Unreleased - Shikai - Bankai - ????? (SPOILER)

i just watched episode 58 where ichigo and byakuya finally start to fight and obviously because ive read the manga so i know how its gonna turn out. so i was curious about the details so i read through chapters 162-167 again and i remebered reading an old topic about the 4th stage or 3rd release of a zanpakutou before a new mod came in. if u read through the chapters byakuya releases what he calls "senkei" and i was wondering if this was the term for the supossed 3rd release. just putting the topic back on the forum again and wondering if anyone else knows anything about this "3rd release."

so this is basically an overview of byakuyas 4 stages of his zanpakutou just as an example of the supposed 3rd release.

Unreleased Form
- a normal looking katana with a decorative hilt.

Shikai
- "Senbonzakura"
- byakuya says "chire" and his sword seperates into thousands of cherry blossom looking blades and slices up the enemy.
(Chapter 160)

Bankai
- "Senbonzakuya Kageyoshi"
- byakuya says "bankai" and his sword melts into the ground, bringing forth dozens of huge swords from the ground that seperate into millions of tiny cherry blossom looking petals that surround and slice up their enemy.
(Chapter 161)

Senkei
- "Senkei Senbonzakura Kageyoshi"
- basically he disregards all his defense and hundreds of these huge white swords creates a dome around the two of them. byakuya is somehow able to weild them all and crush his opponent.
(Chapter 164)

2nd Stage Senkei (the attack byakuya uses as his final one, just a name i placed for reference.)
- "Senbonzakura Kageyoshi Final Stage, Hakuteiken"
- means "imperial white blade" and creates one final magnificant blade that looks as if it has white reitsu pouring out all around it, creating a stunning image.

so basically my whole point of this topic was to ask if anyone has any idea whether or not the zanpakutou has a 4th stage/3rd release, and if byakuya's "senkei" is an example of this or just an advancement of his bankai.

thanks for reading my noncosistent babbles :D

I don't think there are nessasarily other "releases", as there are only the two, Shikai and bankai. The other techniques that Byakuya used during the fight were a result of years of training with his Bankai, basically a way to maniplulate the thousands of petals that make up Senbonzakura Kageyoshi in different ways, Senkei was the latter of whatyou just said, nothing more than an advancement of his Bankai.

last two mentioned : i think those are only the techniques he managed to 'obtained' using his bankai ...as Wjcncen mentioned...

The Senkei, if you recall, is his Ban Kai's true form. There's the initial form of his ban realease, which is the millions of petals. Then it turns into the "Thousand blade funeral procession" or whatever. It's just a different form, it's not like a 4th release.

Yeah a new level above bankai would be just ridicolous. Better to stop before is to late if you know what i mean.... :wink:

Next abilities unlockable with bankai = more creative forms of typical shounen 'powerups' beyond bankai. Who didn't see this comming? I'd like to see Ichigo obtain new abilities beyond what hes already got (speed and 'beam slash' thingy).

some abilities have more than one part to them. kinda like tousen's shikai, which can make people unconscious, or send a bunch of blades at them.

how i look at it, is that byakuya's bankai has 3 stages: the petals, the swords, and then the white imperial sword.

He's just mashing all those petals together. Its not really another form.

ducttape is right... there are no other forms beyond bankai (hopefully) the white imperial sword is just a new techinque derived from the Senkei attack... but how much do you wanna bet that Bayakuya shows up later in the manga with a new form of his Imperial White Sword

Those are all bankai, just simple different form of it. Byakuya bankai are just made up of millions of tiny blade, which he can manipulate. It easy for him to combine all those blade into another shape of form.

All those different for is not really impressive if you think about it, it just making everything into a different shape.