//------------------------------//
// Interlude: Sombra's Inner World 
// Story: Bleach: Heart of a Hero 
// by Blackdrag-rose 
//------------------------------//

The first thing that Kisuke did, after ushering both Sombra and Ichigo into the front area of the shop, was have Tessai place a 'We're closed today' sign on the front of the store, after both Ururu and Jinta closed the front entrance of the shop anyway, before they got down to business. Sombra wasn't surprised when he saw the section of the floor that was hiding the entrance to the underground training area be removed, as he had seen it many times during the time when he was the one being trained by everyone at the shop, though at the same time he nearly laughed at the confused look that was on Ichigo's face, as he clearly wasn't expecting something like that. Once the section of the floor was out of the way Kisuke, Tessai, Ururu, and Jinta were the first ones to head down to the underground training area, though after a few seconds both Sombra and Ichigo followed after them, though Sombra knew that the only one that would be able to open the back door, and get inside the shop, was Yoruichi, and something told him that she was going to be busy teaching Orihime and Chad how to summon their powers, since they were likely to say yes to her training.

When they reached the bottom of the ladder Sombra smiled as he stared out at the open area that the training area provided, as it was more than enough space for the two of them to be trained in whatever manner Kisuke wanted them to be trained in... and Ichigo, who took a moment to look around the area, was actually impressed that such a space existed beneath the shop without anyone discovering that it was even here, meaning that it had to be pretty far underground for that to happen.

"What the hell is this?!" Kisuke loudly asked, acting like he had never seen the space before today, trying to sell something to Ichigo, like he and the others had built the entire area in less than a day or something, though that only caused Ichigo's looked of amazement to become annoyance as he turned towards Kisuke, "Who would have thought that there was such a huge space under the store?!"

"Just shut up." Ichigo said, to which he crossed his arms for a moment, as he wasn't sure why there was a need to act at the moment, because he assumed that Sombra had his training in a private area like this, otherwise Soul Society would have found him before last night, "You don't have to shout for us. I'm surprised enough already."

"Okie-dokie then." Kisuke replied, which was followed by him turning towards Ichigo and Sombra, though at the same time he noticed that the Arrancar had already spotted the fact that Ururu had moved on ahead while they were standing there, once more displaying that he was keeping an eye on everything that happened around him, especially when he was with a group.

"Let's get on with it already..." Ichigo said, where he raised his left arm and shoved a finger into his ear for a moment, as he wanted to get the ringing out of his head before they did anything else, while at the same time he closed his eyes as he started to envision what they would be doing down here, "this study group, or whatever it is."

"As you wish." Kisuke stated, to which he lifted his cane and poked Ichigo in the head as he opened his eyes, though because of the cane's special properties he knocked Ichigo's soul, which Sombra found was just an ordinary soul now and not one that was dressed in Shinigami attire, out of his body and sent it backwards across the ground.

As Sombra observed this, with Tessai and Jinta watching from where they were standing, he noted that he couldn't feel any reiatsu coming from Ichigo at the moment and wondered why that was the case, though at the same time he had the feeling that Kisuke was going to explain everything to the two of them, instead of explaining everything twice.

"Dammit!" Ichigo declared, to which he picked himself off the ground and stood up again, where Sombra also noticed that the Chain of Fate was linking his soul to his body, just like they had seen it do when Orihime had been knocked into the spirit realm when a feral Sora attacked her, "Why did you suddenly tap me in the head like that for?!"

It was in the moment after he asked his question that he suddenly started to breath hard and fell to one knee for a moment, though that was interesting to Sombra, as when he was training down here he never experienced something like this and watched them with a look of curiosity in his eyes.

"It's hard to breath while in soul form, isn't it?" Kisuke inquired, as he and the others knew the specifics of how this place was built and knew how to make use of the area for their training purposes, especially since they needed to help Ichigo regain his powers, "Right now your Soul Sleep, the source of your reiatsu, and it's booster, the Chain Link, are destroyed. In other words, right now you're just a normal Human soul with no spirit power, or reiryoku. We can't actually begin your training until we restore your reiryoku to what it once was."

"Then what do I have to do to restore it?" Ichigo asked, as he was tired of all the terms that Kisuke, Rukia, and Sombra used when they were talking about things, as right now he was more focused on getting his powers back so he could save Rukia from the execution that awaited her.

"Well, rather than explaining the rules, we'll just move right into the first lesson." Kisuke replied, to which Sombra raised an eyebrow for a moment, as this was an entirely different type of training than what he went through, since he knew everything that he was supposed to know ahead of time, before Kisuke turned to the side and raised his left hand for a moment, "Hey! You ready?"

