Blue Stripes

Lunchtime at the Kurosaki Clinic finds Yuzu calling her father and Karin to the table, one still fussing over a startled patient, the other refusing to abandon a video-game boss. Once the meal is set, Yuzu quietly wishes her brother were home from what she believes is a training camp.

Up in Ichibe'e Hyosube's temple, Rukia and Renji hold wooden blades on one another until a bell frees them to slump, gasping, to the floor. Both admit the crushing spiritual density of the place still weighs on them like deep water. A call from Tenjiro Kirinji brings welcome news, that Byakuya has healed, though it also reminds Renji of the humiliations waiting further along the recovery circuit; he shudders through a memory of Senjumaru Shutara threatening to remove far more than his loincloth to take her measurements. Ichibe'e throws open the doors, marvels at how talkative the two have grown, and summons them for more training.

In the living world, Shinji Hirako begs Hiyori over the phone to manage the cleanup, and once a parcel from him and Mayuri arrives, she drafts a reluctant Lisa and Love to help mend the distortions left in Karakura. Down the street, Keigo, Tatsuki, and Mizuiro puzzle over Ichigo's absence and conclude Soul Society is behind it, right as Captain-Commander Shunsui steps up behind them, saying he has come to talk about goodbyes.

Rukia and Renji press on with grueling training beneath the Soul King Palace's oppressive Reishi. Kirinji reports that Byakuya has recovered. The Visored are handed the job of repairing Karakura's spatial distortions. Shunsui approaches Ichigo's human friends to raise the possibility of a farewell.

Blue Stripes is the fifth chapter collected in the sixty-first volume, THE LAST 9DAYS, during the Thousand-Year Blood War. Its scenes were adapted in Episode 380, THE LAST 9DAYS.