List of Bleach episodes (season 4)

Ichigo and the others are ready for the final game against the modified souls. Approaching the massive gate, the group is sucked in as Ichigo fails to use his bankai. After putting Chad into a giant hourglass, Ririn tells Ichigo and company that they have 5 minutes to defeat them and save Chad. Ichigo tries to use his bankai again, but still cannot.

The hourglass breaks after this second attempt, and Chad is revealed to be completely unharmed. Ichigo then realizes that Urahara had created all of this to help the group come together and fight as one since Ichigo cannot simply rely on his bankai all the time. Urahara also found it necessary to bring the group together since Ishida has lost his powers as a Quincy.

At the Urahara shop, the Bount are discussed more in depth. They are humans, but like the Quincy, they also have special powers. By absorbing human souls they can live forever, but these souls are usually already dead. When a bount eats a live soul, they gain extra power and leave the complete death of a soul without the chance of reincarnation.

Because the bount might attack Ichigo or his friends, Urahara has sent the modified souls with them for support as they all have spirit sensors. Kuroud with Orihime, Noba with Chad, and Ririn with Ichigo. It isn't soon after putting the modified souls in their respective dolls that they sense a bount.

As Ichigo is about to be incinerated by the fire doll's final attack, Rukia returns and saves Ichigo. The fire doll doesn't give up though and continues its attacks, until it is captured by several snakes that have been made out of pipes. The other bount, Udagawa, has arrived and takes Yoshino away with the help of his snakelike doll. Everyone is glad that Rukia has returned, but the celebration is quick as concern about this new bount threat is growing. The group decides to continue the discussion at Ichigo's house.

Elsewhere, Yoshino seems to be confirmed as the weakest of the bount, as she has not yet eaten a living soul. However, even Udagawa is taking orders from someone else, a large man with red eyes and a scar on his chin, named Jin Kariya.

Udagawa eventually captures Ishida, but Yoshino takes Ishida away from him. As Ichigo and the others try to regroup and get Ishida back, Udagawa steps in their way, summoning wave after wave of snakes. Udagawa is finally beaten back by Ururu's bazooka, who has arrived with Renji, Jinta and Tessai.

In Soul Society, captain Shunsui Kyōraku has decided to take a visit to the 12th division in order to see their data on the bount. However, captain Mayuri Kurotsuchi refuses to do Shunsui the favor of letting him see the data. Shunsui gently insults Mayuri as he leaves, which prompts an angry Mayuri to erase the data on the bount. But when he finds that he is unable to bring the data up, Mayuri goes into an upset rant.

The fight with Hō and Ban is far from over, as it is raining outside of the hospital. Attacking the massive pillars of water, Ichigo, Renji and Rukia are quickly swallowed up by the water dolls as Chad and Orihime quickly try and get Ishida to safety. Giving up on drowning Ichigo and the others, the twins decide to go after Ishida. Attacking Chad and Orihime, the twins seem to be gaining the upper hand, even when Chad uses his armor. Chad eventually goes after the twins and splits them apart, but unexpectedly their dolls collapse revealing that they have to combine their powers using telepathy in order to control their dolls.

As Ishida wanders aimlessly away from his friends, he runs into Yoshino again, who takes him back to her place and fixes him some coffee. Yoshino tells Ishida that sometimes when you live too long you'll start thinking crazy thoughts, and that sometimes, Bount like Kariya will enact on those thoughts. Meanwhile, Kariya has called all the remaining bount together. Informing them that he has found a Quincy, and that their time has come for them to start a new shining era.

Still deciding when to go and face Kariya, the tremendous bount named Koga Gowa breaks through the door to Yoshino's loft. Koga has been sent to bring Yoshino and Ishida to Kariya, but Yoshino will not let him without a fight. After bringing forth her fire doll, Koga also brings out his doll, Dalk, which consists of a collection of metallic objects that can take many forms. Capturing Ishida and Yoshino, Koga leaves before Ichigo and company can find them. However, the modified souls are able to track the Bounts' spiritual power if they change into their gigai form, which they hadn't thought of doing until then.

Meanwhile in Soul Society, Mayuri Kurotsuchi has called a meeting of all the captains and their vice captains. Someone has hacked into Mayuri's databank and stolen from it, also laying out a trap that if he tried to access it, the data would be locked. Mayuri is deeply upset over the matter and believes that there is a traitor amongst them. Afterwards, Kenpachi tells Yachiru that he is also suspicious of these events because after years of searching they've just recently found Maki Ichinose. But he is confused about how the two are related.

Ichigo's group is having a tough time navigating through the mansion thanks to Ugaki's strange eyeball-like dolls that keep getting in Ichigo's way. However, they have just been leading them to Kariya, who welcomes Ichigo. Kariya surprises Ichigo with his knowledge about him and Rukia, but Ichigo doesn't let it faze him and tells Kariya that he came to take Ishida back.

Ichigo tells Rukia and the others to go and find Ishida while he deals with the bount. Rukia and the modified souls managed their way upstairs and are heading towards Ishida's spiritual energy. But they are stopped by Maki Ichinose. The three modified souls are easily defeated by Ichinose, who saw through their abilities easily. Rukia tries using a kidō spell, but Ichinose blocks it with his zanpakutō. He is still deeply disturbed by the method Kenpachi Zaraki used to become the captain of the 11th division, as it effectively shattered his life. But he also says that Jin Kariya gave him a reason to live again, and now he wields his zanpakutō for him. However, upon feeling Ichigo's power rise, Ichinose becomes concerned for Kariya and runs to his aide.

