Szayel became painfully aware of the limitations of his new host form. Not only was it a mere Living body, it was barely even that. Damaged and weak, he found himself now encased in a heavily injured form and hungry, and acutely aware of its restrictions.
Nyles' body was barely adequate. Szayel took possession of it shortly before the escaped prisoner's near demise and found himself immediately in trouble. He took a few moments sifting through the murky memories still etched in Nyles' brain, but most were dark and fragmented as the gunshot wound had drained away many working synapses. He pieced together enough to recall Nyles' escape from prison, a few vague faces of the other three convicts and warden, enough memories to know his new host was a wanted man.
"I should have let you rot," he muttered to his new host form as he picked his way across the edge of the field. "Disgusting flesh."
Pain raked the Living form, and it was weak with hunger and injuries. Szayel ignored the pain, but the weakness he found more than a handicap. In his full Espada state of being he could easily heal the body and find another more to his liking, but as it was he didn't want to waste any energy trying to patch together the bleeding and busted Nyles.
Through sheer willpower he made the damaged human form follow the cornfield until it was broken by a heavily wooded stream cutting between the mountainsides. He knew he was leaving a blood trail until the injuries bled thin, but the gnawing hunger and weakness engulfing his energies was foremost. It was late afternoon by the time he cleared the woods at the bank of the stream.
He looked up at the vultures circling over the ravine across the next slope of mountain. He could sense the predatory nature of the birds even from his distance. Perhaps he could find a replacement for his half-starved, nearly depleted shell of a host and continue his search for the girl then.
Espada or not, there were a few things Szayel still was, and comfortable in the ragged and damaged Nyles was not one.
Renji awoke to a pounding ache in his temples. Something swept his face, a faint touch that he groggily moved away, only to have it graze back, tickling his face under the warm patch of sun peeking through the trees. This time he pushed his hair away with a clumsy hand, forcing his eyes open despite the pain radiating from his left temple.
He opened his eyes to a blurry view of the muggy afternoon, realizing it wasn't his hair that kept falling over his face. At first he couldn't understand it, any of it, like why the thick curtain of auburn hair was suspended above him, or even who's it was, or why there was a tree lying across the car's hood to his left at a very odd angle.
He frowned, groaned a curse when he figured out he was lying on his side behind the steering wheel in the driver's seat, and hitched his left elbow under him, trying to focus his blurred vision on the form above him. Suddenly Orihime's dangling figure over him made a little more sense. Her hair fell over her face toward him, hiding her features as she remained caught in the safety belt, her body half anchored at the passenger seat and half slouched a few feet above him since the car now rested on the driver's side.
The realization hit him suddenly, too quickly to fathom, making him move before remembering he too was still stuck in the safety belt.
"Orihime?" He pushed her hair from her face with his hand, but it only fell back down towards him from gravity. "Dammit," he muttered, frantically fumbling with the seat belt latch. He freed it and tried to sit up better in the odd arrangement.
There was little room in the sideways car, and even less once he sat up. He leaned to the seat and quickly estimated the results of the crash and roll. He didn't know how much later it was, but it was still daylight, still hot and humid.
He pushed Orihime's hair from her face, lifting her head enough to see her eyes still closed. "Orihime?"
She moved her head, which was heavy in his hands, mumbling something incoherent in Japanese about sticky rice bean paste, and then jerked her face up so see him.
Her large eyes got bigger, and then the flailing began. She looked around and pushed both hands into the limited free space, feet and legs making desperate pokes at anything to stand on. She put one foot to the dash, which only confused her more.
"Where ... What...? Where is..." Each word was punctuated by an elbow or a knee, most to Renji as he tried to contain what seemed a human windmill.
"Hold on," he said, catching one of her wrists and dodging one sandaled foot that was intent on a foothold in his ribs. "We've crashed, Orihime. Hold still and I'll get you down."
"I'm ... up?" Her head ducked to see her waist, her breathing labored from the position and lungs heavy with fluid. She coughed, and then angled her face to look at him as her free hand went to her side. "My arm's asleep. I can't, I..."
"I'll get it."
She nodded, bumping his shoulder when her head proved too heavy to hold up anymore.
"Are you all right?"
"I think so." She coughed a little more, forehead bobbing on his ponytail as he moved her hair out of both their faces. "I feel like a spider."
