Recaps

Over more than twenty years, Jun became an elite Soul Reaper, reshaped Shin'ō Academy's views on early graduation, and learned about Soul Society's great noble clans. A drinking gathering turned ominous when Jun realized the men around him were testing his loyalty amid a calamity involving the Shiba Clan.

• Jun spent more than twenty years developing as a Soul Reaper and gave a public lecture that led Shin'ō Academy to accept longer courses and halt graduation for twelve years.
• Jun learned about the Five Great Noble Clans through conversations with Isshin Shiba, and the two grew closer.
• Sasebo Masataka invited Jun to drink with Yagishiro and Bu, who steered their conversation toward nobles and Jun's captains.
• Yagishiro and Bu told stories about retainers facing a noble's calamity, and Sasebo asked Jun which kind of retainer he was.
• Jun realized that something had happened to the Shiba Clan and that he had been drawn into a major incident.

Jun escaped an ambush by three Soul Reapers, killed Sasebo Masataka in their fight, and realized the Shiba Clan conflict had spread across Soul Society. He headed for the Twelfth Division to find Lingling as captains fought throughout Seireitei.

• Yagishiro, Be, and Sasebo confronted Jun and demanded that he cooperate in their attack on the Shiba Clan.
• Jun used Eye's Prohibition and Kidō to escape and fight back, blinding Yagishiro and Be while Sasebo pressed him with his Zanpakuto's language-destroying Shikai.
• Jun defeated Sasebo with Hadō #90, Kurohitsugi, and killed him, while Yagishiro and Be surrendered.
• Jun used Kakushitsuijaku and sensed battles spreading through the Rukongai and Seireitei, including Kyōraku fighting Nambu Nobuyasu and Yoruichi Shihōin fighting Yukinoshita Hanato.
• Jun hurried toward the Twelfth Division to find Lingling and check on the safety of his friends and family.

Jun sought answers amid fighting across Soul Society and learned that the turmoil began with Shiba Mitsuo’s attempt to force himself on Yoruichi, followed by his death and a power struggle involving noble retainers. After discovering the conflict had been exploited to advance family interests, Jun was left furious and helpless over the widespread casualties.

• Jun learned that Shiba Mitsuo had been dead for seven or eight days and sensed that Captain Yukinoshita’s Reiatsu had disappeared.
• Jun went to the battlefield and spoke with Yoruichi, who denied sending people after him; he suspected retainers were exploiting the conflict to challenge their noble families.
• Jun visited Jing and asked Ise Rikudō about the incident, learning that Shiba Mitsuo had tried to force himself on Yoruichi after a noble gathering and had been beaten and driven away.
• Ise Rikudō confirmed that someone in the Shiba Clan had used the incident to pressure the Shihoin family, while Shihoin retainers retaliated in the name of defending their main family.
• Jun realized that people seeking power had helped turn the incident into widespread chaos, and he angrily condemned them.

After the Shiba heroes’ assassination plunged Soul Society into chaos, Jun sought advice from Shunsui Kyōraku and then Jūshirō Ukitake. Ukitake pointed Jun toward Yoruichi Shihōin, and Jun set out to find her despite the danger surrounding her.

• Jun visited the Kyōraku Clan estate, where Shunsui heard reports of losses and ordered the retainers to stay inside.
• Jun told Shunsui he had killed three attackers and asked how to get involved in the crisis.
• Shunsui gave Jun a letter for Jūshirō Ukitake and advised him to ask for Ukitake’s view.
• Jun visited Ukitake, who reasoned that Yoruichi Shihōin would be kept safe and urged Jun to decide his own position.
• Jun realized he should seek Yoruichi and left to find her, while Ukitake began coughing again.

Jun decided to mediate the conflict between the Shihoin Family and the Shiba Clan, despite the danger, and enlisted Aizen to help him plan. After meeting Yoruichi Shihōin and Kisuke Urahara, Jun learned how the feud had escalated and received his first assignment: tell the Shiba Clan to return the Shihoin Family’s waist tokens for the funerals.

