Lesson 2: Shattered Shaft

At a secluded waterfall, Uryu's plan to train in solitude is interrupted by Orihime, Sado, and their unlikely instructor. He is dumbfounded to learn their master is a talking cat, and after a flustered outburst he politely declines their invitation, insisting he never intended to rescue Rukia and is only training to answer his own defeat. Once they leave, he opens a case he carried in and quietly tells his late grandfather that he is ready to begin.

Beneath the shop, Ichigo protests the loss of his Chain of Fate, only for Urahara to reveal the harsh truth: cut off from his body, the chain will consume itself until it bores a hole through his chest and turns him into a Hollow. The single escape is to become a Soul Reaper once more, which is the entire purpose of the second lesson. With that, Urahara springs his trap, dropping Ichigo and Tessai into a pit far deeper than it appears.

At the bottom, Tessai binds Ichigo's arms with a powerful restraining spell that must stay in place for the whole trial, apologizing as he casts it. Urahara calls down that the task is simply to climb out under these conditions, and when Ichigo cries that it is impossible, the shopkeeper warns him not to waste time arguing. The corrosion has already begun: the last links of Ichigo's Chain of Fate sprout tiny, hungry mouths and start gnawing away at the rest. The chapter was adapted into episode 18, Reclaim! The Power of the Shinigami.