The Left Hand of the Death God

By Farmer Kyle

Summary: Gandalfr; The Left Hand of God; This was the familiar of the Founder Brimir that would protect him during Brimir's spell chants. A master of weapons that would take on armies to protect its master. Who better for such a role then someone who has fought both the living and armies of the dead to protect those closest to his heart. Someone whose very name means 'one who protects'?

Disclaimer: Other than the idea to cross Bleach and Familiar of Zero together, I OWN NOTHING!

*edit* 9/26/2011 - I reviewer pointed something out to me that I felt couldn't be left alone: Ichigo's amazing use of the Halkegenian language and being able to talk in complete sentences. That and a few other things have changed.

Chapter 1: The Death and The Strawberry

Darkness.

It is his friend. It is his enemy. It is his power. It is his weakness. It is his confidant. It is his betrayer. It is his comfort. It is his pain.

It is all that he has left.

Darkness has been all that he has known for some time(Years? Decades? Centuries?). The days before the Darkness were hard to recall on most days, mere snippets of light in the great Darkness that was his prison, his mind. But today was one of those that the light was brighter, his soul still fighting the injustice that had befallen him.

It had been when his Enemy had been defeated that he noticed it, that he still had his power. And it was then that his allies saw fit to strike, urged on by a king unseen that saw him as a threat to him and his society. Whether it was half-hearted, reluctant to attack a friend, or wholehearted, not wanting to see another monster rise, they attacked. Separated from his true friends, he could count on no support against the gathered might of the king and his forces. It was not a quick battle, for he had power beyond what they knew. So he fought and fought and fought, never killing, until only the king was left. But the king had a greater power than his own and he was struck down, then imprisoned deep within the king's palace, to be sure that another like him would not surface in the world again.

And so all that he knew became Darkness.

He could still remember his closest friends, if not their names. There was the Archer: cold and calculating, but loyal and a true friend. The Giant: powerful but gentle, loud but quite. The Healer: kind, weak and strong, naive but insightful. The Dancer: cool but fiery, passionate and calm. He was sure there were others, but for now the Archer, the Giant, the Healer, and the Dancer were all he could recall.

And so he looked out into the Darkness, the movement causing his chains to chink-chink as they brushed against each other. Though it was impossible to see in the Darkness, he could feel the shackles on his wrists, his arms, his legs, his ankles, his neck, his waist, and his chest. They made it hard to move from the unseen wall behind him.

He looked inward and saw that HE was still with him, regardless of how hard the king tried again and again to tear HIM from him. HIS name he could still remember, as it too was part of the darkness that he had known before and after the Darkness. It was a name he could never forget, for it had been one with his soul since he had come into the world. A name that held power. A name used to protect. A name that was as important to him as his very own.

It was then that something pierced the Darkness, a green ovoid of light.

I beg of you...

A voice... a young girl...

The Darkness quivered.

My servant that exists somewhere in this vast universe...

A servant? He recalled being many things, but never a servant.

The Darkness flowed to him, into him.

My divine, beautiful, wise, powerful servant...

Divine? He had fallen.

A room began to be seen.

Beautiful? He was marred by battle.

White stone walls were revealed.

Wise? He was brash, instinctual.

A plain wooden floor appeared.

Powerful? He was, but where had it gotten him?

Cold iron bars manifested.

But he would do it again, to protect those that he held close to his heart, his soul!

Heed my call, I wish from the very bottom of my heart...

This girl, whoever she was, needed that protection. He could hear it in her voice as she cried out to him, the desperation, the fear. She needed him, needed his protection.

The Darkness clung to him and flickered like a flame. He concentrated.

Answer to my guidance and appear!

With a roar he unleashed his power, his soul, his Darkness. The bindings upon him shattered as the room was destroyed. He reached out to the portal and answered the call.

Louise Françoise le Blanc de la Vallière sighed as she stood in the clearing that Professor Colbert had taken her and the rest of the second year students. She had the previous day told Kirche, Montmorency, and Tabitha that she would summon something that would be greater than any other familiar summoned today.

