User blog comment:Imhungry4444/Chapter 246 Review/@comment-3987368-20110815084207/@comment-3987368-20110818121958

How exactly did Rukia appear without reason? It seems to have been foreshadowed (and expected by fans) for a while and I thought the appearance of the sword through Ichigo's chest brings back memories (more or less) of the first episode of Bleach. As for Isshin and Urahara, I'd assume that Rukia's reappearance is due to them, maybe Isshin sharing blood with Ichigo enabled the effects in a different way or something.

In comparison to Fairy Tail, every time (specifically during the S-Class Trial arc) ANYONE got in trouble (Levy & Gajeel, Natsu against Zancrow, Juvia & Erza against Meredy and especially Erza against Azuma) the expectation that Laxus would return and save them somehow was constantly brought up. One chapter before it actually happened, the title preview essentially gave it away and as almost everyone point out, he didn't do much before giving his power to Natsu.

The idea of Rukia returning and assisting in Ichigo's power restoration was set a bit in the back of my mind as I read along with the series and watched him develop Fullbring. When the main climax was reached, Rukia returned and I'm confident in say that I wasn't the only one surprised at first by that.

I said 'learn a lesson' to specifically refer to Kubo spacing his battles apart better than Hiro Mashima. Though I prefer the scale of Mashima's battle scenes, there were way too many in this arc and the constant feeling that Fairy Tail was at a disadvantage without more powerful mages made me come to the conclusion that Laxus would be back in this chapter. And while I fangasmed when he did, his power transfer to Natsu did upset me. Bleach has had far fewer battles lately and Ichigo mastering Fullbring set the power of the Shinigami somewhere in the back of my mind as I think Kubo may have wanted.