He tried to chuckle, moving her by her shoulders until her left shoulder was resting on his left. "You kind of look like one."
Where the safety belt was latched at the seat her hip and waist draped from the full weight of her body, making the attachment tight and unable to budge. He tried to depress the catch, but it held firm.
She moved her sleeping and numb arm out his way, and then giggled as his fingers pushed on the safety belt at her shorts. She stopped. "Is it broken?"
He frowned at the belt and then up at the straps crossing her. "No; just doing its job." He sat back a few inches to see her face at his shoulder. "It won't release like this, so I'm going to push you up and take some of the tension off the latch. Then it should come loose."
"I shouldn't have eaten all that ice cream," she said, blushing as she sighed, bringing on a small cough. She pushed her hair out of her face, and then some of his, too.
He grinned despite the headache. "It's not that; it's because the car's on its damn side."
"Oh."
He moved her arm behind his neck and braced more of her weight on his shoulder, bringing an 'eep' from her. He put a hand to her hip and pushed more of her weight up off the latch side of the safety belt, avoiding her knee that instinctively bent toward him.
"Sorry," she said, trying to put her foot somewhere else horizontal.
For a moment it was a fumbling of hands, legs and knees, all of which Renji was trying to evade as he lifted her and disconnected the safety belt. A loud snap, and Orihime fell on him.
"Sorry," she said, hastily scrambling in the confines of the front seat and angle of crash, managing to find a few more awkward positions before actually moving – mostly – off of him.
Under other most conditions it was a fit Renji might have enjoyed, but since they were in a toppled car, and –
"Oh, sorry ..."
Her knee found his ribs and several other tender spots on him before he was able to maneuver her to sit on the only horizontal spot, which was the crushed driver's side window.
She sat back, breathless and blushing from the limited, frantic movements, as he leaned to the seat beside her. For a moment they took survey each other. Her hair was mussed and her face flushed from the angle of dangling for the last two hours, but Renji saw no blood and decided she was more tumbled than seriously injured.
At least, he hoped so.
"You sure you're all right?" he asked.
She nodded and then leaned closer, putting one hand to the black headband at his temple. "You're bleeding, Renji."
He touched the spot of dried blood, feeling the flaky red crumble. Whatever damage there was was beneath the cloth, sticking. "It's okay," he decided, glancing up at the passenger door, their only means of escape. "Sit still."
"Okay."
She sighed and sat back, giving the windshield a longer study. It was shattered and sagging, giving only a limited view of the tree trunk that had stopped them. Outside the birds and insects had returned to chirping and buzzing after the crash, giving the accident an unusual sense of normalcy. She pulled her knees to her chest to give Renji more room to move as he stood and tried to open the passenger door above them.
He forced open the door, metal resisting until he shoved his shoulder against the door panel. It crunched open farther, metal groaning as he cursed gravity in general. A moment later he was able to push the heavy door open enough to get out. He held it open, sitting on the edge of the window to look around.
The ravine was quiet, a few birds chastising him from the trees. He looked up at the slope to the road. The car had left a wide path of bent and broken saplings and brush. He glanced around for any sign of what they'd hit.
He knew what it was.
Morgan. The largest of the escaped prisoners, the one the size of a bull.
Renji figured it wasn't something that Orihime needed to know. Yet.
There was no sign of Morgan now. For a moment Renji's sharp scrutiny went over the trees and undergrowth. Nothing stirred, nothing ran away. He figured Morgan wasn't in any mood to be wandering, not after getting hit by a car.
With more of an effort he pushed the car door back until it fell over the rear seat quarterpanel, and then snapped off. It dropped to the ground by the rear tire.
He looked back down to Orihime, who was cradling her knees close to her chest and looking up at him. He could see a few scratches on her legs, minor, most from whatever had taken flight during the tumble. Bruises hadn't materialized yet, but he knew there'd be some. He knelt and reached a hand down to her.
"Come on out. We've got to be close to town."
It took a few moments to extract her from the car, mostly because there weren't too many opportune places to grab without bringing a blush or yelp from her. And rightly so.
She leaned against a nearby tree a moment later, one hand rubbing her tank top as she took a deeper breath. "What did we hit?"
"You didn't see?"
She shook her head.
He nodded. "Someone. A man."
She frowned, sighing slowly. "Do you think he's hurt?"
He nodded again. "Don't worry about him now." He looked up the slope to the road lacing the mountainside. "Think you're up to walking?"
