~O~
Welcome to The New World
We were all taken away. Pulled out of our beds, taken from our cars, and snatched right off the streets. We lost the war, and our freedom all in an instant.
It was the last moments of the old world, the last moments of our immunity. We all knew this was coming and yet we allowed it to happen. Right now, all over Japan, the new order was quickly being put into place, and so will we.
They dragged me into a room filled with screaming females. It was pitch black and the room smelled like a mixture of scents: Sweat, perfume, fear, and musk. I was thrown onto a lumpy pile of women and instantly caused them to stir in panic as they screamed and scrambled away from me. I fell to the floor and frantically turned around to look up for any type of exit but I couldn't see anything in the darkness. I had to rely on my senses, hearing a woman pray loudly next to me, there was one in the back trying to soothe another person. A woman next to me screamed to be let go.
Where are we?
I glanced up and noticed the large square windows high on the wall. It reminded me of a school auditorium or a gymnasium. The curtains around the windows were open and allowed in the moonlight which was nearly a slither across the sea of women. If I even imagined to be tall enough, I would be able to jump through the crack in the window.
Where are the men?
With my hands, I push away some of the hysterical women and tried to get a good look at our surroundings. I tried to move through the crowd and found myself stepping over some people that were laying or praying. Teens who were huddled together scared, squealed frightfully as I bumped passed them, a woman who I assume, fainted was splayed about and stepped on as women pushed back and against me to get as far away from the door as possible. I had moved through a great thicken of the crowd and saw there were guards standing at the doors that I came through. They were hauling more women inside before turning to leave again, allowing in the faintest of light before vanishing.
In my head, I contemplated using some Reiki to light my surroundings or fight against the guards but I instantly decided against such an idea. There were numerous guards standing at the door and there were possibly more of me but I can't bank on more Mikos stepping forth to fight against them. I sunk back into the sea and tried not to be swept back by the rough current of women. There wasn't much I could do right now but wait.
A tall dark figure emerged from the door, the slash of moonlight cut across his chest and exposed bright, shiny emblems. I knew those emblems. His piercing violet eyes were like shiny pebbles in the darkness as they scanned the room with a sense of disdain. He released a guttural growl that caused the women to become more hysterical as they screamed and fought to scramble far away from him.
"You insolent wenches!" He boomed loudly. A hush soon swept over us as no one dared to speak over the man.
"I know there are two Mikos among us. Sisters, they are." He enunciated slowly, instilling the fear within us with each step of the his heavy rubber soled boots against the hollow floor, pacing the width of the room. "I'll give you a chance to step up now. Accept your fate and maybe- just maybe, we'll spare you and your hands." He released a cruel laugh. I felt my knees turn to jello at his menacing aura. He was evil and I could feel it. Kikyou. My heart hammered in my ears and I was no fool but I wanted to bomb rush him with Reiki burning my fingers and fry him to a million pieces, but I knew that would be a foolish idea. My sister was here. In this room with me, possibly amongst the sea of women or unknowingly right next to me.
When he assumed neither one of us would step up, he stopped pacing and instead, did a left face and smoothly turned to face the crowd. A slit of moonlight slashed across half of his threatening face.
"Alrighty then, if you want to do this the hard way, we can. Don't think we don't know how to weed you two out. You're going to show yourselves soon and when you do. I'll be there to happily administer the ultimate punishment. Even better. I'll have you expose each other!"
~O~
I quickly learned this was the place where they taught you how to act the way they wanted you to in their new society. This was a detention center of some kind. After the demon left we were all pushed and forced to file through a door in the back to a poorly lit corridor where we were processed and put to a room. They intended to slowly break our spirits and boil down any thoughts of rebellion or reform in our minds and happily lap away the juices of what was left of our empty shells. I had to get out.
