User blog:Xilinoc/Ch. 681 - THE END TWO WORLD

Song to listen to while reading this chapter: "Little Lion Man" by Mumford and Sons

Okay, so I keep accidentally writing the title of this chapter as "THE END WORLD TWO" like it's in a Mario game or something, but more importantly this chapter was AMAZING.

So we start off with a direct continuation to the end of last chapter, wherein Renji tries to attack Yhwach, who just breaks off the end of Zabimaru and drops it a la Aizen (at least, I think he did that too). Then we cut back to Uryū and Haschwalth, where it turns out that despite what a certain user last week predicted, Haschwalth ain't even mad about Yhwach taking his powers and lifeforce because it means that 1. his powers are worth more than Uryū's, and 2. he is a valuable asset to Yhwach. Despite this, however, he still decides to help Uryū out a bit by transferring all his injuries to himself because regardless of his loyalty to Yhwach, Uryū's speech about friends and living without regrets really hit him, and he wants Uryū to go save his friends...and after all's said and done, it turns out that Haschwalth kept the little emblem that Bazz-B gave him when they were kids on his swords. Jesus Christ, Kubo, way to bring the feels on hard.

Back to the Ichigo squad, Rukia and Orihime are laying out just how screwed they all are with Yhwach's sheer power and Orihime's inability to fix Tensa Zangetsu, but Renji wants them to just charge in after Yhwach anyway because there's no plan to come up with, or something. But to the surprise of LITERALLY EVERYONE (excepting, of course, the people on the subreddit and this very wiki who somehow predicted this happening without me knowing), motherflippin' Tsukishima shows up and cuts Ichigo with Book of the End, changing the past in such a way that Orihime can now restore Tensa Zangetsu, which she does. Kūgo's also here (but no Giriko, suspiciously), and it turns out they're only doing this to repay their debt, which Ichigo confirms is squared up. He's BACK FOLKS

Overall and again, great chapter. The resolution to Uryū vs. Haschwalth made up for all the parts that Kubo didn't show in prior chapters for the sheer feels quotient it brought, and the question of "Where are the Fullbringers and why did Kubo bring them back?" is finally answered, the latter part in a way that also makes sense, no less. Plus, y'all can stop complaining about not seeing what Tensa Zangetsu can do because now we will!...though I've gotta admit that I was kinda hoping it'd get re-reforged into a better-looking version. Oh well.

Thoughts on the chapter? Being Orihime is suffering Excuse me while my heart breaks in two from the sheer sadness of Haschwalth's story arc It's Shūkurō Orton with a BotE OUTTA NOWHERE! tfw the Fullbringers are introduced, killed off, brought back and go to the Royal Realm before Chad does anything remotely useful in the same period of time