• Jun asked Aizen to serve as his hidden mastermind, and Aizen agreed on the condition that they make a thorough plan.
• Jun visited Yoruichi Shihōin at the Shihoin Family estate and revealed that he wanted to mediate the conflict with the Shiba Clan.
• Kisuke Urahara emerged from hiding, and Jun explained that he had exposed Yoruichi’s act to test whether her side could help him effectively.
• Jun shared what he knew about the noble families, and Urahara recounted how retaliatory killings had claimed seventeen lives before the incident.
• Urahara gave Jun his first assignment: tell the Shiba Clan to return the Shihoin Family’s waist tokens for the funerals, and Jun agreed to go the next day.

Jun and Aizen fought concealed attackers inside a massive Shishō Saemon barrier, using coordinated Kidō blasts and signals to expose and kill them. After the barrier vanished, Jun continued onward, convinced he had won the exchange.

• Jun left the Shihoin estate under Kyokkō and entered the nearly deserted areas around the Fifth and Seventh Divisions.
• The Kidō Corps trapped Jun inside a Shishō Saemon barrier enclosing the Fourth through Seventh Divisions, and concealed attackers began targeting those who tried to flee.
• Jun and Aizen coordinated through Kagyō signals, using Kongōbaku and other Kidō to expose and kill more than twenty attackers before withdrawing to recover.
• Jun and Aizen resumed their attacks, killing additional enemies as the prolonged standoff drove one concealed attacker to panic and run for the barrier gate.
• The Shishō Saemon suddenly dissipated after a tremendous Reiatsu appeared, and Jun continued forward, believing he had won the exchange.

Jun delivered the Shiba and Shihoin badges and learned that a powerful alliance of retainers was blocking reconciliation and might assassinate noble clan leaders. After binding Kinjun Shiba for his defiance, Jun left with Shiba Kazato and Isshin to return to the Shihoin residence and prepare for the final battle.

• Jun reached the Shiba residence after killing a cloaked attacker who tried to ambush him.
• Jun exchanged the Shiba and Shihoin badges with Katsukoma Shiba, who explained that allied retainers were resisting peace and might attack clan leaders.
• Jun argued that the Shiba and Shihoin Clans needed to strike back, then bound Kinjun Shiba after Kinjun insulted him and dismissed the threat.
• Katsukoma Shiba assigned Shiba Kazato to accompany Jun, and Isshin insisted on joining them.
• Jun, Shiba Kazato, and Isshin used Kyokkō and Shunpo to leave for the Shihoin residence, intending to emerge after the situation settled.

Jun, Yoruichi, Isshin, Ichigen, and Urahara set out to deliver the families’ agreement to Central 46, but a mob and Captain Ishikawa Saemon ambushed them. Yoruichi defeated Ishikawa with her Divine Roar technique, leaving her exhausted as Urahara caught her.

• Jun, Ichigen, Isshin, Yoruichi, and Urahara left the Shihoin residence to escort the agreement, but hundreds of people gathered to block them.
• Members of the Second Division and the Punishment Force attacked the crowd while several Shishō Saemon barriers trapped the group.
• Captain Ishikawa Saemon confronted Yoruichi and Urahara, revealed his hatred of the noble clans, and activated his Bankai, Heaven's Wrath Buddha-Head Vajra.
• Yoruichi used Divine Roar to evade Ishikawa's tracking attacks, then gathered her power and fired Divine Roar: Divine Light Cannon.
• Urahara repeatedly cast Dankū to contain the blast, and Ishikawa was destroyed as Yoruichi collapsed from exhaustion and Urahara caught her.

Jun discovered that Instructor Hanazawa had masterminded the crisis and learned that Hanazawa’s plans had been disrupted by Jun’s intervention. Hanazawa sent Jun and Aizen away with his Kidō notes, leaving his ultimate goal unanswered as the battlefield erupted.

