i don't expect zaraki to win but i don't expect him to die either. i want him beaten up to the brink of death, just to prove that the stern ritters really mean business and they are a force to reckon with. how the shinigami will be able to deal with them later on is still a mystery. but i won't be surprised if the solution is simply "ichigo".
i want byakuya and kira to stay dead. as much as i like byakuya, his death would mean that kubo is serious about this arc. look at the amount of attention it's getting now. several months ago bleach was the laughingstock of the manga world. it was losing fans and sales were plummeting, but when this arc began (more specifically when the stern ritters started wreaking havoc) readers started picking it up again. the death of a main character, a popular character at that, will either make or break this series. so far, i think a lot more people are intrigued by this death than pissed about it. i don't know about you guys but this chapter makes me want to read the succeeding chapters and that's something considering how frustrated i've been with bleach.
__________________
"Sometimes you wake up. Sometimes the fall kills you. And sometimes, when you fall, you fly."~ Neil Gaiman (The Sandman)