It was only after that doubt and fear came as she laid in bed.

This would be her last chance to prove beyond any shadow of doubt that she was truly nobility, that she could perform magic. If she failed at this she would be sent home in shame and married off to gain power for the Vallière family. She didn't want to become some trophy wife! She was a noble, she could do this!

And it was with this last thought she began the incantation that would summon to her her familiar and determine her future.

Please...

"I beg of you...

Please, come to me...

My servant that exists somewhere in this vast universe...

Protect me from my fears...

My divine, beautiful, wise, powerful servant...

Be my friend when no else is...

Heed my call, I wish from very bottom of my heart...

Help me show them that I'm not worthless, not a zero...

Answer to my guidance and appear!"

An explosion like no other ripped through the clearing, smoke obscuring any sight while ears deafened by the blast slowly readjusted from the loud intrusion. And as the seconds passed and the smoke began to clear, power like no other was felt. It caused nearly all the students to fall on there hands and knees, most struggling with the fact they couldn't breathe as gravity fell heavier and heavier upon them. Only Louise and Professor Colbert seemed capable of standing, Louise holding her breath as she waited to see if anything, anything would come out of the smoke, while Colbert prepared for absolutely anything, ready to give his life in the defense of his students.

And then it all disappeared. The power, the gravity, all of it. The students indulged themselves with large heaving breathes, glad to be alive.

The smoke cleared further revealing small bits of what could only be described as black and red fire flickering amongst the grass, but producing no smoke and no burning smell, already flickering away.

And as Louise looked further into the smoke she saw it.

It was a man shrouded in black, hunched over on his hands and knees as he too indulged in the ability to breathe. He seemed to be wearing a long, long-sleeved coat that had frayed and ragged ends, and oddly enough was missing a sleeve. Wrapped around the bared, pale arm was a thin, black chain that even covered the black, cloth-like glove the man wore on his right hand. But the most striking thing about him was his bright hair, made more so with all the black the man wore.

His hair was orange.

Looking at the man before her she slowly realized that SHE had SUMMONED him. I DID IT! I did actual magic! Louise thought with enough excitement that if it were used to power one of her explosions it would destroy the Academy. She could just barely hear Professor Colbert say something, but ignored him as a joy she had never known during her time at the Academy coursed through her at seeing undeniable proof that she was indeed a noble. It was then that her familiar brought his head up, the man's eyes meeting with Louise's. He has such brown eyes was her thought before the laughter of the most vile person ever born cut through her happiness.

He was exhausted. Whatever that flash did to take me to wherever, it took a lot of my reiryoku to do it. He took in large gulps of air, recovering from the drain. Damn, never doing THAT again he thought. Now to figure out where I am. With all this smoke, only thing I can tell is that I'm outside if the grass is any indicator. Let's see what I can sense, hope I can still do this. While rusty from no use, his spiritual senses revealed what couldn't be seen.

Sixty-five signatures total. Half seem to be animals while the rest are humans. There seem to be a few animals with above-average reiryoku while the humans have at least above-average. Are they spiritually aware then? All of them seem to have some sort of... feel that reminds me of fire, water, earth, or wind, as odd as that is. All except one. Just where am I? By now the smoke had lifted and his thoughts turned to the reason why he was here in the first place. Now lets see where that girl is. Lets start with the closest one. He brought his head up to see a young girl with pink hair and eyes. Pink? was his first thought about her. She wore a white button-up blouse with a black skirt, black thigh-high socks, black shoes, and a matching black cloak clasped by a large golden clasp that had a pentagram on it. Clutched in her right hand was a stick A wand?. He then focused his spiritual senses on her. Seems she's the only one without that feeling. And so he probed deeper and found something surprising. It was a void, and it was familiar. It was the absence of all things.

It was Darkness.

His examination of the girl was interrupted when someone behind her cleared their throat.