• Instructor Hanazawa revealed himself as the mastermind and used Demon Destruction to turn Aizen’s Kurohitsugi back on him before healing Aizen’s wounds.
• Jun told Hanazawa that he had joined the incident to gain influence through the legitimacy of becoming a living hero, then criticized Soul Society’s rigid class system.
• Hanazawa explained how he had conspired with the Deputy Captain of the penal division against the Shihoin and Shiba, but Jun’s actions and the man’s retreat had derailed his plan.
• An explosion interrupted Hanazawa’s explanation, so he gave Jun his Kidō notes and used Rending Space Realm to send Jun and Aizen to an empty Shishō Saemon near the Tenth Division.
• Jun and Aizen concealed their presence as the Shishō Saemon began to break apart, and Jun watched a blaze rise in the distance and bid farewell to Hanazawa.

After the incident, Jun learned how Soul Society punished the conspirators, mourned its dead, and stripped the Shiba Clan of its noble status. Yamamoto and Central 46 recognized Jun as a hero, and he later discussed preserving Hanazawa’s notes and his ambitions with Aizen.

• Jun and the others delivered the reconciliation terms to Central 46, officially ending the incident, and Jun was promoted to Seventh Seat after the Tenth Division lost twenty-seven members.
• The Gotei 13 reported 279 deaths, while the Kidō Corps and noble families involved in the attacks were investigated, killed, or imprisoned.
• Central 46 stripped the Shiba Clan of its noble status after Katsukoma died, and Kinjun Shiba blamed Shiba Kazato, driving the main and branch families apart.
• Shunsui Kyōraku and other noble families abolished the retainer position, while Yoruichi withdrew her similar proposal after Shihoin retainers begged her to reconsider.
• Hanazawa fought her way to Yamamoto but was defeated, and her name became taboo; afterward, Yamamoto and Central 46 formally recognized Jun as a hero.
• Jun gave Aizen Hanazawa’s original notes and explained his plan to hide copies in the Journal Hall for talented, patient students, then he and Aizen shared their views and pledged to succeed.

Over the century after his wedding to Isuzu, Jun advanced in Kidō and watched changes among Soul Society’s divisions and his family. He began another teaching assignment at Shin'ō Academy, where he identified the talented, arrogant Kōga Tatara and decided to involve Aizen in teasing him.

• Jun and Isuzu lived together in a noble residence Jun had secured, and their wedding had drawn captains, lieutenants, and noble clan heads from across Soul Society.
• Over the following decades, Jun rose to Sixth Seat, Kirio Hikifune joined the Zero Division, Kisuke Urahara became Twelfth Division captain, and Jun completed much of his Kidō training.
• Jun’s sister Jing became a Ninth Seat in the Eighth Division and chose Lisa Yadōmaru as her adjutant; Nanao Ise was born, and Nana Onibe rose to 33rd Seat and married.
• Jun began a three-month teaching assignment at Shin'ō Academy to keep an eye on Kōga Tatara, whose talent and name reminded him of the future Kōga Kuchiki.
• During Jun’s public lecture, Kōga noticed Jun looking at him and began pretending to pay attention; Jun decided to introduce him to Aizen for amusement.

Jun Shimizu answered students’ questions at the Journal Hall and met three boys who wanted to become stronger. As their coach Kōga Tatara arrived, Jun began to suspect that something was wrong with their training.

• Jun resumed sorting journals and advising Shin'ō Academy students through slips of paper and Tenteikūra.
• Kōga Tatara defeated his three underlings in training, grew frustrated with their lack of progress, and angrily sent them to seek Jun’s advice.
• The three boys visited the Journal Hall and asked Jun how they could get stronger.
• Jun spoke with the boys and learned they had trained hard for years but felt they were getting weaker or making no progress.
• Kōga arrived to look for the boys, and he and Jun recognized each other.

Jun helped Kōga understand that his classmates were not weak but that he was exceptionally strong, and urged him to guide them rather than berate them. The chapter then revealed Jun’s hidden Shikai and his theory that Zanpakuto powers were forms of Kidō, while the Shikai he showed Soul Society, Clear Rain, concealed his true self.