They assigned me a roommate, however we were prohibited to speak to one another and if caught, we were punished. I had no problem with not socializing because my roommate was an aloof woman who seemed about the same age as me. She scowled at me most of the time and turned her back towards me at night. I wasn't the most eager for companionship but I felt more like an enemy to her than an ally.
During the day we were required to learn how to treat our superior species by one of our own superiors- Hanyous, which we had to refer to as Mother at the center. We had to redevelop our mindset and take any habits from the old world and break them quickly or else we were punished severely or dealt with privately. We were seldom allowed out the Teaching Center (which most of the women began to call Daycare) except for our midday walks in an attempt to keep us from getting too fat and undesirable before we were delivered to our superiors. They made us walk in twos with our roommate on our walks around the building. Daycare was encased around a wired fence lined with curly barbed wire with a booth at the top of each corner like a prison where they had bird or spiritual demons watching for any runners. We weren't allowed to look around or daydream, lest we wanted to look suspicious and killed on the spot. A month into Daycare and a woman was shot dead with a lightning bolt in my roommate's line for looking around and staring at the booth for too long. The guards got nervous. Mothers were positioned at the head of the lines and at the end of the lines and to keep us in check and in step so no one tried to lag behind. Lest we also want to be shot down for that, too.
I took the time to look for Kikyou during our walks. Despite all the heads in front of me, I tried to look for her specific hair, skin, ears, nose, lips, eyes. Any features that belonged to her. I feared she may not have been captured and made me happy and disappointed at the same time. Due to the fact we weren't allowed to watch the news, read, or even so much as breathe anything about the old world and the war going on outside the borders, I didn't have a clue what could be transpiring right now in the streets of Japan. But I knew more girls were being brought here by the busloads everyday. We could hear their cries and pleas from the back of the center.
Whenever we sat down to eat for our meals, a guard was stationed at each table and at the doors in case we had a runner. We had quite a few in the beginning. I found myself looking for Kikyou there too. I would shift my eyes from time-to-time, looking at the worn out faces of the other women at my table. They were tired, sad, depressed, angry, and withdrawn. Some women had even succumbed to conforming to their new life and had a happier disposition than the ones who could not catch on to this new lifestyle. I had overheard a woman muttering to another lady at our table one morning that she even witnessed one lady before bedtime, telling the Mothers everything her roommate was saying bad about the new world and before she knew it, in the morning, that lady had disappeared and had been replaced by a new one. The tale brought shivers down all who overheard's spine. The Mother claimed the lady was being sent to be reeducated, that she was a rotten apple that had to be picked early and will return in due time to rejoin the beautiful blossoming orchard.
A siren blared early in the morning the next day, before the sun was even able to climb above the horizon, we were awoken by the wailing of the siren. My roommate and I quickly darted out our slumbers and raced out of the comforts of our bed as other women poured in the hallways. I feared the worst as I pushed through the crowd.
Was Kikyou captured?
My stomach twisted painfully in knots as I nudged a preteen aside to see a woman crying hysterically as a bodybag was being wheeled out of her room. I inwardly panicked, hoping the person in the bag wasn't my sister.
"What happened?" I breathed to the woman next to me. She was an older lady that was beginning to gray.
"A woman committed suicide last night. Choked herself with her own hands, it seemed." She whispered back and we watched as the Mothers hurried to disperse the crowd and get us ready. As we were being ushered off, I turned one last glance at the body being wheeled away and prayed it wasn't my sister lying on that stretcher.
~O~
My feet were propped up on silver pedals, forcing my legs apart and my nether regions to be exposed. A thin sheet of paper covered my legs but it wasn't enough to stop the gentle breeze from ticking my vagina from time-to-time. I breathed steadily as I stared up at the ceiling, feeling the gentle probing of fingers against, around, and inside my vagina. At one point, the doctor slid something cold inside me and it made me shiver and wince.
