"Goku! Get her!" Sanzo struggled to his feet as Goku dashed after her.
He ran through the woods, following Ryuko, with the others close behind. Pushing aside branches and tripping over roots, he looked up and saw Ryuko having the same troubles. Seeing this gave him an idea. He signaled for the others to stay back, and speeded up, this time staying to her right. With him on that side, she automatically veered to the left.
'She'll turn in a big circle, all the way back to the others,' he thought.
'Damn it. That kid-Goku-what-ever-the-hell-his-name-is. Too damn fast!' Ryuko thought frantically to herself as she sprinted through the woods, Goku gaining quickly. 'I'm just glad he hasn't taken off his power limiter. Then I'd been in deep shit.' Struggling to stay ahead, she bent down and pulled off her boots, sticking them through her belt. Then she recognized familiar ground. She was back at the glade!
Ryuko burst into the clearing with no sign of any of them, including Goku, except the monk standing before her. He turned the safety off on his gun and raised it to point steadily at her chest.
Ryuko walked slowly forward, hands in the air, when she heard a noise to her right. She winced, but could not afford to take her eyes from Sanzo. She came up to the gun, and slowly lowered her body to sit down. In a moment, her feet shot out and caught Sanzo in the chest, knocking him backwards onto the ground. She then whirled around to investigate the noise she had heard. And turned right into the shaft of Gojyo's weapon.
She fell like a rock, blood trickling down her face from a large lump on her head.
Waking up, the first thing Ryuko noticed was her headache. Her head pounded, making it hard to think. When that was in order, she found her hands and feet tied. Struggling to sit up, she found herself on the floor in some sort of car.
Seeing her awaken, Goku bent down. "Sanzo said you're not supposed to wake up until we get there."
She tried to speak, but after her second croak, something hit the side of her skull again, causing her to black out once more.
The second time she woke, she was covered to her chin with a feather blanket, laid down on a small bed in a room with two other beds. Both were occupied. By who, she could not tell.
Sitting up, she threw off the covers and found herself clothed, though not in her original outfit. She was wearing a short blue dress and soft black slippers. She wondered who had dressed her.
Ryuko saw her clothes folded at the foot of the bed. She grabbed them and shoved them in her waistband. She stood up and folded the covers back over some pillows heaped in the center.
One of her boot fell to the ground, thumping softly. Ryuko froze as someone in another bed turned over, the covers whispering against their body. She stood still for a moment, barely breathing.
After a minuet, she relaxed, her body drooping against the bed. She bent down to pick up the boot, and spotted a thin shining thread running across the floor, much like a spider's line. She peered at it a moment, then shook her head. She had more important things to worry about, like escaping the kidnappers. Couldn't those idiots understand that she wasn't a part of the war? She was to be delivered to Lord Kougaji as a good-will gift from the band. It was an ingenious plan, she had to admit. Surely none of them had though it up themselves.
Ryuko shook her head and picked up the fallen boot and thrust it through her waistband with its pair and her old clothing. She carefully stepped between the beds. Checking, she saw they contained the human, Sanzo, and the demon that smelled of humans, Hakkai. Ryuko bent her head to examine at the small dragon sleeping on the pillow. It was a shimmery white in the moonlight, and its small back rose with each breath it took.
'Glory,' she thought. 'A dragon. It's so beautiful.'
She tiptoed her way to the window, which she cracked open. Gazing out, she saw the room was on the first story, the ground easily accessible from this window.
Ryuko smirked. 'Could they have made this any easier for me?' she thought to herself sarcastically.
She opened the shutters farther and hoisted herself onto the sill, swinging her legs around to dangle out. Again she saw a glistening line, but thought nothing of it.
Ryuko jumped down, landing on bent legs. She stood up and spied a sign by the inn door; 'No Demons.'
"I wonder how they got me in here," she muttered, fingering the point of her ear with short claws. "I sure as hell didn't walk."
She pulled her skirt up with one hand and started running away from the inn. Three yards later, something pulled on her ankle, sending her sprawling. She twisted over and sat up; grabbing her ankle, she found a thin line attached to it.
"That's the only good thing about fish line," a low voice came to her. "You can't see it but it's strong as hell."
She looked up and saw Sanzo, the top of his robes down revealing a shiny black shirt that fit him like skin. His gun was pointed at her once more.
"Damn it. Damn it, damn it damn it." Ryuko slashed at the line holding her imprisoned, but to no avail. Sanzo advanced on her, his revolver aiming steadily for her head.
"What the hell's wrong with you perverts?! Get this thing off of me!"
By now, the others were coming out as well. Gojyo's weapon was out and pointed at her.
"I think not." Sanzo's voice was low and quiet. "You're going to answer out questions, or tomorrow we'll knock you out again."
"No need," she growled. Ryuko breathed out and closed her mouth; pinching her nose shut, she felt her lungs struggle for air. 'Air they're not going to get,' she thought grimly. Her chest burned at her heart speeded up, making her blood move faster. As her pulse rapidly rose, the edge of her vision turned black, clouding her mind. The last thing she saw before she fell was Hakkai. He ran towards her as she dropped, catching her. Then she lost all consciousness.
The first thing Ryuko saw when she woke up again was the sun. She opened her eyes, moaned, and shut them again, squeezing them tightly shut. "Nnngh. Turn off the sun." She felt the heat depart from her face as someone leaned over her. Opening her eyes again, she blinked, then attempted to sit up.
As soon as she had shifted positions, someone began pounding on her skull. 'No,' she thought dully. 'Inside.' Her head throbbed from its lack of oxygen, and thumping noises were reaching her ears. She swayed a moment, then rested her aching head in her hands.
Cool fingers were placed over her own, and a soft light filled her eyes. When the hand was lifted from her own, her headache had dulled to a minimum. "Thanks," she murmured drearily, looking into one green eyes and one monocled eye.
Ryuko looked around, noticing they were back in the inn. "No demons," she muttered.
Hakkai nodded, apparently hearing her, as the dragon flapped over to her. "Kyuu?" it inquired.
"That's Hakuryuu," Hakkai told her.
"Aahh. How imaginative. I could not have thought of a better name," she told him sarcastically.
"If you hadn't noticed, you're in no position to mock us." Gojyo had come up behind her and put his hands on her shoulders.
"Yeah," Goku added, walking over.
He and Gojyo helped her onto the bed and sat her on the side.
Sanzo came in and sat on the chair in front of her; he pulled out his gun, carefully turned off the safety, and laid it on the table beside him.
"I'm not in a good mood," he told her as the other found various perches around the room. "Usually, we would be on the road and halfway to the next town by now. Today, we're still here and, better yet, we've got a spoiled child with the blood of a town on her hands that refuses to answer questions.
"Go figure," she murmured.
"Now," Sanzo picked up his gun and slowly turned it over in his hands. "I'm going to ask a few questions. Will you answer them?
"No," she answered, and leaped off the bed, dashing for the open window.
In a moment, Goku and Gojyo had caught her and knocked her to the ground, with Gojyo holding her hair and a hand on the back of her neck, and Goku sitting on her back with her arms twisted behind in a death grip.
"Damn it! Get off of me!" Ryuko's voice was muffled by the floor, her face mashed up against the bare boards.
BANG
The bullet whizzed by her head, creating a hole in the floor barely an inch from her nose.
"Get up," Sanzo nudged them off of her, grabbed her hair himself, and pulled her on to the bed in a sitting position. "Now, I want to leave, and the next bullet's going to hit you. Will you answer my questions?" He held up the gun warningly and pointed it at her.
Ryuko sat up straighter and spit out blood; she had bitten her tongue in the fall and it had bled.
"Fine, damn it!" she glared at him.
"Good. We'll start from the beginning. What's your name?"
"My name is Ryuko," she replied in an icily tone.
"Why did those demons kill the villagers?"
"How in the goddesses name should I know? I told you that already. That's not my job."
"Then what is your job?" Goku butted in.
Sanzo glared at him, but continued the question. "Why were you with them, since they're obviously not your family."
"My job is to be a little lady and not get in the way before we get there." She pushed her glasses up her nose from where they had slipped down. "I know they're not my family, I'm just staying with them."
"Until you get where? And why are they taking you there?" Sanzo's bad mood was becoming evident.
She scowled, but the sight of the gun prompted her to continue. "Before I was born, they kidnapped my mother while she was pregnant with me. When I was one year old, they killed her, and raised me to be one of them. With one difference; They would stay together, I was to be given as--" She hesitated, and Sanzo shifted his gun to his right hand, putting his finger on the trigger again.
"To be given as a gift to former prince Lord Kougaji!"