A/N:  This is a short chapter, my apologies--I just want to get it up and posted before the hard drives get reformatted and I forget to post it and it vanishes, never to be read.  Tell me if you like it--I'm hoping to do--oh, seven more chapters, probably, if it goes over well and the fire stays in my fingers for it.

Later!

DISCLAIMER: I don't own anything pertaining to FY, nor do I make any money with this fic. In fact, it's pretty likely that I'm going to lose money on the deal, once the intensely-devoted-ninjalike-fans find out where I live and I have to run for my life...

RE-EDUCATION

Chapter One

Yui opened her eyes.  Something was wrong...her bed felt so hard. And cold.  Her head was thick, and her hands--she stiffened. Why are my hands tied together?

 The room cleared around her, and she realized why she was so uncomfortable: she lay stretched out on a stone floor, bound thoroughly with rope. Her ankles were tied, and her knees, and her arms were bound at her sides. It was loose enough that it wasn't cutting off her circulation, but too tight to wriggle out of, roll around as she might. She tried anyway.  In her thrashing, she saw grey stone walls, a low window at the other end of the room that looked out on a mockingly blue sky.  She smelled something cooking, and when she strained her hearing she barely picked up the distant sound of male laughter.

Where am I? she wondered. She tried to brace her head against the wall and sit up, and scraped her face on the rough stone. "Ow!"  She shouted, then bit her tongue. Now whoever brought me here knows that I'm awake. Shit, shit, shit. Her cheek was bleeding a little, and the sensation made her even angrier. All right, so I'm kidnapped from my bed, tied up, left sleeping in a cold corner without even a blanket, and I'm hungry...damn it!  Her frustration broke free. "HELLO?" she called, furious.  "Where the hell AM I?" She tried again to scoot herself upright, earning an abraded leg instead.  "Shit! Hello?"

She heard the opening of a door, but in her position, she couldn't see it. She held her breath and closed her eyes, concentrating on the sound of her kidnapper.  Soft footsteps meant leather boots without wooden heels--there was a soft clinking, which indicated jewelry--and the creak of what might have been a leather belt scraping across cloth. The light from the window was blocked out as her kidnapper knelt in front of her, and Yui opened her eyes.

The eyes that studied her were golden, and angry enough to burn her. She looked away, taking in the rest of the man--he was slim, and wore the harness for a fighting fan across his chest and back. His hair was unruly and orange--an unlikely color with more unlikely amber highlights.  He smelled like spices, Yui noticed. And then he spoke.

 "About fuckin' time you woke up, Priestess."  His canines were pointed, she saw.  Her stomach jumped, and her heart was beating fit to tear itself from her ribcage and fly away.  His voice was rough and harsh.  "I am." she snapped. "Who are you? Why have you taken me here? Where IS here?"  the man reached out and covered her mouth.

"Yer fuckin' kiddin'." He said.  "Yer not my Priestess, Priestess. Don' go thinkin' I'm gonna do ya any favors here."

Yui closed her mouth sharply, and felt the flesh of his hand tear a bit between her teeth.  The man reached out with his other hand and slapped her soundly on the face. He made no noise, merely slapped her, though his eyes narrowed.  "Don' do that." he said in a low voice. "Miaka made me promise not ta hurt ya, but I bet I'm allowed ta hurt ya back."

Yui released his hand, tears spilling from her eyes.  "Miaka!  I should have guessed it! That bitch!  This is about the summoning, she's trying to keep me from being able to summon the God!  She just wants--"

The man put his bleeding hand over her mouth again. "Shut up." he said.  "Mia didn' want this.  It was--tha others. We all decided that it was best, really, that we stop ya b'fore ya cause more fuckin' trouble than ya already have."

Yui glared.  "You're one of her warriors? Who are you?"

The man stood and turned away from her. His hair burned in the renewed sunlight, bright and swaying like fire, and for a moment Yui was terrified.  "He looks like those pictures of Suzaku that Nakago showed me. But--the God would never--"  The man's words silenced her thoughts.

"I'm Genrou." he said.  "Or Tasuki, if ya prefer. Enjoy tha luxury of havin' two ta choose from, 'cause it's tha only luxury I'm givin' ya."

"Where is Miaka?  Nakago will kill her, you know--My warriors will come and kill her, which is only what she deserves, for what she did to me. She--"  The man spun on his heel and growled at her, and she fell silent.

