EXODUS
Chapter Fifteen: RUN
A/N: Give some claps for my beta reader, huh? Stardrop, own you lots. Thanks you so much...!!!
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Mikan breathed against the stitch at her side and concentrated on moving her feet. She ignored the pain in her chest just as she ignored the stinging cuts on her skin.
She called herself every inch of a fool for coming out on this particular night. She slid along the shadows of a tree, tried to slow her heartbeat that was beating a bruise on her ribs, and took a long look of her surroundings. Nothing, but air breathed against the dancing dark, but she'd been around Natsume too much not to trust her instincts.
And her instinct was screaming for her to haul her ass out of there.
Was it dangerous abilities? Were they training in these parts of the woods?
Natsume always warned them when they were, but then again, he didn't have a lot of time to talk these last few weeks because he was knee deep in missions; he hardly made it into class.
Probably trying to find out about the Alices that breached the Academy's security.
Probably wouldn't be back for sometime, which was why she was antsy, worried, and bored, with too much free time on her hands since she was used to spending one or two hours training with Natsume and it was because of that, she ignored Natsume's warning and the others and went out alone to her ability class. It should have been fine; it wasn't like she was a baby that couldn't go out alone. It was just that her ability class was so far away, out in nowhere.
Think. Think. Think. What would Natsume do?
Well, first of all, he wouldn't be caught dead being in such a vulnerable state. It was as if thinking about him conjured his face inside her mind, his low firm voice whispering in her ears.
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Natsume jerked her back by the collar, stopping her from ramming herself onto a thick hard tree trunk. Natsume was teaching her the art of free-run in a dark, dense, tricky section of the southern forest, which was why she was dead tired, out of breath, and her feet ached like a throbbing tooth. "Don't use your eyes so much. Focus on three, four steps ahead of you."
She grumbled under her breath, but of course, Natsume heard it, and he retaliated by catching a twig and letting go as he passed by. Only Mikan's fast reflex saved her from having it whip across her face.
Mikan gritted her teeth when Natsume glided pass her, tucking his legs into a run and slid across the uneven land as if he was on skates. Her competitive nature sparked, she marshaled all her energy and focused onto Natsume's broad shoulders. She moved where he moved, jumped where he jumped, stepped where he stepped, twisted and ducked over tangled veins, dead logs and thick branches seconds after he did. Her muscles burned, her heart thickened against her chest, her skin vibrated with exhaustion, but she followed him, mere inches from his back, and more faithful than his shadow.
Within minutes that stretched on to forever, her muscles felt limber; her body liquid-like as she finally caught his rhythm. She felt the wind whip across her face and streak along her hair as it flowed behind her like a cloak. Laughter bubbled up her throat at the sheer freedom that only speed could give as the forest went by in a smear of greens and browns. Everywhere she stepped the smell of damp earth rose to her nostrils and wrapped around her damp skin.
So caught up was she that when Natsume stopped, so did she, even before the movement registered in her mind. She blinked, confused, her brain still unconnected with her body.
When it did, the first thing she saw was Natsume, who stood in front of her, his low, even voice melded with the music of the night as she merely stood quietly, catching her breath. "Well." A small smile curved his lips. "You're not completely useless after all."
Fueled by the memory, she moved across the forest, her movements fast, controlled, disciplined. She ran amongst thick branches under the umbrella of thick wide leaves, not bothering to look over her shoulder.
Her long legs pushed off the ground with determination, a little voice inside her head that was disturbingly similar to Natsume's urged her to go faster, harder, stronger, her eyes trained to the warm welcoming light at the edges of the forest.
Her stomach muscles clenched when the fine hairs at the back of her neck prickled, telling her that something was ahead waiting. She didn't waste time on hesitating and immediately broke left.
Mikan bit off a scream when Natsume appeared out of nowhere in front of her. She kicked out a roundhouse kick to upset his balance before diving into a bush and continuing her run. Playing tag was a dangerous game to play when your opponent was Natsume. "When an option is taken from you," she heard him behind her and pressed on, "find another, but stick to something you know."
She let out a sound of frustration when she felt a soft pat on her shoulder and heard the mocking sound of laughter. "You're it."
Something I know. Mikan muddled over her choices. The training ground. She inched back among the beckoning shadows and the silver tipped trees towards the place where she and Natsume trained.
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She spurred herself faster and leaped over spears of sharp branches right into a thick shrub, hidden by dried out logs. Her ambers eyes peeked through leaves when shadows passed her hiding place with unnerving agility and speed.
Heart in throat, she felt the edges of her skirt with numb fingers, trying to find the secret compartment that she made and swallowed a sigh when she found what she was looking for. Hard, cold, and thick, she clenched it in her hand.
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Mikan stared at the thick pen-like metal on Natsume's hand. "What?"
He merely tapped it on her head. "Take it. Always carry it with you." He shook his head when Mikan made a move to put it in her bag. "No. Carry it on your body where you can always easily take it out."
She frowned at it, twisting it this way and that. "What am I suppose to do with this? Poke somebody's eye out?"
Humor glinted in his eyes. "That should work." He plucked the thing from her fingers. "This is how you use it."
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Her shoulders tightened when she felt someone near. Taking a deep breath, she centered herself the way he taught her to and prepared herself for what was to come. She perched low, her feet braced to run again, when a shadow slid close, she launched herself to the thickest, treacherous part of the forest.
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Mikan pushed her back against the rough bark of the tree she was hiding behind. She knew for a fact, she had lost him this time. Smug with her sneakiness, her lips curved into a grin. She shuffled her feet in an unconscious gesture of restlessness. She couldn't wait to rub it in his face. She saw something move at the corner of her eyes...and yelped when she was drenched with freezing water.
She turned to where she heard the deep low chuckle and saw Natsume leaning not far away, a vine on his hand that, to her consternation, twisted around the tree she was hiding behind. The vine climbed to a branch that was right above her. Its wide large leaves were filled with last night's raindrops.
"Lesson number 23, oujo. Know the land and memorize it." A subtle twist of his wrist made a fresh rush of freezing water wash over her, gluing her locks to her head. She brushed the water from her face to glower better at Natsume. "…better yet, use it."
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Mikan pumped her legs as she whipped through branches and tangled vines, and broke twigs to make it harder for anyone who was after her to get through. Of course, it was better if she just put a neon sign to mark her pathway, but it wasn't like whoever was chasing her would have trouble in tracking her. The least she could do was to annoy them as much as possible.
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Natsume passed her a bottle of water, as she was unable to move her feet; worn out and dead tired, she barely had enough energy to swallow. She grumbled when Natsume nudged her bare, sore feet. "Listen."
His crimson eyes stared down at her from where he was sitting. "Fighting will be the last solution. If you find yourself in a situation, first and foremost, you run and hide. If they find you, you run and hide again."
And wait for me.
It wasn't said aloud, but she heard it and knew he meant it.
She met his eyes, absolute trust mirrored in them. "Okay."
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Mikan brushed across a line of trees where it dropped and piled like bodies. She skidded to a stop, leaped over it, and then pressed herself into its shadows. Catching her breath, she rubbed her fingers on the pen-like contraption. A broken twig snapped her attention to her left. A sharp flick of her wrist made the metal in her hand elongate into a thin metal rod; its length blackened to avoid catching light.
She shivered at the stillness of the night. She twisted and whipped her weapon to swipe at the knife that glinted in the moonlight. She caught her foot in a nearby vine and pulled. A violent curse let her know she achieved her target.
With Natsume's voice rushing inside her head, she ran, hid, and waited.