"Virgin," he whispered to someone who hummed in agreement. "Very fertile and ready, my nose can tell." The Youkai muttered before sliding the instrument further into me, ignoring my obvious discomfort. "I wouldn't mind putting my salary on to purchase her, if I didn't have offspring already." He chuckled along with his assistant. It really unnerved and irritated me how freely he was able to insult and speak so lowly about me, in my presence, no less. I was grateful I wasn't allowed to see the doctor's face and vise versa. It would have gotten me in trouble if he was able to see the expression of hatred I had on my face at that very moment. He was my superior by species- a fact that my Mothers instilled within me. Anger boiled up to my hairline and I had the burning desire to say something but I bit on my tongue so hard, I could draw blood any minute.
Next to me, my roommate sat within the same room. It mildly disgusted me that they would do such an appointment that was not even private to the person being worked on. We were not even granted so much a courtesy curtain to separate us. I rolled my head over to glance at her expression and saw her staring angrily at the ceiling with her nails digging into the plastic covering of the seat, tears collecting in the corners of her eyes.
"She's had sex before. Even a child or two, I might add." Her doctor said in disdain. "Well at least if she's given to a good owner, he may be able to go a little rough on her without putting a future child in jeopardy, or hurting her too much." My doctor agreed quietly as he continued on me.
Her cheeks burned red in fury and I could tell she was seconds from saying something but she kept her peace and released her words in the silent tears that rolled down the side of her face and disappeared into her brunette locks.
I pictured the smug looks on the doctor's faces then I remembered they're also wearing heavy masks that dimmed their sensitive Youkai nose. We were taught the smell of a woman's essence can provoke the primal side of a Youkai and there were cases before ours of the doctors doing-not-so professional or ethical things to women without their consent and against their will. It caused one of girls to be barren now and her womb is utterly destroyed, and the other was sedated and taken out of the center because she was so traumatized by the event that she refused to even look at a Youkai without hysterically screaming at them. Now the doctors wore heavy masks that didn't awake any uncontrollably urges inside of them and I believe its for the better.
After our monthly fertile inspection, we were sent back to our rooms. After being here so long, the Mothers allowed us to be trusted enough to walk back to our rooms without fear of us escaping or loitering where we shouldn't. It didn't matter if we had the freedom, anyway. We were always watched.
Back in our room, my roommate angrily flopped back down on her bed and screamed into her pillow. Her screams turned into a hysterical cry as she muttered into the pillow. "I'm never getting out of here, I'm never getting out of here."
I stared helplessly as she rocked back and forth with the pillow still pressed to her sobbing face.
"Are you.. alright?" I quietly asked. I knew it was a dumb question but I didn't know what else to say. This was the most emotion I've ever seen my roommate exert besides obvious anger and resentment towards everyone, including me. I felt bad for her.
She ceased her crying for a moment and slowly dropped the pillow from her red, tear streaked face. "No," she squeaked. "I'm not, and I don't think I'm ever going to be."
I bit my lip uneasily, I wanted to change the subject and although it may seem like bad timing, it also seemed a better time than ever to have formal introductions.
"Um...My name is Kagome." I refrained from sticking my hand out. My roommate didn't seem like she was in the mood for any interaction.
Without looking at me, she responded. "My name is Sango."
"Um..."
"Where were you when they caught you?" Her voice was solemn as she asked me. I felt the color drain from my face. What a conversation starter. She must have caught onto my apprehension because her head flew up and her eyes were apologetic. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to make you feel uncomfortable-"
"My sister and I were fleeing." Sango's eyebrows raised at my sudden outburst. I smiled reassuringly towards her, I wanted to know it was okay. "We had our mom and our brother flown to the U.S. a week prior to the war ending. We were afraid of this happening." I looked down at my hands.
"It was our time to go next- my father, sister, and I, that is." I whispered as I remembered that moment. We were driving to the airport but got stopped by the traffic on the expressway. People were fleeing on foot, out their cars, in droves.
"What about you?"
