Bleach: Why Did Ichibei & Yhwach Negotiate & about What? Why Did Yhwach Refuse the Deal?

We know that the anime adaptation of the Quincy Blood War Saga has already provided us with many new details, some of which were wholly new, while others were tied in with the Can’t Fear Your Own World sequel light novel. In Episode 24, we were shown an important flashback scene that took place 1,000 years ago and showed us some very interesting negotiations that happened between Yhwach, the ruler of the Licht Reich, and Ichibei Hyosube, the leader of the Royal Guard. What did they talk about? Keep reading to find out!

Ichibei came to Silber to negotiate a non-aggression pact with Yhwach; by that deal, the Shinigami would maintain the balance between Soul Society, Hueco Mundo, and the World of the Living while Yhwach would retain complete control over his own empire. Yhwach would not interfere with the Shinigami’s balancing work, and the Shinigami would not interfere with Yhwach’s actions in his empire. Ichibei believed that it was a win-win type of deal, but Yhwach refused, believing that he could take over all the realms and create a single world without death, over which he would rule as the one and only ruler, replacing the Soul King.

The rest of this article will focus on the new scene added in Episode 24 of the anime, which was titled Too Early To Win, Too Late To Know. The scene is a flashback that shows what happened 1,000 years ago between Ichibei Hyosube and Yhwach, as they negotiated a non-aggression pact between them, which Yhwach ultimately rejected. In this article, we will explain absolutely everything that happened during that meeting. Of course, if you haven’t seen Too Early To Win, Too Late To Know, we must warn you that this article will be full of spoilers.

Ichibei offered Yhwach and the Shinigami an easy way out, but the Quincy ruler was too big of a narcissist to accept such a deal

Episode 24 started with a black-and-white shot of Slibern. It was evident that we were dealing with a flashback, but we had no clue what would happen. It soon became obvious that we were also 1,000 years in the past, as a younger Yhwach was shown in the company of his late companions (Hubert, Zeidritz, Argola, and an unnamed female Quincy). He was sitting at a large table, and on the opposite side was Ichibei Hyosube!

Now, this was a shocker, to be honest, as it showed us that Ichibei and the Royal Guard, a group that traditionally doesn’t leave the Soul King’s Palace, were aware of the threat that Yhwach posed and that they wanted to make a pact with him. So, why was Ichibei in Silbern, and what did he and Yhwach talk about? Well, the episode reveals that as well.

Namely, the episode starts off with Ichibei immediately explaining the reason for his visit. He explains that he is, as a Shinigami, a Balancer and that he is responsible (by he, he means all the Shinigami, of course, not just himself, but he was at the forefront at the time, as the Gotei 13 were not consolidated at the time as they are in the present) for maintaining the balance between the three major realms – Soul Society, Hueco Mundo, and the World of the Living.

Yhwach, of course, was the leader of the Licht Reich, the Quincy realm, and he was, at the time, working on uniting all the Quincy under his rule, regardless of whether they wanted to or not. Ichibei, of course, knew what was going on, and he immediately saw through Yhwach’s plans and how dangerous the Son of the Soul King was. He knew that Yhwach would try to take over the other realms and stop a major war, so he came to Silbern and offered Yhwach a non-aggression pact: Yhwach would leave the three realms alone, and the Shinigami would not interfere with what he was doing in his own empire.

From Ichibei’s perspective, Yhwach would retain absolute control over his own domain – which is what he was trying to achieve – and would not be attacked, and the Shinigami could continue working as usual. This was a win-win situation, as Ichibei interpreted it, and he thought that Yhwach would be reasonable enough to see it like that as well.

We can beg the question of why Ichibei, who was stronger than Yhwach at the time, didn’t simply kill him, but Ichibei has his own secret machinations, as we have seen, and this is a wholly different issue that we could discuss in a completely different article, so we won’t be talking about it here.

So, when Ichibei offered him the deal, what did Yhwach do? He rejected it, calling it a delusion and accusing Ichibei of treating him like a baby who knows nothing. You have to understand that Yhwach was a narcissist, and in that aspect, he would, of course, not accept an offer from Ichibei, as he believed that he was more powerful than Ichibei and that he could take over all of the realms unite them, and become their new ruler.

Ichibei replied that he never treated him like a baby, but he did confirm that Yhwach knew nothing of the true nature of the Soul King and that his eyes, his The Almighty, were troublesome, but not something that Ichibei could not surpass. A short fight ensued in which Ichibei proved his immense power by sealing Yhwach’s The Almighty and leaving without a deal. We all know that Yhwach would soon unite the Quincy and attack Soul Society when he was defeated and put to sleep for 1,000 years after battling Yamamoto and the Gotei 13.