Water was brought to Sagaku at some point. It could have been hours or days later-she had no way to tell. The figure tugged at Sagaku's brain, trying desperately to convince her it was an illusion.
"What're you doing here?" Sagaku struggled against the ropes.
"Stop it." The harsh voice wasn't Usagi's voice. It couldn't be. But the shaking hands that brought the cup of water to Sagaku's lips did belong to her sister, down the tiny scar on her index finger from when they were first learning needlepoint.
Sagaku drank the water, since the alternative was to let it dribble down her front, but she couldn't tear her eyes from the pale blue gaze of her sister. Usagi was shaking, drawn and wan.
"Usagi," Sagaku whispered urgently. "Untie me, please! I can get us out of here-"
"You broke your promise," Usagi hissed, skittering back a step as if Sagaku might attack her. "You promised you would behave. If you had been home, none of th-" a broken sob interrupted her accusation. It was too late though, the accusation hit Sagaku in the bones. If she had been home, she would have argued against her father selling Usagi.
"I didn't mean to," Sagaku protested. "Please, Usagi, just let me down-"
Usagi walked away, taking the rest of the water with her.
The shock of seeing her sister drained slowly as Sagaku slumped back against the ropes once more. Her shoulders hurt so bad it almost felt as though her arms would detach from the rest of her body. It wasn't the pain that brought tears to her eyes, though.
Harou questioned her again. Time had no real meaning in the room, so Sagaku didn't know how long he waited after Usagi left, but his suit was different. It had been a full day perhaps.
"What techniques did you learn in America?" Harou asked without preamble. He crunched on an apple, a bitter reminder to Sagaku's stomach that it would like some fuel also.
"What techniques?" Sagaku parroted. She would like to say it was bravery that prompted her to antagonize the man, but truthfully it was the confusion that seemed to sweep up all the thoughts in her brain and stir them around. It could have been from the blow she'd taken to the back of her head, from hunger, from pain...it didn't matter, the point was just that she couldn't think right.
"You know!" Harou hissed. Water twisted threateningly around his fingers.
Sagaku stared at him blearily. She did know, but only sort of. It was a vague inkling that didn't make too much sense, but it wasn't solidified by evidence or knowledge.
"Come now," Harou said. His voice was suddenly soft and soothing, pouring like honey over his tongue. "I know you're scared, and lonely. It's cold in here, and you are away from your sisters. Just tell me, and I'll make sure you go back to your family."
Sagaku's gaze sharpened on Harou. It was a lie. His face, smooth and unassuming, tried to assure her otherwise.
"You'll give me to Hisakata," she said. "You've already said so."
"If you tell me what I need to know, I will tell him to find another breeder," Harou lied convincingly. The water dripped from his fingers to linger in the puddle with the last evidence of her torture. "I have no fondness for the man; he's an utter barbarian." That, at least, she could believe.
Sagaku bit her tongue lest she say something that gave Harou more leverage. She longed to ask if he thought it would make her feel better to go back to the warren knowing another breeder-presumably one of her sisters-would go to the barbarian instead. If that wasn't what he was already thinking, she didn't want to give him the idea.
"What techniques did you learn in America?" Harou asked again, gently.
A surge of anger and stupidity swamped Sagaku. "Several techniques," she told him. "Shoseki thought I should know about sex before some clod gave me the wrong impression." Confusion followed by anger darkened on Harou's brow. "Mineo in particular tried to tell me about something that sounded wholly unnatural-why a man or woman would want a mouth down there, I don't know-but he assured me almost everyone enjoyed it-"
Harou didn't bother tilting her head back this time, using only as much water as necessary. Instead, the force of the sea thrust her back against the ropes. One shoulder did pop out of the joint this time. Sagaku's scream was forced back into her throat by the water that drowned her.
When Sagaku came to, Usagi was there again. This time, though, Sagaku wasn't hanging awkwardly off the floor. She was flat on the ground, and Usagi was straightening her arm to be sure the joint had gone in the way it was supposed to.
"Stop helping me," Sagaku muttered weakly. "You don't owe me anything."
