THE BLADE IS ME (episode)

For the chapter of the same name, see THE BLADE IS ME.

THE BLADE IS ME is the thirteenth episode of Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War and the three hundred and seventy-ninth episode of the Bleach anime overall.

With newfound resolve, Ichigo Kurosaki returns to the Hōōden to have his Zanpakutō reforged by Ōetsu Nimaiya.

Summary
With Ichigo Kurosaki standing in Karakura Town and announcing that he is leaving, Isshin Kurosaki questions how he intends to get back to the Soul King Palace, prompting Ichigo to look back at him speechlessly just before Mera Hiuchigashima appears in the air behind him in a puff of smoke, notes that the timing is perfect, and tells Ichigo that they are going. Moments later, Ichigo finds himself standing in the pit in the Hōōden before Ōetsu Nimaiya, who looks down at him from the entrance.

Impressed by the resolve in Ichigo's eyes, Nimaiya points at him and declares that he should be able to do this now as Ichigo looks back at the Asauchi gathered behind him. However, Nimaiya and Mera are left astonished when the Asauchi respond to Ichigo walking toward them by kneeling down before him and turning black in concentric rows. Eventually, Ichigo reaches a specific Asauchi that he asserts is the right one and holds out his open hand, which the Asauchi reaches up to grip with its own, causing its black skin to flake off and reveal white skin underneath before the Asauchi looks up at Ichigo with a Hollow's face.

Grinning at this, Nimaiya tells Ichigo to come up and promises to personally reforge his Zanpakutō for him. Meanwhile, in the Seireitei below, Shūtetsu Nagakiso paces along the edge of a room filled with Shinigami practicing Zanjutsu and admonishes them for not performing swings capable of cutting down Quincy, which they acknowledge. Suddenly, 10th Division Captain Tōshirō Hitsugaya opens the door, and when a surprised Nagakiso approaches and inquires about what brings him here, Hitsugaya bows and requests that Nagakiso train him because his Bankai being stolen means he must retrain from the basics to fight with Zanjutsu.

With Nagakiso shocked by this, Hitsugaya takes his place among the other training Shinigami and begins practicing sword swings while ruminating on how he had perfected his Bankai following Sōsuke Aizen's defeat, only for it to be stolen all the same, before telling himself that there is no time to mourn for what has been lost because he cannot get it back and must look forward. Simultaneously, on the outskirts of the Rukongai, 9th Division Lieutenant Shūhei Hisagi follows his captain, Kensei Muguruma, through the forest and questions why they are here, which leads Kensei to declare that he wants Hisagi to achieve Bankai.

Kensei explains to a startled Hisagi that while his Bankai was not stolen during the last invasion, there is no guarantee that it will not happen during the next one, making it paramount for the Gotei 13 to have as many officers capable of Bankai as possible. When 9th Division Lieutenant Mashiro Kuna leaps down in front of Hisagi with a flip, Kensei has her don her Hollow mask, and as a nervous Hisagi tells Mashiro to wait, Kensei warns him that she is strong with her mask on and that he will only survive if he achieves Bankai. Before Hisagi can protest this, Mashiro punches him hard in the stomach, causing him to collapse.

Upon seeing this, Kensei berates Hisagi for not heeding his warning and Mashiro asserts that there is no way a lieutenant could defeat a super lieutenant while brandishing her custom lieutenant's badge. With Kensei clarifying that Mashiro will not hold back from killing Hisagi during this because Kensei is not soft like Kaname Tōsen was, Hisagi forces himself up and observes that he has always respected and admired Kensei prior to proclaiming that the latter has no right to disparage Tōsen regardless, leaving Kensei to stare down at him. During this, at the Shinigami Research and Development Institute, 12th Division 3rd Seat Akon enters the control room.

When Niko Kuna wonders if it is okay for him to walk around yet, Akon admits that he is still in pain, but refuses to lie in bed all day and inquires about the whereabouts of their captain, Mayuri Kurotsuchi. In response, Kuna reveals that Mayuri has stayed in his office with his lieutenant, Nemu Kurotsuchi, ever since the Quincy invasion, and after confirming what she said and looking around the room to see the surveillance bugs inactive, a surprised Akon opens a panel on the nearby wall and begins typing into the keypad within while explaining to Kuna that Mayuri has never left the bugs inactive while in his office for more than 24 hours.

