Rukia is found by the 4th Division and sent to recover from her injuries. Hisagi and his men patrol Seireitei and are attacked by the sadistic Kazeshini. Renji searches the ruins for any clues of the missing Byakuya, who was last seen hit by Senbonzakura's attack. He instead encounters Zabimaru in its baboon and snake humanoid form. Both entities of Zabimaru have no intention of returning to their original owner and attacks Renji. Ichigo wakes up in Zangetsu's dimension but the old man is missing. He sees Muramasa and attacks him, but the man immediately incapacitates him and summons his hollow form out as a separate entity. Muramasa has begun to take an interest in the hollow form and uses his powers to freeze it in place. Thinking that it has been subdued, Muramasa approaches it but the hollow form merely tricks him with its act and lashes out straight at him.
From creator Tite Kubo, comes the story of a world where passing lurks impalpable to an everyday human's eyes. Ichigo Kurosaki helps run a local clinic with his family but Ichigo has the unusual ability to see poltergeists but rather than react with surprise he merely sees it as an annoyance. Ichigo helps those when he cares but can't bring himself to care enough... until one fateful day. A small, mysterious woman appears on duty inside his room, a Soul Reaper known as Rukia. Soon enough Ichigo and Rukia get formal in the oddest of ways and in such an untimely matter the losses begin. The Kurosaki family is soon attacked. This leads Ichigo on his first step to accepting the roles and responsibility's a Soul Reaper must uphold.