• Jun asked Kōga and the three children to demonstrate their practice, and Kōga quickly defeated them before angrily scolding them.
• Jun told Kōga that he was the strongest student in his class and explained that he should correct his friends’ mistakes instead of insulting them.
• Jun encouraged Daijin Hibiki, Matsutoshi Jūrō, and Shimokawa Tōichirō to be confident, then left Kōga with advice to keep helping them.
• Jun reflected on Kōga’s future and drew his Zanpakuto, questioning why Soul Society suppressed secrets about Zanpakuto.
• Jun reasoned that Shikai and Bankai were forms of Reishi manipulation like Kidō, and considered how Yumichika Ayasegawa and Retsu Unohana reflected different aspects of their true selves.
• Jun revealed that Clear Rain was the Shikai he presented publicly, while his true Shikai remained hidden because his true self conflicted with Soul Society.

After completing his academy assignment, Jun accepted Central 46’s invitation to join an expedition to Hueco Mundo, with Asai Shinten accompanying him as his adjutant. The expedition assembled again after 107 years, leaving Jun and Isuzu to part with the risks understood.

• Jun spent three months training the academy’s younger students, and Kōga’s opinion of him softened despite their lingering friction.
• Jun visited Aizen, discussed Soul Reaper unrest and the World of the Living, and told him about the promising student Tatara Kōga.
• After Isuzu returned from her project, Jun received Central 46’s expedition letter and decided to accept, naming Lieutenant Muguruma as the team’s leader.
• Jun asked Asai Shinten to accompany him as his adjutant, and she agreed despite their unresolved past.
• Jun told Isuzu about the expedition, and she supported his decision while they shared an affectionate evening.
• Jun signed the letter of intent, and the expeditionary force to Hueco Mundo assembled once again after 107 years.

Jun joined an eighty-three-person Soul Reaper expedition to Hueco Mundo, where the force set up camp and began hunting Hollows in the Forest of Menos. After Jun’s group spotted a Gillian, the expedition’s strongest fighters killed it, and the party retreated to camp before moving to hunt from another direction.

• Jun assembled with the expeditionary force and traveled through the Dangai into Hueco Mundo under Kensei Muguruma’s leadership.
• The expedition reached the Forest of Menos, established camp, and agreed to hunt from the forest’s outskirts while avoiding its depths.
• On the second day, Jun led a seven-person group into the forest, where they killed Hollows and reported their catches with signals.
• The Ichinorai Squad spotted a Gillian, prompting the groups to converge before Kensei Muguruma’s mobile team arrived and ordered the others to retreat.
• A First Division fighter struck the Gillian down, and the expedition withdrew to camp as the dying Gillian summoned more Hollows.
• Kensei Muguruma announced that the group would move around the forest’s perimeter and begin another hunt from a different direction.

Two months into the Expedition, Jun’s team found a silent trail of Hollow corpses and discovered a huge beetle-shaped Menos Grande feeding on them. The group watched from a distance, wary of the unknown creature and its conspicuous Hollow Hole.

• Jun explained how Hollow Hole positions could reveal Adjuchas and Vasto Lorde, and noted that some powerful Hollows could not be identified that way.
• Jun’s team noticed that three rest signals had passed without any Hollows appearing and called the Expedition together.
• Jun and Kensei Muguruma suspected that a special Menos Grande had killed a Gillian, and Kensei ordered everyone to continue at maximum alert.
• The Seventh Division leader spotted a Gillian’s corpse and numerous other Hollow corpses through a gap between two great trees.
• Jun’s Expedition moved closer and found a huge beetle-shaped Hollow eating the bodies, then watched without daring to move.

Jun stayed behind in Hueco Mundo as the expedition escaped the Rhinoceros Beetle and faced the arrival of Coyote Starrk and Lilynette Gingerbuck. After closing the Senkaimon, Jun survived the pair’s overwhelming Reiatsu and befriended them.

