Panic surged through Ichigo as he watched the encroachment progress. He knew he had to act quickly, but the reality of his situation was sinking in fast. He was bound, powerless, and his only chance of survival lay in a seemingly impossible task. The gravity of Urahara's training method was clear: failure meant becoming a hollow.
"A severed soul chain begins to devour itself. That's encroachment," Urahara explained calmly from above.
Ichigo began to slam his body into the wall, trying desperately to kill off the mouths eating his soul chain. "Damn mouth-things! I'll smash them! I'll crush their nasty little heads!" he shouted, his voice echoing through the cavern.
"I wouldn't get so close to their teeth," Urahara advised, his tone almost teasing.
Suddenly, one of the mouths bit a piece of Ichigo's abdomen off, causing him to scream out in pain. "Damnit!"
"They'll eat you instead of the chain," Urahara remarked coolly.
As Ichigo squirmed in pain, Urahara began to explain further. "Ordinarily, it would take months or years for a broken chain to get in this condition. But in the shattered shaft, there's a gas that stimulates the encroachment. The encroachment will now be complete in only three days. In that time, you'll either become a Soul Reaper and crawl out of there or you'll become a hollow and we have to kill you."
Ichigo's eyes widened with a mixture of horror and anger. "You bastards. Are you really gonna let them kill me?"
"You have two choices, Kurosaki. Succeed or die," Urahara said, his voice steady and unyielding.
One whole day passed inside the shattered shaft, and Ichigo lay on the ground wondering what to do. These things chomp away for a few minutes, then they sleep for several hours. The pain of encroachment is paralyzing. Like having your hair yanked out. I have to act while they are sleeping.
Determined, Ichigo stood and ran at the wall. As he reached the base, he jumped up and steadily used his momentum to run up it. After reaching around 10 feet, he slipped and rolled back down.
"Oh wow! He actually ran up the wall! Hey, Kurosaki?" Urahara's voice echoed down to him.
Ichigo looked up at Urahara, his frustration evident. "What?"
"Feeling hungry yet?" Urahara inquired with a nonchalant tone.
"Of course not! I'm a disembodied soul! How could I be hungry?" Ichigo snapped back.
"That's good. Just so you know, if you get hungry it means you're about to become a hollow," Urahara stated calmly.
Reality began to settle in on Ichigo. The possibility of becoming a hollow was frightening and very real. Damn. I can't climb out. How long have I been down here?
Urahara then slid down the wall, carrying a plate of food. "I brought you some food! I thought you might be hungry by now."
"Huh? I ain't hungry. I still got plenty of my soul chain left," Ichigo replied, puzzled.
Urahara's calm demeanor turned sour. He then placed the plate down in front of Ichigo. "I'll leave the food here. You lose track of time down in this hole. You've been here exactly 70 hours. I'm surprised you haven't started turning already."
"70 hours?!" Ichigo exclaimed in shock.
"Also one more thing," Urahara added.
"Huh?" Ichigo's attention snapped back to him.
"The next encroachment will be the worst of them all," Urahara warned.
As Urahara climbed up the wall, Ichigo's soul chain began to act up. Instead of the ends of the chain encroaching, the whole thing did. It quickly ate up all the way to Ichigo's body.
"Wai—" Ichigo started, but before he could finish his sentence, he screamed out in agony. Spiritual energy flooded from him as a hollow mask formed over his face. "AHHHHHHHHHHH!"
Tessai looked up at Urahara. "Should I finish him, Kisuke?"
Urahara held out his hand to stop him. "Wait a second. Usually when a soul becomes a hollow, the spiritual body bursts into pieces and rearranges itself. But Kurosaki is not following the usual pattern. The mask is coalescing while his body is still whole. He is resisting. Let's wait a bit longer. At least until his transformation is complete."
Ichigo continued to scream, shaking his head back and forth and hitting it against the wall. He stopped suddenly after hearing a voice calling out to him.
