Unexpected

While Rukia reels at the sight of Kaien Shiba wearing the ninth Espada's rank, Nnoitra Gilga lounges outside as his Fracción Tesra Lindocruz points out that Sado still lives. Nnoitra shrugs it off, seeing no glory in crushing insects, until an enormous nearby Reiatsu draws him to hunt it down. Sado rises to bar his path with Brazo Izquierda del Diablo, but Tesra intercepts the punch with Plato Colmillo and knocks him down again. When Tesra assumes he saved his master, Nnoitra levels his blade at him, insisting nothing could ever have harmed a body as strong as the finest of the Espada.

Inside the darkened palace, Rukia begs to know whether this is truly Kaien, telling herself it cannot be since she killed him long ago. His easy warmth wins her over, and he explains how Metastacia, built by Aizen to reform in Hueco Mundo, carried his decayed body here after fusing with him, only for his own iron will to seize control of the reconstituted form. He claims to have taken an Espada's seat to await a shot at Aizen, notes that the false sky lets Aizen watch everything the light touches, and says Rukia alone can carry out his plan. The instant she follows him, his sword lances toward her eye, and she barely twists away with a gash across her cheek as Kaien coolly remarks that she has improved.

Sado's final effort against Nnoitra is stopped by Tesra Lindocruz, and Nnoitra reasserts that no one can break his body. Rukia accepts that the figure before her is Kaien Shiba, who recounts how Metastacia's design delivered his body to Hueco Mundo and how his will overrode the fusion. After revealing Aizen's artificial sky and hinting at a plan only she can complete, Kaien abruptly attacks Rukia, wounding her cheek.

Unexpected, the 263rd chapter, is part of volume 30, THERE IS NO HEART WITHOUT YOU. The Hueco Mundo storyline here was adapted across episodes 153, 154 (Rukia and Kaien, the Sorrowful Reunion), and 159.