As Shinji carried Ichigo's body down the stairs, Ichigo was in his own inner world. Shinji felt the substitute shinigami breathe deeply against his shoulder. "You can do this, Ichigo. Don't let him get the best of you."

At the bottom of the stairs, Shinji laid Ichigo down on the ground. "Alright. We need to take the necessary precautions. I know this kid will be able to do this, but I'd like to make sure that we're all safe."

"Hai, Hirako-san." Hachigen said, holding Zangetsu in his hands. "What would you like for me to do?"

Shinji looked around. "Please create a barrier down here as well."

"Eeeh?" Hachigen sounded thoroughly confused.

"Baka, don't act like you don't know what I'm asking," Shinji grumbled, setting Ichigo down on the floor. "And please bind Ichigo's legs and arms. I have a feeling we're going to see his full Hollow transformation soon, whether or not he'd like it to happen."

Hachigen began the necessary Kidō spells. Shinji stepped back and watched as the four binders were placed on both of Ichigo's legs and on his arms. He looked at all the Visoreds. "Be careful. We need to keep him alive or Urahara will kill us."

"What does it matter?" Hiyori watched Ichigo begin to struggle underneath the binding. "The only reason he wants him to be trained is so he doesn't hurt him during -"

Shinji walked over to Hiyori and clapped a hand over her mouth. "That's enough. Don't say something you'll be sorry for later." He dropped his hand after Hiyori attempted to bite his fingers. He looked around. ""Who wants to go first?"

"I will," Lisa - the girl in the sailor blouse - said. "Hachi? Let me in."

Hachigen nodded and made a space in the barrier to allow her to enter.

"Now," Shinji said under his breath. "Don't lose this fight Ichigo."

Even though Ichigo's body began to transform into a full Hollow, Ichigo was not aware of what was going on. He was too busy fighting for his sanity inside of his mind.

Looking around, Ichigo saw that he was once again in his own inner world. He looked around at the tall skyscrapers, all blue in hue, and found himself standing sideways on one of the buildings. He saw the white version of himself, the Hollow - Shiro, staring at him.

"Come on!" Shiro taunted him. "What are you waiting for?"

Ichigo drew Zagetsu. "What do you mean, what am I waiting for you?"

With horror, Ichigo watched as Shiro pulled out his own version of his sword, only instead of Zangetsu having a black backing as his did, Shiro's front part of the blade was black. "How do you have that?"

"What? You think Zangetsu only responds to you? I don't think so, Ichigo. I am Zangetsu!" Shiro cried out, laughing maniacally.

Ichigo stared at him. "That's not possible."

"Oh? So why aren't you fighting back then? Eh?" Shiro taunted him once more.

Taking a deep breath, Ichigo raised his zanpakutō with his right hand, holding it straight in front of him. He raised his other hand and placed it on his wrist. He began to let his spiritual pressure build. As he was doing so, he stared in horror as he watched Shiro do the same. "What? What are you doing?"

"Same thing as you!" Shiro taunted, mimicking Ichigo. "Did you really think you were the only one to learn Bankai?"

Drawing his reiatsu in, Ichigo shouted, "BANKAI!" trying his best to drown out hearing Shiro say the same. As soon as he went into his Bankai state, he stared at Shiro, seeing him in the same exact clothing as himself, only completely in white, including the long kimono.

"You can't always be king around here," Shiro taunted him, holding out an all white Zangetsu. "I will make you fall, Ichigo."

Ichigo shook his head. "I won't let you."

"What are you fighting for? Why are you here?" Shiro mocked him, coming at him with Zangetsu drawn. "You're pathetic! You're too weak! You think that you can actually control me? You know that your boyfriend loves violence, right? Do you know how much he enjoyed it when I took over your body? I mean, who could not enjoy that?"

Ichigo screamed in rage. "Shut up! You don't know what you're talking about! You can't possibly know that!"

"What, Ichigo?" Shiro chuckled darkly. "Why are you so upset? Is it because you know that I'm right?" Black and yellow eyes stared at him. "You do, don't know?"

Taking a deep breath, Ichigo shook his head. "No, that isn't true. Yes, he enjoys pain, but I know that he'd rather be with me. There's no way he prefers you over me!"

"Who said that?" Shiro cackled. "Oh, Ichigo. What other lies fill your head? Did I ever say that he preferred me? No. I said that he enjoyed when I took over. Keep that in mind. You're the one that came to that conclusion yourself."

Feeling like he was on the brink of despair, Ichigo closed his eyes and did his best to concentrate. He hated to hear the truth come out of this abomination's mouth. He hadn't said anything about Urahara preferring him. Why would he jump to that conclusion?

