"Well, this is a fine mess that we've gotten ourselves into…" Rei complained.
Kagome didn't answer. She only whined lowered her head.
At the moment the pair was tied up with their backs together, hands and feet immobile and blind folded. The villagers were carrying them somewhere on a cart, apparently to keep them hostage. At least, that's what the girls hoped.
Kagome asked Rei, "I thought you had fire powers, why can't you burn these ropes?"
"That did cross my mind, but I can't seem to muster up the power right now…" Rei whispered so as not to let the villagers know of her possible weapon.
Kagome started to whisper too, though it was hard to hear with their backs turned to each other, "Does it only emerge when it wants to?"
"No, but I think I have to go through some of the same motions that I do when I transform with my wand."
"Oh, so you have to be able to move. What about when you burned Inuyasha with an arrow? You didn't even have the Jewel Shard in your hand then."
"I've thought about that too…That was subconscious though, I don't know if I can make that happen again. "
"Can't you try?"
"What do you think I've been doing? Twiddling my thumbs patiently?"
"Don't get mad, I'm just offering up suggestions…I want to escape is all."
"Do you think I don't? Why am I the one that has to free us?"
"What do you mean?"
"Instead of whining to me, why don't you do something to help?!"
"I'm not the Kuro Miko here; my powers don't work that way?"
"Kuro Miko!?"
"Ouch!" Kagome yelped in pain, "You're supposed to burn the ropes, not me!" She wiggled violently against her restraints in pain,
The cart stopped and a man raised his voice, "What's going on, you two?"
The girls apologized and quieted down. The man warned them and jerked the cart into motion.
After a time Rei spoke up.
"I just thought of something...We should delay any plans right now, until we get to where their taking us."
"To wait for Inuyasha and the others?"
"Uh, no. It's so that we can see, for one thing. We don't know how many people are here, or where we are. Also, we have no weapons."
"Okay."
After that the girls stopped their plotting until the cart jolted to a stop. The man who had been pulling the cart lifted them both and carried them inside. After some inquiries of a few other men and sliding doors, they were finally let down. A deep, gruff voice called to their holder to release the blindfolds.
Looking up, the girls see a middle ages man with a tall and largely built body, and small eyes. He was an intimidating man.
He looked down at them over his broad nose, "So, who are you?"
Rei answered before Kagome had a chance, "A miko and her apprentice."
"Oh? I can see you are certainly a miko of some kind by your garb, but what of her? She wears the most unusual and revealing clothing for someone who is supposed to be virgin."
It took some more quick thinking on the part of Rei to cover up Kagome's choice of clothing.
Curse her! Rei thought. Why had she never considered blending in with this era? It would save them so much trouble.
"Likely…" He considered her vague explanation of a far away home land and cultural differences. "But you still haven't given me your names or any other reason for me to believe that you are not a Dark Miko." He was looking at Rei.
"Who told you that? I've never been accused of such a thing before today." Her annoyance was apparent.
The screen behind them opened suddenly, and another male voice was heard behind them. This one was younger and more jovial.
"No one had to tell us much." He answered, "It is something we have encountered a few times ourselves." He dismissed the ever present man behind them with a wave of his hand.
He stepped in front of the girls to stand beside the intimidating head of the village.
"Sanyo, you should not interrupt so rudely, even if you are my son."
Sanyo started to apologized, but was cut off by Rei.
"What did you say? About running into someone…"
Sanyo looked down at her, "Why, you my dear."
"What?" Rei and Kagome squealed together in surprise.
The young man laughed, "You're saying it isn't you? The description is very precise." He walked over to Rei and leaned over her, "A mysterious miko with long black hair," He stroke her hair, "thin but sturdy build," he scanned her body, "fair complexion and a beautiful face with piercing eyes."
Rei turned away from him when he attempted to stroke her cheek.
He hit her. Her head jerked from the force.
Kagome sqealed in shock, but the head didn't even flinch.
"I don't it in your best interest to play coy with me, woman." Sanyo threatened.
His father replied, "Yes, I was also thinking that she fit the description rather well. There were also accounts of her burning several people while being apprehended, and a long bow was confiscated off her."
"Yeah, only she isn't dead or steals souls in the dead of night." Kagome retorted.
This earned Kagome her own hit across the face. Sanyo warned her about her tone of voice.
She had been thinking the same thing as Rei: they had described Kikyo.
The Head raised an eyebrow, "This miko is supposed to do that, and you're saying that you don't?"
Rei's patience was flying out the window, "Do you even know the name of the miko that you're looking for?"
They didn't.
Kagome and Rei explained that they did, and that Rei was not her. When the men asked if they knew where Kikyo was, their answer was of no. The head didn't believe them, and ordered Sanyo to make them talk. He proceeded to sink a kunai into her arm. The more she refused to know anything about Kikyo's whereabouts, the deeper the blade went into her arm.
Rei refused to scream. She gritted her teeth against the pain.
When she didn't talk, he moved to Kagome. This alerted Rei more than the threat to herself, and she quickley explained Kikyo's search for the sacred jewel shards, and their own anamosity towards Kikyo.
The men exchanged glanes.
Before the men could interrogate them any further, the door slid open once again. This time it was two young girls announcing tea.
"Serina and Suzuna!" Kagome called.
The two girls turned and indeed recognized Kagome.
Their master asked them about their acquaintance.