"Idiot," Usagi said. But her voice softened. "I wish you had come with us. I'm sorry we didn't talk Papa around. He got so angry whenever any of us mentioned you."
"I'm not sorry," Sagaku turned her head. Salt water covered about a centimeter of the entire bottom of the tank. It stung the corner of her eye, but hid the tear that slipped away. "I would have ended up here."
"You ended up here anyway, twit," Usagi fumbled with a length of fabric, trying to wrap Sagaku's arm in a sling. "Papa arranged for it anyway."
Sagaku fell silent, allowing herself a moment of peace given by the knowledge that this had been inevitable. Usagi worked quietly also. When it came time for her to stand, she groaned, her hands splayed to her stomach. Sagaku closed her eyes against the realization. Usagi was pregnant.
It had been two days since they'd discovered Nenriki was kidnapped and come home to find Sagaku gone as well. The best Hiei could tell them was that he could sense her energy with his Jagan eye, but the image was distorted, bent in ways that made no sense. Even with the understanding that normally came his use of the Jagan eye, the image made no sense. He tried looking from so many different angles, paring back the image to show every combination of the worlds he could. It was distorted in each of them, almost as if she existed simultaneously in all three at once without actually being in any of them.
Hiei tried explaining that to the others, going so far as to project the headache of the view into Kurama's head. It did no good-there was still no known explanation for this.
The others were frustrated, almost angry at him because he couldn't tell them how to find her. He was angry at himself because he couldn't tell them how to find her. He spent more time than he cared to admit over the last two days staring at the girl in his mind and vowing to take control of the mind and energy of either of the two demons that had touched her. They would suffer as his puppet until he'd tortured them as much as they'd tortured her. Fire sounded like a fair torture tactic against an aquatic demon.
While Hiei fumed and plotted, Kurama enlisted Koenma's people to find the girl through any means necessary.
"Sleep," Kurama told Hiei after the second day. "The less alert you are, the less help you are to Sagaku."
Hiei levelled a stare at Kurama. It wasn't a glare, or even a glower. Just a stare.
Kurama dosed him with the pollen of valerian and jasmine shortly thereafter. Hiei fell asleep where he sat, katana still naked in his hand.
"We need his help," Yusuke tried to argue.
"He's no good to anyone until he's slept," Kurama said firmly, ushering the louder men out of the room and following behind them.
"I didn't even know he liked Sagaku," Kuwabara said. The larger man was exhausted also, having helped ogres transfer books and maps back and forth every waking hour for the other men to look over, searching for anything that might suggest where the girl could be in three dimensions at once.
"He pretends not to like anyone," Yusuke said. He slumped onto the floor. "If we don't find anything by tomorrow, I say we search on foot."
"Search three worlds on foot?" Kurama asked.
"Do you have a better idea?" Yusuke glowered at Kurama. Kurama did not, in fact, have a better idea. At this point, they might as well stick a pin in a map and go from there.
Nobody came by to string Sagaku up again. Perhaps they thought she was too weak to do any damage now. They wouldn't be wrong-it was all Sagaku could do to keep the fresh water Usagi had gifted her down. She huddled in the corner of the tank, letting salt water numb her toes and rear end. If the pain or fear of drowning didn't break her soon, the loneliness might.
The next tactic Harou tried was loosing Hisakata into the tank with her. Hisakata advanced on her, baring his sharp canines in a feral grin. Each step he took sounded playful, splashing up the shallow water on the floor.
"Little rabbit," he growled playfully, "you must be scared, so alone and cold. Not even your stones to play with."
Sagaku stayed in the corner of the tank, letting Hisakata draw nearer. His flinty gray eyes gleamed in anticipation.
"Your heart is probably pounding right now," he said. "It makes you smell all the sweeter. I love the smell of rabbit."
"I bet you do," Sagaku said. She leaned against the walls of the tank, using them to prop her into a standing position. When Hisakata was close enough, she whipped her foot out into the hardest kick she could manage under the circumstances. The kick didn't even connect. Hisakata barked in laughter, knocking her foot against the tank. In one swift move, he had her pinned with his forearm across her clavicle.
