On the Run
Part three of a fanfiction by Velkyn Karma
Note: Since I'm graduating tomorrow and it will inevitably throw off my updating schedule, you get this one a little early.
Disclaimer: I do not own, or pretend to own, Bleach and any related characters or concepts. That right belongs to Tite Kubo alone. All that belongs to me here is the concept for the story.
"I'm so happy dancing while the grim reaper
cuts, cuts, cuts, but he can't get me.
I'm as clever as can be, and I'm very quick but don't forget;
we've only got so many tricks.
no one lives forever."
~Danny Elfman
It was nearly ten thirty at night before Urahara handed them the altered device and the plush toy lion. He'd disappeared into his back room for close to two hours, leaving Ichigo and Rukia fidgeting uncomfortably under the watchful (and in Jinta's case, sullen) eyes of his employees.
He seemed pleased with the results of the device, however, and spent the next ten minutes instructing Rukia in its use. She listened attentively, brushing her hair back as she looked over Urahara's arm at the modified soul-pager.
"It's not linked to the Soul Society," Urahara concluded, right when Ichigo was about to shout for them to be done already so they could get going. "So no one will be able to pick up the transmissions and find your wayward modified soul, rest assured."
Rukia had politely thanked him before shooing Ichigo out the door, pausing to stuff the currently Kon-less plush back into her knapsack. She held the new device tightly, and once outside the shop began adjusting it as instructed to hone in on Kon's signature.
"Well?" Ichigo pressed, after a few impatient moments. He was anxious to retrieve his body. Last time Kon had vanished in it, he'd gotten a busted arm and a number of other minor wounds for his trouble. And, well, maybe he was slightly worried about the mod-soul as well...not that he'd ever admit it out loud.
"In a minute," Rukia hushed him. She fiddled a few moments more, and then abruptly gasped.
"What?"
"Look," she prompted, holding up the screen for him to see. Outlined in spidery little webs was a map of the region, with one blinking slowly blinking dot. "This is Karakura, where we are," Rukia explained, gesturing to one side of the screen. "And Kon is here," she added, pointing at the dot.
It took a moment to decipher the lines, but then Ichigo's eyes widened in surprise. "You're kidding me," he said, bewildered. "That's the next city over...that's a few hours by car."
"Kon has enhanced leg strength, remember," Rukia reminded. "His speed is far above the average human."
"But still....what could possibly cause him to run that far away in just a few hours?"
"When we find him, we can ask him," Rukia said in determination. "There has to be a way to get there quickly, right?"
"Uh..." Ichigo paused and racked his brains. He'd been to that city before with friends; how had he gotten there? "There's a train," he said after a moment's thought. "But it'll stop running soon, I don't think we'll get all the way there. Maybe you could take a taxi or something, but that'd be expensive."
"Well, we'll take the train as far as we can first," Rukia decided. "Lead on...where is it?"
"Follow me," Ichigo said. "This way." And he headed off at a run, with Rukia right behind him, hoping the problem would be as easy to solve as that.
Ichigo wasn't a fool, though. Things rarely, if ever, went easy for him.
Kon snapped awake with loud, alarming suddenness. For a moment he panicked, and couldn't remember where he was. It was dark, making it impossible to see, and for one terrifying moment he was afraid that he was in his pill form again, devoid of all senses but hearing.
But after a few bare seconds--no time at all, but it seemed like an age--Kon became aware that he was not in a pill, or even a lion form, but a human body curled uncomfortably in a tiny, dark corner. Moments later his experiences came rushing back to him: the running, his arrival in the city, curling up in the alleyway to rest, and the invasive, sickening tracking magic that--
--that he had just been woken up by.
He moved with shocking speed. Perhaps it was his instinct, or the residual muscle-memory instinct of Ichigo's, or maybe even a mix of both, but Kon had his legs under himself in seconds and had leapt fifteen feet into the air with a yell from a dead sit.
Just in time, too. With an almighty crack, something rammed into the brick wall where his back had been curled moments before, sending rubble and dust flying.
From his new vantage point, Kon had seen a glimmer of vague yellow crash into that corner, and traced it back to the alley's mouth. There, the second, smaller soul-reaper of his two pursuers was standing. The man had an object like a crossbow cradled in both hands, but like his partner's odd energy-katana, this too seemed a mere suggestion of a crossbow suffused with soft light.
Kon's leap reached its peak and he crashed back to the ground, absorbing the impact with his legs. They still felt shaky, but even a few hours of rest had done him wonders. Once again, he wasn't sure if that was due to Ichigo's tenacity or his own mod-soul powers. He'd never pushed them to their limits before, and honestly didn't know the full extent of what even he was capable of.
"How lame, Juusan," came a mocking voice, one Kon recognized all too well. The larger man, Shichi, stepped out of the shadows, his curious image-katana drawn and ready. "It was in a dead sleep and yah missed. How pathetic can you get?"
