Airborne - chapter 1

Neji hated being kidnapped.

All his life, people had tried to abduct him, with varying degrees of success, for a colourful array of reasons. One man thought he was hot, another wanted to use his hair for a wig. Most of them were after his family's fortune. But there was one thing all of his kidnappers had in common: none of them had actually gotten far. Most were stopped by Neji himself and the rest were swiftly taken care of by his uncle's men within a day of the event.

But not this time.

Airborne
By Seth
©Characters: Masashi Kishimoto

Rain lashed at the windows of the university library. An angry wind howled around the corners of the building and blew a blanket of dead leaves up across the tree-lined walkway and against the stately façade of the age-old building. Most students had long since gone home, fleeing for the anger of nature by means of buses and bicycles. No doubt most of them were home already, sipping from tea or hot chocolate and bemoaning the foul weather. Those unfortunate souls who were still outside dreamed of a warm spot by the fire while they defied the elements. But none paid any attention to the library. No one ever did at this time of day.

Which was why it took so long to discover what had happened after it did.

The library was an impressive piece of work; it was an ancient building, with several large rooms filled with books from floor to ceiling. The main hall was the most impressive, however. It was three stories high and also sported bookcases from floor to ceiling. The ground floor was obscured mostly by a maze of bookcases, but there were also two positively huge oak tables, upon which the newspapers of the day were stacked in a rack, along with several scientific magazines.
Above this level there were two balconies, the first of which was to be reached by means of an ancient, winding staircase and the second of which by means of two small staircases on either side of the first balcony. On these levels there were large tables and comfortable chairs for students who wanted to work here.

This library had a history to speak of. It had at one time belonged to a rich man who had an extraordinary love for books, which he expressed by gathering all of the books he could find together in this one building and opening it up for the public, so that they could share in his hobby. After his death, his library was left to the university and, according to his last will and testament, managed mainly by volunteers from the university itself.

The library closed at seven every night on week days. As it was Autumn, this meant that it was usually dark around that time. Most students did not want to be out after dark on the campus, where no one was around, so it was very quiet in the library.

The building was not completely deserted, however. Someone was still there, working at one of the oak tables in the main hall: a young man with long, dark hair and piercing, pale eyes behind his dark glasses. Presently he stood up, closed the book he had been reading  and put it away on a shelf behind him. He walked over to the desk and went behind it, checking all the security cameras. The library was deserted; all the students had gone home. It was two minutes before closing time, so this was good. It meant that he was not going to have to get angry today.

This young man's name was Hyuuga Neji. Neji liked to tend the library, especially during the dark seasons, because it meant that he had the dusty halls all to himself most of the time. Few people dared to brave the storms and snow to come here, after all.

Neji shut down the computer, put the security camera screen on standby and turned off the lights. Suddenly, the large space was plunged into darkness. The street lights out front tried their best to shine their light through the tall windows above the front door, but to no avail. A library after dark is a gloomy place. That is in its nature.

Neji put on a black raincoat and carefully covered his bag with a plastic bag. Having thus prepared himself he grabbed his keys from the librarian's desk and headed for the door. He stepped outside and took a deep breath of fresh, autumn air. Everyone despised this weather, but not he. He loved the earthy smell of dead leaves in the air and the cool rain that tickled on his face.

He did not allow himself much time to enjoy the weather, though.  His uncle was expecting him for dinner and he wanted to go home and change out of his uniform before the appointed time. He hated official meetings, but his uncle was an important man in the industry and his clients would be important contacts to Neji in the future, so he usually just bore with it.

He locked the door and swiftly walked down the steps, into the reach of the wind. Instantly, his long hair was pulled from the elastic band that had been holding it together loosely and flew all about Neji's pale face. With a sigh of annoyance, he placed his bag on the ground and reached into his sleeve for the spare hair tie around his wrist. He was in the shadow of the trees that flanked the path to the library; it was the darkest, gloomiest spot on campus, as the lights there were always broken and no one tried to fix them any longer. Neji had never felt scared there, though. He knew the area near the library too well. No one who walked the earth could sneak up on him or scare him within a mile of that library. He was absolutely sure of that.

Which was why he was scared out of his wits when someone suddenly tapped him on the shoulder.

Neji swivelled around, but saw no-one. He was standing in the middle of  a wide, gravel path, but he had heard no footsteps, nor did he hear any when he was tapped on the shoulder a second time. Once again he spun round, but saw nothing. Then, he became aware of a suppressed giggling. It was close to him, yet not in any ordinary direction. It seemed to be in front of him, behind him and to the side, all at the same-

With a shock, Neji jerked his head upward... only to be met with a heavy object bearing down upon his head and darkness claiming his vision before he could see what he was up against. The only thing he saw before his conscience was snuffed out was a hulking form above the path, dark against the evening sky.