"They killed my family." Her eyes teared up again for the umpteenth time today. I frowned deeply, my heart ached for her lost. I sat up from my bed and moved to sit next to Sango and rubbed her shoulder comfortingly. "My husband and I were bringing our daughters to see my father. My brother was at school. When we came in, everyone was slaughtered." She broke down and sobbed.
I hugged her tightly and allowed her to cry on my shoulder while rubbing soothing circles in her back and murmuring comforting words to her. "Why would they do such a thing?"
"Kagome, I want to trust you but I don't think that I can." Sango pulled back and turned her eyes away from me. I wanted to laugh and tell her I had some skeletons of my own that could get me killed faster than anyone here but I remained silent.
"If you tell me, I'll show you something, so we'll both have each others secrets." I offered confidently. "You're not a secret spy for the Mothers, are you?" I asked half seriously. That made Sango chuckle before calling all the Mothers, bitches under her breath. She mulled over my offer before accepting the deal.
She braced herself with a heavy sigh and spoke slowly. "My family and I are Demon slayers. Some of my family are associated with the war. When they traced some of the soldiers back to us, they began killing families of Demon Slayers. My brother and I weren't in the family estates at the time of the mass slaughtering but they captured both of us and separated me from my husband and our kids."
"That's horrible." I breathed. I shook my head at her words. That must have been horrible to go through. In a split section everything and everyone you had was gone.
Sango pulled me out my musings with a nudge of her arm. "Okay, so what do you have to offer?" I was caught a bit off guard at her sudden mood swing and laughed nervously with the unconscious need to scratch the back of my head.
"Well, feast your eyes. I can't show you much without alerting the Mothers, but here." I lifted a finger and allowed a sensation to warm the tip of my finger. With great control, I allowed the energy to steadily sprout from the tip of my finger and slowly cascade down and illuminate the digit in a soft lavender tint. I watched as Sango's jaw fell in her lap, her eyes as wide as saucers.
"You're a Miko," She breathed, shocked beyond belief. Her eyes twinkled with a shimmer of hope and excitement that caught me off guard when she enveloped my hand tightly in hers and brought them between us as she excitedly spoke. "You're our savior!"
"Hush! Someone might hear us." I quickly shook my head. "I'm no savior. I'm just looking for my sister and trying to get out of here. This simply made Sango more excited.
"There's more of you?! In here. We've got to work together, we can get out of here-"
"I can't expose myself! They're looking for a pair of Miko sisters and the Mothers are on high alert. If we show ourselves, we'll be killed instantly!" My voice was filled with panic as I tried to reason with Sango. As a Demon slayer, it was understandable her dislike and repulse against the very Demons who killed her family and sent her here, but she couldn't act too hasty. If was only two of us against hundreds of Demons; We wouldn't stand a chance.
~O~
I had to pee.
After my conversation with Sango weeks ago, we hit it off greatly. Despite being not able to talk during our walks. We sat next to one another during our meal sessions, whispered to one another at night, and when the Hanyou guards were patrolling the halls, we passed notes scribbled on pieces of cotton from our pillow cases and a pen we secretly swiped from a guard's table in the hall. I learned that Sango was married at a young age- about seventeen to be exact because she was formly a part of a gang and was a wild-child in her youth, ultimately ending up in her getting pregnant by her husband. They had two beautiful daughters, and wanted to try for more before the war. She came from a very big, loving family and her brother and father personally accosted her husband (whose name I found to be Miroku) into vowing to make an honest woman out of Sango. They had been together since- until we were all taken, of course.
All-in-all, she was a pretty good person to talk to and I had confided some sensitive information in her. Currently, I was being watched as I walked towards the bathroom down the hall from my room. A lot of the Hanyou guards were lazy asses that didn't really liked being bossed by their superiors, so sometimes they were lax on their otherwise "strict" duties to ensure we didn't revolt or kill ourselves. I twisted the knob to the bathroom and found it to be occupied. I really needed to pee and I couldn't wait so I turned my head down the dimly lit hall to the guard that looked utterly bored.
