Thanks to everyone who read, favorited, followed, and/or reviewed the first chapter! And even more thanks to those that are sticking around to read the second! xD

Unfortunately, this is the chapter with the least amount of KuroFai goodness. But it's necessary, so…sorry, but deal with it. : P

2. Eyes that Watch the World

The first thing that Fai noticed was that he was cold. Wherever he was, it was dark and cold enough to make him shiver. Then various aches and pains began to come back to him. His whole left hand was sore, there was a deep cut on one calf that was throbbing gently, and his head ached with a growing pain. He opened his dry mouth and tasted blood on his tongue. He decided to lie still for a while longer, keeping his eyes shut and resting.

Then he became aware of voices; male voices all around him.

"And he's sure this one's got magic?"

"Yup. No doubt 'bout it."

"It's been awhile since we had one o' them to play with." A harsh chuckle followed this. Fai shivered again, though not of the cold this time.

"Kowa says he's powerful, too," another chilling voice interjected. "And he's not half-bad looking…I might hafta have some fun with 'im first…unless Kowa keeps him all to hisself." Fai felt a rough, coarse hand touch his cheek, turning him to face the speaker. He forced his eyes open, but was only rewarded with the sight of an out-of-focus, blurry face. "Hey! He's awake!" the man before him called to his companions.

Why does he have to yell so loudly? Fai winced at the pain the shout sent through his tender skull.

"We'll fix that soon 'nough," one of the voices from earlier said smugly. Fai saw a glint of shiny metal before he felt intense pain on the side of his head.

Then darkness descended once again. As he lost consciousness, a single thought gripped him.

Kurogane, help me.

What he didn't realize at the time was that the only reason he could understand his captors' words at all was because Mokona and the others were already close by.

…

Kurogane leaned back against the wall behind him, trying to remain out of sight while at the same time checking out the village on the other side of the stone wall. It was obvious that this was a residential village, and not a military base or something of that nature. Kurogane could see children and dogs playing in the rough, dirt roads that connected the simple houses. They looked poor, but not unhappy nor unfriendly.

"I'm going in first. Wait here until I say it's safe," Kurogane muttered. Syaoran nodded in agreement.

Kurogane adjusted his cloak and straightened, striding through the open gates with an outward confidence and coolness that he didn't really feel. He kept a hand resting on his sword hidden beneath his cloak, just in case.

The children in the streets eyed him with curiosity, but no one came running to apprehend him, and after a minute or so they went back to playing.

Relieved, though still on edge, Kurogane made a subtle motion with his hand and in a moment Syaoran joined him with Mokona sitting on his shoulder. With just a silent nod of communication between them, they walked together towards the center of the small village.

As they approached what appeared to be an open-air market in the small square, they began to encounter more people. Both men and women, wearing brightly colored, full-length robes and dresses, stood chatting or bartering in the marketplace. When they saw Kurogane and Syaoran, their eyes lingered on their foreign dress and unfamiliar faces, but not for long. It seemed these people were used to seeing travelers, though whether they knew they were from another world was a different matter.

They mingled with the crowd for a while, observing the behavior of the people and keeping an eye out for anything that seemed out of place. After only a few minutes, Kurogane didn't notice anything out of the ordinary. He looked at Syaoran and jerked his head, indicating he wanted him to follow him.

They ducked into a narrow space between two buildings, as close to an alleyway as this small village could provide. "Anything?" Kurogane said, getting right to the point.

Syaoran shook his head. "They all seem like perfectly normal people. There wasn't really anything suspicious…"

Kurogane nodded in agreement. Then he looked at Mokona. "You, manjuu?"

"Mokona didn't see anything either," it answered sadly. It was definitely worried about Fai, a feeling Kurogane could relate to. But he had to be calm and come up with a plan, ignoring the feeling of dread in his stomach for the moment. There would be plenty of time for dealing with emotions later.

"I think we should-" he began, but he stopped abruptly at the sight of a wide-eyed youth standing a few feet from them, in the street. There was the distinctive gleam of fear in his eye.

"Did that toy just…talk?" he whispered.

