Author's Note: Thanks for being so patient! It took me awhile to get the finer points of this chapter planned out, but now it's here ready for your reading enjoyment!
Disclaimer: Yadda yadda…don't own Inu…
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Mistaken Identity
Chapter 11
The Second Kidnapping
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"Got any sixes?"
"Nope, go fish."
Kagome cracked open an eye at the sound of male voices not far from where she lay, sprawled out on a cold, stone floor. Through her long eye-lashes she was able to blurrily see two scantily clad men with the most bizarre hair-do's she had ever seen. Rubbing her eyes with the heel of her hand, she blinked several times, hoping to clear her vision and determine just who these men were.
"Hey, she's awake!" the guy with the spiked mohawk pointed out. Glancing her way, the second of the two males nodded in agreement.
"Where am I?" Kagome asked groggily, pushing herself to a sitting position and looking around dazedly.
"In a cave," responded Mohawk-Man.
"In the woods!" finished his friend.
Rolling her eyes, Kagome knew better than to question any further. She needed to get out of there and try to find a way back to Inuyasha! "Well, it was nice meeting you," she stood up and brushed imaginary dust from her wrinkled shirt, "but I really must be going so…" Kagome trailed off as she tried to inch around them toward the sunlight seeping in through the mouth of the cave.
Reaching out and catching her ankle, Mohawk-Man (as Kagome had so thoughtfully dubbed him) gave a sharp tug and brought Kagome back to the ground. Well…she hadn't really expected that to work anyways.
"We're your guards, and Kouga told us we had to make sure you stayed here!" declared Mohawk-Man's friend proudly. He then held up the deck of cards, "So do you wanna play?"
"Eh…no thanks…" Kagome sighed dejectedly. Crawling over so that she was between the two men and the exit she called, "I'll just be sitting here…" she sat down for emphasis, "waiting for this Koko guy…"
"Kouga," her guards chorused together without even looking up from their game.
"Right," mumbled Kagome. Patiently, she waited for the two men to become entirely engrossed in their cards; then she'd make her move.
Eyeing her surroundings, she confirmed what she'd been told and that she was, indeed, in a cave. Rocks littered the floor and few puddles of water had collected in some of the deeper nooks and crannies of the rock walls. A perpetual, dull roaring echoed slightly from the sunlit exit.
Turning her attention back to her captors, she tried to see what possible motives they could have had for kidnapping her from her original kidnapper. If truth be told, these two looked harmless enough with their happy, almost clueless faces. Both were wearing black arm bands, faded gray armor across the upper half of their chest, and brown cloth around their waists. Also, to Kagome's immense surprise, each had a bushy brown tail twitching behind them.
Contemplating to herself, Kagome decided that they must be some kind of demons. Now, on to Kouga…was he their leader? Or some god they worshiped? Maybe Kouga was their torture-device. Kagome shivered and shook her head…better not dwell on an awful idea like that.
'And how's Inuyasha doing…?' she wondered. Shaking her head ruefully, she mumbled to herself, "He probably thinks I ditched him and ran off back home." Although she tried to make this sound like no big deal to her, inside she desperately hoped that he'd come to her rescue like a fairy-tale Prince Charming and whisk her away back to the…farmhouse. Okay, so maybe there wasn't a castle, but she'd grown quite attached to that little cottage they'd been living in for the past few days.
Glancing back up to the game of fish, Kagome observed that they probably wouldn't notice her even if she jumped up and starting doing the chicken dance. Not that she'd give them a chance to prove her theory wrong.
With the utmost care, she planted her hands by her sides and pushed herself up to her feet. Standing on her tip-toes, she cautiously made her way to the cave entrance.
'Step by step!' she encouraged herself, 'You can do it, almost there!'
Finally, Kagome reached the outdoors. Without realizing it, she had been holding her breath, which she quickly let loose. Turning her head right she saw what had caused the echoes she had earlier heard in the cave: a waterfall.
Cascading off of a high cliff in a graceful arc of sparkling droplets, it was by far the most beautiful thing Kagome had ever seen. She stood mesmerized by it for a few minutes before her neck grew sore from craning it up at the view.
Just as she was about to wander off and make her escape, someone tapped her shoulder. Whirling around, she leaped backwards and held her hands up in front of her face in instant defense mode.
"I'm terribly sorry! Are you alright, Miss?" asked a new, extremely polite male voice. Spreading apart her fingers so that she could see who had given her such a scare, she saw a bewildered looking young man in a navy blue suit.
Dropping her hands from her face, she nodded in response to the man's concerned question. He did look quite worried. His short brown hair was combed back very neatly and his soft, brown eyes were eyeing her anxiously.
Nodding again, she responded, "Yes, I'm fine. Don't worry, you just startled me, is all." Flashing him a reassuring smile, she quickly looked to see if he had a tail, and low and behold, he was tailless! "Hey…you're a human aren't you! Who are you? What are you doing in this demon camp? Did they capture you too?!"
"Capture me…?" this seemed to confuse the young man, "Goodness no! They hired me!" he chuckled good-naturedly at Kagome. Apparently he had thought that that had been quite an entertaining little joke. "And my name is Houjo."
"Hired…" Kagome trailed off perplexedly. "Hired you for what?"
"For my services, Miss," he explained. "You see, I'm a pr-" he was cut off mid-sentence and jerked backwards by a strong, clawed hand.
Kagome gasped in recognition as she saw the face of the man who had interrupted their conversation. It was the guy who had knocked her out in the woods!! His long black hair was, once again, tied up in a high pony-tail, and a brown sweat band was shoved carelessly upon his forehead to keep his bangs back. This must be the brown-tailed-demons' leader…Kouga.
"Oi, what are you doing out of that cave!" it was more of an observation than a question.
Narrowing her eyebrows, she glared up at the taller man. "Excuse me!" she declared angrily. "You've got some nerve! Kidnapping me like that when I was lost in the middle of…" she trailed off as she saw him looking her up and down. She felt like eye candy out on display in a windowshop.
"Odd," Kagome heard him murmur, "You look a bit plainer in person. And who would've thought that you'd have such an attitude."
"What the heck are you talking about!?" Kagome asked incredulously.
The man looked up and smirked at her, showing off his very sharp canines and locking her gaze with his striking blue eyes, "You, Kikyou."
Bad move.
Kagome's eye twitched. Clenching her fists, she tried to count to ten and regain her composure.
She only reached six.
"ARGH!! WHAT DOES IT TAKE TO GET IT THROUGH ALL YOU PEOPLE'S THICK SULLS!!" she shrieked in outrage. "My name is Kagome!! KA-GO-ME!!"
Kouga looked dumbfounded. "Not Kikyou…?" he asked uncertainly. Kagome shook her head furiously.
With lightning speed reflexes, he darted out and grabbed her wrist, dragging her away from Houjo and over to a grassy ledge overlooking the river the waterfall spilled into. Stumbling, Kagome did her best to keep up with his fast-pace. Finally, he thrust her onto the ground.
Getting right down to business, he crouched down to her eye-level, "If you're not Kikyou, then why were you in these woods?" he asked intently. Scooting back to put some distance between the two of them, Kagome placed her hands on her hips in an effort to look more independent. However, it was hard for her to look intimidating when she was the one stuck on her butt.
"The forest doesn't belong to you! I can go in there if I want!"
He eyed her suspiciously before a light bulb seemed to go off in his head. "I got it! You're Kikyou's sister aren't you?"
Sighing, Kagome nodded. Kouga began looking at her in a new light, which caused Kagome to shift uncomfortably.
"I knew I'd heard that names somewhere. Well, I think I like you better than I woulda liked Kikyou anyways! You're cuter and sure to be much more fun!"
Kagome wasn't sure what to say to this remark, so she just didn't say anything at all.
"So," Kouga crossed his arms, "I shall make you my woman!"
Now this Kagome had something to say to.
"You can't just declare me 'your woman'!" she scoffed exasperatedly. "Besides, I already have someone I like! And," she added as an afterthought, "he's really strong! So when he finds out that you've kidnapped me, he's gonna come up here and save me!"
Kouga looked unphased. "Really now? Well, no big deal. I could use a good fight. You say he'll be here soon? Well, if he's not here by noon tomorrow, then you're gonna go ahead and marry me anyways. It's a good thing I got that priest booked for the next few days."
Kagome really hadn't expected this. Noon tomorrow? She looked up to the sky, it was already starting to get dark! And she had her doubts about Inuyasha even coming after her at all! Wait…
"A priest?" she asked, "You've got a priest here? Were you planning on forcing my sister to marry you?"
Kouga grinned wolfishly at her. "Yah, that Houjo guy's the priest," Kagome remembered the brown-haired man from earlier.
'So that's what they hired him for,' she thought to herself.
"My gang and I had planned on kidnapping your sister, but then you turned up looking so much like her and we thought she'd just fallen into our arms. Oh well, like I said, you're a much better catch than Kikyou!" he winked at her. Kagome couldn't help but blush at this obvious complement.
"Come on, it's getting dark," he gestured to the sky, "You're gonna sleep in my cave tonight. Clearly those bozos I ordered to guard you didn't do a very good job. I can't have you wandering off now can I?"
Standing up, Kagome toddled off after Kouga. Would Inuyasha come in time? She would just have to hope for the best…
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Author's Note: ^_^ Kinda short, I know. But hey, at least it's an update huh? Poor Kagome, always mixed up in her sister's affairs and being jostled around from one kidnapper to the next! Please review!! If I get a lot of praise then I might just have an update out by next weekend! ^_~