1 Chapter 1: What Lies Within A Soul

Hado #4: Byakurai.

"Zanpakuto speaking"

'Zanpakuto thinking'

"Character talking"

'Character thinking'

Disclaimer: I DO NOT OWN BLEACH or Hellsing/Hellsing Ultimate.

Chapter 1: What lies within the soul.

It has been almost 72 hours since Ichigo has been inside the shattered shaft with his arms bounded behind his back by kido. He has not eaten in days, or at least that is what it feels like. It is impossible to tell whether it is night or day inside Kisuke Urahara's underground training ground. There he was laying at the bottom of some shaft in a desperate attempt to regain his soul reaper powers.

"Hey!" Jinta yelled from the top of the shaft.

"Are you hungry yet?" he asked.

"Noo!" Ichigo replied in a deep hoarse voice.

"That's good, because being hungry while your chain of faith is severed means you're getting really close to becoming a hollow," Jinta replied. As the words left Jinta's mouth Ichigo froze. His mind started racing and thinking about the possibilities of him becoming one of those hollows, not being able to save Rukia and more importantly not being able to see his family again. He already blamed himself for his mother's death and he could not stomach the idea of seeing his two little sisters in any more pain. However, the thing that Ichigo did not realize is that the links of his soul chain started to eat themselves. Before Ichigo could continue to stress about what might happen to his family if he became a hollow, he heard a voice.

"Calm down my master." spoke a deep silky-smooth voice. Ichigo immediately shot up to his feet and started looking around to find who said that. He looks over to Tessai who had been sitting in a corner or the shaft keeping the kido binding Ichigo's arms in place. Tessai simply looked at Ichigo with concern.

"Who said that?" Ichigo asked. Starting to believe that he is going crazy.

"You need to calm down my master or else you will speed up the hollowfication process." the voice said and it immediately calmed Ichigo down. It was weird, he did not know why but he felt as though he can trust this voice, or at least he hope he could.

All while all this is going on up on top of the shaft Kisuke Urahara was watching Ichigo as he went from panicking and hearing voices to calm and not worrying attitude. Kisuke closed his white paper fan that he always carried with him, narrowed his eyes, and tilted his head down a bit a spoke in a deep serious voice that would send chills down his enemy's spine "It seems as though Ichigo's zanpakuto spirit is in contact with him."

Back down in the shaft, Ichigo had his eyes closed trying to listen carefully for that voice again.

"Sit down and fold your legs in the meditation position and meditate. Focus on the inside of your soul. When you feel a slight pull of your consciousness, grab onto it." the voice instructed. Ichigo for not having any better ideas of how to get out of the shaft did as instructed. He sat down with his legs folded, closed his eyes, and tried to look into the depths of his soul for something, but nothing. He felt no pull not even an ounce of Reiatsu. Deciding to try again he looks and searched deeper for anything in his soul and was about to give up until he felt a small pull of his conscience. He instantly grabbed on it.

The next thing Ichigo knew was that he was no longer in the shattered shaft. He was standing in what appears to be a graveyard, with tombstones as far as the eye can see. It was nighttime, there were stars in the sky and a full moon lit up the entire graveyard. Ichigo started to look around trying to figure out where he was. It was then he noticed something strange. At the end or head of the graveyard, he did not know, stood a throne made of bones. It creeped him out because on the armrest were two skulls with glowing red eyes that seem to be following his movements. He walked towards the throne and was about to touch it when that voice spoke again.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you."

Ichigo immediately spun around to see who said that. That when he saw sitting in one of the tombstones was a man wearing a rather large hat and dressed in all red. the man then stood up straight and started walking towards him and it was then Ichigo got to see how tall he was. He stood 6 feet 5 inches. Ichigo now getting a better look at his outfit which comprised of a charcoal suit, leather riding boots, and an intricately knotted red cravat, covered by a full-length, and red frock overcoat (similar to a duster coat) with a cape. As he got closer Ichigo can see he was wearing glasses that reflected the moon's light off of them and behind said glasses were two blood-red eyes that seem to glow with power. on his hands were a pair of white gloves which each have a five-pointed seal adorning their aura that surrounded him was one of death and pure bloodlust. Ichigo was knocked out of his observation when the man spoke.