Mokona puffed up indignantly. "Mokona is not a toy! Mokona is Mokona!"

The young man nearly fell over backwards when it heard Mokona speak again. The pure terror on his face was now unmistakable. He took a few steps back and asked in a low, disbelieving voice, "Is that thing magic?"

Kurogane and Syaoran exchanged glances. Syaoran opened his mouth to respond but before he could, the boy had taken another look at them and asked another question, louder than the first. "Where are you from? Why did you bring magic here!?" He sounded defiant, albeit terrified.

By now, more people had heard what the boy was saying and had stopped to stare at Kurogane and the others. He could hear discontented muttering in the small crowd that gathered, and saw more than one person point at Mokona. Kurogane placed a hand on Syaoran's shoulder.

"Let's get out of here," he whispered. "Behind us."

Syaoran nodded almost imperceptibly and waited for Kurogane's signal. After a few seconds, during which Kurogane observed the area but didn't come up with a better plan of action, he squeezed Syaoran's shoulder and the two of them turned and ran as fast as they could in the opposite direction, narrowly passing through the gap between the buildings. Kurogane could hear the surprised voices of the people they'd left behind for the first few seconds, but then they were gone, sprinting down a few other side streets, dodging between houses, barrels, and the occasional wandering dog. They paused once they'd seemed to have reached a safe distance; Kurogane wasn't expecting to be followed.

Kurogane's mind was racing as they both stooped over and took some time to catch their breath. "You noticed, right?" he asked Syaoran a moment later.

"The way they acted around Mokona?" Kurogane nodded. "Yeah, that was weird."

"They were rude to Mokona!" it said with a frown.

"But did you notice what the kid said?" He got blank looks and explained a little further. "He asked if you were magic."

Realization dawned on Syaoran's face. "Fai…"

"Exactly. If these people have something against magic, then it's no surprise the mage was targeted. Now we just have to find out where they took him, and what they did with him."

"How?"

Kurogane didn't need the two seconds he took to think. He already knew what he was going to do. "Okay, listen…"

…

Fai felt like he was floating, as though in a vast, dark, ocean. Then the next moment there was a sensation of literally being dragged forward into reality. His body hurt again. He felt the freezing cold again. He slowly opened his eyes but immediately shut them as the light from a candle proved too much for them to handle. But in the instant before he'd closed them, he'd been able to make out the figure of a man standing nearby.

Now that man spoke. "Aw, what beautiful blue eyes," he said. His voice was low but harsh, as though he didn't usually speak so softly. He sounded…cruel. "Why dontcha open 'em up again, darlin?"

Fai did open his eyes a moment later; not to appease this unsettling voice, but because he wanted to be able to see his surroundings. After he got used to the light, he took a look at the face of the man who'd been speaking to him.

He was unshaven; short, uneven stubble covered the lower half of his face. This beard thinly covered several scars, though there were more, obvious and bare, along the rest of his lined face. This man had not lived an easy life, it seemed. He was smiling a little lopsidedly, but this did little to reassure Fai as he saw his eyes. There was something…wrong about them. They had a dark, slightly crazed look, and Fai felt his skin crawl as they looked his body up and down hungrily.

"My name is Kowa," he said again in that trying-to-be-gentle voice that didn't suit him at all. "I'm the one who brought ya here." He crouched down close to Fai; too close for his liking.

"Why?" he managed to ask. His mouth and throat were so dry. How long had he been here? When did he last have a drink?

Kowa chuckled, though it was a humorless sound. "Oh, you know why yer here. It's time for you to go the same way as the rest of yer useless race."

My…race? The confusion must have been showing on Fai's face, because Kowa's eyebrows furrowed and he said violently, "You fucking magicians!" His eyes were suddenly blazing with a hatred so intense, Fai instinctively shrank away from him. After a moment, Kowa took a breath and seemed to regain control of himself. The creepy, crooked smile appeared on his face once more. "How have you escaped us for so long, eh? Why weren't ya caught in the Purge?"

"Purge?"

Now suspicion was plainly showing on Kowa's face. "You really don't know? Where're ya from?"

Fai didn't answer.

