Bleach 400

Ichigo vs. Gin, Isshin vs. Aizen continued.

It extends at 500 times the speed... yeah, time to make more penis jokes about Gin's sword.

Summary:
Realizing the super long sword tactic isn't working, Gin shrinks his sword back down to dagger size and attacks Ichigo up close. Realizing that Gin can extend and shrink his sword with no time at all, Ichigo barely dodges Gin's surprise strike and forces Gin to fall back. Ichigo tells Gin that he has figured out the trick, but Gin explains that his sword can actually extend 500 times faster. The battle then quickly reconvenes.

Meanwhile, Aizen appears to be worn down by Isshin's attacks. Aizen admits that he has reached the limit of his shinigami self, but the Hougyoku is starting to understand his heart.

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Bleach has reached the 400 chapter milestone, but it turned out to be another action chapter without much progress. As expected, Gin does have a way of fending off Ichigo, and his bankai isn't as bad as so many of us originally thought. Quick extend/retract might not sound like the most impressive power, but combat purposes it's actually quite useful since the length of the weapon can change quickly. Gin's one way extension/retraction is very fast, but I wonder how fast his sword can do this in cycles (extend, retract, and repeat quickly). If Gin can do that very quickly then it'll be really hard to block his attacks. Gin probably had several opportunity to seriously wound Ichigo, but he is restricted by standard villain tendencies to slowly turn up the heat so Ichigo has time to adjust to their attacks. It's probably in Ichigo's best interest to keep this fight close so Ichigo can make Gin block with the base of his blade and thus influence where Gin is pointing the sword.

As for the other fight, I'm surprised Aizen actually got worn down. If Isshin has seen Aizen's shikai, then Aizen should have trolled Isshin with the genjutsu already. Maybe Isshin never saw Aizen's shikai? Regardless of how Aizen is going to do it, we know Aizen is going to win, so maybe Aizen is just going to use another method this time.

Finally, there were a few panels of Rangiku lying around. Maybe she'll get involved in Gin's fight, but she doesn't look she's in any condition to interfere.