The following contains spoilers for "The Battle," Episode 10 of Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War now streaming on Hulu & Disney+.
Episode 10 of Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War lives up to its name. "The Battle" features fierce struggles in both the depths and heights of the Soul Society, and very surprising outcomes. Unlike the previous episode, except for some minor trickery in the latter half, it is more relentless in tone and definitely battle intensive.
Ichigo and Renji have previously visited with two other members of Zero Squad just to heal and prepare for the ordeals they'll face in the Soul King's palace with Oh-Etsu Nimaiya, creator of the first Zanpakuto. Ichigo desperately needs him to repair and reforge his sword, so there's a lot riding on this interaction. Unohana and Zaraki crossed blades deep below the Soul Society, with surprising backstory coming into play. Although at first Unohana easily outmatches Zaraki, her secret healing with the intent of improving his abilities for the greater benefit of the Soul Society has permanent repercussions.
Memories and Blood
"The Battle" opens in the black and silver world of Muken, the Central Underground Prison of the Soul Society, where Zaraki's rough blade clashes with Unohana's smooth one, leaving golden flashes in the dark. Bloodied but unbowed, Zaraki can't keep track of the number of times he's blacked out in this battle and wonders why, remaining in the more metaphorical dark that Unohana is continually killing and healing him. As he lapses into reminiscing about fighting Unohana as a child, the only other time he's blacked out while fighting, his sword comes ever closer to wounding Unohana. Is he just losing himself in the pure enjoyment of this battle?
Hundreds of years ago, a dissolute Unohana lets rain wash the blood off her sword. Her search for a decent opponent has failed once again. As her second reminds her, slaying gangs in the Rukon District won't further peace in the Soul Society or bring her any satisfaction, despite the mountain of corpses she's left behind. The only problem is, that isn't her mountain of corpses! A painfully thin and ragged child, Zaraki, leaps off the body pile, immediately attacks her and manages to stab her through the chest. Such bliss to finally find a worthy opponent! And yet, this child placed himself in shackles because of their battle.
Back in real time, Zaraki has finally managed to land a blow, a glancing cut on Unohana's arm. Whereas before he could only react, now he can counter. Every time he blacks out it's as if he wakes up feeling reborn. But Unohana is caught up in regret. The reason that Zaraki barely beats his opponents and just fails when fighting his comrades is that he deliberately suppresses his true power. During their first battle, they both experienced the joy of fighting on the edge of their abilities, but Zaraki was young and desperate for a foe that would counter his power. He did not want that feeling to go away by slaying Unohana and so deliberately restrained himself, something he's been doing ever since. Unohana counts her singular weakness here and his subsequent repression as one of her greatest sins. He is the only one who comes close to her in power, and he's been holding back, rather than exceeding her. However, she noticed that every time he came close to death in battle, he improved, and so she will kill and heal him over and over in hopes that he returns to the heights of power of which he is so capable.
Zaraki's improvement has led him close to killing her, and Unohana releases her impressive Bankai, in a stream of blood along her Zanpakuto. They continue the fight in a literal pool of blood, and Zaraki manages to cut Unohana, but she heals and slaps him repeated with gouts of blood from her sword. They clash in swirling pools of red and gold and Zaraki's pleasure is such that he feels as if he is melting. Visually they dissolve to skeletons as Zaraki's blows finally begin to land. He's played out this exchange in his dreams over and over and finally feels that he has relearned the word for battle, and his pure exultation in it. Zaraki learned to suppress himself just as Unohana learned the art of healing, so that they could enjoy battle for all eternity.
But truly, she learned it so that she could prepare for this particular battle. There can only be one Kenpachi, and when the strongest meets the next in line, they can either kill them or help them advance. Knowing that he will be the greatest Kenpachi brings her joy even as Zaraki strikes the killing blow. Consumed with a palpable and very poignant regret that his battle has ended just as he's learned this joy, Zaraki begs Unohana not to die. Unohana feels peace knowing that while Zaraki might eventually become bored, there are plentiful foes to battle and friends to join swords with, and she has the bliss of dying accomplishing her purpose. More importantly, something else has awakened besides. Zaraki hears a voice in the echoing darkness. It is his Zanpakuto, finally freed to speak to him.
The Soul of the Sword
Up in the Soul King's palace, cushioned again by Kon, Ichigo and Renji are noisily welcomed to the Galaxy Hooden of Oh-Etsu Nimaiya by a horde of lovely ladies and the rather obnoxious MC Nimaiya, the Blade God, who puts them in embarrassing positions before his second, Mera, knocks some sense into him and leads the boys to the actual Hooden, a rather bleak and small wooden house on the edge of a precipice. The boys tumble into the deep dark and very large pit concealed by the hovel. Nimaiya explains that all the lovely laidies they have seen since arriving are actually Zanpakuto, something that they should have recognized if they really were Soul Reapers. He accuses them of allowing their weapons to be broken in the battle with the Quincy because they didn't love them enough. A Zanpakuto that doesn't receive love is easily broken, he says, and finished the job on their weapons, snapping them in pieces.
In the pit, Ichigo and Renji are soon surrounded by very angry Zanpakuto, or more accurately Asauchi. These are the nameless Zanpakuto that are temporarily issued people training in the Soul Society Academy. Soul Reaper's continuous use and training imprint their soul's essense upon the Asauchi which creates the personalized Zanpakuto. The person who creates all the Asauchi? Nimaiya, and he has no desire to make or repair Zanpakuto for "losers." If they don't survive the pit, he won't reforge their swords. The swarm of angry Asauchi close over Ichigo and Renji and the doors to the Hooden are closed.
Don't Miss the End Scene
The episode appears to end with Zaraki walking out into the light of day, but it's a fake out. The credits roll to allow us a sense of time passage, because as soon as they end, we return to the Hooden. It's been 71 hours and 48 minutes exactly...three days that Ichigo and Renji have been fighting the faceless, ghostlike, but fierce Asauchi, and Nimaiya has made his ruling. Looking down on Ichigo and Renji both literally and figuratively, Nimaiya pronounces that Renji has passed but that Ichigo has failed. Blooded and on the ground, Ichigo begs for to keep going but Nimaiya refuses. It's not a time limit, it's an emotional one. He wasn't chosen by an Asauchi. Renji is a Soul Reaper, and Ichigo is...not. Nimaiya bans Ichigo from the Soul Society as an ordinary human without even a Zanpakuto. Nimaiya stoutly refuses to fix his blade, Zangetsu because Ichigo is a "fake" Soul Reaper. With a zap of his finger, Nimaiya poofs Ichigo away. Ichigo might not understand the significance of an Asauchi not choosing him, but he's no good to anyone as he is. He must find his roots, even if doing so means that he never returns.
Ichigo opens his eyes to find himself standing in the pouring rain back in the human realm in front of his family's clinic. What answers can he expect to find there? If Ichigo is not a Soul Reaper it looks like Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War at least plans for some major soul-searching in episode 11.
Closing poem: "You, without sin, are like the sun."