"I'm looking forward to working with you." Ururu said, as she had stepped out the moment Kisuke mentioned that they would be moving into the first lesson, though at the same time Sombra recognized the combat gear that she was carrying, as he had taken a few days to fight her with those on.

"Lesson One: fight with her, if you would." Kisuke stated, knowing that if an Arrancar, even one that had no idea who or what he was when the training started, could eventually move onto the next lesson he had planned, with was different than the one he had planned for Ichigo, than the young man could eventually do it as well, "The rules are simple, when one of you is no longer able to move, you will have cleared lesson one. Please, try to knock her out."

"Don't be ridiculous!" Ichigo snapped, as he couldn't believe what he was hearing, because when he agreed to do all this training he was expecting something else, not him beating up a little kid for Straw-hat's amusement, "You're telling me to hit such a little kid?!"

"Actually, it's more difficult than you might think." Sombra spoke up, as he had been silent the majority of the time, because he found some of this to be amusing, while at the same time Ichigo turned and looked at him for a few seconds, as he was trying to piece together what he had said, "When I started training Ururu was my first opponent as well, back when I didn't have the power that I have now, and she's not the easiest opponent to fight."

"Be sure to put those on." Ururu said, tossing the pure white sparring equipment in front of Ichigo, who turned to look at them for a moment, while at the same time Sombra noticed that she had put her mushroom inspired sparring equipment on while they were talking, "Or else you'll die."

As Ichigo started to protest the situation that he was in, however, Ururu started moving and instantly moved until she was right in front of him, where she punched down on where he was sitting and a cloud of dust was knocked up in the process, though not a few seconds later Ichigo rolled out of the dust and sat up.

"Sombra, while Kurosaki starts the process of recovering his lost reiryoku, I want you to head over to that rock formation and meditate until you can drown out the noise of his training and enter your inner world." Kisuke said, pointing to the rock formation in question with his fan for a moment, because he found that using one's training to help the other would be perfect for what he was trying to do, especially when this was something no one had ever tried before, "You'll have until the time that Kurosaki's training stops to reach your inner world... and then, regardless of whether or not you find your way to that world, we'll being combat training once more."

Sombra nodded his understanding and flashed over to the rock formation that Kisuke wanted him to meditate on, one that was large enough for him to sit down without any parts of his body resting over the edge, to which he sat down and pulled out the Zanpakuto, or rather Asauchi, that he had been carrying since April and laid it across his lap... before he closed his eyes and tried to focus his mind on what Kisuke wanted him to accomplish. Suffice it to say that it was actually much harder than he thought it was going to be, as not a few seconds later he heard the sounds of Ichigo running from Ururu, who was attacking him and the ground around him, and the noise continued to cut into his concentration. It got even harder to concentrate when Kisuke called out for Ichigo to put on the headband part of the gear, forcing him to call out the 'incantation' he made up for this training session, which was 'Take this, the Power of Righteousness! Righteous Armor, the Justice Headband! Equip!'. That only prompted Ichigo to refuse for a few moments, as he said something about being embarrassed about it, before Ururu's attacks forced him to repeat the 'incantation' and put on the equipment... which was followed by more combat sounds as he continued to avoid Ururu's attacks, until the point where he was keeping up with her speed and eventually attacked back.

From what Sombra could hear Ichigo actually managed to scratch Ururu's face a little in the fight, resulting in him being kicked into one of the nearby rock formations that wasn't his, only for Kisuke to stop her from going crazy, Tessai caught Ichigo before he could be hurt, and Lesson One, for Ichigo, was over just like that... as it appeared that he had regained his reiryoku, which was the entire point of the lesson. It was in the following moments, as Ichigo started to take off the equipment that he was wearing, that Sombra heard the sound of his Chain of Fate breaking, but since he was in the middle of his own personal training he kept trying to focus on his meditation, which was hard when all he heard was Ichigo's protests and Kisuke's explanations on what he was supposed to be doing. From the sounds of it Tessai might be sitting on Ichigo, who was weak from his soul being disconnected from his body, but that was to be expected, as Sombra remembered his reading perfectly, and knew that Ichigo's current condition only had two outcomes, either become a Shinigami again or transform into a Hollow... though if the second option happened, and he believed that there was a slim chance of that happening, Sombra could always use his experience with Sora to turn Ichigo into Karakura Town's third Arrancar, and an extremely powerful one if his Shinigami power was any indication.

