Bleach/Senbonzakura, Crushed! Zangetsu Thrusts Through the Sky

Senbonzakura, Crushed! Zangetsu Thrusts Through the Sky
Season 3, Episode 16
Airdate	November 8, 2005
Production Number	57
Written by	Genki Yoshimura Masahiro Okubo Masashi Sogo Michiko Yokote Natsuko Takahashi Rika Nakase
Directed by	Noriyuki Abe
← 3x15 Supersonic Battle! Determine the Goddess of Battle	3x17 → Unseal! The Black Blade, the Miraculous Power
Bleach — Season Three

Senbonzakura, Crushed! Zangetsu Thrusts Through the Sky is the sixteenth episode of the third season of Bleach, and the fifty-seventh episode overall.

Co-Stars: Cindy Robinson (Soi Fong), Wendee Lee (Yoruichi Shihouin), Vic Mignogna (Ikkaku Madarame), Steve Cassling (Tetsuzaemon Iba), Dan Woren (Byakuya Kuchiki)

Plot Overview

Soi Fong and Yoruichi have just clashed against each other with a technique called "Flashcry," which involves intense spiritual pressure to increase the power of ones' upper body. There's an explosion when the two energies meet, but the two survive despite like ruts in the ground around where they stand. Soi Fong tries to attack her directly, but Yoruichi uses counter-akido to cancel out her newfound speed. The fact that Yoruichi can do something like this drives Soi Fong mad, and she demands to know why in the 100 year absence Yoruichi's abilities did not decay. She starts wildly attacking again before going into a flashback.

Soi Fong, a member of a low-level noble family associated with the covert ninja forces associated with the soul reapers, met Yoruichi when she was a young girl. Members of the family were exiled if they couldn't make it into the corps, but Soi Fong wanted to be far stronger. When she met Yoruichi again, her admiration turned to near worship and she eventually took a job in Yoruichi's personal bodyguard detail. During one mission, Soi Fong was grabbed by a hollow and had to be saved by Yoruichi. Her shame of being inadequate caused her to practice unrelentingly until she became more powerful. Yoruichi found her later that night and told her that she resembled her at a young age. She was content with always being at Yoruichi's side until one fateful day.

One day, Yoruichi abandoned her post in the soul society without telling anyone, much less Soi Fong. She considered this to be a total betrayal and swore to become far more powerful, so much that she had the energy to capture Yoruichi the next time she saw her. She tries to attack again in the present, but Yoruichi stops her. After this, Soi Fong bursts into tears, demanding to know why she was abandoned. She doesn't get an answer.

Elsewhere, Ikkaku and Iba are waiting in the forest, getting drunk and watching the lightning coming from Soi Fong and Yoruichi's fight. The sake runs out on Iba's turn again, which causes them to go into rounds of Rock-Paper-Scissors before starting their fight up again. Iba wins and goes to the high ground, but is distracted by the fighting at the execution grounds. Ikkaku tells him that Ichigo is fighting Captain Kuchiki and that they need to get back to fighting so one of them, the loser, can get more sake.

While they fight, Ichigo and Byakuya's fight continues onward. Ichigo has yet to receive a scratch and tries to provoke Byakuya into using his bankai so that he can completely shame him. He figures that if he can completely crush Byakuya, he'll no longer speak to Rukia in the way that he has in the past. Byakuya isn't interested in playing along, but he unseals the sword to its first level, but his attack is dissipated by Ichigo projectile attack, called "Getsuga Tenshou." Ichigo demands, one more time, that Byakuya use his bankai.