Forest of Menos! The Search for the Missing Rukia

A regenerated Runuganga rises from the sand and reopens a pit beneath Bawabawa, dragging the whole group down into the darkness. They crash into the vast Forest of Menos, an underground expanse whose towering trees reach all the way to the desert surface. Uryu reasons that Hueco Mundo keeps its stronger residents above while Gillians and lesser Hollows dwell below, and the group soon realizes Rukia was flung away during the fall and is nowhere among them.

Waking alone, Rukia purifies wave after wave of Hollows but cannot thin their endless numbers, and she flees toward a distant light only to find herself cornered by two Menos Grande at a cliff edge. As one charges a Cero, a silent swordsman named Ashido snatches her clear, splits both giants apart, and carries her off to his cave hideout. There he explains he has long survived among the Menos, then abruptly attacks her, overwhelming her in a lopsided clash she barely blocks.

The rest of the party searches on foot and sends Bawabawa up a tree for a wider view, but flying Hollows summon several Menos Grande with their howls. Ichigo repels one with a Getsuga Tensho while Sado and Uryu blast others from above, yet the swarm keeps swelling. A flying Hollow snatches Nel, Pesche, and Dondochakka away just as another Menos fires a Cero into the group, and back in the cave Ashido presses Rukia to the brink.

Ichigo's group is dropped into the Forest of Menos and Rukia is separated from them in the fall. Ashido Kano, a Shinigami long stranded among the Menos, saves Rukia from two Menos Grande before inexplicably attacking her in his hideout.

The others fend off swarms of Hollows and Menos summoned by howling fliers, and Nel, Pesche, and Dondochakka are carried off by an airborne Hollow as a Cero closes in on the group.

An anime-original episode within the Hueco Mundo arc, bridging the introduction of Nel and the fuller reveal of Ashido's backstory in the following installment. It marks the debut of Ashido Kano and the forest guardian Adjuchas.

The Shinigami Illustrated Picture Book segment shows Hisagi despairing when Rangiku dumps dozens of illicit photos of Hitsugaya on him for a bonus feature she has already cleared with the printers, leaving him working through the night.