BEEP. BEEP. BEEP.
"Ugh..."
BEEP. BEEP. BEEP.
Tenma rolled over in her bed early the next morning, shoving her head under the pillow. She didn't get much sleep last night, what with the constant crashes and screaming outside. So, she was determined to get as much sleep as possible.
BEEP. BEEP. BEEP.
Her cell phone blared persistently. Why, in god's name, did she insist on getting that obnoxious fire-alarm ringtone?
'Because it was freakin' sweet,' she answered herself.
'Screw off'.
BEEP. BEEP. BEEP.
"Shut up!" she sat up on her forearms and screamed at her cell phone, sitting oh-so-innocently on her desk on the other side of the room. If only she had a flamethrower, she could effectively execute the course of action she had in mind. Sadly, she did not, so she just settled on a glare.
BEEP. BEEP. BEEP.
"Alright, fine!" she grumbled, deciding that she would get no more sleep over that infernal racket, and that whatever prick was calling her at this hour on a Thursday morning would surely keep on calling until she answered. She flipped the contraption open begrudgingly. "What?"
"Are you still in bed?!" came a yell of equal calibur as her own.
"So what if I am? It's not even 7 yet!"
"It's Thursday. Thursday means school, and school means get up and go for learn something for once! We have an important test today, and you haven't been there all week. You're gonna to fail again!"
She scowled. "Jeez, Carrot-top, that's more of a reason not to go. I'm not gonna go for a test I'm not even prepared for--"
"Copy my notes--"
"How are you even calling me? Yopu don't have a cell, do you?" Tenma cut him off, growing more and more agitated.
"Look outside," he laughed, and she opened the blinds to her bedroom window. Across the street stood a payphone and on that payphone, she found her morning intruder. He grinned up at her and waved. "Your hair looks like shit," he teased.
She growled down at him, opening the window and pointing a long thin figner at him. "Ichigo, you rat bastard!" A few heads on the street turned.
Ichigo's face then grew serious. "Get to school today, or I'll make you regret it," he said and hung up the phone, walking off without another glance.
Tenma closed her cell phone as well as her window. "Wel, I don't wanna regret it," she said to herself sarcastically. Honestly, her only friend acted like such a hardass all the time, it was hard to believe that he was the goody two-shoes and she was the juvenile delinquent. Well, okay, maybe the latter exceptionally easy to believe, especially since she had been suspended for fighting 4 times in that school year alone, not to mention her ever growing file down at the police station and her pending probation at the courthouse, which she refused to show up to on the day of the hearing, instead settling on gambling with a tough crowd in Rosuto.
She hurriedly brushed her teeth, showered, and combed through her short, choppy black hair. She skipped breakfast, being unacusstomed to eating so early in the morning due to her habitual sleeping in, and grabbed her school bag, half-expecting it to be covered in dust and cobwebs, it was used to unoften.
"Alright. A day in hell starts...now Shit, wait..." she halted at the door, picking up her big, 'wife-beater' shades and skateboard from the livingroom, and sighed. "Now," she nodded, slinging her bag over shoulder and closing and locking the front door of her apartment.
Tenma walked out onto the street sidewalk, board clutched under her arm lightly. It felt good that morning. Winter had just ended, and a cool spring breeze rustled the trees and the small, newly budding flowers. It was a shame she had to waste such a nice morning at school, of all places. Well, if it weren't for Ichigo, she'd still have been in that stuffy old apartment.
She heard a crash down the street as well as some shouts. With a sigh, she mounted her board and took off. It was a bad idea to loaf around in that neighborhood. You were likely to get jumped, stabbed, pickpocketed, or a lot worse, for just passing through. It was enogh to make her wonder why Ichigo even bothered going out of his way to venture into that part of town, just to phone call a threat to get her to school.
Tenma grinned to herself as she ollied over a sleeping dog. Well, it was Ichigo after all. If he was man enough to visit for a day every now and then, a few minutes on the street corner payphone would be a piece of cake. But still, she couldn't help but worry over her only friend. She told him she'd have his back, after all.
