History NightmareFuel / Bleach

* The sheer power of Captain Byakuya Kuchiki of Squad 6 over the protagonists during this arc. First he breaks Ichigo's sword and stabs him twice in the chest so quickly that he can't register what had hit him, which are targeted blows that remove his Shinigami powers. Next, his [[SoulPower Spiritual Pressure]] is so intense that it effectively paralyzes anyone he directs it at that can't withstand it, which includes Ichigo and all of his companions. Then the reveal of his Shikai, ''Senbonzakura'', which Rukia recognizes as so powerful she screams at the top of her lungs for Ganju to run, but it's futile when the thousand cherry blossom blades instantly ravage him so violently that in the anime the shot turns to monochrome to partially hide all the blood splashing from his wounds. And lastly the reveal of his Bankai, ''Senbonzakura Kageyoshi'' against Renji, which utterly devastates both him and the building behind him, again in monochrome. Essentially, if Byakuya shows up in this arc against one of his perceived enemies, you know someone's going to be messed up badly.

** The anime brings out the full horror of the situation, Ichigo seeing Tsukishima in his own house and has already written himself into the memories of his sisters and friends. Seeing them all react with outrage and terror when he punches him into a window, their demands for him to apologize all reaching such a crescendo that all he can do is run away helplessly. It's stuff of nightmares just how powerless he is here, and the visuals and sound top it off.
* Ginjo was already hit with "Book of the End", and being hit twice TURNED HIM BACK TO NORMAL: The actual villain of the arc. He and Tsukishima effectively took the very concept of TrueCompanions that gives strength to so many ShonenGenre protagonists, [[DeconstructedTrope defeated it, and virtually made it their bitches]].

** This also happens to be the first time we're seeing things ''from the perspective of somebody affected by him. Even Ginjo [[PragmaticVillainy dislikes]] Tsukishima's usage of his Fullbring as it can completely destroy the victim's MIND and make them {{Empty Shell}}s with overuse. His reaction is LackOfEmpathy.

* [The monsters that Yukio summoned into his fullbring and [[HoistByHisOwnPetard that he]] [[AvertedTrope was almost]] [[HoistByHisOwnPetard killed by them]].
* Relatively minor, but Ikkaku fixing his broken shoulder in the anime is grotesque. It almost looks like there's something alive under his skin as his muscles move to heal his arm.
* The backgrounds of some of the Fullbringers: Jackie returning home with her dead brother in her arms to find her family slaughtered. Or Kutsuzawa killing his own wife on a whim. Riruka kidnapping a guy she liked and locking him in a dollhouse... And what exactly happened to Yukio's parents?

* Mayuri Kurotsuchi from Squad 12. He turns his own men into living bombs with the skin bubbling shown ''very'' clearly in the manga. He has ''no ears or lips'' either, and has a sickle attached to a fleshy cord in it that he can retract and detach at will. His Shikai Ashisogi Jizō has a very nasty effect - if it slashes an opponent, it severs the brain signal controlling the neural impulses required to move their limbs, but leaves their pain receptors completely intact, and they can very much feel the pain of their wounds even while paralyzed. Finally his bankai Konjiki Ashisogi Jizo is a giant caterpillar with a baby's head that exhales poison and sprouts swords from its neck. Oh. And don't forget about how he planted those bacteria inside Ishida to track him? Imagine someone like Mayuri watching your every move, through millions of microscopic cameras hidden inside your own body, to collect intel on how he can eventually kill you, or anyone you meet.

* Mayuri Kurotsuchi from Squad 12. He turns his own men into living bombs with the skin bubbling shown ''very'' clearly in the manga. He has ''no ears or lips'' either, and has a sickle attached to a fleshy cord in it that he can retract and detach at will. Finally his bankai Konjiki Ashisogi Jizo is a giant caterpillar with a baby's head that exhales poison and sprouts swords from its neck. Oh. And don't forget about how he planted those bacteria inside Ishida to track him? Imagine someone like Mayuri watching your every move, through millions of microscopic cameras hidden inside your own body, to collect intel on how he can eventually kill you, or anyone you meet.

