Short Summary
Ichigo finishes his battle against Ulquiorra and races back to the living world to assist in the fight against Aizen, who has finally decided to step in and take on the Gotei 13 with his newfound power gained from the Hogyoku.
Main Summary
After a round of Big Damn Heroes courtesy of the Visored, the battle over Fake Karakura Town wraps up with the three Espada and all their Fraccion defeated. Starrk dies to Kyoraku, Barragan to himself via Hachi's quick thinking, and while Harribel held her own, Aizen got bored with the Arrancars' performance and stabbed her. Now, the fight is Aizen, Gin, Tosen, and Wonderweiss vs. Everyone Not Trapped in Hueco Mundo.
Speaking of Hueco Mundo, Ulquiorra has handed Ichigo's rear to him on a platter with the help of his second Resurrecion state, but this is not the end of their fight. After Orihime begs the nearly-dead Ichigo to get up and fight again, he does... as a full Hollow. Be Careful What You Wish For, Orihime. Ichigo in this state is powerful enough to reverse the curbstomp onto Ulquiorra and ultimately kill him, but he is completely out of control and stabs Ishida before he reverts to normal. Yammy defeats Chad, Renji, Rukia, and an exhausted Ichigo, revealing himself to actually be the Cero Espada. This still doesn't help him against Byakuya and Kenpachi, who fight him while spending most of their time bickering with each other. Mayuri reverse-engineers the Garganta, and Ichigo and Unohana run through.
On the other end of said Garganta, Tosen fights Hisagi and Komamura. The two once looked up to him, and are determined to snap him out of whatever delusion caused him to follow Aizen. Unfortunately for them, Tosen is too far gone. In Aizen's service, he has not only become a Visored, but he even has a Resurrecion. In Resurrecion form, he has eyes... only for the First Time Feeling of sight to ironically blind him to Hisagi's final attack. Aizen fights Shinji Hirako (and later, everyone else), but his illusions are still a Game-Breaker, as what they thought was a final attack against him was actually Hitsugaya stabbing Hinamori. Yamamoto then takes the field and does much better against Aizen, but the Crazy-Prepared bastard had taken precautions specifically to never face Yamamoto head-on, like turning Wonderweiss in to a Laser Guided Tyke Bomb whose sole purpose is to negate Ryujin Jakka (and who explodes when killed, forcing Yamamoto to use himself as a Human Shield to save his subordinates). Ichigo finally manages to wound Aizen, but then Aizen drops the bombshell:
Everything that has happened has played into Aizen's plan. The battle of Fake Karakura Town? Killed off most of his subordinates, but Aizen considered them expendable and it weakened the Gotei 13. Ichigo attacking him? Catalyzed the Hogyoku into merging with him and beginning the process of turning him into a divine being. Every major event in Ichigo's life, up to and including his birth? Aizen arranged it all to see how strong Ichigo would become. Aizen sent Fishbone D to the Kurosaki household, and Rukia to follow it. Aizen was the reason that Menos Grande came to Karakura when Uryu used hollow bait. Aizen was the one who led him to fight Kenpachi and Byakuya to draw upon his Hollow powers. Aizen used Orihime as bait not just to temporarily trap a bunch of Captains, but to set up Ichigo against opponents like Grimmjow and Ulquiorra. Everything was to build Ichigo up into someone strong enough to wound him and begin his apotheosis.
Aizen's plans get interrupted by Isshin, Urahara, and Yoruichi, but they're not stopped, and after he defeats the three of them, he returns to Soul Society to finally create the King's Key from the real Karakura Town. Ichigo's spiritually aware friends desperately try to stop him, but they have as much success as you'd expect. Meanwhile, Ichigo makes use of the Dangai's Year Inside, Hour Outside effect to train for a new power-up: the Final Getsuga Tensho. Gaining this power involves fighting a being that's a fusion of Tensa Zangetsu and his Inner Hollow, and using it will mean losing his Shinigami powers for good.
With Aizen on the precipice of victory, Gin decides it's time to show the audience exactly what he's been up to all along. He was never loyal to Aizen. In fact, all he wanted all along was to kill him. When Gin was young, he was best friends with Rangiku Matsumoto, but then Aizen stole part of her soul to make his Hogyoku, and Gin resolved to kill him for it. He was aware of Kyoka Suigetsu's power, so he decided to aid Aizen in getting the Hogyoku and evolving, because if he used Kyoka Suigetsu he could easily stop Gin, but if he gained the power he sought there would be a point where he felt powerful enough to abandon his zanpakuto and thus be an easy target, but wouldn't be actually immortal. Unfortunately, the downside to helping Aizen merge with the Hogyoku is that now Aizen has merged with the Hogyoku, and even when Gin takes it away from Aizen it's still part of him. Thus, all Gin did was trigger another evolution and stall Aizen for a bit, and Aizen kills him.
