Sea Slugs! Anime Blog

After receiving a critical wound to the chest, Ichigo is barely hanging on to life as Ken walks away, disappointed that Ichigo hadn’t put up the effort that he had anticipated. Although he tries to pick himself up, Ichigo’s body wouldn’t respond to his own pleas. But out of the shadows, Zangetsu, Ichigo’s Soul Slayer, appears beside Ken and seems to stop time in Ichigo’s mind. He brings Ichigo back into his own conscious and shows that although Ichigo is fatally wounded, his mind is rather clear and undisturbed. However, Zangetsu then tells Ichigo that he hasn’t welded him in a proper manner, and Ichigo has to demonstrate to Zangetsu that he indeed will be worth of welding him later in the future. Ichigo’s Challenge: to defeat Nega-Ichigo, where his double is welding Zangetsu. As the two battle, Ichigo realizes indeed how powerful Zangetsu is, and his double tells him that he should weld Zangetsu as an extension of his powers, not as a soul-less blade, and the two should be able to trust and combine their powers while doing battle. Upon realizing what he needs to do, Ichigo magically has Zangetsu back in his hands and disappears from his subconscious world to do battle once again with Ken.

Back in the real world, Ken notices that Ichigo is back alive and is caught quite off guard as Ichigo manages to get some good slashes at his body. However, the injuries only seem to make Ken even happier as he finally gets to fight someone that is nearly equal to him in power. In fact, Ken even removes his eyepatch, which is actually a spirit power devourer, so that he could stretch and use his spirit powers even more. Although shaken a bit at first, Ichigo manages to calm down and gather his power with Zangetsu as the both power up for what looks to be the deciding blow. The two strike at each other, leveling the buildings around them, and Ichigo looks to have received the worse end of the blows as he falls down in front of Ken after being stabbed in the chest!

Man, it always seems like Ichigo has another level to power up to when he gets in trouble doesn’t he?