Where in the world is Sado-kun? (Bleach 431)

So things are getting kinda crazy in Karakura Town. Ishida is out of commission (spoiler alert! . . . oh . . .), Sado is out of contact and Kurosaki is in contact with some shady bedfellows known as Xcution. Bleach 431 picks up with Ichigo still on the phone with the Xcution's concierge, who gives him some odd instructions for contacting Juugo.

Call twice, hang up a weird intervals and the third call puts you though to the man? Who they hell does that? Anyway Ichigo finally gets through and requests a meeting time with Juugo. He still doesn't trust him (I wouldn't either, that MoFo is really creepy), but where else can he turn?

Later on at Karakura High, Inoue catches Ichigo in the hallway. To be more accurate, Inoue crawls through a window to ask Ichigo if he has seen Sado-kun recently, 'cause that is normal. Well I guess for Inoue that is . . .

She reveals that Sado hasn't been seen in a couple of days (worst fears are starting to come back again), and proceeds to ask Ichigo out on a date to find the big teddy bear (too far?). Ichigo declines, stating that he has plans, which we find out meeting Juugo in a creepy alley in a creepy part of town.

Inoue goes over to Sado's anyway with a sack of bread and a worried soul. With the worlds of Kyuken still ringing in her ears, she tries to repress the idea of Sado lying in some ditch ( . . . oh, I just made myself sad again . . .) and leaves him some bread to help him recover some strength.

Meanwhile in a dark alley in a bad part of town, Ichigo tries not to get raped while waiting for Juugo. The shady character finally shows, and leads Ichi into a rundown building with a keycard-access door. After sliding his card, Juugo opens the door to reveal a GIGANTIC lounge with three men inside waiting. One of them is Kutsuzawa, the other two are brand new.

Juugo explains off the room causally, then reveals Xcution's true purpose for drawing Ichigo closer: to jump-start his shinigami powers. Dun-dun-duuuuuuuun!

Holy hidden objectives, Batman, we've got ourselves a plot twist! All this time I feared that they were the cause of Ishida's attack and Sado's disappearance (I still do, 'cause these guys can't be trusted) because they wanted to eliminate all the competition in Karakura Town before they started a grand assault. Turns out they just want what I want: for Ichigo to get back to kicking some Hollow ass. But for what purpose? Only time will tell. I just hope that they find Sado soon, and we can worry about the rest of the ramifications later.

Guess that will have to wait another week. As for this chapter, I'd rate it a 9/10 simple because of the twist. Yeah it's slow to develop, but the payoff was well worth it. It definitely gets you stoked for next week's chapter.