Bleach: Why Was Yhwach Unable to Steal Ichibei’s Abilities?

The battle between Ichibei and Yhwach was undoubtedly one of the best ones in Bleach. Both of them gave it their all, and while we do understand that Ichibei had to lose this battle because of plot-related reasons, Yhwach’s activation of his The Almighty was quite convenient for him and had it not happened like that, Ichibei would have won, as he was the superior fighter in that clash. In light of that fact, we will explain why Yhwach was unable to steal Ichibei’s abilities like he did with the abilities of the other Sternritter.

Yhwach couldn’t steal and assimilate Ichibei’s powers because of the very nature of Ichibei’s powers

The topic of this article, of course, refers to the epic battle between Ichibei Hyosube, the leader of the Royal Guard, and Yhwach, the leader of the Quincy. The two of them clashed during the second invasion of the Seireitei; not long after, Ichigo – after returning to the Seireitei – opened a portal for the Quincy to enter the Soul King’s Palace, where the Zero Division greeted them. As the four generals were fighting Yhwach’s Schutzstaffel, Yhwach faced Ichibei Hyosube, and the battle was truly epic.

At the start of the fight, Ichibei declared he would kill Yhwach in an area between two black lines he painted on the ground. When Yhwach claimed he would fall three steps short of his own line, Ichibei was angered that the Quincy ruler kept using his full name.

No matter how harshly the Monk reprimanded Yhwach, he persisted in using his name, and the Monk warned that this would cause him to lose his voice. Ichibei showed off his skills as the fight started, and Yhwach quickly realized that he had lost his voice because he had said Ichibei’s name.

This was due to Ichibei’s Name Curse ability, which caused anyone who said his full name to lose their voice, but Yhwach used another one of his abilities to give himself a voice, and the battle could continue. Yhwach used Sankt Bogen to injure Ichibei, but the Monk then became more serious and told Yhwach that he would kill him. He severely restricted Yhwach’s powers and launched several powerful attacks at him, but Yhwach was strong enough to resist them.

Back at the platform where the fight started, Ichibei decided to activate his Shikai, Ichimonji, and suddenly an illusion appeared. Namely, Ichibei’s Zanpakuto was a large brush, and when he activated his Shikai, Yhwach thought that the brush became a blade, but in the next moment, it was, once again, a brush. Ichibei teased him about that and started swinging his brush, spraying black ink all over Yhwach.

Yhwach wasn’t sure what Ichibei was doing, as Ichibei’s Shikai couldn’t cut anything, but when he wanted to tell the Monk that his sword would kill him, he couldn’t remember the sword’s name. Namely, as Ichibei soon explained, everything that his ink touched lost its name, and things without a name had no power, as Ichibei’s theory stipulated that the name was the source of one’s power (this is how he used his Shin’uchi’s special ability to make Yhwach as “strong” as a “black ant” by giving him that name).

Since Yhwach’s blade was covered in the ink, it had no name, and that power stupefied Yhwach. But, the Quincy emperor quickly came up with a plan. Namely, it is known that Yhwach, both naturally and via his Medallion, can take away someone’s powers.

Via Auswahlen, he can take and give powers to the Quincy, while his Medallion was used to steal the Bankai from the Shinigami; in his case, he used it to steal Yamamoto’s Zanka no Tachi before he killed the Captain-Commander. Realizing that he still had that power at his disposal, Yhwach used his energy and stole Ichibei’s power.

Namely, as Ichibei’s Ichimonji was powered by blackness (he called it the “Black”), Yhwach simply sucked out all the blackness out of him, including the black color of his beard, which became white, and took power for himself. At that moment, Yhwach thought he had the upper hand. Still, he had heavily underestimated Ichibei, who quickly drew another black line with Ichimonji, and with that, he regained his powers. How did he do that?

First, we have to say that Yhwach was absolutely shocked by what Ichibei did, as he thought he had beaten him. Before Ichibei, Yhwach was successful in stealing everyone’s powers, even Yamamoto’s, and when he managed to absorb Ichibei’s powers, he thought it was over.

But it wasn’t even close to being over. In a moment’s time, Ichibei regained his powers as an enormous amount of blackness returned to him, including the blackness Yhwach had stolen from him. This left Yhwach shocked and speechless, as he could only observe his useless ability and Ichibei gaining the upper hand again.

So, what happened? As Ichibei explained to Yhwach, the source of his powers was the “Black,” i.e., the blackness that existed in the world. In clothing, in shadows, in people’s personalities… you name it. As long as there was anything black in the world, Ichibei could simply absorb that blackness and restore his powers, and since Yhwach also had blackness in him, including the one he stole from Ichibei, the Monk could not lose.

That is why Yhwach was unable to assimilate Ichibei’s powers, as the blackness, wherever it was, was Ichibei’s to take. Unlike a Bankai, which could be stolen, Ichibei’s powers could not be stolen as he could simply reabsorb the blackness; the only way for Ichibei to lose his powers in that aspect was to rid the world of blackness completely, and that was impossible even for someone like Yhwach.

Ichibei then proceeded to cover Yhwach with his ink, which caused Yhwach to lose all of his powers. The Monk then activated his Shin’uchi (Bankai) and, with Shirafude Ichimonji, made Yhwach as weak as a “black ant” and then used another one of his powers to seemingly defeat him for good. But, as we know, Yhwach’s The Almighty awoke at just the right time, and that was very convenient for the Quincy emperor, as even he himself thought that he had lost against Ichibei.

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