Poltergeist

Himari was a busy woman for all intents and purposes. Being a single mother with two growing children meant she had to work twice as hard to facilitate their comfortable lives. No matter how often her son offered to help her with the cost of things, she would always reject it with some spiel about how he just needs to focus on school. He constantly felt like he had burdened her but she was the one who brought him into this world, so it was her job to take care of him.

Standing in the shower, she prepared herself to collect her daughter from nursery as well as run some other errands. Ever since she had returned from work, she noticed Akito acting a little differently. She wondered if she should address it or let it be. He was a 16-year-old boy after all; the things they got up to were always questionable at best. The rushing of the water masked the sound of the door quietly opening and closing. It also went unnoticed how the side of the shower curtain was moved a smidge by an unseen force. It fell back into place half a second later as soon as she shut off the water. Stepping out of the shower, she wrapped herself up in the fluffy white towel she had brought with her. Going over to the mirror, she went to wipe off the condensation but noticed something. A smiley face had been crudely drawn on it, grinning with sharp teeth. With a smile, she added a dot for a nose and two angry eyebrows before wiping the mirror clean.

Fully dressed and made up, the dutiful mother made her way downstairs to rustle up some breakfast before heading out. To her delight, the glass cake display was completely empty. Only a few crumbs hinted at the fact there used to be a cake there. Beside it was a note written on a torn piece of notebook paper. "Thanx 4 the cake". Next to the writing was another sharp toothed smiley face.

"Mornin', mum." Akito greeted as he jogged down the stairs.

He sat on the lower ones to put on his blue and white school shoes.

"Mornin' sweetie. What's with the smiley faces all of a sudden?"

He paused, sitting stock still. 'Smiley faces? what smiley faces?' He turned to his clearly happy mother, unsure if he should deny having any involvement. She held up the note with a smile. Recognising the handwriting, he blanched.

"Uh, y-yeah! The cake was great! Just wanted to show my appreciation, haha."

Shutting the front door, he stared straight ahead with a blank expression. Slowly, his expression morphed into an irritated pout. 'No beef jerky for him.'

_._._._

Grimmjow's searching yielded no results yet again. Finding spiritual pressure was an easy thing to do but only when he was in range. This area wasn't familiar to him, so it was possible he was miles away from wherever that infernal soul reaper was located. When coming to the world of the living, he wrongly assumed finding and killing Ichigo was going to be a breeze. He could always just swallow his pride and ask Nel where he was but he didn't want to stoop low enough to ask her for help. Even then, exploring this world was much better than lazing around in las Noches or wandering the deserts of Hueco Mundo. Even the moon here was better, the other one made him want to tear it out of the sky. In addition, he had someone to interact with and annoy while he was here.

Slipping through the window, he landed on Akito's spread bed with no concern for his shoes messing up the sheets. Rolling onto the floor, he tucked Pantera into his den which he had made rather comfortable by use of many stolen blankets and pillows. He passed by the full-length mirror only to back up. Staring at his clothes, he wondered if he should change it up a little.

Leaving the room, he listened out for any footsteps. He supposed he could just detect if there were any souls in the house but couldn't be bothered to use that ability right now. With his enhanced senses, he concluded that there was one person in the house. Aki's mother, whom he was mildly familiar with. He grinned, remembering his perverted, morning escapade. He never actually managed to sneak a peek, not that he minded too much; he'd get another shot soon enough.

Resemblance between them was... Non-existent. Silently, he watched the short woman as she scribbled something down on a piece of paper. He took the liberty of reading it when she went over to the sink to organise some dishes. It was a shopping list! Glancing at her, he made sure she wasn't looking before hastily adding beef jerky, bacon and chicken to the list.

Sitting on one of the stools, he grinned wolfishly as she read the list with mild confusion only to shrug.

He was so tempted to be a poltergeist. The look on her face would be priceless and he knew it. All he had to do was knock something over or break a glass and he'd have her in hysterics. He decided to mess with her, albeit in a less traumatising way since he had fuck all to do anyway.

