Chapter 4: Being A Homeless Man Part 1

"This is Jay Jonah Jamison from the Daily Bugle reporting in on some earth shattering news and unfortunately it will not be on the spider menace this time but on someone else."

"According to reports 10 hours ago a criminal known as Shin murdered Detective Bill in cold blood...even when Detective Bill and the NYPD cooperated with all his demands it still did not matter as he was found dead in the criminal's getaway vehicle after the murder escaped police pursuit."

"Here is a picture of Shin he has white hair and red eyes and I implore my listeners to call the police if they see this scum, criminals like this must not be tolerated like the spid-"

"Turn that sh*t off Dan none cares about a f*cking detective dying especially in hell's kitchen!" A homeless man shouted at another homeless man named Dan who was listening to the report on a beat up radio.

"Shut up Tim it's not like we have anything else to do!" Dan countered and for a moment Tim lost his words not knowing how to counter his statement he just stood there in silence.

A bunch of the other homeless men keeping warm next to a self-made fire just rolled their eyes at this because this was a common occurrence between the two so instead of interfering in their banter they continued their small talk or conversations.

In the group however a homeless man remained silent the whole time, he was covered from head to toe in dirty clothes, and along with the covering of his body his face had sunglasses and atop his head lay a hat covering every inch of his hair as the only part of his skin showing was the lower half of his face.

Staring off into the fire he didn't show a single facial expression however all of a sudden his mouth formed into a crescent shape while slowly turning his head towards another direction.

"Psssst hey its me Shin." Shin said quietly, pulling down his sunglasses and winking at the reader.

"Let me just sum it up quickly as to how I got here so the author doesn't waste your time trying to extend his word count." Shin said, pushing his sunglasses back over his eyes.

The author writing this frowned and Shin flipped him the middle finger which made the author sigh.

"Okay so basically after I ditched that jerk I walked out of the alley and switched my transfigure thing to sunglasses, immediately I blended into a passing homeless crowd because first poverty is so rampant in the deeper parts of hell's kitchen making the homeless population out of control making a abundant amount of homeless people which in turn might make officers wary to check every single homeless man, and second the best way to escape is to hide in plain site so until the news starts to clear up a little I'm going to be incognito and no I haven't got any notifications from the chaos I caused earlier which is weird." Shin gave the rundown on his current situation and why he chose to do certain things in the heat of the moment.

Some homeless people around Shin heard him mumbling to himself with his back turned, curious they looked to see if the quiet man who hasn't talked since he arrived here was finally talking to someone so they looked towards him.

However once they saw he was talking to none there curiosity faded and if there gazes still remained on him they either looked at him in pity or just looked away but one thing was for sure they weren't going to give it another thought.

"F*cking weirdo." A man next to him muttered however what caught Shin off guard was before he could sock him in the face someone beat him to it.

*Thud*

The homeless fell to the ground and standing before him was a fairly burly man with a gray unkempt beard and a beanie with holes in it.

"Otis you know the rules we don't judge anyone here, were all here for a one reason or another so keep your f*cking mouth shut or go somewhere else." He said with an overbearing aura and the homeless man named Otis cowered in his place before nodding his head in a vigorous manner.

The man just crossed his arms nodding his head before looking at Shin with a smile, seeing that Shin returned his smile with one of his own.

"Hi there names Fredrick but you can call me Fred I'm kinda like the guy who keeps fights from escalating or from others oppressing others for their stuff I'm not really the leader because we don't have one and instead we just have a collective group." Fred said with a bright smile holding out his hand.

"Names Sh*cough*Seth thank you Fred!" Shin said, grabbing his hand and shaking it.

"Hahahahaha for someone so quiet you sure are very friendly!" Fred said with a hearty laughter.

"Also I'll apologize on behalf of Otis, he is just a little grumpy because his good friend was locked up for exposing himself in public while intoxicated." Fred said rubbing the back of his head not noticing Shin was looking a little out of it.

Weird....weird HE CALLED US WEIRD WE SHOULD SLOWLY CUT OFF HIS FINGERS WHILE WE MAKE HIM WATCH! - Voice 1

Should we really hurt him too much I mean it wasn't that bad and Fred really helped us out. We should show some good faith by only teaching him a lesson. - Voice 2

Why can't someone care about us, what about our suffering, don't we matter too. - Voice 3

'I guess I'll only bash his head in a little.'

"It's no problem I won't do anything drastic and thank you for your concern Fred." Shin said with a smile and Fred nodded his head.

"Well don't be a stranger we have some extra blankets if you want some, keeping yourself warm is very important you know." Fred said, patting his shoulders and Shin nodded his head.

"Yes thank you Fred." Shin smiled and Fred patted him a couple of more times before he went to get him a blanket.

Shin received his blanket from Fred and after a while of standing next to the fire he went to a dry area to sleep for the first time since transmigrating here.

He looked at the blanket and shrugged. The blanket could barely be counted as a blanket if it could be compared to anything it would be more like rags however it was enough and Shin covered himself with it before slowly closing his eyes falling into a sleep-like state.

Later in the night the guy that called Shin a weirdo got up to take a piss, he stumbled over to a random dirty alleyway looking a little drunk and pulled down his pants starting to unleash his flood gates.

