Time will constantly try to catch up with you.
And with a roar, it will overcome you.
Do not look ahead.
Hope only lies within the unforeseeable current that will close in from behind.

"What are you saying?" Kūgo Ginjō cocked his head to the left, staring down at Ichigo Kurosaki. The Substitute Shinigami had initiated his Bankai, rendering him clad in a black shihakushō, open to reveal a white undershirt, stitched together with bindings that formed "X" marks, ending in numerous coattails. His hands were clad in gloves, bound in white "X" marks, on both the gloves and his forearms. Around his neck, he wore a two-part black collar, and his blade, as black as obsidian, was as long as his Shikai, curved near the tip, and jagged on the backside; a blade perfect for creating grievous wounds. "This isn't good...it seems the Fullbring I gave him really did enhance his Shinigami powers after all. Damn it..." Even with these thoughts in the back of his head, Ginjō kept talking, posturing bravado. "Even if you realized what Ukitake intended, it wasn't like that alone would let you choose."

"You're wrong," Ichigo's voice was quiet, but it carried across the night sky. With the Shinigami on the ground watching, and Ginjō standing at the opposite end, Ichigo was quite the spectacle to behold. "I could make a choice, and I chose to protect."

Ginjō's eyes narrowed at Ichigo's response. It was so typical, it seemed so standard, something that everyone would expect to hear from a child.

"I've always wanted power," Ichigo explained. "Ever since I was a child, I've always, always wanted power. The power to protect. The power to help others, and keep them safe. It was only when I lost my power — when I thought I was finally happy, that I could put down my sword — that I remembered that Rukia gave me the power to protect when I wanted it. That everybody helped me get back my powers after I lost them." The orange-haired teenager grit his teeth, eyes staring stonily at Ginjō, full of a determination that made them shine cerulean. "That's why I'm gonna defeat you and protect everybody!"

Ginjō clicked his tongue, obviously irritated. "We aren't seeing eye to eye. Then I suppose our negotiations are at an impasse." The black-haired man gripped his claymore, glaring at the young man in whom he saw so much of himself from the years gone by. "The truth of it was, I didn't even want to kill you..." Hefting his sword upwards, Ginjō began to brim with pink reiatsu. "Bankai." With the utterance of these words, the reiatsu exploded in an upward pillar. The Ginjō who emerged from the pillar, cutting through it with a new sword, was stark in contrast to the one Ichigo had seen before.

His skin had become pale, and his hair deathly white. The fur on his jacket had turned blood-red, and became enlarged, with fur appearing around his legs as well. His eyes, on the other hand, had gained red sclera, and his irises became silver. Adorned on his face was a red, cross-shaped marking, almost scar-like. His blade had changed yet further; the guard and the hilt possessed now a more skeletal appearance, with a rigid bone-like plate dividing the hollow portion of his sword and the blade. Four energy 'branches' appeared behind Ginjō, appearing as an "X".

"Crossed Soul Mirror Scaffold."

"...Bankai..." Ichigo watched Ginjō with a deadpan expression. "That's right; you were a Substitute Shinigami as well. I'm surprised, I didn't think you'd still be able to use Bankai."

"My powers are a bit too complex for you to follow, kid," Ginjō explained with a grin. "And aren't you letting something else slip your mind? I thought I told you before; all of we Fullbringers had mothers who were attacked by a Hollow before we were born. Because of that, a Hollow's power resides in me as well."

"That's right," Ichigo replied, listening intently to Ginjō's words. "The power of a Hollow. But aren't you the one forgetting something, Ginjō?" Ichigo placed a gloved hand to his face, staring directly at Ginjō, his reiatsu beginning to build to the point of thickening in the atmosphere. "I'll show you what it means to wield the power of a Hollow." Black reiatsu began to form in his hand, a sphere of power emerging, and Ichigo ripped his hand in the air across his face. The black reiatsu began to solidify, and a mask as white as alabaster manifested. It was menacing, and skull-like; jagged teeth sculpted into the front, and jagged lines, black, ran down from the tip of the skull to the base of the jaw, parting only at the eyes and teeth. From the sides of the mask, two horns erupted, long and forward-facing, curving inward.