Concluding that Mayuri either has experienced a crisis or is conducting experiments that he does not want anyone else to see through the bugs, Akon asserts that he is going to take a look either way and presses the large red button on the control panel, creating a medium-sized screen hanging in the air with purple electricity crackling between it and the panel. At Kuna's inquiry, Akon bluntly states that this displays the feed of a hidden camera he installed in Mayuri's office, to Kuna's astonishment, only to be bewildered alongside her when the feed displays Mayuri detailing how the host body will give birth to a new Ashisogi Jizō.

Meanwhile, at the Ōmaeda Clan estate, Mareyo Ōmaeda looks for her brother, 2nd Division Lieutenant Marechiyo Ōmaeda, before finding him lounging on the porch and requesting that he play with her while holding up a ball. However, Marechiyo refuses to do so, and when a distraught Mareyo tears up at this, a panicking Marechiyo asks her if she wants to play kemari, which Mareyo happily agrees to. Shortly afterward, Marechiyo sends Mareyo's ball flying high into the air, leaving her delighted as Marechiyo muses that his captain, Suì-Fēng, decided not to take him with her, with Suì-Fēng performing one-handed pushups on a spire elsewhere.

Simultaneously, the Wolfman Clan Elder opens his eyes in his cave and questions who is there, prompting 7th Division Captain Sajin Komamura to note that it has been a long time since they last met while standing before him. When the Elder comments on his impudence in coming here and asks him what he wants, Komamura announces that he has come to learn their clan's secret technique, but the Elder merely laughs at him, producing a strong wind, and reminds Komamura that he has no right to make demands like this after hiding his face with a cloth and mask in order to pretend to be human because he was ashamed of his appearance.

In turn, Komamura points out that he is no longer concealing himself and explains that the world has changed enough in the past few decades that he believes their clan can live out in the open, though this world is now under threat. Despite this, the Elder angrily tells Komamura to be silent and details how the world will remain intact while its bearers change, with their clan remaining unharmed and continuing to live in the shadows no matter who that is. Though Komamura insists that they have to change the world for the sake of their children and grandchildren, the Elder counters that it will not change and does not need to since it does not matter who controls it.

Slowly standing up, the Elder vows to crush Komamura if he refuses to avoid disrupting the peace of their clan, only for Komamura to welcome this challenge. Back in the Soul King Palace, a screeching Ichigo hurtles down a slide alongside Nimaiya and the Asauchi to crash into a pool of water below, where he is astonished to see several large waterfalls forming a massive body of water around the cliff that the Hōōden resides on. After noting that this is why it was constructed on a cliff since a Bankai cannot be reforged without all this water, Nimaiya reveals that this is where Ichigo and Zangetsu will say goodbye.

With Ichigo shocked by this, Nimaiya announces the beginning of his show before Tsumiko Tsuchimiya, Hasuka Hashihara, Mera, Nonomi Nomino, and Tokie Tonokawa crash down onto him from above, injure him in various ways, and proclaim that they are his bodyguards. As Ichigo and the Asauchi stare blankly at this, Nimaiya wonders why the Asauchi is just standing there and beckons it forward, causing the Asauchi to transform into a shining blade that hurtles through the air around Ichigo and eventually rests behind him, to his confusion. At Nimaiya's behest, a large stone construct forms over the pit behind him.

Once this is completed, Nonomi hollows out the column and cleanly destroys the bottom half with two chisels, Mera breathes fire onto the pit to create a furnace, Tokie laments her role in the forging and weeps to spawn water from a bucket that she holds over a trench next to the furnace while Nonomi reminds her that this is important, Hasuka grabs the blade out of the air with her prehensile hair, and Tsumiko pulls a tooth out of her mouth to sculpt it into a long and large mallet. After tying up his hair and removing his glasses, Nimaiya declares that they will get started and begins hammering the blade in the flames with Tsumiko's mallet.

When asked by Nimaiya what he sees, Ichigo notes that it is much brighter now and question if Nimaiya should have kept his glasses on, but Nimaiya counters that he would not be able to see the color of the flames if he did and deduces that Ichigo's first reaction to seeing the Asauchi turn white upon touching him was to be reminded of his inner Hollow. Quenching the blade in the water-filled trench, Nimaiya confirms that the Asauchi does represent Ichigo's inner Hollow and that it was the catalyst to draw out Ichigo's Zanpakutō Spirit while the blade is reheated in the flames and set back down by Hasuka with her hair.

Though nonplussed by this, Ichigo is visibly shocked when Nimaiya resumes hammering and reveals that Ichigo's inner Hollow is actually his Zanpakutō Spirit, as Aizen created White by layering countless Shinigami Souls on top of each other in a method identical to Nimaiya's creation of Asauchi, allowing it to enter Ichigo's Soul, merge with his natural Shinigami powers, and become his Zanpakutō Spirit. With Ichigo realizing what this means for the Zangetsu he knows, Nimaiya reminds him that he will be saying farewell to Zangetsu here and asserts that Ichigo should already know the truth about the man masquerading as his Zanpakutō Spirit.

