Turn Back The Pendulum 2

Arriving late to his own confirmation, Kisuke Urahara is chided by Second Division captain Yoruichi Shihōin for his meek manner and prodded along by Yamamoto's staff. The Captain-Commander recounts that Kirio Hikifune left the Twelfth a week earlier for her promotion, that elections opened across the divisions, and that Urahara, Yoruichi's former Third Seat, passed the proficiency test on her recommendation just a day before. Yamamoto declares him the new captain of the Twelfth Division.

When Urahara greets his subordinates, his lieutenant Hiyori answers with a slap and flat refusal to accept him, still grieving Hikifune's departure and resenting his roots in the Onmitsukidō. She insists she only voices what the others are thinking, kicks him, and storms off nursing her leg. Sitting alone to gather his thoughts, Urahara hears from Shinji that Hiyori regarded Hikifune as a mother figure, making the void impossible to fill. Shinji advises him to lead as he sees fit, since a captain nobody follows was never fit for the role, then peels away the Kidō Aizen was using to eavesdrop. The next morning Hiyori erupts over the heavy equipment Urahara has crammed into the remodeled office, and after she punches him again, he invites her to accompany him to the Nest of Maggots.

Urahara's captaincy of the Twelfth Division becomes official, cementing Yoruichi's role in his rise. His rocky introduction to Hiyori establishes their prickly, enduring dynamic and the reason for her resentment. Shinji's counsel and his quiet exposure of Aizen's hidden surveillance hint at the tension already brewing beneath the Gotei 13's surface. The chapter closes by pointing Urahara and Hiyori toward the Nest of Maggots, where the next thread of his ambitions begins.

The second chapter of volume 36 continues the backward-numbered Turn Back The Pendulum flashback. It was adapted as Episode 207, 12th Division's New Captain, Urahara Kisuke. The scene of Shinji revealing Aizen's concealment quietly foreshadows the betrayal that dominates the rest of the volume.