The Supernal Tag

In his cell, a bound Renji Abarai is roused by his sword spirit Zabimaru, who is eager for a rematch against Zangetsu now that they have healed. Renji quietly corrects him: Ichigo is no longer their foe. When Zabimaru asks who the enemy is instead, Renji only stares out the barred window without answering.

On the bridge, Yoruichi stands between Ichigo and Byakuya. Rukia recognizes her as the former head of the Onmitsukido, and Byakuya admits he had believed her dead for over a century. Ichigo thanks her but insists on fighting Byakuya himself, so Yoruichi settles the matter by driving her hand into his stomach wound, dosing his organs with a powerful anesthetic before slinging his limp body over her shoulder. Ukitake recognizes the drug and guesses she means to heal him.

When Byakuya vows she will not escape, Yoruichi taunts him about never once beating her at tag, and the two blur away in a flash-step duel. Byakuya seems to slash her across the chest and sever her arm, but the falling figure dissolves into a strip of cut cloth as the real Yoruichi alights on his outstretched arm, throwing his own mockery of her speed back at him. From a nearby rooftop she promises to make Ichigo stronger than Byakuya within three days, calls a self-serving truce until then, and vanishes, daring him to give chase.

Renji reveals he no longer counts Ichigo as an enemy. Rukia identifies Yoruichi as the former Onmitsukido commander. Yoruichi anesthetizes Ichigo and carries him away to be trained. She outmatches Byakuya in a flash-step contest using an afterimage technique and pledges to surpass him through Ichigo in three days before escaping.

Appearing in the fourteenth volume, the chapter was adapted into the anime episode Flash Goddess Yoruichi, Dances!. Viz Media shortened the title to Supernal Tag. It establishes Yoruichi's former rank in the Onmitsukido and her superiority over Byakuya, launching Ichigo's Bankai training within the Soul Society arc.