038. BENT

With the hunting contest between Ichigo and Uryu still raging, Kisuke Urahara feels the escalating fight from within his shop, where Rukia has come to visit. Her soul pager keeps flagging arrivals only for each purification order to blink out moments later; she first credits Ichigo's speed, but the alerts soon multiply past anything she can rationalize. Bursting into the street, she finds the sky itself buckling and folding, proof of how sharply the balance is tipping.

On the other side of town, Sado is being hounded by his friend Gitano over lunch money when a fresh Hollow, Bulbous G, crashes into the world right at his back. Sado perceives only a wavering smear of air, yet trusts the threat is real, pushing his companions to safety and running to lure the creature toward an empty lot. There he crosses paths with Karin Kurosaki, who has walked out of a soccer match after glimpsing the same warping sky, and he hauls her clear just as Bulbous G's fist pulps the ground where they stood.

Rukia realizes Hollows are surfacing at an impossible rate and sees the sky distorting above Karakura. The Hollow Bulbous G tears into the Human World and singles out Sado. Able to make out only a heat-haze shimmer, Sado shields Gitano and Harutoki Ide before leading the Hollow away. Karin Kurosaki, who sees the Hollow plainly, ends up at Sado's side as Bulbous G strikes.

The installment was adapted within Episode 12, A Gentle Right Arm, and belongs to the Agent of the Shinigami arc as part of Volume 5. Viz Media retained the original one-word title BENT for its release.