The Suppression of Darkness

Masked and merciless, Hiyori Sarugaki hammers Ichigo Kurosaki, insisting he will die unless he calls out his own mask. Blow after blow leaves him ragged and bleeding, the white of one eye slowly darkening, yet he clings to a decision not to Hollowfy or use Bankai for fear of throwing his soul open to the thing inside him.

She presses harder, cracking his blade and jeering at him as a coward. When a distracted Ichigo takes a deep slash across the chest, his awareness slips away completely.

With Ichigo's mind gone, the inner Hollow seizes his body, a fragment of mask forming as it howls in rage. It clamps a hand around Hiyori's throat, splinters part of her mask, and slams her into a pillar to strangle her. In one coordinated motion, Shinji Hirako, Kensei Muguruma, Lisa Yadomaru and the rest free her and stake the rampaging Ichigo to the ground.

Shattering the half-made mask returns Ichigo to himself. A shaken Hiyori only flinches when asked if she is satisfied, while Shinji tells Ichigo that neither willpower nor body alone can tame his Hollow, and that by enduring this he has passed and will now be drilled in the real method. The chapter belongs to the twenty-fifth volume, NO SHAKING THRONE, and was adapted in Episode 123, Ichigo, complete Hollowfication!?