Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-26475399-20151228215405/@comment-26475399-20160101232443

DarkMuse616 wrote: I'm not sure why everyone is so sure that Ichigo's zanpakuto spirit died after FGT, didn't he manifest through an asauchi in soul palace training, suggesting he was always there?

Kaestal wrote: Yeah, I don't understand why people think his zanpaktou is gone either, Zangetsu still exists as shown by how his Asauchi turned into his "Inner Hollow" and after he reforged his Zanpaktou they both appeared when Ichigo spoke of which sword represented which.

My apologies; in my references to Tensa Zangetsu and Hollow Ichigo being "dead" or "gone" and no longer existing, i admit it was a bad choice of wording on my part.

What i meant in saying so, was that their essence was still there, but their manifestations were what kinda "went away" or whatever. So it's not that i'm suggesting they died or left entirely, it just had something to do with Ichigo absorbing their powers (he did, after all, "become Getsuga" with the execution of FGT, which had to do with him accepting all of their powers into himself).

As for the Asauchi, he was indeed the Hollow, but from what i've understood, he was the new embodiment of the mere essence of the Hollow that still resided within Ichigo's soul.

And as for the two spirits of Old Man Zangetsu and Hollow Ichigo Zangetsu appearing with Ichigo after he gained his new blades, i just see that as, essentially, a visual representation (for us readers) to indicate which blade was a direct vessel for which power (Hollow Ichigo stood above the "Hollow" blade, Old Man stood above the "Quincy" blade). I would totally say that they were still within Ichigo's inner world as their manifestations, if it weren't for Ichigo's quote a few panels afterwards, where he says, "For you... are me..." which is where i derive that Ichigo has technically become the Zanpakuto spirit, himself.

Thus, rather than borrowing the powers of his inner world's spirits (from which the respective powers came, originally), he alone was now the sole owner and user of all their powers, as the manifestations have now left everything to him.