Chapter 13: Strawberry Sweet, Strawberry Bitter

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"Give me that gun," you rummaged your pocket for it, and panic rose in your chest.

"Ichigo," your voice came out wobbly, "I lost the gun." It must've fallen out at some point when you were running, but it was impossible for you to recover it, considering Ichigo and you had ran at random with police on your trail.

He shook his head, "I should've been more careful." But you didn't want to blame him. If you hadn't asked to stop, Naomi wouldn't have gotten separated, and you and Ichigo wouldn't be being pursued through a forest.

You touched your hand to your eyes to feel hot tears flowing out. Ichigo, of course, heard your sniffling and pulled you next to him on the ground. It was tempting to fall asleep leaning on him, you were tired of it all. You never asked to get evicted from your flat, or get kidnapped, or get framed for arson, or get chased around by police and detectives.

You didn't ask to fall in love either.

But then again, you weren't even sure this was love. The only crush you remember having was when you were still in school. There was a girl in your class, her eyes shone with life, and she was always friendly to everyone, even you.

That is, until she died. It took you several years to overcome the death of your good friend, but the sister she had never fully recovered.  You couldn't imagine what it would be like losing your twin, so when she cut off contact with the world, you let her be.

You opened your eyes again.  The sun was going down now, and the flip phone on the floor was ringing.  Ichigo frowned in his sleep, then rubbed his eyes and picked it up. 

"Hey," there was some yelling from the other line, and Ichigo held his phone several inches from his face. "Yeah yeah shut up already," he said when he had enough.  The voice on the other end went quiet.  "It'll take us a few minutes to get to the end of here if we hurry without stopping.  If you're so desperate to not stay in one place for that long, get me something to eat, I'm hungry."

Ichigo's tone was one that he had never even used with you.  It was one of authority, familiarity, and as though speaking to someone of a much lower status. He hung up the phone abruptly after demanding food, and turned to you, "hey y/n, we need to hurry east so that they don't leave us here. You need to look for a black Ford, license plate xxxx xxx."

Ichigo and you walked at a steady pace, you pulling Ichigo out of the way several times when his hindsight didn't work, and he almost went crashing into trees and tripping over holes in the ground. As Ichigo had said to that other person, it only took a few minutes to get out of the forest.

Waiting for you was two men, one was significantly shorter than you, waiting in the front passenger seat. The taller one had scruffy brown hair and green eyes, and wore a tired expression. The shorter one, as you got closer, you realised was a child. He had pink hair in a middle parting, where blond roots showed through.

The tall one looked you up and down, before opening a door in the back. You helped Ichigo into the backseat before sliding in next to him. The drive was silent, and the only noise was of Ichigo helping himself to an apple from a paper bag. After a while of silence filled in by the crunch crunch crunch of the apple, you leaned close to Ichigo, "who are they?"

Ichigo stopped chewing. "Ted, who's with you?" Ichigo must have not realised that there was two, after all he had only spoken to one angry voice on the phone. You caught the tall one's eyes in the rear view mirror and quickly shifted your eyes onto the road in front, which was speeding by at an alarming rate.

"In short, we've had more than one issue in addition to yours today, so I decided instead of driving all the way back and then going for another round, I'd just take you both at once. This is Sai Aya, in the back is Kasai Kagakutekina and y/n l/n."

You thought about the boys name, it wasn't what someone would usually name their son, rather their daughter, but it suited his feminine features.  Then you noticed the other unfamiliar name. 

"Woah.... I'm in the same car as Kasai Kagakutekina?" exclaimed the boy in front, suddenly excited.   There was a 'tch' from Ted, "you couldn't tell?"

The boy had started babbling admirations of Ichigo's work to him, and Ichigo looked extremely flattered. "There's tons of rumours! How am I meant to know what he really looks like?"

"Try the fact he's the only blind one we have," Ted swerved around a corner, which made Sai slam his head into the side of his seat, as he was still turned around, looking at Ichigo.

"They say you've killed over 200 people, is it true?" Sai's eyes gleamed innocently, despite the cynical question directed to Ichigo. Ichigo laughed briefly, "you've got a lot of spirit, anyway once we get back I'm sure someone'll be willing to tell you the exact number, obviously though I specialise in mostly creating the chemicals rather than using them."

For a while, Ichigo and Sai conversed about the workplace, nothing which you understood. "Oh, but I've been asking you all these things! I should tell you some things about myself. You already know my name right? Ok, well Ted's training me to hack! I'm not as good as him yet, but he's saying that I can do really well with practice! Hehe, must run in the family."

Judging by the boys last sentence, you guessed he was Ted's younger brother.  It would seem that it was either coincidence, or this organisation was so secretive one could only join it if they had strong connections.  You also guessed judging by this that Ichigo must have special circumstances.  Not for the first time, you wondered how good he must really be at his work to be able to go this far with his wants.

He looked at you. "Y/n l/n, I don't recognise the name... you must've been in some organisation like ours, right? I can't wait to see what they're gonna do to get information out of you, you must've screwed up big time if someone as important as Kasai is bringing you." A look of confusion crossed your face. Ichigo shook his head while Ted scolded Sai for calling Ichigo by his first name.

"You haven't been watching the news?" Ichigo, or rather Kasai, asked. Sai shook his head excitedly, smacking it into the car seat again as Ted turned another corner. Ichigo grinned widely. "Well, y/n here has become quite the famous arsonist..." you snapped your head to the side to stare at him, mouth gaping open like a fish.

He laughed, "I'm joking, they only think she is, I kidnapped her. I'm the only arsonist here," the look on his face was just smug at this point. Sai's eyes gleamed more, if that was possible.

"Wooaaaahh... the infamous Kasai never fails to surprise me!" This time instead of scolding, Ted administered a smack to the back of the boys head. You winced, but the boy seemed unbothered.

"I'll tell you the whole thing, you've probably still got the idea that we're gonna torture her stuck in your mind.... Y/n here saved me, she's the only reason I'm alive right now." Your face flushed slightly, it was a bit of an over exaggeration in your opinion. He reminisced about the past few months with you, and you remembered all of your unfair punishments.

It was too late for anything now anyway. Wherever you were headed, it was a long way away, and it was getting dark. Sai had fallen asleep after a lot of excitement. Ichigo talked gently to Ted about his sibling. You found out a few things, about both Ted and Sai.

Ted was in an abusive home when he was younger, after the mysterious murder of his father, which he committed, he was accepted into this 'secret agency'. His mother, who believed her son had been kidnapped, as did the rest of the world, went on to have another child, Sai.

This one was not treated much better. Ted was out on an errand, of which you weren't keen to learn details of, when he saw his mother with the child. This was around five years ago, he said. He must not be too close to Ichigo, you figured, as Ichigo had been clueless of his brother.

Long story short, there was more slaughter, and the child was whisked away without a trace. This was accepted in the company, because of the hefty amount of money in the woman's bank account, which was drained mysteriously after the event. Sai was now thirteen, and Ted was in his twenties, like Ichigo.

It seemed to you that for people to enter this society needed three things. One, strong connections. Two, a skill with growing potential. Three, they needed to disappear off the face of the earth. As you drifted to sleep, the question of how Ichigo disappeared lingered on your mind, and followed you into sleep.

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