Main POV

Hy pulse hammered in my ears as we ran. My breath was running short as we waded through the water as fast as the pressure would allow. The water sloshed around us as the old guy chased after us. We were constantly having to dodge his flames as we ran. I screamed as one nearly missed me.

"Uo," Kon whined. "My goddess, I love you."

"Stop saying your goodbyes you idiot we're not going to die!" I yelled back.

"Oh yes you are," the old guy yelled.

"SHUT UP!" I screamed over my shoulder at him.

We tore through the water, it getting shallower again and we turned into a crossroad, the sound of footsteps on wet concrete followed behind us. I heard muffled yelling above us. I thanked god as we ran past the sewer entrance in the roof. i figured the guys would need it to come and join us down here. There was a hot blast behind me and I screamed, thinking momentarily I'd been hit again. Then my senses came back to me and I realised, the pain was much more excruciating last time. I'd know that feeling.

There was a cloud of dust in the air and chunks of concrete, road and the metal manhole cover laying all over the tunnel. Kon grabbed me and leapt up through the hole in the ceiling before I could even think about what to do and we landed haphazardly on the ground. We tumbled over onto the dusty street and rolled a few times before we lay on the ground in a tangle of limbs. Ichigo's bodyweight pinned me down as Kon sat above me. I looked up to where we'd just come from to see Izuru, Shuhei, Ikkaku, Yumichika, Renji and Ichigo pointing their swords at the hole in the street.

"I'd think twice about coming up here," Renji warned.

I let out a cough, winded from hitting the ground. And probably breathing in the dust. Kon pushed himself up off of me and rolled over to watch the action, if there was any. I dropped my head back down to the ground. The bad guys could fucking have me, I was tired. I heard movement in the sewers before silence and the Ichigo's face appeared above me.

"You alright?" he asked. I nodded tiredly.

"How mad is Kisuke?" I asked, thinking back to his shop.

"Very," I heard the devil himself reply. "You weren't just content to destroying your own home, you had to come after mine, too."

"My apartment wasn't my fault," I replied.

"But you admit to blowing up mine?" Kisuke said, also standing over me. "You know, I had plans for those fireworks."

"Shouldn't have left there where I could get to them, then," I replied with a shrug.

"I suppose I can't be too mad, you did manage to make our fight much smaller," he told me. I raised a brow.

"How?" I asked.

"You killed two of them," he told me. I choked on my own spit and rolled over to my side in a coughing fit. I pushed myself up slightly and Ichigo knelt beside me and rubbed my back.

"What?" I said once I could breath again.

"You're the only one who has," he replied.

"HOW?!" I demanded.

"Keen intuition is my guess," Urahara replied and I scowled at him.

"I used fireworks and I bit a guy," I scoffed. "How did six highly trained guys with swords do worse than me?"

"They weren't trying to kill us," Shuhei shrugged.

"They just needed to get round us to kill you," Izuru told me.

"That and they were evenly matched with us," Ikkaku explained.

"Where as they underestimated you," Yumichika told me.

"A mistake I imagine they won't make again," Ichigo smiled.

"I killed two people," I whispered, the realisation dawned on me. And they were from my world, they were real people. Human beings, not fictional bad guys who were 100% evil. They were bad guys, but my world was never black nor white. Everything had a shade of grey, that's why I liked the anime world so much. I was simple. You were good or bad or working for redemption. My world however was a complete mess. But I'd just made sure that complete mess was now down two souls.

"Uo," Ichigo cupped my jaw, dragging my face to his, forcing em to look at him. "You didn't kill two people, you fought for your life and won. They knew what they were doing when they attacked you, if you didn't, you'd be dead. And they certainly wouldn't be upset over you if you died."

"They were still people," I told him. "They were human, not shinigami."

"They had swords," Ikkaku replied. "They're shinigami, maybe not practicing, but they're ours."

"They were from the other side of the rift," I replied. "I asked that guy from the sewer questions. They made the rift, they use it to suck out reishi from the world and use it on the other side. There's no power besides the strength of ordinary men there. Now spiritual energy, no magic, no kido, nothing. So they were taking it from here and using it there."

"No spirit energy?" Shuhei asked.

"What else did they tell you, Uo?" Kisuke asked.

"The rift, it absorbs energy like a black hole, it's unstable, that's why it's only open for a short period of time. It starts breaking down the world around it if it's open too long. And they're trapped here, that's why they're so intent on killing me. They think it's my fault," I explained.

"You didn't do anything," Ikkaku replied.

"Yeah, you were just there when the barrier collapsed," Ichigo replied.

"I broke the barrier in the first place by running face first into it," I argued. "I should have just walked home a different way that night."

"No you shouldn't have," Ichigo replied scooping me up off the ground. "If you had, we'd never have met. I wouldn't trade that for anything in the world. All this crap, it's worth it if I can have you. Now come on, you smell like the sewer."

"Gee thanks, my self esteem is through the roof," I replied, leaning my head back against his chest.

"Come on, let's get cleaned up and head to the soul society," he said as he carried me. "That was too close a call. You're not being bait anymore."

"You should probably get your body back from Kon, it stinks too," I told him and he chuckled.

"Ichigo," Kisuke yelled. "Meet back at the shop when you're ready."

"Alright," he called back and everyone went with him, leaving me, Ichigo and Kon.

"So what do we do with Kon while you're back in your body?" I asked.

