3 Sadistic Murmurs

Rising early the following day, specifically at 5:30 AM, Ohta did his usual, or, more accurately, his past self's morning routine.

One of the most important aspects of combat readiness was a fit and healthy body, so the first thing Ohta did every morning was half an hour of cardio, half an hour of weight training, and forty minutes of hitting a sandbag. That gave him a little more than an hour to get showered, eat breakfast, and make his way to school, taking a random route every day to avoid the fatal flaw of falling into an easily predictable routine.

("Man, I'm too old for this shit...") thought Ohta, sitting at his desk and resting his cheek against his knuckles with half-lidded eyes and a bored countenance. Unfortunately, skipping High School would have cost him 50,000 Karma, meaning he wouldn't have been able to acquire perks like an AB blood type, making him a universal recipient. Such things might not matter to most people, but if you ever found yourself in a situation where they had to transport blood from another hospital, you would understand how integral blood type was to your survival in an emergency...

Briefly earning Ohta's attention, Tatsuki arrived alongside Orihime. The two had been friends for a long time, but they became much closer after Orihime lost her only family member a few years back, an older brother whose name Ohta couldn't recall as they had never actually met.

Noticing Ohta in his seat, Tatsuki temporarily ceased her conversation with Orihime, raising her hand as she said, "Hey, Ohta. Get plenty of rest last night?"

Adopting a faint smile, Ohta replied, "Yeah. And thanks for your concern. I appreciate it."

As expected of a tomboy, Tatsuki visibly cringed when thanked by Ohta, crossing her arms and averting her eyes as she muttered, "You're being weird..."

"I get that," replied Ohta, exhaling a light chuckle. He didn't consider himself particularly close to anyone, as he was always prepared to vanish at a moment's notice, but Tatsuki's family had been good to him. She was also the closest thing he had to a childhood friend, so it was important to show a bit of gratitude now and then to maintain their relationship...

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With homeroom and three periods passing, Ohta, once again, found himself on the roof. This time, however, there were a few third-year students present, presumably delinquents, judging by their ridiculous hairstyles, facial piercings, and unkempt uniforms. A few were even smoking.

Though it had been nearly a month since he began attending Karakura High as a first year, none of the group immediately recognized Ohta, compelling the leader of the group to say, "Beat it, kid. This is our turf."

Adopting a faint smile, Ohta replied, "Sure, have fun," before turning and attempting to leave. Before he could, however, the same student, built like an amateur wrestler, said, "Hye, hold up, aren't you forgetting something? Did you think you could just enter our turf and leave as you please? Empty your pockets."

Turning around to reveal an even bigger grin, Ohta sent shivers up the spines of nearly everyone present as he mused, "No, I don't think I will." in an almost melodic, sing-song tone.

"Hey, Boss...I don't think we should mess with this kid..." said one of the goons, a skinny man with short bleached hair, buck teeth, and a decently attuned survival instinct.

Though he felt the same way as his goon, the stocky delinquent grit his teeth and growled, "Fuck that..." before rising to his full 188cm height and shouting, "You lookin' for a fight, punk!?"

"Sure," replied Ohta, adopting his 'friendliest' smile as he asked, "Know anyone capable? Maybe the Senpai that used to bully you?"

"You...!"

As Ohta wasn't that far away, the stocky youth lunged at him, throwing the most telegraphed haymaker the former had ever seen. The former could have easily dodged it, but one of the nicknames he had picked up in Middle School was Ohta, the Immovable.

Surprising everyone, none more than the stocky youth, Ohta caught his fist as if he were catching a softball tossed by a child. At the same time, the smile on his face grew to the point that his eyes squinted slightly, his grip tightening around the much larger boy's fingers as he mused, "Wow, you're pretty strong~."

Feeling an intense pain from his hand, the larger boy tried to pull away, but Ohta was like an anchor, keeping him in place as the pressure of his grip slowly and deliberately increased.

"Ow, ow, ow, fuck...!" exclaimed the burly youth, kicking toward Ohta in the hope of getting him to let go. Instead, the moment raised his foot, Ohta struck with his own, kicking the inside of his knee with enough force to turn him sideways. In the same motion, he made a hooking motion with the larger youth's fist, pushing his would-be assailant to the ground and forcing his hand to the center of his back with a loud 'pop.'

"Aaaaaaaaaaaaah! I'm sorry, I'm sorry! I won't do it again..!" screamed the stocky youth, sweating bullets and crying like a child at the pain of having his shoulder forcibly dislocated.

"Yes, I intend to make sure of that," said Ohta, pushing the youth's hand even further up his back. He knew from experience that people like this only understood pain, so if he didn't leave him with a 'sufficient' trauma, it wouldn't be long before the wannabe thug returned with a posse.

While the larger boy screamed bloody murder on the ground, Ohta raised his gaze to the other delinquents, narrowing his eyes into an amused smile as he asked, "What are you waiting for? Don't you want to help your friend~?"

As he could also hear Ohta's words, the larger boy reached out with his free hand and screamed, "Guys, please help me...!" with tears and snot cascading down his face.

Terrified by the sight, the other delinquents instinctually stepped back, their bodies breaking out in a cold sweat. Fortunately, just as Ohta was about to give the leader of the group permanent nerve damage, a familiar voice echoed from behind him, asking, "Don't you think that's enough...?"

