The following morning, Ichigo is awoken by a gentle knock at the side of the rice paper door. A woman's voice, probably one of the Kuchiki maids, rings out, "Lieutenant Kurosaki, Lord Byakuya has requested you join everyone for breakfast." She says as the orange haired man stirs from his sleep. He stretches before yawning widely and rolling from the bed and onto his feet. His spiky hair slightly compressed due to the way he was sleeping, giving him an interesting hairstyle as he opens the door and shuffles out. The sun is just peaking above the horizon, the local time being 5:30am, his hatred of mornings stemming from the way his insane father would wake him up. The shorter woman offers him a glass of water before leading him from the guest rooms to the dining room. Upon entering the maid steps slightly to the side allowing him to enter, there he finds Rukia seated next to an empty spot on a kneeling table, Yoruichi, Isshin and his sisters.

"Ichinii you look like you slept well." Yuzu says seeing her brother's hair in a cowlick off the side of his head. Rukia puts a hand over her mouth and chuckles to herself seeing this from him. However Ichigo just yawns and rubs his eyes.

"I see you're less of a morning person than I was when I was your age." Yoruichi responds as Ichigo takes his seat next to Rukia. "How was last night?" She asks, a smirk present on her face.

"Ichigo was roped into drinking with Captain Shunsui, he started to feel unwell midway through the fireworks and went to bed." Rukia answers, Byakuya pouring a small glass of tea for the tired lieutenant.

"Yeah, I don't think it mixed all that well with the pickled vegetables." Ichigo responds, adding some credibility to the lie. "I ate some ginger and it settled my stomach afterwards, then I went to bed."

"I apologize if anything caused you any indigestion." Byakuya says.

"It's fine, I feel better than I did yesterday and thank you for sticking up for Rukia and I." Ichigo responds, Rukia having to resist the urge to tilt her head onto his shoulder after he says this.

"That mask was scary Ichinii." Karin says drawing Ichigo's attention to her. "Toshiro showed us the picture of it but seeing it up close and feeling the change in your powers was terrifying."

"Ichigo will never use those powers on you, and he won't use them around you unless absolutely necessary." Isshin says, rubbing his hand on Karin's shoulder. "We are going to use those powers to save everyone in Karakura town from Aizen."

"We?" Yuzu asks in a slightly apprehensive tone, her face showing slight fear at the idea. Something that he never wanted to see present on her face, especially when regarding him.

"Yes we, Captain Isshin and myself are also going to be gaining these abilities. Captains Hitsugaya, and Shunsui have also agreed to this." Byakuya explains.

"Karin, Yuzu, They might look and feel scary but even as a hollow I will always protect you. You should never be afraid of me, our dad, Rukia and even Byakuya. Everyone here in the seireitei, minus Kenpachi, is someone who has dedicated their lives to protect innocent souls like you two." Ichigo says, his tone calming and serious letting the two know that everything will be fine. "Even when I was almost completely hollowfied my body and hollow still protected Rukia from what it thought was a threat."

"Changing subjects, how has your training been going Ichigo?" Yoruichi asks, giving Ichigo a suggestive smirk. "I know Rukia and you have trained together, pretty vigorously." Luckily for him, the statement sails right over the twins' heads and Byakuya's.

"I've been training more with Tessai and Old man Yama. Shinji has helped here and there and so has Kensei. I've only managed to train with Rukia twice in the past month, let alone have a chance for us to go on a proper date." Ichigo responds, trying to keep his composure but internally he is glaring at Yoruichi.

"Last night counts as one, and most noble courting traditions involve the couple spending time at larger events rather than private ones. You two probably won't be able to have a private date until after you're married." Isshin responds.

"Ichigo, Tonight Urahara has set up the facility to be able to handle another hollowfication experiment. It is my turn to go through it as Kisuke's test on himself was a success as he is now a vizard as well. I'm sure that he is going to want to show you the powers he has now." Byakuya says. "Head Captain Yamamoto is going to be overseeing this experiment today and you will most likely be dueling me if my body goes berserk like yours did."

"Sounds like fun." Ichigo responds sarcastically, "If that's the case I'm gonna need to learn some more Bakudo." Rukia arches an eye at this statement, turning to look at him.

"You know Bakudo now?"

