Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach, or its characters; Tite Kubo does. I do own this story however, so don't borrow anything too specific from it without first asking for my permission. Thank you kindly.

A/N: Before we get started, I'd just like to thank all of the people who reviewed Chapter 1 of this story; I really wasn't expecting such a positive reaction, and I just wanted to say how appreciative I am of your encouraging feedback. You all are awesome.

Torn

Chapter 2: Adjusting

Ichigo woke up slowly, groaning as his exhausted muscles refused to budge. When he saw that a plain, white-walled room had replaced his normal one, however, the Soul Reaper sat up in shock and looked around frantically for a few moments as he tried to figure out what was going on. Then the memories of the previous day hit him like a cero blast and Ichigo slumped back down into his bed, clutching his head in frustration.

What had he gotten himself into?

"Rise and shine, Ichigo-kun!"

Ichimaru's perpetually cheery voice dragged Kurosaki out of his thoughts, and he looked over sluggishly.

"What time is it?" he grumbled, and Gin chuckled.

"Time for breakfast," the red-eyed Soul Reaper replied simply. "There's coffee, if you need to wake up," Ichimaru finished as he began to walk back down the hall. "Trust me when I say you're going to need it, Ichigo-kun."

Ichigo gave one last petulant groan and heaved himself out of bed, stretching out his back and rubbing the sleep from his eyes before shuffling over to the closet for some clothes. He found white garments that looked like the inverse of his bankai attire and grimaced; it reminded the orange-haired Soul Reaper too much of his Inner Hollow, but it would have to do if there was no other choice. Still, Ichigo had to admit as he stopped for a second in front of a mirror, it looked pretty good on him.

"Hey there, partner."

Kurosaki's eyes shot open in shock as the figure of his Inner Hollow appeared opposite him in the mirror, a wide smirk on his face and a leer in his eyes.

"I really don't know what you were thinking, coming here," the pale being continued. "In case you lost your brains during the trip, this is Hueco Mundo. The birthplace of Hollows. Here, my power waxes and yours wanes, partner. Eventually, no matter how many times you crawl to Aizen and his Hougyoku, I will devour you."

Ichigo's eyes hardened and blazed with resolve, his reiatsu spiking unconsciously.

"We'll see about that, you bastard," he growled, slamming his fist into the mirror and shattering it for good measure before drawing in a calming breath and leaving his room behind.

Aizen, Gin and Tosen were waiting for him in the main room of the palace, sitting at an oblong table and accompanied by a few other figures.

"Good morning, Ichigo," Sosuke greeted pleasantly. "Please, have a seat; we were just discussing our plan for the day. Kaname, would you care to introduce the present members of the Espada?"

"Espada?" Ichigo broke in, only to be cut off in turn by a man who looked human, but had a fragment of a Hollow mask on his head. He also possessed a distinctive goatee, and black hair that was pointed up in two places to create small horns.

"Oh, you poor, ignorant niño," he said, his voice deep but theatrical. "Don't tell me you've never heard of the Espada! We're the most powerful Arrancar in all of Hueco Mundo!"

"Arrancar?" Ichigo repeated, his confusion rising. Before the flamboyant man could go off on another long-winded explanation, Tosen began to speak.

"An 'Arrancar' is a Hollow that has managed to break off part of its mask and acquire powers normally associated only with Soul Reapers," the blind former Captain explained. "Think of them as the polar opposite to what you have become, Ichigo Kurosaki, with a few differences. The Espada are, as Dordonii just mentioned, a group composed of the most powerful Arrancar in Hueco Mundo."

"But wait a second," Kurosaki said, his eyebrows scrunched in thought. "If 'Espada' means what I think it does, there should be ten of them. So where're the other seven?"

"The jovenzuelo speaks our language!" the goateed man, Dordonii, exclaimed happily. "Que milagroso!"

"I wouldn't go that far," Ichigo said quickly, not wanting everyone to start speaking Spanish. "I just paid attention in class, that's all."

"The talkative one is Dordonii Alessandro del Socacchio," Tosen resumed as if he had never been interrupted. "The woman is Cirucci Thunderwitch," he continued, gesturing to a stoic, purple-eyed Arrancar with matching-colored dark hair, "and the third is Gantenbainne Mosqueda."

Thunderwitch stayed silent, but Mosqueda waved lazily.

"Pleasure," he said simply, and Ichigo inclined his head in return.

"Indeed, as you so astutely observed, Ichigo," Aizen spoke, "there are, at the moment, only three remaining Espada. The others have unfortunately gone missing, or have been killed by vengeful or power-hungry Hollows. Whatever the cause of their demise, they were clearly unworthy of bearing their esteemed title. In fact," the brown-haired Soul Reaper continued, "that's where you come in, Ichigo."