• The Rhinoceros Beetle pursued the expedition through the Forest of Menos, repeatedly breaking through Shishō Saemon as the group fled toward the desert.
• Tendō and the Kidō Corps raised their final Shishō Saemon while Kensei Muguruma and three First Division Bigwigs prepared to hold off the Rhinoceros Beetle until the Senkaimon opened.
• A wolf’s howl silenced Shishō Saemon, and the Rhinoceros Beetle fled when a Vasto Lorde appeared; Jun warned the expedition, and everyone rushed through the Senkaimon.
• Jun forced Kensei unconscious, sent the remaining Soul Reapers through the gate, and closed it from outside using Space Kidō.
• Jun endured the Reiatsu of Coyote Starrk and Lilynette Gingerbuck, used Tenteikūra to communicate with them, and introduced himself before collapsing onto the sand, relieved to be alive.

Jun stayed in Hueco Mundo with Starrk and Lilynette, teaching them while exploring the worlds beyond the Forest of Menos. In Soul Society, Isuzu mourned Jun until Aizen convinced her that Jun might still be alive and able to return.

• Jun questioned Starrk and Lilynette about what they were, then watched Starrk and Lilynette defeat an Adjuchas and learned how they compared its strength with Vasto Lorde.
• The expedition team returned to Soul Society without Jun, and Kensei Muguruma apologized to Isuzu for failing to bring him back.
• Soul Society held Jun's funeral, where Isuzu, Jing, and many mourners grieved his reported death.
• Aizen reminded Isuzu that Jun could use Space-Breaking World and might have escaped or become trapped in the Dangai, renewing her hope that he would return.
• Jun coached Starrk in controlling his Reiatsu and taught Starrk and Lilynette speech and arithmetic while spending time with them.
• Starrk took Jun to observe Hollows and explore a vast ocean, a grassland, and a stone world beyond the Forest of Menos, and said he had once lived in the grassland.

Jun introduced Starrk and Lilynette to a game of force-feeding Gillians to other Hollows, then watched Starrk overpower and stuff Ulquiorra with hundreds of them. Jun agreed to stay with Starrk and Lilynette a while longer and advised Starrk to observe whether the Hollows he fed would grow stronger.

• Jun named three newly discovered regions of Hueco Mundo and focused on studying Hollows instead of exploring them.
• Jun had Starrk summon Gillians and force them into an Adjuchas Rhinoceros Beetle, then they repeated the game with two other Hollows.
• Starrk found Ulquiorra, overpowered him, and stuffed him with more than two hundred Gillians while Jun and Lilynette watched.
• Jun protected the exhausted Ulquiorra inside a Tōzanshō and agreed to stay after Lilynette asked him not to leave.
• Jun told Starrk to observe whether the Hollows he fed grew stronger, and Starrk agreed to continue the game.

After helping Starrk and Lilynette turn Hollows into Arrancar, Jun prepared to return to Soul Society and urged Starrk to protect himself from those who might hurt him. Starrk sent Jun back badly injured, where Yamada Taiyū recognized him and rushed him toward the Fourth Division.

• Over more than forty days, Starrk and Jun found and stuffed Gillians into adjuchas and two Vasto Lorde, leaving wild Gillians scarce in the Forest of Menos.
• Jun explained human relationships and Soul Society to Starrk and Lilynette, and Starrk revealed that he and Lilynette were one being who could separate through Resurrección.
• Jun advised Starrk to guard himself against unkind Hollows and promised to take him to the ocean before asking him to injure Jun and send him back to Soul Society.
• Starrk agreed to Jun’s plan, and Jun lost consciousness after being seriously injured and thrown through a spatial rift.
• Yamada Taiyū stopped his sword from striking the battered Jun, broke his own wrist in the process, and called for Akiyama to take Shimizu-san to the Fourth Division.

Jun recovered from his near-fatal injuries with Retsu Unohana’s treatment and reunited with Isuzu. After returning home, he learned how he had been rescued, spoke privately with Aizen about the battle, and came up with an explanation for his space Kidō.