"Did you use it last ni-"

"Bakudo number 2 Chinmoku." Ichigo says, causing a kido bound muzzle to materialize from his hand and clasp his father's mouth shut. "Bakdo number one; Sai." He says causing clear brown like chains to clasp Isshin's hands behind his back leaving him bound and gagged.

"Thanks Ichinii, I was getting a headache from him." Karin jokes prompting the rest of them to chuckle at Isshin's expense.

After leaving the Kuchiki estate, Ichigo felt a bit of relief that Byakuya was none the wiser that he had sex with the noble's sister in his own house. Once he was outside he immediately made his way to the first division barracks where old man Yama would be waiting for him. He made especially sure to avoid going near the 11th squad's barracks not wanting to get chased and attacked by Kenpachi. Shinji had an appointment with Momo in the 4th division psychiatric ward so it's likely that the two won't have to do any paperwork today. Arriving into Yamamoto's office he finds it vacant but the doors behind his desk are open for a change, peering through them he sees the head captain sitting in a meditative position in front of a personal zen garden. "You're late, Kurosaki." His voice rings out from the small garden, the older man turning his head to the side to address the younger lieutenant.

"My apologies Sensei," Ichigo responds, the discipline and respect that Yama had literally burned into him rising to the surface. He is a lot more casual with the other captains and lieutenants but the head captain didn't put up with it. "Byakuya had me stay for breakfast this morning at his estate."

"I hope you ate well then, you'll need the energy for today." Yama says as Ichigo walks up to where the captain is sitting. "What do you see before you?" He asks motioning for his apprentice to take a seat next to him in front of a small pool in the garden.

"Philosophically or literally?" Ichigo asks.

"Your choice." Yamamoto responds.

"Literally, I see the stream, pond and small pools of water that are around your zen garden. The few fruiting trees, rock garden and tilled sand soil." He responds, "Philosophically I see calmness but an underlying stirring beneath it."

"Correct, now how does it pertain to you?" The head captain asks.

"Do I need to calm down?" Ichigo asks, the old man chuckles at the innocent response from the lieutenant.

"You're only looking at the surface with that observation Kurosaki. Further out just past the end of the barracks, the large lake of water. What does that represent compared to you?" He asks, the hint he gave drawing Ichigo's attention to the lake itself.

"My spiritual pressure." He answers.

"You're catching on, so tell me, how does a lake with so much water not flood the tiny streams and inlets that stream off from it?" Ichigo stays quiet for a few moments in deep thought.

"The lake isn't chaotic and churning, it's mostly calm. There's a slight chop on the water but it's for the most part calm. The streams that come off of the lake are small, only letting a small amount of all that water out at a time. So, I have to learn to do the same, limiting the output on my reishi reserve instead of allowing it to flood out."

"Good." Yama says as he stands from his spot. His cane being pressed into the floor as he gets up. "Follow me." He instructs, then he vanishes using shunpo far faster than anyone aside from Yoruichi has used it. He appears again at the edge of the massive lake and waits for Ichigo to follow him and he does so. "With the amount of Reishi you have, only three captains aside from myself are stronger than you. Them being Kenpachi Zaraki, Kyoraku Shunsui and Retsu Unohana. Kenpachi refuses to learn how to contain his spiritual pressure so he limits himself with physical seals. For someone starting out with the amount of spiritual pressure that you do, this is an exercise that will force you to grasp all of it so that you understand what is available to you and from there how to grab small amounts of it to utilize."

Yamamoto takes a deep breath and closes his eyes, standing still with his hands over his cane he begins to let his reishi flow out of him. The heat from just letting his reishi flow from him is enough to make Ichigo sweat even a few dozen meters away from the head captain. As the heat rises the water in the lake begins to churn becoming more active before suddenly lifting upwards in small droplets of water appearing that it is raining in reverse. Ichigo's attention turns from the head captain to the water as it floats upwards being pulled by what feels like a force of gravity focused over the center of the few kilometer wide lake. The water droplets begin to get progressively faster and larger until massive streams of water spray upwards collecting in a large ball over the center of the lake. In mere moments the lakebed is dry with every ounce of water being pulled from the once massive lake. Then the heat becomes pressure as the massive sphere of water condenses into a perfectly flat sphere with no warping of it's shape. A few moments later it begins to change color as it begins to freeze due to the influence of the head captain's spiritual energy being applied to it. Once it's a completely solid light bluish white ball of ice floating above the once filled lake, Yamamoto relaxes causing the water to instantly melt and flood the lake once more. Ichigo stares wide eyed in awe of what had happened, his mouth hanging open slightly as he stares.

