Don't Lose Your Grip On

Carrying a struggling Orihime Inoue away from the fight, Makizō Aramaki insists he only means to protect her, but when she bites his shoulder he chops the back of her neck and knocks her unconscious, fretting that he was too rough as Yachiru Kusajishi quietly steps into view behind him. Left alone with Uryū Ishida, Mayuri Kurotsuchi rips away the ruined stump of his own arm and regrows it on the spot by injecting a Hojiku-Zai, shrugging off Orihime's escape since a single strand of her hair will let him hunt her down whenever he pleases.

Judging that Mayuri's power is enormous yet unstable, Uryū gambles that he can last long enough to cover Orihime's retreat. He looses an arrow, blinks behind his foe with Hirenkyaku, and lands a heavy blow, only for Mayuri to reappear unharmed and calmly name the Quincy speed art before drawing his own weapon. Mayuri releases his Shikai, a warped golden trident stamped with an infant's face, and Uryū cannot guess what it does. When Nemu Kurotsuchi abruptly seizes his arrow and collar and drags him off the roof, Mayuri slashes clean through both of them, then punches his lieutenant for letting go.

Aramaki renders Orihime unconscious to pull her from danger, and Yachiru begins shadowing him. Mayuri displays grotesque regeneration, restoring a severed forearm in seconds with a Hojiku-Zai. The chapter frames Uryū's Hirenkyaku and Mayuri's Shunpo as mirrored high-speed techniques. Mayuri finally releases his Shikai, and Nemu is cut down alongside Uryū after grappling him.

The installment sits in the fourteenth volume, WHITE TOWER ROCKS, within the Soul Society arc. Its events were adapted into Episode 43, The Despicable Shinigami. It delivers the first look at Mayuri's released Zanpakutō and establishes the abusive bond between the captain and the lieutenant he manufactured.