If I remember correctly, they said sealing the guy earlier had costed the lives of a couple of captains. Not to mention all those vice captains and such before the dude escaped SS. So, it would make sense to send more people of captain level to handle him this time. Why it took only Ichigo to defeat him this time is another question of course. Maybe he had just gotten rusty while rotting sealed in the mountain for such a long time...Originally Posted by Deadfire
But one thing is certain: It won't do anything good to Toushirou's selfesteem that he couldn't even scratch the enemy while a halfdead Ichigo still defeated him...