Recaps

Haruto arrived as Daitenta died and wounded Miralles, but Miralles used Ransōtengai to keep fighting. Haruto chose to attack rather than save the trapped students, and their battle began with Miralles revealing formidable close-combat skill.

• Daitenta died after secretly making the barrier permeable so Haruto could enter, and Miralles fired at the students inside.
• Haruto wounded Miralles with Zanka no Tachi, but Miralles used Ransōtengai to move despite his injuries.
• Miralles questioned Haruto for abandoning the students, and Haruto defended his choice as the best chance to turn the fight around.
• Haruto and Miralles clashed, but Miralles stopped Haruto's draw with a gauntlet and caught his point-blank Raikōhō.
• Miralles said Haruto should know about Sklaverei as Haruto began to lose their contest of strength.

Haruto fought Miralles, whose Sklaverei, Ransōtengai, and Hirenkyaku made him difficult to overcome, and defeated him by binding him with Sajō Sabaku and freezing him. Haruto survived with severe injuries, collected Miralles's Silver Crosses, and looked toward the dead Seventh Seat Daitenta.

• Miralles explained that his High-Speed Sklaverei absorbed Haruto's Kidō and that the Reishi stored in his Sanrei Gloves amplified his strength.
• Haruto used Shō to draw his Zanpakuto, then attacked Miralles with Ōkasen and Shakkahō, but Miralles countered with Hirenkyaku and a Heilig Pfeil that sent Haruto crashing into a building.
• Haruto countered Miralles's next attack with Byakurai, piercing his own shoulder to send the lightning through his body and wound Miralles.
• Haruto bound himself and Miralles together with Sajō Sabaku, blocking Miralles's Hirenkyaku and using the chain to deliver Hyōga Seiran.
• Haruto's ice froze Miralles, whose body fell and shattered, while Haruto coughed up blood and fragments of his organs.
• Haruto picked up Miralles's two Silver Crosses, bringing his collection to seven, and looked toward the dead Seventh Seat Daitenta.

After the Quincy attack, Haruto reflected on his combat strengths and the need to awaken his Zanpakuto. Mutsuki Shōkaku arrived and explained that she had contacted the Twelfth Division, but the group still could not open the Senkaimon.

• Haruto mourned the Shinigami killed in the attack and considered how the chaos could give him combat experience and a chance to advance.
• Haruto judged that Hakuda and Zanjutsu were his main weaknesses, then asked his Zanpakuto when it would reveal its abilities.
• Mutsuki Shōkaku arrived, and Haruto told her that the sixth-years, including Daitenta, had died and that he had defeated a Vice-Captain-level Quincy.
• Mutsuki said she had killed another Quincy like Haruto's opponent and had met up with Isane and Nanao.
• Haruto asked Mutsuki to open the Senkaimon, but she said the Twelfth Division was analyzing the barrier after she contacted them from outside its range.
• Mutsuki explained that contacting the Twelfth Division already broke procedure and that her connection with Hiyori had helped secure their aid.

Haruto learned that the Noble Assembly might hold him accountable for the incident, then burned the bodies to conceal evidence. Elsewhere, a towering man found Shūkurō and offered him the chance to change his life.

• Mutsuki explained that the Gotei 13 would handle the remaining problems and warned Haruto that the Noble Assembly might hold him responsible for the deaths of noble heirs.
• Haruto said the Kuchiki and Kasumioji Clans could protect him, then burned the bodies with Haien and claimed his opponent’s Heilig Pfeil left no body behind.
• In Naruki City, a towering man heard Soul Reapers and Quincy fighting but chose not to intervene.
• The man knocked on a garbage-built house until Shūkurō answered, then offered to change the boy’s life.
• Shūkurō nodded and followed the man through the snow.

A researcher in Rukongai lamented that his Reigai experiments and Senkaimon research had stalled, while Kaien Shiba learned that a Quincy attack during Konsō training had devastated the students in the World of the Living. Mutsuki Shōkaku and the exhausted survivors returned to Soul Society, carrying the dead as Haruto helped Isane through the Senkaimon.

• A green-haired researcher blamed the 11th Division for destroying his original Reigai and concluded that his experiments and Senkaimon research would take much longer without it.
• Kaien Shiba received Mutsuki Shōkaku's report that the Quincy had caused trouble during Konsō training and ordered the Fourth Division and Captain Ukitake to be notified.
• Kaien opened the Senkaimon as Mutsuki returned from the World of the Living and reported that fewer than a hundred of nearly six hundred Soul Reapers and students had survived.
• The injured students carried stretchers bearing the bodies of classmates who could still be pieced together.
• Haruto emerged supporting an exhausted Isane and carrying a stretcher after spending the night helping Mutsuki treat the wounded and restore Reiatsu.

