Chapter Summaries

Ailin killed Hibiki Hoshino after defeating him, then brought his corpse to the First Division and reported to Genryūsai Shigekuni Yamamoto. Muramasa realized Hibiki’s spiritual power had vanished and feared that his master was dead.

• Ailin spared Hibiki Hoshino from his sword, but Hibiki died from anger after Ailin mocked him.
• Ailin bound Hibiki Hoshino’s corpse and headed for the First Division, resolving that Muramasa and Hibiki had to die to protect his secrets.
• Muramasa felt his spiritual power supply cut off and realized Hibiki Hoshino might have been killed.
• Ailin presented Hibiki Hoshino’s corpse at the captains’ meeting and apologized to Genryūsai Shigekuni Yamamoto for failing to capture him alive.
• Ginrei Kuchiki defended Ailin’s decision to use his full strength, and Genryūsai Shigekuni Yamamoto declared that Ailin had rendered great service.

After completing the subjugation mission, Ailin used his reward to study advanced Kidō and grow stronger. Ginrei Kuchiki approached him about marrying into the Kuchiki Clan, but Ailin set his sights on becoming a captain and challenging the strongest figures in the world.

• Captain-Commander Yamamoto praised Ailin for defeating Hibiki Hoshino and granted his request to study in the Kidō Corps library for three months.
• Ailin spent three months studying Kidō by day and forging copied Zanpakuto by night, steadily increasing his spiritual pressure and control.
• Ginrei Kuchiki waited for Ailin outside the Kidō Corps and discussed the Kuchiki Clan's hopes for Haruko Kuchiki to marry a powerful man.
• Ailin reflected on the powerful figures he wanted to face and wondered whether he could surpass the world's limits.
• Ailin told Yoruichi that he wanted to advance beyond his Second Division vice-captain position and aspire to become a captain.

Ailin left the Second Division, became the Kuchiki Clan’s son-in-law and later succeeded Ginrei Kuchiki as captain of the Sixth Division. Years later, he reunited with Shihoin Yoruichi at the Kuchiki estate, where she had been teasing young Byakuya, and asked why she had summoned him.

• Ailin resigned as Vice-Captain of the Second Division and told Sui-Feng that they might meet again when he was Captain Ailin.
• Ailin became engaged to Haruko Kuchiki, took the post of Vice-Captain of the Sixth Division, and succeeded Ginrei Kuchiki as its captain a year later.
• Ginrei Kuchiki supervised fourteen-year-old Byakuya Kuchiki’s sword training and noted his growing strength and lively temperament.
• Shihoin Yoruichi teased Byakuya Kuchiki by grabbing him and taking his red hair tie, prompting him to challenge her Shunpo.
• Ailin arrived, stopped Byakuya beside Ginrei Kuchiki, and asked Shihoin Yoruichi whether something had happened.

Ailin heard that Yoruichi and Ukitake had been ordered to eliminate the surviving Quincies in the Human World, and questioned why the mission troubled them. Yoruichi began revealing the ancient betrayal that created Soul Society, ending with the noble families mutilating and casting down the Spirit King's body parts.

• Yoruichi asked Ailin to help with a troublesome mission, while Ginrei and Byakuya left them alone to discuss it.
• Yoruichi explained that Soul Society had ordered the Second and Thirteenth Divisions to hunt down the remaining Quincies in the Human World.
• Ailin questioned why the Quincies posed a challenge for Yoruichi and Ukitake, and recalled that the strongest Quincies had hidden in Soul Society's shadows as the Wandenreich.
• Yoruichi recounted how the Spirit King had saved the world and how the noble families had plotted to divide it into three realms.
• Yoruichi described how the Tsunayashiro, Shihoin, and Kuchiki families eventually mutilated the Spirit King and cast his body parts into the lower world.

Shihoin Yoruichi asked Captain Ailin to help her secretly investigate the Quincy during their extermination mission, and he agreed. Before leaving, Ailin found Haruko Kuchiki ill; her health had declined because his immense spiritual pressure oppressed her soul, leaving Ginrei Kuchiki to face the cost of Ailin’s strength.

• Shihoin Yoruichi explained that she wanted to investigate the Quincy secretly and asked Ailin to keep Jūshirō Ukitake from discovering her movements.
• Ailin agreed to accompany Yoruichi after telling her he would first speak with his wife and father-in-law.
• Ailin found Haruko Kuchiki coughing as she prepared a boxed meal and helped her sit down and rest.
• The narration revealed that Haruko’s health had worsened because Ailin’s Hundred-Year Captain spiritual pressure had been steadily oppressing her soul.
• Ginrei Kuchiki struggled with the revelation that Ailin’s strength had brought the Kuchiki Clan a powerful heir while endangering Haruko.

