A desolate warehouse district on the outskirts of Karakura Town.
Following a familiar spiritual pressure to this abandoned ruin, a young man—Kurosaki Ichigo—now faced a critical trial that would determine his fate.
'...If you get devoured, that's the end.'
The forbidden Shinigami who had gained Hollow powers—the Visored. Having secured the cooperation of this eerie group to control his inner Hollow, Ichigo was forcibly thrust into the trial of Hollowfication by their leader, Hirako Shinji.
Blue sky. Indigo skyscrapers. An inner world where everything stood perpendicular on all sides.
This was the world of Zangetsu—the realm where his zanpakuto had welcomed him time and again.
"Been a while, hasn't it... King?"
There, clinging to the wall of a massive central building, was that thing. The inner nemesis who had tormented Ichigo endlessly—his Hollow self.
"What's wrong? You're looking pretty down."
"...!"
The white figure with a black grin slowly rose to his feet. Was that meant to be provocative? How infuriating.
Remaining vigilant, Ichigo scanned his surroundings with his eyes alone. Only the two of them were here—that thing and himself.
An abnormality that should never have occurred.
"...Where's Old Man Zangetsu?"
The Hollow snorted derisively at the question.
"Don't tell me you—"
"'Where's Zangetsu?' Same dull bastard as always."
"...What?"
Then Ichigo caught sight of the weapon the man carried on his back, and froze in shock. The massive blade swung down at terrifying speed was...
"I am Zangetsu!"
His own zanpakuto—inverted in color.
"Hahaha!"
"Guh...!"
He barely managed to intercept in time. The two Zangetsus collided with a savage metallic screech. But the equilibrium shattered instantly, and Ichigo was sent flying backward.
So strong. And more importantly—why does this thing have that? As the young man recovered his stance in confusion, the exasperated Hollow spoke to him.
"Ichigo. I don't know if you understand this, but... me and Zangetsu were originally one—yourpower."
"Wh... at?"
Ichigo froze at those words.
The Hollow explained.
Once content to be merely part of Zangetsu, that thing had awakened when Ichigo's clinging to life and thirst for victory—his survival and combat instincts—had intensified. The Hollow who had made Zangetsu his subordinate seized control of Ichigo's power, until finally his dominion reached even the King himself.
"The living are flesh, the dead are bone. When master and servant switch places, so does their form."
"...!"
"Get it? Now that I've replaced Zangetsu, the more you try to draw out Zangetsu's power, the easier it becomes for me to dominate your soul."
That was the truth behind the curse that had plagued Ichigo all this time. The sword he had entrusted with his life as a Shinigami had, at some point, become a Hollow's clawed hand.
"I see."
...Then this was simple. Ichigo pulled back his deflected Zangetsu and aimed its tip at his enemy's center line.
"Then all I have to do is beat you and bring Old Man Zangetsu back to the center of my power!"
His stance was singular. The power he'd gained through even harsher training than his battle with Zaraki Kenpachi, since their last encounter. This power, representing his ultimate bond with Zangetsu, should definitely be enough to strike this thing down.
However.
"You don't get it, do you? It's impossible—I'm telling you!"
"...?!"
His white self mocked Ichigo's prized trump card and assumed a mirror stance.
Then, after both their spiritual pressures exploded...
'Bankai!'
—Tensa Zangetsu—
Through the clearing white smoke stood the figure, gripping a pure white blade with a swastika-shaped guard.
***
Violent shockwaves crumbled the surrounding skyscrapers. Their clashing blades scraped against each other, and mid-way through the disadvantageous blade lock, Ichigo glared at his enemy.
"You bastard... when did you learn Bankai...!"
"'When?' Isn't it obvious? The moment you obtained it!"
"Guh?!"
But the young man was easily overpowered and sent flying. This inner self skillfully wielded his trump card, Tensa Zangetsu, as if it were his own power. Without time to recover his stance, Ichigo was subjected to relentless pursuit.
"Hyahahaha! You're still terrible at this, Ichigo!"
"Damn it...!"
"The Getsuga Tensho in Bankai! Throwing the blade while gripping the chain! You're just an incompetent brat mimicking what you saw me do while caged! Pathetic!"
What fearless, terrifying attacks. Though he desperately clung on with his trembling blade against the enemy's onslaught, Ichigo was swallowed by the sharp killing intent and forced completely on the defensive.
And such a powerless opponent would receive no mercy from a Hollow.
"Tch. After all that setup, and this is what I get."
"Gah?!"
Punched in the face, Ichigo crashed pathetically into the blue skyscraper behind him.
(So strong...)
Empty-handed and reeling from the pain, he could barely stand. The Hollow sighed at such a pitiful sight, then posed a question.
