Renji hauls Arata, his arm over his shoulder and his body slumped over. He shunpos his way over to a friend's house who he knows can fix Arata up better than he can.
He walks up a flight of stairs and walks until he comes up to a specific door. He rings the door bell and wait. He doesn't wait for too long however as a female voice calls out from inside, saying she is coming before the door opens seconds later.
A slender yet curvaceous woman with large breast of average height opens the door. Her burnt orange hair was down at its full length, stopping at her waist. On her hair were blue six-petaled flower-shaped hairpins, small things that held more power than one would think. Her attire was simple, wearing only a white t-shirt and blue pajama bottoms and no socks.
Her friendly expression quickly turns to surprise seeing her friend Renji which then turns to immense concern when she sees the unconscious man the redhead was carrying.
"Renji, w-what happened?!" asked the now worried girl.
"I'll explain later. Can you fix him up?"
She nods before motioning towards her room. Once there, the man, Renji, lays Arata on his stomach on the girl's bed, showcasing the wound. The girl gasps at how bad the cuts were but regains her barrings before using Soten Kisshun, her healing technique. A half-oval barrier forms around Arata's back and begins to reverse the damage done to him by the dog.
The wound closes at a tremendous speed, until it shuts completely. It was as if no damage had been done save for his clothes. The girl dematrializes the barrier and lets out a sigh of relief before checking his vitals on his wrist and neck. All were stable. All that was left was rest.
"Renji, what happened to him?"
"The guy got sliced by a hollow defending the spirit of a little boy".
She looks to the unconscious Arata and smiles as she is reminded of another courageous individual she knows.
"He has a strong spiritual pressure" the girl notes.
"Yeah. That's probably why he was able to fight against the hollow"
"He fought a hollow?" the girls says with shock.
"Wasn't able to kill it though and just when I came, the hollow clawed his back"
The girl then gently turned Arata on his back so he can sleep better. She looks at his mask and feels an intimidating aura surround. It wasn't just her. Renji felt it too. The girl then reaches out to the mask, to feel it, but just as her fingertips hovered over the white surface, Arata springs to life and grabs the girl's small wrist in a bruising grip.
Said girl yelps in surprise and pain as Arata stares at her, his eyes threatening but not visible.
"Do. Not. Touch"
"S-Sorry!"
"Hey! Let her go!" Renji warns, gripping his sword's handle tightly.
Arata looks at him before looking around him, taking in every detail of the room. The tables, the T.V, the lamp. Everything that is normal to the modern age but alien to the hitokiri.
He lets go without thought and rolls his shoulder, remembering the injury he sustained but all he felt was relief, no pain whatsoever. Hell, it felt like he wasn't even injured in the first place.
"What happened to me?"
Renji straights his posture. "You were injured by a hollow and I brought you here to get you healed"
"A hollow? And healed how?"
"Well, a hollow is a dead soul that was consumed by negative emotions and turned into a soul-eating monster". Arata contemplates this. Do these hollows also exist in the Heathmoor too? Renji then points his finger to the girl who was smiling brightly, as if the moments before never happened. "And the person who healed you is her"
"Hi! I'm Orihime Inoue! And you are..."
"Arata. How long was I out?"
"For about 10 minutes" Renji answers.
"What? Impossible, how did you heal me so quickly?" Arata said to Orihime.
"I used these" she points to her hairpins.
"Don't joke. How did you-" but before Arata could finish, she activates her hairpins to reveal the same barrier she used on Arata. Said executioner backs away slightly in surprise but then come to a conclusion.
"So magic?"
Orihime giggles. "I guess it is pretty magical huh?"
Arata stares at her as she giggles. Such a weak, innocent soul, she is. So pure that a descent downwards would ruin her. She was destined to hurt in the future, to uncover the harsh reality of the world. He sighs quietly before standing up and heads towards the door, surprising the two other people in the room.
"Hold on, you need to rest before you start moving!" Orihime argues.
"Look, thanks for healing me but I'll be fine from now on" he nonchalantly says.
"You should listen to her, you know. With your spiritual pressure, your energy, hollows will be all over you" Renji states. "Plus, you can't take them all on with how you are now"
He's got a point.
'Be quiet'
Arata turns around and then narrows his eyes at Renji. "I know what she is" obviously talking about Orihime. "...but what are you?"
"The name's Renji Abarai. I'm a soul reaper"
"A shinigami?"
"Yeah, we're called that too. Our job is to exercise-"
"To kill?" Arata said, sounding a little more excited.
"Yes... to kill hollows and guide other spirits to the Soul Society through konso. Remember the little boy?"
Arata's eyes shine with realization. "So you help them pass on basically?"
Renji nods. "Now that you asked your questions, how about I ask mine?"
"Depends. What are your questions?"
"Who are you? Last time I saw, humans don't wear old fashion Japanese garbs"
"Well I'm not every human now am I?"