Ailin left his dying wife, Haruko Kuchiki, in Ginrei Kuchiki’s care and joined Shihoin Yoruichi’s mission to eliminate the Light Empire’s remaining Quincy forces. In the Human World, he learned that war had overwhelmed the Thirteenth Division’s Shinigami and led to heavy casualties.

• Ailin comforted Haruko Kuchiki, then told Ginrei Kuchiki that her condition was worsening and asked him to look after her and the Sixth Division while he was away.
• Ailin met Shihoin Yoruichi and Jūshirō Ukitake at the Second Division training grounds and joined their group as they passed through a Senkaimon to the Human World.
• The group arrived in a remote forest, where Ailin noted that the Human World had far less Reishi than Soul Society.
• Ailin distracted Jūshirō Ukitake while Shihoin Yoruichi and Urahara Kisuke slipped away, and Sui-Feng led the Second Division Shinigami onward.
• Jūshirō Ukitake explained that war had spread across the Human World, creating more Hollows and leaving the Thirteenth Division’s stationed Shinigami overwhelmed and suffering casualties.

Ailin and the others traced the remaining Quincies of the Light Empire to a village, where Urahara Kisuke used a strange medicine to attract Hollows and identify the Quincies who fought them. As black rifts opened above the village, the group watched from the forest, awaiting the Hollows’ arrival.

• Ailin reflected that Quincies’ annihilation of Hollow souls threatened the balance among the three worlds, and suspected Yoruichi and Jūshirō Ukitake had used him as an excuse for her departure.
• Sui-Feng led the Punishment Corps and the Thirteenth Division to the village after a slow, two-day search.
• Ailin asked whether the mission required killing the village’s ordinary residents, and Jūshirō Ukitake said their target was only the Quincies of the Light Empire.
• Urahara Kisuke released medicine that gave off the aura of a thousand human souls, explaining that the Hollows it attracted would reveal the Quincies by who attacked them.
• Ailin’s group withdrew into the forest, and less than ten minutes later, a Hollow roared as black rifts appeared above the village.

Ailin and Jūshirō Ukitake watched Quincy defend villages from a massive Hollow attack, while Ailin reflected on Ukitake’s willingness to sacrifice anything for the Soul Society. A powerful elderly Quincy arrived with a Silver Ridge Arc Sparrow and began wiping out the Hollows.

• Hollows poured from Gargantas across villages and fields, and Quincy fired Reishi Arrows while villagers evacuated.
• Ailin judged the Quincy’s defenses weak as several medium-sized Hollows dodged their arrows and charged toward the villagers.
• Jūshirō Ukitake stopped Ailin from drawing his Zanpakuto so they would not expose their position before the operation.
• An elderly Quincy pierced the charging medium-sized Hollows with swift arrows, then called the villagers to gather around him.
• The elderly Quincy unleashed a torrent of arrows from his Silver Ridge Arc Sparrow and slaughtered the Hollows before him.

Kurosaki Takuya’s Quincy village survived a Hollow attack, but he ordered everyone to flee before Soul Reapers could find them. Jūshirō Ukitake prepared to eliminate the Quincies, hiding his true intentions from Ailin as the assault began.

• Shihoin Yoruichi recognized that the Quincies’ arrows erased Hollows and the souls they had devoured instead of restoring those souls to the cycle of reincarnation.
• Kurosaki Takuya killed the attacking Hollows, then ordered Katagiri Shuta and Ishida Junichi to organize the villagers and prepare to leave.
• Jūshirō Ukitake’s Soul Reapers confirmed they had identified the Quincies during the attack, and Ukitake told them to target only Quincies in front of Ailin.
• Ailin volunteered to guard the road out of the village, while Ukitake privately planned to kill other spiritually aware villagers as well.
• After Ailin took his position, Ukitake gave the order to begin the attack.

The Soul Reapers surrounded the Quincy village, and Kurosaki Takuya realized the Quincies faced defeat. Ishida Junichi and the other leaders used the Spirit-Scattering Gloves to fight back, but they were killed and the remaining Quincies were left unable to resist.

• The Quincies sensed the approaching Soul Reapers and fired Reishi Arrows at them, but Shihoin Yoruichi and Jūshirō Ukitake blocked Kurosaki Takuya’s Light Rain with Dankū.
• Kurosaki Takuya ordered Katagiri Shuta and Ishida Junichi to take the others and escape as the Soul Reapers moved to surround the village.
• Ishida Junichi refused to flee, broke a spike from his Spirit-Scattering Gloves, and gained enough power to fire an Arc Sparrow at Shihoin Yoruichi and Jūshirō Ukitake.
• Ailin heard the fighting as Ishida Junichi, Katagiri Shuta, and Kurosaki Takuya were killed by Shihoin Yoruichi, Urahara Kisuke, and Jūshirō Ukitake, respectively.
• With their leaders dead, the remaining Quincies could not resist the elite Soul Reapers.

