Tatsuki Quest
Somehow, I became the protagonist of this shonen battle manga!? 1.1
Karakura is a completely normal town, in which completely normal people reside. There are no plagues of unexplained explosions, superhumanly tough but surprisingly sensitive kids named Chad, no hazy shapes in the corner of your eye, and definitely no monsters trying to eat you. In trying times, you think to yourself, it's important to retain your sharply honed sense of sarcasm. You may not win a physical victory, but whilst being devoured whole and dying an undoubtedly painful death you'd be secure in knowing you had the upper verbal hand.
It had all started so normally. Ichigo, a childhood friend of yours, had left his pencil case behind at school. Now, that's an odd thing for him to do, especially these days. You've known him since you were kids, and whilst he used to be kind of a crybaby he was still pretty on the ball. Now he's some kind of protagonist-in-the-making, just waiting to encounter a girl from another world, or be hit by a truck and sent into a video game or something. He had everything needed - the weird hair, the inexplicable fighting skills, the tragic backstory. You don't rate that kind of story. It's not like you're completely hopeless, though. You think you could rock a spot as the lead in a sports manga pretty well. But you were mature enough to face facts - in the story of Ichigo's life, you'd probably be a quirky member of the supporting cast at best.
You'd been delayed in returning his pencil case because you had to go visit your friend Orihime, just to check that she hadn't adopted an escaped tiger or decided to become a gangster on a whim or something. She was an odd girl, but despite her cooking, she was really a very good friend. All had been well. Orihime had even made something close to normal, so you stayed to eat it with her. You didn't mention that you had something of Ichigo's to return, because then she'd have followed you for a chance to talk to her beloved Ichigo. She could have all the bad taste in men she liked, but you were not going to enable her.
So there you were, walking down the street towards Ichigo's house, when it exploded. The blast of wind knocked you over, sparing you from being decapitated by a piece of flying debris. There was something standing there, you thought - a heat haze, roughly in the shape of some monstrous creature. You could just about make out an arm, then a pair of legs. As you focused further, you started to make out more - an odd hole in the creature's chest, and a monstrous mask of bleached bone. Colour and detail seemed to flow down from the mask, forming into what was surely some kind of monster.
A monster attacking your childhood friend's house. By the time you started to think about the wisdom of your action, you were already in mid air. Your flying jump kick would have taken an ordinary man's head clean off of his neck. You slammed into the creature's head, snapped your leg like a twig and bounced. A massive hand slammed into you, and you were sent flying almost literally into the path of destiny. Had anything changed by so much as a single heartbeat, you'd certainly have been killed. By the sword, if not the impact with the ground.
However, you'd been thrown just fast enough, on just the right angle, that the sword of the robed girl pierced directly through your heart. It then went straight through you and into Ichigo, and then everything exploded again. Your leg stopped hurting again, which was good. You don't think you'd have been able to stand on a broken leg. You felt something heavy in your hands, and on your waist. You were wearing something odd, but almost familiar. Your eyes opened, and you took in the whole situation.
Ichigo, standing there with a truly ridiculous sword hefted over his shoulder. He was wearing robes like the girl who'd stabbed you by accident, whereas she was now swordless and clothed in robes of pure white. She was small, you noticed, but not young. Her features and proportions were of someone around your age, or perhaps a little older. You could see the monster entirely clearly now, and as you looked at yourself you saw that you'd been transformed much like Ichigo had been.
You now wore clothes similar to his and the girl's, and at your waist was a normal sized katana. It had a little black ribbon wrapped around the hilt. Even in a crazy situation like this, Ichigo still stands out, you thought to yourself. Seriously, that sword was way too big. On anyone else, you'd say they were compensating for something.
"Ichigo?!" you blurted out, completely unable to think of what to do.
"Tatsuki!?" Ichigo said, looking back at you.
"What?" shouted the girl in the white robes. She looked like the most confused of the three of you.
"Rarrghh!" shouted the monster, seemingly annoyed that its cunning plan to kill Ichigo and the girl by throwing you at them had failed.
"Look, Tatsuki, I have no idea how you got some of Rukia's powers too, but I don't have time to talk about it. That thing is gonna kill my sisters if we don't kill it first," Ichigo said, hefting his sword into some kind of attack position. Neither of us had much experience with kendo or anything like that, but it couldn't be too hard, you thought to yourself.
"You know I'll always have your back, Ichigo. Let's kill this thing!" you say, drawing your sword and leaping forwards. Your legs jump with amazing power, enough to crack the floor of Ichigo's destroyed living room. Your sword almost sings as your fly through the air, Ichigo alongside you. The monster slams its arm into both of you, lightning fast. Your sword slashes its skin, and Ichigo's bites deep into it, but you're both thrown backwards. You smash into and through a wooden wall, whilst Ichigo lands near Rukia. You think on the importance of the verbal upper hand, though you can't think of a good one liner, and on how normally this all started.
"That all you got, fish-face!" he shouts, and you give him a five out of ten for mid battle wit. You stand up, amazed you're essentially intact aside from some small cuts.
"Attack its mask, you idiots!" Rukia shouts, and you motion to Ichigo. You're gonna go high, and he's gonna go low. The monster's probably thinking of him as the bigger threat right now, so a bluff with Ichigo whilst you wait just a moment to pull off the big finisher is the smart plan. He nods in understanding, and then you both move. You rush forward, slightly behind him, and when the monster swings low to block the strike of Ichigo's absurd sword you leap into the air. You draw your sword and in a single clean cut, slice through the monster's mask.
You land easily, and as the monster dissolves, you turn and give Ichigo a fistbump. He gives you a single, slight nod of thanks, and you return the gesture. Most of the time, you wouldn't indulge him in his macho bullshit, but fighting some kind of giant monster together seems like the occasion to do that sort of thing.
Something about the monster seemed cool to you, and as it dissolves you think about how much of a waste it was for that monster to have... Somehow, you feel that you could eventually have all three...
[x] Such tough skin. Being able to resist sword blows (and your totally badass flying jump kick) seems like something cool to do.
[x] Such quick reactions. Those seem like they'd help in a swordfight (and you know you're gonna get into one of those eventually)
[x] Such sheer strength. It'd be really cool to be that strong.