Suzuna, the older of the two explains, "We are more acquainted with her companion, Sango, the demon exterminator."
"Yes, I remember that tale from when we first met. What of her friend there, the miko."
The girls looked to Rei, and then to Kagome for guidance. Kagome couldn't give anything away, and in the end they had to admit that they did not recognize her.
"So, isn't it possible, Kagome, that you began travelling with a fugitive?"
"Fugitive? Rei is not a fugitive!"
Sanyo smirked, "Anyone who has made as much trouble as we suspect you have certainly warrants such a title. Especially with so many people looking for you."
"Stop talking as if I'm Kikyo! It's insulting!"
"Why would we just waltz into a random village if we were anything like that? We didn't even attack anyone! Not even when we were being captured!" Kagome was equally annoyed at this point.
"What about the burn marks?"
"What about them?" Rei retorted, "Had you ever heard of Kikyo using fire before? And besides, I didn't mean to."
The two men took all this into consideration but did not tell them so. After a few moments they ordered them to be held in the cellar.
When the two men were left alone in the room, they discussed whether or not to believe Rei and Kagome. The head was convinced that it wasn't how they were looking for, even if she was another Dark Miko. The son agreed, that their capture had been done by non-ninja villagers, and Kikyo wouldn't be so easy to subdue. Rei didn't seem docile either, so in fact her easy capture seemed a testimony to her innocince just as she had said.
By the end of the night, the men agreed that in fact the two women might prove useful in helping them finding Kikyo. The only thing left to consider was an apology. The head cursed Sanyo's sedistic pleasure.
As the pair was dragged down the hallway, Serina and Suzuna looked on in dismay.
Outside the mansion a pair of black pearly eyes was taking in the scene. It had turned dark, but still they watched the front entrance patiently, even though they knew Rei wasn't coming out. When Suzuna and Serena exited together, the eyes followed.
Once out of earshot of the mansion, Serena spoke up first, "We have to help them! They're friends of Sango!"
Her sister hushed her, "Yes, I know, I'm just not sure how…"
"What do you mean? Are you a ninja or not?"
"Of course I am! Everyone else in there is too, and that's the problem. How are two little ninjas supposed to outsmart a whole village full of older and more experienced ones?"
"I think that because we're smaller that we can do it. Don't we owe it to Sango?"
"She saved our lives, but so did the head of the village."
Serena was becoming more irritated with her older sister. It seemed to her that the older Suzuna got the more docile and cowardly she became.
"Suzuna, that doesn't excuse the fact that he's holding the wrong girls! We know that miko in there isn't the one their looking for if she's traveling with Sango!"
Her older sister had to agree with this. No matter how good their master was to them, they owed Sango a lot. And even if they weren't friends of Sango's, she could never live with herself if she let Rei take Kikyo's place.
In the end they agreed to on a plan of action to free them. They would wait several more hours to sneak inside the mansion, locate and steal the cellar keys. They returned to the hut they shared to gather supplies.
They eyes that had been watching intently also had a curious pair of black ears. She leapt from her post on their roof and sped off to locate her companion in the forest.
Kagome meanwhile, had some disturbing news for Rei as they huddled together in their holding cell.
She whispered that there was a sacred jewel shard near the village.
"What?" Rei shouted.
She calmed herself quickly so as not to alert a guard.
"Why didn't you say something sooner?" She asked.
"It wasn't there before, but now it's coming closer." Kagome concentrated on the sense.
"Is it with a demon or a human? Can you even tell that?"
Kagome guessed that it was with a human since the feel of the shard wasn't dark. It was rare that a demon had a clean shard.
Rei couldn't believe this. Never in her whole life as a Scout had she been captured like this in such quick succession. The first time she couldn't help it, but this time was just ridiculous.
Isn't Kagome the one that's supposed to look like Kikyo anyway? They must not have gotten a clean look at Kikyo's face before…Yet they supposed she was beautiful, typical! The only thing that Kikyo and I have in common is our clothes and long hair, and even their hair was different enough not to be easily mistaken.
"Well," Rei tried to change the subject, "At least we know better who were dealing with now."
"Yeah, this is a village of ninja's. I had my suspiciouns when I saw the head..."
"That explains the noises from this morning too, it was sparing I think. I recognized the clothes from Serena and Suzuna right away. Who knew that my history lessons would come in so handy!" Rei giggled.
Kagome laughed along feebly. She knew that Rei went to a better school than she did, and had high marks. Kagome realized that she still hadn't gotten over her feelings of jealously towards Rei. Kagome tried telling herself that it wasnt jealousy or envy, she was simply in admiration of Rei's greater beauty, her grace, her wit...instinct in battle...This wasnt helping. She only hoped that Rei couldn't tell.
In fact, if Rei hadn't had her mind on the more important matters at hand, she would have. Rei was perceptive enough to note jealousy from other's even if she wasn't used to that sort of attention. It would be safe to say that this was good for Kagome, because if Rei had known it would have been a basis for mischivious teasing and hasseling from Rei when lighter times came.
Kagome's only true source of relief was that it seeme like Inuyasha didn't seem to like Rei very much either.
A pregnant pause ensued and Rei sighed. She only hoped that she would get a break soon.
Rei would get her wish sooner than she thought.
Even though Inuyasha and the others had no idea where Kagome or Rei were, there were two little ninja's that did and were willing to help. Soon, once Phobos reached Deimos, Inuyasha and the other's would too.