It was an older man, possibly in his forties, that had brown, balding hair and had a small pair of glasses perched on his noise. The man wore a closed, dark navy blue coat edged in white over what appeared to be a black long-sleeved shirt that cover the top of his palms, along with white pants, brown shoes, and a brown satchel bag with bronze buckles across his left shoulder. Finally, he carried in his right hand a wooden walking stick that looked like a baseball bat with an extended handle, decorated with two thick, dark red lines near the top of the staff and another one above where he held it. But beyond the physical he was a literal bonfire of reiryoku, the feel of fire bringing up a memory of a much older man who also carried a staff.

"Well done Miss Vallière, it seems you've summoned your familiar without much trouble." Professor Colbert announced, still on edge. Summoning a human as a familiar was unheard of in this day and age, but he did vaguely recall that this wasn't the first time it had happened. There was also the question of what had caused that surge of... something and where it had gone.

By now the smoke was completely gone and the other students, now on their feet, were beginning to murmur and whisper. One voice however cut through the rest and made its opinion known.

"-Laughter- This makes everything you said last night worth it. -Snicker- I never would have thought you'd summon a plebeian! -Snicker-" this came from a tall, tanned girl. She had long red hair that covered her right eye and two long bangs that framed her breasts. She wore a variation of the uniform that everyone else wore; a bronze ringlet around her neck, her shirt was opened so as to show off some cleavage, and instead of the thigh-high socks and dress shoes, wore thigh-high, heeled leather shoes.

This caused Louise to glare death at the tan girl "He is not a plebeian!" she yelled out in anger. He can't be a plebeian. She thought.

Her statement caused new murmurings amongst the crowd.

"Is he really a plebeian?"

"Has to be, look at his clothes! They're practically rags!"

"But what about that power?"

"There's no way that commoner did that. It was probably just the Zero screwing the spell up."

"Your probably right!"

As the other students reached similar conclusions and started to laugh at Louise, the strawberry-blonde began to experience doubt.

What if they're right? What if he IS just some no name commoner? What am I going to do? and other such thoughts filled the Louise's head as despair gripped her heart.

But then a new voice cut through the laughter and despair.

"HEY!"

Everyone turned to where the unfamiliar growl of a word had come from and found Louise's familiar, who was now standing on shaky legs, with a deep scowl on his face and a harsh look in his eyes. This also gave everyone a better look at him; He had shaggy, spiky even, hair that reached the bottom of his neck in the back while his fringe nearly covered his eyes. He wore a white coat that had a red inner lining under his black coat, and no visible shirt underneath. He also wore baggy, black cloth pants held up by a tied white cloth belt and was barefoot. And just barely seen under his coats were what appeared to be cloth bandages.

"Stop!" The man's voice sounded as if sand and rocks had found their way into the man's throat. And while the magi-in-training couldn't understand what he was saying, he had a look in his eyes that reminded them of one the teachers had when they wanted them quiet. He finished his command with an even deeper scowl and a harsher glare that had everyone biting back any retorts. Before any could muster up the courage to chastise the man for speaking to nobles in such a way, Professor Colbert spoke up.

"That's enough now, I find this behavior most unfitting of those who would claim to be nobles. Now Miss Vallière, ("Yes sir?") complete the Springtime Familiar Summoning ritual. Because commoner or not, he is your familiar as determined by this sacred ceremony."

"EH?" Louise was confused at this point. She didn't know what to think in regards to the man that was her familiar, there were so many things he could or couldn't be. So mustering up her courage and pride, Louise marched up to the man in black.

"Hmm?" was all the noise the orangette made, as he saw the strawberry-blonde approach him. When she stood in front of him, she noticed just how small she was compared to him, her head only coming up to below his chest. All he did in response to her motioning him to kneel down was raise an eyebrow, his scowl lessening, before carrying out the request. Louise again looked into his eyes to find the harshness gone, replaced with curiosity and some amusement. The amusement caused her to huff a bit, I am not here to amuse him!, before taking a breath and finishing the ritual.

