Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-6901880-20130304064503/@comment-24362416-20131231163049

Regular souls do not become Shinigami. only the ones with spirit power, or atleast a tiny amount to use kido and such are able to become Shinigami. Hence the whole Rukon district and Soul society being apart from one another. everything is explained in the anime, and its not rather an profession persé but a life choice they make. to protect one and others.

But ichigo still has his hollow powers, atleast from what i've read so far. since zangetsu merged with the hollow. originally his inner selve suposed to be black or something but since the hollow merged with zangetsu he is white. though i could be wrong about the whole thing >.>.