Can you hear me, Ichigo?
Ichigo awoke on the side of a building in a world filled with countless other structures, warped to fit his weird perspective. He blinked, trying to make sense of the surreal environment. "Where am I?" he muttered to himself.
"Over here," a mysterious voice called out.
Ichigo turned around to see a lean-built, 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 burgundy highlights that flared out into ragged ends. He wore brown-tinted, semi-transparent wraparound sunglasses. The man stood on top of a flagpole which, thanks to the warped reality, stood straight up.
"Who are you?" Ichigo asked, confusion evident in his voice.
"Don't you know? I'm ——" As the man said his name, it was almost as if a record had been broken.
"I didn't quite catch that," Ichigo admitted, feeling a strange frustration.
"I see. It still can't reach you. How many times must I shout for my voice to reach you? There's no one in this world that knows me better than you do," the man said with a hint of exasperation.
As the man's words left his lips, he stood sideways on the flagpole, as if the gravity of the warped world didn't affect him. Suddenly, the world's gravity changed to match the real world, and Ichigo began to plummet down the building.
"What!?" Ichigo yelled in panic.
The man jumped and began to free fall with Ichigo. "Screaming like a little girl. How promising. Don't worry, Soul Reapers preside over all spiritual phenomena, even death."
"But I'm not a Soul Reaper right now!" Ichigo retorted, his voice tinged with fear.
"Quite true! Just solidify the spiritual energy in the atmosphere beneath your feet to stop your fall," the man instructed calmly.
"Are you deaf, man!" Ichigo shouted, disbelief coloring his words.
"Quiet and think back. As a Soul Reaper, you were able to subconsciously gain traction on the very air itself!" the man said firmly.
Ichigo's mind flashed back to his fight with Orihime's brother, where he had been able to stop his descent by sliding on air. The man continued, "The Soul Reaper powers that Byakuya Kuchiki removed from you were only those given to you by Rukia!"
"What?!" Ichigo was shocked by this revelation.
"That's right. It was all he was interested in. He thought that once they were gone, that would be the end of you. But he was careless. He overlooked your own Soul Reaper powers!" the man explained.
The man stopped his fall while Ichigo continued to plummet. "If there was ever a time to find your hidden Soul Reaper powers, that time is now. This world is falling apart."
The buildings around them began to crumble and break. The rubble that broke off turned into tiny boxes that fell below Ichigo. "See these boxes raining down about us? Your powers are in one of them. Find it!" the man urged.
A large rift appeared in the street below them, and the boxes fell into it. "Are you crazy?! There are thousands of boxes!" Ichigo exclaimed.
"No excuses. There's no time. If you do not find the right box before this world disintegrates, then you will become a hollow!" the man warned.
Reality came rushing back to Ichigo. He was in the process of turning into a hollow, and he had to act quickly. As he fell into the rift, a body of water consumed him, and he began to look for the correct box. What am I supposed to do? How can I find the right box out of all of these? It's impossible! I can't even sense spirit energy as I am now. Wait… Uryu said something like that once. He knew I was a Soul Reaper by just looking at me. But how?
Ichigo remembered Uryu holding a red soul ribbon. Uryu's voice echoed in his mind. Did you know that Soul Reapers' soul ribbons are red rather than white?
Ichigo came to a realization, now seeing long white ribbons protruding from the insides of the boxes. "That's it!" he exclaimed.
Ichigo noticed one of the boxes had a red ribbon. He reached out and yanked on it, opening the box. Inside was the hilt of a Zanpakuto. His Zanpakuto.
"Good. You've found it. I hope next time my name will reach your ears," the man said, his voice filled with a mixture of satisfaction and urgency.
Ichigo turned around to look at the old man, puzzled. "What are you waiting for!? The world is collapsing! Pull me out! Quickly!" the man yelled.
Ichigo grabbed his Zanpakuto and yanked it out of the box.