Ever since the powers of the Soul Reaper were thrust upon me,
my whole world has changed.
I’m Substitute Soul Reaper, Ichigo Kurosaki.
I wield this sword with all of my soul and strength
to protect my precious friends!
You are my one and only.
No one can take your place.
Never fade, my only flower.
The sun never blinds you.
You are like a flower that blooms in shade.
Exhale those feelings you hold inside.
You are my one and only; now and forever.
The day may come when all will rise against us,
but I will protect you.
Never give up, my only flower.
TIME NOTICE THAT YOU SHOULD NOTICE THAT
NOTICE THAT THERE’S NO OTHER
This is the Sokyoku hill?
Welcome, Abarai.
Captain Aizen? It can't be…
What's…
going on?
Leave Rukia Kuchiki here and back away.
C-Captain Aizen?! Why are you alive--?
No, never mind that… What did you say?
How odd.
You must have heard me.
I said, “Leave Rukia Kuchiki here and back away.”
Abarai.
Hearts of the South, Eyes of the North,
Fingertips of the West, Heels of the East…
Gather holding the winds, scatter sweeping the rains.
Bakudo 58!
Kakushitsuijaku!
31…64…
83…97…
I've pinpointed where they went!
332 East, 1566 North!
It’s the Sokyoku!
Understood.
Now locate every captain and lieutenant and
report to them everything we've learned here
about Sosuke Aizen and where he’s gone to.
Yes.
And…get the message to those Ryoka as well.
I understand!
I'm counting on you.
I must now try to save the lives
of Captain Hitsugaya and Lieutenant Hinamori.
Black and white net!
Twenty-second bridge, Sixty-six crown and cincture!
Footprints! Distant thunder!
Sharp arrow, rotating land, cover of night!
Sea of clouds, pale soldiers!
Form a circle and charge through the heavens!
Bakudo 77.
Tenteikura!
Connection…established!
Attention all Thirteen Court Guard Squads captains,
lieutenants, and seated officers…
And also the Ryoka.
This is Squad 4 Lieutenant, Isane Kotetsu.
Sis?
This is an emergency.
This is an emergency announcement…
from Squad 4 Captain Retsu Unohana and me, Isane Kotetsu.
Everything I am about to tell you is the truth!
I-Impossible!
Aizen did--?
You heard her.
What shall we do, Old Man Yama?
Don't you think now's not the best time to be doing this?
I can't believe… that my Captain lost!
How could he? He said he wouldn't harm Hinamori…
Central 46 was…annihilated?!
That can't be true…
My Captain betrayed us?!
Tosen!
Did you hear that, Sir Mayuri?
Of course I did.
What shall we do?
Humph! I’m not interested.
You think all this is true?
Hmm… It could also be the enemy's trap…
No… It seems to be true.
Huh?
Kurosaki, don't you sense
the Spiritual Pressure that just appeared up above?!
Rukia?!
What?
I said I refuse…
Captain Aizen!
I see.
That won't be necessary, Gin.
You are stubborn, Abarai.
If you don't want to leave Rukia Kuchiki and back away,
then you leave me no choice.
But I'll take your feelings into consideration.
She can stay in your arms…
but the rest of you goes.
R-Renji…!
My my…
You've learned to dodge well, Abarai.
I’m happy to see that you’ve improved.
But I hope you won’t struggle for too long.
It's difficult to step on an ant without crushing it.
As your former superior, I’d prefer not to kill you if I can help it.
Renji!
Shut up, Rukia!
You don’t want to kill me? Yeah right!
Then why did you kill Hinamori?!
I’d trained her so that she couldn’t live without me.
So don't you think it was merciful of me to kill her?
It's also true that I didn't want to kill her myself.
So I went to all the trouble…
and tried to have her, Kira and Hitsugaya kill each other.
But that didn't work out.
So I had no choice but to kill her myself.
I see…
So you were the one pulling the strings on Kira and Hinamori!
And you too, Abarai.
I get it.
You're not the Captain Aizen I knew.
I don't know why you want her,
but I'm not handing over Rukia even if it costs me my life!
Not the Sosuke Aizen you knew, huh?
Unfortunately,
the Sosuke Aizen you used to know was just an illusion, Abarai.
He never existed in the first place.
Roar! Zabimaru!
Shikai, huh?
I guess it can't be helped with the condition you're in,
but that won't even buy you any time.
You never know!
What a bothersome kid you are.
He stopped it with his bare hands?!
You really are the most troublesome of the three, Abarai.
Renji!
I knew…
I knew that I could use you three when I first met you.
So when you three joined the Thirteen Court Guard Squads,
I had you all assigned to Squad 5 right away.
Then I made the two who were more useful,
Gin and my subordinates.
I sent you away because you seemed troublesome.
It seems my instincts were right.
This is the last warning.
Leave Rukia Kuchiki here and back away.
P-Please wait, Captain Aizen! I will…
I refuse.
Renji!
Ren…
I won't let you go…
Like I’d ever let you go… You idiot.
I see.
Too bad.
Hey.
What's wrong, crouching down like that?
It looks like Rukia is too heavy for you.
I came to give you a hand, Renji!
Ichigo…
Hey.
You came to help me… Thank--.
What's this?
All you had to do was carry Rukia and you’re all beat up!
I guess just running away was still a too big of a task for you, huh?!
Huh? What was that?!
You look pretty beat up yourself, too!
What did you say?!
Is that something you say to someone who just came to save your butt?!
You idiot! I was trying to thank you earlier!
Hmm?
Oh…
Idiot!
Do you think I'm trying to make a new world record for holding my breath?!
