Second Contact (it was outside the scope of our understanding)

In a nearby home, a girl trying to follow the televised chaos is startled by the sound of the spirit bursting apart. At the hospital, Kanonji proudly declares his mission complete and basks in the crowd's applause, but Rukia knows better. Consulting her tracking device, she explains that a plus vaporizes and re-forms elsewhere the instant it becomes a Hollow; anchored to this location, it will simply rebuild itself close by. Sure enough, spirit particles gather over the building, and the creature reconstitutes from its limbs upward until a mask erupts across its screaming face, finishing its rebirth.

Ichigo grasps that the thing has truly turned, while Kanonji, oblivious, insists that exterminating monsters lies outside his expertise and guesses it must be an avenging demon. When the newborn Hollow lunges down the hospital wall demanding a soul to devour, the host pushes Ichigo aside and volunteers to fight it alone. Ichigo scolds him, draws his sword, and catches the Hollow's snapping jaws on the blade, driving it back.

Pressed on why he did not flee, Kanonji stubbornly declares that he cannot run away, baffling Ichigo. The Hollow rears up and strikes again, and Ichigo blocks it. From the crowd, Karin now sees her brother clearly locked in combat, while Sado, Tatsuki, and Orihime make out only a blurred figure they are beginning to recognize. Watching it all, Urahara muses that the sight is both impressive and grim, and quietly asks what Ichigo will choose to do next.

This chapter reveals the reborn creature as a genuine Hollow and begins the running theme of Kanonji's misplaced but sincere courage. It was adapted into the anime's tenth episode, Casual Soul Realm Assault Trip! Viz published it under the parenthetical title Second Contact (it was beyond the scope of our understanding). The chapter appears in the fourth collected volume.