Suspicion [for Assassination]

Years earlier, a starving young Rangiku Matsumoto is offered dried persimmons by a boy named Gin Ichimaru, who notes that her collapse from hunger means she carries spiritual energy like his own. In the present she wakes in Tōshirō Hitsugaya's office, where the young captain has quietly shouldered the Fifth Division's paperwork and spares her the burden, sensing how painful it was for her to see Gin and Momo Hinamori as they are. When she asks whether he truly thinks Gin killed Aizen, their exchange is cut short by an aide reporting that Renji Abarai, Izuru Kira, and Hinamori have all escaped their cells.

Beneath Sōkyoku Hill, Ichigo Kurosaki fights on through broken blade after broken blade, past his fiftieth, learning to match his opponent's speed at the point of contact and instantly counter. Watching him climb at a frightening rate, Yoruichi Shihōin silently concedes that Kisuke Urahara was right about him. At Hinamori's empty cell, the guard admits she slipped away using a disorienting spell, and Hitsugaya, recognizing her mastery of Kidō, grips his sword and vows to bring her back. Hinamori herself races off clutching Aizen's letter, now convinced that a certain man killed her captain.

A flashback shows how Rangiku first met Gin as a child. Hitsugaya learns that Renji, Izuru, and Hinamori have all broken out of confinement. Ichigo's fighting skill advances rapidly under Yoruichi's watch. Hitsugaya sets out to rescue Hinamori, who is acting on the contents of Aizen's letter.

Part of the fifteenth volume, BEGINNING OF THE DEATH OF TOMORROW, in the Soul Society arc, the chapter was adapted into Episode 45, Overcome Your Limits, and Episode 47, The Avengers. It originally ran in Weekly Shonen Jump under an alternate musical title, an etude of transcendent technique, and threads Rangiku's past with Gin into the escalating conspiracy.