When the Line Blurs

Heavy footsteps splashed down the dark and dismal alleyway, interspersed between heavy breaths of exertion as the boy fled for his life through the decrepit streets of the Karakura Slums. It was surreal, the stark contrast between the main of Karakura and the den of inequity that Mamoru now resided in. Looking at stock photographs of the two areas would NEVER lead one to believe they were connected. Mamoru braced himself against the wall next to him, intently focusing on the screaming that was more than audible over harsh wind and torrential rain that persistently assailed him. That same harsh wind would disrupt the balance of the suspended street lamp, blowing the light across the alleyway and, for a moment, revealing Mamoru in the darkness. For lack of a better description, the boy was a mess. His clothes were torn and water logged, his eyes were sunken and heavy, and he looked like he hadn't eaten in weeks. His body hunched over as beleaguered breaths escaped him, the light scrolling down his arm to reveal the piece of bread the boy hand in his hand. A surge of adrenaline coursed through him as he heard the angered, feverish voices closing in on his position.

He continued to elude capture for what felt like forever and once he felt the enraged tones of the thieved die down, Mamoru's own body seemed to quit on him. The boy's legs gave first, causing him to stumble and collapse on the ground in a heap and in a rather large and intimidating puddle. Sputtering for air, Mamoru, thoroughly water logged, forced himself to crawl to his knees, dragging himself toward the nearby wall and propping himself up against it. The boy was exhausted, mind, body, and soul. His sunken eyes rolled down to the now somewhat soaked piece of bread in his hand before returning to the area around him, looking for any sign of his pursuers. Normally, stealing something as innocuous as a piece of bread in today's world would not be seen as much of a travesty. Food was commonplace. In this place however, in this miserable excuse for a city, food was scarce, food was treasured, and Mamoru just stole some from the most dangerous gang in the area. Another sputtering cough escaped him as he forced his hand to his mouth, burying his teeth in to the disgusting piece of bread. It might have been the first time he had eaten in weeks. He was forced in to this, to theft, and he was terrified of it. Not for the consequences most people would imagine, Mamoru's situation was infinitely more complicated. He needed to avoid being caught by those men everyone but his own sake.

The rain continued to pelt down upon his head as he hastily engulfed the piece of bread in his hand, only once it was gone did he realize how small it truly was. The boy tried to move, to get up, staying in one place for too long was a death sentence, but as he tried to move, every limb felt like it weighed a ton, his soaked through clothes clinging heavily to his skin, sloshing with every move he tried to make. With a resigned and infuriated groan, Mamoru sunk back against the wall and stubbornly glanced back up toward the ceiling of the world, the pitch black sky, chilled to the bone and getting increasingly angrier at the world and his situation, at his parents and that woman, at everything and anything. The only thing the food seemed to fuel was his own sense of depression and hatred as the rain continued to encase him in its icy chill, waiting for the inevitable.

For a long time, there was just emptiness. He heard the dullness of their voices, the pursuers, the anger...Mamoru knew it was there and he was scared, terrified even. A stream of water dribbled down his nose as his eyes turned to the sky, watching the dark lines cascading through the dim sky. He heard a new voice, a new yell piercing through the wind around him, but he barely processed it. It didn't matter, whoever it was would probably move off before it came, he hoped...he prayed. He felt the dull throbbing inside his head, the suppressed persona being kept at bay, but he was too tired, too fatigued, and he knew danger was coming, he wasn't going to be able to hold it in any longer. It was his greatest fear, the loss of control. Mamoru as a person, needed control. He was a detective, he controlled the crime scene, he controlled and isolated variables, he sought outcomes, he sought conclusiveness. Mamoru sought control. There was never a greater case of fate being cruel. When Mamoru awoke, he lost that control. From the moment he walked in to that barn, Mamoru's control vanished and in every situation since that point, Mamoru's control was getting stripped further and further away. The concept of control looked so small. The throbbing grew as the darkness around him became fuzzier...and fuzzier...and fuzzier.

"No..."

The boy's eyes shot open as a foot descended upon him, pressing hard in to his gut as air shot from his lungs. Water was sputtered against her leg from the droplets on his lips as his body recoiled further against the wall. His focus didn't reset itself as the girl knelt down and put her hands on his face. Normally he'd never allow this kind of contact, it contradicted his need for control and his general aversion to people touching him...especially his face, but the energy was completely drained from him. Mamoru's face was turned side to side as her hands pressed against his cheeks. He looked entirely lifeless through his whole body...everywhere but his eyes. The eyes flashed a plethora of emotions. Fear, anger, rage, panic...most of all dread. She needed to get out of there. It was too dangerous here, she shouldn't be here, she was supposed to be leaving. Mamoru tried to convey this, tried to urge her to leave, but it was simply too late. The shot rang through the alleyway, the sound of the gunfire reverberating harshly through the alley. If Mamoru had the energy to care, he'd have recoiled hard from the sound. The man then lowered his weapon, leveling it toward Arisu's face. A maniacal grin on his face. Mamoru's pursuers found him. The boy got frantic, apparently terrified at their appearance and the man seemed to play off it, reveling in the terror on his face, laughing in a booming and menacing tone and then following it up with an equally booming and menacing dialogue.

"Finally caught you you lil' fucker."No..."You'll learn to steal from us, we're the meanest gang in the slums, you don fuck wit us""No...""The fuck you sayin no for?""No...NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO"

Mamoru doubled over, his hands snapping to his face, nails digging in to his forehead as the throbbing was too much to bear. The man believed he was protesting his gang status and lost his patience. The weapon leveled, aimed at the girl's forehead, and fired the next shot and then...plunk. A white mask began forming in mid air, unhinged jaw and empty, soulless eyes stared down the barrel of the gun as the bullet connected with Thanatos's mask...and did absolutely nothing. The rest of Thanatos's body finished forming as a crackling of energy gathered at the creature's mask before a giant beam of electrical energy shot down the alley way, incinerating the humans in its path, a tinge of seared hair and flesh perforating through the alley. Random gangbangers who avoided the Ziodyne squibbled out in to the main street and Thanatos was not going to let a single one live. The creature moved with a speed that its size should not allow and burst out of the alleyway on to the main street, running down the fleeing human and quickly impaling it on the Reaper's Machete and violently flinging it against the nearby building, smearing its fluids all across the street before angrily jumping across the street, its massive frame landing and squashing the pathetic human, spraying the creature's blood all across the street and violently flinging his machete across the street and skewering the creature in to the ground. The monster stepped toward the human and removed his weapon and slowly made its way back to its "master." The whole way through, Mamoru continued to scream "no no no." As the monster came back in to view, its vacant eyes leveled on Arisu as its bony fingers gripped around the handle of his machete and then took off, the ground quaking with every step it took as it raced for Arisu, more than willing to snuff out her existence.

[color=red]"NO!"[/red]

A sudden burst of emotion and energy ran through the boy as he leaped to his feet, pushing past Arisu and putting himself between Arisu and his persona. Thanatos began disintegrating as it moved, the reishi separating and flushing past the two of them...ending the threat. Mamoru's energy then completely left him. The boy fell forward, crashing in to the puddle on the ground and splashing water all through alley as his consciousness completely left him, falling heavily asleep, face down in the puddle before him.