Zaraki Division's Secret Story! The Lucky Men

Long before the war, Ikkaku Madarame roams the Rukongai hunting anyone willing to fight, with Yumichika Ayasegawa trailing after him. His restless search leads him to a giggling Yachiru drawing in an alley, and when he raises his weapon toward her, Kenpachi Zaraki rises up to defend the girl. Their clash pins Ikkaku against a wall of raw speed and power he has never met, and though he savors the thrill, Kenpachi splits his sword and leaves him broken on the ground. Rather than grant the death Ikkaku begs for, Kenpachi tells him to count himself lucky to have survived, names himself, and vanishes. Once healed, Ikkaku scours the district for him in vain until Yumichika reports that Kenpachi has taken the Eleventh Division captaincy.

Ikkaku and Yumichika chase him down and enlist, reuniting with Kenpachi as he addresses his new subordinates and cuts a swarm of Hollows to ribbons. Years afterward, Renji Abarai seeks Ikkaku out and asks to be trained. Through several brutal spars Ikkaku sharpens him, then ends the lessons so Renji will not become a mere copy, sharing his belief that giving one's name to an enemy is a mark of respect before a fatal duel. After Aizen's defection, Renji presses Ikkaku to become a captain, but Ikkaku refuses, unwilling to give up fighting beneath Kenpachi. In the present sky above Karakura Town, Ikkaku's shattered Bankai falls to earth as he coughs blood and drops as well, while Edrad Liones, mortally wounded, admits he is glad to have learned his opponent's name.

Ikkaku's first duel with Kenpachi establishes the creed that shapes his life: never concede while breath remains, and treat survival after defeat as fortune. Learning that Kenpachi now leads the Eleventh Division, Ikkaku joins the Gotei 13 to serve under him. His later training of Renji forges the future lieutenant and passes on the ritual of introducing oneself before a lethal fight. When the vacancy left by Aizen tempts others to push Ikkaku toward captaincy, he turns it down, revealing his dream to fight and fall at Kenpachi's side. The flashbacks frame the present duel with Edrad, which Ikkaku barely survives, crawling away to be found by an unsurprised Yumichika.

The episode draws from the opening sixteen pages of Chapter 206 and sits within the Arrancar arc, airing in Japan on March 21, 2007, and in English on May 23, 2009, with the opening Rolling Star and the ending Sakura Biyori. It concludes the fight between Ikkaku and Edrad. The anime expands heavily on the manga, adding Ikkaku's thug brawls, his full battle with Kenpachi, the reunion at the Eleventh Division, extended sparring with Renji, and fresh flashbacks to Aizen's betrayal. The setting of the Kenpachi duel shifts from a rocky wasteland to the Rukongai, and Renji here deduces Ikkaku's hidden Bankai on his own rather than being told. Several bloody moments are toned down from the source. The closing omake follows Kon commandeering Hanatarō's Gigai for his own schemes.