SUPERSTAR NEVER DIE

Bleeding heavily from the gash across his middle while Renji watches without expression, Mask De Masculine wills the wound shut and insists a star cannot be slain by a villain. He calls out to the shredded remains of James, from which a chorus of duplicate cheerleaders spills forth; their praise seals his injury and reworks his mask while his swelling frame bursts through nearly all of his clothing. Declaring the transformation finished, Mask abruptly recalls that Renji is the man he once put down with a dropkick during the first assault on the Seireitei, admitting he had forgotten because a hero cannot be expected to remember every foe.

Winding back his arm, Mask releases Star Lariat, a blade of compressed air shaped like his limb that slices a building apart and hurls Renji away at speed. He follows with a storm of punches whose shockwaves, part of what he calls his One-Mile Arts, keep the lieutenant from anchoring himself against any wall. Rising into his Quincy: Vollstandig with a cape and a halo of light, Mask traces a giant star across the sky, forges an energy star from the path, and drives it into the ground as Star Flash: Super Nova, an eruption that vaporizes even his own cheering clones. Yet as he bids Renji farewell, he spots the lieutenant stepping out of the blast, a heavy blade jutting from a massive serpent skull clamped around his hand.

The chapter deepens Mask's superhero theatrics within the Thousand-Year Blood War and teases the arrival of Renji's true Bankai. It was adapted within episode 384, Rages at Ringside, and features Mask De Masculine, Renji Abarai, and James.