During the Quincy extermination in Miyahara Village, Ailin protected an escape route and asked Urahara Kisuke to help stop Haruko Kuchiki’s worsening soul dissipation. The chapter ended with Yoruichi and Urahara shocked that Haruko, a member of the Kuchiki Clan, was suffering from a condition usually seen among ordinary souls in the Rukon District.

• As Soul Reapers slaughtered the Quincies and villagers fled Miyahara Village, Ailin guarded the eastern road and let the survivors escape past him.
• After the Quincy extermination succeeded, Ukitake and the Thirteenth Division performed Soul Burials for the dead villagers while Quincy souls were destroyed.
• Yoruichi thanked Ailin for his help, and he asked Urahara Kisuke to find a way to stop Haruko Kuchiki’s soul from dissipating.
• Ailin told Yoruichi and Urahara that Haruko’s soul had been dissipating for three years and had recently begun weakening faster.
• Yoruichi and Urahara were shocked because soul dissipation usually affected ordinary souls in the Rukon District, not someone from the Kuchiki Clan.

Ailin asked Urahara Kisuke to cure Haruko Kuchiki’s soul dissipation, revealing that his spiritual pressure had weakened her soul and hinting that he knew about Urahara’s secret. After half a year in the Human World, Ailin met a young Quincy struggling to master his Spirit Bow.

• Ailin explained that Haruko’s soul dissipation had started after she married him and asked Urahara Kisuke to help cure her.
• Shihoin Yoruichi and Urahara Kisuke grew wary when Ailin revealed what he knew, but he promised not to interfere with their plans and offered Urahara a favor for helping Haruko.
• Ailin said he would remain in the Human World with Ukitake to eliminate Quincy and warned that he would use his own methods if Haruko could not be cured.
• Ailin stayed in the Human World for six months, living near a village where Quincy might be present while wandering and training alone.
• Ailin found a seven- or eight-year-old Quincy boy practicing archery beneath a waterfall and gave him food and advice about training.

Sogen Ishida told Ailin how Hollows and Soul Reapers had destroyed the Quincy clan of Miyahara Village, leaving him as the last Quincy. After Ailin revealed that he was a captain and had taken part in the attack, Sogen fought him and began retreating toward the forest.

• Sogen explained that Hollows and Soul Reapers had wiped out his village’s Quincies half a year earlier, leaving him alone with the ability to sense Reishi.
• Ailin realized that Sogen was the source of the faint Reishi trace he had detected and asked the boy his name.
• Sogen identified himself as Sogen Ishida and described the Ishida family’s pure-blood Quincy lineage.
• Ailin revealed that he was a Soul Reaper captain and had been among the Soul Reapers who attacked the Quincy village.
• Sogen summoned his Spirit Bow and attacked Ailin, but his arrows shattered harmlessly against Ailin’s body.
• Sogen continued firing as he retreated toward the forest, intending to flee once he reached the trees.

Ailin captured Sogen Ishida and explained how Hollows, Soul Reapers, and Quincy affected the balance among the three worlds. Sogen accepted that Quincy powers could threaten the world and asked Ailin to kill him, but Ailin rejected sacrificing someone for the greater good.

• Ailin used Kidō to restrain Sogen Ishida when he tried to flee, then brought him back to the campfire.
• Ailin explained how Hollows formed, how Soul Reapers guided souls, and how the Human World, Hueco Mundo, and Soul Society depended on a balance of souls.
• Ailin said the world's total number of souls was fixed and that Quincy attacks annihilated Hollows instead of returning their souls to the cycle.
• Sogen concluded that the Quincy could eventually destroy the world and asked Ailin to kill him.
• Ailin said he hated situations where someone had to be killed for the greater good.

Ailin offered Sogen Ishida a way to preserve his Quincy branch under Seireitei supervision, and Sogen agreed before rapidly advancing his training. Back in the Seireitei, Ailin learned that Yoruichi and Urahara were helping Haruko and reunited with Byakuya, who challenged him to a Shunpo race.

