Chapter Summaries

Duke confronted the Visoreds at their hidden warehouse, where Hiyori challenged him after Shinji suspected he might be tied to Aizen. Duke overwhelmed her with his swordsmanship, and she began Hollowfying as the fight escalated.

• Love Aikawa and Hachigen Ushōda noticed a Senkaimon open inside the Visoreds’ barrier, and the group confronted Duke at their hideout.
• Shinji Hirako prepared to subdue Duke, while Duke concluded that Aizen Sōsuke had arranged their meeting and insulted the Visoreds to provoke a fight.
• Hiyori Sarugaki knocked Shinji down, then jumped in to fight Duke as the other Visoreds watched and placed bets.
• Duke blocked Hiyori’s opening strike, grazed her cheek with a lightning-based Kido, and forced her into defense with his swordsmanship.
• Hiyori released Kubikiri Orochi, but Duke struck her repeatedly with Hiten Mitsurugi-ryū: Ryūshōsen, and she began to Hollowfy.

Duke fought Hiyori and the Visoreds in their warehouse, revealing far greater strength and skill than his lieutenant-class Reiatsu had suggested. After the Visoreds coordinated an attack to restrain him, Shinji stabbed Duke through the heart, leaving his fate unresolved.

• Duke calmly blocked Hiyori's Hollowfied sword strikes, then deflected her Cero with New Moon and Full Moon as her mask vanished.
• Shinji and the other Visoreds recognized Duke's hidden strength and surrounded him, with Lisa, Kensei, Love, and Rōjūrō releasing their Shikai.
• Lisa attacked Duke while Rōjūrō bound his sword with Kinshara, but Duke kicked Lisa away and pulled Rōjūrō toward him.
• Mashiro struck at Duke with a Cero-enhanced kick, but he shattered the Cero with a punch and caught her leg, slamming her into the ground.
• Kensei attacked while Rōjūrō and Mashiro restrained Duke, and Shinji appeared behind him and stabbed him through the heart.

Duke survived Shinji Hirako’s attack by resurrecting himself, then battled Shinji, Love Aikawa, and Rōjūrō Otoribashi inside Kisuke Urahara’s Rift Barrier. The chapter ended with Duke explaining that New Moon and Full Moon could revive him repeatedly, forcing the Visoreds to kill him twelve times in a row.

• Duke revived after Mashiro Kuna, Kensei Muguruma, and Lisa Yadōmaru were wounded by his counterattack, leaving Mashiro and Kensei near death and Lisa with a severed arm.
• Shinji ordered Hachigen Ushōda to open the Rift Barrier, and Duke entered the artificial space with Shinji, Love, and Rōjūrō.
• Shinji released Sakanade, reversing Duke’s sense of direction and wounding him despite Duke knowing the Zanpakuto’s ability.
• Duke’s wounds healed instantly, and he revealed that New Moon and Full Moon could revive him up to twelve times, with Reiatsu replenishing the attempts.

Duke explained how New Moon and Full Moon healed him by storing and restoring Reiatsu, then fought Shinji Hirako, Love Aikawa, and Rōjūrō Otoribashi with a devastating divine wind attack. After the Visoreds countered with Ceros, Rōjūrō activated his Bankai to take the lead as Shinji’s Hollowfication threatened to overwhelm him.

• Duke mocked Shinji Hirako, Love Aikawa, and Rōjūrō Otoribashi before explaining that New Moon and Full Moon stored his Reiatsu to heal his wounds.
• Duke challenged Shinji to attack his head, and Shinji used Sakanade’s inverted perception while trying to strike him.
• Duke unleashed Nameless Divine Wind Style—Azure Dragon, pinning Shinji and the others with its force until Shinji’s Hollowfication let him break free and help the others fire Ceros.
• The Ceros collided with Duke’s attack and caused a massive explosion that nearly destroyed the underground area, while Hachigen Ushōda tended to two critically injured people above.
• Duke emerged from the smoke wounded but healing, and Rōjūrō activated Bankai—Kinsara Dance Troupe to shield Shinji from taking on more of the fight.

Duke defeated Rōjūrō Otoribashi’s Bankai by unleashing the second stage of New Moon and Full Moon’s Shikai. He explained that his current power represented roughly one hundred Kenseis, while his Bankai remained far out of reach.

