Rangiku's Tears, the Sorrowful Parting of Brother and Sister

 is the one-hundred and thirty-first episode of the Bleach anime.

The Shinigami Strike Force faces off against the Cloning Arrancar.

Summary
In the park that Ulquiorra Cifer and Yammy Llargo crashed into weeks prior, Shōta Toyokawa stares in astonishment and fear at Yui Toyokawa as he wonders what is wrong, prompting a trembling Yui to warn him to get away before she shrieks and is engulfed in a surge of red Reiatsu that fills the air above her. Nearby, 10th Division Lieutenant Rangiku Matsumoto is startled by this, only to find an Arrancar clone poised to attack her and slash through it in turn.

After running forward destroying another Arrancar clone with a second swing, Rangiku stops and releases her Shikai, Haineko, turning the blade into a cloud of ash that obliterates a third Arrancar clone and moves past Yui, who ducks instinctively and is blown forward by an explosion of force from behind while her Reiatsu stops surging. With a concerned Shōta running to Yui's side to make sure she is okay, Rangiku sees the dust cloud behind Yui clearing to reveal the massive Cloning Arrancar, who glares down at Shōta. Suddenly, Yui panics and shoves Shōta back right before the Cloning Arrancar slams his hand into where Shōta was standing.

As the cursing Cloning Arrancar withdraws his hand, leaving a sizable crater behind, Yui begs Shōta to run away, but Shōta refuses to abandon her ever again, and while the Cloning Arrancar roars behind Yui, Rangiku realizes that he is the main body. Tears form in Yui's eyes and slide down her cheeks to her chin as she expresses relief that the Cloning Arrancar did not devour Shōta, who is confused and reiterates that he is going to protect her, before telling him that it is too late and screaming in pain when her red Reiatsu begins surging once more, forcing Shōta to the ground and leaving him shocked at his inability to move his body against its pressure.

Behind Yui, the Cloning Arrancar admits that he never expected Yui to still have the will to defy him, only to declare that it ends here while his eyes glow white and an Arrancar clone bloodily bursts out of the body of Yui, who disappears within his mouth prior to him leaping into the air alongside the other Arrancar clones in the park and turning into red energy that enters the body of the Cloning Arrancar. With Shōta collapsing in despair at Yui being lost, the Cloning Arrancar reaches for him, prompting Rangiku to move between them and fire '''Hadō #4. Byakurai''' through the center of the startled Cloning Arrancar's chest.

As the Cloning Arrancar reels back, Rangiku kneels at Shōta's side and tells him to focus, and when a stunned Shōta tells her that Yui was absorbed, Rangiku furiously acknowledges this and refuses to forgive the Cloning Arrancar, who grasps his own Zanpakutō and laughs at this since he has become so powerful after consuming Yui prior to drawing and slashing his Zanpakutō through the ground between them, creating a strong wind that prompts Rangiku to shield Shōta with her own body. Proclaiming that Shinigami are nothing compared to the power he has stored up, the Cloning Arrancar brings his Zanpakutō down onto Rangiku in a powerful slash.

However, Rangiku easily blocks the slash by bracing her right sword-wielding arm with her left hand and calmly pushes the massive Zanpakutō upward with her own, shocking the Cloning Arrancar while she demands to know if he does not know who she is and exerts her own white Reiatsu in a tall column that forces the Cloning Arrancar to disengage and leap back. Once Rangiku introduces herself and instructs him to not underestimate her, the Cloning Arrancar expresses appreciation for her being a lieutenant because he now looks forward to consuming her before the two of them leap high into the air and begin repeatedly clashing with their Zanpakutō.

When the Cloning Arrancar performs a wide horizontal slash, Rangiku leaps over him, criticizes his slow speed, and cuts open the back of his right shoulder, which leads the annoyed Cloning Arrancar to turn around and slash at her again. Evading this with Shunpo, Rangiku reappears above the Cloning Arrancar and comes down on him with a strike that generates blue electricity-like energy when the Cloning Arrancar blocks it and ultimately creates a shockwave that sends him crashing into and sliding along the ground below. With Rangiku attempting to finish him off with Haineko, the Cloning Arrancar generates three Arrancar clones from his blade.

