FIRST THINGS FIRST

**Date Started:** 07 December, 2021
**Date Completed:** Ongoing
**Next Role-Play**: N/A
**Users Involved:** User:EmperorSigma, User:Sekiro of the mist
**Setting:** Houston,
**Characters Involved**:
* **Present:** Michael Davis,
* **Hollows:**
* **Mentioned:**
* **Quincy:** Tomoe Bushida

*Fill me up, Oh sweet one*
*As you break the barrier between yourself and your heart*.

*You will see the world different with a brand new start*.

*Fill me up, Oh sweet one*.

*In a world where boundaries don't exist*.

*As you try to understand these unspoken twists*.

*Fill me up, Oh sweet one*

Everything led up to something and Michael's training had only gone better as the days went by. While he may not have been the strongest to pass Asia and Zeratin's eyes, but he had potential and that's what surprised them the most. Hard work and dedication was all one needed to reach the level that Michael had reached within the last month and there was no way one would be able to make any sort of excuses. He had nothing at the start and turned it all into something at the end.

Still, even after all of that training, Michael hadn't seen Emperor once. It still concerned him, but he figured that his being had simply withered away and merged with his own soul. He thought he had overcome the control that Emperor had been trying to have over him and won his body for himself. The fact that he had harnessed his powers as a feeling only made him all the more confident in his skills, despite knowing there was a ton of room for growth. Still, basketball was the only thing he truly cared for and would one seek to get better in it. Not some duty to protect people he didn't know and become some sort of town hero.

After driving for about thirty minutes, Michael pulled into the parking lot of a gas station named "Shells". A large gas company known throughout the United States. While it had man chains and stores across the country, it was known for bearing a bad reputation when it came down to gas prices.

Currently, the digital sign read "$2.15 w/ cash.", meaning those using a debit or credit card would have to be a whopping $2.35. A grand finesse scheme to say the least. Luckily for the young man his car had been full on gas, courtesy of his mother who always made sure he was never low, providing him with her "gas only debit card".

Pulling into a parking spot near the main facility, Michael jumped out of his car and entered it. Once getting into the store, Michael paused in place as he became absent-minded. His expression gave off the feeling as though he'd forgotten something. That "something" was the fact that he'd forgotten what he'd came into the store for in the first place.

"Hey, Michael buddy!" A man shouted from behind the register, his facial features revealed that he was a man of Pakistani descent.

Snapping back to reality, Michael remembered what it was he came in there for and then spoke back to the man, "Wassup Fred." A quick response, rushing to the display of chips surveying it he reached for the bag labeled "Funyuns" on one line and "Flamin' Hot" on the other.

Grabbing two bags of the chips he turned himself to head back towards the front of the store where he met with a cooler type of thing that had fruit in a clear container sitting on a boatload of ice. The containers had pineapples, grapes, melons, and *watermelon*.

Michael grabbed two of these as well and headed for the register where the man he'd called Fred stood. He opened both of the containers and moved the watermelon from the second container to the first one. And the placed all the remaining fruit that wasn't watermelon from the first container into the second one. Once done he pushed the second one to the side.

"You already know. Charge me for both, but I only want the watermelon." Reaching into his pocket as the cashier rung him up, Michael pulled out a twenty dollar bill and handed it to the man.

"The usual," Fred started "but congratulations on winning the tournament." He finished, placing the twenty into the register and beginning to count the change.

Placing the items into a white plastic bag he responded, "Keep tha' change and appreciate it, next is the league." His southern accent emphasizing the word appreciate as he turned to exit the store. Reaching his car, he opened the door and placed the bag over into the passenger seat.

"Well damn, if it ain't College Champ himself, Michael Davis." A voice called, relatively close, causing the mohawked male to lift himself up meeting face to face with the man.

The man sported a short taper fade and had skin very similar to Michael's own. He was a few inches taller than the latter, but Michael still managed to make eye contact with him. "The fuck you such close to me for, Chris?"

"Damn Mike, it's like that now?" Chris let out a soft chuckle. "Damn you started takin' basketball serious and forgot all about a n\*\*\*\*. You don't even wanna be gang no more."

Chris, or Christopher Ratliff, was a childhood friend of Michael's who took the wrong path in life. Drug dealing, robbing, all of the above. For the past years the two have been on bad terms due to Michael choice of wanting to do something positive with his life, yet Chris couldn't accept this and often tried intimidating him.

