Shake Hands With Grenades

In the hidden chamber, Yoruichi warns Ichigo there is no time to fully heal. A flashback recounts their argument after the bridge, where a furious Ichigo blamed her for pulling him away and she coldly reminded him that no one there could have survived Byakuya. She chose Ichigo because, unlike the others, he might stand a chance in three days, and reassured him that the dutiful Ukitake would imprison Ganju and Hanataro rather than kill them.

Back in the present, Yoruichi asks whether Ichigo knows his sword is a constant-release weapon, the same rare type as Kenpachi's, then stuns him with the revelation that every Zanpakuto has a second stage beyond Shikai. This Bankai is required of every captain save Kenpachi, the lone Shinigami ever to reach that rank through raw combat skill without it. She explains that a Bankai is many times stronger than a Shikai but normally demands at least a decade to master, and reveals she means to use a far riskier method to teach it to Ichigo in only three days.

Meanwhile, Orihime and Uryu are stopped by the drunken Eleventh Division brute Makizo Aramaki, who notices the Twelfth Division crest hidden inside their stolen uniforms and demands to know who they are. Before he can press further, a group of genuine Twelfth Division members knock him aside and offer the pair friendly help, claiming to look after their own. Uryu senses the wrongness of it too late; one of the Shinigami detonates in a spray of blood and organs, and Mayuri Kurotsuchi, standing with his lieutenant Nemu, blows up the rest with a remote trigger, remarking that a thrown grenade should never come flying back.

A flashback explains why Yoruichi carried Ichigo away rather than another. She reveals that Zangetsu is a constant-release Zanpakuto with an unmastered Bankai, notes Kenpachi as the sole captain without one, and proposes a three-day method to teach it. Orihime and Uryu's disguises are exposed, and Mayuri springs a trap, murdering his own subordinates to reach the pair.

Featured in the fourteenth volume, the chapter was adapted into the anime episodes Flash Goddess Yoruichi, Dances! and The Despicable Shinigami. Viz Media titled it Shake Hands with Grenades. It first defines Bankai for readers and reveals Mayuri Kurotsuchi's ruthlessness at the outset of his clash with Uryu in the Soul Society arc.