The Darkness In Our Hearts (TDiOH Bk1)

Chapter 34: Intruding on the West Gate

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What I had thought to be rock was actually bone under my feet, brittle and cracking with my weight as I sprinted behind Yoruichi. Arms pumping, legs burning, I tried not to focus on the white walls crumbling and collapsing inwards behind us.

"Don't look back – run! If the koryu swallows us, we're done for!" Yoruichi shouted over the rumbling.

"Aaah!" cried Uryu and I risked a glance behind. His cape had been caught by the white waterfall of wall.

"Uryu!" I screamed, slowing slightly. Heart in throat, I became to call forth my weapon.

"Idiot! It's that stupid costume you're wearing!" Ichigo cried in frustration, reaching for his zanpakuto.

"Kera, Ichigo, don't use your weapons! The koryu entangles all spiritual entities! If you swing your swords, you'll all be swallowed!"

"What do we do then?" I said.

Suddenly, a large hand grabbed Uryu's cape and ripped it off him. Chad then picked Uryu up and slung him over the shoulder, taking off again. Crisis averted, I chased after them again.

"Put me down, Chad! I can run on my own!" Uyru protested. "Put me-" His voice cut off.

"What's that noise?" I commented as the rumbling shifting to a higher pitch. All the hair on my neck stood on end. "Guys, I have a really bad feeling."

"Something's coming!" Uryu confirmed that feeling.

A beam of light past harmlessly over our heads, like the headlight of a car, and I looked behind again. The thing barrelling down on us was anything but harmless.

"It's a kotosu- a cleaner! It appears once every seven days... but why now?!" Yoruichi explained.

"Who cares what the hell it is?!" I screeched, pushing past Yoruichi, moving faster than I had ever done. My heart threatened to leap from my chest. "Just run!"

The square of light before us grew larger and larger. The exit. Instead of a sigh of relief, I sucked all my breath in, afraid to release it with the kotosu bearing down on us. We would make it. We would. We had to!

"It's catching up!"

"No, Orihime, don't!" I screamed at her as she spun and put her hands to the flower clips in her hair.

"Hinagiku! Baigon! Lily! Santen Kesshun!" Three flying objects zipped into the sky and Orihime held a hand out to the kototsu. "I reject!" An orange triangular shield came to life before the cleaner.

It crashed into it and there was a split second before the shield exploded. I shot like a firework out through the entrance to the soul society, hitting the ground hard, and all the air was crushed from my lungs when someone landed on me.

Groaning, I shoved Uryu off me and he flopped to the ground. A splitting headache was forming as I sat up and surveyed our surroundings. The orange shield was underneath us and the only person who didn't look like they were recovering from a thousand foot fall was Orihime.

Suddenly dizzy, I lay back down. Black spots in my vision, I sucked in lungful after lungful of air. The adrenaline was wearing off and a blanket of fatigue settled over me. Then my stomach heaved. I clamped a hand over it and swallowed back the bile.