After Isshin Kurosaki arrived on the scene at the battle of Karakura Town Ichigo decided to leave Aizen for his father and shunpoed over to where Gin was. As soon as he got there he swung his sword down onto Gin. Gin tried to block Ichigo's sword with only one hand on his blade but it was nowhere near enough to stop the swing as Ichigo had pushed his reiatsu down into the blade for a Getsuga Tensho but didn't release it. Gin, after Ichigo had backed away from him, saw that Ichigo's strike had made a chip in his blade; he then said to Ichigo "you really are one creepy kid, you know?"

"Eh, I don't think that I like being called 'creepy' by the likes of you" Ichigo said in a bored monotonic voice whilst looking away and to the right.

"Usually my opponents just die after one strike from my sword, but you, you've survived it and yet you come back for more, even if you did run away from me the first time."

"I don't recall me running away from you, all I remember is the gate of Seireitei closing in front of you and Yoruichi dragging me away for some damn near suicidal training."

"Suicidal training huh, I suppose that Kuukaku can be like that sometimes."

"Yeah, wait, why am I agreeing with you when we're supposed to be fighting?"

"That's a very good question."

"Well then..." Ichigo said while starting to use shunpo to get behind gin, unfortunately gin also had the same idea and also used shunpo. Ichigo, with his Bankai was much faster than Gin however and got to his side and swung, using the same technique of holding his reiatsu in his blade and cut into him. Gin's sword, somehow, made its way into a position that allowed Gin to deflect most of the damage from Ichigo's strike and only getting a shallow cut on his chest.

Gin said to Ichigo "yep, I was right."

"Right about what?"

"That you really are one creepy kid. You hold in the reiatsu used for one of your Getsuga Tenshos, and in doing so, increase your striking power immensely."

"You keep on referring to me as a 'creepy kid' yet you're the one that figured out all of that after only two attacks."

"Well, what can I say? I have been around for close to three hundred more years than you after all."

"Oh yeah, I keep on forgetting about that whole shinigami aging slowly thing."

"I don't think that you'll be worried about regenerating too soon when you die, you do have nearly as much reiatsu as Aizen-taichou does after all, and he's been a shinigami far longer than I have."

"Is that so, do you know how long my father has been around by any chance?"

"Sorry, I'm not privy to that information, but I can tell you that he had exiled himself prior to my being instated as a captain almost thirty years ago now."

"okay, thanks for that, no there's really no more need for me to keep you around." So saying, Ichigo reached with his left hand to the right side of his forehead and pulled a mask into existence. Gin saw that this mask had two red lines going down over both of his eyes, both above and below, he also saw that it had two horns on the sides of it.

Gin said to himself "that's a new one, I thought that his mask had a lot of red lines on the left half of it, but nothing on the right, and where in the world did those horns come from?"

Ichigo, hearing everything that Gin said announced "I've got no idea where the horns came from, but my mask changed after my battle with Ulquiorra."

"Well then, I'd better stop fooling around then, Bankai."

Ichigo waited for something to happen, when he saw nothing change about Gin's sword, or Gin himself, he got suspicious and used shunpo while swinging his blade down and using the same technique that he had been using the entire fight and appeared right in front of Gin, splitting him in half from the neck down.

Gin said "well done Kurosaki" and extended his sword into Ichigo's 'soul gate' while pouring his reiatsu into Ichigo increasing the level of his reiatsu to a level that would have destroyed someone that originally had a smaller amount of reiatsu than Ichigo did. Gin then said to Ichigo "now, use my reiatsu to revive that girl of yours in Hueco Mundo."

"Why? Why did you do this?"

"Heh, I don't really know myself, maybe I see some of my old self in you."

"Well, I don't know if I really believe what you're saying, but thank you."

"Urahara is in that blasted shop of his, he'll be able to get you there in time to save everybody."

"What do you mean?"

"Yammy, his power is derived from anger. In the battlefield, normally it is filled with anger and hate, I used to think that at any rate, but you seem to be the antithesis of such a philosophy. I think that you may be the only one to be able to defeat him; so go, save your friends and open up a new future."

"If you still love soul society why did you do this?"

"An ancient evil, well, at least in soul society's viewpoint, is about to return and this was the only way that Aizen, Tousen and I could see to empower soul society, and you lot, to combat an enemy that used all of the time between the eradication and now to prepare to fight against the shinigami once again."

"Do you mean the..." Gin nodded "...but that happened centuries ago."

"Don't underestimate them, or the human hearts ability to hold a grudge."

"Alright, thanks."

"Heh, get out of here."

With that Ichigo used shunpo to get to Urahara's shop instantly and he said "alright Urahara, open up another one."

"Kurosaki-san, whatever are you doing here?"

"That apprentice of yours really knows his stuff when it comes to improvising technology."

"Ah, so Mayuri-san managed to completely analyse the garganta as well then?"

"Yeah, he used a different method to you, though I really don't understand it too well."

"Very well then, you know the drill."

"Yeah, walk into the darkness right?"

"Indeed." Urahara then opened the garganta and Ichigo drew upon his mask. Before he entered the garganta Urahara asked "has Aizen been defeated yet?"

Ichigo replied "no, not yet. My dad's taking care of Aizen right now though" and so saying he entered the garganta by himself.