Chapter Summaries

After more than a month of patrols, Jun examined how Reiatsu worked and how Soul Society’s class system shaped its institutions. He proposed an evaluation meeting to help Tenth Division members improve, and Captain Shiba Kazato agreed to let him begin training them without points.

• Jun joined four of the Tenth Division’s seven Hollow-incursion responses, and he received his Asauchi on his fourth day of work.
• After Isshin explained that Jun lacked sufficient Reiatsu to achieve Shikai, Jun concluded that Reiatsu covered multiple aspects of Spiritual Power, including its amount, concentration, range, and release speed.
• Jun reflected on how noble clans and Soul Society’s entrenched hierarchy restricted the spread of knowledge, while the Gotei 13’s modern structure clashed with older powers.
• Jun proposed that Captain Shiba Kazato hold an evaluation meeting to help division members train more efficiently, and Isshin supported the idea.
• Jun offered to begin the training without earning points while the First Division reviewed the proposal, and Captain Shiba Kazato approved and promised to seek other benefits for him.

Jun proposed refining the categories of Reiatsu during an extra lesson for Tenth Division members, prompting the veterans to debate how to measure each attribute. The group sent him to the Twelfth Division’s Research and Development Institute, where Kirio Hikifune agreed to work on practical measurements.

• Jun summoned the available Tenth Division members and explained his plan to hold optional lessons on their days off.
• Jun proposed five distinct terms for Spiritual Power: Spiritual Pool, Reiatsu, Spiritual Reach, Spiritual Flow, and Spiritual Sensitivity.
• The veterans discussed how the newly defined attributes affected their abilities and argued over how to measure their strengths.
• Isshin assigned Jun a temporary mission to ask the Research and Development Institute to devise ways to measure the attributes.
• Jun visited the Twelfth Division, where Kirio Hikifune agreed to develop practical results and have Lingling bring them to him.

Jun and Asai Shinten worked together on a large assignment to capture Hollows alive for the Twelfth Division, and Jun began pushing his new adjutant to reconsider how she could become stronger. He left her with a role in preparing lessons for his planned Division Evaluation Meeting.

• Jun’s adjutant, Asai Shinten, returned from the World of the Living and reluctantly accepted her assignment under him.
• Jun explained the Hollow-capture operation and showed Asai the Locator Tag while they waited in a bamboo grove.
• After the tag alerted him to sixteen Hollows, Jun subdued them and told Asai and the squad to arrange their delivery to the Twelfth Division.
• Jun challenged Asai about her lack of effort and direction, then told her he had organized a study group for Soul Reapers seeking to improve.
• Jun assigned Asai to help prepare lesson plans and asked her to bring paper, a pen, and good tea the next day.

After spending six months developing an easier way to learn Kidō, Jun shared his Chant Harmony Score throughout Soul Society and explained to Aizen that he wanted to raise its overall strength. As Jun and Aizen discussed sharing future Zanpakuto insights to lower the Expedition’s death rate, Jun wondered what would eventually change Aizen.

• Jun wrote a Soul Society version of Investiture of the Gods using Kidō incantations, then created a Chant Harmony Score that paired rhymes with Spiritual Power circulation nodes to make Kidō training easier.
• Jun explained to Asai Shinten that he shared his knowledge because he wanted more people to become strong enough to explore new possibilities, and his gesture made her his devoted fan.
• Jun started his remedial class, shared the Chant Harmony Score with his division, and gave his novel to Isshin Shiba.
• Old Ichigen recognized the novel as Jun’s work, ordered Isshin not to circulate it, and warned both Isshin and Jun against investigating Soul Society’s past.
• As interest in the Chant Harmony Score drove up paper prices and brought visitors searching for instruction, Jun hid at Aizen’s house and told him he wanted to raise Soul Society’s Kidō strength.
• Jun told Aizen he would share future Zanpakuto insights to lower the Expedition’s death rate, and Aizen offered to contribute; afterward, Jun wondered why Aizen would change in the future.

Jun tested the Twelfth Division’s Spiritual Power Tester, learned how its attributes measured combat ability, and compared his results with other Soul Reapers. He and Aizen exchanged estimates of their true strengths and wondered how long it would take them to surpass Shunsui Kyōraku.

• Jun used the Spiritual Power Tester and received high scores in Reiatsu, Spiritual Reach, Spiritual Flow, and Spiritual Sensitivity, while Captain Hikifune explained the results and the attributes’ significance.
• The tester drew crowds, and the First Division ordered Soul Reapers to be tested in batches while keeping their data private.
• Jun learned the scores of Ise Jun, Isuzu Takasugi, Nana Onibe, Isshin Shiba, and Shunsui Kyōraku, then assessed their strengths and weaknesses.
• Jun and Aizen compared their reported numbers, concluded that both had understated their abilities, and calculated estimates of Aizen’s true attributes.
• Jun and Aizen discussed how long it might take to catch up to Shunsui Kyōraku, then each reflected on the long wait ahead.

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.