Vol. 14 Affliction & Emotions

-Tsukiko-

My lashes fluttered open as I felt a throb of pain in the side of my face. It took a second for my brain to catch up to what my eyes were seeing. I must have been hit pretty hard. What met my eyes was a small room with a dirt floor and not much else. We were in some kind of prison. As soon as the word 'we' passed through my mind I looked around for Jin. The tightening in my chest relaxed when I recognized his familiar shape off to my left. The room was dark enough that I had a little trouble seeing, but I could pretty much make everything out.

I shifted uncomfortably as I felt the tingling in my arms. They were asleep, great. Not only that, they were tied together. I used my legs to hold myself up and passed my hands under my body and feet. There, now my hands were in front of me. Much more useful. I made my way over to Jin and tentatively tapped his leg.

"I'm awake," he said through the darkness. I let out a relieved sigh and sat in front of him. "You were asleep for a long time. You talked while you were dreaming."

"I do that sometimes," I nodded. "Come here."

"Why?"

"I'm going to untie you so that you can untie me." He straightened up and turned so that I could reach his hands. It was a little hard to work with, but I eventually got the ropes undone. He stared on mine and had them free in no time. "Are you okay?"

"Fine," he mumbled tersely. I frowned. Why was he acting even colder than usual? It was probably because he was in a bad mood. Being imprisoned will do that to you.

"Do you have any kind of idea how long we've been in here?" I questioned, surveying the room dismally. There were no windows, only a door that was locked up tight.

"No."

"Has anyone come in?"

"No."

"What's up?" I asked, annoyed. There was only so much you could credit to a bad mood and a quiet personality. I mean come on, I was in here too and you didn't see me acting all icy. He just looked at me. His glasses were gone as were his swords and my weapons as well. He stayed silent and went back to staring at the opposite corner. I was about to say something else, something that involved some profanity and conveyed my anger, when the door opened. The man who had been the leader from the assault came in. The light that filled the room burned my eyes.

"Well, it looks like you two got out of your ropes. The next ropes we have you in you won't be able to get out of."

"You're going to tie us up again?" I asked.

"No," he laughed. "We're going to hang you."

My heart stopped. That was bad. A hanging was a little harder to escape from than bound hands. The man grinned at the look on my face, apparently he liked what he saw there.

"For now though, we're going to try and get some information out of you. You can just tell us what you know, or we can persuade you."

-Mugen-

"Damn!" I swore, slamming my fist on the railing of the walkway outside of our room in the temple. I had watched for Jin and Tsuki all night and they hadn't come back. It was like half way through the day now. Fuu came up and leaned on the rail next to me.

"Do you think they're okay, Mugen?" she asked in a small voice.

"If they were okay then they would have been back by now," I snapped at her. I went back into the room and laid on my bedroll. Those dumbasses, they better have not gotten caught. If I had to save them, I was going to be pissed. Fuu followed me in and sat next to me. She pulled out the necklace that I recognized as Tsuki's and squeezed it in her hand.

"They can't be dead right? I mean, they are really good fighters."

"I dunno." I watched as she squeezed the big tooth in her hand again. "What are you doing?"

"Tsuki said that this was good luck for her. I'm trying to wish on it so that they have good luck too."

It was stupid to think that the stupid necklace would help, but if it helped Fuu then I wasn't about to spoil it. I just kept lookin' at the ceiling, wondering what went wrong. They were goin' just fine when I left. Maybe more men had come. Maybe they were the police. I had too much shit runnin' through my head to do nothing. I had to find out what happened to them. I got up and slung my sword over my shoulder. Fuu watched me with her big brown eyes, almost full of tears.

"Mugen," she said softly.

"What?" I asked gruffly. It actually made me kinda sad to see Fuu like that, all hopeless and scared. She closed her eyes and turned her head away.

"Please come back."

Please R&R so I know what you think.