of your system.
Hey! This wasn’t part of the deal!
You said you’d free me once I shut down my powers!
Once we confirm that everyone is free, we will.
Kuchiki and Kuchiki aren’t here.
Can you refer to them by first names, sir?
You’re confusing us.
I’m losing feeling in my arms and legs!
Rukia!
Look after her.
Yes, sir!
Is she all right?
She’s alive.
Her wounds are slight,
and there isn’t any irregularity in her Spiritual Pressure.
However…
there were no signs of the enemy or its corpse
in the area where Rukia collapsed.
You look like you know something.
Of course not.
I hardly know anything about Riruka’s abilities…
Neither of us wanted to show the other our abilities.
I don’t know if she’s dead, or if she got away,
but I’d be grateful if she were dead.
Come on! Isn’t this enough?!
Melt this ice already!
Not yet.
Why not?!
Oh, I can’t undo that one.
It’s the truth!
Did you know?
Fullbringers and Substitute Soul Reapers can trade their powers.
When we first joined Kugo, we traded a portion
of our powers with each other as a sign of loyalty.
We also placed a small restriction on those powers.
Here’s the restriction I share between Kugo…
“If Kugo is within the range of my abilities,
then I cannot undo them unless he orders me to.”
That’s pretty good.
You put yourself at quite a risk, though.
I had no such intention.
I suppose not.
You’re just fighting with everything you’ve got, right?
So, what are you fighting for right now?
What do you mean?
Tsukishima’s dead.
Actually, he’s not dead yet,
but his Spiritual Pressure is nearly gone.
I’d say he only has about ten minutes to live…
And…
when a Fullbringer dies, all traces of his abilities disappear.
Understand what that means?
If Tsukishima dies,
all of the memories of the past that he
inserted will return to what they used to be.
Your family and friends will
all be just the way they were before.
So I’ll ask you once more:
Right now, what are you fighting for?
No answer?
Then let me tell you one more thing.
It’s about the enemy you should really be fighting.
They’ve stabilized…
Yes.
Tessai,
I’ll leave the rest to you.
Yes, I will see to them.
Where are you going?
To where everyone is.
To assist? I’m coming with you.
No, most of the fighting is probably over,
so I’m going to provide healing.
You’ll be of no help, Isshin, so stay here.
Shouldn’t we try to wrap this up quickly
by assisting Ichigo with his fight?
If we don’t do that, then…
He’ll find out from Kugo Ginjo?
That’s fine.
He was going to find out sooner or later.
The enemy I should really be fighting?!
Yeah.
Don’t mess with me!
I’ve had enough of your mind games!
That’s right.
You see yourself in at a disadvantage,
so you present a shocking “fact”
to lay on the psychological pressure
in order to make your point that
“You’d be better off joining with me.”
Isn’t that right?
At a disadvantage, you say?
What ever makes you say that?
Sorry, but I can fully defeat the both of you right now.
Why don’t you try shooting at me from the back?
I’ll parry your shots while keeping our conversation.
Kurosaki.
Do you know why you were entrusted with a Combat Pass?
What do you mean?
When you were handed the Combat Pass,
you must’ve been told something like this:
“If the Soul Reaper is deemed
beneficial to the Soul Society,
it is customary to give them the Combat Pass.”
Listen closely, Kurosaki.
That’s a lie.
It’s no simple task for an
organization to determine whether
someone will be of benefit or a detriment…
And the biggest issue is that if they
“hand out Combat Passes to those of benefit,”
they’ve never told Kurosaki what happens
to those who are not.
More correctly…
Whether someone is of benefit or
detriment to the Soul Society has nothing to do with it.
Combat Passes are handed out equally regardless.
The official name for Combat Pass is
“Substitute Soul Reaper Combat Pass”…
It certifies that one has permission to
conduct Substitute Soul Reaper duties in the World of the Living.
I know that.
But have you ever, to this moment, truly felt its authority?
I am Ichigo Kurosaki! I’m a Substitute Soul Reaper!
Here’s my Combat Pass!
What the hell is that?
I’ve never seen or heard of such a thing.
What’s with this thing?
It isn’t any help at all…
Are you saying the Combat Pass has another function?
Yeah.
The function of the Combat Pass is
to keep watch and control.
Thanks to the Combat Pass,
the Soul Society is able to
keep constant tabs on your whereabouts,
and allowed them to control your Spiritual Pressure,
at least while you had the Combat Pass near you.
