Sorry for the wait. Finals are a real pain. I'm hoping to make up for it with a quality chapter. Finally we get to the main part of the story. Thanks to KurosakiKuchiki50, and everyone else who has reviewed. Important note, I really need OC arrancars. I have already created all of the Espada, but I need Fraccion and Numeros. If I really like your character, I will make them an Espada. Visit my bio for character criteria.

ICHIGO'S APARTMENT. THE NEXT DAY.

It was another Sunday morning, and Rukia was on the couch watching Chappy cartoons. She waited paitently for Ichigo to wake up. 'Best. Mission. Ever.' She thought. She got up to go buy some breakfast. But not before seeing that Ichigo was sleeping peacefully. "Just stay like that until I'm back."

A FEW HOURS EARLIER. UNKNOWN LOCATION.

Ichigo had fallen asleep, with Rukia once again in his arms. 'I wish she could stay longer?' Rukia had informed him that he was almost fully healed. It could be any time before she had to leave. Ichigo fell asleep with a heavy mind. In what seemed like seconds, he opened up his eyes, only to find he wasn't in his room. He got up and realized he was standing on some girders. After a few minutes he recognized the place. It was his Inner World. For some reason it was back to its old skyscraper form.

"Do you finally recognize it?"

"Who's there?" Ichigo turned around.

"Down here." The deep voice said. Ichigo looked down, his world still had its unusual gravity, so down was the inside of the unfinished building. Kneeling in the center was a cloaked man, he was bound tight by countless chains, and each one extended out to some random beam and kept him suspended. "Who are you?"

"Shouldn't that be obvious by now?" he looked up at Ichigo for the first time, a dark hood shadowed his face.

"Zangetsu? Is that you?" Ichigo began to search for a way to release him, but to no avail. There was no way he could cut the chains.

"Close, I'm not Zangetsu. Please release me from this prison, and I shall tell you everything."

"How?"

"Find your spirit. Look around you Ichigo. All those skyscrapers represent a part of you. That one behind you is your need to protect those important to you, the one behind it is your love for your family, and the one to your right is your unwillingness to give up. This empty husk of a building you see now: this is your power as a shinigami." Ichigo looked around. Aside from the walls the building was complete. "To release me, you must use your sense. Each of the chains is keeping me restrained, but only one of them is actually sealing my power. Find it. When you touch it you will know what to do."

"But how am I supposed to find it? There are hundreds, it would take me days to search them all."

"Use your senses; you have some of you reiastu. Just do what you did last time." A memory suddenly attacked Ichigo. It was his time in the shattered shaft. His world was falling apart. He was falling, surrounded by thousands of small boxes. He remembered Uryu, telling him about Spirit Ribbons. "Do you remember now!" Ichigo calmed down and took a deep breath. He focused more than he ever had before. Ichigo felt a surge of power, he opened his eyes. Innumerable ribbons began appearing from the ends of the chains. But Ichigo was only looking for one. Out of the corner of his eyes, he saw the flash of red. He grabbed it; all the others disappeared from his vision. He looked up to we where the ribbon connected. Using agility, he didn't think he possessed anymore, he leaped up to the girder that the chain was connected to. As Ichigo go closer to it, he say the building was reforming. From the bottom up, the walls slowly began to fix themselves. "Abandon your fear. Look forward. Move forward and never stop. You'll age if you pull back. You'll die if you hesitate." The figure in the center said. Ichigo reached for the chain.

ICHIGO'S APARTMENT.

Rukia had just gotten back and started taking out the food she had bought. She was about to call for Ichigo.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAARGGGGGGGGGH!" Rukia ran to his room. Ichigo was in the bed. The sheets were soaked in sweat, and Ichigo clenched his bed as he yelled in absolute agony. 'It's time.' Rukia thought to herself. She grabbed her soul candy, exited her gigai, and lifted Ichigo onto her back. She went outside and disappeared in a flash of Shunpo. Within minutes, they were at the small shop of the only man who could help them. Urahara was already waiting for them when they got to the front door.

In a rather serious tone, he spoke. "Bring him in, Kuchiki-san." She stepped in, and saw Urahara head to the basement. She quickly followed, all the while, she was careful not to drop Ichigo.

"Why down here?"

"Ichigo is going to be releasing a massive wave of reiastu when he gets his powers back. It's for safety reasons." He walked towards Tessai, who was kneeling on the floor, in front of a large circle with odd markings. Around the circle were eight odd people, dressed in human clothes, but they carried Zanpakutō. "Place Ichigo in the center." Rukia did as she was told. "Tessai you may start." Everybody around Ichigo started yelling loudly as they poured all of their reiastu into the odd circle. "Kuchiki-san; unless you don't mind seeing Ichigo get hurt, you might want to go. The process of regaining ones powers is extremely painful."

"Yes, Urahara." She got up and went to a secluded corner of the basement.

"Tessai, is this barrier strong enough to hold Kurosaki-san's reiasu?"

"We'll have to see for ourselves boss." Inside the circle, Ichigo started levitating into a cross position. Urahara thought to himself 'It's finally starting' he reached through the barrier the circle had created and hit Ichigo with the end of his cane. Ichigo's body fell away and out of the barrier. The barrier was only meant to suppress Ichigo's reiastu. Ichigo began to scream again. After what seemed like hours, Ichigo's body began to glow brightly, and a dark reiastu with a crimson outline began to leak out of his body. After a few seconds, everybody had to block their eyes, including Rukia, who was on the other side of the training field, practicing so that she could keep her mind off of Ichigo. Following up on the light, Ichigo's reiastu began to expand rapidly. The barrier, which had been maintained by nine former captains and vice-captains shattered, and blew them all away. They all quickly recovered and looked at the cloud of dust as it began to clear. Rukia came running toward them.

"What happened?"

Urahara answered. "We are about to find out how Ichigo faired."

The dust finally settled. Ichigo was in the center, in the exact same position as when he first achieved Shikai. There was, however, one major difference. Ichigo was not holding, Zangetsu. In his hand, was a pitch black daitō. His arm was bare with a chain wrapped around it, the prongs on the guard formed a large kanji; and he was in his Bankai robes.

Time for the story to really start!