Author's notes:
Sequel to the last chapter! Not much to say, except for a lil warning: this contains implied violence and lots and lots of angst!
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Faster.
Her breath came out in short gasps.
Faster!
Why wouldn't her body obey her?
Faster!
In her attempts to get more oxygen into her lungs, she hiccupped and coughed hard. Tears sprang to her wide eyes as her chest started to burn from the strain, her free hand flying to her sternum and pressing against it as she inhaled deeply.
Her legs couldn't move any faster.
The noises of yelling and screaming got louder, stomping feet drumming an irregular beat that seemed to match the pattern of her heart.
Dashing around another corner, she jumped across a wooden box filled to the brim with kitchen trash, a sight she would have normally stopped for to rummage through in hope of finding something edible.
The sounds of running men didn't cease. It actually intensified a few notches as their abuses reverberated from the walls lining the narrow alleyway.
Another corner. Right, then left. The houses began to thin out, leaving room for some backyards with pigs and goats. She almost crashed into a group of picking hens, barely avoiding the birds by climbing across a fence in sheer panic.
She landed on the muddy ground with a soft thud, dirt splashing against her legs and forming long dots on her bare skin.
"Over there!!" She heard an excited voice yell somewhere behind the fence. "Surround her!!"
Puffs of condensed air left her lungs as her vision began to blur from the straining flight. Her knees threatened to buckle and she had to keep her body upright by pressing her hands against her trembling thighs.
Her blood was humming a steady tune in her ears, resembling the droning noise of a waterfall hitting solid stone.
'Get up!' A voice growled inside her mind.
'Move!' It ordered again.
But there was nowhere to escape to.
No refuge. No hiding place. Her path had ended in the dirty pigpen with nowhere to run to.
Tears brimmed in her burning eyes as she listened to the men surrounding her cage methodically. They were at least six. Bulky, aggressive, sickening. They were here to take her with them.
What for, Matsumoto couldn't even think about.
The daily fate of many young girls and boys had finally caught up to her and she wasn't even prepared for it. A woman had once told her to be ready, because survival in Rukon as a female without a male protector was close to impossible without selling one's body to a brothel or even worse.
Desperation covered her mind like a white sheet, salty tears cascading down her dirty cheeks as the door to the sty opened and a huge man entered. She pressed her form into the corner farthest away from him, trying to blend into the construction or simply dissolve into thin air.
"Ya gave us quite a hard time, lil one." The man drawled, not even attempting to hide the large knife in his hand. Behind him, another two followed inside, accompanying their leader like bloodhounds.
Her blue eyes found no peace, her gaze rushing from the ground to the fence and finally to the bright sky.
Why couldn't she turn into a bird and fly away…
"Why don'cha come alon' and be a nice girl to us, huh?"
The words made her stomach churn and she had to gulp down the bitter bile rising in her throat. Naked fear clawed at her consciousness, eyes roaming the fence in wild disorder as the three men closed in on her.
She watched terrified as the huge one right in front of her wiped away some drool with his hairy arm, grinning widely as she sank down and started to sob uncontrollably.
She didn't want this to happen. She wanted to live in that shack until she died as an old woman. She wanted to smile at the sight of blossoming cherry trees. She wanted to never be alone again. Why was she so alone? Where was he?
Where was he?
Where was Gin?
A large hand closed around her upper arm and Matsumoto froze. She turned even paler as the man pulled her upright with brute force, one of her straw sandals staying stuck in the mud. She stared wide-eyed into his glazed ones and suddenly, there was nothing else on her mind.
The fear was gone. The growling had stopped.
She didn't even hear the gurgling sound from a slit throat behind the fence.
Nowhere to run.
Blood sprayed into her face like crimson rain, dripping down her chin and mixing with the puddle of water she was standing in.
The muscles of the fingers wrapped around her arm started to spasm and finally went slack, letting go of her as the arm fell to the ground.
A wild scream echoed across the pigpen, but she needed a second to realize that it hadn't been torn from her throat. The bulky man sank to his knees, the hand that had formally held the knife clawing at his severed arm stump. Bright red blood pulsed out of the clean cut in synch with his heartbeat.
Matsumoto could barely see the man's white face.
A pair of thin legs stood in front of her where she was kneeling in the mud. The purple torn yukata brought new tears to her eyes as she realized who had come to safe her.
In his right hand, her savior was holding a bloodied short katana.
"G-Gin…" Matsumoto pressed out between sobs, getting up slowly. Her vision was too blurred to see him tense in anticipation as another three men entered.
He was here.
The growling cat bared its fangs at the fight that lay ahead.
"Sorry, Ran." His voice sounded far away. It was so soft and warm, a stark contrast to the crimson color of his hands. "I didn't mean to make ya go thru this."
Hiccupping, she wiped away the tears distorting her vision as she shook her head.
He was here. She was no longer alone.
"Run." Her breath caught in her throat at his order and his wild, flaring reiatsu engulfed her like a heavy mist.
"B-but-"
"Run, Rangiku." His tone softened again and his head turned slightly around as he eyed her sideways. A small smile played around his lips as his eyes opened a thin line, revealing light blue-green orbs.
"I'll see ya later."
Matsumoto watched as he moved forward, katana rising slowly from his side as the cursing men drew closer. His lean form looked frighteningly small in comparison to them, their knives and swords glinting in the light as they approached Gin wearily.
In the corner of her eyes, she saw the arm of the leader spasm sporadically, index finger pointing at the fence.
The young girl didn't look back, closing her eyes against the sight of the only person who had ever meant anything to her swing his sword down in a wide arch.
She climbed the obstacle in three strides, landing beside a still warm corpse of one of her pursuers. The tears were still streaming down her cheeks when she started to run down the alley again, the noises of yelling men and screams of pain accompanying her like an echo from hell.
She didn't stop running even as she stepped into a broken shard of a bowl and searing pain exploded in her bare foot.
She kept on running even as her body disobeyed her again, black dots dancing across her vision, muscles burning from the strain.
Matsumoto ran until she had reached the old magnolia where she had first met Gin.
A lonely bird sat in the leafless branches, singing its beautiful melody as she broke down in brilliant despair.
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FINIS!?
I can't explain where this has come from, but before I knew it, I had written it down in one session. Hope you enjoyed reading this! Don't forget to review to let me know, how much I messed up with this one n.n