2 Ripples Beneath the Moon

After three periods covering English, Math, and History, it was time for lunch. Ohta was planning to use that time to go up to the roof, but before he could leave the classroom, he was stopped by a short girl with boyish looks, short black hair that spiked outward at the sides, brown eyes, and a lean, athletic frame.

"Hey, you good?" asked the girl, registering within Ohta's mind as Arisawa Tatsuki, a girl he had known since elementary school.

"Yeah, I'm fine," replied Ohta. "I just overworked myself at the docks and overslept."

Crossing her arms, Tatsuki adopted a slight frown, but her eyes expressed concern as she asked, "Are you having trouble with money? I thought you saved up a bit over Winter and Spring Breaks?"

Shaking his head, Ohta replied, "Not really. It's just better to have more than depend on my savings to get by. College isn't going to pay for itself."

Exhaling an exasperated sigh, Tatsuki's frown deepened as she remarked, "That's what I don't get about you, Ohta. You have the skills to be the ace of the karate team, but you spend most of your time doing odd jobs. What gives?"

"Never underestimate the value of hard work," replied Ohta, adopting a faint smile as he added, "Besides, I already told you. I didn't learn martial arts to compete against brats."

Snorting through her nose, Tatsuki groaned, "Whatever..." before walking off in a huff, reuniting with a comparably curvaceous girl with big tits and bright orange hair.

Seeing Ohta looking over, the orange-haired girl, Inoue Orihime, adopted a somewhat awkward smile as she raised her hand and waved. Ohta was an outcast among the other students, regarded as a monster by local and neighboring delinquents, so most people gave him a very wide berth.

Exhaling a faint sigh through his nose, Ohta rose to his feet, departing the classroom without reciprocating Orihime's greeting. He had inherited the memories of the time he had skipped, so he knew the true reason he was a pariah. It wasn't because he could take on a group of delinquents alone. Rather, he had a secret that imperiled the lives of everyone around him...

Upon reaching the roof, usually locked and off-limits to students, Ohta took a moment to ensure he was alone before staring down at his hands. As he did so, blue energy began to gather around them, quickly gaining shades of pink and amethyst as a pattern reminiscent of a kaleidoscope formed around the edges.

Flexing his fingers with some effort, Ohta caused the 'space' around his digits to warp, followed by a distinctive black 'void' appearing in his palm. At the same time, the blue, pink, and purple aura spread across his body, protecting him and causing his hair to flutter as tiny fragments of stone and debris rose from the floor of the roof, drawn to the void as if it were a powerful magnet.

Crushing the void by closing his fist, a frown marred Ohta's face as he internally groaned, ("That damned Auditor. Why did she throw me into a world with invisible monsters and grant me psychic powers? How the hell am I supposed to live in peace?")

Recalling numerous instances of him encountering spirits and battling mask-wearing monsters with gaping holes in their chests, Ohta couldn't help exhaling a tired sigh. Even the previous night, while returning from one of his part-time jobs, a spider-like monster had materialized from the shadows to try and slice him in half with its mantis-like limbs...

Sitting in the shadows of the roof's parapet, Ohta did what he always did when faced with a strange, fucked up, or generally dangerous situation, forcibly calming himself as he organized his thoughts in order of priority. His psychic powers had manifested when he was a child, but the mask-wearing creatures had only started to appear fairly recently. There had to be a reason, and his past self had already started looking into it, marking his encounters with the creatures on a city map and periodically going on patrols to try and lure them out...

"Then that's what I'll do..." muttered Ohta, choosing to follow the path his past self had set for him. Possessing psychic powers wasn't an inherently bad thing. Rather, in a world filled with spirits and invisible monsters that could level buildings and toss cars around like toys, possessing powerful psychokinetic abilities was pretty handy...

Picking up a stone fragment with his mind, Ohta caused it to spin rapidly until the friction with the air caused it to heat up and melt. Then, with a simple thought, he shaped the molten stone into a fairly accurate figure of himself, grasping it with his bare hand but feeling no heat thanks to a thin but exceptionally powerful membrane of psychic energy.

"I can work with this..." muttered Ohta, adopting a faint smile. He already had the power, so rather than lamenting the fact he had been tricked, he decided to make the most of his second chance at life. If nothing else, he could at least go out with a bang by pulling an Akira...

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After three more periods of class, Ohta made his way to the apartment he had leased with the help of Tatsuki's mom, Fubuki. He originally lived in an orphanage, but after exhibiting his independence and willingness to work, he was allowed to move into an apartment in the months leading up to his first year in High School.

"I should stop by and say hi sometime..." muttered Ohta, recalling that it had been at least six weeks since his last visit to the Arisawa household. Fubuki had co-signed his lease, affording him much greater freedom, so he owed her that much.

