Chapter Summaries

Yoriichi Tsugikuni overwhelmed Reigai Yoriichi despite the copy activating Bankai, then defeated him and declared the battle over. As everyone watched the fight, Kagerōza secretly moved toward Nozomi Kujō, seeking to complete their fusion.

• Reigai Yoriichi attacked with copied techniques, but Yoriichi countered them and explained that copied power could not match the original.
• Kagerōza secretly removed Reigai Yoriichi's restrictions, causing him to activate Bankai and unleash powerful attacks across the battlefield.
• Yoriichi defended against Reigai Yoriichi's Bankai and defeated him with Kidō and sword techniques, leaving him subdued beneath Hekyō.
• While the Soul Reapers focused on the defeated Reigai Yoriichi, Kagerōza used the smoke and dust to approach Nozomi Kujō unseen.

Mayuri Kurotsuchi captures Inaba Kagerōza, and Reigai Yoriichi destroys himself after accepting that he is only an imperfect copy. Kagerōza is sentenced to ten thousand years in the Maggot's Nest, while Nozomi Kujō survives and leaves for the World of the Living with Ichigo.

• Kagerōza ambushes Nozomi Kujō, but Mayuri Kurotsuchi traps him with a device that blocks Laikū's spatial transference.
• Yoriichi defeats Reigai Yoriichi, who recognizes that he is a fake and burns away, leaving an artificial soul pill behind.
• Two days later, Mayuri explains that killing Kagerōza could also destroy Nozomi Kujō, and Yoriichi argues that she should not suffer for Kagerōza's crimes.
• The Central 46 sentences Kagerōza to have his spiritual power sealed and serve ten thousand years in the Maggot's Nest.
• Nozomi Kujō thanks Yoriichi and leaves through the Senkaimon with Ichigo to begin a new life in the World of the Living.

Yachiru Kusajishi set out on patrol and accidentally swallowed Mayuri Kurotsuchi’s Reiatsu-amplifying pill, causing her to race through Seireitei and damage its freshly repaired buildings. Yoriichi eventually escaped with her, and she fell asleep before delivering Rangiku’s document to the Sixth Division.

• Yachiru woke Kenpachi Zaraki, decorated Ikkaku Madarame’s head with a turtle, and raided Tōshirō Hitsugaya’s snacks before Rangiku Matsumoto gave her a document to deliver to the Sixth Division.
• Yachiru lost her way to the Sixth Division and arrived at the Twelfth Division, where she mistook Mayuri Kurotsuchi’s experimental pill for candy and swallowed it.
• The pill amplified Yachiru’s Reiatsu and energy, so she sped through Seireitei, wrecked repaired walls, and attracted a growing group of pursuers.
• Yoriichi examined Yachiru with the Transparent World and determined that the pill’s effects would last three hours; when Mayuri described his proposed antidote, Yachiru spat medicinal liquid in his face and Yoriichi fled with her.
• By evening, the pill had worn off and Yachiru fell asleep on Yoriichi’s back, still holding the undelivered document; Kenpachi Zaraki carried her away as she promised to patrol again tomorrow.

Yachiru and Kenpachi went on another chaotic patrol through the Seireitei, sending division members into hiding and leaving damage in their wake. After Renji challenged Kenpachi and was repeatedly punched through a wall, Yoriichi defeated Kenpachi at Shogi, prompting him to announce a new contest for the next day.

• Yachiru woke Kenpachi and persuaded him to patrol, causing division members across the Seireitei to hide as they approached.
• Hitsugaya hid in his office while Shunsui and Ukitake tried to conceal themselves from Yachiru; Shunsui fell through a roof beam onto Ukitake.
• Renji challenged Kenpachi to a spar and was punched through the Sixth Division entrance wall twice, but kept asking to fight again.
• Kenpachi challenged Yoriichi, who made him play Shogi first, and Yoriichi beat him repeatedly.
• Kenpachi left after losing and challenged Yoriichi to arm wrestling the next day.

