Forest of Menos! The Search for the Missing Rukia

 is the one hundred and forty-seventh episode of the Bleach anime.

Ichigo Kurosaki and his friends are dropped into the Forest of Menos.

Summary
With Runuganga having survived Rukia Kuchiki's Tsugi no mai, Hakuren and risen out of the sand before Bawabawa, whom he and his friends are riding across Hueco Mundo on, 6th Division Lieutenant Renji Abarai expresses surprise at the former not being dead yet as Rukia expresses disbelief at him coming back after being smashed to pieces. In response, Nel Tu asserts that it is not strange for him to have more than one body to use since he is composed entirely of sand.

After Uryū Ishida deduces that this must be the second body, Rukia stands up and releases her Shikai, Sode no Shirayuki, and attempts to use Tsugi no mai, Hakuren once more, only to inadvertently stab her blade into Bawabawa three times, causing him to begin writhing around in pain and forcing the group to cling to his back. While Rukia apologetically admits that she was not thinking here and Nel accuses her of picking on Bawabawa, another antlion pit opens up beneath Bawabawa, who is dragged down and flings Rukia into the air with his continued thrashing as the others hold onto him.

Approaching the other side of the pit, Rukia spins around in the air and jabs the blade of Sode no Shirayuki into the sand in an attempt to anchor herself, but is quickly pulled beneath the sand anyway, followed shortly by Bawabawa and everyone on his back just before the pit quickly disappears behind them. Far below them, in a dark area, Ashido Kanō stands up and draws his Zanpakutō while Ichigo Kurosaki, Yasutora Sado, Uryū Ishida, and Renji desperately cling to a falling Bawabawa. Suddenly, Uryū sees several Menos Grande in the Forest of Menos below them prior to his group and Bawabawa crashing into the ground.

An annoyed Ichigo gets to his feet and inquires if the others are alright, which they affirm, and thanks Bawabawa for cushioning their impact before Nel hurtles down from above and directly onto Ichigo's head, causing him to fall over. With Nel commenting on how much this hurt and Ichigo angrily asserting that this is what he should be saying, Pesche Guatiche and Dondochakka Birstanne warn the group to get out of the way as they fall down onto Ichigo too, leaving him pinned to the ground while they thank him for the soft landing. Nearby, Nel claps and praises this as a perfect landing while Sado, Uryū, and Renji look away in embarrassment.

After getting up once again, Ichigo wonders where they are and looks up alongside his friends to see the surrounding trees extending into the darkness above, which Renji notes is where they fell from. Upon examining a nearby branch, a startled Uryū realizes it is identical to the trees they found in the desert above and deduces that those were the tops of these trees, leaving Ichigo shocked that the trees reach all the way up to the surface as Sado observes that the area they fell into is incredibly wide and Renji concurs that he cannot even see the walls. Trembling in fear alongside Pesche and Dondochakka, Nel tells Ichigo that this is the Forest of Menos.

Though Ichigo is confused by this name, Uryū notes that he thought as much and reveals that he saw a group of Menos Grande when he was falling prior to theorizing that Hueco Mundo has Espada and Arrancar living aboveground while the Gillians and lesser Hollows live underground. With Nel tearfully confirming this, Renji infers that the Forest of Menos must be filled with Menos Grande and Ichigo kindly asks Nel if she knows how to get out, only for Nel to explain that she had only ever heard rumors about the Forest of Menos and has never been here before, meaning that she does not know of any way to escape.

Nel breaks down and proclaims that they are all going to die here, with Pesche and Dondochakka concurring that it is a forest of death, but Ichigo assures her that there must be a way out since they entered the Forest of Menos from outside and puts a comforting hand on her shoulder while Uryū observes that there must be a way in and out as long as Hollows are here. Though Pesche praises this as a clever thing to say and Dondochakka agrees, Uryū states that it does not please him to be praised by Pesche prior to Ichigo declaring that they should get going. Suddenly, Renji gets Ichigo's attention and points out how Rukia is not here.

Shocked by this, Ichigo begins looking around alongside his friends and questions when she disappeared, prompting Uryū to theorize that it happened when they sank into the sand above. Meanwhile, in a different part of the Forest of Menos, Rukia regains consciousness and pushes several chunks of rock off of herself while wondering where she is and looking up to see the hole in the ceiling she crashed through above. Calling out for Ichigo, Rukia gets up and expresses confusion at her friends' absence prior to noticing something and assuming a combat stance as several glowing pairs of eyes appear in the shadows near her.

With Ashido emerging from his cave and moving out with Shunpo, Rukia purifies an attacking Hollow with a slash of Sode no Shirayuki and evades a swipe from a second Hollow. Upon seeing three more Hollows surrounding her, Rukia slashes through the Hollows in front of and behind her before leaping up and purifying the Hollow flying above her, only to see even more Hollows surrounding her and question why there are so many of them. Lamenting how the Hollows keep coming without reducing their numbers even as she purifies them, Rukia asserts that she has to rejoin her friends as soon as possible and sees a light beyond the trees in the distance.

