Main POV
Gone were the mornings where I could wake up in this apartment naturally, letting the sun rouse me, as it shifted higher in the sky and streamed in through the windows. Letting the shift in temperature from the icy, almost arctic chill of the night to the slowly warming heat of the day make my body sing. Gone were the times I'd wake up gently to hands in my hair, playing with the strands and soft breaths tickle the top of my head as it moved the flyaways.
I didn't quite register the sound right away as my eyes snapped open to the shaking of the bed as the building trembled around us. I felt it in my chest as I jerked awake and threw myself out from under the covers. Ichigo was already standing and slamming his combat pass to his chest as I grabbed last night's panties and tugged them on, scrambling to find some, any, clothes.
"Stay there!" Ichigo called as he ran in shinigami form out the door and into the hall. He disappeared out of view mere milliseconds later. I grabbed my clothes and tugged them on, I just needed to find out how bad it was, then I could call for back up. Ichigo could fight this guy, maybe, but what if more showed up? I couldn't bear the thought of him getting hurt over me. Especially when I wasn't in a cannon plot-line anymore and anything could happen.
I ran out into the hallway to find my front door blown off and Ichigo swinging his oversized kitchen knife at the stinky old guy from yesterday. The old guy shot a large, green, explosive blast my way. Ichigo slashed it in half with his sword and half burned the sofa and the other half hit the wall I was standing next to. I jerked away from the wall, feeling the fire singe my hair and skin. I was sure it was just a proximity burn, I couldn't feel anything after the initial shock. I leapt up, though, I would only get in the way here. I can't believe I almost got burned like that.
"Fuck," I ran away exclaiming expletives in a whisper. I had to get the others. I hurried back into the bedroom, grabbing my phone and dialing the first shinigami number I could remember as my fingers trembled on the buttons. "Renji," I cried out. "He's back. Come quickly, bring Kon."
I ended the call before I gave him the chance to respond, to find out if he'd heard. I dialled Hitsugaya quickly, begging for him to pick up.
"Uo," he said, sounding like he was about to smugly scold me about something.
"Please," I cried out. "He's here."
"Stay there," he ordered. "Let Ichigo deal with him, I'll be right there."
I could hear him barking orders at Rangiku through the phone before the line went dead and I slid down onto the floor, shaking and unsure what to do. When the hollow had attacked that night of the soccer game, I had a clear goal, I knew exactly what to do. Get the girls and get moving. Now I couldn't do anything. I was useless.
Maybe Ikkaku was right, I should train. Anything would help, because in my current state, all I could do was get in the way. I heard him yelling as he joined the fight, the old guy must be strong if he was giving trouble to both Ichigo and Ikkaku. I didn't know where Yumichika was but I imagined he was helping with something.
I sat with my knees pulled up to my chest and head resting on them as the battle continued in the next room. I dread to think what it looked like. It was probably safe to assume I wasn't getting my bond back.
"Uo-chaaaaaaan!" I could hear Kon screaming as more bodies busted into my apartment and thundered through the interior. Renji burst through the door holding the stuffed lion and threw it in my direction before immediately turning and heading back out.
"Oh my sweet Uo-chan, you must be so scared, I can see why you asked for me to come and comfort you," he said and I rolled my eyes.
"You moron," I said and grabbed the stuffed toy, digging around in it's mouth to find the little green pill. I found it and stuffed it in Ichigo's mouth watching as his body reanimated before my eyes. "I asked for you so I could have help moving Ichigo's body. Now get dressed."
"Why am I naked?" Kon asked looking down at the body he was possesing.
"Why do you think?" I raised a brow and started stuffing various clothing and other items I'd need over the next few days in a bag. Perhaps Urahara was right, I would need to stay at his after all.
"Where are we going?" He asked.
"We're going to try and sneak past all this fighting and reconvene someplace safe," I explained.
"We're running away together?" He asked and I sighed. I understood why Rukia hit him so often now.
