If You Rise From The Ashes

As the smoke from his gigantic strike thins out, Ichigo Kurosaki watches the shards of his Hollow mask drop away from his face. A relieved Nel Tu barrels into him headfirst, knocking him back against a pillar while scolding him for burning so much power in his wounded state. The reunion ends abruptly when Ulquiorra Cifer walks free of the dust carrying only faint scratches, admitting that not even both hands could halt the attack. Reading Ichigo's shocked silence as proof that this was his best, the Espada lifts one finger and unleashes a Cero that flings the young Shinigami and the unconscious girl out onto the desert sands.

When Ichigo tries to circle back to tend to Nel, Ulquiorra crosses the distance with Sonido and boots him into the top of a leaning spire. Joining him inside it, the Espada observes that the mask Ichigo conjured to guard against the Cero broke apart at once and will not return, then urges surrender. Rather than yield, Ichigo sinks his blade into Ulquiorra's shoulder and insists that toppling the strongest Espada would settle the entire conflict.

Ulquiorra answers by drawing back his coat to reveal a numeral four marked over his heart, dismantling the notion that he sits atop the ranks and adding that three others stand above him. He then pushes his bare hand straight through Ichigo's torso before pulling it loose, letting the young man crumple as he states that nothing here can be called a win for him.

Ichigo's combined Bankai and Hollow mask Getsuga Tensho fails to fell Ulquiorra, who steps out nearly untouched. A Cero blasts Ichigo and Nel from the fortress interior onto the outer sands, and a Sonido-driven kick lodges Ichigo in a nearby tower. Ulquiorra bares the tattoo on his chest to reveal that he holds the fourth Espada rank rather than the first, then punctures Ichigo's chest with his hand and leaves him to fall.

This installment sits as the second chapter of the thirty-first collected volume, titled DON'T KILL MY VOLUPTURE, which features Szayelaporro Granz on its cover. Its contents were carried into the anime through Episode 162, Szayelaporro Laughs, The Net Trapping Renji is Complete. The chapter marks the point where the earlier restraint shown by Ichigo's opponents gives way to open cruelty.