The Last Mission

The chapter reaches back to the moment after Nnoitra split Nelliel's mask open. Left in the desert as a small child, Nel wakes beside two unmasked Arrancar she no longer knows, and Pesche decides that only one road is left for them: he and Dondochakka will spend their lives keeping her clear of Nnoitra, Szayelaporro, and every kind of pain, exactly as they once swore to do.

In the present, Pesche heaves aside a slab of wreckage to reach Szayelaporro, who is methodically crushing the tendons in Renji's body one at a time so the lieutenant stays alive yet broken. A jet of Infinite Slick coats the puppet dolls in Szayelaporro's hand and slips them loose, letting Pesche slide in and snatch them mid-fall.

Dondochakka disgorges Bawabawa, one of the many combat creatures he carries inside him, and the beast rears over the unbothered Espada. Pesche explains that they hid such things from Nel out of fear that any reminder of battle might restore the memories she was finally free of. Now that she has chosen to fight again, he calls it their duty to back her and refuses to waste time on Szayelaporro. Out on the sands, Nelliel kicks Nnoitra's blade aside and lifts her own weapon, bracing for the toll of releasing her Resurreccion so soon after regaining her adult body.

The chapter closes the thirty-third collected volume, THE BAD JOKE, which carries Nnoitra on its cover. Its events were adapted into Episode 194, Nelliel's Past.