Bleach 651 explains the curse behind Nanao Ise’s and family curse whereby any man who marries into their family are struck by a disease, similar to what happened to Nanao’s father, Shunsui’s older brother. On top of which, Nanao’s family owns a particular Zanpakuto which allows them to deal with God’s, she comes out to fight against Lille Barro.
Bleach 651 begins as someone calls out of a young Shunsui who is sleeping to wake up. The woman who wakes him up is Nanao’s mother. Lille looks on as he tries to figure out where they have gone when he see’s that they’re within his own shadow, thus he uses a technique which lights everything and erases all shadows from the ground, however Nanao appears from the shadow on his face carrying some sort of object.
Before this happens we see Shunsui and Nanao talk about Katenkyoukotsu that it has the possibility of splitting into Katen and Kyoukotsu. Thus Kyoukotsu is her own Zanpakuto. It’s mentioned that Katen (Flower) gave birth to Kyoukotsu (Lunatic). This was done at Nanao mother’s command.
Shunsui explains that the House of ISe is and always has been a lineage of females, as far back as their records go, only woman have been born to it. That is why they always have to search for husbands from outside the family, those men who marry into the family are all said to be stricken with the Curse of Ise and thus die early.
Those are of course many people who think the curse is nonsense, but her mother didn’t think that way. She wanted to sever herself from this curse and was prepared to end the Ise bloodline by leaving the family and marrying outside. But ultimately her husband also passed away soon after.
She was Shunsui’s older brother’s wife, or Nanao’s mother. His brother and him didn’t get along that well, but after he was married, he would visit his brother’s home which was a home of serenity and comfort, he found himself visiting and sleeping there very often.
But then his own brother died. It’s said that when the man dies, the wife will have to return to the original house, the house of Ise. It seems that even after trying to throw it all away, couldn’t escape from it. Nanao’s mother mentions that ever she couldn’t escape from the curse of Ise, maybe the root of all of that is the sword she holds.
She was desperate to free her daughter from the curse, thus she entrusted the Lunatic who loved Hide and Seek could find a place to conceal its whereabouts. But the sword is brought out when Lunatic pulls it out from her face. Nanao and Lille are up next for the battle as Nanao is well aware about the sword.
Nanao and Shunsui talk about the sword as they both hold it. She mentions that his desire to not give her the sword was for her own sake, just as it is was her mothers will to turn against the curse, she has her own will, to embrace the curse and further more, the person she looks up to would just look at the entire situation and laugh, calling curses nothing more than superstition.
All while Shunsui see’s Nanao mother’s face instead of Nanao. Shunsui let’s go of the sword as he gives it to her, as he mentions that with such a sword, she won’t have a problem. Nanao steps back from Lille as he mentions that it seems that the vice-captain seems to have come out to play.
Nanao’s lineage is explained to be Shinto Priests carrying out and governing rituals and rites, they don’t individually possess Zanpakuto’s, but the Head of the House inherits the single Zanpakuto, the sword was used in rituals, it cannot strike a person down. Rather it was made to face off against Gods. To take the power of a God into its own body and disperse it off into the Eight Directions.
It goes by the name of Shinken Hakkyouken! It’s finally time for Shunsui to relax a little as his vice-captain takes over for a little while as she uses its power to negate and defeat Lille, will she be able to do it? Let’s see as Bleach 651 ends here.
A pretty awesome chapter, Shunsui is going to have to relax for a little while Nanao takes over from now on with such a weird Zanpakuto against a God, Lille Barro. can’t wait for next week’s Bleach 652 as we see the true power of Nanao’s real Zanpakuto.
Daily Anime Art 
Nanao ex-machina on it’s way!
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Yup I can’t wait. While it’s crazy her Shikai doesn’t hurt regular opponents, but those on a celestial plane like Lille, Pernida, Yhwach, and Aizen. Its a curse for a reason so something is going to happen to her.
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Wait I’m confused did Shunsui have it but never use it, then give it to Nano to fight with it.
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Yup (I think), it’s technically not his Zanpakuto, so I guess he couldn’t use it.
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Zaraki stole his zanpakuto but unlocked his Shikai. Guess Ichigo or someone will use nano’s sword to kill Yhwach.
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Basically, the Ise family has a Zanpakuto with no soul or connection to anybody other than doing rituals. Will still need to find out why her mother didn’t want her to use the Zanpakuto. So Shunsui’s Zanpakuto, Katen Kyokotsu, or Ohana, created Okyou to hide the Zanpakuto And Represent it. So now Nanao has her own Zanpakuto Shinken Hakkyouken. But I still believe she needs help from Shunsui to take down Lille.
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i believe that even someone take a sword of someone else, the spirit, name, ability, and power will be different..because every zanpakuto’s spirit is born along with their shinigami, the sword just a medium…
for example, as we know, Zaraki took sword from someone else, but i believe that there is no way the original owner of the sword have Nozarashi as his/her shikai…same goes with Tousen, where he took his friend sword but Suzumushi is his shikai not his friend who died…
as for Nanao, she do have her own spirit of zanpakuto (at least what i believe) but she didn’t have a medium or tools for her to use her zanpakuto spirit, but now she have the holy sword as the medium, so…
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That’s basically what it is. With Zaraki, the sword he stole didn’t have a name, so he basically just had a regular Zanpakuto to in print his soul into. Kaname was different. His friend was a Shinigami whne her husband killed her. Her Zanpakuto was Suzumushi. But because Kaname’s soul and beliefs were similar to hers, he was able to take Suzumushi has his Zanpakuto. Nanao’s family had a sword but no soul at all. Okyou is her Zanpakuto spirit, and now she has a Shikai. But I believe she’ll need Shunsui’s Bankai to finish Lille Off or get Bankai.
