The Bird of Hermes is my name; eat my wings to make me tame.

Summary: Ichigo with a more ruthless and cunning zanpaktou. He probably will seem overpowered right from the start but then again what hero doesn't get all the power and girls but we all know that he doesn't get that. Adventures are similar to the manga with changes where necessary to fit the story. This won't be canon so please don't complain about it, I've already warned you.

Pairing: Ichigo x Tatsuki. Personally I just wish she played a more fulfilling role in the series.

Rating: M. For gore, language and content of a sexual nature.

Notes:

One, I'm not going to put their surnames first then their first names. This is a fan fiction so please don't complain about something as small as that. For another matter if I have the energy to add the honorifics I will but don't expect them.

Two, I will use the proper names for Kido, Zanpaktou names etc. but for Ichigo's zanpaktou it will be in English since I'm not sure of the translation.

Disclaimer: All characters are property of their respective owners, of which I am not.

And now on with the show.

"Normal speech"

"Kido"

Thoughts

"Alucard"

XXX

Chapter 1: The Chains of Fate are Broken.

The town of Karakura was tranquil and at peace, the sky was clear and people went about their daily lives as per usual. In the basement of the Urahara shop though things were less than peaceful. Ichigo Kurosaki bound at the bottom of the shattered shaft screamed his lungs out as the final encroachment began. The chain disappeared and a white substance sprouted in its place and from his eyes.

Observing this was Kisuke Urahara, his assistant Tessai Tsukabishi and two young children Ururu and Jinta, who stared down at the young man as the hollow mask started to form. Seeing that Ururu was about to intervene he stopped her.

"Wait just a little longer," he said, "normally when a plus becomes a hollow the soul breaks down then forms the mask. Whereas here the order is completely reversed. Be patient, he may yet come out of this unscathed."

The two children looked up at Kisuke, trusting him to know what he was doing before resuming their watch of Ichigo.

"Kisuke, I'm at my limit, I am now switching to suppression measures." Tessai shouted up from the bottom of the pit. "First Song – Shiryu," white cloth erupted from the ground and wrapped around Ichigo, "Second Song – Hyakurensan" a hundred bolts impaled his form, "Final Song – Bankin Taiho", and a giant block of seki-seki stone started to plummet to the ground.

"O-Oi Tessai if you use that he may very well die." Jinta yelled.

"I have no choice he is at the limit of my ability to contain him" Tessai replied. My apologies Kurosaki-san.

As the stone block hit Ichigo there was an explosion of reiatsu and a figure was seen flying out of the pit.

XXX

Ichigo's Inner World 10 minutes ago.

Ichigo awoke in a dark and gloomy landscape. Looking around he viewed countless gravestones around him spreading out in all directions. Trees and flowerbeds were scattered along the pathways providing little comfort. Looking up he saw a night sky filled with cloud, but a crimson moon clearly visible.

"Quite beautiful isn't it" said a voice from behind him. Turning around he found a tall imposing man. He was clothed in a charcoal black suit with white dress shirt, leather riding boots, a red cravat folded eloquently, a red full-length overcoat with a cape and a red fedora. The most startling aspect of him however was his face. His black shoulder length hair seemed to shadow his blood red eyes, which were covered by orange tinted sunglasses and he had a smile akin to something from a sinister horror movie and rows of sharp pointed teeth more like fangs than normal teeth. "Welcome young one to your inner world. A representation of your soul."

Ichigo was taken back; this creepy yet oddly comforting place was a representation of his soul? Wait, comforting? Where the flying fuck did that come from. Gathering his courage he asked the figure, "Sorry but who are you?"

The figure seemed mildly amused at the question, "I have been trying to tell you my name for quite some time young one, my name is *bzzzzzt*."

Ichigo frowned, hearing nothing but static when the figure said his name. "Sorry can you repeat that?"

"The definition of insanity is to repeat the same action, but expecting a different result," the man said with a smirk. "For now do not stress yourself trying to attain my name, rather focus on regaining your powers and saving yourself from turning into a hollow." As he said this the ground seemed to rumble and crack apart as an earthquake ripped through the world. "In order to reclaim your powers, find the gravestone that holds my power, or fail and be damned for all eternity." His declaration finished he disappeared into the darkness.

Ichigo looked around at the countless gravestones before shouting, "AND JUST HOW THE HELL AM I SUPPOSED TO DO THAT!" Okay calm down Ichigo think about it cracking open each and every one of these markers will take forever and there's no time to spare.

