Foe or Friend?! Ginjō's Unseen Heart!

At the Urahara Shop, Isshin commits to a plan Urahara warns could jeopardize his son, and a newly promoted Rukia arrives to pour her spiritual energy into a glowing cylinder for the next phase. Inside Yukio's game space, Ichigo keeps losing ground to Ginjō, whose oversized sword he handles as if it were weightless. Orihime is brought in as the group's healer and quickly reveals how far her powers have grown, blasting Ginjō with a shield that counters even as it defends. Sado departs to a separate training room, still shaken that Tsukishima cut him without leaving a wound, resolved to grow strong enough to face him.

As the match continues, Ichigo notices he cannot read Ginjō's emotions at all, unlike the killing intent he sensed from Tsukishima. Ginjō turns ruthless, blinding Ichigo with a slash across the eyes, caging Orihime through Yukio, and taunting Ichigo that he was helpless the moment he trusted a stranger. He stabs Ichigo through the shoulder and then the gut, declaring the fight over and promising to kill Sado and Orihime next.

Sightless and impaled, Ichigo mentally calls out, then perceives Ginjō as a shape of blue light, realizing he is sensing spiritual pressure. Ribbons of energy erupt from his wound and wrap around him as his attack forces Ginjō to block, triggering a massive explosion. Ginjō then congratulates him: the completion had to occur in front of someone willing to risk their life to contain it. He apologizes for the villain act and formally welcomes Ichigo into Xcution.

Isshin and Urahara advance their plan, and Rukia charges a cylinder with her energy. Orihime and Sado reveal how much their powers have grown, and Sado leaves to train against Tsukishima. Ichigo senses nothing behind Ginjō's emotions, then Ginjō blinds him, cages Orihime, and stabs him twice while playing the traitor. Ichigo perceives spiritual pressure as light, completes his Fullbring in an explosion, and learns the betrayal was staged to help him finish the transformation.

The episode adapts Chapters 449 through 451 in the Lost Substitute Shinigami arc, marking the completion of Ichigo's Fullbring and the reveal of Ginjō's deception as a deliberate ordeal. A subplot deepens Riruka, who reluctantly shares donuts with Orihime and grows unsettled by how brightly she speaks of a painful past. The closing Xcution Dictionary segment plays Sado's side room as a Tetris-style game that ends in a comic game over when a ball flattens him.