Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-25360536-20140920031731/@comment-25801533-20150603012411

Saru Wukong wrote:

I have 2 theories and honestly they're just that so feel free to ignore them. The first is that all Shikai releases take a small amount of spiritual energy to perform, hence why Shinigami don't just keep them at their initial release all the time. Obviously Bankai takes immensely more power to perform hence why only captains and some vice-captains can obtain it. However Ichigo's spiritual pressure is so immense that he can maintain his Bankai for months without dispelling it (Hueco Mundo and Fake Karakura Arcs.) So my theory is that his power is so immense that keeping his Zanpakuto in it's Shikai release is just an unconsious thing for him, his power, even when he's all but defeated and on death's door, is so immense it never seals.

The other idea is it could have something to do with the way the forging of the Asauchi went. Presumably when Oetsu Nimaiya forges Asauchi into Zanpakuto's he forges them into a sealed form before they're given to new recruits. However Ichigo was there at the forging and even reached in at the final stage to pull Zangetsu forth. Nimaiya even says "It just hit me too, that right now would be perfecto. For Chan-ichi to put in a bit of his soul...and put the icing on the cake..." (the translation I'm reading might not be exact so forgive me.) This could mean that Ichigo's Zanpakuto is unique in the way it was forged and has no sealed form, it is always his Zangetsu.

But that's all just my speculation, you'd have to ask Kubo for a real answer.

Im not sure about the second part but I really agree with the former. I think people on this thread are forgetting that up until he had an asauchi forged into a zanpakuto, he never had a zanpakuto. My theory about what Ichigo has been wielding up until this point is only possible for Ichigo. The manifestation of his quincy powers (Old Man Zangetsu (OMZ)) was attempting to stifle his real soul reaper powers (Hollow Ichigo Zangetsu (HIZ)). OMZ couldn't suppress all of it and so Ichigo was able to use a small portion of his power (even that was many times higher than that of most captains). He never had a zanpakuto forged, and no person should be able to use a zanpakuto without an asauchi that has been forged. The reason Ichigo is capable of this is that he has a mix of quincy and shinigami power. I believe that Ichigo used a quincy's power of creating a weapon of Reiryoku and used that to create a sword (typically they craft it into a bow). Quincy usually only make blue glowing weapons, however with sufficient latent power they can make the weapon look and feel metallic, this can also be done by them taking the power from the surrounding air. Ichigo crafts his quincy type weapon with his remaining soul reaper power. He is the only one capable of doing this because he has both quincy and soul reaper power, as well as such a high volume of spiritual power flowing off of him constantly.