"How so?"

"I'm going to ask you to train here for today," Aizen said in a tone that was anything but asking, "but in the future, once you have proven yourself up to the task, you're going to accompany Gin in the search for Adjuchas- and Vasto Lorde-class Hollows worthy of becoming our new Espada."

"Before any of that happens," Kurosaki stated firmly, "I want to tap into the Hougyoku."

"Very well," Sosuke acceded. "I can understand your urgency, and for the sake of expediency it would be wise to put your Inner Hollow at bay before you begin your training with Kaname. Come with me, Ichigo," Aizen said simply but commandingly as he rose, striding out of the room with the orange-haired Soul Reaper at his heels. When they were gone, Gin's smirk widened slightly and he spoke.

"That kid's gonna go far," he said, and Tosen nodded.

"His reiatsu is certainly quite impressive," he agreed, "but I hope, for his sake, that he is able to rein in his Hollow. If he becomes a threat to our efforts, I may have no choice but to ask Aizen-sama for permission to end his life."

"I'd like to see you try…" Ichimaru mumbled, and Kaname arched a single eyebrow.

"What was that, Gin?"

"Oh, nothin'," the silver-haired former Captain answered, his signature grin back in place. "Nothin' at all."

"How is she?" Renji asked anxiously, having run down to Fourth Division as quickly as he could after Byakuya had given him leave. Captain Unohana's kind blue eyes were nothing but sympathetic as she replied.

"Kuchiki-san continues to refuse food," she said evenly, "but we have managed to get her speaking and drinking fluids again, which is a good sign. Progress is being made, Abarai-san, slow though it may be. If you have faith in her, I have no doubt that she will make a full recovery."

"May I… can I see her?" Renji asked, and Unohana merely stepped aside gracefully, smiling. The red-haired Lieutenant walked into the curtained enclosure as calmly as he could, but his knees still shook slightly with each step he took. Making his way over to Rukia's bedside, he sat down and waited for his preoccupied friend to pry her gaze away from the birds perched on her windowsill. After a few awkward heartbeats of silence, she turned her head to face her oldest friend. The hollow look in her usually vibrant eyes made Renji want to run to Hueco Mundo and bludgeon Ichigo into oblivion right then and there, but he restrained himself. This wasn't about his craving for vengeance, it was about helping his injured friend.

"Captain Unohana tells me you're not eating," he said solicitously, and Rukia shrugged.

"I'm not hungry," she replied weakly, and Renji's caring look turned into a sharp frown.

"Snap out of it, Rukia," he half-growled. "I know it hurts, but you can't let what Ichigo did gnaw at you like this. If you do, you'll be dead inside before you know it."

"How could you possibly know how this feels, Renji?" Kuchiki snapped back with uncharacteristic coldness, before realizing the implications of his words. She hung her head, feeling even worse now than she had a few moments ago.

"I'm sorry," she said softly after a few heartbeats of silence. "That was uncalled for."

"Forget about it," Renji said, his tone clipped as he rose from his chair. "I gotta get back to work; if you haven't eaten something by this afternoon, though, I'm gonna come down here and get Zabimaru to make you."

Rukia cracked a thin smile at the threat.

"I wouldn't expect anything else from you, Renji," she replied. "But I don't know how much faith I'd put in your zanpakuto. Zabimaru's a big softie underneath his tough shell, just like you."

Foolish woman, Abarai heard his zanpakuto growl in his head, but he smiled as well nonetheless.

"Whatever," he huffed. "Catch you later, Rukia. Tell you what," he added as he reached the door, "I'll bring rice dumplings down later, but only if you swear you'll stop being so mopey."

Rukia frowned semi-seriously for a moment before relenting with a slim, if genuine smile.

"Fine," she agreed. "You always did know how to bribe me, you jerk."

Renji just chuckled, vanishing with a flash and a smile on his face. One step at a time, he would bring her back. That was his duty, and his promise.

Alone again in the room, Rukia returned her gaze to the window and sighed.

"Ichigo," she said softly, her voice laced with heartache, "where are you?"

Ichigo stood in front of the diminutive orb, skeptical that such a small object could hold such amazing powers. From the way Aizen had described it on the way into the room, Ichigo had expected it to at least be able to talk, if not pull off a song-and-dance routine.

"The Hougyoku is still gestating right now," Aizen said softly, almost reverently, "but there are ways in which it can be awoken. Ichigo, try focusing as much of your spirit power as you can into it."

