Chapter Summaries

Chiba Makoto defeated Chōjirō Sasakibe and moved to confront Ukitake Jūshirō, but Hirako Shinji used his Bankai to reverse Chiba’s perception of allies and enemies. Chiba recognized that something was wrong, yet his mind still identified Aizen Sōsuke and Hirako as enemies and Ukitake and Yamamoto as allies.

• Chiba Makoto blocked Chōjirō Sasakibe’s lightning with his spiritual pressure and crippled him with a kick that destroyed his legs.
• Yamamoto Genryusai Shigekuni grew enraged at Chōjirō’s defeat and intensified his attack on Aizen Sōsuke, who continued holding him back.
• Chiba Makoto appeared before Ukitake Jūshirō, who warned him not to approach while wielding the Soul King’s Right Hand.
• Hirako Shinji revealed himself beside Ukitake and released Bankai: Gyaku-sama Ya-Hō-Sō, reversing Chiba’s perception of those around him.
• Hirako urged Chiba to attack Aizen, while Chiba’s mind continued to perceive Aizen and Hirako as enemies and Ukitake and Yamamoto as allies.

Chiba Makoto adapted to Hirako Shinji’s perception-reversing Bankai and defeated him without killing him. After Hirako Shinji lost consciousness and the Bankai ended, Chiba Makoto restored his senses and body to normal.

• Hirako Shinji used Bankai: Gyaku-sama Ya-Hō-Sō to reverse Chiba Makoto’s perceptions and bodily control while protecting Ukitake Jūshirō.
• Chiba Makoto adjusted the neural signals in his spiritual body, gradually adapting to the reversed perceptions and attacking Hirako Shinji more accurately.
• Chiba Makoto defeated Hirako Shinji in one minute and thirty-eight seconds, leaving him unconscious but alive.
• Chiba Makoto released Hirako Shinji’s Bankai, closed his eyes to readjust, and regained normal perception and control.

Chiba Makoto defeated Hirako Shinji and then overcame Ukitake Jūshirō by exploiting the limits of his Stillness power. As Kyōraku Shunsui rushed to help, Chiba’s spear pierced Ukitake’s chest, while Yamamoto Genryusai Shigekuni and Sōsuke Aizen continued fighting amid Karakura Town’s flames.

• Sōsuke Aizen noticed Chiba Makoto had defeated Hirako Shinji in one minute and thirty-eight seconds, then lost his focus briefly while fighting Yamamoto Genryusai Shigekuni.
• Yamamoto Genryusai Shigekuni attacked Aizen, but Aizen used Utsusemi and an afterimage to evade him and strike back with Kyōka Suigetsu.
• Yamamoto Genryusai Shigekuni’s Zanka no Tachi set Karakura Town ablaze, suppressing Hitsugaya Tōshirō’s ice and forcing most combatants into the sky.
• Chiba Makoto confronted Ukitake Jūshirō, broke his Reishi Zanpakuto after it entered Stillness, and evaded Ukitake’s counterattack.
• Chiba Makoto bound Ukitake Jūshirō in quartz-like dead trees and threw a spear through his chest as Kyōraku Shunsui rushed to save him.

After Ukitake Jūshirō’s power failed, Chiba Makoto and Aizen Sōsuke overwhelmed the Thirteen Divisions’ leaders and cleared most of the Soul Reapers from Karakura Town. Chiba and Aizen then departed through a Garganta for Soul Society to create the King's Key.

• Chiba Makoto dismissed Ukitake Jūshirō’s Stillness and declared the Thirteen Divisions’ defeat inevitable.
• Aizen Sōsuke joined Chiba Makoto, and together they confronted Kyōraku Shunsui before Chiba announced their plan to go to Soul Society.
• Aizen Sōsuke pierced Kyōraku Shunsui’s Saketsu and Hakuya, leaving him unconscious.
• Chiba Makoto unleashed quartz-like dead trees across False Karakura Town, incapacitating or killing most of the Soul Reapers while Kensei Muguruma was knocked unconscious saving Kuna Mashiro.
• Aizen Sōsuke told Chiba Makoto that the throne awaited them, and Ulquiorra opened a Garganta to Soul Society for them.

