Post by Luke Clyburn on Jul 25, 2023 7:57:47 GMT -5
”Here you are, sir!” the waitress said as she placed the plates down on the table. One plate sat on a piece of serving wood and contained a large sixteen ounce, thick, steak cooked perfectly to medium rare. A slice of half melted butter sat atop the slice of meat. Surrounding it were various vegetables like green beans, potato slices, corn, and some parsley all served on the same plate to add to the meat's flavor and to soak up some of the juices. Alongside the cut of the meat was served a large bowl of rice. The man whom the food was being served to looked at his order with a content look on his face. He had rested his face on his hand, index finger on his lip and thumb jammed into his cheek a bit, and couldn’t help but smile a little at the display in front of him. It looked really good and he was really hungry. ”This is a lot of food for just one person, if you don’t mind me saying. I couldn’t eat this much.” the waitress added.
”It's a bulking day, y’know. Gotta load up on the calories and good carbs.” he replied with a goofy grin and even rolled his sleeve up a bit to show off his bicep. He was sure the nurse was just playing along but, well, so was he. He even offered to let the nurse touch his muscle but she bashfully said no and wandered off to keep doing her job. Luke shrugged and picked up his knife and fork and started on his dinner. There was no difficulty with cutting the steak open. With his enhanced senses the dining experience was always such a treat whenever he actually decided to eat something good instead of something cheap. His inhuman sense of smell let him pick up on every subtle flavor wafting off of the meat and vegetables. He could clearly see the juices from the meat escaping as the knife tore through a chunk. Of course, though, the taste was beyond explanation. A single chew of the meat let flavor and juice escape and run amok through his mouth. He happily smiled and even made a pleased little grunt as he continued to chew, releasing more and more flavor. He loved steak. He truly was an American.
He soon finished his meal in its entirety. All sixteen ounces, all the vegetables, and nearly every grain of rice. Anyone else would see this as an indulgence in gluttony. For Luke and so many like him though this sort of meal was necessary. Reiatsu didn’t come from nothing. Calories were more than just energy for the physical body for people like Luke. He had to eat like a bulker sometimes for every meal to replenish all the energy he could lose in a day. After taking a long drink of water he let out a sigh. He was full. His belly was full of goodness. That was a good meal and a good steak. He leaned his head back to look at the ceiling with eyes half opened. Despite the fullness of his stomach he wasn’t content. He still felt hungry. Just not physically. It, he realized, was that time. He hadn’t been putting it off. This was the first time since he awakened that it came to him. Dinner wasn’t done yet.
”Did you enjoy your meal?” the same waitress asked, approaching his table once again. Giving his thanks and paying his bill, Luke left the restaurant. Over his shoulder he carried a long black, carrying, bag. He was wearing a thin black jacket over a gray shirt and some blue jeans. Rather casual. Standing outside the restaurant he took in the summer air of the night and took a deep breath. The night was still young. People were still out and about. Karakura was always busy until after midnight. Whatever, it was fine. Luke didn’t mind going for a walk to burn off his dinner. He was still getting used to some of the changes to the city that happened after three years.
What shocked him the most was to learn that during the time he spent asleep in that frozen tomb was that the section of the city that had been destroyed during his battle had all but been restored. Residents lived there again. Business had opened up. It was still an under-developed area but the city was beginning to heal. Not much else about the city had changed though he was certain there were new players in town. Aside from the reiatsu geyser that screamed out when he awoke, Luke had been on the down low. He was keeping it under wraps that he was back right now, keeping his reiatsu suppressed so nobody knew the wiser. He justified it to himself by saying he was gathering intel. What if there was an organization of Bount Hunters now in Karakura? Luke didn’t want to deal with any drama or fights right now.
He would win against anyone who challenged him, of course. He was the strongest living human. There was nobody that could touch him. That was three years ago. Now? Luke was still the strongest, no doubt. But there might be contenders for that title now. What mattered most though was that the city was still standing. He had wondered if there had been some great battle between the Shinigami and the Vandenreich that he just didn’t know the results of. Karakura Town hadn’t been burnt down. It was still standing. Did nothing happen or was he not needed for anything that did? Or has nothing happened yet? Rocking his head back and forth to get some cracks out of his neck, Luke raised his left hand to about chest level and looked at his palm. He wasn’t looking for anything in particular but this was a bit of a routine he did to help get him focused on looking inside of himself.