The orange-haired Soul Reaper put his hand out tentatively, and was almost shocked into retracting it when thin black tendrils reached out from the orb to wrap around his fingertips. He held firm, though, and began to pour as much energy as he could into the greedy little artifact. It almost felt sentient, and hungry as well, with the way it seemed to leech power into itself. Ichigo kept at it for a good twenty seconds, but nothing noticeable happened.

Kurosaki was tired, beginning to grow very frustrated and on the verge of becoming dizzy when Aizen stepped in, providing some of his own energy to complete the reaction. The corners of the brown-haired Captain's mouth twitched up into the phantom of a smirk: the boy had almost been able to awaken the Hougyoku by himself. Once he had been trained to achieve his true potential, the young Soul Reaper could be the engine which drove Sosuke's machine of conquest. Ichigo would be useful indeed… very, very useful.

Ichigo, on the other hand, couldn't have been paying less attention to his new superior's facial expression. The feeling of the Hougyoku's power pulsing through him was unbelievable, and for a few moments he almost forgot where he was. Suddenly, just as the power reached a crescendo, the brown-eyed Soul Reaper felt the rabid presence of his Hollow become tranquil, its grating voice no longer clawing at the back of his mind.

"Feeling better, Ichigo?" Aizen's smooth voice broke through Kurosaki's euphoric haze and he blinked, swallowing once before replying.

"Yeah," he said, relieved at the calm reigning in his head. "Yeah, I am."

"Good," Sosuke said tersely as he turned to leave, silently commanding Kurosaki to follow him. "That means we can begin your training. Be advised, though, Ichigo," he added, "the Hougyoku is weakened every time it is awakened before it has fully matured, and so we will have to use it as judiciously as we can. I suggest you use these periods when your Hollow is at its most docile to achieve a greater measure of control over it."

"Sounds good," Ichigo agreed, before he realized that he had no idea where to start doing that. "Wait, how the hell am I supposed to do that?"

Aizen just smirked.

"How do you think, Ichigo?" he parried, his voice ever-so-slightly patronizing. "By training, of course. He's all yours, Kaname," Sosuke finished, and Ichigo suddenly found a wooden sword in his hands and a blindfold over his eyes.

"What the hell…?"

"Ichimaru is out searching for prospective Espada," Tosen's voice floated over, "and so, for today, the responsibility of training you falls to me. I will teach you the importance of not relying on your eyes during a duel, Kurosaki. If you can fight blind, you possess an almost incalculable advantage over your opponent."

"Wha…? Ouch!" the orange-haired Soul Reaper shouted, his question interrupted by the swift, harsh blow of a wooden sword slamming into his side. "What the hell, you bastard?" he shouted. "That hurt!"

"Pay attention," Tosen admonished. "I have no qualms about shattering every bone in your inept body, if that is what it will take to build you into a warrior. Your training starts now, Ichigo Kurosaki," the blind Captain finished as Ichigo heard the soft swish of a wooden sword being readied to strike,

"Try to keep up."

The sword arced down through the air, and for the briefest of moments Ichigo could hear the wind whispering through the grains of sand outside as the instinctive spike in his reiatsu amplified his senses to far beyond normal. Parrying the blow without so much as a thought, Ichigo let his momentum carry through into a counterattack that sent Tosen's wooden sword flying out of his hands and clattering to the ground.

"Impressive," the blind Captain allowed, "quite impressive, Ichigo Kurosaki. It seems that we can advance to stage two much sooner than I anticipated."

The mention of a 'stage two' sent shivers down Ichigo's spine: the last time he had heard something like that was during Urahara's training, and that experience had been decidedly less than pleasant.

"What's stage two?" he asked, keeping his voice as even as he could.

"We stop fighting with these," Tosen clarified, taking the heavy wooden sword from his student's grasp but keeping the blindfold in place, "and we start fighting with these," he finished, giving Ichigo a sword that felt much, much lighter and more natural to hold. When he realized that he was holding a very real, very sharp katana, however, Kurosaki did a double take.

"Wait… we're training with these?" he asked, incredulous. "But they're… they're sharp!"

"I believe that is the point, Ichigo Kurosaki," the blind Soul Reaper answered, his voice never wavering. As he heard Tosen raise his sword to strike, Ichigo felt the all-too-familiar sensation of adrenaline tensing every muscle in both of his arms at once.

"Ichigo Kurosaki," his teacher spoke out, "the goal of this stage is a simple one:

"Do not allow me to kill you."

The blade fell, swift and merciless, and the duel had begun.

A/N: I hope that was an enjoyable chapter, and please review if it was, or even if it wasn't; I'm more than open to constructive criticism, as long as it's not a flame. Next chapter will see the beginning of the creation of the Espada we all know and love, a look at what the Seireitei is up to and a chance discovery Ichigo makes that will change, well, a lot of things. Thanks for reading!