Kneel to The Baboon King

Renji's Bankai takes shape as Hihiō Zabimaru, a massive bone serpent crowned with fur, its wielder draped in furred pauldrons and a baboon skull. Byakuya admits he never realized his lieutenant had reached this level but still calls the outcome hopeless, claiming Renji could not force him to a single knee. Renji drives the serpent forward; Byakuya slips away with Shunpo as the blow tears apart the bridge and towers around them.

Byakuya releases Senbonzakura and seems to shatter the serpent's segments, scattering them across the ground. To his astonishment, Renji's spiritual pressure knits the pieces back together and coils them around himself. Renji explains that his Reiatsu binds the joints of Hihiō Zabimaru, letting him pull them apart to slip through the blade petals he can now track. Two hidden segments erupt from the earth beneath Byakuya, who is driven back and lands hard on one knee. Renji materializes behind him, notes the kneeling captain, and announces the duel is drawing to its close.

The chapter continues the seventeenth volume, Rosa Rubicundior, Lilio Candidior, and was adapted into episode 52, Renji, Oath of the Soul! Death Match with Byakuya. Its title plays on the baboon-and-snake motif of Renji's Zanpakutō, Zabimaru.