As that thought crossed his mind, Ohta turned down an alleyway that served as a shortcut to his apartment, finding a familiar black cat staring at him from atop an eye-level fence.

Recalling the name he had given the cat in the past, Ohta adopted a smile and asked, "Enjoying a sunbath, Susu?" He was more of a dog person, but this particular cat had seemingly been stalking him since he was in middle school. He wasn't absolutely sure it was the same cat, but no other feline gave him the same, almost foreboding impression.

Instead of responding to Ohta's words, the distinctive black cap leaped away, disappearing on the opposite side of the fence. Ohta had tried to catch and lure it a few times in the past, but the moment it vanished from view, it disappeared entirely. It also didn't have the same aura as a spirit or living creature, so Ohta presumed it to be some kind of Yokai.

("And that's why I hate cats...") thought Ohta. It was clear that Susu had taken an interest in him, yet, even after two years, it wouldn't let him get anywhere near it. He even bought some high-quality Chura cat treats to try and get it to open up to him, but it just ran off like it had no interest in what he had to say or offer. The most annoying part was that the treats had disappeared from his schoolbag when he went to remove them at his apartment...

Unfortunately, as he couldn't 'sense' the strange black cat, Ohta couldn't use his telekinetic abilities to grab it. His intuition also warned him that trying wasn't a good idea, so his past self had avoided antagonizing Susu as a matter of course. With mask-wearing monsters running about and causing chaos, the last thing he needed was an angry Yokai or vengeful spirit haunting him...

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"I could get used to this..." muttered Ohta, standing in the air high above downtown Karakura while wearing a winter jacket, tinted goggles, and a beanie. It was currently mid-Spring, so it got pretty cold in the evenings, especially when you didn't have anything to protect against the frigid wind blowing in from the sea.

Though he could shield himself from the cold with his psychic energy, Ohta knew it was a finite resource. Using it to give him a better vantage was one thing, but expending it to keep himself warm was a waste. The cold also helped him stay focused and fight off fatigue, so he enjoyed the feeling of the evening air as he looked down at the streets below like the pathways of an ant terrarium...

Breaking Ohta from his thoughts, a wispy, reverberating 'scream' reached his ears, echoing like a bone flute formed from a predatory animal's skull. It was enough to cause a chill to permeate the body of a normal person, compelling them to stay away, but Ohta charged toward it, descending to the streets like a meteor just as a two-meter tall, goblin-like creature with a wiry body, inordinately long arms, and a bone-white mask attempted to devour a spirit resembling a small girl.

Landing in front of the girl, Ohta raised his hand, stopping the masked creature just as it lunged forward with its three-clawed, scimitar-like fingers. The same tri-colored aura surrounding his body prevented the masked monstrosity from moving so much as a centimeter, but that was just the beginning.

"Sorry, big fella, but this is going to hurt..." said Ohta, cracking a relaxed smile as he slowly closed his hand. As he did so, the body of the masked beast began to compress in on itself, pressurized black blood discharging from cracks that formed in its carapace-like body. A few seconds later, all that remained of the beast was a shadowy mass of gore forming a sphere no larger than a medicine ball. Ohta could compress it even further, but it would be a waste of energy.

Turning toward the pigtailed spirit, identifiable by the distinctive chain dangling from the center of her chest, the somewhat cruel smile faded from Ohta's face, replaced by a gentle expression as he said, "It's about time you moved on..."

Shrinking in on herself, the young girl fearfully replied, "I...I don't know how...I'm scared..."

Taking a knee, bringing himself to eye-level with the girl, Ohta gave her a gentle pat on the head as he said, "There's nothing to be afraid of. Death is just another part of life. I can't say for certain what's waiting for you on the other side, but dwelling here will only make you sad and lonely. Now, do you want me to escort you to a shrine, or do you think you can be a big girl and pass on properly...?"

"I'm still afraid..." replied the girl, tears building in the corners of her eyes. Seeing her caused Ohta to exhale internally, but he maintained his smile as he rose to his feet, extending his hand to the girl as he said, "Then let's get you someplace safe..."

Though she was initially hesitant, the pigtailed spirit eventually accepted Ohta's hand, accompanying him to one of the more famous shrines in the region. His past self had guided several spirits to the same location. There was no enshrined god or deities present, at least not that Ohta was aware of, but when spirits passed through the Tori gate at the base of the shrine, they abruptly vanished into motes of bluish-white light. He didn't know if this was the correct course of action, but he believed it was better than leaving them to mourn and suffer in obscurity, crying out to people and family members that could neither see nor hear them...

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Several hours after Ohta had already retired for the night, an inordinately petite woman with raven black hair and a peculiar, samurai-esque black outfit appeared atop a telephone poll, the moon appearing overlarge behind her as she stared in the direction of Karakura Town and muttered, "I sense a strong Spirit Energy..."

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