Rangiku's initial movement of Haineko destroys the first three Arrancar clones, but she is forced to dodge the subsequent three Arrancar clones with Shunpo and returns the ash of Haineko to her Zanpakutō's hilt in order to reform the blade, where she discovers that the Cloning Arrancar has disappeared. Upon seeing the three Arrancar clones chasing down Shōta below, Rangiku attempts to move down and help him, but is forced to block a powerful surprise attack from the Cloning Arrancar that sends her flying back through the air. Once she regains her footing, Rangiku finds the Cloning Arrancar moving to her and rapidly slashing with his Zanpakutō.

As Rangiku stands in place and holds up her Zanpakutō with both hands to withstand this barrage, the cackling Cloning Arrancar concludes his attack with a downward strike that breaks through Rangiku's defense and pushes her back with a wound on her right arm. Though battered by this, Rangiku responds to the Cloning Arrancar questioning whether he should consume her or Shōta first by declaring that she is not done prior to her captain, Tōshirō Hitsugaya, telling her to step aside and falling onto the Cloning Arrancar from much higher in the air while releasing his Shikai, Hyōrinmaru, to create an ice dragon that crashes into the Arrancar clones.

With the ice dragon freezing the Arrancar clones solid on impact, the shocked Cloning Arrancar finds a second ice dragon slamming into him from the side and biting into his left arm as it pushes him through the ground below in a surge of ice. At Hitsugaya's urging, Rangiku joins Shōta on the ground and hugs him while Hitsugaya lands nearby and notes that the Cloning Arrancar is breaking free of the ice. After shattering the ice encasing him with a flex of his body, the yelling Cloning Arrancar glares at Hitsugaya with part of his mask damaged and demands to know who he is, only to be further astonished when Hitsugaya identifies himself as a captain.

Hitsugaya deduces from the Cloning Arrancar not knowing that the Shinigami Strike Force was in the Human World that he is not working for Sōsuke Aizen and must have become an Arrancar naturally from absorbing a Human's Reiryoku prior to Rangiku declaring that this is it for the panicking Cloning Arrancar, who inquires if they are alright with this since his death will mean Yui disappearing as well, mortifying Shōta. Despite this, Hitsugaya merely observes that this matches the results of the testing performed by the Shinigami Research and Development Institute and begins to assert that such threats will not work against them.

Suddenly, Shōta runs in front of Hitsugaya and Rangiku with his arms outspread and begs them to stop due to Yui still being alive and able to speak. Though Hitsugaya states that he cannot weigh one Soul on the same scale as all of Karakura Town, he is startled when Shōta rushes forward and restrains his sword arm, giving the amused Cloning Arrancar enough time to leap back into the air while Hitsugaya throws Shōta to the ground and follows the Cloning Arrancar into the sky. Before Hitsugaya can slash him, the Cloning Arrancar disappears into a cloud of black miasma, leaving Hitsugaya to attack empty air, and chuckles maliciously.

After mocking Hitsugaya for wasting his best chance at victory, to the former's confusion, the Cloning Arrancar explains how he cannot be found as long as he is within the pocket dimension accessed through the miasma, but is still able to conceal his Reiatsu, attack Souls, and create as many Arrancar clones as he wants to. With the Cloning Arrancar demonstrating this by creating hundreds of Arrancar clones in the air around Hitsugaya, 11th Division 3rd Seat Ikkaku Madarame and 5th Seat Yumichika Ayasegawa join Hitsugaya in the air with their respective Shikai, Hōzukimaru and Fuji Kujaku, already released.

While Ikkaku expresses surprise at how many Arrancar clones there are and Yumichika muses on this being the reason they kept appearing no matter how many fell, the Cloning Arrancar boasts that his duplication speed becomes 16 times faster each day, something they took too long to realize, and that it will be impossible to prevent him from creating more Arrancar clones with this many already in existence before noting that he will have to start consuming Humans soon now that he has devoured most of the Souls in this town and having the Arrancar clones turn around to leap outward toward different areas of Karakura Town surrounding the park below.

