Prep Time [Solo]

[Raphael Laurent]

‘Uzaki Enterprises? Yeah I know about ‘em. Why do you ask?’ Donny’s words popped up on the messenger screen. Raph had been away from Chicago for a long time, but his friends never failed to answer. ‘Oh, and what’s up with Mike? He comes back from Japan, tells me he’s been seein’ some weird shit and then up and disappears on a vacation down into the Bahamas! Did something happen while he was over there?’



Sighing, Raph slowly typed back into the chat. ‘Eh, you know Mikey; always makin’ up some kinda crazy ass story or another so that he has an excuse to get the hell away from us all.’ He looked up from his phone, to some man muttering into his own about the train being late again, so he wouldn’t be home for dinner immediately. Some woman on the other end was shrieking about him never being home and what’s she supposed to tell the kids. Raph stopped paying attention at that point, and it dawned on him how little he really cared. It was a big reason that he hadn’t looked into joining up with UE; their goals were a bit too altruistic and a bit too worthless to him.



‘Not like this, though.’ Raphael looked down as his phone pinged with Donny’s response. ‘Look, Raph, I’m worried about you. You haven’t texted me until just now! And to ask about Uzaki Enterprises of all things! I just don’t get it man, what’s going on? Why was Mikey so freaked out when he came back from Japan? Why in the world is it that the first thing you ask me about is Uzaki Enterprises? Raph, what in the hell is going on?!’



The train pulled into the station right as he was about to answer Donny, and so he had to leave the guy on Read for a second. Thankfully, this train wasn’t nearly as popular. He wasn’t heading towards Shinjuku, after all, and so out towards Karakura he went. It was odd that the town was so unassuming. Pulling his phone back out, he reopened Donny’s message. ‘It’s gonna sound REALLY weird, Donny. Are you sure you wanna go there?’



‘I’m sure, Raph.’



‘Alright, I tried to warn you. So the ghosts that I kept telling you about? The ones that wear masks or are the ghost samurai? Yeah, they’re more real than I thought. Mikey and I nearly got killed by a masked one when we went out to this night club in the country. I don’t know if Mikey could see it, but I saw it. Anyways, myself and the owner of the club fought with one of the masked things, her name is Taka by the way, and finally beat it. Well, I passed out for a few months and had to…well, come to terms with the fact that I apparently have powers now.’ There was silence. Not even the speech bubble of typing. Shrugging, Raphael re-deposited the phone in his pocket as the train made its way to Karakura Town.



He walked through the streets, passing people that either seemed to be too busy to really pay attention to one another, or were just trying to get home. Most of them looked like they’d seen a ghost or two. Some of the probably had. He passed some stores as they were closing up and sighed. He had enjoyed his day off, the ability to go into town and just relax for the day. Not having to drive that stupid truck around had been a damn blessing…



The moment that he unlocked his door and walked into his house, though, his phone buzzed with Donny’s reply. He pulled it out of his pocket and looked. ‘Powers? What in the hell do you mean by ‘powers’? You’re not saying like some kind of superhero, are you?’ Raphael frowned.



‘Donny, do I look like I’m some kind of moonlighting hero? Seriously, man, c’mon.’ Laying down on his bed, he let his phone slowly roll off to the side. It wasn’t all that important, but why was he explaining himself to Donny? The dude had never been that interested in ghosts and the other shit that Raph saw, but suddenly now that Mikey was having problems, he was so invested? Donny could be such a hypocrite.



‘Dude. If you’re saying you have powers, what the fuck are you using them for? Why aren’t you patrolling the streets of your Japanese town to protect the people that might get injured or attacked? Raph, with great power comes great responsibility.’ Raph stared at the message for a minute or two, trying to figure out if Donny was just trying to be corny, or if he’d been doing so unintentionally.



‘I’m not moonlighting as a hero, Donny. I’m not the philanthropists of Uzaki! Now what the hell do you know about them? That was the point of us talking originally, right? That’s what I asked you about!’



There was a long pause. ‘Sorry, Donny. I’ve just been a bit stressed out, lately. Any information you have would be nice, though. I’m just trying to make sure that I know about the groups that I’m going to be dealing with. I know that you got the list that I sent you. If you do some research, or have done the research then I’d be grateful for whatever you know.’



‘Honestly, Raph, I’m just worried about ya, especially you being in a place that fucked up Mike. But yeah, I’ve done a little digging. I don’t know shit about this Xcution that you asked about; there’s nothing on ‘em. Least, nothing official. There are a lot of rumors about an organization using superpowered humans and even a few monsters, but, those are just rumors. UE, though, there’s a bit more on.’ A picture of a man around Raphael’s age popped up on the screen. ‘Kazura Uzaki, current CEO of Uzaki Enterprises. He’s young, ambitious and a bit ruthless, if stories are to be believed. Raph, if you’re going to make any kinds of moves against these guys, just be ready for what might come your way. I can’t believe I’m doing this, but…’ There was a moment before a file popped up on the screen, something he knew he’d have to download onto his computer. ‘Here’s our old hacking tools, too. I know that you said you wanted them to make a better version, so have fun and be careful. Anyway, I’m gonna head to sleep. I’ll talk to you later, ok?’ Then his avatar went black. He was gone too. Mikey was off on the vacation a therapist had suggested and Raph had no idea where Leo was. It didn’t matter. He had some coding to do, and then he had to do some training…

