The Fire 2

Bleeding from a fresh wound, Robert Accutrone reels away from a reinvigorated Shunsui Kyōraku and warns him that he is mistaken about one thing. With Genryūsai Shigekuni Yamamoto standing before the leader in Yhwach's guise, who still holds an unconscious Kenpachi aloft, and declaring that he has come to end his life, Robert insists the commander will lose, for the Quincy are no less thrilled to see their leaders clash. On cue, Äs Nödt, Bazz-B, and NaNaNa Najahkoop drop from above to strike Yamamoto together, taunting him for standing alone, only to be swallowed whole by an eruption of fire from Ryūjin Jakka so vast that Shunsui and Robert see it from afar. As the three fall limp, Shunsui observes that someone badly misjudged, since ordinary reasoning never applied to Yamamoto.

The leader coldly dismisses his own men as deserving their fate for intruding on his fight. Yamamoto rolls his neck and shoulder, then answers his opponent's curiosity with a slash that carves through the left forearm, alarming Haschwalth. Telling the leader that his habit of undervaluing his followers ends today, the commander unleashes another wave of flame, forcing him to grasp his Quincy Cross and form a Reishi Sword at last. When Yamamoto remarks that the weapon has finally appeared, the leader notes he sounds as though he has been waiting, and the commander confirms it, intending to erase every trace of him. With that, the flames around Yamamoto abruptly wink out, and to his opponent's surprise he activates his Bankai, Zanka no Tachi.

The seventh chapter of the fifty-seventh volume, Out of Bloom, this installment was adapted within episode 372. It marks the first appearance of Yamamoto's Bankai in the series, a reveal built up across the surrounding chapters, and the leader he faces remains the impostor Royd Lloyd wearing Yhwach's form.