"How many young have you had so far?" he asked. His hand splayed across her stomach, feeling the distance between her hips where her bones stood out in stark contrast, starved as she was. Sagaku managed a roll of her eyes, trying to deny the brief flutter of fear that followed the trail of his fingers.
"Do I look like a breeder to you?" Sagaku asked. "Someone my size can't have young." It was a bald-faced lie, but the flicker of uncertainty that crossed Hisakata's face made it worth it. His face hardened and he pressed harder against her chest.
"That's not what Jitsu told us," he growled at her.
"What does my father have to do with any of this?" Sagaku asked. She jerked spasmodically as his hand slipped under her shirt, up her ribs. It wasn't the callouses that made her sick-Hiei's hands were also calloused-it was the realization that if this was Harou's next form of torture, it might actually work. Revulsion twisted inside her.
As if hearing her thoughts, Harou opened the door and stepped into the scant layer of salt water he'd left behind.
"Hisakata," he said, "how about you let me ask her a few questions before you continue." The threat was implicit.
Hisakata eased back, grumbling. He didn't step away though. Sagaku slid sideways against the glass wall to escape him.
"You know what I want," Harou told Sagaku. "Just stop playing stupid."
"I can't do it," Sagaku told him.
His eyes narrowed, focusing like a sharp scenting blood. "You do know," he said. This time, it was said with greater conviction. Sagaku swallowed the lump in her throat. "So it is possible?"
Harou practically quivered in excitement, stepping through the water without leaving a ripple in his wake. Sagaku pressed herself against the cold glass behind her.
"No," she tried to say firmly. It didn't sound very convincing. "It's not possible."
Harou narrowed his eyes further, so that only a slit of color showed. "The half-breeder said so too," Harou told her, "but I believed him as much as I believe you. Those journals of his told a different story."
"I am not Shoseki," Sagaku said desperately. Her foot slipped against the slick, wet surface. She struggled to stay upright.
"No," Harou agreed, "you're not. A female hanshoku able to command stones like the old myths, stronger than the males of her kind. He could not do it. You will."
If there were old myths about hanshoku, Sagaku did not know them. Harou had apparently believed the myths enough to hunt her down, though.
"As a token of good will," Harou said, "Hisakata will leave for now." He turned to Hisakata then. "Bring the other prisoner here, will you?"
Hisakata licked his lips. "A goodbye, first, I think," he said. Sagaku tried to spin out of his reach, but his hand was on her, pulling her so close she could smell the rotting meat on his breath. His mouth was on hers, teeth drawing blood from her chapped lips, and then he was backing up and licking the blood off his lips with a terrifying grin.
"A son," he called over his shoulder with a cackle, "or a daughter, so I can make more money. What do you think?"
If Sagaku thought that Hisakata leaving was a reprieve, she was wrong. Water was seeping off Harou's skin, dripping down his body to add to the flooded floor with no end in sight. Harou's cheeks were red with excitement, eyes glittering as though drunk.
He wanted her to rip through dimensions, Sagaku thought, coming to terms with the predicament. He wanted to leave a path so large the Spirit World would never be able to patch it up. There wouldn't be a Makai or a Ningenkai anymore-it would all be one.
"Let's talk about everything you know." Harou smiled. The water was up to Sagaku's calves now. He beckoned her forward. Sagaku stayed put.
"You answer everything," he told her, "and take the punishment yourself, or I'll take it out on him." She followed his webbed finger to the distorted colors outside the glass wall. One figure, Hisakata presumably, smashed the other into the glass. Blood and filth smeared against the glass, and pressed so close, Sagaku recognized him. Bile filled her throat.
"You don't have to hurt him," Sagaku pleaded. "He doesn't know anything and-"
"I already got what I needed from him," Harou laughed. "This is fun. I've gone so easy, coaxing the answers out of you-now I get to play. Each time you black out or refuse to answer, Hisakata will break a bone in your friend's body. Humans are so fragile, aren't they?"
There was no other choice she could make, Sagaku thought over and over again. It gave her the strength to submit to the waterboarding, her eyes on Nenriki's horrified face until Harou finally stopped reviving her long enough for her to try to answer and let her fall into blackness.