"Think imma' have to catch yo granny at one of them lil' stores or some shit like that." Chris laughed, "Yeah, some public type shit man, hahahaha."

Without a single thought in his mind or cocking his hand back which had already been formed into a fist, Michael smashed his fist against the center of Chris' face. Before the latter could recoup his fist would be met by a strong hook this time with the opposite hand, the right.

Grabbing ahold of his shirt, Michael pulled him all the way up to the side walk and threw him against the store's wall. Consecutive left and right jabs were throw at Chris' face and abdomen. Each punch heavier then the last.

"Yeah niga, let's squabble!" Michael shouted throwing more punches.

Finally Chris managed to smuggle enough strength and push Michael off of him so that he could throw a punch of his own.

However, with a simple weave, Michael launched another strong left hook this time making direct contact with Chris' eye and ultimately lead to Chris falling to the ground, Michael stood over him and began throwing punch after punch.

Chris' face was bloody, every inch of it painted in the maroon substance. "Get yo' bitch ass up, niga!" Next he began to stomp on him with his foot, lifting it and slamming it down with all of his might, truly intending to break something on his foe.

"YOU BALLED UP LIKE A BITCH NOW! GET YO WEAK ASS UP AND SAY THAT SHIT AGAIN, NIGA! WATCH I KNOCK YO' BITCH ASS SMOOTH THE FUCK OUT!" Michael's words were filled with rage. He hadn't even noticed the large number of people watching him deliver this beating.

Fred, the store worker, flung around the corner grabbing Michael away from doing further damage to Chris. "Get out of here! Hurry up before these people notice you!" Fred shouted, pushing Michael to his car as the teen launched his hood over his head, jumped into his car and pulled off with haste.

While driving away from the store, Michael slammed his hands against the steering wheel. "Fuck!" He cursed to himself, face red from anger. So much had gone through his head in that short amount of time that he couldn't even compose himself. He wanted to turn back around and finish that fight but he knew more than anyone that wasn't going to be a wise decision.

The relationship between Michael and Chris was a deep one. Those on the outside wouldn't understand it, but those who knew the both of them knew it well. They were bestfriends at a point of time. Inseparable if there was a single word that needed to be used. When they were younger they did everything together, played, slept, and even dreamed. They had the same dream once upon a time but once they both reached high school and split apart, their ideals warped. Michael moved not far away and Christ got heavy into gangs. At his new school, Michael became good friends with the people there and that school was home of one of Chris' rival gangs. Chris felt betrayed, but it was nothing like that.

Ever since then it had been nothing but bad vibes between the two. They often exchanged words on social media with Chris threatening Michael on multiple occassions. He knew deep down inside that there was nothing he was going to do to him, but at the same time it made him feel some type of way that Chris would even fix his lips to say such a thing.

## Real Deal

While he had seemingly focused all of his attention on the situation with Chris, his phone began to ring and he looked to it to see who it was calling. The name of Jaylah sat on the front screen in the form of a Facetime call and he didn't hesitate to answer. He knew if anyone was going to make him calm down and feel better, it was going to be her.

"Yeah, ma?" He answered, waiting for her response on the other end.

"Oh, girl, I don't know," she started, clearly not talking to Michael. Her let out a deep sigh, she couldn't help but to always seem to be talking to someone else when she called him. "Mike, can you buy me some fooooood~?" She asked, dragging out her words in an attempt to sway him with her baby talk. It was a method Michael knew all to well and hated that more than anything, but he still allowed it to work to give her the impression she had a good strategy to use when she wanted something.

Again, he sighed. "Really?" He parked his car in the nearby parking lot and looked to the screen immediately smiling. Jaylah's face was filled with make-up and she looked just as beautiful as ever. "You know what, yeah. I'm boutta CashApp it. But, where the fuck you goin'? You got yo face all beat and shit, you look TOO good."

With a wide smile of her own forming, "You like it?" She made kissy faces and turned her head to get different angles to show Michael, "I'm just with my friends, imma go eat with these hoes but I had to pay for my books so I neeeeeded some money." She said, smiling still.

"The sad part is.. YOU HAVE MORE MONEY THAN ME STILL." Michael expressed, releasing his third sigh since they had been on the phone. "But imma send it though, call me when you get back. Love you."

"Okaaaay, love you too." She said, blowing a kiss at the phone then hanging up.

