The Battle (episode)

For the chapter of the same name, see The Battle.

The Battle is the tenth episode of Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War and the three hundred and seventy-sixth episode of the Bleach anime overall.

11th Division Captain Kenpachi Zaraki concludes his battle against 4th Division Captain Retsu Unohana as Ichigo Kurosaki and 6th Division Lieutenant Renji Abarai meet Ōetsu Nimaiya, the creator of the Zanpakutō.

Summary
Suddenly regaining consciousness while hurtling upside-down and backwards through the air in Muken, 11th Division Captain Kenpachi Zaraki realizes that it has happened once again and flips over to slide back across the ground on his feet as he ruminates on having lost consciousness once again. With 4th Division Captain Retsu Unohana side-stepping several meters away from him, Zaraki rushes forward, briefly loses consciousness again, and continues clashing with Unohana while wondering how many times he has done this during their battle.

When Unohana reappears behind him and thrusts her Zanpakutō at his face, Zaraki narrowly evades it and slashes his own Zanpakutō at her midsection, only for Unohana to leap over the blade with a flip at the last second and rush toward Zaraki with a manic grin, sending Zaraki flying through one of the nearby pillars while he mentally notes that this brings back memories because he has never enjoyed his battles so much that he lost himself or fell unconscious during them aside from the day that he first fought Unohana. Several hundred years ago, Unohana stands in the Rukongai as the rain falling around her washes blood off her Zanpakutō.

Approaching Unohana from behind, one of her subordinates apologetically informs her that they are unlikely to find anyone out here strong enough to fight her, which leads Unohana to admit that she is impressed at him figuring out her true intentions. Suddenly, with the subordinate explaining that cutting down the gangs roaming the Rukongai will not do much to preserve the peace in the Seireitei and observing that the mountain of bodies next to Unohana represents the size of her dissatisfaction, an alarmed Unohana questions how long this mountain of bodies has been here, to his confusion, just before a young Zaraki appears at the top of the pile with his Zanpakutō in hand.

As Zaraki leaps off the pile toward her, Unohana internally observes that she was searching the Rukongai for opponents that could please her because she was bored with both her sword and with fighting, which she believes is the reason that fate drew her and Zaraki together as two weary souls. Unohana crosses blades with Zaraki and brings her Zanpakutō down to slash it upward, but Zaraki exploits the opening to stab his Zanpakutō into the center of her chest between her clavicles, leaving Unohana astonished and elated at experiencing such unparalleled joy at crossing blades with a child while her blood spurts into the air and mingles with the rain.

However, Unohana also admits that she never expected that child to place shackles on himself because of their battle. In the present, Zaraki lands across from Unohana and manages to cut her left arm with a slash, prompting him to realize that he can now counterattack rather than just react to each of Unohana's moves because he is feeling reborn every time he regains consciousness. Clashing several more times with Zaraki and moving back to dodge a powerful downward strike from him that shakes the ground upon impact, Unohana mentally reveals that Zaraki has been unconsciously restraining his own power ever since their first battle.

As she questions why Zaraki only barely lost his battle against Ichigo Kurosaki and barely won his battle against Espada #5. Nnoitra Gilga, Unohana asserts that while others attributed these outcomes to his opponents being strong, she knew he had suppressed as much of his power as he could during both fights and recalls the two of them experiencing unparalleled joy during their first battle prior to musing that her sin was leading Kenpachi to learn the joy of fighting on the edge for the first time, since he must have been ecstatic after spending so much time without any opponents strong enough for him to test his sword against.

In the past, Unohana kicks Zaraki squarely in the abdomen to separate him during another clash, begins bleeding from a cut on her cheek, and muses that she was the first foe he encountered who could rival his power, but has her midsection slashed and admits that she was weaker than him despite this, which left him despairing at the idea of never experiencing true battle against by losing his first foe and resulted in Zaraki slowly and unconsciously sealing his power into a deep part of his soul in order to bring himself down to her level, leaving a shocked Unohana devastated at her weakness driving Zaraki to suppress his own power.

However, Unohana recounts how she noticed Zaraki beginning to break his shackles and returning to his old self a bit more every time every time he came close to death against a powerful opponent and cuts open his chest with her Zanpakutō, leaving Zaraki staggered. Internally concluding that she is stronger than anyone but him, Unohana resolves to kill and revive Zaraki hundreds of times until he returns to his true level of power and surpasses her to reach even greater heights. Having been grievously injured once more by Unohana, Zaraki recovers without being healed and slashes his Zanpakutō down the length of her body with tremendous force.

