This seems bittersweet in many ways. After mass revelation and a lot of info dump from the previous chapters, we have a pause. Unlike the many other times Ichigo and the others rushed into battle or went off to the Soul Society, we are seeing some warnings of possible things to come. Then a right hook right at the end too!
We pick up where the last surprise left us, Capt. Kyouraku has come to the Living World to see Keigo, Tatsuki, and Mizuiro about a parting with Ichigo. This is actually not as much of a surprise at second glance as when it came at us in the last page before.
We have often heard the special steps taken to allow Capt and Lt level Soul Reapers, as well as the massive undertaking to allow those powers to run loose during Aizen's rebellion and war. Ichigo has often been stated to have equivalent powers at times to the strongest of those beings, yet he has always remained human enough to come back.
Now with his new Zangetsus at his side and possible implications of more changes to come, it may not be possible for him to ever return. For his father that is hardly a big deal, but his friends take it quite badly. Keigo especially explodes about all the weight of duty put on Ichigo and never seeming to cut him a break. While the odds are listed as low, I rarely have a series mention such things just to build tension, a sucker punch may be waiting if not the one outlined above.
Surprisingly we see a large departure from previous encounters with the rules of Soul Society, if Ichigo is truly barred from returning it seems that his friends that have walked so far with him on this dangerous road will be allowed, as living beings, to come to him in his new life. For Ishin that is probably a simple matter and his daughters being of bloodline and obviously latent Soul Reapers themselves I doubt that was a large stretch, but these three despite showing powers and awareness have not usually been considered a high priority for regular Soul Reapers.
We cut to Kisuke's area in Hueco Mundo for training Arrancars, Chad, and Orihime for the upcoming battles. This has a feel of the beginning a bit, when both of the humans went to learn from a talking black cat so long ago. This is more of an expression of how much has changed, where once 3 worlds had been just existing or fighting with each other, now so many are working to protect it all, not just 1/3 of it. Orihime tells Chad that she wishes this could go on forever, the training without a real battle looming.
From these two scenes of both pause and bitter warning of the consequences this time around, we get slapped upside the head with major development on the war front.
Squad 12 has ever meter go nuts and even as I read I did not comprehend it until they said what happened. The Sternritters are making the move and it was bold and totally unexpected. And of course we are now apparently going to have a break....ARGH! Still, I am back into this series after I thought it was lagging and I really want to see how this ends.
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