Sitting on top of a moving car was oddly refreshing. The reishi filled air in Hueco Mundo was nowhere near as revitalising as the air in the living world. Feeling the wind blow through his short hair felt nice. He watched the humans walk around with a bored expression, a little ticked that not even one of them could see him. Though he supposed it was a good thing.

The vehicle slowed to a stop outside a very large house with many child-oriented stickers and banners in the windows. He silently watched as she exited and made her way over to the door. It opened up to reveal an older looking woman with a young girl who immediately jumped to embrace her mother. Grimmjow noticed how Akito's younger sister looked almost exactly like her mum with brown hair and hazel eyes. The difference in their appearance made him wonder about his mysterious father. He'd ask him about it later.

The next stop was a supermarket. He had never actually been in one but knew this is where all their food came from. Highly convenient compared to finding and consuming souls. He watched her place different items into a trolley, being a dick and subtly throwing in some candies when she wasn't looking. Being invisible was great.

He didn't know why he was doing this. Akito made him promise to stay away from his family and he was essentially spitting in the face of that. Not that he cared. He can do whatever the fuck he wanted. It felt good to know he had a Shinigami's entire life in the palm of his hand. A flick of the wrist and they'd be dead. But that wouldn't be beneficial to him in any way. The only person he truly cared about killing was that carrot top.

They returned home shortly after, Himari packing away the bags whilst her daughter went to the living room to play with her toys. Grimmjow's head jerked from left to right, trying to decide who he should mess with first. Jumping over the couch, he crouched down in front of the small girl who was playing pretend with her teddy bear. To the right he spotted a lion plushie, making him grin. Picking it up, he placed it down in front of her.

"Roar."

The girl gasped, a huge smile gracing her innocent features.

'What? No. Be scared.' He thought, shaking the lion up and down with a frown.

"Mummy! Mr. Lion's moving!" She called out.

"You better catch him; lions are very fast creatures." Himari replied from the kitchen, not taking what she said literally.

"Damn right we are." Grimmjow said with a smirk.

Raising up her teddy bear, she crashed it down against the lion with an added explosion sound effect.

"You're no match for Mr bear!" She countered.

He was confused. Shouldn't seeing something float around with no explanation be scary? She was viewing this supernatural event like it was nothing to write home about. He supposed it was because her brain hadn't fully developed yet and she couldn't distinguish her pretend fantasy from reality. He snorted when the play fight between Mr bear and Mr lion became rather violent, the young girl throwing said lion on the floor with a myriad of sound effects. Unsuccessful with his attempt at scaring the child, he moved onto her mother.

She was reaching for something high up on a shelf, a roll of paper towels. Rather helpfully, he dragged the top down with his finger, tipping the roll into her hand. It was so slight that she didn't even notice. Upping the ante, he looked around for something he could do. On the fridge were a bunch of magnets in the shape of letters. Being the narcissist he was, he rearranged them so they spelt out his name, or as much of it as he could manage. "GRIM". Now that should do the trick.

Finishing up in the kitchen, Himari went to leave but stopped when she saw Grimmjow's work of art on the fridge. With her hands on her knees, she studied the colourfully written word. After thinking for a moment, she slid away the "M" and replaced it with the letter "N". Nodding proudly, she left. And he did just that.

"Yui, I'm going to be out for 5 minutes okay? Be a good girl for me." Himari announced as she made her way to the front door.

"Okay!" The young girl replied, sadly poking at her lion that hadn't come back to life.

_._._._

"YOU DID WHAT!?"

Grimmjow relaxed on Akito's newly spread bed, not caring the teen was freaking out after he confessed to his wrong doings.

"Calm the fuck down. It's not like I traumatized them."

Pacing in his room, the teen groaned into his hands. 'He had one job, ONE JOB and he failed at it. Then again, at least he did some non-threatening things and nothing out of paranormal activity'. Asking Grimmjow to stay away from them was probably too much of a task anyway, they did live here after all.