After he thought about that, and heard Kisuke make the same sort of comment to Ichigo about either becoming a Hollow or a Shinigami, he heard the sounds of Ichigo and Tessai falling into a hole, then heard Kisuke reveal that Lesson Two was to climb up the Shattered Shaft without the use of his arms... meaning that Tessai had used a Bakudo of some kind to bind Ichigo's arms, or at least that was what he thought anyway, and learned that Ichigo had three days before the erosion of his Chain of Fate ran it's full course and the Hollow transformation begun.

From that point forward Sombra did his best to ignore the outside world, as that was part of his training so he could enter his inner world, but at the same time it was hard to do because Jinta was being a brat and continued to either make fun of Ichigo's pain, his antics at climbing the near vertical wall using his feet, or giving him random facts that were related to what he was going through. Despite his attempts to ignore Jinta's words Sombra did learn that if one was a soul, much like Ichigo was at the moment, and they felt hungry, for any reason, than it was a sign that they were getting close to naturally becoming a Hollow, which was what he, Ururu, and Kisuke were watching out for. At the same time he could clearly hear the sound of Kisuke eating a number of apples while wondering how much time had passed, likely to get Ichigo thinking about the time itself, even though Sombra had the feeling that the manager likely knew how much time had gone by already and was silently counting down how much time Ichigo had left before the transformation into a Hollow happened. Sombra honestly wasn't sure how much time had gone by since he started his meditation, as it was hard to tell that without opening his eyes and ruining his progress, but eventually he started to sense that he was going deeper into his being than what he normally did.

It was progress at last, something that he had been waiting for the moment he started to block out the sounds of everything and everyone that was around him, though as he focused on what he had discovered he felt himself drifting away for a moment... until his head drooped a little and Kisuke, keeping an eye on both of them, turned to look over at the Arrancar for a moment with a smile on his face.

"It took him a couple of hours, but he seems to be making progress." Kisuke commented, knowing that, at this point in time, the only things that could awaken Sombra were him being ejected from his inner world by something, either himself or whatever he found in there, or something on this side doing something that would severely mess him up.

"So Arrancars have inner worlds as well... that's odd." Jinta said, though at the same time he turned his attention back to tormenting Ichigo, as that was proving to be a good motivation for him to get angry and, potentially, get the powers that he so desperately wanted, "Wonder if he'll find anything in there."

"We'll just have to wait and see." Kisuke replied, knowing that sometimes Jinta was hard on people, but usually it gave them a drive they were missing, even if it was to beat him up for what he had done, but at the same time he was ever so slightly curious as to what Sombra would find in his inner world... and, more importantly, if it was possible for him to discovered whether or not he had a Zanpakuto spirit residing somewhere in that very world.





Sombra moaned for a moment as he felt himself pass into an unfamiliar place, as he didn't feel like he was sitting in the underground training area, on the rock formation that Kisuke had told him to sit on, to which he decided to open his eyes and found that he definitely wasn't in the area that he thought he was in. Stretched out in front of him were what he could only describe as houses that seemed to be made out of a variety of crystals, as the one to his immediate right seemed to be made out of a huge amethyst, modified to look like a two story building with a wooden roof of some type, while the one next in line seemed to be made out of an equally large sapphire. He wondered what sort of city could afford to be made out of gemstones, or even crystals as he thought about it, as there were plenty of houses around him and, when he dared to flash into the air, he noticed that there were at least one to two hundred of them, along with the massive bright aquamarine colored palace, made out of crystal as well, that was in the center of everything, looking like the place that someone important would reside in and rule from.

As he landed back on the street that he had awoken in, however, he looked at the sky for a moment and found that the sun, what he assumed was the sun, seemed to be blood red colored and seemed to be emitting a strange dark power that was what had to be affecting the world he was in, as the sky was darker than the sky he was used to... though, even as he thought about that, he moved into the center of the city and looked for any reiatsu signatures that might tell him what was going on at the moment.

One thing he discovered, as he walked through the large city, was that there weren't any civilians around, which he guessed made sense considering that this was supposed to be his inner world and it was unlikely that there would be anyone else in the world that was within him. At the same time he found that there weren't any reiatsu signatures in the immediate area, again that made sense considering that he was alone, until he came to a stop outside one of the houses and decided to try something else, or more specifically what Ichigo had done to find the soul of the little kid that was trapped inside the parakeet. As such he focused his mind for a few moments and tried to call upon the Spirit Ribbons that he had seen Ichigo and Uryu use in the past, to which the area around him seemed to glow for a moment as he closed his eyes and waited for anything that would allow him to find what he was searching for, though he was confident that he would find something in this city.