Though Ikkaku attempts to follow them, Hitsugaya stops him and points out how they will never end this by cutting down all the Arrancar clones, only for Ikkaku to counter that they cannot be left alone, to Hitsugaya's surprise, and remind him that the Eleventh Division is a battle squad, leaving them better suited for crushing the Arrancar clones until they run out of Reiryoku rather than formulating battle strategies. Once Yumichika concludes that he can think of a way to deal with them in the meantime, Hitsugaya agrees to let them go to the city, prompting Ikkaku and Yumichika to leap away as Hitsugaya descends to the park below.

With Shōta sobbing on his hands and knees nearby, Hitsugaya contacts the Shinigami Research and Development Institute to inform 12th Division 3rd Seat Akon of the Cloning Arrancar being found and managing to escape. Akon asserts that they are tracking him right now when Hitsugaya inquires about the possibility of doing so, but Hiyosu angrily slams his hand on his keyboard after a negative sound plays from his monitor and reveals that they are unable to track the Cloning Arrancar, with the technicians next to him admitting that he cannot provide support and that the team has lost sight of the Cloning Arrancar with no sign of any distortions.

However, before a cursing Akon can apologize to Hitsugaya, Rin Tsubokura is alarmed by something on his own monitor and tells the others he has pinpointed the origin point of the whistle-like melody used by the Cloning Arrancar to control Souls. When pressed for clarification on this by Akon, Rin elaborates that the Cloning Arrancar himself produces the melody and the Arrancar clones simply act as speakers, creating a bond similar to a wireless connection between the two that is likely also the method by which Reiryoku is transferred from the Arrancar clones to him, meaning they can find the Cloning Arrancar by looking at the distribution of the Arrancar clones.

As Rin meekly concludes his explanation by wondering if he is correct, Akon, Hiyosu, and the other technicians immediately return to their own monitors and begin typing rapidly to have their systems analyze the distribution of Reiatsu in the area, resulting in their screens displaying the locations of all the Arrancar clones, prior to ordering Rin to send the coordinate data to Hitsugaya. Back in the park, Hitsugaya closes his Denreishinki and looks at Shōta, who stands while Rangiku places her hands on his shoulders and informs him that the Arrancar whom they are fighting were originally Hollows, who are fallen Souls.

Rangiku details how Souls who still have attachments to the world after death become corrupted and lose their hearts, enabling their transformation into Hollows, before noting that Shinigami exist to save Hollows in addition to Souls by cleansing Hollows of their sins with a cut from a Zanpakutō and sending them to Soul Society, which is necessary in order for them to be born anew. Admitting that they could not protect Yui, Rangiku proclaims that they can still save Yui's Soul, and with Shōta touched by this, Rangiku asserts that it is his turn now and pulls out her sheathed Zanpakutō to set down sheath-first before Shōta.

While telling Shōta to hold on tight, Rangiku concludes that they will save Yui's Soul together, leading Shōta to nod and grasp Rangiku's Zanpakutō by the handle as Hitsugaya asks them if they are done talking and states that they will be moving out. Elsewhere, an Arrancar clone duplicates itself and roars alongside its clone before a grinning Ikkaku slashes through it with Hōzukimaru and destroys three more Arrancar clones behind him with a spinning horizontal slash. Nearby, a smiling Yumichika evades strikes from an Arrancar clone and dodges the lunge of a second while noting that they will not be able to hit him with such moves.

With the two Arrancar clones being wounded and destroyed by Yumichika's subtle counterattacks, several more Arrancar clones approach the Urahara Shop and are confronted by 6th Division Lieutenant Renji Abarai, who presumes they are the multiplying Arrancar and exits his Gigai in order to cut down one with his Shikai, Zabimaru, though he is alarmed by the crowd of Arrancar clones before him as Ginnosuke takes control of his Gigai and claims that his chores will have to wait, leading Renji to reprimand him for trying to slack off. Simultaneously, Rangiku carries Shōta across the rooftops with Hitsugaya.