After the Quincy attack, Haruto helped the surviving students return to Soul Society, where Nanao and Ayaka asked him for combat training. Three days later, Haruto learned that Kaien had been confined to his home, and Byakuya warned that the Tsunayashiro Clan intended to target someone else—Haruto.

• Haruto helped two-thirds of the more than 150 surviving students return to Soul Society, and Nanao asked him to train her to overcome her fear of Hollows.
• Ayaka asked Haruto to include her in training and future missions, while Isane fell asleep leaning on him.
• Unohana arrived with Kiyōnosuke Yamada and used Minazuki to heal the students, while Ukitake and other Thirteenth Division members also arrived.
• Three days later, Haruto and Byakuya discussed the aftermath: Mitarai had stepped down, Mutsuki had taken over as director, and Kaien had been ordered to confine himself at home.
• Byakuya said the Tsunayashiro Clan was not targeting Kaien, then revealed that Haruto was the person they intended to deal with.

Byakuya told Haruto that the Tsunayashiro Clan was maneuvering to bring him before an unofficial Noble Assembly, with Satō Tsunayashiro acting as their representative. Haruto agreed to deal with her, while Byakuya revealed that his Senbonzakura had grown strong enough to pierce Haruto’s Dankū.

• Byakuya explained that the Tsunayashiro Clan had only nudged events because it lacked reliable information about Haruto.
• He told Haruto that several noble clans supported him, but the Tsunayashiro Clan could still use an unofficial assembly as a pretext to attack him.
• Byakuya identified Satō Tsunayashiro, a former Third Division Third Seat with Vice-Captain-level strength, as the Tsunayashiro Clan’s representative.
• Haruto learned that Satō would attend in place of the lower-ranking Sunai Clan because the deceased Sunai Nezumi was her distant relative.
• Haruto agreed to help deal with Satō, and Byakuya said his Senbonzakura could now pierce Haruto’s Dankū.

Haruto received an invitation to the Noble Special Joint Assembly in East District 15 of Rukongai, where he was expected to face Satō Tsunayashiro. As Haruto headed there, his Zanpakuto stirred again, and Togakushi Tōma escorted him to the assembly.

• Byakuya told Haruto that his Reiatsu could reach Fourth-Class Spiritual Pressure within two years, and a Hell Butterfly delivered an invitation to East District 15 of Rukongai.
• Haruto declined Byakuya’s offer of backup and left the dormitory to face the threat himself.
• Haruto felt his Zanpakuto respond, recalling that it had stirred after he killed released Soul Reapers, a Giant Hollow, and a Quincy.
• Haruto considered how to overcome Satō Tsunayashiro despite the gap in their Reiatsu and his limited ability to restrain an opponent.
• At Shin'ō Academy, Togakushi Tōma of the Third Division met Haruto and escorted him to the Noble Special Joint Assembly, then began whispering to him.

Haruto accompanied Togakushi Tōma to a special Noble Assembly meeting, where the nobles accused him of murder and questioned his account of the Quincy attack. He defended himself and challenged them to test his strength, while suspecting Satō Tsunayashiro was hidden from view.

• Togakushi Tōma led Haruto to a noble residential complex in East District 15 and brought him to the castle tower where the special meeting was held.
• The Noble Assembly accused Haruto of murdering Seventh Seat Daitenta, seven nobles, and eighty-six Shin'ō Academy students.
• Haruto said Daitenta was already mortally wounded when he arrived and explained that a Quincy’s Heilig Pfeil could burn souls away.
• Haruto confirmed he had Vice-Captain-level strength and offered to demonstrate it, while noticing that Satō Tsunayashiro was absent from the visible assembly.
• The nobles questioned how Haruto had defeated the Quincy without mastering Shikai, and Haruto scoffed at their incomplete information.

Haruto was accused of using Hyōga Seiran to kill the Mikazuki Clan, and he realized the gathering was a trap. When he refused to go to the Central 46 Chambers, Satō Tsunayashiro revealed herself and attacked him, forcing him to defend himself with Dankū.

• The nobles confronted Haruto with a report linking his ice-and-snow Kidō to the death of a Vice-Captain-level Quincy and accused him of murdering the Mikazuki Clan.
• Haruto explained that Juzu Izumi had turned in Munechika's Zanpakuto, while Togakushi Tōma urged him to go to the Central 46 Chambers for judgment.
• Haruto refused, and Togakushi attacked him; Haruto blocked the strike with Dankū.
• Haruto identified the attacker as Satō Tsunayashiro after recognizing her perfume, and she dropped her disguise.
• Satō Tsunayashiro released her Zanpakuto, Bone and Flesh Craft, transforming its blade into jagged teeth that nearly shattered Haruto's Dankū.