Talking while pushing me against your chest like that!
Sorry. I didn't think I should interfere, so I let the boy pass.
No matter. It's fine.
There’s no difference
whether there’s one piece of dust to brush off, or two.
That’s Aizen?
Yeah.
Do you still have enough strength left to get away?
Yeah, but I'm going to stay and fight.
You know damn well that running away won’t do, don’t you?
We may not be able to defeat them,
but let's try to immobilize them and walk out of here.
Hah! I got no choice.
All right, then! Let's fight together!
Right!
I can only use this technique once…
But if it hits, the enemy will be left open.
Strike in that opening.
Got it!
This may hurt a bit but please hang in there, Zabimaru…
Here we go, Zabimaru!
Higazekko!
Huh?!
Oh?
I thought I cut you in half from the waist down,
but it seems it was too shallow.
That’s… impossible…
He disappe…
Da…mn…
Ichigo…
Renji…!
I can't…move!
Now stand…
Rukia Kuchiki.
Hm?
Oh, I see.
My Spiritual Pressure has caused your body to go limp.
Ichigo!
The poor thing. He’s still conscious.
Having too much life force without abilities to back it up
may work against you.
Give up already.
You've all been useful enough.
You’ve served your purpose.
Purpose…?
That's right.
I knew that you would enter through the West Rukon District.
That’s why I had Squads stationed around the area
so that Gin could be there if something happened.
The walls of the Seireitei were lowered,
and there were captains within the gates,
so the only way to get in
would be with Kukaku Shiba's Flower-Crane Cannon.
A very flashy entry.
And those intruders were skilled enough to get past a captain.
As a result,
the eyes of all the Soul Reapers within Seireitei focused on them.
Your actions after entering the court were quite impressive indeed.
And thanks to you,
the news of a murdered captain did not create too much fuss.
It really made it easy to make my move.
H-Hold on.
How did you know
that we would come in through the West Rukon District?
What a strange thing to ask.
Where else could it be?
The West Rukon District is Kisuke Urahara's base of operations.
West Rukon District is the only place you could’ve entered through
with his Senkaimon.
What's with that face?
You work for him, don’t you?
Didn't you come to retrieve Rukia Kuchiki under Kisuke Urahara's orders?
Wh-What do you…
I see. It seems you weren't told anything.
Oh well.
This is the end anyway, so I’ll tell you.
Did you know that Soul Reapers have four basic fighting methods?
Zanjutsu, Hakuda, Hoho, and Kido. Those are the four.
But there is a limit to how strong you can get in any one of them.
There’s a limit to how much a soul can take
and that’s where the growth stops.
In other words, there’s the limit as a Soul Reaper.
Is there any way to get past that and surpass the limits
of those four abilities to get stronger then?
Well, there's a way.
That's…
to become a Hollow.
A Soul Reaper to a Hollow, or a Hollow to a Soul Reaper…
Only by removing the border between those two opposing existences,
can one become an even greater existence.
In theory, it was thought to be plausible.
So I secretly tried to turn various Hollows
into Soul Reapers.
A Hollow that could hide its Spiritual Pressure,
or a Hollow that could destroy Zanpakuto
with a touch and fuse with Soul Reapers.
But none of them worked out as well as I had hoped.
In the end, nobody could find a way.
But Kisuke Urahara made a way.
It was something that could instantly remove
the border dividing Hollow and Soul Reaper,
something that defied all logic within the Soul Society.
It's called Hogyoku. Dangerous stuff.
He probably felt the same way.
He tried to destroy the Hogyoku.
But he was unable to find a way to destroy his own creation.
So he reluctantly resorted to another method.
That was to create a shield around the Hogyoku
and hide it somewhere deep within a Konpaku, soul.
Now do you understand?
The place he chose to hide it was within you, Rukia Kuchiki.
What…did you say?
But when I found that out,
you had already gone missing in the World of the Living.
I instinctively knew Kisuke Urahara had something to do with it.
He was once exiled from the Soul Society
for creating an untraceable gigai that contained no Reishi.
There’s no other way a Soul Reaper in gigai can go missing.
There was another reason why he was exiled.
That gigai continues to break down the spirit energy
of the Soul Reaper using it.
Because of that,
the Soul Reaper never recovers his power.
The connection with the gigai becomes dim
to the point that all of his spirit energies are lost.
His Konpaku is reduced to that of a mere human.
Do you understand now? He didn't help you.
He was just trying to hide the location of the Hogyoku
by turning you into a human.
Oh my. You look like you’re in trouble.
Can I help you? With a gigai may be?
But luckily, you were found in the World of the Living
a few months later.
I immediately went to Central 46 and…
Aizen!
All the days gone by have made me what I am
Life’s not easy; that’s why I can go on.
To the people hurrying by,
“Have your dreams come true?”
I’m still struggling…
Forget returning to my youth; I want to live today well.
I was born timid.
Out where the sun shines I fisted my hand tight.
Break out of that place, that time, and I can change my life
But I could never express everything deep in my heart
Life’s not easy; that’s why I can go on.
Did everyone understand what I was talking about?
I tried to make it simple enough for even stupid people to understand.
What did you say?!
We just met! How did you know that I'm stupid, you jerk!
You don't deny that you're stupid, huh.
Hey, you're making me blush.
Jinta's Unbeatable Diary!
What's with this guy? Why is he after me so much?
Hey…
He’s obviously not after the ball…
What is he…?
I get it! It's this!
Bostov I don’t know why…
but he's after this strap from the goddess.
All right then.
I'll take you on!
Tune in again!