"Hitsugaya said he'd come and get me, but I've yet to see him, he might be stuck out there," I pointed out the door. "I didn't see what it was like but it's a bottleneck out there. We're going to have to find some other way to leave."
"How are we going to do that?" He asked unhelpfully. I stared out the window as I thought and then got a sudden brainwave. I pulled out my phone and dug out the number Keigo made me write down 'In case I ever needed anything' I was quite sure I'd never need his help but here we are.
"Hey," I said when he picked up.
"Uo, what's going on, what was that explosion, what's with all the fighting in your apartment?"
"Smelly old man is back," I replied. "Can you do me a favour?"
"Oh, no way, I am not going out there, you can forget it," he told me outright.
"I'm not asking you to," I told him. "I actually want to come over to yours."
"Say no more, Keigo is your guy, come over anytime you like," he said. "For as long as you like~"
"Just open all the windows on the back side of your apartment, I can't get out the front door," I sighed.
"You're going to climb out the window?" Kon asked.
"Correction, we're going to climb out the window," I smirked wolfishly at him.
"No hang on, Ichigo made me promise no more reckless stunts in his body, he'd kill me," Kon waved his hands in protest.
"Well it's either that or you get his body killed by staying here, and me, what do you think he's going to be more mad at?" I asked. "And he's probably not going to hit you while you're in his body anyway, so you've got some time."
"If he's mad it's on you," Kon replied following me over to the bedroom door carrying my backpack for me.
"Now," I whispered to him. "We've got to get across to the bathroom, then climb out the window by the sink. I can never get it open, so you're going to have to help me."
"Got it," he nodded. I poked my head out the door, now was my chance. I pushed myself off the door frame and slid across the hall and straight through the door. Kon was right behind me and I closed the door, locking it behind us. I jumped up onto the countertop between the two sinks and tried to jiggle the window so it would open. He came up behind me and tried with all his might to get it open but it wouldn't budge.
"Damn," he said.
"Hand me something from the laundry hamper, a t-shirt or something," I demanded and he handed me an old one of my Urahara t-shirts.
I wrapped it around my fist to protect it from the glass and then concentrated hard on putting as much spiritual pressure as I thought I'd need into it. I pulled my arm back and slammed it into the glass. Too much pressure, I discovered as the glass sprayed everywhere and we had to duck down to avoid being impaled. I felt the glass spray past my skin and graze bits and pieces but there were no particularly deep cuts so we had gotten off relatively easily.
Kon climbed up onto one of the sinks and stuck his leg through the short, wide window frame above the mirrors. He swung out and then offered me a hand as he stood on the ledge. I took it and shimmied out, almost falling to my death relatively quickly. He caught my arm and pulled me back and then we shimmied across the ledge to the closest window of Keigo's. The window was pushed up open and the curtains started billowing out as Keigo poked his head through the gap.
"God you're crazy," he said as he reached out to me. "Ichigo's going to kill me if he finds out I helped you with this hairbrained scheme."
"I think he'd be more upset if you didn't help and I got hurt," I replied as he pulled me in the rest of the way. Kon swung his leg in the window after me and slid in much more gracefully than I did.
"So, you're hiding out here?" Keigo asked.
"Not sure," I shrugged. "Can you sense spiritual pressure?"
"Yeah, what do you need?" He asked. Damn him, even he could do it. All I could do was get warm fuzzies whenever Urahara was near, much to Ichigo's dismay.
"Is Hitsugaya nearby?" I asked. "He said he'd come, what his plan is from there I have no idea. But if I can sneak out and get to my car, I can hang with Urahara until this all blows over. Wanna come?"
"Your crazy plans aren't really planned out all that much, are they?" He asked and I grinned.
"That's what makes me so unpredictable," I smiled and walked out of the room I now realised was his bedroom.
"Not so sure that's a good thing," he mumbled as he followed me out.
We headed to his front door and he and Kon peaked out the windows while I tried to pull the door open, painstakingly slowly, and peek out the crack. The building shook occasionally with explosions but it looked like for the most part all the fighting was contained inside my apartment. Which was great for the general public, horrifying for me. I could only imagine the damage with those four idiots inside. Oh and then there was Rukia who fought with giant ice pillars and kido. Great.