–

When Neji awoke, it was like the entire world had started moving. He had no idea where he was. He tried opening his eyes, but found that he was blindfolded, which was slightly alarming. He also found it disconcerting that nothing his remaining senses told him seemed familiar to him at all.

He was sitting on a rough wooden floor which was so damp that it had stained his uniform pants. It also seemed to be moving, up and down and sideways in a way that Neji associated with the sea. His hands were tied in front of him, around something which felt like a wooden pole. The air smelled of rain, ozone, leather and smoke. But the strangest things were the sounds; groaning and creaking, flapping of fabric and small explosions drifted by on gusts of wind. When he strained his ears he could hear laughter in the distance; rough, cackling laughter as of a crazy man.

Even though he was blindfolded, Neji could not resist rolling his eyes.

Great, he thought, another crazy man who wants something with me. What will it be this time? Uncle's money, or perhaps my eyes? Or something even more stupid, like my cousin's right shoelace?

At that moment the floor gave an exceptionally violent lurch and Neji was flung against the pole with his face forward. A blinding pain spread through his forehead, which was still sore from the blow he'd received before and Neji could not suppress the pained squeak that was squeezed from him when all the air left his lungs forcefully.

The distant laughter ceased instantly and Neji heard footsteps move his way. They descended a short staircase -Neji counted seven steps- and halted in front of him.

"So, you are finally awake," said a man's voice. "We thought that you had died for a while there, until you started snoring."

Neji narrowed his eyes, but the effect of this was lost because of the blindfold. "Who are you?" he asked angrily. "What do you want with me?"

The voice above him laughed. It was that same, crazy laugh he had heard before, drifting by him on the wind. "Don't be hasty," the man warned. "You've only just arrived. Where are your manners? Don't you know that it is impolite to ask for someone's name without giving your own first?"

"Like I care," Neji spat back. "You kidnapped me. There is no reason for me to be polite to you."

The voice drew a sharp breath, and before Neji knew it he had received such a blow to the face that his head spun. "Don't get cheeky with me," the voice hissed. "I know ways of torture that you cannot even think of, sissy boy! I-"

"That's enough, Kiba!" a second voice, a woman this time, called. Another set of footsteps approached. The man, whose name was apparently Kiba, growled at the woman. "Dammit, Ino, he was giving me cheek!" he yelled back at the woman. "He deserved what he got!"

"I don't give a flying fuck whether he deserved it or not! The captain wants to see him. In one piece."

The man named Kiba growled again, but didn't say anything else. Neji rolled his eyes again. Great, so his hunch had been right. They were on a ship, and the person who'd kidnapped him this time was pretending to be a captain. Neji wondered what a man with such fantasies could want with him, but refrained from asking when the woman untied the cord binding him to the pole and yanked him to his feet. "Walk, pretty boy," she hissed. "And don't even think of trying anything."

Neji was about to make a snide remark when she pulled him along. He stumbled over his feet and had to jump to remain upright, something which earned him some sniggers from the man named Kiba, who apparently followed them at a distance.

There was no warning at all when they reached the stairs, so Neji tripped and slipped from the woman's grip. When he wanted to catch himself, he discovered that this was hard with his hands bound, so he landed hard on his face. Cursing, the woman dragged him back to his feet, while Kiba burst out in laughter behind them. "Mind the stairs," he said in an annoyingly crisp voice.

Neji's face flushed with indignation. He was about to make a snide remark when there was another yank on his arm and he was pulled across a vast, open space where the wind was so strong that the sheer pressure made him stagger. He tried to speak, but the wind blew his words away before they could be heard, so he closed his mouth again and stumbled along, confused and angry, but also starting to get a little anxious. He had no idea what was happening to him or what the person who had ordered his abduction wanted, which was unusual. This was the forty-fourth time he had been kidnapped, so Neji thought he knew the drill. These people were upsetting it with their sailor-act.

He was put to a halt so roughly that he almost fell again and thus effectively shocked out of his thoughts. A door opened in front of him; Neji felt a shock of warm air hit him in the face before it was blown away by the wind. He was pushed into the warmth, the door slammed shut behind him and the woman let go of his arm. "Don't move," she ordered. "I will see if the captain is ready to see you."

Something about this play irked Neji, but he could not put his finger to it. While he thought about this, the woman's footsteps moved away from him and he was once again alone. Because he was still blind, Neji staggered to and fro quite a bit every time the ship lurched beneath his feet. He ended up leaning against a wall, into which he had been smacked by accident. He drew a deep breath... and realised what was wrong.

This felt like a ship and certainly the people on it were acting like it was a ship... but he didn't smell the sea. No salt water, no rotting fish. Not one familiar scent that he associated with a ship. Where he was standing now he could only smell wood and dust. Neji's frown deepened. If this was not a ship, then what could it be?