In the Shinigami Research and Development Institute, Rin observes that he was right about the Arrancar clones not being spread out across too wide of an area and that calculating the location of their source by analyzing the distribution of the Arrancar clones' appearances points to the eastern part of Karakura Town near the river. Back in Karakura Town, with Shōta still on her back, Rangiku runs along the riverbank with Hitsugaya and wonders how they are supposed to find the Cloning Arrancar. In response, Hitsugaya relays Akon's explanation that the Cloning Arrancar is just concealing his Reiatsu since he still needs to communicate with the clones.

Having been told by Akon that there is consequently no possibility of the Cloning Arrancar hiding in a realm completely cut off from the Human World like Hueco Mundo, Hitsugaya theorizes that he is hiding within a special barrier, which they should be able to break by blasting it with their Reiatsu. Though Rangiku offers to do this, Hitsugaya asserts that he will instead since they need a proportional amount of Reiatsu to pry the Cloning Arrancar out of his protective space, meaning that Rangiku and Shōta will be dealing with him when he emerges. With Rangiku affirming this, Hitsugaya activates his Bankai, Daiguren Hyōrinmaru.

After flying underneath the bridge ahead and skimming the surface of the river, Hitsugaya surges upward, creating a waterspout from the river and freezing the surrounding water and grass on the adjoining banks solid while the sky darkens and his Reiatsu surges. Nearby, the Cloning Arrancar peers out of a cloud of black miasma in alarm at what is going on and realizes it is Hitsugaya who has come this far, but he mocks the latter as not being able to hit him by exerting his Reiatsu so recklessly. While the waterspout continues to spiral into the sky and one of the petals behind Hitsugaya begins to crack, Renji slays another Arrancar clone.

Upon noticing the waterspout in the distance, Renji recognizes Hitsugaya's Reiatsu and questions what he is doing prior to shoving Zabimaru into the chest of an approaching Arrancar clone and lamenting how there seems to be no end to their forces. Inside the waterspout, Hitsugaya continues exerting himself and watches the petals of his Bankai disintegrate as he sweats. In the Shinigami Research and Development Institute, Rin asks Akon if Hitsugaya will be alright, only for Akon to muse that Hitsugaya should have applied for a Gentei Kaijo. Back in Karakura Town, Hitsugaya lets the waterspout disperse and pants heavily.

With Rangiku expressing concern for Hitsugaya, Shōta runs to the edge of the ice formation on the ground and repeatedly calls out to Yui while Hitsugaya summons another waterspout and begins exerting his Reiatsu with a yell once more. Inside the pocket dimension, the Cloning Arrancar berates Hitsugaya for doing this again and claims that it is useless to try to destroy his space with Reiatsu even if the latter is a captain. Suddenly, the Cloning Arrancar is startled by the sound of an ocarina playing within the pocket dimension and demands to know what it is as Rangiku and Shōta realize that it is Yui when they hear it outside.

The Cloning Arrancar wonders how this can be possible when he should have completely absorbed Yui while Rangiku asks Shōta if he knows where the sound is coming from, which leads Shōta to walk toward the waterspout and point to a spot in the air to the right of it. After being notified of this by Rangiku, a roaring Hitsugaya summons another ice dragon and sends it crashing into the air in front of him, with the resulting cloud of frozen air rolling off an invisible surface, to Rangiku and Shōta's surprise. In the aftermath, the Cloning Arrancar stands in midair and draws his Zanpakutō in a crackle of red electricity-like Reiatsu around his sheath.

As a smiling Hitsugaya observes that he has been discovered, the infuriated Cloning Arrancar refuses to forgive him for this and activates his Resurrección, Dientes, transforming his arms into long and wide pads with sharp teeth jutting out of them while gaining a massive tail jutting out of a large mouth emblazoned with the upper half of his mask that is floating behind his back. When Hitsugaya rushes forward with his Zanpakutō, the Cloning Arrancar blocks the strike by arching tail over and in front of his body and emerges from the clash unscathed, prompting him to inquire about whether this is the best that Hitsugaya can do.