Suddenly Shin's eyes opened and a furious light shone in them before they turned cold, slowly getting up he stealthy made his way to the adjacent alleyway.

His movements didn't even let out a sound as the only noise that was even heard in the vicinity was the sounds of crickets.

The sound of trickling water was suddenly heard throughout the quiet alleyway with the occasional whistle here and there.

Otis had a smile on his face feeling the sensation of all the bottled up liquid being released while holding onto the wall for support.

But what he failed to notice was a dark figure slowly approaching him from behind, not even keeping his eyes open his attention was just focused on him finishing then drifting back into a slumber.

*Thud*

A hand suddenly pushed his head into a wall, the man didn't even have time to react as his head crashed into the wall.

*Crack*

Slight cracking noise could be heard coming from the man's head causing Otis to immediately fall unconscious.

Otis's body fell limp causing him to fall down however instead of falling completely to the ground Shin's sudden force made his momentum go forward making his body slump onto the wall.

His body slowly started to slide down, his head didn't leave the hard surface leaving scrapes of blood behind in its wake.

Reaching the ground his awkward position didn't hold long as his body finally fully collapsed onto the cold ground.

Seeing Otis's body stop moving he grabbed his legs and dragged him deeper into the alleyway, he didn't stop dragging him until he reached a fairly far distance away before tossing him into a pile of nearby trash.

"This is a warning next time I'm breaking your skull in half." Shin coldly muttered not even caring that he couldn't be heard by the man.

Shin returned back to his spot, the homeless men around him not even noticing his departure nor his recent arrival.

Getting back into a comfortable position Shin resumed his sleep-like state but this time with a contemptuous smile.

The next morning everyone slowly got up to start their daily routine, Shin however didn't get up along with the rest accidently falling into a deep sleep until all of a sudden his body was given a sudden shake.

Shin's eyes immediately shot open, rotating his body while shaping his hand so his fingers extended outward.

Not even caring who it was, Shin's hand went at fast speed towards the opposers neck, however his hand suddenly stopped in place without his permission.

Feeling the stop in the motion of his hand, Shin's eyes started to show some clarity, looking closer he just saw Fred holding his wrist showing him a warm smile.

"Hey Seth its okay none's gonna hurt ya so calm down a little." Fred said in a soothing tone and Shin breathed a little before retracting his hand.

"Sorry about that Fred I don't get caught off guard so easily so it just shocked me a little." Shin chuckled a little, rubbing the back of his head.

"It's fine you don't have to apologize to me buddy, but on another note come on lets get some food in you as a shelter in Chinatown serves the best grub amongst all the homeless shelters close to us." Fred heartly said and the surrounding homeless men just nodded at Fred's words, Shin showed him a smile and followed him along with the others.

"Hey Fred, I gotta a question, do you mind answering?" Shin blurted out all of a sudden after something kept constantly gnawing at him.

"Of course Seth lay it on me!"

"Why does everyone always walk places together?" Upon hearing him Fred walked silently for a little while before looking back at Shin.

"Ya must be pretty new to hell's kitchen right?" Fred said and Shin just nodded, not even trying to hide it.

"Well Seth first let me tell ya that hell's kitchen is a really dangerous place things like murder, assault, r*pe, robbery, and other crimes happen daily here, it's so bad that most of the time cops don't even dare to come into the depths of hell's kitchen at night." Fred said with a sullen face.

"So that's why we formed a group because the homeless shelters are filled to the brim so I took it upon myself to form a small group where everyone has each other's backs making it easier to survive here without having to do those types of things."

"The sad thing is Seth none cares about a homeless man being beat up or killed in hell's kitchen the police will just chalk it up as either an accident or a gang related crossfire."

After Fred stopped talking he looked up into the sky his eyes suddenly dulled but they recovered quickly before he looked back at Shin.

"So don't carelessly wander around here, it's very dangerous to understand." Fred seriously said, waiting for confirmation before continuing.

"Alright Fred I'll be careful." Shin nodded his head eagerly and Fred started laughing.

"Ha good good well Seth if you don't mind me asking I also have a question as well what is a bright and hearty young man like yourself doing here on the streets?" Fred inquired attentively not wanting to push Shin too far while maintaining a respectful approach, Shin stayed quiet for a little before smiling.

"Well Fred I am an orphan and I was kicked out and sent to an institution because evidently I have a lot of so-called 'mental deficiencies' however I ran away."

Fred, hearing this frowned his facial expression looking as if he ate something very sour, he has heard stories like Shin's before as the system usually just sends people like Shin to a mental hospital to be drugged up to the point they're barely functioning.

"Well don't worry Seth you're safe here none's gonna make you go to that sh*t box and if you ever need someone to talk too come to me." Upon hearing Fred's caring words Shin's eye's became hazy before he started to smile widely.

"Finally we're here." a homeless man all of a sudden shouted and Shin looked toward the building in front of him.

Looking forward he saw the big letters in front of him that read 'F.E.A.S.T. Food, Emergency, Aid, Shelter and Training'

Once his eye's skimmed over the words he just smiled and followed the crowd into the famous building he once read about in comics.

'This should be interesting.'

Author's Note: Not gonna lie it's gonna be chill for the next couple chapters while I set up some of the story and future events.