Chapter 122

Mai imprisoned



"What is it?" Mai asked, her voice trembling. The pattern on Kaho's belly made her have a bad hunch about all of this. She didn't have to look to know, that exactly the same one was scratched on her own stomach. What was going on?

Kaho looked at her.

"I don't know exactly, but…"

"It is a spell." A female voice from the other corner said. Mai turned her head to look, who said that. A woman sat alone in the other corner, separating herself from the others. She looked older than Mai. Her clothes were dirty and torn, but the girl recognized the miko robes.

"You are a miko?" Mai asked. The woman nodded and laughed humorlessly, causing the other girls shun from her.

"I am. However, under these circumstances, it is nothing to be proud of. I was abducted too." She said, glancing at the window sadly. Mai decided, that she could learn from the miko more than from Kaho. She grabbed the younger girl's arm and went over to the miko. She sat down, gaining the disapproving stares from the other women.

"Hello, I'm Mai." She introduced herself. The miko arched her eyebrow, seeing the determination in Mai's eyes. "Please tell me everything you know, so that I could plan an escape."

"You can't!" Kaho exclaimed suddenly, the fear on her face. "You can't escape Shutendoji. You will be killed!"

Mai glared daggers at her.

"I've always managed to get out of the trouble till now, so I don't see any reason not to do it this time too." She hissed to trembling Kaho. "I'm not going to sit here waiting for the death to come. You have to fight till your last breath!"

The miko observed the exchange of the words and began to giggle. Mai looked at her. The miko grinned at her.

"I see, that you have some spirit, Mai. I wonder, how do you plan to escape?" she asked in a half-mocking tone. Mai narrowed her eyes.

"First, I have to know as much as possible. Who is this Shutendoji and what does he want from us?" she asked. The miko sighed, but was ready to explain everything.

"Shutendoji is an oni, who was cursed by a kuromiko a few decades ago." The miko told Mai. "Because of that curse, his goal is to father a child of a human woman. That's why he kidnaps every woman, who is able to conceive."

Mai paled and felt a wave of disgust wash over her. So the oni was raping the women here?

"And the pattern?" she asked, pointing at her belly. Mai had a hunch, that she didn't really want to know the answer. The miko cleared her throat.

"As I said before, it is a spell. A youkai hag works for Shutendoji and performs a ritual on every new girl, before locking her in here."

"Why?" Mai inquired.

"Shutendoji is a powerful demon and he would hate to father a weak hanyou." The Miko said.

"Sounds familiar." Mai muttered, gesturing the other woman to continue.

"His youkai witch experiments on us. She casts a spell, that allows the woman to conceive only during two or three nights a year, but when it happens, the firstborn child is supposed to possess its father's demon power. In other words, she wants to make a human child give birth to a full demon."

The miko said, looking seriously at Mai.

"Oh." That was the only reply the girl could manage. The news of being experimented on was quite shocking. Kaho seemed to hear this for the first time too. She broke in tears.

"It's horrible!" she wailed. "It's terrible to be raped and made to bear a child, but to give birth to a demon…"

Mai patted the girl's back.

"For the god's sake, stop crying!" she scolded Kaho and turned to the miko. "This place is well-guarded, right?"

"No one managed to escape yet." The miko agreed.

Mai cursed loudly. She figured out, that she wouldn't be able to get out without help, after all. She hoped, that Sesshomaru would get here soon.

Suddenly, a commotion started. The women instantly fled under the walls, crawling from fear behind each other. Mai instinctively did a similar thing – she plastered herself against the wall. Kaho yelped and gripped her arm, trembling from fear.

"What is happening?" Mai whispered to the miko. The woman looked back at her.

"The youkai witch has come." She whispered back.

As the women were all plastered against the walls, Mai could clearly see a room behind bars. The women there looked like wrights, chained to the walls. She could tell, that some were probably trying to starve themselves to death, for there were nothing than skin and bones, contrasting with the swelling of their bellies. All of them were in various phases of pregnancy – and all of them looked like they would rather die.

Then, the door opened with a creak and an old youkai woman entered the room with pregnant women, a knife in her hand. The faint rays of setting sun cast their light on the blade, making it look, as though it was stained with blood. Mai observed the scene with terror. The witch casually walked through the room, looking at the chained girls. She seemed to pay more attention to the ones with the biggest bellies. Finally she approached the one, whose swelling was the largest and put a hand on her belly. The woman was trembling violently, tears in her eyes. The hag shook her head.

"Still no good. Better than the last time, but there is still too much of a human in this one." She muttered and the blade moved swiftly, as the witch buried it in the woman's stomach to the hilt.

Mai muffled herself with her hand, not to scream – she didn't want to draw any unnecessary attention to her. The witch made her way to the exit, leaving the pregnant woman to bleed to death. Her screams were echoing throughout the room. Mai felt like being inside a nightmare. It was so horrible, that it seemed almost surreal.

"The worst comes now." The miko whispered. "The witch will check, if any of us is fertile tonight. If she is, she will spend the night with Shutendoji."

