Oath! Back Here Alive Again

Ulquiorra pressures a shaken Orihime, now dressed as an Arrancar, into declaring her body and spirit devoted to Aizen. Outside, Ichigo and Renji smash a hole in the fortress wall, refusing the three-day walk to the front gate. Nel insists she is not asking to come along even as she chases after them, and the group tumbles through collapsing tunnels into the disused old building beneath Las Noches.

Renji tries to light the dark passage with Kido and manages only a feeble spark, earning mockery. Pressing on, Ichigo simply smashes through door after door until the party reaches a chamber where five torch-lit paths branch away, and Rukia proposes they each take a separate route.

Before parting, Renji revives an old Gotei 13 ritual, swearing that their blades will not break and their hearts will not weaken, and that all of them will return to this spot alive. The five split up, and Nel trails after Ichigo just to keep having fun.

In a corridor near Orihime's room, Nnoitra needles Ulquiorra, who reveals how thoroughly Orihime was ensnared before she ever reached Las Noches. Rather than any illusion, Aizen built a layered mental cage: he threatened her friends' lives, granted a twelve-hour reprieve, and allowed her a single silent farewell to one person. The mercy shown during her terror made her believe her captors were sympathetic, and letting her choose her goodbye and walk to the rendezvous alone convinced her she acted of her own will, breaking any urge to flee.

The lingering trace she left on that friend, Ulquiorra adds, made her departure look like a willing betrayal, ensuring Soul Society would write her off. In flashback, Aizen reveals the Hogyoku to Orihime and asks her to lend her reality-rejecting power to his cause. In the present, she grasps that she now knows where it rests and resolves to use her ability to destroy it.

The episode adapts chapters 248 and 249 of the first Hueco Mundo arc, following the rescue party's entry into Las Noches. The anime expands the underground trek through the old building and adds the powerful spiritual pressure filling the crossroads, and it plainly reveals Dordoni Alessandro Del Socaccio as the figure stepping out behind Ichigo, a detail left ambiguous in the manga.

An Arrancar Encyclopedia segment has Dondochakka begin explaining his biology before Gin shoves him off the stage with Shinso.