first hurdle

Dawn came the next day, and things were different from normal that day. First, Ryujin wasn't the first to wake up as usual. He was the second one who got up because of the noise of the first one getting up

The first to get up was Gin who was packing her things in a corner. He pulled some sort of bag to the corner of the room while he handled it with a little care, not seeming to want to make any noise.

"Gin, waking up so early? What a surprise!" Ryujin asked getting up and moving closer to Gin, he squinted at his brother and said "I hope you're not thinking of running away and leaving us here!"

"No, I'm just looking for some money to go" Gin replied with her usual relaxed smile as she raised her hand and showed Draco some coins "we need money to go."

"I agree with you" Drago recognized the need for money for the group and put one arm in his pocket pulling out a bag of coins "How many do you have there?"

"I have 1300 Kan," Gin said with a sad face "we need at least 4 thousand to reach district 1 by wagon which would take 15 and the test is in a month"

Ryujin nodded and turned his eyes to his coins with a slight sense of loss. To imagine that Gin got more Kan than he did was an insult to his heart.

"I have 1000 with our two together from 2300," Ryujin said putting the coins on the table and looking at Gin with a defiant face "If we ran day and night to District 59. it would take 5 days and then we'd take the wagon"

Gin looked at Ryujin, wiping a little smile off his face thinking about the possibility. He started calculating the distance in his mind and came to a conclusion

"Yes, it would work, but Rangiku can't run that long!" Gin looked at the side of the bed next to Gin and Draco's bed where Rangiku was sleeping peacefully "I doubt even if she can catch us both at speed, I already have trouble reaching you"

Ryujin also glanced at Rangiku and turned his attention to Gin once more putting his clenched fist in front of Gin's face.

"What you are doing?" Gin asked looking at Ryujin's clenched fist curiously.

"Let's take jokenpo," Ryujin said as he moved his fingers in front of Gin's face "To see who will take Rangiku on his back first"

"Then we don't need it." Gin started laughing "You're physically stronger you can take her first, I'll stay in containment case from being attacked"

"Closed then?" Ryujin held out his hand to Gin

"Closed" Gin shook Ryujin's hand

---

3 days later

"Ryujin goes slower!" Rangiku yelled as he tried to grab onto Ryujin's back who was running at high speed "I'm going to fall"

The wind was blowing into her hair making her have to squint her eyes to look straight ahead. Unlike Draco, she didn't have the tough body to be able to move that fast.

"Then hold back!" Ryujin yelled jumping up a tree branch and looked down to see Gin running under the trees dodging them with agility "Gin, we are approaching the border with district 61-60 from now on there will be Shinigami police, be careful with us not to be confused with criminals, because it's not every day that we have an albino snake running around"

"Okay, you, a crippled lizard face carrying a heavy girl on his back, can get the Shinigami's attention" Gin yelled back at him.

"Good observation, so let's take care of both of us!" Ryujin replied smiling

"I'm not heavy!" Rangiku screamed hitting Ryujin on the head and almost lost balance doing such activities and when she re-balanced she started to scold them "Stop that insulting shit, why? Why is it always left to me?"

Rangiku felt her vein pop out on her forehead. This started from the first day of travel. Ryujin and Gin were always competing to see who gets there first. When one is losing the other, he starts hurling insults at the other.

It was Ryujin who started this. At first, Gin was lost and irritated being affected by Ryujin's insults. but before long, he figured out ways to counter the insults, and somehow when the insults were even they would involve Rangiku in the middle of the fight insulting her as well.

"We know" The two shouted at the same time and Ryujin jumped another tree.

He stopped his feet skidding on the branch giving Rangiku a thump to hit his chest into his back hard.

Ryujin's hard, strong body caused Rangiku to scream in pain from being hit by the thrusting blow. She prepared to scream at him, but she felt a hand cover her mouth and when she rolled her eyes to scream, she saw that it was Gin behind her.

(How did he get there?) She thought scared (Ryujin does this too from time to time, what trick are they using?)

"Rangiku, don't say anything and hold on to Acnologia"

Gin spoke coldly as he looked across the forest.

She looked at Gin and saw his eyes wide open fully focused on the forest and there was a horrible feeling coming out of him, the worst thing for Rangiku was Ryujin when she looked at him

Rangiku wanted to say something, but her mouth was closed by Gin's hand and she looked at Draco who looked the same way with a tense and cold gaze. Furthermore, his eyes were slitted in a way that seemed to be inhumane.

Rangiku felt a chill and her stomach churned at the sight of Ryujin's gaze. she even tried to pull away from him to walk away thinking that someone had taken Ryujin's place. Her kid brother couldn't have that kind of cruel look

She luckily couldn't take her hand away from Ryujin because of his one arm. Ryujin took her hand and looked at her from side to side.

"Rangiku, sorry for showing you that side of me, but, we have to run away now!" Ryujin spoke seriously without taking his eyes off the forest

"Run from what?" Rangiku asked confused still afraid of Ryujin's strange eyes

AAAoooooooooooo

A mighty howl shook the entire forest and the undergrowth began to stir with something coming towards them.

"That! hold on to me!" Ryujin yelled as he dropped his Reiatsu at his feet and threw himself forward.

Gin did the same thing next to Ryujin still touching Draco's back.

Rangiku, by sheer instinct, grabbed onto Draco's neck pressing her body against him.

In the next moment, the three disappeared and a giant beetle with a black mask on its face came out of the bush attacking the tree and knocking it down.

Draco, Gin, and Rangiku on Ryujin's back disappeared and reappeared in several places almost simultaneously crossing the forest that was supposed to take more than 2 days of walking was done in 50 minutes, but when they left the forest. Ryujin and Gin were exhausted to the point that they couldn't even move.

Lucky for them, they reached their destination, District 59.