User blog comment:Shishio san/A Breather/@comment-5606268-20121108010516

Am slightly surprised that Byakuya is alive because he said that he would die soon and we did see his zanpakuto shattering. As far as the zapakuto is involved am pretty sure that when a shinigami dies their zanpakuto disappears.

Shunsui stepping up to calm down the members of the Gotei 13 is simply something he'd do because I think out of all the Captains there, he was closest to the late Yamamoto.

Our dear Mayuri has something up his sleeve besides just repairing Ichigo's zapakuto. I bet he has done some research about this battle, and now that Yamamoto is gone, we will see what he meant by that cryptic warning he gave Yamamoto about the Sternritter.