Chapter 6

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While Ichigo waited for his friends he sat down on the floor in a corner of the lab they were still in, he took his sword, placed it flat across his folded legs, and then meditated to enter his inner world.

Ichigo's inner world

He opened his eyes and sat up to find himself sitting on a sky scraper as he stood up on the glass windows looking down at the street easily 30 stories below.

"Hello Ichigo. Welcome back"

He turned to see Zangestu standing there. He was a lean-built, and stoic middle-aged man. He had pale skin, high cheekbones, stubble, and long ragged black hair with brown highlights. His attire consisted of a tattered white dress shirt with an upturned collar and cuffs, black pants, low-heeled boots, and a long, amorphous black overcoat with a burgundy highlight that flares out into ragged ends. He wore his usual brown-tinted, semi-transparent wraparound sunglasses. He looked grim and very angry.

"Hello Zangestu. What did you want to talk about?"

"While I did ask you to come here, it's not I who want to talk but him."

Ichigo frowned a little. He never liked his inner hollow as the bastard was arrogant, rude, and sadistic. Not to mention he had a foul mouth that not even his dead mother wouldn't want to be kissed with.

Ichigo sighed. "Ok where is he?"

"Right behind you."

He turned to see himself. His hollow was dressed in the same clothes as him but everything about him was white. His skin, hair, and even clothes were whiter then chalk. The only thing with color was his eyes. They were black pupils with white irises and black sclera. He also had a photonegative of Zangestu on his back. His eyes were usually mocking and arrogant but this time the look was different. They looked angry and a hint of something he thought his hollow was incapable of. Sadness.

"What do you want?"

His white opposite looked at him calmly and with eyes that narrowed slightly.

"To help you fight those bastards who did those unspeakable things. I may be a lot of things, but I am not someone who will kill an innocent child like that bastard did. And I will do what it takes to make them pay, the same as I want to help you learn some new powers."

Ichigo was surprised that his hollow was talking like that. The guy loved killing, he lived for nothing but battle as he often said he was pure instinct. But apparently even he had moral limits and what they had seen had crossed even those. Then he looked at the hollow and felt suspicious.

"How do I know you won't try to take me over when fighting them? For that matter, why would you want to train me willingly? In the past, to gain any power from you I had to beat it out of you."

Hollow Ichigo nodded. They were all true and he wouldn't deny those claims. "True. But in the past, that was when you were fighting for things I didn't care about. But this is different. Like I said, I'm many things but even I wouldn't kill innocent children like that. And those organizations, along with those infected abominations, look powerful. You're going to need all the power you can get in order to take them down completely. And that's where I come in. I'm planning to teach you a manner of Arrancar abilities. The ones I'm planning to teach you are Cero, Gran Rey Cero, Hierro, and Pesquisa. With those close to nothing will be able to hurt you."

Ichigo was still unsure about this. His hollow was known for having a condition attached to using his power and this sounded too good to be true.

"In exchange for what?"

What happened next was shocking. The hollow got down on one knee, bowed his head and spoke what he wanted.

"In exchange, when you're in an area where there is nothing but Black Watch or infected, I want you to let me out to fight them. I will not hurt you friends, or allies, but I will eradicate those monsters. If I break those conditions then I will never try to take over your body or mind, but give myself, and my power, to you to do what you want with. Zangestu will help make sure I keep up my end of the deal. Agreed?"

Ichigo took a look at Zangestu. He had said nothing since his hollow appeared. But he looked Ichigo straight in his eyes and nodded. He would see to it that he upheld his side. And not once, since he had met the old man, had he broken a deal, or allowed one to be broken.

Ichigo held out his hand as his hollow looked up at him.

"Agreed. So where do you want to start training and when?"

The hollow took his hand and stood up.

"The best place and time would be the 8th level of the underground prison. The cero alone with your current sprit power could be on level with a Gran Rey cero. And we're going to need more space than anywhere else in soul society to train without hurting anybody."

Ichigo nodded. That made sense. The commander had given him permission to use the 8th level of the Shinigami prison at any time to test and harness his spells better without causing any damage to the outside. And since it was infinitely open, his power could be unleashed without fear of hurting innocents.

"All right. Well I'll head straight there."

And with that he exited his inner world.

Real world

Ichigo took a deep breath and opened his eyes. He stood up and went to find Kisuke to let him know where he would be until it was time to leave for the world of the living