"Oh, yes."
Orihime and Renji took their time climbing the steep slope that the car had so hurriedly rolled down several hours before. They reached the road and found it devoid of traffic. Renji took a moment to consider their bearings, and then headed them west, their course before the collision.
"How far do you think we are from town?" Orihime asked after a few moments of walking.
"Can't be too far."
"At least it's not raining today."
He nodded, his temple pounding. "Just hotter than hell."
He grabbed her hand as her foot slipped on the gravelly shoulder and she slid. She stayed on her feet, and he looked behind them to see a pick-up truck round the side of the mountain on the road.
It approached at a modest speed, two figures obvious in the seat inside. It met them, slowing.
Orihime's hand tightened in Renji's grip until she saw the occupants.
A mousy blonde teen girl sat nearest the passenger side, cranking the window all the way down as the brown haired guy behind the wheel veered to the road shoulder and stopped. She scooted closer to the window from where she'd been sitting close to the driver.
"Hey! Hey, is that your car in the hollow?" she called.
Renji looked between her and the driver. He was a teen boy, maybe even twenty, he guessed, staring at him and Orihime with cautious scrutiny. He glanced to the girl, who was giving Orihime a concerned exam.
"Yeah, that's us," he said.
"Hell, that's quite a roll," the guy said, his accent more pronounced than the girl's. "Ya'll all right?"
"Been better," Renji said.
"Need a ride? Town's not far, but you shouldn't be walking after that fall," he said.
The girl slid across the seat to the driver. "Hop in."
Renji deemed the couple harmless enough. He opened the passenger door and ushered Orihime in. She settled next to the blonde girl, and then another inch as Renji sat beside her.
The girl stuck her hand out. "I'm Sylvi; this is Delmar. You new here?"
Orihime nodded, a slight dizziness catching her as she did. She shook Sylvi's hand. "I'm Orihime."
Renji rested an arm on the seat behind her. "Renji."
Delmar nodded and eased the truck back onto the road. "Howdy. Did you call anyone yet? Tow truck?"
"Yeah, all done," Renji said.
Delmar nodded. "Not from around here, are you?"
"No." Renji looked to the road ahead.
"Have you called the cops? You need a ride to the clinic up town?" Sylvi asked, giving Orihime a smile. "There's a hospital in Grundy."
"We're fine," Renji said.
She looked back to Orihime. "Okay. Where'd you come in from?" When Orihime just stared at her, she said, "Move from."
"Don't get nosey, Sylvi." Delmar's knee nudged hers.
She sighed, smiling back at Orihime.
"Japan." Orihime sat straighter, her practice story from Isane coming to mind. "We have a job at the Ogihara plant being built in the next county. It isn't open yet, but we arrived early to find a place to live." As soon as she said it, she also recalled that that had been the story for Isane. She turned to Renji, who was looking at her with more than confusion. She tried to give him a hopeful smile. "Right?"
He nodded slowly, wishing he'd read up on the back story from Fourth Division on the plane trip over instead of stowing it in his now destroyed luggage. "Yeah," he said, wishing also that there was more behind Orihime's bright smile than good intentions. Like ESP.
"You have a job there, too?" Sylvi asked Orihime. She glanced to Renji, and then back to Orihime. "How old are you?"
"Sylvi," Delmar said sharply.
"I thought she was more my age," she said, ignoring him, still looking at Orihime. "I thought you were still in school."
Orihime realized her mistake, and was about to try clearing it up when Renji pulled her back to his side.
"She is. I've got the job at Ogihara," he said. "We're still working on the language here."
"See?" Sylvi said to Delmar as they stopped at an intersection of two roads at the bottom of the mountain.
Orihime looked either way, recognizing some of the landscape. "Are we back in town?"
Delmar pointed to his left. "That way's town. That way," he said, nodding to a wooden sign at the side of the road on the passenger side, "is out."
Orihime looked past Renji to the sign reading Pal'O'Mine Stables, the Gentlest Horses in the County. She looked to him.
"We're out," he said. "You can let us out here."
Delmar shook his head and turned the truck right. "I'm taking her home anyway," he said, bumping Sylvi with his elbow.
Orihime sighed, letting herself lean closer to Renji as the turn of the truck brought on another wave of nausea.
"What grade are you in?" Sylvi asked. She glanced to Renji, did a quick estimate of him, and looked back to Orihime. "Are you registered for classes yet?"
