Wrath as a Lightning

To Haschwalth's astonishment, Kenpachi Zaraki dumps the bodies of three Sternritter on the ground and shrugs off the feat. Jerome Guizbatt, he recounts, became a bellowing ape and was simply cut in two; Berenice Gabrielli's explanation of her power went unheard beneath the din, so Kenpachi tore out her throat; and Loyd Lloyd, who copied Kenpachi's own form, gave a fair fight until Kenpachi grew stronger than the impression Loyd held of him. Granting that the captain earns his monstrous reputation, Haschwalth watches Kenpachi flick his blade clean and swing at the smiling leader, who catches the strike on his forearm in a burst of force. Inside the Garganta, Ichigo curses at word of Byakuya, Renji, and Rukia falling and lashes the cage with fresh Getsuga Tenshō, refusing to let anyone die.

Elsewhere, Shūhei Hisagi is smashed against a wall of his own barracks as Driscoll Berci mocks his weakness. Boasting of his Schrift, The Overkill, which swells his strength with every foe, ally, or beast he slays, Driscoll claims a hundred kills this day and as many on his last visit, including a lieutenant much like Hisagi. The words land: Hisagi realizes this is the man who impaled Chōjirō Sasakibe. Driscoll shapes a javelin of Reishi to reenact that killing and hurls it, but Genryūsai Shigekuni Yamamoto appears before Hisagi and swats the arrow aside with a bare hand. Startled at first, Driscoll then laughs at his luck, having come to the Seireitei hunting Yamamoto, and vows to slay him with his own subordinate's stolen Bankai.

The fourth chapter of the fifty-seventh volume, Out of Bloom, this installment was adapted within episode 371, which shares its name. Kenpachi's casual account of three victories underscores his raw power at this stage of the war, while Driscoll's boast ties directly to the earlier death of Chōjirō Sasakibe and sets the commander on a collision course with him.