Fortunately, that's enough. Now, it's Aizen's turn to realize that the problem with manipulating Ichigo into becoming really freaking strong is that now Ichigo is really freaking strong. He's so strong, in fact, that he beats the ever-loving tar out of Aizen. He unleashes the Final Getsuga Tensho, but Aizen survives. Fortunately, the attack does enough that it activates a sealing kido that Urahara had snuck onto Aizen in their fight, and the Hogyoku no longer sees him as its master. Aizen is finally defeated, and sentenced to 20,000 years in the Muken. Everyone returns home, and Ichigo's power begins to fade away.
Deicide Arc has the following tropes
- Achievements in Ignorance: Ichigo thinks there's no way he could fight someone of Aizen's spiritual pressure. What he doesn't know (having been occupied fighting Gin when Aizen explained it) is that he shouldn't have been able to sense Aizen's spiritual pressure at all- the fact that he can means that he's still on Aizen's level and could match him with enough training.
- A Day in the Limelight: This arc gives some prominence to Tatsuki, Keigo, Mizuiro, and Chizuru, who finally have their latent spiritual awareness develop into plot prominence at the worst possible moment, as they wake up earlier than those without powers, just in time to find Aizen hunting them. Rangiku also follows Aizen and Gin in order to demand why the latter has done his Face–Heel Turn, and so she gets some spotlight here as well.
- Curb-Stomp Battle:
- The whole arc is series of curb-stomp battles. Mostly Aizen against his opponents, although not he's not the only culprit.
- The final battle between Ichigo and Aizen is this...except Ichigo is the one doing the curb-stomping.
- Dragon with an Agenda: It's revealed that the true reason why Gin joined Aizen...was to kill him for stealing a piece of Rangiku's soul for the Hogyoku. As it turns out, Aizen knew Gin wanted to kill him, and specifically allowed him to join just to see how he would go about it.
- Drunk with Power: Both Aizen and Tosen do this upon getting their power-ups, and in both cases it screws them over- Aizen completely disregards Kyoka Suigetsu (which had up until that point been his biggest trump card), and the First Time Feeling of having sight disorients Tosen enough for Hisagi to stab him.
- Foreshadowing:
- Aizen claims he took such an interest in Ichigo because he's a hybrid. He is interrupted before he can finish his sentence by Isshin, Ichigo's father, who is there to pointedly silence that topic just as much as he's here to help fight Aizen. Future arcs will reveal Ichigo is far more interesting than merely a Shinigami/Human hybrid, as well as Isshin's reasons for hiding it.
- Early in the arc, Ichigo is completely intimidated by Aizen's power because he can feel how much stronger he is. This persists even after Aizen's power becomes so great it's imperceptible to even the most powerful of Shinigami. Sure enough, it turns out the reason why Ichigo can still sense Aizen even after his evolution is because he's the only person still on Aizen's level — and therefore, the only person capable of surpassing and defeating him.
- He's Back!: Ichigo spends most of the series struggling with his fear of his inner Hollow, falling into despair after he obliterates Ulquiorra and almost kills Uryuu. Gin tells him to run away as he's no longer in any state to fight Aizen. However, Isshin encourages Ichigo to train one last time, which allows Ichigo to confront and reconcile with his inner spirits. Upon returning to the battlefield, Gin acknowledges Ichigo has regained his fighting resolve, which Ichigo then proves.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Aizen becomes so overpowered, it takes several of his own screw-ups to take him down.
- Aizen set up Ichigo to become powerful by putting him in tight spot after tight spot. Now Ichigo's so powerful, he hands Aizen his ass on a platter.
- Aizen shows off how powerful he is by killing the spirit-train-thingy placed in the Dangai to stop people from staying there too long. Because it's gone, Ichigo and Isshin have unlimited freedom to take advantage of the 2000:1 ratio of time passing in the Dangai compared to the Living World, allowing Isshin to teach Ichigo the Final Getsuga Tensho.
- Hope Spot:
- The captains and the vizards finally team up to work against Aizen in a united fashion because they all agree they need to give Ichigo an opening. It doesn't quite go according to plan.
- Gin reveals his Bankai's true power and kills Aizen... but then the Hogyoku intervenes and evolves him again.
- Kill the God: Subverted. The arc is all about killing a god ("Deicide" means "to kill a god") as Aizen's quest to become so overpowered is based on his obsession with breaking the boundary of shinigami and divinity. Despite how convinced he is of his godhood, he never actually becomes one.
- Readings Are Off the Scale: After Aizen enters the Chrysalis stage, his power became imperceptible to all Shinigami except Ichigo, as a sign of how immeasurably powerful he had become. After Ichigo trains in the Dangai, Aizen cannot sense Ichigo's reiatsu. It takes having his body and ego driven to the ground by Ichigo's power to understand why.
- Shut Up, Hannibal!: When Ichigo gets back from his last minute training and confronts Aizen a second time, he requests moving to a unpopulated area. Aizen starts to refuse but Ichigo grabs him by the face and forcibly moves him to a barren landscape.
- Villainous Breakdown: During Aizen's final battle with Ichigo, Aizen is the one freaking out and yelling after he realizes that Ichigo is far stronger than him, and Ichigo is the one who's calm and in control.
