Recaps

Gin told Rangiku he had seen a disguised Shinigami attack a Wandering Soul, and the two children shared candy Yan Si had given them. Meanwhile, Kensei joined Kyōraku, Ukitake, and Hirako to oppose a planned war against the Quincy, and they resolved to argue against exterminating them.

• Gin warned Rangiku that he had seen a disguised Shinigami attack a Wandering Soul, but reassured her that Yan Si's candy was safe.
• Rangiku shared candy with Gin, and they sat together in their dilapidated home.
• Kensei assigned Yan Si to recruit graduates at the Central Spirit Arts Academy the next day, and Yan Si eagerly accepted to avoid patrol duty.
• Kyōraku told Kensei and Hirako that the Quincy still refused to stop exterminating Hollows and that Captain-General Yamamoto might order war against them.
• Ukitake proposed that the captains apply to handle the Quincy matter themselves and keep it limited, and the four captains pledged to oppose total extermination.

Yan Si returned to the First Academy of Spirit Arts to recruit graduates and met Kaname Tōsen, who rejected Shiba Kaien’s offer and asked to join the Ninth Division. Tōsen’s memories revealed that Aizen Sōsuke had saved him and encouraged him to enter the academy.

• Yan Si met Lieutenant Shiba Kaien at the academy’s recruitment event, where Kaien said he had come to recruit an exceptional graduate for the Thirteenth Division.
• The graduates assembled, and Kaien demonstrated his Shikai, Nejibana, hoping to impress the blindfolded top student.
• Kaname Tōsen politely declined Kaien’s offer and requested to join the Ninth Division.
• Yan Si asked Tōsen why he had chosen the Ninth Division, and Tōsen recalled his murdered friend Kakyō and how Aizen Sōsuke had saved him and guided him to the academy.

Siwei Yan accepted Kaname Tōsen into the Ninth Division and pressed Urahara Kisuke for the delayed Tenshintai. Urahara revealed that Siwei’s Zanpakuto had been cut directly from his soul rather than nurtured, leaving Siwei stunned.

• Aizen suggested that Kaname Tōsen seek justice in the Ninth Division and learn from Siwei Yan.
• Siwei accepted Kaname Tōsen as an ordinary Division Member and handed him to Yamagane Tetsu for training.
• Siwei confronted Urahara Kisuke about the unfinished Tenshintai and demanded an explanation for delays in the research.
• Urahara explained that a Zanpakuto was an independent soul grown from a death god’s soul, then said Siwei’s Zanpakuto had been stripped directly from his soul.
• Siwei froze in shock when Urahara revealed that Xiao Wen had formed from a fragment cut out of his soul.

Urahara argued that Yan Si’s soul had been permanently deprived of desire, which manifested as his Zanpakutō, Tsuzurimono Bansho. Yan Si accepted the explanation but learned that restoring his soul might require an extremely special method or being, leaving him wondering who had severed his instinct and why.

• Yan Si checked his body for a missing piece, but Urahara explained that the loss was conceptual rather than physical.
• Yan Si recalled waking from hunger with Xiao Wen in his arms, and Urahara suggested a self-defense mechanism had separated part of his soul.
• Urahara revealed that he had secretly observed Yan Si for decades and concluded that Yan Si lacked ordinary desires, behaving like a living puppet.
• Yan Si realized that Tsuzurimono Bansho embodied the desire that had been severed from him, explaining their inability to communicate and his unusual indifference.
• Urahara concluded that Yan Si’s fragmented soul had been patched with other people’s soul Seeds, but warned that no ordinary Shinigami could have cut away an instinct permanently.
• Yan Si wondered who had separated his desire and why.

Yan Si learned that the Ninth Division was preparing to invade the Human World and exterminate the Quincies, forcing him to confront how losing his desires had changed the way he thought. He rejected the campaign as unjust and set off with Kaname Tōsen, whose doubts about the operation deepened.

