Jugulators

With Soten Kisshun still mending Grimmjow Jaegerjaquez's arm, Ichigo Kurosaki crouches before a weeping Nel Tu and promises both her and Orihime Inoue that he will prevail. He asks Grimmjow to move the fight elsewhere and springs off the tower alongside him, the backwash of wind buffeting the two watchers, then triggers his Bankai and lands hard enough to shatter the taller spire beneath him. Perched higher still, a grinning Grimmjow draws his blade and drops down to meet him for a savage midair exchange.

Watching from afar, Nel frets for Ichigo, but Orihime pats her head and repeats that he will win. When Nel argues that scared people always sound too confident, Orihime replies that Ichigo is different, that he only voices victory when he means it because he treats such words as a vow. She reasons that he is really steadying his own resolve, and cheerfully holds to her faith, yet Nel notices her fist tightening and beading with sweat as she urges patience.

Below, the two combatants lock blades and crater the ground. Grimmjow tries to slip a Cero from his free hand, but when Ichigo moves to catch it on his sword and ready a Getsuga Tensho, Grimmjow simply flings his weapon aside and charges a Cero aimed at Ichigo's head instead. The Getsuga and the Cero erupt in opposite directions, and a laughing Grimmjow declares he has long waited to crush Ichigo with everything he has, refusing to believe the young man came for any reason but to fight. Asking whether Ichigo understands why he kept the scar from their first meeting, Grimmjow swears to cut his throat and settle which of them is stronger.

Ichigo and Grimmjow shift the battle to open towers and both enter their strongest forms. Orihime tries to reassure Nel while privately fearing for Ichigo. The opening clash establishes Grimmjow's obsession with the scar from their first fight and his conviction that Ichigo secretly craves the battle as much as he does.

This is the first chapter of the thirty-second collected volume, HOWLING, which carries Grimmjow Jaegerjaquez on its cover. Its events were adapted into Episode 165 of the anime, Murderous Intent! The Joyful Grimmjow. A brief flashback recalls Ulquiorra from the preceding fight.