Flicker Flames

Retrieving the spent Seele Schneider, Uryū Ishida gazes down at the fallen Cirucci Sanderwicci with something close to regret, then frees a pinned Pesche Guatiche and urges him to move on. When Pesche protests that their opponent still breathes, Uryū answers that the winner alone decides a foe's fate, and he means to follow his own conscience rather than Arrancar custom, even if mercy reads as an insult. His shot, he notes, struck her Saketsu, the wellspring of her powers, so her Shinigami-like body can no longer threaten him. Moments later Golondrina crumbles away, leaving Cirucci's human shape on the floor as Rudbornn Chelute and the Exequias ring her, blades drawn to collect her.

Elsewhere, Sado is hurled through one wall and lodged in another as Gantenbainne Mosqueda strolls through the breach, dismissing him as no threat to the hundred-and-seventh Arrancar. Sado charges Brazo Derecha de Gigante and lunges, but a burst of Sonído lets Gantenbainne seize his head and slam him down. A follow-up flurry, Uno Dos Cientos, drives fists into his gut and body before a crushing overhead blow buries him. Told to stop concealing his real strength, Sado stays silent until Gantenbainne's next strike, when a change ripples through his right arm.

Uryū spares Cirucci on his own terms, explaining that piercing her Saketsu has left her powerless to harm him. The Exequias, led by Rudbornn Chelute, surround the defeated Arrancar to take her away. Sado, overwhelmed by Gantenbainne's speed and the punishing Uno Dos Cientos barrage, at last acknowledges the strange sensation that has gripped him since arriving in Hueco Mundo, then blocks the incoming attack and rises from the dust wielding the completed Brazo Derecha de Gigante, a broad shield jutting from his forearm that he calls his true right arm.

Flicker Flames is the 259th chapter of the series and one of the installments gathered in volume 29, THE SLASHING OPERA, whose cover features Cirucci Sanderwicci. Its events belong to the Hueco Mundo rescue campaign, and the chapter was dramatized as part of episode 157, Ishida's Trump Card, the Cutter of Souls.