This place was an affront to all creatures. Ichigo grimaced as he walked down the hallways filled with the scent of death and decay. How could Moria stand to live in a literal graveyard? The foul odors assaulted his nose and Ichigo took out a mask he kept on hand for just this purpose. It his most of his face from the both the sun's rays and the stench of the dead.

Zombies were an afront to his entire being. Ichigo swung his zanpakuto over his shoulder and continued walking down the hallway, allowing his haki to scare away the more mischievous zombies who were trained to scare intruders.

"It's Ichigo-sama!"

"Shh, everyone be quiet. He hates us remember?"

"Why should we be nice to the living?" Ichigo swung a sword up, cutting the the offending creature from the wall and slamming a foot on its face.

"What did I say about talking while I am around?"

The creature squirmed beneath his heel, "N-not to?"

"Right," Ichigo pressed harder on the skull, "You creatures are abominations. The dead should stay dead." With wet squelch, the zombie exploded into fragments and a black wisp drifted away. The shadow of the soul had been freed. "Anybody else?"

"N-no, Ichigo-sama!"

"I thought so." Ichigo shoved his hands into the pockets of his jeans and continued on his path. That was the fifth zombie this week but it was a drop in the bucket on this accursed island. Feeling the coagulated blood soaking into his shoe, Ichigo grimaced and wiped it on the stone floor. "Great, now I am going to need new shoes.

A black bat swooped in the window of Moria's castle. "Ichigo," it said, "We will be having visitors soon." Ichigo sighed and ran a hand through his mop of bright orange hair. "Do you want me to kill them?"

"No. It's the Straw Hat pirates and Strawhat Luffy. I need his shadow! Straw Hat Luffy...with his shadow I will be unstoppable. However, I expect him to put up a fight."

"Okay. I'm assuming Dr. Hogback is up to the usual?"

"Yes." The bat shrieked and flew away.

"No more talking then..." Ichigo muttered and swung the zanpakuto off of his back. "Sorry bud, I'm going to need to seal you for a little while." There was a murmur of discontent as the form of the sword shimmered and took the form of an over-sized katana. Content with the sword's new appearance, Ichigo placed the sword back in it's sheathe and continued down the hallway.

"Ichigo-sama is going to fight!"

"Everyone take cover!"

Damn zombies.

Hogback loved to lure in unsuspecting crew members. Usually, this amounted to either the theft of said crews' shadows, collecting the dead bodies of a decimated ship, or, in the worst scenarios, murdering the entire crew. Usually Absalom was the one who handled the initial invasion of the enemy; he particularly enjoyed terrorizing the women using the cursed devil fruit of his. Ichigo was the clean up for the troublesome enemies.

Using his powers, Ichigo leaped in the sky to watch the ship enter the initial perimeter of Thriller Bark. For their sake, Ichigo hoped they figured out the trick soon. A few feet below him, Absalom was ogling the women through a pair of binoculars. Ichigo made a disgusted face but continued to keep an eye on the lion-headed ship. For pirates, the Straw Hats were the least intimidating ragtag bunch he had ever seen. If the head captain was here, he would be calling them a group of kids with wanderlust pretending to be pirates.

"Absalom," Ichigo said, "are you going to sit their ogling the women's breasts all day or are you going to actually fight like you're supposed to?"

Absalom gave Ichigo a lecherous sneer. "Why, of course Kurosaki-san."The lion-mouthed man turned and continued his perverted giggling after muttering a few key choices about Ichigo's sexuality. Ichigo heard the man, of course, but the perverted stitch face wasn't worth his time-unless he chose to molest women again.

Ichigo held a very strong stance against typical pirate behaviors. "I swear if you touch any of the women in an inappropriate way..."

Absalom absently waved his hand, "I know. You're going to 'getsuga tensho' my ass across the island." He stood. "Tch. You ruin all of my fun."

"That kind of thing isn't fun." Dark flames started to swirl around him. Oh, that was bad. He was getting to angry. With sheer force of will, he restrained himself once more. This island and its masters was getting on his nerves, but he needed to somehow convince Moria to give back his shadow.

On the Sunny, the Strawhat pirates and Brook tried to make out the Thriller Bark in the swirling mists. Brook, had he had skin, would have been frowning. "Yohohohoho..."Brook chuckled, "you guys should be careful if you plan on going to that island."

Taken back by the jovial skeleton's somber tone, the crew focused intently on the man. "What do you mean?" Nami asked.

Brook turned his eyes to the skies, "On Thriller Bark there is a man. His hair is a as bright as the sun but those eyes haunt you. If you see him, you should run. I imagine even members of the Shichibukai might have trouble with him."

"Is he strong...?" Zoro asked. A hand grasped the swords on his waist.

"Yes," Brook nodded. "I haven't seen his kind in over fifty years. They rarely leave the sanctuary of their city. That is all I can tell you." With jovial laughter and a goodbye, the skeleton was dashing across the water into the distance.

