10th Division's Death Struggle! The Release of Hyōrinmaru

 is the one hundred and fourth episode of the Bleach anime.

10th Division Captain Tōshirō Hitsugaya battles the Bount Gō Koga after the latter incapacitates several of his subordinates.

Summary
Having been alerted to the confrontation of five of his subordinates with a Bount, 10th Division Captain Tōshirō Hitsugaya rushes to the scene alongside his lieutenant, Rangiku Matsumoto, and multiple other subordinates, where he finds the five Shinigami sprawled defeated across the alleyway. When Hitsugaya kneels beside one of the Shinigami and inquires about his condition, the Shinigami recounts how they tried to apprehend Gō Koga, but were incapacitated when he summoned his Doll, Dalk.

In response, Hitsugaya assures the Shinigami he will be contacting the Fourth Division and lets him lie back down before declaring they are going to pursue Koga since he seems to still be close by. After noting the fighting style seems to match that of the Bount whom 3rd Division Lieutenant Izuru Kira fought in the Human World, Hitsugaya warns his subordinates to be careful of Koga's power while 6th Division Lieutenant Renji Abarai runs up behind him with Kurōdo.

As Kurōdo comments on everyone being here, Hitsugaya questions why Renji is here, and when Renji reveals he followed the Reiatsu of a Bount, Hitsugaya is surprised by this, prompting Rangiku to recall Kurōdo was created and used for this purpose, which Kurōdo cheerfully confirms. With Hitsugaya confused by this, Rangiku realizes he was not informed of this and details how Kurōdo is one of the Mod-Souls with Bount sensors whom Ichigo Kurosaki and his friends used in the Human World. In turn, Kurōdo bashfully greets Hitsugaya, who wonders why a Mod-Soul is stuck in a plushie and ignores Kurōdo's explanation to ask Rangiku if he is being used to track the Bount.

Rangiku affirms this and nonchalantly assures Hitsugaya that Kurōdo is more useful than he appears to be. When Hitsugaya requests Renji let him borrow Kurōdo, Rangiku envisions him wearing Kurōdo strapped around his shoulder and observes the two of them do match, only for an annoyed Hitsugaya to clarify she will be carrying him instead, which she is disappointed by. Though he does not mind lending Kurōdo to Hitsugaya, Renji is uncertain of what he should do in the meantime, leading Hitsugaya to instruct him to take care of Hitsugaya's injured subordinates, which leaves Renji exasperated that he will not be fighting once again as he hands over Kurōdo.

After Rangiku slings him over her shoulder, Kurōdo expresses perverse delight in finally being carried by a woman instead of a stuffy man, to Renji's irritation. Shortly afterward, Hitsugaya and Rangiku reappear on a rooftop in a different part of the Seireitei with Shunpo, where Kurōdo confirms they are definitely headed in the right direction. When Rangiku inquires about what they are going to do, Hitsugaya asserts they will be surrounding Koga since they are likely more familiar with the geography than he is, which leads Rangiku to acknowledge this and summon a swarm of Jigokuchō to contact the other groups of Shinigami around the Seireitei with.

Through the Jigokuchō, one of which flies to each group, Rangiku relays the location and movement direction of Koga to the Shinigami groups, the first and second of which she orders to change course and head through the sixth eastern district while the third and fourth groups detour to close off the roads and the remaining groups hurry from the third northern district to Koga's location in order to begin the siege. As one of the groups runs through the streets, Koga watches from behind a corner at the end of an alleyway and notes to Dalk that the encircling net cast by the Shinigami is getting tighter, but remains silent when Dalk asks him about what they are going to do about it.

Back on the rooftop, Kurōdo is shocked to sense Koga's Reiatsu weakening, and when he reveals its direction to her and Hitsugaya, Rangiku realizes Koga is near the seventh eastern district as Hitsugaya muses on Koga only weakening his Reiatsu instead of completely concealing it during his traversal. Meanwhile, having found one of the entrances to the underground canal network, Koga walks along one of the walkways with Dalk, who complains about rusting down here. However, Koga reminds her they can buy time by moving through the canal network and responds to Dalk bemoaning the relative lack of combat by stating they need to search for Jin Kariya.

