Barracuda

December 17th, 2097

17:43

Garbage filled the giant industrial bin tucked behind the building, hidden deep in the alley. The only promise of light was a flickering unreliable glow from a dented-in-lamppost.

A young boy sat against the steel bin. Looking almost like a skeleton. Dark hair clung to his scalp which was tatted and uncared for. Moss-colored eyes stared out from a face too hollow for his age. Wrapped in a ragged blanket, stained with liquids of uncertain origin, he looked less like a child and more like something left to die.

In the pitch black, he could have passed for a ghoul.

A clerk stood a few feet away, a bulging bin bag hanging from his hand. He stared at the boy, slowly, deliberately with his expression hovering somewhere between pity and disgust.

Then he threw the bag.

Not into the bin.

It struck the boy’s legs and burst open slightly on impact. A sharp edge pushed through the plastic lining.

Glass,

Scraping skin before clattering to the ground.

The boy flinched but made no sound. He only reached out, fingers trembling, and dragged the bag closer. Hunger hurt more than glass ever could.

He tore the bag open with what little strength. Inside was bagged loafs of bread only a day or two out of date. To many days to sell. Yet fine to eat. Without another moment, the 14 year old tore into the bag scoffing down the bread

It tasted like ass, the bread was made with some sort of cheap substitute to real wheat. It’s no wonder it didn’t sell, the people of Lowwake were known for there high standards especially after the Sin War.

The young boy continued to devour the distasteful crusts. 

A small 3 legged feline limped out from under the garbage dump crawling up against the boy, Kaitos. 

He broke the food into quadrants. Spending far to long tearing it, most likely due to his lack of real strength,

Holding his hand out he slide a piece towards the creature. Ensuring it got the first bite. Kaitos sat by and watched for a few moments. Appreciating his first companion in a while; he took exaggerated bites, munching down into his 3 pieces, giving into his momentary happiness with a friend and throwing one of the pieces in the air to try catch it. His new companion leaped up into the air and caught it landing in Kaitos’s lap.

With the night growing he kept the creature in his lap stroking her fur. Choosing to wrap her in the shabby ‘blanket’ instead of himself.

A wave of dizziness and exhaustion flew over his body and seemingly also her; The alley tilted sideways, the burgundy door that the clerk had once come out of dimmed into obscurity, the faraway lamppost smearing into a long streak of jaundiced light. He pressed his head against a slight dent in the bin, slowly drifting away still cuddling the Bakeneko.

The alley was the only quiet place in Lowwake, filled with nothing but the slow, soft sound of purring. Her three paws were spread across Kaitos’s lap, her tail coiling upward like a spring, spiraling loosely around his arm. His gentle pats grew slower and slower, fingers drifting through a surprisingly thick coat for a malnourished, disabled cat. In the dim light it was hard to tell, but her fur held a faint purple hue. Subtle. Almost swallowed by the darkness, yet undeniably there.

As the pair drifted toward sleep, the sky let down a thin layer of snow, forcing them to curl closer together.

December 18th, 2097

9:24

Cold air brushed against Kaitos’s face.

He was unbelievably cold.

He kept his eyes shut, conserving what little strength he had, a faint groan slipping out as his aching body shifted. As he moved, something on top of him shifted too.

That was… wrong.

Way too big to be his cat friend.

Kaitos froze, ironically appropriate, given the weather. His thoughts spiraled. What should he do? What could he do? If it was this big, there was no way he could fight it. He clenched his eyes shut tighter, bracing himself.

Something exhaled.

Warm breath and drool spilled across his neck and chest.

I’m dead, he decided.

Completely dead.

The thing on top of him was warm, though. Almost painfully so.

Carefully. Painfully. He cracked one eye open.

The first thing he saw wasn’t fur.

It was skin.

“Nope. Nope, nope, nope,”

He thought desperately. Not worth it. I give up.

Maybe if he played dead it would leave him alone. Or would that make it stay? He wasn’t exactly appetizing, there wasn’t much meat on his bones

His breath hitched as he finally looked properly.

An arm was draped across his chest.

A human arm.

His gaze traveled upward, dread settling in as the situation fully dawned on him. This was worse than a monster.

It was a girl.

Dark purple hair spilled over his chest in unruly cowlicks, probably the only reason he hadn’t frozen to death overnight. She was wrapped in the same blanket he’d given the cat.

…Did she steal it?

Understandable.

His thoughts screeched to a halt.

He clutched the blanket like a lifeline, praying to anything that might be listening. Her face was pressed against his chest like it belonged there. He didn’t scream. He didn’t move. His body refused to cooperate, every muscle locked somewhere between terror and disbelief. His heart hammered so loudly he was sure it would burst.

This is a dream. This is absolutely a dream.

He glanced down again.

It wasn’t a dream

The realization hit him all at once. She seemingly only has one arm the two legs as that’s all he could feel against his body , the matching hair color, the blanket.

The girl hadn’t taken the cat.

She was the cat.

“I’ve finally lost it,”

he murmured aloud.

The girl shifted slightly, nuzzling closer for warmth, her grip tightening on the blanket. Kaitos didn’t dare move.

Instead, he threw his head back and smacked it against the wall with a long, exaggerated

“Ow.”

The sound didn’t wake her but it did cause her to roll about a little causing her to get even closer. Kaitos sucked in a sharp breath and stared straight again. This was it, the end of the line for him. He was gonna die. How could he get up and scavenge when this women was on top of him. He was dead,

April 1st 2102

10:56

The glow behind the mask pulsed, faint and ugly. Something in Kaitos’s chest tightened, this was it. His final showdown, Capella was no where in sight. Ukira was down for the count. 

“Get up”

There was no sense of empathy, no level of understanding. This was conquest. The yokai continued:

“I’m not done with you yet, I respect your discipline.”

Kaitos pushed himself up from the ground. Going from his side to a kneel to a full stand. Reaching to his back and gripping and pulling out a long wooden stick. 

The bird overlord continues-

“Ah, how traditional and interesting so very elega-“

Kaitos muttered a low chant and opened a portal beneath them.

A colossal tentacle surged up from the floor.He drew a small knife and cut clean through it. Before it hit the ground, he drove the handle into the severed base.

The flesh sealed tight.

A colossal alive weapon twitched in his grip. Holding it like a giant great sword with two hands. His almighty Tentablade.

“Let’s see how high you fly without the sky!”

The Tengu dive bombed.

Shelves screamed as loose stock ripped free, hurled upward by the violent shear of wind. The aisle inverted, debris lifting like it had forgotten the ground existed at all.

Kaitos didn’t step back.

He didn’t even blink.

He raised the living blade overhead and spun it once, twice. A whip crack from its head.

The tentacle snapped out like a lasso, coiling tight around the kamikaze charge mid-descent. Kaitos pivoted on his heel and slammed the Tengu down.

The impact punched a crater into the floor of Rukia, concrete collapsing inward like it had been struck by a falling wrecking ball.

The blade writhed, splitting into six, no, seven tentacles along its length. Kaitos swung downwards into the floor.

They spread on impact, anchoring, then released all at once.

The recoil fired him skyward.

Aiming the stray tentacles towards the downed equal. Ink burst fire out in concussive jets, black blasts hammering into the Tengu’s mask and eyes, flooding its vision as Kaitos tore upward through the shattered air.

Three of the appendages tangled around a higher shelf swinging Kaitos up and around giving him the high ground.

He now stood atop the vast unit looking down at his weakened foe.