The Vizards' warehouse was mostly covered by a huge glowing shield, there being loud violent strikes of swords clashing. The Vizards were merely relaxing despite this, standing with their backs against the wall, but Kensei and Mashiro were standing straight while Hachi was sitting, trying not to have the shield broken but there were grunts as he was struggling to do so.

"Hey, Hachi, are you sure your barrier is gonna hold this?" Mashiro asked, seeing the Kido Master grunting each time the clashes endured.

"Actually, I'm not sure at all." Hachi grunted once more as the barriers shook.

Back in the battle, Ichigo leaped away backwards when dodging one of Hiyori's strikes. He still had his sword held upfront while glaring at the masked midget. "Stop holding back! You still don't get it, do you?" she lifted her mask, smirking at the boy. "What are you afraid of, Ichigo?"

"Fuck off. Like I would be afraid of you in the first place." Ichigo replied back as he glared at her.

Hiyori scoffed at this. "Tch, here's a tip. Use your Bankai."

Ichigo glared at her again. "Like hell I will. I'm more than capable of taking you on as I am now."

"Tch, just as I thought. You're scared that every time you use your Bankai against someone as powerful as me, you're gonna lose your soul to that frightening Inner Hollow of yours!" Hiyori exclaimed, gaining an arrogant smirk.

"Oh really? How about you just force it out of me then. I'm not gonna use my Bankai. It's as simple as that." Ichigo replied back, it wasn't as if he was that scared really, while yes he was worried about the Hollow taking over out of nowhere, this Hiyori seemed to be a lot of talk for what it seems as if she really compensated for being short and bratty.

"Dumbass, just looking at your face pisses me off! You're so terrified it's pathetic! That's fine with me, fight scared if you want to!" Hiyori put her mask back on. "You don't have to use your Bankai or Hollowfy, so it'll save me some effort of killing you! Your choice."

Hiyori charged at Ichigo as she crossed blades with him, to which Ichigo managed to block the strike. But there was something that bothered him. How was she able to just pull her mask on and off without losing her sanity? He kept managing to block most attacks from Hiyori before doing a backflip to get away from her downward strike against him. He charged at her, doing a similar attack, except Ichigo Flash Stepped to go to Hiyori's right, and she reacted fast enough to clash their swords again. However, Ichigo had managed to overpower Hiyori's strength as he sent her flying away.

Before the tussle between them could last any longer, all of the Vizards showed up to stop the fight, having seen enough. "Alright, that's enough right now. Both of you."

Hiyori did not say anything, as she was only glaring at Ichigo before her mask disappeared. "Ichigo… the fact you managed to hold your own against Hiyori without your Bankai or even Hollowfying does suggest that you can still control yourself with no issue, at least with the Shikai. Your Bankai from the fight with Arrancar also doesn't seem to have had any issues." Shinji stated as he rests his sword on his shoulder, looking on from the perch along with the other Vizards right behind him looking on with expectations themselves. "And while we don't know how strong your Hollow may be, you could handle it… But nevertheless… you pass." Shinji gave off a toothy grin. "We'll teach you how to control that Hollow of yours."

This had to be some kind of a joke.

Ichigo was ''training'' on what looked like an exercise walker, being incredibly annoyed that this was something he had been doing the entire time ever since he passed the test. It was driving him mad.

"What's taking so long with lunch? Hiyori, can you make something? I'm starving here." Shinji complained as he laid on a pair of boxes, reading through a magazine book.

"Dream on, you're already gonna starve to death by the time I'm done, and even if I did cook I wouldn't give anything to you, dumbass." Hiyori rebuked.

"Hey, Love, did you hear that a new song from Prince of Darkness came out? Jt totally rocks." Rose held a guitar with him as he sat on a chair nearby.

"No, but have you read the latest issue of Shonen Jump magazine?" Love flipped a page of the Manga he held. "Hilarious! Hahahaha!" he burst out laughing when he saw a comedic scene.

"How could I? You never let anyone get near your stuff." Rose pointed out.

Kensei wrapped a bandage on his forearm. "Lisa, I need you to keep a sharp eye on that Soul Reaper kid."

Lisa was only focusing on her magazine. "Don't worry, I won't let him out of my sight…"

"You say that but you're only looking at swimsuit catalogs!" Kensei exclaimed in annoyance.

"Oh can it! I can see the Soul Reaper just fine!" Lisa argued.

"You're on duty today, aren't you supposed to be training him?!" Kensei argued back.

"Fine, have it your way then!" Lisa lazily narrowed her eyes at the Substitute." 1,2,1,2,1,2…"

This just kept going on and on. Shinji and Hiyori were bickering about food. Lisa kept on repeating the same numbers out loud. Love kept hollering with laughter. Rose kept playing with his guitar. They were bickering with one another as if they didn't even register his existence. It made his blood boil.

"And that's why I said we should have just got rid of that damn giant and stupid redhead with the big bust, it's like they were made to mock me!" Without thinking she ended up blurting out the fact she had threatened to kill Orihime and Chad the other day before the Arrancars attacked.