But Kowa seemed to have decided that the answer to his question wasn't really important. He was now talking aloud, though Fai had the distinct feeling he was talking to himself. "Must be far away, that was a transportation spell we caught 'im on, it was. And if he was from 'round here, he woulda known better than to use magic so close to town…" His eyes wandered for a minute, lost in his musings, but they suddenly snapped back to attention and focused intently on Fai. "But it doesn't matter, right, darlin? Cause now you're here…with me." His tongue darted out and touched his lips.

Fai swallowed, hard. He didn't like the way this was going. This man could hardly be called sane, let alone stable, and Fai still didn't know what he was talking about. Purge? It sounded horrible…and apparently Fai was supposed to be part of it.

Kowa reached out a hand and touched Fai's face. His hands were large, rough and scarred, but they had none of the warmth or gentleness that Fai had felt before in Kurogane's touch. He held Fai's face still; in his weak state he couldn't break away from Kowa's grip if he tried.

"Yes, beautiful, we'll have some fun," Kowa whispered. He flashed that crazed grin of his. "And then I'll kill you."

…

Kurogane walked back through the streets of the village slowly, head held high. He wasn't running and hiding anymore; he was moving with purpose. And now he really was calm, because he was finally going towards Fai.

Syaoran and Mokona weren't with him this time. After much debate and disagreement, Kurogane had finally convinced them that this was something he had to do alone. There was a certain amount of risk involved with this plan, and Kurogane had decided that his best chance to succeed would be if he was on his own. And if he was wrong about this being the thing to do…well, then Syaoran would be able to get out of this world, at least.

He approached the square in the center of town taking the same route as he had the first time, but there was a noticeable lack of people lining the streets. And as he got closer, he could feel a distinct shift in the mood of the whole place. What had once been cheerful and bustling now held a feeling of fear and unrest. Perfect.

Kurogane turned the final corner before the square and was met by about half the amount of people that had been there previously. And these few that still remained were standing in small groups, whispering among themselves. When the nearest to Kurogane noticed the ninja, they fell silent and shifted away from him, eyeing him in suspicion. They didn't trust him. Kurogane felt a small smile tugging at his lips when he realized that.

He walked silently to the center of the square, gaining the attention of the whole crowd and earning their complete silence. They were all waiting for him to do something.

Kurogane had considered saying something dramatic to build up the moment before the big reveal, but had decided in the end that getting results was more important. He wasn't much of a showman, in any case. So after a few seconds of staring down some of the more scared looking citizens, he began to chant a string of nonsensical words in a rhythmic fashion, while under his cloak he unstopped a bottle, allowing its contents to mix with the air. As he continued to speak, lights of different colors flashed around him, illuminating the terrified faces of the villagers. Several women screamed at the sight, clutching their children in an attempt to shield them.

This little piece of "magic" was completely harmless and only meant to convince the people that he too was a magical being. It was actually just a cheap trick, a gas that reacted with the air and caused it to light up. Watanuki, the boy that had taken over Yūko's shop, had given it to him in exchange for some crystals they had obtained in another world a couple weeks ago. But as simple as it was, it worked.

As the lights faded and the people realized that they had not been injured, Kurogane heard footsteps approaching from behind him. He didn't resist as three or four men fell upon him, holding his arms against his side and binding his hands behind his back. They muttered when they noticed that his left arm was made of metal, and worked faster to restrain him. They gagged him, probably in an effort to keep him from using another spell. The men were clumsy and inexperienced and would have proven no challenge to Kurogane had he chosen to fight; but not yet.

"Just come with us quietly and we won't hurt you," one of the men told Kurogane. He nodded and went where they led him without resistance. The ropes bit into his right wrist as he was pulled along, but he hardly noticed. He closed his eyes and could only think one thing:

I'm coming, Fai.

Hope you liked the second chapter too! And some of you have already claimed the metaphorical gold stars for recognizing the song the chapter titles are coming from. Yay! Good job! xD But if you haven't looked at the reviews (which would be cheating, of course) and you figure it out on your own, then you can still get one of your own! ; D

Sorry that the plot seems rather…typical. I'm not very creative. xD