With blood spilling from the resulting wound, Unohana manages to cut Zaraki once more and brings her Zanpakutō down on him, forcing him to block it perpendicularly. Musing that he probably thought she was dead from this, Unohana leaps back, heals her wound with Kaidō, and reminds Zaraki that this is why she learned the art prior to activating her Bankai, Minazuki, by dragging her clenched hand along the blade of her Zanpakutō and coating it in blood while the surrounding area is drenched in a similar red fluid. After Unohana declares that playtime is over, an initially stunned Zaraki roars with glee and rushes toward her.

Zaraki and Unohana clash in midair, and after landing on the ground and inspecting his sword arm, Zaraki narrowly blocks a flying slash of the surrounding liquid and sees the wound on Unohana's midsection healing just before Unohana begins creating blades out of the liquid with slashes of her sword that hurtle toward Zaraki, forcing him to either block or evade them as he approaches Unohana. Coming down on Zaraki with a powerful strike, Unohana pushes him back and readies her sword, to Zaraki's amusement, prior to running toward him and rapidly slashing the area around her to create a sphere of liquid slashes encompassing the area around her.

Sent flying back when he attempts to clash with Unohana's flurry of blows, Zaraki muses that he is melting, crashes into a nearby pillar, and pulls himself up from the ground once he falls down, where Unohana is startled to see him side-stepping in the same manner that she did earlier before he rushes forward and past Unohana faster than she can follow while cutting open her left arm. With Unohana resuming her rapid slashing to create an even larger field of liquid blades in the air around herself, Zaraki begins dashing around the area and intercepting the blades with his own strikes while envisioning the right side of his body being reduced to a skeleton.

Uncertain of why everything feels so different, Zaraki slashes Unohana down the length of her body once more, causing him to see her face reduced to a skull with stringy hair, and separates from her just as he realizes what this is. After regaining his normal perception of the two of them, Zaraki observes that he has been playing out their exchange in his dreams this whole time and did not think there was a word for it until now, with Unohana having taught him what it is called. Attacking Unohana with enough ferocity to shatter all the liquid blades around her, Zaraki thanks her for this and proclaims that this is what a real battle feels like.

Zaraki quickly cuts Unohana's face diagonally across the left side and declares that he cannot help loving battle as much as he does while they clash once more, with Unohana leaping over him and confirming that she knew this long before he did prior to musing that while Zaraki learned to suppressed his own power so he could enjoy the battle forever, she learned to heal herself for the same purpose and now knows that she obtained her power for the sake of this single battle. After crossing blades with Zaraki, Unohana mentally points out that there can only be one Kenpachi in any era, which is both a rule and an inevitable fate pertaining to the strong.

With Unohana concluding that the strongest can no longer swing their blade for their own sake once they find the next strongest because they will always be working to kill or nurture that person, Unohana separates from Zaraki and recalls defeating him during their first battle, where she realized that he was worthy of holding the title of Kenpachi, before bidding farewell to the one man in this world who brought her joy while Zaraki impales her on his Zanpakutō. As Minazuki disappears, Unohana praises Zaraki's performance and asserts that this battle is now over while dropping her Zanpakutō, which causes an alarmed Zaraki to throw his own away.

Holding up a collapsing Unohana as blood spurts from her back, Zaraki expresses disbelief at the idea of her dying and frantically begs her to stay because he wants to keep fighting her, but a smiling Unohana calls him childish for crying over this because he is not in danger of returning to the old days where he had no one to fight when he has both foes and comrades that he can cross swords with equally, as well as a partner who has just awakened. As Zaraki's eyes widen in shock, Unohana envisions all of her blood flowing into her Zanpakutō and it flying out of her grasp toward Zaraki while she concludes that she has nothing left after passing everything on to him.

After musing that she has even been able to give him the title of Kenpachi that she was unable to pass on when they first fought, Unohana expresses bliss at dying in the act of carrying out her true purposes and passes away, leaving Zaraki to stand wordlessly over her body. Suddenly, a voice addresses Zaraki by name, and when he demands to know who is speaking to him, the voice notes that her voice has finally reached him and identifies herself as the one who has watched Zaraki longer and more closely than anyone else. With Zaraki recalling his first encounter with Kenpachi Kiganjō, the spirit of his Zanpakutō tells him her name.

Meanwhile, in the landing area of the Hōōden, Ichigo and 6th Division Lieutenant Renji Abarai stand before a deflating Kon, where Ichigo observes that no one is here just before two spotlights shine down on them and a row of speakers activate on either side of the platform, to their confusion. With a microphone attached to his cheek, Ōetsu Nimaiya tells Ichigo and Renji to lower their heads because they are so high and identifies himself in English as the number one Zanpakutō creator before greeting the two of them with a finger gun. Shortly afterward, Ichigo, Renji, and an overjoyed Kon find themselves before an assembly of beautiful women.

