On the Run

Part four of a fanfiction by Velkyn Karma

Note: Since my update schedule was changed I'll be updating Saturdays now instead. With luck.

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.

"It's not paranoia if they're really out to get you. Are they really out to get us?"

~Monk, Black Order

"I don't believe it. I don't believe it. He's gone? Are you serious? You sure that thing's not faulty?"

Ichigo was furious. They had taken the train as far as they could before it shut down for the night, and then Rukia had been forced to call a taxi for the final hour's drive into the city. Both train-fare and taxi-ride had been paid for with money from Ichigo's own wallet, which Rukia had stowed in her knapsack when they left. And now, after arriving in the city Kon was supposedly in at nearly one-thirty in the morning, they had arrived at an empty alleyway utterly devoid of mod-souls. Furthermore, Rukia had checked the modified soul-pager only to discover that Kon was far outside the city once again.

"It's not faulty," Rukia confirmed, looking grim. "Kon's not here. He's moving at a pretty rapid clip too. We wouldn't be able to catch up with him, not at the rate he's going." She eyed the device curiously, where the little blip was shooting across the screen at a stunning pace.

"You sure Hat-and-Clogs isn't just messing with us? I wouldn't put it past him," Ichigo said dubiously.

"I don't think he would, not in this case. He wasn't doing it as a favor, I was a paying customer." She scowled briefly at the pile of money she had been forced to part with in order to obtain the seeking device, and promised herself that Kon would definitely be meeting her fist when they finally caught up to him.

"Besides," she added, "I can feel actual spirit-energy here, not Kon's other signature. The same seeking kido was used here, and very recently...probably not more than two hours ago. And there's strange traces as well, I can't quite place them..." She paused, and knelt down in the alleys' corner, where a section of brick wall had been smashed beyond recognition. Her fingers brushed against the crumbling stone, and she frowned.

"What do you mean?" Ichigo pressed, curious.

"It...it feels almost like a soul-reaper's zanpaku-to," she admitted, "but not quite. There are...altercations. Very violent ones." Her eyes narrowed. "I don't know what it is, but it doesn't feel good."

"Then we better get moving again."

"I think that's a bad idea."

"How is it bad?" Ichigo growled. "If somebody can do that to him-" here he pointed at the broken wall, "-then whoever's chasing him is dangerous. And my body is gonna take the punishment! We should catch him early!"

But Rukia merely shook her head. "Kon is moving too quickly for us to catch him right now," she said again. "My guess is that they attacked him here, and he bolted. But if he settled down before, he will again. When he stops, we can find his new location and cut corners to catch him."

"Cut corners?"

"Look," she prompted, holding up the device again. The blip was still moving at a rapid speed, but it was now heading perpendicular to the direction it had been taking five minutes ago. "He's probably trying to throw off his attackers by shifting directions. It's a very common trick for hunted creatures. Don't foxes do it all the time?"

"What does this have to do with anything," Ichigo asked, exasperated.

"It means if we chase him now, we'll be on a wild goose chase until he finally settles down. But when he does stop moving, he could be only an hour's drive from here. We can wait it out, and plan our next move according to where he comes to a halt to rest. He's in your body, after all-he has physical needs to deal with."

Ichigo groaned. "He'd better not mess me up."

Rukia ignored him and continued with her lecture. "In the meantime," she said, "let's find a cheap hotel or something where we can get a little rest. If this shinigami is dangerous, we may be forced into combat before we can complete negotiations. In that situation it's best if you remain in top condition, just in case. And the same for myself, of course."

Ichigo eyed her warily. "You sure that's the best way to deal with this? Can't we just track down the shinigami and deal with them instead?"

"It's a lot more complicated than that. Just trust me on this, Ichigo, okay?"

"Fine," he muttered. "But you'd better know what you're talking about."

"Don't I always?"

Kon guessed that he had slept for maybe four hours before his unexpected awakening. That meant he had been running since nearly midnight, and it was almost four-thirty in the morning now according to the digital bank clock he had passed a few minutes ago.

The mod-soul was positively exhausted.

Once again, he hadn't stopped running since his encounter. He had left the city he'd originally been in clear behind, running through more country, more suburbs, and another city. He was in a medium-sized town now, as far as he could tell. Nothing as big as Karakura, but large enough that he could probably lose himself in it, for a little while at least.

And he desperately needed that little while. Ichigo's body was telling him on no uncertain terms that it needed food and rest, immediately. His limbs were shaking, and his legs felt like jelly. His stomach had been painfully rumbling for most of the latest run, but in the past hour it had quieted up and ceased bothering him, a fact that somehow made him feel even more uncomfortable than before. He couldn't even muster up the energy to complain to himself, mutter to himself under his breath. He was desperate for real rest, but knew he couldn't afford more than an hour or two. After all, those two hunters had closed his massive lead within the four hours that he'd been sleeping.

