Taruna Rei hated being scared. She was a very confident, down-to-earth kind of girl. She didn't like somebody or something to rattle her cage. So, by the time Halloween came around, she had locked herself deep in the confines of her house, turning off all lights, eating a tub of ice-cream, and watching anything that wasn't featuring a horror special.
So, it wasn't a surprise when the poor girl became terrified when she heard something rasping at her door-and not in the usual trick-or-treaters' kinda of way. Though she had often tried to keep away from horror flicks, she knew better than to go right up to her door, and unknowingly release a horror of events.
There she sat, glued to her seat; much too terrified to find the source of the sound. She listened away as the door noise kept on going. Rei turned the volume up.
RASP
A particularly load grunt of the threshold made her yelp. She swore she was going to wet herself. What if it was a serial killer? A werewolf? Or a… ZOMBIE!?
RASP
Wait…, Taruna started sweating, didn't I lock the gate?
Then the rasping stopped. She paused, and then suddenly shook her head. What was she saying? It could've been a cat, right? Well, whatever it was, it was gone now. But, when she finally brought herself to get a refill of strawberries and whip cream, she stayed clear of that door.
By not checking that door, she unknowingly released a horror of events.
Akutsu Jin paced down the packed street, kids right and left jumping, hopping, and caught up in the candy craze. This really annoyed him. Brats half his size thought they could scare anyone they knew into paranoia, and celebrated horror and things that go bump in the night. They were completely oblivious to the real terror in everyday life. It was an insult to him more than anything else.
He turned a corner off main street and into a small neighborhood crammed with houses; even they were decorated in fake cobwebs and carved pumpkins. Just as he was passing a particularly bustling house, a boy disguised as a zombie crashed into him.
"Oh,hey, sorry about that!" the boy was only a year or so younger than himself, "Got caught up in the mood, y'know?" Akutsu merely gave him a nasty look. "Hey! I'm a zombie, too! Where'd you get the mask? It looks so real!"
Akutsu furrowed his eyes as he grasped the front of the boy's outfit. "Who do you think you are!? Are you trying to piss me off? You want a beating? I-," Akutsu suddenly paused; his face looked like he had realized something. The kid looked completely and utterly afraid. He flung the teen to the side. "Che."
He almost let his anger slip. Normally, he'd have thrashed that guy into the next millennium and called it a good day. Especially with what he was going through recently, he was ready to set loose anytime. But, there was something on his mind. Something he normally would have brushed aside. This time it bothered him.
He was getting a bit tired of the usual glances of fear, the whispering behind his back. Frankly, it was starting to really piss him off, and somehow, Sengoku Kiyosumi caught on to this right away.
"Hey, isn't that Akutsu Jin?"
"You mean that monster from Yamabuki? I think so."
"He's getting onto our train!"
"Don't worry. We'll just go farther down the platform." Akutsu glared at the two schoolgirls whispering a few feet from him. As if he couldn't hear them.
"Ah! He's looking this way!"
"Eek! Let's go!" And the two girls rushed to the other side of the platform. Akutsu got this a lot, especially recently. Apparently, some half-brained reporter had written another article on him.
The train pulled into the station, and Akutsu stormed in, and leaned up against the opposite door. Even though the transport was crammed like a sardine, there was an obvious space around him. No one dared come close.
"Che."
When he arrived at school, things hadn't gotten better. Jin lazily sat in his seat after the bell. What was with all the stares? At least he came. Great, here he comes.
"Akutsu, you look more pissed than normal! Had an unlucky trek from home?"
"What are you talking about, brat?"
"Maybe the staring, pointing, and unwanted attention?"
"Che, I don't expect you to care."
"Common!" Sengoku glanced quickly at the teacher. He was still wrapped up in some lecture. After a moment of thinking, he turned his head back at his silver haired friend and lowered his voice, "I'll tell you what, I'll give you some advice."
"I didn't ask for it." Sengoku ignored this comment, "The reason everyone stares at you is because they're scared of you! You reputation proceeds you, you know? If you want them to stop, all you have to do is start being nice for once."
"Che, I'll die first." Akutsu said, and then easily brushed the comment off. It wasn't anything he didn't already know. He could do without the meaningless attention, but what did you expect him to do? Save a cat from a tree?
Ha, yeah right.
Strangly, though, Kawamura Takashi said the same thing later that day.
"It'll be strange at first, but then people will get use to it!"
"To be like you? I'll pass." Kawamura sighed at Akutsu's reply.
"I worry about you sometimes, Akutsu. Sometimes I worry you'll never get any more friends-or a girlfriend."
"Che, if I wanted one, I could get one."
"Sigh You just scare people easily…"
Looking back at this, he had to admit-he did scare people a lot. That's only because everyone knows my reputation. They know what I can do. Akutsu shook his head. This wasn't him. If he had wanted to change, wanted to have a new reputation, it's not like he could do it without scarring his current one.
Akutsu reached the gate to his house, but he couldn't open it. The stupid gate was locked. He started yanking at it increasingly more powerful. It wouldn't budge. Che. He grabbed onto the railing, and easily climbed over the obstacle. Why the hell would they lock the gate for?
He nearly rammed the door down when he found out that it, too, was locked. He'd have to either crash through a window, or go around the back. He figured it'd be easier to go around.