"Obviously. Now who are you?"
Arata stares at the man for a moment before answering. "I'm Arata Takahashi"
Renji frowns. "That's not-"
"Listen, I'm just a regular human with a high 'spiritual pressure'. I'm sure you've seen it before". He continues. "I'm gonna go" and he waves them off.
"Do you even have a home?" Renji asks, walking behind Arata
"No. I'm a wanderer" Arata said who was opened the door and started off in a random direction.
"You can stay here if you want" said Orihime near her door. The boys turn to her, having forgotten she was there. Renji stares at her as if she just proposed to cut off her own arm while Arata thought about it.
Okay... look: We are clearly in a different world, with strange people, and magic. Until we can get our barrings, I suggest we find a temporary form of shelter.
'I said I don't need-'
You don't need help. Yeah ummm... did you forget what happened with the dog?
The executioner growled in his mind at what the voice was proposing them to do. He rather wanted to be alone, independent, not relying on anyone but himself. Plus, the last time he relied on someone was when he was with his parents and the time after with...her.
Forget about that. Think of it this way: Once we learn how to live in this world we can get our own place and return back to what we do best.
Arata growls in frustration seeing that he was between a rock and a hard place.
"Sure..." he said after much consideration. Renji snaps his head back to him, shocked that he agreed.
"Uhhh... can you wait here for a second?" and he pulled Orihime inside her apartment, shutting the door behind her.
Renji breathes in and out before speaking. "Why?!" the redhead yelled.
"Well, he's in need of a home" she said innocently.
"He could be dangerous. And he is clearly hiding something" Renji argues.
"He risked his life for someone. He nearly died for that little boy. He can't be that bad Renji"
Renji shakes his head at his friend's kindness and innocent. It was one of her best traits but felt that it would backfire on her someday.
"Renji, why were you questioning him?" Orhime asked.
Renji turns his attention back to Orihime and decides to spill the beans. "Remember a few hours ago that there was that huge spiritual explosion of energy?"
"Yeah but how does that connect to Arata?"
He sighs. "We were able to feel the presence in in the Soul Society too but only for a few seconds before it was gone. Squad 12 was able to trace the source here, in the middle of Karakura and they sent me to investigate" he said surprising the girl. If something could be felt from both the world of the living and the Soul Society, it had to be insanely powerful. There was only one problem to Renji's suspicions though.
"But... Arata's power isn't that strong. It's big but no where near that other presence" the girl states.
"I know but think about it. A large spiritual force suddenly appears and then there's a strange masked guy who won't even give us straight forward answers. It connects too well"
"Or it could be a coincidence"
"Orihime..." Renji sighs.
"Look, if he tries something, I can defend myself or run away and get help. You don't have to worry" she tries to comfort. "Plus, if he really is the culprit behind that explosion of energy, then wouldn't it make sense to keep him somewhere you know under supervision?"
"As your friend, I'm supposed to worry if you're going to let strange men into your home". She gives a hard stare, pleading him to just listen. In the end, he sighs in defeat before nodding to her, making her smile.
"I'm going to tell the others about this though" He said finally before heading to the door.
"I'm okay with that" and Renji opens the door to see Arata leaning on the railing, waiting.
"Don't try anything or you will regret it" the redhead warns, glaring at the man while his hand griped his sword's hilt. It has little effect on the executioner, even if the man before him was much stronger than he was.
Renji then shunpos his way out, leaving Orihime and Arata by themselves. He will have to learn that Arata thought. Could come in handy.
"Sooo..." Orihime starts.
"What?"
"What do you wanna eat?"
"Food"
"Well... what kind of food?"
"Good food"
Orihime thought for a moment before a light bulb went up in her head. "I know just the thing!" and she went into the kitchen.
Arata closes the door and looks to her as she cooks. He sits at the table and stares at the black box in front of him, questioning its purpose in its mind.
"Woman, what is that?" he said pointing to the box. Orihime pauses and looks to see him pointing at the T.V.
"Oh, that's the T.V. Here..." and she grabs the remote and turns it on. Loud music blares out as cartoon characters are seen on the black box's surface, moving and talking.
"More magic?"
Perhaps Renji was onto something with him. She giggles though as she explains what a T.V, that it runs using an energy called electricity and that there are numerous shows you can watch from game shows, anime, kids cartoons, soap operas, etc.
"Amazing..." Arata breathes out.
"You don't have T.V where you're from?"
the executioner shakes his head. "Not really. I did not even know these existed"
Orihime smiles at him, causing his insides to warm up in a strange way. "Well now you do now. Now just wait and I'll fix us up something good" and she goes back to the kitchen.
Arata flips through channels, going from shows after shows until he lands on a horror title with a big guy in a hockey mask.
'There is going to be a lot of adjusting'
No kidding. Oh Look! The guy just left that girl dangling inside a sack above a campfire! Why didn't you do that?
'Dunno. Might try it though'
