Waking up the first thing she noticed was the pounding headache. The second thing she recognized was that fact that she was freezing and on solid cement.
What had happened?
Opening her eyes, she instantly knew she had never been here before. The rafters above her were of an ancient dark wood, burnished by the many years they had stood in service of the structure. Glancing around she noticed she was in a storeroom of some sort. Inside there were a great number of soil bags, baskets for harvesting and other supplies. How the hell did she end up here?
Fighting the pain in her head she struggled to remember. The last thing… she was having a hard time coming up with it. Raising her hands to grasp her pounding head, Kagome heard a soft clacking and looked down to a necklace that had been placed on her. Slowly reaching for it, her finger ignited a red shock of power that repelled her hand.
A kodama? What was going ON?
She sat there, gradually recovering from the drug that had laid her low, gradually reconstructing her memories, praying that what she though had happened hadn't truly. Her powers had been sealed, and quite thoroughly so. Whatever kodama this was, was of the most serious caliber, as she could not even sense her powers inside her, it was likely the creation of a dark miko. Panic began to overwhelm her and she had to fight to regulate her breathing.
Dark mikos were rogues, known in their world for being very few, very reclusive and more akin to witches of European infamy. They lived long owing to their unholy perversion of their powers and most often fell into performing the bidding of fringe groups intent on destroying the pact. But there were so few left that she never imagined…
Standing up slowly, still suffering from dizziness, she walked around the room, she tried to find an exit, or some sort of exploitable hole that would enable her to leave and get help.
Searching in vain, the barn was without windows and the only door was entirely mechanical with a solid lock embedded in the metal.
Returning to her search for any other possibly helpful tool, she found nothing of interest and was about to give up on her search and ponder another solution or a panic attack when she heard several muffled beeps and the swinging of a hinge, before she heard the slam of a door. The same process was being done to the door in front of her before the beeping stopped and the portal was opened.
Staring at the door with no small amounts of trepidation, she backed up slowly as she watched the door swing in to admit Nara-san to the room, who firmly closed the door behind him.
Fortunately he started the conversation, because at this point she was certain she would only be manageable of unintelligible noises.
"Kagome-san, welcome to my farm. I'm sure you're surprised to be here so soon, but I decided to acquire something I wanted."
Finally gathering her thoughts, she asked, "What are you talking about? What's going on?"
"Now, now Kagome, all in good time." He said, pulling a pair of folding chairs from the corner and setting them up, one across from the other. Setting himself in the one by the door, Nara gestured for her to sit across from him, but Kagome stolidly refused.
Continuing on as if he expected this rebuke, he instead propped his feet on her chair and got to the point. "You are here because I want what you have."
"What – What I have?" She asked completely befuddled.
"This whole process would be so much easier if you just tell me where it is." Nara said, unamused by her confused expression.
"Where is what?!" she growled back.
Looking only mildly disappointed, Nara replied, "Not the answer I was looking for." He then stood and headed for the door.
In a brief moment of relief, Kagome hoped he was about to leave or at least open the door enough that she might be able to rush past him. She was already mentally preparing when he merely knocked on the door and the beeping began anew from the other side. Clearly there was someone else here.
Perhaps they could be reasoned with…
But all hope was dashed when the door swung open again for the hulking demon before he closed it behind him. It took her all of five seconds to identify him as the one who attacked her in front of the Yo Ray a few months ago.
Eyes widening in fear, Kagome, now without the defense of her powers backed behind a stack of fertilizer, keeping nothing between them but shit.
Gods.
The bastard clearly recognized her as he had an aware smirk on his face but instead of coming at her again, he stood guard by the door, awaiting further instruction from his boss.
"As you can see I have some help should I need it. Tell me where it is, and I will not send Ken here to force the issue."
"For the last time, I don't know what you are talking about."
"Ken." He ordered. Ken moved from his position towards her. As he stalked her around the columns of soil she screamed.
"I don't know what you are talking about! What do you want?"
Ken grabbed her arm and pulled her forcibly closer with demon strength before wrapping his arms around her waist in a cruel repetition of his earlier attack. He lifted her then, and carried her over to Naraku.
She had decided he had earned the title she refused to use earlier. Naraku was smiling at her, watching her struggle. When Ken and Kagome were before Naraku, She was set down on her feet, and despite her best attempt to lash out with her legs their demon strength meant they barely moved.
"As you are either unable to give up the location or unwilling, we are going to have to do this the hard way. Fortunately for you, I enjoy the hard way."
What was he talking about?
Before her eyes, Naraku raised his hand to her questioning, pained look and with some concentration he formed a stick of some sort. Pointing directly at her as it formed, it was hard for her to tell what was happening, but as he extracted it from the palm of his hand she could see it was roughly as long as her forearm, was incredibly sharp at the end, but was the thickness of a pencil.
"Ken, her left arm, if you please," Naraku instructed. Ken released one arm from around her waist and prised her right arm from her side. And held it out to the side. Despite this altered grip Kagome found she could not so much as budge the body parts in Ken's grip. Even so she tried and struggled in his hold, trying to get away, knowing that the pin before her meant nothing good.
But Naraku had plans for her, plans that were not helped by her struggles. With a quick backhand to the face, Kagome's head snapped to the side. In that moment she saw spots and blackness and swore he almost broke her neck.
Panting in pain and frustration, Kagome refocused on Naraku, who now had a gleam in his eyes. Slowly, he tapped the pin against her skin, considering…
"From what I know of it, it should roughly be the size of your wrist bone. I imagine it is not in there. Sliding the needle up her arm, leaving scratch marks and occasionally drawing a line of blood in it's wake, he used his other hand to sharply squeeze the thicker parts of her arm. Once he passed her elbow, he stopped dragging the pin, infused the pin with his youki and plunged it through her arm.
Kagome screamed.
Unable to think unable to move, the youki in the pin reacted against her reiki, but because she could not summon it or convince it to assist her, she turned away in agony.
It felt like she was on fire. Slowly, Naraku extracted it from her arm and inspected the wound with interest.
With a light tone, he observed, "Ahh… as expected, your reiki cannot defend you with this special kodama." Yet even as he spoke her powers returned to the area and started sluggishly working to heal the hole that went clean through her arm. Something was wrong though. It was as if her powers were cut in half, or confused in some way for while they were working, the bleeding continued and there was no soothing warmth to reduce the pain.
"Fufufu," the demon chuckled, "It looks like your powers aren't even healing you properly," He remarked as he hoisted her arm up to inspect the puncture wound on the far side of her arm, now the source of a current of blood. "Fortunately we have all the time in the world, what with you being estranged from everyone. No one will go looking for a while, so we can do this in slow and gradual stages." As if to illustrate his patience and perseverance, he moved the pin a few centimetres further up her arm and ever so slowly pushed it through skin and muscle until she had another hole coming out the other side.
Kagome was struck dumb then. She was choking with the pain this time, the first hole hurt but the second one even more.
And Gods, he was right. She had alienated everyone. She hadn't had time to make new connections. She hadn't been able to see the danger and now it was upon her like a horrifying nightmare she couldn't wake up from.
Cruellest of all, now she was the victim and because of how determined she had been to avoid this very situation she had unknowingly inserted herself into it and had no one in her corner for her pains.
I'm going to die here. She lethargically thought as Naraku gradually inserted the needle to a third and fourth spot on her upper arm, spacing out his insertions evenly as the blood raced down her arm onto the floor below.
He was talking to her, she mildly recognized. Deciding after a few moments to listen in, she picked up some horrifying details she would rather not have heard.
"I went to all this trouble to learn anatomy and it's going to serve me well. With my knowledge of the human system, I will not only be able to avoid killing you, and avoid the skeleton, but will be able to avoid permanent damage until I find it… or I'm ready." He punctuated with a seventh insertion to her shoulder. "Clearly the brain will have to wait, but I imagine it won't be there. You seem to have all your faculties, so it is unlikely to be up there. But when it comes to the heart, lungs and other organs, I will leave them to second-to last, as it will almost definitely cause lasting damage."
Whimpering as he plunged the red hot needle through her shoulder again, gritting her teeth against the pain, Naraku noticed and crossed the room to the table against the wall, grabbed a spade and crossed back to Kagome.
"Kagome-chan," he said, as if about to offer her a cup of warm tea, "this next one is really going to hurt." He then wedged the handle of the spade into her mouth between her teeth. Turning his attention back to her shoulder, he pushed the needle through the flesh of her shoulder and once through to her shoulder blade, just when Kagome thought she could take no more, he twisted the needle, ripping open the muscle in her shoulder. Kagome threw her head back in a penultimate scream around the handle, praying to the kami for death.
No one would come for her. She would die here because of her own naïveté.
"Huh," Naraku observed, "It looks like your healing abilities are still working," he mentioned after taking stock of her wounds. The first were still raw and inflamed, but the rivulets of blood had stopped. With an enthused look he said "Let's keep going," before gesturing for Ken to switch arms.
Exhausted eyes widening in fear, she felt Ken drop her arm and trap it next to her waist with a scream, before he extracted her other arm and stretched it out for Naraku's procedures.
Once Kagome had screamed all she could, repeating the same procedure on her other arm, he seemed satisfied and abruptly ordered Ken to release her.
Falling in a heap on the floor, Kagome landed hard, but didn't seem to care.
"Well, Kagome, I think that's the most we should do for today. We'll be back tomorrow and start on your legs."
He and Ken then left the room, heading for the main house and the warmth of the fire, leaving a catatonic Kagome in a heap on the floor. So dreadful was the pain that she was unable to wrap her arms around herself in an imitation of a kind hug to soothe the pain.