• Yan Si returned to the Ninth Division and learned from Kensei that the division would join an extermination campaign against the human Quincies.
• Kensei ordered Yan Si to take part and record the events, including their rights and wrongs.
• Yan Si packed his belongings and reflected on the Shinigami's rule against interfering in human affairs and on how his lost desires made him avoid difficult questions.
• Kaname Tōsen asked Yan Si whether attacking the Quincies was justice, and Yan Si said it was not, arguing that the Quincies were being sacrificed because Soul Society could not solve the underlying problem.
• Yan Si told Tōsen to carry his chest and follow, while Tōsen privately understood why Aizen had sent him to the Ninth Division.

At the Human World mission staging ground, Yan Si warned Hirako Shinji that Aizen would one day make him suffer, then confronted Aizen as the captain’s hypnosis hid Aizen’s presence from the Fifth Division. Aizen questioned Yan Si’s increasingly impatient methods, and Yan Si hinted that darkness and eternal night were approaching as the Senkaimon prepared to open.

• Hirako Shinji guessed that Yan Si’s novel had revealed Aizen’s past and asked whether Aizen was dangerous, and Yan Si confirmed that Hirako would suffer badly at Aizen’s hands.
• Yan Si caught himself trying to avoid the conversation and slapped his own forehead, then warned Hirako that his constant suspicion could keep him from seeing the truth.
• Aizen approached Yan Si, who grabbed Kyōka Suigetsu’s hilt and realized Aizen’s hypnosis made the Fifth Division believe he had already returned to their ranks.
• Aizen told Yan Si that Hirako’s distrust would not change the outcome and asked why Yan Si’s recent actions involving Kuchiki Kyōka and Kurayashiki Kenpachi seemed impatient.
• Yan Si agreed that his methods had become impatient and declared that the light would fade beneath darkness and eternal night would descend, then returned to the Ninth Division as the Senkaimon began to activate.

The Quincy patriarchs prepared for war after rejecting Soul Society’s terms, and the Shinigami assault began under a spirit-particle-draining formation. As the battle spread, Yan Si left the fighting with Kaname Tōsen and said he was searching for hidden Quincy to dig out their roots.

• Ishida Yū, Hōjō Ran, Shinonome Gen, and Kurosaki Taku discussed Soul Society’s planned attack, while Ishida Yū and Kurosaki Taku kept a contingency group in reserve.
• Shinonome Gen declared war unavoidable, and the Quincy prepared Karakura Town’s dense spirit particles as a trap.
• Yan Si and the Soul Reapers entered a formation that absorbed their spirit particles, and Captain Kensei ordered the Division Members to prepare for battle.
• Kyōraku Shunsui and Ukitake Jūshirō tried to persuade the Quincy to surrender, but the Quincy answered with a barrage of spirit-particle arrows.
• Ukitake Jūshirō reflected the arrows toward the Quincy positions, and Kensei ordered the Ninth Division to charge while Yan Si declined to join the fight.
• Yan Si walked toward a forested hill with Kaname Tōsen and said he was looking for hidden Quincy so he could dig out their roots.

Yan Si led Kaname Tōsen to a hidden cave of Quincy children during the extermination operation and appeared to kill them with a single sword strike. He revealed that he had only erased their Reishi signatures, leaving them alive, and left Tōsen to understand the difference between exterminating Quincy and slaughtering children.

• Yan Si followed a Reishi thread to a concealed cave while Kaname Tōsen reflected on the order to exterminate the Quincy.
• Yan Si and Tōsen found around a hundred Quincy children hiding in the cave, and Tōsen tried to protect them.
• An older boy challenged Yan Si over the Shinigami’s failure to protect his people from Hollows.
• Yan Si drew his sword and made the children’s Reishi signatures vanish, causing Tōsen to believe he had killed them.
• Tōsen heard the children breathing, confirmed they were alive, and heard Yan Si explain that exterminating Quincy was different from slaughtering children.

Yan Si investigated the strange power of his Zanpakuto and returned to a battlefield where the Shinigami were overwhelming the Quincy. As the Quincy leaders failed to activate an ancient stone slab and their last fighters fell, a rift opened in the sky and countless Great Hollows poured into the Human World.