After a few minutes of patiently standing there he detected something that he wasn't expecting to find, a reiatsu signature that caused him to open his eyes and find a red Spirit Ribbon that was floating in front of him, though it seemed that the end of it was heading in the direction of the heart of the city. As such Sombra started moving forward and carefully followed after the ribbon that had formed near him, as his thoughts about where it was heading seemed to be entirely accurate, while he kept his defenses at the ready in case there was something in here that wanted to fight him or expel him from this world. One thing that he immediately found to be odd was that there were some lights near the center of the city, under what appeared to be the exact center of the palace, though the reason he felt it was odd was because the rest of the city seemed to be sort of dark, especially with the darkened sky that was hanging above his head, but as he approached the palace he could have sworn that he spotted someone standing near one of the support pillars for the large structure.

When he reached the place where all the roads and streets in the city met up, underneath the palace as he soon found out, he discovered that the Spirit Ribbon faded away and that he couldn't find who or what it was tied to, though at the same time he walked forward and observed his surroundings as he looked around for anything that would give him a clue... because he disliked being in the dark about things and this was one of those things he wanted to figure out before things escalated.

"Can you hear me, Sombra?" a voice asked, one that sounded like a regal voice that, for some reason, didn't annoy him like Byakuya's noble voice did, which only seemed to confuse him even more for a moment, though he continued to look around for whatever he was hearing.

"I'm hearing something." Sombra replied, hoping that, if he replied to whatever was speaking, the thing that was with him would reveal itself and tell him what was going on with this world, as the blood red sun and the darkened sky was strange and something that he wasn't expecting to see, "Can I ask who I'm talking to?"

"Over here." the voice said, where Sombra felt the slightest tug that was directing him in the direction that he should be looking in, to which he decided to heed the voice's tug, because he was sure that this was the voice's doing, and turned in the direction that it wanted him to look in.

Sombra turned towards the support pillar he had walked by, which had nothing near it a few seconds ago when he had gone by it, and found a being that sort of looked like him, as in it was a Human looking being that had hooves and the legs to match, a pony tail, and pony ears, but in addition to all that it had a horn like he did. One of the odd things he noticed right off the back was the fact that the stranger was female, based on the type of body that he was used to seeing and the fact that she wasn't as endowed as Yoruichi was, as he was sure that she was a few sizes larger than what Rukia had and a few below Orihime. The other part about her that Sombra felt was strange was the fact that her skin seemed to be crystallized in some manner, as if he was looking at a crystal given life, because her light blue colored skin, what he could see since the lady was wearing a fine silver colored dress that happened to have an area near her legs open so he could have seen her leg structure, seemed to glisten like diamonds. He couldn't see through her, which would have also been weird when he thought about it, and he felt that she could have been a normal person at one point and had been crystallized in this manner... and, as he stared at her for a moment, he noticed that she also had long cobalt blue colored hair that reached the middle of her back.

She was stunning, beautiful in her own way, and, if the look in her brilliant anger colored eyes was anything to go by, she seemed fierce and ready for action, though she did seem happy to see him, if Sombra was understanding the look on her face, and he was curious as to what was going on at the moment.

"I'm sorry, I didn't see you when I first entered this area." Sombra said, though at the same time the familiar tug he had felt, which had brought him to this place and had directed his attention towards this support pillar, he felt again, coming from the lady in front of him, and he immediately understood what he was seeing, even if it was hard for him to believe that such a thing was possible, "You wouldn't happen to be a Zanpakuto spirit, would you?"

"That I am." the lady replied, though she made no effort to walk towards him yet, causing Sombra to wonder what sort of game was she was playing, but he remained silent, as it was clear that she had no to say before it was his turn to speak once more, "Though I think it would be more accurate to say that I am the spirit of your Zanpakuto. At first there was nothing, as you hadn't spent enough time with your Asauchi for the essence of your soul to be imprinted on it, though one you had it for the first month I started to take form in this world. By the time the second month was over I was fully formed and started to wonder if you were ever going to try and contact me, to learn my name and understand what's been going on in this world, and yet my voice never seemed to reach you. Now... now I am happy that you came to visit, even if you're confused as to how an Arrancar can have both their original blade and a Shinigami blade... and the answer is that I don't know, but what I do know is that we are bound to each other. Only..."

"I, the one that would know you better than anyone else, don't know your name," Sombra stated, knowing full well what the spirit was going to say, as it made sense to him when he thought about it, and the spirit nodded her head for a moment, verifying that he was correct in his thoughts, "So, how do I go about discovering your name?"

