Crying Little People

Stunned that Uryū Ishida can stand with all four limbs slashed, Mayuri Kurotsuchi recognizes the old art of Ransōtengai, which suspends the body on countless threads of spirit particles like a puppet, letting a Quincy keep fighting even as internal wounds mount, right up until they crumble to dust. He marvels that not one of the 2,661 Quincy he studied could reproduce a fragment of it, yet this youth wields the whole technique.

Memories rise of his cold father Ryūken, who saw no worth in the Quincy and told his son he had no talent for it, and of his kind grandfather Sōken, who understood the boy's wish to grow strong enough to shield people from Hollows. Sōken had once handed Uryū the Sanrei Glove, meant for a battle beyond his abilities that would demand he sacrifice himself. Apologizing to his grandfather for breaking a final instruction, Uryū snaps a protrusion from the glove, and in a violent eruption of unleashed power he stands remade, the Quincy: Letzt Stil now active.

Mayuri identifies Ransōtengai and explains its role as the Quincy's ultimate combat art. Flashbacks establish the rift with Uryū's father Ryūken and the bond with his grandfather Sōken that shaped his resolve. Uryū removes the Sanrei Glove despite the ruinous cost, activating the Quincy: Letzt Stil.

This chapter opens the fifteenth volume, BEGINNING OF THE DEATH OF TOMORROW, within the Soul Society arc, and was adapted into Episode 44, Ishida, The Utmost Limits of Power. It marks the debut of the Quincy: Letzt Stil and expands the Ishida family history that drives Uryū's stand against Mayuri.