The ground beneath her gave a little tremor, knocking her off balance as she prepared to ollie over a brick park planter. A queasy feeling began to build as she slowed to a stop, plopping down on a nearby bench. The pit of her stomach clenched tightly and the hairs on her neck stood on end as a strange sensation took over her. Flashbacks from the night before began to play in her mind...
'What is this?' she thought to herself. She clenched the edge of the bench for support. "I must be constipa--AUGH!" the ground rattled once more behind her.
She spun around, expecting...well, she didn't really know what to expect. But definitely not a 20 foot tall booger green giant with a white skeleton-like mask covering its face. It gave a deafening banshee-like screech with enough force to knock her over, short hair tangled and sticking in all sorts of odd directions.
Her eyes grew as wide as saucers as she couldn't find the strength to move, as if something were forcibly binding her limbs to that sodding rickety bench. Its yellow eyes, small and pupilless orbs set in blackness of the mask's eyeholes, bore into her dark brown ones, ridding her of any logical thoughts she had accumulated up until that moment.
It leaned down and grinned its nasty little grin at her. "What peculiar reiatsu you have, my darling. I wonder how it tastes," it pondered deviously, a low chuckle resonating in its elongated neck. "No need to be afraid. This will be over quickly!" it promised and lunged at her.
Tenma gasped. What sucked the most was that she couldn't even close her eyes. Her body seemed to stop responding altogether!
In a flash, the bench was utterly decimated into a hundred pieces. Phew! Thank god she wasn't on it...wait, WHAT?! She glanced down at her feet to find nothing underneath them but the sweet--invisible--morning air?
"Huh, that was a close one, eh?" a male's voice came, and she then realized the slight choking sensation as a masculine hand had a firm grip on the collar of her uniform. Her eyes followed the hand up an incredibly well-toned arm, all the way up until her eyes were met by a blinding, reflecting light.
"Fuck!" she mumbled, flinching away and squinting her eyes, looking back only after her eyes had recovered and a hand was position safely over her brows. A familiar face met her gaze, one with a head so damn shiny, the sun reflected off of it like fine crystalline glass. Tenma almost laughed at the comparison--almost. That is, if that gargantuan thing hadn't have given out another loud screech. Once more, her limbs felt like jelly and fell limp; her head lulled to the side.
The bald man grunted. "Tch. How troublesome. Where's Yumichika when you need him..." he grumbled to himself, landing at the base of a nearby tree and setting her down. In a flash, he had disappeared only to reappear in front of the monster, a katana in hand.
'What...the fuck?' Tenma though to herself. First a crazy looking demon shows up, and now the freak with the waxed head and kimono from last night shows up, brandishing a damn weapon. What's worse is that she didn't even have an excuse for this hallucination. She'd been drug free for eight whole months!
The man dodged the monster's oncoming swings with ease. Said monster screeched in frustration and lunged at him once more, bellowing something about ruining its breakfast, which made Tenma shudder. The guy dodged the oncoming claw easily and jumped high into the air, bringing his sword down with one sweeping blow, slicing its head in half. It gave one last screech and began to dissolve away.
He smirked to himself and sheathed his sword. "What a disappointent...You there!" he turned to Tenma, still lying on the ground, stunned. "You okay?" he walked toward her. "I'm guessing you can move your limbs now."
Tenma slowly sat up. It was a strain, like trying to grab something with a sleeping arm, but she managed. "Eh, yeah. Thanks..." she panted, fixing her uniform skirt. Then she tried standing. "What exactly was that thing?" her knees buckled under her, and she felt dizzy, crouching back down for support.
"Hollow," he answered simply, grabbing her by the under arm and dragging her to her feet.
"Hollow?" she echoed, regaining her balance. "Oh, like that hole in its stomach?"
"Yeah, that's one characteristic of a Hollow, along with a mask. They prey on human souls to survive. It may have been a mere coincidence, but just in case, watch your back. And don't tell anyone what you saw," he turned and leaped away.
"Watch my back? How am I supposed to watch my back against a monster like that?!" she called after him, but it was too late; he was gone. She huffed and picked up her things.
'I didn't even get the weirdo's name.'
