Chapter Summaries

Jun returned to Hueco Mundo after Ichigo lost his Soul Reaper powers and warned the Expedition’s Shūsuke Amagai to prepare for Soul Reapers fleeing Soul Society. He reunited with Aizen, showed him the Arrancar cultivation base, and watched Yammy cocoon himself after being force-fed Spiritual Power before Aizen left to travel with Felix.

• Jun took Orihime and Rukia to see Ichigo, told them he had lost his Soul Reaper Power, and promised to find a way to restore it.
• Jun brought Ulquiorra and Oka to meet Shūsuke Amagai, warned him against risking the Expedition for revenge, and gave him a communicator to summon the Arrancar if he wanted Jun’s help.
• At the Endless Sea, Aizen met Zegrod, an ancient being whose strength was comparable to the Captain-Commander’s and who had no interest in Jun’s plans.
• Jun showed Aizen the Arrancar cultivation base and explained how natural science had informed his methods and his theory about Yammy’s development.
• The Original Arrancar force-fed Yammy Spiritual Power until he assumed his caterpillar form and spun a gigantic cocoon.
• Aizen admitted he did not belong in Hueco Mundo, took a map from Jun, and left to wander with Felix.

After a month without his Soul Reaper powers, Ichigo reunited with Jun, who restored them and tested whether he truly wanted to return to a dangerous life of fighting. Jun left Ichigo with the Seaside Villa and its responsibilities, warned him to stay out of Soul Society’s upheaval, and urged him never to use the Final Getsuga Tenshō again.

• Ichigo spent a restless month powerless while dating Rukia, and Jun arrived at school to take them to the Seaside Villa.
• Jun gave Ichigo the villa, its keys, and responsibility for its Training Ground and Spiritual Power-related cases, then handed over keys to the research institute for the Fullbring Organization.
• Jun restored Ichigo’s Spiritual Power and revealed that he had invented the claim about Ichigo’s damaged soul to make him live without power for a month.
• Ichigo chose to return to his former life of fighting, and Jun warned him against using the Final Getsuga Tenshō again or getting involved in Soul Society’s political turmoil.
• Ichigo explained that in the Final Getsuga Tenshō state he had been both himself and Tensa Zangetsu, and Jun made him promise never to use the move again.

Jun began the fourth Hueco Mundo exploration plan, while Ichigo confronted Yukio about recruiting his schoolmates as Fullbringers. After Ichigo returned to the Seaside Villa, he and his friends were stunned when Ulquiorra Cifer arrived at their door.

• Jun led a 23-team expedition into the Bottomless Abyss, with Golvi Llargo joining his team as a newborn Original Arrancar.
• The new spiritual affairs office began operating in Karakura Town, and Ichigo discovered that the Fullbring Organization had contacted four of his schoolmates.
• Ichigo confronted Yukio, who explained that the four schoolmates could awaken Fullbring because of their spiritual sensitivity and their exposure to Ichigo and Rukia.
• Yukio told Ichigo that his schoolmates had chosen to awaken their abilities deliberately and suggested they might join Ichigo's supernatural affairs agency.
• Ichigo returned to the Seaside Villa, where he and Uryū, Orihime, Sado, and Rukia recognized Ulquiorra Cifer at the door.

Ulquiorra arrived in the World of the Living on Shimizu-san’s orders and moved in with Ichigo, Uryū, Rukia, and their companions. After joining Orihime’s class as a transfer student, his blunt response to classmates’ provocation left several of them unconscious, and Orihime began healing them.

• Ulquiorra waited patiently outside the villa until Rukia opened the door and Ichigo let him in.
• Ulquiorra told Uryū that Shimizu-san had sent him to live with them because something about him was unusual, but he could not reveal the Arrancar secret involved.
• Uryū agreed to show Ulquiorra their lives and work after learning that he had been told to fit in with them and follow his heart.
• Ulquiorra introduced himself as a transfer student from Romania in Orihime’s class and tore up notes from lovestruck classmates.
• When classmates confronted him on the rooftop, Ulquiorra challenged them to settle the dispute and knocked them unconscious despite Orihime’s warning.
• Ulquiorra asked Orihime to heal the unconscious students and offered to cover for her while she did so.

