Ichigo Dies! Orihime, the Cry of Sorrow!

Orihime Inoue watches in horror as Ulquiorra Cifer punches a Cero Oscuras through Ichigo Kurosaki's chest and hurls him from the tower. She rushes to reach him but is stopped by Ulquiorra, who insists the effort is pointless. Uryū Ishida attacks from behind with Licht Regen to no effect, and when Ulquiorra remarks on his composure, Uryū answers that his calm is exactly what will let him fight. He keeps striking from every angle to buy Orihime time to heal Ichigo's grievous wounds, but Ulquiorra blocks each blow with his wings, swats Uryū into a tower, and injures his wrist when he resorts to a Seele Schneider.

Distraught and clinging to her belief that Ichigo always survives, Orihime desperately begs him for help as Uryū is battered by Ulquiorra's tail. Somewhere within his soul, Ichigo hears her cries and orders himself to rise and protect her. His body reanimates, not as himself but in a savage new Hollow form, as Zangetsu had warned he would seize control in a moment of mortal danger. Baffled that Ichigo should be dead, Ulquiorra demands to know how he took this shape, but the Hollow only draws Tensa Zangetsu by telekinesis and lets out a beastly roar.

The Hollow deflects Ulquiorra's Cero Oscuras with a Cero of his own, tears off the Espada's arm, and outpaces him even after Ulquiorra reveals that regeneration is his true strength and wields Lanza Del Relampago. Moving with Sonído rather than Shunpo, the Hollow overwhelms Ulquiorra, catches and shatters the lance barehanded, and lands a decisive strike across his torso. Fallen and calling his defeat by a Human-turned-Hollow absurd, Ulquiorra accepts his end and orders the Hollow to finish him, and it fires a point-blank Cero that erupts in a massive explosion.

Ulquiorra blasts Ichigo off the tower with Cero Oscuras, seemingly killing him. Uryū fights to protect Orihime while she attempts to heal Ichigo. Responding to Orihime's cries, Ichigo transforms into a new Hollow form that dwarfs Ulquiorra's power. The Hollow deflects Cero Oscuras, rips off Ulquiorra's arm, and outmatches even his Lanza Del Relampago and his regeneration. It defeats Ulquiorra and fires a point-blank Cero as the Espada, resigned, orders it to end him.

This is the two hundred seventy-first episode, adapting chapters 349 through 351 during the second part of the Fake Karakura Town arc. The opening theme is ChAngE and the ending is Stay Beautiful. A closing Arrancar Encyclopedia segment has Gin Ichimaru attempting to explain Cero Oscuras while covering Ulquiorra's eyes, only to be blinded by two point-blank blasts. Featured releases include the Bankai Tensa Zangetsu, Ulquiorra's Murciélago, and his Segunda Etapa, and the anime softened Uryū's injury from a severed hand to a wounded one.