Desperate Struggle with Aizen! Hirako, Shikai!

Shinji Hirako releases his Shikai, Sakanade, and Aizen remarks on the odd curve of the blade while doubting its reputation for bending the senses. Shinji tells him it is already too late and welcomes him into an inverted world, where Aizen suddenly seems to hang upside down in the air.

Sajin Komamura presses his duel with Kaname Tōsen, recalling the day he detected a faint lie in his friend's vow: Tōsen spoke endlessly of the world his lost loved one cherished, yet never claimed to love it himself. Komamura had resolved to stand beside him and return what he had lost. He unleashes his Bankai, but Tōsen halts the massive blade barehanded, chips it, and drives Los Nueve Aspectos into its chest, felling both the giant and Komamura. As Tōsen moves to end him with La Mirada, Shūhei Hisagi impales him through the skull from above, noting that his true captain would never have been caught by such a strike, then releases his own Zanpakutō in the wound.

Against Aizen, Shinji explains that Sakanade reverses everything, so front and back, sight and the very place a cut lands are all flipped. He wounds Aizen's arm and back by exploiting reflexive movement, but Aizen swiftly adapts, dismissing the effect as a mere optical illusion once he grows accustomed to it and reasserting the gulf between their strengths.

Reverted to his true form, a dying Tōsen listens as Komamura tells him their bond, however brief and faint, always seemed fated to bring their blades together, and asks only that Tōsen not lose himself to vengeance the way he lost his heart with his friend. Moved to tears, Tōsen thanks him and asks Hisagi to let him see his face one last time while his Hollow powers still grant him sight. Before he can finish, his body bursts apart, spraying Komamura and Hisagi with blood, and Komamura roars at Aizen. At that moment, Ichigo Kurosaki tears open a Garganta into the Human World and lunges at Aizen.

Shinji Hirako releases Sakanade and traps Aizen in its inverted world, wounding him before Aizen adapts. Komamura's Bankai is broken by Tōsen's Los Nueve Aspectos, and Shūhei Hisagi finishes Tōsen by driving his blade through his head. In his final moments, Tōsen reconciles with Komamura and thanks him, only for Aizen to detonate his body. Ichigo Kurosaki arrives through the Garganta and charges at Aizen.

The episode adapts Chapter 386 from page 8 through Chapter 387 and belongs to the second part of the Fake Karakura Town arc. It concludes both the joint battle of Komamura and Hisagi against Tōsen and the duel between Shinji and Aizen. The Shinigami Illustrated Picture Book short is a brief gag in which Shinji accuses a baffled Ichigo of timing his arrival by watching the fight with Aizen.