The Okami Files
Chapter one: The New Guy
It was a beautiful morning in Peace City, birds were chirping, the sun was shining, people were already on the move to begin the day.
And a lovely young redhead was waiting impatiently for her friend.
"C'mon already. It doesn't take this long to get ready." She shouted to an open window on the fourth floor of a large apartment complex.
The front doors opened for a pretty young girl with long black hair that held a pair of flowered pins. She walked briskly past her, "Waiting on you now, let's go Tigress."
Tigress rolled her eyes and sighed, a little annoyed by her little antic.
"Right behind you Viper."
Tigress and Viper were junior in the local high school, Peach Tree High. They had been best friends since pre K and vowed it would continue to last forever. They had met each other through their fathers, both respectable kung fu masters, and from that point on They were like sisters.
They went down the street on their usual route, where they stopped by a small time noodle shop.
"Po! C'mon, we're gonna be late!" Viper shouted.
A slightly overweight young man with a black and white hoodie, and jeans came stumbling out. "See ya later dad!" He yelled to his father inside.
"Have a good day at school son." A old man poked his head out the door and waved goodbye to Po.
"Hi Mr. Ping." Tigress said waving to the old noodle chef.
"Good morning girls! Best you hurry, you don't want to be late."
They all waved goodbye and set off to school, which only took them three minutes. The school was big, as it had to be for it was the only school within a five mile radius. And there's a lot of kids within five miles.
"So Po, are you gonna talk to her today, or are you gonna wuss out again?" Viper teased her closest guy friend, who began to blush furiously.
"Viper, stop it. He'll talk to her when he's ready. Lets just hope it's before graduation." Tigress said as they walked through the double doors of the school. Po hung his head down at Tigress's last comment, which caused him to not pay attention. He bumped into someone and stumbled back when he saw his junior high school bully and Tigress's ex-boyfriend.
Tai Lung.
"Hello, Ping. How are you this morning?" Tai Lung asked.
Tigress stepped in front of Po protectively and demanded, "What do you want Lung?" She and Tai Lung broke up because of his ruthless bullying, especially to her good friend Po. After the breakup Tai Lung vowed to change his ways and stop his bullying and work to end all bullying in the school. And he held up to his word like a champion. But despite all the effort he put in, Tigress made it painfully clear that they would never get back together.
"Nothing Tigress, just saying good morning. How are you by the way?" Tigress knew that Tai Lung's change was genuine, but she still couldn't forgive him for all the terrible things he did to Po.
"Running late. We need to go." She and Viper pushed Po forward to their lockers.
"Alright, let's talk later huh?" He called.
"I'll think about it." She called back as they rounded the corner and stopped at their lockers, which were all together.
"This is really starting to get annoying." Tigress sighed.
"Well at least he didn't ask you out again, right Po? Po?" Viper turned to face him when he didn't answer, but then smiled when she saw who the big guys eyes were locked on.
She was a short, pretty and cheerful girl. A member of the dance club, and one of the popular girls. She had a feeling she was being stared at and turned to where the group was. As she did Po stuck his head in his locker blushing profusely.
"She didn't see me, did she?" He asked hoping the girl he had been crushing on since the third grade didn't see.
"Hi Po!" Said a very sweet voice that made his knees weak and his heart melt.
He turned to face tell owner of the voice. "Song, good morning." He said, his heart beating a little faster.
"Morning! Are you alright? You look like you have a fever." She put her hand on Po's forehead which almost caused him to faint, if Tigress and Viper hadn't been there he would have fallen over.
"He's fine. He's always like this when he's up late at night." Tigress said as she helped her friend stand up straight.
"Really?"
"yeah, he'll be fine in a little while, when he finally wakes up." Tigress began leading Po to the classroom, who was stammering incoherently.
"Hey why don't you sit with us at lunch Song?" Viper asked as Tigress and Po went to their seats for homeroom.
"Sure. See ya then." And she went to her homeroom.
Inside the classroom Tigress smacked Po in the back of the head to snap him out of the haze he put himself in. "If you want to talk to her, do it instead of acting like doofus."
"I try, I just can't get the words out."
Viper was the last one to take her seat when the homeroom teacher came in.
"Good morning class."
Some of the other students responded, others just sat where they were.
"I have an announcement to make." Everyone stopped what they were doing and gave the teacher their undivided attention. "We have a new student attending our school and I want you all to do your best to make him feel welcome. Come in Hiro."
After he called a tall young man walked into the room.
Tigress's P.O.V.