Ulquiorra used his overwhelming strength and careful planning to become the most feared and respected student at school, then proved just as capable on the group’s paranormal investigations. The others welcomed him into their circle, while Orihime remained wary of the Arrancar who had threatened them only three months earlier.

• Orihime stopped healing the students Ulquiorra had beaten, and his reputation as a formidable fighter spread through the school.
• Ulquiorra defeated eight students who came after him and used a call from the Undead to avoid punishment from the school board.
• After school, Ulquiorra broke a limb of each of the twenty-seven thugs who attacked him, and the police took them away without questioning him.
• Ulquiorra earned the teachers’ favor with perfect answers, while Tatsuki grew impressed by him and Orihime struggled to correct her assumptions.
• Ulquiorra became close with Reigen Shinchō and took charge of planning and handling the group’s paranormal cases, earning the others’ trust.
• Orihime wondered what Ulquiorra was really trying to do, remembering that he had threatened the group three months earlier.

During a winter-vacation mission, Reigen Shinchō explained to Ulquiorra that human impulses could defy logic, prompting Ulquiorra to reconsider his own choices. He realized he might have acted impulsively when he spared Ichigo Kurosaki for the girl’s sake, and wondered why.

• Tatsuki Arisawa and Asano Mizue awakened their Fullbring and joined the Paranormal Detective Agency, with Mizue recovering her erased memories of Ikkaku Madarame.
• The agency traveled by RV to investigate a family in Wu Port whose elderly relative had likely been murdered and returned as a Hollow.
• Reigen Shinchō told Ulquiorra that emotional impulses could lead people to act against logic, using a murder case he had handled as an example.
• Ulquiorra considered Reigen Shinchō’s claim that he might have Emotional Deficiency Disorder and reflected on whether he had ever acted impulsively.
• Ulquiorra remembered sparing Ichigo Kurosaki during their earlier battle for a girl’s sake and wondered why he had done it.

Ichigo and his group took a paid job to exorcise a Hollow haunting a wealthy family, where Asano Mizue exposed the client’s guilt over his father-in-law’s death. After Tatsuki and Mizue defeated the Hollow, its final curse unsettled them, while Orihime continued to wonder whether Ulquiorra had truly become harmless.

• Reigen Shinchō’s group arrived at a villa and Ulquiorra identified a Hollow that was close to devouring the wealthy man.
• Ichigo located the Hollow in the father-in-law’s old study, and Asano Mizue used her ability to make the wealthy man remember his crime.
• The wealthy man paid the group, and Tatsuki and Asano Mizue went to fight the Hollow with Orihime and Ulquiorra backing them up.
• Tatsuki and Asano Mizue defeated the Hollow, which cursed the family before disappearing, and Ulquiorra relayed its final words.
• Tatsuki worried that they might go to Hell, but Ulquiorra reassured her, and the group left the villa with their payment.
• Orihime remained wary of Ulquiorra, while Tatsuki and Mizue teased her about her feelings.

Uryū confessed his feelings to Orihime, who asked for time to think, while Ulquiorra struggled to understand why he could not stop thinking about her. After confronting Orihime with his confused feelings and frightening her into tears, Ulquiorra was left questioning whether he liked her.

• Uryū went home and tried to ask Ryūken about love, but lost his nerve and left without an answer.
• Uryū confessed to Orihime and asked her to be his girlfriend, and she asked for time to think.
• Ulquiorra brooded over why he had interrupted Uryū and Orihime, then admitted he could not stop thinking about her.
• Ulquiorra questioned Orihime about why she affected him and revealed that she had changed his thoughts during his fight with Ichigo Kurosaki.
• Orihime cried, pushed Ulquiorra away, and ran to her room, while Ulquiorra's killing intent frightened Uryū.
• Ulquiorra wondered whether he liked Orihime Inoue and what it meant to like someone.