Unbidden a conversation with Uryu sprang to mind, "Did you know that a soul reapers spirit ribbon is red." Thank god for stuck-up pencil-neck elitist rivals, he thought with a smirk on his face.

Concentrating to materialise the ribbons he caught hold of the red one and ran towards it. Reaching the stone he yanked hard on the ribbon and the stone cracked and fell away revealing the hilt of the sword Byakuya Kuchiki cut in half.

"Well done young one, now pull me out and reclaim that which is yours by right," shouted the cloaked man.

Pulling as hard as he could the sword came free and with it Ichigo was thrust back into the World of the Living.

XXX

Present time.

As the figure came to a rest on the ground both Jinta and Ururu adopted a fighting stance, while Kisuke watched on waving his fan in front of his face.

"Oi Strawberry if you're alive say something," Jinta shouted to the figure.

As the dust cleared it revealed Ichigo dressed in his shihakusho and wearing a hollow mask.

"A hollow mask and soul reaper garments, what is he?" Jinta asked curiously.

In a swift motion Ichigo rammed the hilt of his zanpakuto onto the mask breaking it and removing the chunks from his face.

"Ah congratulations Kurosaki-san, lesson two clear," was all Kisuke managed to get out before the hilt of Ichigo's sword found its mark on his face.

"I warned you Urahara if I ever got out of that hole I would kill you," Ichigo said with a sadistic smile on his face.

Looking back at him, Kisuke smiled and said "Very well since you're so energetic let's begin with lesson three. There is no time limit this time, all you have to do is knock of my hat with your zanpakuto." He had to dodge at that very second as the stump of Ichigo's blade came racing up to his hat.

"Well let's get this started then," he said as he drew his sword from his cane.

XXX

Ichigo was pissed off at himself, he had made several stupid mistakes that were now coming back to bite him in the ass. One, he assumed that the sword from Kisuke's cane was not a zanpakuto and was thus of no danger to him. Oh how wrong he was. It was all the motivation Kisuke needed to start demolishing the rocks around him with ease as he started to pressure Ichigo. And two the destruction of his remaining zanpaktou by Kisuke's shikai. Third and last he was now running like a coward from Kisuke. This is pathetic, is this truly all that I am capable off? Not even able to risk death to keep a promise? PATHETIC.

"Yes, yes you are," said the man Ichigo recognised as the spirit of his zanpakuto. Time seemed to freeze as he fell into his inner world again. "Tell me young one, why do you run? Is it from fear of death? Regardless of the answer, it is foolish to fear death. There are far worse things in this world to fear and they do not bring a death sentence. So tell me Ichigo, what is it you fear?"

Ichigo thought for a moment. Recalling the loss of his mother, the way he defended his friends and family from thugs even now and how he protected them from hollows when he had borrowed Rukia's soul reaper powers. He replied without hesitation, "I fear living with failure, to know that I could not keep my promise to protect. It matters not whether I live if those I care for are no longer around to share my life with."

The man grinned baring his menacing teeth again, "Then why have you not called for my aid young one. You seek the power to protect and I seek the one with the will to use me. What is there to fear, when that which we seek to fulfil our desires, stands before us willing and able to help. Now that you know what should truly be feared return and show that man why we are not to be underestimated."

XXX

Time seemed to resume and Ichigo came to a screeching halt in the sand. Kisuke slowed to a stop as well and readied his zanpaktou to impale Ichigo. Without warning the artificial sky seemed to darken, the time of day looking more like the dark before the dawn than the bright midday sun. The wind picked up with increasing intensity blowing dust and debris around the training room and still Ichigo just stood his ground with his back to them all. He crouched down and whispered "Break free of your chains, Bird of Hermes." A pillar of black reiatsu engulfed him and roared into the sky impacting on the roof of the room and spreading out darkening the room even further.

Tessai grabbed Jinta and Ururu to take them further away as the pillar became a large swirling vortex that seemed to grow wilder and more violent. Taking cover behind a rock they peered out and watched as the vortex died down to reveal a figure rising from his crouch.

Kisuke had stabbed Benihime into the ground and dug his clog-clad feet into the ground to prevent him from being blown away. He could just about barely make out the figure in the dark as the reiatsu died away and a bit of the light returned. Standing before them was Ichigo cloaked in a similar fashion to his zanpaktou spirit with but with notable exceptions being his eyes had acquired the same blood red glow, his sunglasses were tinted blue and he now towered over them at 6'5" and his hair had grown to shoulder length and the bangs blew across his eyes.

