A few opening words: I said it before, and I'll say it again. This thing is writing itself! Anyway, enjoy...

Sakaki leaned back against the trunk of the big oak tree. She was on a branch about halfway up, hidden by the leaves. Roughly 200 yards away was the bandit camp. She had sharpened 6 long sticks into javelins to use as a ranged weapon. She would've liked to charge in there and save Kaorin tonight, but she wouldn't stand a chance against 45 armed men. Even her sword thought it was a bad idea, as odd as it was. She would have to fight guerilla style. Sakaki had already planned out her strategy: tomorrow and the next day she would skirt the edges of the camp and take out as many stragglers or patrols as possible. If the bandits decided to move her plan held, she would simply follow and eliminate them if any strayed from the group. The night after tomorrow (the third night of captivity for Kaorin) would be when she would strike. During the next few days while killing the patrols, she would keep an eye out for where she was being held, so that when the time came she could have her escape already planned out. Her escape route was to find the river and follow it to a town or the ocean. Eventually they would arrive at civilization, whatever that might be in this world. The sword's presence pinged her mind, reminding her that, should the opportunity arise, it would help to take out the leader of the bandits. If this happened it would make it easier to get in and out with Kaorin during the resulting confusion.

Sakaki rested her head against the tree and closed her eyes. Now was the time for rest; tomorrow she had fighting to do. As she drifted off to her dreams, she wondered how the rest of her friends were doing…

"Well, this officially sucks."

"Shut it Tomo, you've been saying that since we were thrown in here." Currently, all five girls were sitting in a cell on a pirate ship. Or at least this world's equivalent of a pirate ship. It was long and rather thin comparatively. It reminded them of the Roman Triremes they had read about in history, only without the oars and with two extra masts. From through the small circular window they saw they were at sea, and it was night. It hadn't been a long trip to get to the ship. It turns out the sea lay probably about three kilometers east (if using the sun as a marker) of their camp. After tossing them in the cell, the pirates had left them well enough alone.

"Well, what are we gonna do then?" Tomo asked for the fifth time. Kagura was getting increasingly annoyed.

"Tomo, you can see our current situation right? With the armed pirates, metal bars, and ship at sea? You can see that right?"

"Well yeah, but…"

"No buts, just stop asking. I can't think with you constantly talking." Kagura scanned the cell, looking for something they could use, when she saw Chiyo asleep against Osaka's shoulder. Thinking for a moment, she made up her mind, and lowered her voice to a whisper.

"You know what? I think the best thing to do right now is get some rest. We'll figure something out in the morning."

Kaorin was beginning to feel the effects of not eating for a whole day. It was making it hard to get to sleep, which didn't help in these conditions. She was tied to a high branch by her wrists so that she was basically standing the whole time. Her whole body ached from being dragged by the horse repeatedly; the scrapes on her knees and elbows were testament to that. She was about to actually drift off to sleep when she noticed a pair of men approaching her. One was average size compared to the others, but the second was huge, fully two feet taller. He looked quite tough too. She was untied from the tree before the larger of the two literally dragged her to the main fire area. He stopped right by the fire and used a small dagger to cut her restraints. Kaorin shakily stood up and looked around. The majority of the bandits had formed a circle around her. The only other person in the circle was the large man. He paraded around, and the crowd began to laugh and cheer at him. He turned to her, and stood in a fighting stance. He waved her forward, as if wanting her to attack him. They can't be serious? She thought. Can they? Her question was answered when she was kicked in the back, sending her sprawling forward. This caused a roar of laughter from the crowd. They only laughed harder when they saw the tears in her eyes. This struck a nerve.

Kaorin stood up, and spat out some blood that had sprouted from her tongue, which she had accidentally bit when she hit the ground. The large man finally noticed she was standing, and chuckled to himself. Kaorin surged forward and threw a strong punch at his midsection. He wasn't wearing armor, so it should hurt right? Her punch connected, but had no visible effect. She looked up, and found him grinning widely. The next thing she knew his fist connected with her face, sending her to the ground again. She struggled to rise again, but couldn't find the strength. The man laughed at her, and so did the crowd. All she could hear was laughter. Then the large man did something unthinkable. He spat on her. It hit her in the cheek. This was the last straw. She was angry at him before, but now she was just plain disgusted. Kaorin summoned up strength she didn't know she had, and pulled herself up. The crowd stopped laughing, as she rushed the larger man. He threw a punch aimed at her head, but she dodged to one side. Continuing the movement, she jumped and wound up for a punch. She saw her target, and let the punch fly. She landed on her feet and continued on for a few steps putting some distance between her and her opponent. Turning around, the crowd was silent. The man slowly turned to face her. He began to laugh and wiped away a small bit of blood that dripped from his lip.

Kaorin froze. She was exhausted; that last outburst had taken a lot out of her. The man then turned serious. Before she knew what happened, his hand shot out and gripped her throat. He lifted her up by the neck, making it hard to breath. He brought her back and tossed her effortlessly away. She hit the dirt hard and rolled to a stop. She could feel her torn clothes begin to give. As she struggled to get up, his foot connected with her stomach, sending her flying again. She hit the ground, rolled, and tried to get up again. She couldn't hold it in, and vomited from the power of the blow. Wearily Kaorin looked up, just in time to see an armored boot hit her in the face. She wouldn't have to worry about falling asleep; she was unconscious before his kick connected.