Not only that, but his shoulder-wound from earlier still ached. Not the physical wound; that had stopped bleeding hours ago and was in relatively good condition. But he could still feel traces of the flaming agony as that sword pierced his very soul, and his entire being seemed to throb with it, as though it was trying to disassemble him and only his sheer will held himself together.

Once again he began almost desperately wishing that Rukia-neesan would show up and lecture him, or that Ichigo would show up and punch him out. At the very least, he knew neither of them would actually let those two bastards kill him. They respected him enough for that at least, even if they were cruel to him in every other sense of the word...

He stumbled along until he was nearly ready to collapse. The wound throbbed, and he did his best to ignore it. Even with his powerful legs, he could barely manage more than a walk. When he caught his reflection in a store-front window he was nearly appalled at what he saw. He already barely recognized Ichigo, whose face now had deep bags under both eyes and a beaten, almost zombie-like appearance. Kon grudgingly admitted he could probably be attributed to part of that. While he could likely spend months in Ichigo's body if he had to, it would only be without taxing it. While employing his full range of strength on a nearly constant basis, it was bound to put a lot of spiritual strain on the host body in addition to the physical stress.

He couldn't go on forever, and he knew it. He could only hope he could outlast his pursuers.

The thought made his legs tremble violently, and the wound razed at him as though laughing, but he wasn't ready to give in just yet. Half-walking, half-shuffling his way to the downtown district, he peeked hungrily into the few restaurants he could spot. None of them were open this early in the morning, but Kon still couldn't afford them anyway. Instead, he stumbled around the back of one of the store-fronts, found a dumpster with food in relatively good condition, and helped himself. Ichigo would probably bypass the two hunters to kill Kon himself when he figured out the mod-soul's joyride included dumpster-diving, but Kon was too hungry and in too much pain to care by this point.

When he had filled himself as much as he was able, he cut a strip of Ichigo's shirt free with a sharp piece of glass he found behind the dumpster and used it to bind his shoulder as best as he could. It wasn't perfect, but at least it would hold the blood in if he strained himself and opened the wound once more. The makeshift bandage did nothing for his soul, however, and he winced repeatedly every time the wound bit at him, groaned in pain and wasted his precious breath despite his exhaustion.

When food and injury were taken care of, Kon tried once again to rest. This time, he shuffled through the town until he found a location with multiple exits, so that he could escape no matter what direction the two of them came from-because he knew without a doubt they would come again. They didn't seem able to find him unless they used their locating spell, which would give him at the very least a few moment's warning, but he wanted as many other plans as possible. In the end he chose the town's park. It was open, had a low fence that wouldn't block him in even with a half-hearted jump, and possessed large trees with ample cover in the foliage. He leapt up into one of the higher but still sturdy branches, miserably curled up, and fell into a weak doze.

He didn't sleep as deeply as he did last time. Indeed, he could hardly call it a rest. Ichigo's body was practically unresponsive, slipping gratefully into an unmoving, restful state. But its pilot, Kon, remained mentally active almost the entire time. He was too afraid to sleep. The moment he let his mental processes slip into what would be considered 'sleep' for a mod-soul, he was positive the pursuers would show up and trap him. He was already wounded, hungry, and tired; but the lower he went into the bowels of hell, the more he understood with absolute certainty that he desperately did not want to relinquish his tentative hold on life.

Not only that, but in this half-aware, semi-unconscious state, Kon was more aware than ever of the damage that strange sword had caused to his very being. Before, it had felt like being disassembled. But half-asleep, he could envision his soul-fabric more like a glass pane, with cracks spider-webbing out in increasingly more intricate and wide-spread patterns. Just one hit, and not even a direct hit, had made his soul-the only part of him that really existed in an absolute sense-such a fragile, breakable thing. He dreaded the thought of what would happen if that sword made a solid attack against him.

He wondered, briefly, what would happen if he died.

Would he go to the Soul Society, like normal humans did upon their deaths? He was a soul, after all, if an artificial one.

Or would he simply cease to exist? Somehow, that thought positively terrified him. He didn't want to just...end. He wanted to see more of life. He wanted to experience his own life, unusual though it was, because it was his.

He mentally shuddered. Ichigo's body, sensing its current pilot's distress, replicated it physically.

In the end, Kon only rested for two hours. He could tell from the chiming of a clock-seven in the morning-and the way the sun had risen, bathing the world in new, gentle light. After that, he was afraid to stay put any longer. He hadn't sensed anything from either of the shinigami, but he wasn't willing to risk another encounter with them.

He wished he knew where he was now.

But he couldn't do anything about that. With an exhausted sigh, he rolled out of the tree, dropped to the ground, and stretched his limbs. They still felt weak, shaky, but even two hours of rest and the food now in his body had done wonders for them. He could keep going for a few more hours.

Grimacing, Kon stretched, straightened, and jogged off once more to anywhere but there.

Another short one, I know. I promise you, the next chapter is considerably longer and much more action packed.

As always, please let your reviews be constructive! I like good solid feedback, and to hear your opinions.

~VelkynKarma