Like the trigger of a pistol, something snapped within the orange haired teen, who immediately jumped off of the treadmill and leaped right towards Hiyori. "THE FUCK YOU SAID?!" The youth growled as if he held back a roar, his sword unwrapped mid swing. The pig-tailed midget jumped back as she unsheated her sword in a hurry in order to barely meet the redhead's blade in time for defense. But despite the attack itself being put dead in track the force brought through it still pushed them forward several, dragged across the floor with concrete splintering and tearing through like brushing one's hand a small portion of sand.

"You stupid fuck! The hell you think you're doing!" The midget shouts back in a rage. How dare this orange haired brat attack her out of nowhere?! As her back hit *through* the wall with no effort she tightly gripped the handle of her sword as she managed to push back the teen that attacked her like a possessed man. "What's the big idea about attacking me!"

This didn't seem to calm down the boy who just pointed the tip of his sword to her as his spiritual pressure blazed around him. "You said you wanted to harm my friends… All because they apparently mocked you. I may not know what actually happened but I know for sure Orihime and Chad would never do something like that." He gritted his teeth as he raised his Spiritual Pressure even more. He didn't care if his Hollow would even think of doing anything about this. "So as far as I'm concerned, sabertooth midget… Is that you just wanted to harm them by even questioning you."

Steam practically poured out of Hiyori's ears as she immediately reached her free hand to her face, preparing to Hollowfy. "YOU DUMBASS KID, I'M KILLING—" Before she could finish, Shinji immediately appeared beside her with his own hand in front of her face.

"Inemuri..." Shinji mumbled as Hiyori's pupils began to dilate several times before glazing as she fell backwards on the floor unconsciously.

Taken back by the action, Ichigo lowered his sword as he realized that Shinji just stopped him from doing something he might have regretted. "What was that all about, Ichigo?" He then looked at Ichigo, his usual smile gone.

Ichigo grit his teeth in response. "You heard what I said before, I just heard her say she threatened to kill my friends! All for what, mocking her?! I don't buy that! You really just expect me to sit by and do nothing about that?!"

"Oh brother…" Shinji put a hand on his face as he sighed. "Alright, look, just try to calm down… I know what Hiyori said may seem out of line, and while your reaction is a bit understandable given your personality… lashing out wouldn't have exactly done much for either of us."

Mashiro slid the door open, and behind her was Hachi holding a bag of the food. "Lunch is here!" she announced to the whole group.

"Oh good, it's about time." Love remarked as he turned to see the food arrived.

Mashiro handed Love one of the bags for food before turning to see Ichigo and Shinji arguing with one another. "Should I tell them lunch is here?" she asked before she looked over

"Nah, I wouldn't bother if I were you." Love answered nonchalantly.

"Carrot Top seems to be awfully frustrated." Mashiro said, before her eyes were set on the unconscious Hiyori. "Wow, what happened to Hiyori?"

"Fight broke loose, the kid found out that Hiyori threatened to kill his friends, so he lost his shit and attacked her. Though Shinji stepped in and is taking care of it at the moment." Love explained what happened.

"Look, if you still can't keep your cool, then you might wanna go back to that stupid Hiyori treadmill." Shinji said, as he could still see that Ichigo was tense. "Although do try not to break it, since for some reason Hiyori has a lot of pride when it comes to that machine. So if you wanna vent, that machine will do just that. Besides, that thing drains Spirit Energy, so it might be even better."

Ichigo still wasn't pleased by this. "I'm not going back to some kiddy treadmill. If you Vizards were actually serious about teaching me how to control my Hollow, I wouldn't be wasting my time riding that thing! And so what if it drains Spirit Energy?! I could go at it for a week and I still wouldn't get tired!"

"Ichigo... I wouldn't recommend doing something stupid right now." Shinji gave a serious gaze towards the boy. "We just started. If I were you, I would listen to the people that have actual experience on dealing with this type of stuff."

"So you just wanna waste time?!" Ichigo argued.

Shinji made a sigh from this before taking the boy's words into account. "I didn't exactly wanna do this since I wanted you to get used to us before letting you fight your Hollow… but I see we should have just jumped at a chance in teaching you how to control your Hollow, just like you originally asked us to." Shinji then got in front of Ichigo, putting his hand close to his face before his hand started glowing. Before long, Ichigo's consciousness began to slip away before passing out. "I hope you don't regret this…" Shinji looked over at Hachi. ''Hachi, give us a two layer force field."

"Alright then." Hachi clapped his hands together twice, and there was an enormous bright force field surrounding the warehouse.

Underneath the Vizard's feet, a passageway opened up as all the Vizards were goin through it, with Shinji carrying Ichigo's body, and Kensei carrying Hiyori's. 'Ichigo… you may not be aware of this, but at the moment you are fully about to become a Hollow, so don't let it consume you, consume it instead. But if it eats you… it's all over.' Shinji thought.

"Hey, Shinji… are you sure this is a good idea?" Kensei asked. ''Don't you think it's way too early to let the kid fight his Hollow? We don't even know how powerful it really is."

"Well what else could have been done?" Shinji rolled his eyes. "All those training regiments would have taken too long to let him pass out. So why just fuck around when we should get down to the main part of all this."

