Cause For Confront

Sado walks up to Kyoraku, who greets him warmly and asks his lieutenant Nanao to stop raining petals from the balcony; she responds by dumping the entire basket over his head. With no patience for the captain's antics, Sado asks him to step aside, admitting he would rather not fight. Kyoraku declines to let him pass and instead sits down with a jug of sake, offering to drink together since the whole affair will end shortly regardless.

When Kyoraku lets slip that the other captains are already on the move, Sado realizes his friends are being attacked and demands he move at once, firing an energy blast. Kyoraku brushes the blast aside with a bare hand, then dodges every shot Sado throws, none of them so much as grazing him. Recalling that Enjoji stands a mere two seats beneath a captain, Sado wonders just how vast the gulf truly is. Kyoraku advises him to give up, since his attacks, however destructive for a Human, will never land.

Sado refuses and fires again, and Kyoraku slips behind him to strike his back with Tsukiyubi, explaining that pressing past one's limit costs a person their very life force. Warning that Sado will die, he asks why he keeps fighting. Sado answers that he came to save Rukia; pressed that his bond with her is too thin to die for, he clarifies that the real reason is Ichigo, who is risking his own life to rescue her. Respecting that resolve, Kyoraku decides it would be an insult to talk him out of it and draws his twin zanpakuto, while Sado charges one final blast and remembers his history with Ichigo.

Kyoraku demonstrates an overwhelming gap in power, deflecting and dodging every attack. Sado learns his friends are under assault and reveals that he truly fights for Ichigo's sake, prompting Kyoraku to draw his dual blades in earnest.

The chapter appears in the twelfth volume and was adapted into Episode 37, Motive of the Fist. The VIZ release renders the title as Cause to Confront.