Ginjō's eyes widened at the sight; he knew of Ichigo's Hollowfication, it had been part of his research when 'recruiting' the boy. However, with the manifestation of his Fullbring, and the later loss of it, Ginjō had been left to assume that all traces of Hollow power within Ichigo were gone. "Those damned Shinigami...! Did restoring his Shinigami powers do all of this!?" But that was impossible, unless Ichigo's Shinigami powers held a secret.

"Come, Ginjō! Let's end this quickly!" Ichigo's voice spoke with the double timbre of a masked Shinigami, echoing with his own voice, and the voice of a creature long forgotten. But Ichigo could hear him now, for the first time in a year, that voice in the back of his skull.

「Now let's see if you remember how to dance...partner.」

With speed creating an explosion behind him that rocked the air, Ichigo rocketed forward towards Ginjō. He lifted his Zanpakutō, which felt so smooth and seamless in his hands, and swung the obsidian-coloured blade down on Ginjō. In return, Ginjō swung his sword upwards, and the two blades clashed; sparks and fire flew from the metal, Ginjō and Ichigo's blades screeching along before they pushed each other away, gaining distance.

"Confident little brat!" Ginjō replied, a manic grin returning to his face. The mystery of Ichigo's Shinigami powers would be for the day the boy was dead at his feet; now was the time of battle. Bringer Light appearing beneath his feet, the glimmering emerald glow, Ginjō burst forward towards Ichigo and their blades clashed again. He couldn't see what Ichigo was thinking; the mask hid his face well, and he couldn't feel the boy's heart.

Ichigo, however, exuded a kind of confidence that one wouldn't have expected if they'd seen him after Ginjō had taken his powers. His resolve was restored; even with his darkened sclera, his eyes burning a bright blue. The Hollowfied Shinigami pushed back against his opponent's blade, his Zanpakutō sparking once again as metal met metal. The high-pitched ringing of their blades was all that filled their ears, and they were immune to the Shinigami below them, Ichigo's friends, preparing to leave, having ascertained his answer.

Their blades pressing into one another, Ichigo and Ginjō rose into the air, energy erupting around their bodies. If the humans below in the city could see them, there would assuredly be a panic attack; but the nature of spiritual powers were their own personal cloaking device, and they continued to fight in this similar moment of general disregard. Splitting apart again, Ginjō swiped to the right to deflect an obsidian slash coming from the left, batting Ichigo's blade away and hefting his into the air.

Ichigo gripped Tensa Zangetsu, and from it erupted black reiatsu, tinged with hints of red. The energy encircled his blade like a cyclone, bigger than the attacks he'd pulled off in Shikai — the ones that had nearly killed Ginjō, and these were enhanced by the power of Ichigo's masked state. "Getsuga Tenshō!" Ichigo swung his blade down, and the energy technique erupted from the sword with a mighty roar, releasing a truly gigantic beam of energy towards Ginjō.

Ginjō, however, responded in kind; from his skeletonized blade erupted a massive pillar of black tinged with purple. Swinging his blade in a mighty arc, the blast erupted from his own sword, similarly sized compared to Ichigo's. The two Getsuga Tenshō clashed in the air, spinning and churning, a single point of black amidst the sheet of the night sky, before cancelling each other out.

The two took deep breaths and charged forward, their swords held aloft. There was guttural growling escaping Ichigo's throat, and he struck first, his blade gleaming with a straight forward thrust. Ginjō immediately raised his claymore with stunning speed despite its gigantic size, using the flat side of the weapon to divert the path of Ichigo's daitō, batting it away and responding with a slash from the top left to the bottom right.

The Substitute Shinigami used his impressive Bankai speed and reflexes to sidestep the technique; the sword sliced into his mask, knocking off a large chunk and barely missing his horns. Part of the teeth and jaw fell away, revealing part of Ichigo's lower jaw. On instinct, Ichigo responded with a quick slice of his sword downwards towards the right; Ginjō evaded, but the blade slid along his face, nicking him and splattering blood as he tried to gain distance.

Ichigo raised a hand to his face, and the damaged portion of his mask; black energy flowed freely as he regenerated the damaged portion, alabaster shining through black. "Talk about a close call; if I'd been a moment slower, that would have taken off my entire head and not just my mask."

