Ichigo's inner world was unlike what Silas remembered. Originally, Ichigo had arrived here on the side of the building and eventually fell. Silas, however, arrived on the edge of it. Even more strange was the design of the area. It wasn't covered in a blue pigment. At the bottom was a street, and there were green trees, almost as if he were in a city. What Silas had failed to understand was that this was how Ichigo's inner world was depicted in the comic books.

"Ichigo, over here."

Silas turned around to see a middle-aged man with long, ragged black hair and brown highlights. He was wearing brown-tinted, semi-transparent wraparound sunglasses, as well as an amorphous black overcoat with a burgundy highlight that flared out into ragged ends. This was Yhwach's fragmented soul that manifested inside Ichigo as his Quincy powers. It was also part of his Zanpakutō, which called itself Zangetsu.

"Tell me your name," Silas said.

"You would like to know my name? Very well. It's Zangetsu."

Though Silas heard it clear as day, it was lying. What was more important was what this thing calling itself Zangetsu had been saying. It was calling Silas Ichigo. This occurrence answered yet another of Silas's many questions: if he entered Ichigo's body, would that mean that his Zanpakutō would know who Silas truly was?

"I'm impressed, Ichigo. You answered my voice the moment I called."

Silas considered whether or not he should reveal that he knew of this manifestation's true identity as well as the Hollow inside of him. But he decided to wait on that matter in case things went in the wrong direction.

"Do you know why I'm here?" he asked.

"There can only be one reason: you're here to learn the truth."

The manifestation was only half right. Silas indeed came to learn something, but his main purpose was to awaken his Soul Reaper powers without being killed in the process. So he closed his eyes and said, "Why I'm here is to unlock that dormant power that's been inside of me."

"I see… What power would that be?"

"Zangetsu, you don't want me to become a Soul Reaper, do you?" Silas said, slowly opening his eyes.

"…"

"And you are neither my ally nor my enemy, but wish to keep me from harm's way—to keep me from the struggles a Soul Reaper undergoes." Silas then raised his head. "This world… It's my world, is it not? And from what I can see, there's not a cloud in the sky. That's because I will never suffer pain; I will never fall into despair."

Silas's words truly hit. They were, in fact, the manifestation's own words!

"Ichigo, why do you want to become a Soul Reaper?"

"Because I will hone my power and become the strongest being in this world. Even if it means I have to go through you…"

The moment it understood Silas's motives, white boxes began to pour from the sky. This was the same trial Ichigo had undergone once. As it was explaining that he needed to find which box stored his power inside, Silas had already sensed it. All Soul Reapers bore a spirit ribbon. What differentiated their ribbons from everyone else's was that they were red.

Finding the box with the red ribbon protruding from inside was far too easy. But even Silas knew that his words weren't enough to move the manifestation's heart. For when Silas opened the box, he saw the hilt of a regular katana. This was the real Zangetsu. Yet its power was still being suppressed.

"Good, you found it. Now pull me out and prove that you can wield me."

Once again, another lie. Nonetheless, Silas reached out and called out Zangetsu's name!

Back in Karakura Town, a small quake took place upstairs in Ichigo's room. Everyone panicked, believing it was happening all across the neighbourhood. Isshin ran upstairs and noticed that Ichigo's door had been locked. Without hesitating, he kicked it open, only to see the room a mess, with Ichigo standing inside by himself.

"Ichigo! What're ya doin'?! There's an earthquake!" he screamed. "You can't be upstairs at this time." Isshin then quickly grabbed hold of his wrist and ran downstairs. Little did he know, he was holding onto an artificial soul. Silas had been inside the room the whole time, but Isshin couldn't see him. That was because Isshin had lost his Soul Reaper powers and had no connection to see spirits.

As the two left the room, Silas looked at one of his palms and saw that he was wearing the Soul Reaper's signature black cloak. What was even more apparent was that he was also holding onto a long sword. It wasn't at all close to that heavy, broad sword he recalled from the story; it was thin and had a silver blade that reached up to seven feet!

Zangetsu's appearance as a weapon always fluctuated throughout the series. Why it had taken on different forms was because it mirrored Ichigo's own growth and inner struggles. Now that Silas had taken over Ichigo's mind, body, and soul, Zangetsu had also retained a different form. If he were to guess, this sword most resembled the infamous Masamune—a testament to Silas's sharp, well-crafted willpower.

He gripped this new Zangetsu, slowly twirling its hilt around his fingers just to feel how light it was. With one simple swing, even he knew that he could destroy half of this house. His spiritual power had become so strong that he could feel the physical force of it, known as spiritual pressure. To put it simply, spiritual power was the amount of energy being stored in someone's body or soul, whereas spiritual pressure was that energy being exerted. And Silas had a lot of spiritual pressure!

The moment Silas felt it pouring out like a small waterfall, he quickly suppressed it. Perhaps there was no one watching or sensing him right now, but he didn't want to take the chance of being discovered. Calming himself, he sensed the surrounding area. His senses were more than just amplified; he could sense people's spiritual powers far greater than before—almost tripling the distance!

There wasn't a single sign of Yoruichi nearby. Neither were the notable characters in Karakura Town being moved his newly awakened power. Silas was tempted to immediately go out and use Zangetsu, but he wasn't a fool. Aizen's flies could be stationed somewhere far outside without his knowledge. Finding those things was near-impossible. No matter how much he had tried beforehand, there was no distinguishing fake flies from the real ones.

Apart from that, something had been dangling from Silas's robes. Reaching for it, he pulled out a Hollow mask. But it wasn't just any Hollow's mask; it was White's mask. White was an experimental Hollow created by Aizen before Ichigo's birth. Like most Hollows, it acted on pure instinct and could fight like a Soul Reaper since it was made from the Souls of different Soul Reapers. What made it even more special was that it could transmit a special type of venom that could "Hollowfy" its victims.

During a brawl between Isshin and Masaki, Ichigo's late mother (a Quincy), White had infected Masaki. Its original purpose was to Hollowfy Soul Reapers, but it managed to gain the ability to do the same to Quincies through an ability called Soul Infiltration. It used that same ability on Masaki, which in turn allowed White to become its victim's Zanpakutō. This was how Ichigo inherited not just Quincy powers from his mother and Soul Reapers powers from his father, but also Hollow powers from White who had been his Zanpakutō.

All Silas could do now was wait for his artificial soul to return with his body. As he stood there, having succeeded in awakening his Soul Reaper powers, he was neither joyful nor burdened; he was simply content.