The Evil Eye, Aizen Again

Returned to Las Noches, Aizen orders Ulquiorra to share everything he witnessed in the living world. To obey, Ulquiorra tears out his own left eye and crushes it, scattering fragments that make everyone present relive his memories, chiefly Ichigo's defeat at Yammy's hands. When Aizen mentions having judged Ichigo unworthy of killing, Grimmjow erupts, insisting he would have struck the boy down on sight and jeering at Ulquiorra's restraint.

Ulquiorra explains that Aizen's real worry is not the teenager's present strength but the speed at which he grows. Because those powers are wildly unstable, Ichigo may either destroy himself or become useful, so Ulquiorra let him live and vows to deal with him personally should he ever stabilize. Satisfied, Aizen places Ichigo's fate entirely in Ulquiorra's hands, leaving Grimmjow to seethe.

Across Karakura Town, the visiting squad scrambles for places to sleep. Renji pulls Kon's soul pill loose to show Rangiku how the plush body functions, Ichigo refuses to house the whole crowd, and Rangiku talks her way into Orihime's apartment while Hitsugaya keeps watch from the roof. Rukia secures a spot at the clinic with a tearful invented hardship that moves Isshin and Yuzu to sobs. Alone with Orihime, Rangiku draws out her quiet envy of Rukia and reassures her that jealousy handled honestly marks a good heart. Overhead, Grimmjow steps from a Garganta with his subordinates and commands them to scatter and slay anyone carrying even a trace of spiritual pressure.

Ulquiorra initiates Solita Vista, broadcasting his time in the Human World to the assembled Arrancar. Aizen formally assigns responsibility for Ichigo to Ulquiorra. The Gotei 13 reinforcements disperse to lodgings throughout the town, and Rukia joins the Kurosaki household under a fabricated story. Grimmjow and his Fraccion, among them Shawlong Koufang, Di Roy Rinker, Nakeem Grindina, Edrad Liones, and Yylfordt Granz, arrive and split up to begin their attack.

The installment draws on chapters 198 through 200 and belongs to the Arrancar arc, wrapping up the thread tracked as The Cold War. The adaptation softened the graphic removal of Ulquiorra's eye and reshuffled several Karakura scenes, while adding extra Arrancar silhouettes reacting to Solita Vista and lengthening the flashback to Ichigo's earlier bout with Yammy.