"For now, you need to collect every droplet of water from the lake and condense it into a single point. This is your exercise today. I will check in on you in a few hours, I have duties I have to attend to." Yamamoto says before slowly walking away leaving Ichigo with his thoughts.

For the next several hours Ichigo meditated by the lake, using his reishi to allow himself to levitate, it didn't take long for him to figure out how to lift droplets of water from the lake but it was droplets that could barely be considered an afternoon rain shower. The sheer scope of this task seemed impossible but Yama was an excellent teacher and had demonstrated that it was indeed possible to do. He wondered how the old man managed to freeze it despite his power that made him a walking sun. As the hours progressed he began to be able to draw more and more water at a time out of the lake. At first it was a few ounces worth but after he figured out how to draw ounces from the lake, it soon went to cups and then pints. Another hour passed and pints progressed to quarts and from quarts into gallons. There were still millions of gallons in the lake but he was managing to draw out thousands of gallons of water using his reishi to pull the large bubbles of water from the surface of the lake. He toyed with the idea of moving them together to create columns of water that drained in reverse into the massive sphere he was desperately concentrating to keep in shape but it proved to be too much for the moment. So he focused on drawing out dozens of gallons of water as each second passed, eventually managing to empty almost half of the water in the lake, that was until he got interrupted.

"Ah, good afternoon Kurosaki." The ever chipper voice of Urahara called out, the distraction broke Ichigo's concentration causing the water to plummet back into the lake. The plume of water that exploded outwards as the several hundred thousand gallon sphere impacted the lake creating a massive wave that drenched him.

"What do you want Kisuke?" Ichigo growls, soaking wet from the half exploded lake that is churning about in its rightful place trying to settle down. "I'm a little busy right now, old man Yama wont let me stop until I get every ounce of water out of the damn lake."

"He sent me to come check in on you actually, it's almost three in the afternoon you know. I brought lunch." Kisuke responds, gesturing to a small bento box he was carrying. "Your bride to be made it for you, you should feel honored."

"I'll tell her thanks when I see her again." Ichigo says as he walks up and out of the water, he takes the small bento box from Kisuke before taking a seat on the ground and opening it. Rukia had made him a simple bowl of rice, some edamame and tempura shrimp. He grabs the pair of chopsticks from the side of the box before digging into his lunch. "She's a better cook than Orihime." He thinks to himself.

"While I'm here, once you're done with lunch I would like your help with something." Kisuke asks, patiently waiting as Ichigo chows down on his food.

"What do you need help with?" Ichigo responds between bites, part of him knows that when dealing with Urahara it'll probably be something that either attacks him, explodes, doesn't work or maybe some combination of the three.

"I wanna show you the surprise first." The scraggly blonde captain responds, his silly little green and white hat seated over his head. While he was offered to wear the typical white haori of a captain, Urahara still chose to wear his green haori, puffy pants and wooden clogs, though his haori now bears the symbol of the 12th squad on his back. "I take it you're aware of what I'm up to?"

"Hollowfication experiments. Byakuya said it was his turn this morning so I'm guessing that's what you need help with." Ichigo answers, now his interest has been sparked, he lets himself descend to the ground, the curiosity getting the better of him.

"Good, I won't have to bore you with the details, I don't think you'd understand half of them." Kisuke jokes, but the orange haired lieutenant doesn't think it's funny. "Would you like to see?"

"By see do you mean just showing off the progress or do you mean hitting me with it?" He asks incredulously, Urahara chuckles again but Ichigo can sense something more sinister coming from the co-captain of squad 12. Ichigo puts the lid back on the bento box after finishing his meal and stands up, still giving the same look to Urahara.