In his inner world, Ichigo stands before Zangetsu, and when Ichigo claims to already know who he is, Nimaiya urges him to look closer because he has already seen this man up close recently as the enemy who destroyed Soul Society and proclaims that Zangetsu is Ichigo's Quincy powers taking the form of Yhwach from a thousand years ago. Mentally, Ichigo admits he had been trying not to think about how he felt as though he had been drawn to Yhwach on the day they first fought and how he was able to find Yhwach without knowing anything about him while also treating him as the most important enemy, as well as why Yhwach reminded him of someone he knew.

Aghast at this revelation, Ichigo calls out to Zangetsu as it begins raining and asks him if this is true, prompting Zangetsu to state that it is just as he has heard and that he is not named Zangetsu. With the building they are standing on cracking and splitting in two, submerging them in deep water, Ichigo questions if he is really Yhwach and not Zangetsu, and when Zangetsu confirms that he is the source of Ichigo's Quincy powers and both is and is not Yhwach, a furious Ichigo demands to know if everything he has said up until now is a lie and if he is an enemy or an ally, only for Zangetsu to assert that he is not an enemy or an ally after several seconds of silence.

Zangetsu clarifies that there were no lies in his words other than the name he told Ichigo and reminds the latter that he always had help from the inner Hollow whenever he taught Ichigo about his Zanpakutō prior to pointing out how the one to save Ichigo whenever he was in mortal danger was always the Hollow rather than himself. When Zangetsu explains that he did not want Ichigo to become a Shinigami and so suppressed his burgeoning Zanpakutō Spirit to become the center of his abilities instead, Ichigo wonders why, prompting Zangetsu to state that he wanted to keep Ichigo far from danger and conflict because it would be inevitable as a Shinigami.

After musing that this would lead to Ichigo suffering and eventually force him to kill Ichigo himself, Zangetsu generates a large, flaming Reishi broadsword in his right hand and reiterates his belief that he would have to kill Ichigo if he became a Shinigami, but recounts Ichigo choosing the path of the Shinigami, gaining strength from it, and persevering on it despite being hurt, which caused Zangetsu's heart to waver as he observed it and eventually made him lean to support Ichigo's decision rather than keep him away from the Shinigami. With his body beginning to disintegrate, Zangetsu observes that he now feels the joy of stepping away from Ichigo.

While Zangetsu concludes he is satisfied from watching Ichigo grow strong right by his side because there can be no greater joy than that, Ichigo rushes toward him and frantically begs Zangetsu to wait, only for Zangetsu to shed a single tear and disappear completely, leaving behind only the sword. Once Ichigo reaches the sword, Zangetsu informs him that he has been using a mere fragment of his power that could not be suppressed and that he can now fight with his full power by using his true Zanpakutō and the real Zangetsu, causing the sword to explode into light around Ichigo. Internally, Ichigo admits there were no lies in the words of either Zangetsu.

Recalling how Zangetsu used a Quincy's Shadow to help him, Blut to stop his bleeding, and power to help him win when he was weak, Ichigo leaps between the crumbling buildings in his inner world and asserts that both his Quincy powers and his inner Hollow are Zangetsu to him, which he hopes they can agree to. Back in the real world, Ichigo grabs the blade while it is still in the furnace, and despite Hasuka's protests, Nimaiya affirms that he was just thinking this would be completed by Ichigo pouring his Soul into the blade. At Nimaiya's urging, a yelling Ichigo pulls the blade out of the furnace in an explosion that evaporates all the water in the bay.

With the bodyguards astonished by this, Nimaiya puts his glasses back on and asks Ichigo if he can handle those Zangetsus as Ichigo stands with two distinct blades in his hands, one long with a hollow section in the middle and the other short with a complete blade. As the bodyguards look on in awe at him wielding two blades and Nimaiya confirms that they are both real, Ichigo promises Zangetsu that he will not ask him for power anymore, Zangetsu that he will not push him away anymore, and both of them that they will not have to fight alongside him because he will fight on his own before declaring that they are him.

Meanwhile, in Silbern, Jugram Haschwalth approaches Yhwach sitting on his throne, and when asked about the subject, Haschwalth steps aside so Uryū Ishida can walk forward, now dressed in a Sternritter uniform. Welcoming Uryū as his son, Yhwach invites him to fight together with them.