Though Renji is confused by this while they walk through the Galaxy Hōōden, Ichigo warns him to not let his guard down since the women are likely illusions and forcefully grabs Kon with both hands to restrain him prior to Nimaiya asking them if they liked his welcome show, introducing himself once more, and initiating a series of hand claps with Ichigo to greet him, resulting in Ichigo asking Renji to trade places with him since he cannot keep up with Nimaiya's energy while Renji admits that he cannot either. Unimpressed by this, Nimaiya criticizes their energy and wonders if they want to leave, which prompts Ichigo and Renji to bow and request to stay.

However, Nimaiya wags his finger at this and claims that the formal way to apologize in Hōōden is to balance on one's head and forearms with one's body suspended vertically in the air above, which he demonstrates. Though Ichigo refuses to do this, Renji insists that they must, only for Nimaiya to take a picture of them with a smartphone once they assume the pose and show it to the women as they teasingly comment on it, to Ichigo and Renji's aggravation. Suddenly, Mera Hiuchigashima demands to know how long Nimaiya is going to do this for and kicks him in the back of the head from the entrance of the Galaxy Hōōden, sending him skidding across the floor.

With Nimaiya protesting this, Mera takes him, Ichigo, Renji, and Kon to the real Hōōden, a dingy wooden shack on the outskirts of the city. As Ichigo expresses disbelief at this, Kon tearfully begs to go back to the other Hōōden because he does not want to be here, which Nimaiya agrees with while clutching Kon and asserting that the latter understands him. Upon walking into the shack, Ichigo and Renji discover that there is no floor past the doorway and shriek as they fall into a deep pit below. When Renji questions what this is, Nimaiya reveals they have not met a single Shinigami besides him on their way through the city because all the women were Zanpakutō.

Once he sees Ichigo and Renji shocked by this, Nimaiya wonders if they cannot tell the difference between Shinigami and Zanpakutō, causing him to hold up their broken swords and attribute this to them being irresponsible enough to let this happen to their weapons. After shattering most of the remaining blades, to Ichigo and Renji's astonishment, Nimaiya muses that an unloved Zanpakutō is so easily broken prior to informing Ichigo and Renji that they are surrounded by the anger of Zanpakutō. While several pairs of glowing eyes appear in the darkness behind Ichigo and Renji, Nimaiya promises to consider repairing the swords if they make it out of the pit alive.

When Renji expresses irritation at this, Nimaiya count down from ten to identify himself once more as the number one Zanpakutō creator and concludes that he does not make swords for losers. Suddenly, Renji realizes that there is something in the darkness with them, which Nimaiya identifies as Asauchi, the Zanpakutō that can become anything, as several blank humanoid figures with mouths for eyes step forward. Nimaiya explains that the Asauchi are the nameless Zanpakutō temporarily issued to members of the Gotei 13 during their time in the Shin'ō Academy and officially issued once they graduate and join a division.

Detailing how every Shinigami eats and sleeps with their Asauchi, Nimaiya proclaims that they eventually imprint the essence of their Soul upon the Asauchi to create their personalized Zanpakutō through continuous training and reveals that he is the one who creates all these Asauchi. Though Ichigo demands to know why they have to fight these Asauchi as he holds back the punch of one and Renji repels another with a flying kick, Nimaiya asserts that he does not need to worry about this because all that matters is the Asauchi being angry with them for the way Ichigo and Renji treat their Zanpakutō, which Ichigo does not understand.

After noting that this does not surprise him, Nimaiya dismisses this being the result of how they fight or swing their swords, and with the Asauchi leaking fluid from their mouths, Nimaiya declares that they are fundamentally different and suggests that they start by examining whether Shinigami or Zanpakutō are superior while the Asauchi attack Ichigo and Renji. Back in Muken, Zaraki embeds Unohana's Zanpakutō in the ground beside her body and walks out of the open doors with his own slung over his shoulder. Almost three days later, Nimaiya returns to the pit and admits he is impressed at them lasting for so long.

However, though he announces that a bloodied Renji has passed, Nimaiya informs a prone Ichigo that he has failed. Despite Ichigo protesting that he can keep fighting, Nimaiya firmly asserts that he is done, and when Ichigo points out that there is no time limit, Nimaiya clarifies that there is instead an emotional limit and reveals that Ichigo simply was not chosen by an Asauchi before explaining that the last three days have proven that Renji is a Shinigami while Ichigo is not. With Nimaiya promising to open a way out of here so he can go home, a stunned Ichigo begs him not to do this as Mera leaps down into the pit and retrieves him at Nimaiya's behest.