• Yan Si left Kaname Tōsen to protect the sleeping Quincy children and realized his Zanpakuto had absorbed their spirit particles without Shikai.
• Yan Si watched the Shinigami rout the Quincy and killed a wounded Quincy who was still barely alive.
• Hōjō Ran and Shinonome Gen burned their souls to fight the Shinigami while Ishida Yū and Kurosaki Taku tried and failed to damage the ancient stone slab.
• Ishida Yū and Kurosaki Taku spent their Quincy powers on a final strike, but the stone slab remained intact as Shinonome Gen and Hōjō Ran died.
• Kurosaki Taku and Ishida Yū saw a rift split open in the sky, releasing countless Great Hollows into the Human World.

A vast rift opened over the Human World battlefield, sending Great Hollows against the Shinigami. Yan Si used Quincy power and his own absorption ability to fight them, while Aizen watched and considered the Soul King's power; reinforcements were summoned as the invasion continued.

• The Shinigami panicked when Great Hollows poured through a huge sky rift, and Ukitake Jūshirō contacted Hikifune Kirio to request reinforcements.
• Hikifune Kirio ordered Hiyori to prepare the Senkaimon and sent Kurotsuchi Mayuri to Rukongai to preserve the balance of the Three Realms.
• Yan Si killed a Great Hollow with Quincy power sealed in his index finger, restoring the Shinigami's courage.
• Ukitake Jūshirō took on the Ceros with Sōgyo no Kotowari while Yan Si absorbed a landed Great Hollow with his middle finger and felt the opposing powers clash.
• Aizen Sōsuke observed Yan Si's experiments, considered Ukitake's connection to the Soul King, and continued fighting Great Hollows while keeping his plans hidden.

Mayuri used his Modified Souls to kill Wandering Souls across five Rukongai districts, believing their Reishi would restore the balance between the worlds and strengthen his case for creating souls. On the Human World battlefield, Yan Si unleashed a mass lightning attack as the captains joined the fight, then recognized Ashido charging out of the Hueco Mundo rift.

• Mayuri ordered his Modified Souls to wipe out districts 76 through 80, killing tens of thousands of Wandering Souls and sending their Reishi toward Hueco Mundo.
• Yan Si sealed the Quincy and Hollow powers from his fingers into his Zanpakutō, then released his full spiritual might.
• Yan Si cast the revised Hundred Birds Toward Thunder technique, and its lightning birds devastated the Great Hollows and boosted the squad members' morale.
• Ukitake, Kyōraku Shunsui, and Hirako Shinji decided to stop holding back after division members were badly wounded, while Kensei continued fighting at full strength.
• The captains and Yan Si sensed a Shinigami breaking out of the Hueco Mundo rift, and Yan Si blasted a path through the Great Hollows before recognizing Ashido.

Yan Si and Ashido returned to the battlefield, where Eleventh Division reinforcements and Twelfth Division technicians arrived to confront the Hueco Mundo rift. As the captains prepared to seal it, Yan Si discovered the repair plan relied on highly concentrated souls.

• Yan Si and Ashido fought through the Hollow swarm and learned that a humanoid Hollow was protecting the children in the Forest of Menos.
• Gremmy Kenpachi arrived with Yachiru and charged into the Hollows, while Ashido laughed at the sight and asked whether Kurayashiki had enjoyed his final battle.
• Hikifune Kirio brought sealed metal barrels to repair the rift and ordered the Division Members to retreat through the Senkaimon.
• Yan Si refused to leave after noticing the captains' unusual conduct, and Hirako and Ukitake agreed to let him stay.
• Ukitake told Yan Si that the barrels contained highly concentrated souls intended to seal the rift.

After witnessing Soul Society use millions of souls to seal a rift, Yan Si met the future Substitute Shinigami Kūgo Ginjō on the battlefield and returned to Soul Society. At Maggot's Nest, he learned that Kurotsuchi Mayuri had been imprisoned for research aimed at creating new forms of life.