Fights & Events

 * Royal Training
 * Soul Society: Battle Ready (concluded)
 * Rise of Uryū Ishida

Powers and Techniques Used
Zanpakutō Techniques:
 * (flashback)

Shinigami Techniques:

Hollow Techniques:
 * (flashback)

Quincy Techniques:
 * (flashback)
 * (flashback)
 * (flashback)

Zanpakutō Spirit Techniques:
 * Fire-Breathing
 * Water-Generation
 * Prehensile Hair
 * Dental Molding

Other Techniques:

Zanpakutō released:

Shikai:

Spirit Weapons:
 * (flashback)

Anime Notes
Removed Content= Added/Expanded Content= Changes=
 * Mera Hiuchigashima explaining the timing restrictions of the Chōkaimon to Ichigo Kurosaki and revealing that Ōetsu Nimaiya planned to bring him back from the start since the situation would change either overnight or not at all, prompting Nimaiya to announce that they can proceed now.
 * Two Shinigami gossiping about Tōshirō Hitsugaya and the future of the Tenth Division now that he has lost his Bankai.
 * The two Shinigami being impressed when Hitsugaya requests to be retrained in Zanjutsu.
 * A sweating Tetsuzaemon Iba finishing repetitions with a large boulder and wondering when Sajin Komamura will come out of the cave behind him.
 * Marechiyo Ōmaeda telling Mareyo Ōmaeda to calm down since he is taking a nap.
 * Nimaiya commenting on Ichigo landing headfirst in the pool while the latter is coughing up water, only for Ichigo to indignantly point out that Nimaiya was the one who shoved him in headfirst.
 * The flashback to Zangetsu stopping Ichigo's wound from bleeding with Blut Vene during his battle against Kenpachi Zaraki.
 * A flashback to Hitsugaya having his Bankai stolen.
 * An extended flashback to Komamura covering his face with a cloth and later armor.
 * Ichigo, Nimaiya, and the Asauchi sliding through the tunnel leading to the forge.
 * Nonomi Nomino creating the forge by chiseling away the interior and bottom section of the rock pillar.
 * An extended flashback to White battling Masaki Kurosaki.
 * Ichigo leaping between collapsing buildings while ruminating on how neither Zangetsu lied to him.
 * In the manga, Ikumi Unagiya is present when Isshin Kurosaki asks Ichigo how he will return to the Soul King Palace; here, she is instead absent.
 * In the manga, the Asauchi immediately turn black and kneel behind Ichigo when he turns to look at them; here, they instead begin kneeling and turning black as he walks through the crowd.
 * In the manga, Mashiro Kuna summons her Hollow mask by pulling her hand down across her face; here, she instead summons it without any hand motions across her face and instead poses with her arms next to her head.
 * In the manga, Kensei Muguruma glares at Shūhei Hisagi while looking directly at him after the latter claims he has no right to disparage Kaname Tōsen; here, he instead glares at Hisagi while looking at him from the side.
 * In the manga, the hidden camera feed shows Mayuri Kurotsuchi asking someone if they can move while experimenting in his office; here, it instead shows him explaining the mechanics of his modified Bankai.
 * In the manga, Komamura's confrontation with the Wolfman Clan Elder begins before Akon spies on Mayuri's experiment; here, it instead begins after Suì-Fēng continues her training in the mountains.
 * In the manga, after Marechiyo refuses to play with Mareyo, Marejirōsabu Ōmaeda invites her to listen to one of his books, only for Mareyo to decline since she finds them creepy and announce to Marechiyo that she is going to escape her cackling brother; here, Marechiyo instead relents at the sight of Mareyo's tears and suggests that they play kemari, where he kicks the ball high into the air.
 * In the manga, when transformed into a blade by Nimaiya, the Asauchi embeds itself in the ground near his head; here, it instead begins flying into the air around the forge, to Ichigo's confusion, and Hasuka Hashihara consequently grabs it from much higher in the air.
 * In the manga, after Ichigo evaporates the lake surrounding the forge in the process of completing his Zanpakutō, Mera expresses shock at the water vanishing as Nonomi tells Tokie Tonokawa that she has never seen anything like this; here, Hasuka and Nonomi instead jointly express shock at the water vanishing.
 * In the manga, when Ichigo promises to never ask Zangetsu and Zangetsu to fight with him again, a flashback to their merged form impaling him is depicted; here, Ichigo activating Saigo no Getsuga Tenshō against Sōsuke Aizen is depicted instead.
 * In the manga, Uryū Ishida joining the Wandenreich takes place after Ichigo resolves to return to the Soul King Palace; here, it instead takes place after Ichigo reforges Zangetsu.