Urahara picks up his purple cane, grabbing the sheath of the cane sword and removing it from the hidden zanpakuto within. "Awaken, Benihime." He says calmly, the nimble straight sword turning to a Chinese Tang Heng Dao sword with feathered swordtails coming from the pommel. This was the same blade that carved Ichigo's sealed zanpakuto down to just its handle, it was something he felt a bit of fear seeing it again. Kisuke holds out the blade in front of him before letting go of the weapon, causing Ichigo to wonder what was the captain up to. "Weep, Benihime." This was a different command than he had ever heard the captain use, though he had only ever heard Kisuke tell his blade to sing before. The sword floats in mid air, the feathery swordtails begin to float upwards fanning out into four strands. From the tip of each feathered strand a thin strand of greenish black reishi extends up and over Kisuke forming four dots above him. Two over his shoulders and two over his forearms. The strands extend again connecting to the parts of his arms that they hover over. Above him, a cross brace that controls a marionette manifests in the air glowing a sinister green border black. Kisuke raises a hand to his face, grinning at Ichigo as he draws a hand upwards across his face. As his hand moves, the same black green reishi collects under his hand and manifests over his face. Taking his hand away, Kisuke extends his arms out and bends them slightly, posing like a marionette suspended by its strings. The reishi solidifies and then shatters revealing a porcelain white comedy mask, the wide smile plastered on the mask's face is unsettling and down right creepy. Two long lines of green coloration leak down from the eye holes down it's cheeks and down the face. Appearing if the mask was laughing hysterically but weeping in the same moment. The reishi that he is putting out is astronomical, almost forcing Ichigo to strain against the pressure on him.

"Damn that's creepy." Ichigo says looking at the smiling comedy mask that Kisuke is wearing, the captain laughing at this statement.

"Care to spar against me, Ichigo? Same rules as last time, knock my hat from my head and you win." Kisuke's hollowfied voice is just as terrifying, the black mouth of the mask shows no movement as the echoing tone of the hollow escapes between its smile. "Yama asked that I train you a bit, this seemed like the best method to do so. Especially for what we have to do this evening."

"Alright, you're on Hat n' Clogs." Ichigo responds, drawing his blade from behind his back. The large cleaver-like blade unbinding itself from the wrap on its own. He can tell that Zangetsu was itching for a fight.

"Wonderful. I would recommend you using your Bankai Ichigo, I don't want to hurt you but I don't have a lot of control over my new abilities." Kisuke requests as he wraps his hand around the handle of his blade, holding it downwards at a slant angle.

"Yeah, right now you're far stronger than Byakuya was when we fought over on Sokyoku hill and he was going all out." Ichigo responds, extending his blade out in front of him he focuses, letting the repressed reishi burst forth. Even in just his Shikai, Ichigo's unhampered reishi is higher than each of the other lieutenants. "Ban-Kai!" He declares, his body glowing a bright white color as the spiritual pressure sky rockets. The spiritual pressure spins around him creating a whirlwind encompassing his entire body. Ichigo cuts the swirling wind with the black katana causing it to dissipate in an instant. "Tensa Zangetsu." He says as the remaining energy from the vortexes rope out into smaller tornadoes of reishi that become corrupted with his hollow energy turning reddish black as they disappear into the aether. "It might be a good idea to take this to the hill or your training ground. The amount of power we're going to be throwing around is gonna break something and I don't need Rukia or old man Yama mad at me." The lieutenant says.

"You read my mind, my apprentice, let's head up to the sokyoku hill. The scenery is better there and we might have an audience to entertain." Kisuke responds, though he refers to Ichigo as his apprentice, slightly irking him.

The hill itself overlooks the first division barracks, and it didn't take much effort to shunpo up to the top of the hill. Once there the two swordsmen take several paces away from each other, Ichigo still staring into the smiling mask the captain wore. He brings his blade out in front of him in a defensive stance, wrapping both hands around the handle for a tighter grip on his blade. As soon as he tightens his grip Kisuke vanishes, most duels and even sparring matches usually start with someone using shunpo to attack from behind. However, Kisuke isn't like most opponents, he is an interesting fellow and probably the smartest person Ichigo knows. While he expected an attack to come from behind him, Kisuke instead attacks head on, bringing his blade hard onto Ichigo's obsidian black sword. The force of the hit almost dislodges the blade from Ichigo's grip causing the young substitute lieutenant to widen his eyes slightly in surprise. Even behind the smiling mask Ichigo can tell that Kisuke is smirking at him. The orange haired man returns the smirk as he slides his hand along the back side of his sword. Kisuke immediately feels the blade hum with energy as Ichigo says the name of his signature attack. "Getsuga Tensho." The two of them are immediately consumed by a massive black dome of energy unleashed by the bankai blade.