BLACK (episode)

For the volume of the same name, see BLACK.

BLACK is the twenty-sixth episode of Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War and the three hundred and ninety-second episode of the Bleach anime overall.

The revived Schutzstaffel battle the Royal Guard as Ichibē Hyōsube reveals his true power to Yhwach.

Summary
Having revived his Schutzstaffel by draining the powers and life of the Wandenreich still in the replaced Seireitei with Auswählen, Yhwach commands them to show their wings as four Quincy: Vollständig are activated behind a startled Ichibē Hyōsube. With the force of this impacting the replica Tenchūren carrying Ichigo Kurosaki and his friends, Uryū Ishida and Jugram Haschwalth watch as Pernida Parnkgjas, Gerard Valkyrie, Askin Nakk Le Vaar, and Lille Barro land before them.

While the Royal Guard stare down his subordinates, Yhwach declares that no one can take anything from him because everything in the world exists for him to take it, with the Soul King being no exception, to Ichibē's lack of amusement. After ending his usage of Auswählen, Yhwach proclaims that he and his children will advance. Seconds later, Ōetsu Nimaiya finds two fist-sized holes punched in his left shoulder by Lille, shocking the other members of the Royal Guard, and assumes that this is the power increase granted by Auswählen because Lille's Heilig Pfeil were not able to reach Nimaiya before now.

However, Lille counters that Nimaiya has two things wrong and clarifies that rather than being a power increase, this is a power he has always possessed and simply did not have time to use earlier, prior to asserting that Nimaiya's body was not pierced by a Heilig Pfeil and firing another shot directly at Nimaiya's chest with his Spirit Weapon, Diagramm. Though Tenjirō Kirinji and Kirio Hikifune intercept the shot with their Zanpakutō, they are shocked to find that a hole has been punched between their Zanpakutō and through Nimaiya's chest regardless as Lille reveals that this power cannot be blocked by anything.

Lille explains that his power is The X-Axis and that it allows his gun to uniformly pierce everything between its muzzle and his target regardless of durability, which is why he would like the remaining Royal Guard to line up so he can kill them all with one shot. Suddenly, Kirinji unsheathes his Shikai, Kinpika, to blind and distract Lille with its light while Senjumaru Shutara leaps away with Nimaiya held by her mechanical arms. Musing that sleeping too soon has its disadvantages, Senjumaru places cotton in Nimaiya's injuries that quickly weave themselves into his body, restoring his muscle, skin, and bones.

Revived by this, Nimaiya enthusiastically greets the Schutzstaffel below, prompting Gerard Valkyrie to call him stubborn for not dying despite the injuries Lille inflicted, and lands beside the other Royal Guard as he questions if the Schutzstaffel expected to make a comeback just by sprouting wings. After Kirinji declares that the Royal Guard are stronger than the entire Gotei 13 put together and Senjumaru asserts that the Schutzstaffel are living in a dream if they believe that they can enter the Soul King Palace, Hikifune claps her hand together, causing seedlings to begin rapidly growing from the platform.

The seedlings thicken and entangle around the Schutzstaffel, who are carried off and separated from each other in chambers formed by the encroaching Cage of Life, leaving Senjumaru facing off against Gerard, Hikifune preparing to battle Pernida Parnkgjas, Kirinji approaching Askin Nakk Le Vaar, and Nimaiya battling Lille. Upon seeing Senjumaru, Gerard quickly thrusts his Spirit Weapon, Hoffnung, through her chest, but is surprised to discover that she is actually a stuffed doll with Senjumaru's features just before Senjumaru comes down on him from above with her Shikai, Shigarami.

When Gerard blocks her stab with his shield and slashes Hoffnung at her, Senjumaru evades around him, grabs Gerard with her mechanical arms, and throws him into a nearby thick branch of the Cage of Life before rapidly thread around his wrists, ankles, and midsection to pin them to the ground. Seeing Shigarami, Gerard mocks Senjumaru for being so attached to her knife and proclaims that it will not hurt him, only for Senjumaru to warn Gerard in turn that Shigarami will pierce his tongue if he does not watch what he says before stabbing it at his chest. Above them, several lengthening branches are crushed into nothing by Pernida.