The Vizards got in an underground training area that looked very similar to Kisuke's as Love puts Ichigo's body down on the ground, with his Zanpakuto lying next to him. "Hey, Hachi, throw up another force field here too." Shinji ordered.

"As you wish." Hachi clapped hands together. "Wall of iron sand, tower of shaien priest, glowing with desert iron tranquil and soundless…" As he was chanting, five small orbs were coming out of his hands. "Bakudo #75: Gochutekan!" When finishing the chant, five enormous 20 feet tall metal pillars fall from the sky surrounded by chains, bringing down each part of Ichigo's limbs, and onto his head as well which kept him firmly in place.

Back in this same place again. Ichigo was just standing on one of the gravity defying buildings, staring down at the Hollowfied version of himself, and the said Hollow was just sitting down, before looking up at Ichigo. The Hollow grew a smirk. "Hey… long time no see, partner."

Ichigo ignored him, focusing to see where Old Man Zangetsu was, but he couldn't see him anywhere. "Where's Zangetsu?" he demanded.

"Hehehe…" the Hollow chuckled from this. "I'm afraid you're gonna have to be more specific."

"What do you mean more specific?!" Ichigo grabbed the handle of his sword, glaring down at the bleached version of himself. "You should know what he looks like!"

"Sorry about that, what I should have meant was which one are you talking about? Are you talking about the sword you're holding, or are you talking about the sword I'm holding?" Hollow Ichigo brought out his own Zangetsu, as the black bandages came out, and the shape looked exactly the same but the colors were in total reverse.

'A white Zangetsu?!' Ichigo was shocked by this. In his previous encounter he didn't remember the Hollow having his own version of the Zangetsu blade, so how did he just obtain this?

"You asked me where Zangetsu is, right? Well here's your answer…" Hollow Ichigo made a Flash Step, and was seen in the air, raising his sword as he was about to strike down at Ichigo. He gave off a wild grin. "I am… ZANGETSU!"

Ichigo then quickly brought his sword out, and both of them locked their swords, with their dual of combat beginning.

While the fight was being settled on the inside of Ichigo's mind, on the outside world, Ichigo's body shook intensely as strong winds erupted from him with the amount of Spiritual Pressure he was releasing. Most of the Vizards tensed up from this.

"Here it comes…" Shinji commented, getting ready for the suppression to begin.

"Do you think we should hide his Zanpakuto?" Mashiro asked in slight concern.

"It would make things worse. If he couldn't find it, it would just make him more frantic." Love answered with his arms folded.

Ichigo's body continued to struggle against the binding placed on his body, but he managed to raise his head high enough that his face could be seen, but half of it was taken by the incomplete Hollow mask, and his eyes were yellow along with having black sclera. He then managed to break out, shattering the five pillars as he managed to stand up.

Lisa got up from the ground, holding her sheathed sword as she volunteered to go in first. "Hachi, open it up please. I'm the one on the duty today." she ordered.

"Alright, Lisa." Hachi nodded his head before he went on to open the barrier by moving his finger.

"Let's try not to kill him, Lisa." Shinji made sure to remind her of the task.

"Yeah, if he doesn't kill me first." Lisa sarcastically replied back with a dry tone before getting inside the barrier. It closed up once she was inside, seeing the Hollowfied Ichigo grinning madly at her before he went to pick up the sword. Lisa merely unsheathed her sword before pointing it at him. "My name is Lisa Yadomaru, nice to meet ya."

Ichigo unsheathes his own sword before charging at Lisa like a lunatic, now the fight on the outside world has begun as well.

Ichigo got pushed back in the air when the Hollow swinged his sword down at him. Hollow Ichigo came back at him once more, but now both of them were pressing their swords at one another. "Just answer me, damn it! I'm asking you what the hell did you do to Zangetsu?!" he demanded to know.

Hollow Ichigo smirked at this, being amused by the question. "Since you can't seem to understand something that's in front of you, let me explain it better!" he exclaimed before he forcefully pushed Ichigo back, as the king crashed down on the building. Hollow Ichigo got down on the same building, seeing Ichigo trying to get up. "Ichigo, you may not be aware of this… but Zangetsu and I have always been one and the same. Together we're your Spirit Energy. I used to be a part of him, we even shared the same body. But as our relationship began to change, so too did our individual appearances. When life takes over, the flesh covers the bones. But when death takes over, the bones become exposed. It's the same with Zangetsu and I. Over time my power increased so much that control started switching over to death, and Zangetsu became a part of me. The more you draw on Zangetsu's power, the easier it became for me to dominate your soul."

'... I get it now. His influence must have gotten so strong that he overpowered Zangetsu, so he's taking control and in a way he is Zangetsu?' Ichigo thought to himself, now understanding just what he needed to do. "So in other words… if I beat you right here, then Old Man Zangetsu will become the center of my power again?" Ichigo then pointed his sword at his Hollow, as he was in his Bankai stance. "If that's all it takes, then I'm taking you down right here!"