• Rōjūrō Otoribashi activated Bankai and trapped Duke in illusions of a whirling current and scorching flames.
• Duke saw through the first illusion and endured the second, though its pain and injuries felt real.
• Rōjūrō Otoribashi began his final movement, but Duke released First Quarter Moon and overwhelmed him with Reiatsu.
• Duke’s Reiatsu destroyed the Dance Troupe, shattered Rōjūrō Otoribashi’s mask, and left him collapsed with backlash.
• Duke told Shinji, Love Aikawa, and Rōjūrō Otoribashi that First Quarter Moon was the second stage of his Shikai, requiring one hundred times a captain-class fighter’s Reiatsu.

Duke defeated Love Aikawa and Shinji Hirako despite their coordinated attack, surviving a sword through his head and destroying Shinji’s Hollowfied form. Tessai Tsukabishi and the others rescued Shinji and the injured Visoreds after sealing Duke beneath a stone monument.

• Shinji Hirako and Love Aikawa attacked Duke together, with Love striking his back after Shinji withdrew Sakanade’s inversion.
• Duke unleashed the White Tiger and killed Love, but Shinji pierced Duke’s head and destroyed his brain with Sakanade.
• Duke revived, severed Shinji’s arm, and used the Vermilion Bird to destroy the Hollow that had taken control of Shinji.
• As Duke prepared to kill Shinji, Tessai Tsukabishi restrained him with Kin and Bankin while Yoruichi Shihōin rescued Shinji.
• Yoruichi brought Love Aikawa and Rōjūrō Otoribashi to Tessai for treatment, and Shinji warned the group that Duke was a monster who could not be killed.

Duke broke free from Bakudo No. 99 and confronted Kisuke Urahara and Yoruichi after defeating the Visoreds. He and Urahara recognized that someone might be manipulating events, then made a deal before Duke departed to continue his rescue mission.

• Shinji told Kisuke Urahara and Yoruichi that Duke could not be killed and described his overwhelming swordsmanship.
• Yoruichi and Kisuke identified Duke as Squad 4’s vice-captain, and Kisuke suspected Aizen was behind the Visoreds’ Hollowfication.
• Duke shattered the stone monument sealing him and met Kisuke, Yoruichi, and Tessai Tsukabishi, who took the injured Visoreds away.
• Duke explained that he had come to rescue Shino Academy students injured by a real Hollow, while Kisuke privately suspected Aizen had arranged the encounter.
• Duke and Kisuke set aside their fight, and Duke offered future protection in Soul Society in exchange for buying goods without paying.

Duke arrived at the training grounds during a Hollow attack and used his Zanpakuto to revive Hanishaku and heal many injured students. He left three students who were truly dead beyond his power to save, while Hanishaku awoke captivated by him.

• Duke reached the training grounds and found Aizen and Gin Ichimaru fighting Hollows while Momo Hinamori watched in admiration.
• Duke found the mortally wounded Hanishaku and used New Moon and Full Moon to revive her, despite Renji Abarai’s protests.
• Aizen explained Duke’s legendary Zanpakuto to Renji, and Hanishaku’s heartbeat and Reiatsu returned as her injuries regenerated.
• Duke collected the injured students and corpses, then used his Zanpakuto to restore those who could still be saved.
• Hanishaku woke and decided to join Squad 4 so she could be near Duke, while Duke explained that three students with destroyed heads were beyond his ability to revive.

After the Hollow attack, Duke returned to the Marvel world and resumed his life in Brooklyn. A news report about Tony Stark’s kidnapping in Afghanistan told Duke that the events leading to Iron Man’s birth had begun.

• Duke kept quiet about Aizen’s scheme and waited seven days for Kisuke Urahara to prepare the materials for their transaction.
• Duke left his Brooklyn home to buy coffee and met Gold, who repaid an old medical bill and described his jobs supporting his daughter.
• Duke bought all the convenience store’s instant coffee and saw news reports that Tony Stark had gone missing in Afghanistan.
• Duke recognized Tony’s kidnapping as the start of the Iron Man story and left the store.

Duke searched the Arctic for the Space Stone and found Captain America frozen inside a crashed transport plane. He brought Steve Rogers back to his Brooklyn clinic and prepared to thaw him two years before his canonical discovery.