Rangiku Matsumoto failed to collect the Tenth Division’s debts and borrowed money from Yoriichi to cover the extra bills she incurred. Tōshirō Hitsugaya caught her at the Third Division and threatened to dock her entire booze allowance.

• Rangiku climbed over the Third Division’s wall and told Yoriichi that the Tenth Division had gone over budget and Hitsugaya had ordered her to collect its debts.
• Rangiku explained that Ōmaeda had cried about his finances, Kyōraku had turned debt discussions into drinking, and Kurotsuchi had refused to pay while threatening to use her hair for experiments.
• Rangiku accidentally ruined medicine being delivered by the Fourth Division, leaving the Tenth Division with an even longer bill than before.
• Yoriichi gave Rangiku money to cover the shortfall and told her not to visit the Twelfth Division again.
• Rangiku hugged Yoriichi’s arm and promised to repay him until Hitsugaya arrived and announced that her entire booze allowance would be docked.

Izuru Kira recounted a disastrous day of mishaps to Yoriichi, who offered him food and tea. After Kira fell again and scattered his reports across the courtyard, he wondered whether he was destined to sit in a corner and grow mold.

• Tōshirō Hitsugaya dragged Rangiku away and forbade her from drinking until she repaid her debts, while Yoriichi kept her money pouch.
• Izuru Kira arrived with reports and told Yoriichi he had lost most of the originals in a gutter and then had his breakfast stolen by Yachiru Kusajishi.
• Kira explained that Hanatarō Yamada mistook him for a patient and forced him to take nutrient solution at the Fourth Division.
• Kira said Ikkaku Madarame and Yumichika Ayasegawa had fought, causing Ikkaku to crash into him and his Wabisuke to destroy the Third Division's repaired gate.
• Kira fell when a courtyard board snapped, scattering his reports into Yoriichi's teacup, and asked if he was born to sit in a corner and grow mold.

Yachiru wandered into the Fourth Division, where she scrambled the medicine jars and swapped Hanatarō’s medical bag for one filled with stones. After Unohana caught her reaching for candy, she let Yachiru leave with a piece, then asked a trembling Isane why she found her frightening.

• After Zaraki returned to the 11th Division to sleep, Yachiru stole Kira’s entire breakfast and ate it in a tree.
• Yachiru followed a medicinal fragrance to the Fourth Division and rearranged the jars in the pharmacy.
• Yachiru replaced Hanatarō’s medical bag with a bag of stones, leaving him to discover the swap when he tried to treat a patient in Ward Twelve.
• Yachiru searched the pharmacy for candy and fell while climbing toward a jar on a high cabinet.
• Unohana caught Yachiru, gave her fruit candy, and let her leave; Isane trembled as Unohana asked if she looked frightening.

The Seireitei held a fireworks festival to celebrate the end of the Invasion Army Incident, but Mayuri Kurotsuchi’s experimental fireworks released purple smoke that made people across the venue shrink into children. The chapter ended with Shunsui Kyōraku demanding to know what Mayuri had put in the fireworks.

• Isane was ordered by Unohana to put away the medicine jars Yachiru had jumbled up.
• The Seireitei held a fireworks festival outside Rukongai, where division members ate, played games, and watched the displays.
• Yoriichi noticed that the purple smoke from Mayuri Kurotsuchi’s unusual firework was invading people’s bodies with reishi.
• Shunsui Kyōraku, Jūshirō Ukitake, Rangiku, Tōshirō Hitsugaya, Byakuya Kuchiki, Kenpachi Zaraki, and others shrank into children as the smoke spread.
• Mayuri Kurotsuchi also shrank, and Shunsui Kyōraku shouted at him to explain what he had put in the fireworks.

A fireworks mishap caused the Soul Reapers at the festival to turn into children, though their Reiatsu remained intact. Mayuri Kurotsuchi traced the cause to Age-Returning Grass and led the captains toward the Fourth Division to find an antidote, while the festival was suspended.

