Collision! Black Bankai and White Bankai

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

Ichigo Kurosaki continues his battle with his inner Hollow.

Summary
In his inner world, Ichigo Kurosaki and Hollow Ichigo perform Bankai in unison, causing Ichigo's real-world body to stop in its tracks and arch its head back during the fight against Lisa Yadōmaru as its Reiatsu begins surging. Upon seeing a white substance pouring out of a newly-formed hole in Ichigo's chest, Shinji Hirako observes that it is beginning. Back in the inner world, Ichigo and Hollow Ichigo stand in their opposite-colored Bankai, Tensa Zangetsu, before springing forward to cross blades.

After Ichigo questions when he learned Bankai, Hollow Ichigo declares that he did so at the same time that Ichigo did and separates from him in a burst of oppositely-colored energy. Suddenly, Ichigo finds himself standing on Sōkyoku Hill in Soul Society, and as he wonders why he is here, the blade petals of 6th Division Captain Byakuya Kuchiki's Shikai, Senbonzakura, float past his face, causing him to turn around in shock right before Byakuya attacks him with the petals in multiple thin, spaced-out streams from within a large dust cloud in the center of the hill.

Narrowly evading this with Shunpo, Ichigo assumes a combat stance and demands to know what is going on, only for Byakuya to emerge from the dust cloud and mock Ichigo for currently being so weak. In response, a bewildered Ichigo wonders what is happening and why Byakuya has shown up, but Byakuya simply asserts that Ichigo has become quite pathetic and activates his Bankai, Senbonzakura Kageyoshi. Despite Ichigo protesting this, Byakuya proceeds to attack with two thick streams of blade petals that Ichigo is forced to evade by repeatedly moving through the air with Shunpo until he begins slashing through one of the streams instead.

However, though he tells Byakuya that he does not have time to fight the latter, Ichigo is eventually encompassed by a swirling sphere of blade petals and falls to the ground once it disperses with cuts on his face as he curses. When Byakuya claims that he has yet to acknowledge the confusion in his heart, Ichigo inquires about what exactly he did, and when Ichigo does not stand up despite being ordered to do so, Byakuya has Senbonzakura Kageyoshi crash down onto him from above and follow Ichigo into the air when the latter narrowly dodges this with Shunpo, prompting Ichigo to begin cutting through the streams once more.

As he criticizes Byakuya for being cryptic and demands to know what he wants, Ichigo is struck in the chest by one of the streams of blade petals and falls to the ground, which leads Byakuya to drive the majority of Senbonzakura Kageyoshi into the ground and through the cliffside itself, splitting Sōkyoku Hill in two and causing the front half to begin listing forward. Within the gorge left by this attack, Ichigo clings to a craggy outcropping jutting out from the back half of Sōkyoku Hill, only to look up to see Senbonzakura Kageyoshi massing above him right before it hurtles down and slams into Ichigo, who is caught up in the torrent of blade petals.

Ichigo screams in pain while the blade petals cut him in multiple areas all over his body, and once they pass him, he manages to pull himself up onto the ledge of the outcropping with considerable effort. Suddenly, Byakuya appears before Ichigo and observes it seems to be impossible for him to acquire a true Bankai, though Ichigo points out he is using his Bankai right now and tells Byakuya to stop talking nonsense, prior to forming five copies of his sealed Zanpakutō out of blade petals and firing them down at Ichigo one after another, with Ichigo being forced to let go of the ledge and drop down when one of the swords embeds itself where his arms were located.

With Ichigo barely evading the other swords as they pierce through the air around him, Byakuya reappears below Ichigo with Shunpo and concludes that those without the will to fight cannot stop his blade before exerting his Reiatsu and leaping toward Ichigo to attack with his sealed Zanpakutō. Suddenly, Ichigo finds himself clashing with Hollow Ichigo once more and expresses confusion while they separate from each other in a burst of black-and-white energy. When Hollow Ichigo suggests that he have some fun with this instead of being so angry, a fatigued Ichigo tells Hollow Ichigo to shut up and wonders why Byakuya appeared just now.

Upon being told by Hollow Ichigo to not get careless at a time like this, Ichigo blocks the former's subsequent attack and pushes him away as he denies being careless, but Hollow Ichigo questions how he can say this with such a look on his face. Startled by this, Ichigo fires a Getsuga Tenshō at Hollow Ichigo, who simply cuts it in two with a swipe of his free hand, leaving the two halves to crash into the skyscraper behind him while Ichigo stares in shock at him accomplishing this. After clashing with Ichigo, Hollow Ichigo fires his own white Getsuga Tenshō in a massive blast, which engulfs Ichigo and obliterates the skyscraper behind him.

