A Day in the Human World

This article, , is a stand-alone issue with Averian as the POV character, with Shinrei, Kenji and Kusaka featuring.

Ugh. The air here was so thin and deprived of spiritual power Averian wondered just how any self-respecting Shinigami or Hollow allowed themselves to stay here overlong. It didn’t help matters that the smell of rotting fish and fried foods permeated the atmosphere. How the Human race hadn’t suffocated by now was quite beyond him. Maybe he should help some of them along to the afterlife?

He was dragged unexpectedly from his mental musings by a young lady in a cocktail dress skidding about on some manner of wheel attached to the base of her feet.

“Excuse me?” Averian asked, because he’d been miles away.

“Would you like some coffee sir while you wait?”

Averian answered in the positive even though he knew not what this “coffee” was. Knowing his luck it would turn out to be dirt in a cup. It’d likely be something the cretins drank. Knowing his luck it wasn’t free either.

“I do wish you would cease your spying first son of Kenji. Though I will applaud your ability to disguise your spiritual power; I barely even sensed you.”

Shinrei Hiroshi, white hair bound in a ponytail and with an expression that showed well his surprise, stepped into view and took a seat opposite Averian once the legend had motioned him to do so. Today he wore a loose fitting kosode jacket with a white vest beneath and a pair of black jeans. He wore bandages around his chest area.

“Who managed to do that to you?” Averian asked.

“Wait… you’re concerned?”

“And why should I not be?” Averian even sounded hurt. “As much as your father and I fought, I did have a certain… begrudging respect for the fool man.”

“So you’re concerned for me because your respect my father?” Shinrei even laughed. “With logic like that you and Kentaro wouldn’t get on too well.”

“So I’m led to believe.” Averian answered. “But you did not answer my question.”

“… My father’s manifested Hollow powers. Don’t ask.”

“Fair enough, I guess. Now be off. I’m trying to enjoy myself.”

“Drinking coffee?”

“Yes, is that noteworthy in any way?” Averian, who hadn’t a clue, asked hoping he wasn’t letting on.

“No,” Shinrei replied with carefully disguised sarcasm. “Enjoy the drink.”

Averian planned to. The young lady returned and Averian graciously accepted the cup she offered. She smiled and skated away. He was right. It looked like dirt in a cup. The murky colouring of the water and the smell was terrible! People drank this!? He shuddered.

“What have I got to loose?”

He took a sip and swirled the hot liquid in his mouth for a time before swallowing, half expecting to fight the urge to vomit. For a time he measured the flavour. He took a second sip to make sure he’d got the flavours down and finally nodded his head.

“Not bad at all.”

“Unbelievable!”

Shinrei, shaking his head, disappeared, after Averian cast a vicious glare in his direction.

By the time the young lady returned to clear his table Averian had drained the cup of coffee and left what he thought was enough money to cover it. It was so long since he’d last been to the Human World to spend money that he wasn’t sure what to give her. Of the considerable sum he’d withdrawn from an account he’d set up many years ago to allow the interest to accumulate so he could have some fun, he left a note with one-hundred written quite clearly.

But he’d also decided he enjoyed this thing called a café. Yes, he would return here, the next time he was in the neighbourhood.

“If you or yours touch this building,” Averian told a Hollow he saw eyeing him in the shadows, “I will ensure you die painfully. Have a good day. There’s a young man to the south with a tad more spirit power than others of his kind. I suggest you start there.”

Meanwhile… a few hours later in Horiwari…

“Drinking coffee?” Kenji asked, dumfounded.

“You mean to tell me that Averian transcends death and one of the first things he does do that doesn’t involve kicking me and your old man in lumps is to drink brown water!?”

“Apparently,” Shinrei confirmed. “I was confused too.”

“But it’s coffee.” Kenji said, hoping that was justification of his extreme doubt. “No one I know likes coffee.”

"Averian does," Shinrei pointed out.

"Whatever. Can we get back to work now? Please? Thanks." Kusaka walked away.

End.