Didn’t you ever question…
Why your Spiritual Pressure that
rages out of control when you’re agitated,
even in Soul Reaper form, never had any effect
on you when you were in human form?
Why, when you used your Combat Pass to produce your Fullbring,
your Spiritual Pressure gushed forth from the Combat Pass?
Why, during your Fullbring training,
you heard your friends voices via the Combat Pass?
Surely you must’ve questioned them before.
The Combat Pass is a
device that communicates with the Soul Society,
absorbing your Spiritual Pressure,
then analyzing and controlling it.
You were given that so the Soul Society
could keep watch on you and control you.
It’s not that you never felt it was strange.
You simply pushed those questions into the back of your mind.
People who you bonded with in battle
would never do that to you.
You didn’t want to believe they would do that to you.
Ichigo.
I will tell you.
The man who came up with this plan is…
Jushiro Ukitake…
The Captain of Squad 13.
The Combat Pass?
What’s that?
The Soul Society also has a law
covering the emergence of a Substitute Soul Reaper.
It has been decided since ancient times that if
the Substitute Soul Reaper is
deemed beneficial to the Soul Society…
then we are to give this to them.
That one is yours now.
I see…
Thank you, Ukitake.
Ukitake did…?
We were tricked by the most peace-loving man
among the 13 Court Guard Squads!
Ichigo!
The man’s aim is to
watch and control us in order to
use us as pawns of the Soul Society,
and to eliminate us if we resist!
This is bad…!
Kurosaki!
There’s no way Kurosaki
can cope with these truths in his present state!
They all know!
Everyone in the Soul Society besides you knows this!
They abandoned you and left you to die, Ichigo!
Don’t listen to him, Kurosaki!
Shut the hell up!
Bankai!
Rukia!
…Renji…
You all right?!
Does it hurt anywhere?!
Yeah…
Right now, my right shoulder hurts…
Is Ichigo still inside…?
With this many captain-class Soul Reapers present,
destroying that dimension should be easy…
I get it…
They’re waiting to see his decision.
What?! What’s going on?!
Impossible…!
It’s collapsing…
Bankai.
“Shut the hell up”?
Shut up about what?
Do I annoy you so much
that you’d do Bankai to kill me at once to shut me up?
What would that do?
Would that hide your eyes from reality once more?
Shut up.
That one was towards you.
But what I said earlier wasn’t…
It was towards Ishida.
“Don’t listen to him, Kurosaki!” my ass.
Shut up.
Mind your own business!
Kurosaki…
I also thought what Ukitake said to me sounded odd…
What?!
But I didn’t want to believe it.
I didn’t want to suspect Ukitake.
That’s why I always shoved those thoughts to the back of my mind.
But then I realized something…
I asked myself, “Why was I suspicious of Ukitake”?
Ukitake is a lot smarter than me.
If he really was planning to deceive me,
he would have done so in a way that I wouldn’t notice.
But Ukitake handed me
the Combat Pass along with that explanation.
And I soon realized
that the Combat Pass had no function.
I’m guessing that Ukitake purposely
allowed me to realize that.
He purposely let me come to that
realization and make my own choice.
Regarding what?
Coming to that realization
didn’t leave you any choice in the matter.
I did make a choice…
I chose the path of protecting others.
I wanted power.
I wanted the power to protect all sorts of people, all the time.
When I lost my powers, I remembered that feeling.
Rukia gave me the power I sought to protect people.
Everyone helped me regain the powers I had lost.
That’s why I will protect everyone and fight you.
There go the negotiations.
You leave me no choice!
I didn’t want to have to kill you.
Bankai.
Oh yeah, I forgot about that…
You were a Substitute Soul Reaper yourself, weren’t you?
That’s right.
But there’s something else you forgot.
As I told you…
People like us were
attacked by Hollows before we were born.
Inside me…
is the power of a Hollow.
Is that so?
Bring it on, Ginjo.
Let’s hurry up and settle this.
You talk big for a kid.
Time will try to constantly try to catch up with you.
And with a roar, it will overcome you.
Do not look ahead.
Hope only lies within the unforeseeable
current that will close in from behind.
Illustrated Guide to Soul Reapers.
Hey.
Long time no see.
It’s me, everyone’s idol, Kon!
Since this is the last “Illustrated Guide to Soul Reapers,”
I’ll let you in on an interesting story about myself!
After Ichigo lost his powers, these two were deeply troubled…
“What could we do to help him?” they wondered.
This is what I told them:
You guys need to have faith in Ichigo…
Huh? We’re done?!
Is this the end?!
I was coming to the best part!
Why?!