"By the way, what is your mum?"

Akito stopped in his tracks, turning to look at Grimmjow with a grossed-out expression. He should've made him promise to do something else: don't ask questions.

"What do you mean, what is she? What kinda question is that!?"

"I mean- she fucking brutalized a guy today."

Akito blinked, tilting his head to the side in misunderstanding.

"Like, she beat someone up?"

Grimmjow felt himself grin at the memory.

"She went out to get... Something. Then a dude came into the store with a weapon."

Collapsing on his chair, Aki stared at the other who looked far too calm after witnessing a literal crime. Knowing his mother was in danger today made his blood run cold.

"W-what?! She never told me th-"

"Ssh, shut the fuck up. She picked up a can of something and threw it at his head." He explained, mimicking the motion. "He stumbled, then she kicked him down and took the weapon out of his hand. Funniest shit I've ever seen." He recounted with a chuckle and shake of his head.

His memory of the event was as clear as day, seeing as it happened only a few hours ago. The way she overpowered the guy with almost little to know effort was so damn cool to him. He never knew basic humans could do things like that. Aki scratched his head with a sigh.

"Well, that's my mum for you. She was in the Japanese self-defence force for a couple years. Now she's a full time karate teacher. She can... She can really mess people up."

Grimmjow's gaze fell onto the teen, looking him up and down in an overly judgemental way.

"She must be so embarrassed of you."

"Hey!"

He leaned back in his chair with a pout, only to quickly sit up when something struck him.

"That's the first time you've told me a story about someone other than yourself." He stated.

'Oh shit, he's right.' If that wasn't a sign being in the world of the living was affecting him, he didn't know what was. He hid any sign that he cared by nonchalantly getting comfortable on the bed.

"What can I say? I'd probably fuck your mum." Grimmjow replied, putting his hands behind his head.

"I beg your pard-"

Aki cut himself off, taking in a deep breath to calm himself down. He was just trying to wind him up. Trying wasn't really the correct verb because he was succeeding in an exceptional manner. It surprised him how similar Grimmjow was to an internet troll. He noticed the ex-espada  looked bored and suggested something more stimulating than having a cat nap.

"Wanna watch videos of her beating up guys twice her size?"

"What?"

For the first time in his life: Grimmjow put the words "human" and "cool" in the same sentence. He immediately wretched like a cat smelling brockley for the first time until the thought subsided. It was that god damn, woman's fault. She had no right to execute those moves so well and body multiple opponents like they were nothing. It had to be some sort of joke or trick and for that reason, he had to see it with his own eyes. Well, he already had but didn't want to view her through a screen.

Following her was a breeze for him, with the whole invisibility and undetectable thing he had going on. The first thing he noticed was the uniforms: they were white. Reminiscent of the soul reapers shihakusho but with the colours inverted. It definitely suited her; the material would move every time she did a swift movement, making her look all the more powerful. The noises she made were unintentionally amusing to him. All the "ha!"s did make her look like a crazy woman but everyone seemed impressed by it.

Finally, the moment he had been waiting for. A man stood opposite of her, his belt a different colour from her black one. The formal bow always caught him off guard; it left such a big opening. He wondered how humans managed to survive this long with all their rituals and traditions.

He snickered as he watched her demonstration, easily subduing the man while the others scrutinized her movements intently. Unfortunately, he didn't get to see her fold anyone like an omelette.

Returning back to his den, he saw Akito on his bed, scrolling on his phone. He stood there in his room, staring at the boy who only spared him a glance.

"Where's your dad?"

It was apparent Akito wasn't a fan of the question, his face contorting into a frown. Setting his phone down on his chest, he met Grimmjow's eyes with an unamused gaze.

"No one knows. Got my mum pregnant then disappeared. I hope I never find out where that dead beat is." He answered curtly before going back to his phone.

Rolling under the bed, Grimmjow stared up at the metal rods holding the mattress up. He took a nap.