"Ichigo. What's the difference between a king and his mount?"
An abstract question. Not understanding the meaning, the boy asked back through his fading consciousness.
"Don't give me childish riddles. When two with equal power are divided into ruling king and serving mount, what determines their superiority—that's what I'm asking."
"Difference...?"
As Ichigo faltered at the sudden question, the Hollow slammed down his vicious spiritual pressure.
"There's only one answer—instinct!"
No time to digest those words. In Ichigo's widening vision were countless unavoidable Getsuga Tensho.
"What those with power need to unleash even greater power is simply this: an endless pursuit of battle, of strength, an absolute thirst for victory that mercilessly crushes enemies! The honed killing instinct carved into the deepest depths of our souls, at the primordial level!"
While being torn apart by the spiritual blades, Ichigo was trampled helplessly by his white self.
"You don't have that! That raw instinct to survive combat!"
"Gaha...!"
"You dress up your sword with reason and logic, dulling your blade like some pointless ritual! How exactly do you plan to cut me down with such a toy, Ichigo?!"
"Guaaaah!!"
At the end of this seemingly eternal torture, a massive Getsuga Tensho was released point-blank. Blown away by the spiritual pressure, Ichigo finally stopped after piercing through several skyscrapers.
(Can't win...)
Ichigo barely clung to his fading consciousness. But before the grievously wounded boy, his white self descended mercilessly.
Then, just after the figure grabbed the blade of the young man's Bankai—
"Ichigo. You, a half-baked fool—
don't have what it takes to be our king."
The soul's partner in the boy's hand dyed itself the same white as his enemy's blade.
"Wha... t..."
Zangetsu was disappearing. Faced with this unbelievable phenomenon that had suddenly befallen him, Ichigo could only stare in stunned silence.
Little by little, the jet-black blade that had been his pride crumbled from his palm. It felt like everything he'd built was being denied—a sense of loss. Even more helpless than in that battle with Grimmjow, Ichigo's heart plunged into the darkness of despair.
Then.
'—Wake up.'
Suddenly a voice echoed in his mind, and Ichigo's vision cleared. The world he now saw spread before him was that view overlooking the Soul Society.
"Wha..."
Ichigo looked around in confusion. Before him stretched the vast cityscape of the Seireitei. The hard rocky ground beneath his feet cut off like a cliff midway, and ahead stood an execution scaffold towering toward the heavens.
Sokyoku Hill.
The fateful ground where, just last month, he'd fought Byakuya to save Rukia and been instantly cut down by Aizen.
And at its summit stood a girl dressed all in white.
"You're..."
That person. The masked girl who had given him power with a mysterious key and helped him achieve Bankai.
The being who held the reins of his inner Hollow.
The enigmatic subordinate of Aizen with complicated circumstances, who had interfered during the recent Arrancar attack and suppressed Ichigo's rampaging inner Hollow. Neither clearly enemy nor ally.
And probably the same person as the "book-loving big sister" from young Ichigo's memories.
'...Look.'
"!"
The standing figure suddenly pointed behind Ichigo. Following that slender fingertip, the young man turned and involuntarily gasped.
"Getsuga... Tensho!"
Black canopy, rows of cherry-blossom blades, raging dark spiritual pressure.
At the center, two men fought.
"That mask... who are you?!"
"Who am I? If you want a name... call me White!"
The two were Kuchiki Byakuya and Kurosaki Ichigo. The greatest battle that had stood in his way when reclaiming Rukia.
But Ichigo had no memory of this scene. As he stared in shock, thinking it impossible, the girl behind him quietly posed a question.
'Do you understand? Who that other you fighting there is?'
"That's... me..."
'That other you, overwhelming Kuchiki Byakuya one-sidedly. Do you know why that child is so strong?'
At her voice—gentle as if teaching, yet tinged with tension—Ichigo involuntarily gritted his teeth.
...That was a beast.
Like Kenpachi, loving battle, reveling in slaughter, lacking even a fragment of reason or pride—just violence colliding with violence. For Ichigo, who continued to desire power to protect others so that cold rainy day when he lost his mother would never repeat, this was a contemptible, heretical way of fighting.
But still...
'Stronger than you.'
"!"
The girl's words struck true. The overwhelming combat ability of his white self that he'd been thoroughly taught moments ago in Zangetsu's world. The heart reflected in the blade they crossed held only one word without a single cloud—"battle."
Was that the true form a strong person should take?
Could he—having hit the limit of fighting to help and protect comrades, as taught by the soul's other half who gave him this jet-black blade—never defeat that inner Hollow?
Having reached the dead end of the path he'd walked until now, Ichigo's face clouded with anguished despair.
