The Thousand Year Blood War — Which Quincies Survived the Auswählen?

Key things

• Auswählen is Quincy King's ability to redistribute soul fragments, reviving some and killing others.
• Despite being fatal, some Quincie survived the Auswählen, such as Uryū Ishida. The reason remains a mystery.
• Uryū Ishida survived thanks to a theory involving his Quincy heritage and possible Fullbringer lineage.

Auswählen is a devastating feature of the Quincy King's prophecy and his ability to offer pieces of his soul. It had immense consequences for the lives of several characters BLEACHincluding Ichigo Kurosaki, whose greatest trauma is guilt over his mother's death when he was nine years old. Auswählen is depicted as a blinding light that drains the Quincy of its powers from anything it touches, often tearing the flesh from their bones in the process.

Despite the fact that the process is said to be fatal, there are several Quincies who have survived the Auswahlen, the very first being Uryū Ishida. Which Quincies survived the Auswählen and what do they have in common?

First Auswählen

The truth behind the death of Masaki Kurosaki

According to a prophecy known as Kaiser Gesang, the King of the Quincies will return after 999 years. When Ichigo was nine, nine years before the events of the BLEACH: The Thousand Year Blood Warhis mother died after an encounter with a very notorious Hollow, the Grand Fisher, after Ichigo succumbed to his bait. On June 17, 1995, Yhwach took away the powers of the Quincies, which he considered “impure”, leading to a number of deaths, including Uryū Ishida's mother, Kanae Ishida (née Katagiri), who was a frail woman.

Auswählen. It absorbs energy from those the Quincy considered unnecessary and sends it to those who need it. Redistribution of power. Those that were taken perish while those on the receiving end are revived with even more power than before.

– Sternritter B – The Balance, Jugram Haschwalth

Masaki Kurosaki's death was caused by the failure to deploy her Blut Vene, which was the highest among the Quincies. The word “Auswählen” is German for “Selection” and is so named because Yhwach chooses those from whom he takes back fragments of his own soul. Yhwach is a rare type of Quincy that can give out power, and when those who have gained power from him perish, it returns to the sender.

Limited Quincy King…

After 900 years, his pulse returns.

Its strength after 9 years.

And the world… in 9 days.

During events BLEACH: The Thousand Year War of Blood, Part 2, Yhwach and his elite guard, the Schutzstaffel, attempt to invade the Palace of the Soul King and successfully defeat the Zero Squad that was protecting the Soul King, due in part to the massive power boost gained after Yhwach performed another Auswählen. This time, pillars of light erupted across the battlefield, draining the powers of those deemed unnecessary, resulting in countless deaths. Sternritter N, Robert Accutrone can be seen in utter despair when he saw the Auswählen, because he knows what it means: those who were struck by the light were deemed superfluous and thus abandoned by His Majesty.

Being struck by the light is fatal, but a few Quincie manage to dodge or hide and avoid the onslaught of the Auswählen. Despite not being directly affected by the light, all those Yhwach didn't deem necessary still lost their Quincy: Vollständig and were thus much weaker than when they were introduced. The difference between this Auswählen and the one that took place nine years ago is that this Auswählen was specifically to redistribute the powers of Yhwach's Schutzstaffel, giving them enough power to allow Uryū to not only escape Shutara Senjumaru. Bankai, but also kill her with one shot.

Who survived the selection?

The interesting case of Uryū Ishida

When Masaki Kurosaki and Kanae Ishida died, Uryū was supposed to be stripped of his Quincy powers as well, but that didn't happen. After the death of his grandfather and mentor, Soken Ishida, he will live life believing that he is the last Quincy. Uryū is the only “Gemischt” Quincy to survive the Auswählen from nine years ago, and he also didn't experience any loss of his powers like the others did during the events of Part 2. The reason he survived is never directly stated, but something is there. is particularly odd for Uryū, as aside from surviving the Auswählen, Uryū has never shown a weakness to Hollow Reiatsu, even with prolonged exposure to them during the Hueco Mundo arc.

We know very little about the Ishidas, but they were Echt Quincies, i.e. untouched Auswähleny; however, there may be a theory that explains Uryū's situation, and it involves his grandmother, Ryūken Ishida's mother Izumi. During the events of Everything But the Rain, June Truth, we learn that Ichigo's mother began to undergo Hollowfication shortly after meeting White. Ready to marry Masaki, another True Quincy, Ryūken took her to Urahara, but his mother tried to stop him from taking her away.

We briefly see a horrible scar on Izuma's leg, similar to the one left on Orihime's leg when she was attacked by her hollow brother Sora. There is evidence that Izumi knew about what was going on with Masaki, clearly because she was attacked by a Hollow at some unknown point in the past. Here's where it gets crazy: if Izumi suffered a Hollow attack while pregnant with Ryuken, then Ryuken himself wouldn't be an Echt Quincy, but a Quincy and a Fullbringer, making Uryu a second generation Fullbringer.

If exposure to Hollow Reiatsu is a prerequisite for giving birth to a Fullbringer and the resulting Fullbringer was already a Quincy, then the power that comes from Yhwach will be tainted and therefore toxic to the Quincy King. Uryū's survival of the Auswählen led Yhwach to crown him as his successor and put him through a Schrift ritual that imbued Uryu with a certain letter not yet revealed in the anime. Yhwach was said to be able to foresee what Schrift the proxy would receive, although it is unclear if this is only after The Almighty is activated. The reason for Uryu's survival could be related to the Schrift he eventually received, meaning that the power in question lay dormant within him.