It was a cold night in the fifty-fourth district of Rukongai. Sora didn't liked to go that far away from his safe-house, but in those days, people didn't want to get that deep into the gutters of the soul society, and for that reason, if you wanted a decent target, you had to go closer to the court of "pure souls", as they called themselves. Sora had been waiting for two hours so far, and was starting to wonder if the hint they gave him was true.
This guy can't be running this late. I'm surely being set up here, Sora thought, hiding besides some garbage bags in a dark alley; I mean, no matter what they say they are nothing but a bunch of scoundrels. They could just order a henchman to kill me when I get the package, or when I deliver it. I should be ready for that, just in caseā¦
A man stepped into the alley, and Sora stopped thinking about his future course of action to focus on this intruder. The man was dressed with a long dark cloak, which covered his entire body. His features were unclear, because of the shadows covering him from the moonlight, but anyone could have seen that he was extremely nervous. His steps were unusually quick and clumsy, and he was breathing heavily, such that Sora could hear his agitated grunts from many feet away.
There you are...
Sora waited for the man to get closer, hidden as he was, crouching behind the garbage. When he was at his range, the mugger fierily jumped towards his victim, unsheathing his knife and rolling behind his prey, slicing through his right ankle. Not even giving his victim enough time to scream, he cut through the fabric of his cloak and into his arm, afterwards pulling a small package from under the wounded limb, through the hole he had previously done.
Leaving the bleeding man behind him, he fled from the alley, hearing his victim's cries for help, while he ran to the shelter of the exterior districts.
Leaning on a rough wooden wall, in a dark corner of a cheap tavern in the seventy-sixth district Sora took another sip of his beer, only to realize it was almost empty already. He looked at the bottom of the dirty glass and saw his own reflection in the soaked surface, as if it was a mirror. He saw his chaotically arranged hair, his pale, dirty face and his bloodshot eyes. He dedicated a smirk at his unnerving looks, not that he needed to be even slightly good looking for his line of work.
He looked at the rest of the room, hoping to find the person he had been told would meet him there. The other clients were busy talking to each other over the shabby looking tables that seemed to have their legs buried in the ground, which made Sora think that the floor was actually just the dirt accumulated over the years.
"Another round, Yuzo," Sora said to the blind barman, who had lost his sight in a bar fight many years ago, but had developed an excellent hearing.
Yuzo took the glass from Sora's hand, filled it with more beer and put it in Uechi's hand. However, this one was too busy to say thanks, as a man wearing a white hooded robe who had just entered the tavern gave him the coded sign for Sora to go to him.
"Do you have it?" The man asked Sora when he took a seat by him.
"Wait just a second," Sora looked back at the barman to see if they were being listened, as Yuzo had a very loose tongue.
The barman, however, was standing at the other end of the bar, leaning towards the table were a group of three young and apparently drunken women were talking and giggling, while a perverted smile drew in Yuzo's lips.
"You sick bastard..." Sora whispered. "All right," he then said to the man, "I guess it's safe to talk now. Here's what you asked for," the outlaw pulled out the package from his ragged clothes and put it on the table.
"Is this really it?" The man opened a corner of the envelope and looked inside, "This is magnificent, Uechi! This will really help us to reach our goals."
"Yeah, yeah, but what about my part?" Sora asked, reaching out his open hand to the man."
"Oh, yeah, here it is," the man said putting a small bag on Sora's hand, making a light metallically sound. "Uechi," he continued, "I know you're only doing this for the money, but I want you to at least consider joining our cause. You should understand out motives, as you live in the exterior districts as well. We protect Rukongai because Seireitei can't!"
Sora opened the bag and started counting the money, "I appreciate your offer, but I think I'm better off as a freelancer. I don't want to wear a leash, you know. This reminds me, I have business to take care of somewhere else."
"Very well," the man said, "I guess we shall be seeing each other some other time then. Farewell, Uechi."
Without saying goodbye, Sora stood up, dropped some coins for Yuzo on top of the bar and walked out the door. He then turned into an alley and started walking away. He suddenly heard a brief grunting sound coming from behind him, but kept walking.
A voice came from behind him, "Freeze, and give me the fucking mon... Agh!"
The mugger couldn't finish his sentence, as Sora's right hand went flashing out of his pocket holding his knife, and so the sharp blade cut through the young criminal's stomach, almost ripping is guts out. The mugger, realizing the danger he was in, turned around and started to run, but Sora lunged towards him, almost throwing himself at his prey, burying his blade in the lower back of the mugger, who then fell to the floor. Sora looked down on him, shook the blood off his knife and put it back under his clothes.
"Crawl back to your hole, you worthless scum," he said while turning around, "if you can, that's it.
Sora heard the grunts and cries of the mugger, who was crawling away from him, as he kept on walking towards his shelter, grinning cruelly.