Nimaiya further instructs Ichigo to never enter Soul Society again, since it is the land of the Shinigami and a Human without a Zanpakutō has no right to enter it. Despite Ichigo refusing to give up after coming this far and wondering what will happen to Zangetsu if he does, Nimaiya bluntly states that he will not fix Ichigo's Zanpakutō regardless of whether or not he stays and counts down from ten to introduce himself again as someone who does not make swords for fake Shinigami. With Ichigo rushing toward him in anger, Nimaiya restrains him with two Kidō rings fired from his fingers and activates the Chōkaimon.

As Ichigo disappears in the vanishing portal, Nimaiya bids him farewell and solemnly asserts that Ichigo needs to go because he does not understand the significance of not being chosen by an Asauchi and fighting for so long without one. While Nimaiya concludes that Ichigo must discover and understand his roots, even if doing so prevents him from coming back, Ichigo finds himself back in his body and standing in front of the Kurosaki Clinic in the rain.

Fights & Events

 * Kenpachi Zaraki vs. Retsu Unohana (concluded)
 * Royal Training

Powers and Techniques Used
Kidō Techniques:

Shinigami Techniques:

Zanpakutō released:

Shikai:
 * (flashback)

Bankai:
 * (flashback)

Resurrección released:
 * (flashback)

Anime Notes
Removed Content= Added/Expanded Content= Changes= Trivia=
 * Retsu Unohana's subordinate noting that the venture to eliminate criminals in the Rukongai for the sake of peace in the Seireitei was her idea and that she would not have proposed it if she did not intend to find warriors strong enough to fight her.
 * Mera Hiuchigashima informing Ōetsu Nimaiya of Ichigo Kurosaki and Renji Abarai's arrival.
 * Kon berating Ichigo and Renji for using him as a cushion once again and claiming that he would have been happy to be left at Kirinden since it was paradise.
 * Ichigo and Renji discussing whether Nimaiya is serious about sending them home if they do not cater to his whims.
 * Mera observing that Nimaiya pranking Ichigo and Renji is not getting them anywhere.
 * Mera explaining that Nimaiya built the Galaxy Hōōden because he does not want to accept that his main residence is a dingy wooden shack.
 * Nimaiya listing off the various roles that a Shinigami can incorrectly place their Zanpakutō into such as tools, superiors, pets, and lovers.
 * Zaraki narrowly evading a stab from Unohana and slashing at her midsection, only for Unohana to flip over his blade and send him crashing through a nearby pillar with their subsequent clash.
 * Blood being washed off of Unohana's sword prior to her first battle against Zaraki.
 * Unohana blocking a slash from Zaraki and kicking him back as a cut on her cheek begins bleeding.
 * Zaraki slowly loosening his grip on and lowering his sword as he begins suppressing his power against Unohana.
 * Unohana using Minazuki to form blades out of the generated liquid and attack Zaraki repeatedly by firing them from a range and filling the air around herself with them by slashing rapidly, forcing Zaraki to evade or deflect them until he grows strong enough to outmaneuver Unohana altogether.
 * Renji kicking an Asauchi out of the air.
 * Nimaiya noting that Ichigo does not understand what it means for him to not have been chosen by an Asauchi.
 * In the manga, when Unohana is ruminating on how others perceived Zaraki's near-victories or -losses as being due to the strength of his opponents, she is depicted observing him from afar during a captains meeting; here, her thoughts are instead overlaid with a flashback to Zaraki being defeated and held aloft by Royd Lloyd.
 * In the manga, Ichigo and Renji's arrival at Hōōden and the beginning of their battle against the Asauchi is depicted as taking place before Zaraki and Unohana's battle begins; here, it instead takes place after that battle ends.
 * In the manga, Ichigo warns Renji that the attractive women surrounding them are probably men; here, he instead assumes that they are just illusions.
 * In the manga, information about the Asauchi is presented through narration; here, it is instead recited by Nimaiya.
 * In the manga, when telling Ichigo that it is time for him to go home, Nimaiya looks at the former through the right side of his glasses; here, he instead looks at Ichigo through the left side.
 * Episode 373 established that Unohana had already gained the scar on her chest by the time that the Gotei 13 battled the Lichtreich 1,000 years ago; however, this episode contradicts that by establishing that her first battle against Zaraki took place several hundred years ago and after that conflict.