Nnoitra reappears alone at the end of Ichigo’s battle with Grimmjow in 286, throwing his zanpakuto at Grimmjow to get him out of the way. There’s no sign of Tesra in the panels.

286

287

Yet when Orihime runs toward the battle in 287 and Nnoitra yells for Tesra, Tesra materializes and restrains Orihime (much to Ichigo’s distress). The speed at which he responds despite being given no explicit orders says that he and Nnoitra surely devised a plan of attack before Nnoitra interrupted Ichigo’s previous battle.

287

This is now the second time Tesra has appeared out of nowhere once Nnoitra has a battle in hand. It almost seems as though Nnoitra feels as though he can fight better if Tesra is safe somewhere, which gives a certain irony to Nnoitra chiding Ichigo for doing the same thing:

287

He and Ichigo continue their battle in 288 until Orihime bursts out again complaining that it’s not fair to fight Ichigo when he needs to be healed. Nnoitra pushes on, however, telling Ichigo that he was watching the fight with Grimmjow. Not only is he stronger than Grimmjow, but he already knows all of Ichigo’s tricks:

288

Finally, the confirmation that Nnoitra had planned ahead and made sure Tesra knew what to do; they were watching the whole time. What’s particularly noticeable about Nnoitra’s announcement is that we see Ichigo’s reaction and Orihime’s reaction, but not Tesra’s. I wonder just what his expression was.

Nnoitra continues his battle with Ichigo in 289 and demonstrates that he is capable of stopping Ichigo’s zanpakuto barehanded, a feat that will become important later.

289

In the mean time, another battle of wills takes place on the sidelines. Orihime gets a notion to break loose form Tesra’s restraint, but her idea is crushed instantly when Tesra says he’ll break her hairpins if she tries anything.

289

It’s interesting that Orihime chooses to back down from Tesra’s threat. We see her slap Ulquiorra, stand up to Grimmjow, and get into a screaming match with Nnoitra. Why does she perceive Tesra to be so much more threatening than the Espada she interacts with?

There is in fact an intriguing irony in Tesra’s threat. Orihime may claim to love Ichigo as per her infamous confession, but she isn’t willing to risk losing her powers to get away from Tesra and go protect Ichigo from Nnoitra. On the other hand, Tesra was willing to risk everything including his own life to protect Nnoitra from Chad’s attack. He knows well the risks involved in protecting someone he cares about, and he’ll do whatever is necessary to deal with those who threaten Nnoitra.

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