THE DROP

Nanao Ise finds Shunsui Kyōraku reading a letter that names him the new Captain-Commander and captain of the First Division. In the Soul King Palace, Tenjirō Kirinji tests Ichigo's healing by punching him across the hot spring, deems him cured, and clears an insistent Renji to travel on after the lieutenant withstands a blow of his own. The attendants Kazuo and Kazuhiro, scarred by the very water the two soaked in unharmed, marvel at their resilience, and Kirinji notes the Soul King's interest in Ichigo.

Before the Central 46, Shunsui secures two lieutenants for his division and announces his first act: to have Kenpachi Zaraki taught Zanjutsu. Over the judges' fears that Zaraki could grow uncontrollable, Shunsui insists Soul Society cannot survive the next invasion as it stands, then reveals the one who will handle the lesson, Retsu Unohana, whom he identifies as Yachiru Unohana, the very first Kenpachi. Meanwhile Ichigo and Renji crash onto the next platform atop a bulked-up Kon and are greeted by Kirio Hikifune with a mountain of food.

Suspicious at first, the pair devour the banquet, and Hikifune reveals she has slimmed down because cooking drains her Reiatsu. She explains that each Royal Guard member earned their post by inventing something vital to Soul Society, and that her creation, the technology behind Gikon and Gikongan, infuses foreign Reiatsu to raise a person's power. The feast, she reveals, was training in disguise, drastically boosting their strength, and she warns them the next palace belongs to the unpredictable sword-maker Ōetsu Nimaiya.

Deep in the Muken level of the Central Great Underground Prison, Zaraki joins Unohana, whose hair falls loose and whose grin turns depraved as she admits his voice makes the scar he once gave her ache. Their savage clash begins, and Shunsui recalls Unohana as the strongest of the original Gotei 13 captains and Soul Society's most infamous criminal, knowing one of them must die. Unohana repeatedly wounds and even kills Zaraki, yet he keeps reviving stronger each time he nears death, an unconscious limiter she resolves to break, calling it both his nature and her sin.

Shunsui Kyōraku is promoted to Captain-Commander and appoints two lieutenants. Kirinji clears Ichigo and Renji to continue through the palaces. Shunsui reveals Unohana was the first Kenpachi and assigns her to teach Kenpachi Zaraki. Kirio Hikifune's feast secretly boosts Ichigo and Renji's Reiatsu through her Gikon technology. Zaraki and Unohana begin a lethal duel in Muken, during which Unohana learns Zaraki grows stronger every time he nears death.

This is the ninth episode of Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War and adapts material from Chapters 520, 521, 523, and 524. Its opening theme is Scar and its ending is Saihate. It aired in Japan on December 6, 2022, and in English on December 30, 2022. Featured events are the Royal Training and the beginning of Kenpachi Zaraki against Retsu Unohana. The adaptation expands several beats, including a flashback of the original captains battling the Lichtreich, and rearranges the timing of the duel relative to the manga.