Haruto trapped Satō Tsunayashiro inside a reinforced Dankū and used the time to prepare Senju Kōten Taihō. The blast devastated the keep, and Haruto killed the badly injured Satō before going after the surviving noble family heads.

• Haruto reinforced a modified Dankū to confine Satō Tsunayashiro while she attacked it with Bone and Flesh Craft and Ginfu Shakkahō.
• Haruto revealed a Senju Kōten Taihō hidden inside the barrier with Kyokkō and completed its incantation while Satō remained trapped.
• Senju Kōten Taihō exploded inside the enclosed space, destroying most of the keep and leaving both Haruto and Satō badly injured.
• Haruto stabbed Satō Tsunayashiro in the neck and took note of the damaged Bone and Flesh Craft beside her corpse.
• Haruto headed toward the rubble where several surviving noble family heads could be heard, intending to finish them off.

Haruto killed the Soul Reapers at the Tsunayashiro Clan’s ruined castle keep, took a spiritual tool called Heat Haze Edict, and escaped before a Gillian’s Cero destroyed the scene. He later told Byakuya what had happened and learned that a Vice-Captain-level Soul Reaper sent to help had been killed by a Hollow.

• Haruto killed every Soul Reaper at the castle keep and found a fire-type spiritual tool on Satō Tsunayashiro, which he identified as Heat Haze Edict.
• Haruto realized the Central 46 Chambers might blame him for the nobles’ deaths, but a Gillian appeared above the noble estates before he could act on that concern.
• Haruto used Shunpo to flee as the Gillian fired a Cero that obliterated the castle keep and its surroundings.
• Haruto told Byakuya about the day’s events, and Byakuya explained that his family had not sent the Gillian and that they had intended to send a one-use explosive spiritual tool instead.
• Byakuya said the Vice-Captain-level Soul Reaper sent to assist Haruto had been attacked by a Hollow and that identifying the body had taken a long time.

Haruto worried that Aizen might have targeted him after noticing the Gillian’s unusual appearance, then accepted Kurohitsugi from Byakuya and learned that Captain Kyōshiba had sent him lightning-type Kidō notes. The chapter then shifted to Shin'ō Academy, where Haruto met Zanjutsu instructor Nagaki Sōshū Tetsu.

• Haruto suspected that the Gillian’s unusual mask and concealed Hollow Hole meant Aizen had taken an interest in him, but he hid his suspicion from Byakuya.
• Byakuya offered Haruto Kurohitsugi in return for helping the Kuchiki Clan deal with Satō Tsunayashiro, while admitting the cat transformation technique was fake.
• Byakuya told Haruto that Captain Kyōshiba had left him notes on lightning-type Kidō, prompting Haruto to plan a visit to repay the favor.
• Haruto arrived at the Shin'ō Academy Zanjutsu training ground and spoke with instructor Nagaki Sōshū Tetsu.

Haruto visited his former teacher Nagaki Sōshū Tetsu to ask for help finding a Zanjutsu master, and Nagaki recommended his own master, Jin'emon Kotsubaki. Haruto met Jin'emon at his dojo and faced the first question in their training conversation: whether he was accustomed to fighting with a Zanpakuto.

• Haruto gave Nagaki tobacco from the World of the Living and asked him to recommend a Zanjutsu master.
• Nagaki wrote Haruto a letter of introduction to his master, Lieutenant Jin'emon Kotsubaki, and advised him to bring sake.
• Haruto arrived at the Kotsubaki home and ran into Sentarō Kotsubaki, who took him to see his father before returning to the busy Thirteenth Division.
• Jin'emon read Nagaki's letter, sent Sentarō away, and asked Haruto whether he was accustomed to fighting with a Zanpakuto.

Haruto met Jin'emon Kotsubaki to learn Zanjutsu, but Kotsubaki advised him to focus on Kidō and suggested Hakuda as a better way to improve his close combat. After receiving Kotsubaki's training manuals and a letter of introduction, Haruto went to the Third Division to meet Chikane Iba.