Promising to show Pernida a lot of hospitality, Hikifune withdraws dozens of seeds from her haori and throws them toward Pernida with a powerful gust of wind, causing them to sprout in midair and extend their tendrils toward Pernida, who continues to crush them individual before apparently being overwhelmed and crushed by their combined mass. Nearby, Kirinji rains his Blood Pond Hell water across the platform and releases Kinpika, which leads Askin to comment on how dazzling it is and run away when Kirinji comes down on him with a downward strike. After Kirinji catches up and slashes horizontally at him, Askin slides underneath his blade.

With Kirinji startled by this, Askin comes to a halt and holds up his Reishi Staff, and as Kirinji leaps forward to attack him, a smirking Askin releases five Gift Balls from its tip, only for Kirinji to engulf and dissipate them with a geyser of Blood Pond Hell water and continue chasing Askin, who bluntly refuses to stop running since Kirinji is a fatally bad matchup for him. At the top of the Cage of Life, Nimaiya rapidly evades a confused Lille's shots, which create holes in the surrounding wood between them, and leaps toward him with a grin before slashing down at Lille with Sayafushi, creating a loud impact in the process.

Meanwhile, Ichibē asserts that Yhwach does not know how generous he has been and claims to have reduced Yhwach's power by half for his sake, to Yhwach's confusion, before proclaiming that Yhwach would have his reputation tarnished among the Quincy if he lost while at full strength and launching himself down toward Yhwach. After admitting that reputation does not matter when one is dead, Ichibē unleashes '''Bakudō #62. Hyapporankan, prompting Yhwach to extend Blut from his hand and form a spherical barrier around himself with Blut Vene Anhaben''' that intercepts and destroys the beams before they can touch him.

In response, Ichibē performs Ura Hadō: Sannodō — Teppūsatsu, manifesting a large golden dragon's head around himself that blows a powerful wind at Yhwach, shattering the Blut Vene Anhaben barrier and allowing Ichibē to grab Yhwach by the throat. Though Yhwach simply observes that Ichibē has touched him and Blut veins begin encroaching on the latter's body up to his face, Ichibē simply flexes the muscles in his face and left arm, shattering the Blut and causing Yhwach's facial veins to bulge before exploding in a shower of blood. Leaping back from Yhwach, Ichibē expresses disbelief at him trying to trespass in a Royal Guard's body.

Ichibē decides that it is time for Yhwach to be punished for his insolence and releases his Shikai, Ichimonji, which paints a black streak through the air in the wake of his brush as its head transforms into a blade. When Yhwach's eyes widen in alarm upon seeing the blade briefly transform back into a brush, Ichibē questions if Yhwach cannot understand what he is seeing, and after summoning his Reishi Sword, Yhwach clashes with Ichibē three times, each splashing more ink onto his blade. After separating from Ichibē, Yhwach wonders what Ichimonji is supposed to do since it has only splashed ink around without cutting anything.

With Ichibē swinging Ichimonji forward to splash more ink at him, Yhwach slashes through the ink with his Reishi Sword and inquires if the ink can cut names in half like the brush can, which he mocks since Ichibē knows Yhwach can restore names and capabilities cut in half with his own sword. However, upon concluding that Ichibē cannot defeat him with Ichimonji and vowing to win with his Spirit Weapon, Yhwach finds himself unable to actually say the name of his sword and is left speechless, leading a grinning Ichibē to invite him to say the sword's name prior to revealing that Yhwach knows it no longer has a name.

Informing Yhwach that Ichimonji removes the names of anything it coats with its ink, Ichibē elaborates that this also strips the afflicted things of their power, which means that both Yhwach's sword and his Quincy Cross are now useless, before wondering if Yhwach really believed he could win with those. Minutes prior, in the Cage of Life, Senjumaru is bewildered to find Shigarami barely piercing Gerard's heart, which starts to glow as a laughing Gerard declares that it cannot be killed with such a small blade and rips through the thread binding him to punch Senjumaru away and stand up with Shigarami still partially embedded in his chest.