As the boy walked in I began to make mental notes. First thing I noticed is that he was tall. I'd most likely have to crane my head up to look him in the eye. The second thing I noticed was his hair, shoulder length, enough to declare casual rebellion. Third thing was... him. It was hard to see his build as his clothes were big and baggy. He was wearing a black leather coat that reached down to the back of his knees. He wore gloves without fingers, the kind you would see on a biker gang member. The last thing I noticed was his smile, it was overflowing with confidence.
"Hey there, nice to meet y'all. The Names Hiro Okami."
Hiro.
Nice name.
The teacher nodded and said, "Thank you for that introduction, Hiro now if you'll-"
A high pitched whine pierced the air.
One of the girls frantically tried to get her phone that was making that awful sound out of her pocket, but her pants were too tight for it to happen very soon.
Everyone started complaining about the noise and once she turned off her cell the teacher's voice rang out. "Detention! Mr. Okami take your seat."
"You might wanna get that looked at." I heard Hiro whisper as he took a seat next to mine.
I decided to greet him as he took his seat.
"Hi. I'm Tigress." He turned his head and smiled, I have to admit it was rather charming.
"Nice to meet ya, I'm-"
Suddenly more phones began to whine, ringtones began to go off and a mild form of chaos began to ensue. Everyone began to scramble to turn their phones off, and the teacher shouting for order and quiet. I got out my phone and it was acting crazy! Apps were being activated, numbers looked like they were being pushed. What is going on!?
I shut my phone down and put it back in my pocket. So far today was-
"Weird."
I looked over and saw the new kid, Hiro looking around at everyone who's phone went off. Then he looked back at me.
"Does this happen often?" He asked me with a raised eyebrow.
"Not really, nothing like this has ever happened before. Not since..." I started to think to myself about the strange occurrences that had been happening today.
"Since... what?" He asked.
"Nothing." I said just before the bell rang for the first class. I got up and followed Viper to our first class.
So far it was a really strange day, nothing like this has ever happened...
Until he came.
The rest of the day passed uneventfully in fact the only interesting thing that happened was Po choking on his food at lunch when Song came to,sit,with us.
I found that Hiro was in a couple of my classes. I tried to ignore him, for some reason he was weird. I couldn't quite place it but I don't think it was a coincidence that everyone's phones went crazy when Hiro first arrived.
At the end of the day we were on our way to our usual hang out spot, a little cafe a few blocks away from the school. Po, Viper and I were doing homework and chatting about the day.
"Po we need to figure out how we can get you over this shyness you have when Song comes around." Viper said to Po, who was in a bit of a slump since lunch.
"I know, I know. I just can't help but get nervous around her."
Viper made a thoughtful sound, wondering how she could help Po. Honestly I was barely paying attention. "Have you tried practicing what you want to say?" She asked him, I just tried to focus on my homework. It wasn't easy, as my thoughts drifted to the day's events.
"Yeah, I tried imagining that I was talking to her, and I still got nervous!" He said exasperated.
"Hmm, Tigress your thoughts?" I snapped out of my thoughts when Viper addressed me.
"Sorry, wasn't listening. What's going on?"
Po and Viper exchanged a look, then looked back at me, "You feeling ok? You're not usually so... distant." Viper asked with worry in her eyes.
"Sorry, I was just thinking." I answered truthfully.
"What about?" Po asked.
"About that new kid I guess."
"Oh, you mean Hiro?" Po Said with his happy grin, I guess he put the incident at lunch in the back of his mind for now.
"You know him?" I asked, surprised.
"Yeah he's in my language arts class, and P.E. class. Real nice guy."
"Yeah, in fact weren't you chatting with him this morning, Tigress?" Viper asked with a sly smile. "What do you think of him?"
I thought about my answer for a moment and said, "I can't decide if he's Weird, or if weird things happen around him."
"You mean what happened with everyone's cell phone? Yeah that was strange, but you don't think Hiro is the cause of it, do you?" Viper had a point, just because all the cells in the class acted crazy just when Hiro arrived doesn't mean he is the cause of it.
Right?
"Huh, actually something similar happened in language arts today." Po said.
"What? What happened?" I asked almost frantically.
"Well, that new t.v. the we got? It started going all screwy."
"What do you mean screwy?" I asked.
"You know, channels flipping, volume going up and down. Things like that." He said calmly.
"And you don't think it's strange that nothing like this has happened before Hiro enrolled?" I asked, Po is without a doubt a great guy and a true friend, by he can be very oblivious sometimes.
