The next day wasn't nearly as peaceful for Ichigo. He had woken to sever pain flaring through his head and chest, despite the fact that shiro was acting as an outlet. Breathing hard and coughing harshly, the room began spinning and he couldn't seem to find the strength to move. Blood quickly began flowing from an opening hole in his chest as he frantically shook Shiro awake. Shiro himself was looking weak as he picked up Ichigo, zangetsu keeping silent as he watched them. Urahara saw them and opened the area for the training room.
To say the people suing the training room were surprised would be an understatement. They all stopped what they were doing as Shiro laid Ichigo down, before he began fading out of existence. The hollow mask appeared over Ichigo's face as the changer began rapidly this time. In a moment the transformation was completely and he lay there panting, trying to regain his senses. Something was off.
"Feed!" Shiro screamed in his mind, hunger gnawing at his mind like a parasite. "Must feed…" the month of hunger and instinct to devour was straining at Ichigo's mind and he subconsciously dug gouged into the earth with his claws. He growled low in his throat, the noise amplified and doubled by the hollow mask.
"Feed…" he growled, before he blinked and his eyes cleared. He shook off the hunger and struggled to rein in and subdue shiro, who seemed to have lost his mind.
"Ichigo?" Rukia asked warily, having sensed something off. "Could you...take off the mask?" unlike last time, the mask was the only thing that remained from the transformation. He slowly eased his hand up and removed the mask slowly, crushing it and dispelling the hollowfication. Shiro was still going crazy in his mind, but before he could respond zangetsu disappeared and he was forced out of his human body. But something was different. Zangetsu looked different than normal, there were two swords instead of one. The first blade he held in his hand was like the one he had originally, bu then there was a shorter blade strapped to his waist, that had not been there before. He was wearing normal shinigami robes, but he had two white shoulder plates, crossing in an x over his chest, and a white cloak with black marking tied around his waist. The shoulder plate on the left had three section with red stripes, much like his hollow mask, and then at his right side, the same. Then he was forced into bankai, which looked relatively the same, aside from him now holding two sounds. The black one he had used originally, complete with the chain that looped around his entire arm, and then a second, slightly shorter one, that was white and connected to the other by a chain. He'd have to practice using that then, it was different. All of the sudden pain shot through his entire body and he almost fell to his knees as his reiatsu flared out from him like a waterfall. He began reigning it in as best he could, because he could see that the others were uncomfortable with it. When he had done so, he was actually a bit proud of himself. He had been practicing before he fully lost his powers, but to be able to do so effortlessly after so long was an accomplishment on his part. Once all that was finished he was forcefully brought back to his body. He hardly had any time to prepare before his vision faded and he was sinking back into unconsciousness.
"Feed…" Shiro snarled, struggling to get to his feet under the pressure Ichigo was exerting in his inner world. "Must feed…" What the hell was going on with him?
"Shiro…" Zangetsu tried to approach and immediately backed away when he made contact with the bulb of pressure subduing Shiro, "What's gotten into you?"
"Must feed!" Shiro screamed, managing to stand and stumble towards him. Ichigo appeared inside his inner world with a sigh.
"I don't know what happened shiro, but I'm not letting you out of there until you're calm." Ichigo commented with a frown, increasing the pressure until Shiro couldn't stand any longer. Ichigo casually walked through until he crouched in front of Shiro. He placed a hand on his head, and Shiro stopped struggling for a moment.
"What…?" Shiro tried to move only to find his couldn't, "What the hell, King? Why are you crushing me?"
"You tell me," Ichog growled, "My power stabilizes and you start rampaging the moment you get back in my head." He let go of shiro and eased up on the pressure a bit. Shiro seemed to be struggling against something, so Ichigo touched him again with the purpose of finding out what. He didn't get that far.
With a scream of outrage, Shiro lunged forward and sank his teeth into ichigo's arm, eyes completely black. Ichigo grit his teeth and increased the pressure restraining him once more, causing shiro to let go of him. "Any ideas, Zangetsu?"
"Could it be...that he requires Hollows? We've never encountered this problem because you always killed them daily, ut he's been trapped in your mind for months without a single hollow to feed on." Zangetsu questioned, frowning at the prospect.
"You may be right." ichigo helped his bleeding arm closer to him and stared down at Shiro, who had once again stopped struggling. It seemed he was going in and out of control. "I'm leaving you like this until I can go out and kill some hollows."
"What happened to your arm?" shiro asked, seeing the blood. It seemed he didn't remember his bouts of no control.
"You bit me," Ichigo stated casually, "It seems that you're losing control to your hunger, so until I'm recovered enough to go kill hollows, you're staying like that." Ichigo disappeared from his inner world before Shiro could even apologize.
It was probably for the best anyway.