• Mayuri Kurotsuchi analyzed the detector and discovered that Age-Returning Grass had been mixed into the activation agent, apparently due to a Fourth Division supply error.
• Yamamoto ordered Mayuri to explain the incident, then suspended the fireworks festival and directed the captains to the Fourth Division.
• Mayuri said he could prepare a neutralizer if they found the herb that grew alongside Age-Returning Grass, and pointed to the Fourth Division pharmacy.
• Isane Kotetsu feared she might have misplaced medicine jars, while Unohana questioned her about where the Age-Returning Grass had been kept.
• Yoriichi and the other shrunken Soul Reapers marched toward the Fourth Division, and Kira tripped over his clothes and fell beneath Hekyō.

The captains searched the Fourth Division pharmacy for the companion ingredient needed to reverse their age regression, and Yoriichi helped Mayuri Kurotsuchi prepare an antidote. Mayuri drank it first and returned to normal, leaving him to dispense medicine to the other shrunken captains.

• Mayuri Kurotsuchi discovered that the pharmacy shelves were mislabelled and used his detector to search for the companion ingredient to age-returning grass.
• Yoriichi used the Transparent World to spot a candy jar containing Dewdrop Fruit, which Mayuri identified as the missing ingredient.
• Mayuri instructed Yoriichi to grind the ingredients while Unohana checked their properties, and they prepared a bowl of antidote.
• Yamamoto ordered Mayuri to test the antidote, and Mayuri drank a little and regained his original build.
• The shrunken captains crowded around Mayuri for medicine, turning him into the Fourth Division's temporary medicine dispenser.

The captains and squad members recovered their normal forms, then cleaned up the Fourth Division pharmacy and faced Yamamoto’s orders after the ruined fireworks festival. The night ended with Yoriichi back in the Third Division courtyard as another explosion sounded near Mayuri Kurotsuchi and Yachiru.

• Mayuri Kurotsuchi distributed the antidote, restoring Yamamoto, Chōjirō Sasakibe, Jūshirō Ukitake, Shunsui Kyōraku, Tōshirō Hitsugaya, Rangiku Matsumoto, and Kenpachi Zaraki to normal.
• Yamamoto ordered the fireworks losses charged to Shunsui Kyōraku’s Eighth Division, while Unohana stopped Kenpachi from fighting Mayuri and had him help clean the pharmacy.
• Kenpachi and Yachiru sorted medicine jars under Isane’s protests, while Yoriichi identified jars by their Reishi signatures and Nemu put them away.
• Yamamoto canceled the fireworks festival and assigned reports and repairs, including a complete experimental report from Mayuri and shelf repairs for Kenpachi.
• Mayuri walked away with Nemu and Yachiru, then hurried off when Yamamoto called to him; Yoriichi returned to the Third Division courtyard, where Kira broke a floorboard and another explosion sounded in the distance.

After Mayuri Kurotsuchi detected Quincy erasing Hollows in Hueco Mundo, he secretly sacrificed twenty-eight thousand souls in Rukongai to restore the balance of the Three Realms. When the disappearances were discovered, Yamamoto ordered Yoriichi Tsugikuni to investigate.

• Akon detected that more than twenty-five thousand Hollow Reiatsu signatures had vanished from Hueco Mundo, and Mayuri Kurotsuchi identified the Quincy as the likely cause.
• Mayuri Kurotsuchi calculated that twenty-eight thousand souls had to be erased in Rukongai to keep the Three Realms stable, then ordered Nemu Kurotsuchi to activate the Soul Erasure Device.
• Nemu Kurotsuchi led the operation while Akon let her pass, and the device erased twenty-eight thousand souls from sealed Rukongai districts.
• Mayuri Kurotsuchi ordered the Research and Development Institute to delete the records after the soul balance returned to the safe range.
• A supply Soul Reaper discovered empty homes in Rukongai, and Yamamoto ordered Yoriichi Tsugikuni to investigate the missing souls.

