As the dome grows unstable and the Soul Reapers fight the Gillians outside, Ichigo fights Muramasa, who is beginning to become a hollow, inside Kōga's inner realm, which is collapsing from the grudges of the hollows he consumed to sustain himself. Ichigo questions Muramasa's devotion to Kōga in spite of his apparent motives for freeing the zanpakutō, insisting that he should know what a true bond between a Soul Reaper and a zanpakutō is. Ichigo defeats Muramasa, causing the two to leave his inner world. Muramasa dies after realizing the error of his ways, and Byakuya thanks Ichigo.