Talk About Your Fear

Wounded and barely upright against a shattered wall, Ichigo cannot work out how Renji slipped past his last strike. The lieutenant looms over him, mocking his speed and declaring that a boy this slow can never reach Rukia, then raises Zabimaru for a finishing blow as Ganju and Hanataro look on in horror.

The scene falls back to Ichigo's brutal sessions with Kisuke Urahara in the underground chamber. Dodging attacks meant to kill, Ichigo protests, but Urahara reveals the point: by cornering him and forcing him to the brink, he means to teach Ichigo to deliver a killing stroke whenever he chooses and to awaken the true strength of his zanpakuto. Urahara rates him as only a mid-seat officer for now and insists he must master the technique to stand as an equal to real Shinigami.

When Ichigo admits he cannot even recall how he first tore open the ground with an unconscious Getsuga Tensho, Urahara presses harder, sending him crashing across the rocks. He tells Ichigo that his blade answers only to fear, and that nothing is ever born of fear; a warrior must act from the resolve to kill and to keep himself and others alive. As Ichigo's spiritual pressure finally surges, Urahara recognizes his newfound resolve, urges him never to forget the feeling, and the two unleash their attacks at once.

Back in the present, Ichigo catches Zabimaru's segmented blade with a bare hand, startling Renji, and calmly apologizes for the wait before declaring that his mind is set on killing him. His reiatsu flaring, Ichigo answers Renji's desperate slash with a Getsuga Tensho that splits Zabimaru apart, tears off the lieutenant's visor and hair tie, and opens a long wound down his chest.

The chapter reveals the origin of Ichigo's controllable Getsuga Tensho and Urahara's lesson that resolve, not fear, must drive his blade. In the present, Ichigo overturns the fight, shatters Renji's shikai, and cuts the lieutenant down, watched by Ganju and Hanataro.

The installment belongs to the eleventh volume, whose cover features Renji Abarai. It was adapted into Episode 31, The Resolution to Kill. Several figures, including Urahara, Tessai, Ururu, and Jinta, appear only within Ichigo's recollection of his training.