They're coming. She thought, staring intently at the dirt beneath her feet. They're coming for me. Stupid bastards.
She grinned, her eyes not moving from the place on the ground, her features as cold as her thoughts as her kimono blew in the wind, her hair tangling while the wind blew harder as if to signal that they were coming. It wasn't safe anymore.
And anyone else would have run.
Should have run.
But she just froze, letting the wind make her heartbeat increase while she stood like a statue, haunted by something bigger than comprehension while she smiled to herself.
The first to arrive came in a black cloud, just like the others, exploding on impact when they touched the ground to reveal hooded figures. Each had the royal symbol of the bathhouse on their robes; it made her mouth taste like blood. She slid her tongue over her teeth, listening to their own panicked heartbeats as they stood in front of her still figure in the wind.
"As a member of the bathhouse security enforcement, we have been ordered to bring you with us as a slave." His voice shook, but no one but her would've noticed. She smiled again, gauging all of their reaction as she turned to them. Smiling.
"But, dear sir, I am a free demon. I am no slave." She cocked her head to the side, knowing full well why she was being interrogated.
Another demon boy of the bathhouses had turned eighteen and "rightfully deserved" a good demon slave. She was no slave. She wasn't stupid, either. She knew what they were going to do before they did it. They were all so predictable.
"Free demon or not, you are to be displayed before master Haku for evaluation." She tensed inside, but didn't show them while she stood, the wind picking up. "You are allowed to pack whatever fits into a rucksack, but nothing else. You will be gone for a month before being chosen, and if you are chosen, memories will be erased and you will live permanently as a slave to your rightful master."
She didn't bother holding back laughter. "My rightful master? The only master I have is me, sir." She said sir with so much sarcasm that it dripped from her mouth. "I am a demon of equal strength to your master, go find another demon." She turned, knowing what was coming next. Their puzzles were horrible and boring, though their reactions did pose some value to her entertainment.
"You are coming with us." Said another voice, obviously a soldier. Ha, they brought soldiers. Good luck.
She kept on walking. "See, that's where you're wrong. I'm going home." She grinned, wondering slightly if they would bother following her.
Her entire body froze when she heard a different voice, though. This voice commanded respect, commanded obedience, commanded her fear. She stopped in her tracks when she heard. "Ai, don't you play games. We haven't come to play with your puzzles." It was a dark voice she didn't trust, but it was powerful. She forced her voice to sound cocky, once again.
"You're mistaken, good sir, you're already in my puzzle." That was a lie; she didn't have a puzzle set. She was bluffing, but she was good at it and now left her freedom riding on her ability to lie. "And the puzzle's always win. You should know." She left her voice hanging, almost like a question that shivered through everyone's spine.
But he wasn't tricked as he smirked, his marred face twisting up in a horrible grimace. He lifted a single hand; she could hear the fabric move soundlessly. It was then she knew, it was time to run. It was time to run for her freedom, like the wind she knew well was on her heels, whispering "faster".
She panicked, it was rare for her to panic, honest. She was calm, and collected. Logic was her field, emotions were not. But as she heard them whizz towards her, intent on her body she let her mind wander. They would catch her, but they wouldn't get her mind. Her mind was hers. And her mind was locked; she swallowed the key while she ran, the wind working with her as an old friend.
It was when she felt the first chain wrap around her arm, pulling her back. Snapping her in two. She still fought, dragging whoever had her caught. He wasn't heavy as she dragged him with, the leather cutting into her skin drawing blood against her paper white skin.
She didn't cry, it didn't even hurt that bad. The second piece of leather wrapped around her left ankle, taking her down for good this time. She still struggled, not tamed whatsoever. Another and another piece of the painful leather wrapped themselves around her limps and torso, one even snaking around her neck. And as she fought, they grew tighter, blood showing faintly on her skin and through her white kimono. She grunted as a scared face looked down at her. She was breathing heavily and spat up at him.
"Naughty. You'll have to be trained before meeting your prospective master." He leaned down, taking a small amount of her snow-white hair up in his fingertips delicately. He brought it to his mouth, sniffing. "Smells like apples." He grinned, "You're quite a catch. Even if he doesn't want you, someone will pay a good price. We just need to break you."
"Like hell you will!" She started to thrash again. "Fuck you!"
He made a sound in the back of his throat. "Needs to learn better language, as well." She was about to spit another venomous string of words at him, to show him what else she knew about "language" when a dark stick knocked her on the back of the head. She made a horrible sound, a kind of gasp that got stuck in her throat, as her eyes got big before she slumped forward. "Not dead. Just sleeping." He smiled down at her. "What a pretty girl she turned into."
A soldier spoke up, "Do you know her well, sir?"
He paused before answering, grinning down at her still body fondly. "I knew her when she was a child. She was just as feisty then as she is now."
And they started to drag her to her new home, a few soldiers looking down to admire how peaceful she looked when sleeping. Her white hair fell around her body like a veil, straight as chopsticks. Her eyes were blue, they remembered, but her eyes were closed, her eyelashes casting a long shadow down her face. She was tiny, about five feet tall and actually looked kind while she was unconscious. She was kind of dirty from being dragged; her pure white kimono now tinted red and brown.
"What kind of demon, is she, sir?" piped in a younger soldier, struggling to pull his own weight.
"She didn't fight like a river spirit, or even a fire spirit. She isn't homely enough to be a mother spirit…" They all stole glances at her. "What is she?"
"She is rare." Mumbled the scared man. "She is dangerous, as well, don't get too close until we brake her. She's a puzzle spirit, she enjoys her games. She's like a child who hasn't gotten her way, playing games with everyone around her. Both intriguing and destructive." He looked forward again. "It's been my personal goal to see her fall for years now." He grinned again, moving his cold gaze forward. "A child doesn't deserve to have freedom, they need to be supervised."
Ai stirred in her "sleep" as he spoke, wanting to thrash about like she did every night. She heard his voice, it was just another awful dream. He wasn't really there, she would wake up at home in bed, safe. She was still safe… She was still free. She was going to be okay.
She was a good liar.