Yoriichi investigated the disappearance of souls in Rukongai and found evidence of a device that had erased them. Tsukishima revealed that he had witnessed Soul Reapers sweep through the neighborhood with a blue curtain of light, leaving Yoriichi to confront the possibility that Soul Reapers were responsible.

• Yoriichi examined the abandoned neighborhood and found an orderly trace of Reishi beneath the ground, suggesting a device had been used to make the souls disappear.
• Yoriichi met Tsukishima, who explained that he had been searching Rukongai for Ginjo and feared Ginjo might have gone to Hell.
• Yoriichi told Tsukishima that he had once seen the Gates of Hell and wondered whether he should investigate them.
• Tsukishima said he had seen a Barrier rise around the neighborhood, followed by a blue curtain of light that turned everyone it touched into Reishi.
• Tsukishima told Yoriichi that the people behind the attack wore Shihakushō, and Yoriichi reacted gravely to the possibility that Soul Reapers had taken the souls.

Yoriichi learned that the Twelfth Division might be erasing souls to restore the balance of the Three Realms, then encountered the Quincy invasion of Seireitei. Nianzol Weizol blocked his path and revealed his ability to deflect attacks, leaving Yoriichi’s first slash missing him.

• Yoriichi trusted Tsukishima’s warning about the disappearance of twenty-eight thousand wandering souls and set out to find whoever was responsible.
• Yoriichi told the investigating Soul Reapers to guard the sealed-off area, then suspected Mayuri Kurotsuchi’s Twelfth Division was erasing souls to preserve the balance of the Three Realms.
• Unfamiliar Reiatsu erupted inside Seireitei, and Yoriichi turned back before a young man in white emerged from warped space to block his way.
• The stranger introduced himself as Nianzol Weizol, a Sternritter serving Yhwach, and declared the Wandenreich’s intention to destroy the Gotei 13.
• Nianzol explained that his Schrift, W, The Wind, made attacks veer away from him, and Yoriichi’s slash with Hekyō bent aside without hitting him.

Yoriichi used the Transparent World to find and wound Nianzol by striking through the space hiding his real body. Nianzol explained that Yoriichi was one of the Six Special War Powers, then taunted him about the war in Seireitei as Chōjirō Sasakibe’s Reiatsu vanished; Yoriichi raised Hekyō with both hands.

• Yoriichi’s Shikai attacks curved around Nianzol, but the Transparent World revealed that a layer of distorted space was redirecting them.
• Yoriichi cut through the distortion, located Nianzol’s hidden position, and pierced his shoulder with Hekyō, burning him with Sun Reiatsu.
• Nianzol described the Six Special War Powers and identified Yoriichi’s unknown factor as skill.
• Nianzol warned that Soul Reapers were dying in Seireitei and said Chōjirō Sasakibe’s Reiatsu had disappeared.
• Yoriichi looked toward the First Division and raised Hekyō with both hands.

Yoriichi defeated Nianzol by unleashing One Moment... Thousand Strikes, which cut through the layered space and destroyed him. Yoriichi then headed toward the Seireitei, where fierce fighting was underway.

• Yoriichi refused to use Bankai as Nianzol demanded and gathered Reishi around himself while slowing his breathing.
• Nianzol sensed danger and tried to escape through warped layers of space, but Yoriichi’s attack kept him locked on.
• Yoriichi used One Moment... Thousand Strikes to slice through the surrounding space and destroy Nianzol with crimson slashes and Sun Reiatsu.
• Yoriichi sheathed Hekyō and activated Nisshun to race toward the Seireitei.
• A massive fissure in space remained at the battlefield before slowly shrinking and disappearing.