Focusing his mind Luke searched the depths of his consciousness and soul for the three others that dwelt inside him. In the furthest reaches of himself Luke managed to hone in on their flickering embers of an existence. They were still nothing more than what were essentially three different colored orbs. Luke couldn’t tell if anything had changed since the last time he checked on them. The strain of what they had to go through for those time lost years took its toll on them. This was partly why Luke needed to feed. Not just for his own Bount hunger but to feed them as well.
The city steadily emptied as the night lengthened. Eventually Luke was one of the only ones prowling the city streets. He’d find someone every now and then. A drunk, a salaryman going to or coming from work, a horny couple, a weirdo. But Luke ignored them. He wasn’t looking for the living. He wasn’t interested in them. It went without saying that if Luke were to go full Nosferatu on some poor person and suck them dry of blood and living soul he would be sustained for a much longer time. It would be a far more sustaining and nutritious meal. But Luke wouldn’t do that. He didn’t feed on the living unless it was absolutely necessary or unless they consented. For the latter he wouldn’t drain them of everything anyways, plus that was a very intimate procedure.
He had personal rules he abided by when it came to feeding. Firstly, he couldn’t let himself be seen by anybody. Living humans and Shinigami especially. Secondly, he dieted himself on only the souls of the deceased rather than the souls of the living. Like it was stated early, if Luke fed through Futter he would receive a much better meal. But Luke wasn’t keen on the idea of killing some random innocent nobody and eating them. There was also the problem that feeding on living souls was much, much, better tasting than dead souls. So good in fact that if a Bount didn’t have proper self control they could become addicted to the taste and become nothing more than ghouls prowling the night for their next meal. Mindless monsters. Luke experienced this taste once before when he had used Futter to end a fight with someone. So Luke restricted himself to the souls of the deceased. He even once forced himself to eat Hollow souls when he was a little… unhappy about life. The taste of a Hollows soul could only be compared to a cotton ball used to soak up throw up. So awful in fact that it permanently stained Luke’s hair with bangs of white.
The third rule was a rule of engagement when it came to deceased souls. Luke would try to find souls that had incredibly short chains. From what he understood, those chains were the timer until they would devolve into a Hollow. Spirits with short chains didn’t have much time left to be found by a Shinigami. So he’d take care of it in his own way. Other Bounts might call him weak. That he should just feed on whoever and whenever. But he rejected that. He had a moral code he wouldn’t violate. He chose to live in both the humans and Bounts worlds and would do things his own way. There was another part to the third rule and that was that, whenever he found a spirit, he would talk to them.
As he roamed the night time streets with the moon hanging high in the air he felt something. The slightest sign of reiatsu coming from somewhere a few blocks away. It was faint and weak. Like a flickering candle. It might have been what he was looking for or someone with just the slightest hint of energy. Luke decided to check it out. Casually he strolled through the streets until he got close enough to the feeling of reiatsu. Sitting on the staircase of a building was a lean man in a business suit. As Luke expected the chains of fate were present on his chest. There wasn’t much length to them either. Only three links left until it reached his chest. It was entirely possible that this spirit was on the last cycle of his encroachment to becoming a Hollow. The man noticed Luke standing there and seemed to pick up that Luke was looking right at him. ”Can you… see me? Are you looking at me?” the spirit asked in disbelief. ”Don’t… don’t ignore me can you see me? I know you’re looking at me, answer me!” the spirit jumped to his feet and began approaching Luke.
