Deadman Standing

The fragments of Lille tumble beneath the Royal Realm as Nanao Ise slumps into her captain's arms. Praising her for holding nothing back, Shunsui Kyoraku turns to rejoin the others but crumples himself, taking the collapse as a plain signal that he has earned some rest.

Down in the Seireitei, Sousuke Aizen and a cluster of unseated soldiers watch the debris of Lille slam into the ground and puzzle over it. The Sternritter reforms from the wreckage in an altered shape, notices his halo is gone, and declares himself a sinner before spraying fire in every direction and vowing to level the Seireitei in revenge against Shunsui, spawning copies of himself in the process. One duplicate is split down the middle and detonates as Izuru Kira strides in with his mended body, grumbling about the nuisance of the clones. Carving through more of them, he marvels that he survived the fall and turns to challenge whatever remains.

Meanwhile, inside the Soul King Palace, a battered Gerard Valkyrie is hurled into rubble while Renji Abarai scolds him for imagining he could take on several captains and lieutenants at once. Undeterred, Gerard only grins and observes that pulling it off would, after all, be a miracle.

Shunsui and Nanao both collapse in the aftermath of their victory. Lille survives his defeat, reconstitutes without his halo, and begins attacking the Seireitei in a frenzy, only to be met by a repaired Izuru Kira. Gerard, overwhelmed for the moment by Renji and Byakuya, hints that his true power is only beginning.

A shorter chapter that pivots the Wahrwelt battle onto new fronts, it marks Izuru Kira's return to the fight and foreshadows Gerard's escalation. Its scenes were used across three anime episodes: episode 403, Shadows Gone, episode 405, The Visible Answer, and episode 406, My Last Words. It opens the run of Volume 72.