MY LAST WORDS

With Haschwalth closing in, Uryu Ishida orders Ichigo Kurosaki to make for the Sun Gate while he handles the Sternritter. Ichigo resists until Uryu shouts him down, but Haschwalth reveals he already foresaw this and has destroyed the gate leading to the living world, intending to end matters before Yhwach wakes. Studying the words, Uryu grasps their meaning: because Haschwalth currently holds The Almighty, Yhwach has lost his omniscience and omnipotence for now. He tells Ichigo to climb to Yhwach, insists he has no plan to die here, and sends his friends onward with a smile.

Asked why he is not pursuing the group, Haschwalth answers that he has seen them perish. Uryu forms a Heilig Bogen and counters that fate can be rewritten, a shift in tone that visibly startles the Sternritter. Realizing with delight that Haschwalth failed to foresee those very words, Uryu declares that his enemy has not yet truly mastered The Almighty, and the two cross weapons.

Higher up, Ichigo notices tears welling in Orihime Inoue's eyes; she admits her relief that Uryu openly confirmed he was still on their side. Two massive Quincy statues rise and stab at them with stone spears, and when a third strikes, Yasutora Sado blocks it, the impact tearing open a chasm that cuts him off from the pair. Sado urges them on and turns to the statues, only for Ganju Shiba to burst up out of a sand hole, lost and eager to cut loose. Sado tells him to keep it simple: their job is to clear the statues and hold the path open for Ichigo's return.

Uryu deduces that Haschwalth's temporary hold on The Almighty leaves Yhwach vulnerable, and stays to duel him after catching the future-reader off guard. Ichigo, Orihime, and Sado press upward toward the throne room. Sado is separated by a chasm and, joined by a wandering Ganju, takes on the Quincy statues to secure Ichigo's route back.

The title chapter of Volume 72, it splits the cast between Uryu's private war and Ichigo's climb toward Yhwach. Its material was adapted into episode 406 of the anime, My Last Words. Uryu's central insight, that Haschwalth's borrowed foresight has limits, becomes the key to challenging the otherwise all-knowing Yhwach.