Don't Kill My Volupture

Standing over the still, bleeding Ichigo Kurosaki with blood on his hand, Ulquiorra Cifer concedes that he had rated his opponent too highly. He tells the young man to flee Hueco Mundo if he can still move and to perish otherwise, then walks out of the tower as Ichigo's Bankai quietly unravels back into its sealed form. Elsewhere, Orihime Inoue feels Ichigo's spiritual pressure crash and turns toward her opening door expecting Ulquiorra, only to face Loly Aivirrne and Menoly Mallia, who slip inside and coldly invite her to come play.

In Szayelaporro Granz's chamber, a battered Renji Abarai lashes out with Zabimaru, but the Espada sidesteps the extended blade, crushes off one of its fangs, and flicks the fragment away, calling the fight dull. He dismisses Zabimaru as a plain power weapon with nothing worth studying, then triggers his Fraccion to burst through the walls. After explaining that Espada may claim lower-ranked Arrancar as servants and that his own were Hollows he modified before Aizen reshaped them, he declares Renji unworthy of dying by his hand. A large Heilig Pfeil suddenly punches through Medazeppi, and a bloodied Uryu Ishida appears in a fresh hole overhead, remarking that the fortress walls let their spiritual pressure carry to him.

Back in the cell, Loly strikes Orihime bloody and hoists her by the hair to mock the idea of a human besting an Arrancar. Orihime only stares in silence, earning another blow, and as Loly resolves to tear out her fingernails, the doorway detonates and Grimmjow Jaegerjaquez strides through to loom over the two shaken tormentors.

Ulquiorra leaves Ichigo for dead and departs the tower, and Ichigo's Bankai reverts to Shikai on its own. Loly and Menoly break into Orihime's chamber. Szayelaporro summons his surgically altered Fraccion against Renji and shoots one down as filler, only for Uryu to arrive by sniping Medazeppi through the wall. Loly beats Orihime while she refuses to react, and Grimmjow bursts in just as Loly prepares fresh cruelty.

This is the third chapter of the thirty-first collected volume, DON'T KILL MY VOLUPTURE, whose lead phrase gives the whole book its name. Its scenes were adapted across two anime installments, Episode 162 and Episode 163, Shinigami and Quincy, the Battle of Madness. The chapter braids together the aftermath of Ichigo's defeat, Orihime's peril, and the opening of the Szayelaporro clash.