"You're starting to get a clear picture. But it doesn't really matter, because you won't be getting out of this so easily!" Hollow Ichigo performed the same stance as well, pointing his sword at Ichigo.

Ichigo became surprised by this. He didn't actually think the Hollow was capable of using Bankai like he could. He didn't know how, but right now he needed to finish this.

"BAN—"

"—KAI!"

An large scale explosion took over the entire skyscraper in a instant, and shook the entire city like some earthquake. If anybody else were in here, they would have covered their eyes from the blind light. There was nothing but smoke covering the air of the sidewayed Inner World before it cleared up as Hollow Ichigo swiped it away with his sword, now shown to be in his Bankai, along with Ichigo as well in his black Bankai. They Flash Stepped at one another before they clashed again with their swords.

"Asshole! When the hell did you have time to learn Bankai?!" Ichigo demanded to know.

"That should be obvious! I learned it at the same time you did!" They released their own Getsugas at one another, destroying some of the buildings in doing so.

The two of them clashed, and looked as though they passed through one another when they landed on opposite sides before charging again, using their Flash Step at each other as they fought with their swords. They moved fast enough to the point where there were nothing more than black and white blurs moving in the air, with sparks coming out.

Hollow Ichigo gained an edge by swinging a horizontal attack that aimed at Ichigo's head, who raised his sword vertically to block. This left the Soul Reaper vulnerable as Hollow Ichigo then kicked him in the gut hard enough to send him to a building. Ichigo crashed on it, and grunted from the pain from the kick he felt before looking up to see his Inner Hollow coming down right at him. Ichigo quickly responded by coming back right at him, and once more their swords clashed, engaging in a locked position before they split up on opposite sides.

"Why are you being so uptight?! Get that chip off your shoulder and have some fun here!" Hollow Ichigo exclaimed before coming at Ichigo, with their swords locking with one another once more. "You should revel in the fight, enjoy it!"

"Screw off already!" Ichigo pushed his Hollow away from him. "Getsuga Tenshou!" he launched his black energy attack right at his Hollow, who merely scoffed before splitting it in half with just his hand. 'He blocked it with his bare hand?!' Ichigo thought in shock.

Hollow Ichigo smirked at Ichigo's shocked reaction before using his Flash Step to close the distance between them. They clashed again, but this time Hollow Ichigo was shown to be above Ichigo's position, and brought his other hand onto his sword. "Getsuga Tenshou…" he whispered, and Ichigo widened his eyes before a strong blast came from the sword, engulfing him and some of the buildings as well.

Lisa brought her hand on the ground as she spun her legs, continuously kicking the uncontrollable Ichigo, who blocked one of the blows before he wildly kept attacking, with Lisa doing everything she could to dodge. Outside the field, Kensei was holding his watch to see how much time passed while sitting on a boulder.

"10 minutes. Time's up." Kensei got up from his seat before looking over at Hachi. "Hachi, time to switch." he ordered, and Hachi nodded his head, knowing what he had to do.

Back inside, Ichigo horizontally slashed Lisa's left arm, spraying some blood in doing so. She looked up to see Ichigo lunging at her from above with its sword, and was about to slash her open before Kensei showed up, brutally elbowing Ichigo's gut which sent him far back away from both of them. "Time's up, it's my turn now." he said, before he threw his watch at Lisa.

Lisa nodded her head, leaving the barrier by herself. Kensei picked up his Zanpakuto as it already became released in its Shikai form. Kensei saw Ichigo getting back up before it charged at him. "My name is Kensei Mugurama, and I'm the one who's gonna kill you."

Outside the barrier Shinji was watching the battle unfold in front of him. 'Stop messing around, Ichigo. If you don't finish this quickly, we'll be forced to kill you.' he thought to himself.

Blood was dripping in the air from Hollow Ichigo's sword, as he looked at Ichigo, whose top half of the Bankai cloak was mostly gone, but some of it still covered Ichigo's chest. The Hollow could clearly see the King taking a few breaths.

"I told you, you're not good enough. Didn't you notice? I was the first one to use the Getsuga Tenshou after we released our Bankai for the first time… and you? All you did was watch my technique, you tried to imitate me and failed miserably. You really are incompetent, ya know that?" Hollow Ichigo remarked, watching Ichigo continue to pant. Hollow Ichigo already got in front of him via Flash Step, and he put his hand on Ichigo's black sword. "You might as well just give it up, because at the rate you're going…" The black sword started to reform in its opposite colors. "You'll never be good at using your Bankai properly." he said, before the once black sword that turned white started to crumble.

Ichigo watched in utter shock as his sword disappear before his eyes, and he couldn't do anything to stop it at all. What could he do now?!

Lisa was panting for air, with her hands on her knees before she looked up at Shinji. "How much of a break do we get?" she asked, really wanting to save energy after that grueling survival. Never did she expect for the Hollowfied version of Ichigo to be this powerful, and in it's current state it was nowhere close to being full Hollow. If it was this powerful, just how much stronger would it get? The thought of this began to scare her.

"With us rotating on the schedule, it's 10 minutes times 8 people so that makes it 80 minutes." Shinji answered.

