When Zen comes to, he's laying on his side, he has a headache and he can't see. At first he thinks his vision is hazy like it might be when he wakes up after an either too short nap or a too long nap, but when he shifts his head on the itchy sheets of a bed that is most definitely not his own or one of the simple beds of an inn and feels the fabric tied tightly around his eyes, he realizes that he can't see because he's blindfolded. He wants to exclaim his anger about being blindfolded, but there is a cloth tied between his teeth that muffles the rant he wants to go on. Zen's thankful that it doesn't seem to have been used for anything else. He tries to grab both of the offending cloths and rip them away from his face, but his forearms are folded and tied behind his back. His biceps are bound tightly to his torso. He lastly tests his legs, which he finds are also tied at his knees and ankles.
He squirms a bit to simply test out his bonds, grunting with his efforts. So far the rope is sturdy. He then relaxes his body and focuses on freeing his wrists, but to no avail. Unfortunately, it looks like his captor knows how properly immobilize a person.
Zen freezes.
His captor! Who kidnapped him? Who tied him up, blindfolded and gagged him? Zen knows that Obi can immobilize someone like this, he's seen it before, but he knows for a fact that Obi didn't do this, because the loyal servant has stated very clearly that he will never knock him out and bound him in such away. Zen retorted that it would be a good way for him to learn how to escape bindings in case he got kidnapped or something of the like, he was after all getting self-defense classes from the guy. Obi countered that if he wanted him to knock him out and test his escaping abilities, then he had to get approval from his aides, Shirayuki and King Izana. Zen was somewhat upset, but he knew that it was logical… and that he was never going to get approval from a single one of them. He was only able to convince Obi to teach him how to escape by just blindfolding him and binding his arms in different captive positions – which Zen found out there are a surprising plethora of – in the safety of a hidden area in the forest, but Obi never knocked him out, never left him alone, and never bound him like he does to those idiots that thought they could beat the knight, and he never trained Zen to escape bonds on a bed. Zen sees Obi's worry with acting out a more realistic situation, but he trusts Obi more than he knows he should, especially dealing with the matter of faking his own kidnapping. He tries to think of other options but his head still hurts. How did he end up like this? He waits, trying his hardest to remember what happened, but before he can, the door creaks open. Once again Zen freezes where he lays.
"Ah, so you are awake. I thought I heard the distressed meows of a kitten," says a man, most likely Zen's captor.
Zen stays still, as still as he can with his heart threatening to beat out of his chest. He had been taught to always act calm and collected no matter the situation. Zen doesn't think Izana had thought of the situation of being completely tied up, blindfolded and gagged in what is definitely a stranger's bed, but it's probably best to still be calm and not give his captor the satisfaction of seeing him freak out, which Zen really wants to do right now. Obi probably worried this scenario in his head, but hadn't thought that it would actually happen.
His captor steps into the room and quietly closes the door behind him, before walking towards the bed where Zen lays. His head is thankfully starting to clear, but he still can't remember how he got here. One thing he does remember, is some of the advice and training Obi gave him from one of their previous self-defense classes.
"Never rely on sight alone. Always listen to the footsteps you may hear, it doesn't matter if you can see or not. Footsteps can tell you where your escape is, how far away it is, and if there are any obstacles in your way."
The footsteps are coming up from behind Zen, turning his head towards the footsteps, he notes a slight change in the light that barely shines through the blindfold. His body is facing a window. He's too caught up in trying to follow Obi's instructions that he doesn't feel the feather light petting his captor is doing to his hair, he only notices when his captor gently traces his jaw with a finger, that is, until Zen jolts his head away. All is silent except for Zen's rapid heartbeat for what feels like hours but might only be a minute, or even less. His captor lets out something between a huff of dissatisfaction and an amused chuckle.
"what makes you so special to him?... I see that you're a pretty faced prince, but what could you possibly offer him other than recognition that he neither wants nor deserves?" There is amusement in this deep rumbling and menacing voice.
"Mmmfrf…" Zen tries to speak, momentarily forgetting the gag.
The hand that traced his jaw grabs his chin, forcefully yet slowly turning it to face the window. Zen's body complies. Zen is trembling, he's practiced escaping bonds blindfolded before, but this time, it's not Obi, not a friend, this person does not mean him well, but who is this "him" that his captor is talking about, and what does "he" have to do with Zen exactly? Suddenly his captor is over him, his hot, faint alcohol smelling and unwelcome breath on Zen's neck. Zen pulls at the ropes all around him again, he knows it's useless, but his body thinks it can break itself free. He lets out a quivering huff of fear that sounds more like a whimper. All of a sudden, his captor sniffs. He's smelling him, What the hell?! His captor makes a flat noise, but Zen can't get his mind to try and decipher it.
"He's always been on the friendly side, which is odd considering his reputation and the countless titles he has come to be known as in the underworld," His captor pulls a way, releasing Zen's chin.
Zen buries his face into the pillow under his head, trying to get as far away from his captor as possible. This man is talking about Obi. Zen should have seen this coming, he knows that friendships are practically impossible in the underworld, Obi told him, of course the former assassin is going to have enemies. The worst part about this, besides the being tied up and completely helpless part, is that as soon as Zen is free, Obi's going to disappear and is never going to come back.
The bed rises when the man stands up again, but Zen doesn't recall the man sitting down. There are light thuds as the man walks away, but Zen can't get his mind to work out the distance between the door and the bed. He's in shock, he's afraid and he might be drugged. There is a small squeak as the door opens, but Zen doesn't hear it, instead focusing on what his captor is saying.
"I hope you will accept my apologies, but this is simply business. I will not harm you unless our dear old Obi forces me into a situation that obliges me to."
The door closes. Zen is alone. Recovering from the shock, and putting his mind to it, Zen concludes his captor is from the underground – obviously – that much he knows for sure. Another thing he knows is that it's going to be pretty much impossible to escape the ropes and whatever building he is in. Obi said that there are people in the underground who could be knocked out simply by throwing a pebble at their head – Zen had questioned the size of the pebble, Obi changed the subject – but he also told Zen to never underestimate, nor overestimate his opponents. He thinks that his captor sniffing his neck was a scare tactic, a way to ensure that the victim, if Zen remembers Obi's wording correctly, "remains submissive and complies to their captor's orders" – Zen stuttered out a question about why Obi used that wording, Obi told him to get his mind out of the trench. Realizing that the scare tactic had worked on him, Zen asses his entire response to his first meeting with his captor. He always thought and always told Obi that he wouldn't be afraid if he got captured, to which Obi always replied that everyone is scared the first time, Zen now realizes that that was a huge understatement.
Zen wants to figure out how he got here, but he'll save that for later, he needs to escape first. It's time to put his training with Obi to the test. Obi said to formulate a plan, rethink it if there is time, and then methodically act on it. Zen might have been paralyzed by fear and wasn't able to count the footsteps… but Obi did teach him about one flaw with this binding technique.
Hopefully, his captor doesn't come back.
Hopefully, Obi finds him.