Rukia's Return! Revival of the Substitute Team!

Rukia Kuchiki saves Ichigo from Yoshino Sōma's fiery Doll, Goethe, only for the Bount Ryō Utagawa to intervene, snaring Yoshino with his serpent Doll, Fried, and dragging her away. Unable to harm either enemy, Ichigo is left baffled by the strange powers of the Bount as Orihime and Sado arrive and Orihime tearfully welcomes Rukia back.

Rukia explains that she was ordered to purify Hollows in Karakura once more, and she meets the Mod Souls Ririn, Kurōdo, and Noba, fussing over Kurōdo to Kon's dismay. At the Bount hideout, their leader Jin Kariya confines a defiant Yoshino to a storage room. Renji then crashes into the Kurosaki home, and the group debates how to fight foes whose abilities remain a mystery.

The next day Rukia uses a memory-altering Kikanshinki to pose as a transfer student. When Ririn detects Utagawa, Ichigo and his friends confront the Bount mid-crime; Utagawa springs a trap, turning nearby objects into snakes with Fried and singling out Uryū as the weakest target. Meanwhile Yoshino blasts her way out of confinement as Kariya watches, amused, from the penthouse above.

Rukia returns to the Human World and reunites with Ichigo's group and the Mod Souls. Utagawa abducts Yoshino, whom Kariya then imprisons. Rukia enrolls at Karakura High using a memory-altering device. Utagawa attacks with Fried's snake-transformation power and fixates on Uryū, while Yoshino escapes the hideout.

Episode 70 is an anime-original entry within the Bount arc, adapting no manga chapters. Its Shinigami Illustrated Picture Book segment follows Hanatarō Yamada's fruitless job hunt in the Human World before a store manager finds him collapsed. The story establishes the Bount's Doll abilities and Utagawa's appetite for the taste of a Quincy's soul.