After pushing Shigarami out of his chest, Gerard walks over to a prone Senjumaru and stomps on her head. During this, Pernida fully compresses the wood that had seemingly crushed it, to Hikifune's shock, and stretches its wings toward Hikifune, who fails to bind them with more tendrils from the ground and is forced to create thick pillars of wood that coalesce and wrap around Pernida to encase it in a building-sized structure of branches. Having had her excess body fat consumed by this, Hikifune is caught off-guard when Pernida creates a hole in the side of the structure by compressing the wood and flies toward her to attack.

Nearby, a running Askin narrowly evades a slash from Kirinji, who notes that he is faster than Askin in addition to having powers that are a bad matchup for him and catches up once Askin flees once more, though Askin simply narrows his eyes at this while the falling water begins to turn poisonous. With Kirinji stepping in a pool of green liquid in front of him, Askin leaps high into the air to avoid the former's strike and lands behind Kirinji, who finds himself paralyzed by the lethal dose of the water being lowered, before asserting that Kirinji underestimated him just like Nimaiya and firing a Heilig Pfeil through Kirinji's side.

As Kirinji collapses from this, Askin muses that doing so could be fatal. At the top of the Cage of Life, Nimaiya is shocked to discover that Sayafushi slipped through Lille's body without injuring him and leaps back while claiming that Lille is using a strange technique. When Lille states that his eyes have gotten used to Nimaiya's speed and promises that the next shot will end this, Nimaiya simply launches himself toward Lille, who assumes that he has resigned himself to death before expressing shock upon seeing Yhwach standing in the path of his shot far above and behind Nimaiya on the edge of the platform.

Despite Nimaiya presuming that Lille cannot take the shot because it would hit Yhwach, Lille fires Diagramm and puts a hole in Nimaiya's abdomen, and when a stunned Nimaiya questions why it did not hurt Yhwach as he collapses, Lille reminds him that The X-Axis only penetrates what lies between its muzzle and his target. With the four Royal Guards incapacitated, the Cage of Life begins to crumble around the Vestibule Road. In the present, Yhwach decides to simply steal Ichibē's power by using his own power instead of something with no name and initiates Sankt Altar, which forms a large Quincy Zeichen above Ichibē.

The energy accumulating around Yhwach's hand draws the black color from Ichibē's beard and eyebrows into itself, prompting Yhwach to assert that Ichibē's black has become his own power and unleash it in the form of blue flames that engulf Ichibē. Down on the Vestibule Road, Senjumaru is thrown into one of the remaining pillars of the Cage of Life and slides down to the ground where Nimaiya, Kirinji, and Hikifune are located while Gerard mocks the idea of them being more powerful than the entire Gotei 13. However, Nimaiya gets to his feet and reveals they have yet to use the power of even a single division, to Gerard's surprise.

After proclaiming that the Royal Guard cannot allow Quincy to get the best of them, Nimaiya orders the others to get to their feet and tells Senjumaru she will be the one to kill the Schutzstaffel, Haschwalth, and Uryū, to her bemusement. With Hikifune drawing a blade from her spoon and claiming that six people should be enough for someone with a thousand arms while Kirinji warns her to not overdo it, Senjumaru assures him that she will not and walks past the three of them. Promising to show the Quincy how the Royal Guard get serious, Nimaiya slits his throat with Sayafushi as Kirinji and Hikifune do the same with their Zanpakutō.

Uryū and Haschwalth express alarm at this, and as a smiling Senjumaru is coated in blood, three of the four candles in front of a seal are snuffed out one at a time, with corresponding sections of the seal disappearing simultaneously, until only one is left, causing Senjumaru's Reiatsu to surge around her and force the Quincy to shield themselves from the wind it produces. Though Gerard questions what a lone Royal Guard can do when all four of them were not able to defeat the Schutzstaffel, Senjumaru reveals that even a brief usage of a Royal Guard's full power would cause the heaven and earth of all three realms to tremble.

Explaining that the Royal Guard linked their Souls to each other to seal away their true power because of this, Senjumaru informs the Quincy that the Blood Oath's Seal has now been broken and orders them to prepare themselves before activating her Bankai, Shatatsu Karagara Shigarami no Tsuji, which produces a gigantic loom from behind her and rolls out a long red cloth as the surrounding area is closed off by rapidly-sewn thread, sealing the confused Quincy inside while intricately-decorated fabrics hang from the top. In the replica Tenchūren, Ichigo and Ganju Shiba are astonished by the pressure they feel.

