Red Bristled Kings

As Star Flash: Super Nova wipes out the last of the James copies, Mask assures his dying fan that their bond guarantees a revival so long as Mask himself lives. Then a serpent skull looms in the settling smoke; assuming Renji triggered a last-ditch Bankai, Mask sneers, only to watch a hand grip the skull's underside as it snaps shut and pushes a long blade out between its fangs, a shape no ordinary Bankai should take.

A flashback returns to Ichibe'e Hyosube's temple in the Soul King Palace, where the monk tells Renji that the name Hihio Zabimaru is a falsehood, or rather only half of the real one, because the sword has never fully accepted him. As the being who assigns the true names of every Zanpakuto and phenomenon in Soul Society, a role granted by the Soul King, Ichibe'e offers to hand over the genuine name, warning that Renji must first prove himself worthy of wielding it.

In the present Renji brings out the true Bankai, Soo Zabimaru: the fanged skull and its blade over his right hand, a hulking ape-like arm on his left shoulder, and a serpentine spine wrapped at his waist. When Mask dives in, Renji uses Hihio to seize him with the giant arm, which effortlessly snaps Mask's own left arm and flings him through a building. Vowing to cast aside his talk of justice and simply kill, Mask charges again, but Renji triggers Orochio to serrate his blade, spears the Quincy, and twists into Soo Zabimaru, Zaga Teppo, a colossal head of burning Reishi that bites down and reduces Mask to ash. Watching the remains scatter on the wind, Renji concludes the Sternritter burned himself out exactly as he wished.

The chapter reveals the origin and full form of Renji's evolved Bankai and closes his Thousand-Year Blood War duel with Mask. Adapted into episode 384, Rages at Ringside, it features Mask De Masculine, James, Renji Abarai, and Ichibe'e Hyosube, with Ichigo Kurosaki and Yoruichi Shihoin appearing in flashback.