Characters: Tatsuki Arisawa

No, not a bang. It didn't start with one, nor end with one.

Tatsuki sat before the cooling corpse. Blank dead eyes stared back as she waited for her own knees to regain strength. The pavement felt cold, so cold that she knew that she wasn't dreaming, so cold that she felt it through her black denim jeans.

The gun, a nine millimeter revolver, and its silencer (They seriously managed to make one for it.) was already back in the pocket of her coat, inconspicuous and hidden. She sighed, lifting her hand to wipe the tears that she only noticed now. She gave another sigh as she noticed her hands tremble.

He had been so confident, leading her into this dark alleyway in this rarely used street. He had thought she would bargain, that money can pay her off, get her off his back. But he was wrong. She didn't bargain, or even heard his pleas. She had measured him and found him wanting. She had no reason to withhold justice or give mercy. He thought that none could touch him. He was sorely mistaken and that mistake cost him his life.

He was just a small time drug dealer though, someone some of her classmates would go to to get their occasional high. She had decided to start with him. He was a blight on society, something that, she thought, must be eliminated. He was relatively harmless compared to the ones that Ichigo and his crew hunted. Then again, she was just a neighborhood vigilante, not some government financed mafia. She rubbed her face.

Tatsuki stood. Her legs were finally back to normal, but her eyes never left the corpse, even as snow drifted down landing on its shoulders. She stood for a while, memorizing every detail as she tucked her hands in her coat pockets. When she finally turned away, she looked at the sky. It was the first snow of the year.