• Duke asked Gold to sell him Mark the Alaskan Malamute, but Gold refused because his daughter loved the dog.
• Duke used a teleportation array to reach the Arctic and sent nearly ten thousand shadow clones to search for the Space Stone.
• A clone found an artifact buried beneath the ice, and Duke followed its memories to a crashed transport plane containing Captain America.
• Duke cut Steve Rogers out of the ice and carried him, along with his shield, back to the clinic.
• Duke placed the frozen captain on an examination bed and prepared to thaw him, while reflecting on the medical impossibility of surviving decades of freezing.

Duke revived Captain America after nearly sixty-five years in the ice, but Steve mistook him for an enemy and fled before returning to learn what had happened. After Duke told him how much time had passed, Steve reluctantly went with him to see the unfamiliar modern world.

• Duke thawed Steve, revived his body, and secretly collected five tubes of his blood for research.
• Steve awoke in Duke’s clinic, tried to seize his blood, and discovered that Duke easily overpowered him.
• Steve fled through the clinic’s glass door, then returned after wandering through the unfamiliar streets and apologized for the damage.
• Duke explained that about sixty-five years had passed since Steve’s plane crashed, and Steve struggled to accept that the world had changed.
• Duke gave Steve an overcoat and invited him outside, and Steve agreed to go with him.

Duke took Steve to the museum, where the exhibits about his past left him feeling alone and out of place in the modern world. Steve refused to contact the government and asked Duke to help him find Peggy, his last attachment to the world.

• Duke explained how Steve had become a national symbol, and Steve grew troubled by the interests behind his heroism.
• Duke and Steve visited the museum after Duke persuaded the guard to let them in, and Steve studied the exhibits about himself, Bucky, and the Howling Commandos.
• Steve said he did not want to go to the police or deal with the government, and he admitted that he felt the modern world had no place for him.
• Steve watched a presentation about Peggy Carter and emerged visibly shaken, while Duke offered to take him to a bar.
• As they returned to Duke's clinic, Steve asked Duke to help him see Peggy, saying she was his only attachment to the world and that he still owed her a dance.

Duke helped Steve locate Peggy Carter and brought him from New York to her home in London. Peggy initially failed to recognize Steve because of her Alzheimer’s disease, but then remembered him and welcomed him back.

• Duke obtained a detailed file on Peggy and told Steve she had retired in Britain.
• Duke teleported Steve to London, where they acquired clothes from three thieves under Duke’s hypnosis.
• Duke and Steve reached Peggy’s home, and the maid led them to her bedroom.
• Steve reunited with the elderly Peggy, who initially did not recognize him.
• Duke explained that Peggy had Alzheimer’s disease, and she then remembered Steve and rejoiced that he was alive.

Duke pulled Carter and Steve’s souls from their bodies so they could reunite and share the dance they had missed, but a sniper shot him during their embrace. He confronted Dorothy Underwood, who had fired the shot, and the chapter ended as she raised her gun and he entered her bedroom.

• Carter reunited with Steve after Duke separated their souls from their aging bodies, allowing them to embrace and touch.
• A sniper shot Duke in the forehead from a villa across the street, but he removed the bullet without injury.
• Carter recognized the sniper as Dottie and asked Duke and Steve not to hurt her, explaining that she had been protecting her.
• Duke crossed the street to confront Dorothy Underwood, who grabbed her pistol and tried to reach a hidden escape passage.
• Duke entered Dorothy’s bedroom and smiled at her as she pointed her gun at him.

Duke subdued Dottie after she attacked him with weapons and a suicide attempt, then brought her to Carter and Steve. Carter revealed Dottie’s past as a Red Room agent and explained her twisted fixation on Carter, leaving Duke to reconsider wiping her memories.

• Dottie attacked Duke with a blade, poison gas, hidden weapons, and timed grenades, but he disarmed her and froze the explosives.
• Dottie kept fighting until Duke bound her with an invisible force and carried her out of the bedroom.
• Duke showed Dottie that Carter was safe and found Steve asleep on the floor.
• Duke proposed wiping Dottie’s memories, but Carter asked him to spare her and revealed that Dottie was her longtime enemy.
• Carter explained that Dottie had been trained as a Soviet killing machine and had become fixated on Carter, prompting Duke to call her a pervert.