"I really have to use the bathroom, can I go down to the other hall to the other stall?" I pointed towards the corner. We weren't far from the warden's office and it was quite a walk but it was one I was willing to take for the sake of my bladder. The Hanyou waved me off and I turned the corner down the hall.
The hallway was even more poorly lit than the last one. The only real light was one illuminating above the warden's quarters. I still needed to round another corner to get to the bathroom. I passed other offices and closets as I walked. The lights in the warden's office was off along with the others as I made my way to the bathroom around the corner.
After completing my objective, I felt better that I relieved my bladder and made my way back down the halls. On my way, I noticed the lights were on in the warden's office now, but I didn't really care as I passed by. However, the voice of someone inside grounded my feet from moving.
"Let me go," the voice said and I nearly peed myself right then and there.
"Kikyou..." I whispered. My heart raced in my ears as I approached the door cautiously. I needed to make sure I wasn't delusional.
"If you play nice, I may find you a good owner after I'm done with you." I recognized the warden's smokey voice.
"No! Get off of me! This is rape!" Kikyou replied back angrily. My heart plummeted in my chest as I listened. I didn't know what to do at that moment. Burst in and get killed? Stand here and let the warden rape my sister? I felt frozen at that moment.
My hand ghosted over the knob as I heard her struggle against him.
What am I doing? Kikyou!
I twisted the knob but it was locked. That's when panic soared through my body like a siren. Any moment now she could lose the battle against him so I needed to think fast. Who would else would have keys to everything, including the warden's office? Who?
Then I remembered. Looking down the dark hall, it came to me.
I walked down and found the closet I passed earlier. Inside was a rack against the wall with a set of keys. I made a note not to make too much noise or else I would get caught. I grabbed the keys and ran for the door.
Hastily, I attempted to open the door, but to no avail, the key wouldn't fit.
Damnit I bit my lip and turned back around. I heard footsteps coming towards me and I quickly looked around the dark corridor for somewhere to hide. I hid around the corner leading back to the bathroom and felt the Youki of the Hanyou guard, most likely looking for me. I heard his footsteps coming closer before I took the chance and jumped from the side with a surprise attack at his neck with a Reiki induced shot with two fingers. The guard didn't have enough time to respond before he fell with a loud thud, groaning in pain. I turned my attention and didn't quickly register the sound of the fight happening in the office or the turning of the knob while I quickly patted down the guard for his keys.
"Kagome!" My head snapped away from my work.
"Kikyou!" My eyes watered as I stood and ran to her and felt her arms around me once again. Everything felt wonderful in that moment, as if I found one familiar flower in a giant garden. Our tender moment was short lived as we heard the sound of a dark chuckle behind us.
"Well look what we have here. Not one Miko, but two Mikos!" The warden boomed from the office. He was picking himself up from the mess that was made during Kikyou's struggle. Purple smoke seared from his burnt wrist and neck. Our heads looked back in surprise before contorting into menacing glares. Kikyou released me and stepped in front protectively, bracing herself for a fight with the larger Youkai.
"Don't you dare take another step forward! I won't allow you to hurt Kagome!"
The demon's eyes twinkled in amusement at her threat and made me very uneasy. His eyes narrowed tauntingly towards Kikyou with a smirk curling around his visible fangs.
"I won't kill you two." He confessed calmly to us. Kikyou and I remained on guard with distrust in our forms. If he wasn't going to kill us, he had something worst in store.
"No, death is too kind of a punishment to give you. No." He said, his smile growing more wicked by the second. "I have something special for the likes of you two. Something that will make you two wish you were dead. Or should I say, Someone." His chuckle sent uneasily chills down my spine.
~O~
The car ride was very awkward. I was being driven in a black vehicle that had a screen separating the front seats from the back seats of the vehicle. I sat in the backseats with a bored look on my face. The windows were blackened out and I was unable to see anything through the netting of the screen. After the warden spoke to us, we were escorted back to our rooms, and was told to pack our things. We were then accompanied through the halls in the middle of night and led to an exit where they blindfolded us and led us to what I knew was outside.