Looking down at his phone, he tapped at the screen and made immediate actions to send her the money. He didn't want to hear the end of that. He put the car back into drive and carried along down the street, he put on one of his favorite songs and pushed along.

Head nodding, he sand along. "Spin in yo section with that Heat feel like we beat Oklahoma, you call yoself sliding on me now we gone see bout yo momma. I left some blood inside them streets like lord forgive me oh father. Two double cups I sip that lean I drink this way more than water. And I swear they don't really know bout this pain that I'm feeling, few months ago yeah I was chained in them prisons but now I'm chasin' them millions."

Now rocking back and forth, Michael's soul found itself touched by the lyrics he shouted and felt. Even now, music continued to be his escape from the world around. But, before he could get too deep in, the hairs on his arm lifted and his eyes immediately shifted towards it.

"Shit." He said, making a hard right turn into a nearby parking lot and jumping out of the car. He began to run along the street, taking each and every back way he could until he reached what he sought out.

From behind Michael, the Quincy Bruno positioned a reishi arrow towards him, thinking he was a hollow due to his reiatsu signature and shot it towards Michael not bothering to look at him for even a moment to see if he was a actual hollow or not.

With his back turned at Bruno, Michael pivoted to his left to compeltely dodge the arrow. He didn't need to see the Quincy behind him in order to sense his thanks to his recent training, so dodgiing such a straight forward strike was simple. Spinning on his planted foot, he turned around to face Bruno.

At base, he looked like a normal human, but he knew that he was far from it. *"His spiritual pressure... it feels.. weird as shit."* Michael thought to himself, gripping his fist. "Aye, watch where you throwin' them arrows." He shouted, swiping his hand at the air. *"Wait, I know what this is. This is that same feeling..."* He looked down to his stomach which began to bubble, *"Shit.. my damn stomach."*

"Wait so your not a Hollow" Bruno said confused on why Hollow reiatsu would be coming off Michael. "What are you then" he said his reishi bow still in his hand.

Michael's eyebrows lifted, "Do I look like a fuckin' Hollow?" He asked, but the question was more rhetorical than anythting. "For some reason, you makin' my stomach turn upside down." He then paused, "It was you who I sensed."

*"It's like my body wants me to attack him..."* Michael thought, holding his position before making any sudden moves. What he didn't understand, was that to Quincy, the reiatsu of a Hollow was poisonous and for some reason, the same was for him as well. His body vanished as he moved forward, reappearing directly in front of Bruno. He swung his arm as if it were a blade, seeking to bisect Bruno's top half from his lower half.

Reacting to this, Bruno uses **Hirenkyaku** to jump back, dodging Michael's attack in the progress before letting several reishi arrows fly towards Michael at intense speeds, before using Blut to increase his protection just in case he can't dodge any more of Micheal's attacks in time. Landing several feet away Bruno looks at Michael confused, still wondering how he could possess Hollow reiatsu and confused on how he moved so fast.

"What the," Michael took a side step at the last minute, unable to fully dodge the arrow as it slid by his arm and cut open his jack and skin, leaving a wound as it pierced into whatever was behind him. With his free arm he reached to the wound and focused himself so that it would heal, but it remained an open wound. *"Wait, ain't this like when that girl hit Emperor.."* He grit his teeth and clenched the wound as the pain was much more dense than it appeared to be.

"So," he breathed, "That wasn't a damn Hollow I felt then? It was you?" Michael concluded, fixing himself up and locking onto his figure. He mentioned earlier about his instinct to attack Bruno, but he didn't go into full detail of what he meant. What he felt was the need to prey on the man. It was a feeling similiar to a lion ready to hunt its prey.

"I don't know what you are or who you are but you feel like a Hollow so naturally I have to stop you" Bruno said before summoning a more powerful reishi arrow and launching it towards Michael's head if he dodged it, it would probably cause immense damage of property, if he blocked it with his arm he could be seriously damaged and if he got hit by it, he would be meeting whatever God ruled the universe.

Where he wanted to calm himself down from his instincts, Bruno did nothing but accelerate his desire to kill. Through a burst of speed, he pushed himself out of the arrow's range utilizing his Body Flicker technique, sliding across the ground as the arrow slammed into the buildings behind him. Luckily, Michael wasn't the type to care about what happened with everything around and this worked to his advantage more than he would have liked.