• Yan Si watched twenty barrels containing immense amounts of soul Reishi seal the rift, reflecting on the lives sacrificed to preserve the world's balance.
• Yan Si found a frightened human with an Asauchi, learned he was Kūgo Ginjō, and let him keep his spiritual power because he depended on it to earn a living.
• Yan Si told Kūgo Ginjō his name and offered it as protection if Shinigami caused him trouble, then rejoined the captains as they returned to Soul Society.
• Ukitake Jūshirō sensed something familiar in Kūgo Ginjō's spiritual power, while Hirako Shinji suggested the Asauchi might have given him some Shinigami power.
• At Maggot's Nest, Yan Si found Urahara Kisuke speaking with Kurotsuchi Mayuri, who had been imprisoned for forbidden research.
• Urahara Kisuke explained that Kurotsuchi Mayuri had sought to create new rules, possibilities, and forms of life, making his ideas dangerous to Soul Society.

Yan Si brought his Zanpakuto, infused with Quincy and Hollow powers, to Urahara for analysis and considered letting Xiao Wen give those powers a soul. Urahara warned that the fusion could be dangerous, and Yan Si ended by asking whether Urahara knew the Soul King.

• Yan Si wondered whether creating souls could break the balance among the three realms, and Urahara admitted he would not cross that taboo lightly.
• Yan Si showed Urahara the Zanpakuto containing sealed Quincy and Hollow powers, and Urahara began examining it with laboratory equipment.
• Yan Si entered his inner world and reminisced about his childhood dreams and the ambitions he had lost over time.
• Urahara found that the Zanpakuto's power had no soul, unlike the spirit particles in Yan Si's original manuscript, and explained that a soul was needed to wield the powers' rules.
• Yan Si suggested that Xiao Wen could act as the soul and merge with the Quincy and Hollow powers, but Urahara warned the fusion could become dangerous.
• Yan Si asked Urahara whether he knew the Soul King, leaving Urahara rigid with shock.

Yan Si told Urahara that the Soul King had possessed Hollow, Quincy, and Shinigami powers, giving Urahara confidence that he could research how to fuse them. After weighing a risky way to restore his severed desire, Yan Si decided to try the Tenshintai at the Secret Base the next day.

• Yan Si told Urahara that the Soul King's power contained Hollow, Quincy, and Shinigami powers, and Urahara resolved to continue his fusion research.
• Urahara wrapped Yan Si's Zanpakutō in Spirit-Hiding Cloth, concealing its unusual powers, and Yan Si promised to provide funding from the Ninth Division.
• After Yan Si left, Urahara went to Kurotsuchi Mayuri and told him about the Soul King, prompting Mayuri to demand the full account.
• At the Ninth Division barracks, Kaname Tōsen reported that the rescued humans were safe, and Yan Si sent him to help at the Prison Squad.
• Yan Si considered using the Tenshintai to restore his severed desire but hesitated, then decided to try it at the Secret Base the next day.

Yan Si tested the Tenshintai, found it apparently useless, and relaxed in the hot spring at his secret base. He then entered a strange red-mist world, discovered a king-like form with a bandaged arm, and emerged in the base wearing it, unaware that Urahara’s cameras were recording him.

• Yan Si fed his spiritual power into the Tenshintai, but it only swelled and cracked without interacting with his Zanpakuto.
• Yan Si set aside the Tenshintai, absorbed spiritual power from his manuscripts, and soaked in the hot spring during his leave.
• Yan Si awoke on an ice-and-fire throne in a red-mist world, wearing a black robe and a bandaged right arm that crackled with red-black lightning.
• Yan Si put on a silver-white mask, declared himself a lonely king, then grew bored and leapt into the mist.
• Yan Si emerged from the hot spring in Urahara’s secret base wearing the unfamiliar outfit and tested his powerful body while the surveillance cameras recorded him.

Yan Si left the Secret Base and entered the Seireitei, where his presence triggered the city’s defenses and an invasion alarm. As the divisions responded, Aizen recognized Yan Si’s familiar presence and wondered if the intruder was him.

• Yan Si tested the King’s power, wrapped the vibrating sword in bandages, and left the Secret Base for the forest.
• Yan Si passed Danzōmaru at the northern gate and crossed into the Seireitei without showing a pass, while Danzōmaru was too frightened to stop him.
• The Seireitei Wall activated and an alarm announced an intruder, but Yan Si continued walking in a random direction.
• Kenpachi and Yachiru headed south toward the intruder, while Ikkaku Madarame and Yumichika Ayasegawa set off toward the northern gate.
• Yadomaru Lisa informed Kyōraku Shunsui of the invasion, and he said it was the Tenth Division’s responsibility while warning that the intruder seemed strong.
• Hirako Shinji prepared the Fifth Division to support the response, and Aizen Sōsuke recognized the intruder’s presence as possibly belonging to Brother Yan Si.