With Koga claiming they cannot leave Kariya alone, Dalk picks up on him not referring to Kariya with an honorific and inquires if the two of them got into a fight, thought Koga insists this is not what happened and they simply have different ways of living. Suddenly, Koga hears the sound of approaching footsteps and hides behind a wall with an amused Dalk as several Shinigami run down a different walkway, leaving Koga to expresses irritation at the search expanding down to the canal network. When Dalk wonders if he is going to continue running around, Koga denies this and proclaims they will break through no matter what, which means they must strike.

Simultaneously, Rangiku confirms Hitsugaya's theory that Koga is moving through the canal network, which Kurōdo praises as exemplifying how captains notice things others do not, and presumes Koga will surface once he is noticed before observing that being able to track him in the canal network would be helpful. In response, Rangiku instructs the groups who are investigating the western district to move to the canal network as backup. However, as the third group prepares to change course to the northwestern roads, Dalk bursts out of the ground in front of them, prompting the startled lead Shinigami to reveal to Rangiku they have discovered the Doll of the Bount.

After telling the Shinigami to lure the Bount to a wide road and wait for backup, Rangiku departs alongside Hitsugaya with Shunpo, only for Dalk to quickly defeat the Shinigami and bemoan how her expectations for the fight went unfulfilled while Koga notices a Jigokuchō flying above him. Upon landing on a wall with Hitsugaya, Rangiku finds herself unable to contact the third group and reprimands Kurōdo when he deduces from the disappearance of Koga's Reiatsu that the Shinigami lost the battle. Hitsugaya turns to Rangiku and orders her to have the groups make sure they wait for backup instead of rashly engaging Koga on their own before leaping away.

When the sixth group relays their arrival at the fourth street of the south district to her, Rangiku asks them if there is any sign of Koga, who is standing behind a corner opposite the group of Shinigami, and as they deny this, Kurōdo detects Koga's Reiatsu once more and informs an astonished that it is in the direction of the fourth street of the south district, which prompts her to tell the sixth group that Koga is confirmed to be in their vicinity. While the sixth group requests that the other groups come to their location for backup, Koga concludes that there is a Jigokuchō for each team and instructs Dalk to crush all of them at once, which she agrees to do despite her pity for them.

Dalk swings up her lower body and fires a medium-sized sphere high into the air that bursts apart into dozens of smaller spheres, which proceed to obliterate all the Jigokuchō keeping Rangiku in contact with the Shinigami groups, leaving her and Hitsugaya shocked. With Rangiku's connection to the seventh group fading, Kurōdo realizes Koga has discovered their means of communication and Rangiku reveals the complete loss of communication with all groups to an angered Hitsugaya. During this, Dalk steps out in front of the panicking sixth group and invites them to play with her as she levels her left machine gun arm at the group and grins at Koga's behest.

Some time later, Hitsugaya, Rangiku, and Kurōdo find the incapacitated sixth group, whom they are both relieved and confused to discover are still breathing and have been left alive. Standing up from his kneeling position beside one of the Shinigami, Hitsugaya tells Rangiku to take care of them, and when Kurōdo informs Hitsugaya at his inquiry that Koga is heading away from them, Rangiku wonders what he plans to do. In response, Hitsugaya notes Koga knew they were moving as a military unit and has been waiting for the commander to confront him once all the subordinates have been defeated prior to affirming he will be going alone, which Rangiku acknowledges.

With Hitsugaya departing with Shunpo, Koga walks through a different part of the Seireitei, but comes to a halt when Hitsugaya suddenly reappears before him. After confirming Koga's assumption that he is the captain of the Shinigami he and Dalk have been fighting, Hitsugaya admonishes him for the trouble he has caused, though Koga insists he held back because he does not like harming young people. After thanking Koga for doing so, Hitsugaya declares he will not be holding back, prompting a grinning Koga to summon Dalk once more as Hitsugaya pulls his Zanpakutō through its dissolving sheath and exerts his white Reiatsu in a circle around his feet on the ground.