"Perhaps it's because you're so insecure, Ichigo."

"Get out of my head!" Ichigo yelled.

"Can't. We're in there together." Shiro laughed, clashing his zanpakutō against Ichigo's. "When are you going to understand that I am you? That you can't get rid of me?"

Doing his best to keep his cool, Ichigo began to fight back. "I can't get rid of you, but I can control you."

"What? You think so?" Shiro provoked him some more. "I can take over whenever I'd like, Ichigo. You'll never be able to control me."

The orange-haired youth shook his head. "No. I will control you. I have to. Kisuke wants that. I want him to love me for me. If I can't give to him what you did, what good am I?"

"And there's the all important question. What good are you?" Shiro jeered at him. "You're not worth any of this. Being you is the pits. Hearing Urahara moan because of what I did to him? Now that was fun."

Striking with full force, Ichigo pushed Shiro back, causing him to skid across the sky, no longer standing on the glass buildings. "Stop it!" Ichigo screamed. "Stop spouting out lies!"

"Why are you so aggressive, Ichigo?" Shiro taunted him more. "It's because you know that you can't win, isn't it? The more strength you try and throw at me, the more you become delusional and think that you may actually win. Well, I've got news for you, Ichigo." Ichigo gasped as he looked down and saw Shiro had pierced him with the all white Zangetsu. "You can't control me any longer! Hearing Urahara with me is going to be so much fun!" Shiro cackled. Ichigo groaned as the Hollow pulled the zanpakutō out of his body and kicked him down. "Don't be too sad that the stronger man won, Ichigo. Love live the new king!"

Closing his eyes, Ichigo did his best to control the pain. He couldn't believe that his Hollow had gotten the best of him. There was no way that that had been possible. He could feel himself slipping out of consciousness. If that happens, what happens to my body? He wanted to hold on. He wanted to see Urahara again. He wanted to feel his arms around him. Why he even agreed to learn how to control his Hollow was beyond him. He wasn't ready. He would never be ready to ever fight back. Kisuke, I'm sorry.

"For what?" Ichigo looked and saw Urahara was standing in front of him.

"Kisuke?" Groaning, Ichigo shook his head. "No, you're not here. It's because I'm dying, isn't it? You're just a hallucination, what I most want to see before the Hollow takes over."

Urahara approached him and hit him on the head with Benihime. "Ouch!" Ichigo cried out. "What was that for?"

"Baka, I'm right here. Now, please tell me what's wrong with your torso?" Urahara pointed at the blood soaked bandages wrapped around Ichigo's waist. "You didn't let him win, did you?"

"Let him?" Ichigo felt his anger start to rise. "Why would I let someone beat me?"

"I don't know. But if you're giving up, then I guess I was wrong about you." The shop keeper adjusted his stripped hat and pulled it down further over his eyes.

Ichigo shook his head. "No, please don't. Kisuke...I don't know what I'm supposed to do!"

"You're supposed to fight back!" Urahara challenged Ichigo. "I didn't send you to the Visoreds to fail, Ichigo."

Shaking his head, Ichigo sighed. "Then I guess I'm not as strong as you think I am." His head reeled backwards as he felt the man slap his face. He stared at him with wide eyes.

"I'm sorry, Ichigo, but that's a load of shit." Urahara shook his head. "Now, fight back. You can do it. You can beat him. We need you to learn how to control him."

"Did you...did you prefer it when he was in control, Kisuke?" Ichigo asked quietly, feeling hope fade fast.

Urahara laughed. "Is that what he told you? Ichigo, please, love. Have a bit more faith in me, alright? He's goading you. He's lying to you. Don't listen to anything he says. Now - go back and show him who is in control in here!" Urahara hollered and with that, he disappeared.

Ichigo shook his head and saw that he was still falling through the air and quickly bounced back up. He stood straight and stared at Shiro, who looked puzzled. He felt his reiatsu return and began to draw it in from all corners of his inner world.

"What?" Shiro stood there. "No, you can't be doing this. I won."

Feeling his reiatsu charged up, Ichigo glided quickly to stand in front of Shiro and stabbed him quickly with Zangetsu. "I don't think so." Ichigo growled out. "You will never be king. I will control you. You will never be able to take control again." He kept his zanpakutō inside of Shiro, and watched as the Hollow began to fade.

"Just you watch," Shiro said. "One day, you''ll slip up. And I'll be right there, waiting to take the throne away from you." He continued to fade.

Withdrawing his zanpakutō, Ichigo shook his head. "That will never happen." He watched the last part of Shiro disappear into nothingness. He sighed and closed his eyes, exhausted.