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S bladeless sword that can rival or fodderise. a God…Nanao hold such a hax sword this is too much….Lille S kamui power up was quite an asspull and now we have a sword which could have dealt with Aizen and ywach… if this sword has bankai and kubo won’t limit it’s powers Nanao will be a God….great chapter and an odd curse story of a kuja tribe like family… can’t wait to see Nanao use her sword for the new first time with no prior training and her first opponent being a God
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so as conclusion, Katen Kyokotsu both are Kyoraku’s Zanpakuto…he just calling Kyokotsu to return the blade that she’s hiding with her the whole time, which is Ise Family Zanpakuto..i’m feeling relieved it turns out that way, rather that Kyokotsu is just a “borrow” sword from Nanao’s mother, which ruin Kyoraku’s reputation as one of Shinigami that have dual swords/soul along with Ukitake and the newbie, Ichigo
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I completely agree. Katen Kyokotsu is his Zanpakuto. He just has one Zanpakuto spirit, not two. The little girl is actually Shinken Hakkyouken. I’m wondering if it has a Bankai.
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yes originally he have one spirit of zanpakuto which is Katen Kyokotsu = Ohana but according to what Kyoraku’s said, Ohana (Adult) create/made Okyou (child) in order to hide Ise’s Zanpakuto..that is why he has double swords even in sealed state and that is his secret…in other word, Katen Kyokotsu (Ohana) create another soul which is Okyou, that is why another sword sword exist, while Ise’s zanpakuto soul have no relations with this
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Ya that makes more sense because that sword turned Zanpakuto doesn’t have a spirit but now it does.
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its different with Ukitake, where Ukitake have one sword in seal state but two swords in shikai state because he have twin spirits (twin fisces)…
in Kyoraku case, he have one spirit of zanpakuto but that spirit create another spirit, that is why he have two swords in seal state
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😬 you’re a week ahead. I don’t wanna read this post because of spoilers (I only read it through WSJ now) but I’m very much looking forward to this chapter. Lol.
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Hah I think just from images and title itself, this might be a bit of a spoiler. If you want some really good translations and good series which are up to date, I recommend mangastream.com. They are really good. Although might not always be official.
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I didn’t even see the images! 😁 and thanks for the recommendation 🙂
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Well it looks like Nanao is not a melee type of shinigami so i expected her sword to not have any particularly offensive abilities so this revelation of her sealing abilities is not too far fetchedbin my opinion. But still all this time she could have used it against aizen if she had the chance to use it only if kyoraku had used bankai and revealed her sword to her earlier. Kubo may have kyoraku assist nanao while she somehow figures out how to seal the supposed greatest creation of the quincy king and man closest to god. I dont think this battle is going to last no later than chapter 655. I think the next battle deals with gerald so that by chapter 666 grimmjow makes his return. Bleach probably will end around 700 chapters if it continues like this unless there is another Turn Back The Pendulum arc.
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Trust me, Bleach is not ending in 700 chapters my friend. Kubo still needs to show us at least two more flashbacks. The first blood war from 1000 years ago, and the Quincy Massacre 200 years ago. Nanao’s Zanpakuto can actually hurt Aizen and Yhwach sense they are Gods. Especially Yhwach. Lille isn’t really a god, he’s more of a celestial being like Pernida, whose part of the left arm. Or Ichigo, a being that has all the spiritual beings in his soul. Or Orihime, who has the powers of a celestial being. The Soul King is the true god, despite being evil according to Yhwach. Ichibei is definitely a celestial being with his unique powers. I personally believe Grimmjow is going to be the measuring stick for how powerful Askin is. Its usually Chad, but for once is not. Zaraki was the measuring stick for Pernida, and i believe Oetsu was for Lille. I can see Renji and maybe Rukia being measuring sticks for Gerard.
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A sword dat doesnt kill humans, wel, now dat i remember, in the zanpaktou arc ther was one incident where by kyokotsu was piercing someone with a sword but that person wasnt die & it seemed more like she was torturing him with dat sword, could it be dat Kyokotsu was perhaps using nanao’s zanpaktou even then? zanpaktous in spirit always carried weapon that resembled their zanpaktou form but Kyokotsu was using quite a different sword..& again i was just wondering where did this sword truly originate from, was it even an asauchi? If not then ther is high probability dat this sword has no soul, & with Kyokotsu being born frm Ohana jst to for her to sustain this zanpaktou ther is a probability that perhaps Kyokotsu myt indeed be acting as Nanao’s zanpaktou spirit, i guess dats why shunsui in the zanpaktou arc wanted nanao to develop a relationship with Kyokotsu since she didnt have a true spirit of her own…Never thout Kubo could use the filler arc has cannon
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He really did foreshadow some things on the Zanpakuto Rebellion arc. With Shunsui, when he fought Katen Kyokotsu, the little girl used Kageoni To Appear behind him. That technique wasn’t official utility he eventually defeated Starrk. In a way, Unohana’s Zanpakuto was somewhat foreshadowed. Minazuki was the most unique and unknown Zanpakuto spirit. It kinda told us that their is more to Unohana than we think. Basically meaning, she’s the first Kenpachi.
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When is Bleach manga’s next break?
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