Yan Si confronted Shiba Isshin at Seireitei’s northern gate, defeated him with overwhelming strength, and declared that he would end Soul Society. His immense black-and-red spiritual pressure darkened the sky and drew the attention of captains across Seireitei, including Genryūsai Shigekuni Yamamoto.

• Shiba Isshin challenged Yan Si, who erased his spiritual pressure and announced that he had come to end Soul Society.
• Shiba Isshin attacked with Getsuga Tenshō, but Yan Si stopped his next strike with one finger, broke Engetsu, and blasted him through seventeen walls.
• Hirako Shinji, Aizen Sōsuke, and Ōtoribashi Rōjūrō arrived as Yan Si confronted them in the air.
• Yan Si unleashed immense black-and-red spiritual pressure that darkened the sky over Seireitei.
• Yoruichi Shihōin, Unohana Retsu, Kuchiki Ginrei, Kuchiki Byakuya, Love Aikawa, Kyōraku Shunsui, Kensei Muguruma, Gremmy Kenpachi, Hikifune Kirio, Ukitake Jūshirō, and Genryūsai Shigekuni Yamamoto reacted to the pressure across Seireitei.

Yan Si overwhelmed the Captains gathered in Seireitei, defeating Ōtoribashi Rōjūrō and forcing Hirako Shinji to prepare his Bankai. Genryūsai Shigekuni Yamamoto arrived and said he would confront Yan Si himself.

• Hirako Shinji held back from using Bankai because its indiscriminate effects could harm the many Shinigami nearby, while Aizen recognized Yan Si and arranged to carry the badly wounded Shiba Isshin away.
• Ōtoribashi Rōjūrō attacked Yan Si with his Bankai, Kinshara Dance Troupe, but Yan Si cut through its flames and puppets with black-red lightning.
• Ōtoribashi Rōjūrō used his Third Movement to send the puppets rushing at Yan Si, who collapsed the space around his fist and shattered them, leaving Ōtoribashi gravely injured.
• Hirako Shinji caught the unconscious Ōtoribashi, ordered everyone to retreat, and prepared to use Bankai against Yan Si.
• Genryūsai Shigekuni Yamamoto arrived and told Hirako Shinji that he would speak with Yan Si himself.

Yan Si challenged Captain-General Yamamoto and survived Ryūjin Jakka’s flames by absorbing them into a dark vortex. He then threw the vortex toward the Royal Palace, leaving Yamamoto furious as it shot toward the heavens.

• Yamamoto sent the nearby Shinigami away and unleashed his spiritual pressure as he faced Yan Si alone.
• Yan Si condemned Soul Society’s stagnation and declared that he would lead the living forward, while his right hand absorbed the surrounding spiritual pressure.
• Yamamoto drew Ryūjin Jakka and engulfed Yan Si in a blazing tornado, but Yan Si absorbed the flames and formed a vortex of dark fire and black-red lightning.
• The Captains watched in shock as Yan Si emerged from the flames, and Yoruichi Shihōin called him interesting.
• Yan Si threw the vortex toward the Royal Palace, and Yamamoto roared in fury as it accelerated toward its target.

Genryūsai Shigekuni Yamamoto fought the mysterious King to a draw after the intruder launched an attack toward the Royal Palace, then ordered the captains to investigate him. Back at the Treasure Vault, Yan Si learned what the King had said and realized with horror that he had been the one who invaded the Seireitei.

• Genryūsai Shigekuni Yamamoto stopped the King’s dark crimson attack before it reached the Royal Palace, and their clash ended in a draw as the intruder vanished.
• Yamamoto convened the captains, who reported that they had no trace of the King; the Great Spirit Book Corridor recorded his battles and departure but offered no further clues.
• Yamamoto ordered Unohana Retsu to question Chiziro Kenpachi in Muken and commanded the captains to seal information about the King and investigate him.
• Yan Si ate snacks and soaked in the hot spring at the damaged Treasure Vault until Urahara Kisuke woke him and described the King’s invasion.
• Yan Si realized the King was himself, smashed his forehead against a boulder in shame, and worried that he needed a time machine.