After Aizen Sōsuke and Chiba Makoto’s group departed, the defeated Soul Reapers lost hope until Urahara Kisuke arrived with reinforcements and urged them to delay Aizen. He led them through a Senkaimon toward the final battle, while Yoruichi Shihoin suspected his plan carried risks for Zero Division and hoped he would survive.

• The ruined battlefield fell silent as the Soul Reapers realized they had been defeated and despaired over Yamamoto Genryusai Shigekuni’s loss.
• Urahara Kisuke arrived and told Ōtoribashi Rōjūrō that the war was not over, bringing Yoruichi Shihoin, Kurosaki Isshin, Kurosaki Masaki, Kurosaki Ichigo, and Ishida Uryū with him.
• Urahara Kisuke explained that they needed to delay Aizen Sōsuke’s creation of the King's Key until Zero Division could respond.
• Yoruichi Shihoin suspected Urahara Kisuke intended to gather intelligence for Zero Division and considered how Master had joined Aizen Sōsuke.
• Urahara Kisuke opened a Senkaimon to Soul Society and led the Soul Reapers through it toward the final battle.

Aizen Sōsuke and Chiba Makoto confronted and destroyed the Kōtotsu as they traveled through the Dangai toward Soul Society. After Aizen crushed Yammy for insulting Chiba, the two entered Soul Society and unleashed their spiritual pressure to announce their arrival.

• Chiba Makoto and Aizen Sōsuke continued toward Soul Society, expecting Zero Division to remain in the Soul King Palace.
• The Kōtotsu appeared, and Chiba Makoto and Aizen Sōsuke destroyed it with their spiritual pressure.
• Ichimaru Gin realized that Chiba Makoto was as formidable as Aizen Sōsuke and felt despair.
• Aizen Sōsuke crushed Yammy's knees with spiritual pressure after Yammy boasted that he could defeat Chiba Makoto.
• Chiba Makoto and Aizen Sōsuke entered Soul Society through a Garganta and let their spiritual pressure announce their arrival.

As Sōsuke Aizen prepared to destroy Karakura Town and create the King's Key, Kuchiki Byakuya confronted him. Aizen learned Chiba Makoto might be revived and redirected his forces toward the Fourth Division to stop it.

• Sōsuke Aizen's Reiryoku spread across the Seireitei, and Sōya Azashiro told Kuchiki Byakuya and Hisagi Shūhei that Aizen had arrived with four Espada, Tōsen Kaname, and Ichimaru Gin.
• Hisagi Shūhei worried about protecting Chiba Makoto during Unohana Retsu's surgery, while Sōya Azashiro warned that Chiba might not be able to oppose Aizen.
• Kuchiki Byakuya left for Karakura Town after Sōya Azashiro identified it as Aizen's likely target.
• At Karakura Town, Aizen began gathering power to destroy the city, while Ichimaru Gin wrestled with whether to attack him and Chiba Makoto quietly observed him.
• Kuchiki Byakuya confronted Aizen, who inferred that Chiba Makoto might be revived and ordered his forces to attack the Seireitei's Fourth Division and stop Unohana Retsu.

Aizen Sōsuke sent Chiba Makoto and several Espada to attack the Seireitei and stop Makoto’s revival, while he moved to kill Kuchiki Byakuya. Yoruichi Shihoin rescued Byakuya, and Urahara Kisuke sent the others to reinforce the Seireitei before Aizen attacked them with Kidō.

• Chiba Makoto proposed leading the Espada to the Seireitei to stop Captain Unohana from reviving him, and Aizen Sōsuke accepted.
• Kuchiki Byakuya tried to stop Chiba Makoto and the Espada with Bankai, but Aizen Sōsuke destroyed his attack and reached for his throat.
• Yoruichi Shihoin rescued Kuchiki Byakuya with help from two Getsuga Tensho fired through a Senkaimon.
• Kuchiki Byakuya told the arriving Quincy and Soul Reapers that Aizen Sōsuke had sent his subordinates to stop Makoto’s revival.
• Urahara Kisuke ordered everyone except Captain Kenpachi to reinforce the Seireitei, then Aizen Sōsuke attacked the group with Hado #88.

