SHADOWS GONE

Interwoven flashbacks trace the entwined Kyōraku and Ise families: Shunsui's brother Shunzan, his wife Isuzu, and the curse that killed every man who married into the Ise line. In the present, the reborn Sternritter Lille Barro shoots Shunsui through the stomach and regenerates even from decapitation, entering an owl-like new stage of his Vollständig and razing the city with beams of golden light.

As Katen urges retreat, Nanao Ise arrives and demands her Zanpakutō. Hiding within Shunsui's Kageoni shadow, Shunsui reveals that Katen bore the spirit Kyōkotsu to conceal the Ise sword Isuzu once entrusted to him, a bladeless ritual weapon that reflects the power of a god. Nanao accepts the family curse she once tried to flee and takes up Shinken Hakkyōken.

The shining sword shears off Lille's hand, proving it can wound him, and when he levels the city with his colossal trumpet, Trompete, Nanao, steadied by Shunsui rising out of her own shadow, turns the blast back on its source. The reflected energy erases half of Lille's body before shattering him completely. A spent Shunsui catches the trembling Nanao, praises her, and admits they have earned a rest.

Shunsui is gravely wounded and reveals the history of the Ise Curse and the clan's sacred sword, Shinken Hakkyōken. Nanao accepts the curse and wields the sword, severing Lille Barro's hand. When Lille fires Trompete, Nanao reflects its energy back at him and annihilates him, concluding both of the episode's fights.

The thirty-seventh Thousand-Year Blood War episode, and the four hundred third overall, adapts the end of chapter 649 through the opening of chapter 654. It is the only entry of the season whose title is not lifted from a corresponding chapter. Added content depicted Nanao's academy days, her failure to imprint on an Asauchi, and her early enlistment through Kidō talent.