"Nah, just a really random coincidence."
Like now for instance.
"Uh-oh." We looked at Viper who was staring out the window. We were here longer than we had planned, it was getting dark fast. I started to gather my books and papers and put them in my backpack.
"C'mon we should get going." Po and Viper followed suit and we each left a few bucks on the table and headed out into the night.
I don't like going out into the city after dark, never did. Its not that I'm scared or anything, it's just everything is creepy at night, things that you normally wouldn't give a second thought become things that play the most tricks on you. You see more things out of the corner of your eye at night, and when you look and there's nothing there sometimes there is a sense of relief, other times it sends a shiver down your spine, and leaves you with the feeling of being watched.
I just wanted to get home as soon as possible.
We decided to take a shortcut through a few alley ways, I know smart right? But like I said earlier, we wanted to get out of here and fast, so we took a route that could get us home.
We got throughout the first couple of alley ways without incident.
The third is where things started to go wrong.
We started hearing a raspy noise, almost like sandpaper against wood. Suddenly I felt my insides freeze, a shiver ran down my spine, and the hairs on the back of my neck stood on end. Po and Viper froze on either side of me, they felt it too. Then a man rounded the corner twenty feet in front of us. He was average height, average build, and average looks, a regular average Joe.
What wasn't average was the blood all over his face and throat. He shuffled around like he was drunk. When he breathed it made that horrible raspy noise, and made the air reek of blood. And when he set his eyes on us, oh God. His eyes were completely black, like a sharks.
Soulless.
I knew we would have to fight our way out but I was too afraid to even move.
He smiled. The kind of smile smile that promises evil intentions, and the blood that was slathered on hi face only added to the creepiness factor.
"Well now." He said, his voice as raspy as his breathing. "After such a delicious meal, I think I'll treat myself to a sweet dessert." His inhuman eyes locked on me.
The fear that took hold of me... I can't even put it in words. The only way I could describe it was pure fear-for-your-life terror. I felt my friends shake on either side of me, they were too scared to move as well. What am I supposed to do? We're all about to die and I'm standing there because I'm too scared to do anything about it.
At this point I started to hope, to wish, to pray for something, anything to save us from this... monster.
Someone else showed up almost immediately after my wish.
"HOOOOOWEEEEEE! What is that stank!?"
All eyes landed on a tall young man with shoulder length black hair, a leather coat, baggy grey cargo pants, and a baggy black shirt with large white letters that spelled Keep Calm... And Suck It!
...and he had a charming smile.
My brain was suddenly locked in trying to figure out why Hiro would walk right into a situation like this, and yet here he was walking right into this little nightmare like he had done it a thousand times before.
He nodded to us in recognition, I think I waved back, I can't remember.
"Ya know I've noticed how easy it is to find you Red Court creeps."
Red Court? What was he talking about? Whatever he meant, it must have hit a nerve, because the man's face twisted in rage as Hiro spoke.
"All you gotta do is follow the stench of blood." He finished. His expression suddenly changed from charming smile to "ready to throw down".
The bloodied up man snarled at him, now completely ignoring us.
"This has nothing to do with you, White Council brat!"
White Council? Red Court? What the hell are they talking about?
"Actually it does. See, those guys over there?" He nodded in our direction. "They're friends of mine and I'm not about to let you eat them."
Eat us?! Is that what he was going to do?! Oh my God! I'm now so glad Hiro came around.
"I don't care if they are of your blood, the buck and does are mine!" The crazy guy said.
Buck and does? Is that some sort of reference to me, Po and Viper?
Hiro shrugged nonchalantly and said, "Well it looks like nothing I say is gonna dissuade you..." He reached behind his back, under his leather coat and pulled out... a stick. "... I guess I'm gonna have to resort to more efficient methods."
He pulled out a stick...
Why a stick?
You'd think that after walking into danger like a badass he'd be packing some kind of heat, instead of a one and a half foot long piece of wood.
"I will enjoy feasting on your blood... wizard."
Uhhhhh, what?
"Take your best shot... vampire." Hiro pointed his stick at the... vampire and said in a loud voice.
"Fuego!"
And a column of fire the size of my fist erupted from the tip.
...
Wow.
A/N. I'm actually a fan of the whole high school drama thing, so I decided to write my first high school fic. But I'm adding elements from my favorite book series. Been on my mind a while, so here it is. Tell me if y'all like and if I should continue.
And don't worry, I'll still be working on my other story. I plan to alternate between them.
Review, fave, comment but like with the other stories, be honest.
Peace.