Don't Say That Name Again

In his control room Gin Ichimaru fields a rare bit of conversation from Ulquiorra, brushing off the suggestion that he has been steering the intruders through the corridors and claiming he simply favors happy endings. In Aaroniero's shaded hall, the false Kaien presses Rukia about the wound he dealt her, praising her survival as a mentor might praise a student. He insists he is no impostor, recites his history as the Thirteenth Division lieutenant who fused with a Hollow, and names Rukia as the woman who ended his life, declaring it time she repaid the debt.

Rukia accepts the debt but refuses to die before Orihime is safe, however heavy her guilt. Kaien laughs the moment off as a joke, then lays a hand on her head and names his real price: the heads of every one of her friends. Her numb silence turns to fury as she realizes he means it, and she repels him, declaring that the honorable Kaien everyone loved would never demand such betrayal. Forbidding him to speak his name again, she unseals Sode no Shirayuki. Far below, Renji drops through one of Szayelaporro Granz's trap doors alongside Dondochakka and lands before the eighth Espada.

Aaroniero, still wearing Kaien's shape, demands that Rukia kill her friends to earn his forgiveness. Rukia rejects him, declaring that the real Kaien would never ask such a thing, and releases her Shikai to fight. Elsewhere, floor traps drop Renji and Dondochakka into a lower chamber where Szayelaporro Granz reveals himself as the eighth Espada.

Don't Say That Name Again is the 264th chapter, part of volume 30, THERE IS NO HEART WITHOUT YOU. Its Hueco Mundo events were adapted across episodes 154, 155 (Rukia Retaliates! Release the Desperate Kidō), and 159.