BORN IN THE DARK

A thousand years earlier, Genryūsai Shigekuni Yamamoto and the original Gotei 13 captains cut down Yhwach's Quincy army, and Chōjirō Sasakibe's surprise strike lets Yamamoto land a finishing blow. In the present, that same monster returns: Yhwach diagonally bifurcates Yamamoto, mocks him for never having his lost arm restored, and obliterates his remains with a barrage of Heilig Pfeil Erobern. As the Sternritter summon Soldat to overrun the Seireitei, unseated Shinigami are slaughtered across the burning city.

Sensing the dying, Ichigo Kurosaki shatters the Reishi cage confining him, carries a wounded Akon to safety, and confirms that Renji and Rukia still live. He finds Byakuya Kuchiki broken in a crater, assures him his subordinates survive, and receives the captain's ashamed plea to protect Soul Society. Ichigo's Reiatsu flares, evaporating the rain, and Yhwach turns to meet him rather than flee.

The two clash fiercely across the rubble and into the air. Yhwach eventually pins Ichigo and drives his sword toward his neck, only for Blut Vene to unconsciously shield him. Startled, Yhwach admits a miscalculation: by using the Echt Quincy Quilge Opie to imprison Ichigo, he let Quincy Reiatsu seep into Ichigo's Soul and awaken dormant memories too early, since The Jail was never meant to hold a Quincy. He hints that Ichigo knows nothing of the truth about himself or his mother.

Deciding to take Ichigo back by force, Yhwach unleashes Qual Kreis, burying him under debris. Before he can deliver a killing blow, shadows leak from his body: his time outside the Schatten Bereich has run out, since Aizen secretly altered his senses. As his forces withdraw through Shadows, Ichigo bursts free and lunges, but Haschwalth effortlessly severs his blade. Yhwach departs, telling Ichigo to heal and wait as his son, born in the dark.

Yhwach kills Yamamoto and orders the Seireitei crushed. Ichigo breaks out of The Jail, rescues Akon, and receives Byakuya's dying request to protect Soul Society. Ichigo and Yhwach fight, and Ichigo's Blut Vene reveals his Quincy heritage. Yhwach realizes Quilge Opie's imprisonment awakened Ichigo's memories. Aizen's tampering forces Yhwach to retreat, and Haschwalth breaks Ichigo's sword as the Quincy leave.

The three hundred and seventy-third episode of the anime, this entry adapts Chapters 511 through 514 within the Thousand-Year Blood War arc. It concludes several arcs including Yamamoto versus Yhwach and the Fall of the Seireitei. The adaptation expands the ancient war flashback and Ichigo's clash with Yhwach, and uses a unique version of the ending theme depicting the original captains as candles going out one by one.