After recovering his memories, Yan Si realized that his unleashed desires had made him act like a self-proclaimed king, and he resolved to keep his identity secret. Back in the Ninth Division, Kyunnan Shiro’s imitation of his persona pushed him into a private breakdown.

• Yan Si remembered that his memories had been blurred while his desires transformed him into the “king,” and he decided to deny any connection to the incident.
• Yan Si realized his sword was still an Asauchi and worried that forming a true Zanpakutō or naming it could expose him to Ichibē Hyōsube.
• Yan Si found Kyunnan Shiro dressed as the king and shouting his declaration, then smashed a fist into a nearby wall when she continued the act.
• Captain Kensei mistook Yan Si’s anger for anxiety about the enemy and excused him from squad duties so he could rest.
• Yan Si returned to his room, hid beneath a blanket, and made muffled sounds of anger and distress until evening.

Yan Si patrolled Seireitei after the authorities dismissed the King’s attack as a drill, then encountered Gremmy Kenpachi searching for the mysterious enemy. In Muken, Chiziro Kenpachi concealed what he knew about the King from Unohana Retsu and asked Amatsuyu Takuru to visit Yan Si.

• Yan Si read the official report about Yamamoto’s supposed drill and began his patrol through a tense but outwardly calm Seireitei.
• Yan Si met Gremmy Kenpachi, Yachiru, Ikkaku Madarame, and Yumichika Ayasegawa on Runlin An Commercial Street, and he bought Yachiru snacks to avoid answering questions about the King.
• Gremmy told Ikkaku Madarame and Yumichika Ayasegawa that Yan Si seemed strong enough to kill him, though Yan Si always avoided fighting him.
• Unohana Retsu questioned Chiziro Kenpachi about the King, and Chiziro concealed his knowledge while suggesting the King might be a manifested Zanpakutō.
• After Unohana left, Chiziro wondered whether the Soul King or the nobles had stopped his Vanguard Plan and told Amatsuyu Takuru to find a time to visit Yan Si.

Aizen and Kaname Tōsen found Rangiku Matsumoto in Huāku District, and Aizen tore a Soul King Fragment from her soul before discovering that its outer shell was made of Hollow Reishi. Gin stayed with the gravely weakened Rangiku through the night, then set out with her on his back to find Siwei Yan.

• Aizen and Kaname Tōsen went to a hut in Huāku District to retrieve a Soul King Fragment.
• Aizen found Rangiku Matsumoto hiding in the hut, reached into her spiritual body, and took the fragment, leaving her critically weakened.
• Aizen discovered that the fragment's power was Shinigami and Quincy, while its outer shell was made of Hollow Reishi.
• After Aizen and Kaname Tōsen left, Gin rushed to Rangiku, made her a bed, and guarded her through the night.
• When Rangiku woke, she asked Gin to find the Shinigami called Siwei Yan, and Gin carried her toward Seireitei.

At a tavern, Yan Si discussed Seireitei’s troubles with Hirako Shinji and Kyōraku Shunsui before learning that Gin had brought an unconscious Rangiku to him. Yan Si agreed to get Rangiku treated in exchange for Gin joining the Ninth Division after graduating from the Central Spirit Arts Academy within three years, and Gin ran to enroll.

• Yan Si met Hirako Shinji and Kyōraku Shunsui at a tavern, where they discussed the unidentified threat and possible upheaval in Soul Society.
• The tavern owner told Yan Si that Gin had arrived with an unconscious blond girl, and Yan Si found Gin carrying Rangiku near the road to Rukongai.
• Yan Si examined Rangiku and discovered that someone had forcibly gouged out part of her soul.
• Gin said he wanted to attend the Central Spirit Arts Academy and asked Yan Si to take care of Rangiku.
• Yan Si offered to arrange Rangiku’s treatment if Gin graduated within three years and joined the Ninth Division; Gin accepted and ran to the academy with Yan Si’s enrollment letter.