A jostling feeling that rhythmically bumps his abdomen begins to return consciousness to him as the stale atmosphere of this strange dimension invades his senses. As his eyes open, Ichigo can see the white haori and fourth squad symbol of Captain Unohana's cloak and the strange purple stony ground beneath her feet. He isn't given much time to come to his senses as he feels her hand grab the back of his shihakusho then yank him forwards dropping him haphazardly on the stony floor like a sack of rotten meat. The thud causes the pain from the earlier fight to radiate through his body causing all of his nerves in his chest and hip to feel like they're on fire. "Foolish boy." Unohana's voice is far from motherly, kind and warm. Instead it's laced with pure evil, bloodlust and hatred. As he rolls to the side, he sees that his midsection is bandaged and blood is beginning to pour through his bandages. He looks up to see Unohana looking down at him, her hair no longer braided and her long curved zanpakuto in its sheath at her hip instead of across her back. "I warned you. I warned you to attack with everything you had, to not let Aizen speak. To cut him down with no remorse at your full power. Instead you let yourself be defeated, batted away by that wretch Gin and then left yourself open to get stabbed through the heart. Had you not been our only other shot at killing that insolent pest calling himself a god. I'd have finished the job." She says and Ichigo gets a feeling he has not felt since fighting Kenpachi for the first time. The bloodlust he senses from Captain Yachiru Unohana feels as if he's being flayed alive.

"That was everything I had." He says through gritted teeth, but this prompts Unohana to plant a hard kick to his ribs on the bleeding side, sending him flying through the hall and crashing into the floor.

"Don't you dare lie to me boy." She says, her voice still resonating with evil but no louder than a whisper. "You were holding back... I saw it. I saw the moment you cut the Hogyoku, you felt remorse. You didn't want to kill him, you struck the Hogyoku head on with that blow and even scratched it but pulled back at the last possible second." she says, and deep down Ichigo knows she's right, even in the back of his mind he knows that he loosened the grip he had over his black blade as it made contact. "Now, Rukia is facing him all alone. Forced to pick up after your mess, and in her condition... She won't be able to defeat him either. Stall him maybe. I give it a day on the outside at the most."

"W-what do you mean... her condition?" He asks, picking himself up to one hand as he clutches his aching wound, trying to heal himself with his hollow powers.

"If I sense even for a moment you're trying to rely on your hollowfication. I will gut you." Yachiru says as she suddenly appears in front of him. "I thought your training with Yamamoto would have yielded better fruit. Sure you can control your meager power, but you didn't even sense it."

"W-what are you talking about?" He asks, looking at the gnarly stab wound scar in the center of her collar bone.

"Rukia is with child." Ichigo's eyes widen in horror when he hears this. "Yours... and you let her face off against that monster alone." He remains silent, pushing himself to his feet, trying to limp past her. However, Yachiru grabs the handle of her Zanpakuto and strikes Ichigo hard in the solar plexus with the pommel sending him flying the opposite direction down the hall. "You are not going anywhere... not until you can defeat me. Prove to me that you can kill without mercy, without remorse, give in to your hatred until all that remains is your lust for blood. Then and only then will you be ready to face me. I will temper your hatred, make you what it truly means to be a warrior... or. You will die." She says, and only now does Ichigo realize where he is. The two are standing within the Dangai, the realm between realms leading from the human world to soul society. As he realizes this, his body begins to glow with a green light as Yachiru uses a healing Kido on him to fix his wounds.

"How long have I been out?" He asks, seeing that his blade is being held by her.

"A day in here." Unohana responds as she grabs his blade off of her back. He notices that Zangetsu has returned to its sealed state. The familiar massive nodachi gripped between her fingers like it was weightless. She drops the blade to the ground at her feet before kicking it towards him. "Pick it up." She says as she draws her blade from its sheath. Ichigo nervously does the same, drawing the massive blade from its scabbard and holding out in front of him defensively.

The moment that his back hand touches the base of his sword's handle, Yachiru appears in front of him with her sword raised high above her head striking it down on him. Her eyes looking dead, unimpressed and dim the beady eyes of the most prolific serial killer to ever exist in the history of Soul Society. He sees his own reflection in her eyes and the fear filled expression he didn't even know he was making drives home the severity of the situation he finds himself in. The clash of their blades sends shockwaves through the Dangai, the impact radiating through his forearms causing his bones to creek from the force. The fear building up in his chest forces him to back off to try to catch his breath, his hands shaking from the anxiety. Timidly he looks up at his blade, seeing that the sealed weapon was still intact but had chipped slightly against the blade. "The only way you're going to protect her is through me." Yachiru says before lunging forwards again. Her hair flying backwards as her eyes widened, getting ready to cut into him. Instinctively, Ichigo dodges to the side before slashing underneath Unohana's blade aiming for her midsection and for the faintest of moments, he sees a smirk grow on her face. As his blade cuts into her clothing and then pierces skin slightly she vanishes before appearing behind him and slashing him across his back. She moved so fast he was still swinging at an after image when she struck him. He feels the warm sensation of blood trickling from the wound and the cold burning sensation of the sword cut.