"When does school start?" Renji asked as Orihime took a breath to answer. He hadn't thought about school. Neither had Fourth Division, it seemed.
"August 17th," Sylvi said, still looking at Orihime.
"Senior. Last year, right?" Orihime said hopefully.
Sylvi nodded. "You'll be in my class."
For a few moments Delmar drove around the curving road that both Renji and Orihime recognized as leading to the small house they shared.
Renji suppressed a groan at the thought. The combination of school, his new cohabitation, his alleged new job with Ogihara, and the accident, among other things, were starting to catch up with him. He looked to Orihime's knee as it touched his. Faint blue marks at the side of her leg were becoming visible. He looked to her, but she was oblivious to the blooming bruises.
He glanced at Sylvi and Delmar. School would at least give Orihime something to do, keep her mind off whatever protocol Urahara and Captain Unohana – and probably Captain Kurotsuchi, eventually – forced on her. Maybe it would be a good distraction for her.
He looked up as the truck made another turn and he recognized the mailbox sequestered among the overgrowth of foliage at a driveway now in view.
"We live here," he said, pointing to the mailbox.
"Here?" There was a giggle in Sylvi's tone. "Both of you live here?" She looked to Orihime, and then Renji. "Here? Together?"
"Drop it," Delmar said in a low tone to her.
Orihime didn't look at Renji, but a sudden pink flushed her cheeks.
Renji put a hand to the door latch. "You can drop us off here."
"You sure?" Delmar let the truck slow near the mailbox.
"Yeah." Renji opened the door. "Thanks for the ride."
"Any time." Delmar turned in the seat as Renji and Orihime exited the truck. His arm settled around Sylvi as she remained at his side. "If you need a ride anywhere, let us know."
"We're neighbors," Sylvi added, wiggling a finger at the drive. "I am, anyway. I live right in back of you."
Orihime shot a look down the driveway.
"Past the woods; about a quarter mile," Sylvi added. "There's a horse trail that runs right back. Hey," she said, smiling at Orihime, "do you ride?"
Orihime looked back to her. "Oh, well ... horses?"
Sylvi nodded.
Orihime shook her head.
"Come over and I'll teach you," the blonde girl said, words quickening at the topic. "We've got the best learner horses. It'll be fun. You know, when you feel like it."
Orihime nodded slowly, looking to Renji.
He gave Sylvi and Delmar a wave. "Thanks for the ride."
"Any time." Delmar tugged on a strand of Sylvi's hair. "Let her know when you need a ride anywhere."
Sylvi made a lunge for the glove compartment and grabbed a pen and a scrap of paper. She quickly scribbled a number on it and handed it out the window to Orihime. "That's my number. If you need anything, let me know."
Orihime looked at the number. "Thank you."
Renji turned her down the driveway. "Thanks."
Orihime read off the numbers as they walked the driveway up to the house. It seemed to Renji that they'd left days ago, the accident giving him a sense of limbo that usually came only after spending time in the Living World and then going back to Soul Society.
"They were nice," Orihime said as they went into the house. "I'm glad we didn't have to walk all the way."
Renji was looking around the rooms at they went through the living room and into the kitchen, trying to detect anything out of place. There was nothing amiss, just the growing feeling of misplacement he got when he was in gigai and, now, without the usual mode of transportation.
"We'll get another car," he said as Orihime watched him look out the back door at the still yard in the late day sun. He turned back to her, catching her curious attention.
"You're looking for them," she said hesitantly. "The escaped prisoners. Aren't you?"
He nodded. "We hit one," he said, the words out before he could think them through. He saw the instant fear leap into her face and wished he'd remained silent about Morgan. "Don't worry about it, Orihime. The one we hit isn't going anywhere. Probably busted up bad."
She nodded, eyes going to the window over the sink.
"Come on," he said, taking her arm and turning her to the staircase. "Go up and have a bubble bath and count your bruises, and I'll call Captain Unohana and tell her the news. We've got to have transportation here."
She nodded, climbing the staircase in front of him. "Maybe a truck?"
He grinned, following, shrugging as they reached the turn at the top of the steps. "Maybe."
At the end of the hall he stepped ahead of her and looked into the bedroom she was using. There was nothing out of line, the window pulled nearly closed, making the room too warm. He nodded and looked to Orihime, catching a shadow of unease in her eyes.
