Rukia rushes back to the 6th Division HQ and is reunited with Renji. However, Byakuya's status remains unknown after the night of the zanpakutōs' attack. Ichigo and Yoriuchi arrive in Soul Society and split up to search for clues. Rukia returns to Byakuya's compound and finds Sode no Shirayuki attacking and freezing the shinigami there. She tries to reason with her zanpakutō but Shirayuki demands her freedom. After a fierce battle, Rukia loses to Shirayuki and is about to be frozen to death when Ichigo arrives to rescue her. However, he too is defeated by Shirayuki. Rukia attempts to get Sode no Shirayuki back to her by telling the zanpakutō how important she is to her. Using her kidō powers to restrain Sode no Shirayuki and herself, Rukia attempts to sacrifice themselves both in order to convince Shirayuki one could not live without the other. The resulting explosion injures Rukia severely. Sode no Shirayuki has a change of heart and attempts to reach out to her master, but Muramasa arrives and holds her back. Muramasa introduces himself to Ichigo and states that he is a zanpakutō.
Elenco: Masakazu Morita , Fumiko Orikasa , Yuki Matsuoka , Kaya Matsutani , Shinichiro Miki , Wataru Takagi , Hisayoshi Suganuma , Kazunari Tanaka , Hideo Ishikawa , Tomoko Kaneda , Akio Ohtsuka , Nobuyuki Hiyama , Toshiyuki Morikawa , Akemi Kanda , Takahiro Sakurai , Hiroki Takahashi , Nobutoshi Canna , Junichi Suwabe , Paku Romi , Susumu Chiba , Daisuke Namikawa , Jun Fukuyama , Katsuyuki Konishi , Toshihiko Seki , Junko Noda , Fumihiko Tachiki , Hiroki Yasumoto , Hisayo Mochizuki , Katsumi Suzuki , Kenji Nomura , Kenji Hamada , Kiyoyuki Yanada , Masaaki Tsukada , Nobuo Tobita , Reiko Takagi , Tôru Ôkawa , Yumi Kakazu , Noriaki Sugiyama , Houko Kuwashima , Hikaru Midorikawa , Tomoko Kawakami , Rie Kugimiya , Tomokazu Sugita , Kentaro Ito , Satsuki Yukino , Ryōtarō Okiayu , Takako Honda , Tomokazu Sugita , Shô Hayami , Ryūsei Nakao , Tetsu Inada , Daisuke Ono , Takuma Terashima , Saki Nakajima , Rikiya Koyama , Taketora , Asami Sanada , Mitsuaki Madono , Kumi Sakuma , Daisuke Matsuoka , Kanako Hattori , Sayori Ishizuka , Rintarou Nishi , Takashi Nagasako , Tsubasa Yonaga , Yoshikazu Nagano .