Again, I do not own Bleach nor do I claim to do so.
Ichigo ran down the corridor, trying to think of what to do next, when he felt Chad's reiatsu dwindle to near nothing. 'Chad?' he thought. 'That felt like he...No! He...He CAN'T be dead!' and he prepared to run even faster in a desperate effort to save him when he heard Hichigo yell out "Hey King!".
'Shut up!' Ichigo responded savagely. 'We don't have time to talk. Chad's LIFE is on the line!' he thought but Hichigo was adamant.
"Listen, it's CHAD we're talking about." he said in a surprisingly comforting tone. "He'll be fine. In the meantime, no one is coming after us, if you haven't noticed. So this is the perfect opportunity to hone your abilities.".
'We'll do that AFTER Chad is rescued, not BEFORE." Ichigo said assertively, but Hichigo responded with equal assertiveness "Are you as STUPID as you are WEAK?" This last comment left Ichigo angry, but confused above all else, so Hichigo continued: "If someone could do that to CHAD, then they must be extremely strong. You may be strong, but you do not have CONTROL. To run off after Chad's attacker now would be suicidal. But, if you learn to control your abilities, particularly your telepathy, then he won't stand a chance.".
Ichigo stopped, and thought 'I've always had a talent for learning quickly. This shouldn't take too long.'. He relaxed, sat down, and said "Nel, I'm gonna do some training before we go further. I'll need to be focused, so please don't disturb me unless it's an emergency.". Nel only nodded in understanding, and took to standing guard.
'OK, so what exactly do I do?' Ichigo asked as he sat down in a lotus position and closed his eyes. "Pick a target, and try to pick up their thoughts. After, you've got them down, try a more distant target." Hichigo answered. Ichigo decided on Nel and tried to follow Hichigo's instructions.
At first nothing happened, much to Ichigo's annoyance, which prompted Hichigo to say "Hey, it's new to me, too, King!". Instead of responding, Ichigo continued trying. His perseverance was rewarded much more quickly than he had anticipated,. In less than three minutes, he began to sense Nel's thoughts, which contained fear of the Espada, concern for Ichigo and the others, and an uneasy curiosity of and admiration for Ichigo and his new abilities.
Fueled by his success, Ichigo pried further into Nel's mind, eventually picking up individual thoughts as well as basic feelings. These thoughts included 'I hope Pesche and Dondochakka are all right.', 'Will Ichigo's changes affect him as a person or just as a fighter?', and 'I wonder if that Dordonii we just fought was a masochist.'. That last thought almost shocked Ichigo out of his training.
Over the next few minutes, Ichigo honed his telepathy so he could read all of Nel's thoughts and feelings. 'I think I've got it down.' he thought. 'Now to broaden my range.'. He pushed his telepathy out in intervals, starting out at three meters, sweeping the area until the information he received was crystal clear, and then expanding it. He managed to push it out as far as thirty or forty meters before the receiving information was too weak to be used. 'I guess that's my limit.' Ichigo thought as he focused on sweeping the corridor and the adjacent rooms for minds other than Nel and Dordonii.
'All right, I've been at this for over half an hour.' Ichigo thought checking his watch, but quickly reacted 'Half an hour?'. He rechecked his watch, and sure enough, it confirmed that for the last half hour he had done nothing but sit around on his butt. 'No wonder my legs are asleep!' as he tried to stand up, nearly collapsed, and after three tries managed to make it. "Nel, let's get moving." he said as he picked up Nel and started down the corridor again. Along the way, Ichigo made telepathic sweeps of the area to check whether they may run into someone. 'So far I can't sense anyone.' Ichigo thought. 'But it seems that my telepathy is limited when I'm moving. If I plan to use my telepathy in combat, I'll need it to be as clear as when I'm stationary.'.
"Just keep practicing, King and you'll get it down." Hichigo replied. "It's the only way you've been progressing so far." he added as Ichigo focused on his telepathic senses. Surprisingly, not only did his telepathy get clearer, but much sooner than when he was practicing while stationary. 'I guess I got the basics down.' Ichigo thought with a grin cracking on his face.
His moment of self-satisfaction was cut short, however, when he sensed a nearby mind... one with an intelligence... but ruled by instincts... instincts for destruction and death. 'Arrancar!' Ichigo thought as he let Nel down, gave a glance that said "Wait here.", and turned the corner.
He found himself in a large round room with a humanoid Arrancar, but over ten meters high at the shoulders, with massive arms and a huge chest. Its arms and chest were so big and heavy, it had to walk hunched over forward like a gorilla. It also had a long, massive tail, like a crocodile's, with spikes running from the tip up to the back. Its Hollow hole was in the middle of its incredibly thick neck, and the remnants of its Hollow mask covered almost all of its face save the eyes, making it look like a white-faced gorilla with blue eyes and baring its teeth.
"I am Rey Gorila, and you are dead!" it declared in a loud hooting roar as it lunged toward Ichigo with unexpected speed. Ichigo, however, was still faster and dodged before it came within five meters of Ichigo. Ichigo landed on Gorila's hunched shoulders and prepared to stab him in the neck when he read the thought 'Tail!' and managed to avoid, narrowly, getting crushed by the massive crocodile tail.
