Regular text is speech or thoughs in a human language, italics is demon speech or thoughts.
POV will be established in the notes before each chapter, but you clever folks could probably figure it out anyways.
Rin POV
"Ya know," I mused, "this place isn't half bad."
"Isn't half good either."
"Hn, I'll give ya that one. Could be worse though."
I looked out over the park, it wasn't a bad place. But things were peaceful enough, for a New York park at least. Sure, the city buzz never stopped in the background, and I always needed to be on the lookout of muggers, but the view from the park bench -a.k.a. my bed for the past week- was fine enough. People were walking their dogs, the trees were out in full spring form, and except for that one little thing the sky was clear. Wait… what was that? I squinted, was it just me or was it getting bigger?
"Kuro, can ya tell me what that is? I think there's some sort of weird glare and yer eyesight's a little better than mine anyways."
"Sure! It looks like… a man?"
What? I looked again and yup, it was definitely getting bigger, but… oh. I see it now. Yeah, that was a man falling from the sky. I think it says a lot about my life that that sort of thing didn't even phase me anymore. Between finding out demons are real, exorcists are real, dad was the paladin, and that I'm the bloody antichrist, not much can put a blip on the weirdness radar nowadays. Surprise detector, yes, but weirdness radar, it takes quite a bit.
"aaaaaa…"
He was getting close enough to hear. The humans probably wouldn't be able to yet, but so it goes with demonic hearing.
"aaaAAAAA..."
Kuro and I hadn't expected to be pulled through a portal, and we hadn't expected to turn up anywhere that looks even remotely like assiah, but we certainly didn't expect to turn up in a dimension with Superheroes. Honest to goodness superheroes.
And everyone here was just sort of cool with it.
"AAAAAAAA!"
He was getting pretty close to the ground.
I should probably do something, but what? I couldn't just run and catch him, it would attract too much attention and raise questions. I may be impulsive, but even I knew that plan would backfire horribly.
C'mon Rin, think. Remember what Yukio said, use yer head, think…!
That's it!
"Rin, what are you doing?"
"Kuro, hold on tight!"
I had to time this just right, wait, wait… Now!
I tore across the turf, grass and soil flying as I made a beeline for where the man would be in a moment. Closer, did I time it right? Closer, was he going to crash before I got there? Just ten steps now, after? Five, no time to consider that now! Brace for impact!
SLAM!
I felt something crunch as we both went tumbling in opposite directions. Pain announced its presence with trumpets as I lay dazed on the ground. A human body should not be that hard, or heavy. Yeah, he been falling pretty fast, but it was like I ran into a freakin' anvil!
"Rin?!"
I reached up to try and soothe my aching head. Drums joined the trumpets.
"Ugh… remind me to never do that again."
The jubilant cry of "You're okay!" was soon followed by a scratch to the cheek and a scolding "Don't do that again!"
I propped myself up on my elbows, forget the drums, the entire percussion section had joined in.
"Hey, I just asked ya to remind me not to!"
Kuro decided that the proper response to a valid point like that was to lick my forehead. That was actually helpful, as the instruments in my head quieted a bit. Before I could formulate a response to that, a new voice joined in.
"Heh, I get struck by a bolt of lightning, fall out of the sky, and get rescued by the human bulldozer and his cat. Why is this still a fairly normal Tuesday for me?"
It was coming from the man I had just rescued, and who I now realized was wearing a suit of armor. That would explain the glare, and the weight, but pretty much nothing else.
"And am I concussed, or does that cat have horns?"
I sighed, flopping back to the ground.
That was the other thing about this world. Apparently, everyone can see demons. It made things… annoying, to say the least.
The good thing was that Kuro and I had formulated a solution for this situation specifically. He kept his tails together so they looked like one big one, and I lied.
"In order, I don't know but it's a definite possibility, and yes. They're props."
"Okay then, now that that's settled… ergh!"
I looked over at the man. He seemed to be having some problems getting up, like his knees weren't working or something. I hauled myself to my feet, picking up my hat as I did so and jamming it back over the tops of my ears. It was annoying, but it worked.
I stumbled over towards the man, still rather woozy from the tumble. As would anyone if they tried stopping someone's fall by knocking them sideways. But he seemed at least conscious, so that meant not dead, which was good. Now if the world would just dim a little and maybe stop spinning, that would be much appreciated.
I dropped to my knees a few feet from the man, and held out my hand, which took. He hauled himself to his feet and looked down at me, now offering his hand.
We shambled to the bench I had been sitting on earlier and sat down. Hard, if the clang and dent he left in the metal was any indication. We just sat there in silence for a few minutes, catching our breaths and clearing our heads.
It was just the sound of the city and our breathing until he broke the not exactly silence.
"Hey kid, thanks."
I snorted. Well, that was one way to start a conversation.
"Yer welcome. If ya need help with falling out of the sky again, ya know where to fall."
The man gave a barking laugh.
"Ha! You've got a sense of humor to go along with those muscles, don't you?"
I shrugged, Kuro letting out an indignant Hey! as his resting spot was jostled, maybe. My "sense of humor" was never really what people focused on when they were describing me, but he could think what he pleased.
"Eh, let's go with that." I clapped my hands once before clasping them together in front of my chest, "Anyways, if yer all set, I'm going to go. Got to try to find a job and such. Yer welcome to come if ya want."
I'm so glad I had taken English at school, but honestly, I had no idea what I was doing right now. I had no clue how to make small talk with this guy, heck, for all I know he could be some kind of eccentric billionaire or something! I just wanted to get out of this situation before it got awkward. But the man seemed to have other ideas.
"Hey! Wait a second!"
I turned to look at the man. He had gotten up from the bench.
"Ya coming?"
It was meant to be a joke, but he was looking at me with a more considering look than anything else. Like he was debating me in his head. What about me though I had no idea. Finally, he asked a question.
"You're looking for a job you say?"
I raised an eyebrow and nodded. Yeah… I'm pretty sure I just said that. Why did he care, did he know of a place that was hiring?
He smirked.
"Come with me."
