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"Zangetsu talking"

"Juha Bach talking"

"Techniques used"

'Thinking'

The shattered shaft, minutes earlier

'This isn't right.' Urahara thought to himself as he saw Tessai coming back up the shaft with the lifeless soul of Ichigo on his back. 'He should have begun the transformation into a hollow just as planned.' He placed one hand under his chin in thought just as Tessai made it to the top. 'Did something happen while he was fighting it? No. His senses were leaving him slowly with each part of the chain eating away at itself. That's never happened to a soul before.'

"Hey boss?" Jinta started with a cocky grin just as Tessai flung the body to the ground like a sack.

'I guess I'll have to inform Isshin that something unplanned happened.' Urahara sighed a bit before looking toward the redhead with his usual, jovial smile. "I guess it didn't work."

"So can I dump the body somewhere public then?" Jinta was just a mischievous kid.

Urahara was about to answer the boy until he noticed how Ururu was staring at the teen on the ground. Strange. She has a similar look in her eyes to when sensing strong spiritual pressure that was unfamiliar to her, yet the look in her eyes was different. Instead of this deadpanned and blank expression, she seemed to be fearful and hesitant while at the same time intrigued. Why though? Why would Ururu stare like that? She was strong, that was no doubt, especially once she lost control of herself, but that was always a risk with her powers. She would be powerful yet unfocused and brutal, two things that made her a detriment most times. That was how she had always been, but this was different. Was she sensing something he wasn't?

"Ururu-" before Urahara could even finish what he was about to say, a strong pressure bared down on them all.

It was strong enough to send Jinta straight to the ground and for Tessai to struggle staying on his feet. Urahara felt it and fought to stay completely upright, seeing what was happening to Jinta and Tessai, but when he looked to Ururu, he noticed that she was not affected in the least. That shouldn't be possible as this pressure was that of a captain's and while she had more power than a child should have at times, she was at least on par with a lieutenant at best. Nowhere near a captain's power, so how was she not affected by this? Something was not right with this entire scenario.

Ururu stood in place, frozen with something akin to fear and comfort as she continued to stare at the body of the teen on the ground. The pressure she felt was different to her. It felt comforting to her almost as if she were covered in a warmth after spending days in the cold. Why was that? What exactly was going on with her? Something was not right, and it was affecting her in a way she could not comprehend. She began to breathe erratically as the pressure increased around the training grounds and around her. Something inside of Ururu snapped inside of her like a shock and a black, liquid-like energy began to leave her body quickly. Just as quickly as it happened was as quickly it ended as Ururu slumped over before falling to the ground, unconscious and unmoving.

Urahara witnessed this and widened his eyes in what could only be described as fear. "Oh no." He whispered to himself before a massive pillar of black and red spirit energy shot high into the artificial sky.

The energy hit the ceiling and bounced off, going straight down to the ground several meters away from the group. The impact was large, spreading a black and red flame of energy all around itself. The pressure was beginning to fade away ever so slowly as the flame-like energy began to rise and fall every so often. Urahara stood completely straight and drew out his sword from his cane, changing it into a completely different blade out the gate. He would be taking no chances as so far everything that has happened had not gone according to any plan he had. This would be interesting and intriguing to the shop owner as this type of energy was in fact interesting, but this was not supposed to happen. This was not the plan, and it most certainly was unexpected on all fronts.

A figure stood within the fire and slowly lifted something in the air. Urahara kept his guard up while Tessai slowly went and took the children away to safety. The figure swept the object to their side and the fire immediately dispersed as if it was never there to begin with. There, standing in the center of a small crater, was Ichigo Kurosaki in his soul reaper form once again, though he looked different. For one, his skin had become slightly tanned and his muscles more defined. He was still lean for his age but the fabric of his shihakusho was straining slightly around his chest and shoulders. His usual orange, spiky hair was smoother and reached just below the nape of his neck while the bangs weren't long enough to get into his eyes, but still longer than he originally had. He seemed slightly taller as well, something Urahara was baffled by yet that had nothing on what he saw held in both of Ichigo's hands.

In his right hand was a large, black blade with a straight pommel and no cross guard. There was an opening in the center of the blade extending from just above the pommel and extending towards the center in a sharp point. The second was a much shorter blade, almost like a large knife of sorts. It was dark, so dark that light seemed not to reflect off of it. It also had no cross guard, and its handle had an opening for the wielders hand to grasp onto the handle.

Ichigo stood there, head raised, and eyes closed as he breathed slowly for a few moments. With every breath he took, the pressure rose and fell all around the spectators. Urahara was starting to sweat for a moment as he knew something was definitely not of sorts. He watched as Ichigo just stood there, breathing steadily, wondering just what had happened to the boy. He needed to take control of the situation fast, otherwise who knew what kind of consequences could befall them all. Readying himself as the pressure began to subside once more as Ichigo lowered his head, Urahara accessed the teen's power. His spiritual pressure alone was just as powerful as a captain-class soul reaper. His reiatsu was also just as high yet felt finer tuned than it should've been. His reishi was thick with power.

"Well now," Ichigo started as he appeared in front of the man, stunning the shopkeeper for brief moment as he saw Ichigo's hard glare. "I guess since I've got my power back, all that's left to do is head to the soul society," he shouldered his larger blade, "wreck everyone in my way," a subtle black flame appeared around his feet, "save Rukia," his glare on Urahara intensified ever so slightly, "and leave."

With each word he spoke, he leaned over Urahara, nearly towering over the man in a sense, and all Urahara saw was a large dark figure standing over him. A vicarious glare that caused the shopkeeper to instinctively take a step back in what he could only assume was fear or self-preservation. Whatever the case, that dark figure staring down upon him, and those dark eyes it had made the man feel small and helpless by comparison. Dread and the feeling of helplessness was all he could feel at the moment as his hands were actually shaking ever so slightly.

"I'm going home." Ichigo spoke once more, walking past the flabbergasted shopkeeper and just as quickly as he said that the dark figure that Urahara saw had vanished completely. Urahara let out a breath he had no idea he was holding as Ichigo walked past him. "Let me know when you have a way to get to the soul society."

"R-right." That was all Urahara could stutter out as the teen walked over to his human body and entered it with little to no trouble before heading over towards the ladder to leave. Urahara turned and watched him the entire time, still stunned by what he felt and saw mere moments ago. Whatever that was, this would be bad news for the soul society. For now, though, he had work to do.

Chapter end.