BLEACH EPISODE #101

After Sawatari introduces his Baura to Mayuri, the captain explains that the Doll power comes from old Soul Society technology. Because of what happened back then, this technology was sealed away, meaning that Mayuri has no data on it. That’s why he wants Sawatari to become part of his research. Mayuri claims that he’s interested in the Bount, but Sawatari isn’t about to play along and proceeds to submerge with Baura. The captain releases his zanpaktou, thinking that Baura can only appear from walls or the ground. He’s proven wrong, however, when Baura suddenly materializes right behind him. With his zanpaktou unable to cut through the Doll’s armor, Mayuri gets thrown against the wall where he loses his left arm while trying to avoiding Baura’s mouth. Sawatari comes up to explain that Baura’s new abilities are from him growing stronger and being in Soul Society.

With the battle far from over, Mayuri uses his technology to regenerate his lost arm, and then pulls the blade out of his left ear. As he avoids Baura’s attacks, Mayuri thinks to himself that he should have brought Nemu to use as a decoy. In any case, he figures out that he can use smoke bombs to cloud the air around him so that Baura’s movements can be easily seen. After grappling onto Baura, Mayuri pierces his Ashisogi Jizou through Baura’s armor and into Sawatari’s arm. The Bount, however, can still repair his body by drawing in spirit particles from around him, and the subsequent demonstration reminds Mayuri of Ishida. But Sawatari realizes too late that his arm is paralyzed from the effects of the Ashisogi Jizou, allowing Mayuri time to pin him down and stab him again. To help his master, Baura expels a cloud of dust from its mouth that allows Sawatari to escape.

Since the paralysis won’t go away, Sawatari decides to counterattack, so he has Baura reappear in Soul Society at a different location. To the Bount’s surprise, Mayuri is already there waiting for him, having been able to figure out Baura’s movements because of a special sensor he developed. The captain is bent on studying the old Bount, but Sawatari still has some tricks up his sleeve. Baura’s mouth suddenly starts spewing out Shinigami demon art spells because of all the spirit power that it absorbed up until this point. Mayuri is able to avoid the blasts, but he gets caught in Baura’s mouth and loses the left side of his body, though he does manage to stab Baura with his zanpaktou. This gets Mayuri pissed off enough that he initiates bankai to bring out his Konjiki Ashisogi Jizou.



In response, Sawatari powers up Baura to swallow all of the poison fumes, causing Baura to grow several times in size. The Doll attaches itself to the Konjiki Ashisogi Jizou’s face, but Mayuri it release its blades, stabbing into Baura. The twelfth division captain then ends the battle by charging his Konjiki Ashisogi Jizou into Baura. With his body poisoned and unable to rely on his Doll for help, Sawatari has reached the end of the line. As the Bount disintegrates into sand, Mayuri announces that he has no more interest in him and returns to the Technology Development Bureau. Although this Bount is gone, the others still remain, including Yoshi who finds herself facing off against Ishida.

It was fun seeing Mayuri’s abilities again, though there really weren’t many new tricks. I’m glad Nemu wasn’t sacrificing herself to help him this time, though Mayuri did consider having her as a decoy. But even without her, he still managed to get the job done despite the decent bit of damage to himself since he lost his left arm twice in this one battle. He might have been able to avoid that had he been more careful and less arrogant about Baura’s abilities.

With Sawatari dead, that leaves only Kariya, Koga, and Yoshi alive. Based on the preview, next week will involve a fight between Yoshi and Ishida along with Kariya fighting bankai Ichigo again. Maybe we are finally getting close to the end of this arc…

To be continued...