The Darkness In Our Hearts (TDiOH Bk1)

Chapter 42: On The Run

"Let me back in!" I screamed, broiling anger fuelling me. I got sensation in my fingertips before chains slathered with dark flames coiled around me, squeezing tight.

I was forced to my knees, skin searing, driven deeper down. The fear that I was to be devoured again rose up, clawing at my throat and limbs until I was screaming and thrashing. The chains creaked and groaned, my own spiritual pressure flaring electric blue in my veins.

Through the tunnel of vision I was granted, Chiya shoved the Squad 11 man down a side-alley quickly and pressed his head down so he hunkered within the shadows. She peeked around the corner then reared her head back, melting into the shadows as a group of soul reapers sprinted past, swords free.

Then the ground fell out from beneath my knees and I went tumbling down. I crashed onto sand, the chains slithering off like startled snakes. My head spun but there wasn't anything in my stomach to throw up. An opaque sky stretched above and sand dunes rose in the distance. A few scraggly trees grew around the opening of a large cave.

"Remember this place?" Chiya crouched over me, lips peeled back in a snarl over her pointed teeth. Her blue plait hung over her shoulder, the scales of which had changed shape. They weren't smooth but spiked now. Even the scaly armour covering her body had changed. The scales were pointed and overlapping now, thicker in what would be deemed 'weak points'.

I sat up. She flicked me in the forehead with a talon and the force behind it knocked me back down.

"What the hell?" I scrambled to my feet and she stood gracefully, her face overcome with anger.

"Oh? You're asking me that. I should be asking you the same damn question. You have to be the most stupid soul reaper I've ever come across."

I pointed off into the distance in the direction we'd come – which was pretty useless cause we weren't even in the real world anymore. "We've left Uryu back there with a Captain!"

"And if we'd stayed, all that would be left are corpses."

From the corner of my eye, I saw Dorangohato propped against the wall. If I beat Chiya again, I'd get out of here. I bolted for it.

"Seriously?" she said.

Two chains shot up from the ground and wrapped around my wrists. Before I could slow, the chains went taunt and retracted back into the ground, taking me with them. I tasted and smelt sand, choking on the grains. I reared my head back from the face-plant she'd caused and spat what was on my tongue back at her.

That was new. How long she'd been able to do that?

She snorted and shook her head, stepping over my crouched form and retrieving her sword. The blade glowed blue and I heard the hum it emitted while in her clawed hand. She stroked the blade lovingly then pointed it at my face.

"I'm not letting you have this again without a good reason."

The chains loosened enough so I could sit up. I wiped the sand from my face. Chiya removed the blade from my space and strapped it to her waist, no sheath. It hung down the side of her leg reflecting the ridged scales on the thigh and knee.

"We can beat him, Chiya! Just give me the sword and your powers and I promise you, I'll defeat him."

She slapped me, hard and fast. The pain stirred the rage pitted in my stomach. "Being in that Squad has been bad for your ego. That's a Captain of the Gotei Thirteen. I'm not sure about you but I know that makes them better, stronger and faster than you. Especially given your state. You're not fourth seat anymore, you're not even a soul reaper."