048. Menos Grande

While Jinta, Ururu, and Tessai swiftly thin the ordinary Hollows, Urahara tells Ichigo to leave them to his crew and concentrate on the Menos Grande now hauling itself through the rift. An awestruck Rukia describes the giant as a Hollow built from hundreds of lesser ones, a creature she has only read about that normally demands the Royal Guard's attention. It proves the point by lashing out a whip-like tongue to skewer and swallow the very Hollows worshiping it.

Ichigo decides thinking is pointless and simply charges to hack the thing apart, ignoring Rukia's protests; Urahara halts her with a paralysis spell, insisting the fight is one both Ichigo and Uryu need. Ichigo carves into the Menos's ankle only to be swatted aside, and Uryu's arrow barely scratches its head. When Ichigo lays out his absurd plan to slice upward from the feet, an unimpressed Uryu grips the flat of his blade to think, whereupon his own bow abruptly swells to enormous size, and he grasps what is happening.

Urahara's crew clears the lesser Hollows so Ichigo can face the Menos Grande. Rukia identifies the Menos as a giant Hollow normally handled by the Royal Guard. Urahara paralyzes Rukia with Shibireyubi to keep her from interfering. Touching Ichigo's Zanpakuto causes Uryu's bow Kojaku to grow dramatically.

Adapted within Episode 14, Back to Back, a Fight to the Death!, the chapter is part of Volume 6's Agent of the Shinigami arc. Its Japanese title is written in katakana for Menos Grande, and Rukia's textbook reference foreshadows the Gillian class of giant Hollow.