With a cursing Hitsugaya realizing that he released too much of his Reiatsu, the Cloning Arrancar attempts to slam his long tail into the former, only for Hitsugaya to evade at the last second with Shunpo and decide to finish this all at once before initiating Ryūsenka and flying toward the Cloning Arrancar, who responds by sending his mouthed tail to meet Hitsugaya in midair, resulting in an explosion of bright light. Following this, Hitsugaya comes to a halt in midair as the Cloning Arrancar boasts that his Hierro is equivalent to that of an Espada, only for Hitsugaya to note that this just means the attack did not harm him.

At Hitsugaya's suggestion, the Cloning Arrancar looks up and is shocked to see his mouthed tail encased in an enormous cross of ice that proceeds to shatter, raining frozen shards around him and Hitsugaya. Frightened and confused by this, the Cloning Arrancar drops down into the frozen river below in an attempt to escape, but quickly finds himself stuck in the ice that grows over and encases his lower body, which leads Hitsugaya to order Rangiku to finish him off. Acknowledging this, Rangiku has Shōta grip the handle of her Zanpakutō once more so he can save Yui and leaps high into the air above the Cloning Arrancar, who refuses to be defeated.

However, the Cloning Arrancar finds himself immobilized further when the sound of Yui's ocarina begins playing once more, and as Shōta sees that Yui's first ocarina is embedded on one of the Cloning Arrancar's hair strands, with Yui's spirit briefly appearing over it to smile at him, he and Rangiku pierce the Cloning Arrancar's head with Rangiku's Zanpakutō, causing a large fountain of blood to gush out while the Cloning Arrancar screams and disintegrates, with all the Souls that he consumed rising into the sky to pass over to Soul Society and the Arrancar Clones around Karakura Town vanishing after turning blue, to the confusion of Ikkaku and Yumichika.

On the roof of the Urahara Shop, Renji and Jinta Hanakari, who is wielding his Muteki Tekkon, stop fighting the Arrancar clones as they disappear as well, with Ginnosuke commenting on this in response to Renji wondering what happened. Back at the river, Rangiku watches the Souls disappear into the sky and looks down to see Shōta digging through the ground in front of her with his hands while Hitsugaya lands behind her. Upon finding Yui's ocarina, Shōta sniffles and gets to his feet while asking Rangiku for confirmation that Yui went to Soul Society and can thus be reborn, which a smiling Rangiku readily confirms and vows to be true.

Pleased by this, Shōta asserts that he has to follow Yui right away, and with Rangiku agreeing, the two approach each other, where Shōta tearfully admits that saying farewell hurts. After hugging Shōta, Rangiku performs Konsō on him and watches the accompanying Jigokuchō fly away alongside Hitsugaya.

Shinigami Illustrated Picture Book
In the Study Chamber underneath their warehouse, the Visored decide to take a break from Ichigo Kurosaki's training to have Korean barbecue for dinner, with them eagerly gathering around the grill for meat. Suddenly, a protesting Ichigo confronts Hiyori Sarugaki and declares that this is not the time to be eating meat, and when Hiyori assumes that he does not like meat, Ichigo clarifies that he is referring to how Karakura Town is currently in danger while the other Visored criticize Hiyori's choice and cooking of the meat. With Hiyori declaring that Korean barbecue is more important, an exasperated Ichigo decides to go by himself and begins running up the stairs, only for Shinji Hirako to reveal that the danger has already passed, causing Ichigo to fall down the stairs in shock while Shinji concludes he is still terrible at detecting Reiatsu.

Powers and Techniques Used
Zanpakutō Techniques:

Shinigami Techniques:

Hohō Techniques:

Kidō Techniques:

Hollow Techniques:

Zanpakutō released:

Shikai:

Bankai:

Resurrección released:

Other Weapons: