Chapter 2-
Kagome awoke to darkness. There was a foul odour that permeated the air. She squinted through the darkness, hoping that she'd be able to see something, anything, but she had no luck. She was grateful that she was no longer bound. She tried to get up and move about but stumbled on something.
"Ouch! Stop moving!" a voice hissed.
"Oh my goodness, is someone there?" Kagome shouted into the void.
"Be quiet! You'll get us in trouble!" the voice responded in a hushed reprimand.
"Oh, sorry. I'm so scared. Where are we? What are we doing here? Who are you?" Kagome fired questions, becoming more and more hysterical with each word that left her mouth.
The voice was quiet for a moment.
"Are you still there?" Kagome whispered.
"My name is Iko."
"I'm Kagome."
"Go to sleep, Kagome."
"But wait, where are we? What are doing here?"
Iko was quiet again. Kagome was about to ask another question when a different voice responded to her.
"You're in hell, little girl. You're where humans go when they disappear. You're where mothers tell their children they'll go if they misbehave. You're in hell."
The voice was chilling but said no more and Kagome dared not ask another question.
Kagome hugged her knees, silently losing herself in the darkness
'This can't be happening. This can't be happening.'
Her mind crossed over what Seshoumaru had said to her earlier: "The coming months will be hard on you. Don't lose your gentle heart."
Could this have been what he meant? No. Impossible. He could not have known this would happen. Could he? Kagome shook her head. Now was not the time to worry about future Sesshoumaru's cryptic message. Now was the time to form a plan to escape. It was pitch black. She could not even see in front of her. She would have to wait until morning to better assess her surroundings. She was going to get out of here one way or another. With that in mind, Kagome curled up in her area, and tried her best to fall asleep. She knew she would need her strength if she was ever going to escape whatever this place was.
~CcCcC~
Kagome awoke with a start. There was a loud noise off to her left, but there was still no light. She almost screamed. That meant that wherever she was, was enclosed and cut off from the outside. A strong vibration of hunger reminded her of just how long she'd been in captivity. She hadn't eaten before she had left home, eager to appease Inuyasha and his constant irritation. She hadn't even seen her mother before she left.
'Mama…Souta….Ji-chan' she thought longingly. They'd never know what had happened to Kagome. No one would know what had happened to her. She didn't even know what had happened to her. A massive feeling of hopelessness washed over her as she squeezed her knees to her chest. She thought of all the joy she'd felt over the last year. After they had completed the jewel, they only had to defeat Naraku for their journey to be completed. They were so close to their goal and with the Shikon safely in Kagome's possession, the group had been eager to start over without the threat of the hanyou. All of that seemed to be for naught as Kagome thought of the situation she had landed herself in.
A loud grating sound to her left briefly brought her out of her despair. It sounded like a giant stone being moved. Slowly, tendrils of light snaked into what she realised was a large, cave-like room filled with numerous other women.
Blocking the light was a man with the head of a hog and two other men with mohawks that looked like the comb of a chicken.
"Grab a couple of them and bring them up to the holding pit," Hog Head barked at the two chicken men.
At first Kagome thought Hog Head was Fou, but his voice was gruffer and his build was larger than the demon that had led her kidnapping yesterday. One of the chicken men grabbed her arm and pulled her up, along with two other women nearest to her. There was no sound of protest from any of the women in the cave. Kagome glanced behind her, looking at the tired, confused faces of the women as the large stone was rolled in front of the opening.
Kagome and the six or seven other women were pushed through winding tunnels which branched off into too many sections to memorise. They finally came to an empty, windowless room- a tall candle sitting in the middle of the floor was the only source of light they had. They were all shoved into the room before the door was slammed behind them. There was silence from everyone as their minds raced to decipher what this new development in their capture would mean.
A few seconds later, one of the chicken men came back inside with two bags of bread and a jug of water. He put the supplies on the floor before turning to face them. His face was one of the weirdest, most distorted ones she'd ever seen. His nose was long, straight n thin, resembling very much the beak of a chicken. He smiled, revealing small, sharp teeth. His eyes and face were horribly wrinkled and though he moved with the pace and agility of someone young, his face revealed an aged and tortured life.
"Eat up, wenches. You'll need your strength," Chicken Man smirked before turning on his heels and shutting the door behind him. Kagome rushed to the door, trying everything to force it open, but it wouldn't budge.
"It's demon metal. It only opens for the youkai," someone informed her.
A thick, heavy silence settled over the room or women.
"Let's divide the food," a slightly older woman said.
She was about 24 with thin, long jet black hair. She moved to the bags of bread, making seven even sections of each, before handing them to the other women. The way she ensured everyone was taken care of before she herself ate, Kagome could tell that this woman was a mother. She reminded her of her own mother.
"My name is Ayomi," the woman said softly into the circle of fellow captives.
Slowly, the other five women introduced themselves. Sakura, Yumi, Aki, Bito and finally, the familiar voice from last night, Iko. They all seemed to be in their late teens or early twenties. They all had a similar look to them: black hair, lean bodies, similar faces, but not too similar.
"I am Kagome," Kagome said into the circle.
Iko took a deep breath in and said, "I'm a miko. I am not fully trained but I can injure some of them when they come for us. We can escape. We can try to escape."
Kagome was stunned. This girl seemed to be about her age but she'd had the courage to speak up where Kagome hadn't.
"My child," Ayomi smiled softly, "Have you felt your power surge since you were captured? You have been emotional, have you felt your aura reacting to your trauma?"
Kagome paused. She thought about it. Come to think about it, she had not felt her power bubble in her chest as much as she was accustomed to since she had fought her captures.
"Iko, my dear, we are all mikos. That is why we are here." Sakura whispered.
She too was much older than the other girls, also about 24.
"How do you know what I am?" the youngest of the group, Yumi, growled. She looked to be about 17 but Kagome could already tell she was a spitfire.
"Haven't you heard the stories? Of the mikos being kidnapped and forced to do…whatever?" Bito spat, mirroring Yumi's 17 year old angst.
"My shrine spoke about it. One of my mentors had escaped. They placed her in an underground demon temple which subdued her powers. They made her do awful things. They made her fight lower level demons without only a fraction of her power. They… they made her…" Aki's voice cracked into a sob. "Let us not fair the unknown," Ayomi's wise voice came, soothing the frayed nerves of the other women in the room.
"Let us pray, my sister mikos," Sakura suggested.
They all sat on the floor, knees bent under them, in the traditional pray to kami. Sakura and Ayomi, obviously the two older and more experienced mikos led the prayer. They asked kami to guide them and keep them safe from the perils they were sure to face. As they prayed, Kagome could feel her chest flutter ever so slightly.
After the prayer, they all sat in silence, fearing what would happen next.
Kagome had not spoken to the group since she had told them her name. She had far more secrets than just being a miko. Kagome was more than just a miko; she was the Shikon miko. She knew what that meant even if she wasn't fully trained. Her power was much vaster than your average miko. Not to mention the fact that she was from the future. She thought it best to remain silent. She also was trying to figure out where she had heard this story from. Kaede had related a very similar story to her during her training.-about demons taking mikos for their own sick pleasures. But that story was history. That story was centuries old…
She gasped. It clicked in her mind. If this was what she thought it was, she was in more trouble than she could ever imagine. There was no Inuyasha, there was no Sango, and there was no Miroku or Kirara to rescue her. There was no one. They would not have even been born yet. If she was correct, she wasn't even in the Feudal Era anymore. She was 550 years even further back in time.
"Fuck," she whispered.
Her mind raced over the tale Kaede had told her. If she had landed herself in the Miko Wars, being 550 years further in time was the least of her worries.
Kami help me….