"Do you know where you are or who am I?" said the man.

"How am I supposed to know, one-second I'm in that stupid shaft hearing voices, then the next thing I know I'm in a graveyard with you," replied Ichigo

"I would explain it all to you, but we don't exactly have any time to waste because as we speak you are turning into a hollow on the outside." said the unnamed man. As soon as Ichigo heard he starting to panic and freak out.

"Whaaattt!" Ichigo screamed, " I can't turn into a hollow! I still have to save Rukia! I still have to-" he cut off from his rambling by the man.

"If you wish to not turn into a hollow all you have to do is find your soul reaper powers buried inside one of these tombstones." the man said in a calm voice as though he was not worried at all. That seemed to have calmed Ichigo down a bit.

"So, all I have to do is find my soul reaper powers buried behind one of these tombstones somewhere in this graveyard?" Ichigo asked to which the man nodded, "and how am I supposed to do that?" the man just shrugged. Before Ichigo could ask any more questions the entire graveyard started to shake and the ground under their feet gave way and they started to fall into what seems to be nothingness.

"You must find your soul reaper powers quick before you turn into a hollow!" the man said in an urgent voice no longer sounding calm.

Ichigo for his part was trying to figure out how the hell he was supposed to find his soul reapers hidden behind one of these tombstones out of the billions of other tombstones. It was then he remembered that his friend/rival Uryu Ishida said how soul reaper's spirit ribbon. Ichigo then closed his eyes and began focusing on sensing another spirit ribbon. When Ichigo reopened his eyes, all around him was white ribbons coming from each individual tombstone. The white ribbons represent humans while soul reapers have a red spirit ribbon. Ichigo started looking around trying to spot some red it felt like forever until he finally saw that it was behind him. He grabbed on the ribbon and pulled hard. In the distance, Ichigo could see a tombstone hurling towards him. Before he could think the tombstone slammed into his chest and sent him sailing about 15 feet back.

"Well, that didn't go as plan," he said while holding onto his stomach. he started to examine the stone to see it was cracked and had his name on it. he could help but wonder what that meant. before he can continue his thought that man interrupted him.

"Quickly! break the stone!" the man said with all urgency. Ichigo then punched the stone as hard as he can but it only cracked a bit, so he punched it again and again until it finally broke, and out of it came a broken sword with an all too familiar handle.

"Grab hold of it quickly before you turn into a hollow!" And Ichigo did just that, he grabbed the sword, and the moment his hand touched it he felt a rush of power all through his body. All around him the graveyard started to repair itself. After about a minute everything was the way it was the only thing that was different was the tombstones no longer had names on them, they were all blank. Ichigo started looking for the man who was there before only to see him sitting on the steps of the throne look at Ichigo before he spoke.

"You did it, master," he said in a cool voice.

"Who are you and why are you calling me master!?" asked/yelled Ichigo.

"If you haven't figured it out as yet then I truly have a stupid wielder." the man said sounding slightly annoyed that Ichigo did not know who he was.

"How am I supposed to know who the hell you are-" Ichigo cut himself off as though he finally figured it out. looking at Ichigo's face you could see a look of realization spread across it. "You are my zanpakuto aren't you?" he asked in a soft voice to which the man nodded. "What is your name?" When he asked his zanpakuto spirit gave a wide toothy grin which allowed Ichigo to see his fangs.

"So... you finally asked." he chuckled to himself. "My name is... Alucard"

"Well... it's nice to meet you Alucard," said Ichigo as Ichigo said that Alucard shot up to his feet with a look of pure disbelief.

"You... you heard my name? Never before has a soul reaper heard their zanpakuto's name on the first try."

"Well, I guess I'm special like that" Ichigo joked to which Alucard chuckled.

"Indeed, you are master indeed you are." Alucard said "however we are not done yet you need to go back to the outside world and ask that shopkeeper to give you an Asauchi, it is a blank unnamed zanpakuto that is given to soul reapers at the beginning of their carrier. You currently do not have one so ask him for one and then we will begin the next step."

"Okay I will but how exactly do I leave here?" Ichigo asked and as soon as he asked that he woke up back out in the real world to find that Tessai had increased his bindings and was sweating slightly.

"Can you let me go now?!" Ichigo yelled.

*Chapter End*

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