Meanwhile, in the real world, Lisa performs Panty-Flash Tornado against Hollow Ichigo, who has activated Tensa Zangetsu there as well, while Kensei Muguruma notices Lisa has been fighting for ten minutes and has Hachigen Ushōda open up the barrier once more so he can intercept Hollow Ichigo with a powerful elbow to the chest before he can continue attacking Lisa, whom Kensei tells that her time is up. With Lisa leaving and Hollow Ichigo springing up from the ground he was was sent crashing into to rush forward, Kensei spins his Shikai, Tachikaze, around by the ring on its hilt and introduces himself as the one who will kill Hollow Ichigo.

Outside the barrier, Shinji Hirako urges Ichigo to stop messing around and hurry before they are forced to kill him. At the same time, in Ichigo's inner world, Hollow Ichigo stands apart from him with blood dripping from the tip of his blade as Ichigo pants with a wound covering his chest and left shoulder. Reiterating that Ichigo is not good enough, Hollow Ichigo points out how he was the first to use Getsuga Tenshō after they obtained Bankai, meaning that Ichigo is a stupid child trying to imitate the master, and moves to Ichigo before grabbing his sword by the blade, causing it to begin turning white from the point of contact with his hand.

As Hollow Ichigo concludes that he should give up because he is not good enough at Bankai, a stunned Ichigo sees his sword crumble and disappear. However, Ichigo is shocked when Jin Kariya admonishes him for being so pathetic and looks up to see himself standing in the central chamber of the Bount underground city in front of Kariya. Simultaneously, Lisa pants heavily and asks Shinji how long she has to rest. After Shinji states that the eight of them fighting for ten minutes each gives her eighty minutes, Hiyori Sarugaki reminds him that Lisa cannot fight while she is resting and Hachigen wonders why he is being counted when he is maintaining the barrier.

With Shinji irritated by this, Lisa internally admits that Hollow Ichigo was much stronger than she expected and warns Kensei to be very careful. Within the barrier, Kensei evades several slashes and slices Tachikaze through Hollow Ichigo's left shoulder in a spray of blood, only to be alarmed when the wound is instantly covered with white material through High-Speed Regeneration. Upon seeing Kensei preparing to use Bakudantsuki, Hiyori snidely comments on how seriously he is fighting and looks away in frustration when Shinji notes that she understands best of them all as Kensei envelops Hollow Ichigo in a powerful energy blast.

Suddenly, a large mouth with a studded tongue emerges from the resulting dust cloud and surges toward Kensei in the form of a large worm. In response to the mouth biting down on him, Kensei uses Bakudantsuki once more to destroy it as Hollow Ichigo stands with a new, white left arm with shoulder spikes and talons on its fingers. With Kensei noting that he Hollowfies pretty fast, Lisa recalls how the internal battle fought to become able to Hollowfy at will usually lasts no more than an hour and concludes that the six of them getting ten minute-long turns means that this will be over the next time she enters the barrier.

Meanwhile, Ichigo shakes his head and repeatedly asserts that the Kariya standing before him is a hallucination, but while he admits that this might be true, Kariya points out that hallucinations are created by the mind and deduces that him being created means that Ichigo is concerned about having defeated him, since he always looks back on battles once he completes them and thinks about the enemy he defeated as well as the friends he could not protect. When Kariya wonders if Ichigo is so afraid to move through battles and become like him, Ichigo proclaims that he is nothing like Kariya, only for the latter to mock his confidence in this.

Kariya swiftly moves to Ichigo and grabs his right hand by the wrist while questioning what happened to Ichigo's Shikai, Zangetsu, since he will not be able to win barehanded, before throwing him across the room face-first into the ground, which a startled Ichigo crates on impact. Approaching Ichigo, Kariya inquires if he knows that he is as defenseless as a crying baby without Zangetsu, and when Ichigo curses at this, Kariya decides to give him a weapon if he wants one so badly and throws two blasts of wind summoned to his hands at Ichigo, who screams in pain as he is sent flying back and rolls along a dusty plain.

Upon coming to a halt next to a sword embedded in the ground, Ichigo is shocked to see that he is inside the Sōkyoku Hill Study Chamber, filled with blades similar to Zangetsu created by Zangetsu during his Bankai Training. When he hears footsteps nearby, a smiling Ichigo assumes it is Zangetsu, only to see Kariya standing on a nearby cliff and sarcastically apologizing prior to instructing Ichigo to choose whichever sword he likes. Initially reaching for a replica of the sword of Tensa Zangetsu, Ichigo decides against this once he realizes that Zangetsu is not here and begins to concentrate by closing his eyes.