"It isn't times 8 you idiot! You can't count her so it's only 7!" Hiyori rebuked, as she had recently regained her consciousness and was explained on the current situation of the events.

Shinji groaned from this. "Fine, it's 10 minutes times 7 so it makes 70 minutes then."

'Wait a minute, this doesn't sound good. I'm only supposed to draw the barriers, but they're including me in the fighting calculations.' Hachi thought, now confused and somewhat worried if he would have to end up fighting against the Hollowfied Ichigo or not.

Lisa continued to pant more. 'Ichigo is strong… a lot stronger than I thought he'd be' she thought. "You better be careful fighting him out there, Kensei, cause if you're not… there's a possibility you might die."

Back inside the field, the possessed Ichigo tried to cut Kensei, only for him to sidestep out of the way and kicked Ichigo in the air, only for him to lunge in mid air, trying to cut through Kensei's head multiple times but he only managed to scratch his cheek to draw some blood. Kensei counter attacked by grabbing his Zanpakuto, and sliced Ichigo's shoulder, only for the cut to be instantly repaired by white goo. "Instant Regeneration…" Kensei murmured.

Ichigo backflipped to a boulder before bouncing back at Kensei, however the Vizard pulled his hands back and formed them to fists before pressing them together as it charged a bright ball of energy.

"He's pretty serious, what's up with him?" Hiyori asked with a cheeky grin.

"Don't get cocky, you'll see once you get there." Shinji replied bluntly, making Hiyori scoff at the response.

Back at the battle, Kensei launches the blast from his hands, giving a point blank hit against Ichigo, causing a strong explosion to occur. When the smoke cleared, there was only half of Ichigo's body remaining from the direct contact. Kensei widened his eyes in shock when he saw that the body regenerated instantaneously, and a huge worm-like creature came out of the possessive Ichigo, making Kensei defend himself with the knife as he was easily getting pushed back. "What the hell is this?!"

The gray haired Vizard focused again, quickly charging his attack which managed to blow up the massive worm. Kensei saw that Ichigo was still in the same condition like nothing happened, except his left arm was pure white with white claws coming out from the fingers with dark red markings from the arm. "You're transforming faster than we expected." Kensei remakred.

'Ichigo's internal battle with his Hollow needs to be finished within 1 hour… not counting Hachigen, there's 6 of us left before it becomes my turn again.' Lisa thought. "If this battle comes back all the way to me, he'll be done for…"

"You sure are a miserable sight to look at…"

Ichigo snapped himself back, looking around to see where he was at now. He was in a completely different place… which wasn't his Inner World at all. And right in front of him stood none other than... Jin Kariya… who was supposed to be dead…

He didn't wanna believe this. It had to be fake. "Kariya…?" Ichigo spoke his name, as if trying to see if this was real. He shook his head, refusing to accept this. "No, you can't be real. You have to be an illusion of some kind. I saw you die."

Kariya merely shrugged his shoulders. "You might just be right. However… that all depends on how you view this. Most illusions are seen with the heart, not the eyes. You made a replica of me that's deep within your soul. That suggests that your heart is full of doubt, regretting that you killed me." he saw Ichigo glaring at him. "The truth of the matter is that whenever you finish a battle, the fallout of it weighs heavily on your mind. Afterwards, you turn your back on the enemy you defeated and the friends you couldn't protect." Ichigo clenched his fists, giving the former Bount a scowl. "Be honest with me, Ichigo, are you that afraid of moving forward to the next fight? Are you that afraid of walking the same path I took?"

"Fuck off! I'm nothing like you to begin with!" Ichigo angrily exclaimed.

Kariya grew an amused smirk from such a childish response. "I'm afraid to tell you this but… you don't sound very convincing." Kariya got directly in front of Ichigo and grabbed his wrist, and Ichigo struggled to escape his grip. "Though I'm curious, what happened to your Zangetsu?" Ichigo didn't say anything except making futile attempts to escape. "Do you think you've become so strong that you can beat me with your bare hands now?! Is that it?!" Kariya threw Ichigo away from him, roughly rolling on the ground in doing so. "What a shame, it appears you lost your Zangetsu. Now you know how it feels to be helpless. In your current condition, you're as weak as a small child."

"Shit…" Ichigo tried to get back up so he could somehow try to defend himself. "I… need to…"

"You really want a weapon that badly?" Kariya looked annoyed. "Fine, then I'll give you one!" It was just then that a torrent of wind came from Kariya's arms and launched them straight at Ichigo, who yelled over as he was forcefully sent backwards further away.

The area around them changed. Ichigo's outfit became dirty from the ground he was rolling onto. He got up, and looked around to see that he was somehow back in the Bankai training area he was in before. How did they change locations all of a sudden? Ichigo looked around to see various different shapes of Zangetsu, just like the ones from his training. There was even one where it had his Bankai sword that stood right next to him.

"You wanted a weapon, didn't you?" Ichigo looked over to see where Kariya, which the Bount only stood at the top of a mountain. "You can choose whichever one you want. They're your swords, aren't they?"

