Death & Strawberry (Chapter 686)

An orange-haired boy is caught sneaking through Hiyori Sarugaki's home and bolts before she can grab him. In the Seireitei, Byakuya races toward a reported trace of Yhwach's spiritual pressure in the West 55th Block, the last district still under repair. Sui-Feng catches up to mention that Rukia vanished right after her ceremony, though Byakuya, unbothered, says he can handle the matter himself. They join Mayuri just as a large mass of the king's old power takes shape before them.

In the living world, Rukia and Renji reach the Kurosaki Clinic, where Ichigo greets them and Rukia needles him about his empty waiting room. Keigo, Tatsuki, and Mizuiro welcome her, and Karin and Yuzu arrive with snacks to catch a televised boxing match featuring the now-famous Sado. On a rooftop across town, Uryu takes a lunch break at the office where he works as a doctor. Back at the clinic, Ichigo asks after his son Kazui, who has been off snooping around Hiyori's house, while Rukia mentions her own daughter has slipped away somewhere. Upstairs, Kazui notices a dark orb on the wall of Yuzu's room swollen with Yhwach's power. As the Shinigami brace for the manifesting mass to strike, Kazui simply reaches out and touches it, and the entire concentration of power disappears, stunning the soldiers.

Sealed within Muken, Aizen senses the last of Yhwach's power vanish and recalls the king's dying words: with his defeat, the wish for a world stripped of death and fear was denied, leaving people bound forever to the cycle of life and death. Aizen reflects that such a fearless world would have robbed them of the very hope and resolve that gives them courage. As Ichigo and Rukia bicker, a red-haired girl steps out of a dark orb behind Kazui and names herself Ichika Abarai, a Shinigami apprentice. Kazui answers by introducing himself and transforming into a Shinigami of his own, leaving Ichika astonished.

Byakuya, Sui-Feng, and Mayuri confront a resurgent mass of Yhwach's spiritual pressure in the rebuilding Seireitei. Ichigo's friends and family gather at the Kurosaki Clinic to watch Sado's boxing match. Kazui Kurosaki dispels Yhwach's lingering power with a single touch. Aizen, imprisoned in Muken, recalls the king's final words about a world without death. Ichika Abarai and Kazui, children of the next generation, meet and reveal themselves as young Shinigami.

This is the 686th chapter of Bleach, the concluding chapter of the seventy-fourth and final volume, THE DEATH AND THE STRAWBERRY. Set well after the war, it serves as the series' epilogue, introducing the children of Ichigo and of Rukia and Renji, and closing Tite Kubo's original manga run.