"Sh...shut up," the other man, Juusan, shot back harshly. "You're the idiot who decided t'seek it first! They're combat models, you moron...it probably felt it!"
It had had enough. There was more room to maneuver in this alley vertically, and Kon had no intention of sticking around to be murdered. He didn't care what these idiots thought; he had a life, one given selfishly, but one they didn't have the right to take from him. It was his. He wouldn't give it up, not for anything.
So as they bickered, Kon abruptly darted forward, curled his legs under him, and with a roar leapt into the air once again.
He intended to leap over them, hit the streets, and run full-tilt down the road. He could jump the cars if he had to. The shinigami knew he was here, and his primary goal now was to just put some distance between him and them. If he scared a few humans by leaping to impossible heights, well, what the hell. Maybe Rukia-neesan would see the news report and figure out where he was. He'd take a tongue-lashing from her any day to this.
That was his intention, but the shinigami had other plans. With an angry "No yah don't!" Shichi leapt forward and upward, meeting Kon in the air before the mod-soul had leapt too high. The strange image-katana flashed out, humming wildly, and Kon felt the deadly heat approaching him at a dangerous speed.
There wasn't much he could do about it. He twisted, sending himself spinning in an attempt to pull away from the weapon, but his momentum kept him moving forward--straight into the blade. The almost-katana plunged deep into his shoulder--ironically, the same one that had taken damage all those months ago, when he had first stolen Ichigo's body. He could feel it gouging, clawing its way deep into his shoulder, through it even. And even worse was the terrible heat, as though the very depths of hell had been encased within the blade. He could feel his soul, the very substance of his being, writhing in agony as the sword burned it, sliced into it, fractured it. The pain was unimaginable. All he could do was scream.
He hit the ground on his back with alarming suddenness; hadn't even been aware that he was falling. Shichi was laughing; he thought the other one might be too. His soul still burned, and he desperately wanted to writhe on the concrete, twist and scream in his pain, but he forced himself up. The pain only made him that much more aware that he desperately did not want to die.
The wound wasn't all that bad, he realized, still gasping, after a cursory glance. Physically, at least. There was blood, but the wound itself was more superficial than anything. He didn't even think there was an exit wound. But his soul...by all that lived, his spirit...
"Hurts, huh?" Shichi asked with a grin. The man was behind him now, farther back down the alleyway, probably carried there from his own leap's momentum. "It's a special kinda soul-cutter, y'see. Only cuts souls, if y'know what I mean. We're approved soul-reapers, but we more or less work as bounty-hunters for you escaped modification-souls, so we were allowed to develop special tools to deal with y'all." His toothy grin grew larger.
Kon's eyes widened in fear. His right hand was pressed to the wound, fingers gouging into it as though trying to dig inside Ichigo's body to wherever his own soul was encapsulated and claw the pain out.
He was going to die. No, he wasn't. He had to get out of here. So much pain, though. No! Run! Run, dammit!
Shichi laughed, readied his sword again. "It's gettin' ready to bolt again," he warned his companion. "Keep an eye on it."
"You got it."
"No," Kon said out loud, a feeble whimper. He hadn't wanted to speak to them, not these people with such a callous disregard to life. These were the first words he had said to them, and they were a weak protest at best. But verbalizing his determination seemed to strengthen it, and he shouted it again, louder. "No! You can't take this away from me!"
"Body ain't yours!" Shichi roared back. But the soul-reaper had no idea that Kon was referring to something entirely different. He leapt forward, the image-katana raised once more, threatening, burning.
But Kon was ready, and his state of panic gave birth to desperate ideas. Darting aside, he leapt behind one of the dumpsters and kicked it with as much force as he could muster. It wasn't much heavier than a small hollow, and with a clattering loud enough to raise the dead it barreled towards a stunned Shichi. The man dodged with a yell of surprise.
Stunned by the noise, Juusan reflexively fired his image-crossbow. Still desperate, Kon leapt straight up, barely avoiding the attack. The energy-quarrel struck the rumbling dumpster instead, shattering the metal container and its disgusting contents with a shower of sparks. Juusan shrieked in both anger and surprise as he was pelted with garbage alongside his partner.
With their vision obscured and their minds distracted, neither noticed Kon land once more. He slipped on the refuse once or twice, cursing loudly. But he gained his legs quickly--thankfully, balance was another of the enhanced qualities awarded him--and dashed out of the alley-way. Before either of his pursuers could react, Kon was sprinting down the street, leaping from car to car, darting around corners at random, and generally putting as much distance as he could between himself and the hunters, for once ignoring the stunned stares of the night-life street crawlers that managed to spot him.
It would be a long time before he rested again.
Yes, I know, shorter than usual. Just trust me here, I know what I'm doing. I think.
As usual, if you leave a review, please make it constructive! What can I do to improve? What did you enjoy? I'm a glutton for constructive input, you know!
~VelkynKarma