• Isuzu rushed to the Fourth Division after hearing Jun had been rescued, but Retsu Unohana let her stay only if she did not touch him.
• Jun woke after seventeen days in a coma, and Retsu Unohana used her Shikai to help him repair his damaged spiritual foundation.
• Jun recovered enough to leave the hospital, while Isuzu and his younger sister cared for him at home and visitors came to congratulate him.
• Jun learned that Starrk had thrown him through the Dangai and that Yamada Taiyū and Akiyama Eiji had brought him to the Fourth Division.
• Aizen visited Jun, and they discussed his fight with the Vasto Lorde, his survival in the Dangai, and the space Kidō he had used.
• Jun decided to explain his space Kidō by saying that Isuzu had taught it to him, and Aizen accepted the explanation before leaving.

After Central 46 punished Isuzu for learning space Kidō, Jun returned to the Tenth Division with growing anger toward them. Aizen spent three months teaching at Shin’ō Academy, assessed Kōga Tatara, and revealed to Jun that he had begun treating people as pieces in his plans.

• Central 46 transferred Isuzu from the Twelfth Division to the Thirteenth Division and sternly warned Jun and Isuzu not to pass on space Kidō again.
• Jun returned to work in the Tenth Division and vowed that he would someday kill Central 46 himself.
• Aizen began a three-month teaching assignment at Shin’ō Academy and watched Kōga train with Daijin Hibiki, Shimokawa Tōichirō, and Matsutoshi Jūrō.
• Aizen praised Kōga’s talent and responsibility but warned Jun that Kōga’s personality was a problem and that he might need a major experience to mature.
• Aizen asked whether Kōga was part of Jun’s plan, and Jun realized that Aizen had begun treating people as pieces on a chessboard.

Jun and Isuzu traveled to the World of the Living to investigate a long-forgotten accident at the Seireitei Research Institute. After decoding hidden journal entries, Jun revealed that they were searching for the Bount, and he resolved to find them.

• Jun and Isuzu became Kōga's mentors during a teaching assignment and grew closer to him.
• Isuzu reminded Jun of his promise to explain the old Research Institute accident, so they took an extended assignment in the World of the Living.
• Jun brought Isuzu to the World of the Living and told her they were looking for the Bount.
• Jun showed Isuzu overlapping journal entries that revealed an explosion and that someone had been taken away for experiments.
• Jun explained that the entries had been preserved across nineteen graduations over fifty-seven years, and said he was more certain than ever that they should find the Bount.

Jun and Isuzu searched remote islands for surviving Bount, discussing how Soul Society had hunted them and why they struggled to survive. They found an isolated Bount named Koinu, who recounted his brutal past, and Jun offered to help him regain his power.

• Jun explained to Isuzu that Central 46 had branded the Bount as soul-eating monsters to justify their slaughter.
• Jun and Isuzu searched the wilderness of Sengoku-era Japan and found signs of Bount on deserted islands near Kyushu.
• Jun mapped an island with his Kidō and located a Bount living in a submerged cavern.
• The Bount named Koinu tried to flee, but Jun caught him with a Bakudō.
• Koinu told Jun and Isuzu how samurai tortured him, Hollows attacked him, and Soul Reapers destroyed the Undying Army he had been forced to join.
• Jun asked Koinu whether he wanted to regain the power that had once saved him.

Jun and Isuzu gathered Bount across Japan, giving them names, food, and a settlement where Jun planned to teach them and develop their powers. With 372 Bount assembled, Jun faced the urgent challenge of feeding them and protecting them from Hollows, and devised a bold plan to address their food shortage.

• Jun fed Koinu, healed his broken limbs, renamed him Minamijima Inosuke, and accepted his worship as the Shimizu God while Isuzu became the Clean Clothes God.
• Jun and Inosuke found four Bount in a cave; Jun restrained the man, and Isuzu washed the three women before the group joined the growing community.
• Jun and Isuzu spent over a year gathering 372 Bount, including Kariya Jin, and established a town in a canyon north of Inabayama on Shikoku.
• Jun promised to teach the Bount to read, write, and control their powers, but recognized that feeding them and hiding their Spiritual Power from Soul Reapers and Hollows were major problems.
• Jun discovered that the Bount could eat Hollows for Spiritual Power, but the supply would not last, so he came up with a bold new plan.