The Drop

As Isane Kotetsu and Yachiru Kusajishi separately discover the farewell note and eyepatch left by their leaders, Kenpachi Zaraki hurls himself at Retsu Unohana only to have his neck opened by a precise counter. He recovers and presses on, trading blows and kicks until a shockwave rings out from their clash. Unohana praises him for shedding his eyepatch from the outset, yet notes it merely exposes the ceiling of his power, then buries a dagger in his shoulder.

She derides him as weak and questions why a one-armed fighter refuses to use his other hand. Kenpachi accuses her of cheap tricks and mourns that she has changed from the woman he once admired, but she scolds him for admiring an enemy in the middle of combat and disarms him, pinning him against a pillar. Unohana reveals she has not changed at all and simply lacked the chance to fight dirty during their very first encounter, forcing Kenpachi to confront how much weaker he has become.

He remembers admiring her because, in his youth, cutting anything felt as hollow as swinging a blade alone in the dark, and only against her did he first taste fear and the thrill of combat. Asking whether he is doomed to die without ever beating her, he takes her sword through his throat and blacks out, then finds himself alive and crossing blades once more, brushing the lapse aside to focus. Internally, Unohana concludes he cannot perish here, because he grows stronger with every brush against death, a self-imposed limiter she calls her own sin.

Unohana thoroughly outfights Kenpachi, wounding his neck, shoulder, and throat. She reveals her ruthless fighting style was always genuine and that Kenpachi has grown weaker. Kenpachi recalls that she was the first opponent to give him fear and joy in battle. Each near-fatal wound revives Kenpachi stronger, exposing an unconscious limiter tied to their first meeting.

The chapter deepens the bond between Unohana and Kenpachi and plants the mystery of his suppressed power, a central thread of their Muken duel in the Thousand-Year Blood War arc. Its events were adapted in Episode 375, "THE DROP."