"Just checking," he said.
She nodded.
"You're sure you're all right?" he asked, eyes flicking over her face. No bruises, no slight abrasions.
"Just a little headache," she said, looking to his headband. "Are you okay, Renji?"
"Yeah." He pulled his communicator from his back pocket. It was in two pieces.
He quickly stuck it back in his jeans pocket, but she'd already seen the damage. Her face fell as she crossed her arms tightly at her chest.
"Have your bath. I'll fix this," he said, trying to sound more casual about it than he felt. "Did Isane leave her information about Ogihara or anything?"
She nodded, freeing one arm to point to the room Isane had used. "In there."
He saw her fingers edge to one elbow where a bruise was beginning to show. Damn mountain, he thought. Damn Morgan. "I'll get caught up."
By the time Szayel got to the ravine where he'd seen the vultures, he'd lost most sense of direction, but had picked up a slight sense of her. It was infuriating, the diminished signal he got as he neared Orihime Inoue. He could only attribute it to the tampering that had been done to his subject.
His host was near onto starvation, and it was getting more difficult to ignore the weakness that made his steps stumble. If in his usual realm, he simply would have devoured a fraccíon, but here, here he was without. Want of water was also becoming a factor.
He halted at a stand of birch trees to collect his thoughts, and for a few moments could hear only the loud, thin beat of his host's heart as it attempted to keep him upright. The Living were shallow beings, but in his lessened state keeping one running without sustenance was proving a chore.
A shifting of branches ahead made Szayel look to the next stand of clumpy cedars. A hacking cough echoed out, followed by a string of curses.
The possibilities of another choice of host made Szayel head in that direction.
He found Morgan slouched to a tree trunk, sitting and cursing, one meaty hand at his side where his black shirt was soaked with blood. The prisoner's hair was kept back with a navy rag, exposing a hard face that had seen far too much of life on the inside to go back. A lesser man would have been incapacitated by being hit by the car, but Morgan was stout, both physically and mentally.
But when he saw his former inmate Nyles stumble from the stand of birches he hadn't a clue as to what possessed the slighter form. All he saw was Nyles, and in a condition that should have been buried.
"You look like hell," he grunted as what appeared as Nyles came toward him.
Szayel studied the larger inmate, deciding Morgan a better specimen. "You remember me."
Morgan frowned at the exposed intestines at Nyles' side, standing up as the smaller inmate neared him. "Shit, man, what happened to you?"
Szayel was in no mood to share the details. Despite Morgan's injuries, it appeared he was in better condition than his current host. Morgan was clearly better fed, and at least on his feet.
"I'm going to make a bargain with you," Szayel said.
Morgan laughed, his hand pressing harder at his side where assorted broken ribs rebelled at the movement. "I don't bargain, Nyles."
Szayel smiled. "I'll leave you the use of yourself when I don't need you. In exchange, you'll give me what any good fraccíon renders its master."
Morgan stood to his full height. "What the hell are you talking about?"
He'd barely finished speaking than Nyles dropped to the ground in front of him. There was a flicker of something around him, and then Morgan felt an invasion as never before. Without warning he lost the use of everything, hands to feet, mind included, and most of his thoughts abandoned him as Szayel forced himself into the inmate's mind.
Once ingrained in his new host's form and psyche, Szayel found new vigor. New pains, too, but Morgan offered much better energy and strength than Nyles had.
He shoved aside the pestering mumbles Morgan tried to argue with him. He took a moment to weed through the inmate's mind, casting away the unnecessary thoughts until he came to more recent images of memory.
Szayel pulled Morgan's face into a grin as the accident flashed into his mind.
"Well, now," he said with an unusually musical lilt in his voice for the inmate. The accident played as if in slow motion in his mind, and Szayel paused the image as he thought of the car, the windshield, and Orihime sitting in the front seat.
"Very good," he murmured, nodding.
He kept the image intact as he grinned at the girl, and then focused on Renji Abarai beside her. A sudden lurch of pain caught the torso of his new host, but Szayel was delighting in his new memories too much to be bothered with pain.
He nodded, pushing into motion Morgan's body, leaving the near dead Nyles among the grass and leaves as he relished in finding the girl.
Szayel smiled, pleased with his new habitation and discovery. "Very good indeed."
A/N: Thanks for reading and reviewing, and Happy New Year!