Murderous Intent! The Joyful Grimmjow

In Szayelaporro Granz's palace, a battered Renji Abarai and Uryu Ishida decide to flee while Dondochakka Birstanne and Pesche Guatiche pester them with clumsy comedy. Elsewhere, atop the tower where his first duel ended, Grimmjow confronts Ulquiorra Cifer, who demands that Orihime Inoue be handed over. The two Espada trade point-blank Cero, and Grimmjow slips a Caja Negacion into Ulquiorra's Hollow hole, banishing him to a sealed dimension for what he estimates will be a few hours.

Grimmjow orders Orihime to keep healing Ichigo and seizes her by the throat, but Ichigo stops him and, wanting a fair fight, asks that Grimmjow's burned arm be healed too. Once both are patched up, Ichigo comforts a frightened Nel, promises Orihime he will win, and moves the battle to the surrounding towers, unleashing his Bankai, Tensa Zangetsu. Watching from afar, Orihime tells Nel that Ichigo only vows victory when he means it, recalling how he saved her and set out to rescue Rukia, though her clenched hand betrays her worry.

The duel escalates through blade locks, Cero, and Getsuga Tensho. Grimmjow presses Ichigo, arguing that his true reason for coming was not to save Orihime but the instinct of Shinigami against Hollow, and that whoever survives earns the right to live. When Grimmjow fires his devastating Gran Rey Cero straight at the tower where Orihime and Nel stand, the smoke clears to reveal Ichigo shielding them with his Hollow mask donned, and a grinning Grimmjow declares his real opponent has finally shown up.

Grimmjow removes Ulquiorra from the fight by trapping him in a Caja Negacion, then insists Ichigo heal both of them so their rematch is untainted. Ichigo activates Tensa Zangetsu and relocates the battle across the towers.

Grimmjow reveals why he kept the scar from their first fight and voices his belief that their clash is driven by predatory instinct. The episode ends with Ichigo summoning his Hollow mask to block the Gran Rey Cero and guard his friends.

The episode adapts chapters 278 through 280 of the Hueco Mundo arc. Added material includes the Dondochakka and Pesche comedy, the intense Reiatsu of the opening Espada clash, Nel's insistence that overconfident fighters often lose, and flashbacks to Grimmjow impaling Rukia and Ichigo scarring him with a Bankai-boosted Getsuga Tensho.

Censorship lessens the burns on Grimmjow's arm after he counters Ulquiorra's Cero. A Shinigami Illustrated Picture Book segment has Rangiku photographing Izuru Kira and Shuhei Hisagi in ever more revealing poses until Nanao Ise refuses to print the results.