With Captain-Commander Shunsui Kyōraku observing the replaced Seireitei vibrating as Isshin Kurosaki and Ryūken Ishida look up at the trembling sky in Karakura Town, Senjumaru ominously approaches the Quincy and recreates the sounds of shaking and rattling with her voice before initiating Hitokase Tokaba: Banra no Me, which creates eight tall and connected mirrors around Lille. When the image of Senjumaru and dozens of eyes appear in each of them, Lille fires several shots into the mirrors, only to find them undamaged while his own body has holes punched into its torso instead, causing him to collapse.

Having been surrounded by eight mirrors as well and questioning what is happening, Askin sees Senjumaru appear in the mirrors and initiate Futakase Tokaba: Hagane no Yoroi, which produces spikes across the ground that punch through Askin's right foot and shoe prior to the images of Senjumaru peeling off the mirrors to reveal large spiked metal silhouettes of her that fall upon a shocked Askin, leaving him trapped underneath a large pile of crumpled metal. Meanwhile, having been placed in a much larger and more multifaceted hall of mirrors, Pernida sees the ground underneath it spiral and stretch out as Senjumaru begins Mitsukase Tokaba: Kokusa no Harawata.

Though Pernida attempts to twist and crush its surroundings with The Compulsory, the images underneath it flicker out to reveal a large pit of sand that begins dragging it down, with no amount of sand compressed able to free it before it sinks beneath the black soil. Following this, Gerard stands surrounded by patterned blue tapestries and falling sand while Senjumaru begins Yotsukase Tokaba: Itetsuku Shitone, which causes more of the tapestries to bind his legs. Despite claiming that he can easily cut though this, Gerard is startled when a second set of tapestries binds his arms, leaving him immobile in front of a massive glacier.

An icy wind blows over Gerard, freezing him solid as he attempts to move and free himself, as Haschwalth stands in a long hallway with red linens depicting trees on either side. Once Senjumaru unleashes Itsukase Tokaba: Yakenohara, Haschwalth sees the linens and small branches on the ceiling catch fire before a large wall of flame rushes into him, where Haschwalth sees flickering silhouettes of Senjumaru in the dancing flames. Slashing through the silhouettes, Haschwalth discovers that there is nothing within the flames and is set on fire himself, producing a towering pillar of flame that stretches to the ceiling.

Finally, Senjumaru appears behind Uryū in his hall of mirrors and activates Mutsukase Tokaba: Yamiyo no Hoshiyo, creating a large version of the Wandenreich emblem in front of him that begins draining Uryū's power into itself in the form of glowing particles, which ultimately causes him to fall to his knees as his energy vanishes. In the aftermath, Senjumaru glides through the main hall of her Bankai, tells her opponents to take a look while she seals off the threads from the loom, and concludes with Shide no Rokushiki Ukimon no Hata, which causes six tapestries depicting the fates of Lille, Askin, Pernida, Gerard, Haschwalth, and Uryū to fall before her.

On the platform above them, Yhwach turns and begins to walk away from the flaming Ichibē, but stops and looks back in bewilderment when the flames dissipate to reveal an unharmed Ichibē with the black returned to his hair, who reveals that the power of Ichimonji encompasses all of the color black in the world and that beings of all species, living and dead, contribute their black to his power. Slashing Ichimonji at Yhwach and creating a massive splash of ink that covers almost all of Yhwach's body, extending into the air off the sides of the platform and raining down below, Ichibē addresses the man formerly known as Yhwach.

After musing that losing his name must be agonizing for Yhwach, Ichibē decides to give him a new name and activates his Shin'uchi, Shirafude Ichimonji, which turns the blade of his brush back into bristles that emit a white energy, forming a large circle around Ichibē himself. Ichibē observes that the modern term for this would be Bankai, though he does not use it because Ichimonji became the first evolved Zanpakutō long before the term Bankai existed, Ichibē informs Yhwach that Shirafude Ichimonji can be used to write a new name on anything that has had its name removed by the ink of Ichimonji.