"Argh I don't get it!" Luffy whined as his newest crew member -Luffy was not going to let Brook slip away-disappeared in the fog. "What was he being so cryptic about?"

"Luffy, I think we should heed his warning."Everyone turned to Robin. "I think I know who, or rather, what Brook is talking about."

"R-Robin, it's not something scary l-l-like ghosts is it?" Usopp was decked out in a vampire hunter's outfit complete with a cross, a cape, and garlic. Chopper clung to him like a terrified child.

"Not a ghost but a practitioner of a rare sword style they call under the category of 'spiritual arts' unique to an island in the New World. The world government gave them the name 'Shinigami' better translated as 'Death God.'

Usopp passed out. Chopper tried to revive him. Sanji and Zorro grinned in eagerness for a challenge. Luffy, well, was Luffy.

"This guy HAS to join my crew."

Everyone face-palmed.

"Say, Nami," Chopper asked huddled in his corner of the Mini Merry, "do you think this guy is a scary as Robin and Brook-san made him seem?" Curious as well, Usopp turned to Nami.

"I don't know. What I do know, especially when the Grand Line is concerned, unknown factors are deadly. If he's as strong as a shichibukai, I don't know if we can handle him. Even Luffy might have trouble defeating him."

"Defeating who now?" Nami froze, a cold sweat creeping up her spine, as she turned to see a man. His clothes were rather mundane but the giant sword on his back marked him as a warrior. We might even be cousins, Nami thought as she saw the spiky mop of shoulder-length orange hair on his head. Nami screamed when she looked at his eyes.

"W-what's wrong with your eyes? Who are you?"

The man grinned and extended a hand. "The name's Ichigo Kurosaki. As for the eyes," he rubbed his head...almost seeming embarrassed. The golden eyes faded to a warm brown. "I have trouble controlling my devil fruit from time to time. But enough about me." Ichigo's hand went up to clasp his sword, "who were you going to defeat?"

"N-n-n-nothing, great death god sir! We jsut got trapped here by mistake!"

"It was a mistake!"

"Please don't kill us!"

The head captain would be halfway to killing this cowardly group already. How did they make it this far into the Grand Line? It was a mystery how any of them had a bounty as high as they did-especially the Monkey kid. "Hey, now you're making me look bad. I'm not going to kill you."

The cowardly duo stopped trembling. "Y-you're not?" Chopper said.

Ichigo shook his head. "I'm not really into the whole killing thing despite how I look. Now," Ichigo pointed to te island behind him, "if I don't escort you, the island can be danger-"

A loud rumble cut off Ichigo's sentence and giant waves crashed into the tiny boat. "Shit!" With a burst of speed, Ichigo launched himself off of the Mini Merry and into the air to avoid get swept up by the artificial wave. Calling upon his devil fruit, Ichigo willed himself to stay floating. I hope those waves subside soon. I can't keep this up for long. Eyes scanning the ocean, he searched for the mini boat with Moriah's latest catch. The boat was empty.

"Damn this whole island..." Ichigo muttered and landed on the nearby shore. Looking at the trajectory, they landed in Cerberus's pit and that damn dog didn't know the meaning of restraint as one of Hogback's failures. "I guess I should have Hildon track them down." In a flash, Ichigo disappeared.

Meanwhile, Usopp, Nami, and Chopper were feeling from their lives from a three-headed dog that came from the ditch they were thrown in. "What the hell is this place?"

"A place no one should go considering it's full of death gods!" Usopp shouted to Chopper.

"Shut up and run!" Nami broke in, "Or that thing will get us!"

"Bark!"

"Bark!"

"Yip!"

"Bark!"

"Bark!"

"Yip!"

Chopper craned his head. "Yip...?" He turned and sure enough, the last head was a fox. Which Chopper dutifully pointed out and enraged the undead beast.

"Ahhh!" Usopp screamed, "You made it worse!"

"It's really mad now!"

"Into the tree!"

The group scrambled into the tree canopy and watched the Cerberus sniff the air and wander off in search of it's prey. "It doesn't have a good sense of smell?" Usopp asked as he watched the creature lumber away.

"Well, at least we're safe." The group turned to the new voice. "Hello! Ichigo-sama sent for me. Dr. Hogback is expecting you."

A/N: Hello! Welcome to my new fanfic. I recently became interested in Bleach again so I wanted to give a go at a crossover I've been formulating for a while. For anyone worried about Ichigo being overpowered, or any shinigami for that matter, I've got that covered.

I'm busy with college work but I'm going to be focusing on this single story. I did my best to double check the grammar though, considering I haven't written essay in nearly a year, my grammar is sure to be rusty. If you see any glaring mistakes, send me a pm or what not.

As I do not want to give anything away, I am not going to say much. I hope you guys enjoyed this introduction.