Hitsugaya, Enraged! Blade of Hatred!

As Kira and Iba marvel at the Reiatsu pouring off the fighters and fear for Hinamori and Rangiku, Aizen taunts Hitsugaya that his hatred makes him unfit to be a captain. Hitsugaya agrees but does not care, willing to surrender his rank if it means killing the traitor, and vows to deny him any chance to use Kyōka Suigetsu. From a distance, Gin reflects that none of them grasp Aizen's real power. Hitsugaya opens with an ice crescent from Hyōryū Senbi and redirects it midair with Zekku, and Komamura and Love join in, slamming their released blades down together, yet Aizen emerges without a scratch and coolly advises them to combine their attacks or never stand a chance.

Rose snares Aizen's sword with Kinshara and Lisa strikes, but he blocks her with ease. When Komamura releases his Bankai, Aizen shears through its blade and arm, wounds the giant warrior in kind, and hurls him to the town below. Rose and Love fall next, and Lisa, masked and released, is dismissed as a mere pseudo-Arrancar before being cut down. Ichigo can only watch the captains and Visored collapse one after another.

Suì-Fēng steps up, coldly recites the academy creed back at Aizen, and splits into a swarm of clones. His arm is suddenly sheathed in ice, her Nigeki Kessatsu strikes his chest, but his sheer Reiatsu nullifies the two-hit kill, and a shadow attack from Shunsui's Kageoni catches him off guard. Hitsugaya charges, Shinji raises Sakanade to invert the world, and Aizen is run through from behind, seemingly finished. The victory shatters when the impaled figure is revealed to be Hinamori, whom Hitsugaya himself stabbed under the illusion. As Kira and Iba fall to Aizen and Shinji demands to know how long Kyōka Suigetsu has been active, Aizen answers that it never stopped. Cradling the wounded Hinamori as she whispers a broken "why," Hitsugaya snaps into blind fury and lunges, only for Aizen to cut down him, Suì-Fēng, Shunsui, and Shinji together.

Set in the second half of the Fake Karakura Town arc, the episode adapts chapters 390 through 392 and brings the combined assault on Aizen to its brutal close. Its opening is Melody of the Wild Dance and its ending is Last Moment. Throughout, Gin's internal narration stresses that Aizen's true menace is not his hypnosis but his raw strength, the reason the fractious Espada ever answered to him. The closing Shinigami Illustrated Picture Book skit finds Sasakibe gazing longingly at a shop of teacups and fine furnishings, whereupon Aizen admits it was all Kyōka Suigetsu and that defeating him was simple.