end of hypnosis

On a rooftop, Izuru Kira presents his released Wabisuke and asks whether Rangiku Matsumoto knows its secret, which she freely admits she does not. He demonstrates instead, and after several crossed strikes her sword suddenly drags her down and cracks a roof tile. Wabisuke, he explains, doubles the weight of anything it strikes and keeps doubling with every blow until its target bows to the ground as if repenting. Reckoning that seven parried strikes have swollen her roughly two-pound blade to some two hundred twenty-five pounds, Izuru calls it unwieldy, but Rangiku simply notes she means to strike Gin with her sword rather than spin it around, and releases Haineko, dissolving the blade into a drifting cloud of ash.

Elsewhere in the Central 46 Compound, Gin Ichimaru leads Momo Hinamori into the forbidden Seijōtōkyorin and tells her someone waits inside. Turning toward a darkened doorway, she is stunned to find her captain Sousuke Aizen standing calmly, seemingly returned from the dead. Weeping, she clutches his haori as he strokes her hair and apologizes for the pain he caused, and the scent of him convinces her it is truly Aizen. He tells her he had to feign his death and arrange his farewell letter for reasons he cannot yet share, and she answers that simply knowing he lives is enough for her.

Aizen thanks Hinamori for their time together, then drives his blade through her chest and withdraws it, leaving her to crumple as he and Gin depart. The betrayal opens the twentieth volume, which shares the chapter's title, and belongs to the Soul Society arc. Its events were adapted into the sixtieth episode of the anime.