• Jin'emon Kotsubaki explained that he had mastered Zanjutsu because he lacked talent for Kidō, and urged Haruto not to neglect his own talent for Kidō.
• Haruto said he still wanted to strengthen his close combat before achieving Shikai, so Jin'emon Kotsubaki recommended Hakuda and gave him two manuals on drawing and slashing.
• Haruto's visit to the Kyōshiba Family failed because Shusuha and her younger brother had been sent to the World of the Living on a mission.
• Haruto arrived at the Third Division with Jin'emon Kotsubaki's letter of introduction and asked the guards to notify Chikane Iba that he was there.
• The guards argued over who should deliver the message, and one reluctantly went inside while Haruto waited.

Haruto visited the Third Division to learn Hakuda from Chikane Iba, who agreed after he helped settle the disagreement between her and her son, Tetsuzaemon. Chikane took Haruto to the training ground and began explaining her long-term approach to Hakuda and the Bone Strike technique.

• Haruto entered the Third Division barracks and found Chikane Iba speaking with her son, Tetsuzaemon Iba.
• Chikane told Haruto that he would need to join the Third Division to learn her Hakuda, and Haruto offered to help resolve her disagreement with Tetsuzaemon.
• Tetsuzaemon refused to join the Third Division, so Haruto suggested that he join the Seventh Division under Kotsubaki, and Chikane accepted the compromise.
• Chikane took Haruto to the training ground and explained that her Hakuda focused on strengthening the body and living long enough to reach one's potential.
• Chikane began teaching Haruto Bone Strike, a technique inspired by Captain-Commander Yamamoto's Hakuda and an idea from Senior Unohana.

Haruto tested his combat fundamentals against Chikane Iba by unleashing a powerful lightning-infused Zanka no Tachi, but she stopped his blade with two fingers. After assessing his skill, Chikane Iba began formally teaching him Bone Strike.

• Chikane Iba asked Haruto to attack her with the fighting style he knew best so she could assess his fundamentals.
• Haruto used a newly developed lightning-type Zanka no Tachi, combining Raikōhō with the original technique.
• Chikane Iba caught Haruto's Zanpakuto between two fingers, while the clash damaged the training ground and shattered its reinforced windows.
• Chikane Iba praised Haruto's talent and physique, then sent Tetsuzaemon to keep curious Soul Reapers outside.
• Chikane Iba decided she had assessed Haruto's fundamentals and began formally teaching him Bone Strike.

Haruto learned that Bone Strike strengthened the body by directing Reiatsu through four stages, then appeared to enter its first stage almost immediately. Chikane Iba discovered that he had already been strengthening his body with Reiatsu for over half a year and questioned whether Kidō or a noble family's secret teaching had produced the effect.

• Chikane Iba explained Bone Strike's four stages and compared its first two stages to Yamamoto's Ikkotsu and Sōkotsu.
• Chikane Iba taught Haruto that the first step was strengthening the skin with Reiatsu, and Haruto asked to try it.
• Haruto channeled Reiatsu and produced a brief scraping sound, prompting Chikane Iba to seize his arm and inspect him.
• Haruto said he had been strengthening his body with Reiatsu for over half a year, and Chikane Iba wondered whether Kidō or Jinzen could explain his progress.

Haruto declined Chikane Iba’s offer to guide him through Bone Strike, while secretly realizing he had already mastered its training method and developed Hollow-like bone armor. Five months later, Hollow activity in East Rukongai’s first thirty districts had sharply declined, leaving the Soul Reapers baffled.

• Haruto told Chikane Iba that the Heavenly Bedding Pill contained a fragment of a Vasto Lorde’s Reiatsu and that only he could experience its effects.
• Haruto declined Chikane Iba’s offer to teach him Bone Strike’s second and third stages, and she offered him a recommendation to seek Captain-Commander Yamamoto’s guidance once he mastered the fourth.
• After leaving the Third Division barracks, Haruto revealed to himself that he had already mastered Bone Strike and that it produced chalk-white bone armor and unusually fast recovery.
• Haruto decided to seek Togakushi Tōma’s help in learning Bone Strike’s striking method, using Togakushi Riku to pass along a message.
• Five months later, Soul Reapers noticed that Hollow activity in East Rukongai’s first thirty districts had plummeted, despite the recent panic caused by a Menos Grande attack.

Haruto mastered both methods of Bone Strike while hunting Giant Hollows with Isane, and noticed his Zanpakuto responded to Hollows’ memories and lifespans. A message announced major changes to the sixth-year graduation exam, which would begin in a week under the supervision of three Central 46 sages.