'—Is there only one path for you?'
But what reached the downcast young man's ears was the masked girl's casual question.
'You have many powers, and each has its appropriate path. The power Zangetsu gave follows the path of reason, and that child... the power your Hollow self governs has another path.'
"Each... appropriate path...?"
'Are you really fighting alone? Is Zangetsu's power of reason your only one? Is that other you fighting Kuchiki Byakuya there truly...'
Then the girl's continuing words shattered the boy's rigid assumptions.
—Incapable of becoming your ally?
With that final question, Ichigo's vision was once again swallowed by darkness.
***
"What?!"
Ichigo's eyes snapped open to find his white self before him, posed in shock. Glancing around revealed the horizontal skyscrapers of the original inner world.
And gripped in his hand was his own Bankai, Tensa Zangetsu, returned to its original jet-black and clutched firmly.
"...Here I come."
Instantly grasping the situation, Ichigo charged straight at his white self and threw himself back into battle with him.
"Tch, the seal's gotten stronger. But you still can't beat me with that blade—I already told you that, Ichigo!"
"Guh...!"
"You're still trying to fight me with reason! You can't cut anyone with that! Can't kill anyone! And naturally, you can't beat me either—your new king!"
A tremendous exchange of swordplay. Ichigo challenged with newfound resolve, yet was still gradually forced to retreat by his other self.
'—That child is right, and wrong.'
Then, suddenly, that girl's voice echoed in his mind.
He couldn't see her. But certainly, she had become a force supporting Ichigo's back.
'Reason and instinct. They seem contradictory, but they're not.'
"You..."
What do you mean? Ichigo silently asked back while fighting his white self.
'Reason is armor. In peacetime it becomes a sheath that won't harm your comrades; in wartime it becomes a shield protecting your heart.'
"Protecting... my heart..."
Words that settled perfectly in his chest. Probably, if Zangetsu were here, he'd say something similar.
'Zangetsu taught you how to fight with reason. But the one dissatisfied and alarmed by that was that child.'
"Alarmed...?"
'You'll soon face enemies you can't defeat with reason alone. That child knows this.'
A new perspective that reversed Ichigo's long-held hostility toward his inner Hollow.
(That's right, come to think of it, this guy has always...)
His white self relentlessly striking with that ferocious smile. While somehow enduring, Ichigo interpreted the true intent behind his words and actions as favorably as possible.
When mocking him for thinking he'd mastered Zangetsu just by learning the name. When shouting that the fight with Byakuya would have ended in defeat otherwise. And now, boasting about why his inner Hollow self was so strong.
This guy had only ever told me the truth.
"There!"
"What?!"
With sudden clarity, Ichigo sharply slashed through a momentary opening in his ceaselessly attacking white self. For the first time, that thing was wounded by a strike of unwavering resolve incomparable to anything before.
Seeing this, the masked girl softened the atmosphere around her in his mind. And gradually her voice began to fade.
'Listen to that child's voice. If you do, you'll surely find a way forward.'
"Wait! There's still so much I want to ask you...!"
But his reaching conscious hand couldn't reach her...
—Do your best.
Leaving that faint encouragement with Ichigo, the girl's presence vanished.
***
"She's gone."
Now alone in Zangetsu's inner world, Ichigo called out to his sulking Hollow self, who seemed to be gazing somewhere distant.
"...You noticed her."
"Obviously. Don't lump me in with you, who can't notice without being called."
Always irritating. The annoyed boy nonetheless vaguely sensed something from the man's attitude.
And naturally, his inner hesitation was seen through.
"Want to know? About that person?"
"...! So you do know...!"
Ichigo couldn't help taking the bait at his white self's cocky grin.
He'd suspected for a while. That mysterious "charm" given to him as a child, the seal released just once during Bankai training, that pink spiritual pressure that had twice instantly calmed the rampaging Hollow afterward.
It was entirely plausible they had some connection.
"Kukuku, then try forcing it out of me. If you can beat me, I'll tell even a half-baked fool like you one truth you can understand."
"...Tch, fine."
Of course this guy would say that. Either way, he had to defeat him here or suffer eternal Hollow erosion. Just one more reason to fight.
"This ends it. Let's go...!"
"Yeah, better hurry or the you on the outside's gonna be in trouble."
That said, what came next was a battle of beasts' instincts. Ichigo closed his eyes, searching for the instinct sleeping in the depths of his soul.
Thus the young man threw himself into the final confrontation with his inner Hollow...
"Getsuga—
Tensho!"
And finally grasped in his hands the path of power belonging to mindless Hollows, following combat instinct's pure desire for battle.
"...Here's some advice."
—'Destiny' is better shouldered than resisted... Ichigo.
***
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