"Easy, I'll tell you my name," the lady said, surprising Sombra for a moment, as he was expecting that he would have to go through some sort of trial to learn the name of his Zanpakuto, but at the same time he guessed that this might be a training method of some kind, like she was eager to get started with their training, "My name is Shokyo, meaning 'Crystal Heart', and I am your Zanpakuto spirit. As you discovered in your battle with Captain Byakuya Kuchiki, and from observing Ichigo Kurosaki's battle with Renji Abarai, all Zanpakuto have a Release Call, such as 'Scatter' and 'Howl' for Zenbonzakura and Zabimaru respectively. My Release Call is Shimmer, and for the next few minutes you'll be focusing on the bond between us before you do what those Shinigami did, but after that... well, we'll see what happens when we reach that point in time."

"As you wish," Sombra replied, to which he started to move his right hand and gripped the handle of his sword, which he found that he had in his inner world, before he thought of something that Shokyo had to know, as he turned towards her a few seconds later, "I do have one question before we start; what's with the blood red sun and the darkened sky that's in the air above us?"

"I think it's connected to your Arrancar blade in some manner, judging from the reiatsu that's coming from it," Shokyo said, though at the same time she glanced at the blood red sun that was handing in the air with a frown on her face, to which Sombra guessed that she didn't like the coloration of the celestial orb that was hanging over the city, "but the few times I've tried to head close to the sky and figure out what's going on, so I can reverse it in some manner, a force has stopped me from getting close... and I have the feeling that we won't find out what to do about it until you find your Arrancar blade and recover it."

"I see." Sombra said, surprised that there was something in the air that was preventing them from leaving the city, if he was interpreting Shokyo's words correctly, before he turned his attention back to the Zanpakuto that he was holding and the training that the spirit was offering him, "Well then, shall we get started?"

Shokyo turned and looked at him for a moment, where her frown returned to the smile that it had been before he asked the question about the blood red sun and darkened sky, before she approached him and started to instruct him on how to perform the Release Call, so Sombra could begin to tap into her power... and then, when she felt that he was ready, they could begin the real training that she had planned for them.





Kisuke remained near the Shattered Shaft at all times, keeping track of Ichigo's progress in trying to tap into his inner world to recover his Shinigami powers, the state of the erosion that his Chain of Fate was going through, and whether or not he was giving up. The bad thing about the situation was that he was no closer to tapping into his powers than he was when they started this lesson, the Chain of Fate was getting ready for the last erosion, and it did seem like Ichigo was beginning to accept that he might not be getting up the wall, but he still seemed determined on getting his powers back in some manner. While all of this was happening Jinta, as per the usual, seemed to continuously torment the Human in some manner, often convincing Ururu to join him in his antics, and it seemed to have devolved to the point where it was no longer helpful, but he didn't try to stop it since they were reaching the end of this lesson. Truth be told he didn't want Ichigo to transform into a Hollow, as they would be forced to kill him unless Sombra stepped out of his inner world and somehow convinced the newly born Hollow to become an Arrancar.

Thinking of the Arrancar caused him to glance over at the rock formation that Sombra was resting on, where Kisuke could feel the reiatsu that was rolling off of him increase every so often, indicating that something was happening in his inner world, but what he still had no idea... until he heard the sound of the final erosion happening and had Ururu stand down for now, as the Hollowification process was starting with the mask first, a sign of Ichigo's resistance to what was happening to him at the moment.

As the next few minutes ticked by Tessai, who was trying to restrain Ichigo while the mask was still forming, eventually came to the point where he had no choice but to start the process of destroying Ichigo before the transformation had a chance to complete and form a powerful Hollow. Moments later, despite Jinta's protests, Tessai called out the final song of the Bakudo that he was using, causing a large metallic cube to fall from the sky and drop down on where Ichigo was being restrained, though that was followed by Kisuke having to grab both Jinta and Ururu and pull them towards the ground behind him as an explosion burst out of the hole that they had been observing. As the explosion died down something burst out of the hole, as noted by Jinta at the same time, and it bounced around the sides of the underground training area until coming to a halt as it hit the ground near the hole that it had burst out of, where the three of them stared at the smoke for a few moments as they wondered what was going to reveal itself. As the smoke started to clear, and a shape started to reveal itself, Kisuke heard the sound of rocks moving and turned towards the rock formation once more, where it appeared that the sounds of the explosion finally snapped Sombra out of his inner world... or, upon closer inspection of the guard on his Zanpakuto, which was now diamond shaped, maybe he had completed his own training and had come out just as the explosion happened.