Kisuke and the others stood in shock wondering what had happened and why he seemed to be missing his zanpaktou now. "Well now this is a surprise Kurosaki-san where by chance is your zanpaktou and what happened to your appearance?" As he finished a gunshot rang out and the ground at Kisuke's feet was blown up.

"Now's not the time to let your guard down Urahara-san," Ichigo said as he lowered a silver oversized handgun in his right hand. "I still don't know how to control this so please be sure to dodge," he said as he pulled a second handgun far larger than the previous one and coloured black as the night sky with his left hand. As he pulled the trigger and a blast the size of a Raikoho sped towards Kisuke.

"Sing Benihime," Kisuke yelled out as the blast barrelled towards him. A blood red shield formed in front of him and the blast impacted it. He was sent skidding back watching as the shield began to crack and splinter under the strain of the blast. The skid finally came to an end when the blast exploded against the shield further breaking it and creating a massive shockwave.

"That was close, if I didn't have this Blood Mist Shield you would've easily killed me. And I do believe you have completely destroyed my hat." He said as shredded pieces of green and white floated down around him. The ground around him was cracked and splintered under the strain of the destructive energies. "A better question is what that was and what the limit on said ability is. You really are a scary kid aren't you Kurosaki-san. Lesson three cleared. "

Ichigo was not listening to any of this as he had passed out from exhaustion.

"Tessai-san if you would be so kind as to place Kurosaki-san in a bed upstairs please," he called out as the three emerged from behind the rock they had taken cover behind.

"Kisuke, what was that in all my time I have never seen an ability like that. It seemed as if he fired raw reiatsu at you," Tessai said as he walked towards the passed out teen.

"I don't know old friend, all I know for now is that things certainly will be interesting for this next week." Kisuke said as he observed the young man to still be dressed in his new outfit.

XXX

Within Ichigo's inner world his zanpaktou spirit smiled with unrestrained glee at how quickly his master had discovered the use of the pistols. Sensing another presence he whirled around and came face to face with a bleached white version of Ichigo.

"Heh, so the kid is pretty strong, he'll be a nice meal to devour and a wondrous body to inhabit," the figure smirked.

"So you are the consequence of the shattered shaft, an inner hollow," he said as he peered at the figure. "What will you do now?"

"For now I'm going to find a nice place to sleep until the King's ready for me to devour him," the figure said as he began to walk off only to stop as he was shot in the leg and said shot ripping his leg from knee and below off.

"And just what makes you think, that I'm just going to let you walk off and lie in wait to steal this body out from under the young master," he said walking over to the crippled hollow with the grin of a man that revels in pain and torture. "You are going to become a part of me, your power will be added to our own and there's nothing you can do about it."

The hollow could only look on as the right arm of the spirit transformed into a massive dog with two blood red eyes and teeth as large as fists. His last scream was heard as the hound leapt forward and began devouring him, ripping him apart. Bone was splintered and flesh was torn, not a single morsel was wasted. Its meal completed it dissolved back into the spirits body.

"To continue to call me The Bird of Hermes will get annoying young master, so for all intents and purposes, please call me…Alucard." He said to nobody in particular but knowing that his master had heard it.

XXX

Note:

So that's the end of the first chapter.

Cookies for all those who guessed the new zanpaktou from the title.

If you want a picture of his attire just search for Alucard. Like I said only change is blue sunglasses and he keeps his orange hair.

Overall I like how it started and for those saddened by the death of the hollow, don't worry he's not gone just be patient till I reveal what has become of him though I'm sure you can guess. No Ichigo doesn't have access to his hollow powers already, geez that would be boring if he did.

Will start working on the next chapter once this is up, I have the general outline for what I want to do up to the end of the Soul Society Arc just need to flesh out the ideas.

And now for the fun part. Powers Ichigo used during this chapter.

He is a sharpshooter. The guns used, the silver one being the .454 Casull and the black one being the Jackal. The explanation of their use is in the next chapter.

Also he has minor control of the weather, it only extends so far as darkening the immediate area he is in. It's classed as an illusion so he doesn't go around causing darkness wherever he goes.

So let me know what you think, love, hate, or just "meh I could've done better".