Urahara Kisuke and the Kidō Masters trapped Aizen Sōsuke, Urahara, and Zaraki Kenpachi inside a powerful barrier. Urahara drugged Kenpachi into a state of murderous instinct and left him to attack the greatest threat in the cage: Aizen.

• Urahara Kisuke used Benihime to shield the others from Aizen Sōsuke’s attack and signaled for the remaining Soul Reapers and Quincy to escape.
• Ushōda Hachigen and Tsukabishi Tessai combined the Four Beasts Gate Seal and Eight Directions Boundary Seal to trap Aizen, Urahara, and Zaraki Kenpachi.
• Aizen criticized the barrier’s limited scope, while Urahara explained that it was designed to contain him.
• Urahara urged Kenpachi to fight Aizen, but Kenpachi challenged Urahara’s plan and threatened to cut him down first.
• Urahara injected Kenpachi with a drug that freed him from restraint, turning his eyes blood-red and his behavior murderous.
• Urahara explained that the cage would keep outside interference away and make Kenpachi’s instincts target the threat posed by Aizen.

Urahara Kisuke used his Bankai to keep restoring Zaraki Kenpachi, turning him into an opponent Aizen Sōsuke could not permanently defeat. With the original plan involving Kurosaki Ichigo abandoned, Urahara placed his hopes in Chiba Makoto, unaware that Aizen believed the situation was already under control.

• Zaraki Kenpachi's spiritual pressure surged as he attacked Aizen Sōsuke, and his instincts let him strike through Kyōka Suigetsu's illusion.
• Aizen Sōsuke cut Zaraki Kenpachi in half and dismissed him as a beast incapable of controlling himself.
• Urahara Kisuke activated Bankai: Kannonbiraki Benihime Aratame and explained that its power could remodel anything it touched, including Zaraki Kenpachi through the medicine mixed with Benihime fragments.
• Urahara Kisuke restored Zaraki Kenpachi after Aizen Sōsuke's attacks and said that killing him would not stop the Bankai's protection.
• Urahara Kisuke revealed that Kurosaki Ichigo's planned Final Getsuga Tensho had been replaced as their hoped-for counter by Chiba Makoto, whose revival Aizen Sōsuke feared.
• Aizen Sōsuke secretly smiled beneath Kyōka Suigetsu's illusion, believing the situation was entirely in his and Makoto's hands.

Stark’s Ceros failed to break the Soul-Covering Membrane, but Barragan opened a breach with his Decay. As Chiba Makoto’s group moved toward the Fourth Division, Yoruichi Shihoin, Kurosaki Ichigo, and Kurosaki Isshin intercepted them, and Ichimaru Gin faced Ichigo.

• Stark unleashed Infinite Cero Barrage against the Soul-Covering Membrane, but the barrier withstood the attack.
• Barragan accepted Chiba Makoto’s order and used Death Sigh to decay a large opening in the membrane.
• Chiba Makoto ordered the Arrancar toward the Fourth Division, but captains attacked Stark, Barragan, and Ulquiorra as the group entered the breach.
• Yoruichi Shihoin, Kurosaki Ichigo, and Kurosaki Isshin rushed through the opening and blocked Chiba Makoto, Ichimaru Gin, and Tōsen Kaname.
• Yoruichi charged Chiba Makoto while Ichigo, using Hollowification, attacked Ichimaru Gin with Getsuga Tensho.
• Ichimaru Gin evaded Ichigo’s attack and judged that his many openings made him vulnerable to a lethal strike.

Tōsen Kaname trapped Kurosaki Isshin in his Bankai after revealing Aizen’s role in the events that brought Isshin and Kurosaki Masaki together. Meanwhile, Yoruichi Shihoin’s battle with Chiba Makoto became a spectacle across the Seireitei, until Chiba Makoto swallowed her in a burst of quartz-like trees.

