Standing On the Edge

Ichigo stands ready to leave Karakura Town, unsure how he will ever reach the Soul King Palace, when Mera Hiuchigashima bursts from a cloud of smoke behind him and announces it is time to go. Soon he is back in the pit of the Hōōden, where Mera explains that the Chōkaimon can only send him across under a strict return deadline, so Ōetsu Nimaiya always meant to fetch him after a single night, betting that Ichigo would change in that span or not at all. Nimaiya himself confirms it, impressed by the resolve in Ichigo's eyes, and gestures to the waiting Asauchi. To everyone's astonishment, the blank blades kneel at Ichigo's presence and darken. Reaching for the one he knows is his, Ichigo clasps its offered hand, and its black shell flakes away to reveal white skin and a Hollow's face beneath. Grinning, Nimaiya calls him up and promises to reforge his Zanpakutō himself.

Down in the Seireitei, the instructor Shūtetsu Nagakiso drills a hall of Shinigami in Zanjutsu, scolding swings too weak to cut a Quincy. When two of them mutter that Hitsugaya is finished after losing his Bankai, the captain himself walks in and humbly asks Nagakiso to train him, resolved to rebuild his swordsmanship from the basics. He joins the ranks and practices, reminding himself that mourning the Bankai he had perfected after Aizen's fall is pointless, and that he can only look ahead.

On the edge of the Rukongai, Kensei Muguruma leads his lieutenant Shūhei Hisagi to a clearing and demands he attain Bankai, since the next invasion could strip it away and the Gotei 13 needs every Bankai it can field. He sends Mashiro Kuna, masked and merciless, against Hisagi, warning that only Bankai will keep him alive. Mashiro drops Hisagi with a single punch, and when Kensei sneers that he is not soft like Kaname Tōsen, the battered lieutenant rises to insist that Kensei has no right to belittle Tōsen.

Nearby, the shirtless Tetsuzaemon Iba hauls a boulder in repetitions and wonders when his captain will emerge from a cave marked by a tall torii. Inside, Sajin Komamura stands before the Wolfman Clan Elder, who opens his eyes and coldly remarks that Komamura has some nerve returning after so long.

Ichigo returns to the Soul King Palace and awakens the Asauchi, choosing the blade that bears his inner Hollow's face, and Nimaiya agrees to reforge his Zanpakutō. Hitsugaya humbles himself to relearn Zanjutsu after losing his Bankai. Kensei forces Hisagi to fight the masked Mashiro to draw out his Bankai, and Hisagi defends the honor of Tōsen. Komamura seeks out the Wolfman Clan Elder to learn a forbidden clan technique.

Part of Volume 60, EVERYTHING BUT THE RAIN, this chapter shifts the Thousand-Year Blood War arc back to the present as the Gotei 13 prepares for a second Quincy assault. Its threads were adapted into Episode 379, THE BLADE IS ME. Several subplots opened here, including Komamura's clan and Hisagi's Bankai, pay off later in the arc.