Feeling the pain in his back, his fear begins turning to anger slowly but surely. He grips the blade tighter, straightens his wrists and spins, dragging the massive weapon with him as he slices the air around him trying to catch her once again. This time however, he only manages to catch a few strands of her hair which are sheared away by his weapon. The force of the slash physically cuts the air and throws a line of razor sharp concentrated reiatsu from the edge of the blade. "Failure." She says before running him through, the blade cutting through his spine and through his heart, she had moved to stay behind him as he swung the blade around himself, stabbing her Zanpakuto through the center of his back with a reversed grip. More surprised than actually in pain, Ichigo looks down at the blade protruding from his chest before his knees give out and he falls forwards off of the blade. Yachiru walks out in front of him, allowing herself to be the final thing he sees just like so many others.

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Blinking, Ichigo sees that he's locked blades with Yachiru who flick her blade downwards trying to break through his guard. "The hell was that?! I could have sworn she just stabbed me. I saw the sword... I saw the blood but we're still fighting." His thoughts ring through his inner world as he allows his instincts to drive his movements. Blocking three extremely fast sword strikes before attempting to parry her with the massive blade. This prompts her to back off now. Seeing an opening, Ichigo slams his blade into the ground then lifts his arms into an archer's position summoning his red quincy bow. This time he sees a look of surprise run over Yachiru's face as she tries to close the distance she created. A red arrow forms in the simple bow before he lets go of the string firing it and with that arrow hundreds more quickly follow, flooding the Dangai with hundreds and hundreds of arrows replicating one of Uryu's techniques he had taught him. Yachiru now smiles viciously when he displays this new ability, her blade dancing around her cutting through the storm of arrows he's firing at her. In a fraction of a second she closes the distance, slashing for his neck but he manages to dodge in time. Grabbing his blade and throwing a rear kick backwards and into her stomach as she's above him. The strike was hard enough to launch the first Kenpachi into the ceiling allowing him to draw his blade from the ground. He slashes it upwards into the air as he screams the release command for his blade. "Cleave The Heavens! Zangetsu!" The release of his sword causes the nodachi blade to glow white becoming so bright that Yachiru is forced to look away from the weapon or risk being blinded. As he continues the swing the light emanating from his blade explodes outwards into a wordless Getsuga. The beam slams into the roof of the Dangai exploding violently into a dome of white light that shakes the entire dimension from the explosion.

"His power is evolving. The further he delves into the depths of his might the more his body and weapon adapts to suit his needs." Yachiru monologues, noting a major change in Ichigo's power and the appearance of his blade. Zangetsu has gotten slightly larger and wider, now taking on a flared handle, clip point to the tip of the blade and a shift in the blade's spine. The base of the blade protrudes past his hand acting as a hand guard and gone is the white cloth wrappings that once covered the handle. Instead it's now wrapped in red fine silk similar to a traditional katana but this one isn't curved and protruding from the base is a long chain instead of the sword tail. "Interesting. His reiatsu also feels stronger. Whatever spurred this new metamorphosis in his powers might just save him." Lunging from the smoke, a large circular ring is created out of the dust as she closes the distance. This time Ichigo flips his blade to the side causing her sword to strike the flat of his blade instead of the edge. Yachiru had expected her sealed blade to go straight through his but she's surprised when her sword is deflected by the block. Ichigo takes the slightest of openings against the master swordswoman to bat her away with the flat of his blade then rotate it in his hands so that its edge is facing her then swinging back in the opposite direction.

Just the force of the swing causes a release of energy this time creating a massive blue crescent wall of energy that is flung straight for her. She slices through the projectile attack only to see Ichigo mid swing ready to strike her. Her face turns from a bored expression to one of maddening enjoyment; a wide grin now splits her evil face. She raises her blade to catch him only using one hand to support her own weapon. Her free hand moves downwards as if she's freeing something from her sleeve and Ichigo sees this. She swings her arm upwards launching a large diamond shaped shuriken to fly out and stab him in the right thigh. He grits against the pain, his face contorting into a scowl as he uses it to further his anger. Driving his blade harder downwards, Yachiru feels his energy vibrate along the blade of Zangetsu before its edge begins to glow and her eyes narrow knowing where this is going. "GETSUGA!!! TENSHO!!!" He roars, launching the point blank attack but she had flash stepped away the moment the energy expended. The dome of light swallows Ichigo and covers the room in dust and debris as Yachiru reappears a dozen paces away from the fireball created by his attack. Suddenly something flies out of the smoke and Yachiru barely manages to dodge the spinning blade of Zangetsu as it was thrown by its chain. The edge of the blade managed to catch her on the wrist, cutting all the way to bone before she managed to move out of the weapons path. "I will forge you into the greatest warrior that soul society will ever know." She monologues to herself before kicking the blade hard launching it into the side wall as she counter attacks.

