KILL THE KING

As the laboratory ceiling parts, Hiyori Sarugaki arrives with the other Visored and a large teapot, grumbling that Shinji Hirako has them running his errands. She pours its contents into the basin where the officers stand, and Rukia Kuchiki notes that the liquid leaves no wetness. Urahara explains that it was drawn from the friction where the Dangai, Hueco Mundo, Soul Society, and the Human World grind against one another, giving it the energy needed to reach the palace, gathered by Yoruichi and refined by the Visored. He then admits that his gate depends on the opening Ichigo tore earlier and may leave no route home. Sui-Feng bristles, not at the danger but at his assumption that the Gotei 13 would balk, and Kenpachi Zaraki simply demands to be sent up so he can crush the Wandenreich.

High above, Ichigo Kurosaki declares that he has come to stop the invader, but Yhwach reveals his triple-pupiled eyes, the sight of a true Quincy that beholds every future. Having foreseen Ichigo's every step, he steps aside to expose the Soul King run through with the Reishi Sword. Told the sovereign is already dead, Ichigo flashes forward and seizes the blade, and Yhwach urges him to draw it free.

As Ichigo wrenches the Reishi Sword loose, Blut veins creep up his arm and face, wrenching the weapon into a swing he cannot stop. Yhwach proclaims that the Quincy blood in Ichigo can never suffer the Soul King to live, and the screaming teen cannot stop himself from cleaving the sovereign in two. Sinking to his knees in horror, Ichigo can only listen as Yhwach invites him to witness the end of Soul Society.

Urahara reveals the interdimensional substance that will power his gate and warns there may be no way back. Yhwach displays the all-seeing eyes of his Schrift and manipulates Ichigo into pulling the Reishi Sword from the Soul King. The awakened Quincy blood in Ichigo forces his hand, and he bisects the Soul King himself.

This chapter shares its name with the sixty-eighth volume's central turning point and was adapted in the anime across episodes 394 and 397. A running gag reintroduces the Visored to the war effort as Love Aikawa hauls a protesting Hiyori off to change into their uniforms.