After arriving at his home, much to Ichigo's surprise his father didn't comment anything instead it was his two sisters who did. He just gave an excuse of having a night out with Chad and ate breakfast before going back to his room to take a nap for a while.

Ichigo was woken up from his sleep by a light pat on his cheeks by Yoruichi's paws. "Hm?" Ichigo voiced out still in his sleep.

"Something happened to Rukia. Kisuke wants to meet you to discuss some matters related to her," Yoruichi told Ichigo with a serious face.

"Let me wash my face first," Ichigo said as he got up from the bed and went to the washroom. After a while, Ichigo went out and along with Yoruichi on his shoulder went to Urahara's shop.

"Why does he want to meet me though?" Ichigo asked Yoruichi while they were on the way.

"I'll only tell you this, choose wisely. Any decision you'll make will have severe implications for the rest of your life." Yoruichi said not explaining anything further and Ichigo also didn't pester her with more questions as the two soon reached the shop.

A few minutes later, Ichigo and Kisuke were sitting with their legs crossed in front of a small table facing each other as the scent of warm tea permeated the air.

Picking up the cup in his hand Ichigo took a sip as he continued to listen to Kisuke's words.

"…so that's all that happened. In short, Rukia has been imprisoned wrongfully and is likely to face severe punishment in the soul society by the central 46 so I wanted to ask you whether you're willing to help us in saving her?" Kisuke said after explaining everything to Ichigo.

"Well…if that place is filled with such powerful people then what makes you think that I would be of any help to you? Wouldn't it be similar to suicide if I go to the soul society to save Rukia with my current abilities?" Ichigo asked trying the test the waters.

"He's right Kisuke. He's too weak and won't be able to help me in any way." Yoruichi said showing that she too didn't agree with Ichigo accompanying her on the mission.

"If you know what I know Yoruichi then you wouldn't be saying that," Kiskue said with a smirk as he looked towards Ichigo and continued "You don't need to underestimate yourself so much Ichigo, let me tell you this straight away, you have the ability to rescue Rukia and I can help you by unlocking that ability but before that let me tell you this…there's no going back after this."

Kisuke told Ichigo trying to tell Ichigo that he was not forcing him to accept his request but instead, it was all his decision. If it was the former Ichigo he would have believed this but not the current one. Ichigo clearly understood that Kisuke was trying to bait him into accepting the request as any young man who hear that he has some hidden powers locked in him would readily agree to his request no matter what.

Unfortunately, knowing this won't do Ichigo any good as he knew that getting stronger was his only option so he nodded towards Kisuke who was his only option for unlocking his soul reaper powers.

"Good then, this might take a few days and after that, we'll directly be heading to the soul society so you should inform your home to make them worry-free," Kisuke said to which Ichigo nodded as got up and went towards the telephone.

A few minutes later Ichigo came back to Kisuke who had been leisurely fanning himself while lying on the floor as he asked, "Done?"

"Yes, so should we start?" Ichigo asked.

"Alright, let's enter the training facility first," Kisuke said and opened the entrance of the underground area for Ichigo while indicating Ichigo to go in first.

A few minutes later everyone from the shop including Yoruichi was present at the scene as Kisuke was speaking to Ichigo.

"We'll be starting now then," Kisuke said as he thrust his cane right at the centre of Ichigo's forehead which jerked his soul body out of him. Now before Ichigo could react any further he heard Kisuke shout out Tessai's name indicating him to take action.

Tessai axed at Ichigo's chain of fate and dived with him inside a pit that suddenly appeared out of nowhere near him without wasting a single second. Before Ichigo could relieve himself from the pain of falling down on solid ground, Ichigo was already bound by Tessai with his Bakudo spell as he sat down near him in a concentrating position.

Ururu had a proud smile on her face as she saw her hard labour (the pit) being used right in front of her to its fullest potential. Kisuke slowly walked towards the edge of the pit he started talking assuming that Ichigo was too overwhelmed by what had happened and was unable to speak.

"This pit here has a name, it's called the Shattered Shaft and now that you're inside it, your fate chain will slowly eat itself up until you become hollow. Look it has already started." Kisuke said.

Ichigo looked down towards his lower chest to see the chain-growing teeth and started eating itself up quickly before finally stopping.

"As you can see, you don't have much time on your hands Ichigo. What I want you to know is that you have soul reaper powers locked inside of you and you need to unlock it within the next 72 hours if you don't want to turn into a hollow. Do your best to unlock it otherwise, I'll have to eliminate you if you turned into a hollow," Kisuke said.

"At least tell me how to unlock these powers?!" Ichigo asked

"I don't know. Try climbing up this pit while being under this kido…maybe that would help?" Kisuke said with feigned ignorance.

Seeing his attitude Ichgio couldn't help but grit his teeth a bit as he started thinking of how to activate his Shinigami powers. One might think that if he focused on his mind and tried to connect with his inner world and talk with Zangetsu then that might do the trick for him but he had already tried those things way back but all those methods didn't yield any results.

