Short Summary
A filler arc that aired right in the middle of the Hueco Mundo arc, thus making it hard where exactly this arc takes place in the Bleach story. It follows Squad 3 gaining a new captain, Shusuke Amagai, and seeking to improve their teamwork. But he along with the rest of Gotei 13 end up caught in a conspiracy that involves a young noble girl and a plot to usurp her position by her evil retainer. Not surprisingly, Ichigo and his crew get involved as well.Main Summary
Squad 3 now has a new captain, after Gin decided to vacation in Hueco Mundo with Aizen. His name is Shusuke Amagai, he's genuinely nice, wields a tuning fork, and he wants Squad 3 to improve their teamwork. So, naturally, things quickly go horribly wrong. This time, it's a conspiracy centered around Rurichiyo Kasumioji, a young Soul Society princess whose father has recently perished, leaving her as his heir. To escape the assassination attempts that come with the position, she's fled to Karakura Town. The assassins, of course, aren't daunted by having their target be on another plane of existence, and Ichigo and Rukia are forced to defend Rurichiyo. Thankfully for them, Rurichiyo's bodyguard Kenryu quickly fills them in on what's happening and why- Gyokaku Kumoi, a vassal of the Kasumioji clan, has been plotting to take the clan over for quite a while, and since Rurichiyo is both the rightful heir and never going to accept being a puppet ruler, she has to go.
Ichigo, being Ichigo, decides to protect Rurichiyo, and has to deal with her stubborn personality and another suspiciously tough assassin. In Soul Society, Squad 3 investigates a hollow sighting, and Kira has to deal with his squad's teamkilling third seat, Makoto Kifune, in order to save a new recruit in distress. While everyone's distracted with that, Rurichiyo sneaks back into her clan's compound, but this naturally goes horribly wrong and results in Ichigo & company having to defeat yet more assassins, most of whom decide to take the asshole's way out rather than be questioned. A few are instead consumed by their bakkoto weapons when they're forced to draw out too much power to defeat their opponents.
Unfortunately, despite winning their battles, the good guys lose the war as Rurichiyo is captured. Several characters independently decide to go save her- Ichigo runs off on his own, Kira finds out what's going on investigating Mifune (who is in on Kumoi's conspiracy and has a Bakkoto of his own), and Renji shows up chasing Ichigo. Yamamoto, learning of the chaos going on, orders the Kasumioji clan's palace seized and searched for evidence of treason, allowing other main characters to secure the perimeter while Ichigo goes to confront Kumoi himself. But before he can do anything, Amagai shows up, grabs Rurichiyo, and kills Kumoi. Leader of the conspiracy killed, Rurichiyo saved, hooray...?
Not quite, because Amagai now takes advantage of all of the Gotei 13's named characters being off fighting bakkoto-wielding cannon fodder to surprise and try to kill Yamamoto. Turns out, he was also part of the conspiracy (though for his own reasons), and that tuning fork of his is also a Bakkoto. Ichigo stops him and eventually wins his fight with Amagai by breaking the bakkoto Amagai was using to nullify both his and Yamamoto's powers.
It's at this point that Yamamoto clears up some backstory. Turns out, Yamamoto sent Shusuke Amagai's father, Shin'etsu Kisaragi, to investigate the Kasumioji clan because they were experimenting with the Bakkoto, a parasitic weapon that consumes its user's spiritual energy in exchange for increased power, and if overused can completely consume its wielder- something that happened to multiple Bakkoto wielders (including Kifune) in the story. This is bad and they got smacked down for it, but not before they caught Shin'etsu and forced a Bakkoto on him, breaking his mind and sending him to fight Yamamoto- who quickly killed him. Unfortunately, Shusuke only saw that last bit, and didn't know the context of Shin'etsu having gone insane from the forced bond with a Bakkoto, so he thought that Yamamoto had murdered his father.
Because of this, Amagai decided to get revenge by reviving the Bakkoto program and backing Kumoi's coup to gain the means and opportunity to kill Yamamoto. But once he realizes that Yamamoto was justified in killing Shin'etsu and that he was using and spreading around the weapon that actually killed his father, Amagai decides to about face, apologize for all the trouble he caused, and kill himself rather than face execution.
New Captain Arc has the following tropes
- Artifact of Doom: The Bakkoto which increases one's power and offers some unique abilities but also eats away at the user's spirit energy. Overuse leads to the Bakkoto consuming its wielder.
- Contrasting Sequel Antagonist: Despite memetic Amagai/Aizen comparisons, Amagai's actually quite a bit different. Aizen was distant from his comrades and loved to mess with people, while Amagai's friendly and wishes to improve cooperation between divisions of the Gotei 13. Aizen loved to trick others and had more information than anyone else, whereas Amagai is pretty straightforward and became a villain because he didn't know the whole story.
- Hungry Weapon: Bakkoto can grant great power, but their bond with Shinigami is parasitic rather than symbiotic like a true Zanpakuto. It makes for a great way of quickly strengthening mooks, but runs the risk of users killing themselves in fights with opponents.
- Poor Communication Kills: If Yamamoto had simply told Amagai the truth about his father, Amagai would have realized the error of his ways earlier and would not have died.
- Power Nullifier: Amagai's Bakkoto can seal the power of a zanpakuto.
- Put on a Bus: Uryu and Chad are left behind in the World of the Living when Ichigo goes after Rurichiyo, due to their injuries while Orihime stays behind to heal them.
- Redemption Equals Death: Amagai who takes his own life once he realizes the truth behind his father's death to atone for his transgressions.
- Revenge Before Reason: In trying to achieve his revenge, Amagai targeted innocent people (i.e: Rurichiyo) who had nothing to do with it.
- Revenge Myopia: An unintentional example. Yamamoto killed Shin'etsu in self-defense because his mind was broken by his Bakkoto, but Amagai (who didn't know the context to their fight) thought that Yamamoto had just decided to up and murder his father. When he finds out, he's horrified and decides to commit suicide to atone.
- Spot the Imposter: After Kumoi captures Rurichiyo, he has her replaced with an imposter that he controls.
- You Killed My Father: Amagai to Yamamoto. As it turns out, Yammamoto did but it was a Mercy Kill as his father was infected by the Bakkoto and it was the only way to save him. Amagai just happened to not get the whole story.
