Hitsugaya Scatters! The Broken Hyōrinmaru

Bloodied and spent, Renji and Hitsugaya both struggle in the night sky, one wielding Hihiō Zabimaru against Yylfordt Granz, the other pressing Daiguren Hyōrinmaru at the impassive Shawlong Koufang. Yylfordt slips past Renji's Bankai with ease and cuts him across the chest, mocking the Gotei 13 for letting a loser earn a lieutenant's rank. Watching from afar, the modified souls step in: Ririn cloaks Renji in illusions, Kurōdo mimics him, and Noba teleports the decoy to bewilder Yylfordt, but a surge of the Arrancar's Reiatsu shatters the trick and he cuts all three down.

A blank-eyed Ururu, thrown into her Slaughter Mode by the strange Reiatsu, then hammers Yylfordt with brutal blows until he activates his Resurrección, Del Toro, taking a hulking bull form and impaling her on a horn. Jinta catches her and strikes back to no effect, and when Renji blocks the horn with a segment of Hihiō Zabimaru, Yylfordt drives it clean through his chest, laughing as he names himself Arrancar #15.

Shawlong dissects the flaw in Hitsugaya's Bankai: the ice flower behind him is losing petals, each one marking the dwindling energy of a power too young to be complete, now down to three of twelve. Choosing to strike while some remains, he releases Tijereta, gaining bladed claws and a tail, slashes the stunned captain, and names himself Arrancar #11. He explains that only numbers above ten follow birth order, while the ten strongest Arrancar form the Espada, ranked by Reiryoku with their numbers marked on their bodies, and warns that Espada #6 Grimmjow Jaegerjaquez is among the invaders. Elsewhere Grimmjow catches Ichigo's blade barehand and flicks him away, goading him into Bankai. Salvation comes when the Research and Development Institute finally authorizes Gentei Kaijo; Rangiku halts Nakeem's stomp, and she, Renji, and Hitsugaya release their limiters as columns of Reiatsu erupt skyward.

Set in the Arrancar arc, the episode adapts the closing pages of chapter 206 through chapter 209. Its opening is Rolling Star and its ending is Sakura Biyori. A notable animation error surfaces during Shawlong's lecture on the Espada, where an extra silhouette slips into the lineup and depicts eleven figures instead of the intended ten. The bonus Shinigami Illustrated Picture Book skit puts Kon inside Hanatarō Yamada's body, where he discovers that the sealed Zanpakutō Hisagomaru heals whatever it cuts rather than wounding it, to the amusement of the Eleventh Division members beating him up.