[[folder: Soul Society Arc]]

[[folder: Winter War Arc]]

** Barragan's ''Respira'' ability essentially being a cloud of energy that will rapidly age and rot away anything caught in it, as Soi Fon experiences when it reaches her hand. Seeing the normally stoic Captain scream in terror as she sees her hand quickly reduced to mere bones is chilling, especially when the only way for her to survive is to have Omaeda immediately amputate her whole arm before it spreads to the rest of her body.

* Everything that happens when Wonderweiss and Hooleer arrive in Fake Karakura Town. At the moment when it looks like the Gotei 13 have won a narrow victory, defeating all of the Fracciones, freezing Harribel, taking out Barragan with an explosion so powerful its smoke has yet to fade, and Starrk struggling against Kyoraku and Ukitake. In an instant, Wonderweiss punches a hole through Ukitake with his bare hand, making Kyoraku lose his composure so he's wide open for Starrk to hit him with a point-blank Cero from behind. Then Wonderweiss screams and brings Harribel and Barragan back into the fight, and finally Hooleer releases Aizen, Ichimaru and Tousen from the fiery prison they had been trapped in by Ryujinjakka. The scales are tipped so rapidly against them that Izuru gives in to despair as they hardly have anyone left in sufficient fighting condition to take on five Espada-level Arrancars and the three traitor Captains.

[[folder: Lost Agent Arc]]

[[folder: Thousand Year Blood War Arc]]

[[folder: Howl From the Jaws of Hell Arc]]

[[folder: Other]]

* Chapter 504: Yamamoto oneshotting [[AxCrazy Driscoll Berci]] by ''actually melting him''. Admittedly overlaps with SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome [[KickTheSonOfABitch by virtue of the recipient]].

* Due to Hollow's having slipped far, far down in the VillainPedigree they were resorted to being comedic in filler, it can be easy to forgot just how horrifying they can be. Chapter 480 was more than happy to remind us. Two pages earlier.

** Even more so, does poor Kira's horrifying injury look familiar? Yes, it's disturbingly similar to what happened to Matsumoto in the FKT arc. Only that, instead of having his right side merely torn by a GiantMook's hand, the upper half of his body was blasted off. Auuuugh.

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/screenshot_2023_08_12_153020.png]]

* Szayelaporro returns, now upgraded from an Arrancar to some damned entity similar to the Togabito. His left arm burns with a black flame that's already seared away the flesh, his left eye is a dark pit and two wounds on the sides of his head leak some mystery liquid that solidifies into a pair of horns. The worst part of all is that he's been watching over Renji ever since he ended up in Hell. Then he tries to [[WouldHurtAChild kill Ichika]].

** Äs Nödt remembers how Ywach recruited him as he was hospitalized, contemplating if Heaven is easier to breathe in and Hell being more difficult. He breaks free from his icy prison and loses his eerily calm demeanor to a rabid demon as he transforms.

--->''Äs Nödt''': The only thing I fear... '''[[SuddenlyShouting IS BEING REBUKED BY HIS MAJESTY!!! COMPARED TO THAT, THERE IS NO OPPONENT, BATTLE, THAT CAN MAKE ME FEEL FEAR OR PAIN!!!]]'''

*** And has now used Senbonzakura Kageyoshi to turn Byakuya into a fountain of blood. As Nodt '''is''' the living embodiment of Nightmares.