Ulquiorra struggled to understand his feelings for Orihime and tried to justify killing her, but Jun helped him reconsider his logic and connect his affection to his search for a heart. The chapter left Ulquiorra ready to follow his heart, though he had not yet said what he would do.

• Ulquiorra tried to kill Orihime because he believed his affection weakened him, then convinced himself he could not kill her because Aizen and his father valued her.
• After Shizuoka Airyu reported the situation, Jun took the group to the World of the Living and visited Ulquiorra in seclusion.
• Jun warned Ulquiorra against losing himself in human philosophy and urged him to help the Arrancar develop instead.
• Jun challenged Ulquiorra’s fear that accepting Orihime would leave him vulnerable, and Ulquiorra realized his siblings and Ichigo were not current threats.
• Jun connected Ulquiorra’s feelings for Orihime to his search for a heart and the development of Segunda Etapa, then told him to follow his heart.

Ulquiorra made a grand public confession to Orihime, but his bluntness and uncertainty frustrated her, and she took him away from the school to talk. After he misunderstood her challenge to meet more people and walked off to investigate, Jun and Isuzu argued about the situation until Golvi released a mysterious powder that prompted Ulquiorra to return and protect Orihime.

• Ulquiorra bought 1,526 roses and confessed his love to Orihime in front of the school, where students and teachers cheered them on.
• Orihime pulled Ulquiorra out of the classroom and asked whether he understood what it meant to like someone; he said she alone made him care.
• When Orihime suggested he might meet other people who were different, Ulquiorra took her literally and walked away to investigate.
• Jun and Isuzu argued about whether they should interfere, while Golvi blew powder around them.
• Ulquiorra sensed an unknown attack, returned to Orihime, and told her to stay by his side.

Orihime and Ulquiorra awaken from a shared dream in which Ichigo kills Ulquiorra, and Jun reveals that Golvi’s ability caused it. The dream exposes Orihime’s growing feelings for Ulquiorra, leaving her embarrassed as he promises to protect her and struggles to understand her.

• Ulquiorra escorts Orihime across the desert when Ichigo arrives, and the two fight in a battle that ends with Ichigo killing Ulquiorra in their dream.
• Orihime wakes beside Ulquiorra, who explains that they shared the dream and suspects someone used an ability on them.
• Jun reveals that Golvi’s Shared Dream ability trapped Orihime and Ulquiorra in a dream shaped by their shared thoughts.
• Jun, Isuzu, and Golvi leave, while Ulquiorra analyzes the dream and Orihime realizes she feels safe with him and has feelings for him.
• Orihime tells Ulquiorra to be quiet, and he earnestly agrees to submit to her and protect her.

Jun and the explorers descended into the Bottomless Abyss, found its floor thousands of kilometers below the entrance, and began mapping its vast branching passages. After discovering a boundary and the Skyline Cloud Sea beyond it, the groups returned to the abyss and split up to search for more connections.

• Jun told Ulquiorra to stay in the World of the Living and follow his heart after Ulquiorra said he could feel a heartbeat beside his Hollow Hole.
• Jun and more than 150 explorers descended 3,779 kilometers and reached the bottom of the Bottomless Abyss, which proved larger than the explored Endless Sea.
• Jun divided the explorers into six groups, and his group coordinated with nearby teams as they charted branching passages downward.
• Jun’s group and the sixth group joined forces after their passages connected, then explored together for three days and descended nearly 800 more kilometers.
• Team four found a spatial connection to a new world, which the explorers named the Skyline Cloud Sea, and the groups returned to the abyss and split up to explore its boundaries.

Jun investigated a region where violent Menos Grandes overwhelmed Grimmjow and found a Vasto Lorde whose berserk state seemed tied to a mental influence. Jun led a powerful team back into the region, where Starrk achieved Segunda Etapa and began sharing Spiritual Power among his allies.

