Uryū vs. Ryūken! Clash of the parent-child Quincy

'''Uryū vs. Ryūken! Clash of the parent-child Quincies''' is the one-hundred-twenty-sixth episode of the Bleach anime.

Statistics

 * Original Airdate: May 16, 2007
 * English Airdate: June 20, 2009
 * Opening Song: Alones
 * Ending Song: Tsumasaki
 * Manga Chapters: Chapter 224, Chapter 225, Chapter 226.
 * Kanji: 雨竜VS竜弦！激突クインシー親子
 * Romaji: "Uryū VS Ryūken! Gekitotsu kuinshī oyako"
 * Arc: The Arrancar arc

Summary
Hitsugaya is surprised to see Hinamori, but he quickly realizes that she finally woke up. When Hinamori apologizes for doubting him and pointing her sword at him, Hitsugaya acts like he doesn’t care about small things like that and instead urges her to go back to bed since she looks so tired. After teasing her about her looks, he reminds her to call him Captain Hitsugaya as opposed to the “Hitsugaya-kun” that she normally uses. A moment of silences passes before Hinamori asks if Hitsugaya is going to fight and kill Aizen. She desperately wants him to save Aizen and thinks that Ichimaru or someone forced Aizen to do it. Before she can get too far with this however, Yamamoto steps in and knocks her out with one hand motion in front of her face. The commander suggests that they might have let her do this too early and then bids Hitsugaya farewell. Around this time, over at Urahara’s, Sado is going through some rigorous training against Renji in ban kai form. Renji had initially not wanted to do this, but Urahara had earlier convinced Renji to train Sado because Sado needed opponents who had achieved ban kai and Urahara’s own ban kai was not suited for it. Renji had eventually agreed to the training after Urahara offered to answer all his questions in three months. Now, as he watches the two men fight, Urahara thinks to himself that Sado’s power isn’t Shinigami or Quincy, but rather something else.

Inoue meanwhile has tracked down the building hidden behind a special barrier that Ichigo is in and notices that the barrier feels similar to her own power, so she’s able to pass through it. Inside the training area, Ichigo is fighting Hiyori with short bursts of putting on his Hollow mask. The point of this training is to extend the length of time Ichigo can keep the mask on, but the length that Ichigo can currently manage is only four seconds. The Vizards all had to go through this training with the exception of the female Vizard named Mashiro who was able to keep on her mask for 15 hours from the very beginning. Hachigen suddenly detects someone entering the barrier he set up that is impenetrable to Shinigami demon arts, and to their surprise, Inoue appears. After learning about Aizen’s plot and the special key, Ichigo tells Inoue not to worry and promises to stop Aizen because he can get stronger. Inoue notices how calm Ichigo is and attributes it to how he’s found his strength and became stronger. Realizing that she needs to get stronger too, Inoue leaves and runs into Yoruichi outside. Yoruichi had been looking for Inoue because Urahara wanted to talk with her. Back inside, Love questions how Inoue was able to get through Hachigen’s barrier, so the large Vizard reveals that Inoue seems to have the same power that he does, even though she’s only a human.

Training is also continuing at this time between Ishida and his father. Ishida is spending most of his time running away from his father’s blasts and attempting to counterattack with his silver tubes of stored spiritual energy. He recognizes that his father’s spiritual energy is getting weaker, so he decides to stop his father from moving with his last silver tube. The technique, however, does not work on Ryuuken, and father shoots son in the chest with a spirit arrow. After Ishida falls, Ryuuken reveals that the only way for a Quincy to regain his powers is for that person to be taken to the limit mentally and physically before being hit with an arrow exactly 19mm to the right of the sinoatrial node of the heart. With his son lying on the ground with a star shape now on his chest, Ryuuken is disgusted with how Ishida didn’t use the right technique earlier with the silver tubes. Still, he’ll let Ishida off the hook for tonight.