Tasuki watched her with wolf-eyes and bared teeth.  "Miaka deserves better than this from ya, that's what she deserves. She loves you, fuck knows why." he said.  He paused.  "I'm all fer killin' ya, m'self."

She loves me? The idea burned, like she'd bathed in acid.  Yui decided to ignore it, like she ignored so many things these days, and wait for the discomfort to be forgotten too.  "Kill me?  Why? What have I ever done to you?"

She never saw him move, but he was suddenly so close to her that she could smell the woodsmoke-and-cloves of scent of his shaggy hair.  "Yer that stupid, kid? Gods!"  He looked like he'd tasted poison, and he threw his arms into the air. "Me, me, me--ya got no family? Ya got no love in ya now?"  He strode over to her and stared into her eyes. "Ya'v done lotsa things. Lemme tell ya one. Ya know Tama?"

Yui's cheeks burned. "Tamahome? He's here?"

"Trust me, ya don' wanna see 'im now, Priestess. But oh, fuck, does he wanna see you. Did ya know he's th'oldest of five? Before all this shit happened, with the war an'all, he used ta work any job he could find, ta send tha money home ta his family, 'cause his dad's sick. Has to stay in bed all'a'tha time, y'know. The other kids'r really young, oldest'f 'em's about eleven--or 'e was."  The warrior's face was so close to hers now that his breath stirred her hair.

"One'a yer warriors killed all of 'em. Even the baby. No mercy with it, neither--he sliced'em ta bits. Opened all their soft parts to the cold air.  Laughed while he did it.  Made their father watch, before killin' 'im too. Y'get the picture?"

Yui tried to look away, but the bandit reached out with a rough hand and held her face, glaring into her eyes.  "Don' you turn yer head! Ya deserve ta see it full on! It doesn' fuckin' matter what ya did ta me, ya understand?  But Tama. You killed 'im when ya let Suboshi murder 'is family. An 'e's my brother. Yer tearin' Miaka apart inside--an' she's worth ten thousand of ya on a bad day.  All she wanted was ta help ya!  She came back ta help ya, an' ya betrayed 'er!"  

"Let me go.  It wasn't me that made Suboshi go out and do that--it was his own choice..." Yui tried to pull her face from his hand, but his grip was unbreakable. He squeezed a little, and her jaws ground together. "Shut the fuck up." he snarled, quiet enough that no one but Chichiri could hear it.  "I'm gonna talk ta ya until ya get the point. Miaka is our Priestess. Y'know what that means? It means that we protect 'er, and she protects us. We keep her safe, an' she keeps us whole. Do yer warriors do that fer you? An' what'v you ever done fer them? If ya'd been teachin' them the stuff they needed ta know, they'd never do tha stuff they're doin! Yer worse than useless. Ya make the whole problem bigger, 'cause now they can do bad things an' say that their God agrees, y'understand? 'Cause you don't say no!  It's like--it's like givin' swords ta kids in a fuckin' crèche an' wanderin' off. Y've got responsibilities!" He enunciated the word carefully, and it came out in a bitter hiss. "Y'disgust me. From what Mia tells me, yer better than her at a hundred things--why'r you so shit at this?"

He let her go and rose from his crouch. Her face ached where he'd grasped it, and her throat throbbed with suppressed tears.  "Leave me alone." she whispered. "Just leave me alone."

He grinned down at her then, though there was no mercy or mirth in it. "Fuck, no. You haven't earned it from me. All ya want is ta be left alone? Tough! I wanna stay at my home, with m'boys, livin' like I used ta. I can't.  Because of you. Mitsukake wants to go back to his hermitage. 'E can't. Because of you.  Chichiri wants--Chichiri wants things fucking different--but Suzaku made us for a different way.  If we do well, then maybe next time 'round, we get a different game ta play. Or maybe yet in this life.  But you haven' earned it, chicky.  There's a fuck of a lot left for ya ta do, an' more ta make up fer. Tread careful."

Unable to hold herself back, Yui cried "What do you keep me here for?  If you're going to kill me, kill me! If you're going to ransom me, ransom me!"

He was already striding away. Over his shoulder, he said "Wrong both times, kid."   As he vanished out the door, he started to whistle.