** As Nodt vs Byakuya. As succeeds where Tsukishima has failed... by [[MindRape mind raping Byakuya]]. As Nodt's explains that his/her ability is shooting arrows [[EmotionBomb that augment fear at his enemies]], causing them to literally be scared to death.
** Byakuya fights it well and reminds himself that he fights for Rukia... but he soon succumbs to it. And [[https://12dimension.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/bleach501_11-panel.jpg this image]] of Rukia disintegrating and becoming a zombie ''does not help''! Creator/TiteKubo can be insanely good at PsychologicalHorror, '''and it shows'''. And just if someone thought it wouldn't be any worse, [[https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/fg_2v7cwaaiqf9l_7.jpeg there's the anime version of this scene]], which cranks up to eleven by basically turning it into a JumpScare, which acted as the page image here. One moment Byakuya is thinking of Rukia, the next her image ''flash-forwards'' into a decomposed, rotting state.
** As Nodt then proceeds to give Byakuya a TheReasonYouSuckSpeech on the true nature of fear, and as it's happening we are treated to a horrifying view of ''thousands of insects'' crawling all over Byakuya. By the time said speech is finished, the hallucinated insects have crept up to Byakuya's face and even begun crawling inside his mouth right before he completely loses his composure and '''screams''' as he futilely tries to attack his opponent. You ''know'' things are seriously screwed when Byakuya Kuchiki, one of the most stone-faced characters in the series, is driven to the point where he can no longer maintain his intense emotional balance and just ''breaks''.

*** In the end, even Kuchiki Byakuya, head of one of the four noble families, the most famous of the 13 captains and a role model for every shinigamis is completely helpless and falls to As Nodt.
* Chapter 502 gives us As Nodt repeatedly using Senbonzakura to turn Byakuya into a mangled bloody mess.
** Also,Byakuya's bloody body lying in a huge crater in the wall. It is not pretty.
*** Neither is the scene in which where his right arm is severed. O U C H.

* Chapter 566 features the return of As Nodt. Not only that, but as soon as he sees Rukia, the younger sister of the guy he almost killed, [[ImplacableMan he]] [[NightmareFace starts]] [[DullEyesOfUnhappiness going]] [[MadnessMantra fucking]] [[AxCrazy CRAZY]].

*** Rukia's counter to him is also disturbing in its own right. Discovering her Sode No Shirayuki's true potential, she uses it to ''temporarily kill her own body'' by lowering her body temperature to force all the molecules in her body to a halt. As Nodt said that no living being could escape his powers of fear. Rukia agreed, so she essentially became a ''living corpse'' in order to fight him.

*** The anime only turns it up even further. Remember the [[SarcasmMode lovely vision]] As Nodt gave Byakuya of seeing his sister Rukia rot like a zombie before his body gets swarmed by countless flies? When he finally manages to terrify Rukia using Tatar Foras, he proceeds to give her a vision much like the one he gave her elder brother, except ''even worse,'' providing this page with a [[SarcasmMode lovely new image.]] Rukia sees the faces of [[VitriolicBestBuds Ichigo,]] [[TrueCompanions Orihime,]] ''and'' [[KnightTemplarBigBrother Byakuya]] as they grotesquely rot before finally ''bursting apart'' into insects that cover her body, causing her to snap in fear just like Byakuya did.
** If it was somehow possible, As Nodt continues to ''become even more horrifying'' in Chapter 569. He practically grows into a borderline EldritchAbomination after Byakuya shows up and reveals how much stronger he's become. Not to mention how he threatened to place Byakuya and Rukia into an AndIMustScream situation.
** The anime adaptation ''really'' ups the ante of how creepy As Nodt is, especially when you turn on the Japanese voice courtesy of Creator/YoshitsuguMatsuoka. Imagine the heroic voice of [[Literature/SwordArtOnline Kirito]] or the rougher, but still heroic [[Manga/DemonSlayerKimetsuNoYaiba Inosuke Habashira]]. Matsuoka then manages to use those signature voices to create a very creepy, low-toned and screechy voice for As Nodt, which when combined with all of the scary shits he presents... it completely amps up the horrifying factors of As Nodt.

*** Rukia's counter to him is also disturbing in its own right. Discovering her Sode No Shirayuki's true potential, she uses it to ''temporarily kill her own body'' by lowering her body temperature to force all the molecules in her body to a halt. As Nodt said that no living being could escape his powers of fear. Rukia agrees, so she essentially became a ''living corpse'' to fight him.