Before he could think any more on that subject, footsteps returned across the hallway and the woman pulled him along once more. When they stopped, she moved so close to him that he could feel her breath on his face. "The captain is ready to see you," she said. "You'd better behave, pretty boy. Our captain doesn't like to be given cheek. Especially not from a landlubber like you."

With this said, she knocked on a wooden door and opened it, shoving Neji in unceremoniously. Neji stumbled forward and fell to his knees. This new room smelled of ancient books and papers and, miraculously, of freshly brewed coffee. The floor also felt different... there were no splinters of wood digging into his knees. Evidently, this place was different from the rest of the ship, or whatever it was they were on.

There was a tap of metal on wood. Neji jerked his head in the direction of the sound. He heard the sound of fabric sliding across something, then two feet hitting wood. Slow, deliberate footsteps moved towards him and stopped just in front of him. Neji drew himself up; he had had enough of people looking down on him already. He was going to show this man, this alleged captain, that he was not afraid at all.

There was a heavy silence for a while, in which neither person said anything. Then Neji heard the other move, perhaps turn around, then walk away again.

Neji gathered up his wits. He was not going to take this lightly. This was evidently the person who was in charge, the man or woman who had organised this entire kidnapping. The captain, as the woman Ino had called him.

"Are you-" he began, but was silenced instantly by the feeling of pressure against his neck.

"You are troublesome," said a bored-sounding voice. "Don't speak without permission. You are a guest on this ship, so you will behave according to our rules."

"That would be so much easier," Neji spoke through gritted teeth, "if someone were to tell me how to do that."

"Ah, but of course. The crew didn't tell you. Don't speak without being spoken to. Do everything I say. Don't get in anyone's way. Be polite. Oh, and don't try to escape. Simple enough, right?"

Neji was growing more irritated. "Who the hell do you think you are, telling me this?!" he yelled, but stopped when the same pressure was once again applied to his throat.

"That was not polite," said the bored voice. "Don't make me hurt you." For such a bored voice, it sounded damn threatening.

"At least tell me what you want with me," Neji said, toning it down a little. There was still pressure on his throat, like a hand holding him around the neck, but the voice was far away. There was no way that the person holding him was the same as the person speaking to him now.

"What I want with you?" said the man, walking towards Neji again. "I don't know. You tell me. What do you have to offer to me?"

"..." Neji was flabbergasted. He had expected anything but this.

The man sniggered. "I thought as much. But you do have something that I want. The truth is, I know who you are. I also know what you are thinking. You think that I want you for the money. You also think that I will not get far, that your clan's people will get to me and my men and take care of us quickly. After all, this is what always happens, isn't that right?"

The man knelt in front of Neji. His voice whispered in Neji's ear. "Well, not this time. You are not going anywhere except where I take you."

"Which is where?" Neji asked.

The man did not answer. He got up again and began pacing the room. Neji followed the sound of his footsteps. After the man had done three circles Neji got fed up with it. "Look, you could at least tell me where I am," he ventured. "That would not be too much to ask, would it?"

The footsteps came to a halt, then moved back towards Neji. "Firstly," the man said, "you will address me with 'captain'. If you can do that, I will perhaps tell you what you wish to know."

Neji ground his teeth. This man was a lunatic. He had hired people to kidnap a boy, which was sick enough in and of itself, but then he hired those same people to pretend that they were on a ship, at sea, and to call him captain? That was one twisted fantasy. Neji would dare to bet his rent money that the man even called them deckswabbers. Still, if he had to play along to get more knowledge, so be it. He swallowed his pride for the moment.

"Please, captain. Tell me where I am."

"That is better," the man replied, walking back to Neji and yanking him to his feet once more. Neji was guided to the exit and brought back outside; he could feel the wind caress his face and play with his hair. The man behind him fumbled with the blindfold, removing it carefully from Neji's face. Neji blinked once, then carefully opened his eyes. First, he looked behind him at the man who had guided him.

The man was wearing, from bottom to top, a pair of brown boots with golden clasps, loose brown pants, a golden sash with a brown leather tool-belt slung over it, a cream-white tunic like shirt covered in leather plate armour, a brown leather overcoat that reached to his ankles and a pair of goggles on his forehead. His hair was chopped off clumsily and tied up in a high ponytail. He had a scar on his right cheek and a wide grin upon his face.

"You wanted to know where you are," he said, smiling eerily. "So why don't you look?"

Neji turned his head slowly away from the man, afraid of what lay behind him. What he saw made his jaw drop.

He was, as he had initially thought, standing on a ship; a fairly large one, too. There were three high masts with sails that flapped in the high breeze. There was the polished wooden deck and wooden railings all around that. But that was not surprising. Nor were the man and woman leaning against a banister and grinning at Neji, even going so far as waving cheerfully when he looked their way. No, what was really surprising to Neji was that this ship was not sailing on any sea known to normal men. Nor was it sailing on a river, a canal or a lake. In fact, there was no water involved at all.

They were floating in mid-air.

To be continued...