4.2. Gone

"Goodbye, Y/N L/N."

The last words Y/N would ever hear.

At least, they should've been.

There was a loud bang. Louder than any gunshot Y/N had ever heard before. And there wasn't a hole in his head. No blood, no brains, nothing. Y/N wasn't dead. At least, he didn't think he was.

He blinked his eyes open, staring at Kuroi. The silence of the street had been completely shattered by the gunshot. Y/N thought that it was his ears ringing, but no.

It was Kuroi. Hunched over. Screaming.

A loud scream. An insane scream. Filled with anger, filled with pain. Worse than a banshee's scream. Worse than a zombie's groan, a ghost's wail, a dragon's roar.

Y/N took a hesitant step back. Only then did he notice the gun lying on the ground, smoke rising from a completely destroyed barrel. What happened...?

Kuroi spun, facing Y/N. Y/N caught sight of blood, and flesh. He gagged, doubling over, and was sick right there on the side of the road. His eyes blurred, tears filling his vision.

Whatever had happened to Kuroi wasn't good. Not good at all.

The gun had malfunctioned. Or something along those lines. It'd exploded in his hand as he tried to fire, trying to pull the trigger over and over again. And it had ruined him.

His hand was destroyed. Wounds leaking thick, crimson blood. Black shrapnel stuck in the flesh. Ruined fingernails, torn skin, split veins and arteries. The exposed skin on his neck and face wasn't much better off, staining his face a bloody red. Kuroi bared his teeth at Y/N, and Y/N saw ruined teeth, damaged lips, and garnet gums.

But the gun was gone.

Was Y/N safe?

"Why...!"

Kuroi's mouth was impossibly, moving. Sliced lips moved, blood and saliva mixing, dripping off the man's chin. His cheeks pulled, cuts opened wider. A piece of black plastic embedded in his eyebrow let loose a waterfall of blood over his eye. Y/N froze up. Kuroi growled. "Why'd you run, huh?!"

His voice... Y/N hadn't heard anything remotely close to it before. A guttural snarl, deep and wet. "You. Are. Mine." Kuroi staggered forwards towards him, his life draining from him by the second. Y/N didn't move. Kuroi wasn't human anymore. He looked like his name - a physical human representation of hell.

"You're dead." Kuroi muttered. "Dead, dead, dead, dead."

His laugh filled the street, alongside pained grunts and angered snarls. He threw his head back. Droplets of blood splattered the street. "Dead, dead, dead, dead." Another laugh. "You hear me? dead dead dead dead dead dead dead."

Kuroi wasn't going to stop, Y/N realised. Just because the gun was gone and he was injured, he wasn't going to leave Y/N alone.

And as soon as that realisation hit him, Y/N was staggering away down the road. There was pain in his stomach. Shrapnel from the gun? He could only hope not.

First a stagger. Then, a jog. And finally, a run. Y/N ran for his life, as behind him, Kuroi roared louder than ever.

His hand was destroyed. But he still reached into his jacket, drawing something else out. Bright sunlight reflected off a metal blade. Y/N's body shuddered as adrenaline flooded his veins. Run. Go. Leave. He should've known Kuroi wouldn't stop.

He ran.

Fast.

The pain subsided in his stomach. His heart thumped, in time with the pounding of blood in his head. He didn't think. He didn't stop. He just ran.

And Kuroi chased.

Through the suburbs, out of the small housing complex they were in. Large estates blurred past on either side. All of them were gated. Y/N couldn't hide in any. His head whipped side to side, eyes scanning frantically and seeing nothing. Nowhere to hide. The only option was to run.

Y/N should've been good at it. But something ached in his stomach. Adrenaline was hiding most of the pain, but every step he took, an unpleasant jolt ran through his body. Y/N struggled against nausea. He pressed a hand to his stomach mid-step, as lightly as he dared, and his hand came away red.

Down one road, two roads, three roads. Where the first place they'd been in had no cars at all, the more Y/N ran, the more signs of people there were. A single car raced past them down the street. Y/N caught sight of a terrified woman's face before the car was leaving in a burst of speed.

People. People meant safety, right? Safety in numbers. The primal instinct to hide from a predator amongst other prey. Y/N needed to find people.

He drew ahead of Kuroi, stumbling along. But he could still hear the man sprinting behind him, footsteps deafening on the pavement.

Y/N risked a glance over his shoulder. He only caught sight of a bloody face and long knife before he whipped his head away.

Just in time. He turned the corner, boots clacking on the concrete sidewalk, and came to a road.

A busy road. A really, really fucking busy road. Three lanes on either side, running straight towards the city centre of Tokyo. The quiet residential area Y/N was in gave way on the other side, turning from big houses into small business headquarters, food shops, and scattered apartments.

Cars didn't slow down upon seeing Y/N, standing on the pavement's edge. He turned, staring behind him. No way to go left, no way to go right. A psychopath with a knife in front of him.

Y/N fled across the street.

Maybe it was stupid of him. Maybe he had a death wish. But he was terrified beyond reason.

Past the first lane. The blare of horns rang out across the road. One of the cars swerved, barely missed him. Y/N didn't consciously time anything. As soon as there was the smallest gap in the traffic, he was running. Wind rushed past him as painted metal flew by his face.

Past the second lane. More horns. A car skidded out of control. Another slammed on the brakes, slowing to a near halt as Y/N flew past. Everything was blurs of colour and motion. Noise, everywhere.

And then the third. Y/N didn't stop at all, and neither did the cars. Lucky. Insanely lucky, dashing across the road in the perfect timing between two red cars.

It should've been perfect timing.

Y/N felt the hit before he knew what hit him.

Something barely clipped his hip. Centimetres from making it across all three lanes, a tremendous force came rushing past. Y/N only caught a little of it, but it was enough to toss him bodily to one side. Pain exploded along his side. The world spun, car horns blurring together, the sky becoming the ground and the ground becoming the sky.

Y/N hit the metal barrier dividing the two sides of the road hard. His heart pounding faster than it ever had before, all the breath was knocked out of his lungs. He wanted to move. Continue running. But all he could do was heave breaths, and try to stay conscious. His stomach was in agony. His side too.

And with horrified eyes, he watched as the first two lanes of traffic slowly began to move again. Kuroi reached the road, and he was running.

The cars didn't stop for him. But they didn't hit him either. They'd slowed for Y/N, and that gave Kuroi the perfect route to run straight forwards.

Y/N gripped the central barrier, and hauled himself over the central barrier. He hit the other side, legs nearly giving way under him. Kuroi reached the third lane of traffic, the knife shining bright. He reached for Y/N. Just a few metres away.

Then he was gone.

A blur of black and white. A white moving truck flew past. A horn blared for a split-second.

Not long enough.

Y/N lasted just long enough to watch the truck slow to a halt, metres away. Kuroi's broken body tumbled off the front, flopping to the floor. Y/N half expected him to return, to pick himself up with a smashed skull and shattered body, and continue chasing. But he didn't.

The truck door opened. Y/N didn't look at the stranger that came running out. As soon as he'd determined Kuroi wasn't going to get up, every single ounce of energy in his body disappeared.

Y/N slumped against the barrier.

And right there, cars flying by on either side, he collapsed to the ground.