Chapter 3: Few Answers, More Questions…
He ended up not returning the gift to Aki, given how useful it had been the morning before. After Aki said she wasn't in the mood for friends, Todd left, went to class, and came home only to find his roommate tediously tiding up the room again, checking to make sure everything was still there and undamaged, even though he had twice the day before. Todd hated freshman. To escape, he went to the walmart, on foot of course. It was only a mile walk, and on his way back, darkness it's fangs in the town. A street light flickered off, and he was left without light. Even the moon hid from the night behind blankets of cloud. Tripping over a rock, he dropped his groceries on the floor, some saltines and goldfish with some Izze soft drink. As he checked them for damage he cursed that the bottles had broken.
"Such foul language, kids like you should watch their mouth." Todd stood up and looked around, but saw nothing. He was directly under the broken light, and when it strobed back on, he only saw shadowy movements.
"Who's there?" Todd wanted to bolt, but without knowing who it was or where he was, there was no way to know which way was safe.
"In front of you," more shadows shot from above to the ground in front of him. When the light steadied, a purple spikey hair man was standing before him, a possibly sexual tattoo on his cheek and a bandaid just above the 69 going across his nose and three vertical scars on his right eye. His black robe was sleeveless and Todd vaguely recognized the outfit. Some badge was attached to his left arm and he had a sword at his side like some samurai. He frowned and put one hand on his blade's handle. "Who are you?"
"Isn't that my line?" Todd said, trying to sound tough, but failing to do so as he was severely at a disadvantage. Especially after another man stood up, with messy blonde hair and a laid back smile. He also had his hand at the ready to draw a sword. Then a thin woman stood up behind the first speaker, with red hair, above her shoulder. "What do you want with me?"
"Your name, like we asked." The groupies behind him didn't speak.
"Todd, Todd Mackinac. Now who are you guys and what do you want?"
"Shuhei Hisagi, 9th division lieutenant and stand-in captain."
The woman or girl as she sounded so young said, "Mira Bromheid."
"Well, hey there Todd. I am here as a consultant to these two since none of us really know what to do. Are you the representative Shinigami?" said the laid back smiler.
"Huh?" Todd said.
"Either you are an idiot, sir, or you are not the man were looking for. Have you noticed anything strange recently?"
Feeling he shouldn't lie to such dangerous characters, he told the truth. "Yeah, I have. An out-of-body experience when I touch this sword, and like there was this monster thing, it looked like a toad but was purple and…"
"A hollow," said the tattooed man, Shuhei. "They eat souls." They explained the basics of soul society, shinigami, and hollows, which Todd didn't know how to respond to.
"Jokes on me, right?" Todd shook his head, then continued. "So why me?"
"We don't know, like I said before. None of us are sure what's happening." Todd asked for his name but the question was evaded with more explanation, like what a representative shinigami was. Apparently, only one other case was heard of and no one knew Todd existed as another representative. Todd said it had to be him, given their description but he wasn't aware of it. The purple haired one didn't look trusting.
"Come back to my place and I'll show you the sword, the zan thingy." They agreed and correctly told him that it was zanpaktou. They got back to his place, and he started introducing them to his roommate with "This is…" when Shuhei said that no one else could see him, "unbelievable, they broke my Izze." Good save, thought Todd. The nameless shinigami had disappeared to investigate elsewhere.
Grabbing his the sword from beneath his twin bed, his roommate saw it, and began saying, "whoa! What is that? Can I see?" But Todd was already slamming the door on his way out. He headed behind his dorm, it was secluded enough that any tornado wouldn't be seen or damaging.
He pulled out the blade, bracing for a tornado, but nothing this time. However, he did notice his body fainting in front of him. He stood on his own back until he stepped away. This time the sheath appeared on his hip and he looked a bit like Shuhei and Mira, in his shinigami clothes. Representative or not, they all looked similar now. But when he checked his arm, he saw no such badge.
Shuhei drew his sword and said, "Todd Mackinac, you're under arrest by orders of Soul Society. Return your weapon to its blade and you will remain unharmed. Fight and I can guarantee you'll die." A sharp dagger from behind was pointed at his neck.
"Listen to him, Todd." The nameless man was behind him, ready to kill. Not a headstrong idiot, he put the blade away, and offered up his hands. They clapped on red plastic looking cuffs that when he tested, served to irritate his shoulders.
