The Approaching Breath of Death, the King Who Rules Over Death!

Coyote Starrk keeps testing Shunsui, firing a cero far faster and stronger than the captain expected and demolishing a building without even taking a stance. The duel pauses when the sky darkens overhead. The gloom is the work of Hitsugaya, who tells Harribel that his blade's power, Tensō Jūrin, is one of Hyōrinmaru's most fundamental and most dangerous abilities, one he had feared using while so many of his ice flowers remained intact.

After the two exchange names, Hitsugaya unleashes Hyōten Hyakkasō, opening a hole in the clouds so snow can fall. Harribel's water attacks freeze, and ice blossoms spread across her body until she is entirely encased. Hitsugaya apologizes for denying her the chance to avenge her fraccion as the watching Shinigami quietly rejoice.

Baraggan sneers at Harribel's defeat and shrugs off Suì-Fēng's attacks, cutting a building in half with a single swing. Her strikes mysteriously slow as she nears him, and after he hurls her aside he explains that his aspect of death is age, which he calls the most absolute force standing against all existence. A mere intentional touch ages a victim's bones, shattering the arm he brushes.

Ōmaeda's clumsy interference buys openings, and Suì-Fēng devises a plan to strike from an angle he cannot reach, but Baraggan sees through the trick and ages her again. Refusing to abandon her, Ōmaeda saves her from a finishing blow, prompting Baraggan to release Arrogante and enter his Resurrección, rotting the ground beneath his feet. His Respira catches Suì-Fēng's hand and begins decaying it, forcing her to have Ōmaeda sever the affected arm before the rot spreads. Baraggan finds it amusing that even Shinigami fear death.

The episode adapts chapters 356 through 359 and concludes the Hitsugaya versus Harribel fight while opening the desperate struggle against Baraggan. The picture-book segment shows Aizen, Gin, and Tōsen sipping tea in comfort, kept warm by the flames of Yamamoto's Jōkaku Enjō even as Hitsugaya's technique freezes everything around them, leaving the Captain-Commander cursing him in his thoughts.