Ichigo looked over at the Bankai sword that was next to him, and becoming desperate he began to move his hand to pick up the hilt… until he moved it away. 'No. I almost forgot… Zangetsu isn't here right now. He lives within me…' Ichigo thought to himself.

Kariya noticed the stillness on Ichigo not moving from his spot. "What's the matter? Are you going to pick up a sword or not?" the Bount asked before his arms started to get wrapped around the hurricane of wind. "If you don't pick anything up, then how will you be able to defend yourself against this?!" Kariya unleashed a torrent of strong wind, being formed into a ball as it charged straight at Ichigo.

'I got a surprise for you, ya prick…' Ichigo turned around to face the ball of wind. "Zangetsu!" He summoned the sword within him and fired off a Getsuga Tenshou, which cut the ball of wind and travelled further until it split the mountain in half, but Kariya merely stepped out of the way. "Hah! Tell me, does this Zanpakuto look familiar to you?!" Ichigo exclaimed as he pointed his familiar oversized cleaver at Kariya.

Kariya was merely amused by this as he shook his head. "You seem to be confident in the weapon you have in your hand… but you know something? You really are just pathetic."

"What's that supposed to mean?!" Ichigo demanded to know.

"How about you try to take me down before you start demanding? It shouldn't be too hard, should it?" Kariya then appeared himself to be in front of Ichigo once more, but this time Ichigo swung his sword right at him, to which Kariya grabbed the cleaver without so much as an issue with just his bare hand. "Just give it up… you'll never be able to cut me down, especially with a sword that's filled with regret from our last fight."

Kariya pushed Ichigo closer to him before he got behind and elbowed the back of Ichigo's head, making him fall down on the ground, with a crater being formed. Ichigo turned his head to glare openly at the leader of the Bounts, but Kariya wasn't the least bit threatened. "Let me be perfectly honest with you… this is something you don't understand about battle. The fight never ends. After you defeat one enemy, a stronger opponent will eventually show up, and if you manage to defeat that one, an even stronger enemy will show up. If you don't have the resolve to endure such an eternal struggle, then you will eventually succumb and die. But it doesn't end there, the battle always continues elsewhere, fought by others. It's an endless cycle! And it's not just limited to a person's existence on the physical plane. Believe me, as long as people and their souls exist they will dispute, and those disputes will lead to fights, and those fights last for an eternity, no matter how hard you try running away from it!"

"That… can't be true." Ichigo started to get back up. "Can't there just be another way besides just jumping into some mindless bloodshed? Couldn't there just be a way of saving others instead without spilling blood? Or at least give a proper reason? In fact, I think you're full of it!"

Kariya was infuriated by this. "You fool! You refuse to accept the truth before your eyes?!" Kariya's body became surrounded by the power of the wind, sending Ichigo flying away in the air. Kariya reappeared in mid air, punching Ichigo in the stomach which made him cough up blood. Kariya picked up the boy by grabbing his collar. "Trust me, Ichigo, those who have power will eventually be drawn into battles. It's how most of the Bounts came to exist… I was a witness to those, a naive idealist just like you!"

Kariya threw his other fist and hit Ichigo square in the face. But it didn't stop there, as Kariya continued to beat Ichigo up continuously, making him his own punching bag. Ichigo desperately tried to fight back by swinging his sword at Kariya, to which the Bount leaped away right behind him. Ichigo quickly turned around to swing his sword from behind, to which Kariya grabbed the cleaver with his bare hand again. Ichigo was becoming frustrated. He didn't understand, he was stronger than before, so couldn't he at least be able to cut him? "For fuck's sake…" Ichigo cursed in frustration.

Kariya sighed in disappointment. "You're still going to fight with this weak sword?" Kariya moved the sword away, and with his strength Ichigo felt as though Kariya could bend it on his own if he wanted to. Kariya promptly glared at him. "What's the matter with you? Don't you have even a little pride in yourself?" he saw Ichigo widen his eyes from this before looking down, as if though he was just an angry child. "Kid… just grow up already."

It was at that moment that Kariya's body started to disintegrate with white particles being removed from his body, making Ichigo's eyes widen…

Snapping back to reality, Ichigo looked down and saw that his sword disappeared completely, in the same manner Kariya disappeared just moments ago. "Zangetsu…?" Ichigo stood in shock, questioning everything that just happened.

"That ain't Zangetsu anymore. I keep telling you…" Hollow Ichigo crushed the last remaining piece of Ichigo's sword. "That I am Zangetsu!" he then grabbed Ichigo's face and threw him to a building, making the building crumble apart from the impact. "It never ceases to amaze me how clueless you can be." Ichigo was now revealed, as more blood was shown to be bleeding from his face. This was getting frustrating. Just what will it take to convince him? "Say, Ichigo…" Hollow Ichigo threw his sword vertically before he stuck his finger through the open space of the chain sticking and started spinning it. "Can you tell me the difference between a king and his horse?"

"What the hell are you on about now?" Ichigo asked in annoyance.

"I don't mean kiddy shit like 'One's a person and one's an animal' or 'One has two legs and one has four'. If their form, ability, and power are exactly the same, why is it that one becomes the king and controls the battle, while the other becomes the horse and carries the king?! That's what's puzzling! What is the characteristic that distinguishes these two beings?!" Hollow Ichigo asked as he stopped spinning his sword.

