A/N: Thank you for reading. I hope you enjoy. The second chapter will be much more comprehensible. This one is meant to be slightly confusing. Hopefully it does not go too far in that respect.
The world famous novelist sluggishly lolled his head around, and attempted to open his eyes. He tried to remember what exactly he was doing before, and reasoned he probably passed out after drinking in a pub, judging by the headache currently wracking his brain.
That would have been a great theory, until he realized he was bound with a thick rope to a wooden chair, and was surrounded by darkness. The floor began to tilt.
Richard Castle's addled mind suddenly gained a sense of urgency. Learning that you had been kidnapped tends to wake you up pretty quickly. Castle struggled furiously against the ropes, but to no avail. That's when he started yelling.
"Beckett? Esposito? Ryan?! Is anyone there?"
He shouted their names, asked questions, screamed for help, for what seemed like an eternity, until something dull struck him in the head. It didn't knock him out, but sure did hurt like hell. Castle tried to grab his head in pain, but his hands were tied up, so he settled for a feeble groan instead. A voice rang out.
"Shut up for a minute, will you? You might actually manage to give me a bigger headache."
Bewildered, Castle turned his head as far left as possible, and out of the corner of his eye, caught sight of another rope and chair backed up behind his, complete with a young Japanese woman with long, dark purple hair, wearing a disheveled white dress shirt and black pants. Apparently he had been so loud that the Japanese woman had flung her head backwards and hit his, just to get him to stop screaming like an idiot.
"I really hope this is one of my more exotic dreams. All we need now is some glitter," Castle quipped.
"No matter how much wit you throw into the air, it won't help us get out of this situation."
"It's a coping mechanism. You have unreasonable violence, and I have one-liners."
"That glitter joke was two lines."
"It might have been one line if I hadn't lost so many brain cells to an unwarranted attack to the head."
After a few moments of silence, Castle started to remember how he had ended up in this frankly ridiculous situation.
A/N: This story will feature Ayase Yue from the second to last chapter, and I will try my best to remain as close to canon as possible, especially concerning power levels and abilities. I have assumed for now that the entire Ala Alba keeps their artifacts.
I took a large bit of inspiration for this from Dragontrapper's story which runs along a similar premise. I reference it a few times, but I don't spoil anything, so do not worry. I highly recommend you read his story. Mine will start similarly, but will soon deviate from his style. Thank you for reading and expect a new chapter soon.