Mai gulped, as the hag went in, accompanied by two ogres, quite small for their kind – so tall like an average human man. The witch looked around, cleaning her knife and hiding it inside her kimono.

"Stand up." She commanded. The women instantly got up and stood straight under the walls. Mai wasn't eager to do that, but she was yanked up by Kaho and the miko. The witch approached the nearest girl, on the opposite side of the room.

"You know, what to do." She said dryly. The girl untied her obi with trembling hands and hesitantly opened the kimono, exposing the bare belly. Mai couldn't see even a scratch on it. The witch frowned and went to the next girl, who also shoved her stomach. Most of them didn't have a sign of the pattern, some of them has faint white lines, that would fade in a matter of days. The hag was coming closer to Mai and her two new friends. The girl felt her heart racing and the palms sweating. She was scared to death of being raped by some oni. The witch approached Kaho, who obediently showed her bare stomach.

The girl yelped and Mai looked to see what scared her so. She noticed, that on Kaho's stomach a pattern was visible – not the scratches, though, but glowing red lines, like a tattoo. The young girl paled.

"No…" she whimpered. "It's not possible."

Before Mai could even react, one of the ogres grabbed Kaho and dragged her to the middle of the room, not even giving her a chance to cover herself. The witch smirked.

"It seems, that we have a lucky one already. Only two more left." She said, turning her attention to Mai. "A new one. Show me your belly."

Mai glared at the hag defiantly. She wasn't going to be like other girls – a sheep waiting for the slaughter.

"Over my dead body." She hissed through her clenched teeth. She dashed forward and punched the witch squarely in her nose. She reached her hand inside the hag's kimono, wanting to get a hold on her knife, but her wrist was crushed in the ogre's grip.

"Bitch." The hag hissed, massaging her face and sending a murderous look at Mai. She turned to the ogre. "Hold her still."

The ogre was pining Mai's both arms above her head. She tried to kick the witch, but she managed to stay out of her kicking range. The youkai hag swiftly untied the girl's obi and parted the fabric of her kimono.

"A double luck." She said with a wide grin. Mai, panicked, looked dawn. All color left her face. On her belly were the glowing red lines, exactly the same, as on Kaho's stomach.
The witch was laughing maliciously, but she stopped after a while.

"What is it?" She asked, pointing at Mai's white underwear, now stained with blood. "You are bleeding today."

Mai looked at her – the witch seemed to be disappointed.

"Release her." She said to the ogre, who let go of Mai's hands. "Such a waste."

To the girl's surprise, the witch turned on her heel, the ogres following her. Kaho was whimpering and crying, as she was being dragged out of their room. Mai pitied the girl – she was still a child and such a cruel fate awaited her. However, she was still mortified. That was a close shave. The miko leaned to her.

"Do you realize, how lucky you are to have your period today?" she whispered. Mai nodded, still in shock. Then, she clenched her fists.

"I will get out of here." She said with desperate determination. The miko sighed.

"There's no use. We can't escape alone and no man can withstand the demons." She told Mai. The girl shook her head.

"You're wrong." She said, looking in the miko's eyes. "Sesshomaru will come for me soon."

The other woman snorted, amused by her words.

"You are naive. This place is situated high in the mountains, it's impossible to reach here. Even if your man somehow managed to get here, he wouldn't stand a chance against Shutendoji and his minions. No man could do that." She said, folding her arms.

Mai smiled widely.

"I didn't say, that Sesshomaru is a human." The girl said. The miko opened her eyes wider.

"A youkai?" she uttered, shocked. Mai nodded.

"He's a strong inu-Taiyoukai. We just have to hold on till he arrives." She answered, somehow satisfied by the look of surprise on the miko's face. Then, the miko got really serious.

"How in the world could you willingly become involved with a youkai?!" the woman hissed with disdain in her voice. "It's an abomination!"

Mai narrowed her eyes.

"First thing, he is only my boss, nothing more. Second, it's nothing wrong to be in a relationship with a demon, if you love him!" she retorted, thinking of Inuyasha's parents – the both were deeply in love, according to Myoga. Inuyasha turned out to have some serious attitude issues, but wasn't definitely any abomination!

"I thought, that you were different." The miko whispered, sitting in the corner. Mai got angry at her reaction.

"Hey, being a youkai doesn't mean, that one is evil. I know some youkai, that are decent and some humans, who turned out to be real monsters. Anyway, it's rude to talk like that of the only person, who could help us escape!" Mai scolded the woman. The miko was staring at her.

"This… this youkai could help us get out of here?" she asked quietly, a glint of hope in her eye. Mai smiled to herself and gently touched her hairpin.

"He will always come for me." She said.



Author Note:

Hello.  
First of all, I'd like to thank all who keep reading the story and commenting. I really appreciate it, guys. As promised, 10 comments, a new chapter. You know, that I'm waiting for you to comment, right? So please do comment. Till the end of the week I'm stuck here, with no possibility of having any trips (sadly), so I'm ready to update as often as you wish...