Confused by this, Kariya wonders if Ichigo is not going to choose a weapon and dares him to repel this without one before summoning and firing two more blasts of swirling wind at him. However, Ichigo recalls that Zangetsu is within him and pulls it out of the air to fire a Getsuga Tenshō through the approaching wind blasts, leaving a smiling Kariya to step to the side as the blast tears through the ground and cliff he is standing on. In the aftermath, Ichigo levels Zangetsu at Kariya across the gorge left by his attack and confidently declares that the latter can no longer say whatever he likes now that he has his weapon.

Despite this, Kariya merely calls him pathetic for becoming so confident after obtaining a weapon, and with Ichigo irritated by this, Kariya challenges him to cut Kariya down with Zangetsu and moves in front of Ichigo, who slashes at him. Casually catching Zangetsu by the blade, to Ichigo's astonishment, Kariya asserts that Ichigo cannot cut him with the blade that regrets cutting him down and pulls on Zangetsu to force Ichigo to collapse with enough force to break apart the ground on impact. Kariya informs Ichigo that the truth about battle is that there will always be a stronger person to fight, each replacing the last.

While observing that Ichigo will inevitably lose one day if he does not have the determination to withstand this everlasting struggle, Kariya warns him that someone else will take up the battle in his stead even if he does so, making it a cycle of rebirth not limited to the life and death of people because conflicts will be born and battles will begin so long as the Souls of people exist. Though Ichigo protests that the idea of battles repeating themselves throughout eternity is not true, Kariya counters that this is why he is foolish and glows with red Reiatsu as a torrent of wind surges around him and lifts Ichigo high into the air.

Upon catching up to Ichigo in midair, Kariya jabs his hand into Ichigo's stomach and grabs him by the collar while they come to a halt, where Kariya explains that those with power will always be drawn into battle, something that held true for the Bount as well, and that idealists like Ichigo are the first to lose their lives before repeatedly punching Ichigo in the face, leaping over his horizontal counterattack with Zangetsu, and grabbing Zangetsu by the blade once more when Ichigo turns around and swings it at him. With Ichigo cursing at this, Kariya merely questions why he is still fighting with such a weak blade.

After expressing disappointment at Ichigo not having any pride, Kariya disintegrates upward, shocking Ichigo, who finds himself looking at the disintegrating white blade of his sword back in his inner world and is left stunned by what is happening to Zangetsu while Hollow Ichigo breaks the tip of the sword in his hand and reiterates that he is Zangetsu prior to moving to him, grabbing Ichigo by the face, and throwing him through a skyscraper as he wonders why Ichigo is standing there without a weapon. While Ichigo regains his footing within the falling rubble, Hollow Ichigo begins spinning his own sword around his finger by the chain attached to its hilt.

When Hollow Ichigo asks Ichigo what the difference between a king and the horse he rides is, Ichigo is bewildered by this, but Hollow Ichigo assures him that it is an important truth rather than a riddle or guessing game and elaborates that he is questioning what two beings identical in shape, ability, and strength use to decide which of them will be the king to lead the charge into battle and which will lend its strength to the other like a horse, thus determining the order of domination. When Ichigo does not respond, Hollow Ichigo claims that instinct is what allows one being to dominate another and become king.

Hollow Ichigo elaborates that instinct fuels an insatiable hunger for battle and power and the will to mercilessly crush, tear apart, and cut up enemies in the form of a ravenous bloodlust. Concluding that one must want to kill somewhere deep in their primordial unconscious, Hollow Ichigo accuses a shocked Ichigo of lacking this indomitable drive, since he tries to fight with his head and defeat enemies with reason. After wondering how Ichigo can fight with a sheathed sword, Hollow Ichigo proclaims that this is why Ichigo will never defeat him and throws his sword, which embeds itself in Ichigo's chest and pierces through his back to impale him.

As he refuses to lose to Ichigo, Hollow Ichigo explains that, while he cannot speak for Zangetsu, he will never play horse to a king weaker than he is and be slain alongside him, which means he will crush Ichigo and become the king himself if the latter is weaker than he is while moving to Ichigo and grabbing the hilt of the sword in Ichigo's abdomen with his right hand. However, a dazed Ichigo ruminates on Hollow Ichigo's mention of instinct and associates it with swords, seeking battle, and refusing to give control to Hollow Ichigo through memories of his battles against Byakuya, Kariya, and 11th Division Captain Kenpachi Zaraki.