Duke explained that Dottie was an early Soviet super-soldier whose student Natasha Romanoff surpassed her, then pulled Dottie's soul from her body so she could reunite with Carter. He warned Steve, Carter, and Dottie that souls could be lost forever if they remained outside their bodies too long, but revealed that Bleach power could preserve Carter as a soul even though he would not introduce it to their already dangerous world.

• Carter explained that Dottie had lived near her after they retired, and that Dottie was an early subject of the Soviet Super Soldier Program whose student Natasha Romanoff later defeated her.
• Duke pulled Dottie's soul from her body, and Dottie saw Carter, then confronted Steve when he identified himself as Carter's boyfriend.
• Steve asked Duke to erase Dottie's memories, but Dottie pleaded not to forget Carter, and Carter calmed both her and Steve.
• Duke told Steve, Carter, and Dottie that Heaven, Hell, and the demon king Mephisto were real, and explained that an untethered soul would eventually disperse into nothingness.
• Duke said Bleach power could let Carter live on as a soul, but refused to spread it in a world already threatened by crises.

Duke warned Steve, Carter, and Dottie that the Space Stone could draw Thanos’s forces to Earth and revealed that Hydra had infiltrated S.H.I.E.L.D. Carter was shaken by the betrayal, but Steve rallied her to fight back, and she asked Duke to give her the power of Bleach.

• Duke explained that the Tesseract was the Space Stone, once owned by Odin and now sought by the powerful Thanos, whose forces could threaten Earth.
• Duke warned that S.H.I.E.L.D. had been infiltrated by Hydra and said Alexander Pierce was one of its leaders.
• Carter reeled at learning that the organization she founded had become Hydra’s instrument, while Dottie comforted her.
• Steve promised Carter that they could fight Hydra together, restoring her resolve.
• Carter asked Duke to give her the power of Bleach.

Duke refused Carter’s request to become a Bleach, but offered to make her a young body and give her the Super Soldier Serum, then admitted he had developed neither cloning technology nor the serum. He took Carter, Steve, and Dottie back to New York, where the chapter ended with them arriving at Duke’s shabby clinic.

• Duke explained that Marvel’s thin Reishi would prevent Carter from developing Bleach powers and offered to create her a peak-age body instead.
• Steve urged Duke to begin, but Duke revealed that he had not developed cloning technology or started making the Super Soldier Serum.
• Duke collected Carter’s hair and blood, left her soul-less body behind, and brought Steve and Dottie back into their own bodies.
• Duke released Dottie from Kido and made her his laboratory assistant, then drew a single-use teleportation circle while Steve and Dottie argued about same-sex marriage.
• Duke used the circle to take Carter, Steve, and Dottie to Brooklyn and led them to his clinic, whose broken glass door surprised them.

Duke brought Steve, Carter, and Dottie to his hidden laboratory and used a Gigai to give Carter a youthful body. Carter reunited with Steve but slapped him for leaving her waiting for sixty-five years, and she returned with Dottie to ask Duke why the clinic had no elevator.

• Duke led Steve, Carter, and Dottie through the hidden basement laboratory, where they discovered that dozens of researchers were his clones.
• Duke placed Carter’s soul in a Gigai, which transformed into a beautiful young woman resembling Carter at twenty.
• Carter explored her new body and learned from Duke how the Gigai worked and how to maintain it.
• Carter approached Steve affectionately, then slapped him and accused him of leaving her waiting for seventy years; Steve insisted it had only been sixty-five.
• Duke advised Steve on how to handle an angry girlfriend, and Dottie returned with Carter to ask why the clinic had no elevator.

Duke continued his secret research while running the Brooklyn dental clinic, until gunshots led him to the dead Gold and his wounded dog. He promised to secure Gold’s daughter a good home in exchange for Gold’s soul, then placed the soul inside the dog.

• Duke and Steve joked about Peggy and Dottie shopping at Victoria’s Secret before Steve left for night school.
• Duke worked with Shadow Clones on biological research, using data from S.H.I.E.L.D. and a blood sample from Banner.
• Duke heard gunshots and found Gold dead in an alley and Gold’s dog, Mark, badly wounded.
• Duke healed Mark and offered to find Gold’s daughter a good family if Gold gave him his soul and the dog.
• Gold agreed, and Duke pressed Gold’s soul into Mark’s body.