• Ailin offered Sogen Ishida permission to continue Quincy training and raise a family in exchange for registering his branch with the Seireitei and letting Soul Reapers kill Hollows.
• Sogen Ishida accepted the conditions and, within a few days, completed the first stage of Quincy training and formed a stable Spirit Bow.
• Ailin returned through the Kuchiki Clan's Senkaimon and joined Ginrei Kuchiki as he watched Byakuya Kuchiki train.
• Ginrei told Ailin that Yoruichi and her friend had been taking Haruko Kuchiki out for treatment, and that her condition had improved each time.
• Byakuya challenged Ailin to compete in Shunpo, saying Yoruichi had told him to surpass Ailin before he could challenge her.

Ailin sparred with Byakuya Kuchiki and showed him that his Shunpo was too rigid, then took him to a remote part of the Rukon District to teach him about Soul Reaper combat beyond Zanpakuto abilities. He began by asking how Soul Reapers fought before Zanpakuto existed and why their four arts mattered.

• Ailin sparred with Byakuya and repeatedly outmaneuvered him with Shunpo, explaining that Byakuya relied too heavily on straightforward speed.
• Ailin asked Ginrei Kuchiki to watch over the Sixth Division while he took Byakuya away for training.
• Ailin carried Byakuya through Byakudōmon to a desolate area of District 78 in the Rukon District.
• Ailin asked Byakuya how Soul Reapers fought before Zanpakuto and why Hakuda, Shunpo, and Kido were among their four arts.

Ailin demonstrated his mastery of Zanjutsu, Hakuda, and Kidō to Byakuya Kuchiki, showing him techniques that cut hills, resisted sword strikes, and shattered powerful defenses. Byakuya was awestruck, while Ailin insisted his strength was still far from invincible.

• Ailin used a Flying Slash to cut several hills apart and explained his approach to Zanjutsu.
• Byakuya attacked Ailin, who evaded his strikes with Paper Arts and endured his sword blows with Hakuda.
• Ailin used a finger flick to knock Byakuya’s Zanpakuto away, then demonstrated Hakuda’s offense by shattering a Dankū barrier with Twin Bone.
• Ailin cast Hadō #88—Hiryū Gekizoku Shinten Raihō, blasting apart hills along a passage hundreds of meters long.
• Byakuya called Ailin invincible, but Ailin replied that his strength was still far from that level.

Ailin taught Byakuya that Shunpo required far more than youthful boasts, while Byakuya grew more composed under his guidance. When Ailin reunited with Haruko, he was relieved to see her health improving, but Yoruichi warned that Haruko remained in danger unless the cause of her illness was resolved.

• Ailin explained to Byakuya how Shunpo complemented the other Soul Reaper arts and cautioned him against claiming he had surpassed Yoruichi.
• Ginrei noticed Byakuya had become more composed and diligent, even when Yoruichi tried to tease him.
• Yoruichi greeted Ailin and reunited him with Haruko, whose health and spirits had improved with Urahara's help.
• Ailin held Haruko's hand and expressed concern for how hard she had suffered.
• Yoruichi warned Ailin that Haruko's condition remained serious and could worsen unless its source was completely resolved.

Ailin met Urahara Kisuke to learn how he planned to fully resolve Haruko Kuchiki’s soul weakness, while remaining wary that Urahara might have hidden motives. Urahara began explaining his treatment plan, leaving the proposed method and its cost undisclosed.

• Yoruichi told Ailin that Urahara had a way to resolve Haruko’s condition but had waited because the method might be unusual.
• Ailin asked Yoruichi to arrange a meeting with Urahara and brought Haruko to hear his proposed solution.
• Three days later, Yoruichi led Ailin and Haruko to Urahara’s underground base in the Seireitei.
• Ailin offered to owe Urahara and Yoruichi a favor in exchange for curing Haruko, and Haruko worried about what that might cost him.
• Urahara wondered how much Ailin knew about his secrets, then began explaining his treatment plan for Haruko.

Urahara Kisuke explained that Ailin’s powerful Reiatsu was weakening Haruko Kuchiki’s soul and proposed healing her by making her a human in a specially created Gigai. His plan would force Haruko to live in the Human World and leave Ailin to choose between going with her or arranging protection, while Urahara watched how he responded.

• Urahara Kisuke told Ailin and Haruko Kuchiki that Ailin’s Reiatsu had been weakening her soul and that the damage would recur if they stayed together in Soul Society.
• Urahara Kisuke explained that a specially made Gigai could nourish and restore Haruko’s soul, but she would have to live in the Human World and could not leave the Gigai unless she died.
• Ailin recognized that Urahara Kisuke’s proposal would take Haruko—and potentially Ailin—away from Soul Society.
• Urahara Kisuke revealed that he was testing Ailin’s response, since Ailin could either remain in the Human World with Haruko or arrange for Shinigami to protect her there.