This episode focuses mainly on Ichinose's history during flashbacks while he is fighting with Ichigo. They are equally matched at first, despite Ichigo's inability to see Ichinose's sword, but when Ichinose uses the full power of his shikai, Ichigo is rendered almost completely helpless. As Ichigo finally escapes Ichinose's illusions, Kariya steps forward to fight with Ichigo, as he has started to gain an interest in Ichigo's soul.

Ichinose remembers his past as a Soul Reaper. That the captain that he had believed in and had worked so hard for was killed in battle by Kenpachi Zaraki. Ichinose wanted to cut Kenpachi down at that moment, but the entire division stopped him as the former captain was defeated in a formal bout. Trying to challenge Kenpachi to a formal bout of his own, Kenpachi says he'll consider it if Ichinose can even cut him. Ichinose fails to do this and deserts the 11th division for the human world. Following a hollow, Ichinose was worn down by the harsh arid environment of the human world. Unfortunately for him the hollow chose to attack when Ichinose was at his weakest. Ichinose was quickly defeated and just as he was about to be eaten by the hollow he was saved by Jin Kariya and Koga Gowa. It was then that Ichinose decided that he would follow Kariya for the rest of his life.

In Soul Society, Mayuri Kurotsuchi has undone the lock on the Bount data and begins explaining the Bount and Quincy history to Captains Ukitake, Kyoraku, and Hitsugaya. At some point in the past, the Bounts and Quincy had a battle. During this time, the Bount started eating living human souls to increase their power. They came to the conclusion that, whenever the Bount are about to do something of a large scale, they absorb living human souls, leading them to believe that the number of living human souls attacked will escalate now that the current Bount situation is coming to a head.

After consuming the power of the bitto, Kariya tells the bount to go test out their new powers while he retires to his room. Yoshi attacks Rukia, Orihime and Kuroud while they are on there way to help Renji. Sending Jinta and Ururu ahead, Rukia and Inoue start fighting with Yoshi, who prefers to fight in close-combat with her doll.

As Ichigo is about to receive the final blow, Kira Izuru arrives and fights with Koga's doll. Using his shikai, Kira attacks Dalk who doesn't realize that she is getting heavier. Eventually she is unable to move, freeing Kira to help Ichigo, who is being beaten up by Koga.

Making Rukia his own zombie-like warrior, Mabashi is forcing Rukia to kill her friends and fight for Mabashi until she no longer has any energy or life force to continue living. Orihime finds it difficult to fight against Rukia. As she had traveled to Soul Society to save her before, she can't simply kill Rukia now. This is what Mabashi was counting on though, as he has no intention of letting go of Rukia until she is dead. Shūhei Hisagi also enters the fight and is prepared to kill Rukia so he can then destroy Mabashi, but Orihime finds a way to separate the doll from Rukia's soul before Hisagi kills her. Afterwards, Hisagi defeats Mabashi's doll, and is about to kill Mabashi before he is saved by Ichinose.

Rangiku Matsumoto is quickly dashing across the rooftops of Karakura town and spots Chad standing in a park. Chad, along with Ururu and Noba, have been confronted by the eldest looking bount, Sawatari. The tense moment is soon broken up by Rangiku who is grateful to finally meet someone she knows in the human world. However they are quickly faced with Sawatari's powerful doll, Baura, which takes the form of a gigantic rocklike fish that can swallow people whole. The doll also navigates through solid objects much like how a real fish swims in water, however it cannot come out unless it is very spacious.

Sawatari has escaped Noba's dimension after being absorbed by him. Noba is severely injured after his escape, leaving Rangiku and Chad to dodge and try a counter attack on Sawatari. Noba manages to gather enough strength to save them again, this time teleporting far away to give them enough time to plan something to beat Sawatari. Linking with Noba's spirit energy and ability to sense the bount, Rangiku searches for Sawatari using her kidō. As Sawatari descends from above, Chad punches his doll in the gut, forcing the tremendous fish to puke up Ururu from inside of its stomach.

After defeating the bount in their respective battles, Ichigo and the others have regrouped at Urahara's while the Soul Reapers that came to the human world head towards the bount hideout. Heading into the large cave, they find themselves in the middle of some ancient ruins built with the massive rock formations around them. Ugaki then summons his millions of eyeball like dolls using his deck of cards. Hiding them from the Soul Reapers, the eyeballs shoot a light out around the Soul Reapers casting a shadow. From the shadow comes the true form of Ugaki's doll, Geselle. Splitting the Soul Reapers up, Ugaki systematically takes out each Soul Reaper using his doll.

Ichigo and company arrive at the mouth of the cave, no longer able to feel the spiritual energy of the Soul Reapers that went inside. Heading towards the ruins from earlier, they are quickly surrounded by the endless numbers of Ugaki's eyeball dolls. But they are saved by Rangiku Matsumoto, who tells them to destroy anything that can cast a shadow and then deal with the eyeball monsters. Ichigo and Renji then journey deeper into the cave, finding Kira and Hisagi unconscious, but they are soon split up by a cave in.

As Ichigo and Renji travel deeper into the cave, they find Yumichika's body. However, Ugaki soon calls out the true form of his doll, bringing out the entire massive monster instead of just its hand or some spears. Renji uses his bankai to battle the monster, eventually causing it to go out of control. Kariya also betrays Ugaki who is quickly destroyed by his own doll causing a massive cave in.

As Kariya is about to stab Ichigo with his own zanpakutō, Ichigo grabs Zangetsu and stabs himself with it, forcing himself into Zangetsu's world to ask him to use his final form. In an instant, Kariya is no longer holding the sword, and Ichigo has used his bankai. Now able to fight evenly with Kariya, Ichigo even marks Kariya on his cheek, but the attack was meant to decapitate him.