THE BLADE AND ME 2

Ichigo turns over his first meeting with Yhwach, unsettled by how he was drawn to that spot, marked the man as the enemy who mattered most before he understood anything, and felt that his face almost resembled someone he knew. Now facing the spirit he called Zangetsu, Ichigo asks through the rain whether the revelation is true, and the figure admits that it is, and that Zangetsu was never his name. As their footing splits apart and sinks them into deep water, he confirms that he is the wellspring of Ichigo's Quincy powers and that he both is and is not Yhwach. When Ichigo furiously demands to know whether everything was a lie and whether he is friend or foe, the spirit answers, after a pause, that he is neither.

Only the name was ever false, he explains. Whenever he taught Ichigo about the Zanpakutō, the inner Hollow was always helping, and it was that Hollow, never himself, who saved Ichigo from mortal peril. He had not wanted Ichigo to become a Shinigami, so he smothered the budding Zanpakutō spirit and set himself at the center of Ichigo's power instead, hoping to keep the boy far from the danger and conflict a Shinigami's life guarantees, a life he feared would bring Ichigo suffering and one day force him to strike Ichigo down himself. Conjuring a blazing Reishi broadsword, he repeats that grim conviction, yet recalls watching Ichigo choose the Shinigami's road anyway, growing stronger and pressing on through every wound, until his own heart wavered and he came to support that choice.

As his form crumbles, the spirit says he now feels the joy of stepping aside, content to have watched Ichigo grow strong at his side, a joy he calls unmatched. Ichigo races forward begging him to wait, but he sheds a single tear and vanishes, leaving only the sword. Reaching it, Ichigo hears that he has wielded no more than an unsuppressable fragment of that power, and that he can now fight at full strength with his true Zanpakutō and the real Zangetsu, as the blade bursts into light around him.

The spirit Ichigo knew as Zangetsu admits he is the source of Ichigo's Quincy powers and shares Yhwach's form. He confesses he suppressed Ichigo's real Zanpakutō spirit to keep him from the Shinigami's dangerous path, fearing he would one day have to kill him. Won over by Ichigo's perseverance, he gives his blessing, sheds a tear, and disappears, leaving a sword that unlocks Ichigo's full power.

Opening Volume 61, THE LAST 9DAYS, this chapter resolves the revelation of the previous volume within the Thousand-Year Blood War arc. Its events were adapted into Episode 379, THE BLADE IS ME. The parting of the Quincy-powered Zangetsu clears the way for Ichigo to claim his reforged, dual-bladed Zanpakutō.