Chapter 1: Bit
Sometimes, you can tell how a night will turn out by looking at the sky. Tonight, Tatsuki could tell it would be a strange one as she saw a sparkling blue moon from the lower half of her window. Well, it would have been the upper half had she not fallen out of bed. Who wouldn't, after being woken up by a mutant plushie saying "the goddess and her valley of the gods are in danger!"
Tatsuki took a brief moment in thinking. She had two hunches on who it was: Orihime or that sake-obsessed lieutenant. Her eyes widened, remembering the latter was sent to Soul Society because she hid half a ton of Squad 10's paperwork…..again. "Orihime!"
She rushed out of her house and began following the stuffed toy, never taking her eye off it. A cold breeze met her. Luckily, she had grabbed a jacket and wore it over the shirt she was sleeping in, although she regretted that she didn't wear anything over her shorts.
After they turned right, she saw her. The red head was running low on reiatsu, making her powerless. And the thing hunting her was,
A dog.
Tatsuki gaped. 'I got called here for a dog?!' It was an odd thing: Orihime's power can protect her from big hollows, but a DOG?!
But as the brunette ran closer to the sight, she was wrong. 'Alright, maybe not an angry dog. Just a BIG ANGRY DOG ON TWO FEET TRYING TO MAKE KIBBLE OUT OF MY BEST FRIEND!' Now this she can handle. Even though the 'dog' er… thing.. or whatever it was was taller than her, she won't let anyone(or anything, for this matter) hurt the powerless redhead. If she won't let Chizuru get 12 feet close to Orihime, hell she wouldn't let a 7 foot tall rabid dog get a MILE near har classmate!
Just then, it started charging full force at its prey, hunger written all over its face. Instinctively, Tatsuki charged to the scene to put herself in between predator and prey. She was almost too late; but instead of putting herself in between them, she shouldered the beast's lowered head, giving it such an impact that it was pinned against the wall. The wall that was very far away.
Realizing that neither she nor Orihime was unsafe, she sprang up, and prepared for the next attack. She stared at the thing she knocked over, still lying on the ground. A cloud enveloped the moon as she was waiting for it to get up. Minutes passed, the creature not moving, and Tatsuki not letting her guard down.
The cloud let go of the moon, thus revealing blue light to the scene. As if that was the signal, the beast flicked its eyes open. It's eyes, which had been yellow a while ago, had turned crimson red, both of which had killer intent in them, all for Tatsuki. In a blink of an eye, Tatsuki lost sight of her opponent. HOLY CRAP! She rushed to her friend's side, remembering Orihime was the target in the first place.
It was completely quiet. Tatsuki waited for the attacker stiffed-legged. She was determined to beat it. Too many things were at stake here, and thinking about it seemed to make her stronger. She strained her ears to hear the thing's movements. 'There!'
She charged into the right corner of the street, and landed on cement. Then, hearing its fast footsteps, she saw it was charging, preparing to give Orihime the death blow.
Mentally swearing on how stupid she was, she rushed back to Orihime with all her speed. Her feet were burning. Her shoulder was aching from that last blow. Hell, she didn't care. The only thing she was thinking: I have to stop it before it kills her!
Orihime, seeing that she was about to be turned into prey, closed her eyes and braced for impact. She waited for it to be over. The impact she expected never came. Reluctantly, she opened her eyes; which widened in shock at what she saw.
Tatsuki was in front of her, with the thing biting into her left shoulder. Realizing that Orihime just saw what happened, she held a thumbs-up and a smile of triumph. Then she smirked, as she felt a strange surge of power course through her.
She stepped on the creature's tail, which is just about the same thing as kicking someone's groin. Her foot firmly in place, making sure the tail won't slip away and the beast that bit her won't get away. She hurled punches at its stomach. A kick, with her free foot of course, was landed on its chest. She gave its jaw a powerful heading, and, to add the finishing touch: her revenge, she gave all her remaining energy on a punch to the jaw. She then let go of the tail, letting the creature fall over.
She paused, waiting for the thing to wake up. After a few minutes, she turned to her friend, without letting her guard down. "You alright, Orihime?" Tatsuki said, extending a hand toward her.
She pouted "I should be asking you that question, Tatsuki-chan!" Orihime said, taking the offered hand. She was alive, both of them were. Although, she could never take the guilt off herself. Yes, Tatsuki had saved her, very normal. It was just Tatsuki being normal, overprotective and jumping the gun. But, Tatsuki getting an injury out of it, highly abnormal.
Tatsuki had a large bite on her shoulder, and it bled profusely. It didn't hurt when she was beating the crap out of the creature, but right now, it hurt like there was no tomorrow. She winced.
"Tatsuki, you okay?" Orihime asked with concern.
"Y-yeah! C'mon, let's go home." Tatsuki replied through gritted teeth.
The walk home was quiet. Tatsuki balanced trying to conceal her pain and keeping watch of other creatures that might pop out. Orihime, on the other hand, was looking at her friend with concern, trying to think of what to do.
A few minutes later, they had arrived to the front stairs of Orihime's apartment. Both girls went up the stairs and opened the door. Realizing some other goons might attack Orihime again, Tatsuki decided to stay over. 'Good thing it's a Friday!' she thought.
"Umm, Tatsuki?" the brunette was snapped out of her thoughts as Orihime's voice came from behind her. "Yeah?"
"You'd be too tired to go home, and you're injured so can you stay here so I can treat that bite?" Orihime asked, apparently the only solution to thank Tatsuki for saving her.
"Alright." Tatsuki said, making her way to the phone to let her parents know that she's staying here.
In under an hour, her wound was properly bandaged (Tatsuki didn't let Orihime use her powers since she was tired as well.) and they had settled on having a snack before going to bed.
"Anyway, Tatsuki-chan, how did you know I was in danger?" Orihime asked with curiosity.
"Well, a talking doll woke me up and told me you were in trouble." Tatsuki recalled. 'Come to think of it where is the little guy?!' she thought, but then she tried not to laugh as remembered that she had stepped on it when she charged at the beast a few moments ago.
As if on cue, Kon jumped from his hiding place "ONEE-SAN! I'm so glad you're safe!! Please accept this stuffed toy who has worried over you so much!!" –apparently aiming for the other girl's 'valley of the gods'.
Before even coming in contact with the 30 centimeters of air surrounding the girl he was targeting, Kon came in contact with Tatsuki's fist. "Try to do that again and it's not only my foot and fist you'll be facing everyday!!" the brunette said, unknowingly punching Kon with her LEFT fist with all her might, getting a bolt of pain in her left shoulder as well as bleeding in the newly-opened bite marks.
"Tatsuki-chan!! Stay still, that wound will bleed more if you don't" Orihime whined, holding back Tatsuki from assassinating the plushie with her foot and fist mark.
Little did they know, from the other building, they were being watched by the creature who had attacked in the streets. "That was good. Although I made a mistake that it was the redhead that I was smelling, it was a good thing you came to protect her, Tatsuki. Otherwise, I would have made a mistake at administering the bite to someone else, someone who has your scent all over her." And with a smirk, the thing jumped away into the night.