But now that he had no other choice he was forced to repeat the exact same method because he couldn't think of anything else. Ichigo slowly closed his eyes and tried focusing his mind in an attempt to enter his inner world.

Eighteen hours later there was still no sign of progress for Ichigo. Kisuke yawned seeing this as he fanned himself while Yoruichi looked at Ichigo with a worried gaze. "Will he be able to do this?" Yoruichi asked Kisuke.

"He has to, there's no other choice for him," Kisuke said in a serious voice before going back to fanning himself.

Time after Time Ichigo could feel the gnawing pain from his chain as it consumed itself slowly and steadily. The pain was increasing to the point of it was the only thing in his mind even during its inactive period.

As this time passed even more quickly for Ichigo he thought and only when Jinta stepped inside with a basket of fruits did he come to know that only two hours more were left for his hollowfication.

Just like Jinata had warned him before going back up. The last encroachment of the chains was the most painful of them all as Ichigo could feel his mind blackening out the moment it started and slowly and steadily his mind drifted into a different world while his body started the process of hollowfication.

Seeing this change that was taking place in Ichigo's body everyone else got tensed up and got ready to take action except for Kisuke who told them to wait for a little while longer as Ichigo seemed to be resisting.

Ichigo opened his eyes just to see himself now appear in his inner world which was slowly breaking down. He slowly got up on his feet only to find out that he was standing on the walls of a building. But even after realizing this, he was not falling down.

"You came," A voice entered Ichigo's ears which made him turn his head.

"You seem to know who I am…don't you?" Old man Zangetsu said with a grim expression on his face

"Zangetsu…" Ichigo murmured.

"You seem to know my name but why don't I know yours?" Zangetsu said not minding the world that was that started breaking down at a much faster rate.

"Alex," Ichigo replied while having a bad feeling about how things were going on.

"Alex so that's your name. Unfortunately, Alex, this would be both our first and last meeting. My powers belong to only Ichigo and now that he is no more, I don't see any reason to bestow his powers on you, someone who ends up possessing Ichigo's body" Zangetsu said calmly.

"But I'm in Ichigo's body now. Even if I'm not Ichigo, the people outside consider me him and I'll continue to live as him. Isn't that good enough reason for you to help me?" Ichigo said trying to reason with Zangetsu after being faced with this unexpected situation.

"It's quite the opposite for me to be honest. I wouldn't have cared if the outer body changed while nothing happened to Ichigo but that's not the case. I can't accept you, Alex," Zangetsu said as his blade immediately appeared in his hand.

"Worry not though, I won't let you turn into a hollow and instead slay you with my blade so that your soul doesn't perish into the void," Zangetsu said as his figure disappeared right in front of his eyes.

"B-" Ichigo tried to stop him but before he could, his vision slowly started blurring out and finally fell down on the ground without any sign of life. The blade in Zangetsu's hand slowly started breaking up along with Zangetsu which was followed by the rest of the inner world.

Kisuke and the rest who were observing Ichigo's body changing into that of a hollow suddenly saw his body light up for a second before disintegrating itself which surprised them all because of this unexpected conclusion.

"Where did he go?!" Yoruichi asked.

"He didn't go anywhere…he's dead," Kisuke said with a deep sigh which made everyone present there regretful.

_______

"What is this feeling? Where am I going?" Alex's soul said to itself as he travelled through various cracks in the space before finally getting sucked in by one where there was a huge whirlpool waiting for him.

The whole world of Alex's soul started rotating as he couldn't help but feel like puking even though he had no body of his own.

This feeling continued before Alex finally lost consciousness.

________

"Alex! Wake Up! It's time for the classes!" Alex heard a youngster's voice in his head as he got knocked on the head.

"Let me sleep for a bit more Ryuk…" Alex replied in his drowsiness but the moment he did a bunch of memories flooded up his mind which made him scream out loud like a little girl which scared the shit out of Ryuk.

"Hey! What's the matter with you?" Ryuk asked worriedly.

"I just don't feel right today…I'll be taking an off from classes," Alex said.

"You sure? You remember that we have a very limited amount of days we can voluntarily take a leave from classes, right? If we take more than three without any proper reason then us common folks would get kicked out of this academy without a second thought" Ryuk reminded Alex again out of goodwill.

"It's alright Ryuk, I'll still have two more left. I really need an off today." Alex said while massaging his head.

"Alright, I'll be going then. Take care, Alex," With that Ryuk left for the classes.

Alex sat there on the bed all by himself while rubbing his head with his hands as he was still trying to make sense of all the memories that had flooded his mind fifteen years after he came to the soul society.

"From what I can tell, this time period is a lot earlier than where the story started…so after Zangestsu dealt with me…I was sent to the soul society of the past?" Alex looked at his new situation clearly amused as he started thinking about ways to maximize the gains from this opportunity.

A/N: This would conclude Part 1 of this fanfic. The next part which would also be the final would start updating from  15th June 2023. Till then Goodbye.