After encasing her surroundings in ice with Some no mai, Tsukishiro, Rukia jumps over the Hollows and begins running toward the light with the intention of discovering what it is, only for a rotted snake-like Hollow to appear before her, forcing Rukia to stab Sode no Shirayuki through its skull and continue running with the horde of Hollows pursuing her. However, upon reaching the light, Rukia finds herself on the edge of a cliff before two Menos Grande, one of which turns to face her and begins charging a red Cero in its mouth. As Rukia assumes a combat stance, a chunk of the cliff breaks off underneath her foot, causing her to fall on her back.

However, just as the Menos Grande fires its Cero, Ashido appears in front of the beam, grabs Rukia, and moves her away with Shunpo, leaving the Cero to explode against the empty cliff. Moving out of the resulting dust cloud with Rukia under his arm, Ashido draws his Zanpakutō, startling Rukia, and slashes it vertically toward the Menos Grande, which is split in half from the top down and purified, prior to decapitating the other Menos Grande with a horizontal slash and departing with Shunpo. During this, Ichigo's group walks through the Forest of Menos and repeatedly calls out for Rukia, but does not receive a response.

Though Renji asserts that there is no point to this since they cannot find her anywhere, Uryū reminds him that Rukia should not be too far away since they fell from the same place. Upon hearing this, Ichigo has a realization and reminds the others of how light Rukia is before theorizing that Rukia was blown far away during the fall, which leads Renji to concur with this and assume that this is why they could not find her when searching nearby, though Uryū simply wonders what exactly they think Rukia is. Suddenly, Bawabawa rears up, startling Ichigo and Renji, and begins talking to the group as Nel translates his intention to climb a tree and look for Rukia.

Pleased by this, Pesche praises Bawabawa and tells him to look for Rukia with his sharp eyes, which Dondochakka agrees with, while Renji picks up on Pesche calling Rukia a vile Shinigami and Ichigo notes that Bawabawa does not have eyes, leading Uryū to tell them to stop commenting on everything since it will never end otherwise. When Bawabawa begins climbing up a nearby tree, Uryū has him stop and expresses a desire to see what the entire area looks like prior to hopping on Bawabawa's back, with Sado joining him. While Nel, Pesche, and Dondochakka cheer on a climbing Bawabawa, Renji admits that he is surprised they can keep this up.

Meanwhile, Ashido leaps across the treetops as he continues to carry Rukia, who thanks him for saving her and asks him to let her down, only for Ashido to not respond. Annoyed by Ashido not listening to her, Rukia pries his hand off her waist and springs off of his back in the opposite direction. However, as she apologizes to him, Rukia is astonished to see Ashido having disappeared from the air behind her just before he reappears before her with Shunpo, grabs her by the waist again, and lands on a nearby tree branch. With Rukia demanding to know what he is doing, Ashido asks her to endure this until they reach his hideout.

While Rukia looks at him uncertainly, Ashido announces that he is going to jump and begins leaping upward to successively higher branches on the same tree. Simultaneously, in the caves aboveground where he and several other Adjuchas are gathered around a fire, Teres Holcan notes that the Forest of Menos has been noisy lately, leading another Adjuchas to bring up how he has felt several odd Reiatsu signatures within and Parateraul to observe that the intruders will simply die if left alone. Suddenly, Aromazon approaches the group and reveals that Las Noches has contacted them while Vecuness expresses intrigue at this.

Back in the Forest of Menos, Ashido lands on a tree branch opposite a cliff leading to a cave entrance, which Rukia is startled by, and leaps over to it prior to setting Rukia down and walking into the cave, with Rukia following him shortly afterward. Looking around to see mushrooms and moss lying in square holes in one of the walls and greenery covering a knee-high level of the cave's floor, Rukia is surprised to see a medium-sized Kidō orb illuminating the cave from the ceiling and identifies it to Ashido, whom she determines really is a Shinigami and asks about his assignment and division, only to presume from his lack of response that he left his division.

With Rukia irritated by his continued silence, Ashido identifies himself and explains that this is the Forest of Menos where Menos live far away from the rules of Soul Society before unsheathing his Zanpakutō, leaping into the air, and coming down on a shocked Rukia with a vertical slash that she barely manages to block. After demanding to know what Ashido is doing and observing that he does not want to talk, Rukia is sent flying back with a scream of pain by Ashido rearing back and slashing at her horizontally, causing her to spring off the far wall back toward Ashido and enter a blade lock with him that results in Ashido quickly overpowering her.