Yoriichi returned to Seireitei after the Wandenreich’s attack and learned that 117 Soul Reapers, including Chōjirō Sasakibe, had been killed. Yamamoto told Yoriichi not to blame himself, then ordered Mayuri Kurotsuchi to report to the First Division after Yoriichi confirmed the Twelfth Division’s involvement in his Rukongai investigation.

• Yoriichi arrived in Seireitei and found rescue teams tending to the wounded and collecting the dead after the attackers had withdrawn.
• A First Division member reported 117 dead, 43 seriously injured, and confirmed that Vice-Captain Sasakibe had been killed by an unfamiliar Quincy ability.
• Yoriichi found Yamamoto standing beside Sasakibe’s body and blamed himself for not returning sooner.
• Yamamoto told Yoriichi that Sasakibe’s death was not his fault and that he had returned as quickly as he could.
• Yoriichi confirmed that the Twelfth Division was responsible for the events he had investigated in Rukongai.
• Yamamoto ordered Captain Mayuri Kurotsuchi to come to the First Division immediately.

Yoriichi confronted Mayuri Kurotsuchi over his mass killing of wandering souls in Rukongai, which Mayuri claimed was necessary to restore the balance of the Three Realms. Yamamoto postponed judgment until the Wandenreich threat was dealt with, then asked Yoriichi why he thought Mayuri had not been held accountable.

• Mayuri arrived at the First Division courtyard, and Yamamoto demanded an explanation for the killings in Rukongai.
• Mayuri said Quincy attacks had destroyed many Hollows, disrupting the balance of the Three Realms, and admitted he had killed wandering souls to compensate.
• Yoriichi condemned Mayuri's decision to treat lives as numbers, but Mayuri argued that the sacrifice was necessary and challenged Yoriichi to solve the problem himself.
• Yamamoto stopped their argument and said he would settle accounts with Mayuri after the Wandenreich matter was resolved.
• Mayuri warned that the Wandenreich had bypassed Seireitei's monitoring systems and left to investigate their technology.
• Yamamoto asked Yoriichi why he was not holding Mayuri accountable for his crimes.

Yoriichi questioned Yamamoto about postponing punishment for Mayuri Kurotsuchi, and Yamamoto explained the choices a Captain-Commander had to make during a war. He urged Yoriichi to gain the strength and resolve to find better options, then directed him to the Great Spirit Book Gallery for answers about the Gotei 13's past.

• Yoriichi asked whether Mayuri Kurotsuchi's killings of Rukongai souls would go unpunished, and Yamamoto said the reckoning had only been postponed because the Gotei 13 needed the Twelfth Division.
• Yamamoto asked how Yoriichi would handle Mayuri, and Yoriichi admitted that he did not know.
• Yamamoto explained that a Captain-Commander sometimes had to choose who would be sacrificed to keep the Gotei 13 alive and bear the resulting resentment and condemnation.
• Yamamoto said Mayuri had prevented a greater catastrophe by reducing the number of souls, but insisted that his merit did not erase his guilt.
• Yamamoto told Yoriichi to develop the strength and resolve to find a path that required no one to be sacrificed, and Yoriichi resolved to become stronger.
• Yamamoto said the Gotei 13's past was not clean and directed Yoriichi to the Great Spirit Book Gallery for answers.

After Yamamoto authorized Yoriichi to enter the Great Spirit Book Gallery, Yoriichi encountered its administrator, Tsunayashiro Tokinada, and entered without accepting his offer of help. Tokinada watched him disappear behind the closed doors.

• Yoriichi used Yamamoto's pass to travel to the Great Spirit Book Gallery and found its gates guarded by members of the nobility.
• Tsunayashiro Tokinada introduced himself as the head of the Tsunayashiro Clan and administrator of the Gallery, and explained that his clan controlled access to its records.
• Tokinada inspected Yamamoto's authorization and allowed Yoriichi to enter.
• Tokinada offered to help Yoriichi find records, but Yoriichi questioned his motives and declined.
• Yoriichi entered the Gallery, while Tokinada watched the doors close behind him.