After tapping his forehead with her wand, Louise began the chant.

"My name is Louise Françoise le Blanc de la Vallière. Pentagon that governs the five powers, give this person your blessing and make it my familiar spirit."

Louise then held the man's head, his eyes now showing confusion, before leaning in and kissing him.

Okay... this is odd were the man's thoughts as he felt the girl kiss him. He had followed his instincts, which he had long since learned to trust, and let the girl, Louise? do whatever it was she was going to do. And now she's kissing me. Even now, those battle honed instincts were giving him the all clear. Louise then ended the kiss and took a few steps back, a light blush coloring her cheeks, as the older man with the staff stepped up behind her.

"Again Miss Vallière, well done. It seems you had no trouble with the 'Contract Servant' spell." the older man said, though to Louise's familiar it wasn't nearly as clear. It seemed that the people here, wherever here was, spoke a language that he couldn't fathom. He could barely remember snippets of his own spoken language, let alone begin to understand the flowery and flowing language these people used. He had only yelled out before because it was obvious that the other kids were making fun of the girl who seemed to have brought him here. He couldn't stand bullies. But they had stopped, so maybe they could understand him.

"Wha-" he cut off as his aforementioned instincts screamed something was wrong. A reiryoku not his own flooded him as his body began to heat up and steam. He looked at his hands as though for the first time, watching as steam of not water, but of both his and this new reiryoku wafted from them. "What?" his voice seemed to echo, "What's happening!" he asked as the reiryoku settled, though the pain remained, throughout the entirety of his body and literally simmered just underneath his skin.

"It'll end soon." he heard Louise say. He looked up to her and saw that indifference and concern were fighting each other for dominance. "The Familiar's Runes are being inscribed."

Before he could have a chance to respond the foreign reiryoku surged to his left hand, making it as if a sword had pierced it. While holding back a grunt of pain he brought the hand up and saw that symbols of some sort were shining from the top of his palm, the hand itself giving off small twitches. The symbols flared brightly as the pain rose to new heights before finally dimming completely, the pain going with it. After standing up he looked at his hand again; the symbols now looked like an old scar.

"Hmm, these are very unusual Runes." the man with the staff said, "Time to go back to class everyone." After which Colbert turned on his heel and rose gently into the air. The other kids also floated up and away, saying something he didn't quite catch but seemed to annoy Louise, before heading to the castle not to far from where they were. Castle? Why didn't I see that before?

"Come familiar!" He turned to see that the girl he thought was called Louise had already started towards the castle. Guess she wants me to follow her, might as well.

After walking for a few minutes Louise decided that she should know a few things about her familiar.

"Familiar, what is your name?" she demanded.

He waited a moment, as he still couldn't understand the language, before he decided what he felt was right.

"Ichigo Kurosaki."

A/N: And CUT! I think that's a decent place to leave things for now. For those of you wondering about Psynergy, I know, but this story was a way to get me through the writers block I've had. I got caught up in the recent Bleach manga chapters and it kinda snowballed into this. Rest assured that Psynergy will be updated next.

Now for some pre-emptive answers: Yes, this is indeed an Ichigo that retained his powers after using the Final Getsuga Tenshou. I'll be working on ways so that things will stay interesting for him so it isn't an insta-win every time he swings his sword. Also, yes, he does still have Zangetsu and his hollow, but things have changed. On the ZnT front, I'm not sure if I want to base this off the anime or the novels yet, as the novels haven't all been translated yet as far as I know.

One more thing! Any fans of Corvus no Genmu will notice the similarity to my intro to his of Familiars of Zero. I noticed too after his latest update and asked for his blessing. He gave it. Anyone can ask him and will tell you the same thing.

Well that's all for now, please hit the Review button and tell me what you think! Any constructive critisism is welcomed. And if you see some sort of mistake tell me!

Good Luck in Life and Writing!