Upon thinking of Hollow Ichigo's sword in his abdomen, Ichigo grabs it by the blade while Hollow Ichigo is pulling it out, causing it to begin turning black from the point of contact with his hand. Upon seeing the right sleeve of his coat turning black when the blackness coating the sword reaches it, a startled Hollow Ichigo frantically lets go and leaps back, where he sees Ichigo staring at him with focused eyes once more as Ichigo thinks of instinct and hears a bell chime.

Kon-sama's Ultimate Shinigami Illustrated Guide
As 11th Division Lieutenant Yachiru Kusajishi picks up Kon's plushie body and Gikongan, 4th Division 7th Seat Hanatarō Yamada calls out to her in concern, only for Yachiru to ask him what they are. Struck by inspiration, Hanatarō tells Yachiru that something amusing will happen if she puts the Gikongan into the mouth of a stuffed animal, leading her to cheerfully insert the Gikongan into the plushie's mouth. However, once Kon regains control of his body, he is shocked to see Yachiru staring at him and becomes frightened when Yachiru calls him a dog dumpling before attempting to eat him head-first.

Events

 * Visored Training

Powers and Techniques Used
Zanpakutō Techniques:

Hakuda Techniques:

Hohō Techniques:

Hollow Techniques:
 * Extra Appendage

Zanpakutō released:

Shikai:

Bankai:

Dolls summoned:

Anime Notes
Removed Content= Added/Expanded Content= Censorship= Changes=
 * Lisa Yadōmaru being startled by Zangetsu stopping in his tracks and intensifying his Reiatsu while possessing Ichigo Kurosaki's body.
 * Ichigo repelling Zangetsu with a slash of his sword, sending the latter crashing through two skyscrapers.
 * Ichigo glaring at Zangetsu after the latter shatters his sword and an unimpressed Zangetsu looking back at him.
 * Ichigo hallucinating a battle between himself and Byakuya Kuchiki on Sōkyoku Hill, where the latter lectures him for not acknowledging the confusion in his heart and asserts that Ichigo cannot acquire a true Bankai due to lacking a will to fight.
 * Ichigo wondering why Byakuya appeared before him and Zangetsu criticizing him for getting careless, which Ichigo refutes while deflecting an attack from him.
 * The two halves of the Getsuga Tenshō cut through by Zangetsu crashing into the skyscraper behind him.
 * A flashback to Zangetsu using the black Getsuga Tenshō against Byakuya.
 * Ichigo hallucinating a battle between himself and Jin Kariya in both the central chamber of the Bount underground city and the Sōkyoku Hill Study Chamber, where Kariya admonishes him for regretting his past victories and not understanding the cyclical nature of conflict before concluding that Ichigo does not have any pride.
 * Kensei and Zangetsu evading each other's attacks and performing their own while moving around the battlefield.
 * Flashbacks to Ichigo's battles against Kenpachi Zaraki, Byakuya, and Kariya with spatters of blood gradually covering them.
 * Lisa is covered in less blood after her turn in the battle against Zangetsu concludes.
 * Ichigo is significantly less injured and bloody after being hit by Zangetsu's point-blank Getsuga Tenshō.
 * Kensei draws less blood when slashing Zangetsu with Tachikaze.
 * Zangetsu's left arm is not visibly severed or injured by Kensei's Bakudantsuki, with his entire body being obscured by the blast and resulting dust cloud prior to the worm emerging.
 * Ichigo is not bleeding as profusely from the wound on his right temple after being thrown into a skyscraper by Zangetsu.
 * Zangetsu does not mention the will to rip off skin, gouge flesh, crush bone, and mangle sinew as examples of one having the instinct to kill.
 * The bloody portion of Zangetsu's sword sticking out of Ichigo's back is not visible after it impales him.
 * In the manga, Ichigo and Zangetsu activating their Bankai destroys the skyscraper they are standing on the side of with their surging Reiatsu; here, the skyscraper instead remains intact and undamaged by the releases.
 * In the manga, Ichigo moves to and attacks Zangetsu prior to the latter suggesting that he have some fun instead of being angry; here, he instead collapses in exhaustion and remains stationary.
 * In the manga, Love Aikawa reacts to Kensei preparing to use Bakudantsuki with a simple expression of shock; here, Hiyori Sarugaki instead snidely comments on how serious he is getting, only for Shinji to remind her that she knows better than anyone else why he is doing so.