Toman's Black Cat

The Appearance of the Trickster

"What the hell are you doing, asshole?!" Baji shouted from right beside me. I felt my heart begin to race and I swallowed back tears.

It's nice to know he still hasn't changed.

I noticed that he also moved to stand in front of me like Shinichiro did. My eyes widened with confusion.

"This is actually..um...kinda cool." A light laugh and a fist bump was shared between Shinichiro and Baji. At the expression on my face, they both shrugged and Shinichiro smiled apologetically. "Don't ask, because we don't know either. By the way..." His face fell into one of sadness as he looked into my eyes. "Emma walked your mom to the door so she wouldn't keep worrying."

Tears filled my eyes as I processed what he just said.

Emma walked my mom to the....door?

"Yeah yeah yeah, that's enough from the peanut gallery, thank you." I turned to face the transforming creature who was suddenly standing only a few feet away from us.

He had streaks of black across his face, similar to whiskers and his eyes glowed red. He had white hair and nails that put Freddy Kreuger to shame. "Oh MAN are you one annoying little human girl!" He smacked his forehead he did a mock laugh to show his enthusiasm before slowly turning back to me. "Never have I ever had some little twit last this long when I deal out trouble like rain, but you, wow. WOW." He clapped slowly before stopping entirely. "I really gotta say though, I ABSOLUTELY HATE IT."

He quickly reached past the two men, wrapping his hand around my throat, squeezing my windpipe as he laughed maniacally at me struggling to breathe. Before my eyesight could even begin to blur, I suddenly fell to my knees gasping for air.

"The name's Baji Keisuke, 1st division Captain of the Tokyo Manji Gang." Baji placed his fists together with a smirk. "Good to know I can hit you." He spoke as he clenched and unclenched his fists as if preparing to do it again.

The creature smiled coldly, brushing his jacket off as looked at Baji like he was some sort of insect. "I simply wanted to offer her a choice is all." He spoke with a chuckle it but didn't approach me again. "I'll need to find out who is helping you, because hitting isn't something done on this side. Unless it's me of course." Shinichiro helped me stand back up, staying beside me to make sure I wasn't attacked again.

"What choice?" I finally wheezed out.

He chuckled before shaking a finger at me. "I'm offering the choice, but I'll tell you what they are at the right time. For me, that is." With that, he raised both his hands like he was about to snap his fingers. "Until then, have fun my little nuisance! I know I will."