Release the Death Blow!

As Soul Reapers comb the Seireitei for the intruders, Hanatarō carries a meal to Rukia's cell only to learn she has been moved to the Senzaikyū, leaving him shaken. Locked in the white tower, Rukia gazes at the Sōkyoku and quietly wonders whether Ichigo truly came for her. Nearby, Ichigo and Ikkaku resume their clash, with Ikkaku wielding the shifting Hōzukimaru in its three-section form. After weathering a barrage and adapting to the weapon's tricks, Ichigo damages its bladed tip with his bare hand.

Ichigo leaps high and drives a Getsuga Tenshō down through Ikkaku's guard, opening a deep wound across his chest. Refusing to yield, Ikkaku fights on until a second Getsuga Tenshō tears up his arm and shatters his sword. He collapses smiling, praising Ichigo's strength. Rather than finish him, Ichigo uses the styptic sealed in Ikkaku's hilt to close both their wounds, an act Ikkaku resents for leaving him alive in shame.

When Ichigo reveals his rescue party numbers only five people and a cat, Ikkaku laughs at the absurdity yet points him south toward the Gotei 13 barracks and the white tower to their west, then warns him to beware Kenpachi, who seeks out the strongest fighters. Elsewhere, Ganju flees Yumichika, and the two tumble into a garbage dump, where Yumichika angrily renews his pursuit. Uryū and Orihime scramble to shake off swarms of Soul Reapers, Sado moves toward the commotion, and Kenpachi and Yachiru keep hitting dead ends.

Ichigo defeats Ikkaku with two Getsuga Tenshō strikes, then spares him and heals him with the styptic in Ikkaku's sword. In gratitude, Ikkaku tells Ichigo where Rukia is held and warns him about Kenpachi Zaraki. Ganju and Yumichika's chase lands them in a garbage dump, while Uryū, Orihime, and Sado navigate the Soul Reaper patrols separately.

The episode adapts material from the Soul Society: The Sneak Entry storyline and expands several sequences absent from the manga, including Hanatarō being jostled by rushing Soul Reapers and Uryū and Orihime fleeing converging patrols. Ikkaku's chest and arm wounds were recolored to gray-black and rendered in an ink style to obscure the blood. It first aired in Japan on April 12, 2005, with the opening D-tecnoLife and the ending Hōkiboshi.