Changing History, Unchanging Heart

Their Bankai still locked in combat, Ichigo Kurosaki and Kūgo Ginjō trade blows while the watching Shinigami slip away. Byakuya reminds Rukia that their true assignment was only to observe Ichigo's choice, and Hitsugaya explains how contact with the new Substitute reversed a plan to kill him. Ichigo cuts Ginjō down, and as the man's powers drain away he wonders aloud whether their roles might have been swapped had he been the second Substitute rather than the first.

A dying Tsukishima lunges at Ichigo, but Rukia takes the strike and Riruka, hidden inside her, is wounded instead. Elsewhere the surviving Fullbringers drift apart: Yukio buries Giriko's watch with him, Jackie grieves the loss of the abilities that once held Xcution together, and Moe carries the fading Tsukishima to a peaceful end. Riruka later wakes at the Urahara Shop, learns Kisuke saved her life, and quietly departs alone.

Ichigo travels to the Seireitei to face the captains. Rather than retire, he asks only to bury Ginjō with the respect owed a fellow Substitute, and he keeps his badge as a sign of trust. Yamamoto grants the request, a relieved Ukitake sheds the weight he had carried, and Ichigo returns through the Dangai. A credits montage checks in on the Gotei 13 before Ichigo arrives home to his friends and family.

Ichigo defeats Ginjō and refuses to be turned by the man's resentment, changing the Soul Society's long-rigid stance on Substitute Shinigami. Tsukishima's final attack wounds Riruka, and the scattered members of Xcution each find their own resolution. Ichigo declines to give up his badge, choosing to remain a Substitute, and secures permission to give Ginjō a proper burial. The episode ends with Ichigo carrying Ginjō's coffin back to the World of the Living and returning home, closing the anime's initial run.

This is the three hundred sixty-sixth episode and the final installment of the anime's original broadcast, adapting portions of chapters 476 through 479 of the Lost Substitute Shinigami arc. The closing credits add numerous character vignettes across the Gotei 13 and include a flashback montage spanning nearly every prior arc. A post-credits scene reunites Ichigo with his household in Karakura Town, and his identity card lists him as both high school student and Substitute Shinigami.