Kicking off at the ground, Michael dashed at Bruno once again, arm extended and fingers jammed together as he made his blade-like gesture once more. This time he vanished just before his strike would finish in an attempt to catch Bruno off guard before appearing at the Quincy's side seeking to pierce through the side of his stomach.

Using Hirenkyaku Bruno quickly sides steps to his left side dodging Michael's attack though he did leave a starch on him which impressed the Quincy, "Not bad for...whatever you are" he said before using the reishi around him to form another batch of arrows, "Now take this!" Bruno yelled out shooting several powerful at Michael once again though he was in a more defensive position than before.

His body flickered out of existence in the state once again, allowing him to dodge the bulk of the arrows. However, there were even more than before. Quickly, he took another step, then another, then another, until he appeared to be nothing more than a blur running around what had become the battle field in order to dodge Bruno's barrage of arrows.

Taking a deep breath, Michael stepped back and assessed the situation once again. "Damn, this niga only use arrows?" Michael asked himself, eyes taking a quick look at the rest of the area. The longer this battle went on, the higher his instinct to kill increased. The thought of fleeing and leaving didn't even step on his track of thoughts.

"Ight, I got somethin' then." He cupped his hands together and held them in front of himself. A black and purple-tinted gathering of energy formed in the center of his hands where he then pulled his hands down to his side until the energy formed a complete sphere. "**Dark Pulse**!" He exclaimed, thrusting forward and releasing a beam of reiatsu towards Bruno almost similiar to that of a Cero which its same effects--a destructive force capable of blasting even though steel.

"Oh shit" Bruno said before transforming his Helig Bogen into a reishi sword and creating two reishi platforms, using them to launch himself into the air dodging the Cero like attack. "Not I'm sure this is a hollow" Bruno said before using the two reishi platforms to launch himself at Michael with his reishi sword in hand ready to cut him down.

Unlike the normal Cero that would disappear after using it the first time, Michael's attack allowed for him to, so long as he continued to pour out his reiatsu, continue the beam. Where Bruno would eefectively dodge the technique by jumping up and then redirect himself to come directly at him, Michael simply shifted his arms and aimed the beam directly towards the incoming Quincy. "You ain't gettin' outta this that easy, fam."

Unlike last time where Bruno found himself able to dodge the attack easily, it would prove difficult seeing as to how he had literally shifted his trajectory with full force in a straight line straight for Michael. This feature was one of the many things that set his Dark Pulse apart from the normal Cero.

"This guy just doesn't give up does he?" Bruno said now heading straight for the beam if he got hit by it he would face a lot of damage, so to atleast lessen the damage on himself Bruno transformed his reishi and reishi platforms into a little sphere of reishi to protect himself from the blast.

"Damn, what the fuck can't he do?" Michael asked himself, noticing his attack landed only to have the damaged reduced by one of the many techniques in Bruno's artillery. However, where he may have tried to minimize the damage he would only feel more from his reiatsu he found himself attacked by. It was no secret that Hollows and their reiatsu was ike a poison to the Quincy and with the lingering affects from the damage he had taken from Michael's attack, he'd surely feel more pain than he was use to.

Sliding back against the ground, Michael swooping his hand along the dirt. "What the fuck're you?"

Landing on the ground, Bruno stood up with his reishi bow but his whole body felt like it was on fire due to the lingering Hollow reiatsu. "What are you? You feel like a hollow but you look like the regular human" Bruno said not letting his aim falter. "So answer my question. What are you?"

"You keep askin' me the same question and I keep fuckin' yell you dude." Michael said, shaking his head while giving Bruno his undivided attention. He didn't know if Bruno was being intentionally ignorant or if the Quincy could even hear him as all, so he decided to respond with a nick of sacrasm of his own. "I'm a niga.. N-I-G-G-A! I don't know how else you want me to say this shit, but that's all I got for you."

This conversation seemed to have been going in circles. "We both human, clearly, no shit sherlock. I'm sayin' what's your damn ability."

Bruno kept his bow up, "What do you mean, I'm simply manipulating the reishi in the surrounding area and using it to my benefit, now since I kindly explained my abilities explain yours" Bruno said keeping his attention on Michael.

"Huh?" Michael asked himself, lifting his eyebrow in confusion. *"Tha' fuck is a reishi? Must be some of the stuff they forgot to tell me about."* He did his best to keep his thoughts to himself before immediately pulling his attention back towards Bruno.

