Hitsugaya Howls!

Facing his old captain Gin, Hitsugaya warns Izuru to flee far beyond sight, since anyone lingering too close could die in the exchange. Their clash opens with flash-step strikes and midair blade locks, Gin slipping past most attacks while Hitsugaya's precision eventually shears his sleeve. Acknowledging he should not take the boy lightly, Gin invites the very regret that follows: Hitsugaya declares his true regret begins now, blankets the sky in cloud with Tensō Jūrin, and unleashes Hyōrinmaru, coiling a serpent of ice and water around himself.

The dragon crashes toward Gin, who evades unscathed, though Izuru is drenched and his arm and legs seize up in the cold before a tendril of ice slams him into a rooftop. A second dragon meets the same defense, yet Hitsugaya's chain locks and freezes Gin's left arm, and he pronounces the fight over. Gin answers by releasing Shinsō, the extending blade lancing toward Hitsugaya's eye; he dodges, only to see it streaking instead at the unconscious Hinamori. Rangiku appears in its path and stops the strike with her own sword, its edge cracking under the pressure, and asks Gin to sheathe his weapon. He merely smiles.

Attention shifts to Sōkyoku Hill, where Yoruichi weighs whether to extend Ichigo's Bankai training. She recalls that Rukia's grace period was cut to twenty-five days, and that being chased by the Cleaner in the Dangai skewed the timeline so the Ryoka arrived a week early, buying eight extra days beyond the usual three. Because only Urahara ever completed this method, she resolves to wait one more day before deciding. That caution collapses when the Kidō Corps informs Rukia her execution has been moved to tomorrow, and a Jigokuchō relays to Hitsugaya and Rangiku that it now falls twenty-nine hours out, the final change. Suspecting the release of the Sōkyoku is central to Gin's scheme, Hitsugaya resolves to stop it. In the training chamber, Renji crashes in seeking a place to reach Bankai and delivers the news of the noon deadline; rather than despair, Ichigo shatters his blade and swears he will simply achieve Bankai today. Alone in her cell, Rukia drifts back to the rain-soaked night she cradled Kaien Shiba's body.

Part of the Soul Society: The Rescue arc, the episode adapts chapters 132 and 133 and concludes the Hitsugaya versus Gin duel. It runs the opening D-tecnoLife and the ending Happypeople. The adaptation expands the manga clash considerably, adding an extended blade exchange, Izuru being frozen and hurled onto a roof, and Ichigo's Reiatsu erupting into a fierce wind as he vows to reach Bankai. Notably, Tensō Jūrin is shown before Hyōrinmaru's release here, years before the manga clarified it as a specific power of that Zanpakutō rather than a side effect of releasing it.