Releasing the delinquent's arm, Ohta raised his hands in mock surrender, his smile losing its malice as he replied, "You're probably right." before rising to his feet and turning around to find a boy with spiky orange hair and brown eyes staring at him with a conflicted, judgmental expression on his face.

Stepping past Ohta, the orange-haired youth, Kurosaki Ichigo, looked down at the beaten and sobbing delinquent, remarking, "You nearly tore his arm off..."

Shrugging his shoulders, Ohta replied, "Eh, give him two to three months, and he'll be back to bullying those weaker than him with a smile." Then, before Ichigo could respond, he looked over to the other delinquents, saying, "Hey, cowards, get this guy to the nurse's office before someone else needs to carry you there on a stretcher."

Reacting to Ohta's words, the remaining five boys picked up their former leader and hurried from the roof as fast as their fumbling feet could. As a result, Ohta found himself alone with Ichigo, the latter staring back at him and scratching his head, clearly not knowing what to say. After all, he also had a reputation for sending delinquents to the hospital.

"Relax," said Ohta. "You know those types. Give them an inch, and they'll take a mile. If I were weaker than them, I would have been the one on the ground, robbed of my money and dignity. They needed a lesson like that before they pissed off the wrong person and got themselves killed."

Exhaling a sigh, Ichigo dropped his hand and responded with a tired, "Yeah, yeah, I know what you mean. Still, you didn't have to go 'that' far. If you had told them who you were, they probably would have run away from the start."

Shrugging his shoulders, Ohta admitted, "Probably. But we can't know that for certain. Besides, I did try to leave when they asked me to. It's their fault for viewing that as a sign of weakness."

"Yeah, man, whatever..." said Ichigo, looking around at the empty roof before asking, "So, is this where you're planning to spend your lunches from now on?"

"Maybe," responded Ohta. "The Sun's a bit overbearing, but there's a nice breeze."

"Right..."

Not really sure what else to say, Ichigo scratched his head a second time, an awkward silence permeating the air before he said, "Well, I'll leave you to it. If those guys try to seek revenge, let me know. I doubt you'll need it, but I can lend you a hand..."

"Same old Ichigo," mused Ohta, slipping his hands into his pockets and adopting a faint smile as he added, "Thanks, I'll keep that in mind."

"I doubt it..." replied Ichigo, having extended similar offers to Ohta in the past. Then, as neither of them was very social, he turned around and left, leaving Ohta to enjoy the remainder of the lunch period in relative peace...

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Sitting on the roof of Karakura Town's tallest building, this time wearing a green hoodie and a black facemask, Ohta remarked, "Something feels off tonight..." while staring listlessly at the moon. He couldn't really explain it, but he felt like there was some kind of 'interference' in the air, giving him a similar feeling to being stuck in a low-service area, searching for a signal on his cell phone.

Rising to his feet, Ohta was about to fly into the sky for a better vantage when a sound similar to a car crash reached his ears, echoing through the night from several kilometers away.

"Well, got nothing better to do," muttered Ohta, taking off in the direction of the presumed accident. He wasn't really the 'heroic' type, but now that he knew things like karma and an afterlife existed, he figured it didn't hurt to lend a hand to those in need. Not like it cost him anything.

"Hmmm? Isn't this the neighborhood Ichigo lives in?" noted Ohta, having covered nearly 3km in just under twenty seconds.

As if in response to Ohta's comment, another explosion echoed through the otherwise silent night, drawing his attention to a familiar clinic and, more importantly, a large, bipedal creature with fish-like features and a white mask.

"Well, that's convenient," remarked Ohta, descending toward the creature intending to crush it like the rest. As he got closer, however, he noticed the creature was holding a somewhat familiar young girl with black hair framing her face...

"Let go of Karin, you bastard!" screamed a familiar voice, drawing Ohta's attention to Ichigo, charging recklessly toward the masked creature with a splintered baseball bat.

("He can see it...") noted Ohta, marginally surprised. At the same time, he made a pulling gesture with his right hand, sparing Ichigo the fate of being sent flying by the much larger creature.

Presumably having similar intentions, an inordinately petite girl with raven black hair and black robes reminiscent of a samurai's garb appeared out of nowhere, slicing halfway through the creature's muscular forearm with a katana. This forced the monster to drop Karin, nearly causing her to kiss the pavement before Ohta caught her in his telekinetic grasp.

Outwardly displaying the confusion that Ohta was concealing, the petite, raven-haired girl exclaimed, "Huh!? Who goes there!?" while leaping back to create some distance between herself and the creature.

Instead of responding to the girl's words, Ohta took advantage of the fact the monster no longer had a hostage, thrusting forward with his hand as if it held an invisible spear. He preferred to crush the masked creatures, but that was far from his only method of dealing with them.

Earning shocked looks from both Ichigo and the raven-haired girl, Ohta's thrusting motion caused the upper half of the monster's body, particularly its head, to disappear, replaced by a circular void. What remained of its colossal frame began to dissolve, prompting the raven-haired woman to look where Ohta had been moments before, only to find he had vanished completely...

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Observing the incident from afar, a man with messy, ashen-blonde hair, a somewhat tattered, green-and-white, striped fisherman's hat, dark circles under his eyes, and an overall unkempt appearance remarked, "Well, that complicates things..."

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