When Shinko awoke, she could see nothing. Engulfed by darkness, her senses skyrocketed. She could hear even the slightest shuffle; feel the tiniest prick on her skin. Her arms were restrained by heavy chains, which only gave her a slight slack to rest them. She was in a sitting position, with her arms hanging at her sides. Shinko could still feel a slight tingle from the venom that man had injected into her.
As if realizing where she was, Shinko tugged violently at the restraints to see if they would give, but they held strong. After trying countless more times, she stopped and tried to gaze at her surroundings once more. Her eyes had adjusted a bit more, and she could see that she was in a small stone chamber, with no furnishings and one rock staircase that lead to a door made of an unknown, dark wood.
When she calmed herself and her heartbeat slowed, Shinko fell within herself, trying to sort out all that had happened when she was last awake. She remembered the man who was in her house, and how he spoke of his comrade. She could remember that he could see her thoughts and had said that he couldn't let her die. Why, Shinko could not fathom.
The chamber door opened then, and revealed that man, the one that had knocked her out, for whatever reason. He stepped slowly down the stone stairs, eyeing his captive. Shinko's eyes narrowed and her arms came up in a defensive position, whatever good that would do. She bunched her body up so that there was little to no open avenues for attack. When he reached the bottom of the stairs, he lit a candle to allow a dim light to bathe the room.
Shinko wondered why he would even do such a thing. Why would he give a prisoner a reprieve when he could use the darkness to strike at her?
"Do I seem that cruel?" he asked her suddenly. Again, he read her thoughts. It made the samurai even more on edge.Shinko offered no answer, and used the training in concentration from her martial arts to clear her mind of all thoughts.
He came closer. Keeping her mind clear was becoming more difficult than it already was.
"Your trick won't work on me, although, you're quite good at it." He said, crouching down to just above Shinko's eye level. He smirked slightly.
Then, the samurai lurched forward in an attempt to strike down the man. Her bindings held true, however, and she stopped barely an inch from his body. Shinko's arms were pulled back, still fighting against the chains, and her face close to the man's.
Damn it! she yelled in her head.
From this distance away, she could see that the man looked quite amused.
"Did you actually think that would work? I built this chamber myself; I would be a fool not to know of every inch of this room. Good effort, I must say." He said, not backing down in the least. In fact, it seemed that he inched closer, which made Shinko pull back slightly in discomfort.
The chains became slack once again, but not before Shinko spat in her captor's face.
It made the samurai feel more in control, until the man pulled back his hand and formed it into a fist.
"You little-" he mumbled, and his hand flew forward. Shinko winced slightly, waiting for the blow to come, but it stopped millimeters from her nose. His shoulders visibly bobbed with a deep inhale and exhale.
His fingers opened and rested on Shinko's still unharmed cheek. The man's hand felt as ice, which made her shiver and pull back even more, until the samurai could feel the cold wall against the back of her head. She could feel her body temperature rising, and Shinko began to sweat somewhat.
"See what you almost made me do?" the man asked while slowly and gently caressing Shinko's cheek. He moved closer, so there was virtually no distance between her and her captor. She turned her head away, but he used the hand on her face to make her look back at him. Again, she tried to move away, but his hand slid down to her chin and held her face in that position. Shinko started to tremble, failing miserably to hold her resolve. He seemed to enjoy every second of it, although he was stone-faced, she could feel it. His tone turned deathly serious, "I hold your life in my hands. I have the power to kill you right now if I wished it. You're about a paper's width away from dying, but, if you act like a good little prisoner, I might spare you. And never forget, you're in my mercy."
He quickly turned and started to walk away. Severely shaken, Shinko couldn't get a word past a lump in her throat. She stared at the wall opposite to her, in a daze. The candlelight diminished, and Shinko could hear the man's footsteps up the stairs.
Finally, she muttered a reply.
"Weakling."
It was barely above a whisper, and Shinko knew it wasn't an intelligent thing to say, but it was the only thing she could use to describe her opinion of him at the time.
There came a rush of wind and the samurai was torn from her sitting position by her throat. She could see the evil glow of the man's eyes as they viewed her, they were full of rage.
The chains that restrained her tugged on her wrists, cutting into them when her captor pulled her higher than the chains could reach. She could feel his breath, which had the stench of blood, Shinko was sure.
"What was that?" he asked harshly through clenched teeth. His grip was indeed strong, and it blocked almost all air from entering or exiting Shinko's body.
She tried to get her hands up to grab at his arm, but that resulted in the cuffs on her wrists to cut more deeply into her hands. She could feel her own blood on her fingers now.
"Th-those who fight at an advantage against the same person more than once must not be confident in their own abilities. It makes them weaker than the smallest infant." Shinko replied, barely getting all of the words out.
She knew a painful blow was coming, but the fact that she was successful in enraging her captor was worth it. Shinko knew that that could be his downfall, given the right opportunity.
"You are a very infuriating little girl. If I had the time, I'm sure I could beat that out of you. You're lucky though, I have an arrangement to get to, so I'm going to let you live, for now." He said.
Shinko was half-amazed that she was still unharmed, for the most part. God was with her, she thought, and believed.
The man dropped her to the ground without saying a word about her thoughts. Perhaps he couldn't read all of them, but she was not sure. Shinko landed with a sharp thud, with her chains trailing after her. She made sure she didn't make a sound, so her captor couldn't have the satisfaction of it.
He went up the staircase quicker than before, but still at a leisurely pace. He opened the chamber door, which let more light in, but only a small amount. The samurai could see him toss something down to her and it landed on the ground with a small "chk" sound. She could tell it was glass, but it was strong, for it did not shatter.
"It's the cure for my late friend's venom. Take it, if you wish. Or, you could let the poison take you. I won't be chastised if you take your own life. It's up to you." Shinko's captor explained and left, leaving the samurai in darkness.