• Jun's team reunited with Ichigo Kurosaki, Ulquiorra, and the Paranormal Detective Agency, and learned that Grimmjow had been badly injured while fighting in a region full of unusually violent Menos Grandes.
• Pandele questioned a captured Chimera Vasto Lorde, who lost his reason whenever he tried to recall what had happened to him, and Jun suspected a mental influence.
• After Grimmjow returned wounded, Jun consulted Zegrod and assembled a team of Arrancar and fighters capable of Hollowfication Mask Fusion, including Ichigo Kurosaki and Uryū.
• The team entered the strange region, cleared a path through attacking Adjuchas, and followed Dolfen's directions while Starrk protected them with his Resurrección abilities.
• Jun urged Starrk to consider the difference between a group and a family, and Starrk achieved Segunda Etapa, using Family's Gift to share Spiritual Power through his Spirit Wolves.

Jun and his group found the ancient Arrancar Arturo Platido guarding a mysterious source in a small world, and learned that Uryū’s powers seemed connected to Arturo’s legendary Son of Heaven. Arturo’s frantic questions about Uryū’s ancestry left Jun believing he had uncovered the final piece of an old mystery.

• Starrk’s Spirit Wolves helped the group safely reach a spatial opening that was causing nearby Hollows to become irritable.
• Jun gave Nel the shield Undying Unbroken, and accepting it triggered her Second Resurrección before she entered the opening.
• Nel returned and reported that an ancient Arrancar was guarding the source, so Jun led the group into the small world to meet him.
• The Arrancar identified himself as Arturo Platido, recalled knowing Zegrod when he was called the Sea King, and refused to reveal what he guarded.
• Arturo singled out Uryū as a possible descendant of the Son of Heaven, and Jun urged him to demonstrate his powers and expel his Silver Blood.
• Arturo grabbed Uryū and demanded to know whether he was the Son of Heaven’s son or grandson and why he was not alive, while Jun realized he might have solved an old puzzle.

Jun and Uryū questioned Arturo and learned that he was an ancient Arrancar appointed by the Son of Heaven to guard the entrance to a sealed world. Arturo’s account revealed that the world was Hell, and Jun concluded that its gates imprisoned powerful souls at risk of becoming monstrous.

• Uryū told Arturo he might be a distant descendant of the Son of Heaven, while Jun stepped in to explain how much time and language had changed.
• Jun learned that Arturo had guarded a hidden route since an ancient age and that the miasma had appeared only within the past hundred years.
• Arturo recounted how the Son of Heaven united factions of the dead against the Arrancar, then joined them to seal evolved monsters inside a world stripped of Reishi.
• Arturo explained that the Son of Heaven had later tasked him with killing any monsters that escaped the sealed world.
• Jun identified the guarded place as Hell and its entrance as the Gates of Hell, explaining that powerful souls could be dragged there if they risked evolving into monsters.
• Jun said Ichigo Kurosaki’s Final Getsuga Tenshō had put him in such a state, leaving the group stunned.

Jun used the Five Wooden Gourds Crest to locate Hell and opened its gates, revealing that the Soul King had died after creating and separating the worlds. Nobunaga Oda escaped from Hell, and he and Jun prepared to make trouble in the World of the Dead.

• Jun asked Arturo whether he would interfere if Jun found Hell, and Arturo said he would not.
• Jun learned from Arturo that the Soul King had died after separating the World of the Dead and that parts of him had remained in Soul Society, the Dangai, and the World of the Living.
• Jun activated Nobunaga Oda’s Five Wooden Gourds Crest, and Uryū erased the black fog covering the gates of Hell.
• Jun and Uryū forced the gates open, and Nobunaga Oda struggled through while the gates crushed his arm and leg.
• Nobunaga Oda severed his trapped arm and leg, escaped Hell, and greeted Jun before declaring they would do something great in the World of the Dead.

Jun learned from Nobunaga that Hell was packed with powerful, unstable souls and faced a growing crisis as its population surged. He agreed to deal with the threat, and Nobunaga promised to help him.