As he uses Shirafude Ichimonji to write "Black Ant" on Yhwach's body, Ichibē addresses him as such and inquires about how it feels to possess the power of a black ant, which he describes as a frail and fleeting life. When Yhwach admits that he never could have imagined this, Ichibē assumes that he is referring to the gap between their powers and asserts that Yhwach's fate ends here. Demanding that Yhwach atone for all the Shinigami he has killed by being crushed to death, Ichibē uses Senri Tsūtenshō to stomp Yhwach through the platform with a massive leg, bids him farewell, and crushes him between two massive palms.

Fights & Events

 * The Royal Guard vs. The Wandenreich
 * Ichibē Hyōsube vs. Yhwach

Powers and Techniques Used
Zanpakutō Techniques:

Hohō Techniques:

Kidō Techniques:

Quincy Techniques:



Other Techniques:

Zanpakutō released:

Shikai:

Bankai:

Spirit Weapons:
 * Reishi Staff
 * Reishi Sword
 * Reishi Staff
 * Reishi Sword

Schrifts:

Items:
 * Broadsword
 * Broadsword
 * Broadsword

Anime Notes
Removed Content= Added/Expanded Content= Changes= Trivia=
 * Yhwach attacking Ichibē Hyōsube with pillars of light after he finishes restoring his power, which Ichibē stops by clasping his hands together around them.
 * Yhwach questioning what Ichibē just said about preserving his honor.
 * Yhwach informing Ichibē that Blut Vene Anhaben corrodes everything that touches his body and expands Blut Vene across it before vowing to take the left half of Ichibē's body, only for Ichibē to decry the idea of this being able to take half of his body.
 * A salamander in a river outside the Seireitei having the color black drawn from its body by Ichimonji.
 * Yhwach mentally noting that he does not sense any Reiatsu from Ichimonji despite its thickness.
 * Yhwach internally wondering why the blade of Ichimonji appeared as a brush for a brief second.
 * Yhwach struggling to understand how he was unable to steal Ichibē's power, prompting Ichibē to clarify that he did steal it and simply did not own it.
 * Jugram Haschwalth noticing Yhwach being sent flying down from the Soul King Palace by Ichibē.
 * Tenjirō Kirinji temporarily blinding Lille Barro so Senjumaru Shutara can fill his wounds with cotton that replace his lost tissue, reviving Nimaiya and allowing Kirio Hikifune to separate the Schutzstaffel into four chambers within the Cage of Life so the Royal Guard can battle them individually, with each of them initially overpowering their Quincy opponent.
 * Gerard Valkyrie, Pernida Parnkgjas, Askin Nakk Le Vaar, and Lille overpowering the Royal Guard with their respective Schrifts, causing the Cage of Life to crumble around them.
 * Nimaiya, Kirinji, and Hikifune killing themselves to break the Blood Oath's Seal and unleash Senjumaru's true power, allowing her to activate Shatatsu Karagara Shigarami no Tsuji and defeat Lille, Askin, Pernida, Gerard, Haschwalth, and Uryū Ishida with specialized techniques that foreshadow their eventual fates.
 * Ichibē leaping over the hole in the platform to the Seal he created in order to look at the Greater Soul King Palace behind it.
 * In the manga, Yhwach names Blut Vene Anhaben after initiating it and explains that it expands the protective barrier outside of the user's body; here, he instead names the technique while using it and does not explain how it functions.
 * In the manga, Ichibē regains his power from Sankt Altar almost immediately after it begins being drawn from his body; here, Yhwach succeeds in drawing the black out of Ichibē, whose beard and eyebrows are turned white, and attacks him with it in the form of blue flames, only for Ichibē to reveal himself to be unharmed and with black hair once more when the flames dissipate as Yhwach attempts to leave.
 * In the manga, black is drawn from Kisuke Urahara's hat and coat by Ichimonji; here, it is instead only drawn from his coat, as his hat is entirely white and green.
 * Due to production issues, the last five minutes of this episode, after the credits, feature Kon displaying comedic moments and conversations that were cut from The Shooting Star Project (ZERO MIX) and THE LAST 9DAYS in the form of voiceovers accompanied by character headshots against a static background.