Sakaki awoke at the break of dawn, with a little help from Ragnarok. It must've sensed the time and nudged her awake mentally. She parted the branches enough to see the camp and found they had packed up and were almost ready to move on. Sakaki caught a glimpse of Kaorin before the bandits started moving. She appeared to be unconscious, and had also lost her top along the way. In addition, Sakaki could see she was pretty beat up, which only fueled her anger. She gave herself a moment to calm down before she mentally ran over the plan. Soon they would send out patrols; that was when she would strike at them. Sakaki put her emotions on the backburner. She didn't like that she would have to kill people, whether or not they were evil. But it was either them or Kaorin, and Sakaki wasn't about to let them hurt her friend. She quickly climbed down the tree and began her pursuit.

Kagura awoke to find herself the only one awake, or at least she thought so. She checked the small window to see it was early morning. She turned to go lay back down when Osaka nearly gave her a heart attack.

"G'morning! Sleep well, Kagura?"

"Jesus! Don't scare me like that!"

"What? You thought ah was asleep? Heh, I thought you were more observant than that." This sounded weird to Kagura. Osaka was sitting cross legged against a wall with her eyes closed. She looked very much asleep.

"So… did you sleep well?"

"I didn't sleep."

"So you've been there all night?"

"Yep."

"What have you been doing?"

"Practicing."

"Right…" Kagura had already stopped paying attention. Having a conversation with Osaka was like going to Chucky Cheese; it's fun yet you have no idea what the hell is going on. Kagura had more important things to think about anyway, like how they were going to escape their dire situation. Food was dropped off by a mean looking fellow, but Kagura ignored it, saving it for those who needed it more. She was in charge, so she was responsible for everyone else's well-being.

Sakaki crouched on a branch fairly low in one of the giant oak trees that made up the forest. It was just low enough that she could jump down without injuring herself. One of the bandit patrols was coming her way. She readied one of her makeshift javelins and waited. She was fairly confident in her swordsmanship skills. The sword's 'lessons' taught her enough, and she felt she could count on it to help her should the need arise in a fight.

Sakaki tensed her throwing arm; the first of the three men came into view. She waited until her was directly under her and heaved the javelin downward. It impacted on the top of his skull, dropping him without a sound. The other two rushed up to him, yelling at each other in their native tongue. Sakaki quietly drew her sword, and slid off the branch. She dropped onto the first one's shoulders and drove his face into the ground, simultaneously bringing the sword across the other's unarmored chest in a powerful two handed slice. He dropped clutching his chest. He was gasping for breath; she must've cut deep enough to damage his lungs. Bandit number two was out of the fight. Sakaki was thrown to the ground as the man she was standing on rolled over and got to his feet. She was on her feet in an instant as he drew his weapon, a menacing looking one handed axe. He charged her, weapon held high over his shoulder, ready to be swung. He closed the distance quickly and brought the weapon down in a vicious overhand slice. Sakaki waited for just the right moment, and dodged nimbly to the side and forward behind him, bringing her sword under his shoulder and forcefully up, completely severing his right arm. The man had no time to scream as she spun around, sword following her movements, and quickly beheaded the man.

Sakaki waited, sword at the ready, until she was sure they were dead. She cleaned the blood off the sword with a strip of fabric off her shorts. She suddenly felt nauseous, but ignored it. There was still much to do. Sakaki removed the javelin from the first man's head and cleaned it as well. She was pleased to find the point was still intact. Sakaki tied it in with the others on the strap to Ragnarok's scabbard. Once it was secure, she ran off in the direction of the bandits to wait for the next patrol.

Kagura was literally wrecking her mind over a way to get out. Yomi, Chiyo, and Tomo were occupying themselves with word games, Chiyo the victor nine times out of ten. Osaka was simply sitting cross legged as before. It was nearly noon already and still she had yet to come up with an idea. She was about to ask the others if they had any, when she was hit in the forehead by a pebble.

"Hey! Osaka, quit throwing those!"

"I'm not throwing them, I'm…"

"Yeah, whatever." Then she thought about something. Osaka had been acting weird since they arrived in this world. She had also mentioned something earlier about 'practicing'. Kagura had shrugged it off as the usual Osaka nonsense, but this time…

"Osaka, earlier you said something about practicing. What exactly were you practicing?"

"This." She held out her hand, palm up, with a pebble in it. She closed her eyes, and as if by magic it rose into the air and hovered a good foot and a half above her hand. She opened her eyes. "Neat huh? Watch." The pebble floated around her head, then over to Kagura's and around hers, before dropping back into Osaka's hand. Tomo, who had seen all this, was at a loss for words. Kagura was stunned.

"So… what? Is that magic or something?"

"I guess so."

"Well, how does it work?"

"I've been trying to tell you the whole time, but ya just keep ignoring me. It's like I can feel my surroundings, ya know? And I can lift the smaller things, but without touching them. Though, it seems to take the same amount of strength as if I had done it myself."

"So… you mean like telekinesis then?"

"Yeah, that's the word!" Kagura found an idea forming in her head.

"Osaka, d'you think you could get those keys on the far wall?"

"No problem." She closed her eyes, and sure enough the keys floated off the hook and towards the lock. The others had noticed the strange happenings as well, and quietly watched from behind. The keys inserted themselves in the lock, and turned. The girls heard a click, and the door swung open. They gasped simultaneously.

"Whoa." Osaka simply smiled her usual smile.

Author's notes: Well, the plans get under way, and the action starts up! Also, this'll probably be the schedule for a while (a chapter a day). Also, if you read it, review it! I know there are some who read it and don't review. I like hearing what you think of the story, whether it be good or bad! Also, reviews bring faster updates, as they fuel me to churn them out knowing I have readers! Anyway, till next time!