[Raphael Laurent]

It was another quiet day off and Raphael couldn’t spend it much better. Within minutes of waking up, he was already taking a shower. There was a lot to do and he couldn’t exactly spend a lot of time just goofing off in the morning. After a shower he quickly got dressed and put on some clothes, a basic white T-shirt and jeans were good enough for the day, seein’ as how he had to dress for work. He opened the door, walked out and stretched. What Luca had said still bothered him, especially the way that he viewed other people: minor characters. The way he’d spoken had been like he was living in a videogame and the normal people around him were NPCs. Then there was the offer for Raph to come work at Uzaki. He shook his head and stretched out his arms. There was no time to really be thinking of that. Stronger Shinigami ties might make further work difficult, plus UE could call on him at any time then. This way, with them having his card, they were at best a temporary allies. He could choose to say yes or no.

He started off on his jog, for the day. Yet he was constantly on edge with every mile that he ran. He still remembered Nadezhda and he, while he was stronger, he didn’t exactly like his chances when trying to deal with someone as powerful as her. Whatever the hell she’d summoned was the real problem, though, he hadn’t even been able to see it and it had struck right through Douglas’s arm. She was fast enough, and had senses sharp enough, to find him no matter what he was doing. Thus, he would have to work three times as hard just to be able to keep up, and six times as hard to surpass them. When his phone buzzed, however, he pulled it out and looked at it. Donny.

‘Raph, we’ve gotta talk.’

Slowly he came to a stop looking at the text. That was a little too direct, even for Donny. ‘Uh, ok. About what, exactly? If this is about the other night, I’m sorry man. Like I said I didn’t mean to be acting like a dick. Just been kinda stressed with losing my job and all that.’ He stood there, pretty much ignoring the people that walked around him without a second glance and the ones that stared at him like he was crazy. It didn’t really matter. He had things to do.

‘So you know how crazy the gang wars around here, right? You remember how bad they got?’

‘Yeah. I remember. It’s pretty bad over here too, ya know.’ The response was slow, at first, but quickly picked up and contained a bunch of different pictures and video footage. Raphael looked at them. He knew about the gang wars back in Chicago, and he’d been wondering how they’d been getting along, but what Donny was showing him was worse than anything he’d seen. Trucks full of weapons, and a bunch of weird people that he’d never seen before and whom he didn’t exactly like the looks of. There was just something sinister looking about them. ‘Ok… I don’t like the look of the people in the pictures, but so what? That’s what gangs do, not really much that can be done to stop ‘em.’

‘What bothers me isn’t the weapons, we all know that they’ve been into that shit since the beginning, what bothers me is the people. These aren’t just normal criminals, Raph. From what I understand a bunch of new politicians have been popping up everywhere. Not only is criminal power tipping, but so is government power! I’m a little worried, man. Anyways, I’ve gotta get ready for work. Pulling another all-nighter. You be careful, yeah?’ Before Raph could even reply, Donny’s chat avatar vanished. Still, as nonchalant as he’d talked to Donny, what he was seeing was worrying him. Even if they were just normal criminals, the same was undoubtedly happening in Japan. Putting his phone back in his pocket, he continued on his run before eventually getting to his open field training spot. There was a lot to do, and he’d have to get lunch, in place of breakfast.

He did some basic punching routines and other movements, just making sure that he was limber. Testing out his powers, he made a few steal beams that had been left behind weaker in one area and snapped one in half. That was a good start but not enough. With a sigh, he did the same to another, but not to the same extent and managed to bend the beam. That was much better, and demonstrated much more fine control. Now…what was that thing that Taka had done…? She’d formed a flame…in her hand and then had created a blade of energy, reiatsu…

Holding his hand out in front of him, palm upturned, he watched it and focused for a minute or two. Nothing happened. He tried to focus his reiatsu into the palm of his hand, it wouldn’t obey such a command. Swearing under his breath, he focused harder, trying to force reiatsu to pool in his open palm. Such a task was far more trying than he’d originally thought, and he considered going back to Taka for a lesson in such a feat sometime. Yet, as he was about to give up, the miraculous happened, a purple flame, though less controlled and jittery than Taka’s. Reaching out, he grabbed hold of it with his left hand and focused on the shape of a European longsword as he “drew” it from his hand. It started to form, but fell apart halfway through, but he wouldn’t give up. He continued trying again and again and again until, at last, the blade seemed to hold a semi-stable shape. Unlike Taka’s, which had a defined shape and appearance, the one that he’d managed to birth looked like a blade made of unstable fire. The flames kept licking up and down the weapon itself and it appeared extremely unstable as a result. Regardless…these were results, and he would keep working on it until he could say that he was truly prepared. There would be more lessons, much more and for that he was excited.