• Jun took Nobunaga to the World of the Living, then brought Arturo back to the Endless Sea, where Arturo reunited with Zegrod and pledged to help Jun.
• Nobunaga explained that Hell held monsters judged capable of reaching the Transcendent Level, including twelve ancient beings who had fought until none remained.
• Nobunaga described how Shōtoku Taishi sacrificed himself to reveal why people were dragged into Hell and how they might escape, allowing Nobunaga to give Jun his family crest.
• Nobunaga said he had killed Toyotomi Hideyoshi, Tokugawa Ieyasu, Akechi Mitsuhide, and other old acquaintances to survive Hell, where souls grew stronger by absorbing Spiritual Power from the dead.
• Nobunaga warned that Hell held at least eighty Critical Level beings and hundreds just below that, with its growing population pushing power toward an eventual eruption.
• Jun agreed to take care of Hell's crisis, and Nobunaga promised to help him until the task was finished.

Soul Society reeled after the Captain-Commander’s defeat and Jun Shimizu’s threat, while Mashiro Kuna’s clash with Chōjirō Sasakibe deepened the Visoreds’ break with it. As Soul Society tried suppression, discontent spread and more than five hundred Soul Reapers fled to Jun’s Expedition, leaving the conflict poised to escalate.

• After the battle in the World of the Living, Mashiro Kuna attacked Kensei Muguruma, and Chōjirō Sasakibe’s defense of Soul Society intensified her hatred and resumed the fighting.
• Retsu Unohana stopped the battle, and the Visoreds let go of their reluctance to treat Soul Reapers from Soul Society as enemies.
• Soul Society’s leaders faced the Captain-Commander’s defeat, Jun Shimizu’s threat, and growing interest among young Soul Reapers in Jun’s ideas and the deaths of Kakyō and Tōsen.
• Soul Society responded to the unrest with suppression, judgment, and punishment, as Jun’s warning about tearing it apart continued to unsettle the organization.
• A member of the Twelfth Division opened the Senkaimon, and more than five hundred Soul Reapers fled to the Expedition within six months.

Tōshirō and Rangiku hid from Soul Society’s search squads while Iba warned them about the pursuit and Soi Fon’s imprisonment. Soi Fon escaped with Ōmaeda, learned that the Yunshui Family was hunting others as well, and left him hidden in Rukongai while she went to gather information.

• Tōshirō lured Iba’s squad away from Rangiku, then Iba secretly visited them and explained that Dōgimaru could track anyone it cut.
• Iba warned Tōshirō and Rangiku that Kaien and his family were also being hunted, and told them Soi Fon had been imprisoned over her two Zanpakuto, Shikai, and Bankai.
• Rangiku comforted Tōshirō as he grieved Momo’s death, and he realized that the sword he carried looked like Hyōrinmaru but was not his own.
• Ōmaeda brought Soi Fon Suzumebachi and urged her to escape, and she killed the guards, freed herself, and recovered her other sword and clothes.
• Ōmaeda told Soi Fon that the Yunshui Family was hunting Rangiku, Kaien, and others, so she led him through a secret passage into Rukongai.
• Soi Fon told Ōmaeda to hide and went to gather information while he stayed behind.

Ukitake and Kyōraku discussed their doubts about Soul Society and Jun’s actions while Kaien Shiba faced a pursuit team demanding evidence of his supposed collusion with Jun. After Byakuya learned that the Shiba Clan had uncovered secrets Jun left behind, he suspected Jun had anticipated the upheaval and remained composed.

• Ukitake and Kyōraku discussed whether to oppose Soul Society’s direction and questioned Jun’s creation of Arrancar.
• Kaien Shiba defended his wife and infant from a pursuit team that demanded weapons and Kidō they believed Jun had given him.
• A messenger arrived and the pursuit team withdrew, allowing Kaien to take his family into hiding.
• A Sixth Division member told Byakuya that the Second Division had found a hidden room of secrets Jun left for the Shiba Clan.
• Byakuya inferred that Jun had anticipated Soul Society’s crisis and calmly returned to practicing calligraphy.