045. Point of Purpose

Urahara frames Orihime and Sado's new powers not as afflictions but as keys they may choose to turn or leave locked, then invites them along to witness the world they are stepping into after Tessai reports the Kumon are massing. On the battlefield, Ichigo's showdown with Uryu keeps collapsing into slapstick as he berates Kon for never fetching Rukia's soul pager, Kon confesses he tracked her by scent, and the resulting scuffle leaves Ichigo pummeling his own borrowed body.

An exasperated Uryu finally summons his bow and, after a stray arrow is cut down by Ichigo, demands they settle their duel at once. Instead the sky's fractures and every remaining Hollow start drawing toward one point; Uryu proclaims himself the Last Quincy and rushes off to destroy them. Rukia then reveals to a stunned Ichigo that the Shinigami wiped out the Quincy two centuries earlier, breeding the survivors' hatred, and Urahara quietly confirms it was an agonizing but necessary choice to keep the universe from collapsing.

Urahara likens the awakened powers to keys and rallies his crew as the Kumon converge. Ichigo and Uryu's confrontation devolves into comedy alongside Kon and Rukia. The sky's cracks and the Hollows begin gathering at a single point. Rukia and Urahara reveal how the Shinigami destroyed the Quincy clan two centuries earlier.

Adapted within Episode 14, Back to Back, a Fight to the Death!, the chapter belongs to Volume 6's Agent of the Shinigami arc. It sets up the imminent arrival of the Menos Grande.