He had been in his inner world for over an hour. Kensai was standing to the side, holding a timer in his hands, watching as the seconds ticked by. The clock was fast approaching the 70 minute mark.

"How's he doing?" Shinji asked, looking at Kensei.

"He's past what it took Hiyori," Kensei said. They all know that Hiyori had taken the longest to fight off her Hollow.

Shinji shook his head, staring at the fully formed Hollow fighting against Love. They had all taken turns in the hour that he had been under. "Come on Ichigo..." They all stared as the fully formed Hollow began to produce a bright red light with its fingertips.

"It's Cero, Love!" Lisa screamed in shock.

Suddenly, everything stopped in the barrier. "Hachi! Let Love out of the barrier!" Hiyori screamed at Hachigen. The pink mustached man nodded, letting Love quickly removed himself from inside, thanks to the opening that Hachigen had created. Not a moment later, there was a burst of reiatsu, causing Shinji to wonder if the upstairs was still protected. Shinji took a deep breath and walked over to where the fully formed Hollow was. He watched as it began to crack and fall apart, and watched as Ichigo was left with a fully formed mask.

"Hachi?" Shinji said, staring at the masked Ichigo.

"Hai," Hachigen snapped his fingers, causing the barrier to extinguish. Ichigo collapsed on the ground causing the mask to fall off of his face.

Walking over to him, Shinji grinned. "How do you feel?"

Ichigo groaned and looked up at the Visored above him. He smiled. "Not bad."

"Glad to see you," Shinji extended his hand. Ichigo gladly took it and stood up, dusting himself off. "We were worried about you."

Ichigo grinned. "Ah, well, I'm okay."

"Yes, you are." Shinji nodded. "So, you ready to actually learn how to control your Hollow? Make your mask appear?"

"Yeah." Ichigo nodded. "I am."

Hiyori stood in front of Ichigo and glared at him. "You had to go and take longer than me, huh? What are you trying to prove?"

"I'm sorry?" Ichigo shook his head, having no idea what she was talking about.

Shinji laughed. "Don't let her bug you. She's upset because out of all of us, she was the only that went a little over 69 minutes to defeat her Hollow."

"How long did I take?" Ichigo asked, looking over at Kensai, who was still holding the stopwatch.

"Over seventy minutes." Kensai said, pocketing the stopwatch. "Nice work."

Ichigo stretched and groaned. "Can we take a break?"

"No." Shinji said firmly. "Come on. You need to keep going. Don't worry, we'll get you back to him soon, I promise."

Blushing, Ichigo shook his head. "Whatever."

"BALDY!" Hiyori shouted, coming at Ichigo with her Hollow mask raised above her head. "Let's go!" She charged at him with her sword and Ichigo sighed. He prepared for the blow and found himself beginning to fall backwards.

"How's he doing?" Shinji looked behind him and saw the person he was least expecting. Staring into amber eyes, he shrugged.

"What brings you here, Yoruichi-san?" Shinji watched as Ichigo began to fight back against Hiyori. "And how did you even get past the barrier?"

"Barrier? What barrier?" Yoruichi asked. Shinji sighed. Just as I figured. "I'm sure you can guess." She watched Ichigo as well. "Nice to see that you didn't kill him."

"Tell Urahara thank you for not coming. He doesn't have to worry. Ichigo is strong and seems to have everything under control. I don't plan on letting Hiyori kill him. Once she's done with him, I'll let him leave." Shinji nodded.

"You don't think it will take any longer than that?" Yoruichi asked. She turned to look at Shinji. "Don't cut things short because you think that Kisuke can't handle it."

Shinji laughed. "Onna, I would do no such thing. I've got it handled, alright? Tell him he's fine. Now, if you don't mind, I don't want him seeing you."

"Baka," Yoruichi said under her breath. "Fine. I'll leave you to it." She looked at Ichigo one last time. "You sure he's doing okay?" She watched the youth crash into some rocks. "Don't hurt him too much."

"I wouldn't dream of it," Shinji smirked.

Yoruichi disappeared as quickly as she had arrived. Shinji sighed and watched Ichigo's pathetic attempt to call his mask. Looks like this may take a bit longer than we had thought. I hope that Urahara remains patient.

It was going to take some time.

...

A/N: Half canon, half not. I liked sticking Urahara in instead of Kenpachi. It made more sense in this story to do it that way. Hope you guys enjoyed it. Up next, Urahara. Sorry for the delay in posting, the holiday kinda snuck up on me. Hope everyone had a nice Easter, or as I like to call it 'Zombie Jesus Day' (please take no offense!). ^_^Thanks for reading!