Recaps

Chiba Makoto allied with Aizen Sōsuke in Hueco Mundo while searching for Nel and keeping his own identity concealed. As Szayelaporro seized control of Snopas’s giant Buddha and a vast Hollow army advanced on the Expeditionary Force, the camp’s defenses collapsed.

• Chiba Makoto defeated the Mantis Great Hollow, recruited Grimmjow Jaegerjaquez, and faced Barragan before Aizen Sōsuke arrived with Coyote Starrk and Ulquiorra Cifer.
• Chiba Makoto accepted Aizen Sōsuke’s offer to become No. 0 among the Espada, and Aizen brought him the injured Nel, who later woke and called Makoto her father.
• While Makoto stayed in Las Noches with Nel and Grimmjow, All Things in Nature helped care for the injured Chōjirō Sasakibe and Ise Nanao at the Expeditionary Force camp.
• Tier Harribel found Snopas, the King of the Forest of Menos, but Szayelaporro poisoned and captured her, then took control of Snopas’s giant Buddha by possessing his spirit body.
• Aizen Sōsuke identified the Forest of Menos’s Hollow King as Soul Society’s chief concern, and Yamamoto Genryusai Shigekuni ordered the Expeditionary Force to focus on the threat.
• Chiba Makoto questioned Ulquiorra about his search for a heart, then decided to leave Nel with Grimmjow and investigate why Tier Harribel and Snopas had split up.
• More than six hundred Adjuchas and an enormous Gillian horde attacked the Expeditionary Force camp, and their combined Ceros destroyed its Kidō barrier.

Chiba Makoto mastered Reishi and escaped Hyōsube Ichibē’s interference before traveling to the World of the Living. There he saved Masaki Kurosaki, joined the Kurosaki family under a fabricated Quincy identity, and opened a flower shop as Yhwach’s return drew nearer.

• Chiba Makoto dismantled Szayelaporro’s giant Buddha and absorbed its Reiryoku, completing his Ultimate Spirit Body transformation as the Expeditionary Force repelled the Hollow horde.
• Chiba Makoto learned that Imperial Decree of All Things could let him control Reishi, then fought Hyōsube Ichibē in the conceptual space of names while Zero Division searched Seireitei for him.
• Chiba Makoto outlasted Hyōsube Ichibē, mastered control over Reishi, and awoke in Hueco Mundo more than thirty years later before traveling to the World of the Living with Snopas.
• Chiba Makoto saved Masaki Kurosaki from Hollowification by restoring her Quincy bloodline, then convinced Isshin, Ryūken, and Urahara that he was a pure-blood Quincy named Kurosaki Makoto.
• Chiba Makoto learned Quincy techniques from Masaki, while Snopas took the form of a Rem doll and began living as his maid.
• Chiba Makoto opened a flower shop near the Kurosaki Clinic, and Ryūken gave him Quincy techniques and secrets about Auswählen and Yhwach.
• Chiba Makoto read the prophecy that Yhwach would reclaim his power in nine years, then restrained Black Cat Yoruichi and carried her into his room.

Chiba Makoto built ties with Seireitei while defeating Kurotsuchi Mayuri and taking Nemu Kurotsuchi into his flower shop. As Kuchiki Rukia arrived in Karakura and Makoto began teaching at Kurosaki Ichigo’s school, the story approached the events surrounding Ichigo.

• Yoruichi Shihoin revealed herself to Chiba Makoto, who questioned her about Seireitei and sent letters and gifts to Captains Komamura Sajin, Ukitake Jūshirō, and Unohana Retsu.
• Makoto trained his Hirenkyaku with Yoruichi, then sensed Ishida Sōken and Ishida Uryū endangered by five Adjuchas and defeated the Hollows with powerful Reishi Arrows.
• Kurotsuchi Mayuri confronted Makoto over the Hollows, but Makoto pierced Mayuri’s Bankai and defeated him, and the captains later debated whether Makoto threatened Seireitei or sought friendship.
• Nemu Kurotsuchi came to Makoto’s shop under the pretense of repaying him, but Makoto gave her a Gigai named Shadow and put her to work in the flower shop.
• Makoto trained Ishida Uryū to strengthen his arrows and movement, then arranged for Nemu to teach him hand-to-hand combat while he worked with Ishida Ryūken’s approval.
• Kuchiki Rukia arrived in Karakura, where Makoto photographed her and secretly saved her image, and he connected her arrival to the approaching events involving Kurosaki Ichigo and Sōsuke Aizen.
• Makoto began teaching flower arrangement at Karakura First High School, where Inoue Orihime, Kurosaki Ichigo, Chad Yasutora, and Arisawa Tatsuki were students.
• After inviting Kurosaki Ichigo, Yuzu, and Karin to dinner at the flower shop, Makoto learned that Ichigo’s parents were away for their wedding anniversary.

Chiba Makoto tried to protect Karakura Town as Ishida Uryū’s Hollow bait drew a massive invasion and the Soul Reapers arrived. While the battle exposed Makoto’s strength and Harribel began to suspect his hidden identity as Lord Asura, Kuchiki Rukia was taken into custody and Yamamoto ordered the captains to capture Harribel and Kurosaki Makoto.

• Chiba Makoto welcomed Inoue Orihime into his flower shop, revealed that he had monitored her new power, and later helped her face the Hollow that was her brother, Inoue Sora.
• Urahara Kisuke and Yoruichi Shihoin explained their secret plan to Makoto, while Kurosaki Ichigo received Kuchiki Rukia’s powers and began fighting Hollows.
• Ishida Uryū used Hollow Bait to summon Hollows, and Makoto recognized Inoue Sora among them as the invasion spread through Karakura Town.
• Yammy and Tier Harribel emerged from a Garganta and demanded to know where Kurosaki Makoto was, while Ichigo and Uryū fought Yammy until Makoto intervened.
• Makoto assigned Yammy to Uryū and battled Harribel, who revealed that she and Yammy were Espada No. 3 and No. 10 as Soul Reaper captains mobilized.
• Kuchiki Byakuya and Abarai Renji confronted Kuchiki Rukia, and Byakuya struck down Ichigo when he tried to stop them from taking her away.
• Makoto restrained Harribel with Karakura Town’s Reishi and pressed the wound once treated by Lord Asura, leading her to suspect that Makoto was Asura in disguise.
• Harribel revealed that the Espada’s No. 1 and No. 2 were Vasto Lorde-class Arrancar and praised Lord Asura Yan Cheng as their No. 0, prompting Yamamoto to order the captains to capture Harribel and Kurosaki Makoto.