252. REBUT TO THE BARON'S LECTURE

Deep in the fortress halls, Renji Abarai chases a familiar spiritual pressure only to find the weeping Dondochakka blundering along behind him, hopelessly lost and trailing Renji at random in his own search for Nel. Their bickering plays out as slapstick while, elsewhere, Ichigo is being battered by the wind-birds of Dordoni's Giralda. The Arrancar keeps pinning and jabbing at him, all the while urging him to summon his Bankai rather than die, and Ichigo answers by blowing the restraining wind-bird apart with a point-blank Getsuga Tenshō.

Ichigo flashes behind Dordoni with Shunpo, but his strike is swatted aside, and the annoyed Privaron Espada gathers a Cero between his fingers to punish him. Before it can land, Nel plants herself in its path, catches the blast, and to everyone's astonishment draws the entire Cero into her mouth and belches it straight back at Dordoni. The counter engulfs him, though he retaliates with a Bala that sends the little Arrancar tumbling.

Enraged that his own attack was turned against him, Dordoni hurls his remaining wind-bird at Nel to destroy her. This time Ichigo intervenes decisively: scooping Nel up, he splits the wind-bird apart and carves open Dordoni's left shoulder in a single motion, his blade now transformed into the slender black Bankai, Tensa Zangetsu. As the severed shoulder horn drops to the floor, Ichigo tells Dordoni this is the very Bankai he demanded to see, and the Arrancar is delighted.

Nel's interception marks her first display of real combat power, foreshadowing a far greater strength hidden behind her childlike form. Ichigo's decision to release Tensa Zangetsu abandons his earlier vow to conserve it, showing that protecting a friend outweighs his tactical caution. The clean strike to Dordoni's shoulder swings the duel firmly in Ichigo's favor.

This chapter opens the twenty-ninth volume, titled THE SLASHING OPERA, and was adapted into Episode 152. The technique Nel uses to swallow and return the Cero is later formally named Cero Doble. The volume's cover character is Cirucci Sanderwicci, whose own duel begins in these pages.