Ginjō, meanwhile, was wrestling with inner thoughts as he continued the fight. Ichigo and Ginjō rushed forward, and their swords clashed, the high-pitched shrieking noise ringing throughout the night. However, no matter how hard he fought, Ichigo was clearly his superior; no, in fact, he had been his superior the moment the two entered Bankai. This entire fight was almost an exercise; Ichigo reacquainting himself with his Hollow powers. But worse, nothing had gone as Ginjō had planned, from the moment the Shinigami arrived from Soul Society.

But the enigma most mysterious was Ichigo.

"Why!?" The man thought with frustration. "It doesn't make sense...! I wanted to exterminate the Shinigami of Soul Society — to get my revenge on those who betrayed me. And I wanted you, Ichigo, to convince me. To drag me back, beat some sense into me, and tell me I was wrong. But you're not even doing that. Why? Are you trying to understand me, Ichigo?" Locking eyes in the middle of their clash of swords, Ginjō was confronted by the resolve behind Ichigo's eyes, the shocking cerulean that betrayed his intentions. "Are you placing yourself in my shoes, as someone who shares the same history as me? And will you still deny everything I am...even after after understanding me?"

"ICHIGO!"

Raising his blade upwards, Ginjō began to charge a rose-coloured orb of spiritual energy; with a resounding boom, the blast expelled itself from Ginjō's blade, releasing a gigantic blast that felt so much to Ichigo like a Cero. Ichigo's blade began to glow, and from it emanated a black energy, outlined in deep crimson. The energy expanded, but still clung to his blade like a covering. Steeling himself for it, Ichigo rushed into the Cero-like blast, blade forward, black and red clashing with pink. The sheer strength of his Getsuga Tenshō tore through the incoming attack like so much tissue paper, and the bright light filled the vision of the masked fighter.

Reaching the end point of the attack, Ichigo erupted from the blast, slicing through it entirely and dispelling it, stunning Ginjō.

"It's over, Ginjō!" Ichigo cried hoarsely, and swung down his Getsuga Tenshō-enhanced blade. A solid downward strike, bringing the edge of the blade down onto Ginjō's shoulder and down along his torso. The strike had brought the jagged blade cleanly through the skeleton armor; as it split from Ginjō's body, both blood and spiritual energy erupted from the man's body.

They descended, crashing to ground, and Ginjō felt his body sway. He was losing blood now, and Ichigo's attack hadn't missed his vitals, and everything was fading fast. With the last of his strength, Ginjō gripped the claymore in his hand, the Fullbring he'd taken through so much, and rushed Ichigo in a fury. The masked Shinigami extended a hand, gripping the blade and diverting it towards the ground, throwing off Ginjō's center of balance. Gripping Tensa Zangetsu, Ichigo thrust the obsidian blade forward on a blur of black, and it pierced Ginjō's heart truly this time. Ripping the blade out in a splatter of blood and a scattering of Getsuga Tenshō, Ichigo watched as Ginjō fell to the ground, his sword slipping from his hand.

His Bankai began to fade — a sign he was close to death — and the defeated former Substitute could only look upwards towards the victor. Ichigo placed a hand to his mask, and swiped it through the air, causing the mask to fade, revealing his face; the glowing blue in his eyes were fading, and he wore nothing but pity on his face as the last signs of life were beginning to leave Ginjō's body.

"Ichigo... If our positions had been reversed... Would things have still turned out the same way? Would you have ended up like me? Say, Ichigo... If our positions were reversed... Could we have been—"

With his final thoughts unable to be completed, Kūgo Ginjō passed on.

A/N: So, this was a random little project I did because my friend and I were discussing how Ichigo ought to have used his Hollow mask against Ginjō. I generally disliked how he hadn't used his Hollow powers since the Arrancar saga, and didn't even bother to reaffirm if he had them in his fight against Ginjō. I know there wasn't much difference in it, but I really wanted to do this.

To all followers of my Erased Chronicles, another reason I did this is due to the fact that I'm having some insane writer's block that's been going on since about the 23rd of June, and I can't shake it. No matter how I look at the document, I can't think of how to put the words down, so that chapter — and the Heart of Adventurers — will take a little longer than what I usually care for! Thanks to all of you for your patience, and I apologize again!