end of hypnosis 6 (The United Front)

Driving Aizen's blade back, Ichigo Kurosaki plants himself before Renji Abarai and Rukia Kuchiki with Tensa Zangetsu drawn. Renji's apology quickly curdles into the usual sniping between the two, until Rukia shoves free of his chest, gasps for breath, and slugs him for nearly crushing the air out of her. Watching, Gin Ichimaru offers Aizen a light apology for letting Ichigo slip past, and Aizen waves it off, calling the newcomer just one more ant underfoot. Ichigo confirms the man's identity with Renji and asks whether he can flee, but Renji answers that he can and will not.

Renji reveals that his shattered Zabimaru still holds one trick and argues that running is pointless; though none of them can hope to defeat Aizen, Gin, and Tōsen, they might stagger the captains and walk away with their pride intact. Declaring themselves a team, Ichigo braces for a single instant of opportunity as Renji, warning that the move can be used only once, drives his broken blade into the earth and triggers Higa Zekkō, sending its scattered glowing segments rocketing up at Aizen. With the captain swallowed in the dust of the impact, Ichigo lunges and swings.

Aizen halts the strike with a single fingertip and opens a deep wound across Ichigo's midsection, then remarks that he must have misjudged the angle since the boy was not split in two. He drops Ichigo, cuts down Renji as well, and seizes Rukia by the collar, ordering her to rise. The chapter closes the coordinated stand of the two young fighters in near-total defeat. Part of the Soul Society arc and gathered in the twentieth volume, it was adapted into the sixty-first episode of the anime.