THUMP
Rei froze in her place on the couch. What was that? Somewhere beyond the kitchen window, she heard a very faint, but definite, heavy noise. Was it the same thing from before? N-no, I'm probably imagining it. She seriously had to stop getting scared like this. She resumed her channel surfing. Just as Rei had shifted her eyes and started concentrating on the TV set, a sudden image of a flesh eating crazed zombie had started lunging at her.
"Kyaaaaa!" She screamed, dropping the remote. She watched in horror as it viciously tore at this poor person's throat, streams of red flying everywhere. She kept letting out small fits of screams every time the screen showed a thoroughly gory part. Rei's hand trembled as she retrieved the controller from the floor and pressed the channel button.
That's it. Out of every scary thing in the world, she had to admit, she hated zombies the most.
Angry clouds gave await and rain drops started pattering on her roof, obviously signaling an end to a festive night of tricks and treats. Rei could imagine people scrambling into the nearest open door, drenched from head to toe in their outfits. This calmed her, but only for a little while.
Akutsu cursed loudly as he stubbed his foot and stupidly fell face first onto the pavement of the small path leading to the back door. How the hell could he have done that? Jin glared at the silhouette of what had tripped him. He couldn't quite tell what it was, but he guessed a lawn gnome, or something like it. When the hell did they get a lawn gnome? And who was to blame for putting the stupid thing in the middle of his path?
Che. He bitterly stood up, limping a tad bit. Forget everything he was thinking earlier. His life was crap, and there was nothing he could do about it, or anyone could do about it for that matter.
To make things even better, a loud clap of thunder had gone of, followed by a heavy downpour of rain. How swell. And all he wanted to do was lock himself up in his room. He reached for the backdoor, or at least where he imagined it to be. When Akutsu felt a round handle, he yanked on it; and hard.
Suddenly the back door had flung open. The new rain started pouring into the house. Rei immediately looked up. I thought I locked that door. She hoped it was just the wind that had blown it open, but sure enough, a lighting had struck somewhere in the distance and a massive figure was limping at the doorway. Wa-was that…BLOOD!?
"Ugh…," a somewhat grunt had come from it. Rei felt the hair on the back of her neck spike up. When the figure took a step into her household, she bolted up. She did the only thing she could think of doing in her defense.
She threw the remote at it. It missed. IT noticed. The THING thrust its head at her, eyes ablaze. Rei laughed pathetically at herself in her mind. Yeah, zombies die by remote.
Who the HELL threw that at me!? Akutsu's eyes rested on a girl standing horrified in front of the couch. Who-?
Rei darted from her spot and ran. Ran where? She didn't know. Wherever was better than in sight of THAT thing. She was scared out of her wits, and screamed when it was chasing her. Akutsu would have caught up to her easily if he hadn't had to keep stopping to maneuver around things he didn't recall being there. It didn't even cross his mind that he had gotten the wrong house. He just wanted to catch the girl in it that had now hopelessly tripped in the hall.
Rei looked up terrified at Akutsu. She backed up against the wall, fear etched at every feature of her face. Aw, hell. She was going to die by zombie. Oh how she hated Halloween.
Akutsu took a glimpse of her face before Rei threw her hands up, saying something like, "Please don't eat me!" He hadn't gotten it, though, since his mind had rushed back to the faces of those girls on the station platform, to the faces of countless others that he had scared. Sengoku's and Kawamura's words echoed in the background.
"E-eh?" Rei looked up, surprised that she wasn't writhing in pain by now.
"I'm not going to eat you," Akutsu said, thinking that she didn't have any fat to eat anyway.
"Well, aren't you a zombie? Shouldn't you, y'know, be rapidly eating at my flesh…or something?"
Akutsu annoyingly glared at a frame depicting a small family laughing at the beach. He couldn't believe what he was hearing, "I'm NOT a zombie." Rei's eyes fixed onto his, now confident she wasn't going to be eaten. What she saw wasn't a zombie, but a somewhat drenched boy, with a scratch on his forehead. That would explain the blood she saw earlier.
"Who are you then? And what are you doing in my house?"
Akutsu was a little surprised that she didn't know who he was. Perhaps she just couldn't see clearly.
"Akutsu Jin."
"Taruna Rei."
After a few moments of nothing, he looked back at the girl again. It WAS true. He could tell by her face. She honestly had no idea who he was. This meant she didn't know his reputation. Then, Akutsu suddenly remembered something.
"Get up." The girl paused and Akutsu hesitantly offered his hand. She took it, and he pulled her up a little roughly.
Akutsu remembered something a small friend of his had said a while ago during another conversation he had merely shrugged off.
Dan Taichi said once, with a brilliant smile, "You know, if you don't know how to change something, just start little by little."
A/C: This was a Halloween special DN for DOPAMINE. I used my name because I didn't have any other ones to put in it anyway. Yes, I am aware that Akutsu overuses his "Che" but I was stayin up until midnight while it stormed outside while I listened to PoT seiyuu songs, so I didn't bother editing. I was also recently told that the last Dan thing was kinda random. Oh well. Hope you enjoyed it anyway! R&R loved.
Disclaimer: No, I don't own Takeshi Konomi's Prince of Tennis or any of it's characters mentioned in this fanfiction.