Ichigo next landed on Gorila's head, which began to shake violently, forcing Ichigo to leave once more, this time landing to the left of Gorila, where he launched a Getsuga Tenshou at the Arrancar's neck. The attack hit the mark, but did not leave so much as a scratch. 'This guy's Hierro must be tough.' Ichigo thought as he Flashed Stepped away. 'However, I bet that at close range, he'll be vulnerable.' he added as he tried to think of a strategy.
He did not have long to think, however, as he found himself pinned in the grip of his opponent. All he could move was his head, and his sword was trapped at his side. Gorila lifted his other fist, where out came three long, curved claws from between his knuckles(Wolverine from X-Men). 'Cool!' Ichigo thought as he watched the claws lunge at him.
Most people in Ichigo's shoes would be paralyzed with fear, but Ichigo just smiled and spread out his arms, effortlessly freeing himself and launched a barrage of Bala at Gorila. Maybe because his opponent was bigger this time, Ichigo hit him with a lot more accuracy and frequency than his last opponent, with almost all of his shots hitting in the non-covered areas of the face. The barrage threw Gorila off balance as he covered his face from the attack.
Ichigo, however, did not move, but drew Zangetsu and waited for his opponent to recover. He did not have to wait long, as Gorila rose and prepared to attack. Ichigo was WAY ahead of him and fired a Cero, which hit his opponent in the gut and went right through, forming a new hole. Gorila doubled over in pain, but only briefly, as he disappeared and reappeared behind Ichigo, his hand gathering and releasing green energy.
'Cero!' Ichigo thought as he prepared to dodge, but something stopped him. He heard a mind yell out 'Wait Ichigo. Let Nel help you.', which caught him off guard. He looked at saw Nel standing in front of him, and the incoming Cero. Without even flinching, she closed her eyes, opened her mouth, and... SWALLOWED the Cero? Ichigo did not even have time to register the new info before she fired it all out again...back at Gorila.
'What was THAT?' Ichigo and Hichigo simultaneously thought, shock and astonishment coursing through their minds with lightning speed. They quickly recovered however when they saw they Gorila was not getting back up and had only 'OW!OW!OOOOOOWWWWWW!' going through his head. 'We can worry about that later.' they thought at the same time. 'This is our chance!' they pronounced as they charged with Zangetsu drew to their side.
Gorila managed to haul himself up and prepared to attack with his claws, only to watch Ichigo disappear. The next thing he knew was a sharp pain in his forehead, like a needle but sharper, then he found the cause: Ichigo had stabbed him in the forehead with Zangetsu. The next few minutes were agony as he watched Ichigo pull out Zangetsu, only to place a hand inside the wound and charge a Cero with it. The resulting blast blew out Gorila's head and Ichigo away from the now decapitated corpse.
As he landed, Ichigo looked over the body of his opponent and eyed the still deployed claws. 'Those looked cool.' he thought, briefly wondering if he could have them as well. Then he thought 'But they were useless. And I bet they hurt coming out.' and with that he left the corpse to disperse into spirit particles.
As he walked from the body, he saw Nel frozen in shock, apparently from the decapitated body. 'She wasn't supposed to see that.' Ichigo thought as he moved towards her. "I'm sorry Nel. You shouldn't have had to see that." he began, but was cut off before he could go further. "No Ichigo." she said. "I'm not shocked at the body, but at you. You were so strong and fast, and could use Cero and Bala. No Shinigami should be capable of doing that. Just what is going on with you?" she finished with pleading in her voice.
"Like I said, I'll tell you and the others what happened, but not right now." he answered in a calming voice. She was far from calm, however, for she yelled "What's wrong with RIGHT NOW?". Ichigo winced at the sharpness and volume that she used, but before he could respond, he felt both a MASSIVE reiatsu, along with an ABSOLUTELY formidable mind behind it.
"Because we've got company." he managed to answer as he and Nel looked up and saw Ulquiorra, one of the first two Arrancar he ever saw back in town. Ulquiorra just looked at him, his expression never changing, and said "Quite impressive, Ichigo." as he motioned to the battle that just took place. Ichigo just said "I don't have time for you. I've come for Orihime.".
'Strange.' Ichigo heard Ulquiorra thought. 'He came all this way just to save her? Why, when the war with Aizen is very close to beginning.'. Ichigo was about to answer when he read Ulquiorra's mind further. 'I guess this is the "heart" Orihime spoke of. She said that this would happen. Aizen was right when he sent me to kidnap her.'. "You kidnapped her?" Ichigo, enraged by the new information charged, only to have Ulquiorra block him.
"Curious." he said, as though he was perusing an art museum. "You knew that I kidnapped Orihime, but I never told you. And you only found out two seconds ago, but how?" Ichigo ignored the question as he pressed his attack. 'Could it be some form of telepathy?' Ulquiorra thought, with a twinge of confusion in his voice. 'The only entity we know to be telepathic is the Beast. So how could Ichigo possess the same power?' he continued.
"If you survive Aizen's death, then I'll tell you!" Ichigo roared as he prepared to fight. "For what you did, I'll go ALL OUT on you! BANKAIIII!" he shouted as black reiatsu engulfed him. In the haze he heard Hichigo say "Oi King. You can use your Hollow Mask now. Your reiatsu is stable enough.". 'The first sentence was all I needed to hear!' he thought as he drew his mask and jumped out of the haze.
When he emerged, not only had his weapon changed, but he did as well, much to Ulquiorra's surprise. 'What is..? How did...? What IS he?' Ichigo heard him think as Ulquiorra thought as he beheld Ichigo's new form.