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In chapter 350 of Bleach, this set of panels appears:

[![enter image description
here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/WWdaS.jpg)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/WWdaS.jpg)

But I don't understand what is being shown here. Is it Ichigo's newly made
hole?


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2017-04-17T16:17:40.157
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2017-04-17T18:54:26.313
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question
bleach
What is being shown in this Bleach panel?


What I can tell for sure is that the 2nd panel here shows soten kisshun,
Orehime's healing ability. With that thought, and the situation at the time,
the first 2 panels look to be what Ichigo is seeing from his own eyes. The
black/grey gradient is the sky of Hueco Mundo, and the white part is the Las
Noches Roof, and the whole scene is on its side, since Ichigo is laying down.

The 3rd and 4th panels seem to display something else though, That pitch black
can't be Hueco Mundo's sky, and Soten Kisshun would surround him, so the black
being there means he is not surrounded by Soten Kisshun. At the same time, I
can not identify the thing in the upper right of the 2 lower panels. As shown
on the next page, the only thing Ichigo could see that is not Soten Kisshun,
Hueco Mundos sky, or Las Noches roof, would be his own blood, and that is
clearly not blood. That rules out Ichigos direct vision for the 3rd and 4th
panels.

It does however have a resemblance to one thing 2 pages later, Orehime Inoue
screaming for Ichigo's help. It does resemble an open mouth, with the bottom
row of teeth, and a chin, but its missing everything else. Considering she was
calling out for him at the time, and that is what woke up his powers, my
personal guess here is that its a semi symbolic scene of that. However, Its
extremely difficult to say for sure. If anyone has any ideas, feel free to
bring them up.


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2017-04-17T17:34:05.570
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answer


Rotate the image around and it's a bit clearer how things must be oriented.
Note that left-right has been reversed in this rotation, but it preserves the
chronological order of the strips and puts them in the correct vertical
orientation.

[![rotated, mirrored,
annotated](https://i.stack.imgur.com/b3IiG.jpg)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/b3IiG.jpg)

The ground must be the white bit we start with to explain the position of
Orihime's knee/hand and how the tears (possibly blood) are falling and
impacting the initial white surface. Ichigo would be on his side on the
ground, or on his back or chest with his head turned to the side. The second
strip shows one of her spirits and the initial activation of Soten Kisshun. In
the third and fourth strips Soten Kisshun is fully deployed. Since we can't
see the corner/spirit anymore, Ichigo has probably tilted his head to see
what's going on. Possibly the second panel is very early in the activation, in
which case the spirit may still be in transit. But given the curvature in the
third strip and how the maximum is obtained to the right (in the mirrored
directions), it seems more likely that Ichigo has tried to move/tilt his head.
In the third strip you can see Orihime's knee as she kneels by Ichigo to try
to heal/protect him. Possibly it is her hand, as the blood/tears in the fourth
strip seem more plausible to me if she is leaning forward on her hand a bit
and her head is just off-screen while most of her body is behind it.

The next page makes it clear that, yes, Ichigo is on his chest with his head
to his side.

[![the next
page](https://i.stack.imgur.com/G3a68.jpg)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/G3a68.jpg)

The page after that makes Orihime's position a little less clear: yes, she's
on her knees (not leaning forward on her hands) and crying, but the
orientation of things makes it seem like Ichigo is (well) behind her, such
that it's hard to explain how Ichigo sees her apparently being close and also
behind Soten Kisshun's effect. She even turns her head to look behind her when
Ichigo gets up in Hollow form. Possibly this is just an issue with perspective
that Kubo and the artists overlooked.

[![and the page after
that](https://i.stack.imgur.com/y8aB6.jpg)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/y8aB6.jpg)


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answer