Ichigo didn't say anything, as he had no answer to give to such a strange question. How would he know what it was… teamwork perhaps? Was that the case? Hollow Ichigo could see the puzzled look on his face. "There's only one answer to that… INSTINCT!" Hollow Ichigo answered this with a wild grin shown on his pale face. "In order for identical beings to get stronger and gain power, they need to develop a killer instinct! And that instinct must be forged in battle! They must develop a thirst to engage in battle! They must live to mercilessly crush, shred, and slice their enemies! This thirst for power is not an unnatural desire! In fact it forms the very essence in our being! Deep within our bodies lies a honed instinct to dominate and slaughter our enemies! But you my friend don't have that! You don't have those pure, base instincts! You fight with your brain! You try to defeat your enemies with reason and logic! And the simple matter is it doesn't work! You're trying to cut them with a sheathed sword even if you refuse to admit it! That's why you'll never progress in your current rate, Ichigo!"

The next thing Ichigo knew was that his Inner Hollow threw his sword right at him, and it went right through his stomach. There was some smoke seen, with the heat of how much the Hollow was spinning the sword. "I won't put up with that… you hear me? I don't know about Zangetsu, but I refuse to carry a king who's uncertainty and hesitation will end up getting us both cut to pieces!" he started walking over to Ichigo. "If you aren't willing to look through your strength and retain the crown, then I'll destroy you…" he got in front of Ichigo, and grabbed the handle of his sword, giving off a sadistic smirk. "And then… I'll be king." he started pulling his sword away.

Was it all true? Was he really nothing more than a naive idealist like Kariya said he was? Was this why he lost his sword and was about to lose this fight? All he wanted was to just protect others by gaining power… but was that really all he thought it was about? All this time he was berated for being foolish… and what if they were right?

Instinct.

He became afraid of his Hollow, and that fear was starting to consume him, and with hesitation slowing him down… yet meanwhile his Hollow was so carefree and not the least bit tense, despite the psychotic nature he has. He knew Kariya still berated him for his lack of resolve for just not wanting to fight to begin with and not finishing his job.

The desire to seek battle.

So in other words… he was soft. Maybe there was more to this than he thought. He didn't want to be someone who cared only about fighting. But he didn't understand about being thrilled of a fight that would seriously injure your opponents, especially enjoying something like that. But… what if his hesitation really was something that would end up getting him killed later on? If that were to happen… who would end up protecting everyone else?

Sword.

If that's what it took to gain more strength and to enter in a mindless bloodshed… if it could make him better than it did before and protect everyone else… then he sure as hell would have no complaints anymore. He gathered up his resolve to fight back.

So with that said, Ichigo aggressively picked up the sword from the Hollow, and the color started to switch over to black before it began to surface much farther. Hollow Ichigo widened his eyes in shock when seeing this, and quickly backed away. The blackness had gotten to him as well, though it only affected his hand.

Ichigo opened up his eyes, once more finding himself to be surrounded in a different world. He was lying on the ground, and he saw that the sky above him was blood red, along with destroyed buildings that were just floating in air.

"What… where am I?" Ichigo asked, as he tried to scan the surrounding areas he was in. He didn't really have time to think, as someone struck their sword on the ground right next to his head. "Waaaah!" Ichigo quickly rolled around several times before gaining enough distance and got up to look to see Kenpachi standing in front of him.

"So it looks like you're finally awake, eh kid? I was starting to wonder if you might be dead." Kenpachi said, as he casually rested his sword on his shoulder.

"Kenpachi? What are you doing here? How did you get here?" Ichigo asked before he unsheathed his sword, just in case the mad barbarian tries to fight him. "Wait, are you an illusion of some kind as well?"

"Kenpachi? Who the hell is that? Oh well, it makes no difference…" Suddenly, Ichigo felt like he was being pulled much closer by some unknown force. "Cause I'm here to kill you!" Kenpachi exclaimed before he brought his sword down at Ichigo, who only proceeded to raise his sword to block it instead.

Love backflipped a couple of times to get away from a dark enhanced Getsuga blade that came at him. He got surprised when some blood popped up from his shoulder, and looked over at Ichigo, who at his current stage was fully Hollowfied, who looked far more like a lizard. "Well it looks like he's completely Hollowfied now... who woulda thought." Love commented.

'By the time Love began his turn, 60 minutes already passed. It shouldn't be long now before it's my turn again' Lisa thought to herself, being worried at what the outcome would be. What was more worrying was how long this was taking. "Kensei! What's the longest amount of time any one of us has controlled our Hollow?!"

Kensei looked over at the watch. "It was Hiyori at 69 minutes and 2 seconds." he answered.

"How many minutes has it been now?" Lisa asked.

Kensei was slightly hesitant to answer. "68 minutes… and 44 seconds."

"Would you cut it out already?! We settled things a while ago!" Ichigo exclaimed as he struggled to hold back the giant before him. Eventually Ichigo had to get away as he leaped over backwards.