He was rattled, clearly. Luke wondered how long he had been wandering around Karakura Town being ignored by everybody. The spirit continued to approach Luke rapidly with arms held out towards him as if to grab him. ”Yeah, yeah, I can see you calm down. Relax old man.” Luke replied nonchalantly and in a friendly tone as his amber eyes suddenly illuminated. All legends had some basis in reality. The stories of vampires, of Dracula, and the likes were all based on the Bount. Alot of the vampire abilities you heard about were also based on the sorts of things Bounts could do. Some were exaggerations, some were flat out wrong, and some never got talked about. But the ability to dominate the mind and control an individual with demonic charisma? Yeah, that was real. Luke’s eyes flashed as he used Verteiten on the spirit. Not enough to dominate him and turn him into an enthralled slave or anything. Just enough to calm his emotions. The spirits eyes flashed the same color as Luke’s before he stopped his approach and relaxed a bit. ”Oh, I, I’m sorry. It’s been so long since anyone has noticed me that I just sort of…” the spirit started to whine. ”Nah you’re good I get it. I’ve been able to see ghosts since as far back as I can remember. There’s a few people with a heightened sixth sense like mine in the city but it seems like you didn’t run into any of them.” Luke replied. ”Oh. So… I really am a ghost then? I figured as much but…” the spirit murmured, lifting the remains of his chain up a little bit.
”What’s your name?”
”It’s Yuto.” he replied. Even calmed down Luke could tell he was incredibly depressed. Putting the bag he was carrying down on the staircase Luke took a seat on a step. ”I’ll hear you out. Maybe it’ll help you move on if you have someone to hear what you’ve got to say. What happened to you?” Luke asked as Yuto took a seat next to him. ”It was just so sudden. I thought I was doing everything right in life. I worked hard in school, in university, and even got myself a good position at a good company. All I’ve ever done is work and work and work. All my friends from school and university went off and got married and I was here all alone. I was so boring. Working hard was the only good quality I had.” Luke was a little surprised the spirit was already being so forthcoming. Maybe he was desperate? He’d wanted to talk to someone for so long that he was gonna trauma dump all over Luke.
”They started making me work nights too. The crunch was unbelievable. All the higher ups cared about was profit this profit that. Margins and spreadsheets and graphs. It was unbearable. I was just a cog in the corporate machine with such an empty and meaningless life.” Luke had a feeling he knew where this was going. This wasn’t the first time he’d heard the story about being overworked. It was an awful thing to say, but, Japan was a great place for Bount to live who didn’t want to kill people to feed on them. The suicide rates made it a… well… good feeding ground. There were just places in the world where a lot of people died per capita. If Luke lived in Chicago, for example, he would probably also find plenty of spirits to feed on when the hunger came. The story of the overworked, underachieved, lonely, Japanese salary man who took his own life was far too common. The nation needed some sort of top down reform in its work culture. ”So… you took your own life to get away with it, I take it?” Luke asked sympathetically. What Luke wasn’t expecting was the look of utter confusion on Yuto’s face when he asked that.
”No?? I had a heart attack while working. Why would I kill myself I was just about to take a vacation to Okinawa.” Yuto replied. Luke was stun locked. He had an “oops” look of awkwardness on his face. ”Uh, sorry. That was rude of me.” Luke apologized while scratching the back of his head. Yuto sighed. ”It’s fine I get it. But now those plans are… up in smoke. Is this what being dead is like? Walking around while this chain thing gets shorter and shorter. It hurts so much whenever it starts eating itself. Do I get to move on once it reaches the end? Am I supposed to just linger here?” Yuto asked.
”Nah. You should have been found by something called a Shinigami way before now. But they suck at their jobs.” Luke replied rather flippantly. ”A what now?” Luke shrugged. ”Don’t worry about it. Point being, you don’t actually want to find out what happens when that chain reaches the end. It doesn’t end well for you.” Luke explained while leaving out the fact Yuto would turn into a monster who would go after his family and friends first. ”Oh/ Then.. what should I do?” he asked as Luke put a hand on his shoulder. ”Sorry that it isn’t the answer you might have been expecting, but, I’ll take you with me as a part of me.” before Yuto could ask what Luke meant his body started glowing green. His expression relaxed and he looked as though he was falling asleep. The spirit's body then began to dissipate and swirl itself together until it formed into a small green sphere in Luke’s hand.