• Tōsen Kaname told Kurosaki Isshin that Aizen had used White Ichigo to test him and had deliberately drawn him to the World of the Living, where he met Kurosaki Masaki.
• Tōsen Kaname’s jealousy turned to hatred, and he used Bankai—Suzumushi: End Form - Enma Korogi to trap Kurosaki Isshin inside a black barrier.
• Yoruichi Shihoin fought Chiba Makoto with Shunkō, then combined Hollowification with its second stage, astonishing the Soul Reapers watching from the Seireitei.
• Unohana Retsu stayed in the operating room, knowing that Chiba Makoto was using the fight to restore Yoruichi Shihoin’s standing in the Thirteen Divisions.
• Chiba Makoto erupted quartz-like trees from the ground, swallowing Yoruichi Shihoin as golden lightning blazed between their branches.

Chiba Makoto defeated Yoruichi Shihoin and sent her to eliminate more than a hundred named remnants across the Seireitei. He then advanced on the Fourth Division, where Sōya Azashiro and Hisagi Shūhei confronted him as Yoruichi began her covert mission.

• Yoruichi Shihoin attacked Chiba Makoto with her full strength, but failed to hurt him, and he handed her a list of more than a hundred targets.
• Chiba Makoto concealed Yoruichi Shihoin within the quartz-like deadwood, leaving the Soul Reapers to believe she had been defeated.
• Ichimaru Gin struck at Kurosaki Ichigo with Shinso, wounding him and forcing him to focus on their fight instead of pursuing NO.0.
• Chiba Makoto reached the Fourth Division Barracks, where Sōya Azashiro and Hisagi Shūhei blocked his path.
• Yoruichi Shihoin used the battle’s disturbance as cover to move unseen through the Seireitei and seek out the people on Chiba Makoto’s list.

Yoruichi Shihoin secretly assassinated the nobles on Sōya Azashiro’s list while the battles drew attention away from her. After Chiba Makoto’s actions coincided with the failure of Unohana Retsu’s operation, she attacked NO.0, which revealed the King’s Seal as the fight turned against it.

• Yoruichi Shihoin used Sōya Azashiro’s intelligence to assassinate the nobles who opposed the coming changes.
• Chiba Makoto endured attacks from Hisagi Shūhei and Sōya Azashiro while engulfing the Fourth Division courtyard in quartz-like deadwood.
• Unohana Retsu emerged from the courtyard and announced that the operation had failed.
• Unohana Retsu attacked NO.0 and drove it back with a series of powerful Zanjutsu strikes.
• NO.0 revealed the King’s Seal on its chest as it vowed that Unohana Retsu could not defeat it.

NO.0 used the King's Seal to transform into a gigantic dead tree, shatter the Soul-Covering Membrane, and ravage the Seireitei. Unohana Retsu called on the Soul Reapers to reclaim the King's Seal, and Hisagi Shūhei reached the trunk despite exhausting himself.

• The King's Seal revived NO.0's power, turning Chiba Makoto's body into a dead tree that burst through the Soul-Covering Membrane.
• NO.0 spread roots and branches across the Seireitei and declared that he would destroy it.
• The Soul Reapers struggled to resist the destruction, while Unohana Retsu focused on the King's Seal and identified it as their hope.
• Unohana Retsu urged the Soul Reapers to take back the King's Seal, and Hisagi Shūhei charged toward it.
• Hisagi Shūhei cut through the enormous roots with Kazeshini and reached the trunk, nearly out of strength.

Hisagi Shūhei, Sōya Azashiro, and Unohana Retsu tried to cut through the deadwood trunk and reach the King's Seal, but their attacks fell short as it began to regenerate. Ichimaru Gin then unleashed his Bankai and pierced through the trunk.

• Hisagi Shūhei exhausted himself trying to control Kazeshini, and Sōya Azashiro formed a colossal Zanpakuto to strike the trunk.
• Branches blunted Azashiro’s attack, leaving only a notch in the trunk and causing his Zanpakuto to begin collapsing.
• Unohana Retsu released Bankai: All Things in Nature and cut a deep blood-red line through the trunk toward the King's Seal.
• Unohana’s slash stopped just short of the King's Seal as branches surged toward her and the trunk began repairing itself.
• Ichimaru Gin revealed Bankai: God Killer Spear and sent a white streak through the opening, piercing the entire trunk.

