SO UNLUCKY WE ARE

With Hozukimaru still divided into its chained form, Ikkaku hammers Ichigo across the ground, snaps the segments back together to throw him off balance, and drives the loose end into him hard enough to send him tumbling. Certain the boy has run out of surprises, he spins the tasseled section and taunts him about how hard such attacks are for a novice to read.

Ichigo counters that his eyes have already grown used to the pattern and lets the frayed tassel drop from his hand, revealing that he had crushed its tip earlier with his bare fingers. In the moment Ikkaku is distracted, he springs above him and drives a compact Getsuga Tensho into his chest, opening a long wound and shearing the tassel segment cleanly in two.

Bleeding heavily, Ikkaku refuses to sheathe his weapon, spinning the bladed section overhead and declaring that a fight ends only when one side lies dead, since he was never born a coward who begs off death. Reminded of his ten days under Urahara, Ichigo calls him too slow and looses a second crescent blast upward that splits Ikkaku's arm to the shoulder and destroys Hozukimaru. Praising the boy before he collapses, Ikkaku brands himself unlucky, and Ichigo answers that the misfortune runs both ways. The events were adapted in episode 27, Release the Death Blow!.