Realizing he doesn't have enough time to recall his blade, Ichigo pulls at the spirit energy from the Dangai. The blue and white spirit particles flood to his hands, collecting themselves into a recognisable shape. As Yachiru launches herself at him through the dust she sees he's summoned two burning white quincy swords in order to assist him in this battle. Such a weapon she hasn't seen in almost a thousand years and this fact excites her. Her blade catches both of Ichigo's swords as he had raised them to block the attack rather than use one to deflect and the other to counter. Seeing this, her expression darkens and she vanishes once more, appearing on the side wall and launching herself towards him. However that isn't the only version of her that does. To his left, another clone of her appears and so too above and behind him. Being unable to tell which is which, he takes a chance and cuts at two of the five clones at the same time. The one coming from his back left and the other from his front right side. However this gamble proves fatal as the one above him plunges her sword through his neck and through his torso the point of the weapon piercing through his lower back. This time, no pain even set in, he just collapsed to his knees and fell forwards.

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The ringing of steel against steel draws his concentration back to the fight at hand, as he deflects an incoming attack with one of the quincy blades on his left side then counters with his right hand this time making a stabbing attack towards her ribs but she's too quick for him to land that strike. "There it is again... I blacked out. I felt the blade stab me and I felt the floor when I fell down but we're still fighting... This is really starting to piss me off!" The deep scowl on his face relaxes slightly as his rage can't even be expressed by his body; instead his eyebrows are furrowed slightly and his eyes darken, losing some of the light in them prior to this. How dare she stand in his way keeping him from protecting Rukia, who is she to block his path when everyone else depends on him to succeed. Isshin, Karin, Yuzu, Uryu, Chad, Orihime, Renji, Ikakku, their faces flash into his mind as he dodges an attack. Buying time, he flings the energy blade in left hand towards her much like she had thrown that dart. The blade impacting hers and detonating into a massive explosion creating the opening he needs. He flash steps away from an incoming swipe, finding the chain of his zanpakuto on the ground he nimbly snatches it from the floor and yanks it free of the wall. The blade launches from the wall and towards Unohana at breakneck speeds. From his other hand he pulls the quincy weapon towards the chain of Zangetsu immediately causing it to catch on fire as white reiatsu burns along the links.

Yanking it backwards he recalls the weapon almost catching Yachiru with the flared back point that protects the hands. When in his grip, the entire weapon now burns with white fire as he begins to spin it violently by its handle. He sees her smile once again as he flings the weapon like a rope dart for her again, this time the fire that burns along the blade spreads itself along the halls blocking her off from attacking him. "Good. Use your anger, your focus. Focus everything you can on defeating me. Delve into the depths of yourself and pull every ounce of your natural power to defeat me." Yachiru wills Ichigo to hear her inner thoughts, conveying them through the battle at hand. His blade slams against hers before exploding outwards in another getsuga tensho, this one occurring the moment their blades touch, giving her no time to react to the blast as she's swallowed by it. "I'm almost impressed, Ichigo. The closer a brush with death you come to, the stronger you become." He hears her voice emanating from the dust and debris the explosion created. Instinctively he recalls his blade to his side to protect himself.

As the smoke clears he sees that her captain's haori had been incinerated by that explosion. Parts of her shinigami robes were also damaged, revealing her almost pristine skin beneath, parts of her abs, thighs, biceps and shoulders were visible. The blast also burned away a portion of the robes that covered her chest exposing half of it to him but he doesn't acknowledge it. Instead his deadly glare is focused at her face seeing the burn marks and blood trickling from her skin. "Be prepared for this next lesson boy. Should you fail it, I will kill you and bring you back over and over again until you pass." She says before bringing her blade out in front of her, grabbing it by the edge and sliding her hand against it. Blood pours from her hand and coats the weapon as it drips to the floor. She spreads her arms outwards forming a wide U shape with the blood trickling down from the weapon. Around her the air begins to grow wet and muggy with the dense coppery smell of blood as the walls themselves begin to bleed. Torrents of blood rain down from the ceiling and the very air of the Dangai, the dimension reeks of death.

"Bankai... Minazuki."