Last chapter we were stuck with Riruka’s back story as she talked off our ear about the “survival of the fittest”, and of friends, and of loneliness. This is the last we will probably see of Riruka, so let’s move on to bigger and better things.
THE GOOD
Riruka has disappeared, probably meaning she has either killed herself someway, or ninja vanished herself away to safety. I don’t blame her, she was only a few seconds away from becoming a popsicle. However, this chapter is not about this cat fight, but the fight we all really care about, Tsukishima vs. Byakuya.
Now I was very impressed by the way this battle ended. I expected Byakuya to pull out some kind of new move he hadn’t practiced with Tsukishima before, but he didn’t. Basically, in order for Byakuya to defeat Tsukishima, he had to put himself in danger by using his blade petals within his safe zone. However, this alone was not enough to take Tsukishima out, in fact what it did was give him a false sense of security. With that he made Tsukishima believe that he was using kido, when in fact he held a handful of blades, which he hadoukened through Tsukishima’s chest. With that he thanks Tsukishima for a wonderful fight, and everyone claps.
THE BAD
Those few extra pages wasted on Rukia could have shown Byakuya mounting Tsukishima while he punched his face into the ground with his bloody fist.
THE VERDICT 4/5
You deserved this win Byakuya, but is Tsukishima really down for the count? I mean this is Bleach after all, a hole in the chest is like an everyday thing down there; especially if you are a hollow. I’m still waiting on Tsukishima to say that when he inserted himself in Byakuya’s memory, not only did he help train Byakuya, but he also freed Aizen, or something like that. Either way this arc is coming to a close, with only Ichigo’s fight to take us home.