"Where's your car from here?" Keigo whispered.
"Closest parking spot to the stairwell," I answered. "It'll take too long if we climb down them all."
"I've got an idea," Kon replied and I almost rolled my eyes.
"What?" I humoured.
"We leap from flight to flight and duck down behind the railing between jumps so we don't get see," he explained and I nodded.
"That's actually not a half bad idea," I admitted.
"Yeah, way better than yours," Keigo blurted and I shunned him with a sharp look.
"Let's go," I grumbled and pulled the door open further.
I made it over to the stairs and slithered down the steps, walking as close as I could to the ground. Keigo and Kon were behind me, looking more terrified than I'd ever seen them before. They could probably sense the spiritual pressures around them. Kon lifted me over the railing as he jumped and we landed a few feet below where we were, crouching to remain hidden. Keigo followed after, stumbling a little as he landed. I looked up, no one had seen.
"Does your car make a noise when you unlock it," Keigo asked in hushed tones.
"No," I shook my head.
"Unlock it before we get there then," he told me and I pulled out my keys, lucky I'd left them in yesterdays jeans or else I wouldn't have remembered to bring them.
We jumped over the final railing and hid behind the stairs, waiting for a good moment to run into the car. One of us was going to run around the other side of the car, which meant they might not get in undiscovered.
"Keigo," I said. "You go first, by yourself, and slide across the back seat. Kon and I will join you after that so we can get in from the same side."
"Why do I have to go by myself?" He asked.
"Because you're guaranteed to be safe if you're on your own," I told him. "The less movement the better. If we go as a group then they'll be attracted to here, they'll come after us for sure. We've got to do this slowly. Kon, a moment or two after Keigo get's in, I need you to go after him, slid in but don't close the door, not completely. The sound might draw their attention too."
"Right," he nodded. I watched the thoughts swim through Keigo's mind before he wore a look of determination on his face. He balled his fists and crouched quickly towards his target. He tugged the door open as quietly as possible and left it wide open as he shimmied across the seat. I struggled to breath as I watched Kon go after, sliding up to the front door and pulling that open before hopping into the back with Keigo. He'd opened the door for me. Now it was my turn. I exhaled deeply, calming myself before I almost crawled over to the blue Nissan.
I slid into the smooth leather interior and pulled my seat belt on and then pulled the door mostly closed. I took a deep breath and turned to the back seat. I put the car into reverse and took the hand break off and let us roll slowly backward out of the parking space. I turned the wheel so we were eventually facing the direction of Urahara's shop and put the car in drive.
"Close the door," I said. "We're ready."
"You didn't start the car," Keigo told me.
"I know," I said as I pulled my door shut all the way and turned the key in the ignition.
I pumped the clutch and moved up gears as we accelerated well past the normal speed limit and drove like the devil to Urahara ShÅten. I skidded through the alley and dust flew everywhere as I just managed to park before hitting the shot front. I turned the car off and jumped out, ready to just lay down and sulk while I waited for the others to get back.
"Uo-chan," Urahara greeted, looking a little shocked. "We were just heading your way, we got a call saying.."
"We escaped," I told him. "Ichigo and I woke up this morning to our apartment door getting blown off it's hinges. I called Renji and Hitsugaya and then tried to get Ichigo's body to safety with me. Keigo helped us. The apartment is destroyed. Can you send Tessai-san to cast some kido to protect the building. People are going to get hurt, and if the fighting keeps going as it is, the building could come down."
"Of course," he nodded. "There's more than just that guy, there's a team of them too. That's why they're still fighting. Hitsugaya told me himself when he sent for reinforcements. I'll leave you here with Ururu, Jina and Yoruichi. Tessai and I will go on ahead."
"Thank you," I told him and took the offered hand he gave me when I tried to get up onto the deck beside him.
"We'll be back soon," he assured me. "And I'll keep Ichigo safe, you have my word."
