He trudged into his room only to find it vacant and somber. It had been like this ever since Rukia had left to go back to the Soul Society to train with Orihime, before they were to go back to Hueco Mundo to deal off with the last of Aizens army. Her scent, permeated from the closet and throughout the room. "I should have gone but Old Man Yamamoto wanted me to stay look after the Human World." He thought to himself. "Dammit!" Ichigo said under his breath. He tossed his bag aside and collapsed onto his bed.
The rain outside his window tapped its fingers gently against the glass. Shadows danced on the walls to its timely rhythm as they gathered around an imaginary fire. Ichigo hated the rain as much as he hated himself. It reminded him to much of how he was blinded by ignorance. The curse that had prevented him from saving his mother that day. Lightning rattled the cages bars as agony pricked at Ichigos heart. A heavy weight settled on his shoulders for every time he let someone get hurt. Sadly enough he couldn't blame anyone else for the burdens he caried. Just as his thoughts sunk into his brain and his eyelids became heavy, a frigid breeze blew open his bedroom window. "Damn storm." He murmured to himself as the window clicked shut.
"Long time no see, King. What's with the long face?" Ichigo backed up against the wall, every hair on his body standing on end. Narrowing his eyes and furrowing his brow he let a single hate-filled word drip from his lips, "You.". Thunder rumbled in the distance, a warning to the demon that lurked under his skin. A hysterical laugh broke out in Ichigos mind and crescendoed till it reverberated. "Did you miss me? Cause you seem to be a little bit jumpy.." A reflection of his hollow side projected into his mind flashed before his eyes. Fear arose in Ichigos amber irises, his face twisted with misery and doubt. "I see your descending farther and farther already. So I'll leave you here to wallow in your misery and memories." Ichigos Hollow laugh was at his ears now, dripping with malevolence. "I'm not going insane, unlike you. So piss off." Ichigos muscles tensed and his eyes shifted from one side of the room to the other. Alert and awake as he waited for another glimpse of his hollows taunting face. The white hair, the white skin and the insane, gleeful grin. A distorted mirror image of himself bleached white. "You shouldn't be mourning over useless emotions. It's what's making you weaker." His hollows laugh engulfed Ichigos mind. "Soon I'll swallow you up, and the crown will rightfully be mine." Ichigo pressed his palms to his ears and tried to hold his hollow back with a wave of his reiatsu. "Argh! You bastard." His hollow was driven off deeper into the back of his mind. Ichigos body soon became limp with sleep and he drifted off into nothingness.
Ichigos eyes opened ajar to find that he was surrounded by an alternate world inside his mind. Surprise and worry erupted in his fire burning eyes as he looked around the inverted buildings. "Well look who dropped by to visit? Come to prove how pathetic you are?" Ichigo swiveled around, his hand already on the hilt of his zanpakto. Ichigo could feel the hollows presence but evidently there was no one in sight.