"Huh?" Ichigo looked down at me.

"Unless you're carrying that stuffy around on your person," I told him.

"Oh," he shrugged. "We'll grab him later."

"You're just going to leave him laying around?" I laughed.

"Nah, he can sit in the drawer," he replied.

Ichigo's dad wasn't home when we got to his front door so we were free of his usual greeting for now. Ichigo put me down before jumping back into his body. The little green pill that Kon usually hung out in popped out of his mouth and I stuck my hand out to catch him. Ichigo unlocked the door with his key and lead us inside. It was quiet, but you could still hear faint humming from the kitchen. Yuzu was home then.

"Ichigo, Uo, I thought you were going to the soul society?" she demanded as soon as she set her eyes upon us.

"We're going today instead," Ichigo told her. "There was a change in circumstances."

"You two smell like the sewers, where have you been?" she said.

"The sewers," I replied bluntly.

"Oh my god, what happened?" she gasped.

"Same bad guys, ran fast, hid in the sewers. Then they joined us in there and we had to run through there too," I summarised. "Well I did, Ichigo fought them mostly."

"Leave your clothes outside the bathroom door, I'll start on them right away," she instructed and then gestured for us to go up the stairs.

I linked hands with Ichigo as we went along. I had a lot to talk to him about. We headed to his bedroom first to grab some fresh clothes and he sat down on his desk chair, sighing. I climbed onto his lap and wrapped my arms around his neck, also sighing before I dropped my head down. We were content to just sit in the almost silent room, the only noise the sound of each other's breath and heartbeat. I didn't know where to begin.

"They're from my world," I told him.

"I know," he replied. "How'd he find you?"

"When Kon and I started running, he followed us. We managed to out run him then I realised where we were. We weren't in Karakura town anymore. It was my neighbourhood, where I grew up. My heart started to race, I thought, somehow, I'd done it. I was home. I started running, I got all the way up to my old house. I knocked on the fucking door."

"What happened?" he asked. I started crying again. Softly this time, not shaking sobs.

"I don't know why I thought they'd be here," I replied. "Some old lady answered. It was my front door and someone else was living there. I ran, I kept running. Poor Kon spent the whole time chasing after me. I got back to that alley, where all this began and I couldn't stop myself from crying. I started to wonder what the hell this all was, what it all means."

"I'm sorry," he stroked my hair. "I know what it would have meant, to find your family."

"I think that's what this is all about," I told him. "I think I'm dead. Or dying. This is limbo or purgatory or something. I keep fighting and I get back to them somehow or I give in and I die. I don't know about these old geezers though. At first I thought they were death, maybe if I gave into them then I'd die. But what if they're trying to keep me out of the seireitei, what if when we go there, that's it? Urahara said himself the only think keeping me alive is that rift. I don't know, it's not foolproof, it doesn't make sense, but neither does anything else."

"You watch too much TV," he told me and I laughed.

"Either way, he told me that they'd never get back to their world, our world I guess, unless he kills me. They're not going to stop, they're never going to give up," I told him.

"We're not going to let them," Ichigo told me.

"Ichigo," I said.

"Yeah?" He asked.

"What if the same thing happened to my brother?" I asked. "What if he's dead."

"Urahara said himself he's in the soul society, we've got no reason to doubt him," Ichigo told me. "Uo, I keep telling you this, you think too much. Settle down, we'll work through this. We'll keep at it until this goes away but you've got to stop running away on a thought without me."

"I know," I told him. "How'd you get to be the calm, ration, level-headed adult, huh?"

"I met someone who made me want to be that way," he shrugged and I shoved him.

"Sap."

"Your fault," he replied and I laughed.

"Ichigo," I said. "What if, when the time comes, if we get the rift back open.."

"You don't want to go?" he finished. I nodded. The tears welled in my eyes, how could I think like that. I fought so hard to get back to them, but, I just loved him so much. "You will. It'll be hard, but they mean everything to you."

"You mean everything to me," I told him. "We're stuck between worlds. You can't leave here and I can't stay. I love you so much."

"I know," he told me. "It's going to hurt like hell."

"If we live that long," I said. "I supposed we've always got that to look forward to. It's not going to hurt if we don't make it there."

"We'll make it," he assured me. "Maybe we won't get the rift out of you. Maybe you could learn to use it, come and go as you please."

"What, visit you on weekend and bank holidays?" I sighed.

"Take care of your siblings, come back here at night, be with me," he replied.

"You'll only get to sleep beside me. What kind of life is that, the only time we spend together we're unconscious?" I asked.

"It won't be the whole time," he told me. "And even then, falling asleep beside someone you love, waking up next to them. Getting to hold you in my arms. It's better than losing you forever. If that was our option, I'd take it."

"My parents don't give a shit about us," I told him. "If I could only make one trip, what if I brought them here?"

"Kidnap your siblings?" he replied.

"I mean, I basically raised them myself," I shrugged. "My parents didn't care when we lost Haru, they probably haven't even noticed I'm gone. What would it matter if I brought them to a place where they would be loved, cared for? Where they could thrive, what if I brought them here and you and I got to stay together?"

"Then we'd have our hands full," he replied simply. "But we don't know about any of these things. Let's not dwell, you'll make yourself sick. Come on, we need to clean up."

"I know," I nodded against his chest. I didn't want to let go just yet. "Just a minute longer," I said and he squeezed me tighter.