Rukia lands far behind Ashido and muses on his fighting style possessing incredible strength despite its random nature just before Ashido moves into the air above her with Shunpo and slashes down from her right side, forcing Rukia to roll several meters away and leaving her panting with exertion as Ashido stands before her. Meanwhile, with Bawabawa having climbed up the tree and found a section to curl around in order to search for Rukia alongside Sado and Uryū, Ichigo calls up to them and inquires about whether they have found anything, only for Uryū to deny this and assert that it is no good while wondering where the Menos he saw earlier went.

On the ground below, Ichigo and Renji notice something and run toward it, and as Uryū wonders what they are doing now, Sado alerts him to the presence of flying Hollows, who approach from the nearby trees. Though he and Sado rapidly destroy three of the Hollows with two Heilig Pfeil and an El Directo, respectively, Uryū sees more flying Hollows hurtling down toward them from the treetops above and grimly aims his Heilig Bogen, Ginrei Kojaku, at them to continue firing more Heilig Pfeil. During this, Ichigo fends off a Hollow on the ground below and expresses concern for Sado and Uryū.

Pushed back by another Hollow that he quickly destroys with a slash of his Shikai, Zangetsu, Ichigo is left aggravated and stands behind Renji, who purifies another Hollow as well, as they are surrounded by a horde of Hollows who begin howling at them instead of attacking, to their confusion. Around the nearby tree, Uryū sees the flying Hollows circling around Bawabawa and questions what is happening prior to the Hollows flying away from the tree, to his further bewilderment. On the ground below, a panicking Nel realizes that "they" are coming and frantically warns Ichigo to run away despite Pesche and Dondochakka telling her that it is dangerous to stay.

Suddenly, three Menos Grande appear between the nearby trees, which prompts Uryū to deduce that the howl was meant to summon them before a frightened Bawabawa begins trembling in fear beneath him and Sado, leaving Uryū unable to properly aim Ginrei Kojaku. When one of the Menos Grande begins reaching toward Bawabawa with its right hand, Ichigo appears in the air between them with Shunpo and fires a Getsuga Tenshō that repels the Menos Grande's hand and knocks it down. After moving to Bawabawa's head and confirming that Sado and Uryū are alright, Ichigo sees one of the other Menos Grande howling in turn.

Down on the ground, Renji releases his Shikai, Zabimaru, and wipes out multiple Hollows with each swing of the extending blade, but Dondochakka observes that the Hollows just keep coming and that they might actually get eaten at this rate, leading Pesche to declare that their only option is to bravely withdraw. With Nel protesting this since Ichigo is still in danger, Pesche informs her that she just has to pretend that she never knew Ichigo and his friends to begin with, only for Nel to note that she already knows them as a frustrated Pesche loudly asserts that this is exactly why he is telling her to forget about them.

However, Pesche is interrupted by the arrival of dozens of other Hollows, with Dondochakka realizing that they may already be too late, and one of the flying Hollows swoops down to grab Nel, Pesche, and Dondochakka in its talons. Though Ichigo attempts to follow a shrieking Nel, he is cut off by the appearance of several more Menos Grande that the flying Hollow soars past, leaving Uryū to recognize the Menos Grande as being the same ones he saw earlier while falling prior to one of them opening its mouth and firing a red Cero at the group. Back in Ashido's hideout, Rukia leaps back from her blade lock with Ashido and pants heavily.

After Rukia demands to know if he brought her here just to kill her, Ashido silently rushes forward and slams into Rukia, who crashes into the wall and falls to her knees as Ashido observes that this is all she has got and levels his Zanpakutō at her head. Before Ashido can act, Rukia throws a handful of pebbles from the ground at his face, causing him to rear back, and stabs Sode no Shirayuki at him, only to find that Ashido has disappeared before her blade could reach him. Reappearing behind a stunned Rukia, Ashido thrusts his Zanpakutō toward her.

Shinigami Illustrated Picture Book
At the Seireitei Communication editorial department, 9th Division Lieutenant Shūhei Hisagi panics over how bad the situation has gotten and demands to know if 10th Division Lieutenant Rangiku Matsumoto's article has been finished yet, only for one of his subordinates to inform him that it has not. Suddenly, Rangiku pops up behind Hisagi and reveals that she has brought her article, but Hisagi is confused to find dozens of photographs of 10th Division Captain Tōshirō Hitsugaya that Rangiku took illicitly while in Karakura Town, which Rangiku tells him to include with the issue as a bonus feature that will surely double its sales. Though Hisagi tells her that they cannot remake the issue at this point, Rangiku reveals that she already contact his printers and concludes that he can take care of the rest as she departs, leaving Hisagi to realize that he will be up all night working on this.

Events

 * Trapped In The Forest of Menos

Powers and Techniques Used
Zanpakutō Techniques:

Hohō Techniques:

Kidō Techniques:
 * Unnamed light Kidō

Hollow Techniques:

Zanpakutō released:

Quincy Techniques:

Shikai:

Spirit Weapons:

Fullbring: