Chapter 2:
Chiaki dropped her hands to her sides and promptly sat on her heels, a bit baffled by this young man's apparent accusation. "Priestess of… what are you talking about?"
"Where's Yui-sama?" he yelled.
"Who?" she inquired.
"Bring her back, or you will suffer in great pain, Priestess!"
"What? Hey I think-" She tried to stand and inform him that he was mistaken, but the blond stranger would have nothing for it. With a mad yell, he threw a round weapon towards her. As a reflex, she turned her back to him, which she knew was a mistake even before the weapon struck. She screamed in pain, dropping to her hands and knees as sharp razors viciously sliced through her back.
"Suboshi!" another voice spoke up. This voice was low, and monotonic, but wreaked with power.
Chiaki glanced back and saw another blond man, taller, and certainly more foreboding approach. He yanked the weapon, a ryuseisui; away from the boy he called Suboshi. "Nakago-sama…" the boy murmured.
"What are you doing? I sent you to find Yui-sama." He dangled the ryuseisui from his fingertips. "You were playing with your little toy?"
"It's the Priestess to Suzaku. I found her spying on us."
The man, Nakago she assumed, turned and looked at her. "Ah, so the Priestess of Suzaku decides to grace us with her presence."
"No, I'm not… I don't know what you're-"
"Silence!" He motioned for his guards and they seized Chiaki. She felt sharp pain rip through her shoulders and spine, where Suboshi's weapon struck, and she yelped. "Put her in the cell, and be careful. She can be conniving."
"But wait, I'm not-" she began to protest.
Nakago waved his hand to dismiss the guards, further ignoring her, and walked away with the young man at his heels. "You do remember what Yui- sama requested concerning the Priestess of Suzaku?" she heard him ask Suboshi as they disappeared through the wooded area.
Chiaki sighed in frustration. Looking amongst the guards, she knew that, no matter how much martial arts training she had undergone, she wouldn't be able to fight this many men. 'Why so many guards for one person? Do they really think I'm that dangerous?' she wondered. She had paused in her limping stride, lost in this thought, when one of the guards slapped her back to move her forward and she blacked out from the agony.
Hours later, Chiaki awoke, and found herself chained wrists to ankles, sitting in the middle of a cold, stone floor. Pain from her wounds registered and she hissed, arching her back as she tried to get away from it. It was a violent shock when she fell back on the tile, slamming her injured back against the floor. "Couldn't they have done anything about this?" she hissed to herself through teeth clenched in agony. "Bandaged it or something?" Thinking of her injury quickly guided her thoughts to her predicament. She wasn't sure where she was, or what she was doing there. The phrase "Priestess of Suzaku" kept coming up. It seemed familiar, but she couldn't place where it came from. Then the idea struck her. "The book. It said something about a Suzaku…" But why were they calling her the Priestess of this… beast-god, was it?
Rolling onto her side and struggling to sit up, she muttered angrily, "If I ever get a hold of that Sumo Chin, or whatever that moron's name is, he'll regret what he did."
"Talking about me, Priestess?" She looked up and saw the so-called 'Sumo Chin' standing just inside her cell. "My name is Suboshi," he snarled.
"I don't care if your name is Marzipan! And why the hell do you keep calling me Priestess?"
"You are the Priestess! Yui-sama's enemy, and therefore my enemy as well."
"You know, when I get out, I'm going to make you pay for this. You had no right to-"
"It's not yours to speak of rights!" he snapped. "I would kill you had Yui-sama not instructed me otherwise."
"You keep talking about this Yui-sama. Who is Yui-sama?"
"You know who she is." She snorted at the absurdity of what he was saying. "She is the Priestess of Seiryuu. We were so close to summoning Seiryuu. And then you show up and she disappears. Where have the Suzaku Seishi taken her?"
"Don't you think that if I knew what you were talking about, I might have said something?"
He glared at her and his weapon whipped out, striking her arm and face. 'Is he capable of anything that doesn't require the use of his favorite toy?' she wondered bitterly, trying to force away the burning sting of the cuts he inflicted. "You will tell me where Yui-sama is!" His voice was thick with ballistic fury.
Chiaki clutched her bleeding arm, breathing heavily and glaring at him unblinkingly. "Didn't your master take that away from you, circus boy?" He struck her with the ryuseisui once again, clearly angry. She bit the inside of her cheek so hard against the pain that it bled. The young man suddenly glanced out the door.
Looking back at her, he spat, "I'll find out where she is, even if I have to kill you to do it." And then, to her relief, he left.
Unwanted tears welled into her dark eyes as the sting of the new and slightly older wounds persisted strongly. She wanted to go home. 'What about my paper?' she suddenly wondered, deciding moments later that it was a bit ironic to be worrying about an assignment when someone was fully prepared to thrash her to pieces. With a sigh, she rested her head on her knees, wincing. She forced her thoughts away from her pain, and directed them to the situation at hand. The only logical explanation was that she was some how in the book, The Universe of the Four Gods, but it didn't sound very logical, as far as logic went. The snippets of a conversation she heard on the way to the library came to mind… '"Priestess…" one of them said... Did that have anything to do with this? Was one of those girls this Yui that Suboshi and everyone are talking about?' She shook her head. It was crazy enough that she was there. It was ridiculous to assume that someone else fell into the same events. Closing her eyes, she tried to get some sleep.
Several days had passed before Chiaki had any other visitors. It was night, as far as she could tell, and she was starving. She had just fallen asleep when the click of a lock opening startled her awake. Suboshi crept in very quietly. "Haven't you tormented me enough?" she demanded bitterly, shifting to a sitting position. "Are you going to attack me with your razor toy of death again?"
"Excuse me?"
Digging the grimy, blood-encrusted heels of her palms into her eyes, she squinted at him searchingly. "Where are they?"
"Where are what?" He studied her, thoroughly confused.
Pausing, she scrutinized him. He didn't have the cruel air about him that he usually had. "You…aren't Suboshi, are you?" she asked uncertainly.
He shook his head. "Suboshi is my brother. We are twins-"
"Do you have those ryuseisui too?"
The young man shook his head. "I play the flute. I'm not a fighter like Suboshi."
"What are you doing here then, if you're not trying to abuse answers from me?" She scratched beneath one of the heavy cuffs on her wrists and looked at him suspiciously.
"I heard rumors a few days ago that they had the Priestess of Suzaku chained in the palace. I was concerned… the Priestess was my friend. So I came to Kutou to find out what happened. But, um… you ... you aren't her."
"Finally, someone believes me." She blew a few loose strands of oily hair out of her eyes, absently thinking of how nice a shower would have been. "What's your name?"
"I was once called Amiboshi... but you can just call me Kaika." He smiled, sitting down on the cold stone floor. "And yours?"
"Chiaki… Why hasn't anyone been down here?"
He shrugged. "I don't know. I'm not supposed to be down here either." When she made a noise of inquiry, he added softly, "Everyone thinks I'm dead."
She stared at him. "What? You're dead?" She shook her head, muttering under her breath about the absurdity of what Kaika told her.
"I'm not really dead… It's obvious, isn't it?" Suddenly, he turned, promising to return again, and then left. Chiaki sighed. She hadn't realized how much she liked having someone to talk to.
* * *
"Priestess." There was that tone again, one that commanded respect and invoked insane terror and severe hatred, all simultaneously.
Chiaki looked up from her place on the floor and then dropped her head weakly to the ground again as Nakago entered. Her head was swimming. "If you're wanting to know where your Yui-sama is," she began flatly, her voice raspy from lack of use, "I don't know and I don't care. Why don't you just kill me and get it over with, instead of starving me to death."
He smirked. "No, Priestess, that would be too easy. Once the Suzaku's Seishi come to rescue their imprisoned priestess, your use will be complete. I can kill you and those nuisances at once." Chiaki groaned. "You're pathetic," he commented.
"You would be too, in this position, you bastard," she sneered.
He chuckled insincerely. "Are you uncomfortable? I want you to know that I thrive off of your suffering."
"Well I want you to know that those Suzaku guys don't give a rip about me because they don't know I exist!"
"Clever." He then left.
Chiaki groaned again, curling around her empty stomach. What was wrong with these people?
"Chiaki?" She didn't respond. Couldn't these people let her die in peace? "Here, eat this."
Opening her eye a slit, she saw one of the twins holding out some weird roll-shaped food. "Which one are you?" she mumbled, sitting up.
"Kaika." He took her arm and pulled her into a sitting position, giving her the roll. "I have a way for you to escape and get to Konan."
"Konan?" She tore ravenously into the roll. To her surprise, it was filled with something mildly sweet, like fruit, and it was very soothing to swallow.
"Yes. That's where the Suzaku Seishi are. They are a more hospitable group. They will help you."
"Will I meet this Priestess of Suzaku?" she asked, licking the filling off her fingers.
Kaika shook his head. "No. She's no longer here. I suppose she and Yui-sama disappeared together."
"Oh…" She asked if the young man had any other bits of food on him, and he shook his head. She nodded and prompted him to continue. "So… you're going to help me get out of here?"
"Yes."
"How?"
He held a slender metal pick in the air. "First, get you out of the chains." He took the lock and began to work on it. "There's a loose block in the wall that leads to an underground tunnel that will take you just outside of Kutou- that's where you are now," he added, when she gave him a puzzled look. The chains fell away and Chiaki rubbed her raw ankles and wrists, wincing. "Here's a map. It's not a very good one, but..." he shrugged. "Anyway, I marked the spot where you will be."
"You've been busy," she commented in a low voice, rotating her stiff shoulders gratefully.
He chuckled a little. "Yes, I have." Standing, he motioned for her to follow the suit.
Chiaki climbed to a wobbly stand, and staggered a handful of steps towards Kaika before collapsing again. "I don't... I don't know if I can get there... is it far?"
The young man shrugged. "A couple days walk, at most. If you're healthy and everything, of course. For you, after everything you've been through, maybe a week..." He crouched down near the wall and pushed on one of the bricks aside, revealing the passage he had previously mentioned. Turning back to her, he handed her a wineskin. "Some water." She took it and then he herded her towards the tunnel. "Go, before Nakago or my brother- well, any of them, really- returns. Good luck."
She looked back at him in surprise and a tinge of regret. "Aren't you coming?"
He grinned, shaking his head. "I've got a new family. They'd miss me if I was gone any longer than I have been." He gave her a brief wave and a push.
Chiaki breathed in the smell of dirt and coughed a bit. There wasn't much room to move. She heard a scraping sound behind her, and guessed that Kaika was replacing the brick. That's when it struck her- she was escaping from this prison! That fact sparked a rush of energy, and she continued crawling. When her injured back scraped against the dirt ceiling, she barely bit back a scream. Dropping to her stomach, she decided to try slithering out instead. After what felt like hours of going, after she was about to drop, she caught the scent of humid, but wonderfully fresh air piercing the dusty, dry atmosphere around her.
"Finally," she murmured wearily. A few minutes later, she found the exit hole, and, shoving the long grasses that grew around it aside, dragged herself out of the tunnel. Shuddering, she collapsed into the dewy grass and inhaled deeply. She could feel the ache in her arms and legs from the crawl mingling with the sting of infected cuts that lacerated her skin, and she groaned. "I hate this," she grunted, rolling onto her back. "I really, really hate this." She dismissed the sting and stared at the clear, starry sky for a moment. When she felt ready to move again, she rose to her knees. A burning ache registered, and she looked down. Her skirt and blouse were mere rags barely held up by the remaining intact scraps of fabric, and her knees were badly scraped up, just like the rest of her body. She winced and then went on to ignore it, pulling out Kaika's map. Expecting the typical road map, she was disappointed to find a very old-fashioned, crudely hand drawn one instead. She turned it around, examining it, puzzled, in the moonlight. How she was expected to make sense of it, she wasn't sure, but make sense of it she had to in order to get as far away from Kutou as she could. She took a sip of water from the skin and then climbed to an unstable stand. Her head was telling her it was time for her to get out of there, whether the rest of her body was ready to go or not. Away she limped from the hill, and from Kutou, hoping she'd never have to return.
Chiaki dropped her hands to her sides and promptly sat on her heels, a bit baffled by this young man's apparent accusation. "Priestess of… what are you talking about?"
"Where's Yui-sama?" he yelled.
"Who?" she inquired.
"Bring her back, or you will suffer in great pain, Priestess!"
"What? Hey I think-" She tried to stand and inform him that he was mistaken, but the blond stranger would have nothing for it. With a mad yell, he threw a round weapon towards her. As a reflex, she turned her back to him, which she knew was a mistake even before the weapon struck. She screamed in pain, dropping to her hands and knees as sharp razors viciously sliced through her back.
"Suboshi!" another voice spoke up. This voice was low, and monotonic, but wreaked with power.
Chiaki glanced back and saw another blond man, taller, and certainly more foreboding approach. He yanked the weapon, a ryuseisui; away from the boy he called Suboshi. "Nakago-sama…" the boy murmured.
"What are you doing? I sent you to find Yui-sama." He dangled the ryuseisui from his fingertips. "You were playing with your little toy?"
"It's the Priestess to Suzaku. I found her spying on us."
The man, Nakago she assumed, turned and looked at her. "Ah, so the Priestess of Suzaku decides to grace us with her presence."
"No, I'm not… I don't know what you're-"
"Silence!" He motioned for his guards and they seized Chiaki. She felt sharp pain rip through her shoulders and spine, where Suboshi's weapon struck, and she yelped. "Put her in the cell, and be careful. She can be conniving."
"But wait, I'm not-" she began to protest.
Nakago waved his hand to dismiss the guards, further ignoring her, and walked away with the young man at his heels. "You do remember what Yui- sama requested concerning the Priestess of Suzaku?" she heard him ask Suboshi as they disappeared through the wooded area.
Chiaki sighed in frustration. Looking amongst the guards, she knew that, no matter how much martial arts training she had undergone, she wouldn't be able to fight this many men. 'Why so many guards for one person? Do they really think I'm that dangerous?' she wondered. She had paused in her limping stride, lost in this thought, when one of the guards slapped her back to move her forward and she blacked out from the agony.
Hours later, Chiaki awoke, and found herself chained wrists to ankles, sitting in the middle of a cold, stone floor. Pain from her wounds registered and she hissed, arching her back as she tried to get away from it. It was a violent shock when she fell back on the tile, slamming her injured back against the floor. "Couldn't they have done anything about this?" she hissed to herself through teeth clenched in agony. "Bandaged it or something?" Thinking of her injury quickly guided her thoughts to her predicament. She wasn't sure where she was, or what she was doing there. The phrase "Priestess of Suzaku" kept coming up. It seemed familiar, but she couldn't place where it came from. Then the idea struck her. "The book. It said something about a Suzaku…" But why were they calling her the Priestess of this… beast-god, was it?
Rolling onto her side and struggling to sit up, she muttered angrily, "If I ever get a hold of that Sumo Chin, or whatever that moron's name is, he'll regret what he did."
"Talking about me, Priestess?" She looked up and saw the so-called 'Sumo Chin' standing just inside her cell. "My name is Suboshi," he snarled.
"I don't care if your name is Marzipan! And why the hell do you keep calling me Priestess?"
"You are the Priestess! Yui-sama's enemy, and therefore my enemy as well."
"You know, when I get out, I'm going to make you pay for this. You had no right to-"
"It's not yours to speak of rights!" he snapped. "I would kill you had Yui-sama not instructed me otherwise."
"You keep talking about this Yui-sama. Who is Yui-sama?"
"You know who she is." She snorted at the absurdity of what he was saying. "She is the Priestess of Seiryuu. We were so close to summoning Seiryuu. And then you show up and she disappears. Where have the Suzaku Seishi taken her?"
"Don't you think that if I knew what you were talking about, I might have said something?"
He glared at her and his weapon whipped out, striking her arm and face. 'Is he capable of anything that doesn't require the use of his favorite toy?' she wondered bitterly, trying to force away the burning sting of the cuts he inflicted. "You will tell me where Yui-sama is!" His voice was thick with ballistic fury.
Chiaki clutched her bleeding arm, breathing heavily and glaring at him unblinkingly. "Didn't your master take that away from you, circus boy?" He struck her with the ryuseisui once again, clearly angry. She bit the inside of her cheek so hard against the pain that it bled. The young man suddenly glanced out the door.
Looking back at her, he spat, "I'll find out where she is, even if I have to kill you to do it." And then, to her relief, he left.
Unwanted tears welled into her dark eyes as the sting of the new and slightly older wounds persisted strongly. She wanted to go home. 'What about my paper?' she suddenly wondered, deciding moments later that it was a bit ironic to be worrying about an assignment when someone was fully prepared to thrash her to pieces. With a sigh, she rested her head on her knees, wincing. She forced her thoughts away from her pain, and directed them to the situation at hand. The only logical explanation was that she was some how in the book, The Universe of the Four Gods, but it didn't sound very logical, as far as logic went. The snippets of a conversation she heard on the way to the library came to mind… '"Priestess…" one of them said... Did that have anything to do with this? Was one of those girls this Yui that Suboshi and everyone are talking about?' She shook her head. It was crazy enough that she was there. It was ridiculous to assume that someone else fell into the same events. Closing her eyes, she tried to get some sleep.
Several days had passed before Chiaki had any other visitors. It was night, as far as she could tell, and she was starving. She had just fallen asleep when the click of a lock opening startled her awake. Suboshi crept in very quietly. "Haven't you tormented me enough?" she demanded bitterly, shifting to a sitting position. "Are you going to attack me with your razor toy of death again?"
"Excuse me?"
Digging the grimy, blood-encrusted heels of her palms into her eyes, she squinted at him searchingly. "Where are they?"
"Where are what?" He studied her, thoroughly confused.
Pausing, she scrutinized him. He didn't have the cruel air about him that he usually had. "You…aren't Suboshi, are you?" she asked uncertainly.
He shook his head. "Suboshi is my brother. We are twins-"
"Do you have those ryuseisui too?"
The young man shook his head. "I play the flute. I'm not a fighter like Suboshi."
"What are you doing here then, if you're not trying to abuse answers from me?" She scratched beneath one of the heavy cuffs on her wrists and looked at him suspiciously.
"I heard rumors a few days ago that they had the Priestess of Suzaku chained in the palace. I was concerned… the Priestess was my friend. So I came to Kutou to find out what happened. But, um… you ... you aren't her."
"Finally, someone believes me." She blew a few loose strands of oily hair out of her eyes, absently thinking of how nice a shower would have been. "What's your name?"
"I was once called Amiboshi... but you can just call me Kaika." He smiled, sitting down on the cold stone floor. "And yours?"
"Chiaki… Why hasn't anyone been down here?"
He shrugged. "I don't know. I'm not supposed to be down here either." When she made a noise of inquiry, he added softly, "Everyone thinks I'm dead."
She stared at him. "What? You're dead?" She shook her head, muttering under her breath about the absurdity of what Kaika told her.
"I'm not really dead… It's obvious, isn't it?" Suddenly, he turned, promising to return again, and then left. Chiaki sighed. She hadn't realized how much she liked having someone to talk to.
* * *
"Priestess." There was that tone again, one that commanded respect and invoked insane terror and severe hatred, all simultaneously.
Chiaki looked up from her place on the floor and then dropped her head weakly to the ground again as Nakago entered. Her head was swimming. "If you're wanting to know where your Yui-sama is," she began flatly, her voice raspy from lack of use, "I don't know and I don't care. Why don't you just kill me and get it over with, instead of starving me to death."
He smirked. "No, Priestess, that would be too easy. Once the Suzaku's Seishi come to rescue their imprisoned priestess, your use will be complete. I can kill you and those nuisances at once." Chiaki groaned. "You're pathetic," he commented.
"You would be too, in this position, you bastard," she sneered.
He chuckled insincerely. "Are you uncomfortable? I want you to know that I thrive off of your suffering."
"Well I want you to know that those Suzaku guys don't give a rip about me because they don't know I exist!"
"Clever." He then left.