He straightened his back, "I don't know what you talkin' bout." Then, just as he fixed his lips to say something else the hairs on his arm stood up. He jerked his head so far to the left that he cracked his bones in an attempt to search for whatever it was he had just sensed. "And I ain't got time to be talkin' to you." Slapping his feet against the ground, he ran along the street.

Sensing the same thing as Michael, Bruno quickly followed suit running to see what could create something like that. "So I see you can sense spiritual beings as well" Bruno said as he ran along side Michael.

"Gaah damn," Michael cursed as Bruno ran alongside him. "Why the fuck're you followin' me?" He asked in an shouting manner, pacing his vision between the street in front of himself and Bruno.

The backstreet finally led him to the main road, where traffic found itself somewhat heavy. Care traveled up and down still heading for their destination completely blind if what was about to unfold. Slamming his feet against the ground to hard stop himself his eyes fell upon the gigantic group of what were clearly Hollows stood on top of a large apartment complex.

"What the fuck?!" The teen blurt out, locking eyes with the number of Hollows as they returned the favor.

Each Hollow jumped from the roof and landed in the middle of the Main Street, slamming their oversized beings on the hood and roof of cars as they landed and appeared before Michael and Bruno.

"Why the fuck are there so many?"

Bruno stood there in shock, he had experience hollow attacks and have killed many of them before but not once in his life have he seen so many in one place. "Why the hell is there so many?" He thought before creating a reishi bow. "I don't know you and you don't know me but we have to kill these things before they hurt any innocent people" Bruno says looking at Michael with his bow in his hand. "So what do you say?"

"Ion give a damn 'bout these people," Said Michael, giving Bruno not a second of a gap between his words. "But, I ain't finna just let 'em run around. Especially since you almost made this like a damn competition." In that moment, the athlete within Michael outshined the rest of his abilities. He felt that anyone that wasn't on his team would be automatically considered his opponents and he'd do anything to outshine them in every way possible.

Hands clutching and thrust forward, he let off another one of his signature beams towards the Hollows. In his single attack, he was able to get rid of three of the Hollows before leaping off and running to one side of the group.

”What a weird kid” Bruno thought before he sent 4 arrows flying towards some hollows destroying them without a trace of there reiatsu left. “Hey kid are you in some way an athlete?” Bruno asked as he destroyed another hollow and then summoned a reishi sword to slice another hollow in half.

Ignoring Bruno for the time being, Michael put his focus on handling the rest of the Hollows that were present. Grace and elegance were used as he moved through the air, jumped around as if the sky was a platform for his feet. Strong punches and kicks unfolded from Michael's barrage, destroying a handful of Hollows as their bodies broke down into particles of themselves and levitating before merging into Michael's own body.

"Damn," the teen cursed, "It's so damn many, ion even know what to d-" He was, quite literally, punched in the middle of his statement and sent hurling into a line of cars in the opposite direction. The collision resulted in a loud explosion that sent a stream of smoke into the air. There was a moment of silent briefly, before Michael came bursting out of it the cloud to attack another group of Hollows. The same outcome where their remains became one with his body.

"If you ain't tryna help, then shake the spot." Michael suggested to Bruno, giving him a clear initiation to leave.

”I’m not just gonna leave you here to fight all these hollows yourself. You may not die but you’ll certainly be injured.” Bruno said as he dodged a punch from an attacking hollow with it colliding on the pavement, at the spot where he once stood, sending gravel into the air. At that moment before this hollow could react Bruno already destroyed it’s being with his arrows leaving not a trace of the original hollow.

*‘Did that kid just assimilate with the hollow?’* Bruno thought as he dodged another attack from a hollow before sending an arrow right into its head.

Within the midst of the pair fending off the hollows one made its way for Bruno’s blind side. While it’s teeth where ready to sink. Just before it could though a wave of energy sliced through its head followed by a figure in black and green.

Stopping himself nearby the figure stood in the middle of a group of hollows. As they all swarmed him the boy aimed his weapon to their heads and cut through the hollows in a circular pattern. The last one trying to descend from the air had it the worst.

Shifting his stance Tomoe Bushida reformed his weapon pulling the reishi around him to elongate it into a Japanese bow. Knocking an arrow Tomoe shot the hollow right on its center. Making it jerk midair and crash into a car before evaporating.