As the smoke finally cleared Sombra found that Ichigo was standing before them in the attire of a Shinigami, with the sheath that had contained his previous Zanpakuto that Captain Byakuya had cut in half, a white cloth with three needles sticking out of his shoulder, and a Hollow mask that had several red crescent marks above the left eye... though as Jinta asked if he was okay, however, Ichigo pulled out his Zanpakuto, revealing that it was still the broken one, and used the bottom of the hilt to smash off the bottom of the mask so he could move it out of the way and stare at them.

"Congratulations." Kisuke said, taking a moment to clap his hands for a moment as he approached Ichigo, who was busy flexing his hand as he realized that he was back in his Shinigami form, before snapping open his fan as he as Ichigo turned to look at him after he was done flexing his hand, "You've returned to being a Shinigami right on time. Superb! That means that you have cleared Lesson Two!"

"Shut your trap!" Ichigo snapped, to which he approached Kisuke for a moment and whacked him in the face with the base of the handle that he was holding, though that was followed by him crossing his arms and glaring down at Kisuke, just as the man rubbed his face for a moment, "The second I came back to life was the second your luck ran out. I swore that, if I got out of that hole alive, I'd make sure to kill you dead!"

"Well, that's perfect." Kisuke replied, as he found Ichigo pointing at him for a moment, though that was followed by him shifting his stance as he stood back up and turned towards that main person that he was training, while at the same time Sombra came to a stop near Ichigo, "Let's use that energy and go straight into Lesson Three. Now, this lesson actually has no time limit, not like the last one did, and all you need to do to clear it is to knock off my hat with your Zanpakuto."

It was in that moment that Ichigo, while Kisuke was talking, rushed forward and swung the broken sword he was holding upwards towards the sky above them, where both Kisuke and Sombra watched as a slight cut appeared on the edge of the hat as Ichigo jumped backwards... though, as he watched all of this happen in the span of a few seconds, Sombra knew that his friend was eager for battle and his base powers had returned in full force, but he still didn't have his true Zanpakuto.

"I must say, you continue to impress me." Kisuke commented, taking a few moments to actually stare at the cut in his hat, as he honestly wasn't expecting this from someone like Ichigo, but at the same time he wasn't too concerned about what he was wearing, as he had multiple hats at the ready in case one was destroyed, "I honestly wasn't expecting you to be able to pull off such an attack with a broken Zanpakuto."

"Of course." Ichgio declared, to which he shifted his body stance and pointed the broken blade at the man in front of him, as he was ready for this lesson to begin and knew that, now that he was back in his Shinigami form, he'd be able to beat a simple shopkeeper with ease, "If I get serious, I've got plenty more where that came from. Forget that laid back 'no time limit' crap... let's settle this in five minutes!"

"Well, there's a specific reason I said there's no time limit," Kisuke replied, though at the same time he gripped the top of his cane and pulled out the hidden sword that Sombra was familiar with, thanks to the number of times he had trained with him in the past, before preparing him for the battle that was ahead of them, "I never finished my explanation as to the rules of this lesson. You need to knock off my hat to clear it, but Sombra, on the other hand, will be fighting by my side and act as a barrier between the two of us, so you'll have to plan your attacks before coming at us."

Sombra felt that it might be a little unfair to Ichigo, that both he and Kisuke would be trying to stop him from getting close enough to knock off the man's hat, but at the same time he had the feeling that it was going to be this way in Soul Society, since there had to be a few hundred Shinigami throughout the city and some of them might not fight them one on one when they started their invasion. Kisuke was preparing them for the battles ahead of them, but, even as he thought about that, he also knew that the shopkeeper was trying to draw out the inner power that was inside Ichigo and bring his true Zanpakuto to the surface, to replace the broken sword he was carrying. He also noticed that Ichigo seemed to think that this was a little unfair for him, since he was familiar with how fast and how powerful he actually was, but that was before it was replaced by a look of determination as he raised his right arm and prepared himself for the battle that they were about to take part in. Kisuke and Sombra did the same thing, lifting their weapons up and preparing themselves accordingly, before they both rushed towards Ichigo and started attacking him, though while Sombra was focusing on purposely missing, and maybe breaking something that was around them, Kisuke intended to hurt Ichigo and broke the rocks around them as he chased Ichigo.

Not even a minute later, much to Sombra's confusion and interest, Ichigo turned tail and started running away from Kisuke, though since it appeared that Ichigo wasn't going to fight back he decided to simply follow the pair and intercept any attacks like Kisuke had told him to do... but that was followed by Ichigo thinking about something and coming to a stop as he turned back towards Kisuke, who shocked Ichigo by knocking off the remainder of the mask that was on his head as Sombra landed nearby.

"You let your guard down." Kisuke commented, where a frown immediately appeared on his face, as he expected Ichigo to remember the last fight he had been in and be more on guard than he actually was, while at the same time he knew that Sombra was ready for something to happen, "Let me guess, 'It belongs to a guy who's not a Shinigami, so there's no way that it can be a Zanpakuto', am I right? I can't believe that you are this naive. Awaken, Benihime."

It was in that moment that the cane sword that Kisuke had been carrying transformed into a sleek, medium-sized sword, where the hilt's grip, which was a gentle black-decorative wrapping, was bent forward at the end, with a pommel  shaped overlap three times, and a crimson tassel dangling from its base. Sombra noticed, instead of a tsuba, there was a U-shape guard covering three inches of blade, with a flower petal design, while at the base of the guard there was a red string wrapped thrice around the hilt, with a three-loop bow on the back side and a folded paper decoration on the front side. The blades hamon was straight, colored black with a silver edge, and was somewhat thicker than the cane-sealed state that he was familiar with seeing, though while Benihime remained straight and slim with a somewhat short size, it's tip ended in a slanted razor-like edge instead of tapering to a point like a normal sword did. Sombra had to admit that Kisuke's blade was impressive, and noticed that Ichigo was surprised by the sudden transformation, but at the same time he felt that his own Zanpakuto was impressive as well, especially since she went out of her way to teach him what she knew at the moment.

"She's a one hundred percent genuine Zanpakuto," Kisuke said, holding Benihime at an angle that allowed a shocked Ichigo to take in the entire weapon that he was staring at, just like Renji had done when he showed off Zabimaru before he got overpowered and needed his Captain to come save him, "I can tell that, by the look in your eyes, that you are hung up on Benihime's name. Each Zanpakuto, as you might have determined at this point in time, has their own name, and this is her name. Now then, Sombra, I am interested in seeing what you learned in your inner world."

"With pleasure," Sombra replied, as he had been eager to show off the fact that he had learned the name of the Zanpakuto that he had been carrying since April, to which he held out his sword for a moment and focused on what he had been taught in his inner world, "Shimmer, Shokyo."

Both Kisuke and Ichigo watched as Sombra's blade shined brightly for a few moments, as they were both interested in what the Arrancar was doing, before the light faded and they could see the blade again, which now appeared to be a broadsword that was, in Kisuke's estimates, only thirty inches long, just a little longer than an ordinary katana. The blade's guard and handle had increased in length a little bit to support the additional weight of the weapon, while the guard became a horizontal bar, instead of a diamond like it had been before Sombra used the Release Call, and a sapphire colored gemstone, about the size of three fingers, sat in the area connecting the blade to the guard. The handle had been modified a little as well, as it had a crystalline appearance that made Kisuke believe that it was made out of pure crystal at first, but when he couldn't see through it, like an ordinary gem, he realized that it had been crystallized in some manner that was unique to the Zanpakuto spirit Sombra had conversed with, and was sapphire colored as well. The blade itself had two cutting edges, like an ordinary broadsword did, but the difference between ordinary broadswords and the one that Sombra carried was that there was some golden inlay in the center of the sword, making it look even more majestic than it had been on it's own... and, of course, the blade itself seemed to have been crystallized in some manner as well, while also baring the same color as the other crystallized parts of the weapon.

Kisuke stared at the weapon for a moment, surprised by the sheer beauty of a weapon that was clearly designed for battle, and mentally wondered what sort of powers the Zanpakuto had, because he was sure that Sombra must have learned something else while he was inside his inner world.

"So you do have a Zanpakuto spirit residing in your inner world," Kisuke commented, as he was impressed that the Arrancar was able to enter his inner world, discover the location of the spirit that resided in that dimension, and convince them to tell him their name so that he might bond with them even more than they already were, though at the same time he continued to stare at the blade, "Shokyo... it means Crystal Heart, doesn't it?"

"That's her name," Sombra confirmed, though at the same time he was more interested in seeing what he and Shokyo could do together, against an opponent that needed to reach their Zanpakuto spirit, and maybe go up against Kisuke and Benihime once Ichigo was done with his lessons, "Now then, shall we get back to the lesson?"

Kisuke smiled and the two of them took turns attacking Ichigo, who immediately shook himself out of his stunned state the moment Sombra mentioned the lesson resuming and barely had time to dodge Kisuke's first attack, which shattered the rock formation that had been behind him and caused him to run once more. The following attack was one that Ichigo faced head on, as he guarded against Sombra's cutting attack with the edge of his broken sword, though in the process of doing that Sombra sighed as Shokyo cut through the blade that she was going up against and the fragment that came off flew through the air as Ichigo retreated once more. While all of this happened Kisuke told Ichigo why the Zanpakuto he had formed when Rukia gave him her powers, even if she meant to only give him a fraction of her full power, was able to break so easily and couldn't stand up to either Benihime or Shokyo, as he was still doing something wrong, and when Ichigo tried to knock off Kisuke's hat the shopkeeper diagonally slashed the guard and broke both it and the rest of the blade into pieces... though all that did was leave Ichigo with the handle that would still let him knock Kisuke's hat off, but Kisuke did tell Ichigo that if he came at him with just the handle then he was as good as dead.

That seemed to scare Ichigo, as he ran away from Kisuke and caused his opponents to follow after him, though as they did that Sombra noticed that air in front of Ichigo start to distort as his friend eventually came to a stop, as he spotted a man, who wore a black overcoat that seemed to cover most of his body, materialize for a moment, and yet Kisuke didn't seem to see him at all. Sombra wondered if what he was seeing was actually Ichigo's Zanpakuto spirit, who seemed to be quite powerful from this small instance he was getting, and Ichigo seemed to be entirely focused on him as he stared off into the distance, causing him and Kisuke to stop nearby and ready themselves. Not even a few seconds after they readied themselves Ichigo moved his right hand until he was in a stance where the handle was facing him, while at the same time his reiatsu got excited for a moment as it shook the area around him and caused the pair near him to stand and watch what was going on. It was in the moment that Ichigo turned to face them, while appearing to swing the handle in some manner, that a pillar of blue reiatsu seemed to block him from their vision for a moment as he called out a name... and then, when the smoke cleared, they found that he was half kneeling on the ground with what appeared to be an oversized knife like sword with no guard or tsuba, though the blade seemed to be as long as Ichigo was tall.

Sombra noticed that Zangetsu, as that was the name that he heard Ichigo call out, seemed to have a silver cutting edge and a black colored spine, and there appeared to be a white cloth of some kind wrapped around the Zanpakuto's new handle... though as he looked at the blade, and felt the reiryoku that was coming from it, he knew that Ichigo's power was so great that his Zanpakuto was going to constantly be in it's released state at all times.

"Well now, this is a good turn of events," Kisuke said, as he was pleased to find that he was able to provide both Ichigo and Sombra with their own methods to draw out their Zanpakutos, because this was going to make the final lesson all the more interesting when he told them it was time to start, "Now that we have drawn both of your Zanpakuto out, it's time for use to start the real Lesson Three."

"I'm sorry, Urahara-san." Ichigo spoke up, causing Kisuke to lower his finger for a moment while Sombra stared at his friend, because both of them were sure that something was going to happen in the next few moments, they just weren't sure what that something was, though at the same time he shifted his stance a little, "Please, be sure to dodge what's coming next... I probably can't hold back."

As Ichigo raised his right arm, shattering the rest of the white cloth that had been pinned to his shoulder since he erupted from the Shattered Shaft, Sombra moved out of the way before he was caught in whatever happened next, while at the same time he heard Kisuke call out 'Scream, Benihime'... and then, in the instant that Ichigo brought down his sword in a cutting motion, the area seemed to explode as a blue wave of reiatsu erupted from Zangetsu and surged towards Kisuke, cutting a shocking large gash into the ground behind him in the process.

"I'm lucky I had my Blood Mist Shield up before that attack went off," Kisuke commented, though as the smoke cleared Sombra spotted a damaged hexagon shaped shield in front of the shopkeeper, which disappeared as smoke emitted from Benihime for a few seconds, before both he and Kisuke noticed his damaged hat, which was laying near where he was standing, "otherwise you would have taken an arm for sure. You also managed to ruin my hat in the process... but, to be honest, I sure wasn't expecting all of this from a single swing of a sword. Ichigo Kurosaki, I think it's safe to say that you cleared Lesson Three as well."

"Now what?" Sombra asked, because from the looks of it that swing had taken all of Ichigo's energy and it didn't look like he was going to be getting back up anytime soon, at least for today anyway, and he was still eager to show Kisuke what he had learned.

"We'll have Tessai take Kurosaki to a spot where he can rest," Kisuke replied, though at the same time he smiled, because despite how damaging that attack had been he was still interested in seeing just how strong Sombra was with the weapon he now possessed, "and then, once that's taken care of, you and I can start training for real."

Sombra nodded and watched as Tessai came and collected Ichigo like Kisuke said he would, knowing that the next exchange between the two of them was going to be much different from the last time the two of them trained together down here... and he was eager to show Kisuke the connection he had to Shokyo, along with what she taught him while he was in his inner world, and he was sure that this would prepare him for their invasion of Soul Society.