The Last Summer Vacation

The morning after his training ends, Ichigo comes home to a weepy Keigo and a golden-tanned Mizuiro fresh from Phuket, the two bickering over a coconut souvenir. Ichigo privately resolves to savor what may be his last ordinary summer while Urahara's crew prepares the gate. That afternoon an overeager Keigo drags everyone to the fireworks site far too early, confessing he burned the past ten days indoors clearing five role-playing games while his friends were away.

Tatsuki arrives with her right arm in a sling, having taken only second at Nationals. She waves it off, explaining she was struck by a car after the semifinals, won her next bout one-handed, and lost the final to what she calls a gorilla. The group drifts through Karakura to the Onose River, where Tatsuki picks a spot back from the crowds while Keigo grumbles that half the point of a festival is seeing girls in yukata, needling the two for wearing street clothes.

The Kurosaki family crashes in, a very drunk Isshin admitting he downed sake-spiked juice and had staked out prime seats since dawn, nearly getting arrested over a raft. He herds most of the group off, leaving Orihime and Tatsuki by the water. The two reminisce, and Tatsuki recalls the time a young Orihime chased a red dragonfly along this bank and vanished for two days. Orihime fondly remembers her brother Sora catching dragonflies on a fingertip, something she always wished she could do.

Noticing Orihime has changed how she parts her bangs, Tatsuki quietly asks her not to go too far away. Orihime deflects, claiming she is only staying at her aunt's for a while, and proposes they return to watch dragonflies again once summer ends, which Tatsuki gladly accepts. As early fireworks bloom, Tatsuki runs ahead, and Orihime silently promises that she always feels safe because Tatsuki keeps looking for her, asking her to wait should she ever wander somewhere unreachable. Late that night, Ichigo lugs his sleeping sisters home and tells Isshin he will be gone about a week, and Isshin blesses the trip in his clownish way, vowing to guard the family.

Ichigo returns from training and resolves to enjoy a final normal summer. Tatsuki reveals her injury and second-place finish at Nationals. Orihime and Tatsuki share a coded farewell about Orihime not going too far away. Ichigo tells Isshin he will be away for about a week.

Its Japanese title, 最後の夏休み, translates as The Last Summer Vacation and reads Saigo no Natsuyasumi. The chapter is adapted in Episode 20, Gin Ichimaru's Shadow. It is a rare quiet interlude centered on the Human World cast before the Soul Society raid, and Orihime's story about her late brother Sora echoes her established backstory.