"Settled things? One thing was never settled." Kenpachi started walking to Ichigo. "This is a battle of swords, not some fist fight. As long as one of us keeps breathing, then this fight is not over."

"So why are you making this a fight to the death?! There isn't a reason for that!" Ichigo remarked.

"You mean you need a reason... to fight? Why don't you just accept it, Ichigo? You enjoy fighting as much as I do. You crave power, isn't that right? And anyone who truly loves power, loves to measure that power in a battle. It's a simple fact! The question is: do we fight in order to gain more power, or do we gain more power in order to fight? I haven't figured it out yet… but who cares. Because one thing is certain…" Kenpachi's eye glowed before he waved his arms in the air. "Because there is no reason we should ever deny it or try to change it, because we were born this way! You have always wanted to fight and you always will! It's a part of you! You do it instinctively! You have no choice but to fight! Because it's the only way to gain power! FIGHT, ICHIGO!" Kenpachi began to scream at the top of his lungs. "IF YOU WANT TO CONTROL THAT POWER, TAKE YOUR SWORD AND CUT DOWN YOUR ENEMIES! THERE IS NO OTHER PATH! THERE IS NO WAY TO MOVE FORWARD! NOR FALL BACK! NOW FIGHT, ICHIGO!

Fight.

He understood what he needed to do now.

Ichigo ripped the sword right out of him, and blood spurting out in doing so. He didn't give a damn about injuries anymore. He looked back at Hollow Ichigo, who looked to be shocked by this, as if he hadn't expected something like this to happen. Ichigo's eyes glowed a faint blue light as it grew resolve to embark killing intent behind them. He will not pull out his punches. Ichigo began to spin the handle of his sword before grabbing it and charged straight at Hollow Ichigo.

The fully Hollowfied Ichigo now began charging a Cero from his fingertips, something that nearly shocked everyone when sensing the sheer power behind it. ''It's a Cero! Get away from it!" Lisa warned her companion

"Don't worry, I got this!" Love replied back before he began to put his hand on his face, about to use his mask to protect himself.

"Do you think he's gonna have to use his mask?!" Mashiro asked.

"Of course he has to, he's not an idiot. Even Love must Hollowfy in order to block that, the Spiritual Pressure is too intense." Rose answered as he stood right next to her.

What happened next shocked everyone, as blood suddenly exploded from the possessed Ichigo's shoulder, screaming in pain with more blood coming out from his own body.

"What's going on?!" Lisa asked in confusion.

"Hachi, get Love out of the barrier, now!" Hiyori ordered.

Hachi immediately did just that, with the barrier opening up as Love managed to get out in time while the Hollowfied Ichigo writhed in agony.

Ichigo successfully managed to push his sword right through Hollow Ichigo's body, stabbing him through his torso. Nothing was said between them, right until a curling black void erupted from Hollow Ichigo's back. "Well I'll be damned… what do you know... I guess I must have been wrong about you. It looks like do have a little bit of that killer instinct after all."

Ichigo didn't say anything, but instead he only looked up and gave his Inner Hollow a glare, still prompted by the killer instinct he just developed. "Fine, you defeated me. You win the fight for now. I guess I have no choice, I'll have to accept you as the king. You got a good look on yourself right now, and if you keep that up you might actually get us somewhere." Hollow Ichigo grabbed the black sword, as his form started to disappear. "Still, I wouldn't want you to forget... while you're strutting around like a king on his horse, I can take that crown away anytime. I'll keep an eye on you in the moment I sense the slightest weakness; I'll toss you to the ground, stomp on your skull and crush it like an egg!" despite the threat, Ichigo wasn't remotely intimated. ''Although… just one last piece of advice before I go, if you're serious about controlling my power, all you have to do is remember one thing… don't get yourself killed before we meet again!" Hollow Ichigo gave Ichigo his own energy through the sword, which made the king widen his eyes.

There was a large blue light that surrounded the barrier right before an explosion occurred by from the entire barrier. When it became clear, everyone could see Ichigo in the full hollow form, but Ichigo fell on the ground face first, and the monstrous form started breaking apart, revealing Ichigo in his still beat up Bankai form but was wearing his new Hollow mask.

"Now, Hachi." Shinji commanded. Hachi did that by snapping his fingers, making the barrier get destroyed as Shinji walked to the fallen Ichigo.

"Gee, he looks pretty banged up. Do you think he'll be alright, Hachi?" Mashiro asked, but Hachi only silenced her with a shush.

Shinji got over to Ichigo's fallen side. ''So, how do you feel?" he asked.

Ichigo looked up and gave a smirk, feeling as though a heavy weight was lifted off him, feeling so light compared to before. "Fine… not bad at all."

Shinji responded with a toothy smile. "Very good."

"I'll keep an eye on you in the moment I sense the slightest weakness; I'll toss you to the ground, stomp on your skull and crush it like an egg!"

Remembering the words themselves, Ichigo weakly brought his hand to his Zanpakuto. He smiled when he didn't sense even a trace of the Hollow left. 'Hate to break it to ya… but that ain't gonna happen.' he thought to himself.