"Thank you," I smiled, he knew I was worrying.
"Man am I tired," Keigo yawned.
"I know," I nodded in agreement, trying not to yawn myself. "It was kinda rude of those guys to try and blow us all up so early in the morning," I joked. "But I barely slept at all last night."
"Yeah and I can guess why," Keigo grumbled. I whipped my head around, jaw dropped in shock, a cold sweat broke out all over my body. He heard. And so did everyone else probably. Keigo, Ikkaku and Yumichika, probably Keigo's sister too. I was mortified. "I can imagine that old smelly guy hunting you down, not knowing if he's following you, knowing he'll come back, at any moment but not knowing when, that must be really scary."
"Yeah," I nodded.
"So it's no surprise that Ichigo's so determined to tire you out," he smirked and I threw a punch, fist slamming into the centre of his forehead.
"YOU LITTLE PERVERT!" I screamed as he dropped to the ground.
"What's this?" I heard a tired sounding enquiry from behind me. I turned round to see Ichigo and I lit up. He looked awful but he was back and alive. He had a few grazes and was covered in dirt but he was fine. "Uo, what happened to you?"
"What?" I asked. "What do you mean what happened to me, look at you."
"You've got more blood on you than when we first met," he told me. "Orehime is here, come with me."
He put a hand out in front of me to pull me up and I took it. He lead me through the shop to the pile of shinigami warriors all receiving first aid, even Kisuke looked a little tired. I looked around in shock, just how powerful were these guys.
"Any idea what they want?" I asked as I walked past Hitsugaya.
"You," Toshiro replied. "That's all we know. You and whatever it is you took."
"I didn't take anything," I assured him.
"You also said you weren't attacked but here we are," he replied turning away from me. "Go and get cleaned up, you look awful."
"Do I really look that bad?" I asked Ichigo. Instead of leading me to to Orehime like he had been, he brought me to the downstairs bathroom and showed me myself in the mirror.
I didn't look like me, my jaw dropped in shock. My lips trembled. I stepped closer, not entirely convinced I was seeing myself. The mirror shards had left scratches and cuts all over my face, not many of them were deep and just a few would require stitches. The problem was the left side of my face. There was blood covering much of it but what stood out was the large, dripping burn spanning from above my eyebrow down to my mouth in a diagonal stretch. I was lucky my eyelid still worked. The severity did explain, however, why I couldn't feel much beyond the initial burn. Too much was gone.
"Ichigo," Keigo said from the doorway. "What do you know about the magical healing stuff these soul reapers do?"
"She'll be fine, someone can heal her," Ichigo assured him.
"I don't know they can," he said worriedly. "Because that's a lot worse than earlier," he pointed at my face. "It was bad, sure, but it keeps getting deeper down on the skin."
"URAHARA!" Ichigo yelled. There were hurried footsteps outside as he ran down the hall and burst through the door. "Tell him what you just said," he ordered.
"Your face," Urahara said as he stared at me.
"It's getting deeper," Keigo told him. "It's not a normal wound."
"It's eating her flesh," Urahara concluded after inspecting me closer. "We'll be seeing bone soon. Did anyone else get hit by the same blast?"
"I don't think so, there were other explosions but only one green flame one," Ichigo told him. "Whatever that was."
"It was targeting Uo specifically, but why, what would flesh eating magic do?" Urahara pondered aloud. "Was it aimed at her or you?"
"Her," Ichigo confirmed.
"It's either, whatever they need from you, doesn't matter if you die, or they did it deliberately for bargaining," he concluded.
"What do you mean it doesn't matter if I die, if they think I took something, don't they need to know where it is? If I'm dead I can't exactly tell them," I argued.
"Unless they figured it out already," Urahara said sinisterly. "There could be many reasons, Uo, just let me go and get Tessai and we'll look at that wound."
"Shit," I sighed. "It's never easy, is it?"
"I'm beginning to see why your brother disappeared," Ichigo grumbled. "It was probably to hide from the freaks."