Once Dalk finishes assembling herself and promises to play with him, Hitsugaya leaps forward with a yell and begins rapidly slashing and jabbing at Dalk, who calls him impatient and jumps backward into the air, where she sees Hitsugaya has broken off a small chunk near the point of her upper left arm with his attacks. Moving to Dalk in midair, Hitsugaya slashes downward at her, resulting in his Zanpakutō severing her arm at the point where it was damaged. While the arm section shatters a few tiles of the nearby roof it crashes into, Hitsugaya lands on a flat rooftop opposite a stunned Dalk and throws the crescent blade on the end of his Zanpakutō's chain at her.

Though Hitsugaya manages to wrap his chain around her neck and pull her forward, a grinning Dalk simply swings up her lower body and begins firing medium-sized metal spheres at Hitsugaya, who evades them with Shunpo and moves to Dalk once more before decapitating her with a horizontal slash. Floating in midair, the annoyed head of Dalk separates her body into spheres and admits Hitsugaya is skilled, only to chastise him for doing this as she splits her head and the spheres into smaller spheres that connect to each other with metal beams, forming a large web with her head emerging from the center, where she proclaims disobedient children will be punished.

In response, Hitsugaya releases his Shikai, Hyōrinmaru, and surges with white Reiatsu while leaping toward Dalk, who angles the web into a net facing him and meets Hitsugaya in midair to envelop him in a large metal sphere studded with smooth protrusions. However, as she revels in having captured Hitsugaya, Dalk is perplexed to find frost spreading across the sphere and screams in pain when an ice dragon bursts out of the sphere into the sky, alerting Koga, who leaps over a nearby wall to head toward her. After Dalk separates into dozens of still-frozen spheres, allowing a freed Hitsugaya to land on the roof below, she floats down and slowly reforms her body.

Koga joins Dalk on the roof and recommends she return to her sealed state for a moment because it is difficult for her to combine and separate while frozen, but Dalk refuses and assures him she will find a way to keep fighting somehow. When Hitsugaya moves between them and attempts to attack Koga, Dalk fires one of her tethered spheres at him from behind, forcing Hitsugaya to dodge and giving Koga the opportunity to kick him solidly in the abdomen. Landing on his back, Hitsugaya begins rolling down the slanted roof to evade the downward stabs of the four legs of Dalk and falls off the roof prior to unleashing another ice dragon upward.

With Hitsugaya leaping up to join the coiling dragon in midair, Koga asks Dalk to pull back again, only for her to refuse once more and insist that she can do this by herself while Hitsugaya sends the dragon hurtling toward her. As she declares that her burning heart cannot lose to a hunk of ice, Dalk throws herself toward the approaching dragon and cackles while preparing to attack, but is swallowed by the dragon, which proceeds to disperse in midair, leaving the completely frozen body of Dalk to fall to the ground below and shatter into dozens of small pieces on impact. When Koga rushes over and picks up her damaged head in concern, Dalk apologizes for losing.

However, Koga assures Dalk that she did well, which leads her to smile and admit that she is glad to have joined him before her head cracks and shatters into hundreds of shards. Behind Koga, Hitsugaya lands on the ground and notes that this is different from the report he received stating that a Bount will die once they lose their Doll, which he wants to know the reason for. After smirking at this, to Hitsugaya's confusion, Koga stands up and details how there were various roles within his tribe, with his being to train young people to become full-fledged Bount and with some growing up well while others did not, as he observes that he just remembered something from long ago.

An irritated Hitsugaya questions where this is coming from and points out how it does not answer his question, and as he acknowledges this, Koga reveals that he has not collapsed because Dalk still is not dead, to Hitsugaya's disbelief, before holding out his left hand and transforming the shattered pieces of Dalk into a large, lopsided battle axe in his palm. When Hitsugaya wonders what this is, Koga explains that it is the core of Dalk, who lives on within the steel, and asserts that Hitsugaya's strength as a Gotei 13 captain matches his expectations since he cannot go any further without using his full strength prior to proclaiming that he still has something which he must do.