Chiaki groaned again, curling around her empty stomach. What was wrong with these people?
"Chiaki?" She didn't respond. Couldn't these people let her die in peace? "Here, eat this."
Opening her eye a slit, she saw one of the twins holding out some weird roll-shaped food. "Which one are you?" she mumbled, sitting up.
"Kaika." He took her arm and pulled her into a sitting position, giving her the roll. "I have a way for you to escape and get to Konan."
"Konan?" She tore ravenously into the roll. To her surprise, it was filled with something mildly sweet, like fruit, and it was very soothing to swallow.
"Yes. That's where the Suzaku Seishi are. They are a more hospitable group. They will help you."
"Will I meet this Priestess of Suzaku?" she asked, licking the filling off her fingers.
Kaika shook his head. "No. She's no longer here. I suppose she and Yui-sama disappeared together."
"Oh…" She asked if the young man had any other bits of food on him, and he shook his head. She nodded and prompted him to continue. "So… you're going to help me get out of here?"
"Yes."
"How?"
He held a slender metal pick in the air. "First, get you out of the chains." He took the lock and began to work on it. "There's a loose block in the wall that leads to an underground tunnel that will take you just outside of Kutou- that's where you are now," he added, when she gave him a puzzled look. The chains fell away and Chiaki rubbed her raw ankles and wrists, wincing. "Here's a map. It's not a very good one, but..." he shrugged. "Anyway, I marked the spot where you will be."
"You've been busy," she commented in a low voice, rotating her stiff shoulders gratefully.
He chuckled a little. "Yes, I have." Standing, he motioned for her to follow the suit.
Chiaki climbed to a wobbly stand, and staggered a handful of steps towards Kaika before collapsing again. "I don't... I don't know if I can get there... is it far?"
The young man shrugged. "A couple days walk, at most. If you're healthy and everything, of course. For you, after everything you've been through, maybe a week..." He crouched down near the wall and pushed on one of the bricks aside, revealing the passage he had previously mentioned. Turning back to her, he handed her a wineskin. "Some water." She took it and then he herded her towards the tunnel. "Go, before Nakago or my brother- well, any of them, really- returns. Good luck."
She looked back at him in surprise and a tinge of regret. "Aren't you coming?"
He grinned, shaking his head. "I've got a new family. They'd miss me if I was gone any longer than I have been." He gave her a brief wave and a push.
Chiaki breathed in the smell of dirt and coughed a bit. There wasn't much room to move. She heard a scraping sound behind her, and guessed that Kaika was replacing the brick. That's when it struck her- she was escaping from this prison! That fact sparked a rush of energy, and she continued crawling. When her injured back scraped against the dirt ceiling, she barely bit back a scream. Dropping to her stomach, she decided to try slithering out instead. After what felt like hours of going, after she was about to drop, she caught the scent of humid, but wonderfully fresh air piercing the dusty, dry atmosphere around her.
"Finally," she murmured wearily. A few minutes later, she found the exit hole, and, shoving the long grasses that grew around it aside, dragged herself out of the tunnel. Shuddering, she collapsed into the dewy grass and inhaled deeply. She could feel the ache in her arms and legs from the crawl mingling with the sting of infected cuts that lacerated her skin, and she groaned. "I hate this," she grunted, rolling onto her back. "I really, really hate this." She dismissed the sting and stared at the clear, starry sky for a moment. When she felt ready to move again, she rose to her knees. A burning ache registered, and she looked down. Her skirt and blouse were mere rags barely held up by the remaining intact scraps of fabric, and her knees were badly scraped up, just like the rest of her body. She winced and then went on to ignore it, pulling out Kaika's map. Expecting the typical road map, she was disappointed to find a very old-fashioned, crudely hand drawn one instead. She turned it around, examining it, puzzled, in the moonlight. How she was expected to make sense of it, she wasn't sure, but make sense of it she had to in order to get as far away from Kutou as she could. She took a sip of water from the skin and then climbed to an unstable stand. Her head was telling her it was time for her to get out of there, whether the rest of her body was ready to go or not. Away she limped from the hill, and from Kutou, hoping she'd never have to return.