Looking at the sphere for a few moments Luke sighed before leaning his head back, opening his mouth, and shoving the orb in and swallowing it. ”It’s not the afterlife you should have gotten but… you’re a part of me now. Part of my fire.” Luke said to himself as he felt the hunger satiate. Luke felt full now. Better than before. His age was now frozen in time for a while. His aging would cease. More importantly, though, he felt a reaction from the Dolls hidden deep in his soul. They were still formless and unresponsive but he felt a shift. So his earlier assumption was right. Satiating the hunger was, in fact, good for the Dolls too. Luke used to not ever want to feed. He was disgusted by the notion. But ever since he accepted that he was a Bount it eventually started getting easier for him. It helped that he had a set of rules he abided by when it came down to it.
Luke let out a sigh after swallowing the soul. Then he lifted both of his hands together and placed them together and closed his eyes. "Thank you." he said quietly to himself. He didn't know who he was praying too. He wasn't particularly religious especially after learning the truth about death. But he felt like it was the proper thing to do. To give thanks to the soul that continued to give him life. ”Well… what’s done is done.” Luke said to himself as he got to his feet and picked his bag back up. After having a soul to eat there was one other thing Luke needed to do. He needed to wash the taste down. ”Mochi sounds good right now. Edamame and cream flavored. Yeah that sounds good.” he said to himself as he departed to go find himself a late night sweets store.
Departing from the convenience store, not a sweets store, Luke looked into his carryout bag. It wasn’t the flavor he had been hoping to get but the little pink ice cream spheres would suffice. Pulling one out and holding it in front of his, Luke paused right before he took the bite. He froze. He sort of hung there for a moment, staring ahead of him instead of looking at the snack in his hand. He even closed his mouth a little bit and narrowed his eyes. He remained that way for a few more moments before nonchalantly putting the sweet snack into his mouth and eating it. As he chewed he let his eyes drift from the left to the right. He wasn’t sure what it was. He didn’t know where it was. But he felt something was off.
Luke started walking again. Finishing off the rest of his mochi and tossing the bag in a roadside garbage can, Luke continued walking around the city with his hands in his jackets pockets. He hadn’t been mistaken. His instincts were too sharp. Something was watching him. He was also certain he was being followed. Whoever, or whatever, it was was good at hiding its presence. The only reason Luke picked up on it was because he was sharp and had been trained to trust his Anti-Stealth instincts. But he didn’t know where it was or who it was. Just that something was watching him. Luke didn’t like this. He didn’t like being trailed. The sidewalk descended downwards in a slight hill. It could have been Shizuka. She had a habit of stalking Luke when they were dating to see what he was up to. But he didn’t think this was her. Something was stalking him. In his city. Something actually had the audacity. Hell, it could have been another Bount having seen him feed on Yuto. No, if that had been the case they would have approached him by now. This was something else.
Luke decided to be obnoxious. If he was going to be followed then he was going to annoy whatever it was following him. He knew Karakura Town like the back of his hand, for the most part, and decided to take the scenic route. Walking through the shopping districts, through a underground subway station, even through a mall, Luke took his time to window shop and even buy himself some new sunglasses from a late night store. He acted as though he wasn’t aware he was being stalked but also made sure to stick to well populated areas. He wanted to see what would happen if he made this thing lose patience by wasting as much time as possible. But even after all that Luke still had the feeling. Now he was the annoyed one. Tch. He wasn’t looking for a fight. He wanted to stay on the downlow. But fine.
Continuing his walk, Luke navigated his way into a network of alleyways that held back alley bars, tattoo shops, and other sorts of places you needed to know about to find. His footsteps bounced off the alleyway walls, a testament to how silent it was. Nobody was here but him. A completely empty and dead part of the city. Luke’s expression had soured as he walked deeper into the alleys until, finally, he stopped. ”I don’t like being followed. I even gave you plenty of chances to fuck off but you were either too stupid or arrogant to take them.” he turned his head to look behind him, amber eyes glowing like hot coals. He turned fully to face the darkness behind him. His reiatsu began to grow. The shadows grew heavier and seemed to lengthen and strengthen with his reiatsu. ”Come out. I promise it’ll be much worse for you if you make me come drag your ass out.” Luke threatened, the air around him growing distorted as he began flexing his power a bit. He pulled his hands from his jacket and cracked the knuckles of his right hand with a flex of his fingers.