• Haruto caught a Giant Hollow’s stinger, blasted off its pincer with Shō, and destroyed it with a Bone Strike punch.
• Haruto reflected on mastering Bone Strike and observed that his Zanpakuto hummed more strongly in response to Hollows that had eaten humans.
• Isane joined Haruto after defeating two Giant Hollows with Rikujōkōrō and Zanka no Tachi, and Haruto helped restore her Reiatsu.
• Haruto and Isane received a Hell Butterfly message announcing changes to the graduation exam, scheduled to begin in one week.
• Haruto explained that three Central 46 sages who had supported Principal Mitarai’s reforms would oversee the exam, and suggested they might use the remaining students to save face.

Haruto and Isane discussed the dangerous Hollow-hunting graduation exam and how they might protect their classmates if the Hollows proved too strong. On exam day, Haruto’s group set out without Byakuya and prepared to judge when to intervene.

• Haruto told Isane that the captured Hollows might be more ferocious than wild ones and that ten Hollows would be hunted during the exam.
• Haruto proposed knocking their classmates out of the exam if the Hollows were too dangerous, but agreed they would decide based on the Hollows’ strength.
• Byakuya chose not to attend the exam because he had no interest in hunting Hollows and could join the Gotei 13 through his family.
• Haruto, Ayaka, Isane, Kiyone, and Nanao led the students toward the forest, where Mutsuki Shōkaku, teachers, and Tenth Division members accompanied them.
• Nanao asked when their group should intervene, and Haruto said they would follow the plan they had discussed before the exam.

Haruto and his classmates arrived at the site of their graduation exam and discovered that nobles had turned the Hollow hunt into a live spectacle. As Mutsuki Shōkaku faced the exam’s humiliating arrangements, Haruto promised he would bring every student back safely.

• Haruto and his classmates agreed to use Kakushitsuijaku to check the Hollows’ spiritual power and protect one another during the exam.
• Haruto entertained the group on their journey with games of Bao Huang and Dou Dizhu.
• Haruto recognized the exam site as a forest buffer where the students had cleared out wild Hollows months earlier, suggesting any Hollows there were Twelfth Division test subjects.
• Haruto explained that modified Hell Butterflies would broadcast the students’ Hollow hunt to nobles, who had arranged the spectacle despite its resemblance to an arena.
• Mutsuki Shōkaku went to meet the nobles and Daijiji Kū Seigen, and Haruto reassured her that he would bring every student back safely.

Haruto and his friends watched the sages announce a Hollow-hunting exam, whose powerful Hollows posed a serious danger to the students. As the teams prepared to enter the forest, Haruto assigned them a plan to locate and avoid their classmates while promising to bring everyone back.

• Haruto and Ayaka mocked the sages' speeches through a Hell Butterfly, and Nanao joined their private conversation by sensing their Reiatsu.
• Nanao explained that she had improved Hell Butterfly communication after the dangerous Konsō practicum incident six months earlier.
• The sages revealed ten caged Hollows, including one with Vice-Captain-level Reiatsu, and assured students that Vice-Captain Daijiji would rescue anyone in danger.
• Haruto judged the exam dangerously reckless and suspected the sages had underestimated the students' limited strength.
• Haruto formed a team with Ayaka, Nanao, Isane, and her sister, then used modified Kidō to track the other teams and told them to avoid Shunpo.

Haruto let the other squads enter the forest first and stayed behind because he suspected the strongest Hollow had not moved. Vice-Captain Daijiji Kū Seigen approached him and privately revealed his disdain for the nobles, ending by saying Haruto was different.

• Vice-Captain Daijiji ordered the students to begin the forest examination, and the other squads set off while Haruto’s group stayed behind.
• Ayaka suggested knocking out the other students, but Haruto stopped her and reminded her that the sages might disqualify them.
• Haruto’s group split up to pursue the squads, while Haruto remained in the clearing to watch for the strongest Hollow.
• Vice-Captain Daijiji approached Haruto, joked about his companions, and tried to draw him into a private conversation.
• Daijiji used a modified Tenteikūra to tell Haruto that he expected little from the nobles and then said Haruto was different.

Haruto negotiated with Vice-Captain Daijiji before discovering that a Hollow was hunting and killing student squads. He caught up with the sheep-headed Hollow, restrained it with combined Bakudō, and struck it with Raikōhō.

• Haruto agreed to discuss Daijiji’s offer after the graduation exam, then left to pursue the Hollow.
• Haruto noticed a squad’s Reiatsu signatures vanish and realized the Hollow was hunting students.
• Haruto rushed to the next squad’s location but found no survivors and confronted the sheep-headed Hollow.
• Haruto inferred that the Hollow could sense Reiatsu and use Sonído to move.
• Haruto trapped the Hollow with Sajō Sabaku and Rikujōkōrō, then hit it with Raikōhō.