Everything But the Rain

Rejected from the Soul King Palace with his broken Zanpakutō still unrepaired, Ichigo Kurosaki flees into the rain and takes refuge at Ikumi Unagiya's apartment, unable to face his friends. When Isshin Kurosaki appears in his Shinigami form, he confirms that Urahara told him everything and reminds Ichigo of his old promise to explain his past when the time was right. That time has come, and Isshin begins by revealing that he is neither an ordinary Human nor truly a Shinigami, launching into the story of Masaki Kurosaki.

In the past, Captain Isshin Shiba of the Tenth Division investigates a string of Shinigami deaths in Naruki City that all occurred on rainy days. Baiting the enemy by flaring his Reiatsu, he learns too late that raw power is not the lure, as White slaughters the two Shinigami below and confronts him. White fights like a Shinigami yet radiates a Hollow's Reiatsu, and it fires a Cero like a Menos while growing smarter with each Shinigami it consumes. A cloaked Aizen wounds Isshin from behind, crippling his ability to fight, just as Masaki, an Echt Quincy, arrives and draws White's attention with her Heilig Bogen.

Masaki lets White bite into her shoulder, then fires a point-blank Heilig Pfeil straight through its head, killing it, while Isshin drags the corpse clear before its swelling core detonates. Grateful and delighted to meet a Quincy for the first time, Isshin thanks her, and Masaki, unsure how a Shinigami would react, admits what she is. In a hidden lab, Aizen tells Gin and Tōsen that White choosing a Quincy is a fascinating, superior outcome, worth seeing through.

Ōetsu Nimaiya explains to Renji that every Shinigami in history has shaped a personalized Zanpakutō from one of his Asauchi, which is why the standard test could never work for Ichigo, who instead needs to find the whereabouts of his own soul. At the Ishida estate, Izumi Ishida berates Masaki over her Quincy training and reminds her she was taken in only as the last of the Kurosaki line, while Ryūken and Kanae Katagiri weigh whether kindness alone can make a Quincy marriage happy.

The episode establishes the covert Hollowfication experiments run by Aizen, Gin, and Tōsen, and reveals White as their most advanced creation, built from a Shinigami's soul. Masaki's decision to act at once rather than wait, over Ryūken's caution, defines her character and saves lives, concluding the fight of Isshin and Masaki against White.

This is the eleventh Thousand-Year Blood War episode and the 377th overall, adapting parts of chapters 528 through 533. It aired in Japan on December 20, 2022, and in English on January 13, 2023, opening with Scar and closing on Saihate. The adaptation added Isshin's deduction that White grows stronger and smarter with every Shinigami it eats, along with Jugram Haschwalth meeting Uryū in the rain, while trimming numerous comedic and expository beats. The episode also marks the first time Izumi is named on screen.