At his fancy new subdimensional HQ, Kurotsuchi calls Head Captain Kyouraku and tells him to do his job. Only around 30% of Soul Society’s military force remains, so Kyouraku orders all soul reapers to regroup at the nearest barracks that’s still standing, regardless of their squad and rank.
Captain Muguruma wastes no time whipping out his bankai, which creates armor around his arms and fists, making him seem like a good match for the pugilistic luchador. But while Muguruma pounds him into submission, he fails to account for James, his opponent’s #1 Fan.
Jame’s cheer powers up the wrestler, who turns the tables and beats Muguruma to a pulp before revealing his name and rank: “S”, “The Superstar,” Mask de Masculine. Which is wonderfully ridiculous in the true spirit of Bleach baddies.
Rose thought he wouldn’t be needed, but once he learns he is, he also unleashes his rather unique bankai, which takes the form of a
“musical troupe of death” and makes Mask believe he’s wielding both fire and water at the same time.
Unfortunately, Rose is a little too eager to explain his bankai, which uses sound to create deceptions. Mask counters his third and final “movement” by piercing his own eardrums, then sending a massive star-shaped beam right through Rose’s chest.
This somehow doesn’t kill Rose, but Mask moves in for a finisher when his star beam is blocked…by Abarai Renji’s Zabimaru. He’s back, along with Kuchiki Rukia, and both are sporting what I’ll call “Soul Society skiwear.”
Renji tells Rukia to fall back and get the two captains treated, and while it’s clear she doesn’t really want to leave Renji’s side, she obeys, and gets them to Kotetsu Isane, now the acting-captain of the 4th Squad by dint of Unohana’s death. Mask calls Renji a dirty, cowardly villain, a mantle he has no problem picking up and running with…starting with beheading that twerp James.
When Renji’s attack tears Mask’s mask, a multitude of James emerge from Jame’s corpse, and Mask breaks out his Vollstandig, growing wings and bashing Renji around like a pinball in midair. But despite the cataclysmic star-shaped explosion Mask brings down on him, it doesn’t make a scratch.
That’s because while he was hanging with Hyousube Ichibei, who came up with the whole idea of zanpakutos, shikais, and bankais, Renji learned that all this time he’d been getting his bankai’s name wrong. It isn’t Hihio Zabimaru…it’s So-Oh Zabimaru.
Mask has no hope against the full force of Zabimaru, and Renji turns him into literal dust. That’s now two Stern Ritters down in as many episodes, and with Ichigo still nowhere near the battlefield. Just twenty-four to go. Yes, Yhwach appears to “absorb” Mask, or at least his reishi, but doing so also causes Yhwach to “fall asleep”.
A confused Ishida watches this unfold, as Yhwach descends back into the shadows, and Haschwalth emerges in his place. Haschwalth isn’t sure even Ishida’s grandfather knows quite what Yhwach is, but as Ishida is Yhwach’s handpicked successor, Haschwalth is open to telling him.
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