The air was humid that night, I remember, because it was fresh from the evening rain. They sat me in one car and sat Kikyou in another. Before the door was closed, I felt a presence close to me.
"Just a rule of thumb before you leave," It was the warden, again. "Be careful of what you say and what you do out there. You're out of my hands now. I'd hate to see you in the next public execution for being exposed as a Miko. Have fun." He grabbed my face and gave me a big kiss and I recoiled in disgust. After I was settled and the vehicle was driving off, they gave me permission to remove my blindfold which wasn't much help for me to find out my current location.
After a while of lounging around in the backseat, out of boredom I leaned my head into the screen with the hope of seeing some type of light.
"Hey," I said.
"Hm?" A man responded back. I saw the arm of the passenger move and figured he was trying to see me.
"Where am I going?"
"Don't worry about it," He replied.
I rolled my eyes at his childish response and figured I had nothing else to lose. "Are we there yet?" I whined.
"Sit back, no." He said with a little more anger. I made the point to be loud and obnoxious as I sighed loudly and fell back with a flop.
I was so frustrated, I wanted to make noise and cause a scene but the warden's threat echoed in my head. If he was saying anything true, then I shouldn't be too hasty to do anything before I know who I'm up against. So I waited patiently as the car came up to a complete stop.
One of the men opened my door and ushered me out. I stepped out and the first thing I did was search for the extra car with Kikyou in it. There was no other car on the relatively quiet block except the one I arrived in. My eyes widen. It was a setup!
"Where's my sister? I thought we were both coming here, together."
The man pushed me along. "Hush, and keep walking." I wanted to blaze both of the Hanyous but I fought the urge and followed along up the steps of a giant mansion. The neighborhood seemed like it belonged to wealthy demons. There was a demoness next door watching two men mind her garden for her while shooting me death glares from across the yard.
I hoisted my dress while moving up the steps, hearing the two join behind me. I took in a heavy breath as I wrapped my fingers around the gold piece on the door and gave it a few good knocks. I stood back with bated breath as I awaited my fate. The warden's words still echoing in the back of my head and I wanted to break out in cold sweat. Whoever it was, I was utterly defenseless without Kikyou's aid.
A man opened the door. More specifically, a demon. Silver hair and warm amber eyes were the first initial features I registered, then came the crescent on his forehead, purple jagged marks that slashed his cheeks, and the gentle smile pulling his lips.
"And who may you be?" He deep voice sent a jolt of nerves up my spine. For the first time since I've been dragged through this whole mess, I was afraid. Very afraid.
"This is your new concubine, Lord Touga." One of the men behind me announced. Touga's gaze glowed with curiosity as he appraised me from head to toe, his gaze landing on mine. We stared at each other for a moment, his hand on his chin in contemplation.
"Hm," he grunted nonchalantly as if inspecting the freshness of a package of candy. "I see a rebellious fire in you girl."
"Thank you?" I said quickly without thinking. He raised a questionable brow. I nearly broke a sweat under his hard gaze but we all were thrown off guard at the sound of the deep rumble in his chest.
A jovial laugh erupted through his lips and for a moment, I wondered, is this the man whom I was destined to bear children with? He seemed more like a jokester than an evil demon that will eventually have to force me to submit.
"A fiery girl, indeed. You may be an interesting fit for my son." My eyes widened in shock, my mouth hung slightly open in shock as he ushered me inside with his hand on my lower back. The men followed suit behind us with my things. I felt like I was walking in the lion's den; a place where they knew the ins and outs of the battlefield and I was merely the prey prancing ignorantly. I was beyond trapped- we are all beyond trap.
~O~
Thanks for reading! Updates for this story will be slow so be warned.
R&R F&F and tell me whartcha think. All mistakes are mine.