With Koga warning Hitsugaya he will eliminate the latter should he choose to get in the way of this, Hitsugaya assumes a battle stance and claims he is not about to let Koga go so easily. In response, Koga notes quite a bit of the power of Dalk remains in the axe and asserts he will infuse it further with his own Reiatsu to strike Hitsugaya down while absorbing Reishi from the surrounding structures and telling Dalk to fight alongside him. As he completes his Reishi absorption, Koga exerts his light teal Reiatsu in a powerful surge that damages the area around him, leaving Hitsugaya astonished by its strength and realizing this is where the real battle is going to begin.

Deciding to get serious as well, Hitsugaya activates his Bankai, Daiguren Hyōrinmaru, releasing a wave of white Reiatsu that overwhelms Koga's and creating another ice dragon that coils around Hitsugaya to form his ice wings, claws, and petals. Though he is impressed by this, Koga refuses to lose and rushes forward alongside Hitsugaya to clash with him, causing their combined Reiatsu to surge around them. Pushed back and into the air by this, Hitsugaya unleashes another dragon from the tip of his Zanpakutō that slams into the ground where Koga was standing, forcing him to evade while more dragons crash down and become pillars.

When four of the ice petals floating behind him shatter simultaneously from the strain of this, Hitsugaya flies down between the ice pillars, only to be forced to dodge one when Koga slams his axe into the base, causing it to fall over and knocking over multiple other pillars in the process. Koga leaps up the fallen pillars and springs off the side of an intact one toward Hitsugaya, whom he clashes fiercely with in another explosion of Reiatsu that sends him flying back into another pillar. When Koga leaps toward him once more, Hitsugaya unleashes another ice dragon that catches Koga in its jaws, forcing him to hold them open while the dragon gouges through the ground.

In the aftermath, Hitsugaya descends to the ground in front of a prone Koga as another four of his ice petals shatter simultaneously. With Koga struggling to his feet and gripping his axe once more, Hitsugaya inquires if he still wants to continue, prompting Koga to smile and insist he must pursue Kariya before screaming as he absorbs more Reishi to heal his injuries and increase his power. Seeing Koga trembling as he glows with Reiatsu, Hitsugaya deduces his body cannot endure the Reishi that he has absorbed, but Koga merely proclaims he must finish this before it breaks and runs toward Hitsugaya with a yell, only for the latter to calmly cut him down with a slash.

With the slash cutting through the surrounding ice pillars and causing them to collapse, which alerts the nearby Shinigami with the ensuing rumbling of the ground, Koga stands with a frozen cut in his abdomen and sees his axe shatter, which leads him to conclude that this is it and that he has lost. After deactivating his Bankai, Hitsugaya turns to face Koga and inquires about what he would have done once he reached Kariya, prompting Koga to admit that there was not anything he could have done and assert that this is a dispute between the two of them. When Hitsugaya asks him where he would have gone, Koga simply states that he wanted a future with no wars prior to turning around and falling backward, with the remnants of the ice pillars around him breaking apart and burying his body, leaving Hitsugaya to look down somberly.

Shinigami Illustrated Picture Book
Outside the Seireitei, Kon stares at the Seireiheki and notes that he has not appeared in some time before claiming that he could not avoid coming here as he recalls solemnly leaving the tea shop he was staying at despite the tearful protests of the woman serving him there, though he misremembers himself as wearing traditional samurai garb in the process. Promising to never forget the time he spent with the woman while the wind blows around him, Kon is suddenly struck by a sign that tells him he is disappearing.

Characters in Order of Appearance

 * 1) Tōshirō Hitsugaya
 * 2) Rangiku Matsumoto
 * 3) Renji Abarai
 * 4) Kurōdo
 * 5) Gō Koga

Fights

 * Tōshirō Hitsugaya vs. Gō Koga (concluded)

Powers and Techniques Used
Hohō Techniques:

Zanpakutō released:

Shikai:

Bankai:

Dolls summoned: