1-3 Beyond the Limit

Argh!

Sword number eighteen...

Dammit!!!

Each of these swords represents a piece of your heart.

The purpose of this trial is to find the one piece among them that was forged for the solitary purpose of combat.

That one there was your heart's frailty. You exposed it by trying to depend on me.

I depended on him? The frailty of my heart?

If you're incapable of recognizing that, then you can forget about the Bankai forever.

Come now, move on to the next one.

You haven't the time to be crawling around.

You're right. You're absolutely right!

Remember, never take your eyes off the enemy.

Dammit, I almost had the bastard that time.

(Ichigo... It's obvious that you no longer rely solely on the power of Zangetsu.)

(He's absorbing it...with amazing speed...at an incredible level.)

Dammit, still not it. I have to do this.

I gotta if I want to save Rukia!

But still, everything must come to an end.

Put your sword down. Day one is over.

Hey, this place looks familiar.

How's that?

I've been thinking about it for a while now, and I finally figured out what it reminds me of. It looks like the training room under Urahara's shop.

You picked up on that, huh? We tried to model that place after this one when we built it.

When Kisuke and I were kids, we needed a place to play, so we snuck off and built this place. It was our own little secret hideout.

Secret hideout? This place is huge. How'd you ever keep it a secret?

It's a very long story. Back when the two of us were kids, we used to play here almost every day.

When we got older, he joined the Thirteen Court Guard Squads, and I joined the Stealth Force, but we'd still come here to hone our skills.

Wait a minute, Yoruichi! The Thirteen Court Guard Squads, they're...

The guy's really a Soul Reaper, isn't he?

You mean Kisuke?

Who else?!

I always wondered how he knew so much about the Soul Society, not to mention the fact that he had a Zanpakuto.

There was even one guy in the Soul Society who turned pale by just hearing his name.

I wanna know, Yoruichi. I wanna know the truth about the guy who trained me.

So, he never told you, eh?

All right then. I might as well tell you the rest.

He's the former captain of Squad 12 of the Thirteen Court Guard Squads.

In addition to that, he's the one who conceived and founded the Department of the Research and Development, and served as its first chief.