Ichimaru Gin used Bankai to send the King's Seal toward Makoto while Unohana Retsu stopped NO.0 and defeated him. Aizen Sōsuke then arrived, vowed revenge for Yan Cheng, and dropped the badly wounded Urahara Kisuke and Zaraki Kenpachi into Seireitei.

• Ichimaru Gin revealed his betrayal and sent the King's Seal toward Makoto's courtyard with God Killer Spear.
• Unohana Retsu isolated NO.0's branches with Minazuki Space, allowing the King's Seal to reach the Fourth Division courtyard.
• The King's Seal burst into golden light, and Unohana Retsu's fatal wound caused NO.0 to disperse into spirit particles.
• Aizen Sōsuke appeared above Seireitei and threatened to make Unohana pay for killing Yan Cheng.
• Aizen Sōsuke dropped the unconscious, gravely wounded Urahara Kisuke and Zaraki Kenpachi toward the ground.

Aizen Sōsuke killed Urahara Kisuke and Unohana Retsu fought him, appearing to gain the upper hand before Kyōka Suigetsu revealed the battle was an illusion. Aizen stood behind the unaware Unohana and raised his sword to strike her neck, while the Soul Reapers could neither warn nor protect her.

• Aizen Sōsuke struck at Urahara Kisuke and Zaraki Kenpachi, and Unohana Retsu saved Zaraki but failed to prevent Urahara from being annihilated.
• Unohana Retsu charged Aizen Sōsuke and used her swordsmanship to suppress him, inspiring hope among the Soul Reapers.
• Unohana Retsu appeared to cut Aizen Sōsuke in two, but Kyōka Suigetsu revealed that he had only been an illusion.
• Aizen Sōsuke used Kyōka Suigetsu to hide behind Unohana Retsu as the Soul Reapers failed to reach her with warnings or stop him.
• Aizen Sōsuke raised Kyōka Suigetsu toward Unohana Retsu’s neck while the Soul Reapers watched helplessly.

Chiba Makoto returned to Seireitei and stopped Aizen Sōsuke from killing Unohana Retsu, revealing that he could resist Kyōka Suigetsu. The other Soul Reapers withdrew to watch as Makoto faced Aizen alone.

• Aizen Sōsuke raised Kyōka Suigetsu to execute Unohana Retsu before the gathered Soul Reapers.
• Chiba Makoto appeared and stopped Kyōka Suigetsu with his bare hand, stunning Aizen and the witnesses with his return.
• Makoto greeted Unohana, who warned him about Aizen's betrayal, Complete Hypnosis, and the Hogyoku.
• Makoto said he had discovered Kyōka Suigetsu's ability in Hueco Mundo and had become immune to it, then told Unohana to retreat so he could fight Aizen.
• Unohana stopped Kuchiki Byakuya and Ichimaru Gin from joining the fight, saying they would hinder Makoto and that he might be stronger than any of them.

Chiba Makoto confronted Aizen Sōsuke, who admitted to manipulating him and the Expeditionary Force before demonstrating his power by gravely wounding Kurosaki Isshin and Tōsen Kaname. Makoto released All Things in Nature, healing injured Soul Reapers across the Seireitei, and vowed to defeat Aizen himself.

• Aizen Sōsuke admitted that he had attacked and deceived Chiba Makoto, controlled the Adjuchas that attacked the Expeditionary Force, and offered Makoto a place among his subordinates.
• Aizen Sōsuke used Hadō #90: Kurohitsugi to destroy Suzumushi: End Form - Enma Korogi and leave Kurosaki Isshin and Tōsen Kaname gravely wounded.
• Chiba Makoto released All Things in Nature, causing grass to cover the Seireitei and heal injured Soul Reapers, including Kurosaki Isshin, Hisagi Shūhei, and Kuchiki Byakuya.
• Stark and Ulquiorra recognized that Makoto's healing ability made him a major obstacle, while Aizen Sōsuke dismissed it as insufficient to defeat him.
• Chiba Makoto declared that he would use his blade to save Soul Society from Aizen Sōsuke.